While the party was busy with the Lizardman, Azzen stepped into the barracks to see if he could find anything of interested. After a few seconds, he found a backpack that stood a bit out than the rest of the room. Once Azzen rejoined the party and the lizardman and Blue introduce each other, he threw the bag over to the lizardman, causing a familiar totem to slightly poke out. "Does the contents in there happen to belong to you? I'm also willing for any extra help as we don't know what may await us on the next floor. But with the news of a teleporter and that they have not come down yet, there is a chance that they may be preparing for an escape, in the worse scenario. We should hurry with our next move if we want to end this with some answers. Although, who's leading the charge? As they would likely shoot the first thing that pops up those stairs, just like that Najila's owl."

Nadir, after recovering thanks to Blue's healing, he stood up and began stretching in place for a few moments. "I won't sit idle and hope for Layla's safety. I will follow and even charge through all those bandits if it means protecting her."

Angus let out an exasperated sigh as Azzen produced the lizardfolk's backpack. "Fine. Go ahead. Arm the dragon-like." Angus said. "What could possibly go wrong?" Angus remained quiet when Azzen asked who would lead the advance. He had promised Azzen that he would hang back in exchange for healing from the bard, and he had every intention of keeping that promise. But when Nadir voiced his intention to save Layla even if he had to charge through the bandits unarmed, Angus threw his head back and laughed. There was no malice behind this laughter though. This was the sort of laugh that Highlanders tended to sound off when something has impressed them. "I like you already." Angus said as he pulled a pair of handaxes off of his belt. "I doubt ye'll be gettin' far with just yer fists though" Angus added as he handed Nadir the axes. "Take these. I'm sure you'll put 'em to good use. Try not to lose 'em though. I'll be wantin' them back when we're done 'ere."

Nadir nodded as he took Angus's handaxe and pulled himself up. "My thanks, to your generous gift, my highlander friend.". As party was briefly discussing, Celeste slowly made her way through the party to see where she heard the familiar voice. The moment she got a glance inside the mess hall, she ran into the room calling his name out loud, arms open, as she embraced Nadir. ""Oh our little Crescent Moon Celeste. So glad to still see you. " After giving the two some time, Alan rose his hand "I'll charge in first to draw in their first attacks. Hopefully that will allow the rest of you all to follow safe enough behind."

As the party made their way up to the next floor, the were couple step there. At that moment, Aron took the final steps up and made a dash through the long 60 ft hall to reach where the wooden crates were being used as cover and 5ft from the teleport room's closed door. To the right of the hall appeared two closed wooden doors. While running down the hall, a kobold jumped onto the crate to fire a firebolt from a pistol, which missed. But Sarfyr, the interrogator fire 4 magic missiles into Aron. From the quick look of Sarfyr, it would appear he recovered a bit of his wounds from earlier. Providing some cover fire, Azzen shot a firebolt from the magical pistol down the hall and found a mark on the kobold. Following the lead, Nadir dashed his way ahead as well to reinforce Aron. By the time Nadir did arrive, Aron swung his sword into the interrogator, although his skin seemed hard as stone, he was still able to slash deep enough to injure the half elf. But once Sarfyr was inflicted by this wound, a flicker of an figure appeared in alcove that was near the stairs, soon revealing a dark hooded cloaked individual that war a mask with the appearance of a dragon's skull. Now revealed, the figure took a single step as it readied itself with a glaive that would slightly glint from the light outside.

Najila stood back as the conversations took place. She already felt weary when it came to Ironbane and his seemingly prejudiced view and attitude towards Blue, but most of all, when she looked to Nadir...she felt immense guilt. It was her fault. It was her fault that Nadir and Layla got mixed up in this. If only she had set up that alarm spell, maybe only she would have gotten captured and Nadir, Layla, and Celeste would have been spared the torment they were put through. She gave a sad quiet sigh, and an apologetic look to Nadir before continuing with the rest of the party.

