You stand in front about 10 feet in front of the main entrance to the Yawning Portal facing the intersection with your back to the tavern. It seems like such a long time ago that you walked here from the Jade Jugg but it was only half a day.

The street in front is a large T shaped intersection where three major roads join together. With the Yawning Portal at the top of the T at its central intersection. A good place for business to come to you in a city that prides itself on anything and everything for a price.

The streets are wide here and the cobbles are well worn from the passing of much traffic both on foot and cart. Wide enough for four to six carriages abreast with enough space in the middle of the T intersection for them to turn around easily. OOC: The streets are about 40 to 60 feet wide at this interstection.
Narrower side streets are between 10 and 20 feet wide.
The lie at random intervals on each of the three crossing streets. The houses are packed tight here with few real alleys where you would have to squeeze thru.

Clouds have rollen in sometime over the night and it smells like rain is coming.

Of the dozens of three and four story houses that line the streets. Shops and apartments for the most part.
Most have there windows shuttered for the night. Only a few winkings of light can be seen from lanterns left hanging over a few shop lintels up and down the trio of streets.

The same goes for the shutters of the Yawning Portal.
This section of the city is far enough away from the Docks and some of the rougher and wilder parts of the city that respectable city dwellers make there homes here.

But instead of it being dark this particalr intersection is well lit by the great iron lamp posts that you had remembered seeing from when you came earlier in the day. The huge brass and iron wrought lamps have oil lanterns blazing. Real fires quaint as they are burning in the recesses of there hooded cast iron convers fed by oil reservoirs that could burn the whole night. The trio of posts ( one to either side of the main door of the tavern and one by the corner of the stables ) casting light all around the front of the Yawning Portal and across the intersection.

Lighting up its various wings, shutters, overhanging roof eaves, stables and all the rest. As well as those of the nearby buildings though they are at the very edge of light for the most part. The light is enough light up the intersection and draw the crowds to the tavern in the early hours of the night. Which it not now the case as it is only a couple of hours before sun up. There are no others on the street that you can see.

But the sounds of the city are still around you though dim and muted as if it were taking a breath getting ready for the all day party of the next day and MidSummers Festival.

There are side alleys to either side of the Yawning Portal and spaced irregularly along the other three streets as the large thouroughfares branch out to other sections of the city. Unlike the central are the alleys are quickly lost in darkness.

You see no sign of anyone else on the street and no sign of anything amiss.

Deethan takes a moment to look around the streets, the rooves, into the entrances of alleyways, and all other possible locals that he can think of that might be emitting magic or hiding something that was not obviously apparent. At first glance he does not catch anything. So if it is here it is hiding inside nearby buildings or around corners or on top of the roof or places under the streets or some other place immediately blocked from his sight. Within the obvious areas of the intersection he sees nothing to cause him alarm.

There is with Greater Arcane Sight however an indefinable.... Hummm... Something he can not explain and it seems to come from everywhere. It is not as if he sees any magical emanantions. More like the Weave is simply stronger in this area.

Turning and quickly running the 10 feet back to the doorway he cautiously opens it and looks inside.

The scene is not nearly the same as before. Things have transpired in the past minute or so since Kyle must have seen it.

The three tables of adventurers are lying on the floor dead or disabled with the members of Sorg's mercenaries quickly checking the bodies.

The thirty or so dark cloaked figures have thrown off there cloaks and are streaming back towards the front door and the the bar in seemingly equal groups apparently securing the room. They each wear black plate and platemail armors with numerous jags, sharp edges, razor plates, and hooked barbs. Weapons of all manners are clutched in there hands.

The Calimshite man and woman are near the back of the room towards the bar and seem to be peering into the kitchen. With them are a dozen mercenaries from the Vilhon Reach and Damarr.

Deethan manages to duck a wild swing by a formerly invisible man standing by the door who must have simply been swinging at someone who was trying to slip into the room invisible. As he was simply standing and watching the swing came nowhere near him. The man is a heavyset somewhat pudgy figure now that his invisibility is failing. He wears a deep black cloak with a dark green tunic. A holy symbol of Bane bounces on its chain across his chest and in his hand is a very evil looking rod that is glowing with powerful necromantic magics to his mage sight.

Deethan is quick to point out that there are perhaps four other figures scattered about the room invisible but able to be seen with his Greater Arcane Sight surprisingly in positions seeming to guard over Sorg's lieutenants and the Calimshiite pair. They each also possess very powerful necromantic rods in there hands.

Deethan is able to discern several magical emanations from a couple of the invisible adversaries as well as the pair of Calimshiites and the Simulacrums.

The man directly in front of Deethan undoubtedly a cleric has the following spell effects active.
SHIELD OF FAITH...ENTROPIC SHIELD

YOu notice one of the invisble assailants ( the one on the stairs ) also has the same spells active so he is probably also a priest.

The three Simulacrums have MAGE ARMOR ... PROT FROM ARROWS

The Woman has MAGE ARMOR ... PROT FROM ARROWS ... > Arcane Sight,See Invisibility,Darkvision, Comprehend Languages, CONTINGENCY; UNSEEN SERVANT, STONESKIN...PROTECTION FROM SPELLS

The Man has UNSEEN SERVANT; MAGE ARMOR; STONESKIN; Darkvision; See Invisible; Tongues; Arcane Sight; Comprehend Languages;Contingency(Teleport)

Sorg and all ofhis men are literally covered with dozens of powerful magical devices. As are the Calimshiite pair and the mercenaries by them.

In contrast the black armored warriors only have a smattering of magical devices.

None seem to have active magical auras. With the exception of the pair of Southerners. The staff in her hands is quite powerful from the amount of magic it radiates. A trio of cloaked figures with the group in the back radiate a constant stream of illusion and necromantic magics. Deethan recognizes it as the effects of simulacrum spells.

"ROUND TWO"

An invisible Faelar flies up towards the level of the rooftops as an equally invisible Shay'la sprints across and takes a position on the other side of the street with her back to a building.

Garrett moves away from the entrance to the Yawning Portal but parallel to the building and not directly in the street as Roni does the same in the opposite direction towards the stables.

Leathynos struggles to look into the open doorway where Deethan has just barged back into the Yawning Portal and reported what he has seen via the Mindlink.

Garret receives his thoughts both sent and unsent as Deethan struggles to come up with a plan.

Across the Mindlink Garret simply says that Deethan is going to stop time and throw a lot of damaging spells around inside. So no one is to run in at this moment.

Deethan meanwhile begins the difficult casting of a spell that will freeze time, a spell that only powerful mages can enact and with there own strange set of rules. As he does so he notices the distinct sphere of an anti-magic shell spring up around the Calimshiite man whom he assumes to be Fahad Ibn'Zane making the woman his sister Sylphia. But he saw no acts of spell casting so it must have been something prepared and readied ahead of time.

DEETHAN'S TIME STOP

Then all seems to stop for him.

With a great smile he flies into the room approaching the central stone well and its seats and tables trying to keep high to the ceiling without hitting the wooden beams of the buttresses coming from the walls to the center of the ceiling.

He continues to fly around as he begins a series of spells.

The first is a spell of power that rips apart the weave shattering all spells and destroying many magical items ( Mages Disjunction ), the second is a spell causing a great mass of sticky webs to spring forth from his outstretched hands and entrap a group of the black plate armored Banite soliders who were heading for the door.

Knowing that the vaagrancies of stopping time were random he continues to rapidly cast spell after spell hoping to get the most from this unexpected attack.

A ball of darkness appears in the corner where Fahad and his sister and a handful of mercenaries were preparing to scout out and enter the kitchens.

And then another great sticky wad of webbing shoots forth from his hands as he entraps a second group of Banite soldiers who were on there way to support Fahad and his sister.

With a shudder and a shake the world begins to move again finding him in the far corner of the room close to where Derrick and Sorg had their meeting the previous day.

He sees that two of the simulacrums simply cease to be and that one of the remaining invisible Banites has lost his invisibility and the powerful necromantic rod in his hands losing all its enchantment. A good half of the other magical items amoung the mercenaries with Fahad and Sylvia also fail with weapons, rings, armors, boots, cloaks, and all manner of other miscellaneous items losing there enchantments.

Deethan is disppaointed that Sylphia and Fahad were not more affected.

Then he hears the cries and struggles of the more than 2 dozen Banite soldiers trapped in the webbing that appeared from out of nowhere.

And sees the remainder of Sorg's men ducking for cover under tables and wherever they can find it.

The now visible Banite priest at the main entrance seeing the others outside kicks the door shut and drops the bar to brace it closed. He then hefts the rod in both hands struggling to find the invisible being that has come into the tavern as he notices all the chaos around the room.

"Do not let it out. A hundred gold for the one who brings me its head!" he shouts out.

Deethan also hears Sylphia shouting to her brother in the local tongue of the Vilhon Reach but he is able to understand the words with his earlier prepared spells.

"Neth...dark waters..."

But it makes absolutely no sense to him. Obviosuly a code which his spell can not translate without the context as it only translates the language.

Then she screams quite louldly so that it can be easily heard thoughout the tavern common rooms and out into the street.

"ROCKO I NEED YOU."

Kyle who has just come back up the stairs from the wine cellar sees the common room go completely dark but hears nothing as Fahad's zone had maintained the silence cast at the doorway to the kitchen. But to Kyle he assumed it to be quiet but did not assume it to go dark in there. He quickly has to decide does he go back or does he head to look for the back door and Derrick.

Sylphia begins casting a long and difficult summoning and as she nears the comnpletion a swirling red and black mass of cloudy vapors stinking of brimstone forms in the air and out steps a hideous looking think demonic creature dripping of slime. It has black skin and stands about 6' tall with very long clawlike fingers which Deethan immediately recognizes as a Babau. And also starts. A demon which can easily see invisible creatures.

She speaks quickly to it in infernal whcih Deethan knows spells bad for him as she is describing a powerful invisible mage in the room which she wants for him to destroy.

The sloping head of the creature swivels around as it looks for Deethan and as soon as its eyes settle on him it lopes across the room on the long and spindly legs crossing half the distance between them.

Deethan sees the darkness bulge weirdly in the corner of the room as a hemispherical absess builds revelaing Fahad moving out of it and drinking a potion from a small bottle which he casually drops as he looks to half of the room being in webs and a shambles and the other half not. A dagger is clutched in his left hand and one stuck in the crook of his left arm where he must have placed it when he grabbed the potion.

He turns and starts heading int he direction that he sees the demon going with a bluish glowing shell of anti-magical protection accompanyiong his every move.

The mercenaries that were with him as well as one of the cloak clad women slowly stumble out of the darkness and begin to take up defensive positions around Sylphia. Being careful to put a good 5 feet or more between them.

Deethan also sees the invisible Banite step out but on the wrong side of the darkness.

As Deethan struggles with what next to do he unintentionally broadcasts his thoughts about wishing he used fire or burning oil on Fahad and now he is going to use a chained lightening converted with his archmagery into cold.

The sounds of Lea banging on the door can be heard over the commotion in the room.

ROUND TWO

When suddenly the anti-magic barrier around Fahad disappears and he moves with an increased pace. It must have been a potion of haste Deethan realizes belatedly. And now that he is no longer enclosed his earlier spells are again active and he moves straight to Deethan.

His hands blur as he grabs the hilt of the dagger from the crook of his arm and whips it under handed as he throws the other one overhanded at Deethan. Both daggers swerve in midair as they are obviously enchangted to go around obstacles as they easily go around the roof support he had been holding onto for cover.

The first narrowly misses and does not even trigger any of Deethan's magical defences. Deethan grunts as he feels the impact of the second dagger knowing that without his spells in place it may very well have cut his kidney out. He still feels the blow like a hammerblow and blood wets the side of his torso in a fast red rivulet. (

He sees both daggers vanish and then reappear in Fahad'S hands.

