Ashevelen listened to the two newcomers leave and shook her head. Turning to Cicero and Gwyn, she watched as Gywn took our the map and talked about engaging the guards.
"Look, not to sound too...mercenary here but what do we get out of that? Let's just find your equipment and leave. Between our uniforms and the ruckus those two and the other slaves will raise, we won't have any issues escaping. I say we let them do their stuff, bring as many guards to them as possible and when everyone is distracted we go get your gear and leave. We don't owe them anything and the way I see it, they owe us for saving them. " said Ashe in a very serious manner.
The truth was, she couldn't care less about the two. They were just...there at the right time. With Manzur gone, there was no point for Ashevelen to lose even more time. Home awaited and if she somehow roped those two in...perfect.
Cicero listened to Gwyn thoughtfully as she explained the map. "Then that's the way we'll go." He nodded affirmatively. However, Ashe had other ideas. Cicero responded shaking his head, "We're not about to leave a bunch of freedmen to their fates at the hands of sinister and well-armed demonfolk...no offense." He gave Ashe a sidelong glance and continued, "Besides, we don't know Manzur's whereabouts or what has become of him. I pray he isn't already gone." Cicero appeared mournful at the prospect of losing his former comrade. "Come let us take on those that wait behind that door." He motioned to the doorway Gwyn had pointed out earlier.
Before either of the two could respond, Cicero kicked down the doorway sword drawn. He shouted with all the fervor he could muster in his broken demonfolk, "THE CAVE IS COLLAPSING!! EVERYBODY OUT!!"
1d20-2=5, Failure
The two bewildered demonfolk guards stared at Cicero in disbelief, apparently dumb to anything he had just shouted. The trio stood in complete silence for a couple of seconds before Cicero whispered back, "I don't think it worked...
@Fetzen@Sol Grim On the other side, Fyr and Dalious had begun their great escape. The band of malnourished misfits had the element of surprise. But could the momentum continue if they stopped to interrogate this one? The remaining demonfolk guard was sweating nervously. He did not seem to understand the common tongue, but he understood Dalious' threatening gestures. Putting it together, he motioned to himself and pointed down another opening to the East. Would they follow his directions or move in the apparent direction of the exit, south?
The guard looked terrified, as he pointed toward the east. "Just kill him" one of the former slaves yelled behind Dalious. "Yea, he's trying to trick us!"said another.
Dalious only hesitated briefly, then gripped his spear tightly and jammed it as hard as he could through the guards chest. The look on the dying guard's face stamped its image into Dalious's mind. The rest of the former slaves cheered the pirate as the guard's body fell limp to the floor. Dalious instantly felt regret, for the guard had surrendered.
The mob of them continued cheering as the company continued southward, knowing that if they didn't find the armory they could always come back and head east. But Dalious felt sick to his stomach and he didn't understand why. He had killed dozens of people before...but this one was the only one who surrendered first. It made him sick. He slowly followed the mob, dragging Manzur's blood stained spear across the sand as he went.
Ashevelen grunted in annoyance. Maybe these companions she found herself with weren't the opportunistic type she always believed people to be. A problem or an opportunity for the future.
"Very well. We'll save them but I'm expecting a reward from them. " said Ashe dejected.
"Trust me. Manzur is dead or long gone. It ain't hard for one to escape here on his own if there's a big enough of a distraction like you guys caused while fighting off the guards. This place surely has multiple exists, not just the one we went through. Any smuggling or slaving operation has one. " continued Ashe at the mention of Manzur.
But before she could say something else, Cicero took the lead and went inside a room. Screaming like an idiot. Realizing that his ruse won't work based on the faces of the guards, Ashevelen, who wasn't in the room yet, went into the shadows. Trying to flank if not go around the guards completely as they stared at Cicero.
"I would say not..." Then darted beside Cicero, drew out her rapier, and lunged for the guard that Ashe was not attacking.
Opposed Initiative: Gwyn 15, Soldier 14
The guard raised his sword to react, but her blade pierced right through before he could block the attack then she stood back upright, withdrawing the sword as well. The guard stumbled back, stepping onto a tile of a pegasi. The tile shifted underneath and he screamed in terror as he was swallowed down.
