”Elyda!” Merixia slashes viciously at the darkmantle in front of her, channeling her fear into fury. ”She’s down and the creature is choking her! Three steps in front of the entrance to the left!”
Thesius inspects the stone figures as they pass by...
...he gleans little from them, but is caught unaware as the battle ensues.
After cursing himself under his breath, he moves the dancing lights from behind him up to the edge of the darkness to try to get a better view of what was happening.
"Fear not Aravashnial, it is I moving past you," he says as he moves past the blind mage and up towards the front. Invoking a spell of curing as he does so.
"Where is she?" he asks while trying to catch a glimpse of her so that he can cure her.
With the pain in her shoulder and the creature now attached, squeezing and choking her, Elyda felt a warmth spread through her upon someone's touch and attempted to escape the darkmantle's clutches - leveraging her blade to try to remove it from her.
===
Elliot moves swiftly into the room, before unleashing a blast of (monochrome, ironically) color at the darkmantle, which shudders slightly, but seems to totally ignore the colors otherwise.
Merixia, meanwhile, calls upon the wrath of the General of Vengeance and cleaves off a significant portion of the top of her foe's stalactite-like body. It collapses to the ground, where it gradually spasms and goes still.
Thesius, aware that the darkness will consume his dancing lights, brings them to just outside its radius, enabling him to see Elyda clearly. Invoking the healing magic endowed by his natural prowess, he helps restore her throat to working condition even as she fights off the creature's grasp.
Aravashnial stumbles slightly as Thesius brushes past him, but remains upright. "Where is it?" He calls, fingers of his left hand flexing as he lifts it slightly, as though to invoke some sort of magic.
Anevia, granted some light by Thesius' spell, steps forwards to attack the badly wounded (and sole remaining) darkmantle. It floats out of her reach, and slaps the sword for its temerity in approaching it.
Verene finishes her casting and Merixia surges up toward the ceiling, doubling in size. Thesius's clever use of his dancing lights allows her to see the distressed thrashing of the injured darkmantle as Elyda breaks its grasp with her blade and heaves it off herself, but they are dim shapes in a shadowy tableau. She moves left around the side of the cavern and reloads her crossbow, preparing to shoot at it in the unlikely event that the darkmantle is not quickly handled by her more martially capable companions.
On her way she calls to Aravashnial, "Master Aravashnial, you can stay your hand for now. Merixia killed one of the darkmantles and Thesius has aided Elyda, who then broke free of the remaining one's hold. The second monster is badly wounded and will soon fall." She hopes she hasn't spoken too soon.
Verene unleashes her spell on Merixia, who grows rapidly taller and broader. She then repositions, preparing her crossbow to fire again - just in case. Meanwhile, Aravashnial lowers his hand slowly, though he remains on guard.
The sole remaining darkmantle's tentacles slap out at Anevia, sending her staggering in one direction with a strike to her temple, then in the other as it cracks her ribs. Swiftly, it wraps its tendrils around the woman, who manages one quick breath before it begins crushing the life from her.
"Whoa!" Merixia is startled out of her anger by the foreign sensation of being much bigger. Her horns are brushing the ceiling! It might actually be harder to hit the darkmantle like this, it looks so small now. She calls upon Ragathiel's power for a bit of guidance, then brings her now-enormous sword down on the creature.
Thesius dances through Merixia’s square and around the creature to engage from the opposite side of Elyda. A prayer to Desna upon his lips as he lashes out with his sword hoping to end this battle.
"You've GOT to be kidding me..." Elliot grumbles, staring at the darkling that shrugged off his most powerful spell like it was nothing.
Well... that sucked. And as a nice bonus, it was absolutely hammering Anevia now as well. Great.
Not knowing what else to do, he draws his crossbow and attempts to hit it.
His shot goes wide.
Seeing the darkmantle wrap Anevia in its tendrils and her companions attack to kill it, Elyda attacked the creature, hoping to pry it off the woman for good.
===
Elliot fires his crossbow into the melee, aiming for the darkmantle, but it soars off into the darkness, clattering against the far wall. Meanwhile, Merixia, startled by her new size, thwacks her horn against a nearby lip of the stone ceiling, which throws off her aim - despite calling upon Ragathiel to aid her in her blow.
Thesius sweeps in evasively, despite the shadows, and slashes at the darkmantle with his longsword, but the creature sways out of the way, leaning closer to tighten its grip on Anevia's neck.
Seized by inspiration, Elyda weaves a web of steel around the darkmantle, slowly closing it and offering it a death of small cuts. It collapses into a heap on the floor, shuddering briefly before falling still.
