Othniel nods when Ayaal mentions Defender's Heart, but also moves to interpose himself between Klarah and her former captors.
The woman nods, and motions to her soldiers to start collecting their things.
”You heard them, to Defender’s Heart. If that’s where they need soldiers, that’s where we’ll go. “
She looks to follow them, but then turns back to you.
”Thank you for saving us, and her. I regret the fact that we even thought about…it. You get to the Heart safe, okay? I’ll see you there!”
After the soldiers leave, the bird-masked woman comments, "Despair is a deadly disease."
"That it is, but by stirring words or swift blades, we must seek to be the cure."
Ana kept the young girl close to her and said nothing as the crusaders moved on, still acting the protective older sister. "Thankfully I did not need to excise the disease." she remarks dourly in response to Ayaal's remark. The tall woman was calming, but still seemed to have her dander up a bit after the close call with confrontation. She was taking steadying breaths and her hand still lingered on the handle of her warhammer.
To Ana's comment, Aya merely nods. "My thoughts exactly."
The road is still cluttered with debris and unfortunate bodies as you make your way through towards Horgus’ manor, and when you arrive you are surprised by the sight of the place. In the middle of all the chaos and destruction, it appears as if a miracle has occurred: the wealthy man’s manor is nearly completely intact.
Once he gets inside and is able to investigate a bit, Horgus is able to determine why it wasn’t touched: he has no family inside Kenabres and his guards seem to have vacated the premises without much of a fight. The demons and opportunistic cultists haven’t gotten interested in his house mainly because of a lack of targets, he surmises. The man is disgusted to learn that the guards made off with most of the valuables inside the house itself, but luckily for him (and you) his more secure vaults were not harmed or opened.
”Of course you recognized my importance immediately, but still, you did a most adequate job getting us to the surface safely. Above average even.”
He thanks you awkwardly, his voice sounding stiff. It’s obvious he is grateful, but covers his sincerity with a backhanded compliment. He also begrudgingly parts ways with his promised payment for saving him: 1,500 gp, all shiny and newly minted.
”Go on, scurry on. I will be safe in my vaults until this is all over. I’ll see you around, if we’re all lucky enough.” he finishes, before leaving you.
Ayaal merely nods at Gwerm's largely self-congratulatory 'thanks' - happy to be free of the burden of his company.
"Would you like to be left a weapon, just in case?" Anastasia asks.
Othniel watches the odd man go, and merely shrugs. Having joined the group late, he'd barely made the man's acquaintance.
"I appreciate the concern." he says, his face obviously hiding some emotion. "But I still have plenty of weapons and tricks left for anyone that shows up with bad intentions."
Once again you set out from the relative safety of Horgus' mansion into the ruined town of Kenabres. The rubble piles back up around the city and you see more piles of bodies that weren't lucky enough to survive.
You get within a few hundred feet of the place that marked the manor and discover that what was once surely a stately manor is now nothing more than a pile of rubble and a gouged trough of ruin.
In front of the manor, however, is a very interesting sight. The rubble has been cleared away from the street, and an improvised stage made of several partially destroyed wagons and carts has been erected in the middle of the street. On this stage stand four frightened-looking men and women, each armed with jagged broken weapons and clad in bits and pieces of dented, bloody armor. Hovering around the four obvious victims are two awful looking creatures: tiny demonic looking creatures that are seemingly poking and prodding at them, encouraging the survivors to fight. A handful of bodies spread across the area seem to show what happened before this horrific show started.
Upon seeing you, the two demons clap their hands in delight at the approach of new toys to play with, and order their minions to attack. The clearly helpless and unwilling soldiers turn towards you, weapons wearily raised.
Both of the demons laugh maniacally before disappearing from view in a pop of magical smoke.
Init:
20- demons
19- Angahaar
18- Othniel
17- soldiers
16- Ana
8- Ayaal
"They're still here! Othniel says, quickly. "That wasn't teleportation, they turned invisible." Hoping his earlier tactics might work again, he casts Create Water, causing 6 gallons of water to appear roughly where one of the demons had been.
Angahaar walks forward, unsheathing his blade as he makes ready to strike the demons if they should draw close, "Not much that can be done about that. Let us hope they break themselves against us in their haste for slaughter."
The demons seem to have moved after casting their trickery, as Othniel's water flows to the floor harmlessly.
The 'soldiers' (who are clearly nothing but civilians forced to dress up in weapons and armor) make their way towards the group, fumbling down off the stage before brandishing weapons nervously at the nearest target, Angahaar.
