The demon glares at the group and starts gnawing on then end of his halberd deciding how to best take you all out at once, but before he realizes it the floor beneath him is covered in slliiiiiick grease. He take a step back to balance himself but loses balance completely and topples over prone.
Nokka rushes forward until she can attack the creature that just hurt her friend.
Everyone descends on the downed demon and quickly puts it down.
Waiting a little bit for Takumi’s spells to fade, before examining the room closely. It proves to be clear of any more traps the two that Kizuo triggered and the one that took out the crusader being the only ones you can find.
As you leave the safe house, the people waiting outside, have clearly moved on to the next place, but in their place is a courier with the mark of the open road on his cloak pin. He gives a sigh of relief as he catches sight of the group. “Those civilians were right. That’s a relief. We’re getting ready to defend launch an offensive on the demons, but we need to get all our people together. Jorsal has been trying to get a group of people out to round up a few stragglers. Could I ask you to go to the northeastern gate?”
Getting there proves no problem, the gate being a straight shot up the road. As you walk out the gates you see Venture-Captain Jorsal handing off orders to another group. He catches sigh of you and rides up and hands down a soot-stained parchment. “Friends, I’m glad you’re here. There are some Pathfinders nearby who were caught outside in the conflict. We had someone divine their general locations and I’ve plotted out their positions on this map, but I need capable agents to go and retrieve them. I have enough mounts to spare. Waste no time. Esepcailly getting into fights. We should be setting off in a few hours.” He points you to a small group of combat trained horses, before he rides off with a wave to talk to another group of Pathfinders.
The party rides after the closest group, just thirty minutes by horse northeast of the gates themselves. The horses prove to be fast and capable, easily avoiding the fights still raging here or there. Before the party can make it to the spot marked on the map, you encounter a group of five blood soaked dwarves singing battle songs at full bluster. The leader catches sight of you and gives a wave. He raises his axe in the air and gives a cheer, his companions joining in.
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Standing at a safe distance, Takumi bows to the group of dwarves. "This one is a member of the Pathfinder Society, as are this one's esteemed companions. It is indeed pleasing to find fellow Society members, but this one lays apologies if some caution is exercised first. Might we seek a confirmation of your identity?"
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"We're more friend than foe if you're Pathfinders, that's for sure!" Kaya calls out. At Takumi's mention of confirmation, she draws out her wayfinder, holding it aloft and letting it glow with light. "And I'm sure we'd all rather we fight the enemy instead of each other!"
Which, of course, also brought up the question of just who these fellows had been fighting to be suspicious of her and her allies. Were there many bands of roving enemies about? Bandits and the like, probably. Bah!
Oiur, Takumi, and Zyneste all take a good look at the movements and actions of the dwarves claiming to be pathfinders, but nothing in their actions or words suggest that they are anything more than dwarves with a bit of a bloodlust.
The leader seems to completely miss what Takumi said and instead looks towards Kaya and her wayfinder, her eyes open wide as they catch asight of Kaya’s wayfinder.
One of the men standing behind him chips in. “Holter, he said that already.” The Dwarf turns back to the man and shouts,
The second dwarf sighs and repeats louder. “He said that already, Also wants us to prove we’re who we say we are!” The first dwarf gives an ‘O’ of surprise and turns back to the group, She pulls out a wayfinder with her name engraved on and even the orders to head to Nerosyan with her name and a Venture-captain’s signature.
A close look supports the assessment. Almost half the blood on their bodies were from their own wounds, and, worse, they were painfully easy to spot as the only things taller than the foot tall grasses in a good 500 feet in any direction.
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Releasing the spell on her wayfinder, Kaya carefully slides it back into the pocket she drew it from.
"If any of you can cast cure light wounds, you're welcome to as many taps of this wand as you need," she says, frowning slightly as she offers up her wand. It's not seen a lot of use, but it looked to her as though it might be vital here.
And she'd appreciate a few taps of it herself, now that she was thinking about it.
Kaya wasn't sure that they'd be in better condition if they took the dwarves' place, but... Well, leaving them here was a non-option.
"I'd think it a good idea to bring them with us," she suggests. "They might be able to help us with the north group... And the north group is a lot closer to the city, anyhow."
The dwarves jump up onto the back of your horses. But wave away the wand healing. All of them pull out a wand of their own and Knarl gives a smile. "We've got our own way of healing. Just Kennyial was the only one who could use them!"
You ride for the north group and reign up to the exact spot on the map, finding a group of people sitting under the shade of a few trees a two of them fast asleep, napping; one of them is singing a lullaby and a fourth making a flower chain. The fifth hails you as you approach. "Hello there friends! Isn't it such a lovely day? Come join us and take a load off!"
