Lukazio couldn't understand why there wasn't any reconnaissance. Goredal and the elves simply climbed right through a short and narrow cave entrance in the side of a rock wall.
Nothing happened, apparently the Rakshasa didn't believe in keeping watch.
Although the swirling clouds of color illuminated the skies, it was still not enough light for Lukazio, and both the elves and dwarves realized his handicap of being unable to use lower levels of light to see by.
Although Lukazio's physiology had improved, any improvement of his senses had to have been minimal. As a result, Razario had summoned a small ball of light to guide him.
Situated along a bottom of an otherwise indistinguishable rocky plateau, the group quickly climbed inside the caverns.
Calling it a cavern at this point was flatly wrong. Inside was a cramped room barely large enough for all of them. On the side of the wall nearby was another narrow black hole heading further inside.
Goredal whispered, "The Rakshasa don't come to this upper cavern often, unless they are leaving to find food, but we will still likely come across some. Their senses aren't as great as you might expect given their beast-like nature, but watch out for their spells, and their claws, they like to surprise guests."
Goredal took the point, holding two javelins in one hand in a cross shape, with a third in his left hand. He climbed through the next hole in the wall, set about a bit above the ground.
Alonzo went next with Lukazio climbing through thereafter. Lukazio took a few steps forward following the first two through narrow caverns as Sinthell and Razario took up the rear position.
The passages were usually narrow with odd outcroppings of rock at the worst positions. Alonzo rounded a corner and immediately ducked, while Lukazio stunned himself silly by walking straight into the rocks.
Goredal snicked to himself in the dark ahead, but the normally playful elves were more somber underground. They didn't take the easy opportunity to poke fun at Lukazio.
Sinthell and Razario passed him, moving into the darkness beyond the pale circle of light. Lukazio collected himself and contined on as well.
The passages eventually became wider until they came to a hall sized room that could easily fit dozens. In the dim light it was eerie and unsettling to see all the stuff lying around.
Scattered about were piles of what was essentially junk. Shards of wooden crates and barrels sat amidst mounds of clothing, linens, and rotted canvas packs. Broken glass, the odd cooking implement, and pot, encircled several old campfires, all long unlit.
Nothing of any value, as everything had long been rifled through. Lukazio kicked aside a few items but didn't see anything worthwhile.
On the far end of the hall another passage continued deeper into the caverns. The group continued in formation through the far doorway and entered a long wide passage.
At the end of the passageway, it opened onto an unlikely scene: residences and other buildings were carved from the natural rock. The scene was melancholic, lit only by the orb floating near Razario.
Lukazio walked up and looked through an open doorway to see nothing but ruins inside. "Looks like no one's home." He joked.
Sinthell and the others eyed him weirdly.
Lukazio was about to ask what was wrong, but the elves each started walking around the area in an oddly relaxed manner.
"Such a refined area so close to the Rakshasa." Razario commented idly while wandering around.
Alonzo quickly strolled toward a crumbled pillar near a recessed building with a collapsed doorway. "My dear, are you lost, or a prisoner here? Quick! We can away to your rescue!"
Razario strolled over to the pillar and shoved his way in front of Alonzo. "Don't worry, I shall personally assure your comfort during our travels back to the Groves."
Looking around to check the others' reactions, he saw Sinthell staring around languidly.
Goredal chuckled and muttered some oddly broken sounding words before he strolled over and elbowed Lukazio gently in the arm. "Play along for the moment, but the illusions are already starting. Be ready to fight." The dwarf whispered in elvish.
Goredal began inspecting his javelins. While doing so, he began saying loudly in the worst acting Lukazio thought possible, "I'd love to see what food they have here, feels very home-y. And you know I could always use a drink." He said, while strutting around brazenly.
By this point, Alonzo and Razario were nearly fighting each other to rescue the 'woman' that didn't exist.
It might've been comical, but Lukazio couldn't even see the illusion, so instead he tried something different. Peering around intently, he concentrated.
Lukazio felt his blood pumping in his chest, heard the throbbing pulse of his life force in his temples. A heat began rising in his body.
{'Focused Will' has been influenced by racial trait 'Mind Over Matter' and has temporarily affected your perception of, and influence over, your surroundings}
{Your influence has been spread to 'Alonzo', 'Sinthell', 'Razario', and 'Goredal' through 'Focused Will' which has been influenced by your racial trait, 'The Fire Inside'}
As if emerging from a dream, the others looked around with bleary-eyes. Lukazio scanned the vicinity once more and noticed something unusual.
His vision was augmented by blue and purple lines of energy. Lukazio could see fading ripples of those same colors surrounding the buildings nearby. When he looked at the group, the elves had domes of purple and blue around their heads that faded to nothingness.
Looking at the same crumbling pillar that Razario and Alonzo clung to, Lukazio could see a dense red and purple energy wrapped together inside the crumbling monument.
"Odd, its like there's something inside the stone." Lukazio said.