Init:
20- demons
19- Angahaar
18- Othniel
17- soldiers
16- Ana
8- Ayaal
Ayaal taps into her celestial heritage to enable her to see the invisible demons. She calls out where they are and what they are doing to her allies.
Arrows (40): xxxxx
Blunts (40): xx
Slow Burn (1):
Tangleshot (2):
Grappling (1):
Bit of Luck (7):
Channel Energy (5):
Ki Pool (5):
Perfect Strike (3): x
Deflection Aura (1):
See Invisibility (1): x
Shield (1):
Spells
2nd
> Barkskin (1):
> Boneshaker (1):
> Pro from Evil, Communal (1):
1st
> Bless (1): x
> Murderous Command (1): x
> Shadow Trap (1):
> Shield (1):
Effects:
x = none
Ana charged in beside Angahaar, playing along with the demons plot for the moment while the others could work to deal with them. She gave a half hearted slap at one of the villagers with her warhammer, trying not to cause serious harm. "Traitors..." she stated flatly, "Destroy us or we will lay you low right here. Rawr."
Ana knocks the 'soldier' out extremely easily, and he crumples to the ground unconscious.
Ayaal can relay that the two demons don't seem particularly interested in joining the fight quite yet, instead waiting to see how their 'bodyguards' will perform.
"Go on, kill them!" one shouts, to laughter from the other. "That's right, you can do it!"
Init:
20- demons
19- Angahaar
18- Othniel
17- soldiers
16- Ana
8- Ayaal
Othniel moves in the direction of the demons, casting as he goes.
Angahaar lets out a bellowing roar as the soldiers approach, fury coursing through him. These men and women were innocent, it was true, but they did not try to stand up for themselves. They would be taught a difficult lesson by his hand.
Angahaar takes another of the 'soldiers' out of the fight, her body slumping to the ground as he slaps her aside with the side of his sword.
The other two men step up and attempt to take clumsy swings at Angahaar and Ana.
The rusty broken shortsword does manage to scratch Ana, but only barely.
Init:
20- demons
19- Angahaar
18- Othniel
17- soldiers
16- Ana
8- Ayaal
Ayaal advances and sends two arrows streaking at the closer demon, testing its defenses.
Arrows (40): xxxxx xx
Blunts (40): xx
Slow Burn (1):
Tangleshot (2):
Grappling (1):
Bit of Luck (7):
Channel Energy (5):
Ki Pool (5):
Perfect Strike (3): x
Deflection Aura (1):
See Invisibility (1): x
Shield (1):
Spells
2nd
> Barkskin (1):
> Boneshaker (1):
> Pro from Evil, Communal (1):
1st
> Bless (1): x
> Murderous Command (1): x
> Shadow Trap (1):
> Shield (1):
Effects:
x = none
Anastasia watches the Ayaal act out of the corner of her eye, and then sucks in a breath as she was nicked on the hip by one of the slashes that came in across her hip. She wasn't sure if the blade had actually marked her flesh or just stung. Her face tightened, and her features grew angry. She did, however make a measure backhand at the soldier who had just injured her.
Ayaal hits the closest demon (red), but his arrows seem to be deflected a bit and don't do as much damage as he thought they should, with one not even scratching its armored hide. Ana hits another of the soldiers, and he falls to the ground unconscious as well. Turns out these might not be soldiers after all!
One of the demons moves closer and casts some sort of spell that Othniel can't quite identify.
The other demon charges in anger at Anastasia at seeing their playthings seemingly killed, attacking from invisibility.
Init:
20- demons
19- Angahaar
18- Othniel
17- soldiers
16- Ana
8- Ayaal
Moving up, Othniel enhances the power of his quarterstaff as he goes, then takes a two-handed swing at the now-visible demon.
Othniel shrugs off the demons' spell, and hits the visible demon but again his strike doesn't seem to impact as hard as he thought it should.
The last 'soldier' drops his weapon and flees, seeing as how he's the last one standing.
Init:
20- demons
19- Angahaar
18- Othniel
17- soldiers
16- Ana
8- Ayaal
As the demon comes in and attacks Anastasia she winces, her body tensing from the pain, and then she turns to the sightless source of her pain. Her lips curling into a snarl of a smile as she saw it was no longer sightless.
"Gotcha." she grinned, warhammer gripped tightly. She swung up her warhammer in an anger fueled swing.
With her arrows lacking ‘bite’, Ayaal switches tactics. ”Demons don’t play fair, neither do I."
