Nikolai's grip upon his weapon tightens as he gives a nod towards the countess. Once the rest began to make their way up the staircase, he would follow as well ready for combat.
Chao's acrobatics may not be the only spectacle catching the party's attention as the monk lands. A volley of projectiles strikes the wall behind him - always at least a step behind him, though. The broken remnants of two crossbow bolts and two bent javelins fall to the floor among the party.
The dark folk seized the opportunity to target Chao whilst he was above and alone. Five stand along the balcony and stairs: two with hand crossbows, two with javelins, and another with a dagger in each hand. They are swaddled in dirty black rags from head to toe, and they avoid the shafts of light that stream in through narrow windows and the stained glass.
As the broken bolts and arrows begin to fall downwards, Nikolai is already on the move. With his rapier at his side, the scholar advances up the staircase with almost unnatural alacrity. He brandishes his weapon defensively, trying to protect himself from future damage.
Kain moves back to the others before raising his shield to deflect potential ranged attacks. He makes for the stairway.
Tendrils of flame wreath Bashuk's arms as the half-orc focuses her power. "I will try to clear the stairwell for you," she informs Kain before sending a blazing bolt of fire arcing through the air.
Just as he returned to the party, he had to get back up there. How did I miss them?
"Ha, I knew it. I've sensed them!" As he had his crossbow ready, Shontar immediately released a bolt at the closest enemy and then reloaded.
As Nikolai closes the distance and takes to the stairs, he sees the gloom at the top grow even deeper until it is a consuming Darkness that obscures the two foes at the top of the stairs from view. Likewise, another haze of magical darkness swaddles the pair of dark folk on the balcony to the south.
A javelin sails out from the darkness atop the stairs and clatters harmlessly against the floor at Nikolai's feet.
A pair of crossbow bolts shriek down from the balcony and glance off the shoulders of Bashuk's chain shirt.
Valda and Kain take defensive positions around the countess.
Shontar's bolt shatters against the stone railing of the balcony against which the one foe outside of the darkness leans.
The target has no time to relish its fleeting good fortune, for Bashuk's elemental wrath is unleashed upon him. His raggedy armor erupts in flames as the kinetic burst explodes, and he is quickly overcome by the fire.
"This is difficult with the darkness" Shontar says despite shooting at one that wasn't actually in the darkness. He releases another bolt at the closest enemy and then reloaded.
Chao double move again and positions himself inbetween the first two enemies on the top of the stairs.
Kain nods to Valda.
I'm entrusting her defense to you. A true general should lead from the front. He says with a smile, knowing how silly that is before he charges up the stairs.
"Give me back my kin, you wretched cowards!" Bashuk is now wreathed in dancing serpents of flame as she spins forwards, sinuously waving her arms to gather the strands of fire to her before sending out another bolt of fire.
Nikolai continues to move up the staircase but not so much as to break past the two impressive figures of Kain and Valda. A brilliant man, Nikolai knows he is skilled but he is no man to hold the frontline if he can help it.
Bashuk's eyes pierce the radius of the magical darkness, and she dooms another one of the dark folk with a burst of her kinetic power.
Upon command, Sasha bounded up the stairs to reach the balcony, with Valeska trying to stay close behind.
Silverwing reacts to the attackers as well as he can. He flies up to the ones the slow and grounded folk could not easily get to. He lunges for the shoulder of the one closest to the stairs of the two in the group.
With the party making its way up the stairs, when Silverwing attacks, his beak nearly rips the dark folk's arm from its socket. The foe shrieks in pain, fighting to break free whilst also avoiding the streams of bright light pouring down from above or being tossed from the balcony.
He breaks free, and just as his nearby comrade nocks and looses another bolt from his hand crossbow, he hurls a javelin at the young griffin.
Both shots whiz past, not even knicking Silverwing's feathers as he evades the attacks.