Gwyn blinked, then looked about the room more carefully. All the tiles were very specifically decorated with different creatures, some of which seemed to match those on the walls. "...Another puzzle?"
The other guard, meanwhile, leapt towards Cicero. "Infiltrator!" His scimitar then swiped towards Cicero.
As the first one lunged at Cicero, Ashevelen approached from the back and quietly slit his throat with her sword, making sure that some of his blood would be sprayed over Cicero. A small "jab" for him not following the plan. "Oops. Very sorry for this. Maybe next time you'll let me talk with them instead of gelliny them that there's a cat INSIDE the cealing. " said Ashe in an innocent voice before turning over to Gwyn.
" It sure looks like another puzzle. Should we apply the same method as before? We look for the mechanism and try to cheat it or actually solve it this time? "
Turning her head slightly towards Cicero, Ashe spoke in a louder voice "Cicero, care to have a look for anything that might kill us if we get the puzzle wrong? "
Fyr frowned as he saw the other demonfolk being... taken apart... by Dalious and the former slaves. Not that this particular individual hadn't deserved it in his opinion, but just a little bit later would have been nice! There could never be enough interrogation if one had the opportunity. And then there was the fact that they all proceeded southwards now. Sure, the eastwards direction could be a trick, but the impression that the exit was down south could just be an illusion as well.
Where was his beloved axe ? What if they'd all even run away and force him to do the same once out of here so he'd never get the chance to retrieve it ? Or what if those demonfolk had even dared to disassemble it and melt it down already ? Just the thought alone felt nasty enough already!
"Anybody got something to burn ? Some of the stones here look as if one could make sparks with them. I want to test something before we continue!" He really would have liked not to raise his voice so much, but anything more silent and nobody would have heard him. They all seemed very enthusiastic to get out as soon as possible. Not that he wasn't, too...
Dalious looked down the hallways as the slaves headed south, while he and Fyr lingered a bit longer. Both hallways were slghtly illuminated by the glowing mushrooms sprouted around.
"This is not the time to warm ourselves by a fire mate," he said. There was also nothing around to start a fire that he could recognize. "I promise, when we are out of here and all is done with, I will personally make a fire for you so you can warm those muscles of yours. Hell I'll even sing you a lullaby to ease the moment. For now, forward we must go!"
Dalious gave him a tap on his large shoulder and pressed on.
Cicero winced as the two enemies converged upon him. Thankfully, with Gwyn's precise thrust with her rapier and Ashe's knife slit the two guards fell dead. The blood from Ashe's kill splattered on Cicero's face. He cleaned himself off and muttered, "Thanks." He scratched his head in frustration, "Apparently my demonfolk is not as good as I remembered..." He muttered to himself. Then he turned to Ashe on looking for traps, "I'll take a look then."
1d20+3 = 13, Success
@Fetzen@Sol Grim The band made it after several minutes to what appeared to be the exit. Bright yellow light shone through a large entryway. It illuminated the sand to look like glistening gold dust. Some of the men began to weep for joy. Others stood dumbfounded. They had made it, after all this time. Some had been stuck below for years. Now, it was finally over.
However, there was no sign of their equipment. Though, the men did not care. Some yelled out that they were headed home. Most to travel back to the city of Roh. One of the men spoke to Dalious and Fyr, "Are you leading us back to Roh? There is a port there that we could sail anywhere but here."
Fyr and Dalious would find no sign of the others. They had gone another way entirely. Through deductive reasoning, they could determine the way to get to Cicero and the others was to travel eastward. A tunnel curved to the left from their vantage point.
The sight of the opening into the sand dunes was something to behold. Dalious laughed hysterically as they reached the exit.
"Ha!" Dalious exclaimed. "I'm the greatest pirate that's ever lived. Ha! I escaped those bastards on my ship trying to capture my reward, I escaped the red witch with amazing breasts...and now I've escaped these God forsaken demon folks and their prison of eternity! I'm the best! I'm the man, seven hells I'm amazing. ... where's Cicero!?"
He sunk himself into the sand and started kissing the sand until his realization of his last comment. How were they not already here? Did they get trapped again? It didn't matter, he was free! He was....
