In the room were eight men in an entryway type of room with stone-cut floors and wooden walls, unlike the tunnels the heroes skulked in. At the end of the room was a door and an archway was to another passage on the right side of the room.
The walls had brightly lit torches along the walls and on each side of 4 wooden support beams spaced out in the middle of the rooms. The walls were full of hooks and stands for weapons and armor, though with around half of them empty.
The men in the room stood at attention in heavy armor similar to the sort on the wall, katanas at their sides, and all of them seemed to be looking toward the door that Zilo was peaking through. Luckily they didn't seem to notice. The bard slunk back to his friends and motioned them back down the corridor to relay the information safely.
Maldrek held his chin and closed his eyes beginning to throw together a plan. While he did so, Zilo spoke, "We could just Fireball them. It worked for us before."
"Samurai aren't normal guards, they are highly trained, one fireball won't do the job I think." Says Cruxis, pulling from his experience with the Lidan samurai patrols. Maldrek opened his eyes for a moment and included
"Not only that, but the wooden supports would burn away, and the last thing we need is a cave in over our heads, but I think I have an idea. May, feel up for another scouting mission?"
The men in the room looked to the door, curious as to when Junpei would return from looking into the splashes he had heard earlier. As minutes passed they stood, waiting, now in their combat attire. They had accepted by now that Junpei had come across something, but they didn't want to fall into the loop of sending another man in ill-prepared.
After some moments the door seemed to swing open, but they concluded that it must have only been the wind as no one was there. They closed it again when suddenly one of them said, "Hey, what is that?" As he pointed to one of the torches in the back corner of the room. It looked to have gone out.
"It was probably that breeze. That's not important right now, what if someone busts down the door while you're worrying over a burnt-out torch." The samurai at the torch countered back. "I just replace this one 10 minutes ago though, it can't be out... Look those ones are out too!" The man pointed to one of the supports that they had been distracted away from and saw that all four torches on it had similarly been snuffed out.
"What in the-?" The room seemed to be getting much darker slowly as they all looked away from one torch to another, one by one until they all looked to the last lit torch in the room, unsure what had been going on and unable to halt the problem.
In an instant there, by the torch stood a woman no longer veiled by a spell of Invisibility, in leathers with a large scythe on her back. She smiled and held aloft a half-empty waterskin with 4 more empty ones hooked on her belt. Her eyes seemed to flash a yellow glint, a sign of the Darkvision spell. She dumped the water onto the torch and the room went entirely dark.
The shuffling of feet could be heard all throughout the room, as well as shouts being let out to the effect of "Find the woman!" And "I'll slice her in two!" The shuffling was silenced as they heard the sound of wood splintering from the entryway.
Maldrek's plan worked like a charm, and with their group able to see with their darkvision and the samurai blinded, the numbers meant nothing. Zilo began going right to work nailing one of the guards in the shoulder and his second arrow grazing the pauldron of another as silver streaks of light dazzled the guards.
Cruxis steamrolled right into the wounded samurai, planting his blade right in between the links of his armor with a stab. He then spun and bashed his shield into the samurai that Zilo had missed. May had managed to round the Samurais that were making their way over to the torch she had put out and in a snap, she flicked out her scythe and removed the head of the samurai she had been studying in the room for a Death Attack.
Maldrek was the last to act, and he flicked out his longsword which had been covered in a cluster of glowing orange Fiery Runes. The wizard pointed to one of the samurai and using his Hand of the Apprentice to stay somewhat quiet he threw his blade and it corrected in mid-air to slice at the guard and transfer the energy of the runes into a gout of fire, burning him to the ground.
While effective the other guards began to see the location of their enemies using the fire that lit up their ally. The four guards that stood made their way to each of the heroes to unleash attacks of their own. The first found May and slashed at her with an overhead cut, managing to gash her arm as she attempted to deflect that blow with her scythe.
Cruxis was much more difficult to pin down as the guard who stepped to him found out. The man had his horizontal slash halted in its tracks by the shield of the paladin. Zilo's guard found better purchase as the bard tried to deflect the attack with his buckler, but the force of the blow still found flesh in Zilo's bicep. Maldrek's guard tried to thrust right into the unarmored wizard's torso but found the Mage Armor barrier there too difficult to pierce.
Zilo threw back the slice that damaged his arm and Harmony dropped from his grip. He gripped Scherzo at his hip and the sword's magic speed lent the bard enough power to fly out and knock the guard off balance with the first swing. The second swing was a quick strike back downward at the guard's exposed legs and nailed him right in the ankle at full force. With a spin, Zilo rose up from the low blow and finished the falling guard with a stab into an exposed section of armor in his chest. He was dead before he hit the floor.
Cruxis planed to prove to his opponent that paladin strength bested samurai strength, and winded back his blade for a very telegraphed version of the samurai's failed horizontal slash. The man held his blade aloft and tense ready to halt the sword as Cruxis had with his shield. However with crushing force, Cruxis shattered the man's guard and planted his blade into the Samurai's hip, felling him in an instant.
May's opponent had gone for much more heavy armor than the rest, but to her assassin eye, she could spot one weak area. She spun her scythe about and swung forward with a maneuver to sweep his legs. The warrior saw it and hopped up to avoid it, but his counter was misjudged. May's forward foot kicked the flat of her scythe upward and forced the tip on a new course, right between the man's legs to his only area of unguarded armor. He could not stand after the attack.
Maldrek faced his opponent with wizardly indifference. He sheathed his blade and in a flash darted forward, his hand holding a rag he had retrieved from his pack. The cloth glowed a sickening green aura as Maldrek pressed the cloth to the man's chest and spoke, "Ghoul Touch!"
The man stood still, paralyzed and leaving Maldrek plenty of time to easily cut into him with his blade. The 4 of the heroes looked across the bodies and while May and Maldrek looked unperturbed, Zilo and Cruxis turned their heads in disgust. May opened her mouth to make fun of her allies when she also was forced to turn her head in sickness.
Maldrek realized the cause and undid his Ghoul Touch spell on the samurai that attacked him since the side effects cause an ungodly odor. With the effect gone, they could breathe easily again. Suddenly they heard the door at the other end of the room slam shut. The samurai that Cruxis knocked out with his shield had risen and snuck off to the doorway.
Looked like the enforced metal was gonna halt their progress into the depths of the lair.
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