As soon as she reached the stairs and noticed Sarfyr, she immediately placed the Hex on him once more. Once she heard Sarfyr wheezing once more, she fired another Eldritch Blast at him. This time, she took the time to aim and didn't put so much of her energy into the force of the attack.

She then saw the figure with the Dragon Skull and she called to Angus, "Ironbane! You might want to take care of him!"

Angus returned the nod a Nadir accepted the axes, smiling a little more when Celeste happily reunited with Nadir. When Aron brought the group's focus back to the task at hand, Angus' face adopted a more determined look. "Aye." Angus said. "Let's not keep those soon to be dead men waiting." Angus proceeded up the stairs following Najila. When he emerged from the stairs, Angus quickly spotted Sarfyr. The sight of that man made Angus' blood boil. Everything from his attitude to his transgressions made Angus want to take his claymore to the bastard. As much as he wanted to keep his promise to Azzen, Angus just couldn't help himself. Angus dropped his javelin, drew his claymore, and charged towards the Interrogator. "YER GONNA DIE SCREAMIN' YA RANCID BASTARD!." Angus roared as he drew closer and closer to his quarry.

As he got closer, something strange happened. Two spectral figures dressed in highland garb similar to Angus' appeared out of thin air behind Sarfyr and looked to Aron and Nadir. "Hullo there." One of the figures said to Aron an Nadir. "Dunnae worry, we're with 'im." As it said that last bit, the figure gestured towards Angus.
"We've got this carcass covered." The other figure said. "Go 'elp out with the others. Ye'd just be wastin' yer time with this one now."
"An' you might want to get out the way." The first figure said to Aron in particular. "Unless ye want to get trampled by an angry Highlander that is."

After receiving his gear, Ulhar was thankful to the group and wouldn’t take too long to gear up, which mostly consisted of putting on his shield and strapping his sword onto his hip. His totem hung around his neck openly, which appeared to be some sort of small state depicting a runic of some sort. There was no time to explain its significance however as the group moves forward into the next area. It looked familiar enough when suddenly, the enemy appeared!

Ulhar readied a spell to entangle the enemy when he realized that a new figure approached. A menacing warrior armed with an equally menacing weapon. Ulhar knew he was too close to this warrior and if he did cast his spell now, the first would no doubt try and strike him down. Not to mention this warrior was far too close to the other, less well armored members than Ulhar would like. So he turned to the hooded warrior and roared in his language at the dragon skull warrior, running towards the warrior. “You will harm no one!” As soon as Ulhar was in front of the warrior, and ideally out of sight from Sarfyr, Ulhar casted a spell onto the warrior to freeze him in place and drew his scimitar.

Seeing the highlander storming down the hall, the kobold's attention turned to fear as he looked at the barbarian. Sarfyr saw this look of fear and the kobold's aim shifting to the highlander. The half elf was about to say something with his hand stretched out, but found difficulty with a sudden wheezing and being blasted by a eldritch blast. This allowed enough timing for the kobold fire and actually able to leave a scorch mark on the highlander. But now recalling how dangerous the highlander, the wizard quickly created a sphere of that struck, but was actually suppressed into a small size, then flung it begin the party into a fiery explosion. the power of the blast would be strong enough to knock Aron and Nadir out. Through the fires, Sarfyr silhouette can be seen moving into the room at the end of the hall, along with a growing white color being able to be seen from across the hall.

Back at the stairs, the masked figure prepared for his next attack. He felt for a very brief moment that he could not move, but was able to resist the magical hold. Then once the sound of a fireball exploded, the masked figure twirled his glaive around until slamming it against the wall, causing the blade to ring a shattering noise. the ring was enough that it would cause the people by the stairs to feel a damaging thunderous sensation course through their body.

After the enduring the shatter spell, Azzen angrily muttered to himself as he saw barbarian dash away, going again with their agreement. "That idiotic oaf.". Somewhat seeing the door at the hall briefly open and close, then back to the fallen half of the party. "Hey you guys! You better not die on us now!" he said as he tried healing Aron. Then followed with a firebolt pistol aimed at their nearest enemy, the masked figure, only to fail as his shot landed on a sturdy piece of the figure's splint armor.

