"WOAH! Woah watch it!," Oryx shouted as he lunged to his side, dodging Celeste's blade and watched as it sliced through his armchair. The piece of furniture slip in half, plopping onto the ground with heavy thuds. This seemed impossible! Celeste would never betray them like this. What did she mean? That couldn't of been her speaking that last moment before she attacked.

The Vanguard rolled from another quick swing and grabbed his shield as he scrambled to the front door, holding it up against a third heavy strike. Celeste's blade clanked against the blessed wood, leaving nothing but a small notch.

Oryx back stepped against the wall, holding his place so that he could best defend against more strikes. His blade would be useless here, for he wanted nothing to do with another dead ally. Not on this day! Oryx let himself be used as Celeste's punching bag, or her puppeteer's if he had the right idea. Dispite the blessed powers of his shield, every swing cracked and splinted his very hands and fingers. Too much punishment like this, and he wouldn't be able to hold a young kitten, much less a shield.

"Something is afoot here," Oryx announced and he blocked another vicious attack. "Obviously. Watch yourselves friends for this is not our Celeste, and whomever this be is out for our hides. If one of you could hold her down, I think I can help!"

Martox set his cup down on a ledge, himself facing away from the door, as he heard footsteps start to enter the cabin. Without turning Martox exclaimed, "Ah! Finally the last of us join in!" He turned to see Celeste, but she was obviously not herself. Martox's expression quickly went from one of a jester to one of a soldier, stoic with a mix worry. He watched her closely as she spoke at first, seeming to almost struggle to do so. As she swung her sword down, splitting the chair in two and almost taking Oryx with it, Martox finally moved. He ran towards his bag that was sitting next to the barrels of ale and pulled Ignes et Ice out and again turned to Celeste, who was now bringing her sword down onto Oryx's shield. Not much more time before Oryx would be in a bad way, she was coming down hard on him. Martox tried to think of something quickly, he didn't wish to hurt Celeste, but time was of the essence and planning something wasn't a luxury they could afford right now.
Martox brought his staff down with a hard thud to the ground, spreading ice towards Celeste's feet, hoping to make her slip if she moved. He quickly ran around while the ice made its way underneath her and tried to find a good shot to hit he sword with a fireball to knock it out of her hands. But she was moving too quickly, slashing down to fast for him to be able to line up the shot. He didn't want to miss and burn the cabin down, or, even worse, hit Oryx or another teammate. He decided he would have to wait to see what would happen, or until another opportunity arose to disarm her.

Desalith heard footsteps approaching the door. Celeste… finally. He quickly noticed something was wrong.

When she first swung at Oryx, his reflexes kicked in. He raised his staff and prepared to send a bolt that would do little more than stun her, but at least incapacitate her. Unfortunately, her next swing struck him right at the chest. Although not fatal, it was enough to knock Desalith backwards into a chair, resulting in an almost comical backflip that sprained his ankle and hit his head on the chest of food, stunning him.

Cewri was surprised to hear someone walking up to the door as soon as he mentioned Celeste. Well, no more pondering that, I suppose. he thought. Cewri was surprised to see blood on Celeste’s blade and head. By the gods, what happened to her!?, he thought. Cewri was surprised to see Celeste attack Oryx. He didn’t know what to think.

After half a second in stunned silence, Cewri stood up from his chair—a piece made of wood, nothing like the recliner Oryx had chosen—taking it In hand to use as a weapon. He briefly toyed with the idea of jumping over to fetch his sword, but discarded it in an instant. I want to subdue her, not kill her. He nearly growled at Oryx’s prompt, Of course you can. But don’t give that away. If her puppeteer doesn’t know about her abilities, they might not have seen that coming either. Nevertheless, he wasn’t going to be able to grapple her with her sword swinging around—Desalith’s spectacle had proved that, so he chose the most natural course of action: take her sword arm out of commission. If the injuries to it were serious, Oryx could heal her after this was through. Lunging forward with the chair, he aimed from the side—he didn’t want to hit her head. The chair was a clunky and difficult to control weapon, but he could manage that. Assuming the attack worked, he would let go of the chair and grapple Celeste so that Oryx could do his healing. Else, he’d stay in the fight with the chair—unwieldy or no, he’d rather be armed against Celeste than not.

The chair hit home with a crash and the sickening snapping of broken bones, and launched Celeste into a nearby wall. She screamed as she tried to get up, like if it was hard and hurt really bad, but her body moved without hindrance. The half-giant pounced her, trying to grapple her, and an intense struggle ensued. Cewri had the advantage of his size and bulk, but Celeste bit, scratched, hit and kneed at him relentlessly seemingly without getting tired. Every move made her broken bones pop and crack, and Cewri could see the excruciating pain reflected on her face. The others naturally moved to help their friends, but were distracted. Several loud thumps were heard from the roof outside, and soon after - the crackle of fire! A stray arrow flitted through the window and struck the floor inside, the burning piece of oilcloth tied to it instantly setting the dry wooden floorboards on fire. Someone was shooting at them from outside!

