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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4493922" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 3 - Shadows of Winterhaven (Part 1)Enlishia looked across to Valthrun’s Tower and the smithy across from Bairwin’s Grand Shoppe and, deciding all was quiet, unshouldered her longbow and pulled an arrow from the quiver on her back. They had returned to Winterhaven that morning with their prisoners and, as Lord Padraig had taken them off their hands he had taken them aside. A delegation of Purple Dragons were in Winterhaven from Cormyr and the Lord wanted them to see only a peaceful village. Handing them a pouch of a hundred gold coins he had asked them to deal with Bairwin’s treachery and the kobolds that remained abroad outside the town, quietly. It was now just after dark and the first part of that instruction was about to be carried out. Enlishia glanced over at Mandratan who held the map that the Lord had given them showing them the location of the kobold lair. She hoped the wizard would take good care of it.“Quietly now,” said Dulvarna softly. “Lathander protect us though night hides you from us.” The last was more quietly to herself and Enlishia could not help but roll her eyes. The ebon-haired woman had proved herself a fiercesome warrior even in the battle at the burial site yesterday where she had fallen wounded, but Enlishia disliked her constant entreaties to the god of the dawn.“Can’t we just go in?” asked Lavren, eager as ever.“Agreed, the longer we wait, the more likely we are to be seen,” said Mandratan. “And we have more kobolds to kill after this.”“Alright,” said Dulvarna. “We go, but quietly.” She pushed open the shop door and stepped into the dimly lit interior, the others following.“We’re closed,” came the gruff response from a bespectacled man behind the counter who was writing in a ledger by the light of two candles.“We’re not here to buy,” growled Deloak.The man looked up sharply and then bolted through a doorway into the back room of the shop. Dulvarna and Enlishia led the charge after him. In the corner of the back room, a portion of the wall had been slid to one side to expose an otherwise hidden doorway and the companions rushed towards that. Within, a spiral staircase descended steeply into a dark cellar. Mandratan conjured light to his staff and they rushed down the stairway. There, at the bottom, was a room consumed in a pall of dim purple light. Candles lined the walls, burning with flickering, purple flames and between them, three rows of pews led up to an altar. A long carpet with a repeated symbol—a black disk surrounded by a thin purple circle—led up to the front. Several dark-clad figures stood around the room, poised for action.One of the black clad figures reacted first, leaping over the pews to reach Enlishia, a sword in his hand. He stabbed at her and she drew back, the blade scoring the deerskin jerkin she wore along her left side. Another came along the right side of the room, a sallow skinned man with dark, sunken eyes. Deloak surged through the group from the bottom of the stairs, his hammer in his hand and struck at the nearest foe while from the far end of the chamber, behind the altar, the spectacled shop keeper began chanting in a black tongue that none knew. At the last he slashed out with his hand and loosed a black ray that struck Dulvarna in the face. She staggered and reeled and then cried out for she could not see.“He has blinded me,” she cried out. “Lathander’s searing curses upon him.”Erlmoor came forward then and turned to face Dulvarna, placing both clawed hands upon her shoulders. He spoke some words in his own Draconic tongue and then in Common.“Let the light banish the darkness,” he said and just as suddenly as she had been blinded, Dulvarna could see once more. Erlmoor nodded to her and then turned away to defend her, drawing his sword from his back. Lavren came past Dulvarna then, cursing the nearest of the cultists in Elvish. He threw out his hand and loosed black, crackling energy at another of the advancing cultists. It struck the chest of one of the pale-skinned men and forced him clattering back against the pew behind him. The other two cultists came forward then and these seemed to be wraith-like figures cloaked in dark, voluminous robes. One came at Deloak and slashed out with the scythe it carried, gouging a wound in the dwarf’s arm that was surrounded by seeping black shadowstuff once the scythe was gone. He felt a coldness spread from her arm then until his limbs became numb and sluggish and he could barely move. He cursed the robed creature then in the dwarvish tongue. Enlishia rushed to aid Lavren, squeezing behind Erlmoor and the elf until she stood at his side, bow in hand and arrow nocked. She loosed the arrow swiftly and it flew wide of her target, driving into the far wall of the shrine. The other wraith-like creature emerged from the pews into the aisle and rushed at Erlmoor. The scythe slashed out and though the dragonborn ducked back, it scored a wound along his belly between the plates of his armour. He staggered