Chapter Sixteen
Brother Franklin let out a wail as the hidden door burst open and a rhinoceros came charging through the room. Behind the rhino armed figures moved in and began attacking his fellow brothers. "They're here!" he cried out as the rhino plowed through several fellow members, leaving them mangled and broken as it went. "The Oakdell Circle is here!" Behind the rhino a large half-orc, a half-elf, and a grung slashed into the remaining brothers that weren't plowed over by the rhino, the grung firing off a spell that put many of the cultists into a trance-like state. "Ears," the grung had said before popping off the spell hypnotic pattern. Brother Franklin ran around trying to wake his fellow brothers from the spell before the raiders could slaughter them but he found he wasn't fast enough and had only managed to awaken a few before the intruders were on him.
Samash came upon Brother Franklin first, coming down on his shoulder with his halberd of wounding and cutting into his flesh as the cultist tried to move out of the way. The cultist let out a wail and blasted off a spell of hellfire that knocked Samash back a few steps. Moving past the half-orc in the entryway was Crom, sinking his daggers of venom into the necks of the first two cultists to come upon him. About the room cultists ran frantically from the charging rhino, many getting flung into the walls or ceiling by the beasts large front horn. Spells fired off from the back of the room as crossbows raised to pepper the intruders with bolts. Ari took the brunt of the hits in her beast form, moving through the crowds like a knife through butter.
At the front of the building the front door burst open and Cotton shoved his way in, pushing a crowd of cultists backwards as he pushed forward with his two shields. Behind him Bran sliced into anyone who slipped past while Kuku and Xasia stabbed their greatswords forward and out above Cotton's head into any cultists foolish enough to stay close to Cotton. Spells began to fly in the front hallway as warlocks and wizards began firing arcane bolts off from the back of the crowd. Cotton took the brunt of the damage, deflecting much of it with his shields while Xasia took a few firebolts and eldritch blasts to the chest due to her big size sticking up above the crowds. Her armor and helm served well to protect her.
From the side hallway another door burst open, this time with a giant tiger in the lead, mauling whoever came into contact with her. Behind her Riri and Tamar fired off arrows into caster that were in the middle of weaving spells, catching them in the neck and head to down them quickly. Onika bit into a cultist brave enough to approach her with a dagger and nearly tore off his leg. He screamed and hit the ground like a sack of bricks, blood quickly pooling under him from his leg. Riri was quick to put an arrow through his heart to end him. "Dun make dem suffa, girl," Riri called out to Onika. "End dem quickly."
Brother Osiris dashed into his office in the commotion with arrows and spells flying overhead. He frantically searched his desk, flinging books and papers onto the floor as he went. Pulling out the drawers of the desk he finally found what he was looking for, holding up a brilliant wand that gleamed in the sunlight coming through the window. "This'll get them," he sneered as he bolted for the hallway and down into the meeting room where Ari continued to charge through as a rhinoceros. Carefully navigating his way to the back Brother Osiris made sure to stay out of the path of Ari as best he could, pushing his way through his fellow brethren.
Chaucer immediately noticed Osiris pushing his way through the crowd in the back as he held a wand up high. The white grung readied a counterspell and watched the cultist stand on the last pew and raise his wand high. "Crom," Chaucer cried out, "we got a wand on the battlefield. Back row, center, standing on the last pew". As Brother Osiris let loose the first charge of the wand Chaucer quickly deflected it with a counterspell. Osiris went to use the wand again as a small bolt from Crom's hand crossbow caught him in the wrist, causing the spell to be cast into the crowd of cultists. A large fireball went off in the room, singeing Ari and killing nine cultists in an instant. Brother Osiris stood with his jaw dropped as Chaucer's synaptic static spell went off on him and the surrounding cultists. They clenched the temples of their heads and screamed out in agony as the spell dealt psychic damage to them. The cultists recovered quickly, sending a surge of spellfire and firebolts at the heroes that quickly overwhelmed them, hitting Chaucer, Crom, Samash, and Ari, Ari popping back to her true form as the last of her health as a rhino was depleted.
Just then a surge of cultists pushed backwards into the room, Cotton coming in behind them pushing them with his shields. At his back were Kuku, Bran, and Xasia who quickly fanned out into the room to engage with the cultists one on one. Kuku quickly moved over to Ari who was getting swarmed and took up a defensive position in front of her while she wove a spell in the safety of his defense. Bran spun into the room, his blades whirling in a slashing tornado of death as he cut into multiple cultists as he passed by them. Xasia brought her greatsword down to cleave into one of the cultists shoulder, running the blade down into his chest as the cultist fell over dead. Kuku quickly dispatched the cultists surrounding Ari, moving back towards Samash and Crom as he went, guiding Ari to the safety of the foyer. Ari let off a number of spells as they went, the least of which was a blight spell that withered away the cultists that approached. She smiled at a singed Chaucer as she arrived next to him, placing a hand on his head and casting a healing spell to wipe away the spell damage. She looked around at the party for who needed healing and went about tending to anyone in need.