He is able to keep his mind focused but only just barely on the task and hand and rapidly finishes the casting of a powerful spell that under normal cicumstances would throw a bolt of lightening that would continue to arc around and hit several around the primary target. But at the last minute he changes a pair of the arcane formulae in a manner that only the better archmages can and the bolt of lightening leaping from his hand and the tiny rod of the reagent turns into a frosty blue color and leaps across the room leaving small whisps of ice crystals settling where it had left a super cool trail through the air.
( Chain Lightening modified to use cold damage ).

Sylphia is caught flat footed as well as stripped of her magical defenses and the bolt slams into her right shoulder spinning her around and dropping her to the floor with frost covering her body in heavy ice crystals.

Her scream rips thru the air as blood flies from her mouth as she bites her tongue and runing her spell.

The bolt arcs thru the air and hits slightly the simulacrum and five of the mercenaries surrounding Sylphia each of which managed to avoid the worst of the arcing lightening bolt of cold. Four more of the nearby mercenaries and the now visible priest of Bane are all hit square on and were unable to avoid the damage.

Deethan is still being chased by the summoned demon which is within combat range.

As Sylphia fails to rise three of the remaining injured mercenaries race to her side and rip potions from her belt and one by one begin pouring them down her throat. The others form up stepping over the dead and the dying determined to give Sylphia some protection from at least physical harm.

Sylphia coughs and sputters as the last of the three potions runs down her throat.

The scream of Fahad is one of sheer rage and Deethan knows that if he ever gets his hands on him he will enact his vengeance.

Deethan manages to keep his head and use the spell of flight to move and keep out of the grasp of the approaching demon which turns into a lumbering gate to keep up with him but it can not get close enough to tear its claws into him.

Sorg's men throw themselves out of the way as they see the demon chasing empty air coming in there direction.

Sylphia meanwhile calmly begins casting another spell of summoning. A bubbling cloud begins to form near her outstretched hands and as she points and issues her commands a swirling elemental of air leaps out straight at Deethan. It flies with incredible speed and slams directly into Deethan buffetting him in a swirling wirl of wind which for a moment almost bundled him in a grapple but then slipped and merely wound up throwing him slightly into the roof.

Deethan knows he is in trouble.

And outside the others begin to understand Sylphia's earlier shouts.

The cobbles of the streets begin to rumble and break apart and then begin to flow and reform and lift into the air. Higher and higher and higher.

A 30 foot tall monstrosity of solid rock standing on two legs thicker than tree trunks and with a blocky head and incredible mass looks around its gaze resting for a moment on Shay'la and slowly turns back to the tavern. And Garrett and Roni.

A strange green glow begins to spread from the tavern. It quickly covers all the cobbles of the streets as it races out to encompass a good 100 feet of so of the streets and whatever building it touches also begins to glow softly green. The whole of the Yawning portal glows the same greenish hue.

Deethan notices this even inside as all surfaces of the tavern are now glowing a soft green. His mindlink shouts...It is similar to a dimensional lock. We can not leave.

At nearly the same time Faelar receives a mental message from Derrick warning him about a forming green mist and that all of the rooftops for the buildings 3 and 4 buildings away are covered with crossbowmen of Sorg's. Faelar responds by telling Derrick where they are.

And then there is a huge cachophony of an explosion as the roof of the stables simply disintegrates under the powerful onslaught that was enacted on it from inside.
Huge chunks of wooden beans, copper and lead tubing, ceramic roof tiles and all other manner of detrius come crashing down in the streets and on top of the nearby buildings.

Streaming upwards from the ragged jagged hole where teh ceiling to the stables used to be are a trio of very large whirling masses of air elementals. They are quickly folowed by more and more until at least 14 separate air elementals can be made out streaking and swirling around the cloudy sky and aiming towards the members of the party.

And as if this were a bugle call to arms. The doors to several businesses and residences on all three side streets slam outward and out stream creatures that should have been long dead. Massive slashes which no longer bleed. Crushed skulls. And eeire lights glowing from the eyes announce the arrival of 18 undead creatures of a type none of you have seen before. not far behind them come a quintet of black armored plate wearing priests of Bane. There armor highly decorated with barbs and hooks and razor sharp edges. Each is accompanied by a fearsome looking trio of skeletons carrying black swords spitting dark energies. Two of them are also accompanied by archaic looking suits of black plate armor with the same look of hooks and sharp edges and soft purple glows radiating from between the joints. Each with a large fiery red bastard sword in hand.

In the shattered remains of the stable is the appearance of a lone priest of Bane in black plate armor. His helmet is off and his expression is one of satisfaction. The dreadmaster.

The trap is finally sprung.

ROUND THREE

Still flying to try to avoid the claws of the demon, Deethan dodges to his right. As he does so he notices that Olath is watching him closely. A seeming shock as he did not even realize Olath could see him at the moment. The other red scarf wearing mercenaries are bunched with weapons facing in all directions. They bear small short swords, daggers, and some with exotic Shou weapons like sai and kama.

Standing in the middle of the room and seemingly getting frustrated with he chaos and confusion going on around him, Sorg whistles loudly and swings his right arm and rapier around his head in a big circle and snaps his wrist causing the rapier to whip thru the air with a sharp crack. With his left hand he pulls off his hat with the colorful red feather and wipes the sweat off his forehead with the back of his wrist.

“Enough. Someone take care of those webs. They are starting to piss me off.”

His rapier points to group of men near where the demon is chasing Deethan and to the other group of his men close to the front door.

“I want those stairwells blocked. You and you. See to it. Its nigh on time this place started crawling with busy bodies from upstairs with the hells coming loose outside. Get those tables and chairs away from the stairs. Throw them into barricades. I want caltrops and any magics on and around the stairs to make passage a bit untidy for anyone coming down to investigate.”

“You. Set that area around the well up as a central defensive position. Get some bows from those bodies if you can.”

“And you. Durth.”

At this last his rapier points to the Banite priest holding the rod which had tried to intercept Deethan before he came into the common room of the Yawning Portal. A half dozen black plate armored soldiers have in the meantime freed themselves from the webs and gone to his side.

“Get these invisible mites out of my hair and to doing something useful with them. Guard the doors, the stairs, or go swab out the toilets for all I care.
But if they get underfoot one more time I will cut them down myself. I have no more time for you.”

The Banite priest looks unamused and quite angry but before he can answer Sorg throws in.

“And think to the 200 or so men that I have outside and that you are outnumbered here inside as well before you really make a nuisance of yourself. I have a job to do. You as well. Your rabbits have flown the coup and if my ears serve me well are outside making hell for your buddies. I would start there if I were you and leave me and Fahad to our tasks.”

OOC: Sorg loses all actions this round as he spent too much time in dialogue.

Screaming in rage and hate. The turbaned Calimshiite man moves with a quickened stride towards Deethan. He completely ignores Deetha’s precautions that keep most in the room from seeing him and spittle literally flies behind him as he screams out rage and his hate after what he just saw with the spell cast at his sister.

As he approaches the black skinned clawing demon which is trying to get at Deethan a bubble of energy springs into being with the fast moving Fahad at its center.
Even before Deethan can try and use his magical enhancements to recognize the spell. He appears in midair and comes crashing to the floor as all his magical preparations fail at once.

As he falls directly past the demon its long arms razor out one of them trying to cut him in half in midair. The demon howls in glee as he gets a swing at the flying mage. The claws tear into Deethan’s left elbow leaving a bloody furrow from the attack of opportunity. ( light wound ).

Deethan grunts in pain as he looks up at Fahad only a few feet away as he recognizes a globe that cuts off all access to the weave and thinks out loud.

‘his anti-magic shell had already gone?’

In a surprising move Sorg’s lieutenant Olath begins hurling daggers which he had in his hands. Not at Deethan. But at Fahad.

With rabid thunk thunk thunk thunk sounds four separate daggers sink into Fahad’s flesh.

Quick on his heels and following his lead three of the other mercenaries from Sorg standing next to him let loose with tiny throwing stars. A half a dozen spinning wheels with sharpened blades spin thru the air with three sticking into Fahad and three more spinning off past him. Not far behind the others the other mercenaries leap forward with daggers and small weapons flashing as Fahad takes a couple of more hits.

Fahad jerks in spasms as his tongue swells slightly and his face purples and turns slowly black as the deadly toxins on some if not all of the weapons poison him. He hits the floor and continues to spasm touch he is far from out of the fight as he grips the hilts of his daggers with deathly tight fastness.

Continuing to cast her spell Sylphia only scowls as she changes the direction slightly to protect her brother. A vapor reaches up from the floor and quickly solidifies cutting the room in parts. As it solidifies it takes on the consistency and appearance of solid iron a good 10 feet high and close to 50 feet long. It arcs in a gentle curve just outside the boundaries of Fahad’s shimmering zone that defeats all magical effects. It goes to the wall cutting him off from Olath and the three who had thrown shurikens and bends around back towards where Fahad had just run from thereby cutting off all the other men from Sorg whom she sees as enemies now. There is little she can do for those still trapped on his side of the wall and trusts in her brother to handle it.

Meanwhile the demon though deprived of any access to its special abilities but not forced back to its native plane, its claws lash out with one catching Deethan’s neck sending out a powerful stream of blood that continues to spurt at a sickening pace ( CRITICAL. Moderate wound ) even as the other claw lands against Deethan’s forearm leaving a bright red gash of blood and filleted muscle tissue ( light wound ).

The building shakes with a resounding crash as the stone wall a few feet from the main door burst inwards with a hail of small blocks of stone and a deadly spray of stone splinters which hit no one but could have caused considerable damage. A second shuddering blow lands in the same spot resulting in even more stone debris and the building shaking. Dust drifts down from the wooden rafters of the common room.

Peering through the large man sized hole is a stone eyebrow and a large deep pit where an eye should be.

Sylvia’s voice rings out clearly.

“The men in the red scarves. Kill them.”

With that the monstrosity of stone tries to force his upper body into the hole it has just made.

A pair of heretofore-unseen Banite priests appears as they swing large heavy rods at a pair of Sorg’s lieutenants standing near Sorg. The blows miss but the red scarves mercenaries nearby quickly reach to redraw weapons that they had recently re-sheathed.

The center of the room erupts into chaos.

A third and a fourth appear next to Olath and a second pair of Sorg’s lieutenants. Both also swing heavy black rods. The one who had aimed his rod at Olath is instantly surprised as the weapon bends in mid-haft and turns back on him slamming him squarely in the chest. The other manages to land the blow heavily on the shoulder of one of the other lieutenants. Both the priest and the lieutenant are encased in a dull black glow and fall to the ground completely lifeless.
The pair of rods now having black diamonds in there heads instead of the clear diamonds that they held before.

The Banite priest by the door and the 6 black plate armored men with him charge the remaining trio of Sorg’s men cut off from Fahad by the iron wall as they are at the moment the easier of the three groups of mercenaries of Sorg’s in the room.

Deethan runs forward and is rewarded for his efforts by yet another long deep bloody slash across his back from the demon which he leaves behind in the magical shell with Fahad and a pair of Sorgs’s mercenaries. ( light wound ). As he runs he stretches forth his right hand and with a word a gold scepter with a clawed foot and a brilliant red ruby the size of a fist. It is the Primarch’s Netherese blast scepter. He manages to put about half the distance before the end of the wall between him and the demon.

Other Banites continue to try and hack there way out of the webs when the webs simply vanish and seem to melt into dust as the cloaked form of Sylphia’s simulacrum cast a dispelling against its magics. Now freed the 3 dozen black plate armored warriors charge into the two nearest groups of Sorg’s men. At the door another previously unseen Banite swings with his black rod at one of Sorg’S lieutenants as he sees the dozen plate armored warriors rushing up behind him in support. Even as he misses his smile is one of evil triumph.