and then cursed as the cold of the Shadowfell spread through his body and made him numb and all but immobile. From behind him, Mandratan loosed a silvery bolt of force at the nearest pale-skinned man but at the last, the man ducked back behind the stone wall of the stairwell chamber and evaded the bolt. It seared on into the wall of the shrine, toppling a candle to the floor. Dulvarna charged at the man then, slashing out with her blade and riving him back before her. The companions surged forward and the cultists fell back.A cultist stabbed at Dulvarna but she parried the blow while the other pale skinned man leapt over the last of the pews and stabbed his sword into Enlishia’s thigh. She staggered and then cursed as the dread cold of the Shadowfell seized hold of her leg around the wound and caused her pain that pierced to the bone. Deloak urged Dulvarna on as he struggled to free himself from the numbing cold. She slashed out with her blade and cut across the chest of the cultist before her, tearing his robes and the flesh beneath and sending him reeling. A dark bolt shot out from the back of the shrine and struck Lavren blind then leaving the elf cursing in darkness while Erlmoor, beside him, looked at him helpless for he could not again aid another as he had aided Dulvarna without rest. Instead, he breathed acid into the face of the wraith-like cultist before him and then struck out with his blade, praying as he did so. His blade struck the creature and as it did so, a translucent shield formed in front of Lavren to protect him while he could not see. Lavren fumbled his way back from the battle then until he stood beside Mandratan and then, just as suddenly as it had been taken, his vision was returned.The wraith-like cultists came forward then, one slashing its scythe into Deloak’s scythe, splitting his mail and drawing blood. Enlishia shouldered her bow, drew her sword, and slashed out wildly, her foe ducking back beyond reach. She sidestepped then, drawing closer to the others so that she could not be cut off from them. Still, the chilling pain around her leg wound troubled her and seemed to be spreading but with steely resolve she raised her blade as her foe came on after her. Dulvarna, meanwhile, plunged the blade of her sword into the belly of the wounded cultist before her and felled the man. She stepped over his fallen form and moved to aid Deloak who still struggled against numbness.The dwarf swung his hammer at the wraith-creature before him but the cultists ducked back and evaded the blow. Still the dwarf could barely move through the numbness that pervaded his body and he cursed once again. From the back of the shrine came dark chanting once more and again a black bolt lanced out, this striking Enlishia and leaving her sightless. She staggered and Erlmoor roared his anger, smiting the foe before him, tearing its robes and the shadowy form beneath. The cultist screeched unnaturally and staggered. Behind the dragonborn, Lavren closed his eyes and with a burst of white motes, he vanished, only to reappear behind the cultists halfway up the aisle to the altar. He turned towards the altar where the bespectacled shopkeeper, Bairwin yet stood and started towards the cult leader. With a word, he called forth searing white fire within Bairwin and with a cry of pain, the cult leader staggered and fell against the altar stone.The cultists came forward again then, one slashing out with its scythe and burying the blade in Deloak’s shoulder. He grunted and staggered, all but falling to one knee. Enlishia heard her foe come at her and drove her blade forward into the leg of the pale skinned man. He cried out and the ranger ducked back past Erlmoor to escape the riposte. Erlmoor’s held his ground, keeping foes from the blinded Enlishia who was now behind him and then Mandratan came forward, his staff in hand, light shining from one end. He swung out with the stave and kept the cultists at bay while on the other flank, Dulvarna came forward and slashed out at another cultist, tearing robe and shadowy flesh. The cultists screeched almost as one and drew back a little more.Bairwin urged the cultists forward again and they came at the companions with a fierce desperation now. Mandratan was stabbed in the leg by a short sword while Deloak was forced to defend himself while he gathered what remained of his strength. At the far end of the shrine, Bairwin pushed himself upright and came towards Lavren, uttering a chanted prayer as he came. He extended a hand and from him burst a wave of blackness that engulfed Lavren but, though it chilled the elf and buffeted him, he strode through it. Behind him, Erlmoor plunged his blade into the cultist before him and the wraith-like figure fell to the floor at his feet, bleeding blood and shadowstuff before the paladin. He slashed at the other of the robed figures, forcing it back from him. Lavren, meanwhile, strode towards Bairwin, uttering fey incantations as he advanced.“Stop them, you fools!” urged Bairwin then and the cultists came forward once more.</blockquote>

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