Anevia falls to her knees, coughing and hacking as she struggles to regain her breath. "Okay, I'm going farther back. This sword-swinging..." She coughs. "Isn't my thing."
"Are they fallen?" Aravashnial asks from behind. "What's going on?"
Watching as the darkmantle's grip on Anevia fell away and the creature slid to the ground in death, Elyda breathed out and answered Anevia, "Breathe slowly and the air way will clear in due course. They certainly have a strong grip, Elyda understood well enough as it was only recently she fought her way out of its grip. "I am grateful for you coming to my assistance, Anevia. I am sorry it put you in such peril. I agree, it is better you remain further back and aid with your bow, where possible."
"Are they fallen?" Aravashnial asks from behind. "What's going on?"
"Master Aravashnial, the creatures have fallen and we are standing."
Turning to Thesius, "Your healing was certainly a boon as I was wrapped in its death grip. I thank you, Thesius."
Looking to her other companions, "Thank you for all your brave efforts with these fell creatures." The very tall Merixia was an imposing figure inside the cavern.
Then pulling a rag from her pack, she wiped her blade and sheathed it; stowing her buckler and dirty rag, so she could investigate the area and what was on the darkmantles (anything of note or value).
"I do not see anything of note in this chamber. The crusader statues' strange, melancholic expressions continue to draw my gaze," Elyda expressed quietly, while her eyes continued surveying the stone cravings across the walls. Out of some curiosity, Elyda began casting Detect Magic, focusing on the statues nearest her.
Meanwhile, Merixia rubs her horn, waiting for Verene's spell to wear off. "I think this spell will take some getting used to." Once it does, she hurries over to Anevia to cast a quick spell and look her over.
Aravashnial steps gingerly into the chamber, using his staff to check the floor and vicinity before him for anything that might trip him up. "Statues? Could you describe them for me?" When someone does so, he ponders for a moment, before brightening. "Excellent! I knew it. These are probably carved by the children of those crusaders who fled from persecution after the First Crusade."
"Thanks." Anevia offers Merixia a wry, tired smile, before slowly using her crutch to push herself upright. "I think I'll be sticking around Thesius in the back from now on. I definitely prefer to shoot my enemies rather than try to stab them."
Meanwhile, Horgus glowers at the room. "When will the darkness go away? I can't see a damn thing."
Verene breathes a sigh of relief and lowers her crossbow slightly as soon as the darkmantle drops, but she doesn't let go of it yet. "Thank goodness. Well done, all. But I for one am not letting my guard down, and I don't think we should stay in this place long, for I'm not at all sure that either of these darkmantles was the 'he' Lord Horgus referred to as we were entering this chamber. That 'he' could be on his way right now."
With a muttered word and a snap of her fingers, she calls her light to the new bolt in her crossbow and walks back along the right edge of the chamber, skirting the cloud of unnatural blackness summoned by the darkmantle as best she can, to get a better look at the statues she barely registered before. But she knows nothing further about them than what Elyda and Aravashnial have already mentioned, so she keeps quiet.
The wizard approaches the tunnel at the southeastern edge of the cave, lighting her crossbow bolt once more and peering into it. Thesius and their human companions swiftly lose sight of her, blocked as she is by the supernatural darkness.
Peering around the corner reveals a bigger cavern, which her meagre light spell cannot illuminate fully from where she stands. It is a bit taller, too, from what she can see of the ceiling - probably a few feet higher in general.
"What 'he?'" Horgus asks waspishly, though he seems resigned to his confusion at this point.
Aravashnial looks reluctant. "So much could be learned from these... ah, well. Perhaps there will be more discoveries that could aid the cause further on. Ideally, a way out, too."
Verene relays back to the others, "There's a short, narrow passage here that would be a bit of a squeeze for you in your current state, Merixia, but after a few feet it opens up into a much larger cavern where you'd have plenty of room to stand up without brushing the ceiling. Sorry for the trouble; with your horns you're functionally even taller than I thought you would be. I don't see any immediate danger there, but much of the space is still hidden to me."
"Elyda, if you can find the object the darkmantle called darkness to with your magical senses, and cover that object, the darkness should be contained by it just as a light spell would."
"I will try, Verene."
Using her darkvision to see within the magically darkened area, Elyda began to cast Detect Magic upon the stalactite on the roof of the cavern where the darkmantles were hanging when they had entered the space.
Meanwhile, Elliot is looking at the statues with his master. Was there anything noteworthy about them that they might be able to use later, assuming they found the 'molepeople' and not died horrible deaths on the way?