"F*ck, Cicero's still in there."
Then one of the slaves asked him the next plan and whether they would go to the docks of Roh to sail away..."Sounds enticing,"he spoke with a defeated sigh. "You lot go there, find a ship and lie in wait. I will return and we'll sail away together in freedom! Wait for my return...but...I must go back in...my friends might need me." He nodded to them and huffed heavily. "If any of you care to join me, let us begin ". Dalious began to go back, as he did not have many people in his years he considered friends...Cicero and Gwyn were certainly amongst them.
Gwyneria pursed her lips. "We could try. But it would need to cover us getting all the way to there." She pointed across the hallway, a wide open airy space far different than what else they'd seen before. "The walls seem to say to step only on the friends of demonfolks...Though there might also be a pattern up there for how to get across."
Cicero spotted where the first poor guard fell through the ground, noticing the pegasus tile was back upright after dropping him through the floor. Examining the tiles closer to him, he could see that several had those spring mechanisms and only a few did not. In fact, in front of him, only the dragon seemed safe while the griffin, unicorn, and eagle all would open up if stepped on.
Just as the greatest pirate that had ever lived was about to turn around and go back inside, what might have felt like the largest hand ever grown at the end of an arm tapped onto his shoulder firmly. "Didn't you, in all your amazement about yourself, forget something ?" the skeptical voice of Fyr would reach Dalious' ears.
"I... want... my... axe... back!"
Fyr tried to remain calm, but hoped that the very deliberate pause he had inserted between each two of his words would be enough to deliver the message of not accepting 'no!' as an answer. "And if you just run inside and frantically start searching anyone or anything, we might lose track of the exit we just found again!"
Fyr bowed and pick up the next piece of solid looking stone he could find, something there definitely wasn't a lack of right next to a cavern's entrace. Given they were in a desert, the mushroom cave's walls were less soaked in water than one might have expected from the average underground tunnel and thus also less covered in dirt and moss. That wasn't something Fyr couldn't replace with violence though, rubbing stone against stone so hard that a visible set of lines was left behind on the wall anyway. "I will make one of these each time we encounter any kind of crossing so we can just backtrack from whereever we end up. It also allows us to determine where we already searched and where we didn't, alright ?"
Fyr hoped that the greatest pirate that had ever lived, in all his self-glorification, would fail to realize the obvious problem with the sign Fyr had just created immediately: It was not an arrow or anything everyone would understand intuitively, but more of a rune as it was more common in the Northern lands he came from, but rarely seen elsewhere. A humble attempt at installing a backdoor should Dalious suddenly decide to just leave everyone behind once he had found whom and whatever he wanted. Given the fact that they had just been a team fighting for their lives, this pirate had jumped the gun towards giving instructions without asking a little too fast for Fyr's taste. Was he just in search of a crew he could hire for a tiny budget ?
"Now let's find Cicero and then our gear!"
Fyr headed inside and guided his steps straight back to where he believed they had decided to go south instead of east. Or no... not they had decided this, again Dalious had all on his own!
Ashevelen went on to watch Cicero look for the mechanism of this new puzzle/trap they found themselves in for a minute or two before she went over to the remaining dead guard. She gave him a quick look over before taking off his armor, clothes and whatever else he had on him and dragged them to the edge of the tiles.
"Good job, Cicero, Gwyn. Friends of the demonfolk...hmmm, we barely have any but dragons seem to fit the bill. Now, unless it writes something of how many tries we've got on those walls, I'm gonna try something out. " said Ashe to the group before grabbing two pieces of the guard's armor and throwing them on a griffin tile and then another two pieces on the dragon tile.
The armor piece Ashe threw on the griffen tile falls through. A loud bang is heard a few seconds later. The two armor pieces that landed on the dragon remain in place. Apparently, safe. Cicero smiled, "Our demonfolk friend here was right Gwyn! We'll have to give her more credit in the future. I think I can figure the rest out." He gazed over the next 5 rows of tiles—6 total. The next row was an imp, a fairy, a nymph, and a pegasus. The third row was a centaur, an incubi, a genie, and a frost giant. The fourth row was a satyr, a harpy, a succubus, and a dryad. The fifth row was an ancestral demonfolk, a leshya/ent, a naga, and a dwarf. The last row was a human king, an elven mage, an angel, and a demon.
