Namura let out a scream of anger and pain as she slashed at the last remaining aetherbeast. This was not how she imagined her evening to go. Her first sword sunk deep into his calf (12 damage), but the second one went wide. 

Seeing the elf appear where Kraithee and Buama were standing, it just thinks "now you appear, with two of us down", but it doesn't duel longer on that fact because there is still one Aether-Ape standing and now four cultists appear on the other side of the party.

Looking at the creature and sensing the Aether that courses through its body almost spent until it can realign itself with the Aether of the world, Kraithee turns to the creature close to Namura and says extending its arm: It is time you fall down and die your fell creature, we still have to deal with those four dummies over there! Casts [spell[Eldritch Blast[/spell] 1d20+5= 18 to hit/ 1d10 = 7 force damage.

With the barrage Kraithee and its companions let loose this fight all creatures are down, now only remaining the cultists to be dealt with.

Buama had missed at another attack at the one that had hit her, but then help showed up. In the confusion four cultists showed up. She aimed to shoot at one that might have been hurt and was not partly hidden by a big tree like the furthest one she could see. She aims carefully ((23)) and watches as the hit ((12 damage)) was enough to spin him around and face plant him in the dirt.

Flux moves as the beast falls, and throws a flask of alchemical fire at the cultists, it hits the lower middle one, and it explodes, bursting into flames. The flames lick over him, and the other cultist to his south, but the one up from there manages to dodge the flames. The lowest cultist falls to the flames.

Not wanting to let these new enemies get away Duncan began to close them out. In his mind he created a barrier to enclose around them. Closing his eyes,  Duncan began to stretch out both hands allowing the psionic force to snap into place, creating a transparent wall of white energy around them. He was holding the construct in his mind and would require all his focus.

(Spent 3 Psi points [total 6], Telekinetic Barrier wall is 40 feet long, 10 feet high, and 1 inch thick AC: 10 HP: 10)

With the remaining two cultists trapped in Duncan's mindwall, they both sit on the ground, pulling out long, twisted daggers, and start uttering words just softly enough to remain out of ear's reach. By this time, the aetherbeasts have dissipated, the husks and flaming aether returning to the Great Cycle. Lahsuke rushes over to Azi, administering to him a potion of healing. Choking, Azi comes to from his unconsciousness, as his wounds quickly heal due to the soothing aether washing over his body, radiating from within. In his thick accent, he calmly speaks in Elven, "There, there, young monk. Take it easy. This aether is helping you heal." He looks over to the cultists trapped warily. "We need to move. This place will be swarming with cultists within the next five minutes. We're hiding outside of the city through a secret tunnel." Getting up, he begins moving, pointing at Arial. "Get her up and moving if you want to live."

Seeing the cultists trapped, Lero rushes over to Arial, "Flux!" He's seen what the Aetherborn's potions can do from the ship and he's eager to get one of them administered to Arial. "Azi and I could use one as well." He looks over at the cultists, "We need to get out of here." He watches the mysterious elf as he starts to move, "And it looks like we need to do it quick!" 

Flux quickly rushes over to Arial, pulls out a Healing Draught and applies it, then passes one to Lero to be used as they head over to Azi, pulling one out and giving it to them to use.

"Hiding out in tunnels? We will come with you. Though I must ask why you didn't send us some kind of message letting us know the situation? You wouldn't have needed to save us had that been done."

Having spent almost all Aether it controls in its body, Kraithee turns to the elf and says: Yes, I agree with Flux, why there was no warning? Never mind, there will be time to talk things over once we are safe, anyone needs help moving? (Kraithee looks around at his companions, seeing that Namura seems to be really hurt, it walks up to it) Namura, come, let me help you. Do you have any healing potion or droughts as Flux has that I can help you with?

With that, Kraithee extends his hands to lend support to Namura.

Lero gulps down his healing potion and then proceeds to help Arial up. "You should have ducked," he whispers with a smirk. 

He then looks over to Flux, "The elf wants us to follow him into some tunnels? I guess it's as good a place as any. Let's go." 

