1300 posta
Arloric leans against the wall, panting and holding his side as the fight abruptly ends.
"We did it!"
Wiping the cultist's viscera from his blade, Uriel kneels and murmurs a quiet prayer in Celestial.
"Grandfather, thank you for the power to overcome this demonic minion, and may your wrath ever be poured out upon evil ones through this unworthy vessel. Let your eyes fall upon your humble servant, and your wings continue shield me and my allies. Grant us your wrathful strength to end the demonic threat, and conviction to carry on through whatever challenges us."
He then rises, sheathes his blade again, and exhales deeply. He makes no effort to clean the gore from his face and armor. Flipping through the papers, he casts the prayer book aside roughly. "We should burn this blasphemy." When he comes across the other paperwork, however, he pauses. "This...this should be taken to the Iomedaeans when we return to the city. It contains keys that may unravel quite a bit more of Baphomet's blasphemers in the area. Though we may have to take that duty on ourselves, if they have their hands full."
With a smile
Arloric retrieves his spear from the fallen tiefling and leans on it like a walking stick.
"What are you two speaking in...it sounds...beautiful and grating all at once?"
"Celestial." Alexa answers Arloric's question. "The language of the side that's going to win this war."
"Now, what do we do with the rest of the mongrelfolk here?"
"I certainly hope so, Dorne," he replies. "I don't know why such a pure language is so hard to listen to, though."
"We give them a choice, I say. Offer them a chance to return to their people or try to make their own way through the caverns."
what we are going to do we should do quickly
"I am nearly spent. But we can't safely rest here as long as the other folk remain." Aberus looked down at the two bodies. "As much as I'd like to gather everyone together and offer them a choice on what to do with their lives, odds are good we'd be outnumbered and it'd be too tempting to just attack us outright."
He looked back up at the rest of the party. "We've also left a few bodies scattered around that will be easily discovered if anyone looks. That will end the same way. As much as I hate to admit it, we need to whittle them down some more, and do it now. Lose the element of surprise and we could find ourselves in deep trouble."
Arloric nods.
"You have more experience on the front than I do. We'll do things your way. But first..."
He draws his sword and goes over to Hosila's body, lifting it up and severing her head at the neck.
"Showing her head as a trophy should break their will to fight quickly."
Uriel nods to Arloric. "I was just going to say that showing them what happened to their leader would likely dissuade any who might think to do something...rash." Uriel says, then walks over to prod the corpse of the tiefling, before drawing his own sword. "May as well make the message twice as clear." he says, before chopping the tiefling's head off.
Evil and chaos often turn upon each other. I would not be surprised is they wipe themselves out as they vye for power remarks the elf.
Aberus was disconcerted by the the sight of not just one, but two, severed heads. He turned away, trying to keep them out of sight.
"One of the guards said Hosilla usurped their leadership. There may be a faction here that was unhappy with the change in management but unable to move against her."
"We'll have to be scarier than them, then. When in captivity, the scariest wolf is the one that becomes the leader."
"Indeed. We'll have to keep an eye out for trouble as we spread our news, too.
"Shall we begin? There's no time like the present."
Recovering the heads of your foes, you make your way back - from the meeting hall, you head wast back to the lower guard post. There you quickly cow the two mongrelfolk on duty.
Seeing the head of Hosilla, they moan and wail. "It's over!" one of them shouts. "How will we survive now? Like monsters again, living on the cast-offs and refuse!"
Undaunted, you demand their weapons and bind their hands, then head forward, dragging them along by a leather cord.
In the common room are three more mongrelfolk. Once again, Uriel holds forth Hosilla's head and tells them that she is defeated and the cult's plans are undone.
While two of the mongrels look uncertain, the third - apparently a woman, with blue skin and a bow - snarls, "You won't leave here alive! After all we've worked for, we'll never let you sabotage us!"
Aberus pulled out the wand taken from Hosilla and spoke the command word, then stepped aside to help form a defensive line. "New leadership," he said quietly, gesturing to the defiant woman.
Dropping the head, Uriel advances and attacks the leftwost of the mongrelfolk.
Alexa rolls her eyes, shifts so she gets a clear line of fire, and shoots at the rightmost mongrelfolk.
Oh well. We tried.
The spiritual weapon shimmers into existence, but the scimitar fails to distract the mongrelwoman with the bow.
Uriel crashes into the one on the left and shivers his guard, but the mongrelman stays up.
Alexa fires on the one on the right, and the arrow skids along his armor, causing him to flinch.
Arloric presses the advantage, throwing his spear that the would-be leader as the scimitar harasses her.
;
She summons a protective ward to protect her companions.
The mongrelman engaged with Uriel (#1) takes a swing at the paladin:
... but his skills are not up to the task.
The mongrelman on the other side advances on Arloric and tries to brain him:
... with similarly no luck.
The archer steps back a bit and fires her bow at Uriel:
... and the arrow skids off the ground. She lets out a snarled curse.
Ducking the mongrel's attack, Uriel responds in kind, but cuts only air.
The wizard will cast daze on the archer
dc 13 will
Uriel catches only air; the archer shakes off Telerin's attempt to daze her.
Aberus placed his wand in his off hand and then drew his scimitar. He stepped up to the mongrelfolk skirmishing with Uriel and swung.
Arloric swings his sword at the brute who tried to cudgel him.
;
Aberus and Arloric make quite a showing, rattling both of the mongrelfolk that they fight, without finishing their opponents.
Alexa tosses her bow aside and tries to leap into position...
...stumbling, and finally winding up for a punch!
The mongrelman swings at Alexa as she passes by...
...but barely misses. Alexa then knocks him out with a solid punch that shatters his mandibles.
The other one makes a desperate swing at Arloric...
...and also fails to move in on the druid's defenses.
The archer turns her attention to Aberus.
...and lets out another growl of frustration.
Aberus deftly dodged the arrow from the mongrel archer, and then brought his scimitar around again at the mongrelfolk in front of him. Off balance from the defensive move, however, his swing was clumsy and failed to connect.
In the distance, the shimmering force that was his spiritual weapon made it's last attempt to strike before winking out of existence.
Uriel steps to the mongrelman's far side to split his attention then attacks again with his sword.
Confirm?
Uriel splits his mongrelman foe from tip to toe in twain! His mighty sword barely hesitates as it reduces the twisted creature into a steaming pile of guts and flopping flesh.
Alexa tries to keep her eyes averted from the gory sight next to her and draws her blade, stepping forward.
Then, she strikes!
Arloric advances and takes a swing as well.
;
Alexa misses with her tumbling stab, but Arloric brings his sword down nearly in the mongrelwoman's toes; she barely gets her foot out of the way on time. She lifts her bow over her head and snarls, "Fine! You win! I surrender!"
The elf is glad that the violence is over.
"A wise decision," Aberus replied, weapon still held at the ready.
Arloric sheathes his sword and follows Aberus' lead, helping to disarm the mongrelmen and bind their hands.
Uriel cleans and sheathes his blade, then assists Arloric in disarming the mutants.