Bitey realizes his friends are in trouble and rushes to face his nemesis once more.
"Get his body down here!" Serena called, preparing to use her remaining potion if they could get Thrall over to her. She didn't want to run up into a melee - she was far too fragile for that - but she was ready to support others as soon as she could.
Vance stands over the fallen Thrall as Arianna dodges between foes. The stunned cultist finally come around fully and shout their surprise! Bitey rushes up and latches onto the stag again. It roars/howls in pain and tries to murder the pest that keeps biting it's shins!
Bitey is doing more than he knows, however, as the Stag is far too focused on him to attack anyone retreating!
Vance holds off the Halberd effectively as Iolaire holds off the two cultists Arianna just tumbled though with Balthasar's aid. She reaches down and lays a hand on Thrall. That's all I got for today! she calls.
One of the newly awake cultists moves up to engage Vance while the other casts something on the stag demon!
Balthasar barely avoids getting stabbed in the neck by a cultist!
"Time to go! Bitey, get back downstairs! Thrall, Vance, Irabeth, fall back! Arianna, get Iolaire through! Serena, cover our escape!" Balthasar adopts a defensive posture, then attempts to vault the rail and get down to the first floor.
A half-organized retreat is made. Thrall wakes up and is able to retreat after vance draws a nasty attack from the Halberd as he deflects a similar attack from the stag (who is now clearly healing his wounds!) He goes down and is scooped up on the way by Irabeth as she takes up the rear guard just in front of Balthasar.
After the others have retreated, Balthasar attempts to vault over the rail. His foot catches and he falls down the stairs head first!
You hear the demons laughing at your back as you retreat, but you are unharassed as you leave the building and enter the ruined square.
Iolaire clearly being the most hurt, Balthasar pulls out his potion of cure moderate wounds and pours it down her throat.
"... fallback!"
Suddenly, the black fades away and Thrall is again are of the battlefield. He's on the ground, and his comrades are retreating. He's just heard Balthasar, barking orders as always, directing them to improve their tactics.
Thrall rolls all over the ground until he teaches the stairs and out of halberd reach. Then he lets himself drop down.
After reuniting with the rest outside, he shows a worried face. "I hope they don't decide to go out for us. What shall we do now?" he says while drinking some liquid from a glass vial.
He also produces two more vials and offers them to his friends .
Before Balthasar can administer the potion, something else catches his eye. Her chest. It's been ripped apart. He can see shattered ribs and lung... and a hole where her heart should have been. Suddenly you realize that the blood on the Stag's maw probably wasn't Bitey's
Serena hissed slightly as she saw what had happened to Iolaire - though such things weren't uncommon in war. It wasn't pleasant, but she'd learned a long time ago that if you broke over every loss, you'd just lose even more. For Mendev and the world, she had to be strong. "Next time, let's stick together." she said quietly. "They have one more sin to pay for."
Balthasar curses. He picks up Radiance and stows it on his back, then lifts Iolaire's body. "Let's move. We'll bury our dead, rest up, and come back to finish the job." The look in Balthasar's eye as he says that...suffice to say that any demon he encountered was going to regret its existence in very short order. Death happened in war, true - but that didn't mean you weren't allowed to grieve.
The party limps back to the Defender's Heart with their dead and wounded. The other distraction teams trickle in all night. Most are missing at least one dead or incapacitated. None come back without wounded.
You are patched up pretty quick, but it takes some time plan the next set of distractions...
While recovering, Thrall expresses his doubts out loud.
"What's the plan, then? Going back there?" He quickly realises something and puts it on the table as well. "What prevents them from counterattacking?"
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Arianna looked as though she wanted nothing more at the moment than to sneak off to some random dark corner of defender's heart with a very large mug of ale, but as Thrall questioned the group about their plans she sighed and spoke. "Of course we're going back. They killed one of ours and there is still a job to get done. The mission has to take priority and failure is not an option. We just may need to be smarter this time about how we go about infiltrating the base."
Thrall understands Arianna's desperation, and shares it to an extent. Iolaire was a much beloved companion and ally, and a righteous and honest person.
"Yeah, I was asking because if there's a chance of having like, a dozen catapults smash the place to debris, I would totally pick that option."
"Agreed. We have to approach this in a smarter way," Balthasar says. Splitting up was a poor choice. Next time, we stick together. "We've depleted their numbers, but they may reinforce. I saw that alchemist fall. Hopefully he's dead, and they can't bring in that many Tieflings to replace their losses. The demons will be the hard targets. We need to try and take them down solo, as opposed to together. Serena, we need to see if there are any wands or scrolls or anything we can get that will give you more combat options than your area effect spells. They'll be waiting for us. Thrall, Serena, any magic to create a fog or something to mask our approach and hamper any archers or lookouts you can conjure would help as well. That might allow us to approach undetected and catch them off-guard."
"Well, I do have that scale if you want a bit of a cloud." Serena said thoughtfully. "And I can hit some of them with glitterdust again to blind them and make them easy targets."
