How does the showdown go?

Verbally? Not so bad

"Imp! Explain!" Amara strides into the arena angrily, waving her huge mace.

"Explain what? I'm not the one barging into your house, not to mention right after I helped your group out in the aftermath of your little stunt against the dragon last week." You smirk as you remember her suicide charge during your last adventure.

"What have you done with this poor adventurer? We found her calling for help in your dungeon. She's nude and she says you've been taking advantage of her. And given that she helped you last time we attacked, wasn't she supposed to be your ally? Some friend you are." Zalreanne trots in surrounded by the rest of the adventurers, smirking and covered in basic cloth armour. Even the bard is back, somehow, leaving five of you facing seven of them—disarmed sorceress excluded.

"Hmm? Oh, she invaded my dungeon quite some time ago and repeatedly killed my champions and I until I was **** to grant her a very lopsided contract largely authored by her. She also **** my companions to do all manner of unseemly things. Naturally when given the opportunity to seal her magic and lock her up I took it. I have no intention of letting her go and going through the whole song and dance again, after all. You'd do the same in my position." Your four champions nod in agreement.

"Well, I wouldn't put it quite like that." The ex-sorceress' smarmy tone is back, although with the occasional waver in it this time.

"Be that as it may, imp, that doesn't justify the other things you've done to her." Amara is crouched into a battle-ready posture, only barely restraining herself from charging.

"I'm not quite sure what you're implying. Didn't she tell you that everything else other than her imprisonment and losing her magic was completely voluntary?" The adventurers look surprised at this.

"Well I never!" Zalreanne looks shocked at your accusation. "Why would I ever do such degrading things?"

"Erm, she's actually lying." The nervous cleric's voice pipes up. Several surprised adventurers, Zalreanne included, look his way. "I cast a detect truth spell." He shrugs. "I figured the imp would try to trick us." Despite his pronouncement, he looks just as surprised as his companions.

"Well, erm, you see, it may have technically been voluntary, but, erm, I wouldn't say that I would've agreed to those terms if I weren't, uh, yeah." Initiative lost, the once-witch mumbles half of her retort before trailing off.

"Are you sure, Sam? Why would she ever do that?" Amara looks at you, one eyebrow cocked.

"Well, that's between her and me. But anyways, can we move on to more important matters? As I was saying, I do believe you've invaded my home." You put your hand on your hip and give the barbarian a stern look.

"Fair enough. I don't care that much about some lying slut. Let's just move on." Her party lines up beside her, except for Celestina who moves off to the side.

"Um, hey, do you mind if I sit this one out?" The rest of her group shrugs in response, knowing that she has a fairly close relationship with Ari.

"Excuse me, lying slut?" Zalreanne doesn't look ready to move on just yet.

"Well, what else do you call someone who struts around naked and deepthroats her enemy for no reason?" Selena the invoker joins in.

"I had my reasons! He wouldn't have ever considered releasing me otherwise!" The sorceress fidgets, blushing dark red as the conversation goes a very different direction than she expected.

"And what was so important that you whored yourself out despite apparently not even wanting to? Although hey, if you're offering," Kiedan the bard smirks and gives her a lecherous glance.

"You know, you could've just made a new character. If someone spawncamped me for a month I'd probably lock them up forever too," Selena nods.

"Look, if you absolutely must know, our deal involved me gaining the powers of necromancy, and he'd never agree to that again even if I made a new character and out-levelled him. I worked so hard for this and it's my only chance to get it back!" You let out a wicked grin at her pronouncement. The adventurers, meanwhile, look at her with disdain.

"Okay, if everyone agrees with me here, can we please move on to the situation at hand? Say, how would you folks like to work out a deal?" You clap your hands and rub them together. "We got along well enough last time, and I wouldn't mind having some adventurers other than just Celestina I could trust to work with from time to time."

"Laddie, tha nae be an awful idea, but we're here for tha loot, an' we already spent a small fortune bringin' tha fool bard back to tha fight. What say we discuss this o'er a stiff mug o' ale, but after we knock some items out o' you and tha lasses." Grungil cocks his crossbow as he speaks.

"I suppose I can work with that. Celestina, could you please take the witch out of the combat area and prevent her from doing anything stupid?" She nods and walks over, grabbing the furious ex-sorceress by the wrist and tugging.

"Come on, we'll sort out your situation later." She speaks gently to the ivory-haired beauty, who meekly accepts being led out of the line of fire despite her anger.

"Say, I notice you still outnumber my companions and I. What say you be good sports and have one more person step aside?" You don't really expect anything, but hey, it doesn't hurt to ask.

"Hah! Count yerself lucky tha' tha lass was so kind, laddie. Now, ta arms!" Grungil launches an electric bolt at you, and as you dodge out of the way the room explodes into a cacophany of magic and steel. Tlax and Sera charge forward, swords and whip in hand, while you retreat alongside Ari and Mariel behind a low wall formed by several weapon racks. Across the room, Selena the invoker channels a glowing silver shield around the cleric and bard, who chant and play respectively. Tlax barely stands her ground as she blocks a powerful swing of Amara's mace with her two scimitars, and meanwhile Tashila the paladin nimbly sidesteps Sera's lashing whip while their swords clash.

