As Sora moves into the cave and the party follows inside, at first you see nothing special beyond a normal cave. That illusion is quickly shattered when suddenly a glyph on the side of the stone wall begins to glow right next to where Sora is standing. There is a bright flash of sickly green light as dark energies reach out to try to take Sora's life force. However she manages to brace herself quickly and resists the effects of whatever spell was placed on the glyph.

It seems none of you were affected by whatever that trap was intended to do, nonetheless everyone in the group can hear a pair of grim, deathly voices as their laughter floats through the air within the darkness of cavern before you.

Witt recasts his light spell onto an arrow and shoots it off into the darkness of the cavern towards the voices.  

Attack: 7 Damage: 5  (Not quite sure how this should work; he's aiming towards the voices, so disadvantage because he can't see them.  But he's not really trying to hit them, just illuminate them...)

Witt's arrow flies through the darkness before coming to an abrupt stop as it hits a piece of stone wall just jutting out in its way roughly 60 feet out from where the group is standing. Already you can tell this cave has a couple crevices heading in several directions. It also opens up significantly once you get past the entrance. 

Once again the party hears more dark creepy laughter blow in their direction, it seems to be coming from multiple directions within the cave.

Sora took a deep breath at first as she tried not to let the annoying laughter get to her. That trap felt downright nasty, she had no idea what it was supposed to do, or if it had even accomplished anything, but was concerning to say the least. She nods gratefully back to Witt for the extra light and begins exploring more of the cave past the entrance carefully, looking out for more traps, especially magical ones.

Perception - 8

Kal shakes his head vigorously at Whitt, "No, no, we need to move with silence." He then taps Sora on the shoulder and continues to whisper, "I can see in this darkness, if you need my eyes." The elf stays close to Sora's side, as close as he can in tight quarters. He draws his scimitars but waits to connect them as he is unsure he would be able to wield a two handed weapon in this cave without a little more space.

Perception: 23

Stealth: 9

The group moves forward exploring the cave. Witt's light combined with darkvision of several members allow everyone to get a much better sense of the space around them. Ahead of the group they catch sight of a section of the cave covered with water as it pools at the far end of this space. To the south is another crevice where the stone shifts colors some more. While to the north you find a 15' wide archway leading the way to tunnels of worked stone. You can't see too far part this archway to see what the carefully carved spaces beyond are really like, but some of you just manage to catch the space splitting off in two directions just part that point.

Oh, Witt says to Kal.  Sorry.  He waits a moment and then lets his Light spell fade.  I'm not really good at being stealthy.  I mean, I'm not very noisy, it's just that I don't try to be quiet very often.  Am I talking too much?  Okay, I'm going to back up a little and let you all do your investigations.  He backs up towards the back of the party group.

"I wouldn't worry about Witt, I'm sure they already know we're here after we set off that last trap." Sora assures the halfling as best she can before turning to give Kal and grateful nod, "I appreciate the help then, the more sets of eyes keeping a look out for more of those traps the better."

She then continues walking, carefully as ever, past the archway they discovered into the constructed area of this cave, as that seems the most likely place where their target might be.

Kal turns and smiles at Whitt, "You have a lot of energy. I'm sure it is hard to contain." He turns back to Sora quietly, "And I'm not so sure they know we are here, but I suppose it is more wise to act as if they do know instead of falling into some trap." Kal keeps close to Sora as they continue to explore further. He uses his relatively keen senses to keep an eye out for other traps or just identifying markers on the walls.

Perception: 5

As you all move forward and investigate you find the worked stone opens up to a larger room that seems to split off to the east and west. 

The creepy laughter only seems to grow in volume as you move forward, and you begin to hear a dark voice whisper in the darkness.

"Come, fresh meat, let me suck out the very light of your existence."

9 follows at rear end and listens carefully to the noises in the cavern, also attempting to catch smell of anything unusual.

Perception: 14+ 4

9 - There is something about the darkness of this cave that does not feel natural to you. Even the smell seems wrong to you, you're not sure but you feel there is something evil in the darkness. Soon your scarred eye begins to throb once again, as if to confirm your suspicions. You feel that you're getting closer.

Jolly good, calls Witt loudly into the darkness.  Tell us where you are, and we'll come and say hello.  And probably kill you if you're evil, which it sounds like you might be.  Oh, he says and turns to the others, no longer shouting.  Should I ask them where Linthe is?