"Darkness has a fairly limited radius, right, something like twenty feet? And we have at least three of us who can see through it. I say don't bother with finding the object and covering it. Everyone can link hands with one of us and we'll guide you through until we come out the other side," he absently notes as the light topic comes up. "We shouldn't overthink a problem when a simple solution exists before us."
Elyda discovers that the stalactite that the darkmantle was hanging onto earlier is the source of the darkness. While significantly smaller than it appeared with the darkmantle attached, it's still not exactly... small
"Verene, the stalactite is the source of the darkness. Do you wish it broken down and covered or leave it as Elliot has suggested and we guide those who cannot see through the darkness until we have passed the radius?"
Thesius sighs in relief as the battle concludes. These events were taking a toll on him, but he was glad they had been able to make it through so far. Their teamwork already seeming to improve in the face of uncertainty. He raises his gaze at Elyda’s comment and responds, “I’m glad I was able to make it in time and Aneva’s presence in the back would help ease my mind should I need to move to assist others.”
With a side thought he renews his dancing lights spell. He was starting to do so about every 30 seconds at this point to help ensure it would stay up for a bit should they encounter something.
He has been keeping the lights trailing them to give those in front more coverage and allowing him to keep an eye further behind for any lurking threats.
"Don't worry about it, Verene. Most people aren't used to taking horns into account." Ah, the joys of tiefling life.
"Verene, the stalactite is the source of the darkness. Do you wish it broken down and covered or leave it as Elliot has suggested and we guide those who cannot see through the darkness until we have passed the radius?"
"Hmm, let me give it a try. If I can't get it down quickly we can just lead the others like Elliot said." Might as well get some use out of the enlarge person spell. Merixia braces herself, grabs hold of the stalactite, and pulls with all her might.
Though she struggles mightily, even with her additional size and leverage, Merixia proves incapable of tearing the stalactite from its place in the ceiling. Thesius' dancing lights are suppressed within the area of darkness, plunging it into complete blackness, save for a dim light that probably represents Verene's own spell on the far side.
"I have no preference for whether we deal with the darkness or move through it." Aravashnial says dryly. "It is quite literally the same to me."
Anevia shrugs, a motion only barely visible to Thesius. "I say we go."
Horgus remains unnervingly silent, apparently disinterested in the question.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Elliot gently pats his master on the shoulder. "Don't worry, master. We'll get through this yet."
When Merixia fails to tear down the stalactite - or was that stalagmite? He always switched them up but would never tell anyone about it! - Elliot nods and walks forward. "Good try, but it looks like we're walking through. Now, everyone who can't see in the dark, link hands in a line behind me. I'll guide us at the head. Merixia and Elyda can seperately walk out in front of us with their weapons drawn in case we'd run into trouble."
There was a slightly impatient tone to his voice, which was also more commanding than usual. "We need to get out of here as quick as possible. Who knows what's going on up there, and I, for one, would never forgive myself if something horrible happened to my parents or sister while I was stuck here. Let's move!"
Elyda simply nodded, drew her sword and fixed her buckler, positioning herself in front. When everyone was ready to move, hands linked behind Elliot, the young inquisitor steadily and carefully led the party forward through the darkness.
As Elyda enters the room, peeking around the corner, she hears a chanting from beyond the range of her vision - a spell of some sort. Once it is completed, a voice raw with disuse shrieks. "So, you have finally come for me, have you? To take me to your prisons again? Caused even these," the voice says a word that none of the heroes recognize, "to stop me! I'll never go with you again! Come!"
From the dark, a filthy dwarf dressed in ragged clothing emerges. His beard is wild and knotted, and he clearly has spent more time down here than is healthy. Most notable, however, is the fact that his outline shifts and flickers, making his position hard to define even for the planestouched.
Anevia, lost in the darkness and still clutching Elliot's shoulder, groans. "Can't we go more than an hour without encountering something or someone that wants to kill us?"
Verene stiffens at the ragged cry from ahead, her heart pounding. Hunted and haunted. Right on cue, she thinks grimly. But this man, however strange and misled, was intelligent and had spoken to them. That meant there might be a chance to avoid violence.
"Whoever he is, he just cast a defensive spell to make himself harder to hit, not an offensive one," she says to her companions. "This might just be a tragic misunderstanding. Maybe we can still avoid bloodshed."
