Astrid stares wide-eyed as Ling bursts into laughter and lets out her own little nervous laugh. When the tiefling steps away to watch the others work on the door, she remains in leaning against the sarcophagus staring far off mumbling inaudibly, rubbing her temple with two fingers. She again briefly questions her faith in wondering why her patron brought her this one to continually test her patients. 

     The dwarf gratefully breathes in the fresher air once the group reemerges to the street level. She follows along quietly back towards the church. "It can't do anything like that as far as I know," she says when Alaris returns from scouting.

Nikolai blasts roof repeatedly, easily splintering the smaller support beams and making several large sections crash down into the church. The fleder below screech and scatter, gliding to the floor in confusion. They try to avoid the light, huddling in the shadier areas down below. From what Ling can see, there seem to be at least ten of them. He has her drop him off on one of the large, sturdy wooden beams that run across the middle of the roof, then Ling hovers back down and relays his plan to the others.

"So the three of us will shoot at them from above, Nik from the roof," she points to where he is standing, "and Shiva and I will be mobile. Then Caio, Alaris and shorty can go through the door and attack from there, use it as a choke point maybe, whatever works. Anyone have any questions? Okay, good, because I couldn't answer them anyway. Let's get slaying!" Ling hops back on, waiting for Shiva to get on the broom with her, and then flies back up and hovers over one of the larger holes in the roof, carefully surveying the area below. One of her hands holds onto the broom, the other begins gathering shadow between her fingers. "Hold on tight, this is going to be a bumpy ride - just the way you like it!" Ling laughs before diving in.

As soon as they enter the church, Ling lets go of her broom, holding on tight with her legs and pulls her hands apart to create a swirling orb of shadow. She pushes it forward and it surges towards the creatures, momentarily wrapping them in darkness. It dissipates almost immediately, but the creatures eyes remain dark and they stop moving, looking dazed. Sweet dreams, little bats.

     "Shorty" glances sideways as Ling rattles off the plan excitedly. She approaches the door with the others. Pressing her ear up to the door, the perceptive dwarf hears the laughs of the pair as they swoop in and glances over to the other two saying on the ground with her. "Are we ready do this?" she asks, trying to persuade herself. 

     Pushing open the door, she takes a couple of steps in and immediately sees the three fleder entranced in a swirling haze at the far end of the worship area.  From each side, in the shadows near the windows she sees another pair and halts her advance. The cleric turns back to Alaris and gives them a meek smile, "Maybe it'll be better if you take the lead." Grabbing the watch around her neck in one hand, she rapidly pushes the hands around the face clockwise with her thumb while holding her palm out towards the paladin. "A little something to get the jump on them."

When Ling returns to pick up Shiva, the blue tiefling eagerly throws a leg over the broom. Dismissing her blade into a miniature storm of dark clouds, she wraps her arms around Ling's midsection. "Any excuse to ride Sybaris is fine by me." She says with a zealous smile.

Ascending into the air, Shiva takes in the church from this new perspective, taking note of the position of each group member. As Ling brings them in and tells her to hold on and that the bumpy ride is just her thing, Shiva laughs heartily and summons her weapon once more.

As Ling and Shiva drift down through the roof of the temple, several things about its layout become apparent to them.

At the rear of the temple, behind the altar, sits a traditional half-domed alcove containing shrines to several gods. The alcove is twenty-five feet high, and above it a faded fresco depicting an eagle sitting atop a might oak rises another twenty-five feet to the eaves. The apex of the roof is a total of seventy-five feet off the ground, and the fresco itself is flanked by doors that open onto balconies overlooking the pews. Each balcony runs forty feet along the length of the temple and is supported by thick stone pillars, spaced every ten feet. At the far end, another door opens into the stone wall of the bell tower, which runs the height of the temple. In the centre of the tower's first floor an arch-shaped window overlooks the interior, and on the ground floor a larger archway extends all the way through the bottom of the bell tower to the temple doors. The opening is twenty feet wide and fifteen feet deep, and two smaller doors sit against the sides of the temple, leading inside the feet of the tower. These are mirrored by two other ground level doors either side of the alcove at the back of the building.

