It was past midday by the time Orcus and his party crossed over into more difficult terrain.
The rolling knolls and open meadows of the valley were a distant memory in no time at all, replaced by rugged foothills, endless forest, and a creeping darkness. Though sunlight slipped through the eaves of the woodland canopy overhead, an overcast sky ensured that it was sparse and seldom as bright. Small critters became fewer and far between as well, with each passing hour, and perhaps only the slow gushing of hidden brooks or the eerie songs of the cicadas could be heard after a while.
To his credit, Oriax was proving to be a decent lead.
Orcus knew that the man’s survival instincts were sharp, but it was useful to know that his skills weren’t solely tied down to the killing of things alone. With a decent pace and a sensible marching order, His Highness’s First Legion would arrive at its destination without delay. Or so it might have…
“Hold on a sec—” Oriax said abruptly, putting a hand up to alert the rest of the party, as they traversed to the other side of a small glade. He sniffed several times, before changing directions, then moving through the grass and off to the right of where the party remained behind.
“What is it?” Orcus called after him, before he could get too far ahead, “We don’t have time for these deviations. Oriax? Oriax!”
If Oriax had heard him at all, then he didn’t care to respond. Instead, he continued forward like a man possessed, pushing through a wall of greened tree limbs, before disappearing into the brush entirely.
Orcus grumbled under his breath, “Idiot. Where the hell are you going?”
“What’s that about, Your Highness?” Terminus asked hurriedly, circling back to the rest of the group, “He looks pretty serious.”
“Another antic of his, perhaps?” Arlette asked curiously, “I swear that man is deranged.”
“Yes, well… he doesn’t mess around when it comes to smells.” Orcus shook his head, “Let’s go after him, before he does something foolish.”
Taking the front himself this time, Orcus led his two remaining party members after Oriax.
As they pushed through the high brush and bramble, they began to descend into a slight gully, in which wet patches of mud and many rocks lay barren, perhaps once home to a stream of sorts. Roughly thirty feet away, Oriax stood at the center of the channel, looking down and around his feet at a collection of refuse Orcus couldn’t quite make out from his current position.
However, and as he steadily approached, the Prince of Demons began to understand just what exactly had gotten Oriax’s attention.
A putrid, decaying odor hung in the air, and the clear signs of death were present, lingering in the remains of a cold campsite as the party cleared the last line of trees.
Sprawled along the surrounding rocks or among disheveled tents were the corpses of four individuals, arbitrarily strewn about and rigid by appearance alone. Though it was difficult to discern the extent of their injuries, it was obvious that they’d been lying dead for some time. Furthermore, a few of them were wearing the same exact dark-colored robes with burgundy sashes that the cultists in town had been wearing a few days prior.
“Gods above—” Arlette plugged her nose, which made her voice sound far mar distorted than usual, “Looks like a few days’ dead to me. And out in the middle of nowhere too…”
“What do you think, Oriax?” Orcus asked plainly, “An animal attack?”
“Could be…” Oriax murmured, kneeling to grab one of the corpse’s arms, “These guys are all fucked up. Look, they’ve got all these... weird spike thingies sticking out of em’, and it looks like they were pretty hot going in—skin’s all burned up.”
“Ugh… let me have a look.” Arlette sighed, rolling up the sleeves of her robe as she kneeled next to Oriax. Inspecting the corpse for several moments, she murmured something to herself, before getting up to inspect one of the other bodies. Before long, she said, “I hate to break it to you, but these people were dead long before the other surface wounds appeared on their bodies. Look at those blackened sections of their skin just beneath the clothing: That’s necrosis. I see signs of internal bleeding too, and you’ll notice all the other little blisters and lesions.”
“Are you suggesting that they were attacked after they were already dead?” Orcus inquired curiously, “Is there a creature in these lands that would do something like that?”
“Don’t think so.” Oriax shrugged, standing to his feet as he walked around the camp himself, “Maybe it… didn’t know they were dead yet?”
“Hmm…” Orcus murmured ominously, wondering if that was a possibility. After all, he was almost certain that he’d seen similar superficial wounds before, somewhere, but he couldn’t quite place where that was.
“They’re adventurers, Your Highness.” Terminus said perplexedly, landing on the cold campfire as his eyes flashed blue, “Their character record data is still intact. All level ones, of varying experience: Emely, human fighter. Ruechar, human cleric. Thibis, halfling sorcerer, and Zo, half-elf ranger. Weirdly enough, they were partied up.”
“Wait… I knew Ruechar.” Arlette murmured unexpectedly, poking around the other two bodies to find the one she was looking for. Removing the hood of the final corpse, she frowned, “He was a follower of Minerva. We didn’t get along very well in the brief time I knew him, but I know for a fact that he wasn’t one of these cultists. He was a kind soul and seemed to care for his party members very much, from what I can remember. He bought several healing charms from me. How unfortunate…”
“You’re sure of that?” Orcus pressed the issue, not really interested in the sentiments of it all, and asked, “What’s your take on their cause of death then?”
