Confronted with the onrushing line of soldiers, Jex instantly begins to question his decision to be heroic. Still, no turning back now.

"Quick men, we're under attack! Half of you back to the gate, the other half to the battlements!" 

He pauses, "Then again, you never even saw me."

Taking advantage of the momentary confusion he draws his scimitars and slashes them both across the chest and face of the man ahead of him. Feeling the remnants of the fly spell in his feet, he prepares to launch from the knees of the dead man into a backflip to make space for his onrushing companions.

Bründir rushes to the fore, placed firmly in front of Jex, Karakarin presented as a sound bulwark with Dumdrengi leveled with deadly intent. "A'right lads, on me! Thurston, Val, stay on my heels. Jex," the dwarf glances back quickly to ensure his orders are heard, "F***'s sake, man, get yerself t'gether. Fancy tricks won't do ye good if yer bleedin' out. Patch up n' let's go!"

Bründir takes a long few breaths to steady himself for the charge and allow his allies to form. Nearby footsteps behind him gives affirmation of his orders, then steel-shod boots charge forward. A cry of rage ignites the dwarf's heart, but a loose stone takes his footing. In moments, the heroic charge dissolves to a clattering like kitchen utensils thrown down the flight.

The dwarf crashes to the bottom of the stairs, only to be met with a flurry of angry steel. Enemies at the bottom were ready for the easy target, but not legendary Dwarven craft. Bründir took some injury from spears and swords, but he swung Karakarin furiously in defense and Karakalad stayed strong in the assault.

"Bründir!!" yells Thurston seeing his friend leading the charge falling. Fortunately he is able to recover in time and used his shield to fend off the attacks of the defenders. 

" Bründir!! he yells " Gromdal ut Drung Elgram nut Dron!!"  he yells in dwarvish to his friend. 

Looking up ant noodind at him the dwarf raised Karakarin above his head. Thurston jumped, falling next to it and swining Rikkazarik to slam the shiled. The thunder boomed into the room, sending the guards flying back and slamming them against the walls and floor like a bunch of broken toys. 

"Let's hurry my friends!" Thurston says after sharing a smile with Bründir he kept running " I can feel one of them below us. Quickly now!" 

Jex springs down from his flip, flying after one of the soldiers Thurston and Brundir scattered, slicing through him as he runs.

"Go, hurry! I'll cut off the reinforcements."

He runs forward, using the remnants of the fly spell to corkscrew through the air, landing in a roll as several arrows fly past him. He reaches the gate mechanism, grabbing a crowbar from his backpack. He kicks out the safety wedge and the gate starts rolling down, not quickly enough though he realises and digs the crowbar under the chain the lever it off the cog. The gate comes crashing down, no longer held back at all, the momentum of the chain ripping the crowbar from Jex's hands. He looks at it and makes to pick it up, but thinks better if it and chases after his companions.

Up on the first floor, Vark's arcane vortex of elemental air howls, beating back the warriors arriving from the north and south. With the spell at their backs, Aiden and Valaith hurry to keep pace with Bründir, Jex and Thurston, following the trio down the stairs to the ground level. In the centre of the chamber the fell energy sensed by Vark still swirls up from below through a circular metal grating. The bandits trapped in the courtyard yell and rattle at the portcullis, hurling spears through the gaps and even going as far as to try to lift the enormous gate, but their efforts are in vain.

On the opposite side of the hall, the floor slopes away beneath the narrow staircase that runs south to north along the eastern wall. Thurston forges ahead into the dark, leading his allies pursuit of Korinn, although the Norscan struggles to see in the pitch black of the tunnels that run beneath the fortress. The stone passage descends for several yards before hitting a T where it splits north and south.

Aiden raises a hand, and a brightly glowing ball of lightning illuminates time-worn murals splayed out along the tunnel walls. Four figures stand in a circle, with four groups of beings standing around those four figures. He frowns, squinting at the images. "The elemental cycle," he mutters. Water, earth, fire, air. Human, dwarf, dragon, elf.

In the background stands a castle -- perhaps this castle. "How old is this place?" Aiden wonders aloud.

"We will have time for history lessons my friend. Now come quickly. This way!" says Thurston not looking back to check if the others are following him and taking the right path that descends into the darkness. Soon he has to stop for he cannot see without the help of Aiden's lightning and calls for him and the rest. "Come on guys. Ritual, stop the sisters to become more powerful. Kill them all. Free the valley from this threat. study later!" 

“Well, I’d say it’s probably- oh uhm-“ the young mage is cut off as Thurston hurries them on. “About fifteen hundred years.” He continues as they get moving again. “Peldirion called this an old alliance fortress when we were reading about Erik Spangelhelm. Must’ve been around the same time Matthew was imprisoned.”

Aiden frowns back at the mural as they take off after Thurston. "This might be how they imprisoned him. Anyway, yes. Stop dragonborn now, study later." They continue running.

The right hand passage continues for a short distance, before ending in another right turn that leads back west. The sloped floor continues deeper down into the bowels of the castle and up ahead lights flash where the passage levels out, casting shadows across the flagstones.

As Thurston guides his companions, striding ahead of the rest of the Acharnost, there's a soft click and flame spews from the walls at the Norscan.

Thurston looks to the walls as he keeps running and mutters an "Uups" as he start to feel the air getting warmer as the flames start to fill the corridor. 