She pulls a marionette from her pocket steeped in necromantic energy. With it, she weaves a dark spell while shaking the marionette. The oscillations she sets up threaten to rattle the demon’s bones from its flesh.
Arrows (40): xxxxx xx
Blunts (40): xx
Slow Burn (1):
Tangleshot (2):
Grappling (1):
Bit of Luck (7):
Channel Energy (5):
Ki Pool (5):
Perfect Strike (3): x
Deflection Aura (1):
See Invisibility (1): x
Shield (1):
Spells
2nd
> Barkskin (1):
> Boneshaker (1): x
> Pro from Evil, Communal (1):
1st
> Bless (1): x
> Murderous Command (1): x
> Shadow Trap (1):
> Shield (1):
Effects:
x = none
Dexterity damage
The demon fails to resist the bone-shaking magic and it shudders for a few moments before exploding in a rain of gore and blood that causes the other demon to cry out in alarm before attempting to make its escape vy using its invisibility once more.
It fails to cast the spell without provoking retribution, and loses its cool. It flees the combat, inviting attacks aimed at its back regardless.
20- demons
19- Angahaar
18- Othniel
16- Ana
8- Ayaal
A small smile appears below the bird mask on her helmet as the poppet in her hand turns to ash. She flicks the residue from her fingers and draws an arrow, planning to fire it into the demon’s fleeing back.
Arrows (40): xxxxx xx
Blunts (40): xxxx
Slow Burn (1):
Tangleshot (2):
Grappling (1):
Bit of Luck (7):
Channel Energy (5):
Ki Pool (5):
Perfect Strike (3): x
Deflection Aura (1):
See Invisibility (1): x
Shield (1):
Spells
2nd
> Barkskin (1):
> Boneshaker (1): x
> Pro from Evil, Communal (1):
1st
> Bless (1): x
> Murderous Command (1): x
> Shadow Trap (1):
> Shield (1):
Effects:
x = none
As the demon turns to flee Ana swats at it angrily. A snarl of outrage comes from her at the thought of the terrible creature escaping to do this again.
Othniel lashes out with a mighty two-handed blow as the demon turns its back.
The party manages to finish off the second demon easily enough, and it falls to the ground with a hellish cry of pain before dying.
That leaves the four unconscious civilians on the ground and the wagons themselves, which turn out to be filled with foodstuffs and supplies.
Angahaar finally catches up the the party after having fled in fear from the demons. "Damn demons, scrambling my mind. You all fought well. We should help these civilians. Left out in the open like this, they'll be sheep in a slaughterhouse for the demons. Perhaps we direct them and the wagons towards Defender's Heart?"
She drags one of the unconscious civilians to the back of a wagon. "That makes sense. If our stop at Nyserian Manor is brief enough, we may catch up to them on the road toward the Tirablade house. I'd feel better about these supplies getting through if we shepherded the wagons."
"Yes, I agree. We shouldn't leave wagons or noncombatants unguarded right now."
”We should get them on their feet and head to the Heart, come back for the Nyserian Manor and the Tirabade house once we’re done. These people need help now, have been through horrors beyond reckoning . Besides, if there are still people at Defender’s Heart, these supplies will help them greatly.”
As the group collects the "soldiers" around the wagon Ana doesn't help out. Giving a look of consideration to the wagon and the armor clad civilians. Finally, she sighs deeply and reaches for one of her readied extract vials. Uncorking it and drinking deep of the draught. The alcohol suspension had enough kick to make her lips tingle, and she smiled as she joined the others.
Reaching down with one hand she scooped up one of the men like an errant toddler and laid him in the wagon. Scooping them up one by one before she went around to the front of it and took up the pull arms. "The Tirabade house then?" she reasoned before beginning to pull the wagon.
Angahaar jumps up onto the front of the wagon and bangs the side of it, "Heave ho, mule!"
He chuckles before hopping down and helping Anastasia to haul the wagon.
Anastasia gives Angahaar a sour look but says nothing more in the moment.
Ayaal walks beside the wagon, bow ready, eyes up... but maybe not as alert as she should be.
As you get closer to the Tirabade residence, Anevia gets more and more anxious, obviously extremely worried about her wife's well-being. "Hurry, we must make sure she is safe." she says, her step increasing in speed with every passing minute.
Finally you arrive and you see that their house is a simple one-story affair, which is surprising given Irabeth's station and success as a member of the Eagle Watch.
"Irabeth!" Anevia calls out as soon as she's within sight of the house, running ahead to take a look at the door. "Irabeth!" she calls out again, after not receiving an answer the first time.