"You must be kidding me," Oryx complained as flaming arrows began to thud against the wooden cabin. "Fire. Why did it have to be fire!"

The Vanguard rushed over to Cewri and Celeste, healing his hands the best he could with what focus he could muster as he helped the big half-giant pin down the possessed woman. Oryx laid his hand over Celeste's face and began chanting, reciting whatever came to mind. The chanting wasn't every nessicary, but he felt like it got him in the zone faster.

Blue and white energy pulsed through his arm as Celeste still thrashed beneath them. The energy traded hosts, leaving Oryx's arm and entering Celeste through her mouth. This would hopefully free here from her puppeteer. Hopefully.

"We have two options," Oryx suggested. "We can stay here and put out the blaze and end the damned archer outside, or we can make like tree-folk and leaf!"

Just then another arrow pierced through another window and hit Oryx square on, shattering through his back and lodging in the emptiness of his rib cage. The Vanguard caught to the flame instantly. Luckily, he could not feel it.

"By the Seven! Damnit, I'll be right back."

Oryx ran to his canteen, entirely aflame as he left little blazes with every step. The old jug of water was just where he had left it, right next to his old sword. The Vanguard opened the container and poured it's contense all over him...to no effect.

"Oh," he muttered, " well that is odd."

Old tricks for old dogs! Celeste screamed in Oryx's face, But it won't do you any good here!

A strange symbol started glowing red hot on the side of her neck. Shrieking madly, the woman started convulsing and spewed blood all over Cewri and anyone else struggling to hold her down. Outside, faint shouts from shrill voices echoed over the plateau, sounding like goblin to the trained ear. Several more arrows struck the cabin roof, a few finding their way inside through the open window. Smoke had started filling the room making it hard to see and breathe. The situation was getting desperate.

Martox watched as Celeste was pinned too the ground by the large half-giant. He let out a half sigh of relief, thinking the trial was almost over. But, as he started to relax, the roof set ablaze. He quickly pointed his staff towards the ceiling and started to douse it in ice. As the fires started to fade though, more arrows began to come in, setting more fires. It was too much to try and stop, so Martox turned his attention to the still flaming Oryx. He ran over to his boney companion and laid his hands on him, water started to trickle down his body, putting out the fires that were beginning to engulf him. He coughed hard and his eyes began to water, "We must get outside before the smoke and flames take us." He sent a gust of wind through the house, alleviating the smoke for a few moments. Martox grabbed his bag and ran to Cewri, "Grab your things friend. I will hold her here for now, but I don't think I'll be able to move her on my own." He pointed his staff down on Celeste's chest, praying that she wouldn't try move or get away. He didn't wish to hurt her, but he wouldn't hesitate to try to knock her out if needed. He noticed a symbol start to appear on her neck, before he could more closely inspect though, the smoke started to blur his vision once more.

Desalith groaned as he picked himself up off the floor. Falling over a chair and having an ache on his ankle wasn’t a good way to start a fight. No sooner had he gotten up did an arrow come through the ceiling and light the chair on fire. he saw Oryx catch fire as well.

“Get Celeste out of here! We need to move!” He hobbled out of the doorway, preparing to rain electric hell on whatever foe had shot the arrows.

Damn it. This needs to end quickl— Cewri’s thoughts were interrupted by the floor catching fire. He cursed angrily in several languages. He was relieved when Oryx came over, but the words sent through Celeste by her puppeteer made it clear that whatever it was that Oryx just did wasn’t going to work. Then the symbol appeared on her neck. He was covered in her blood. Her blood… Distracted as he was, he was still a skilled linguist, and even though it was far from his specialty, and he didn’t have the time or focus to translate—the latter being focused solely on holding the now slick-with-blood Celeste still—he recognized it as Goblin. The smoke was growing thick. [i]We need to get out of here.{/i]

Martox’s suggestion was like a breath of fresh air, and with a nod, he left Celeste to his guard. He had been on the ground, but now his head was much closer to the roof. Smoke pooled thickly around his head. He quickly ducked down so that he could see, if only barely. He re-strapped his sword to his waist, and swung his cloak—thankfully unburned—around and onto him. Before doing the same with his pack, he opened it and pulled out a coil of rope and a bolt of cloth.

He was quickly again at Celeste’s side, and was binding her with the rope. “If Oryx couldn’t free her,” he said, “we can’t guarantee that he’ll be able to heal her. A broken arm is bad enough.” Once the bindings were finale on, he gagged her with the bolt of cloth. Can’thave her biting me. Even if we weren’t obviously going to take them out, there’s going to be a fight out there.

Oryx did his best to heal as much of his charred marrow and snapped the arrow lodged in his back. The head and shaft of the arrow popped out of his rib cage and landed against the wooden floor. The arrowhead was of strange design, made to pierce through armor and cut into meat and do as much damage as it could. A truely sinister thing.