No cultists led the way as a bloodied Onika entered the room from the hallway, immediately pouncing on the nearest cultist as she mauled them. Riri, Tamar, and Goilon followed behind, standing in the doorway to fire off arrow, bolt, and bullet into the crowd. Ari was quick to assess Onika from afar but soon noticed the blood on the tiger wasn't her own. She smiled and quickly took the shape of a tiger and headed out into the fray towards Onika, mauling cultists as she went.
Brother Osiris cried out, "Two tigers?!" He looked around the room. His brothers were still casting spells and firing off crossbows, though they'd taken significant losses. More than half the cult was dead or maimed and of the ones remaining, few were able to cast spells. He scowled at the way the battle was turning. They still outnumbered the heroes, but with the strong presence of melee fighters that the heroes had they were at a disadvantage. "Doesn't anyone have polymorph?" he cried out. "We need some melee on the field!" Cultists nearest to him shook their heads and shrugged apathetically. Osiris let out a groan of reservation. He knew he had to think of something quick or they were all dead, especially with the efficiency at which the heroes were killing them at. "Brother Geoffrey, to me," Osiris yelled out as he took cover behind a large chair. Brother Geoffrey was hiding behind the altar when he heard Osiris' cry. He nodded in acknowledgment and began to creep behind cover over to his position, dodging spells and deadly projectiles along the way. As he made his way over Brother Geoffrey pulled himself close using Brother Osiris' own robes.
"It's a bloodbath out there, brother!" screamed Brother Geoffrey over the loud roar of tigers as he pawed maniacally at Brother Osiris. "If we don't do something fast we'll all die!"
"Calm down, brother," Osiris said with irritation in his voice. "You're right, we're all dead here. We need a new plan." He looked around the room at what was left. Seven casters currently being mauled by tigers and a slew of what had become crossbowman. It didn't look good. "They knew to hit our casters first, hard and fast. That's where we failed. But we can still succeed in something. Brother, take a team and go through the building and destroy anything that links us back to the Cult of Acererak. After you've done that," he went on, "flee from here. Get word to the nearest sect. Tell them of what happened here today. Go now!" he shouted.
Brother Geoffrey scrambled to his feet, ready to obey when a stray crossbow bolt struck him in the center of his throat. He coughed and blood spurted out of his mouth. He looked down to Brother Osiris pleadingly, to help him out of this situation. He could only slide down the wall to lie still on the floor, staring blankly at Osiris. Brother Osiris cringed at the man's misfortune. Looking over his shoulder he called out to the crossbowman nearest him. "You three, with me," he barked as he rose from the ground, careful to stay behind cover. "We have a special mission. Drop your weapons, you won't need them," and scrambled off into the hallway with the three cultists following behind.
Chaucer noticed Brother Osiris dash out of the room with three other unarmed cultists and he wondered to himself what they were up to. Seeing that the fight was well under control with the tigers attacking the casters and Bran, Xasia, Kuku, Cotton, and Samash digging into the wizards with crossbows he decided it was a fine time to follow the cultist and find out what he was doing. Hopping through the room without a care in the world the white grung followed behind Osiris into the hallways. He watched as the three cultists behind Osiris peeled off into separate rooms. Chaucer opted to follow Osiris, the one he'd seen barking orders.
As he came into the room, Chaucer polymorphed into a poisonous snake, slithering up to the desk that Brother Osiris was working at, frantically collected documents and parchments together in a pile. As the cultist moved over to the fireplace to throw the papers in Chaucer reached up and bit him in the leg, Brother Osiris crying out and screaming at the site of a snake in his office. Chaucer lashed out and bit him again, this time in the shin and the cultist fell back in his chair, wincing in pain and agony as the poison ran through his blood. Seeing the cultist get woozy Chaucer polymorphed back to himself and approached the cultist.
"What ya doing?" the white grung asked the man who was now fanning himself as he grew clammy. The poison was taking effect quickly and the man looked rough.
"Seeing to it that you die at the hands of the cult, foolish frog," Osiris spit out. His breathing was measured and weak and his eyes were hard to keep open. He began to nod off. Chaucer went over to the papers by the fireplace and put them in his bag of holding. He smiled to Brother Osiris and said, "Happy days to you. May the King in Yellow bless you with eternal afterlife." He laughed as he stepped out the door. "Worshipping a lich, how silly." As he came out into the hallway he heard the other cultists rummaging around in other offices. He quickly polymorphed in a crocodile and slinked into the first office to address the cultist there. There was a scream and a hiss before a lot of garbled speech that couldn't be made out, and then silence. Chaucer made his way out of the office and onto the next one.