     Having cast her spell, Astrid turn back in to survey the interior of the church. "Watch out for anything that may be hiding up there," she calls to the pair on the broom while pointing up to the balconies on either side.

     Caio swiftly follows behind the dwarf, shrugging the longbow from his back and nocking an arrow. He takes up position at the edge of the entryway and draws his bow taking aim at the fleder lurking in the shadows to his right. The ranger focuses his concentration on his target looking for any weakness or opportunity that the creature may present. He holds his breath and releases the arrow, immediately readying another arrow and firing again. He looks pleased as both missiles find their mark in the upper thigh of the fleder.

Ling looks up and sees something moving inside the shadows of the tower. "There's something in there, can't say if it's fleder or something else. We'll watch out!" While focusing on the fight down in the church, she keeps the tower entrances in her peripheral vision and glances at the windows every few seconds.

Registering the presence within the tower's shadow, Shiva steadies herself on Sybaris, then takes aim at a fleder on the far side of the chapel. Pointing her blade, crackling yellow energy begins to collect at the hilt before releasing explosively a moment later. VHOOM. VHOOM. One blast slams into the floor beside the creature, while the other makes contact with it's shoulder just as two of Caio's arrows thud  into it's body.

From his vantage point above, Nikolai focuses upon the very same fleder that Shiva and Caio had targeted. He glances whispers an incantation to dark celestial entity as the swarm of dark, glowing orbs swirl out of the cracked onxy ring upon his hand and streak down towards the beast. They hover nearby, harassing and sapping so its strength as Nikolai aims with Astra furora and fires two blasts of the dark energy! Both bolts slam into the fleder and send it staggering against the forceful blasts just as the little dark motes pulse with each successful blast and siphon from it some of the fleder's life force.

The fleder seeking shelter in the shadows of the temple's lower right corner screeches and barrels through the door behind it, emerging to Astrid's right. It slashes wildly with one claw that luckily sails over the dwarf's head (the monster was, perhaps, expecting a larger opponent). However, the second swing slices beneath the protection of Astrid's breastplate, digging deep enough to draw blood.

Astrid takes 19 points of slashing damage to vigour, and 3 points of slashing damage to wounds -> 28/51 Vigour, 14/17 Wounds

On the other side of the entryway, another fleder bursts through the door near Alaris, dragging the paladin into the shadows. It pulls them towards it, straining to dig its teeth into the aasimar's warm flesh, but they force it back.

In the midst of the temple, the three fleder entranced by Ling's enchantment stand stock still in the sunlight, gazing into the swirling pattern of lights. The remaining two monsters hug the walls, deftly skittering up the sides to the balconies on the second level.

Ling's action.

Seeing how quickly the fleder scale the walls, Ling curses. "We need to make sure they don't get up here and get the drop on us!" While continuing to feed the three entranced fleder images of endless, dark skies where they roam freely, she picks out the hurt fleder and makes eye contact. Whispering to herself, she once more conjures up the picture of a desert, the sun beating down mercilessly, no shade or shelter to escape to. The fleder's eyes cloud in confusion and it shrieks, folding its wings around itself as if to try and ward off the sunlight.

Alaris Forien shivers as the thrum of divine magic flows from Astrid's holy symbol. Shivering and shaking with barely-contained energy, the paladin evades fleder fangs with ease. Flexing their back and arms, they break the monstrous grip holding them in place and use their silver glaive to flip the attacking creature onto its back. It waggles its limbs, looking to Alaris like a slow-motion turtle as it tries in vain to rise.

Seeing blood dripping from Astrid's abdomen, Alaris rushes to her and caresses her face for an instant. "Here, let me return the favor," and releases a pulse of healing power that closes off the bleeding wound.

The paladin twirls their glaive in a dazzling array and swirls around the supine fleder, then takes up a defensive stance between it and their allies.

Caio snaps his predatory focus towards the grounded fleder as it falls near him. He drops low and lets his bow fall gingerly to the ground, then rises up like a pouncing tiger with sword now in hand. The hefty blade comes swinging down once, then twice on the prone beast. While each strike earns a deep gash, the real damage comes from the crushing weight battering the fleder’s muscle and bone.

