Round 2
Elyda acknowledged Merixia's words with a quick nod of her head as she watched the priestess strike hard at the injured traitor.
And, then hoping to finish the androgynous traitor off, Elyda attacked with a keen ferocity.
==
Verene dodges a very large-seeming arrow, her heart hammering. The insectoid-legged longbow archer is clearly a problem. And unfortunately, her own stock of potential solutions is growing rather thin. She considers her final remaining combat-useful scroll, one to cause fear - but they don't actually want the archer to get away and regroup yet again. Verene also doesn't want that huge bow turned on the warriors, who seem to be more than holding their own against their opponents, but don't have the advantages of size and cover against the longbow that she currently does.
To Elliot (and all the others included in the message spell) she whispers in response, "Thank you, Master Aravashnial. My options are now limited to the crossbow and one fear-causing scroll. I don't know if you have a use of color spray left, Elliot, but if you did, and moved just past Elyda, you could affect all three archers with one cast. It would be risky to you if any of them didn't fall, however - you'd have to time it right before the martial combatants moved in to threaten them, so that even if some of them were unaffected, they would suddenly have more immediate problems to worry about than shooting you."
Keep the archer's focus on me. How do I keep her focus on me? Hoping she's not making a great mistake, Verene takes a breath and shouts, "Stand back, I'm going to summon! Wola, zi, reechee—" She strongly chants the nonsense words as though absorbed in casting for a full round, but actually stays just as ready as before to dodge attacks. Hopefully none of these traitors are casters, and won't have any way to know she's not actually casting a spell - especially if Aravashnial actually does start to summon, and the telltale glow of it appears on the floor somewhere.
Elliot fires his crossbow at one of the traitors, though the bolt sails uselessly over his head to spark against a wall as he asks Verene for suggestions.
Meanwhile, Merixia unleashes the General of Vengeance's fury upon the injured traitor, her bastard sword carving a deep furrow in their chest and knocking them to the ground.
Behind her, Verene begins her facetious chant, trying to keep the traitors' focus on her.
The inquisitor of the Inheritor steps over the fallen traitor and slashes out at the female traitor. Though the woman lifts her club to deflect the blows, she fails to catch all of them, and Elyda manages to sneak a thrust into her stomach, causing her to fall back with a groan.
With that, she carefully backs out of the way of Merixia's bloodstained blade and begins a vicious assault on the aasimar, who casually blocks club and fist, her shield and sword working in harmony.
The male traitor drops his crossbow to the ground, rushing forwards to join his kin in attacking Elyda. This catches the lawbringer off guard, and the bone-white club passes through her defenses, even those of her goddess, and she feels her thigh crack from the force of his blow.
The archer shouts a swift command in Hallit.
The other crossbow-wielding traitor brushes past her, squeezing into a corner and firing a bolt at Verene, but the bolt plinks off of the cave wall between them.
Above, magic flares as Aravashnial begins his casting, using his staff to draw symbols in the air.
Thesius places his returns his bow to his back and picks up his morningstar while preparing to quickly descend the ladder.
In the room above, Thesius swaps his equipment back to focus on melee in preparation for getting into the guard post below.
The archer steps back behind the further of the two barricades, sighting down her arrowshaft to fire at Verene again. This time it flies swiftly through the cloud, cutting over Merixia's head and slams hard into the base of Verene's jaw, knocking her back into the wall momentarily. Blood pours from the wound, and she's pretty sure that she just felt some of her teeth crack from the force of the arrowhead penetrating them.
Round 3
Even with her numerous injuries, especially the pain in her thigh from the enemy's most recent clubbing, Elyda sidestepped diagonally 5 ft and attacked the female traitor once again.
==
Verene sees stars, but remains conscious. Grimly she pulls the healing potion from her belt, uncorks it and tosses it down, despite the pain. The wound closes considerably but not fully.
Seeing Verene get shot through the jaw only moments after answering him, and by the same archer who got him prior to this, triggers something in Elliot and his eyes narrow in rage! "You...!"
