Swin pokes her head in, sees the scroll break, and looses two of her melf's minute meteors with a BA at the space directly south of Brigand 1, hoping to get him, A, and D with 9 fire damage on a failed Dex 16 save (half on success). She looses a fire bolt at Brigand 1, but misses, and then she steps 5 feet back into the hall, keeping to the south wall for cover and to let anyone else go by.

Darren strikes, and hits, though only just. The wounded brigand grins at him, clearly expecting to win this fight.

Swin, you see Brigand A move instinctively backwards, avoiding the worst of the meteor strike, but Brigands 1 and A are distracted by Darren and Balassar's approach, focusing on the humanoid threat in front and not the unexpected meteor threat behind - they take full damage.

Brigand 1 reaches into a bag at his side and pulls out another scroll, which he then reads aloud.

Balassar, you feel a strange sensation that this brigand is a close friend of yours, in fact you go way back together...

Give me a WIS save please, DC 14.

OOC:

Wisdom save 24(18+3+1)

The brigand wears an expression of furious confidence as he cast his spell, which turns to dismay as Balasaar shrugs off the effect. The brigand looks horrified as the scroll is consumed, and he speaks in an unsteady voice. "No! Have... have you abandoned me? No, I will not go like this, I will not." His anger returns and he shouts !I am still faithful! Kill them! Kill them all!!"

But there's nothing more he can do this turn.

Round Two (of this stage, at least):
Rhane and Kef
Brigands A, B, C and D
Darren and Balasaar
Brigands X and Y
Alton and Swin
Brigand 1

Rhane and Kef are up.

Rhane:

Moving into the room, Rhane draws a bead on the spellcasting brigand #1 and looses a crossbow bolt at him!

Sharpshooter Attack:  23 vs AC, Damage: 8 Piercing

(Given Darren’s aptitude for magic despite lacking proficiency in the ‘skill’, I’m curious if he recognizes what spell was cast in the heat of the battle. Arcana: 15.  Also, as a player with little time inside this game world, I’m very curious what this guy means by his statement. Perhaps we should keep him alive for questioning?)

Rhane, the man grunts as your arrow strikes his leg, but he doesn't seem deterred.

Kef will also advance, and shoot, but misses.

Brigands A and B attack Balassar. Only one attack breaches the dragonborn's impressive defences, the mace connecting with great force and doing 5 points of bludgeoning damage.

Brigands C and D attack Darren, two strikes each:
20 against AC for 6 bludgeoning damage
20 against AC for 6 bludgeoning damage (again)
17 against AC for 5 bludgeoning damage
18 against AC for 8 bludgeoning damage

Is Darren shielding or otherwise blocking any of those? He's down if he doesn't, right?

Seeing the two brigands direct their attention to him Darren quickly throws up a magical shield trying to survive the onslaught. (Brings ac to 19 until my turn. Upcasting as second level and I’m tapped on spells. And yes Darren would have been downed without the shield spell)

Sounds good.

Darren and Balassar are up.

Balassar just brings his blade down on Brigand B and then slices back up again.

OOC:
(Thanks for advantage Alton)
Attack 1 on Brigand B: 23 to Hit for 7 damage
Attack 2 on Brigand B: 19 to hit for 10 damage
Giant's Strength: 4
End Turn

Darren looks grievously injured and the fear starts to show on his face. In spite of this he presses the attack on brigand c. After making his attack he steels himself for another onslaught from the brigands.

(17 to hit w/adv, 7 slashing damage. Did the 15 arcana reveal anything about the spell the brigand tried to cast?)

Cut, and cut... Balassar does a lot of damage to the Brigand, but he's pretty robust. Darren also cuts into his brigand, but neither looks close to dropping.

(No, nothing at all.)

Brigands X and Y look uncertain for a second, glance at each other, and both advance on Alton, for a total of four attacks:
21 against AC, hits for 7 points of bludgeoning damage
22 against AC, hits for 6 points of bludgeoning damage
22 against AC, hits for 6 points of bludgeoning damage

And with that, unless Alton has something he can do, Alton is down.

If Alton is down, Brigand Y moves on and attacks Rhane:
19 against AC, hits for 5 points of bludgeoning damage.

Alton and Swin are up. Alton, if you are down, give me a Death Saving Throw.

Yep, Alton is down. Even if cutting words is used that 4th attack would still do it. That also means Faerie Fire is gone too.

Death Save: 8

Swin has no healing magic or items to speak of, so decides to repeat her magical attack, using up two more of her meteors on Brigands 1, A and D. Brigand A makes his save and takes 4 damager, the others 9 fire damage each. She then fires another firebolt at Brigand 1, hitting for another 8 fire damage. In order to do this, Swin moves into the now rather crowded room, and remains there.

Brigand 1 draws a rapier, and seems to be muttering to himself, though it's loud enough for you all to hear clearly. "This is not the end. You have not abandoned me." He makes two sharps rapier attacks on Balassar: 14 and 10 against AC, both missing.

Round Three
Rhane and Kef
Brigands A, B, C and D
Darren and Balasaar
Brigands X and Y
Alton (bleeding out) and Swin
Brigand 1

Rhane and Kef are up.

Rhane:

Pulling out his healing potion, Rhane feeds it to Alton in an attempt to keep him from succumbing to the darkness.  He then rotates around brigand Y and next to brigand X, hopefully giving them something else to think about besides his heavily-injured friend.

Healing Potion:  6 points healing.

Alton heals and wakes.

Rhane moves.

Kef shoots at the most badly-wounded Brigand... and hits. Brigand A is dead. Kef then backs up nervously.

Brigands B and C, flanking as they are, attack Balasaar: 18, 12, 18 and 10 against AC, maces thwacking against armour, ringing noisily but doing no damage.

Brigand D attacks Darren: 9 and 15 against AC, if the second blow hits, that's 6 points of bludgeoning damage.

Darren and Balasaar are up.

(I believe I still have a reaction this round and I would use arcane deflection to increase my ac to 16 avoiding both strikes)

Darren easily deflects the first blow with the second almost making contact as he barely deflects it away with magic. He continues pressing the attack against brigand c (14 to hit w/adv, 4 slashing). His eyes dart between the two brigands watching for a counter attack. 

Balassar watches as Alton goes down and lets out an almost primal roar as he screams "You all are dead!" and brings his blade down on Brigand C in order to help Darren, seeing Rhane help Alton from his peripheral.

OOC:
Attack 1 on brigand C: 26 to hit for 8 damage
Attack 2 on Brigand C: 23 to hit for 9 damage
Giant's Strength: 2
End Turn

All three attacks hit, and are enough to bring poor hapless Brigand C down.

Brigand X sees Rhane giving a healing potion to Alton, so decides his best bet is to make sure the halfling stays down. He attacks Alton while he is still prone on the ground. His first attack hits, doing 5 points of bludgeoning damage and reducing Alton to 1 hit point, but he fumbles the second attack. Alton is still conscious.

Brigand Y attacks Rhane directly: 15 against AC, and another 15, so missing on both attempts.

Alton and Swin are up.