You launch a fireball at Grungil, alongside enchanted arrows from your two ranged champions, and the stocky dwarf is engulfed in a collage of fire, frost, and sickly green daemonic energy. When the smoke clears he's badly wounded, but soon after he glows with a peaceful golden light from the cleric's spell and the burns and cuts fade from his body. Tlax is slowly getting pushed back by the barbarian's relentless strikes, while Seramiel and Tashila circle around each other in a remarkably evenly-matched duel.

You wait until the paladin's back is to your group, then channel a huge wall of flame directly across the invoker's shield. She yelps in pain and her shield flickers. In the instant where it's down, Sera's whip lashes out, yanking the bard towards her as his flesh sizzles, leaving long, black stripes where it struck. Your two archers unleash a barrage of frost and evil arrows, and Sera switches her swings to the exposed musician, accepting a few hits from the paladin in the process. The cleric rapidly casts spell after spell, but can only barely keep up with the necrotic energies left by Sera's strikes, and soon the bard falls.

With the inspiring music gone, Tlax starts to slowly push the barbarian back towards her group, while Sera returns to her duel with the paladin. She now as a slight advantage, hitting slightly more often than she's hit in return, but her movements slow as the wounds she took earlier start to take their toll. With a snap of your fingers the paladin and archer start to glow with a golden light, the faerie fire helping your group's hits find purchase. The next time the paladin's back is to your group, Ari unleashes a streak of green energy at the holy warrior's back, but at the same time a crackling bolt of lightning from the dwarf strikes Sera's back. The paladin goes flying backwards as the angel collapses to her knees, and she's **** to uncork and quaff a healing potion. The paladin groans and leans against the back wall, healing her own wounds with her glowing hands as she tries to keep steady.

"RAAAH!" The barbarian comes careening across the room, charging the downed angel. Tlax charges behind her, but realizing she's significantly outmatched for speed breaks off and makes for Grungil instead. Sera whips at the barbarian's legs. Although Flame Tongue wraps around a muscular leg, leaving a smoking black welt as it does, her subsequent yank does nothing to halt the barbarian's momentum or hold her off balance. She holds her sword high and Amara brings her mace down on it, knocking Sera to her knees from the sheer **** of the impact.

The ceiling above the dwarf rips apart as you begin to summon a pillar of flame, and your two companions fire arrow after arrow into the invoker's shield to keep her and the cleric distracted. An acid arrow from the dwarf grazes your cheek, leaving a stinging groove, but the subsequent pillar of fire knocks him on his stomach, his skin covered in scorch marks. The invoker drops her shield to allow the cleric to run over, hands glowing with a particularly powerful healing spell, but the gorgon arrives and slashes at him, forcing him to let the spell dissipate and hold up his warhammer to defend himself. The invoker begins channelling a huge ball of frost from a deep blue gem, and you launch one more fireball at the downed archer before a veritable avalanche of ice flies your way. You duck as it flies overhead, but then feel yourself chilled to the bone as frigid winds and piercing shards of ice barrage your back. Your two companions look relatively unharmed, Ari having drawn Frostfang at the last second, but you wince and down your sole healing potion, not even fully restoring your wounds. Selena smirks and sticks out her tongue at the sight. "What's the matter, imp? Can't take a little cold air?" She's **** to raise her shield again as several frost arrows bombard her in response.

Ari, all thoughts of archery forgotten, charges towards the barbarian with Frostfang in hand. The paladin has joined her ecclesiastic companion in the fight against Tlax, one scimitar parrying each of their weapons, as the dwarf gets to his feet and launches another acid arrow your way. The snake woman's hair writhes above her head, and you notice that her braids have transformed into snapping snakes, the adventurers shuddering as they try to hold her back.

"What's the matter, babe, invested all of your stat points in Appearance?" The barbarian laughs as she hammers again and again on Sera's sword, the latter looking completely exhausted and barely even striking back. Ari raises her sword and stabs from behind, and Sera goes flying with a sickening crunch just before Frostfang cuts a deep gash in the barbarian's back. "YAAAAAH, bitch, I'll show you for that!" She spins around, Ari flying several feet back from another powerful swing. Seramiel smashes against a wall and crumples to the floor, so you launch another fireball at the invoker and archer before charging to your downed champion.

"Sam!" You glance over your shoulder as you yell to see the cleric's body vanishing from a well-placed frost arrow, and Tlax now pushes back Tashila as she's able to focus her attention on a single target. You reach your destination and grab a healing potion from Sera's belt, uncorking it and bringing it to her lips. You've just **** her mouth open when a lightning arrow strikes her stomach then bounces to you, your body convulsing from the shock. As you regain feeling in your limbs, the angel has vanished and the potion lies smashed on the floor.

Letting out an angry roar, you turn and start channelling yet another roiling tower of flame above the dwarf. Your mana reserves are utterly drained by the subsequent inferno, and you grab a mana potion from your belt.

"Sorry imp, end of the line!" You look up to see a huge lump of metal swinging directly at your face. How did she— The world goes black.