     Having not paid any attention behind her and not noticing the door to the side of the entrance, Astrid is fortunate. She is oblivious to the to the first strike that sails overhead, but then emits a sharp squeal when the claws rake across her backside beneath her breastplate, causing a spray of blood across the stones. Her pulse quickens realizing the danger she is now in. The feeling abates somewhat when the paladin delivers their healing touch. "Ouch... That's sure to leave a mark! Well, uh, thank you!"

     The dwarf staggers as she turns to face the creature standing in the doorway. Glaring at the creature, she pulls up her sleeve and reaches up into the air above her head. With a flourish of her wrist, she pulls a glowing shard as if from no where and then lunges at the creature. However, her strike is easily deflected away. Clearly shaken, she carefully steps away from her attacker, summons her spiritual weapon and focuses on the creature lying at Alaris's feet. The buzzsaw-like clockwork gears grind into the creature and the cleric stands up a little more straight, apparently pleased with her effort.

As the action below unfolds, Shiva reaches out once more, releasing two more blasts of golden energy from her blade. But this time, out of the corner of her eye, she notices Ling's figure as she leans forward on Sybaris. Having spent so much time with her, she rarely even picks up on it anymore; the way in which the curves of her body gently flow into one another. Combined with her natural charm, wit and allure, it's a wonder that anyone is able to resist her. So taken by the momentary observation is Shiva that her aim drifts ever so slightly off-mark. Yet again, the attacks fail in their purpose, with one blowing a hole through a nearby wall. The other finds its target, but the fleder is merely knocked off balance, before resuming it's attacks.

Snapping back to reality, Shiva watches on as the battle becomes more intense and becomes frustrated with herself "I don't think I'm doing much good up here. I need to get down there."

Nikolai frowns as he spots the fleder begin to climb up the walls of the citadel. He continues to harass the same beast that he hexed as he sends two more bolts of dark silver energy from his ancient dwarven pistol! The first blast impacts the fleder's hip, leaving a bruise but nothing more... but the second blast tears into the flesh of its shoulder as blood begins to ooze from the jagged hole torn into it! Nikolai wants to shout some encouragement to his companions, but feels it best not to draw any more attention to himself...

Pivoting on the balls of their feet, Alaris breaks from their swirling maneuvers and slashes at the squirming monstrosity! One strike slams the creature back down onto the flagstones of the temple entryway, where it writhes in anguish as a burst of radiant energy sears its flesh. Drawing itself away from the holy power, the fleder  manages to turn the second strike into a glancing blow. But the divine time force coursing through the paladin drives another follow-up attack! The silver blade of their glaive gashes a deep wound in the monster's shoulder - foul ichor splash up on the wall - as Alaris snaps their glaive back en garde, droplets of blood splash across their pale, flushed face!

The fleder that attacked Astrid vanishes back into the shadows of the belltower's interior, rather than pursue the dwarf into the light. On the upper level, Ling sees it emerge onto the balcony and begin to skitter further up the wall. The other two fleder on the balconies also clamber up into the rafters, one dripping dark ichor on as it goes.

Meanwhile, the creature on the ground tries desperately to stand in the face of Caio and Alaris's onslaught!

Caio and Alaris may make attacks of opportunity.

The fighting continues below, but Ling is entirely focused on two fleder that are rapidly scaling the walls. She focuses on the injured one and sends a sharp spike of pain through its skull. The creature spasms in agony and loses its hold on the rafter, falling helplessly to the floor where it hits the ground in a sickening crunch, splatting dark blood everywhere. "Another one down!" Ling woops, but the other fleder is looking at her from equal height now and another one has already clambered up to the balcony. "We need to get higher, I can't risk them dropping on Sybaris and sending us spiralling!" Quickly, she turns around and retreats up and through the roof, hovering just high enough above it that she is out of reach of any creature. 

     Astrid steps forward to enter the worship area. She notices the one in the rafters, but it's the fleder lurking in the shadows of the balcony that draws her gaze. Looking to exact some manner of payback, she shakes her fist at the creature and the bells ring in its mind. The cleric sneers with satisfaction seeing it writhe in pain. She then turns her attention to her own well-being and says a prayer to The Scribe to partially heal the wounds cause by her target and lets out a heavy breath as the slash on her backside begins to knit itself back together.