Suddenly, the room began to quake around the group. Everyone was frozen in place almost paralyzed by some higher power. A large crack appeared in a wall towards the far side of the room, and with a blinding flash of red light, a blood portal opened. What stepped through the abomination of magic was someone Arthur never expected to see again. "No" he whispered, his voice stricken with fear "you can't be here!". But he was all too real, stepping through the portal in coal black armor. His sword was emanating a dark glow like a contained black hole was stored inside of it. Finally the dark red eyes peering out from the helmet, staring into them and feeling like the very essence of reality itself was being torn apart in front of you. Yes, it was Sovereign King Odisius, fused with the demon lord Asaroth.

His voice seemed to fill the room with power and darkness. "You fools dare to intrude into my domain, my kingdom?". He looked at the group with contempt "you are barely worth my time, insignificant mortals." Odisius stared down Father Cross before slowly walking across the cobblestone floor to his paralyzed form. “Ah, now what is a priest of the shadow god doing here? “ he seemed to ponder something for a moment before coming to a decision. “I could have use for a new disciple. You will be coming with me.” Crosses body was blasted with red energy, and he collapsed on the floor seemingly dead. Glowing black chains crisscrossed around his body, and he was gradually dragged into the portal by an invisible force.

“As for the rest of you,” he pondered the fate of the adventurers again. “I expect you won’t survive long anyway. Suppose I should let my minions have some fun with you.” He turned his back on the group and walked back through the portal. With a tremor the red gate to who knows where collapsed and simultaneously the paralyzation spell that had afflicted the group dissipated.

"DAMN!" Alliana roared as the paralysis was removed and she nearly flung herself at a nearby wall when she regained control over her muscles after trying to move during the time she wasn't able to. She looked about, her face was twisted, almost unnaturally so. That wasn't really that much of a surprise given she wasn't normal human and vampires were known to be able to make some really disturbing expressions. She was a half vampire, but still- she was angry, they lost a person before they even started this.

She then took in a deep breath, allowing her face to return to normal." We... were... lucky." She growled, reading her sword." We should be careful now, we are down a person so each person's job just increased by a third. When we go back to town, we need to have a REALLY long talk about what our plans are." Alliana stated, pulling a torch.

"How big is this place?" She asked." Number of rooms or length?"

Barrington felt the quake and had a hand on his pistol attempting to draw it as the paralysis hit him as well as a large degree of panic. None of them could move as far as he knew while they watched the portal rip its way into existence on the far wall as a truly terrifying figure appeared from within it. If there was any indication of just how out of their depth they were this was it as they were unable to even defend themselves before who he supposed was the most powerful being in this area by far. Given Arthur's objections it was hard to imagine just who else besides a demon king had stumbled upon them in such a way as to make them all helpless. This was very very bad as they were entirely at the mercy of a something that could likely kill them with a thought, at least that is what the inventor's imagination was conjuring up at the moment.

It was then made very clear that they weren't even worth the time to dispose of from the storage house but not all of them were left unscathed. The shadow priest was taken hostage in a mere instant or possibly killed to be resurrected later, honestly who knew what would happen to the poor man as he was dragged off into the portal. The remaining three of the group as well as the King's squire were left unharmed as the evil king all but decided to ignore them as mere chew toys for whatever minions made home in the halls and rooms. The inventor was just relieved he still lived as the portal closed and function returned as his hand held a shaky grip on his pistol at the wall which he lowered after a few moments of regaining his composure. The half-vampire was more vocal than he about the situation as he was giving a silent and very sincere prayer to Kessel as he was certain they were all dead but a second ago.

"Agreed. That could have been worse, though it further complicates the task at hand or future expeditions significantly." Barrington replied continuing to reason everything out to distract his mind. "That would be useful information its true, a rough estimate accounting for ruined passages and rooms would be helpful to gauge the length of this trip. A small comfort if anything though if not we can wing it as we go, a good memory helps with this sort of thing."

The engineer was prepared to move on with torch and pistol in hand firmly gripped as a matter of safety for himself and the others, he wouldn't run off knowing his comrades were stuck down here nor was being alone in any way a good thing.