In moments there will be a raging battle all across the room as the mercenaries battle the Banites.

All because Deethan had some support from Olath. The look on Sorg’s face is one of … surprisingly of enjoyment. The look of devil may care that were he here Derrick might recognize.

=======

The huge mass of the stone elemental slams its foot into the wall beside the doorway where Leathynos stands. Its earlier shuffle step seemed strange but apparently it was not intending to engage her. A deep resounding boom announces the shattering of the stone wall as it gets down onto what would pass for hands and knees for a man to peer into the hole which it had created.

Outside the whirling swirls of fast moving mist that mark where the elementals are streaming down and attacking the party ( Bergis, Leathynos, Garrett, and Roni ). A trio of sweeping misty forms slam forward. Bergis who had been close behind Leathynos flinches reflexively as one of them slams with some force into an invisible barrier around Leathynos. It then streaks off and up and over the pair as it rises to the other side. A second does likewise slamming into Leathynos’ barrier before streaking up and over the pair.

Roni fares little worse even as he had stepped to the side earlier to prevent any blasting spells from hitting everyone all at once. Just as with the other two the spell that he had cast on himself to protect him from evil pays off as the large mass of the whirling air elemental slams off the invisible barrier and streaks off and up into the sky.
Garrett nearly shouts over the mental link.

“Roni. Leathynos. Everyone should stay near you.
They are powerless against you.”

Faelar sees the approaching foes, and sends a mental message to Shay'la "Come above Roni, forcewall between Roni and mists". He then casts his own forcewall, curving in an arc between lowest corner of the stables to as close to the residential wing of the Yawning Portal as he can get.

With soundless shuffling the majority undead begin crossing the distance to where the party stands. They approach from five separate directions as they leave behind the priests who led them out of the various buildings. They move quickly for undead. A shuffle that eats up distance quickly. Each is dressed almost identically to the warriors now battling Sorg’s men inside. Black plate and platemail heavily laden with spikes and razor sharp hooks. Their weapons are assorted but all appear to bear wicked hooks, barbs, or jagged edges. Weapons designed to cause as much pain as well as physical damage. Their glowing eyes announce there menacing presence.

A smaller group of enchanted skeletons that glow with a dark energy and bare hooked swords remain behind with the priests.

One of the priests opens a pouch and instantly everything around him goes dark. The darkness spreads with the soft tinkle of stones as he hurls what must have been stones enchanted to spread darkness. The undead that precedes him and indeed most of the path between them and the party is suddenly covered in darkness.

A second priest does likewise throwing a handful of darkness stones thereby hiding another quarter of the advancing undead and actually most of the distance separating him from the party in darkness. As he was doing this two of the hovering suits of black plate armor with the purple glow radiating from there joints and the red glowing swords begin to sweep forward much faster than the undead. They both close in on Garrett. As there swords ring out as they slam into the psionically iron hard body of Garret battle is joined. Garrett can clearly see that there is nothing inside there helmets except magical energy. ( OOC: I need to consult my notes again to see what Garrett has in place before announcing the results of these two attacks ).

Bergis limbers up the axe in his hands though there is no one nearby to fight. He is careful not to stray from Leathynos. Both Leathynos and Bergis hear Roni as he calls down a blessing from Tymora upon himself.

Garrett is rattled yet again as a third of the armored apparitions comes forward aiming to strike him but still too far away to get in an attack. He realizes that somehow he has drawn the attention of these warriors like iron filings to a magnet. :-) Meanwhile the swirling air elementals continue to attack. The full force of their fury lands on Garrett even though several plunge in to slam with heavy thuds against the barrier of Roni and Leathynos. One of the air elementals does manage to slam heavily into Garrett and would have knocked him from his feet if not for his increased weight. ( Same OOC as above but this was a critical hit ).

The air is a seeming mass of over a dozen swirling air elementals moving almost too fast for the eye to make individuals out, as it is more of a storm than an attack.

Ignoring the attacks on him, Garrett focuses on the obvious Earth Elemental and a gray ray springs forth as he points at it. A large section of the elementals thigh, rump and lower back vanish with a swirl of dust leaving a strange abscess shaped hole in the creature.
It continues to dig its way into the building completely ignoring the wound.

Shay'la sees Roni and flies over to maintain a position over him.
She notices that Garrett is engaged, but uses her staff to cast a Wall of Force from the upper opening of the stables to the lower right hand corner of the residential wing of the inn.

Leathynos bangs at the door of the tavern, trying to get in to assist Deethan. As the ground starts to rumble, she steadies herself against the tavern door then turns to look at the massive stone creature that suddenly begins to appear...Her first action is to work on weakening the stone creature. She will call upon the gods of the Seldarine to curse the stone creature.

Just as with Garrett. It completely ignores her.
With flinging motions the last two priests release large handfuls of stones which though they can not be seen because of the darkness that they are creating.
They can be heard bouncing across the cobblestones.
The party is now completely encompassed in darkness.
No one can see anything. From the air approximately 80% of the large open area of the T shaped intersection where the Yawning Portal stands is in complete darkness.

Also from the air the large ragged hole in the roof of the stables drops into partial darkness as the priest inside casts a spell. One side of the hole is shrouded in darkness. But strangely the darkness seems to be focused on the roof no the shattered double doors.

ROUND FOUR

Deethan flies to the end of the wall of iron peeking over the top as he does so to get a feel for what will be on the other side. He sees that Sylphia has cast a quick spell to hide from sight. A minor spell that any low level mage could produce. With a quick look to Fahad he sees that the other has somehow managed to get a potion bottle into his hands as well as a miniature chest, which he flips, open onto the floor even as he drinks the potion down. A quintet of shadowy shapes oozes from the little chest and seem to disappear taking the chest with them.

He mentally broadcasts over the link as he refocuses on Sylphia and putting some distance between himself and whatever Fahad has just done as he obviously must have lowered that magic shell again.

“She goes invisible eh? - she thinks THAT will save her! Hahhh.”

As he crosses the threshold of the wall of iron and turns to the left flying over tables and chairs he sees that invisible figure moving with incredible leaps and bounds before settling down again in front of the darkness and silenced area and part way to the well in the center of the room. But it is not Sylphia it is Kyle.

Towards that side of the room are just a few remaining mercenaries who are covering Sylphia’s retreat.

He angles towards the figure but realizes that he will need more time to close the distance. He releases a pair of spells. One that speeds and aims his next attack and a shimmering glowing black aura that sucks life from one of the nearest mercenaries granting it back to him even as the mercenary visible weakens and nearly crumples ( moderate wounds back ).

He does note that things are not as they once were.

It is only now that he vaguely registers what he just heard a split second before.

“Stop that.”

“Durth. We are not your enemy. Your enemy is in the streets battling Ghordoon. Taking your men there as fast as possible by the easiest means would save Ghordoon and gain you glory and gold. Worry not over the half drow and Fahad. Others have claimed that fight.”

Deethan belatedly registers it as Olath’s voice.

And it is soon followed by another voice from that side of the room. He can not really see either because of the wall of iron between them.

“If he lives. Let Fahad go. Let him go now.”

Deethan sees that Sorg has crossed the distance between him and the simulacrum with a good burst of speed and is even now pulling his rapier out of the constructed images chest.

“HOLD!!! HOLD!!!”

The Banite priest who had been standing by the door and is doubtless Durth and holds some rank over the others bellows.

“To the door. Unblock the door. Out in the streets and fight. Run. Run damn your hides.”

Deethan can not believe his eyes as the massive brawl that was shaping up fades into nothingness as the black armor clad soldiers turn and run at there fastest pace towards the door. A pair of soldiers get there and manage to throw off the door’s beam and pull it open revealing darkness on the other side.

Faelar notices in satisfaction the two invisible walls of force with the evil hordes between them.

He counts at least 3 air elementals slamming into the barriers closest to Garrett as they swooped around the open area between the buildings and turned back towards the assembled party at the entrance to the Yawning Portal and the crouched earth elemental.

He then notices that three of the largest swooping air elementals come straight down out of the sky at Garrett. But instead of slamming into him as they did before with such little effect, they encircle and grapple him. Even with his augmented strength he is not strong enough to shake the grapple. He is pinned in the midst of the trio of armored constructs with there blazing swords. Held helpless.

One of the constructs begins to side step Garrett and move towards Leathynos and Bergis. The pair are completely unaware of its approach as it hovers off the ground a handspan and flies thru the darkness.
The first they know of it is when the blazing sword streaks down in a powerful over handed stroke and flays the flesh from Lea’s left forearm easily parting the links of her chainmail and sending a spark of fire rolling along her arm and side ( severe wound ).
Leathynos and Bergis are in grave danger and still can not see there foe.

Unable to see the combatants below or even the walls of force that she had just created with all the magical darkness choking the streets, Shay'la uses her staff to cast her second forcewall, completely blocking the stable side of the street.

Two of the priests ( one in the middle and one to the left ) advance and are stopped by one of the walls of force laid previously between them and the main party.
Neither had been surprised by its appearance as one of them shouted out that there had been walls of force erected in front and behind them at the end of last round.

One lifts his black armor plated arms and calls forth a quick and very evil sounding prayer while the other lifts a wand, which glows softly to Faelar’s sight.
He recognizes the spell and the spell effect even though there is little that he can do at the moment.
The clouds overhead swirl as some of the energy in them is siphoned off and with ear splitting cracks a pair of 5 foot wide 30 foot long vertical lightening bolts drop down from the heavens.

One slams squarely into Leathynos and the other into Roni. Leathynos is fairly unaffected but both Roni and Bergis are hit. Both are able to dive and roll and avoid the worst if the bolts effects ( light wound ).

Also hit is an invisible Shay’la who had been hovering over Roni. She is not able to avoid the lightening bolt and takes full damage ( medium wound ).

Faelar notes with a wry grin that 2 or 3 air elementals are swooping and swirling around where he and Shay’la had been just moments before when they had erected their barriers of force. He is not surprised that creatures from the elemental plane of air know how to fight invisible attackers. Even if they are a bit slow about it.

The remaining two armored constructs that had been engaged with Garrett likewise drift over to Leathynos and Bergis. Each becomes the target of an attacking sword. Bergis avoids the blow by sheer luck as the others sword goes crashing into the cobblestomes. Lea is again slashed deeply ( severe wound ).

She loses her concentration and her spell falters and fails.

The last of the constructs rises into the air and easily crosses over the wall of force and moves to join the battle on Lea and Bergis.

The remaining two priests close the distance to the invisible wall of force with one of them pulling a rod from his backpack as he gets there.

Faelar sends another mental note to Shay'la: "Another stable corner to door". The elf moves to where the invisible Shay'la flies and touches her to cast a protective magic (Protection from Evil).

Shay'la, starting just a little at Faelar's touch, none-the-less answers affirmative in the mindlink.

Roni meanwhile stands and is able to continue with his spell casting. The area of darkness immediately in front of him fades and falters as he calmly strides into it able to see a few feet in all directions.

Bergis with trained combat reflexes even if they are somewhat slower than his old standards whirls his borrowed axe until it resounds with a mighty clang off the armored greave of the nearest black plate armored construct. He obviously could not see it but a lifetime of earlier adventuring has served to hone his instincts.

With a soft shriek, Garrett is whipped into the air soaring a hundred feet over the ground and rising in a gentle spiral as the group of elementals lifts him from the earth and spirits him into the heavens.

Choking down her pain and risking immediate attacks of opportunity, Leathynos will turn to the mass of constructs surrounding her. Pulling a bit of wood and some flint dust from her pouch she will caste a divine fire (Flame Strike) towards the creatures...making sure not to hit Garrett or anyone else.

