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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1516053" data-attributes="member: 9626">Time to get seriousAfter returning back to the camp, the party felt defeated, at least at first.  However, they knew that they still had a job to do, and quickly began planning for a more intelligent way to sneak in.  After a few hours of research (a passing soldier at one point overheard Tsine yell, “Wow, I never knew darkvision lasted that long!” at the tops of his lungs,) the party gave Tal a shopping list of supplies they needed, and he used his natural charm and investigative skills to scrounge up what they needed at the military camp.  The next morning, the party began their second attempt.The main difference this time was that Flix took over scouting duties, after downing a potion of darkvision.  Rudyard drank a second, and used it to lead the party through the tunnels without a light.  It was terrifying for the rest of the party, who had to stumble through an enemy-infested cavern without even knowing where the walls and hazards on the ground were, but it appeared that it paid off, since they reached the wall again without running across any more patrols.As they neared the wall, it was time for step two of their plan.  Tsine drank a third potion of darkvision, and quietly cast a spell, that shrouded the group in illusion.  Meanwhile, Tal used a spell to alter his form, appearing as a dark elf.  He put on the red robe they looted off of the dark elf rogue from the first patrol, and quietly led the invisible party to the gate.  The gate guards were similar to the ones they saw earlier, and both of the leaders had mercifully left long ago.  This left the drow on the wall, another by the gate, two wolves, and two hyenas.  However, as the party neared the gate, the drow on the floor asked Tal a question as he raised the gate.  Tal, sadly, didn’t speak the language, so he only stood there, uncomfortably.  As the drow got suspicious, Tsine realized this ruse lasted as long as it would, and the party sprang into action!Before any of them could go though, the rogue who realized something was up charged at Tal, catching the unfortunate bard/sorcerer by surprise.  His blade pierced deep into his stomach, causing him to wince with pain.  Dane screamed with rage and leapt out of the area of the illusion, slashing the rogue.  The rest of the group saw this, and easily realized they had been duped.  They saw through the false terrain Tsine created, and realized they were under attack by a strong enemy.  Tal stumbled around, but gritted his teeth to stand the pain.  He knew there was an enemy right in front of him and many around them, but he looked up and saw there was a warning bell by the drow on the wall.  “Focus on him!” he croaked, and fired a volley of magical orbs at him.  However, they vanished inches from the drow, leaving him unharmed.  Rudyard noticed the problem as well, but he decided to let the experts of distant attacks handle it, and instead attacked the rogue.  His blade sliced into the enemy easily, and the nimble but fragile dark elf went down.  Tsine focused on the drow on the wall, and sent a bolt of lightning at him.  The attack easily hit him, but while he staggered from the blow and was shaking spasmodically, he still moved.  Quercus decided to let someone else finish him, and flew at the nearest wolf, cutting into it.  Flix maneuvered behind the same wolf, and stabbed it in the heart, sending it crumbling to the floor.  Raz realized it was up to him to finish the other drow, and since his bow as already how, he fired repeatedly at the wounded dark elf, skewering him and causing him to collapse.With the element of surprise lost, the three remaining monsters prepared to strike.  However, the party was already reacting.  Dane and Rudyard double-teamed one hyena, and Tal fired at it with more magical orbs.  The three of them easily dropped the monster, while Tsine hurled an arrow of acid at the second hyena and Quercus charged at the remaining wolf.  He gave it a light slash across the shoulder, and while the wolf frantically tried to bite at its new opponent, it couldn’t get through Quercus’ armor.  The hyena was a little luckier, as it leapt at Tsine, giving him a nasty bite wound on the arm.  Tsine looked at it, panicked, and worried that this creature might be a lycanthrope.  Flix helped Quercus on the last wolf, and Raz finished the hyena with his arrows.  Dane easily gutted the remaining wolf as soon as he got the chance, and the party was free to enter the city without anyone apparently noticing.The city was almost as dark as the tunnels leading to it, but at least a few fires gave the party members without magical aid some light to see by.  At this point, Rudyard and Dane were also dressed in the red robes after taking them from the gate guards, but they knew any patrol would probably see though their disguise easily.  Because of this, they continued without light, letting Flix and Rudyard take the lead again.  Of course, they had no real idea where to go, so they decided to explore for a while.  At one point, the party passed a large, three-story inn, which was heavily guarded, but decided against investigating, and raising an unnecessary alarm.  However, when they saw the temple (dedicated to None, the goddess of strength, which is often pictured as a dwarf,) they decided it was time to take action.  