Cicero scratched his chin for a moment,"Friends of demonfolk, huh? That's easy." He picked up the armor pieces on the dragon, placed his footing on it firmly, and threw a piece of armor ahead. He did this in succession upon; the imp, incubi, succubus, ancestral demonfolk, and demon tiles. He made quick progress only stopping at the end for there was a wide gap between the last tile and the edge.
Meanwhile, Gwyn followed behind him with steps swift as lightning, keeping track of the demonic tiles to step on. She paused at the last tile for Cicero to clear it.
Cicero glanced back at her, nodded, and leaped with all his strength for the other side.
1d20+3=5, Fail
Cicero was unable to make the jump from a standing position, falling just out of his boot range. He gripped the edge with all his might, hanging on to the unstable ledge. "Uh, Gwyn? I seemed to have slipped..." He tried to maintain his calm, but the drop was quite deep from his precarious position.
1d20+2=16, Success
Gwyn jumped over the hanging knight and yanked him above the side of the edge in a single motion. It seemed automatic. Cicero breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you." Gwyn only shook her head. "How you survived without me around, I will never know." Cicero smiled and punched her arm playfully, "Neither will I!" Cicero chuckled. Then he dusted himself off. "I'll make this easier for you at least, Ashe. It will also serve as an escape if needed." He took a thick rope from his bag and tied a sturdy knot to a large overhand near the edge. Then he tossed it onto the last tile.
As Ashe followed, A loud noise emanated from the darkness down the enclosure. It reverberated throughout the cave. The sound of maniacal laughter. It reverberated all around them. Then, they began to fade out of vision and hearing until they could no longer hear or see.
@Fetzen@Sol Grim Dalious was forced to pause upon feeling the massive hand of Fyr. The pirate turned from a fearless pirate about to re-enter the unforgiving cave to find his friends, to a scolded dog with its tail tucked under its legs as the large man made his intentions clear as crystal. The man wanted his axe.
"...Uhh yea...sure. You can have all the axes. I had a boarding axe, all yours my friend! Shite, but I get yours, in particular, must mean something special to you. You have my word...if it's still in there we will find it!"
Instead of leading the way as he originally had started to, the pirate stayed a good few feet behind Fyr.
Fyr then made some rune designs on the walls of the cave to mark their pathway, a smart move. However he didn't make simple markings, instead he made specific designs that caught Dalious' attention as they slowly moved onward in the tunnels.
"Those are interesting markings, my friend, they seem almost personal. Perhaps religious in nature? What do they mean? Are they from your homeland?"
"No, no, and yes." Fyr responded, an amused smile whizzing across his face as he finished the next of the symbols.
He turned around towards the pirate and started explaining: "These are pretty ordinary symbols from my homeland. Nothing religious, but pretty much common writing. Okay... they have gone out of use here and there due to cultural influences or out of sheer necessity in order to communicate with foreign neighbors across the border, but every native at least knows them. They indicate directions such as left or right, up or down. Could have painted arrows, but the demonfolk would have been able to interpret them more easily!"
Or fancy pirates, that was! Of course, Fyr didn't add that to his last sentence. What he also didn't say was that he was not going to use the same symbol for the same direction all the time, but synonyms or alternative descriptions where possible. Everything else would have been too easy in terms of identifying a pattern!
"We want to find our way back out, do we?"
"Surely we do," Dalious responded. This mountain of a man was far more clever than he gave him credit for. Using his people's language signs to direct them on the way out was borderline genius. It reminded Dalious of the thieves' cant and the pirate code.
"Interesting, and clever. We pirates use the pirate's code to communicate with one another when we can't speak freely or for directions to treasure. Thieves use a similar code. I respect all secret codes and dialects and languages, fascinating stuff really. Ah...I do see how your symbols kind of work...yes yes...ok... hmmm... interesting..."
Dalious stood staring at the symbol for a bit longer, in awe. Once he realized Fyr had moved on, he jumped back to reality and ran ahead to catch up to him.