Unable to see but quite positive of the locations she calls forth her fiery column which seems to be infused with silver washes of moonlight empowering it. As anticipated she is attacked and grits her teeth thru the pain she knows must be coming. In an absolute reversal two of the warriors get their blades tangled up even as she remembers Roni’s earlier battle spell of granting her a bit of uncommon luck. She has certainly just used it. The third lands a solid blow that would have split her spleen and perhaps spine.
But the magics of her chainmail falir as its special abilities turn a killing critical strike into one of mere deadly proportions. ( severe wound ). With gritted teeth she manages to complete the incantation which washes two of the armored forms in blazing fire ( damage to both ).

In apparent reaction to her attack they attack again and both land powerful blows ( 2x serious wounds ). Shay’la crumples to the ground in silence and darkness unseen by any save Faelar.

Faelar sends to Shay'la, "Now block other side, then move west". He eases down to within the furthest point inside protective auras of the allied clerics on the ground and begins a summoning spell. He would have preferred to have gone to Lea as she is in dire trouble but realizes that it would not serve his purpose. [Summon Monster XIII, summon 7th level avorals].

Faelar is completely aware that one of the four priests looks to him. Directly at him and prepares to cast a spell and waits. A bolt of lightening comes crashing down on top of Faelar and one of his blue circling spheres winks out as it absorbs the bolt. The priest looks unimpressed in its evil looking black plate. A second bolt crashes down seemingly targeting Roni but catching Faelar and a second of his globes winks out.

Roni meanwhile is offering up prayer after prayer to the lady of luck for he saw both of those bolts up close and received nothing but slight wafting smells of ozone.

Before Bergis can react he is bowled to the ground by a heavy man in plate armor which he can not see. The sounds of crashing armor fill the air as another five men in heavy armor come crashing through the door getting tripped up on him who was kneeling on the ground and Leathynos’ prone form.

In the magical darkness chaos reigns. The sounds of armor crashing. Men shouting. Spells ripping thru the air.

A pair of brightly sizzling blue white magic missiles streak out at the location of where the pair of lightening bolts winked out of existence. Streaking from the outstretched metal gauntlet of the hovering black armored warrior. A pair more of the swirling blue balls of energy flare into life and are visible for a moment as they too wink out and the magic missiles are dissipated.

Faelar realizes that they are able to target his Efflugent orbs… They are protecting the area that he is in. When one activates dispelling a spell he is ‘localized’. He must send them out further to intercept spells. OOC: This tactic won’t work again as I will assume you set them to intercept at more distance now. Though they may still try and target areas where you are not.

The priest who had earlier reached back into his backpack holds forth a glimmering rod which he slams into the wall of force. With a sound of cracking glass. The whole of the wall fades into dust motes of glittering particles and is gone.

Into the breach come rushing the smallish hordes of undead under the blessings of the fourth priest.

The wall of force separating the undead from the party members is gone.

With a contemptuous toss the priest who had caught Faelar in his eyes casts a spell. Faelar is shocked to see that it is a spell of causing light wounds and it causes one of his globes to pop out of existence at 30 feet.

Howling winds rage as the flying air elementals swirl in tight arcs over the melee below them. None waste their attacks on any of the targets inside the protective spheres. But everyone knows as soon as they step out they will be attacked.

Unaware of what has transpired, Shay'la, uses her staff to cast her third forcewall, completely blocking the other side of the street in front of the Yawning Portal, then moves again 60' south. She is just as lost as the others with regards to being able to see that battle.

Undead swarm upon Roni and Bergis. Swords and axes rise and flash in striking strokes. Roni grunts in pain before he can get off his spell as a pair of axes rip into his chest. Bergis is likewise overwhelmed but from the sudden screams his trio of wounds is much more damaging ( 2 light and 2 light/1moderate wounds ).

As Faelar completes his spell a white light temporary opens and banishes the darkness giving everyone a quick view of the undead breaththru. As the light vanishes a winged being of one of the inner planes appears. And is immediately attacked by all of the remaining air elementals. The avoral is pounded brutally and tossed around like a rag doll in the mouth of a mastiff terrier.

From Kyle's Point of view

Kyle assumes the darkness is magical and has a finite radius. Knowing that he is an exceptional athlete, but that there is room for improvement, he retreats 20 or 25 feet, taking a moment to attune himself to the stag (OOC: cast longstrider). Likewise, looking for the element of surprise, he invokes arcane arts to shroud himself from view (invisibility).

Thus prepared, Kyle charges forward, hoping to bound and weave through hazards in the darkness, both remembered (such as tables) and potentially new (traps, caltrops, etc.). His goal being to stay in contact with the floor as little as possible. He is more than willing to veer left or right, should the darkness look to be centered somewhere other than directly in front of the doorway. Once through, Kyle takes a moment to evaluate his surroundings, looking for both friends and foes that are close-by.

He sees a powerful bolt of lightening leap from thin air and streak across the room into the clustered mass of Banite soldiers in their black plate armor and some Banite priests without any armor on. None of the priests remain standing and a couple of the soldiers lie crumpled and dead as well. They turn and try to find out where the attack came from the exodus from the building halted.

ROUND FIVE

Leathynos struggles to draw in breath thru bleeding lips knowing to the core of her soul that Selanine Moonbow needs her still and she is not ready to cross over. With a slow and careful casting of a spell designed to hide her from foes so she can recoup herself, she takes advantage of the confusion of the tangle of limbs and bodies where no one can prevent her casting.

A soft moonlight glow covers her and then to all intents and purposes of the nearby enemies she simply has never existed.

Deethan sees Sorg whipping his rapier in a tight arc as he demands the surrender of the few remaining men who came in with Fahad and Sylphia. They are quip to drop there weapons.

The mercenary captain looks at the ever increasing large hole in the ceiling and front wall being caused by the near enraged colossus of stone and sees the ceiling beams splintering and plaster and wood chips mixing with stone fragments covering the floor.

"We are out of here. Grab up our fallen. Get Fahad's men too which have fallen."

With a smooth precision the dozens of men begin to grab what they can and start to head for the back of the tavern's common room.

Stumbling out of the misty fog that surrounds one of the two priests standing a little further back, comes a bandage wrapped monstrosity of undead reeking of death and disease. A creature that legends tell can rot your bowels with disease with the merest of touches.

It shambles in towards those battling near the door.

One of the animated suits of armor drifts over to Roni and begins to wield the massive bastard sword sparking with magical energies. In a deep and deadly sweep it catches him low in the abdomen spilling a copious amount of blood and loosing the priests muscles so that entrails begin to spill out ( severe wound ).

A second suit swings its heavy blade in a pair of overhanded strikes at Deethan's uncle.

The unarmored man takes both to the head ripping great chunks of flesh and hair from his skull. Blood flies everywhere as bone is exposed to the open air. ( 2 sever wounds ) but with an amazing display of courage in the face of his imminent death. He keeps to his feet with his axe in hand.

Then the skeleton warriors close on Roni and Deethan's uncle and begin to tear into them with long black swords.

A pair seem to completely miss Roni with 3 others landing heavy blows which finally takes him to his knees and he lays still in a pool of expanding blood.

One more misses Deethan's uncle as his sword slams into the stone of the wall with a loud clang and then the others four disembowel and hack him down into bloody chunks.

There is a great crack of lightening which seems to fizzle a good 10 feet into the air over Roni's fallen body.

And then there is a swirling in the mists. Roni and Bergis are gone. As there eyes begin to falter and fade they find themselves lying on the opposite side of the street in the mouth of the narrow alley. With them are Faelar and Leathynos.

The reality of time has been warped by a powerful casting from Faelar and he has spirited them away and out of danger in the darkened alley mouth.

His concern for them is apparent even though none can feel the link thru Garrett any longer and fear him dead.

But there is little more that he can do for them at the moment.

Shay'la meanwhile has gotten a bit frustrated with the slow pace of the battle and flown towards the front of the stables though she keeps her distance out to the maximum of the effect that she wishes to enact. With a piercing stab with her new won staff and heedless of the charges that she is draining from it she aims it at Ghordoon and lets loose a blast of powerful energy.
A bolt of invisible energy that seems to leave little whorls and vacuums of displaced air behind it.

Though none but her can see it and even then she only sees it for a moment. Ghordoon is lifted off his feet and knocked a couple of feet backwards with a ragged hole ripped in the front of his black plate armor and bloody ribbons of flesh and blood smeared around the hole.

But Shay'la can not enjoy her victory as a series of blazing runes trigger all around the interior surfaces of the stables. Shay'la is ripped by waves of magical energy that crush her life force out in an instant as well as enacting a half a dozen other foul enchantments on her.

The no longer invisible Shay'la floats and hangs limply in the air her staff falling from her fingers.

A half a dozen air elementals come swirling over to her banging and knocking her around but unable to actually come into physical contact with her.

Mere moments afterwards there is a powerful whip crack of a lightening bolt raging down into one of the plate armored priests. The Banite manages to dive and roll and avoid the worst of its effects but still gets scorched and burned by the lightening bolt cast by the earlier summoned avoral which has come back over the street to attack those of evil natures.

A bolt of piercing lightening rips down from the heavens above it and seems to have no affect as it washes over its body.

Thru the rolling mists of vapor none of the remainder of the party can see the battle continue.

None but Kyle. Who seeing Fahad's men and Sorgs men retreating and not seeming too terribly concerned about the Banite warriors trying to get out into the street. He looks over once to Deethan and sees that he is the only one of the party here even though he is battling a demon.

Decides to take this battle out to the streets.

In graceful leaps and bounds he crosses the distance towards the front doors planning on slipping unseen with his invisibility between the Banites standing at the doorway no longer trying to rush out seeing the slowly disentangling heap of armored Banite soliders from the first wave to charge forward.

Deethan soon regrets this as a pair of evilly clawed hands streak upwards to tear great gaping bloody hunks out of his flesh ( light wounds ) and he barely avoids the great snapping maw as the demon was able to all out attack him.

And before he can begin enacting his spell a quintet of dark blurs resolve around him. Leaping off tables and chairs come bounding a great many of the largest and meanest canines that he has ever seen which apparently have just leaped out of the shadows at him.

One manages to lock its jaws around his leg and begin worrying his flesh but is unable to damage him with his layers of spells and the other 4 were not able to get a good bite on him and land heavily on the floor turning to leap back at him.

And to there shock and anger he is gone. He too has cast a spell and managed to avoid the opportunistic attack from the demon below him as he rips apart the fabric of time to cast spells and move out of the way.

Unseen by the others Deethan has stepped out of the stream of time and backtracked slightly to see if he can find Fahad behind his wall. As he gets close enough he realizes that Fahad is not there and that 3 of Sorg's men are helping the 4th get towards the end of the wall so that they can regroup with the others.

Deethan eyes the stairwell and assumes that is where Fahad has gone. Without a pause he turns and flies back the way he has come casting a spell as he does so. A shimmering wave of energy washes from him so that the summoned creatures that have left him a bleeding bloody wreck can no longer attack him.

He slows down and flies thru the zone of darkness and silence ever wary for a trap.

Finding none he eneters the empty kitchen and then the backroom beyond.

Seeing magical radiances revelaing a lone priest of Bane standing in a small coat closet by the barred back door he quickly looks around for Sylphia not seeing her. He hides the Blast Scepter in his glove as he quickly decides what to do.

Spotting the banite, he immediately sends a mental command to his unseen servant to grab a lantern and drop it from ceiling height onto the banite's
feet. Whenever time winds up catching up with him.

Deethan zooms around the back room, mentally instructing his unseen servant to move on from the Banite and remove the bar on the back door instead, as he glancing down each of the hallways and up each of the stairs, hoping to catch a glimpse of Sylphia, who he believes can't have got much further.

