There wasn't any time to take a break or recover from the conflict with the troll. No sooner did the four-armed killer's body flare up into flames after Lyra shoved them into the fireplace, than Mythram darted out to chase down the cultist that had fled the fight, taking him down with a single arrow. Unfortunately his cries had already alerted others and Caress could hear the shouts confronting Mythram.
"Invaders! For what reason do you intrude on these grounds! Surrender now or your suffering shall be a lesson for the children in future days."
The cry of pain that followed, in a different voice, told Caress what Mythram's response to that was. For her part, the yuan-ti tapped into the divine font through her connection to Sharess and felt some of her injuries knitting closed. She darted out into the courtyard and caught sight of a pair of kobolds with feather dusters staring down at her.
"I'd advise you to either surrender or flee," she called out in draconic, seeing one of the two drop to the ground in response.
"I could use a little help," Ravyn called from behind her and Caress darted back to the warlock's side to provide her the healing she could.
 |
| Blasts, Heals, and Blades |
Elsewhere she could hear the clash of arms suppressed expression of pain from where Mythram had taken the flank and Caress looked that way, planning her next action. Lyra stepped past and called down a shaft of moonlight into the hallway they could see through the courtyard. Ravyn stepped to the door fire bolts of eldritch power against a soldier that had come into the courtyard after Caress had left it. Then the room was filled with hailstones pounding both the warlock and the yuan-ti.
Caress struggled past the hail and slippery ice to reach the door, coming beside Mythram where the rogue was facing a cult-warrior that was showing the wounds that conflict had cost him. The warrior lashed out with his swords, Mythram dodging and Caress digging into the power of the Still Eye to soften the blow and castigate her enemy. Followed by another fanatic joining the first and stabbing out at the two of them as well.
In the courtyard, the twanging sound of a crossbow was distorted by eldritch words of power to warp reality and turn a devastating blow aside. Lyra's cries could be heard alongside angry kobold voices. Ravyn blasted out again at the warrior in the courtyard as Mythram slow the two cultists engaging her and Caress who reached out to grab her shoulder and pour healing energies into the rogue before opening the door and charging across to engage with the warrior there and keep him locked down away from chasing anybody else.
Caress arrived in time to see Lyra move the moonbeam and shove a white-dragonborn into it, eliciting a shriek of pain. Ravyn peeked out from behind cover and blasted the warrior beside Caress, her hex biting into him as the blasts struck. Cursing, the cultist tossed aside his crossbow and drew his swords to strike the yuan-ti who deflected most of the barrage, but still one blow struck through, blunted somewhat by the Still Eye of the Dragon. A whispered shadow, flowed over her from Mythram's position, easing some of her wounds soon after.
The white-born cultist's voice rose in a horrific distortion that sought to form up into a hideous swarm, only for it to be countered by Lyra a moment before the sorceress teleported to beside the opposing spell-caster. Left without their original target, one of the kobolds filled with confidence and bearing a bloodied blade, charged beside the yuan-ti and cut into her. Hanging on by a thread, the paladin lashed out in a river of radiant energy flowing off of her hairpin dagger as she slammed it into the warrior with a burst of power, the wake of it charring the kobold to ash. In the flicker of the energy wave, she twinkled out of place and reappeared across the battlefield.
The cultist swordsman cursed and charged forward, suddenly finding himself between Mythram and Caress. There was a moment as he realized the poor position he had placed himself into before he lashed out with his swords drawing a line of blood from Mythram while Caress's shieldwork and barrier tattoo held the assault off for now. Through the doorway, they could see the blasts of Ravyn's eldritch powers and heard the death dry of a kobold along with the frustrated voice of the cult-leader.
For a brief moment the sound of another thing attempting to push itself into the world only for the eladrin moon sorceress to reach out and shut the door on it. A moment later, Lyra shouted out.
"There's a fucking helmed horror!"
Mythram killed the warrior between them and then slipped quietly down the hallway. Caress quietly indicated she was heading back to the front room. Once there, Ravyn was heading to the door.
"I think it's time to back off. Maybe tell Mythram we're leaving."
There was a sound of wrenching metal and Caress moved to the door beside the feast table, ruined by the earlier hailstorm, and saw the helmed horror recovering from the arrow slammed into its side, projected by an enchanted bow. Whispering prayer and pulling out a dart, Caress launched it, trying to hamper the construct some. But the dart deflected off clattering uselessly and the paladin kept hold of her goddesses enchantment for later.
The construct took a moment to choose targets and opted to pursue to the rogue, just stumbling across Mythram. Due to the awkward contact, the construct failed to connect with Shar's devotee. A moment later, Lyra teleported nearby it and then, with a sound of crashing thunder, she rocked the thing, but noted that the magic had difficulty getting a hold of it.
Down the road, Ravyn noticed nobody was following and sighed expressively before turning back to join the battle and move her hex to the Helmed Horror. Then Mythram turned their blades on the Helmed Horror and tore into it, breaking it into non-functional pieces. Hearing the sound of grinding gears and rending metal, Caress made a blind run across the courtyard.
"There's a secret passage in the fireplace!"
Caress nodded, but when she arrived, couldn't spot the mechanism.
"Where is it? I can't see it!"
Ravyn came in behind her and quickly found the latch, revealing a ladder down below where they found prisoners, one of whom had the cult leader's spear stabbed deep into him.
"We need a healer and my strength is exhausted," Caress called out.
"I'll be there as soon as someone comes to secure this woman!" Mythram called out from the hallway.
"It's too late for healing," Ravyn called out as Caress was already running to meet with Mythram and release the enchantment she'd been holding and binding up the white-dragonborn in magical bonds which she then reinforced with her rope.
With the adrenaline starting to fade away, the hope came that maybe they would be able to get a break here before the next crisis came down.
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