Caio takes the silver blade chosen for him and seems happy as he tests its weight. He keeps to the back of the group as they walk, better to keep watch and easier to slip away if the need arises for stealth. Once they get close enough to the temple, he summons Ghoul again and sends him off before the mischievous bird can cause any trouble. “Could someone make sure I don’t run into anything?” he says as he projects his senses into the familiar. The cormorant flies up and over the building, taking a few circles to get closer and closer. He pays special attention to the roof, looking for any weak spots.

Approaching the spread laid out before the group, Shiva pickes up a bastard sword. After several test swings, she put it back into its sheathe. "Be right back, gonna go do the sword thing." Stepping off into a vacant storage room, Shiva sets the blade on the ground before her and begins what she has loosely come to understand to be the ritual by which she can transform weapons and attach them to herself. Though she has performed the process several times now, she is still unnerved by it. As dark clouds momentarily take her vision, the blade shimmers and is itself consumed by a shroud of dark clouds. With the ritual having succeeded, she takes a moment to exhale and collect herself before returning to the group.

As the temple comes into view, Shiva motions to summon the blade. Thick, viscous darkness wreathes her hand, before extending outward to take the blade's shape. It is the usual black with ombre yellow grading out to its tip, but it now has a brighter gleam to it. As Caio casts his vision into Ghoul, she walks up and puts her hand on his shoulder "I gotcha."

      Astrid looks impressed as the bag of weapons hits the table and the ability of the paladin to procure such an arsenal.  She grabs one of the silver daggers, secures it on her belt and prepares to follow the others to the church.

     Catching sight of the dilapidated building gives a single shake of of head. "Shame," she comments aloud and slides her shield off her back. A light ratching sound is heard as she winds a small key on the back of her shield, causing the eye on the front to open. "Aye," she replies to Caio and steps to the ranger's side to grab his hand. "Th-... Thanks again for that back there at the tavern. I don't think she likes me too much," she says quietly with a nod towards Ling.

     "Taking look around up there? Maybe I can help you out a little... Scribe, assist his vision." She releases his hand when Shiva comes over to assist. "Oh... uh. Go ahead," she says to the tiefling allowing her to continue to guide Caio.

Caio’s normally jet black eyes are clouded in grey, but he nods at the dwarf’s comment. “When I first joined this motley crew I was actively hunting Nikolai. They... well we are protective and insular, because we must be. If you stick around long enough, you’ll find the hazing will cease sooner than you’d think.”

The roof of the temple is patchy and dilapidated. In some places the structure holds, but in others the wood has collapsed leaving gaps and openings. As Ghoul circles the building he occasionally glimpses what looks like a flicker of movement from within. The thick cloud cover masks whatever it is in shadow.

Ling pulls her hood a little lower and is careful to hide her broom under her cloak as they walk. She still hates the streets full of people, the houses huddling together as if for warmth. Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run in the small, winding streets. The catacombs or the forest made her feel at ease, but here, surrounded by simple folk who would, at least in the countryside, not hesitate to throw stones at her and hang her from a tree if she showed any signs of dark magic.

As Shiva seems to be alright guarding Caio, Ling surveys their surroundings carefully. The townsfolk give them disapproving, sometimes frightened glances, but they to be intent on giving them a wide berth. Staying on the fringes of the group, she looks as if standing guard over them. Astrid is also object to her scrutiny and when the dwarf shows her magical shield, Ling inhales softly. Now what is that?! Dwarf lady has some tricks up her sleeve. She notes her placing a hand on Caio and tenses momentarily, but watching on, she understands that Astrid is helping and she begins to soften a little towards the newcomer. When Caio's eyes return to their normal colour, Ling steps closer and asks: "What did you see?"

Nikolai follows along with his companions, absently shuffling his tarock deck as he is wont to do at times. His mind wanders and often finds divergent thoughts splitting off into pathways that have never been one for him to consider. He finds himself rubbing along one specific tattoo on his wrist... one that had always been one of his favorite. It was a geometric pattern that translated to a certain number that was always, strangely important to him. 'They did that to us.' Before he could ponder that strange thought, they arrive at the abandoned church. "Beautiful architecture." He continues shuffling his deck as he gazes upon the building and its imagery. "Tis a church of Perun, or Sippa if you prefer the Tanem variation."

As the dwarf backs away, Shiva smiles softly at her "He's right. Conflict has made up most of our lives, and its left us rather calloused. But that has made the connections we forge that much more precious. I have a feeling about you Astrid, and I look forward to getting to know you."

"There's movement inside, though I wasn't able to get a good look at what it was. The roof is quite dilapidated, there are already some holes in it. Shouldn't be too hard to expand the skylights but," he looks up at the overcast sky. "I don't know how helpful that would even be considering the current weather. I suppose it's still worth a shot though." 

"Are Perun or Sippa known for anything that I need to know? I'm going to get a little closer, maybe I can see what's going on inside." Without waiting for Nikolai's answer, she sneaks up to the church, sticking to the shadows whenever possible. The windows are too high for her to peek through by herself, but perhaps the door of this old building will be unlocked? 

A six foot fence of cast iron rails surrounds the grounds of the temple, and the wasted grass on either side of the path leading up to the large double doors has a thin layer of mist drifting across it. As Ling draws closer to the building, the shadows sharpen to her tiefling eyes and she spots a small gap where the opening has been left ajar. She slips beneath the tall archway that extends before the entrance and peers inside.