He storms forward and sways to the right, then disappears and ends up right behind the archer in the back! "Fancy meeting you here. Nighty night."
A blast of hypnotic colours springs from his fingers over the enemies.
"Well... I'm cutting off their only escape standing here, so this either works or I die," he thinks to himself, suddenly feeling a lot less badass and much more stupid.
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/46492/how-do-i-map-a-15-cone-to-a-1 -grid
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Her enemy fallen, Merixia steps forward over the body. It looks like Elyda has the other club-wielder handled, so it's time to take on the archers. The cleric swings at the closest crossbow wielder, cold iron blade flashing in the dim light from Anevia's spell.
Elliot storms forwards, before warping through space and unleashing his rage through another burst of color at the three ranged fighters, all of whom whirl to face him, but other than being surprisingly fabulous-looking thanks to their new coat of multi-colored magic, they are unaffected.
The archer looks especially contemptuous.
Meanwhile, the sister he'd hoped to avenge drinks deep from a healing potion, which at least rights her teeth and most of the injury to her jaw.
Merixia launches forwards, sweeping her sword in curving blows that whip around her target's defenses, allowing her to get several deep slices into the traitor's flesh.
Elyda's longsword strikes like a lightning bolt, cutting down the woman with the vestigial leg and leaving her to bleed slowly out on the floor.
Merixia's target shifts around the barrier to attack her in vengeance for his injuries, but those selfsame injuries leave him unable to connect with any attack as the priestess easily wards his blows away.
The other traitor takes what he thinks will be an easy shot at Elyda, and proves that it is, indeed, an easy shot. The bolt strikes her square in the chest and smashes through both her armor and the prayer that still lingers about her. The inquisitor staggers back, the breath knocked out of her and blood beginning to fill her lungs and choke off her breath. The traitor cackles and crows in triumph.
Thesius quickly makes his way down the ladder and moves in to engage the enemy next to Merixia with his morningstar.
Thesius drops down the ladder and moves swiftly towards the battle, his morningstar prepared to deal its customarily devastating blows to the heroes' opponents.
Above, the heroes hear a soft ringing of bells. Immediately after, Aravashnial murmurs something in Celestial.
A tiny pair of butterfly-winged creatures that look almost fey drop down from the hole in the ceiling and fly towards the traitors. One settles on Thesius' shoulder, giggling softly in his ear.
Normally, they cannot be summoned with a simple spell, but worshippers of the Song of Spheres are often able to call them.
The little being gestures at the archer woman, who blinks rapidly, shaking her head vigorously.
The other lyrakien flutters by the other two traitors, easily evading the clumsy swing of the injured traitor's club. She swiftly flaps over to hover in between all three traitors. With a shout of gleeful abandon, she erupts into a burst of silver-blue light. All three react with enough swiftness to avoid it, however, and the little celestial yelps in dismay. "Uh-oh."
The archer woman begins to babble an incomprehensible string of words and phrases, her bow arm dropping to her side.
Merixia isn't sure what the butterfly-winged beings are, but they're obviously friendly spellcasters. Good enough for her. She steps forward, making room for Elyda to move in, and attacks the wounded cultist again.
"These traitor Forgotten are either resistant to magic somehow, or extremely lucky," Verene mutters in disbelief, seeing a spray of clashing colors even more dazzling than what she produced wash over the three archers without effect. "Don't lose hope, Elliot. The tide of this battle is turning." But the taste of blood is still metallic in her mouth and she hopes against hope that her advice, and his own protective good nature, hasn't just gotten Elliot killed.
The arrival of the Elysian angel-fey is a distinct relief, but the fact that all three remaining enemies also evade the flash of holy light does nothing to change her growing conviction that magical attacks aren't going to be very effective against them in general.
Verene takes stock of her options, then moves up and looses a shot from her crossbow at one of the archers.
"They evaded the burst of light, but one of your lyrakien temporarily confused the most dangerous archer, Master Aravashnial. That's very good." With Anevia not down here to relay to him the progress of the battle, Verene feels it's incumbent on her to keep Aravashnial updated so he doesn't go to pieces with worry.