Verene swallows hard and peeks over Elyda's shoulder, around the corner, at the dwarf-shaped flickering form in the shadows ahead. She pitches her voice as loud as she can while still being soothing. "Sir— kind sir, I swear we mean you no harm. We are lost, and have wounded people with us. We were not looking for you, or for anything except a way out. Please, we don't want to fight."
"Liars! I've heard it all before! You want to steal my knowledge and throw me into the war again!" The dwarf shrieks at Verene, spittle flying from his mouth to his beard.
Verene sighs and moves forward, through the little passage, and to the right inside the cavern. "I don't want to hurt you, or steal your knowledge, or make you fight any wars. But if you try to hurt us, I will shoot," she warns the dwarf, raising her crossbow with its glowing bolt.
Merixia groans softly at the thought of trying to squeeze through that passage. "Elliot, Thesius, Anevia, Aravashnial, you'd better all go ahead of me. I might be able to get through there, but I might end up having to wait until this spell wears off."
"We mean no harm. We fell down here during the catastrophe that happened above. We are trying to find our way back, but are unfamiliar with the way," Thesius adds trying to further the cause of no further bled being shed.
As Verene and Thesius enter into the larger room, trying to calm him, the dwarf is given brief pause. "Not here for that? Impossible. Liars, all of them... but even if they're not..." He casts a brief, furtive look at the two. "Half-elf, human, yes... possible to transfer the power? No. Maybe with...?" He looks up, smiling widely. "Yes, you will do wonderfully. Welcome to Millorn's palace! The memories of this wonderful home will last your entire lives."
In the dark of the previous cavern, Elliot notices Aravashnial starting. "Millorn?! Did I hear that correctly?"
The dwarf who is presumably Millorn steps forwards, his smile widening manically, before he gestures back towards the other end of the cavern. "You should make yourselves comfortable. This will only hurt until you fall unconscious." Whipping his hands back towards the intruders, he flicks his fingers as he begins to weave his magic.
Quick to respond, Verene launches her bolt at him, but it skitters of into the darkness before cracking against the wall, the enchantment fading as the item breaks.
"You will prove perfect. It has been so long since those untainted with the Abyss have visited! Please, feel free to scream." He flings out his hand, and a pair of bursts of grey-green energy fly out to strike Thesius and, behind him, Elyda. The missiles fly forth, whirling around and smashing into the heroes. Thesius takes his in the chest, whilst Elyda is feels her head snap back as a powerful force smashes against her forehead.
Elyda's temple was stinging, gripped in the squeezing pain from the grey-green energy which had forcefully hit her in the forehead. Her being was certainly taking a beating this day and it would not do for her to succumb from consistent injury and leave the party with one less warrior to aid them. It is better I am standing in order to fight.
"The dwarf Millorn is shooting magic missiles at us," was all Elyda could say to warn the companions behind her.
Momentarily swapping her sword into her other hand, and, rummaging inside her pack, Elyda drew out the healing potion she had placed in there earlier. Unstopping it, she drank the potion in an effort to heal some of the damage she had incurred.
==
Once Merixia gets into that tight passage, she'll be a sitting duck at her size. She's not sure if Millorn is evil or just crazy, but she might as well try a protection spell just in case. The cleric chants a spell in Celestial, her enlarged form briefly shimmering with energy.
"Once more into the breach..." Taking a deep breath, Merixia sucks it in as best she can and tries to get through.
"Okay, this one is a little too insane for my tastes. Time to knock him down a notch."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Elyda warns the others behind her, drinking her potion in preparation to go engage the dwarf wizard.
"Elliot, wait-" Aravashnial says before Elliot rushes forwards (leaving his master behind), and draws upon his well of arcane power to reinforce the spell he conjures at the dwarf. A suddenly glistening Millorn staggers, swaying, before falling flat on his back with a crash. He screams what's probably a curse in Dwarven.
Meanwhile, Merixia invokes her own spell of protection, and feels Ragathiel's gaze upon her, a shield against the vile foes she must face. Before she can move further, though, Aravashnial puts a hand on her. "Wait. This will help." Drawing a wand from within his cloak, he touches her with it and mutters a command phrase.
"I need your help to get to someplace I can see, Merixia." Anevia says, an edge of impatience to her voice. The tiefling woman gently grabs her from behind and ushers her out of the spell's range, whereupon she trundles forwards, behind Elyda, and draws her bow. "Thanks." She says quickly.
Thesius is torn on what to do with their newest threat. This is not a simple threat, but a sentient one which seems to be suffering from some kind of mental episode. He moves in with a prayer to Desna as he attempts to use the flat of his blade to knock out the prone dwarf, his lights leading the way.
