As the Ashen Company peek out towards the prison, with all of its chasms and bridges, they miss Flynn even more. He would have loved to knock baddies off of all these ledges. The trio silently wish their friend was here, but then simultaneously all seem to remember that they can actually wish him here with a page from Ezra's spellbook. Sure, there are downsides and it might hurt a bit for awhile but both Lotty are Berrik are fully capable casting the spell off the page. New plan! Bennit is confused as the trio turns around and heads back through the Passwalled passageway to the small interrogation room.
Berrik tears the page for Wish out of the spellbook and hands it Lotty. With her Ring of Strength and ability to fight without casting spells, she is the best candidate to weather the debuffs that come with casting Wish. Null can't contribute anything to this endeavour, and so resigns herself to "Shut up, Bennit" duty. Lotty removes Flynn's belongings from the bag of holding and places them in a pile on the icy ground. Finally, she takes the prosthetic hand she crafted for him only 2 weeks ago and sets it next to the pile, with the vial of Flynn's ashes nestled in the palm. Wasting no time, she reads the scroll and wishes Flynn to return to them as he was. She feels the magic manifest within her to bring her friend back, but she also feels something leave her. To bring Cade back she sacrificed a part of her soul, making herself impossible to resurrect. And to bring Flynn back, she now knows she has sacrificed the ability to ever cast Wish again. No matter, she thinks as she gazes upon the prone but hale form of Flynn before her. It was worth it.
Berrik, Null and Lotty are elated to have their friend back. Flynn isn't quite conscious yet, so Lotty moves forward to rouse him. The goblin is wearing nothing but his prosthetic hand, so Berrik and Null start scrounging through the nearby pile of corpses for bits of clothing he can wear. Flynn is confused and wondering where his clothes are - who has been touching his stuff?! Lotty knows that Flynn won't be able to process his previous demise, so she tells him a story about the pack of giants he singlehandedly defeated. Yes, he killed them so hard his clothes fell off and he passed out. He seems to eventually take this in stride. Berrik and Null lob bits of secondhand clothing at him, promising that we'll replace his lost bear pelt soon. Flynn solemnly nods and starts to gear up. Bennit is shocked by this whole situation, and eagerly asks if they can bring back his friend Jerry - he points to the pile of corpses. "Shut up, Bennit!" everyone says in unison. We have bigger things to worry about. Flynn is filled in about where they are and what they're doing - he's eager to get things going. We leave the tiny room and move back towards the prison entrance at the end of the tunnel. We peer in again to see what has transpired in the past few minutes. The two groups of guards we had seen interacting before are gone. Yep, this is definitely an ambush.
Flynn asks Null to sneak around and get a lay of the land before they move in. She pulls up her hood to go invisible and flies up, spending the next ten minutes encircling the chamber. There is truly no sign of the guards - they've vanished. Trying one last thing, she goes up to the most alert-looking prisoner she can find. Null, still invisible, whispers to the teenage hobgoblin that she's here to stage a rescue but that she needs some help. Null name drops Berrik and Zubbe. The girl, named Aska, is skeptical at first, but is eventually convinced when Null confirms that her friend Berrik is an avowed enjoyer of meats. Aska tells Null that the guards were milling about until quite recently, when they disappeared into thin air. This confirms the ambush for Null, who then asks if there's anything else Aska can tell her. The girl informs Null that the bridges around them are unstable and likely won't withstand any volatile spellcasting, and also that icicles sometimes fall from the ceiling. Null thanks Aska and promises that she will see her soon, before returning to her friends. Hidden again in the passageway, Null confirms the ambush of invisible guards and cautions Berrik and Flynn about the unstable environment. As they ready themselves, Bennit asks what his role here is and reminds them that he needs some healing. Flynn offers a greater healing potion. Everyone is kind of fine with Bennit doing absolutely nothing, but the huscarl suggests he might be useful a different way. While they fight the guards, he could start freeing prisoners? The Ashen Company are less than confident in his abilities, but he does know how to maneuver the cages. If he can successfully get some prisoners down while they fight, it will be fewer they have to do themselves later. Fine. Lotty tells Bennit to start with Argil and to corral the freed prisoners near the tunnel entrance. She dumps every spare bit of weaponry she has in the bag of holding on the floor, and tells Bennit that the prisoners should arm themselves as soon as they can. Null throws her 5 spare daggers onto the pile, and Berrik tosses on his component pouch for any spellcaster they might free. Bennit is eager to get going but Null stops him, asking if he's forgetting something. Ah yes, if he's going to do this, he needs to grab a rod. Bennit sheepishly steps forward to take a rod from Null, who kinda terrifies him. Berrik can tell the rogue is about to intimidate him, so he hip checks her aside to convey the stakes to Bennit in a slightly kinder way. All right, now we can go.
