Flicker clenched their teeth slightly as several people started asking them to fall back, and for a moment the red glow in their hair and eyes intensified as they looked at the remaining attackers... then they released a small sigh and the light dimmed back to its regular levels, though still tinted more red than its usual shade of orange. "Yeah, you're right, you're right," they said to Cascade. "Best we get outta here before things get, well, uglier." There was the smallest hint of disappointment in their tone, though it was impossible to tell what was the object of that disappointment: their friends for not wanting to continue the fight, or themself for being so eager keep fighting. Even Flicker themself wasn't sure. "Alright, let's go," they said, and started heading back towards the rest of the group.

Rala was eagerly charging into the fray when the call to retreat sounded. Her friends were already en route to safety behind the shield wall much to her disappointment. Still, with how flicker looked and the numbers they were against, she couldn't help but agree with the call. The casters would be better used behind the cover, and she wasn't half bad with a bow. Screeching to a halt from previously sprinting full speed forward, in one swift action Rala slid her blades into their sheath and unslung her bow from her back with an arrow already notched. The arrow flew off in the general direction of the left battalion of raiders. Rala didn't bother to check if it hit or now, she was more focused on pivoting on her heel and sprinting off full speed back behind the shield wall.

Despite not taking the time to aim properly, Rala manages to score a good enough hit to bring down one more attacker before moving behind the shield wall. This loss would prove to be inconsequential however, as yet another wave of attackers emerged from the trees, nine maul bearers and one crossbowman. It seemed that the promise of 'great honors' was quite the tempting reward to the attackers. As no sooner had they heard the words of the Terran voice, all of the attackers had moved to surround the Marine Layer that Jørmund was hiding in. None bothering to do anything about those who weren't hidden save for the two archers who fired on Flicker as they fled, yet soon stopped this when Flicker caught one of their crossbolts and threw it back.

"Of course it would be great honors to which ever tries to silence me. Would you really get honors? Would your sultan know what you did or would Yoseph and his friend take the praise for killing me? No the most you may get is quiet praise then forgotten after you perish on the field. Let your cowardly leaders hide in safety behind you and give empty promises."

Jørmund nods to Cascade about falling back to the line. Before taking off he mutters a call to his diety to infuse his mace with the fire of the forge. Heading towards the line where Aura was stopping in the edge of the fog and striking the person on the edge of the flank.

Cascade watches as Flicker easily dashed off ahead, while she remains by Jormund’s side. She sighs seeing the enemies try and surround her and Jormund. She adds after Jormund speaks his piece, “Why’re you trying to please this Sultan, anyways? Your lives are your own! Isn’t there stuff you’d rather be doing?”

As she speaks a bit of how they could be living freely, her trident starts to hum as she channels the last bit of magic from Deep Sashelas. She seems to have taken inspiration from Jormund’s Searing Smite earlier.

She sighs through her nose at the enemy in front of her and she finishes, “One life, right? Don’t blow it!”

She then strikes with her trident, not to kill, but to knock unconscious. As her trident makes the strike, a loud boom echoes out. She hoped the force would be enough to knock him back and prone to allow her and Jormund to run onwards.

As Jørmund and Cascade move to flee, they fall upon one of the attackers - a loxodon missing his ears and tusks - with powerful smites. The loxodon takes Jørmund smite with little more than a grunt, though it's obvious that the attack has had quite the effect. And when Cascade struck her blow, the humanoid elephant managed to keep himself from being sent flying. But even so, he crumpled to the ground in an unconscious heap from the damage dealt to him.

Annoyed that the enemy forces seemed ballsy enough, or desperate enough, she wasn't sure which, to impede her friends path she decided to absolutely ruin one guy's day if she could. From her position behind the archer line she cast a quick hex on an enemy blocking Jormund and Cascade's exit. She then pelted the individual with an eldritch blast. "Wow you guys really need that many people to take down a measly 2. Not to mention you already failed at stopping us from sounding the alarm...Honestly that's just sad. Do better. Or better yet why don't you turn tail and run like the cowards you truely are." She yelled across the feild in Primordial, taunting the enemy in a similar way to Jormund.

---

Bonus action-casted Hex an enemy blocking the path of her friend's exit. Giving them disadvantage on ability checks using Wisdom

Action-Eldtrich blast for a 7 Using my insportaion to reroll that attack for a much better 23. The enemy takes a spicy 9 force damage as well as 2 thunder damage from Genie's wrath and 5 necrotic damage from being hit while Hexed.

Despite Aura's barbs, it seems the calmer assault leader has managed to get his hot headed counterpart under control as no reaction can be heard from the trees this time. Aura's spells find much more success though, managing to find its way through the fog to bring down the last attacker blocking the path for Jørmund and Cascade.

And despite a few of them being unable to see any of the attackers due to Cascade's Marine Layer blocking their line of sight, those among the highwayman archers who were still able to see the enemy loosed another volley and managed to fell yet another attacker.

Flicker paused in their retreat to glance over at Cascade and Jørmund, noting that their friends were having far more difficulty in getting away than they were. They considered running to their aid until Aura cast a spell to dispatch an enemy blocking their path, and Flicker decided the best thing they could do right now was to just get out of there. They ran over to where Rala was standing with the other highwaymen. "Hey," they said to the human woman, attempting to sound casual despite the danger and the fact they were starting to get out of breath. "How's it going?"

"Left wall! Close!" The warforged defense leader called out once Flicker had made it to safety, Causing the shield wall on the left hand side of the battlefield to close.

As Rala returned to sanctuary behind the sheild wall, she could now turn her attention the aiding an ally. Seeing an enemy baring down of cascade, Rala notched another arrow and let it sail towards the foe with malicious intent, aiming for their face. Her arrow, however, narrowly passes over their head, sending a swift rush of wind behind it as the arrow snagged into an unsuspecting tree.