"Yea, so...secret symbols and signs are kind of a specialty of mine. Thieves and pirates have their own special codes and secret signs. I would love to learn about your people, I tend to be good at understanding all of them. Hehe. Well, except for one...women. The codes and signs of women have dazed, confused, and baffled me for years. I just don't get them. Say, how are the women where you're from? Are they confusing and complicated like the rest? Is there a lady back home?? Eh...eh??"
Throughout the duo's conversation, they had made a lot of progress down the other path the demonfolk had motioned earlier. Up ahead they could make out a long group of tiles that formed a kind of walkway with a great fall below. And past that...they saw them! Cicero, Gwyn, and Ashe! Before they could call out, a sudden burst of insane laughter broke out far down the cave. But the sound also reverberated all around them. A deafening insane cackling. Suddenly, the duo began to faze out of their ability to see or hear, until there was nothing.
Everyone's vision and hearing began to slowly return. The first thing they saw and heard came from a very strange, ghastly man holding an unconscious Manzur with a knife.
"Well, well, what do we have here? A barbarian, a demonfolk traitor, a pirate, an elven witch, and of course, the fallen knight." His grin widened as he stared at Cicero. "I would offer you all some refreshments, but we are rather busy at the moment. Lots to prepare for our little show and a very special visitor in sight...Except, you seem to have gotten somewhat in the way of our preparations. You allowed our little sheep to get away, and now we're going to need to compensate..." His eyes then rested on Gwyneria. "However, the blood of an elf, along with the rest of you, may be enough for our purposes..."
Gwyn's eyes narrowed. "Blood..." She glanced around the room, noting every little detail. The runes etched into the very walls, the thrum of magic resonating in her veins. "The whole room's prepared for a blood ritual!"
His chuckle reverberated through the room. "Quite right, my dear. And if you all would just stand still..." Guards circled behind the group, blocking the way out. "We can make this quite quick and painless for you. I do so hate to waste any more time." With that, he slit the butcher of the sand's throat. His blood splattered the cavern floor. "What a mess..." He chuckled, grinning wildly.
Gwyn's eyes glanced around the room. There had to be something they could do, even against 15 guards and the madman. If only they could even the odds...The idea formed, her hand already starting to glow. She looked back to her companions. "Don't look. Then she threw the glow up into the air and the room exploded with a bright flash of light.
Ashevelen woke up and straight away put her hand on the handle of her sword. Taking in the room, the ridiculous number of guards, and the crazy wizard she chuckled. They were dead. That is until Gywn started doing her magical mumbo-jumbo.
Covering her eyes instinctively, Ashe waited for whatever Gywn was supposed to do. Yet, after a few seconds, nothing happened. Turning towards her, she realized what she wanted to do. Light. Only a tiny fizzle appeared. That was not what she intended. "Again. Don't look." said Ashe as she touched her dice and threw them on the floor with one hand as the other covered her eyes completely. They started to glow brightly before dissipating.
1d20 --> 18 Success
Nothing seemed to happen initially and then, suddenly, Gywn's spell got amplified. It started to grow and grow until it was like a small golden sun. Illuminating the whole room of the cavern. "Now that's how it's done, Gwyn! Don't doubt luck ever again." shouted Ashevelen as she drew her sword and went straight for the closest enemy.
Due to the conditions of the dark cavern and their eyes not being used to bright light, the demonfolk screamed in unison. Some fell over, others covered their eyes in pain. All they could do was stumble about.
The Ghastly man was protected by some sorcery. He understood their language and had already put up a barrier of sorts even before they had arrived. His minions weren't so lucky.
Fyr closed his eyes as firmly as he could, turning his head away from the luminous blast so it would not affect him. Then, once he felt safe enough to start observing his surroundings again, he barely hesitated a moment long enough to verify that their opponents were indeed blinded before rushing forwards. How could this bastard even dare to touch his family heirlooms?
1d20+6 = 12 Success
What did subsequently touch the cavern's wall was the demonfolk's head. Fyr punched him in the face hard enough to not only break a nose but also to make the wall behind his enemy break something on the back of the demonfolk's head. Never before had the sound of wood and metal dropping onto the floor been so satisfying. Finally!