He catches glimpses of sleepy eyed staggering adventurers rousing themselves from many of the rooms opened onto by the backdoor to the kitches. With quick glances down the four corridors he sees 17 bleery eyed adventurers. Most appearing to be warrior types from the weapons they have in hand.

He does indeed see Sylphia. She and her brother Fahad are at the far end of the hallway on the first floor leading off from the right of the kitchen storerooms.
They are 60 or more feet away and with 7 adventurers stumbling around in the hall between them. Both are invisible and they are fumbling with the catch to a shuttered window. Obviously on the way outside.

Just as the rush of time catches up with him.

With a rush of annoyance and before his stopping of time ends, he'll cast web on the area leading back into the common room covering the same sort of area that the darkness currently covers.

Derrick slowly raises his head. Careful to remain and prone on thje ground after his splitting headache of an encounter with the unexpected symbol of stunning.
He sees the massive billowing wall of mist and darkness all around. He has no sight to any of the other members of the party and sees an obviously dead Shay'la hanging in the air not to far distant.

ROUND SIX

Deethan casts a brief spell to lift the bar on the back door

Outside Faelar sees the four animated suits of armor rising into the and slowly turning around looking for them. Even as he finishes pulling a potion bottle and pouring it down Roni's throat even as Lea casts one of her most powerful spells of healing on Bergis.

Time is running short and Faelar does not know where Shay'la is.

Derrick sees a trio of undead creatures wearing Banite armor with deep wounds which should have and probably did end there lives ripped into the black metal plates. Seeing no one else he allows himself to drift back into the shadows and fade from site as he tries to determine what to do next.

Inside the tavern Kyle hears a shout of authority.

"Clear the doorway. The rest of you guard the outside."

In rush a pair of black plate armored priests. One shows scarred and bubbled metal where the lightening bolt had hit him.

The score of armored Banite warriors open the pressing throng at the doorway to let them in.

A moment later there is a great crack of lightening as the priest next in line takes a bolt of lightening cast by the flying avoral. The bolt passes over him harmlessly as he steps inside the tavern followed by the fourth priest.

The last priest turns and addresses the half a dozen warriors.

"Hold this door until relieved."

He then gestures to the milling undead.

"Search out and kill anyone not by this door."

A dozen feet from the door appears a winged being ( Kyle ). With his arrival Deethan, Falear, Roni, and Lea can all begin to share there mental communications again. Derrick and Kyle not.

ROUND SEVEN

Though the opportunity to attack while invisible presents itself, Kyle holds back as the odds are not in his favor. There are 2 dozen or more armored soldiers which he is not so concerned about. But there are also 4 powerful priests to recon with. And there is now no longer anyone in the tavern to aid him with Deethan's departure.

He decides to step back and wait his time and follow them as quietly as he can.

Relief washes over the moonelf as she is enveloped in safety. Weakly she tries to provide herself with some self healing (highest level of healing she has left) Once she has some of her strength back, she will attempt to heal the others through magic and first aid...

Around the corner she can see one of the armored constructs rising into the air hovering 40 feet above the ground and slowly turning around as it looks for the missing party members. It sheaths its sword.

Two of the armored priests quickly hold a discussion and decide to work there way thru the tavern and leave out the back. The move most of the way across the room with about half of the soldiers in tow when a pair of adventures with bared blades as well as bared chests as they wear nothing but breches and boots come down the stairs to the left.

They see the Banite soldiers, priests, and dozens of armed mercenaries of Sorg's and decide to withdraw back up the stairs.

"Kill them." Shouts one of the priests to Sorg who stands nearby as his men are preparing to take their dead and the captured mercenaries out the back.

"Yeah. Right."

Sorg gestures and a dozen of his men follow two of his lieutenants as they turn back around and head towards the stairwell.

Hearing the screams of the enraged demon somewhere in the darkness mixing with a dreadful howling, Sorg gestures again.

His mercenaries split into two groups with him leading one and Olath leading the other. Olath leads his men towards the iron wall and the stairs that lie on the opposite side of it. Sorg follows the mercenaries who are in pursuit of the pair of adventurers.

The pair of Banite priests seem lees inclined to going into the darkness at the back of the room.

Derrick slips thru the darkness as he begins looking for the other memebers of the party. From inside the stables he hears the shouted words of a priests prayer. Undoubtedly Ghordoon survived Shay'la's attack. A shimmering column of flame drops from the heavens immolating the flying avoral that Faelar had earlier summoned. Flesh and feathers char and bones shatter from the heat. The creature fades from view with a smoky pop as it is discorporated.

One of the two priests near the front door of the tavern begins casting a spell to dispel the darkness in the back of the room. As he does so the darkness fades and goes away as does a spell of silence. There are more cries added to the din as there is some kind of commotion going on in the back rooms of the kitchen. A large web of sticky fibers fills the kitchen and enmeshed in it are five large hounds trying to tear there way thru it and a black skinned demon with large claws which is ripping its way thru.

As the bar fell to the floor in the cluttered back room behind the kitchen a flaming priest of Bane steps in front of the door screaming wildly swinging a black rod radiating black streaks of magics as it whirls around him in wild defensive arcs. Flames crawl up his cloak from where a lantern was shattered and burning oil covers his feet.

With a twist of his wrist the golden scepter with the large red ruby in its tip pops into Deethan's hand as he speaks the words to its activation and a powerful bolt of lightening leaps out of its gem hitting the priest squarely in the chest throwing him backwards into the door. His smoking charred corpse joins a double handful of splinters on the floor as the bolt blasts a head sized hole in the door.

As he appears he shouts.

"Banite priests, demons, summoned monsters come to slay the weak!!!"

He then flies towards the door pushing it open as he flies into the dark alley behind the tavern and begins to fly up. He hears the unmistakable sound of crossbow's firing. From the sound he quickly notices a pair of men hidden to his left one next to either side of the walls of the alley. Another pair of men have a similar place off to his right. And a third grouping up on the roof of the building that opposites the tavern across the alley.

A pair of crossbows whiz by him with another trio hitting the magical radiances which suddenly swirl around him as his magical spells deflect them. A final bolt slams into his stomach ( CRIT with light damage ). Ignoring the crossbowmen he flies higher and turns to the right hoping to find his way over to the alleyway opening he can see in that dorection where he assumes Fahad and Sylphia to have gone.

Seeing that his odds are much better now with all the confusion in the common room of the tavern. Kyle strikes. As the Banite priest before him wears heavy plate with razor sharp edges, spikes, and hooks. He has to attack indirectly which he does with more than some skill.

Appearing in there midst as the invisibility falls off of him like ripples of sand falling away, his elbow strikes out the weak place between helmet and chestplate slamming into the priests throat. His heel comes down hard on the side of the priests armored knee. Both blows striking with hammering force and seriously injuring the priest who has yet to move and act.

A trio of the nearest Banite soldiers swing there swords at his sudden appearance but he is able to side step the blows without any danger to himself.

A quartet of soldiers close in on him thereby separating him from the priest and placing him in a ring of his enemies. Kyle is forced to use forearms and hands to deflect there attacks as he becomes encircled.

A second armored construct rises above the darkness and misty vapors as air elementals follow the bellowed shouts of the priest in the stables.

"FIND THEM...KILL THEM..."

The fast moving air elementals whirl out in all directions with their great speed.

Faelar sees 4 of them locate him and the others and as they approach he casts a powerful spell designed to dissipate there magical energies. Three of them fade and whirl disspiating into mists but the 4th survives the spell which has in the meantime revelaed Faelar.
It prepares to attack them with wordless wind howling as it calls to the others.

The last pair of armored constructs fly up into the air also sheathing there glowing swords.

Derrick is able to locate the rest of the party from the battle with the air elementals. There seems to be some smaller fight still going on in the tavern with Deethan as well. ( OOC: YOu don't really know it is Kyle ) The main group is on the far side of the open area in front of the Yawning Portal at the corner of the one building and in the entrance to the street by its side. Moving with a speed and grace that far surpasses those not trained in maostic studies he moves silently thru the darkness as he crosses the distance keeping as close to walls as possible.

With a pop of outrushing air Garrett returns and sees that the battle has changed in his absence. Still being able to see through the magical darkness and mists he sees the obviously dead body of Shay'la floating in the air in front of the stables. There are 8 skeleltal undead with black swords and 2 dozen undead in heavy armor wielding swords and axes spreading out across the plaza. Stumbling along behind them is a bandage wrapped mummy and a yellow skinned ghoul.

Numerous undead notice his arrival and begin to head towards him.

The large stone elemental which has been so far ripping larger and larger holes in the front of the tavern trying to enter. Stops. Crawls back out of the niche that he had wedged himself into and stands up. With a lumbering run it leave horse sized sections of shattered cobbles in its wake as it heads for the intersection of the stable and the tavern. It appears as if it is intending to burst right thru.
Each footfall lands with a reverbation of thunder.

Leathynos and Faelar note the unmistakable sound of crossbows down the smaller cobblestone road on which they find themselves. A good dozen or more crossbows by the sounds of the rapid firing reports. With a short look back they see a small patrol of Waterdhavian soldier have been ambushed by men up on the roofs of nearby buildings. Crossbows stutter and at least 5 of the 8 guardsmen are struck. They hit the ground and lay unmoving as the surviving three run for cover and begin to blow whistles.

ROUND EIGHT

Leathynos heaves a deep breath as some of her more critical wounds are closed. Looking over she sees that Roni is the most wounded still and begins converting one of her other spells into a powerful healing relying on the others to keep her undisturbed.

One of the armored constructs hovering in the air pulls a loaded crossbow from its back and aims it at Faelar who stands at the edge of the building whereas the others had moved themselves further down behind it to give them some cover. With a heavy twang the bolt leaps out and slams into his left thigh tearing deep into the meat and chipping the bone of his thigh ( Moderate Wound ).

Garrett ignored the approaching undead as they will doubtlessly not be able to affect him. Instrad he begins to search around trying to locate the center of the magical effect that is preventing telelportations and dimensional magics to work. He strives to find the center of the anchor but his lack of deep magical training hampers him.

Across the mental link he is informed by Faelar that the priest Ghordoon cast the spell. And that it is somehow centered on the Tavern and extends for 100 feet in all directions from the nearest wall of that building.

Five swirling air elementals rush in to attack Faelar, Leathynos, Roni and Berthold. But as before they are still unable to attack effectively with both of the priests having protections from summoned creatures keeping them at bay.

Kyle bends down with one leg sweeping the foot out from under one of the armored Banites. As he stands he kicks out with the same foot impacting the falling soldier and throwing him into two of the others with the three crashing down to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

One by one undead attack Garrett who continues to ignore them even as they cause psionic energies to leap back along there own weapons dealing them equivalent damage to what they would have hit him with. He notices that the armored constructs above him are unnable to see through the mist where he stands though they are probably aware that someone is fighting down there.

Two of the priests inside begin casting spells. Kyle feels himself slowing and weakening even as he sees the Banites getting bolder as the blessing takes opposite effects. As the second priest finishes his spell Kyle stumbles slightly as he feels a piece of his life energy having being stripped away ( Serious Wound ).

More Banite soldiers close in and he is again surrounded. He dodges and deflects blow after blow. A glancing blow by an axe digs a rivule of blood from his shoulder ( light wound ) as he is unable to defend his back from all attacks.

Faelar holds his spell for as long as he is able. He finally releases it and another powerful wave of magic is released. All five of the circling elementals puff out in whisps of vaporous air.

"Roni. To Leathynos. Your defenses are gone. I sacrificed them to get the elementals."

Five more air elementals sweep down in the slight opening. Faelar and Roni are for the moment unprotected against them.

