Flexing his muscles and grinning in preparation for a brawl, Faluhann moves into the jail, heavy footfalls pounding on the wood floor as he scurries over and partially up the staircase.
Above, at the top of the staircase, the ogrekin shaman raises her fire-wielding hand up high, and, with a shriek, hurls a bolt of fire at Faluhann. The Kellid chieftain doesn't even need to sidestep, as the ogrekin suddenly gets a horrible cramp in her arm and is unable to finish her throw. Her flame sputters out to nothing.
Outside, Alana calls once again on her magic. She touches Marcus, shuddering with empathy and revulsion as she seals shut some of his seeping wounds. "Old Deadeye's tits, Marcus! What happened to you?"
Ishana observes the shaman attempt a spell and decides to react defensively. She readies herself to cast a Magic Missile spell at the Shaman, should she attempt to cast a further spell, hoping to disrupt the spellcasting on further rounds.
As soon as the first attack is thrown Lyon charges forward into the room. She snaps her aim to the pistol wielder looking over the balcony and fires a single barrel at him. As soon as the slug slams into him it explodes in a blinding blue light and his form begins to glow softly. "I only see two, one has a pistol the other is some kind of mage." She reported, trying to keep everyone updated.
Ishana readies herself to interrupt the ogrekin if she was to cast any kind of magic, while Lyon moves into the room, taking aim at the goblin above on the balcony. She fires at him, and while she catches him in the shoulder with a slug (spattering the wall behind him with blood) he barely manages to twist out of the way of the accompanying light, shielding his eyes.
Snarling, he leans back over the railing and levels his revolver at Lyon, firing two slugs of his own at her.
Lyon sidesteps one, but is caught in the leg by the second. The small red hole it creates begins to seep blood.
As Lyon side steps she hears the second shot go off. She keeps moving, letting herself fall to the ground, as the second bullet flies just past her leg.
Kaussek strides forward, eying the narrow stairs. Deciding it best not to crowd past Faluhann, he instead draws again on his fire-blood to fire a pair of magic missiles at the hobgoblin.
"Healing them hurts me," Marcus explained to Alana. "Thank you."
Aisha darts towards the nearest column, her features shifting to give her back her elongated claws as she digs her reinforced nails into the columns holding up the second story balcony, she skitters up as quickly as she can manage before reaching the top and building a starknife of roiling energy. Just as she drag it through the air towards him, frost darts down the center of each blade tip like sleet, chilling blood as it bites - if it bites.
Lyon drops to the floor in a smooth dodge, sliding out of the way of the hobgoblin's attacks, remaining un-wounded.
The hobgoblin atop the balcony is caught by surprise by Aisha's ability to climb so efficiently, but he is an extremely focused combatant. His gaze stays right on Aisha's eyes until the moment of her attempted strike, and then he sidesteps in exactly the right direction to avoid her attack. Kaussek's magic missiles, however, blast him in the chest, and he staggers back, teeth gritted and bleeding.
Shouting a Kellid battle-cry, Faluhann charges up the stairs, fists balled, swinging at the ogrekin shaman before him. They had killed his people! He clocks her right across the face, and she growls and, clutching a huge club in two hands, slams him in the belly with it.
Outside, Alana waits impatiently, almost seeming to hope that someone will come bursting out of there. At least it would be exciting!
Lyon stays on the ground, leaning on her side so she can reload. Still focused on the gunslinger she doesn't have time to react to ogrekin's attack against Lu but she does manage to fire both barrels at the hobgoblin.
Ishana waits for the effects of Lyon's attack to see if the hobgoblin can weather the storm of bullets. When the smoke clears, she blasts a burst of magic missiles in its direction - unless Lyon had already made short work in which case she targets the shaman.
Lyon and Ishana both blast ranged attacks towards the remainder of the ogrekin family - the hobgoblin cries out, falling in a spray of splinters and blood as Lyon's shotgun blast kills him. Meanwhile, the last one alive, the ogrekin shaman, is forced step after step back from Ishana's magic missiles and Faluhann's fists.
Kaussek comes up behind Lu, and, not thinking he has room to fit beside the other warrior, resorts to more magic missiles.
Aisha darts around the upper floor, moving swiftly past the hobgoblin who was now on the floor... and wall... and ceiling. Curious! Unfortunate, perhaps, as well. Not so much because these could have been saved, or that they had anything worth taking, but moreso because it was the ending of a story... at least somewhat. Why was this family even here? Were they a family?