Buama lets her thunder cannon hang from its strap over her shoulder as she casts cure wounds on herself. She sighs with relief as some of the worse wounds close up. She could use more, but at the moment didn't bother asking for it. She double checks her thunder cannon and stands with it at the ready as the others work on getting the others up. She ignores the cultists in the trap Duncan made for the moment as she watches for the next wave that could show up. The cultists were easy to deal with, but the aether beasts were another story. Though that might have not been so bad if someone had noted the ambush. She sure wasn't the one for that job at night. Finding a cinnamon bun in the dark in a bakery was one thing, aether beasts in trees took a little more skill to find.

((Meta - healing was 8HP))

Grabbing his head as he rises up off the ground, clearly in some lingering pain but quickly gathers himself together. Looking around to see that the beasts had been taken down he lets out a sigh of relief. "These beast caught me by surprise, I am lucky to have lived.  Thank you for the healing aether, and Flux I appreciate you as well for helping bring me back from deaths door.  Namura are creatures such as this common in this part of the world? Either way I agree we should leave now before we get more trouble on our hands." Azi sheathes his sword, and begins to stretch a bit while waiting for everyone else to get up and moving.

Namura took stock of her injuries during the post-battle chaos. She had only been hit twice, but both had left deep, dark gashes. One covered her lower arm in red, while the other drew a line across her chest. "Namura, come, let me help you," Kraithee approached her. The elf shook her head a little, but as she tried to take a step forward her head began to spin, and she decided to give in and take the help. "Do you have any healing potion or droughts as Flux has that I can help you with?"

"Thank you," she replied, leaning against the arm that had been offered to her. "No, I don't have any potions. And I already took one of Flux's draughts. But, I can do this," the ranger closed her eyes and placed her hand on the wound on her chest, casting cure wounds on herself. The wound in question began to knit itself together, although it was far from healed completely. "Now I'm tapped out though."

There was no rest for the wicked, and despite her pain people were asking her questions. "These are red aetherbeasts, just like the cats we fought this morning. I've never seen either in my life. Red aether? It all seems unnatural, and out of place" she answered, her head had stopped spinning, but she was still tempted to lean on Kraithee. Of course, she wouldn't, as that would be a sign of weakness that she refused to show. But she was tempted. "We need to get out of here. Now. Come on, Lahsuke, lead the way."

"I will answer all of your questions in due time, pirates." Streaks of red aether shoot through the air as more cultists convene on your location. Sprinting, the party moves with Lahsuke, travelling through the park and into another cluster of buildings. He diverges down a narrow corridor, entering into an inconspicuous door, and quickly shuts it behind him once the party is inside. Putting a finger over his mouth, he silences the party, pointing up above, as footsteps can heard just above you. The room is dark, but those with darkvision can make out a table, pushed to the corner of the room, and some chairs scattered on the floor. A bright carpet, with the insignia of the Renegades, lies on the floor. Pulling it to the side, the carpet reveals a wooden latch, with a ladder descending down into the darkness beneath you. Barely a whisper, he says, "Down the ladder, and then we can talk, okay?" The party moves silently as they descend the ladder into darkness.

The tunnel is almost perfectly round and smooth, roughly 10 feet in diameter. A tiny stream of water flows along the bottom, giving away the slight downward slope. The wooden latch fastens shut with a simple incantation cast by Lahsuke. Moving down the ladder, he casts a spell, and the immediate vicinity glows with a bright light. He smiles, looking the party over. "There. We're safe now. Only a handful of individuals, including myself, knows about these tunnels, and the rest are either dead or already accounted for with the survivors." He begins walking, heading to the right tunnel. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to walk and talk. The others will be happy to know I found more survivors... even if you put yourselves in this precarious position."

"What in the aether is happening here, and what are those red aether-beasts?" Lero finally takes the time to check his injured shoulder.  Flux's potion helped a great deal, but the teeth left a soreness that seems to persist through the healing. He calms his breathing once in the tunnel and takes the time to finally put his dagger away. He keeps his rapier out though, as he doesn't feel much safer being in a strange tunnel.  

