Despite being unable to avoid the oncoming crossbolts, only one actually landed and even then it didn't strike anything vital.

Invigorated by Jørmund's Healing Word, Paxton jumped to his feet and drew a scimitar. "I can handle this guy." Paxton then said said to Flicker. "Get to the bell. I'll keep him off you."

Cascade had been working so hard. As she worked, she easily felt Deep Sashelas' presence. She smiled happily as she worked rapidly and accurately, clearly inspired and overjoyed. If one were to look at Cascade as she worked, they would see her holy symbol radiating a blue light, along with her eyes.

However, she hadn't expected an attack to come.

Her project was finished, but before she could gift it to Rala, it happened. She watched as the attack occurred, and the others acted before her. As she watched she stashed the sheath away in her belongings so that it wouldn't break.

Seeing Flicker, Jormund, and the wounded man out in the open, she knew what to do.

She clasped her holy symbol and she chanted a prayer, "Deep Sashelas, I offer my prayers to thee! Grant me your swiftness so I may reach those who need your protection!"

Her holy symbol shined. Water appeared from the holy symbol and swirled around her, down to her feet. Her body floats upward slightly, allowing the water to reach the soles of her shoes, and freeze themselves into a pair of icy blades, to allow her to skate instead of run.

With a shield raised, she skates forward and as she does so, she chants another prayer, "Grant us your protection in our time of need! I ask for your veil, shroud us from those who would do us harm! Marine Layer!"

This time a fog appears from the symbol, surrounding Cascade as she runs to reach the group. The fog follows her and seems to cloud everything within 20 feet of her, in every direction.

When she reaches Flicker, Jormund, and Paxton, she tells Flicker (only the three of them are able to see her since they are close to her), "I've got you guys covered. Hurry, Flicker!"

As the fight continued, Archer, Marcus, Bowman, and Bull all leaned out of cover to send arrows into the trees and stem the tide of oncoming crossbolts as it began to grow back to its original intensity. Meanwhile, Paxton made ready to charge forward and strike the now fog-blinded dwarf once Flicker started making their way up the tower.

Despite the rather dire situation they were in, Flicker couldn't help but snort at Paxton's comment that going inside a burning tower was a bad idea. "I don't know if you noticed," the genasi said, motioning to the glow of their hair and eyes. "But that is far less of an issue for me than it is for you." Still, this did pose a bit of a problem. Should they just try to patch Paxton up here? While they were covered from any projectiles, they were still out in the open enough that it didn't feel safe to let one's guard down. They anxiously scanned the trees, vaguely aware of one of their companions shouting at them to get out of there. However, they weren't about to abandon this man, not when there was still a chance for him.

Their alertness paid off, as a voice rang out from the forest, ordering others to stop anyone from ringing the tower's bell. What was more concerning, however, is that Flicker recognised the language they were speaking in as Ignan, one of the dialects of Primordial reserved for fire elementals. That, combined with the familiarity of the fire around them, caused the hairs on the back of Flicker's neck to stand up. They were half-expecting a group of other fire genasi, or perhaps efreets, to come charging out of the woods. Instead, it was three dwarves. Without even thinking, Flicker gave a small exhale of relief. After the encounter with Nana May and her cultists, they really didn't feel like duking it out with some malevolent elementals, especially ones that would prove resistant to their attacks.

Still, their discomfort didn't quite leave them, even as they evaded the attack of one of the dwarves. The other two were trying to bring down the tower, and Flicker was momentarily caught in a bit of a conumdrum: while they should try and run to the top of the tower to ring the bell, they didn't want to leave Paxton here in his condition, not with the enemy standing right there. Their memory briefly flashed back to the cultists they hadn't been able to protect, and the fire genasi gritted their teeth. They weren't about to let another person under their protection die. They were preparing a counterattack when they suddenly heard Jormund's voice, and glanced over their shoulder just in time to see him use a healing spell on Paxton. The man was able to get to his feet, and, shortly after, Cascade managed to reach them, using some of that nifty paladin magic she'd told them about earlier to turn her shoes into ice skates and summon some fog around them.

Flicker glanced at her in surprise, then over at Jormund and, for a brief moment, and despite their very mixed feelings about the gods, they found themselves wondering whether they'd missed out when deciding not to pursue divine magic. It was certainly more useful - not to mention far less destructive - than the magic they had been taught to wield in the order.