Moving just nearly into a flanking position, Aisha slows just long enough to allow the stark-white energy from her suit to flow into the starknife she'd formed in her hand, dragging the blade horizontally through the air as the blades sweep towards the shamaness.
Kaussek and Aisha unleash attacks on the ogrekin shamaness, and since she is already wounded, she staggers back from Kaussek's magic missiles and then topples to the ground due to Aisha's starknife. She is still breathing, heavily, but she has fallen unconscious.
"They're down." Aisha whispers through her message to Marcus, as she turns away from the pair, quickly moving through the upper story, searching the cells for anything of interest and any particular dangers. She ignored the gear of the fallen for now, being much more interested in simple investigation rather than 'looting' as it were. Her legs elongate once more as her suit rearranges itself for quickened movements.
Marcus sheathed his blade, undid his impromptu door jam, and opened the back door.
Lyon stands up and reloads her shotgun. "Is that all of them?" She keeps her gun up and does a quick check of the area, if she doesn't find any more attackers then she would go tell Marcus and Alana that it was clear. "There were two we took care of. I don't think there is anyone else but they might have set some traps so be careful."
Lyon returns the group, unless someone had already checked the bodies she would go search them. "His pistol is pretty well made. If anyone wants it I can probably clean it and make sure it won't blow up."
Kaussek will help search the bodies.
"Now we must hope our battle tomorrow goes as well," he comments. "If all of us focus on one plan of action, this is what we can do."
There is a body in one of the cells on the top floor - a fit young man, locked away. It seems that he had died of thirst, and the space around both the door and windows are gouged with scraping marks. To match, his fingernails are a bloody, ruined mess.
Other than that, it doesn't seem like the hobgoblin and ogrekin really set up shop or anything, other than to break their way in and hide up here. Camping supplies aren't set up or anything.
The ogrekin is carrying a greatclub with nails hammered into the end, a set of tribal-looking fetishes, a flail (taken from the body of one of the other ogrekin that the group had killed earlier), and is wearing a hide shirt.
The hobgoblin is carrying a revolver, a longsword, a leather backpack, 12 bullets for the revolver, a climbing harness, grappling hook, and rope, and is wearing leather lamellar armor. He also has a belt pouch, and you find a note tucked into it. Unfortunately it is written in Giant.
Faluhann kicks over the body of the ogrekin just as Aisha's spectral starknife vanishes from the wound it made in her. "Bah," he says. "It shows the strength of our group, you are right."
Lyon takes what she can from the hobgoblin and starts piling it all into his backpack. When she gets to the note she spends a while looking it over trying to see if she could figure anything of the words out.
But after a minute or so of squinting at the strange text she gives up with a shrug. "Can anyone read whatever this is?" She offers the note to the others before moving to the ogrekin. She begins taking the equipment from the body but stops when she notices that it is still breathing. "I think this one is still alive." She takes the flail and tosses it into the backpack she packed the hobgoblins items in and kicks the crude greatclub away from the ogrekin. "Anyone want to finish it? We can't let them go but a gun seems overkill for this."
Kaussek nods. "I can make sure it will never be a threat again."
He strides over to the ogrekin and crushes its skull with a swift strike from his warhammer.
"The good news, is that the farmers will probably be happier with these ogre-kin out of the way" Ishana reflects, observing the aftermath of the battle. "I think they will still need to be prepared for bandits but aside from that hazard we haven't come across anything too severe that should threaten them...yet"
"We should have your dwarf acquaintance come here." Aisha says as she slips into place beside Lyon with the note, having done a circuit of the building. "There is another body that needs buried, but it is locked within a cell. I do not speak whatever language is written there." she says, calmly, "But it doesn't seem very long so maybe with a bit of time and effort we could piece it together, regardless." she offers... flinching at the sound of crunching bone as Kaussek finishes off the last of the family - assuming Marcus didn't intervene.
Kaussek crushes the skull of the last ogrekin, making sure they wouldn't rise again.
Mrcus does not intervene. He watched the whole scene play out without comment, glad to be done with the business of the ogre family.