For one thing, they remembered that one of the leaders Lerissa mentioned was a high priestess.  Even if the Lady of Blood was elsewhere, that priestess might be here, and she also might have information about where the other forces were in the city.  Even better, maybe the magic item sealing this town from magical aid was here.  If nothing else, the temple was likely desecrated, and restoring it was a noble act.The party charged into the temple as one, preventing any enemies inside from quickly reacting.  Four figures, all wearing yellow robes, were waiting in the central room.  They looked surprised to see the party, but reacted quickly, and got into defensive positions.  However, Tsine and Rudyard were faster, and Tsine sent a volley of magic at one of the robed figures.  Rudyard charged at the same one, cleaning slicing off his head before he could even say a word.  One of the three remaining figures attacked Tsine, surprisingly striking him with his bare hand!  The attack proved far stronger than expected, though, and seemed to strike at a very sensitive part of Tsine’s back.  He felt part of his body go numb, but was able to stagger around a bit, and the numbness wore off.  Flix entered the room next, and he and Dane charged the monk that attacked Tsine, while Quercus flew at a third cloaked figure.  The monk was wounded, but survived Flix and Dane’s attacks, while the robed figure attacked by Quercus managed to avoid the blow entirely.  He responded by casting a spell, and then uttering a command at Quercus.  “Die!” he yelled at him, but while Quercus felt some force of magic compelling him, he just laughed at the silly order.  A volley of magic orbs by Tal helped soften the unlucky cleric up, and Raz finished the job, leaving only two robed figures.  Matkela heard a noise below her.  There was fighting going on in her temple!  Well, her temporary temple at any rate.  She prepared a spell that gave her the might of a bear, and prepared to engage her foes.  While she prepared, she called her pet to her side.Back on the first floor, the last robed figure, which hadn’t entered the fight yet, attacked Quercus with his bare fists, but couldn’t even dent his armor.  Tsine turned on the wounded monk that attacked him before, and helped Dane and Flix deal with him by sending a volley of magic missiles at the foe.  He was still on his feet, or at least he was until Rudyard turned and finished the job with one stab.  Flix and Dane were free to turn their attention on the last robed figure, which was still futilely trying to land a hand on Quercus.  Dane gave him a quick cut to the leg, and while he was stumbling forward, Flix darted up behind him and buried his sword into his skull.  However, just as they were recovering from the fight, an evil-looking leopard jumped down from the top of the stairs, landing on Flix.  He screamed in terror, as the leopard started slashing him apart, all while biting him.  Quercus quickly began attacking the creature, while Tal fired another magical volley, but neither dropped the creature.  Raz was about to fire at the creature when he heard a noise upstairs, and decided to train his bow on the stairs instead of fire at the leopard and risk hitting his friends.  Just then, a drow woman wearing heavy armor walked down the stairs.  Raz fired his prepared shot, but it shot bounced off her armor.  She responded with a spell.  “I call upon the dark powers of Bas.  Transform my enemy’s light into endless dark!”  Suddenly, Quercus’ eyes turned pure white.  He screamed in fear, yelling that he couldn’t see.Tsine accessed the situation, and realized that the drow was a bigger threat.  He fired another volley of magic at her, wounding her slightly.  Rudyard focused instead on the leopard, swinging his sword with such force that it broke a bone in its leg.  Flix, despite being stuck under the creature, was able to draw a dagger and stab it, but was shocked when the wound healed immediately.  Meanwhile, the leopard continued its ferocious assault on him, and Flix’s screams suddenly and horrifyingly ceased.  Dane roared in vengeance, tearing into the creature.  It was bleeding profusely and stumbling about, but it was still up.  Quercus tried to hit it, but missed completely.  Finally, Tal finished the creature with his blade.  With the first threat gone, Raz continued firing upon the drow cleric, hiding her with two arrows, but only slightly.  She countered by casting a spell and touching Rudyard.  For a moment, he felt like some sort of disease was entering his body, but he felt his immune system fight it off.  Angry at the possible death of his friend, Tsine drew his bow and fired at the drow, but his attacks went wild.  Rudyard was more successful, and cut into her side.  She screamed in pain, but Dane ran up to her, sword aimed at her head, and ended her screams permanently.  Well, so they thought…OOC Notes: I’m not entirely certain that illusion spells could be used the way it was used here, but I didn’t want to waste time with a long debate about it, and it was a pretty clever idea.  Besides, I didn’t want another entire game to be just about getting through the main gate.The odd bit of foreshadowing at the end there won’t come into play again for a while.  Just don’t forget about it.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Oh, and Lela, did you want any more detail for your puzzle, or is what I gave you enough for now?</blockquote>

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