===
Round 4:
Elyda, seriously wounded as she was, was glad at the sight of the lyrakien azata and the one who put a spell of lesser confusion on the female traitor.
Weighing the wisdom of fighting on with her many injuries and possibly falling to the next assault, or, taking a moment to heal herself, she erred on the side of caution.
Staying put and away from the direct engaged enemy, Elyda pulled the healing potion from the belt at her waist. Pulling the stopper out, she drank the liquid, feeling some of her deeper wounds begin to knit close; yet she largely remained seriously wounded. Tossing the vial to the side, the young inquisitor sent a silent prayer to Iomedae, My Lady, let me continue with my blade and not succumb under the constant assaults of these traitors.
===
When Elliot's spell doesn't seem to do anything to any enemy - again - the apprentice wizard can only stare in disbelief as his hope sinks into his boots.
It was another keen reminder he was only alive by the grace of his comrades, most of all his teacher, whose sudden summons seemed to do what he himself couldn't.
Still... recognizing a confused state when he saw one and disciplined enough to push such inner reflections to a less dangerous time, he tries to switch tactics and make the most of things.
...He says to the spider-cat woman in her native tongue, then takes out his crossbow to shoot the archer engaging Merixia from point blank over the makeshift barricade!
Hopefully, the traitor cat huntresses' mind was addled enough to follow suit?
Elliot attempts to convince the archer woman that she is working with him, but even as he says the words, they come out leaving him feeling somewhat pathetic. Turning his crossbow to the nearby archer, he takes a risk by firing it over the barricade, which prompts the traitor to whirl his club in an attempt to smash the aasimar, but nearly stumbles over his own feet, allowing the bolt to slam into his chest and knock him off his feet, leaving him bleeding and unconscious.
Merixia moves forwards to engage the other traitor, who bats her sword strokes away with his crossbow, somehow avoiding damage to it in the process.
Darting forwards, Verene aims over the barricade, firing a shot around Merixia's hip which arcs forwards and slams into the spider-armed archer, cutting off her nonsensical babbling as she coughs out blood, her tail lashing violently. Nevertheless, as blood drips from her lips she continues her bizarre rants.
Elyda, upon seeing the arrival of their newfound celestial allies, takes the chance to drink a potion of healing, which seals many of her wounds, though she remains battered and bloody.
Merixia's target drops his crossbow in favor of his club, swinging wildly at the tiefling woman, but the priestess deflects the blows with both sword and buckler, easily keeping herself safe.
Hoping his luck holds up, Thesius steps up...
... while recognizing the lyrakien azata, but not the spell they cast, he lashes out at the seemingly crazed spider arm archer woman.
Thesius feels the blessings of Desna ride on his shoulders, guiding his arms and legs as he steps up to the barricade and launches a devastating barrage on the befuddled archer. A thrust, a side-strike, a downward swing... and the formerly dangerous archer collapses in a pool of black blood, organs, and other, less palatable substances.
The lyrakien behind him flutters forwards, patting him on the shoulder, before flying swiftly to Elyda's side. With a soft murmur, she touches the aasimar. "Child of Heaven, though we have our differences, let your wounds be healed." With that she sings softly, and Elyda's injuries heal themselves completely, leaving her feeling lighter-hearted than she has since the fall into the underground.
The other lyrakien flutters away from the last remaining traitor, his wings easily taking him from the range of the club. He gestures at the traitor, whose lips promptly begin to spill the same nonsense that his counterpart's did just moment's before.
When the cultist he shot goes down and Thesius turns the huntress next to him in a pile of gore in a single hit, Elliot surveys the rest of the team. Seeing the summons proceed to heal Elyda back to full with Verene standing as well makes him breathe a sigh of relief. "Well struck, Thesius. Where did you learn how to do that?" he asks the bard.
When the remaining Traitor gets mentally assaulted, he calls out. "Wait! Don't kill that one! Maybe he can tell us more about those cultists who were here? Or about dangers on the way back up?"