As the sphere of darkness moves, you realize that the dark folk that remains atop the stairs is moving to reinforce his other surviving fellows against the griffin.
since there are no more enemies on the top of the stair, CHao keeps on running.
"This one's gonna hit!" Shontar claimsHe releases another bolt at the closest enemy and then reloaded.
Kain sprints to Silverwing's aid, lowering his defense for more speed.
Silverwing bites down into the one he had already selected as his prey.
This will demonstrate your impudence in attacking me dark skinned one!
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Bashuk continues her deadly dance, spinning another coil of fire into existence and sending it spinning off to hammer another of the shadowy foes.
"Not so fearsome when not striking from ambush at children and the old, are you?" the half-orc taunts in Orcish.
Seeing the others leading the charge invigorates Nikolai to throw more caution to the wind. Quickly, he charges up the staircase and ends up behind Chao as the force pushes their advantage.
Bashuk's latest burst of fire likewise brings another to the bring of the Boneyard. Soon after, Silverwing flings his prey over the balcony railing, leaving it to fall to its death with a fearful scream.
Those without eyes adapted to the dark can scarcely see the last of the dark folk sentries within his magical darkness. Nevertheless, his actions are easy to discern for you all.
Finding himself caught between a griffin and the rest of the party members who have surmounted the second floor, the last dark folk casts down his curved daggers, leaving them to clatter upon the balcony tiles. He claps his hands together then raises them plaintively. Even without an understanding of the Caligni language, it is abundantly obvious that he begs for his life.
With a furtive glance towards Silverwing, the dark folk prisoner complies and kicks his curved knives towards Valda. He hesitates with the second request, but slowly lays himself upon the tiled floor of the balcony, contorting his body to avoid the faintest shafts of light coming down from the high windows.
I try to not let him eat humonoids hahah. Though, if they have any horses, I fear for them. Kain chuckles as he lowers his shield.
Anyway we can convince him to tell us about the rest of his... group? Clan? band?
Valeska looks the prisoner over. Nikolai, are they... evil or just different?
Coming up the stairs, Bashuk glares daggers at the caligni. Smoke curls up from her clenched fist as the half-orc fights to control her anger.
"They are evil," she answers the countess, pointing to the scars and piercings decorating the prisoner's body. "They are servants of the Midnight Lord and it is not worth thinking about the horrors they would inflict on you were the positions reversed." She kneels down next to him, staring intently into the prisoner's eyes. Without the warning, she wreathes her fist in golden flames and slams it into the floor by the prisoner's head--sending up a shower of sparks and startling (but ultimately harmless) tongues of flame.
"I know you understand me. Are my kin still living? Answer truthfully--the paladin will know if you do not. You've managed to come this far without becoming kindling, best to keep it up, hm?"
Nikolai informs the party that the Caligni are...problematic, in regards to their cultural practices. They are bound in worship to the Owb, evil outsiders from the Shadow Plane. Some accounts, including those rare conversations with actual Caligni, suggest the Owb may have created the first dark folk; other academics believe the Owb merely modified and transformed them into their present forms to suit their needs.
It remains to be seen whether this particular individual understands Common, but he clearly understands Bashuk's intent and fearsome resolve. Now she has become the object of his fear, even more so than Silverwing or Sasha. Thus, he is cooperative with those who speak his language.
As he speaks, Valda appraises him with both mundane and divine senses.
He is too weak to produce a detectable aura, but from his mannerisms and words she judges that he is wicked.
<"Beneath this wretched, light-cursed fortress is Olvoro, our home. We are hundreds strong! Our leader, Vidods, delivers unto us the will of the Chooser, who protects us from the evils of those who carry sun with them,"> he says, looking at Bashuk, speaking in a tone somewhere between a sneer and snivel.
He also explains that the orc prisoners are kept sealed within the Quiet Eye, their temple to Zon-Kuthon at the heart of Olvoro. They are kept alive so their pain and fear can be offered up to the Chooser, whom they revere as a conduit to the Midnight Lord.