Together Onika and Ari slashed and bit into the last caster on the battlefield, taking off his arm and slashing into his chest. He let out a death cry as he hit the floor, the tigers moving onto the wizards with crossbows that the rest of the party was attacking. Up close in melee range the wizards were at a disadvantage with their ranged weapons. They fumbled with their weapons and some began to flee. Those were the ones the tigers went after, pouncing on them and tackling them to the ground, biting into their flesh. More screams went out as wizards dropped to the floor, clenching their grievous wounds as they went down.
Xasia and Samash formed a line and cut into the remaining wizards, Xasia with her greatsword and Samash with his halberd. They fell cultists as they went, not one able to break through the defense of their weapons. With a mighty swing Xasia decapitated one as Samash ran another through the chest with his halberd. They smiled sheepishly at one another, Xasia blushing slightly at the way Samash looked at her.
Bran and Kuku danced through the battlefield with their weapons, the wizards unable to hit them with spell or crossbow. Bran slashed with both swords as he spun through the scattered line of crossbowman. Kuku moved with the flow of water though the enemy, slashing with his greatsword before letting loose a flurry of kicks and elbows that broke bones and knocked heads, dodging the occasional arrow or bolt as he went. Cotton stood with shields up before Riri, Tamar, Goilon, and Crom, all of whom littered the crossbowman with bolt, arrow, and bullet as the wizards tried frantically to defend against the melee onslaught that was upon them.
In mere minutes the battle was over, scores of dead cultists lay on the floor. Those that weren't dead Bran, Crom, and Xasia went around and finished off. They collected what little bit they could from the cultists, less than a hundred gold altogether. A few wands and staves made their way into the party's possession as they collected them up and handed them to Chaucer for his bag of holding to be identified later. Together the party went through the building and ransacked the rooms, taking anything that might be of value or use.
"Well that's everybody," said Cotton as he finally brought his shields down. "Looks like our job here is done," he said proudly as he looked around. Ari popped back to her normal form as she looked around and didn't find anyone to attack.
"Should we alert de guards," Ari asked as she made her way over to Cotton. "Dey gon come upon dis scene soona or lata, so maybe best if we get ahead a dat."
"You do that if you want," said Bran sheathing his blades, "but leave me out of it. I don't need that kind of heat in my life." Crom and Xasia nodded in agreement and expressed their concern for the same.
"Why don't we set the place on fire?" asked Kuku. "Burn down this awful place and destroy the bodies in the process. The nearest building is far enough away that the flames shouldn't catch it." Chaucer bounced back in the room hearing this and nodded his agreement.
"We can use magical fire which is hotter than regular fire and would burn up the bones and everything with it," he said with enthusiasm. "I doubt anyone will be upset at the loss of this building and organization here in Port Nyanzaru."
"Does anyone need healin," asked Ari as she went around the room inspecting everyone. Xasia, Bran, Crom, and Kuku raised their hands as Ari went over to them one by one and offered healing spells. With a gentle touch she sent healing magic surging over them, a refreshing feeling washing over them as they absorbed the healing. Ari smiled to them, glad to see that everyone made out okay in the fight. Bran patted her on the back for a job well done.
"Loved the rhino, Ari," he said as he clapped her on the back. "Beautiful strategy. And the looks on their faces," he laughed, "Who expects to see a rhinoceros inside a small building. Genius."
"I though Xasia fought with distinction and honor," said Samash as he came over to where the group was gathering up. "You're a fine addition to our group and we'd be lucky to have you anytime," he said to her. Xasia blushed a little then offered a wide tusk bearing smile, batting her eyelashes discreetly at the barbarian.
Cotton picked up the wand that Brother Osiris had been using and held it up. "This was the fireball wand he was using," he called out. "Maybe we could use it to set the place on fire. Kind of fitting that we use their own weapons to destroy the place." He walked over to the group with it.
Chaucer took the wand from Cotton as he offered it to the grung and inspected it to make sure it wasn't broken. Finding it in working order he smiled and looked up to the group. "Well," he said, "are we ready?" Chaucer looked around to see that everyone had begun to move towards the secret door in the foyer and was waiting for Chaucer to set the place ablaze. With a wave of the wand and a command word Chaucer let out a large fireball that engulfed half the room, catching wood and fabric on fire easily. He aimed it out at the hallway and fired off another, this one quickly catching fire against the wood of the narrow hallway.
Chaucer moved with the group through the door and looked back one last time to ensure the flames were catching. Seeing them quickly spreading through the room he smiled and, in his mind, closed this chapter of his life. Hopping out of the door he turned and quickly pulled the unseen door closed and hopped down the street to catch up with his party as they headed back to their tower.
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