The heat of life restored to Kiera's limbs, and the light of Borealis. She restrained herself from roaring and lashing out like the half-breed had, focusing on her prayer. "To the righteous, truth and victory. To the unfaithful, despair and defeat." she raised her torch once more and headed in the direction the fiend had gone. She shouted forth "The light has come for you, accursed one! You cannot run from our dawn!"

The templar turned back to the group seething. She could see the half-fiend had reigned in some composure and was already question a fearful Sir Arthur. Surprisingly the noble stood ready, hands gripped tightly around his torch and weapon drawn. She had clearly mistook him, she could count the people she could rely on not to flee after such an assault in under a minute.

"His faith was weak." she waved her hand to the shadows. "Darkness moves amongst darkness, we shall not be caught like this again now that the it has wasted it's surprise." with that she returned to her chant, poised ready to advance again

Arthur though he would never admit it, was terrified beyond belief. Shakily he rose to his feet and heard the others questions through his ringing ears. “Yeah, yeah I think I got something like that...” his trembling fingers dig through his pockets for a moment before bringing out a torn and faded parchment. Smoothing it out, it was revealed to be a hand drawn map of the Store house, with several rooms marked in messy handwriting.

“alright” Arthur said. “we can either head to the general supplies, which should have some stuff left in it or we could try the armory. Bound to be at least a couple of salvageable pieces In there.” He looked confused for a second and muttered “I could’ve sworn there was a treasury around here somewhere” before shoving the map back in his pocket and grimacing. “Where do you guys want to go?”

Before anyone could answer a loud screeching echoed throughout the connecting hallway. 4 sets of gleaming red eyes appeared and Arthur quickly hefted his sword up into a guard stance. “Get ready for a scrap”

Monsters POV

A pack of 4 goblins skittered out of the tunnels. Each was only clothed in rough scraps and equipped with a rusty shiv. Goblin 1 stared at the large humans in front of it and quickly stepped back a couple of steps. Goblin 2 screamed a war cry and charged at the nearest person, which happened to be Barrington. Goblin 3 scuttled into the shadows of the edges of the room, looking for an opportunity to disrupt the ranks of the already scattered groups. Goblin 4 immediately jumped into the air and threw his shiv at Kiera, a wild and messy throw with little force behind it.

"Well my instincts are telling me we'd better loot anything we find and that it's best to turn this place upside down before we exit." Alliana stated as she took a breath preparing for the advance into the dark just in time to witness the goblin's arrival! Of all creatures dark and evil it had to be the goblins. To the half vampire goblins were that specific brand of nasties that she both hated and pitied. They were the butt of all manners of adventuring jokes and for a reason.

The group of gobs scattered quickly with zero amount of coordination between them. Not that her own little merry group had much coorination to boast about. One goblin retreated right away, another moved to the corners fo hte room waiting, one had charaged and one threw it's shiv... Frankly she was tempted to dash and take out the one in hte air. Their engineer had to deal with at least one goblin. That was a fact engineers were usually dangerous in all manner of distances because of the gadgets they had. Well she found herself dashing right at the one who was disarmed because of his own stupidity.

"..." Her lips barely moved as she let out a few soundless words in her charge, her longsword cutting through the air to stab at the defenseless goblin. For the creatures of the dark there was no need for mercy.

Kiera seethed towards the darkness. She left the planning to cooler heads, and was unsurprised to hear the half-breed take some form of command. She obviously shared the cold nature of her cursed kin though Kiera wasn't going to begrudge her in this situation. Suddenly the vampire stopped talking suddenly, and... There! Eyes in the darkness, the creature's eyes were much more used to dark and so she spotted them first. With a gesture Kiera thrust her torch forward and moved to the fore to illuminate the creatures for the team.

