Chapter 3: The Lonely Tower

Kaa is also baffled that the demon is still flying, and not in the ways he would prefer.

"Piece of ifrit shit!" he curses at it while continuing his barrage on it.

Hilmar runs to square L13 and fires his Firebolt cantrip again, desperately hoping it is more effective than the last one, which the demon effortlessly batted away with his sword.

Annoyed, Euphoria swings her rapier from side to side, considering repeating the attack. She doesn't blink, focused, her eyes fixed on the demon's face. She is sure he can deflect another attack of her piercing sword.
The tiefling lunges forward, her rapier in front of her, but at the very last moment she throws a dagger with her free hand, trying to surprise the demonic bandit chief.

Alfrey’s attention shifts from their adversary to the dying Ralavaz. He resolves to end this fight as soon as possible and summons all the magical power he can. Alfrey speaks the word of power necessary to bring Ralavaz back from the brink. He then performs the rite of blessing, granting Bahamut’s favor to his companions in their efforts.

Phew! Euphoria sits down on the cold floor, gets her breathing under control and just sits there for a moment, watching the well. She then touches her clothing, feels the blood on it, leaking from where the armor didn't save her.
CLACK, CLACK, CLACK, CLACK,- the tiefling's undoing the snaps on her leather chest piece, she then takes it off and pulls up her clothes to take a look at her wounds.

Naeris shrinks back against the door as the fire erupts but, when it soon dies down, she bolts the door instead of escaping so that the party aren't disturbed before they can collect themselves. She glances at Alfrey and walks over to those standing at the well, asking with a shudder 'Is it gone?' Then she sees how distraught Ralavaz is.

Hilmar rushes over to where Night Blade 4 fell after being hit with his throwing knife. He was unable to do anything earlier as he had to concentrate his attentions on the demon. He finds that the man's body has gone. He was preoccupied with the demon and did not see that Alfrey had healed him, after which he fled. He feels relieved that he did not kill the Night Blade after all. He finds his throwing knife, cleans it and move over towards the others, peering into the well as he does so.

Alfrey relaxes as the demon falls and the immediate danger leaves the room. "Yes, I think we did it.", he replies to Naeris, hazarding a small smile. Alfrey walks, still somewhat cautiously, to the edge of the well to take a peek at anything that might be left down there.

Kaa looks at the demon dropping and then covers his face as the flame bursts up. He glances around quickly, surveying if there is any danger left, his whole posture is still alert and ready. He slowly calms his heavy breathing, and let's out the tensions from his limbs.

"Well damn." he lets out. "He is damned I guess." he turns to the revived Ralavaz. "Sorry, he came on quite hard and I would not have lasted much longer."

"You guys think the puppetry wore of from the rest of the bunch? That would save us a lot of effort to beat or disperse them." he scratches at his scabs left after Alfrey's healing, he is still aching a bit.

To Ralavaz she says "I'm sorry about your brother", only thinking of his death. We weren't gentle. It seemed a hard fight and we feared for our lives.
"I guess we really should have tried to save him." She looks ashamed. "But just stopping this band of thugs is more than I was expecting we could manage."

He levels his gaze at Ralavaz. "I am sorry we were unable to take him alive. I am sorry for your loss."

Looking to Kaa and the others he says, "Let's hope 'the puppetry' will have worn off from the rest of the Night Blades. I don't like the idea of having to fight those dwarves. I see Naeris has bolted the door. Maybe we should see what we can take from this room - and the well. Then try and get out as quickly as possible. If the Night Blades challenge us on our way out, we might be able to negotiate. If Kaa is right and the demonic magic is no longer a factor they might not feel so inclined to fight. A couple of them saw the demon before they fled and will probably have told the others. If they realise we vanquished the demon, then they may be reluctant to tangle with us."

Naeris recovers one arrow - the demon took the others with it. She discards the night blade cloak and mask she was wearing and prepares to leave.

GLUG, GLUG, GLUG, GLUG,-that's the pink infernal drinking from her waterskin, the sound echoing through the large stone hall. She then spills some on her wounds, tears off a piece of her clothing, and makes a makeshift bandage.
Sorry for your brother,- Euphoria says through pain, tightening the bandaging around her ribcage. Shame that's how it ended.

She puts her armor back on, gets up, and adjusts all the straps and belts on her gear. Hilmar is right. We should take all we can and leave before we get into more trouble. All of us could use some rest...,- the tiefling glances at Ralavaz, still looking down a well, and adds: And alcohol.

Euphoria looks around the empty throne room. Doesn't look like we can find anything of value here though. Only stone and dust... However... Her eyes jump towards the well, one could almost see the sparkles behind her eyeballs, as her mind exploded in a mix of emotions, all of them overpowered by greed. There is one more place worth checking out...
The infernal takes a grappling hook out of her bag, quickly attaches the rope to it, and comes closer to the pit. What if the mask didn't disappear with the bodies? Chances aren't high, but I wanna know for sure. She attaches the hook to a large stone on the edge of the well, tugs on it a couple of times, and, satisfied with the result, carefully starts climbing down the well.