He doesn't stops, he pulls himself forward even harder and after two more steps he jumps ahead, trying to get out of the trap's range. The walls erupted in flames and the whole corridor is engulfed by them. The rest can't see if the Norscan has been able to make it. 

He fells and rolls and stands, tapping his shoulder when a small flame has caught up. 

"That was close" he says " Try not to step on that stone over there..." he points to the one that triggered the trap. 

He turned towards his destiny, for he was still feeling the urge to reach the dragonborn sisters and he was still feeling that pulse in the back of his head that pulled him towards Korinn.

For a moment, the flash from the gout of flame blinds Thurston to what lies in the shadows ahead. However, as the Norscan's eyes adapt to the darkness once more, he can see a great hall open up before him. In its centre, at the tower's base, stands an octagonal pyramid with stairs running up each cardinal side. A trio of dragonborn are spaced around the pyramid's flattened tip, atop the northern, southern and western flights, and a score of cloaked and hooded cultists encircle the base. The entire room is illuminated in a brilliant emerald green by crackling bolts of arcane power that arc between the top of the pyramid and the ceiling high above.

Their attention drawn by the trap that Thurston triggered, the nearest cultists turn to face the intruders.

At the first sight of emerald green light Vark knows that they have reached the the sisters. “Whatever they’re doing I’m gonna try and stop it!” he shouts before suddenly vanishing into wisps of cloud. The disturbance of the trap’s remnant flame and smoke is the only sign that the mage still charges alongside them. Coming down and around the stairs Vark immediately locks eyes on the eldritch ritual taking place on the pyramid. He moves to avoid the defending cultists, intending to let the others clash with them while he beelines for the witches.

"I will help you!!" says Thurston to Vark's words not even looking back. 

He walked towards the right trying to get a better angle to attack Korinn. He finally saw the white dragonborn clearly. She was too focused on the ritual to even pay attention to them. The cultists were approaching but Thurston raised Rikazzarik and threw the hammer towards the head of the dragonborn sister that they first met. The weapon flew true but just a few inches before reaching its target an invisible barrier stopped the mighty hammer. 

Bolts of blue and green energy sprouted from the impact and the smell of ozone filled the chamber. As Rikkazarik flew back to Thurston's hand several cracks inn the magical barrier could be seen. But it was still holding. 

"You are cheaters!! You never fight fair and straight!" yelled the norscan frustrated " I will crush your skulls with my hands!!" he added as the cultist jumped over him.

Following the ribbons of energy, it almost looks like the beam is pulling something from the three sisters into the beam. "Whatever they're doing is going to happen soon!" He watches Thurston try to get them with his hammer and shouts to be heard. "We have to stop all of them!"

From out of nowhere a crackling laser beam of ruby light fires from off to the left of the pyramid. The bolt twists and turns in jagged fractal patterns, veering at the last moment to pierce right into the cracks left by Thurston’s hammer. The red light pulses through the fissures, spreading them further across the surface of the force field. Vark appears a moment later, his illusion falling apart like shattered glass and his red veins humming with infernal power. Already he begins to cast another spell, no intention of wasting any time...

Val shouts as she rushes forward, Larkin soundlessly charging alongside of her as they close the distance to Thurston, Rook's handle sparking and flickering with black lightning. "Thurston, duck!" As the Norscan drops low, Rook whooshes through the air and slams hard into the skulls of three of the cultists! The first two are killed immediately as bone is pulped, but slowing the momentum enough to simply stagger the last cultist. Before the bodies can hit the stone floor they let out a terrible screech as black smoke pours out of their nose and mouth, which begins to swirl off towards the ritual magic, but suddenly black lightning bursts out of Rook as the black sparks intensifies. The lightning arcs and almost seems to snatch the black smoke from the air and rips it down into the head of the magical weapon. Val turns to stare at Thurston with a worried glance, but this would have to wait until another time... This was a time of death and Val was the Queen of Death. 

Aiden feels a chill breeze and follows the beam up through the ceiling and into the heavens. Access to the heavens might have been necessary for their ritual, but it would also be their undoing. Aiden reaches up to the sky that still roiled with the storm that he and Vark had conjured. Tiny blue sparks of energy coalesce on his fingers and dance down his arm. Aiden's long, dark hair begins to flare out from his head.

A rumble of thunder shakes the stone fortress and Aiden throws down his arm and lightning follows the path of the beam, crackling down into the already-weakened force bubble.

The bubble shatters in a rush of arcane energy. Aiden draws his sword and charges one group of cultists, ready to tear through them.

As the shield drops, so to do Vark’s hands as whatever he was planning seems less viable now. The half orc flashes a toothy grin to Aiden before setting to work on a new spell. His eyes flash red and the ruby veins on his arm flare with hellfire before unleashing a tiny beam of crimson. The projectile soars between the now exposed sisters then blossoms into a searing conflagration, blasting them all with fire.

Bründir is stunned by the ritual site before them. A creeping dread ran down his spine as memories of a devil's presence ran through him back in Sheercleft. The dread, however, was flushed down and out his back by a wave of warmth as a light caught his eye. Not the sickly green before him, but a radiant dawn just below view. His eyes were compelled to Dumdrengi in his hand, the brand now flaring to life with runes proudly shown for the world. A smile split the dwarf's face as he charged into the fray with his beacon held high.

"Dumdrengi wakes, an' it's pissed! Stone an' Sky are comin' t'gether fer us. Bury these bastards an' wipe'em off th' map!"