Goblins! No doubt as desperate as they were disparate in comparison to those they had hoped to ambush. Merely armoured in rags and armed with whatever sharpened piece of scrap they could find they posed next to no threat. One had already began to flee as the light approached them fully, another coward before the might of Borealis. Unfortunately many of the others had scattered around the party, and it looked like it would be one for one, Foolish creature's normally have more sense than this the Paladin thought to herself, maybe the place they were in had driven them beyond sense

One creature threw it's weapon at the target it made least sense to do so in Kiera's mind, herself! Her martial training kicked in, and she raised herself to her full height so that the weapon may glance off of her armour, since she wasn't holding her shield, and charged towards the fool creature in one motion.

"Huh so he does actually have a map, crudely drawn but effective in general I suppose." Barrington thought guessing that it hadn't been used in quite sometime so they really would have to improvise the rest of the journey intelligently. The lady-crusader seemed mostly unfazed on the outside and seemed as if she might well brute force through the wall to smite the evil being, though even if she did not her words were correct in that they now knew what they would be building up against. Surprise was something they could ill afford at this time and he would be making plans for something to fight such an enemy if only just to provide a comforting thought of possibility. "I agree anything and everything salvageable could pose a use. Not to mention if we could find the treasury it would provide funds that we will likely need to maintain our equipment, or make equipment in my case, and if the King's squire was correct get us supplies with a bit to spare." He said quite sure that if they were going to loot the place they should do it properly as unsavory as it might be of them to do so. Wouldn't be the first time he got himself into trouble for it and hopefully not the last either Kessel willing.

Of course there were always going to be a few bumps in the road and when Arthur's voice rose to alert them he honestly wondered how it hadn't happened sooner. The torchlight revealed better the four goblins as they moved into vision, not much more than skin and bones while poorly equipped to boot. The engineer had never know goblins to attack when a fight was so even as they were cowardly which one of them sort of proved the point stepping back from them. He saw the one moving to the side into the shadows, he would have to keep a peripheral on that side so as not to be surprised later, but the one that concerned him most was the one who had thought it clever to charge him head on. The inventor sidestepped closer to the flank and rear of his party preparing to cover it to his fullest while also making it easier to judge where he could shoot safely then lining up a proper shot with his Dragoon waiting just a second for the goblin to get a little closer before pulling the trigger releasing the roar of many small pellets exploding outward in a small cone intent on shredding the aggressor.

Arthur's POV

Arthur, with a snake like hand quickly jabbed at the retreating goblin, impaling it through the chest and ending its miserable existence.

Monsters POV

Goblin 2 was grinded to dust by the bullets of Barringtons gun, little left of it besides a red cloud of dust where it once stood. Goblin 3 took advantage of its own allied demise by jumping out of the shadows, intent on ripping a jagged wound onto the distracted Barringtons back. Goblin 4's shiv glanced off of Kiera's shoulder, doing little more than knicking her armor. Alliana and Kiera both went for the aerial goblin, however Kessel appeared to be in the runts favor, as Kiera's wild charge brought her straight into the already swinging Alliana, colliding and nullifying both of their attacks. Goblin 4 quickly took advantage of this opportunity to scurry back into the pitch black tunnel, to do who knows what.

"..." Alliana made no sound as her attack was rendered ineffective because it collided with Kiera's. It was extremely bad luck and timing to have that happen. TO negate each other's attack was such a critical failure that it was hard to put into words, granting the goblin a chance to escape to probably warn something, activate a trap or call reinforcements. Who bloody knew at this point. She did notice the other Gob that was now aiming at their resided tech expert's back though. She lowered a stance adn dashed backwards aiming at the beastie to take it own before it can surprise him any more." Move forward I will take care of the one behind you!" She called to Barrington for him to advance so he gets away from the goblin's strike range. If getting onto each other's ways was going to be bad about it, they needed to announce their aims until a better teamwork could be build it seemed.

Barrington smirked a little as his custom pistol had the intended effect on the goblin all but pulping it in front of him. One less to worry about in this fight though it sounded like both women were having an eventful fight with the one goblin who jumped. He could definitely see that Arthur had killed the most cowardly of the small green enemies with a swift stab so that was another down as well. So far this was going well enough or at least he thought so up until the half-vampire called out for him to move quickly which he did willing to trust the woman to help him out. He did a dash forward to heed the warning turning to the side as he saw a goblin making a break for the tunnel.