Arlette shrugged belatedly, “If I cared to know that I would have become a mortician, you know. Although… I would suggest they all died of acute respiratory failure. These superficial wounds are—to put it bluntly—redundant, and their extremities are still blue. I'm guessing they died in their sleep, or close to it.”
“Hey, uh… where’d daggers go?” Oriax asked offhandedly, his voice lifting through the gully as he looked around.
The Prince of Demons joined him in this motion, and upon doing so noticed that the forest had grown considerably gloomy for a moment, as even darker clouds beyond the trees overhead rolled in, blackening the area to a shadow of itself. Tree limbs hung loosely over the channel like rows of arches, and deep pockets of green and brown made spotting anything out of the ordinary next to impossible, especially someone as stealthy as Seku.
“Let her be.” Orcus eventually waived it off, his mind preoccupied elsewhere, “I’m sure she’s around.”
“Your Highness, I get a bad feeling here…” Terminus murmured worriedly, “We’re still a long way from the delve, and to find dead adventurers dressed as those cultists is not sitting well with me. I think it might be best to get back on the path—”
Phew! Phew!
Phew! Phew!
Four violet-colored projectiles suddenly bolted out of the shadows and made their way straight for the Prince of Demons!
However, Orcus was quick enough to avoid the first and the second, which glanced off his chest piece and flew wide right immediately. But the other two sunk straight through his armor, the first on his abdomen and the other along his leg.
[Orcus] --- Takes 2 points of piercing damage, 1 point of fire damage ---
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--- Takes 4 points of piercing damage, 3 point of fire damage ---
--- Health (Orcus): 2/12 ---
“Gah—ambush!” Orcus strained furiously, a sudden shock of fiery pain coursing through his body. But he quickly shrugged it off and slung his shield over into his left hand.
From the eaves of the tall tree straight ahead of Orcus, a black and violet colored creature leapt from a branch into the air. Its short span of dark, feathered wings jutting out from either side of it. At a quick glance, its entire body was naked and hairless, but ridges of jagged bristles lined the lengths of its arms, back, and reptilian-shaped head, as well as the long tail that slung down behind it.
“Spined devils…?” Orcus cursed under his breath, feeling foolish all of a sudden for not recognizing the signs a moment ago, those spikes sticking out of the bodies should have been a dead give away. However, it would have been a difficult guess regardless, being that such fiends were often deployed as spies and messengers for his infernal armies, or on rare occasions as ranged units. Devils weren't especially reliable, given their general inferiority to demons. But regardless, Orcus braced for further attacks.
The small fiend swooped down with speed, arcing over Orcus momentarily, as it lunged with its forked trident. But the attack fell flat, and a clambering sound echoed thereafter, as the weapon bounced from Orcus’s shield.
Phew…whud!
A slender arrow suddenly surged across the gully and struck the creature dead-on, as it tried to make its pass over the Prince of Demons.
[Seku's Target] --- Takes 9 points of piercing damage, halved to 4 points from piercing damage resistance, 3 point of sneak attack damage ---
A well-timed shot as the fiend passed over Orcus ensured that Seku’s added Sneak Attack damage took hold. Though Orcus barely had any time to register the combat feed in his overlay, for the creature lurched with a howl, causing it to flail left as it tried to climb back into the air. In the same motion, Orcus lifted his mace from its rung on his belt, swinging up across the creature’s belly as swiftly as he could before it escaped.
--- Flyby active, chance to hit on opportunity attack reduced to 0% ---
“Filthy cur!” Orcus shouted, as the fiend climbed back into the air, “How dare you attack your master. You will pay for this insolence!”
Several feet away, a secondary spined devil flew down and latched itself onto Oriax’s shoulders with a growl, desperate in its attempt to bite at his neck. However, Oriax shoved his freehand up into the creature’s face, preventing it from getting anywhere near him.
The small fiend wriggled around, making hideous sounds in the back of its throat all the while. But seemingly not getting what it wanted, the creature’s tail snapped frustratingly out behind it and flung a spike in the direction of Arlette, some fifteen feet away.
[Arlette] --- Takes 4 points of piercing damage, 1 point of fire damage ---
--- Health (Arlette): 5/10 ---
“Uh—” The priestess moaned, stumbling backward momentarily. She quickly realized that the spike had punctured a small hole in her armored vestment. Angrily, she shook her staff, “You can’t be serious! All that action over there, and you have the gall to attack me?”
“Necrotic bolt!” Orcus shouted amidst the fray, but the cantrip missed its mark, instead spewing a dark tendril of magical energy into the tree ahead of him. With a painful wince, he called over his shoulder, “Priestess, healing! Now!”
