Thurston mutters behind Aiden's back

"Witchcraft..." 

Aiden laughs at Thurston's comment and uncrosses his arms and lays a hand on Vark's shoulder. "Glad you made it back in one piece," he says. "As for what else, I don't know. Valaith, did you find anything amid the cultists?"

Val grins at Vark's response, glad to have the old Vark back. When he disappears, she glances over from gathering anything of value from the dead and proceeding to pile their corpses to one side. "Where did he go?!" Before she could drop the body of the cultist she was lugging and rush up the pyramid, he reappeared through the gateway once more. She shakes her head ruefully and tosses the body down, turning her attention now to Aiden. "Nothing much, just some coin and basic armaments."

Bründir grumbles over pockets of limp cultists, "I didn' sign up fer all this magic, an' old gods, an' horseshit. I was jus' a dwarf in a mine, nothin' special. Then 'long comes adventure, an' 'ere I go skippin' off with stars in my eyes."

Thurston looks to Val.

"I think we still have some bandits and stupid cultist to deal with upstairs. They seemed pretty anxious to follow us.. what if we open the door and let them come? We can use their own fortress against them and use it as a bottleneck to take care of their superiority in numbers. Then we could go out and hunt the rest of them. It will be probably a good idea to keep one alive to question about the other camps, the one we dismantled before and the basilisk farm... and even if the have more. It is time to get rid of this guys in the valley for good..." 

Vark nods along to Thurston’s plan. Casting one last glance around the circle something catches his eye. “Ooh, look!” He runs over to the glint of ice and with a grunt of effort he lifts up the frozen blade. “This was Korinn’s blade right? Maybe if we show it to prove that we killed their leaders, the other cultists won’t wanna fight. It looks magic too...” Vark peers at the blade and his eyes momentarily flare red. “Yup. Enchanted with elemental ice. Pretty cool.” With both hands he holds the blade forward for someone else to brandish. “Might be more treasure here too, after we take care of the rest of their forces we should search the whole place.”

As Vark finishes his sentence, an arrow comes streaking out of the shadows to the east, striking the sorcerer in the shoulder, although his chain shirt prevents any real harm. The Morrigan's forces are still in pursuit!

Vark recoils from the shot with a grimace. “Ah, they’re already here!” Instead of waiting for someone else, Vark lifts the blade into the air above his head, one hand on the hilt and one under the flat of the blade. “HEY!” A boom of thunder punctuates his shout, his voice projecting with supernatural presence. “The Acharnost has killed your leaders! Come out slowly and drop your weapons or we’ll kill you too!” The warning reverberates through the old stones, and Vark waits there with the sword aloft for all to see.

For a moment, the chamber falls still as the echoes of Vark's booming proclamation fade to nothingness. Then a muffled clamour of discordant voices and shuffling feat can be heard from the corridors beyond. To the east, a few broken looking warriors stumble into the dim light and throw down their weapons, but others bellow in fury and charge hopelessly into the room, while behind them more can be heard fleeing into the dark. The Morrigan's defeat appears to have left their followers shattered and fragmented.

With half a smile Thurston begins to spin his hammer on his hand, waiting for those crazy enough to charge to get in range. 

Bründir bellows a defiant laugh at the uncertain force before them. "We killed a damned three-headed DRAGON, an' ye think yer piss-poor selves'll do much better?!" A small flicker in the dwarf's mind hoped none of them had seen the way he was handled during the dragon fight, though.

Val hefts Rook as she shares a look with her companions. "Let's finish this." she says with a grim determination. 

"Yes," Aiden says, frowning at those that surrender as he pushes past Brundir and Valaith. "Let's. 

A brilliant burst of lightning crackles out from his outstretched palm, lancing from metal armor to flesh to flesh to metal armor. Teeth chatter and mouths are left agape and drooling as the aftermath of Aiden's bolt of lightning leaves several of the oncoming cultists and bandits and assorted ruffians slack-jawed and dazed. 

Vark tosses the sword down to his feet with a boisterous clang before stepping forward atop the pyramid. He looks to the rushing mass that Aiden has just fried and begins whirling Pathmaker around him. With each arc more and more crackling red energy begins to build before it begins to fling off in bolts of ruby force. A lightning fast volley of four blasts rock into the throng, downing one of the men and battering another who somehow manages to stand despite the massive damage he’s taken.

While her friends focus on the threat ahead, Val wheels and charges the mass of cultists rushing them from behind! She lets out a scream of challenge, Larkin shifting into focus beside her and matching her massive strides as she closes the distance. She raises Rook high above her head and the first cultist raises his shield up to deflect the massive hammer, but they were unprepared to sheer force behind the blow. There is an ear-splitting sound as Rook smashes through the shield and shattering the arm beneath it as Rook, the shield, and the arm all crash into the cultist's face! They immediately drop to the ground in a heap. She immediately swings her weapon around in an attempt to finish another of the cultists, but in her haste she doesn't check her footing and her boots slip from the pooling blood beneath the man at her feet. Rook whips wildly about, hitting nothing. 

With the desperate, wild battle-cry of the doomed, what little remain of the Morrigan's force throw themselves at the Acharnost.

Three come for Vark atop the pyramid. Two bear jagged, curved blades and one a weighty mace. However, the sorcerer is like a dervish amongst them and not a single blow finds its mark.

At the foot of the pyramid, a man with two blades strikes at Bründir, pressing the Dwarf hard as he wields his weapons in concert. Nevertheless, the blades rings off of karakaklad's adamantine plates, sparing Bründir from serious harm.

The warrior in chainmail who Aiden struck with Thor's power staggers forwards. His blade arcs through the air in two wide, clumsy swings before he crumples unconscious to the ground. His place is quickly taken by another heavyset man wielding a mace. The impact of the blow against Aiden's shield makes the Norscan's arm shake, but his foe has little more fight left in him.

Four more cultists swarm around Val, stabbing at her from all sides with spears and knives, but she avoids all but the most superficial of scrapes. One speaks an incantation in a foul language that is painful to hear, but Val shakes off the weak enchantment with ease, even as her armour deflects the strike of a ghostly spear.

Thurston scoffs seeing the feeble attacks of the cultist against them. 

"You are doomed" he says fixing his eyes in the nearest one, who had tried to stab Vark. "Your leaders are dead. You are weak " he smashes the man with the head of Rikkazarik into the abdomen. The man is about to vomit his innards. "I despise you. You prey on the defenseless, follow the wicked... look around.. " the man takes a few steps back, but the imposing figure of the paladin looms over him "your conquest dreams are shattered your days of terror end... now!!! " he finally hits the man with Rikkazarik in an upright movement and the man is throw a few feet away. Thurston not even look at him falling, turning to face another of them, a grim expression on his eyes, his face still covered by the rag of his clothes to hide the burns of the acid breath. 

Bründir spits a hard guffaw at the blades glancing off his armour. The danger was known, but it paled in comparison to the catastrophic blow that took his eye. Dumdrengi wheeled around in a deadly arc, barely missing the dwarf's foe. It felt like a hostile dance where partners tried to throw the other off their footing. "How long do ye think you'll last, huh? Ye can hit me a hundred times, but my blade'll be worse."

Thor's retribution crackles to life and the thug that struck Aiden crumples to the ground in a fit of spasms. Aiden listens to the boasting of his comrades and shakes his head. "Overconfidence has never once won a battle," he says, drawing his sword and lashing out at the bandit near Bründir. "Save the boasting for after the fight is done."

"It's called Demoralizing, an' It's better'n hackin' through'em all day, right?" Bründir catches an assailant on his shield and repells the attack.