As Aiden's boots hit the ground a haunting moan echoes about the great dwarven hall from all sides. The leathery cloths draped from the walls spring to life and begin to arc and glide about the cavernous space, revealing a pale underside as the creatures unfurl to attack. Red eyes glow above rows of sharp teeth, and long pendulous tails whip behind a body composed of cartilage and muscle.

The nearest of the monstrous abberations rapidly swoops down towards Valen, wrapping itself around the knight's head!

"C-c-c-CLOAKERS!" Vark screams as the monsters take to the air. The days he'd spent flipping through tomes in Aureaonus' library seemed so long ago, and Vark never could have imagined then that he'd be face to face with the far flung creatures detailed in those books now. He takes a fearful step away from the edge as he tries to recall the entry on these aberrations. "The-the-they make illusions! Some of them might not be real and-and-and OH! They hate light!" Vark raises his glowing red spear just above his head like a beacon "Get close, it'll weaken them!" As one of the creatures engulfs Valen, Vark holds out his spear and clenches his eyes shut in fright. "Don't hit it! Pull it off him!"

"They cannot be so dangerous " replies Thurston " have you seen those tiny arms? The kids of my tribe would break them in an arm-wresteld contest!" he says while getting ready to jump to help Valen.

Aiden leaps into action at Vark's words and moves toward the unfortunate paladin. He ducks under the cloaker's tail and grabs the aberration's fleshy wings. With a magically-enhanced effort, he pulls the disgusting creature off Valen's helm. He sees Thurston poised to leap at the top of the wall and swings the creature in that direction. "Bring the hammer down!" he shouts, pulling his warhammer off his belt once again. 

With a Norscan warcry Thurston jumps off and at the height of the jump, Rikkazarik starts to glow with blueish energy. 

Using all his muscles and the energy of the fall, the Thor paladin hits the cloaker in the middle of the back, falling on it. 

The thunder reverberates in the ancient dwarven halls and sparks of elecricity run across the surface of the big wings. Aiden , below the creature, can see how the entire creature muscles are shaken by the strength of the impac.

Thurston lands next to his friends, the free hand on the floor and he stands tall between Valen and Aiden, the cloack moving with an invisible wind. He points the hammer, still glowing, towards the creature. 

" Get off " 

Bare steel flashes, and lights dance off the knight's armor. Shield raised and blade held aloft, Valen steps in and sweeps his arm. His curved falchion glances off the passing cloaker. A shriek of anger, but too shallow on the bite. With a small flourish, Valen is poised again for an attack, blade rested on his shield and ready to defend.

Seeing the fracas below, Valaith leaps out to grab the rope with her hands and following what she had seen other warriors from her tribe do before she hooks her feet together around the rope. She loosens her vice-like grip on the rope with her hands and uses her feet to adjust the speed of her descent as she rapidly slides down the rope, feeling the heat of the friction on her hands and boots before landing on the stone floor with a heavy thud. Before she finishes straightening her knees, she is already giving into the icy rage of her frozen homeland, but this time is feels different; where once she felt a reckless, uncontrollable drive to kill her enemies, she feels guidance as Larkin's spirit shifts out of her body and helps give her a focus through the fury.

She spots one of the cloakers, a name she'd only heard once whispered by one of the shaman of her tribe, and Val leaves herself open as she lifts Rook overhead her head and brings it down in a vicious overhead swing. This new feeling of guidance was so alien that her aim was off and Rook misses the hovering monstrosity as it impacts with the floor, causing pieces of stone debris to fly in all directions.

A slight sigh, Jex sidesteps from the view of the cloaker , only to hop out quickly in a double step feint, daggers in hand. He releases a well aimed strikes through the back of the cloak and onto the head.

"Less theatrics, more efficiency my friends. No time for messing around."

Vark is still shaken from the cloakers’ ambush, but he manages to fire two eldritch blasts from Pathmaker’s glowing point. One misses the airborne creature, but the other crimson bolt finds its mark. Fearing that the cloaker might retaliate, Vark chants in his elemental tongue and charges his weapon with stormy magic.