The engineer reached to his belt and pulled up a grenado lighting the fuse with his torch before tossing the small explosive towards the retreating enemy calling out "Fire in the hole!" as the metal sphere glinted from the light it flew ahead of him.

Although Kierra was fairly sure that their fumbling had been an accident and wouldn't hold it against the half-breed, she didn't manage to conceal her snarl of frustration. Already the vampire was rushing off to continue the combat with the last goblin, the noble already having dispatched one already. Not wanting to get in the way again, Kierra merely held her torch to the darkness and stayed weary of any extra combatants, ready to jump into cover should any more missiles fly from the dark

That was, until she heard over her shoulder a "Fire in the hole!", and she could guess at what that meant, she scrabbled to get behind something and prayed the noble's aim was true enough to test twice in a row

MONSTERS POV

Goblin 3 cleaved downward, cutting through Barringtons jacket and leaving a thin cut on his backside, but before he could dig any deeper was instantly struck dead by Alaina's furious defense. Meanwhile, in a dark crevice of the attaching hallway Goblin 4 was busy trying to activate a makeshift bomb, consisting of a firework fuse and several sacks of gunpowder strung together by a few lengths of cord. He had also apparently called reinforcements, as 6 other goblins had appeared waiting silently in the shadows near him. Of course as goblin 4 lit his own fuse was when Barringtons Grenado was flung straight into the middle of the gang, exploding and disintegrating 3 of the goblins on the spot including goblin 4, and causing his own bomb to detonate which combined with Barringtons grenade shook the foundations of the underground storehouse. The other 3 goblins, with various wounds between them scuttled off in different directions away from the party.

Barrington winced at the small cut he received though it likely would have been far worse if not for the half-vampire's intervention on his behalf. He had to give her fair credit on the speed with which she re-positioned herself, likely it was on account of her heritage, but he couldn't be anything but grateful. Luckily despite the attempt on his life the throw had landed more or less far enough down the corridor to prevent any of his compatriots from suffering injury which was all he could have hoped for. What happened next surprised even him as after the first expected detonation there was a second and much larger one that shook the storehouse, not to mention the ground, alike. His own balance was offset for a moment as a result but a moment was all it took to regain it after which giving a befuddled look in the direction of the tunnel his grenado had flew into.

"That was...most unexpected." The inventor said voicing an answer to a question he guessed that wasn't only on his mind, "Not enough power in my little grenados to do that, must have hit something else more volatile down that way. Oh well its one less surprise to worry about in that direction Kessel willing."

The engineer seemed a bit less tense afterwards with a small but growing grin peeking out for a moment as they seemed to have cleared out all opposition in this room, quite possibly even the next after that unintentional and thunderous blast. He did take a moment to check himself as best he could finding it was quite a minute wound thankfully though the little cretin damaged his jacket which admittedly annoyed him. However, better to be inconvenienced than dead in the end but it was something he would try to get tailored once they returned to the village. The nobleman turned to the half-vampire fully intending to thank the woman for assisting him quite happy with the idea of having someone to watch his back.

"You have my thanks for that, I would not have been able to managed that nearly so well." Barrington said to Alliana as he thought it was proper for such a thing.

While they took a moment to collect themselves his prerogative was to reload his Dragoon for any future encounters and taking a swift headcount of his explosives and gadgets as well just in case.

"You're welcome." Alliana smiled, her eyes focusing ever so briefly on the small injury, causing a deep desire, but it was at a point she did not even struggle to resist it." That injured them good... we should prepare quick, I doubt goblins are the only thing scuffling around the darknes here." She added with a smile, before turning to Barrington again." Give me your water, I will clean up your wound, no one knows what that edge carried." The half vampire explained, throwing a look at their torch wielding temporary guide in this dungeon.

"You were saying there was not too many rooms inside this place right?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at the darkness.

"Alright everyone, let's make sure we are ready to deal ith everything and when we return, let's form a nice meal for us all. That said we should bring some alcohol with us next time. It has it's uses, so does lamp oil."