Back to the group that had to endure the explosion of fire, Aron could hear Azzen's words of healing and with his second wind, tried to rally everyone he could see at the moment as he cried out as he marched through the burning remains of wooden crates and tried to attack the kobold that was still around. But his swing would be blocked by the kobold's shield that it raised up in time. But as the kobold was starting to feel cocky, Nadir rose back up to its surprise it he leapt and slashed a handaxe against it and his next swing getting blocked.

Orchid bemoaned her relative sluggishness as the others managed to get ahead of her, even her enemies. By the time she was able to catch up to the others she took some sort sonic spell at near point-blank, however she wasn't going to falter so easily. Angus and Aron seemed to be after the wizard, but this masked Man was armed with quite an impressive set of armor and a glaive, not to mention dangerously close to the group. "Scatter! Don't let him try that again!" Orchid repositioned herself, mindful of keeping this dastard within reach of her glaive. With her Alter Armament she was able to keep her weapon's reach without dropping her shield, making her at least as tough as he was. "PALKAS!" Orchid roared as she lashed out at the armored figure, however her blow failed to land. Not one to give up, she called forth her inner reserves and lashed out a second time, though she knew the blow was not solid as it deflects off his armor. "Fuck!" With her offensive efforts effectively ended there, Orchid went into a defensive stance to ready herself if this man tried to make a run for it.

"Tch!" Ulhar is blasted by the man's magic, however he's not down yet. He was surprised to see that this man could use spells without a pouch or a focus, but perhaps his glaive itself was the focus? Ulhar had heard some spellcasters who used weapons as foci, or had some sort of accessory attached to the weapon. Regardless Ulhar knew what he had to do. "Someone grab his weapon!" Ulhar lashed out and slashed at the man's hands aiming to force him to drop his glaive. Someone else in the group would have to grab it afterwards, less the man just pick his glaive up again and cast another deadlier spell.

Angus howled in abject fury as he watched Sarfyr run through the door to the portal room. The Highlander wasn't about to let that bastard slip through his fingers so easily. "GET OUT O' ME WAY!" Angus bellowed and he bowled Aron to the floor and trampled over him to reach the next room.
"Sorry, lad." One of the spectral figures who looked similar to Angus said to Aron as Angus vaulted the crates and proceeded into the next room.
"We did give ye fair warnin' though." The other figure said before the two figures followed after Angus.

Seeing the so called interrogator backed into a corner, Angus grinned murderously and his pace slowed to a walk as he made his was over to his quarry. "Yer not getting away that easily." Angus said before turning quickly towards the center of the circle. "And neither are you!" Standing in the circle surrounded by crates was a cloaked figure. The cloak did a good job of hiding the figure, but it could not hide that he had scales on his face the same way some people had freckles. It also couldn't hide that the figure was casting a spell. Angus took aim at the approximate location Angus believed the eyes would be and swung with all his might. His aim was true, but as the claymore made contact, the usual telltale signs of a good hit weren't there. This confused Angus for a moment, but he decided to figure that out once he'd dealt with Sarfyr.

Turning to face the Interrogator, Angus brought his claymore to bear with a powerful upwards swing. The blade flew between Sarfyr's legs before cutting up into the Interrogator's groin. From there, momentum carried the claymore further upwards, smashing through the pelvis, splitting the spine in two up the middle, cutting through the guts like they weren't even there, before finally coming to a stop against the underside of the rib cage. Pulling the claymore free of the horrendous wound it had just inflicted, Angus left Sarfyr to his agonizing demise and turned back towards the cloaked figure.

Najila was irritated that Sarfyr was running away again, but thankfully, Angus wasn't going to let him get away. She just hoped that his going ahead won't end up like last time. She gasped as she felt the sonic attack affect her and the others close to her. She looked at the figure in imposing draconic armor. She watched as Ulhar disarmed the figure, and she acted. She ran over to the glaive calling to Blue, "I've got it!" She picked it up, to find that it was quite heavier than she expected it to be. She muttered to herself "Oh my...This is heavier than the Weapons Almanac made it out to be...!"