Dalious backed up a few feet as the demonfolk poured into the room. He noticed one of them was wearing his gear, it was unmistakable. Planting a stance side by side with Fyr, the thought of death crept into his mind. This was a glorious way to meet an end.
The pirate smirked, while twirling the spear he held swiftly from side to side. My name is Captain Dal... his words were cut short as Gwynaria made the first move. He heard her words and obeyed, pausing for the action to take place. "....Ahem, my name....." Then Ashevelen yelled for them to, again, close their eyes. As he did so, Dalious could almost feel the blinding light erupt. All the demonfolk guards were temporarily blinded. "...eh, f*ck it!" Dalious thrust his spear toward the guard wearing his equipment.
1 d20+7 Success
The spear went straight through the guard's throat and out the other side. Pulling the dead guard back toward him, Dalious quickly took back his satchel and cutlass while dropping the spear and corpse to the floor. The familiar feeling of his personal sword's grip satisfied well. "Oh...oh, yeah."
Cicero covered his face from the blast of light. When he regained his sight Cicero turned his back to the others and toward the hideous sorcerer. Did he call me, the 'fallen knight?' Cicero began to shake in rage. He looked at Gwyn and stated, "I'm going."
Cicero rushed the fiend with his longsword in one hand and magic-resistant shield in the other. But as he did so, a familiar face intervened. Out of some sort of shadow, Rhakkar appeared.
He shouted in a bloody rage and blocked off Cicero's strike with one of his axes. Rhakkar's eyes were bloodred, and dripping with anger. Cicero spoke evenly to the demonfolk rival, "So you are behind this as well, Rhakkar. That is if you're even conscious." Rhakkar, growled in response. Suddenly he swung his other ax toward Cicero's neck. He barely had time to raise his shield and deflect the blow. Cicero grunted in surprise.
The ghastly man grinned wildly. His teeth shimmered in the dark. He called out, "Thank you, Rhakkar. Please dispatch the dishonored knight while I deal with the rest." The sorcerer raised his pale white hand toward, Fyr. Mumbling a spell, Fyr could feel a drain on his body begin. It was subtle at first, but if it continued, it may end with him on the ground.
Just barely after the tides of joy about having his family heirlooms back had started to die down, Fyr could sense something he had not experienced before. It was like a thousand bees stinking and a thousand ticks sucking all at the same time, but he was perfectly aware of the fact that neither of these two creatures was present even remotely. He raised his shield in an instant and turned on his heel to direct it towards where he felt the drain was coming, and when that didn't help, but he could see the ghastly man focusing on him, things became much more clear.
Evil magic!
If someone thought that Fyr couldn't do acrobatics due to his rather exquisite weight class (which would become even more exquisite after a lot of proper food he hoped!), then he was about to prove them wrong. With a loud grunt he lept forward and swung his axe backward so that it could gain more momentum, the round shield still held firmly in a raised position just in case this sorcerer would have anything more melee around as well. Then plan? Very straightforward: Just crash into this ghastly man and have his guts cut out for him. Or wherever else the axe would go as this was not intended to be any sort of precision attack, just one intended to do as much excruciating damage as possible in one go.
Gwyn's hands quickly went to her bow. Not the best situation for archery, but she was not meant to be close quarters.
Her attention immediately was drawn to Rhakkar's attack. If Cicero went toe to toe to him right now...She didn't have much power left. She notched her bow, aimed for Rhakkar's head, then let loose.
1d20+2=15 Success
Taking advantage of the demonfolk guards still being blinded slightly, Dalious rushed forward and drove his blade deep into the nearest one's chest. He pushed the demonfolk off of his sword with a heavy kick, then spun around gracefully and sliced the next guard's head clean off. The blood shot out of the headless demonfolk like a fountain and showered those within range.
1d20+7=26 Success
As the others selected their chosen enemies, Ashevelen was heading straight toward a blinded demonkin.
1d20+7 --> 12 Success
With a quick thrust, she plunged her sword into his throat and muttered a few words in demonkin.
Immediately after she ran towards the next demonkin in hopes of killing more of them before they could stand up.
