The party see they must stop the fleeing cultist, incase he draws more to their location. They are trapped in a bottle neck within the tunnel, wooden crates flank the cultist facing Crom, and they need to be creative over their next maneuvers. Mornington runs towards the smaller of the two crates and one-hand cartwheels across the flank of their adversary, landing neatly on the other side and slices his coral scimitar into the cultist. Edward, less extravagantly, also vaults the crate, and finds a position to fire purple blasts at the fleeing cultist. However, neither hits and once Amarion steps up to face the cultist in front of them Crom quick steps around his opponent and chases the escaping figure.
Amarion delivers another wounding strike, and Mornington continues to maneuver until he outflanks the enemy, but each get caught by the occasional rusted hook that slips through their defenses. Crom catches the fleeing cultist and swings with his Shadow Maul, but once again, the shadowy figure slips through the weapon itself, unscathed as black smoke licks from his silhouette and the weapon's. The sun is setting and the gloominess of the ice cavern slips into a dull darkness, Amarion activates his longsword Dawn Shard to glow as bright as a lit torch, the cultist he faces slips from between him and Mornington and skulks off into the shadows. As they make chase Mornington reaches for his Lantern of Judgement and activates it sending a beam into the widening cavern down the left passage, it reveals a space littered with several crates, chests, and barrels, all dragged here to form some kind of storeroom. Focusing on their initial combatant has now plunged Crom into darkness, as he had run down the tunnel straight ahead, Crom hears the padding footsteps of the cultist as he runs around him and deeper into icy tunnels. He attempts to follow, but twists his ankle on the iced floor, slowing him in his pursuit.
Edward can clearly see the cultist with the rusted hooks, now lit by two bright light sources. Each time he attacks one of Edward's companions his scratchy voice shrieks that death has come for them all. Edward focuses, repositions to not hit an ally, and releases a volley of eldritch magic toward his target. The purple energy rips through the figure and he falls to the floor, a pile of ragged robes and wirey flesh. Amarion can hear Crom scrambling in the adjoining tunnel and runs to lend his sword, both in combat and for light. A few blows are exchanged but as the cultist keeps fleeing Amarion calls to not chase him further. If anything, they can now hold this choke point as they can now see how this storeroom cavern wraps around back to the tunnels and now they have control of the battleground.
As all is hushed, only the distant lapping sea filtering through the tunnels, they begin to look through the various storeroom supplies. They find spell components, a cauldron, a locker of pick axes and a chest of human bones, an altogether pungent scent pours forth upon opening it. There is even more evidence stacking that there is a necromancer at work here and they feel they are on the right track. They notice the bodies of the two felled cultists are decaying at a supernatural rate, a bloodless deflation to the bones beneath. Amarion and Crom stand guard in the tunnel where the cultist fled, listening for anyone returning. And indeed, someone does. They hear at least a half dozen footsteps marching, Amarion extinguishes the glow of his sword, and with his darkvision can see that the tunnel forks at the bounds of his sight. He alerts the others, Mornington and Edward find advantageous positions within the cavern and Crom withdraws his Greataxe, not wanting anymore interference of his Shadow Maul with these Shadow Cultists.
Figures approach from the left fork and Amarion tenses, but then, they all hear a sound. A deep thumping, more footsteps, larger footsteps. At the limits of his vision within the darkness, a figure rounds the corner, dwarfing the obvious outline of the cultists. Bright eyes burn within its head and the thumping gets quicker as it picks up speed, filling the corridor as it approaches the two warriors.
At the last moment before impact, Amarion flares Dawn Reach back to its bright glow, filling the tunnel with light. Hurtling towards them is a huge suit of armour, heavily rusted and beaten from the ages, it wields a spiked warhammer and a thick shield shaped like that of a crowned skull, bright magic glows in its eyes and they now face a Tarnished Dargean. An incredible force bears down on them including eight cultists that can be seen following in the tunnel behind. Amarion was quick, and flashing the light gave them enough opportunity to strike, but it fails to make a dent in the thick armoured body of this ancient creature. The skull shield barrels into them and attempts to knock them down, but they both remain strong and manage to stay upright, their feet grinding upon the ice floor.
Mornington and Edward both see the Tarnished towering over Crom and Amarion, cultists following in its wake. A tried and tested tactic springs forth in their mind, and they look each other in the eye knowingly, both move to get a view deeper into the tunnel. One after the other they conjure forth their arcane might, the secret melodies of the weave, and the bestowed powers of a devil. High pitched screeches crescendo into a series of ear shattering bangs that hurl cultists against walls, staggers the Tarnished Dargean, and makes the whole cavern rumble. Icicles jingle, snap, and fall from the ceiling, a deep crunch of cracking ice gives way to cascading debris as the tunnel buckles. Shards of ice crumble burying the rear most cultists, and the remaining are badly damaged, cut off from any line of retreat, the tunnel sealed behind them.
The next few moments are fast and brutal as a melee sprawls out into the cavern. Cultists run around the Tarnished warrior, shadow step past Amarion and Crom, and end in flanking positions, raining attacks upon them. Despite being surrounded, the Barbarian Totem Warrior, and the Paladin of the Ancients retaliate, cutting ribbons through the cultists while the Tarnished shakes off all but the most precise strikes. The party stand their ground well, and the cultist numbers begin to dwindle, one falls to an eldritch blast of energy, another to a gleaming sword. The cultists push on as one engages Mornington, and now three separate duals wage on, Crom still faced with the wall of tarnished metal.
Can they bring down the Tarnished Dargean? A creature of an old world lost, tainted by powers beyond their understanding.
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