"Good shot, Elliot!" Verene says in relief as he finishes off one of the crossbowmen. She then stares in shock as Thesius crushes the life from the longbow archer with one perfectly placed blow, as deadly as any Merixia or Elyda have demonstrated. "...Well. That was... definitive."
Grateful once more to have found herself in company with such martially capable people, Verene reloads her crossbow but hesitates as Elliot proposes trying to interrogate the last warrior. "Is that a good idea? Elyda got fairly specific information from Meron, who had no reason to lie to us, and I wouldn't like to have to execute someone who cooperated, or pretended to."
She aims upward, past the barrier over which looms the last, confused Forgotten traitor, preparing to shoot at point-blank range if the group doesn't agree to spare him and he's still up by her next turn.
To Aravashnial she whispers, "Elliot killed one, Thesius another, and one of your lyrakien friends confused the last remaining warrior."
"What are we going to do with him if we take him alive? No, he's going down." Merixia really doesn't like killing people in cold blood. It's different when they can fight back and they're trying to kill her. She slashes at the remaining cultist once more.
Round 5
Elyda bowed her head respectfully to the divine messenger who had healed her whole. "Thank you for your healing," she quietly said to the summoned lyrakien.
Feeling back to her whole and hardy self, Elyda rolled her shoulders when she heard Elliot say that the party should keep one alive to question. With Verene's query as to the wisdom of keeping the traitor alive and Merixia attacking him, Elyda looked to Elliot and steadily answered,
"I do not believe this traitor will give us answers - he may not even know and may pretend just to stay alive. We made promised to eliminate the traitors and cultists. It is best we finish him off as we have his allies."
Taking a 5 step forward - toward the barricade - and angling the blade tip over the short barrier (3ft tall?), she attempted to slash open the traitor's upper body.
===
Elliot honors his patron goddess by attempting to offer the survivor mercy, though the rest of his companions are disinclined to follow through.
Merixia's bastard sword strikes swift and true, cutting deep into the heretofore uninjured traitor's body, while Verene attempts to fire another bolt at him, which embarrassingly thuds into the ceiling above his head.
Finally, the Iomedaean inquisitor carves a giant chunk out of the traitor's arm, shoulder, and upper chest, knocking him to the ground and sending his limb flying into the nearby wall, against which it slaps wetly.
In the sudden silence as the last traitor falls, the male lyrakien flutters over to settle on Merixia's shoulder, and she feels a sudden surge of comfort as her wounds heal.
Merixia sighs with relief as the tiny butterfly-winged man heals her wound. While she can and will fight with worse injuries, that doesn't mean she likes doing so. "Thank you, Mister... uh, I'm not sure what kind of being you are. A celestial of some sort, right? Maybe a servitor of Desna? Anyway, I appreciate it. Especially with, you know, me being a tiefling and all." It's heartening that the little celestial didn't hesitate to heal her, even with her infernal ancestry.
Moving slowly so as not to dislodge her passenger, Merixia leans over to cut off a piece of the fallen cultist's clothing. She picks up her new rag and begins cleaning her bloody sword. "Anyone need healing? I have one spell and one channel left."
Verene lowers her crossbow. "They are a kind of azata called lyrakien, beings of good and chaos with an affinity for music. Or at least, they are the earthly projections of such beings, for they won't truly die if they are killed here, like all summoned creatures. Many of them do serve Desna, and summoners who worship her can sometimes call on them for aid and they will answer. As Master Aravashnial did just now. Speaking of which - The battle is won, and we are all still standing. You can safely descend now." The last she whispers as a message, so Aravashnial and Anevia, as well as everyone down here, can hear it.
The wizard smiles at said celestials politely and says in the chiming tongue of the higher planes, "Thank you for coming to our defense against the allies of the Abyss." As they will soon disappear anyway, and scholarly accounts can never agree on whether summoned creatures are 'real' in the sense of having an existence outside their summoned manifestations, she is trying not to be too charmed by the dainty appearances and good humor of the little butterfly-winged creatures, with limited success.