She then directed her attention to the figure engaged with Blue, and she pointed her arcane focus at him. She sent an Eldritch Blast at the man's way, hoping to help Blue in combat.

Sarfyr's life in his eyes would disappear along with the smile that was once on his face. For the cloaked figure, the powerful strike from Angus was too much for the caster to handle that their casting would end and the arcane circle would cease. But what would remain was the heavy breathing as the caster still lived.

The kobold, focused on the two in the hall, dropped its pistol, and pulled out its spear. It first struck at Nadir, knocking him unconscious, then followed with Aron who was able to dodge the piercing of the spear. "Tch" sounded the masked figure by the stairs as he took a step at the presumable healer, shooting a spray of acid from his hand and onto Azzen. Luckily the teifling was able to avoid the damage of the spray, but now the figure approached the two remaining party members on the stairs.

Thanks to Blue's quick thinking, that damned warrior wasn't able to do much! While he ended up casting a cantrip, at least it wasn't a stronger spell. "You can't escape me!" Orchid swiped at the man, this time her blade finally biting into his body and doing some damage. As he goes to engage the others, Orchid moves down and tries to stop him by lunging with her glaive. Once more she was confident her blow struck, however she also knew it was a relatively weak blow. Still damage was damage. "Azzen, Najila, get outta here! Me and Blue will take care of this dastard!" Orchid readied herself once more to intercept and attack the man if he tries to make another move for it. Hopefully the others will be able to deal with the wizard and whatever is up ahead.

Najila found herself regretting the fact that she had called out to the others saying she had the weapon, because now it attracted the armored figure to her and Azzen. She was glad to see that Azzen managed to withstand the Acidic attack, but now she was somewhat panicking over the fact that she was in melee. She was a practitioner of the arcane! Not a martial fighter like Orchid.

But then...she felt it. Sarfyr had exhaled his last breath, and she could move the hex once more. She commented to the masked man, "You shouldn't have gotten too close,"

She then held her hand up to her lips and motioned like she was blowing him a kiss. However, her arcane symbol was in her hand, and a black mist appeared as she blew the air towards the figure. The black mist seeps past the mask, and takes hold. While the mist was blinding the man, she ran past the figure, still carrying his glaive. Once the mist was gone, she could hear him wheeze once more. She called to her friends, "Now's your chance. He won't be as fast as he was before!"

Azzen stretched out a hand as he tried to heal Nadir. "Weren't you going to save someone!" from the healing word, he Nadir brought himself back up and remembering what the lizardman said, followed the same plan and was successful in disarming the kobold its spear. Back to the stairs, Azzen made his way down as recommended by Orchid, but before Najila could try to run up the stairs and pass Orchid, she was halted by the masked figure as a heavy punch would hit and push her against the wall, knock the breath out of her and barely leave where she was before.

Inside the teleport room, Angus would finish off Sarfyr and turn back to the cloaked figure, he would notice that the caster would step and barely vault over the crate and land on the ground against the wall. Their breathing became heavy when trying to prop up to lean against the wall and with enough breath, in draonic, yelled "NO LOOSE ENDS!" soon a familiar bead of fire formed on their figure tips and threw it as an arching motion. Causing most of the room to be enveloped into a fiery explosion.

Nadir would momentarily froze in place as he saw the fire consume most of the room "LAYLA!!!". Concerned on Angus's state when entering and taking another fireball, he quickly made his way inside the smoking room. Inside, he could see some crates on fire and expose scorched and burning bodies of a few familiar people that were on his caravan before being kidnapped. Then he could just see Angus scorched body and beside his body was a heavily breath cloaked figure sitting against the wall. Dropping his shield, tightly clenched his longsword with both hands, and stepped towards the likely caster. He swung his blade once with a powerful scream of anger, missing as he the caster slumped to the ground. Trying to weakling crawl away, Aron simply stepped on the caster's back and with another powerful scream, stabbed through where the collar bone would be, causing the caster cease moving.