"Millorn, if that is your name, please just stop! I understand if you don't want to fight in the war, but as thinking beings we are all on the same side against the Abyss, are we not? At the very least, we shouldn't be fighting each other!"
Verene reloads her crossbow, but does not make use of it, as the dwarf is still flickering, and on the ground presenting a smaller target, and Thesius is engaging with him. She draws a bit of butter from her spell component pouch, rubbing it between her fingers as she chants two words, hesitating over the final one. She should wait for the right time to make this count.
Thesius approaches the dwarf, slapping down with his longsword at the prone man. Despite the shifting, flickering outline that the dwarf has, the longsword cracks down on him nonetheless, dazing him momentarily. "Oh, for that you'll pay..."
Millorn stumbles to his feet, drawing forth a dagger, and the archeologist uses the chance to smack at him again, but the blade bounces off some invisible force that surrounds him. "You'll not take me alive, I swear!"
With a quick gesture, he begins casting with his dagger - something Thesius is out of position to take advantage of. Verene notices this and casts her spell to try to send him onto his backside once more, but he manages to keep his feet this time, shooting her a venomous glare.
With that, his fingers crackle with electricity and he slaps out at Thesius, who feels his blade tugging him towards the spell. This pulls him off-balance, and the dwarf's filthy, clawed fingers strike him in his flank. His veins burn and his vision goes black as he feels a pleasant numbness slowly overtaking him.
Thesius falls to the ground in a heap, his sword clattering against the hard stone, and his dancing lights wink out, leaving the room in utter darkness. For his part, Millorn giggles madly. "I told you! You won't take me alive!"
Swapping her sword back into her true hand, Elyda carefully moved into the cavern , having seen Thesius fall and not stand.
The dwarf was dangerous and there was no reasoning with his madness. He would kill them all if she didn't try to stop him.
And, she stands beside the fallen bard and attacks the dwarf,
===
"Thesius! Gods damn it." Elliot curses as the bard goes down. "Please let this work once," he whispers to whichever diety would listen and forgive him for prior language, then he walks forward and attempts to knock the dwarf out with illusion magic.
Once the aasimars have moved forward, it's Merixia's turn. She exhales and squeezes into the passage, just managing to shimmy through. Taking a deep breath on the other side, she raises her holy symbol. "Ragathiel, grant me your healing light!" The familiar fiery gold light briefly fills the room.
Elliot moves forwards once more, blasting at Millorn with a monochrome burst of "color" once more, hoping against hope that it would at least stun him. Against the odds, the dwarf staggers, his dagger dropping to the floor and his hands going to his eyes as he wheezes. "Damn you! I'll kill you all!"
Elyda takes advantage of both his blindness and his stunned state to cut at Millorn deeply, cleaving away a chunk of his beard and carving into his chest. He staggers back, a low whine escaping from his lips...
Then Merixia emerges from the tunnel, and with a lift of her holy symbol, calls upon Ragathiel. Her god fills the cavern with a brief burst of crimson-gold light, and her comrades' wounds seal, restoring Elyda to her full vigor, aiding Anevia, and stabilizing the poor, shocked Thesius.
Unfortunately, it also surrounds and heals Millorn, whose wheezing grows gentler, and a malevolent giggle erupts from his numbed lips.
His mind goes to the mysterious archer-woman who saved him all those years before, and he can practically see her - but not as she was where he met her. She sits in a small chamber, her expression unfathomably sad... but before he can see more, the blackness consumes the vision, leaving him in oblivion once more.
Anevia mutters something under her breath, and a bright light erupts from her crutch. She pushes herself forwards, stopping behind Merixia and waving her light at the cave within.
Verene walks up beside the fallen Thesius and trains her crossbow on the mad dwarf-mage that almost killed her friend, calmly taking aim at one of his sightless eyes...
"People get strange when aren't around others too long," says a little voice in her ear. "Yesterday. You said."
She hesitates. The quarrel's point wavers. She glances at Thesius, down but breathing.
The crossbow droops, and Verene instead picks up the dwarf's fallen dagger. "Can someone quickly tie him up? I am not skilled in such things, and have no rope."
Millorn continues giggling, though the sound turns into a cough as he chokes on his own spittle.
Before anyone else can act, however, a dart flickers out from the eastern part of the cavern, striking Verene in the back of her neck. She feels her muscles tense around the pinprick-pain, before she topples forwards, deep in fragmented nightmares.
A dark-skinned elf woman with pale eyes stands at the edge of the cavern, glaring at the heroes, a small crossbow in her hand. At her feet a small white snake hisses quietly.