"I'll find her when we get back and let her know. It should be safe for people to come here and take care of the bodies now. We should head back to the caravan and try to salvage what sleep we can still get, long day tomorrow." Lyon finishes packing up the hobgoblins items as she gets ready to return. "Who wants his pistol? I'd like to look it over before we use it but there's no reason to let it go to waste."
Kaussek shakes his head slightly. "I would be more likely to shoot myself than my foe. Another should take it other than I."
He'll also cast detect magic on the items on the off chance that some of them are enchanted.
The hobgoblin's backpack is magical, as is his armor. The revolver and the flail are made masterfully and expensively.
Aisha picks up the gun and dumps the bullets out almost immediately, puzzling out exactly how the thing works, and is completely lost to Kaussek casting his spell as she twirls the thing around, and spins the cylinder.
She kneels down, scooping one of the bullets up curiously, her keratin nails elongating once more as she attempts to pull the bullet apart to get at its inner workings, sitting with her legs up to her knees, somehow looking perfectly comfortable in that position without supporting herself at all. After a few moments, she gives up on pulling the bullet completely apart, finding it to be mostly sealed, with no good places to find prize with her built-for-climbing nails, and returns to her focus on the gun.
"I'll have to figure out how this works before I can reliably create ammunition for it, I think. But if no one else wants it, I could use it, I believe. I should also empty my backpack tonight before we sleep. There are a great deal of heavy things that we shouldn't pack back up the mountain in case we find other things of use."
"The backpack is enchanted so as to be larger within than without, and to make it easier to retrieve what is desired," Kaussek states. "The armor is enchanted to provide a small degree of extra protection to the vitals."
He stands up from his examination. "I do think it best to take these things now and rest. We shall need all our strength tomorrow."
Aisha looks over her shoulder, the look on her face literally inscrutable as it was fully hidden by her garb. She stares at Kaussek for a long moment... unless her eyes are wandering, "You are able to identify magical items?"
Kaussek nods. "It would hardly do to be able to use magic without being able to identify it."
Aisha just stares at him silently for a moment longer... before saying perfectly matter-of-fact, without a trace of annoyance. "Multiple people can work together in order to try to figure out an aura. Like Melira attempted to do with us earlier. Any magical item we find that goes unidentified is potentially a dead companion, for lack of a horseshoe nail. Please, in the future, assist others in identifying items." And with that, she spider-crawls over the balcony edge and straight down the column, leaving the armor, and letting Lyon take the bag and masterwork weapons, but taking the revolver downstairs with her, along with one of the bullets.
"Is this weapon of interest to you, or should we find someone else to utilize it... possibly me?"
Kaussek stares silently at Aisha for a moment. She was remonstrating him? There was a change. He had not thought she had a serious bone in her body. Well, it was a pleasant surprise, even if it was a criticism of him that had some merit.
Still, he made no response aloud, simply giving Aisha a curt nod as she left. It was true, he had been too passive, too willing to let others work and keep to himself. It was clear that was not enough. However much he might dislike it, he would have to put himself forward from now on.
He walked down the stairs, passed Aisha, then paused. Without looking at her he stated, "It is... different to be criticized for my actual flaws, rather than for having scales. Difficult. But better."
With that he started walking towards the door.
"It isn't criticism, it is advice. Many adventurers move together from a young age... some do not join others until later in life. Learning to work together is not always easy for them." Aisha responds, turning her head so he's within view of her hood, "Do they itch?"
Having concluded their business and dealt with the remaining foes, the seven adventurers return to the camps around the fort and make their beds. They're welcomed back among the people there, and given places to sleep.
The morning comes with no fanfare. Lu elects to stay behind. His people have seen conflict recently, and he wishes to take those who can fight out and protect the people around the area actively. After some morning preparations, the group decides to head out. Like the previous day, Melira accompanies the group. She is still looking for her father, just like she was before. Just like the previous day, the group follows Lyon's lead down the mountain into the valley and towards the nearby "Mount Eden". It's a few hours before they reach the foot of the mountain with the arch that leads to the stairs up the side of the mountain. This time, Varn and his two compatriots are not waiting for the group at the foot of the mountain.
Today's weather is overcast and chilly, a day of 40 F (4 C), but is otherwise mild. Occasional sprinkles of rain fall, but nothing is consistent.
Melira, crouched in the undergrowth some distance from the foot of the mountain, turns to the rest of the group. "So, slow and careful does the climb?" she asks. "Doesn't seem like they're right there, but they're here somewhere. And it's a long climb. Probably lots of stuff on the way from here to the top."