The first thing that hits her is the stench of offal and decay emanating from within. She can see many overturned rows of pews and other refuse strewn about the interior. There's a shrine at the far end of the main hall, but it's distant enough to be beyond the reach of her darkvision. Vaulted arches line the edges of the chamber, forming side aisles below the windows, and the whole place feels unexpectedly cold.

Spotting about ten fleder up in the rafters of the church, Ling holds her breath, gripping her broom tightly.

Clustered amongst the rafters of the vaulted ceiling, Ling spots several man-sized, dark bundles hanging, dangling in the air. It looks like a lot more than just ten.

At first it seems that she may be able to slip out unnoticed... and then the tell-tale crunch of dry leaves underfoot echoes about the empty temple. Ling freezes, slowly glancing back over her shoulder. There's a rustle amongst the huddle of shadowy shapes, and then an ear-splitting, bestial scream fills the chamber, reverberating about the building as the impressive acoustics amplify the noise. The pitch is so extreme that it's almost too high to hear, and the penetrating shriek makes Ling wince in pain.

Something big drops from the rafters like a stone, before unfurling a broad pair of wings shortly before it would have hit the ground. The creature is followed by several others, all swooping in after the tiefling, but Ling is out the door and atop Sybaris, heading for the others at full speed the moment she sees movement. There's a loud thump as something large hits the door from the inside, and then several massive bat-like humanoids sweep out as it swings open. They scream in discomfort at the daylight, drifting up to land on the outer surfaces of the temple, before scurrying back inside through what windows and other holes they can find.

Alaris Forien curses as the commotion of flapping wings and slamming doors catches their attention. "Ready everyone!" the paladin calls out, but the fleder have already slinked back into the church before the group can bring weapons to bear. Slapping their crossbow in frustration, Alaris glares at the tiefling flying back to the group. "Are you alright?!" they ask Ling, choking back their sharper remark.

The sudden burst of chaos sends Caio into immediate action; his borrowed silver sword is out in an instant. He is about call forth the shadowy magic in his blood to jump closer to the beasts, but as they retreat his eyes narrow in on one of the fleder. There is a brief crackle of black energy around his sword indicating the beast is marked as sacred prey. “Thanks for volunteering as bait, Ling, quite the team player you are.” he says with a wink.

The surge of noise and motion causes Shiva to re-actively release Caio, going into a combat stance as she raises her weapon. As Ling returns to the group, the panic in her voice is evident "That was a little too brash Ling, please be careful." 

Taking in the current situation, she begins walking aggressively towards the entrance of the building, a glint of murderous intent in her eyes "We've lost the element of surprise. Shall we?"

     Astrid shakes her head and bites her tongue, holding back an expletive, at Ling's attempt to gather some more information. She runs up behind the others on her short legs, all her gear rattling. "Well, like a kobold it seems, they're off hide in whateve hole they have below. I'm surprised that with all these clouds they still wanted non of the outside." She adds to Shivala's assessment, "We're going to have to take it slow."

    "By the way, hon," addressing Ling as politely as she can muster, "even though I'm not the quietest I can still give to some help next time you're wanting to go sneaking off."

Ling sharply whips the broom around as she reaches her group, circling them once to make sure no bats have followed. Her wide grin shows no care for the danger, only the joy of the thrill. "We've got the right church, yeah!" Shaking her head at Alaris, she laughs: "Of course I'm alright! And we all know I make the finest bait, Caio, you're welcome. I didn't see anything else in there, so we're good to have a go at that roof. I don't think they're exactly preparing for us, they'll just go back to sleep, they're too stupid. I'll see if I can set the roof on fire, be rrrright back." She addresses the last part to Shiva, but not without lifting her eyebrows at Astrid in a mocking gesture. As she flies off again, she shouts down: "You take it slow, shorty, with those little legs of yours! Haha!"

When all the bats have scurried back inside, Ling quietly flies up to the dilapidated roof of the old temple, cutting a piece of rope as she approaches. She lights a little flame on her finger, setting the rope on fire and then flies as close as she dares before dropping it on an exposed part of the roof's wooden framework. Backing off a little, she hovers nearby to see if it catches. Come on little fire, burn baby burn!

As the fleder scatter, Astrid utters an incantation in dwarven, prompting an angry wail from the same creature Caio focused on.

As Ling drifts up over the roof, she can see that the monstrous bats are far from peacefully going back to sleep. They storm about the underside of roof like a leathery whirlwind, battering at the rafters and screeching in fury. The burning rope flops down from the broom and smoulders briefly on the damp wood. There's a hissing sound, but the flame doesn't last long, leaving only a small scorch mark where it lies.

Nikolai was too busy staring at the building and planning his approach to notice Ling creep off. He spins with incredibly fast reflexes when she comes ripping out of the building and draws Astra furora! He pulls the trigger on the ancient Dwarven pistol and a bolt of silvery-black energy streaks out and slams into one of the pursuing fleder! Before the creature could even react to the first, a second bolt slams into the vile creature. As the beasts all flee back into the church, Nikolai looks up towards the roof. “Ling, take me up top. I have an idea. I will blast some holes into the roof and try to let me light into the building. Once we have superior positioning, we can go in.”