The Vanguard was completely confused. He had gifts given to him by gods themselves, and he was useless in releasing Celeste. This was a power far darker then even the Necromancer's rituals. This was not good at all. Nothing about any of this was good.

Oryx rushed over by the door and grabbed his sword, gripping it tightly as he continued to rework his own form. Black scorch marks cover his old bones, but he would live.

"Time is of the essence friends," Oryx proclaimed. "It looks like we must once against fight side by side. If we see any Undead out there, I swear I'm leaving. Immediately."

With Celeste squirming and thrashing on Cewris back, the quartet made it out of the flaming cabin into the darkness of the night. A flight of arrows was immedietly loosened at them from the treeline only a short run away, flitting down among them randomly. The voices by the trees were more distinct now, and indisputably goblin. It looked like it might be a dozen of them, or more. On Cewris back, Celeste heaved again, blood running out of her nose and the gaps in the improvised gag.

Martox waited until Cewri bound and took Celeste, "Everyone got their gear? Let's get outside!" He quickly ran outside. He turned to see their enemy, who were still firing arrows at the cottage. Damn goblins. They always come at the worst times. He pointed his staff out towards them and began to shoot fireballs at them, taking a few out before they noticed that they were outside now. They turned their attention to their new targets and began to fire at the team. One arrow came flying down and struck Martox in the left shoulder, "Dammit!" He focused directly on the one who he thought fired the arrow and began to rain living hell on him. Soon the body of the goblin was in a clump of flaming decay on the ground. Martox turned to his teammates while arrows were still coming for them, "So... Do we fight them? I think we could easily dispatch them all." He looked back at the arrows and started to intercept what ones he could in midair with ice spikes while the others decided their plan. We need to take care of Celeste. Will it take longer to fight or to run?

Desalith hobbled behind the group, and although his ankle twist wasn't a fatal injury, it would make him considerably slower in comparison to the others. He would naturally need to fight, having dodged a few arrows and shot a few others out of the air with small lightning charges.

"Way I figure it, if we take them out now, that's less looking back later." he prepared for a heavy duty spell, sending several lightning charged orbs to go in all directions that he was being shot at from to create an electric field. His staff began to glow.

Gently, Cewri placed Celeste at the mages' feet. "They're small targets. If I can't scare them off, and they're anything resembling competent, they'll try to out maneuver me. That'll be your best opening." Of course, that would put him in the way of their spells, but they would know of his resistance to their arts. "Once the fight is over, look over Celeste's body. The smoke obscured it pretty quickly, but a mark showed up on her neck as soon as she started coughing blood." the obvious conclusion went unsaid.

He turned to face the Goblins. If one of us weren't injured, or whatever is happening to Celeste, the outcome wouldn't even be in question. He drew his blade and took up a high guard position, and crouched down in preparation—putting his head at the height of a regular man. With a roar, The Mountain charged.

Oryx stood by Desalith and Celeste, deflecting arrows left and right with his blade and his shield. The little goblins knew their way around a bow, but the Vanguard had years of dealing with Undead archers under his belt.

"Do you need some assistance friend?," the skeleton asked as smashed his shield against an incoming arrow and and snapped the projectile in half. The wizard was not in the best condition, but a full healing would take time none of them had. It felt just like the good old time.

The goblins were easily dispatched. Those that were not killed outright by the fireballs and lightning orbs scattered immedietly when the half-giant charged. As the last of the vicious villains disappeared into the darkness, the heroes were left alone on the plateau with the burning cottage in the background, and the squirming Celeste at their feet.

Desalith hadn't needed to use his final punch with the orbs he sent out; the goblins were hardly worth the extra effort. He released their energies and turned his attention to Celeste. Now came the ultimate question

"What now?"

"Now," Cewri said, his sword returned to its scabbard, "we figure out what happened to Celeste. And we fix it." He knelt down next to her, taking in what had become of his friend. "I think I mentioned this, but I may not have—you know how I get before a fight, even one like this..." He shook his head. "Anyways, when we were struggling in the cottage, before she started..." A pause, "...spitting up blood, a symbol of some sort appeared on her neck. It might tell us more about what the hell happened to her." Gently, Cewri moved her head—and body if necessary—to find the place on her neck where he had seen the presumably vile icon.

"Well it's got to be pretty damn strong for me to do nothing against it," Oryx replied as he kneeled behind Cewri, trying to get a look. "That or maybe I agitated it or something. I've got a hunch that our puppeteer knows more about us then we wish."

The Undead Vanguard looked back to the cabin as the flames took the entire structure whole. He mourned his chair more then the building itself, but he knwpew that at least both would have an honorable cremation, technically. Then he relized that he was talking about inanimate objects, and felt like a royal dick.

"What do we know about goblins and black magic?," Oryx asked. "I'm guessing that they must be working for somebody else."