Faelar's magical defenses sparkle with showers of magical radiance as sweeping blow after sweeping blow is deflected. One of the swooping air elementals manages to land a telling blow which picks Faelar off the ground and throws him backwards 5 feet ( Crit Hit .. Moderate Wound ).

The remaining three hovering armored constructs begin to move to the side the get an angle to shoot there own crossbows at the party around the corner. They move 40 feet to the side.

Faelar is hit by a second quarrel even as Leathynos is hit by one ( moderate damage to both ). The third skips and sparks off the cobblestones.

Derrick manages to cross the distance and is separated from the party which he can see only 10 feet away down the side street by an invisible barrier of force. He follows it with his hand and it seems to go in front of the building and out into the open street with no break for him to slide thru.

Back inside the tavern a priest finishes a spell that dissipates the webbing. With a howl of satisfaction the hounds charge forward with the demon quick on their heels. In moments there is the sound of screams of injured and the sounds of combat.

Flying about 60 feet above the ground and slowly coming around the corner looking into the alley, he indeed does see Sylphia and Fahad. She is just finishing off a potion and dropping the glass bottle which shatters on the stones at her feet.

He sees that Fahad is casting a spell and prepares to counter it if it proves to be any kind of area effect spell or spell defense or spell turning. He sees that Fahad now has a new spell active on him. One that will allow him to track and find individuals ( LOCATE CREATURE ).

Before he can prepare the components of his counterspelling he realizes that he is too late that Fahad has almost finished his. Recongnizing the spell while he was preparing to counterspell he curses silently as a visible bubble appears around him and his sister. A spell that completely negates the effects of spells less than or equal to the 4th level of arcane and divine powers.

Deethan decides to go ahead and risk casting his spell as he was prepared to cast a greater dispellation which may be able to collapse this new defense. He appears as he finishes the last syllable of his spell.

He smiles as he sees the bubble of magical protection waver and falter winking out with a pop of energy.

And then his smile fades as he sees the massive stone elemental climbing over the roof of the stable and getting ready to enter into the same alley where the two Calimshites are. The roof of the stables, the walls of both the stables and the tavern take considerable damage from the massive weight of the elemental.

He flinches involuntarily as he hears the unmistakable cry of a griffon somewhere overhead. And then the sound of more than 2 dozen crossbows discharging. The shriek if the griffon changes to one of pain and he hears the unmistakable sound of a large body of flesh and bone hitting the roof of a nearby building.

From his position he can now make out trios and quartets of crossbowmen on the rooves of every building that he can see. And more than a few crossbows were aimed out of windows in those same buildings.

He knows he won't survive long if they decide to target him.

ROUND NINE

All four of the menacing armored constructs continue to drift forward towards the party at a rapid pace. 40 feet off the ground and overtaking the party, whom are hiding along the wall of the building below them. They spread out evenly and continue to crank the windlasses of the heavy crossbows in preparation of another devastating volley. Purple mists and smoke drifts from the joints of there armor.

Kyle decides that with the huge elemental backing out and moving off this will provide a good ‘window’ for him to leave the common room of the tavern as his surprise against the one priest was not able to take him out quickly and easily. As he becomes more surrounded by black armored warriors and priests he decides to get out.

Unable to do anything about it, he forces his way out of the entrapping circle of nine warriors. And proceeds at a full run out thru the shattered wall and into the darkness outside. Seeing there chance at opportunity the ring of warriors swing axes, morning stars and swords at Kyle’s sides and back. His deft agility is able to step around most of the blows both of those in the ring of steel, which he has lept past, but also in the trio he has to bypass to finally get outside.

But he does not do so unscathed. An axe catches him in the right hip, a sword in the lower right forearm and a second axe in the small of his back ( light wound, light wound, moderate wound with a critical ).

And then he is out in the darkness and quickly runs into the fog and slips around the scattered undead he sees lumbering around outside. Breaking out of the fog he finds himself back in darkness and heading out to the middle of the street. He sees the hovering suits of armor in the darkness and assumes that is where he can find the others.

He is followed outside by one of the priests and a half a dozen black plate armored warriors but they quickly lose him in the fog and stay close to the shattered hole in the wall created by the towering earth elemental which can still be seen climbing up and over the walls where the stable adjoins the tavern. The groans and creaks of shattering timbers as roof and walls supports collapse is accompanied by the harsh clatter of falling stone and masonry from the walls.

And then the massive behemoth is over the walls and forcing his way down the narrow alley beyond accompanied by continued sounds of shattering walls and roves as it goes down a passage that is too narrow for it. Only the top of its head can be seen now. But its passage is well marked by the shattering stomping tread of its footfalls.

A pair of the air elementals swoop down trying to rip apart Faelar who lies slightly outside the zone of protection offered by Leathynos’ spell. One tears a handful of cobbles from the street with its powerful swooping strike and the other causes a halo of sparkling magical energies to surround Faelar as his magical protections defend him from the attack. And then they swoop off again.

Deethan rounds the corner, flying at top speed down the alley and casts again, using one of his powerful spells on Fahad and Sylphia. As they are close together, he targets the point between them, blasting them with his chain lightning spell - again converted to cold as he had had such success with it before.

“Damn” he shouts as he sees that Sylphia had been a little faster and is finishing the counterspelling of a greater dispellation before he finishes. The bolt of lightening leaping from his hands turns to frosty white radiance and then hits an invisible barrier and fizzles and pops and fades out in a shower of magical sparks.

When the spell fizzles, countered by Sylphia, Deethan curses to himself in drow, before recognising at the last moment the spell that Fahad is casting.
Desperately trying to avoid it, and failing, the cube of force closes around Deethan and he slams painfully into it's southern side taken a very minor wound thru the protections of his stoneskin enchantment as his speed had built up momentum and he hit the immovable barrier too hard.

He finds himself trapped in an invisible cube which is firmly wedged between the two walls of the alley in which he had been flying.

A second pair of elementals swoop down trying to rake Faelar. The results are near identical. One misses and the other raises a shower of magical sparks as it passes and then flies away.

Roni who has recovered some of his wits casts a spell designed to tear apart the bindings of magic and send a summoned creature back to where it came from. With a shrieking cry a warped ripping appears in the air just in front of the last swooping air elemental and a cyclone of sucking air pulls and tears at it until only wisps of fog remain behind and the planar tear seals shut behind it.

Roni jumps up and down with a victorious whoop of success. Then clutches over and grabs what might be a set of broken ribs.

Leathynos begins to walk over to Faelar with Roni and Berthold taking up flanking positions and staying very close to her side and within the slight shimmering of her defense spell against the summoned creatures.

Leathynos works to convert what spells she can into powerful healing spells. She wasn't really aware of why this aoll started, but it mattered not, her healing skills and the blessing of her goddess were all she needed at present. Hopefully they would alll survive the night. She wasn't aware of Shayla's death yet and though any loss of life was a waste, she wouldn't morne the woman...she didn't know her after all...she would of course offer up prayers to her goddess once she discovered the death. She offers a silent prayer as she sacrifices another of her spells to add a soft glow of healing around Roni.

Faelar manages to get up and begins the castings of a spell of evocation. A tiny red ball of flame appears in his hand which he hurls at one of the hovering suits of armor still treating them as the more dangerous of foes as they are not prevented from approaching by Leathynos’ spell.

A roaring inferno of flame surrounds the armored construct and as it fades away leaving it smoking but apparently unharmed.

The last of the air elementals and by far the largest of any of those you have seen hovers around in a slow circling of the party.

As Garrett continues to ignore the attacking undead and indeed there own destruction as they destroy themselves in the process of attacking him ( 1 skeleton and 1 of the other undead collapse with 2 other of the armored undead and 1 skeleton wounded by there own attacks ). He begins a slow ambling run towards where he sees the party have turned around the corner of the building across the street from the Yawning Portal.

He makes his way out of the fog and he and Kyle see each other even as Garrett continues to cross over to where he sees the invisible wall of force.

And then he hears a loud laughing chuckle.

“Not so fast Garrett. Not so fast.”

He and Kyle see the armored form of Ghordoon the high priest striding out of the shattered front doors of the stables accompanied by a large red bubbling mud creature that looks like a cross between a water and an ooze elemental.

The priests hand gestures and a large glowing symbol of pure evil and hatred writes itself from unseen hands onto the cobbles of the street only a few feet from Kyle.

In an amazing display of iron nerves and will both Garett and Kyle buckle up and thru sheer fortitude shake off the effects of the deadly clerical magic causing a harsh curse from Ghordoon as the somewhat slow moving creature closes on Kyle getting to within arm reach of him.

==============

Unseen by the party as he keeps to the shadows which seem to pull out and wrap around him as he passes by.

Derrick looks at the area where the wall connects. If there is a build that is easy to scale and move around it, or move through the building to avoid it, then that's what he'll do. If no other option presents itself, he'll levitate up and over the wall to get back close to the party.

Because of the way the walls of force are ... they provide virtually no hand holds... Derrick decides to use his boots again. And begins Levitating the 10'
into the air and then pulling himself over and then lowering back down on the other side of the wall of force.

==============

Realizing that they can no longer attack the party members below them the air elementals circle weaving about the armored constructs as they howl with storm like rage. But ready to leap down and tear them apart if they stray too far from Leathynos.

Leathynos takes the time to convert another of her more powerful spells into healing bringing the party members one step closer to full health.

Roni calls forth a minor prayer causing a bright light to spring forth from his hand lighting up all in the nearby vicinity.

Kyle meanwhile decides that he does not want to tackle the creature at the moment and the high priest and as he is outside of arms reach simply continues running towards the corner where the party has ducked around. He hits the invisible wall of force at full tilt and bounces back and lands flat on his ass ( minor wound ).

Seemingly possessing a sharp intelligence the hovering armored constructs have located Leathynos as the central point of the ward protecting the others from the elementals. One by one the heavy twangs of there crossbows announce quarrels launched at the elven priestess. Three of the four bolts tear thru her magical defenses with one of them deflecting at the last instant. One lodges in the side of her throat and the other hits her a glancing blow on the forehead and the last impaling her foot to the cobbles of the street ( 3x Severe wounds ).

Inside his cubic prison Deethan sees Fahad cast a spell of flight and hover up to stair at him thru the invisible barrier with a contended smile on his face. Sylphia meanwhile has begun casting a spell and from the swirling cloud of ashed forming near her is summoning a new creature to join the fray.

Again cursing, Deethan tries to send a mental message to the others by the mental link, finding it blocked by the force cube. He hopes the others do not think him now dead as he assumed when Shay’las link was so suddenly cut off. Hovering in mid-air, he considers his options, re-invoking his invisibility as he does so. He wracks his mind over all the obscure arcane that he has learned over the years trying to find a solution. Even as he activates his ring once more and goes invisible.

Fahad continues to stare straight at Deethan the two knowing that Deethan is still inside.

With eyes squinted shut and outpacing the slow lumbering creature behind him only by the sheer fact that he started moving before it. Garrett joins Kyle at the invisible wall of force trying to think of a way over. With his extreme weight the wings he sports in his new form of the ‘archon’ are more than useless.

But from the shuffling plop plop of the creature behind him he knows that he does not have much more time. And from the armored pounding the high priest is also in pursuit.

------

Derrick looks over the members of the party and quickly ascertains that they are all fairly healthy and whole no doubt due to Leathynos. And she is now spurting blood from her crossbow wounds making her the weakest member of the party. But with the bonus psionically granted health she is still hale and strong. Leathynos has done a good job of healing herself but she is still battered. Faelar has only taken a couple of hits. Roni and Deethan’s uncle look to have been nearly killed from the copious amounts of drying blood on their clothing. But seem healthy at the moment.

All in all the party is still quite strong. Lots of spells. Lots of spell defenses. And fresh warriors.