Not being able to see how many people were in the fog with Cascade and Jormund was beginning to frustrated Aura to no end so she moved behind cover beside Bowman and Bull. "I am about to go blind and deaf, if something happens and we need to move, just pinch me or something." With that she sent Hawk out into the fog to find the last two of her people.

Through the eyes of Hawk she eventually caught sight of the two genasi. "I can't provide much help where I am but Hawk can help you out." The bird seemed to speak in Aura'a voice. As it moved to be a general annoyance to the enemies beside cascade.

---

Aura moves 25ft to the right beside Bowman and transferes her senses to Hawk.

Hawk uses his movement to fly into the Marine layer and give Cascade the help action (advantage on their next attack)

"Put out the rest of those flames!" The Terran voice called out again. More earth flew from the trees then, and the last of the fires that had been somewhat limiting the attackers' advance were gone. More mutilated militants materialized from the forest, all of them immediately heading towards the fog concealing Jørmund and Cascade. Meanwhile, in the mist itself, the two attackers who were still close enough to Jørmund and Cascade to see them moved to block their passage back to the shield wall. The two attacker swung their mauls at Jørmund, but their hits were not enough to get through the cleric's armor.

Jørmund shakes his head at the two that had moved to block his and Cascade's path. "Fools, there is no honor in you dying here for those cowards. May you find peace in the afterlife." raising his mace above his head briefly before bringing it down in a wild swing at the being in front of him. The resounding crack of metal against flesh and bone was enough notice that the hit was solid. Immediately after delivering the blow Jørmund started towards the defensive line. He was fairly certain Cascade could make use of the opening he just made to get around the other person in the fog.

With the alcohol in his system enhancing his bravery and dulling his caution, Jørmund boldly threw aside all concerns for defense and struck the attacker in front of him with all the force he could muster. As the blow landed, pulping the attacker's skull and laying him low, Jørmund would be able to make out the faint sound of deep, booming laughter, though he couldn't place where it was coming from. As Jørmund made for the shield wall, the attacker in front of Cascade took advantage of Jørmund's lack of attention to defense and swung for the earth genasi's back. However, Jørmund ran out of range just quick enough that the attacker's maul missed him by a fraction of an inch.

Cascade was surprised to see the hawk talking with Aura's voice, but there wasn't much time to react. She follows Jormund's lead, and after he speaks his piece, kills one of the foes, and runs, she turns her attention to the other foe. She speaks to him, "Seriously, Brah. Wouldn't you prefer basket weaving to this?!"

She follows Hawk's lead and her trident strikes at the foe. After that, she hurries past him and catches up with Jormund, the fog still emanating from her holy symbol.

As Jørmund and Cascade approached the shield wall, Cascade dropped her Marine Layer to allow the archers to let fly one more volley, slowing down the attackers just long enough to get the last two members of the party behind the shield wall. With everyone safe and sound, they all headed deeper into the campsite to where the counter attack was being mustered.

However, now that the adrenaline of sudden battle has worn off, the fact that all of you had just been getting ready to settle in for the night reasserts itself and you all begin to feel the weight of exhaustion bearing down on you.

As you arrive at the mustering ground, you immediately take note of two sights of interest.

One sight is that of a female simic hybrid standing on a box barking orders at those around her. Judging by the fact that those who respond to the hybrid's barking with some variation of the words "Yes boss!", this woman is the leader of the highwaymen.

The other sight is a large table of potions manned by a trio of goblins. A cardboard sign hangs off the front of the table with the words "Zing! A ful nite's rest in just fertee secundz! Onlee 30 gold peesiz a botul! CUMPLEETLEE FREE UNTIL FITE IZ OVUR!" crudely painted onto it. A group of tired looking people stand in front of the table. Each person takes a bottle from the table and drinks it. A few seconds later, strange things happen to each person who drinks the potion. One drinker grows a beard made of feathers that explode out from his face when he sneezes a moment later. Another vanishes without a trace for six seconds before reappearing as if he had never left to begin with. And a third becomes surrounded by faint, ethereal music. But despite these strange effects, the drinkers all had one thing in common: Every one of them started looking a lot less sleepy a few moments after the dealing with the initial oddness.

Cascade is used to hard work and a lot of physical exercise, but right before she was ready to sleep? This was different. She could feel the exhaustion start to take her, and she had already used almost all of Deep Sashelas's blessings!

Speaking of...

She hurries to Rala, and she hands her the sheath she carved before the attack saying, "Auntie! Here! As promised! Attune to it when you can! Blessed by Deep Sashelas himself!"

The sheath is made of monkeypod wood, and it is carved with plumeria designs.

When Cascade sees the sign for the potions, she does not hesitate to grab one, thank the goblin and drink it.

The decreasing adrenaline in his body combined with the copious amounts of alcohol he had consumed earlier was leaving the genasi cleric even more sluggish than when the attack had started. He went to the table where the goblins had set up a table with potions labeled "Zing". Jørmund grabbed one and drained the position as quick as he could.

He turned back to the party looking at each of them trying to gage who might need some healing or bolstering magic.

Aura took a deep breath when the rest of her group finally made it behind cover. Signaling Hawk, who had perched on Cascades shoulder, to come back to her. The moment the bird settled on her shoulder she felt the sleep that has so far eluded her try to take over.

"Could tonight get any worse?" She muttered to her bird wanting nothing more than to curl up into a ball and sleep. She could probably do it right then and there but alas, it did not seem to be in the cards. Instead it seemed the camp was being provided with a strange, albeit seemingly effective way to keep them awake.

She walked over to the Zing potions and downed one with little to no care for the potential other effects it might have.

---

A big ol 92