The bomb had it's intended effect, and although she sheltered behind the doorway her minds eye pictured a horrible scene of carnage that she can't say she didn't think the goblins deserved. She began to step around the doorway to block the path of any further reinforcements when another explosion announced it's brief existence. By Borealis, our noble packs those things too take down dragons.

A bit more hesitant this time, Kiera stepped around the doorway to see what remained of the pack of goblins. There wasn't much of an answer left honestly. The Templar turned back to the group to help with the remaining stragglers, but they had already fled. The party moved together in darkness, and Kiera held the torch high to illuminate them all.

" That injured them good... we should prepare quick, I doubt goblins are the only thing scuffling around the darkness here." The Half-Breed raised a good point. Explosions like that were sure to attract attention, though Kiera wasn't going to complain too much about the results. Kiera turned to the noble "You have a strong throwing arm, and a stronger heart. Did you bring along supplies to manufacture more of those explosions?"

Then, much to Kiera's surprise, the creature amongst their number showed compassion. She began to treat a wound on the noble which Kiera would have overlooked, raising the wise point that the goblins weren't very sanitary so it was better to be safe then sorry. Something Kiera would have offered to sort herself, had she not lingering doubts about the half-breed. It would make the Templar very vulnerable to attack, though to her credit Kiera believed the vampiress was a worthy enough comrade that she wouldn't do that. What Kiera did do was monitor the monster's ministrations, and watched for any temptation to feed or indulge. Despite paranoia, it was surprising indeed that Kiera didn't notice any such blood lust the half-breed's kind were known for. Or at least disguised them knowing she was under scrutiny!

Once the wound was handled Kiera made a point of uttering a short blessing for fast and strong recovery, may Borealis' light burn free contamination of the wicked kind.

"Alright everyone, let's make sure we are ready to deal with everything and when we return, let's form a nice meal for us all. That said we should bring some alcohol with us next time. It has it's uses, so does lamp oil."

Once again the half-breed was taking command of the situation, and once again Kiera let it slide for now. Logic and reason pointed towards the half-breed actually doing what was best for the party simply out of the good of her heart. Passion and faith told Kiera all of this was an elaborate ruse, but what did the monster have to gain? The two sides battled forth in her mind though she pushed them to the back of her thoughts, focusing on the task at hand

"Good thinking," Kiera sheathed her sword and turned to Sir Arthur, "Are you ready to continue? Do you know what lies in the next few rooms?" After seeing how capable the rest of the party was it seemed like he was the only one she could really direct the question towards.

"My thanks and yes I can. Most of my luggage were components, plans, and mixtures for more of the same as I brought along though that large secondary explosion is not the usual result." The engineer explained to Kiera referring to his tool belt where he kept his smaller creations, "Some other odds and ends for as of yet unfinished or untested contraptions as well but they do not yet fill me with the same confidence without more work."

Barrington was quick to pass over his waterskin and tried his best to stay still as his wound was being cleaned while attempting to best fill in the lady crusader on the subject of his inventions. It was something he might not have considered himself as a lack of experience would cause, he was no real adventurer after all but it would do to learn from the others if he was expected to live amidst the danger. There was a feeling of accomplishment after the well placed grenado as well as his aim holding up admirably against a fairly light target who might well have dodged the majority of the pellets if it had been expecting more than a single shot. The skirmish could have gone far worse for them so it was a relief that it went so well at all plus he might have started to prove his worth to the others, except Arthur most likely him being a man of martial tradition and hardly keen on what appeared a pampered nobleman on an excursion in the wrong place.

The talk of pushing through to the end pleased the inventor as he was more than happy to go along with it and a proper meal would be a wonderful event to take the edge of this little venture off. Not only that but it might give him more time to discuss possible projects the others might find intriguing for future expeditions as it was always a subject he enjoyed prattling on about. Not to mention more oil or alcohol on hand could allow him to make some less refined but still painful firebombs of a sort, he would prefer to use his own pre-planned ones but it never hurt to have a backup.

