A parallel story of the Bandit attack on Peltarch

[Gonnar]

By the time they noticed the disruption in the leylines by the menhirs, it was already almost too late.
It was just beacuse of luck, perhaps, that the new cerulean recruit Sernn, who was out by the Giantspires, felt a small disturbance in the weave near the menhirs and decided to report it to impress his superiors. When the report reached the higher ups, it seemed to catch the attention of Enenan Snydders, who decided to head there and conduct his own separate and private investigation on it.
It didn't take him long, skilled as he is, to figure out that something was really off with the menhirs. The magic flowing through them felt corrupted, and of extraplanar properties. Something was forcing a portal there, and by the feel of the magic, Snydders could tell that it was coming straight from Hell.
Without doubting even for a heartbeat, Snydders got up his horse and rode to Peltarch as fast as possible, trying to concentrate on the way to cast a sending message to Shannon D'Arnau.
It was a short, clear, message. "Portals from hell, Giantspires. We'll need -real- help", to which Shannon immediatly answered with a curt "Noted. On it".
Shannon put his hands on his temples, sighing, mentally reviving the Sending Spell message in his head one more time. Anything from Hell is bad news, always, but the fact that Snydders emphazised that they were going to need help was actually the most troubling part of it all. If someone as capable as Snydders deliberately didn't just request his help, but made a point out of him needing to get more help... But there was no time to even worry about the possible situations. In his head resonated only one name to request help from in a situation like this. It had been a very long time since they had last fought side to side, but he was sure she'd attend the call. If not for Peltarch itself, for its people. And if not for its people... for the challenge. He shook his head at that last thought, even almost chuckled at it, all while he was reaching over at the shelf for that Sending scroll. 
"No time to explain. Hell portals, Giantspires, need help".
No answer. It could very well be she wasn't in the material plane afterall and that the spell never reached her. But Shannon, once again, didn't make much thought of it, and dutifully began to equip his full plate and mentally consider which blessings would be the best to be asking Torm in this occasion.
Once he was finished with his equipment, he went down the stairs and stopped briefly by the statue of Torm, offering him a quiet prayer.
He could feel his gods power channeling inside of him. That made him feel calmer, more than he usualy was.
He crossed the Temple's door, the sun strongly shinning on a clear sky. "What a nice day for a battle" he thought to himself.

"Shannon, it's been a long while" a feminine voice said in a casual manner.
"Sir Shannon" said another voice, this one in a more formal tone.

Sitting on a nearby bench with their back facing the temple's door, two figures seemed to stand out from the rest of the people that daily transitate the district. A middle-aged woman, with a circlet on her head, and a good looking man with a perfect and charming moustache. Both holding each a magic staff whicht they used to help themselves stand up at the same time before turning towards Shannon.

Shannon wasn't surprised, but even if it was almost impossible to notice, he was somewhat relieved. "María, Salin. Thank you for coming" He said, and begun to march without hesitation towards the commerce district, where they were meant to meet Snydders.

"We came as fast as possible, pwrepawred” María answered, walking behind Shannon helping herself with her staff while she and Salin looked at each other briefly, nodding.
As they arrived to the city hall’s entrance, Snydders was already on his horse and ready to leave. Snydders looked at the trio and nodded towards Shannon briefly. “Wise choice” He said, before motioning them to follow. The four reached the outer walls while Snydders explained what his suspicions were, and without further planning moved towards the Beach, where the closest Menhirs were located. They didn’t talk much on the way there, each of them focused on their own thoughts and mental preparations. As they were getting close however, María broke the silence. “If we fail hewre, it’ll get wreally bad, is that cowrrect?” she asked, casting a few defensive incantations on herself as they walked. No one answered for a few seconds, then Salin remarked “we can’t fail”, and Shannon added “You’re right, and that’s why we won’t”.

When they were approaching the menhir’s location, they could already spot the first cultists gathering around the now open portal and the first creatures coming out from it.
“Should we…?” asked Salin, rubbing his moustache.
María shook her head. “No” she said, bluntly, and Snydders added right away. “These will be their scout-ish units and basic force, and we must hope that the rest of adventurers and defenders will be able to deal with it.. what we’re going to have to fight here will go beyond that, way beyond that…”

From their position, they were able to see the devils get out from the portals, group up with a few cultists, and head off towards the lands of Peltarch. Osyluths, Barbazus, Kytons. Their numbers were certainly worrying, but they had to stick to the plan, was the only way to do it. Then there was a pause- A tall man in full plate approached the Menhirs and started chanting, some of the nearby cultists turned around and seemed to be cheering in the general direction of the portal. Salin looked at the others, they all looked at each other and nodded. They begun to cast some shorter lasting incantantions on themselves, such as shield spells, Snydders provided a mindblank to cover everyone, and María spared an improved invisibility and stoneskin on Shannon. He sighed “This means I’m the frontline, doesn’t it”, to which María merely responded with a silent grin.