Before leaving, Marcus made sure the guard patrols were organized and knew what to do if there was trouble. He'd increased the numbers in the squads to three. That made for longer shifts, but two had clearly not been enough. He also recommended to Lu that he try to get the camp to gather closer together, around the small garrison keep. At the moment they were far too spread out.
The known threats are gone. You don't need to be paranoid.
Someone has to.
Once again armored, masked, and mounted, the doctor joined the others, ready to head out.
When they neared the foot of the mountain, he dismounted. He wasn't thrilled about leaving the horse, but there wasn't much else to be done. He didn't tether it. If something hunted it he wanted it to be able to run. All he could do was hope it remained in the area until they came back.
Ishana frowns, shading her eyes looking upwards at the mountain, before giving up slightly. "We will need to be super careful, because this time we need to trigger an ambush on our terms, or all of our tactics go out the window. Lyon needs invisibility and that unfortunately won't last forever"
The arcanist pauses for a moment before looking at Melira "Actually, how long will your invisibility spell last again? Did you prepare three of them for today?"
Melira shakes her head. "No, I have it twice today. It should last five minutes, but it'll drop off as soon as you attack someone."
"Are we still going for that 'invisible people kill their vulnerable targets first' plan? If that's the case, we'll probably need an effective scout, quite a bit ahead of us, so that we know where they are before they know we are here."
Aisha puts a finger to her lips, mutters something, and points to Lyon, before scrambling up the nearest tree, growing her claws once more to reach the top. She draws out her spyglass from her belt pouch and peers into the distance, towards the spot they'd previously fought, before raising the spyglass to her eye. She'd keep Lyon abreast of what she saw from the top of the treeline, at least for now.
Aisha climbs to the top of one of the trees using her super-claws and peers for a closer look at the battle site... She doesn't see anything waiting to ambush them or any traps or monsters that she didn't see previously.
"Like I said I would like to look it over to make sure it isn't damaged but it won't do much for me besides maybe a backup weapon." Lyon explained to Aisha. "If you want to use it that's fine. I could teach you how to take care of it, they are a bit harder to maintain than most weapons but well worth it."
During their walk back to camp Lyon would talk to Alana thanking her for coming to help them. When she gets back to camp she would look over the items they'd gathered and, if Aisha would let her, would check the pistol to ensure it was ready to use again.
Lyon returns the pistol to Aisha. "It seems fine, just be careful of misfires. Does anyone want any of the other things we found?" Lyon would have over any items the others asked for.
-------------------------
Lyon is disappointed when Lu says he is staying behind but ultimately understands, at least the caravan will be protected. "We don't know what all they've done since we left so expect the worst. Invisible or not their magic was a huge problem so she needs to go down first no matter what. They probably have more swarm traps by now so we need to be ready to deal with those." She looks to Melira. "Do you still have that spell that stopped them from touching me and how long does that last? If it lasts a while you could cast it on Aisha and let her scout ahead. I think she's our best bet anyway but swarms are hard to deal with."
Kaussek thanks Lu for the healing before leaving, and wishes him well. In truth he feels a bit better with one more capable guard being left with the others--it was more than clear that this wasa dangerous territory, and there were few enough among the group who were ready for these sorts of danger.
He contemplates the area with a distrustful gaze. "Certainly we should expect to be attacked on the way up, as you say. I would be wary about having Aisha go too far ahead of us for us to support her. She is a capable scout, but even the best make an error from time to time, and in such a situation a single error could be fatal before we could arrive to help were she too far ahead. Aisha, how swiftly can you climb in a few seconds? I at least would advise you not get further from us than you can move in a handful of seconds."
Marcus was dubious about the idea of using the same tactics again. "Charging up a switch back where we know we will be bombarded by a capable archer, and a fireball throwing spellcaster is a bad plan."
"If two of us can be invisible it should be the least stealthy among us. The closer we can get before they spot us, the less artillery we will need to move through to engage."
"So, we're going to prepare for a fight before we even do the climb?" asks Melira. She holds out a hand in offer. "I can do that, if you want. I've got two heroisms, too. And I've got that protection from chaos that kept the wasps off of Lyon. That spell is a chaos-aligned summoning spell, so my protection spell serves to counter it."