The Ashen Company walks into the prison, hoping to spring the ambush they know is waiting for them. They do, Flynn's dagger of warning making sure they aren't surprised. The entirety of two squads are invisible around them, making themselves known on each of their turns. There are four necromancers, four huscarls and way too many vikings surrounding them. A necromancer opens the battle with a Harm spell towards Lotty, while another tries to overwhelm Null with a flood of negative energy. Lotty is beefy as hell and so Harm only knocks off a few temp HP. Meanwhile, this necromancer has clearly never met Null, who actually thrives in negative energy.
 |
| Null, probably. |
The vikings and huscarls start to throw their weight around. Lotty gets pushed off a ledge and into the frosty abyss below. Berrik casts Featherfall to give her a chance to get back in the fight. Flynn retaliates with his Repelling Blast and a necromancer falls - he will spend most of this fight pushing baddies to their deaths. The fighting continues. The vikings and huscarls keep shoving. Berrik and Null contend with a Circle of Death. Berrik banishes a necromancer, while Null focuses on one of the remaining two. Gosh, there are so many vikings! They just keep converging and surrounding our heroes. It's very crowded. Lotty, still falling, casts Elevated Step on herself, taking necrotic damage from her recent casting of Wish. She is able to get back into the melee just in time for a huscarl to do a commanding shout. This can be summarized in one word for our party: Ouch. We start to notice movement in our periphery - Bennit is freeing prisoners. The huscarls instinctively (perhaps in a Freudian way) grasp for their rods to execute the freed prisoners, but then decide the current battle is the bigger threat to their longevity. Flynn, successfully having sent some dudes to their deaths via gravity, decides some Devouring Darkness is in order. This thins the congestion a little. Inspired by Flynn, Berrik casts Wall of Force to also knock some baddies to their deaths. The battlefield opens up a little, but not enough for Lotty to escape being pushed off a ledge again. She is able to grab a nearby cage this time, but drops her shield into the abyss in the process. The banished necromancer comes back and immediately shouts for the bad guys to target Berrik. Things are dire for a hot minute as our wizard is surrounded. Null goes to help, and Lotty soon follows. Flynn keeps blasting and the Black Tentacles that a necromancer tried to place dissipates upon said necromancer's death. Lotty casts Heat Metal on a huscarl that is grabbing for his rod, causing him to drop it into the chasm below. Berrik is pretty tapped and so decides to trigger his contingency. The hobgoblin mutters "I am untethered and my rage knows no bounds" and erupts into a mass of black fur and muscle. Berrik is a giant ape and he is ready for VIOLENCE. Unlucky for him, he only gets one turn in before the last two huscarls are killed by his comrades. There are several vikings still remaining, but upon seeing the demise of their leadership they decide to throw down their weapons and surrender. Null picks up the rod of the fallen huscarl in front of her. Thinking quickly, Flynn flies to the bottom of the cavern to collect the fallen rods and execute any enemies that are still alive below (he also retrieves Lotty's shield). Upon his return, the defeated vikings and the Ashen Company all stare at each other, wondering what will happen next.
Rods in play:
Flynn holding 3, Null holding 2, Bennit holding 1.