The cloakers swoop in towards their prey, diving down at Vark and Thurston. Fully engrossed in the dance of battle, the Norscan neatly sidesteps the attack, but Vark is unable to evade the cloaker's strike and the aberration's teeth sink into his chain shirt with a grating screech. Having found purchase on the half-orc, the monster envelopes Vark with its wings, wrapping itself around him.

Vark takes 7 points of piercing damage to vigour, reduced to 4 by DR -> 29/33 Vigour

Aiden's action.

Aiden raises an eyebrow as Thurston brings the crackling hammer down on the cloaker. "Well struck," he says, his voice not revealing how impressive he thought the maneuver truly was. Always was one for spectacle. It seems that running with this group has only strengthened that instinct. 

He moves past the cloaker as daggers from above end its leathery existence. A few words mumbled in Norscan and his shield begins to glow with magic and a deep, rolling bell sound fills the space around the other cloaker. But the aberration shakes off the spell with no effect. "Well, that's annoying," Aiden says, readying his shield. 

Thurston steps to the side, trying to blindside the cloaker attacking Aiden, he swings up hard with his hammer but the aberration is deceptively aware of its surroundings, twisting aside with grace as the heavy blow whistles past. Not to be thwarted, the Norscan strikes out with his free hand, catching a wing with his gauntlet clad fist. It is soft and spongy, absorbing the blow in a way he didn't expect and he draws back uncomfortably.

Spying an opportunity for a kill, Jex studies the field, drawing his bow and looking down the shaft of an arrow. He see's Val strike the cloaker with her hammer, he takes a deep breath, his assassin instincts call for patience and he relaxes his shoulders. Exhaling and inhaling again, he waits for the opportunity he knows will present itself and releases the arrow. It flies true, but the cloaker is tougher than he thought, he catshes it deep in the midrif, right where the heart should be, but a flimst arrow is not enough to fully penetrate the arcane tissue, it would leave a mark for sure, and would probably be fatal with time, time it probably didn't have surrounded as it was. He steps back into the shadows out of sight. 

Valen leaps to Aiden's side. The knight's blade traced dangerously against the foe's leathery hide, but couldn't connect. With the three holy men encircling the cloaker, it began to flail threateningly against the mounting assailants. Valen took this moment to press in. Before he could take advantage, however, a spiny tail snapped back against his shield.

(Attack, +10 atk and -10 Vigour from Exert, 9 damage to Cloaker Vigour)

Val and Larkin move together as they rush over to the remaining cloaker on the lower levels. Val places herself in such a position so as to be able to once again make a powerful, overhead swing, but this time she follows the guidance of her brother and Rook slams hard into the strange creature! It squeaks in pain as a minor wound opens along its hide!

Vark lets out a yelp as he is engulfed by the creature. There is no sense in the mage trying to muscle his way out of the cloaker's grasp. Instead he teleports in a burst of dark cloud, reappearing right next to the disoriented thing. Those same clouds writhe around Pathmaker as Vark thrusts the weapon towards the cloaker, then they burst with thunderous force as the attack hits. The aberration is launched across the stone floor, eventually skidding to a stop twenty feet away from Vark.

The cloaker on the upper level rights itself and rushes furiously at Vark, thrashing its tail at the half-orc and biting down furiously as it wraps itself around him once more.

Vark takes 10 damage to vigour, reduced to 4 by DR -> 25/33 Vigour

In the hall below, the fourth cloaker glides silently into view as it approaches the warriors from above. Meanwhile the injured aberration weakly attempts to flap away, but quickly plummets to the ground, bleeding heavily the entire time.

Aiden's action.

"How many of these things are there?" Aiden shouts, moving toward the new cloaker. The head of his warhammer begins to glow brighter and he lets loose a bolt of radiant lightning that arcs across the beast's leathery flank. "Anyone been counting?"

Seeing that other monster is trying to approach Thurston throws Rikkazarik to it, impacting on one of the wings of the creature. As the weapon returns to his hand the air around the cloaker is charged with energy, as the clouds before the storm breaks, the thunder waiting to be unleash to inflict more punishment on the beast if it dares to approach them. 

Seeing himself at a disadvantage, Valen switches tactics for a moment. The Breannian knight sheathes his sword as he approaches, and takes up a javelin from a small quiver against his back. With a great heave, it he could swear it connected cleanly, but the cloaker remained stubbornly aloft.