"Bashuk dear, some would say the same thing about the orcs."
Bashuk raises an eyebrow. "Sure, if they're bigoted sh*ts. You got a soft spot for Zon-Kuthites or something? You be calm when your people are held by those who see torture as communion."
"He said a town called Olvoro is under the fortress. Claims their leader 'Vidods' speaks the will of someone called 'the Chooser.' Their guardian against the Burning Sun Tribe."
Bashuk nods along as this information is revealed. "Chieftain Firehair thought it was something like that. Vidods, Chooser...neither will keep us from victory."
"A 'Chooser', how very interesting. I must agree though, Zon-Kuthites are a problematic sort when they are not well integrated into society. Abductions such as these will make any agreements difficult for certain, if that is what the Countess wishes to explore." His eyes turned towards Bashuk, giving a mild nod at her suggestion. "Wise words indeed. Much has been written about the nature versus the nuture when in regards to the orcs that inhabit the Hold. Your tribe is an interesting anomaly and certainly deserves further research."
"I suggest imprisoning him in the sunlight with the orc tribe. He is to be kept alive though, perhaps as part of negotiation. As a dark stalker, there is a higher chance that there are those who wish him alive. Ask if these were all the guards left up here. If some have escaped, I can only expect that we will continue to run into ambushes and traps."
When Valda asks about the hidden door, the Caligni tilts his heavily swaddled head. The paladin interprets this as a sign of confusion. Whilst the prisoner confirms that the trapped door leads, eventually, to a passage into the cellars - and from there, down to their tunnels - he has no knowledge of a hidden door.
With a fleeting resurgence of confidence, he states that more patrols guard the cellars and tunnels: not just more dark creepers, but even a handful of the more dangerous dark stalkers.
However, this defiant pride quickly escapes him when the balcony is suddenly bathed in bright white light, eliciting a fearful squeal from him. One of the other Caligni dark creepers, felled during your assault, has finally succumbed to the burns delivered by Bashuk. In his death throes, he has erupted in a flash of light. While his weapons and ratty clothing are left behind, of his body only ash remains.
The prisoner nervously looks to his other downed allies, dreading their inevitable death throes.
No.
There is no time to send him back to the Firehair... he will be our guide. It would seem, I am blessed with guides all my life. Not so absently, she scratches Sasha's nape.
Diplomacy and co-existence is always my first option, if that cannot be secured... so be it. I feel our path shall become clearer the deeper we delve into this darkness.
Ironic, indeed.
"I would be reluctant to trust the prisoner, Countess. These kind of Caligni tend to be more...fanatical...for their greater brethren. Enough so that they would die for them, historically speaking. I do not doubt that it would lead us into a trap if it believed it would serve its leader's will." Nikolai cautioned, nodding towards the cowering dark creeper. "I will go and look over the trap and see what I can do to disarm it."
With an excited step, Nikolai returns to the floor below to investigate the door. Traps like these were little puzzles, games to unravel against the ingenuity of the trap's maker. Nothing made him happier than breaking down such complicated systems into their bare parts and imagining their maker's shock and disappointment as he does so.
Blinking away the afterimage from the dark one's death throes, Bashuk gives the prisoner an alarmed look. "Wait, do you lot always do that? I thought that was just a nasty surprise you'd cooked up for your raid on us!" She grimaces down at him. "Do you even have funerals?"
The prisoner does not resist attempts to bind him, although if need be, he puts up a struggle to keep away from his fallen fellows, lest he be stricken by the light of their imminent death throes.
Nikolai hastens back downstairs. He needs only a quick survey of the trap the Caligni have rigged in order to identify how to disarm it. The scholar, quite adept at reverse engineering such mechanisms, arranges a strategic placement of utensils from his mess kit to temporarily neutralize the trap - allowing him to permanently disable it by snipping key wires.