They didn't have too long to entertain these thoughts, however, as their companions were urging them to head up the tower. They glanced at the three of them before nodding. "Just know that if I come back and find any of you dead, I'm gonna be super pissed off," they said before turning and making their way up the tower.

As Flicker climbed the tower, Paxton leaped forward and struck a blow with his scimitar against the fog-blinded dwarf. When Flicker made it above the fog and onto the top of the tower, the Ignan voice called out again. "One of them is going for the bell! Don't let them ring it!" The voice commanded, prompting a renewed stream of arrows to fly towards the top of the tower. But Flicker gracefully dodged all of the projectiles and made it to the bell, ringing it loud enough to be heard from quite a distance away. A few moments later, the sound of bells ringing out in response could be heard from all the other watchtowers around the campsite. "NOOOOOOOOO!" The Ignan voice cried out in fury before a bright streak of light flashed out of the forest and into the fog. When it reached the center of the tower, the streak blossomed with a low roar into an explosion of flame.

Regardless of how well the dwarves' attempts to dodge were, all three were slain. Either overcome by the heat consumed by the fireball entirely. Paxton managed to push by the dwarf he was fighting and barrel into cover at the last moment. Despite not being outright killed, Paxton was out cold after suffering serious burns and landing badly on the ground.

When the fireball's explosion ran its course and the flames dissipated, nothing was left to hold the watchtower aloft. And so the wooden edifice collapsed, bringing Flicker down along with it. Their landing was not the most graceful, but at the very least Flicker was still up and ready to fight. Or they would be once they picked themself up off the ground.

Rala had her weapons readied as the dwarves began advancing, ready for another death-defying battle that she had become all too familiar with. Her thought process changed as she heard the tower's bell ring out and it was followed by a blazing inferno. Rala's eyes widened in fear as she began hearing the foundation of the building crackle and snap and the moan of the wooden supports struggling to keep the long tower up, and as they failed and gave way, the tower came falling and she was forced to watch helplessly as the silhouette of her friend went down with it.

Rala ran with more speed than she knew she had in her, rush towards the rubble to see that despite burns and cuts, Flicker was amazingly not killed. Just as she was about to berate him, however, she heard a groan to her side and saw that Paxton had been hit in the crossfire, and in doing so had found a large slab of wood embedded in his side, still sizzling from the inferno prior. Rala's hands worked faster than her head as she quickly found herself pulling the lumber away, slicing a piece of cloth from her cloak, tying it around the wound to keep the pressure, and lifting the man over her shoulder as if it was routine. With the aid of the Marine Layer, the archers seemed clueless of where Rala was as she moved back. The bell had been rung, the wounded were being secured. So far things had gone well all things considered, so good that Rala was concerned.

"I've got him, let's move" She ordered in a sharp bark as she passed Jurmond, struggling to carry the hefty man, practically toppling over with the weight of the larger body.
"By Ilmater, this man is like a sack of bricks" She groaned finally as her legs began giving out underneath her, and so she stopped to place the man down for a moment, covering the wounded man with her back.

There was so much going on that Aura had a hard time keeping up with it all. She was focused on staying tucked down enough that she wasn't impaled by a rain of arrows, but it was hard to miss the ball of fire from the sky which struck the group in the field. Though she couldn't quite make out the damage it caused through the fog that had risen up around the group in the open. She wasn't a healer though and had no way of even assessing the damage from this far, so instead she decided to continue fire into the attacking forces. Hopefully help would come quickly having heard the bell ring as well as the various sounds of crashing and explosions. Annoyed Aura poked out of her cover yelling, "If you like fire so much how about you eat some yourself!" As she sent three rays of fire hurtling toward the enemy, spread out.

---

Cast Scorching Ray toward 3 separate targets- 16, 15, 22 To hit
2 fire +2 thunder (Genie's Wrath), 3 fire, 6 fire

Some stinky damage roles but oh well

When Aura cast her spell, she didn't hit any of the attackers this time. Instead, her spell fire struck the trees themselves and set them ablaze, creating a wall of flame along part of the treeline.

"Yoseph you fool!" A voice barked out in the Terran dialect of Primordial. "I don't know how you convinced me this was a good idea to begin with, but I have no intention of letting it go on! Archers, cease! Melee combatants, charge!"