The fight started pretty quickly after that. The all approached under the effects of invisibility spells and a mass haste, courtesy of Snydders. Shannon called forth Torm’s divine favour upon him, and focused on attacking the summoning cultist first. Had it not been for protections the cultist had on him, he would certainly have died quickly, but it was absorbing a good part of the damage. The cultist was smiling even if he got interrupted mid ways, and gave a challenging look at Shannon before swinging back at him agressively with his morningstar. The cultist Leader was hastly assisted by some other cultists that raised their swords and surrounded Shannon in an attempt to collapse on him. Shannon was, however, expecting this already, and had planned beforehand. While fending off the cultits with his shield he casted a spell. The skys turned dark, and in nothing but an instant acid rain and electric bolts were falling from the sky covering a large area. Most cultists hit by the spell, were stunned and their skins severly burnt, only half a dozen of their best fighters who had approached and the Leader were able to keep fighting with Shannon.
Snydders, on his part, had casted a spell of confusion amongst the other cultists that were grouped up, who started to kill themselves and even attack nearby devils, he then instantly also casted a mass blindness spells, in hopes to contribute to the ongoing chaos amongst the cultists ranks, and trying to reposition himself with an invisibility spell.
Salin remained invisible for the time being, trying to analyze the portal to understand it and learn how to possibly get it closed.

María was just swinging her sword at the cultists surrounding Shannon from the flank, landing only a few hits here and there, her sword Molyviel easily cutting through them if it impacted however. One of the cultists was annoyed by this, and turned around to attack at her. He never stood a chance, however, and he only realized too late when a shadow emerged from behind Maria and clawed his neck apart within seconds. It was no other than Kitty, María’s most trusted friend, her familiar.

Far from being over, the fight had just started. More cultists seemed to be gathering from past the hills and some devils were still showing up from the portal. At this point, it was no longer the weaker type, but Cornugons and Gelugons. They killed one, two, three, four… and they kept coming. The portal played in the heroes benefit on this regard, since if they were fast enough killing the devils, they could never become a too large group. The devils must’ve noticed this and tried to put an end to this unfavourable situation and now chanting and channeling could be heard coming from the other side of the portal.
The ground started to tremble, the portal seemed to enlarge forcefully, the air became dense and a feeling of corruption and evil impregnated the air. Shannon glanced back at the portal briefly. “I’ll keep these busy” he said, shortly before cutting off a Cornugon’s head and lunging forward to a small group of devils that were trying to get María while she fended them off with her sword swining it in a defensive manner. Shannon extended his arms, shield and sword in hand, and tackled at three of them, taking them with him to the floor, away from María. "You're up" He said mid jump, grunting.
“Thanks!” she answered, while quickly strapping the sword on her back and moving into position. It had only been a minute, but that was enough time for the huge creature to almost be out entirely. She looked for the invisible Salin and nodded at him when their gazes met. She received a nod in response, too.

Before her, a huge creature emerged wrapped in flames, a load roar audible by anyone by the beach area and more, the creature’s eyes were inyected in hatred. Just its meere presence was menacing, and anyone, even the less knowledgable adventurers, would’ve quickly known what is what they had in front of them. A pit fiend.
María, still hasted by Snydders spell, moved her hands in a trained manner while murmuring the spell words. One right after the other. A swarm of raw and pure magic force directed itself at high speed towards the Pit fiend. Normally, such a spell against a foe like a Pit Fiend, would have considerable chances of being absorbed by the unnatural resistance to spell from these creatures of the hell. However, this had already been taken into account by the group, and right before the missiles of raw force landed, the pit fiend was suddenly hit by a spellbreach that lowered his resistances. It appeared to have come from nowehere, but as soon as the breach spell impacted, Salin became visible, rubbing his moustache with a sly smile on his face. It was too late for the Pit Fiend to realize that he had been baited. The barrage of raw magic missiles from the two consecutive spells hit the devil without mercy, piercing through its skin deeper and deeper with each missile that hit it...until it was pulverized.

One of the big ones was down, but certainly not over yet.

The battle continued for a prolonged period of time. Each of them knew exactly what their role was in this, and had each others back constantly. Shannon, as the only actual priest and capable frontliner, had two important roles. The first one was to offer emergency healing, or curing drains, and the second one, more important than the first perhaps, was to keep their best meleers away from María and Snydders.
Salin’s job was to stay invisible and keep an eye on the battlefield while studying the portal, in order to do timely spells such as keep Shannon hasted, counterspell cultist and devil’s attempts of dispeling, and breaching any major devils that would come forth through the portal.
María herself, had two roles as well, but one was to be dropped immediatly regardless of the situation, if the second role was needed. The first one was to offer Shannon support with her greatsword and kitty, flanking and picking on the smaller fries to thin numbers. The important role, however, was to position herself in a clear spot to be able to deal with the major devils such as the Pit Fiend with haste, before they could become an actual threat. This was a limited thing for her, though, there was only a finite number of spells she would be able to cast.
And Snydders, on his part, was in charge of keeping the chaos going for cultists and devils for as long as possible. Not only this caused inner figths between them, but also cut some slack for Shannon who didn’t have to deal with them all at the same time if they were fighting amongst them, blinded, or feared.

The battle lasted hours, thousands of gold was spent on healing, restorations and rare potions and consumables. There was at least 3 times in which one of them was very short from getting killed, but they are not known legends for nothing, and even if it was one of the hardest situations they ever had found themslves in, they still managed to keep going.
Eventually, Salin figured out the portal, and in a joint effort of the 4 spellcasters, they managed to dispel and desactivate it for good. When this happened, the few remaining cultists and low tier devils scattered in a hurry, some towards Peltarch and some into random directions, just trying to save their lives.
Shannon, Salin, Snydders and María stood there, catching their breath, silently, observing the battlefield. Of course, the devil’s bodies were nowhere to be seen, but it was still a sight to see the grass soaked red from the blood of the cultits and so many many corpses scattered throughout the battlefield. Even a part of the hill had collapsed to a powerful meteorswarm spell from Snydders.
They looked at each other, without a word, and nodded before starting to slowly walk their way back to Peltarch, where they hoped things would’ve been held under controll...