The human woman scoffs at Kahru. "Oh we've got plenty of time, Silly! Why I bet the stars over are absolutely beautiful from here! Why don't you join us for some stargazing? We've got enough tent space for everyone."
One of the dwarfs gives a laugh, "Never though I'd hear a human say that!" Some of them jump down and go to wake the napping Pathfinders. They give them a few slaps and get rebuffed with, "5 more minutes!" or "Oi, what'd you wake me for? *yawn* I'm going back to bed"
The woman gives an uncommital shrug, but stops to think for a second. "I gueesssss we shouldn't be enjoying the sunshine and flowers if people's lives are at stake. You make a good argument. Fine, fine we'll head into the city." She then gets up and starts to rouse her group, the dwarves eagerly helping to herd them to the gates just a little bit down the way.
Holter looks back at the group and shouts,
The female leader gives a small sigh, "She's worse than my mother! We're going, we're going geez!"
Two of the groups gathered together the group races after the third group, only an hour or so remaining to gather them. They get past the Battle Tower and the landscape changes drastically, the green trees replaced with charred stunted saplings, the grasses with barren earth and the flowers only here and there blooming in a deep almost blood red.
The party rushes to the location on the map but don't see anything nearby but charred remains of what must have been trees.
Everyone but Oiur immediately spot that some of the trees just a little ways off aren't 'trees' but instead horrifically charred humanoid corpses. Getting in closer verifys that they were people at one point, but you can't quite tell who they might have been without closer inspection.
One of the corspes has a tattoo of the Glyph of the Open Road still partially visible under their spiked suit jacket. And the partially melted wayfinder in her hands is also a DEAD give away.
You recognize Francolina 'the Terror Negotiator of Mendev' by her distinctive, if blackened clothing choices. No one would wear a suit jacket with spikes all over it, or literal stiletto heels but her.
The party rides back to Nerosyan with the remains of the pathfinders. They reign in through the gates and hand off the horses to some stable hands. Asyou start heading towards the Starrise tower, Venture-Captain Jorsal arrives at breakneck pace. He gives a quick nod as he brings his steed to a sudden halt. “Our plans have changed! The demonic threat within the walls is relatively contained, as you know, but we’ve received word of additional demonic reinforcements coming from the Worldwound! he annouces, “We need every able-bodied man and woman on the walls to repel this attack; however, we have too many people on the front lines to fall back and decfend the city. We need some of our more experienced agents outside the walls to help injured crusaders back on their feet.”
“No doubt the demons plan to run down these men before they can get back within the safety of the walls. We need these crusaders to supplement our own number on the walls, and I can think of none better suited to aid them. Make with all haste to the Woundward gates and report to the aid station there!” He gives you a salute and then rides off in search of other pathfinders.
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Arriving at the aid station at the Woundward gate, a familiar face walks up to the group. Hiko gives a broad smile as she catches sight of you. She walks in closer and gives Nokka a scratch on the chin commenting, “Ah, it’s my doppelganger and her companions! It’s so good to see you! So you’ve been assigned to this aid station, I take it? Perfect. We need help getting the injured back here. They’re too close to the fighting to risk sending our healers in, but we can’t get them healed up if they aren’t here. There’s too many of them to ferry as well. So instead we’ll send you out there. Focus on getting them on their feet and point them to us and we’ll take care of the rest! But be careful, I doubt the demons will leave you alone.”
As the group arrives on the battlefield, they find the torn ground and scorched earth they’d found earlier on the west side of the town, but now there are many downed bodies, both crusader and demonic, litterng the landscape. Just a 100 feet to the north a pitched battle rages with hundreds of demons cultist and crusaders fighting with each other, neither side gaining ground, the front lines. Occasional fights are still happening around the group as well, demons that teleported or broke through the front lines, but the cursaders around them seem to have things well under control.
A quick glance around the field shows the forms of three men and women clutching at bleeding wounds and crying out for help, or sobbing loudly. “By Iomedae, It hurts!” “Someone, please…. Help me...*sob*”
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Takumi grabs a piece of paper from his pouch and with a few quick folds, turn it into a round ball which he then throws into the sky. Immediately, it transforms into an orb of light, shedding a warm and calming radiance. "Heal them!" The orb flies with preternatural silence and otherworldly grace towards the nearest fallen.
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Zyneste rushes to the nearest downed crusader to help him ,but the blood oozing from his side is something she can’t quite figure out how to stop.