It could be turned around or you could all withdraw.

After a few more moments of combat time, the group in the alley is probably startled by a voice. "Its Derrick. What's the plan? Are we pulling back?

Anyone turning to look where the voice is coming from, doesn't see anything, but the fact that you heard a near whisper indicates that he has got to be very close. Note, this also includes people with True Sight in effect.

Derrick will wait in the alley for the group's thoughts, and be ready to strike if anything gets close and he can get a spring attack in. He won't fire his bow since it isn't magical and doesn't have any magic arrows.

Faelar begins to cast another spell in unhurried fashion though he is quite aware of how depleted his magical energies are.

A jagged bolt of lightening leaps forth from his outstretched hand to enguld the slightly scorched construct which he had earlier targetted with the fireball.

As the bolt of lightening passes he is quite disturned to see an equal amount of no reaction from the creature and no signs of damage.

ROUND TEN

Ghordoon slows his armored advance and begins casting again. Though he is not a strong practitioner of magics even Garrett realizes that the priest before him must have some special quality that allows him to cast Symbols of such dire power so readily and quickly.

Surprisingly the spell is targeted not at him but behind him. Right at the base of the invisible wall of force. He hears a startled and strangled cry and then he hears Kyle howling like a banshee as he slams himself to the ground arms and legs kicking in a childish tantrum leaving … bloody streaks on his hands as he has lost his mind to the glowing symbol in which he stands.

Garrett knows that if he were to turn around and see it he too will be affected.

Faelar is quick to spot the wooden door near to them and with a muttered spell the door is burst off its hinges and into the room behind it. One by one the party members are able to go into the room inside. It is a darkened carpet shop. Huge bolts of heavy carpet are stacked nearly chest high leaving but narrow walkways between them. The room smells of fabrics and perfumes.

Leathynos stays closest to the door thereby preventing any of the elementals from coming in. Though she does stand around the corner so that she can not be shot by the crossbows of the hovering armored figures which are even now reloading and moving to get a better angle on them.

Derrick however remains outside. He had slipped across the street and wedged himself between a barrel and a half broken crate as he was waiting for the party to decide there next course of action. He is untargeted by the attacking elementals or hovering armored constructs.

But as he hears the screams and turns at Kyle’s familiar voice he is unfortunately in line with the corner of the glowing symbol. His knees buckle and he finds himself sitting on the hard cobblestones with drool running from the corner of his mouth as his mind turns to blankness filled with unimaginable monstrosities from his past. Pure fear locks his jaws shut. An almost opposite effect to what the symbol had on Kyle.

Not looking behind him, Garrett looks at the priest and uses an innate and highly trained mental ability.
His head and eyes glow a bright white and there is an echoing light from around Ghordoon. Though he tries and flexes his mind he feels the unmistakable pressure of an anti-magic or a spell resistant effect around Ghordoon simply turning away his best efforts.

When confronting the priest Garrett laughs hollowly, "Banite you mean nothing to me. If you and your allies had left my friend and allies alone you might have lived. Now I will see you destroyed for attacking my companions."

Lots of chimneys thinks Deethan as he ponders his situation inside the cube of force. This tavern itself has 4 large ones and a couple of smaller ones.
Every building has at least two or three. Looking around he sees the mercs are covering everything within a 3 block radius. And Rocko the massive elemental is bursting its way down the alley tearing apart walls to both sides in the process. But with the cube of force in place it is remarkably silent.

His eyes keep locking on those of Fahad and down below to Sylphia. Both of whom he can see are casting.

Deciding to take a wait and see he sees Sylphia complete a spell and another pair of giffons materialize out of the swirling smoke. The narrow alley is now becoming cramped with 5 griffons crouched on their hindlegs ready to spring forth and stretch there wings and sail into the skies. Looking like a single file of feather and muscle and snapping beak and claw. Sylphia stands alone in the alley with a wall of living defenders to either side and ready to take to the air in a moments notice.

Fahad has meanwhile completed casting a spell which causes a large number of tiny hovering orbs about the size of eyes and almost impossible to see in the darkness but easily obvious to Deethan to materialize. He whispers a few more words and they go racing off in all directions. Streaking down the alley in both directions. Up and over the roofs nearby. Streaming back into the window above Sylphia.

Deethan carefully counts 15 separate spheres streaking away and notes this to himself.

Deethan watches as Fahad rises to his own level, locking eyes with the smiling Calishamite. Slowly wiping a trickle of blood from his nose, he shakes his head at Fahad as if in disapproval, before delicately pointing at the man with his index finger, and then drawing the same finger across his throat.

He smiles insincerly at Fahad, obvious dislike showing his face, and pauses almost waiting to see if the man was intending to do anything else, before extending the index finger on his left hand and drawing it down in a vertical line. A blue line springs into being under his finger, widening into a portal, sideways on to him. Still staring at Fahad, Deethan steps/flies sideways through the opening portal, twitching an eyebrow in amusement as he disappears from Fahad's view.

Deethan re-appears some 300 feet away - beyond the earth elemental, beyond the end of the alley, and beyond the ruined stables even. Hidden by a large chimney stack on the building opposite the stables, a blue vertical slash opens in mid-air, and the invisible Deethan floats through.

There is the whip crack of a crossbow quarrel from a nearby mercenary crouched on the roof. But the bolt passes harmlessly thru the shimmering blue doorway before it winks out.

From up in the air a burst of light appears followed by two others as a trio of miniature suns flare into existence. These flare in rapid succession as one by one they come plummeting to the earth in blazes of radiance. As they reach the street level two of them land in the open area before the Yawning Portal and throw back the darkness that was found there.
Revealing a horde of undead creatures stumbling around, Ghordoon, and a massive mudlike creature stumbling its way forward.

The sounds of crossbows twanging sound from all around as a good 3 or 4 dozen crossbows being released fill the sounds of the night air as a hail of quarrels spring into the air at the momentary silhouettes of what appear to be a quartet of figures flying thru the air.

With great beats of wings and shrill shrieks, the griffons launch into the air and zoom towards the newcomers.

ROUND ELEVEN

The sight of three of the armored constructs hovering down and staring straight into the blasted open doorway across the curved and drawn crossbows greets Leathynos as she peers quickly around the corner.

One after another the staccato humm and thump of crossbows discharging there quarrels echoes in the early morning darkness. They obviously have a hard time targeting her because of the cover of the doorway she has partially hidden behind. But not everyone else in the room is so well hidden yet.

Deethan’s Uncle though half hidden by a large stack of carpets catches a quarrel in the neck and in the arm with a third embedding into the carpets near Faelar’s thigh. The darkness inside the building seemingly has no effect on their aim. ( Berthold 2x severe wounds ).

Leathynos stays as hidden as possible from all foes.
While her Sanctuary is maintained, she cannot attack nor be attacked. But during this time she prepares 2 things, to be ready once the sanctuary is gone.

First she will slips a small Iron band on her slender finger, creating a shield size and shape wall of force to protect her from projectiles.
(Ring of Forceshield). As this takes almost no time at all she also begins summoning forth the powers of Seline Moonbow via her prayers.
She will pull from her pocket, a small bit of clay, powder of mace and begin an incantation creating a creature to fight for her and the others (Level 2 Summon Monster II).

A swirling mist appears directly in the middle of the doorway blocking physical ingress from the armored constructs as effectively as her protections are preventing the howling air elementals from following them in thru the doorway.

As it solidifies it turns into a black carapced giant beetle with great snapping pincers. It is as large as a small pony and at a word from Leathynos it exhales a large engulfing cloud of acidic vapors that fill the street outside and catch all three of the constructs which had lowered themselves to get a batter angle on those inside.

Swirling smears and meltings appear in there armor as the acidic vapors burn into there armor.

Mere moments after Derrick's mind seizes, a swirling of shadows appears around him visible to only a few of the adventurers but noted by the air elementals and 4th construct which turn to face it.

It is an unusual occurrence. A deific intervention as waves of powerful evil and hatred roll thru the street and the hiding place he had chosen mere moments before. Almost as if the very alley was alive and responding on contigency to the event. The shadows tighten in around him, forming a protective cocoon and somewhat showing Derrick drooling there senselessly hidden between the barrel and the large crate. And then suddenly fade into nothing and Derrick is no longer standing where the group saw him fall. He seeps into the ground falling into a shadowy pool, apparently being sucked into the plane of shadow by anyone skilled enough to recognize the realm.

It closes behind him and both individuals have gone. Apparently to all that have watched is a fact that only Faelar noted before. The main group of the party is now outside the effects of the dimensional anchoring. Only Deethan and Garrett are still in its effects.

The black armored Banite priest standing near the entrance to the Yawning Portal in the midst of his half a dozen stell plate armored Banite warriors looks to the now fully lit streets and sees the arrival of the quartet of flying spellcasters above.

His reaction is immediate. Flight. He turns and runs back into the tavern yelling the warnings to his fellow Banites. The Banite guards are left standing there.

Not so the undead which focus on Garrett and stream towards him like an unliving wave of death. Dozens of undead.

Deethan is quick to act. Hovering by the edge of the building and moving out from behind the chimney that he had earlier chosen for cover he begins a long and difficult casting. At its completion a glittering wave of energy seems to cover the majority of the street between the stable and tavern, between the building across the street from the Yawning portal and the one to its left side.

Where the wave travels, undead simply fall to dust and splinters.

Where the wave travels, the heretofore soft green glow of the dimensional anchor warding falls and falters.

A pair of invisible walls of force which had been bracketing Garrett and Kyle shimmer into visibility and wink out of existence with sounds of crystal chimes breaking.

The large red mud looking elemental approaching Garrett dissolves into nothingness.

All the magical effects of darkness, hovering mists, and even the newly dropped stones burning with daylight from the high flying spell casters are snuffed out as there magics fade.

The pair of deadly magical signs laid on the streets cobbles by Ghordoon are swept awy as if they were never there.

But to Deethan’s staring eyes the greatest and most important effect is that all the spell defense layered upon Ghordoon wink out one by one as they can not withstand the power of the magic shattering spell. He even sees the staff that had been strapped to the clerics back falter as the magics in it were shriven away. But none of the others magical items which he can see were effected.

But in a near simulataneous instant of his spell casting he himself has been targeted by a spell. One that is not turned by his multi-layered spell defenses.

He finds himself enmeshed in thick ropy webbing as layer after layer of webs form around him, the corner of the building and the chimney there and the walls of the building. Still hovering in the midst of his flight spell he finds himself trapped.

One of the spellcasters above is dropping closer to the ground and has been staring directly at him. He gets a quick image of blue fluttering robes a dark green cloak and a staff being held by a lady who must certainly is a mage.

The trio of other flying spellcasters are also speeding towards the ground to get out of the deadly open area where crossbow quarrels recently were tearing thru.

The streaking elementals turn around after not being able to attack Derrick as he was being sucked into the plane of shadow and throw themesleves at the building where the others have taken refuge. The sounds of ripping boards as shutters are being ripped from there hinges as they try to force an entry and come from the inside can be heard by the trapped party members.

Another of the flying mages also casts a spell of webbing. Thick heavy cables of sticky webs spring into being all around and inside the shattered front doors to the stables.

Gherdoon meanwhile abandons the spell that he was casting letting it fall apart as he turns and moves back towards the tavern entrance. But as he had been working to craft a spell he only has the time to cover half the distance.

“Guards to me. To the Tavern.”

Garrett sees the four spellcaster coming down from the skies and that Deethan has been webbed by one of them.

Garrett sends through the Mindlink, "Everyone who can here me come here. We need to leave now. The Banites have the upper hand currently but that can change.
Right now though we need to take the time to escape and come back later. Hurry to me and I'll Planeshift us out of the region."