In response to these words, the stream of crossbolts from the trees came to a halt and more people charged from the treeline. They were of various races, but each of them were missing features that their respective races were known for. Elves and half-elves were missing their pointed ears. Orcs and half-orcs were missing their prominent tusks. Dwarf men were missing their beards. All of them wielded mauls made of stone as they advanced... to very limited success.

Of the nine attackers that made up the first wave, three of them were stopped by the fire started by Aura's casting of Scorching Ray and four more were halted by the impassable fog given off by Cascade's Marine Layer. Of the two attackers who actually managed to get close, only one of them was able to make an attack, and even then the attack was utterly ineffectual.

The sudden blast of fire hitting the tower was initially jarring to the earthen cleric. He watched as Flicker dropped from the crumbling tower landing amidst the debris, injured but still alive. Rala's sharp command brought Jørmund back to the fight at hand just as one of the attackers took a wild swing through the fog. The arch the maul traveled was to far to his left to have been a threat.

"I'll cover your retreat and wait for Flicker to catch up. Here, take this it will help lessen the bit of the enemies attacks." He says as he shoves a platinum ring into the rogues hand. During the brief touch the cleric uttered an incantation. A brief shimmer of magic could be seen around the ring.

"Don't get to far ahead or the spell will end."

With the spell cast Jørmund turns towards the attackers. "Why don't you come on out with your lackies and we'll show you how bad of an idea this really was!" He bellowed in primordial at the voices commanding the attacking forces.

Cascade watched Flicker make his way up the tower with great speed, and she smiled when she saw and heard Flicker ring the bell, and it was answered by other bells!

But, that smile disappeared and it was replaced with great concern for Flicker when the explosion brought down the tower and felled many people. The chaos of battle continued to rage on and Cascade kept looking around.

Considering that her fog was keeping attackers at bay, Cascade had a feeling that moving could let those four attackers pass. As much as she wanted to go and heal Paxton, that was going to wait. But there was someone she could heal. She hurried to Flicker, making sure the fog doesn't change position too much, "Here, let me help,"

She held her holy symbol in one hand and held the other towards Flicker's wounds. She focused on the divine magic from Deep Sashelas, and with a prayer spoken, pure spring water appeared from her hand. That pure spring water splashed onto Flicker's wounds, and not only were the burns cooled, but some of them started to close and heal. She encourages Flicker, "Come on, Brah. You're not done yet,"

After that, she turned to face their foes, and brings out her trident, ready to fight.

"Somebody smother those flames!" The Ignan voice called out in response to Jørmund's challenge. "I'll show that snow-lover what a bad idea really looks like!"

"Stand down, Yoseph!" The Terran voice commanded. "Remember the Sultan's orders. The rest of you, get those fires out and overrun this paltry resistance! FOR THE SULTAN!"

"FOR THE SULTAN!" Far too many voices to count called out in reply.

As Cascade moved to assist Flicker, one of the attackers stuck behind the genasi paladin's Marine Layer calls out to the rest. "I see a gap in the fog! This way!" The sound of rapid footfalls would then be heard as the attackers moved towards and through the gap. They wouldn't get far though. As the first two of the attackers made it around the fog, they were struck down by a volley of arrows, as were the two attackers harassing Jørmund, Rala, and Paxton.

Reinforcements had arrived. Eighteen highwaymen had emerged from deeper within the camp, the nine in front forming a pair of shield walls while the nine behind rained arrows down on the attackers. "Open the way!" A voice called from the highwaymen once the volley had landed, causing the shield walls to open enough to let the party through. "We can hold the attackers off for now! The boss wants every other able body to muster at the bonfire!"

"O-ow..." Flicker muttered as they lay in the remains of the tower. "Alright. Never doing that again. Worst idea of my life." While their elemental heritage had helped them against the fire, they had no such resistant to gravity nor falling debris, and for a while, the fire genasi could only lie there in the rubble as their companions continued the fight. It was only when Cascade ran to their side and used some of that divine magic of hers to heal their wounds that Flicker finally had enough strength to stand.

"Thanks, I really needed that," they muttered to the other genasi, getting themself to their feet and dusting themself off. "You know, it's times like these I wish I'd learnt some sort of healing magic myself instead of just, you know... burning things. Speaking of..." They turned to the remaining attackers, taking a moment to stare them down. They noticed the strange - presumably self-inflicted - mutilations they had, taking special note of the elves with the points of their ears removed, and grimaced. They glanced over at Cascade. "I don't know about you, but I've just about had it with these guys." They raised a hand in front of themself, forming a flame in the palm of their hand. The glow coming from their eyes and hair intensified, becoming a very bright red before they hurled the flame at the nearest attacker.