The elves were still recovering and couldn't appreciate his warning. However, Goredal the dwarf ranger was very bright. He immediately realized the monstrous prank being pulled upon the group.
Cackling loudly, Goredal powerfully shoved Razario, then Alonzo, away from the jagged pillar.
Roaring out loudly, he rushed forward faster than one would've guessed his short legs could carry him.before he barreled into the pillar.
The pillar rocked to one side before teetering back. Goredal caught it and his powerful arms caught the pillar in mid-momentum, and rocked it back.
The large pillar, previously one of a nondescript line of the same, in front of what may have once been a stately religious temple, fell backwards and loudly smashed into the facade of the crumbling structure.
The noise was phenomenal as parts of the building collapsed inward.
The elves had quickly moved to the other side of the intersection and had their guard up, scanning the few nearby lanes carefully for movement.
Goredal had the base of a heavy javelin set into a protruding cup on the inside of his wrist; attached to a silver bracer, he lined the pick-pointed lance up with the rocky monument now leaning half into the debris.
Lowering his arm he jumped forward and heaved upward in a underhand-throwing motion. The heavy javelin flew upward quickly before leveling out and slamming perfectly into a destroyed section.
The impact shattered the remaining stone and Goredal yelled "Gotcha!"
Immediately a roar and a blinding flash caused all to cover their eyes.
Shards of rock hit Lukazio painfully as he heard the others make similar cries.
Dust billowed around momentarily before an unnaturally fresh breeze wafted the dust away.
Near the pillar stood a humanoid figure taller than Lukazio with the head of a lion. Wearing a garment made of multicolored strips of fabric interwoven with numerous jeweled brooches and medallions.
The Rakshasa was free of the stone dust and rubble strewn around nearby and it worked its fingers quickly in an oddly hypnotic way.
Lukazio stared as its palms, facing upward toward the creature began to glow with a yellow light. As if double-jointed, the finger knuckles moved in an unnervingly natural manner, opposite of the palms.
Its clawed fingertips bent backwards, forming an inverted 'ok' symbol and piercing the backs of its hands.
It roared out, the noise also meshed with gutteral words. The light in its palms arc'ed up into streams of darkening emergy. It streamed through the loops of its fingers before forming a blood-colored fan of lighting that swelled between the two hands and then sprayed forward toward the group.
Lukazio had hesitated, but he nonetheless rushed toward the lightning. While it was against his better judgment, his instinct panned out favorably as the arc faded around him.
Goredal was closer to the Rakshasa than the elves were and he took the brunt of the magical assault. However, a similar effect as what happened to Lukazio occurred, albeit much less effectively.
Although he was zapped with several smaller bolts, he gritted his teeth and bore the attacks. Loading another javelin he launched it almost casually.
The javelin flew until it slammed into an imperceptible barrier. Shimmering into view, a cracked sphere surrounded the robed creature. An energy barrier forming an all-direction defense.
The elves, who were further away from the initial onslaught of the blood red lightning, felt the monstrous range of the Rakshasa's spell.
Suffering some burns from the attack, Razario nonetheless pushed his hands forward, suddenly forming spears of ice and rubble that flew towards the monster's shield, cracking it further.
Alonzo and Sinthell seemed to have taken the worst of the far-reaching lightning's spray as they staggered forward with their weapons at the ready.
As all this occurred, Lukazio reached the exterior of the sphere surrounding the Rakshasa. An odd smell, stingingly stringent and electric was emitted from the globe shaped shell.
Brandishing the sharpened side of the Break Soul Sword-breaker, he considered whether to close in the rest of the way and decided to go for it.
As he rushed into the globe he actually felt it touching his skin for the barest millisecond before the entire shield shattered like glass into hundreds of fading shards.
Swinging the blade overhead, he aimed his strike downward to taller creature's head. At that moment its crackling fingers finished another spell, this time a whirlwind that formed and blitzed between the human and monster.
This time the spell acted differently. The magical whirlwind that had formed in midair on a path to quickly intercept Lukazio had begun to fade, as spells had usually done before.
Instead the fading stopped as soon as the whirlwind touched down upon the cavern floor. Weakened to such an extent that the debris kicked up barely scratched him, the whirlwind really only had the effect of disturbing the aim of his swing.
Several pieces of jewelry flared brightly as his blade approached, but Lukazio's weapon didn't slow its misdirected strike. The blade tore through the Rakshasa's right shoulder, lopping the arm off completely.
A surprised yowl erupted from the creature as it backpedaled away. In garbled elvish it cried out "You dare?"
Before he could answer, or move in to attack again, a trident forcefully struck the Rakshasa in the face.
The Rakshasa, famed for the magical defenses and penetrating spells, crumpled to the ground in a pile with the haft of a trident awkwardly unsupported by its beast-face.
Alonzo then shouted out "Do you hear that high pitched noise? Something else is coming!"