Deethan sends a message back to Garrett, "No, I'm going to dispell the priest's defences - get in there and kill the bastard!"

Garrett sends back-"Sounds like we're both trying to remove his defences. Just so you know he's more than slightly resistant. He may even have greater resistance than my own Magial resistance."

Deethan shouts back thru his link.“Ghordoon’s defences are gone.”

One of the flying spell casters releases a third entangling web flinging it forth to enmesh two of the griffons streaking up to attack them in it. There wings and foreclaws tangle to there bodies as the two of them are interconnected by a dozen feet of heavy webbing. The pair go plummeting out of the sky to land with heavy thuds in the middle of the square between the buildings where the battle had been taking place. There screams of hunting turn to screams of pain as they hit hard and further entangle themselves trying to get free.

The other three griffons streak in at the flying new arrivals.

Snapping claws and beaks are unable to deter them.
But the three closest fliers are now bitterly embroiled with the griffons and will doubtless be able to cast there spells at the events on the ground.

Faelar shouts thru the link.

“I will teleport the four of us to the elven embassy.”

And as he gathers up those inside the building Deethan and Garrett get a wrenching feeling of displacement thru the link almost as if they were going themselves.

ROUND TWELVE

The quartet of armored constructs each seem to realize that time is short and release powerful bolts of blue-white magical energy which dash into the armored carapace of the massive beetle and after the massive abuse its body falls apart and fades to smoke and mist.

The first three then enter thru the shattered door with the forth reloading its crossbow from where it was hovering.

The flying spellcaster that had targeted Deethan with a spell lifts forth the staff and shouts a word of power. Leaping from its tip is a massive jagged bolt of lightening which strikes one, then a second of the flying griffons sending them into puffs of nothingness as there magical summonings fold and fade away.

She shouts.

“Cease this violence. You are all under arrest.”

Ghordoon continues to pound across the square in his heavy armor amidst a great clanging of metal plates. Just as he passes by the quintet of warriors remaining who form up on him ( as the sixth had already fled inside ).

Garret’s eyes glow white as a shimmering of energy appears around his head. A similar shimmering appears around Ghordoon’s head and he slumps to the floor inside the tavern.

He is picked up by the body guards and dragged inside with the door being slammed shut behind them. But with the massive hole in the wall this is really no protection from entry.

The remaining griffon is quickly dispatched by two of the the three mages whom are now undoubtedly members of the Watchful Order of Waterdeep as the fourth flies over to investigate the loud noises of the elelementals and the armored constructs.

From all around can be heard horns and whistles as the city watch approach. Deethan is keenly aware that the two mercenaries closest to him have slipped backwards into deeper shadows on the top of the building and are apparently calling it a day.

"Follow the others Garrett while you still can!" Deethan sends to Garrett, watching as the priests carry Ghardoon's body into the inn. Trapped in the web, Deethan closes his eyes briefly, bringing one of his spell most commonly cast spells to the front of his mind. Through many years of practice, he has found he can cast this spell without the need for spell components and arcane gestures or words, and a second later, a blue portal opens up around him, swallowing him up.

Inside the inn, in the central pit down to Undermountain, several feet below the lip of the surrounding wall, and hidden from the view of all except those close to the pit, a matching blue portal opens up, disgorging Deethan into midair. Shaking off the familiar nausea without a thought, Deethan rises slightly to peek over the lip of the wall.
Looking for the priests and warriors carrying Ghordoon, plus whoever else might still be "around".

The tavern is full of Banites. There are a couple at the back door to the kitchen. A couple to each of the stairs. A quintet at the front door and by the break in the wall.

And a great great many armored warriors standing around the well ready to go in any of the directions.
The three other priests are there with them seeming to be in charge.

The quintet is just thru the door carrying swooned Ghordoon.

One of the priests near the well shouts out.

"Prepare him. We depart at once."

The priest speaking gestures to one side of the room and immediately the Banite soldiers there begin kicking and throwing tables and chairs out of the way clearing an open space. A good 2/3 of the soldiers present quickly rush over to join in the task with the rest falling back from there defensive positions at doors and stairwells ready to quickly rejoin the others. Two of the remaining priests stand prepared to help defend with spells ready to cast.

The priest carrying Gherdoon and the five Banite soldiers around him circling him as a small bodyguard make all haste towards the cleared out area.

Trying to finish off the wounded Gherdoon the golden scepter appears again in Deethan’s hand as he pops up slightly from inside the well targeting him with it.

As he is no longer invisible he is seen by several of the Banite soldiers and the priests on watch. None of the soldiers is in range to do anything to stop him but both of the priests begins casting readied spell.

Deethan grins as a splash of magical energies appear before him and then first one priest and then the other priest stumble under there own magics each seemingly taking wounds.

As he points the scepter and lets forth a ravening blast of lightening he grimaces as one of his worst fears is realized. The bolt is tuned back. Not before burning down 4 of the Banite soldiers between him and the group and hitting 3 of the five guarding soldiers. All seven cooking in there armor as they jerk under the energies of the lightening bolt ripping thru there bodies. But as the magical assault approaches the wounded Gherdoon being carried by the other priest the lightening bolt turns and streaks back towards him. The bolt begins bouncing back and forth between the two and an oscillating whine begins to fill the air as the magical energies seem to build into a crescendo.

And then it is gone. The rest of the magical energy has dissipated harmlessly.

Just before he begins to drop back down into the well again he sees the last priest finishing a spell being cast from a scroll which forms a rippling shimmering curtain of shadow filling the area where the soldiers had cleared out the tables and chairs. It appears thin and veil like. Everything seen thru it seems almost the same but somewhat shadowy and insubstantial.

And then the view is gone as he slides down the well shaft to prepare for his next strike.

And he is startled again as he sees a pair of enormous stone hands. Each as large as he and each is reaching thru the stone of the well. Coming straight for him.
Arms connected to very large stone arms. He is soon entrapped in a latticework of stone fingers as large and as thick as his waist. They seem to be blocked a foot or so from his body as they press in and squeeze on his protection against summoned creatures. But the enormous hands squeeze and squeeze trying to shatter the enchantment.

Deethan does however find himself trapped in the well. The hands leave no room to manuever in the shaft with the protections still intact.

Garrett stalks after Ghardoon intent on ensuring his death. While he moves he sends an update to the others letting them know how things are standing with the mages that just arrived.

He sees that one of the mages that had laid heavy webbings over the stable ( even though there was no one inside ) has turned and flies towards the great ragged hole in the side of the Yawning Portal where Rocko had ripped it apart to get in before giving up and retreating.

Two others and the female spellcaster who had cast the webbing on Deethan fly towards where the air elementals are coming back out of the building where Faelar led the party to. He sees one of the 4 armored constructs but not the other 3.

In passing one flying spellcasters casts a spell aimed at Garrett. A quartet of brilliant hoops of electrical energy fall from the air over his head to surround him with one at the level of his knee, one at the level of his waist, one at the level of his chest and one at the level of his head.

The mage says as he flies on.

“Remain where you are. The Watch is on the way and the Watchful Order is here.”

All continue on to battle the elementals and constructs.

ROUND THIRTEEN

Deethan and the grasping stone hand are swarthed in sheets of raging fire as one of the clerics calls down a clerical prayer into the well. A tall column of flame reaches from the ceiling to the well and down most of its length to the beginnings of Undermountain below.
Deethan remains unharmed with his layers of defensive spells but apparently the massive hands take some damage as burning and chipping are evident.

Garrett walks through the bands allowing his own spell resistance forward as well as he energy resistance that he has put up. The mental links carries his smirk of a laugh just because some flighty mage tells him to stop doesn't mean Garrett will allow the Banite and his lackeys to escape. He prepares that if the bands prove more troublesome he'll dispel them before moving after the priests.

But as he walks into the sparking rings of electricity he is able to simply walk past and thru them leaving the rings intact behind him. As his psionic ability hardening his body to the consistence of iron leaves him slow, Garrett continues to move at double his normal speed. He closes the rest of the distance and is able to peer into the shattered section of wall as he eases himself around huge chunks of masonry, brick, stone, and shattered mortar.

He too sees what Deethan just saw. The Banites withdrawing into the shimmering wall of sooty darkness which seems so flimsy and transparent as if it were made of smoke. He sees what must undoubtedly be Ghordoon being carried into the netherworld beyond the shadowy veil along with over 2/3 of the Banites. He can see there shadowy forms as they run across what must be this very room from his position. But they are not in the room that is for certain.

A trio of heavily armored priests are approaching the well itself with streams of soldiers racing for the veil of shadows. One of the priests completes a prayer and a shimmering of magical energies appear in and around the well.

From Deethan’s perspective he sees a powerful dispellation designed to destroy magical effects targeting the whole area at the top of the well and down its shaft. He feels some of the magics upon him failing. It takes but a quick glance to realize that the False Life and the Greater Arcane Sight have been swept away. He also realizes that he has lost the mental link to Garrett.

Garrett feels the link being lost just as the clerics spell is finished.

But he knows that Deethan is not done for. The results speak for themselves.

Deethan curses through the mental link as first the powerful lightning bolt is reflected, and then the stone arms of the elemental appears through the walls of the well to trap him. Ignoring the stone hands trapping him, Deethan orientates himself and invokes the sceptre's powers again, this time bringing forth a storm of ice encompassing the entire area that the banites had cleared, as well the path that the surviving priests carrying Ghordoon would have been taking.

Over half the room is swept in tiny balls of frozen ice and bitter bitter cold. Seven of the retreating Banite soldiers are affected with 3 going to the floor flash frozen and pounded by fist sized hail. The three priests and four other soldiers are pounded by the effects of the with none being able to even get out of the area of effect in the slightest. The last priest loses his spell which he had been forming as icy breath coats his lips.

The footing has become dangerous and treacherously slippery and 2 of the retreating Banites slip and fall hitting the floor with the rest having a hard time as they slide to all sides as they continue to the shimmering barrier. Garrett knows that it will be over in moments. One way or the other. It is simply a matter of who gets into the partal and to safety and who not. For Garrett can clearly see that none of the icy effects affected those already inside even the hated Ghordoon.

Garrett upon entering the inn looks for the body of the Banite and upon seeing the situation decides to focus on the priests encircling the well and the soldiers seeing to flee towards what must be a magical portal used a power of "Concussion Blast"(full
augment) attempting to knock them down or kill them as well.

He smiles with an evil grin as his eyes glow a brilliant white and a soft halo forms around his head.
A rippling wave of force streams forth like a bublle in water reaching out across the room towards the trio of priests who even now are beginning prayers to their dark god.

Each is hit with a heavy blow of pure mental force as well as one of the nearest soldiers who is still slipping and sliding on the sheets of ice which have yet to melt away. A legacy of Deethan's earlier spell.

The soldier of Ban is knocked off his feet and slides a good foot backwards before lying still. One of the priests likewise his earlier engagements and unhealed wounds finally telling on him.

The other two priests turn to regard Garrett neither faltering in their castings.

Three of the remaining 4 soldiers manage to slip and slide there way across the unstaeady and icy floor towards the shimmering veil of shadowy darkness.

With final shouted words the two casting priests vanish in pops of air as they return to their own sanctuaries.

Deethan can't really see the results of the ice storm, his vision taken almost entirely up still by the tree-like stone fingers pressing in around him. He considers for a moment what state he'd have been in if that dispellation cast upon him had instead dispelled the protection he had from the giant summoned elemental around him. He shudders at the thought, and etermines to get out of there as quickly as he can. "GARRETT!" he calls loudly. "DO YOU NEED MY HELP TO GET OUT OF HERE?"

Hearing nothing he utters the few syllables to spell that causes him to vanish and appear very close to Leathynos' side. His earlier glimpses of where they were via the mental link being maintained by Garrett enough to show him where they had gone.