Buama slings her thunder cannon so it is out of the way for the climb down and leaves it that way once in the tunnel. She can pull it into a ready to shoot position at any time with ease. She puts another cure light on herself while waiting for everyone gets in the tunnel. Now she had nothing left except she could do mending cantrips all day.

The bright light that is produced once the trapdoor is sealed shut makes her close her eyes tight for a moment. Slowly with a hand to help she adjusts from having been in dim to almost near dark conditions to full light.

She falls in line to follow the elf that is leading them to supposed safety. She pretty much digests what she hears in the conversation and despite the fact she has studied a lot about nature, red aether of any kind was very odd and just not right. She remains extremely quiet with a slight smile on her lips even though her brow is creased as she ponders everything going on.

(Meta - healing did 9HP - still down by 4))

"We should probably apologize, we were attempting to find you, not the other way around. I'm sorry you had to risk so much to help rescue us," Namura engaged with their elven guide, her eyes wandering around the tunnels that offered them safety. The massive tunnels they currently traversed could have only been made by a wurm. The ranger had only seen a wurm tunnel once, when she was much younger. She had fallen into one as just a cub, and couldn't find her way out. Namura had been trapped for several hours before one of the adult tigers had found her and helped her get free. It was not exactly a happy memory, and the ranger shuddered at the feelings of abandonment that. Namura cleared her throat, remembering what she had learned of the creatures since that day. "We, ummm, aren't in any danger of getting eaten by wurms, are we?"

With so much happening Duncan was surprised by were he was at. One moment he was trapping the Cultists in a wall, the next he was here in a dark tunnel being led by one of the people they were trying to save. Some rescue mission this turned into. He pulled his hood down to hide his eyes from the shame. Being saved by the people we where suppose to saving, very heroic indeed. Feeling even more embraced about the whole thing he just wanted to find a hole to crawl into and hide.  

He stops, turning to face Lero. "We call them the Barad'Ellil. Dark souls that have been conjured to mimic creatures slain hundreds of years ago. While today isn't the first time we've faced them, we've never seen them... only their effects from the withered and charred corpses we find of missing persons... if we ever find them at all. That's how it started, several years ago. Villagers would disappear. We thought they were just careless... until a child stumbled upon the corpse of one of them. It was like the life had been sucked dry from the villager, and horribly burned as well. Since then, things have been getting worst. But never a sighting until tonight."

Several minutes pass between the two responses, as you continue your journey down the long, twisting tunnel.

Lahsuke laughs in a carefree manner. "Darling, there's a lesson to be learned from the wurms: never look back. As far as history can tell, a wurm never goes through the same tunnel it has made. They are always creating these tunnels... eating the rock... growing larger. Sure, many tunnels intersect each other... in fact, if we'd gone in the opposite direction, we'd hit what was once a nest of wurms, dozens of years ago. It's quite a maze if you don't know how to navigate it, making it the perfect place to lose Consulate should These tunnels cross and intersect, forming some sort of spiraling web, that could easily connect throughout all of Peema. It's quite marvelous, really. But they never go back, only forward. So we're safe from the wurms." He smiles, winking at Namura as the party continues forward. As you progress through the tunnel, you note how often it twists and turns. A mental map would indicate that they seem to somehow follow the aether streams up in the sky, twirling and spiraling like the aether up above. You also note the bases of several aether geodes which have grown in the tunnel overtime, but have since been harvested for aether.

The ranger let out a small sigh in relief, feeling safer than she had all day. She was still incredibly on edge, but wasn't she always? She couldn't help but glance behind her at Lero, who seemed to keep on falling into line behind her. "Oh traako," she realized, her hands flying up to her face. "I forgot I still had these. Here," she removed the goggles of night and offered them to the rogue. "I don't want you tripping and knocking me over."

"How many survivors are there?" Namura pressed on with more questions, turning back to their guide. "And do you know anything about Chaxaxeuduhm?"