Kahru tries the same with the crusader to the south, but given his bear claws has a terrible time of not tearing the fabric or cutting the crusader even further. But he does get Oiur’s attention and the skald is able to provide a little healing to the woman easing her breathing and getting them to stop crying.
Eugressia also tries to help a crusader following the examples of Zyneste’s motions, but despite her near perfect imitation has some complications with the man’s crushed ribs being the problem and not his bleeding. Kaya also moves up to join the slyph with her ministrations, but she quickly realises that the man the horrifically dented breastplate he has on is preventing him from breathing right. She snaps it off with her rapier and the man takes a few deep breaths before standing up. "Thank-you, my Lady! I can cast a Dispel Magic on you or your friends if you wish." After casting the spell, or not, he limps back towards the aid post.
Takumi decides to take a different approach to healing the crusaders and pulls out a yellow piece of paper, in a quick series of folds that almost defy the eye, he has a small paper ball, tossing the ball into the air and giving a chant it turns into a ball of light that zooms over to the southern crusader and gives a small jingle of light dousing the woman in a ray of light. She blinks for a second as she realizes that most of the pain is gone and jumps up with a shout. "I'm ALIVE! Why, thank-you kinds sirs! Here take this oil, I don't need it. It's an align weapon!" She tosses a flask to Oiur and then sprints off down the battlefield.
As the fighting jsut to the north continues, one of the demon generals catches sight of the two figures leaving the battle field. A fews seconds later a few figures moving into attack the back of the front lines instead swing towards the group. The hulking forms apporach and through the dust and smoke you can recognize the green skin and toothy smiles of three half-orcs brandishing giant axes. They smile as they close in on the group.
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The half-orc straightens in complete surprise as Eugressia's mind clamps down on his. Eugressia can immediately tell that he has no defenses and justthe slightest pressure from her mind is all it takes to pop his like a grape. His breathing becomes significantly ragged as blood starts to spill from his nose and the once cocky half-orc fearfully starts looking for an exit to the fighting.
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Seeing one of the wounded right in the path of the approaching half-orcs, Takumi calls out to the archon, "Heal the last one!"
Pulling out a piece of parchment, he quickly folds it into the shape of a trumpet and flings it at the nearest half-orc and suddenly he, and only he, hears a deafening blast!
Takumi then quickly moves back to clear space for the frontliners .
Takumi drops another folded paper and causes the air around the orc with the green armor to vibrate rapidly. The half-orc, grimaces as the vibrations wash over him, but it soon passes. The half-orc wipes away a little blood from one of his ears. He gives a hearty laugh and focuses his attention on Takumi. "BAH, THAT TICKLE LITTLE MAN! YOU GO BE SACRIFICED TO DEMON LORDS FIRST!"
Zyneste drops to one leg and pulls out three arrows, she takes out three arrows and fires them off in rapid sucession, two of the arrows bury themselves into the orc in the blood red loincloth and severly hampers his leg, causing him to look to getting away from the scary arrow lady.
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Oiur charges the half-orc in green armor, but the brute dodges away with a demeaning sneer. “YOU SACRIFICING YOURSELF TO DEMON LORDS, PUNY ONE? ME HAPPY TO HELP!” He then twists back and swings around with his greataxe at full power, trying to cleave deeply into Oiur’s side. But before the half-orc realizes it, Kaya has moved in and stabbed her rapier inhis side. The half-orc snarls in pain and brings his axe through Oiur's stomach and cleaves after Kaya, but the small woman proves to be too fast for him to hit. . The half-orc then tries to move closer to the annoying magic user, "YOU TWO TOO PUNY TO SACRIFICE. ME GO SACRIFICE PUNY MAGIC MAN FIRST!" As he steps away though, Kaya sticks her rapier deep into his leg and severly gimps him. "ARRGHH, THIS IS TOO MUCH TROUBLE! ME LEAVE!"
The half-orc in the red loin cloth and the one with blackened skin both flee withdraw from the surprisingly dangerous group of pathfinders. And the one in green armor decides he should follow them soon.
As the half-orc looks for an exit, a demon pops into existance behind the group, his flaming hooves scorching the ground and a flaming sword almost as tall as the short demon in its hands. Its smoking breath starts to fill the space around it as it surveys the group. Takumi remembers it's a brimorak.
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Rinse and repeat! Seeing as she'd managed to get in at least one good blow, Kaya advances with every intention to continue the fight.
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Too slow too attack the now-fleeing half-orcs, Kahru grins as the demon appears. "You've come to meet your end, fiend! Nokka, flank!" Using his long strides, Kahru loops around the creature to the far side . Once there he holds his attack until Nokka reaches her position, opposite him.