Staying back with the carriage, Drystan looks around carefully. That voice...enemy scouts may already be aware of us. And whatever that was sounded completely unafraid of letting us know it was out there.
Anyone with experience fighting demons they wish to offer, before we act? I've never faced one- or a force like this- before.
"If I have the chance to talk to the spirits of the earth, I could make us pass through the stone walls" Ametist whispers. "That way we could easily infiltrate the fortress on the side opposite the invading army, and rescue some of the defenders at a time."
Ametist waits for the others to consider his offer.
”That’s the plan then. I am not the quietest of men in this armor. Let’s get to the walls as quickly as we can. We will not want to be caught in the open lest we be overwhelmed by their numbers.”
"I've fought the occasional Demon before, but nothing on that scale." says Karen. "Once we start, just keep moving towards the entrance. I will keep you healed as best I can, but do your best not to stop moving."
I do have some illusional powers, that may be of assistance. And a way to bind a group, if we need to run.
Ametist, as you study both the citadel, and it's surroundings, you realize it was built by Dwarven hands, and thus they're are likely many tunnels underneath, and perhaps even a 'back entrance'.
Demons are a notoriously hard bunch to predict even in their physiology, but you can assume some manner of damage reduction and resistance to poison, electricity, fire, and other things depending o the specific demon in question. You know that magic weapons will definitely help your efforts.
"Wait... this seems dwarven stonemasonry. There is usually a lot of corridors and tunnels involved. Let me try to get a bigger image..." Ametist stops and seems to be concentrating.
Zorakir stayed with the horses and scouted around the camp sight looking for potential intruders. When his rounds were done he walked by Drystan.
He tapped him on the shoulder from the side not to alarm him."You heard it too didn't you? Even I did which should be impossible. This could be the work of Fey or maybe something worse."
Zorakir speaks up to the other,"allow me to join the infiltration effort, I've studided with shadow magic and I can cast without making a sound."
Ametist: You search and search with your power, but you are still pretty far out and you don't feel much. There is a possibility, a natural feeling cave, but it's deep down, near the edge of your range.
Ametist seems annoyed. "Well, if there are any tunnels, they're quite down below." He turns to the others. "We could try to search for an entrance, or we could try to pass through the walls. What suits you best?"
Demons are a notoriously hard bunch to predict even in their physiology, but you can assume some manner of damage reduction and resistance to poison, electricity, fire, and other things depending o the specific demon in question. You know that magic weapons will definitely help your efforts.
Drystan looks out over the abyssal horde and thinks back to his years on the Worldwound. Turning back to the others, he says ”Demons are, by their very nature, a diverse lot. Not so predictable as devils. We should expect them to have some resistance to both physical damage and the various forms of energy damage. Exactly how much will vary, but enchanted blades should help in any case.” as he speaks, an idea occurs to him. It seems formed mostly of bravado, and shouldn’t be possible. But somehow, he knows it is.
If we're looking to help others escape through a back door, it would behove us to know where the door is, Lian points out.
Ametist walks cautiously to the section of the wall directly opposite to where the siege is taking place. "Hold on a second." He concentrates and the chunks of earth and stone that orbitate around him start to gather closer to him. In some seconds, the stones of the wall seem to turn into packed mud, and Ametist uses his hands to create a passage as if he was opening a curtain. "After you."
Karen makes her way into the passage.
Lian follows towards the middle, and looks around the passage.
It takes some time to circle around to the far side of the fort without getting caught or discovered. There are a couple close calls, but you do make it.
You step though the fort's walls and are immediately confronted by two squads of heavily armed hellknights wielding heavy shields and spears in shield wall formation. They have formed a V formation with you at the top against the wall. One of the men, you can't tell who, barks, CLANG! It's clearly some kind of pass phrase...
Silently Godwyn lifted the token that Penshi gave them. Kayla had told them that the hellknights would recognize it and would know them to be friends. He hoped that this would prove to be true.
The hellknights don't so much as flinch. A voice shouts something ina precise tongue, Infernal if you had to guess, and one of the soldiers breaks formation to disappear into the fort's walls.
Several uncomfortable minutes pass and any attempts at initiating conversation are thoroughly ignored. The formation doesn't so much as creak.
In the background you can hear a spirited fight going on. There aren't many human sounding cries, mostly demonic shouting and what sounds like breaking rocks.
Finally someone in full signature Hellknight Plate emerges. He/she has several demon blood spatters across his/her legs and carries a huge hammer that is also decorated with demon gore. The Hellknight approaches you and the Hellknight formation parts for her (and closes behind her) with almost mechanical precision.
The Knight snatches the coin from your grasp and mutters a spell. The coin doesn't react in any way.
Excellent. She shouts another order in Infernal and the formation falls back into the fortress.
I am Maralictor Incudine. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but how in the Hells did you get through our walls?
"Sir Maralictor, that would be the work of Ametist. He has been blessed with the ability to control rock and stone, and is a most dependable comrade." He motioned towards the dwarf-blooded goblinoid. "I am Sir Godwyn Blaecwulf, formerly of the crusade. My companions and I have traveled from Absalom. We were sent by Lady Kayla to assist you in relieving this siege. Do you have wounded that need assistance, and what is the current situation...besides, of course, for the obvious army of outsiders that we have already witnessed."
"Sir Godwyn spoke correctly. We are here to help. Show me to your wounded." says Karen as she holds up her symbol of Irori.