"Not to worry little creature, I'm here. It should be interesting to hear what you have to say for yourselves. Though I'm afraid you'll be the ones to be killed this night." a voice dripping with malice calls out in response to Witt. 

9 steps forward in a faster pace, levelling with Sora. “We are in the right place. I can feel it. Something nasty is upfront.”

Does the voice sound familiar to 9?

9 - It's safe to assume the second voice belongs to Linthe, you don't recognize any other voices

Kal quickly steps forward and makes a gesture of putting his weapons away, "Wait! We spoke with your assassin and we have proof of your involvement on the princess's life. So this can go one of two ways. We can take you in and you can deal with whatever that brutish goliath might have in store...Or we can fulfill the contract for you at a slightly more substantial price, of course. However, there are more of us than your one meager assassin so rest assured the job will actually be completed ." The Eladrin makes his way a little bit from the group and relaxes his posture, "So what will it be?"

He gives a sideways look to 9 and Sora as if to say 'Trust me...' knowing they probably have no reason to do so but hoping they will go out on a limb. Also knowing Whitt is probably not going to pick up on his subtle gesture in the darkness.

Subtly Cast Message to Whitt:

Deception for the above: 14

"That was hardly My assassin." Linthe's voice calls out from the darkness, her voice filled with disdain, disgust, and hatred, "That was all the fool Hakon's doing. I'll give the moron some credit it was a bold move, but one brought about by hubris, not any care or thought. Unlike that idiot I don't need some third rate assassin to kill my targets. I'm more then capable of doing so myself. Just like I did with that mongrel half-elf woman who dared to be queen. Well, no matter, you've all made a mess of things but it's painfully simple to get everything back on track. All nobles and royals care about is their own wealth and power. It will be a trivial matter to coerce those that remain to do as I please. I'll just need to remove the troublesome half-breeds that dare lay claim to the throne. Along with you annoying gnats. And for that I've received the services of something far more effective and reliable than any meager human cutthroat."

In response to her words the nearby shadows reach out and suddenly slash at Kal's back from behind. As you look to see what creature attacked, you can only barely make out the shape of some demonic looking creature made from the very shadows themselves. Large black wings of darkness fill the space around it as it reaches out with inhuman, elongated limbs at the end of which his hands control long thick claws. Everything below the creature's torso doesn't seem to exist as it simply melds into the surrounding shadow. It's terrifying demonic visage, complete with long black horns, give the entire party a wide, evil grin of satisfaction and eagerness. 

It gives everyone a low sinister laugh before it slinks into the shadows once more before disappearing from sight.

Kal'Duros is attacked by this shadow creature:
Attack: 25 Damage: 26 Psychic Damage

Combat Start

Initiatives:
9 - 9
Kal'Duros - 21
Nemeia - 15
Sora - 19
Witt - 24

(( This time around the enemies rolled REALLY well for their initiative, including another nat 20. Technically Witt would go first, but the bad guys would end up going before everyone else, so I'll post their actions first. ))

From the shadows the demonic creature appears again, trying to hit Kal once again from a different angle. After it's attack it moves away trying to disappear into the darkness once more.

Attack on Kal'Duros: 24 Damage: 16 psychic

Kal - You will get an opportunity attack on it this time as it moves away.

Taking advantage of the commotion, Linthe appears from around the far corner of the nearby hallway, calling forth terrible energies as a dark necrotic spectral hand emerges from her own. It races across the battle field and at the last moment it splits in two, one hand grabs at Sora while the other grabs 9, each of them trying to destroy a bit of their life in its terrible grip. After the attack is completed, she moves back behind the wall to get out of sight from any retaliation.

Attack on Sora: 19 Damage: 6 necrotic

Attack on 9: 10 Damage: 2 necrotic

Witt is initially confused by Kal's message.  No, I don't think... Woah!  he gasps at the power of the blow against Kal, and he calls out:  Are you okay?  

Reluctant to get too near, he casts Spiritual Weapon, summoning forth a massive silver scythe that attempts to slice into the creature next to Kal:

Attack: 26 Damage: 7

And then he tries to shoot at it with an arrow:

Attack: 11 Damage: 9