Thrall nods. "I can bring in some fog, if Iomedae agrees... and if I had a night to rest."
Balthasar nods. "Alright. We need to do a better job of covering our approach. My scale can create a small cloud as well. Regardless, we should all rest for the night. In the morning, once our resources are restored, we'll go back and strike. Does anyone have any other suggestions?" he asked the group.
"Besides the catapults, no, I can't think of anything."
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"I know this might be surprising coming from me." Arianna began with a slight bit of sarcasm touching her voice. "But I think we'd be better off trying to get the mission done clandestinely. If there's a way to make one of us invisible they could sneak in with the rod while the others create a distraction. They go without being detected."
Serena shook her head. Her powers, while fascinating, were limited - and there wasn't much she could do other than support the rest of the team.
After hearing Arianna's proposal, Thrall speaks his mind aloud. "Mmmh... didn't we find an invisibility potion somewhere?"
Balthasar considers. "It's a good plan, but it depends on two things. One is how long the potion of invisibility will last. Two, whether or not any of those demons have the ability to see invisible creatures. Otherwise we may end up in the same situation as before, where someone is trapped behind enemy lines and we have to try and rescue them. Does anyone know the answer to either of those?"
Bitey chimes up. "Stupid potions last till worst possible moment, and demons always see poor Bitey."
It takes all night and the rest of the next day for the rebel commanders to plan out another series of diversionary strikes. You have a day to prepare for your second strike.
The night is filled with preparation and planning for the commanders of the distraction squads and rest for the actual squads themselves. At dusk you set out yet again. And yet again a series of carefully coordinated strikes elsewhere in the city clear your path.
You arrive back at the Grey garrison by the same route. The door has no guards on the outside...
During the day, Balthasar makes his way to a quiet place in the Defender's Heart, holding a sheathed Radiance. Looking at the sword, he kneels down, both hands wrapped around Radiance's hilt, point in the ground, and begins to pray. "Almighty Inheritor, I ask that You forgive my tactical failure in our assault on the Grey Garrison. Though she was not one of Yours, I ask that the soul of Iolaire be sheltered from the Abyssal forces. I pray that You shall bless our next assault, as we prepare to drive the demons from the fortress. Guide us to victory over the forces of Deskari and Baphomet in Your name."
Hesitating, he continues, "I know I am not one of Your chosen holy warriors. I am not Your great champion, Yaniel, the first wielder of Radiance. I am not Iolaire, who gave her life fighting the demons. I am only a soldier. I ask that You grant me the strength to take up the sword Radiance. I shall wield it in Your name, in Mendev's name, and in Kenabres's name. Our mission will likely result in our deaths, yet if we can prevent the Wardstone from being corrupted and used to corrupt those who stand against the demons, our deaths will not have been in vain. In Your name I pray, amen."
Finished, he stands and straps Radiance to his side, in place of his other sword, a renewed sense of determination in his eyes.
As they approach the garrison and see no guards, Balthasar narrows his eyes. "No guards posted? They either have an ambush waiting for us inside, or one outside. Keep a close eye out as we approach."
Thrall also tries to listen, and states he'll cast a pair of buffs when the team is ready to enter.
For her part, Serena largely spent her time meditating and keeping her magic at the ready. She wanted to be at her best here - which meant going over all she'd learned and trying to apply her magic as smartly as possible. "I'll see if I can peck off anyone who sticks their heads out." she said, confident in the accuracy of her magic missiles.
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Vance spends the day with a prayerful morning followed by intense training with the soldiers who would be supporting them tomorrow.
He did his best to keep an eye out for danger while keeping the other eye on Bitey, in case he made a run for it. Finding no guard posted to greet them, he led the team to the front door.
Bitey is blissfully ignorant of all gazes upon him, though his normal rambunctious is somewhat subdued at the moment.
You arrive at the door unmolested. You burst in! To nothing. The Grey Garrison is eerily quiet.
Thrall sniffs at the air, trying to catch any glimpse of an ambush, then casts Detect Magic to discren any kind of magical track.
Balthasar looks over the quiet, then mutters, "They've either abandoned the Grey Garrison, or they've consolidated their forces further up and left the entryway to any intruders. Let's hope the latter - I don't know how long it will take to find them. We should start easy. Let's search the room to the left first."
Thrall: the stench of demon and cultist in here is foul, but it doesn't smell old. Fresh. You detection also reveals nothing.
"It's possible they didn't want the fight, but they love traps." Serena muttered. The others didn't need to be told to stay on their guard - neither did she, going by the burst of magic she kept ready to hurl.
Thrall walks in haste, trying to explore the most of the building in the least time. "Let's try to locate the remains of the Wardstone."
The base level of the building appears to be evacuated. In it, in addition to the rooms you already visited, you find a ruined gathering space and a thoroughly desecrated chapel to Iomedae. You also find an empty bedroom, presumably for the former priest.
Thrall is ready to move upstairs when his friends are.
Balthasar stops in the chapel, looks to the others, and then says, "Could we take a few minutes to clean the chapel?"