Prologue: Troubles at Red Larch.

Falka jumps at the sudden sight of the dark figures as she rounds the corner. Sensing the others behind her not so quick to react, she shouts, "To arms! Foes lurk in the shadows!"

The shadowy creature reaches out the Vardo with its dark "hands" attempting to grab at his neck. Vardo sidesteps the creature nimbly as its arms are absorbed back into its shadowy body.

Vardo's hair stands on its ends as he can feel the otherworldly coldness emanating from the creature... or rather it's as if the creature is absorbing his life essence.

Vardo hears a low echoey, rumbling whisper. He can't quite make out the otherworldly sound but it almost resembles a faint human voice... "Give us... Feed us...."

The shadow creature bends and contorts its body in impossible ways and dodges Falka's glaive swing.

The creature retaliates and extends its arm towards Falka. Falka brings her glaive back around in front of her to swats the hands away in one fluid motion. She hears the low ethereal voice echoing. "Feed us...."

Vardo's eyes widen as he registers how little damage his blade inflicted on the shadow creature. Tamping down the sane urge to disengage from this foe, the Elf instead squares up in an attempt to protect his wounded compatriots. With a quick snap of his wrist and a dexterous pivot of his heel, he reorient himself and strokes out, again, with his rapier.

Falka thrashes her blade in front of her at the bending darkness. The magical light glints off the steel as the shadows seem to dance around it. In increasing frustration, she takes a wide swing.

Falka's frustrated swing fails to connect again as it bends it body to dodge the blade in time.

The shadow on Vardo disengages from melee and moves down the southwestern corridor away from the light and attempts to blend into the darkness of the corridor.

The one on Falka lunges at her again whispering the same unnerving echoey cold voice. With eagerness of someone who's been starved it reaches for Falka but once again she maneuvers the glaive between them swiping the arms away.

Midnight steps forward just far enough to see the foe attacking her friends. Not knowing what to make of it, she tosses a ball of acid in its direction to see if it has any effect.

Breezy moves down into the chamber when he can, finding himself stuck behind his comrades for now. As he moves, the words of power begin to form on his lips as he seeks the black creature fading into the shadows. When he has a clear sight, the flourish of his fingers are accompanied by the releasing incantation. "Lord of Ice and Air, burn your foes with the blinding light!"

Aware that physical weapons seem to be having limited impact, Keavan attempts to discern the one trying to hide, unleashing a firebolt on it if he can see it, on the other if the first remains hidden.

Midnight

Unable to spot the hiding fiend, Midnight throws her arcane acid bubble at the creature on Falka. But, this shadow seems quite nimble and able to bend its body to avoid the bubble.

Breezy

Breezy not able to see into the darkness to spot the hiding shadow, summons divine flame at the shadow. The creature recoils with a high pitched shriek at the bright blue-white flame, but is able to move away in time before the flame strikes it down.

Keavan

Keavan looks into the darkness with his keen eyes but, cannot discern the location of the hidden shadow. Thus, he fires the arcane bolt at the one he can see. The bot hits squarely on what would be its shoulder. The arcane flame bursts but is soon swallowed by the darkness of the shadow and fizzles. Keavan, with his military training can tell that the damage wasn't as severe as it normally would on a typical adversary.

Yohna keeps her eyes peeled for the hiding shadow, but will nonetheless target the one being attacked by the rest of the party, hoping to dispose of one before they both become an issue. She moves forward, backing up Midnight, but attempting to keep her distance given her previous injuries. Then, she raises her fingers once more and calls down holy flames on the visible shadow.

Yohna looks down the dark corridor eyes narrowed and sees sudden shimmering movement! She sees the shadow staying close to the uneven wall of the passage trying to blend in to the darkness. She yells to her companions pointing her finger, "There!"

She then turns to the remaining shadow and casts down the sacred flame. Obscured by her companions, the shadow is caught off guard and is soon consumed by the radiant divine flame. It completely rips apart the shadow as it give a long hollow yell. Whatever necromantic energy that gave it form soon dissipates along with the creature itself.

Happy that the first creature is dispatched, Breezy grabs the light stone and tosses it to the southwest passage, hoping to light up the beast before it can escape.