She puts one small, gray-skinned hand to her jaw, where the hole left by the longbow archer's arrow has mostly closed but is still red and tender, poking with her tongue at a few teeth that still feel a little loose. "I am well enough for now, Merixia, thank you. Save your healing against true need. Shall we go through this door?"
While the group discusses next moves, she looks around for the crossbow bolt that struck the longbow archer, finding that it was freed from her shoulder by Thesius's killing blow and landed a few feet away. She cleans it and returns it to her quiver.
With the enemy traitor having fallen under the combined assault of Merixia and herself, Elyda wiped the blood and viscera off her blade, pausing to give a solemn "Well done, all," before giving one last courteous bow of her head toward the lyrakien summoned by Master Aravashnial.
"I am hale now, Merixia. Thank you," she answered the priestess.
"Before we move on, I would like to search the bodies for anything we can make use of...", Elyda informed her companions.
Then moving around the barrier to the fallen traitors, Elyda began to search their bodies for anything useful such as potions, scrolls etc.
In silence, Thesius moves to the door to stand guard.
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Elyda swiftly finds that the traitors have little other than their clubs and crossbows, four of the former and two of the latter. Each also has a wooden unholy symbol of Baphomet, as well as a waterskin filled with a fluid she doesn't recognize - presumably some sort of local beverage.
The archer woman has a more significant amount of equipment - presumably she was more important than the others in the tribe. Aside from her chitin longbow, she has a gold-ish potion, a wand of fungiwood, an unholy symbol of Baphomet carved from a shimmering volcanic rock known as obsidian, and a pouch of gold. She's also wearing a finely crafted chain shirt, which looks similar to those that the party took from the dead cultists the day prior.
The lyrakien bows to Merixia. "It is our pleasure to aid champions of goodness... even if we do have our differences." Within a few more seconds, the pair sweep elegant bows, and vanish in the familiar burst of celestial music.
Anevia floats downwards, holding Aravashnial in her arms. "Sorry about this." She says to him, and he flushes slightly.
"No, thank you. This is the most efficient manner of descent." Nevertheless, he does seem embarrassed as he gets to his feet.
Horgus descends last, looking about the room with a faint air of disgust.
Elliot is way too distracted being amused at seeing his all-powerful teacher being carried by Anevia to notice something was amiss with Horgus. Hell, he was halfway whistling before he caught himself, knowing more enemies could be nearby. Caution overtook the impulse to lighten the mood a bit - which they could surely use amidst all this carnage, in his estimation. There wasn't much left of the Spider-Lady, and some of the other traitors were literally in pieces. Perhaps their short life expectancy at the abyssal corruption also manifested itself in a general frailty of body, causing them to be easily dismemerable?
"Good job, everyone. I'm... sorry my spell didn't affect any of them. I'm not sure what's going on; I was positive I hit them with the full force of that arcane spray but they all seemed to shrug it off..." he shakes his head softly. "Well... I guess it doesn't matter now. What's done is done, we're safe and they're dead. If we all help Elyda search, it will save some time," he scratches his head a bit awkwardly and looks at Aravashnial. "...Ah, not you, of course, Master. The grisly business is beneath you, and the cultist's deaths were quite graphic as well."
"If we just leave them like this, wild animals will probably come and eat their remains, or worse. Maybe some giant flies will implant them with maggots like they did to that spider we saw when we fell here," Elliot remarks as he uses Prestidigition to wash the blood off everyone's hands and clothes. "Maybe we could do a quick burial or burning of their remains? I know they were enemies, but it feels wrong to just let their corpses lie there."
"I'd hold off on burying anyone until we've gotten a firm idea of whether there're any more enemies in the area." Anevia says, helping Aravashnial to his feet. "There's no guarantee that the next group to try sneaking up on us will be as incompetent as the priests upstairs."
===
"Perhaps one of the other casters can identify this potion of gold liquid. The wand, however, grants swifter movement."