"I am at the ready wherever we move on to. The thought did occur to me that with a few well placed devices I might better cover a passage behind us should creatures come from another hall or tunnel. Please do let me know if such a thing sparks interest now or later as the case may be." Barrington said mind abuzz with possible positioning of a springrazor or firebomb in an aggravating position for pursuers.

Arthur leaned against a wall, panting heavily. Briefly his strong facade was torn away, and the group could see just how haggard and worn the man had become in defending his town. Shadows crossed his vision and he felt overcome for a moment, but with Supreme effort managed to compose himself and try to listen to the groups advice. Arthur spoke quickly, in between deep breaths. " no, this place isn't very big or at least it's not supposed to be. Whatever is down here might have burrowed new rooms or tunnels, so watch out for those." Using his sword as a makeshift cane he propelled himself forward, and swung his blade over his shoulder before taking a few stuttering steps forward.

Passing through the tunnel, it was evident that Barringtons grenade had done some damage to the ancient structure supporting the caves. Behind the blood splattered on the wall broken beams could be seen, obviously disintegrated in the blast. Moving to the next room appeared to be another general storage area, chests and crates strewn around the room and broken up. The strange thing about the room was the dusty showcase in the middle of it having been completely untouched by the ravaging hordes. Looking through the glass there appeared to be a leather bound scroll in it but the contents were hidden from view, protected by a rusty lock. Overhead the support of the cave gave an ominous moan and Arthur glanced up nervously. "You might have hurt more than just the goblins" he mentioned to Barrington, eyeing the man balefully.

Barrington was surprised to see Arthur in the state he was at first using his sword to support him but then it occurred to him how hard this whole mess must have hit him. The king's squire appeared to be one of the few remaining warriors of worth who was still around after protecting the town likely countless times and forced to deal with the fact that if he fell there would be no mercy for the residents in short order. It was hard not to pity the man though he did not express such figuring the man still had his pride at least somewhat intact so it might come off as disrespectful from him particularly. Best the engineer could do was keep an eye out to give them a fighting chance to stay alive so they could earn that rest once they finally left. At the older man's mention the attention towards the walls increased as if there was any detail of a tunnel or small den it was imperative to spot it ahead of time.

The after effects of his grenado and the second larger explosion were present and it was far from a pretty sight to the inventor. Honestly he did not find violence all that entertaining but examining the work his creations was what he enjoyed though given his specialty in devices it was hard not to intermix the two so best to keep a chin up about it lest he be thought a coward. After all, he could mull it out of his mind later with a bit of prayer and some drink couldn't hurt either. Unsurprisingly Arthur was quite dour about the structural damage left behind but there was naught they could do about it now causing the younger man to shrug in response.

"Unpleasant as it is, and it is quite so, it does rather make for more incentive to get through quick and efficient lest the worst happens. Not a thought to cherish really." Barrington said more or less covering for himself from unforeseen consequences even if he suspected it was for nothing. "I am quite intrigued by the case there given its surroundings though the thought of traps comes to mind as inspection continues. Maybe give me a moment to have a careful look if it is but a mechanical thing keeping them distant otherwise it is outside my expertise for the time being."

"You might have the chance to check it out, though don't focus too much. Keep your awarenes open at all times. Darkness such a this tends to surprise you a lot. I speak from experience here." Alliana noted as she too threw a look at it, but frankly most of her attention was focused on the path ahead and the fact the structure seemed to be rather shaken now. Chances were good another such explosion and the part past the first one might give in." No explosives from here on... we can't risk the weakened part behind us caving in, trapping us here." The half vampire uttered, drawing her sword as she moved slightly forward, looking at teh cavern, focusing, waiting to counter if something appears from there.

"Worst case just hit the display case's glass with a rock from distance or with the tip of a sword and grab the scroll afterwards. Traps like these generally tend to be focused in case someone tries to do so from up close and hitting it from afar tends to activate the trap, causing it to affect empty air, effectively saving you. Just to keep in mind." Alliana explained, throwing a look at Arthur." You've got spare torch... can you light another one and throw it into the darkness ahead? I've got a really bad feeling for some reason."