"Well done, my friend," Aiden says, clapping Thurston on the back after he heals the poison. "There is more to Thor's power than making things explode." 

He walks over to the prisoners. After Thurston's "bad guard" routine, it was time to play the "good guard." "I need one of you to lead us to this castle's dungeons, so that we have a safe place to keep you in the interim." Aiden's eyes scan the cultists, looking for a volunteer.

A timid gnome with fiery tufts of red hair slowly raises a quivering hand in response to Aiden's demand.

Hyper-cautious after being blasted, Vark remains in the threshold of the door. He raises his ruby-veined hand and the crystalline streaks flash red, producing a hovering echo of Vark’s hand cast in a crimson glow. The mage hand makes quick work of the room, ferrying the various magical items to Vark as well as taking heaping handfuls of notes and journals as well. Once Vark is confident he’s grabbed everything of worth he and Jex return to the first treasure room to unload in the watchful eye of Bründir. “Uhm, Bründir... I don’t know if you saw what just happened but... I’m feeling a little rough. Can you help?”

"Shit, man!" Bründir rushes to the door to take burdens from Vark's hands. "Gimme a moment, still a bit odd fer me." The dwarf rubs his hands together and recites an awkward prayer in his mind. Moradin, um, my friend needs help. Can ye help him, or help me to help him? The request was met with a glow in Bründir's palms, very similar to Dumdrengi's light. The dwarf reached out and placed his glowing palms on Vark as though the Mage would explode at the slightest touch. A few moments pass, and the smell of burned hair and skin subsides.

"Huh, that wasn't so bad. Guess that's a normal thing now, too. I heard something, but ye didn't call fer me. I figured ye survived well enough and didn't need help at the time." An embarrassed smile splits Bründir's beard, "I mean, I wasn't all wrong, though?..."

“Oh I-“ Vark had been expecting a swig of a flask to calm his fried nerves, so the sudden wave of divine healing that flows through him is a surprise. “Thank you, that feels much better. And, no you weren’t all wrong,” he says, exchanging an embarrassed smile of his own. “Would have been kinda funny if it was lightning that took me out though, right?” With another goodhearted chuckle he turns to Jex and the two set off again to find the last sister’s room.

The final door is carved with a relief of a castle that has been built on an island in the middle of a lake. There's a full moon in the sky overhead and three crows circle overhead, while three figures stand holding hands in a circle atop the castle's tallest tower. This time knowing what to look for, Jex barely takes a moment before pointing out similar glyphs as on the door to Sora's room.

Quote from stormchaser6 >>

A timid gnome with fiery tufts of red hair slowly raises a quivering hand in response to Aiden's demand.

 Aiden motions for Valaith and Thurston to stay put. "Alright friend, lead on," he says. "You've seen what happens to those that cross us, so please -- do not try anything."

"Y-y-yes, sir," the gnome stammers, beckoning to Aiden to follow as he ventures down a side passage deeper into the fortress. The building seems to be growing quieter now. Either many of the Morrigan's followers have fled, or perhaps they're merely not audible this deep down. Nevertheless, as Aiden follows the gnome, a group of voices comes into earshot up ahead and the gnome turns and gestures to the cleric to remain quiet.

Aiden nods at the gnome, his hand goes carefully to his blade. He stays quiet, moving to one side of the corridor.

Vark inspects the glyph, and with insight from the last room he decides the most efficient way of dealing with this will be to detonate the glyph from a safe distance. Assuming that the third door would correlate to the third sister’s penchant for cold, Vark readies his risian shale orb and fires. One blast of eldritch energy and one retort of frigid ice later and the spoils are theirs. Vark once again repeats the tactic of letting his spectral hand do the heavy lifting while he scans the room with arcane vision. Soon he is calling for Bründir to help carry the contents of the bedroom turned armory back to their growing hoard. Once they are safely surrounded by their haul, Vark pulls out the silver raven from his bag figuring it will be faster to communicate with the others. He activates the small figurine and the metallic bird comes to life in his hands. “Okay, go find the others somewhere downstairs and tell them: We finished looting the bedrooms. Should we meet you in the dungeon or wait for you here?” With the rest of the group soon to be updated, Vark sits down and begins ritually identifying the magical items they’ve found.

Quote from zheadings6134 >>

Aiden nods at the gnome, his hand goes carefully to his blade. He stays quiet, moving to one side of the corridor.

 
"Right," Aiden hears a low voice mutter conspiratorially, "when they get down here, you toss the alchemist's fire and we'll close the gate."

Aiden waves the red-haired gnome on. They continue as quietly as they can -- not very -- until Aiden sees the gate they've mentioned. Some kind of oil is spread beneath the gate in a slick puddle. He conjures a mote of lightning in his hand and gestures for the gnome to get behind him. Then, he looses it at the puddle of oil, which roars into burning flame!

Peering around the corner, Aiden sees a short vestibule roughly fifteen feet long, leading to a ten foot arch with a portcullis in the top of it. The oil is spread across the flagstones of the full area of the vestibule. He hears a voice shout "no!" as he ignites the oil and then four flasks full of viscous orange fluid come flying through the air towards him - alchemist's fire. Most merely slides off of Aiden's armour, scorching the steel as it goes, although he feels a slight sting as tiny fragments singe his neckline.

Aiden responds to the alchemist fire with a thunderclap that rocks the foundations of the room. Several cries of pain come from the room as the cultists thunderstruck. They come into view around the door frame and Aiden blasts a couple of them with a massive lightning bolt. One drops dead and the other is severely singed. "Come on, cowards," he says, and beckons. A spectral version of Thurston's hammer appears next to one of them and swings at the singed one, but misses.

The lake of fire filling the vestibule roars as it slowly burns itself out and three crossbow bolts come flying at Aiden across the gap. The first misses him completely, while the second strikes his waiting shield. However, the final bolt strikes his side, before being repelled by chainmail.

The impact of the bolt stings. The force of the blow probably had cracked a rib. He takes his last goblin potion from his belt, grimacing at the purple tinge to his skin, and then quaffs it down. As an afterthought, he throws a bolt of lightning at the one he'd failed to kill, but it sparks off the wall.

As the flames fade away, three dragonborn step out of the shadows of the gate and into the light. One red, one blue and one white. They bellow draconic roars at Aiden and belch forth a torrent of fire, lightning and ice, before drawing maces and blades and setting upon him. However, the Norscan-trained warrior's skill shines through as he fends them off with shield and blade. Only one strike passes his guard, deflected by the plates of his armour.

Aiden's hammer misses again, and he channels the last of his divine power into bolstering his resolve and vigor. He the three advancing dragonborn. "If I see Valhalla today," he says, taking a deep breath and raising his shield, "I'm taking at least two of you with me."

The dragonborn are also breathing heavily from the sudden onslaught of Aiden's spells.

"Yenta ava'yorn ekess dout ithquenti ihk ve," the blue dragonborn snarls back, bringing his mace down on Aiden's shield in a massive overhand swing that almost makes his knees buckle. However, the cleric stands his ground as a second, weaker blow from the white dragonborn clangs off the curved sheet of metal, even as he blocks the red's blades with his other hand.

Aiden snarls, and turns his attention to the red dragonborn. He was the quickest. Eventually he'd find a way to sneak his blade underneath Aiden's armor and that would be the end of it. So he needed to die first. Aiden feints with his sword and then brings the spectral hammer smashing down on the dragonborn's back, drawing a grunt of pain from the cultist.