Then, with her attention on Horgus, Elyda noted the odd glint of pleasure in the man's eyes as he surveyed the destruction. He is an odd one. Elyda made note to have a quiet word to her companions about his strange behaviour.
She appreciated Elliot's efforts to clean the blood off her skin and clothing, as he did the others. Thank you, Elliot."
"I agree with Anevia. Leave the bodies as they are, for now."
Verene nods approvingly as Anevia carefully carries Aravashnial down princess-style on the eddying mist. "Efficient, with minimal risk to anyone." She casts a sharp glance, then a thoughtful one, at Horgus, but says nothing to him right away.
"Good job, everyone. I'm... sorry my spell didn't affect any of them. I'm not sure what's going on; I was positive I hit them with the full force of that arcane spray but they all seemed to shrug it off..." he shakes his head softly. "Well... I guess it doesn't matter now. What's done is done, we're safe and they're dead. If we all help Elyda search, it will save some time."
Verene joins in the search as Elliot suggests. Quietly she says, "It wasn't your fault, Elliot. The colors of your spell appeared even brighter and more bewildering than mine. But there is always the chance of your targets getting lucky: they blinked at just the right time, or managed to turn their heads away; or something about them allows them to resist magic sometimes, like the dark elves do. You took a serious risk to yourself to offer all of us a better chance at survival. That is not something to apologize for, not in the least. And I will certainly help you bury the bodies, or cover them in stones, once we are sure this complex holds no more dangers."
"Perhaps one of the other casters can identify this potion of gold liquid."
Verene examines the potion for a moment with her arcane sight, then offers it back to Elyda. "This is another minor healing potion. You could carry it, to replace the one you just used. Unfortunate archer-vendettas aside, I think you are more likely to need it in general."
Once the useful items are sorted out, Verene stands a short distance back from the door. "Hear anything?" she whispers to Thamyris as everyone prepares to go through.
Elyda took back the gold-coloured potion and attached it to her belt. "Thank you, Verene. There is another minor healing potion from our previous search, if you wish to carry it on you?"
Following suit, Elyda, with blade in hand, moved steadily/carefully to stand beside Verene near the door and listened for any sounds beyond it.
"No noise, all quiet. Smells... funny." Thamyris chirps. "Maybe dead? Hard. So much here." It appears that the blood and bodies here are overpowering his sense of smell, so it might be that he's not smelling anything there.
Huh… that’s strange. Merixia frowns at their wealthy tagalong. Just what is going through Horgus’ head? He definitely needs a more experienced priest to give him a thorough examination when they get back to Kenabres.
The cleric smiles at Elliot as the blood and gore vanish from her armor. ”Ah, thank you, Elliot. Much appreciated. And there’s no need to apologize for your enemies getting lucky enough to avoid your spell. Ragathiel knows they’ve dodged my sword enough times!” She picks up the archer woman’s longbow. ”Anyone know how to use this? Oh, and I’ll be happy to help bury the bodies once we’ve cleared this place.”
Merixia freezes in place, yellow eyes fixed on the door. ”Wait a minute. I heard something.” She sets the bow down and draws her sword, tail twitching like that of a cat who just spotted a mouse. ”Somebody’s out there. To the… left, I think.”
"Knowing that someone is waiting on the other side of the door, how should we proceed?" Verene whispers to everyone via message. "You can whisper back and I will repeat it so everyone can hear, but any enemies won't be able to."
She drops her reloaded crossbow to her side, and draws out the scroll of cause fear in preparation to unleash it.
"Does anyone have any skill in stealth, other than Anevia?" Aravashnial asks of the rest of the group. "Wait. No, that isn't like to be helpful - our foes will notice the door opening."
"I have some skill in stealth. We could open the door, toss in one of the dead bodies and wait to see if they instantly strike or we can determine more..." Elyda relayed through the magical message link. The inquisitor was not one for desecrating the bodies of the dead, yet they were traitors...and could spare the party from immediate danger until they could discern how many traitors were lying in wait.