After successfully disarming the man, it seemed like things were going to go pretty well. Until Ulhar heard a fireball go off in the room ahead, followed by Nadir screaming out someone's name. It didn't tale Ulhar long to realize those bastards just fireballed a room full of hostages! Worse still, Azzen and Najila weren't able to escape the masked man just yet as he was able to prevent Najila from running away. But he wouldn't be able to stop Ulhar. "I must go!" Ulhar said urgently as he dashed pass Orchid, running as far as he can even past the kobold fighting Nadir. There Ulhar saw the terrible scene before his eyes. Those madmen, they really did try and kill everyone. Ulhar knew he couldn't save everyone, but damned if he wasn't going to do something!

Among the bodies on the ground, Ulhar saw Angus was one of the people caught in the blast. He knew the warrior didn't like Ulhar and the feeling was mutual, but now was not the time for such petty hatred. Raising his hand at Angus, Ulhar spoke a prayer. "De vignari ekess ixen, erthnetora suacoic geou trekis z'ar tobor. Lleisgar, arytiss, dout bisai ui ti sjerit authot." Angus would soon be filled with a bit of revitalizing energy, hopefully enough to bring him back onto his feet and into the battle. "The fighting is not yet over. Leave the wounded here with me, I shall do what I can to save them!"

"Och shite!" Was all Angus had time to say before he was engulfed by the inferno. When the smoke cleared, the spectral figures who looked similar to Angus were nowhere to be seen, and the Highlander himself was lying on the floor in a charred heap as his life slowly ebbed away. Thankfully, that didn't last long. Ulhar cast a spell on Angus that healed him enough to get the Highlander back on his feet again. "Cheers, dragon-like." Angus said as he got to his feet, picked up his claymore, limped outside, and took a swing at the kobold.

After the sound of the cloaked figure's last words and the explosion of fire, the kobold quickly assessed its current situation. Seeing not as many threats were on him just yet, he went to pickup the firebolt pistol before leaving. Although the pistol was nearby, and was a out the move away, the Angus, the lizardman, and Nadir both tried stop the kolbold dead. But with its shield and leather armor providing enough protection, weas barely able to escape and dash away. Next was the strange colored orc who the kobold was able to just avoid her swing of her glaive and soon be found himself hear the masked figure. Thanks to the figure being a few steps down, the kobold easily leapt onto the figure's back and slide around to latch onto their chest like a back bag with his firebolt pistol at the ready as figure began dashing down the stairs. Orchid would try to stop the two, but was unable to prevent their dash downstairs and ignoring Najila. As the two made their way down, Azzen would try to stop the kobold by reaching out to strike with his dagger, but would sadly miss.

"Like hells I'm going to let you escape! Azzen, we have to finish them off before they bring back more enemies!" Orchid roars as she chases after the Masked Man and the kobold. The last thing she needs is for these people to gather reinforcements if there truly is more enemies in this keep. Continuing the pursuit, Orchid chases after the duo, running right up to them and trying to knock the Masked Man off his feet. That ought to prevent him from going too far, and she can't imagine that he can go very quickly while carrying the kobold on his back.

Najila had certainly not expected the masked figure to easily disregard her attempt to disengage, and she gasped when he grabbed her and shoved her against the wall. The wind was effectively knocked out of her, and she had to take a few breaths of her own to recover. She was even more surprised to see that instead of taking the chance to try and take back the glaive that was in her hand, he instead turned and ran away. She picked herself up the wall and was about to fire another Eldritch Blast at the masked figure, but then Orchid rushed past her and shoved him.

Seeing as there was another target, and knowing that her Eldritch Blast wouldn't do much good against someone who was on the ground, she opted to fire the Eldritch Blast at the Kobold, in hopes of reducing the number of enemies going to help, or facing Orchid.