Gwyn's shot missed Cicero and struck Rhakkar in his neck. He growled in rage, but the strength of his blows began to wane noticeably. Cicero caught his breath as Rhakkar stopped momentarily to regain his strength.
Fyr's strike hit an invisible barrier. The ghastly man grinned maliciously. But then, with pure brute force, Fyr pushed with all his might on his ax. The barrier shattered like a dome of glass. His ax struck the man in the chest. Thumping against something hard. The man grunted in pain, coughing.
"You'll pay for that!" He croaked.
Gwyn smirked. Not too bad if she did say so herself. The movement of a guard getting closer met the corner of her eye. She swung around and fired, hitting right in the chest.
Then Cicero attempted a strike at Rhakkar with his longsword but went wide. The two were at a standstill. Rhakkar clutched his neck with one hand, bleeding. With the other hand, he gripped his ax.
Meanwhile, the Sorcerer raged at Fyr who went in for another strike at him. But rather than attempted to dodge or block the warrior's strike. He simply stood still. The ax cleaved through his body which fell to the ground in a pool of blood. But as he fell, his form shifted into one of the demonfolk.
He appeared 10 meters away and mumbled some sorcerous speech. The ground beneath everyone glowed in lines of red. The ground was marked with a large spell! The blood from the fight had already soaked their surroundings. Suddenly, a huge portal opened in the very middle of the cavern. An enormous, smoky, dark, burning figure emerged from the abyss and called out with a heavy, bass voice that reverberated through the cavern, "I AM FINALLY FREE. ALL MY SERVANTS SHALL BE REWARDED."
The ghastly man was ecstatic, grinning from ear to ear, "Master, I have brought you the elf witch, dishonored knight, and a band of misfits for your pleasure."
The smoky being stared at the group for a long time. Smoke billowing all around. Everyone was frozen in place as if making a move would incinerate them immediately. He called out, "COME!" His smoke wrapped around Cicereo, Rhakkar, and Gwyn in a single motion. It drew them toward his form.
Cicero struggled in vain, but could not escape. Rhakkar shouted and hacked at the smoke with his ax, but it passed through.
Gwyn's eyes widened as she felt herself and Cicero be drawn towards the man, the shadows holding firm. It didn't take too long for her mind though to know what to do. The light was always the natural enemy of shadow after all. "Cicero!" Then she reached into the last reserves of her power and light once more burst forth, dissipating the shadows as they went.
The enemy entity roared in anger. His grip dissipated. Gwyn began to fall to the ground unconscious. However, with his hands-free, Cicero caught his companion with one arm and landed on the ground softly.. "Got you! Stay with me, Gwyn!" He raised his shield toward the being and prayed, "Father, I need your power to shine forth as I heard in the stories of old..please."
The ghastly man shrieked in rage, and Rhakkar growled once more. Suddenly, the shield began to push the entity back into the portal from whence it came with a powerful anti-magic barrier. The being shrieked in rage, "THIS CANNOT BE! THAT RELIC OF OLD WAS DESTROYED!"
As the portal began to close, it reached out one last time. It snatched Cicero and Gwyn with a smokey dark hand and drew them toward himself.
One last time, her eyes raised to her companions. "The Sealed Ones...Seek the artifacts of the Sealed Ones!" With that, she dropped a book from her pack on the ground.
Cicero called out, "Take heart, friends! We'll see you again!" They were then engulfed in the portal as Rhakkar leaped through at the last moment. It closed behind them in a flash.
Everything was extremely quiet for a moment. The ghastly man was without words. He simply stared in disbelief, "No..no...nononononononono!!" He ground his teeth and muttered to the remaining three companions, "I will pour my wrath on you. You will regret this!!!"
Dalious had his back toward the portal for most of what happened. He was too busy defending off the demonfolk guards that swung and stabbed their weapons at him.
Everyone seemed to pause slightly as the smoke demon poured through the portal though, and he even looked back just momentarily to see that Gwyn was about to brighten the room with her magic once more. Dalious shielded his eyes briefly, then made his move once the guards fell for the blinding light yet again. Too easy.
1d20+7=26. Double kill!!
