The Delesian Incident IV: Stretch Out Thy Spear

After Ketero opened the door to the south the party found a storage room turned into a prison, and a woman in chains begged Ketero for help. As the party entered to and Milon found some members of his village and was saddned to learn that some had already been taken away as sacrifice by the cultists. Near the double doors Iason and Simaratos listened carefully to the chaotic sound of pipes attempting to tease at what the magic floating on the notes represented but Simaratos could make neither heads nor tails of the foreign mode. Iason tittered nervously, "Foul invocation. Power. Be wary wary wary. They grow stronger as they feast on the flesh of man. The music binds that strength to them."

When Ketero failed to unshackle the prisoners and Krastor and Milon failed to break them free. The prisoners told them there would be time for that once the caliban priest was dealt with and if they failed to succeed then it would not matter. Milon strode through the door his countenance lustrous but stormy. As Iason tittered to him to break the pipe player's fingers as quickly as possible. The sight of the chamber was grotesque: satyrs and women—priestesses of Bira ravaged by time and satyrs, and minds clouded with wine and enthrallment, copulating in filth with blood and viscera on their faces and naked, sweating bodies; on the altar were fragments of what had once been Milon's neighbors, arms, feet and torsos of different sizes and complexions; the statue of Bira once radiating vestal beauty was now draped with innards and her head had been knocked off and left on the floor several feet away. A ram's skull now stared into the room from her neck.

Keira keened at the sight of her befouled aunts and loosed arrows into the room hitting a degenerate man. Ketero followed suit. Milon rushed into the room and wrestled the pipes away from the player, the music stopping drawing all eyes in the room to the intruders; a mad priestess leapt upon him with unnatural strength. Krastor waded into the fight by Milon's side and Iason muttered words to befuddle the woman gripping at Milon and attempting to tear out his throat. They struggled on like this Ketero and Kaira firing from the door, Kitaros and Milon stabbing and wrestling and in turn being stabbed and wrestled by more enemies than they could fend off. Simaratos began to play a tune, but a satyr, larger than the rest and bearing a great staff adorned with blood and the testicles of a ram strode in and pointed his staff at Simaratos, who fell to the floor and writhed in agony a prettily as one might possibly do so.

The caliban priest's entranced turned the tide of battle against the party with Milon and Krastor taking multiple blows. Keira took out a knife to attack degenerate men as they approached her and Ketero in the door. Kitaros fell, incapacitated in his battle with three enemies. When he recovered from the priest's magic, Simaratos grinned maliciously as he began playing a harvest song of Ikatrus at harvest; "cut after cut the grass falls until the work is done" he sang out in his best Heldentenor. As Kiera and Ketero took on degenerate men, and Milon's fortune in battle began to turn, even Krastor in his incapacitated state was protected by the hand of Ator against a flurry of blows meant to kill, but the enemy was persistent and he died a hero.