Rala didn't like the idea of leaving flicker behind, but she trusted Jormund to protect him. Better yet, she glanced over and could vaguely see that Flicker was already getting up, and the eruption of fire told her he was either alright, or in the midst of a fight. Regardless, she had ordered and she'd be quick to follow them. Hefting the heavy man over her shoulder with another groan, the short woman heaved with each haggard step until she was just before the reinforcements and her legs were begging her to stop. She made sure to drop the man with care, but as soon as he was off of her, she came running back behind Jormund, waving her sword in the air.
"Hold on Flicker! I'm coming!" She bellowed from the top of her longs, flying towards the misty battlefield.

As Rala leaves Paxton at the shield wall, the leader of the highwayman defensive line - an imposing warforged wielding a formidable tower shield and a spear with a serrated head - called out once again. "Greenwood! Get Paxton to safety!"

"Right right!" One of the archers behind the shield wall said before dashing out, grabbing Paxton and carrying him off into the camp.

The warforged then looked back at Rala as she hurried off towards the rest of the party. "Help your friends, but don't stay out there too long!" It called after her. "The enemy is numerous and will overwhelm you with weight of numbers if you tarry!"

Aura let out a sigh of relief as backup from the camp arrived. However she tensed up again when she noticed her group not yet retreating. "Damn it guys, I am all for going out in a blaze of glory but could we maybe not do it today! Get your asses back here!" She yelled across the field as she moved as far as she could, while still remaining behind protective cover. She wanted to at least get a view on some enemies so she could provide cover fire for her friends if she needed to.

---

Aura moved her full 30ft east and then took the dash action to move another 30 east so she could have unobscured sights on the 2 enemies on the field.

Large mounds of earth suddenly flew out of the trees and onto the fires that weren't hidden by Cascade's Marine Layer at the time, cutting them off from the air they need to burn and extinguishing them in short order.

With the fires no longer blocking the way, more attackers were allowed to spill out of the woods and onto the battlefield. The Marine Layer and the remains of the tower split them into two groups. Each group then moved to the nearest wagon on either side and tipped it over for use as cover.

One attacker was not like the rest though. This attacker, a tiefling who was missing both horns and tail, emerged from the forest with a crossbow in hand as she took cover behind the dirt-covered debris of the formerly flaming tower. The tiefling took aim at Jørmund and loosed a crossbolt which, thankfully for him, bounced harmlessly off his armor.

"Listen to your friend Yoseph, you wouldn't want to embarrass yourself in the name of your sultan. Better let your minions do it for you. I would rather have snow and ice than wait for a coward." Jørmund yrlled in Primordial before turning to where the cross bow bolt that glanced off his armor came from. Grabbing his holy symbol, he channeled some of the divine magic he was granted to send a small pillar of radiant flame at his attacker.

He started toward the mist looking for Flicker and Cascade.

An inarticulate screech of rage split the air in response to Jørmund's provocation. "Yoseph! I said stand down!" The Terran voice exclaimed before the sound of a scuffle could be heard from within the forest. "Great honors will go to whoever silences the Northman!" The Terran voice then called out causing all attackers save the archer who was reeling from the effect of Jørmund's Sacred Flame to look towards Jørmund, watching him as he ran into the mist and quickly found his companions.

Cascade gave a smile as Flicker thanked her for the healing. It did fade away when Flicker turned his attention back to battle. She was confused and concerned when she saw that their foes seemed to have all of their unique features cut off in some way. She also understood the Primordial discussions.

She heard the guards' call to fall back, and she looked to Flicker, Jormund, and Rala. She speaks to Flicker and Jormund, in response to Flicker's words earlier, "We're not lone sailors out here. We have a crew of our own to help. Let's trust them and fall back before we get overwhelmed,"

She then called to Rala, "FALL BACK! WE'RE FALLING BACK!"

Cascade is ready to move with Jormund and Flicker back to the rest of the group, and ready to attack anyone who enters the mist and tries to attack her and her newfound friends.

"Archers! Give me a volley! Cover the adventurers' escape!" The warforged leader called out. The highwayman archers did as commanded, launching a volley of arrows that killed three of the attackers and left the rest ducking for cover. As the archers prepared to fire again, the archer that had dragged Paxton away returned and took up their place in the defensive line again.