Stealing her irritated gaze from the secondary spined devil, Arlette furrowed her brow at Orcus, “A level one healing spell is ten silvers, Your Eminence. And no party discounts either!”
“Just do it!” Orcus demanded at once.
“You’re the party leader…” She murmured. Raising her golden staff into the air, Arlette invoked the power of her divine blessing, saying, “Verbum sanationis.”
[Orcus] ---- Gains +9 hp from Word of Healing ---
“A pleasure doing business!” Arlette waived her staff at him, but turned her attention back to the spined devil clinging onto Oriax, which was presently digging into him with relentless fury.
“Ahhh—get off already!” Oriax cried out excitedly among the exchange, the dark aura of his rage beginning to swell around him. With his hand still hovering near the spined devil’s face, he clasped it by the mouth and flung it over his back, prompting it to flutter its wings as it tried to find its midair balance. In the same motion, Oriax stepped forward and heaved his maul up into the air, swatting at the creature, “Don’t blink, asshole!”
[Oriax's Target] ---- Takes 13 points of bludgeoning damage, halved to 6 points from bludgeoning damage resistance, 2 points of rage damage ---
The creature took the full brunt of Oriax’s attack, and was stunned momentarily as it reeled back, but was otherwise left fumbling around in the air.
“Your Highness!” Terminus shouted from a nearby rock, and Orcus glanced to his left to regard the bird, who added, “I can’t get a read on these things. Missing bestiary data! The best I can glean is a DR of two for each of them. They have magic resistance, and can shoot two spines per attack if they desire, but appear to have a limited reserve.”
Oriax waived his shield, shooing Terminus to the side, “Out of the way, bird. I know exactly what we’re dealing with here. All of you, be mindful of their pressing, they can maneuver around you at will. Avoid targeting their backsides, that’s where these fiends are the most protected. Priestess, take head of your spellcasting, they are resilient to many kinds of magic. But do not relent! These creatures will die by our hands.”
Phew! Phew!
Two more spiked projectiles launched from the primary spined devil’s tail, which was now hovering just ahead of Orcus by some ten feet. One hit the dirt at Orcus’s heels, but the other bolted far to his left, striking the other spined devil hovering nearby, which hissed as the projective burrowed into its leg.
--- critical miss! ---
Orcus chuckled sinisterly, saying loudly in the infernal tongue, “Just who do you think you are, mongrels?”
The spined devil hissed momentarily, an unexpected question that sent shivers down its bristled spines. Nevertheless, it held firm.
“Uhm… should I stay at a distance, mister Orcus?” Seku asked telepathically, “I’m ready to move in, if you want.”
Orcus thought for a split second, before saying loud enough for her to hear, wherever she was, “No, stay there, Seku. We’ll disorient it with a variety of attacks!”
In a matter of moments, a second arrow came whizzing through the tree line off to Orcus’s righthand side.
[Seku's Target] --- Takes 8 points of piercing damage, halved to 4 points from piercing damage resistance ---
Landing her second shot, Seku added telepathically, “It’s a resilient creature, mister Orcus. Please be careful.”
Orcus shrugged off the cautionary advice, seeing that he was well aware of the situation. However, he was momentarily caught off-guard by another sound behind him and to his left.
“Aghhh!” Oriax shouted suddenly, who was yet again forced into fending off another biting attack from the secondary spiked devil. This time, however, the creature was successful, ripping a score of bloody flesh from Oriax’s neck with both teeth and claws, as he yelled, “Piece of shit!”
[Oriax] --- Takes 5 points of slashing damage, 3 points of piercing damage ---
--- Rage active, slashing and piercing damage resisted! -4 points of total damage ---
--- Health (Oriax): 10/14 ---
Why are these fools so aggressive? Orcus thought to himself strangely, They’re practically feral. These aren’t the spined devils I remember. Diving in and out like their lives depend on it, it’s almost like they have no other choice. At any rate, they’re too slippery, But what if I…
Dropping his shield to the ground on a whim, Orcus lifted the whip from his belt and lashed out at the spined devil in front of him. However, his intention was not necessarily to harm it, but to completely nullify its ability to move around the field. with ease.
--- Hit! Damage reduced to 0; Target [Spined Devil] condition set to Grappled ---
“Perfection!” Orcus chuckled menacingly; the end of his whip now caught firmly around the fiend’s ankle. It desperately tried to scramble into the air, but Orcus held it in place.
Whether it was a trap or not, the spined devils clearly had the element of surprise, and had nearly succeeded in felling their initial target. But now it was the Prince of Demons’ turn to command the field of battle, and he was going to do so most spectacularly.
Orcus shouted fervently, “Seku. Oriax! Switch targets at once. Oriax and I will hit this one with everything we have, while Seku and the Priestess will focus their efforts on the second. Priestess, I didn’t bring you along for healing alone. Support this party like your life depends on it. Now… advance!”
Under no circumstance, was the Prince of Demons going to lose to a bunch of devils!