The pirate rushed forward, almost simultaneously hacking the throats out of two parallel guards with quick slashes from his blade. He ran through and now positioned his back on the other side of everyone. He saw the book Gwynaria had dropped as the portal sucked them all in and then disappeared. 'What did she mean? Were they...dead?'. There wasn't much time to think further on the matter as they were still outnumbered seven to three.
For a brief moment, Fyr did seemingly nothing but to stare at his own weapon which by now was thoroughly drenched in blood and other bodily residue. Had he not been absolutely sure about the exact properties of his family heirloom, he would have suspected its inherent magic to somehow have interfered with the evil powers of the ghastly man and created this... whatever kind of portal that was.
So the armored knight was gone ? The woman, too ? And what had their last words meant ? They had certainly sounded like Cicero had not been surprised by the chain of events even remotely as intensively as Fyr had been. Oh just how much he hated it to lack information!
Speaking of lack, something there was no lack of was demonfolk still, and one of those nasty individuals approached Fyr from the side, barely enough for the latter to see the attacker coming in the corner of his view. Halfway ripped out of his deep thoughts and halfway angry, Fyr just pushed his axe sideways and turned on his heels.
1d20+7 = 24. Success.
The enormous weapon cut through the demonfolk with enough momentum to come straight out again at the other end, adding a significant amount of bloodshed to the rather distasteful amount the cavern had already seen. Fyr could hear the sound of battle from at least one other point, clearly reflected by the hard walls in here, so he turned again to check whether there were any more to be dealt with.
Ashevelen suddenly stopped moving and mowed into the demonkin as Cicero and Gwynwere sucked through the portal to what she only imagined to be hell. It probably wasn't but the chill she got from that voic--no, demon sure gave her the impression. With both of them disappearing and with a ball of light enveloping the room, Ashe instinctively covered up her eyes.
The moment the light was gone, she moved forward towards the closest guards. The mystery of Gwyn and Cicero's disappearance could wait, after all, if they died, they couldn't be found. That is, if there was even a reason as for why they'd even go looking for them in the first place. Manzur was dead, Cicero and Gwyn gone, there was no need for Ashe to stay in this dry country anymore. She just wished that what she learned now was more than enough to deal with her mother's killer.
1d20+7 --> 20 + 7 --> 27 Critical Success
Her thought process had to end prematurely as a demonkin guard raised their hand in defence which prompted Ashevelen to quickly close in the distance and slash at his throat. As she did that, another guard was very close to the one she killed and with a quick motion of her hand, her knife was buried in the other guard's throat.
Looking around, she noticed that all the other guards were dead. The pirate and the good looking barbarian seemed to have done well in the fight.
"Now...this is bad. I'm assuming no one knows who that wizard was and the voice or that Rhakkar dude? If that's so, we need to leave this place and do that fast. This fight wasn't exactly quiet and I'm assuming more guards will be coming. I've got no luck left and Gwyn is gone, in other words, the next batch of guards will see us and they'll expect us. " said Ashevelen in a loud voice, enough for the other two to hear her before turning around to leave.
As she took a few steps, she noticed something glinting from the light on the ground. Approaching it, she realised this was Gwyn's bag, almost buried under the corpse of a guard. Pulling it free, she opened it to discover travelling supplies and other useless junk before her eye finally settled on a book. Opening it up, there were numerous pages filled with writing but this was not the time to read through it.
"Everyone ready? Let's talk about those two when we're safe. Unless you prefer to stay here and if so, I'm going. "
Dalious quickly grabbed the rest of his gear from the dead demonfolk guard that stole it. Everything seemed to be in order; his blue tunic, his boarding axe, crossbow and quiver of bolts, satchel with potions, bandolier with his throwing knives, belt and sheath, and his flask which was unfortunately emptied. Lastly he put on his sand colored hoodie and pulled the hood over his bloodied face.
"Right, let's go."
As he started out he saw the ghastly man's dead corpse under Ashevelen's blade, it reminded him that the man might have had something important. Dalious quickly searched the corpse to find some potions and a journal, putting them in his satchel for a later look.
He then ran up to catch up with the others as they were leaving.