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Loc will quickly make his way into the building after the wall parted for the group. "Hopefully they kill demons as well as they carry out formations." He whispers to Ametist. He will step up to offer his introduction as well, taking off his hat before bowing. "The name is Loc. Sadly I can do little for the wounded but much for the dead. Direct me towards the bodies of any demons and I will begin to prepare a bulwark."
The Maralictor nods and leads you into the fort. The Order seen outside is replicated in here. Everyone keeps to the right when they walk, the walking itself is half a jog, and everyone seems to be busy with something worthy of their complete focus and effort.
As you walk she explains, The demonic dead are where they fell, all outside our peremiter. If it is required I can attach a detail to you to retrieve a few bodies. The northern wall was breached yesterday evening when our supply of arrows ran out. It's been hand to hand ever since. We have barricaded the northern quadrant and have held. With acceptable loses.
The Maralictor leads you down below ground level to a large, open room. It is wall to wall wounded, mostly young boys and girls, Amigers who have yet to pass their Test and who typically lack the protection of the Hellknight full plate or Signifer's mask.
Our situation is stable, but the monster that ate or wall is still out there. I have a few scouts trying to locate it as we speak.
”No arrows? Regrettable.” Seeing the wounded, Godwyn turned to Karen. ”Let’s get to work.”
* Flesh Made True Action: 1 point (You are able to cure a target's maimings, blindings, poisons, mutilations, and birth defects by sight once per round. This does not heal hit point damage, but it can restore lost limbs and crippled functionality.
Godwyn’s eyes began to glow with divine light. The golden aura grew brighter and brighter as he clutched his halberd and shield. Before long, his entire body, armor and all, seemed to glow and hum with the divine.
Looking over the room, the wounded could feel all disease and poison leave their bodies. Along with that, wounds miraculously began to heal. The paladin, now thoroughly in his element, began to walk among the wounded. As he did so he chanted the names of the Godclaw...sans Asmodeus. Every time he looked at a maimed Hellknight, the warrior’s maimings would heal. Even those who had lost their sight recovered it.
Godwyn was certain that between himself and Karen, they could get this army back on it’s feet.
Drystan looks surprised. Well. That’s new. Death has been good to Godwyn, it seems. Within him, something seems to stir. Like a lit match in his gut, he feels a warmth rising within himself. Somehow he knows that it won’t be of use in this room, but will be needed later.
Karen watched Godwyn summon the same Divinely granted power as she would use, and so she left Godwyn to heal and instead went out to take a look at the hole in the wall.
Channelling her new-found power, she cause the hole to be filled with Stone, which rose up from the ground to perfectly fit the hole in the wall.
A lack of arrows may be bad, but our magic power may even the odds, Lian says to hearten morale. Until the action starts, words are about all she's useful for.
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It takes Godwyn a very short span of time to get the whole room up and on their feet. Everyone seems at the very least impressed if not downright astonished. Gasps of surprise and shouts of joy are heard as limbs regrow, fatal poisons are purged, and the young men and women are generally returned to wholeness within just a few minutes. You can't see her face because of the armor, but the Maralictor's voice is unchanged as she tells you to follow her and barks infernal commands to those present. You leave to go to the walls.
There you can see the tremendous toll the demons have paid to get this far. The ground is covered in demon and hellknight corpses (though far fewer hellknights) at a depth of at least two if not three or even five in some places. The demons pour through the breach even as the hellknights populating the inner walls cut them to ribbons when they arrive. It's a worst case scenario in any war of attrition, but the demons seem to not care, and they certainly aren't running out of bodies to throw at the problem.
Karen sees the breach, the ragged hole in the wall that you spotted from the other side just a few hours ago, and wills it closed. To everyone's suprise, it obeys! Rock leaps up and into place, filling the gap in a matter of seconds! The Hellknights all look confused.
I assume that was one of you... The Maralictor asks almost rhetorically.
The demon that caused it in the first place, was it big? Would it be visible from the sky? Lian asks.
Leaving the infirmary, Godwyn came just in time to see the wall be rebuilt.
Two of them. Each with dwarven blood and goblin pie blood. Both masters of stone. Amazing. He had heard tales of the quest for sky, of the unending war that began deep under the earth and which spilled out into the day. Is this what happened when hatred was put aside?
Drystan flexes his sword hand, ready to finish off the demons trapped within the walls.
Karen's sudden action would throw any assault into disarray. Unfortunately, "disarray" is demons on a good day. They continue to assault the defenders in spite of being cut off!
The demon that caused it in the first place, was it big? Would it be visible from the sky? Lian asks.
It came up from the ground. I doubt you would spot it from the sky. It was like a giant worm, but nothing we did phased it and it bit through the wall like it was a steak. The maralictor reports.
Turning to Sir Drystan, Godwyn lifted his halberd. ”Shall we?”
Feeling the fury rising in him like a sun in his chest, Drystan holds up a hand. "Just a moment. I have...something I need to do." Taking a few steps toward the thickest fighting, speaking prayers to Ragathiel in Celestial, the volume of his voice rising from a whisper to a shout.
As he shouts the final sentence, celestial fire falls from nowhere, striking a huge swathe of demons.
"That was me. Lately my Dwarven blood has been calling to me, and apparently it had something to say!"
Even though one of his comrades has made fire literally rain from the sky, what marveled Ametist the most was Karen putting back the piece of destroyed wall. Such a feat of stone mastery has earned Ametist's respect beyond everything else.
"That was superb, Master Karen."
When told about the giant earth worm, Ametist offers himself for vigilance. "While you contain and terminate the demons, I could stand watch underground in case the worm appears again."