"Wasn't worried!" 

Unlike Tsarra, Astrid deftly dodged the brick. In fact, that may inadvertently be why the brick struck Tsarra in the first place. Things suddenly are very chaotic. The fish stinks, the cultists are shouting, there's an explosion, a flying mace, a flying brick, flying icicles. How did things devolve like this?! Astrid sets her stance and takes stock of the four cultists and gets frustrated with one running away. "One of them's runnin' off!" she shouts. 

"Damn kid," the bulky man grumbles, rubbing his chest. He flexes his massive arms and charges down the hall towards her, his hands poised to just grab her. Astrid does he best to avoid this and even manages to slam her hammer into his stomach, but this man apparently has abs of steel because he immediately grabs her in a bear hug and squeezes her against his chest. She barely manages to yell in pain as the wind is crushed out of her. The man grins at the other two in the hall while the two elementalists move forward with ice and fire at the ready again. 

Little do they know the rotten fish has been slowly sliding down from the chandelier. It lands on the firey cultist's hand, instantly starts cooking in the fire she has aloft. The smell is exponentially worse. 

"EWWWWW!" She cries and flings it off.

It flies off and slaps Ronaldo on the side of the head. He slowly turns his ghoulish face towards them, pointing and groaning, "Innnnnntrrrruuuuuudeeeerrrrrsssss.....!"

"An undead, kill it with fire!" shouts the icy man who sends an icicle flying towards Tsarra and Hyl. 

"I've got nasty fish on my hand!" 

"It's gonna be me boot ta yer face!" Astrid shouts with her last breath. She's managed to get one boot loosened since the bulky man left her feet hanging free, and she kicks her boot off and konks the firey lady right in her head.

The woman is dazed by the boot to the head and stumbled back a bit, directly into the now burning side table. Her robes catch fire, causing her to panic even more, her fishy hand flailing and her waving the bottom of her cloak around trying to put out the fire, but instead fanning the flames and making it worse.

"Aah! Put me out!" she cried to the others in a panic.

"Damnit, can't you just put it out yourself!?" the lanky man stated angrily, but summoned a flurry of snow around her that began to douse the fire spreading across her robes anyways.

Hylltywyll, jumping to the side to avoid the flung icicle, is furious. First these jerks broke into his house that someone else already broke into after he broke into it, and now they threw an icicle at him and tried to skewer him! He couldn't take this anymore! If they wanted to go to the basement, then he'd be happy to oblige.

He placed a hand on the ground and let his shadow spread across the carpet and underneath the lanky ice wizard while they were busy extinguishing their fiery friend. After a moment, the shadow formed into a circle and then the floor in that area simply vanished.

"Ah!" the figure cried out as they suddenly dropped down through the floor and into the area below.

The bulky man looked to the hole where their friend had just been and cried out.

"Ah! Frosty! Where'd you go?"

The fish woman scrambles away from Ronaldo, giving him a good boot to the face as she does which just manages to put her body in the right position to avoid getting skewered by the icicle which flies past and smashes across the floor.

Getting back on her feet, she flees from the undead servant crawling across the floor just trying to do his job and runs back over to the fray with the cultists. She’d much rather get bodied by bricks and impaled by icicles than become a zombie’s next snack.

She’s just about to tackle the lanky ice man when he suddenly disappears into the magical hole in the floor. Despite this, the triton does not slow her approach.

Tsarra is not a smart person. She is an impulsive person. And when a not smart, impulsive person sees something that gives them a terrible idea they tend to not second guess their decision to act on that terrible idea. Tsarra does not think. She acts. And her act is to throw herself into the hole after the cryomancer.

As the cryomancer gets back onto their feet, they’re suddenly bludgeoned in the head with Tsarra’s boots as she lands clumsily on top of them.

“Oof!” Frosty exclaims as he’s knocked back on his ass.

Tsarra hops up. “Aha! Ye thought ye could get ta the thing before us! Think again!”

“Why you- take this!” The cryomancer flings another icicle at at her from close range.

The pirate fish woman quickly realizes that it is very dark in this hole. And she cannot see so well in the dark. The hastily formed icicle slams into her and she goes flying back into a wine barrel which breaks and spills its contents across the floor.

The adventure in the manor certainly has escalated. With the bulky man distracted, Astrid manages to wrench herself free of his grasp and falls to the floor. Then she goes right back to Ol' Reliable: The Kneecapper. She grabs her hammer and slams it into the man's knee, and he falls to the floor, howling in pain and gripping his now very broken knee. The girl rolls out of the way to avoid being crushed then pushes herself to her feet. With the man's head lower to the ground, she gives him a good solid bonk, and it's off to dreamland for him.

This of course happens just in time for her to see Tsarra diving into the fresh hole in the floor after Frosty. She'd facepalm if there weren't still two more people up here to deal with. The lady with the fire magic is now properly singed and smokey and watches the child who just put the brawn of the group to sleep. She loads up a stream of fire and lets loose. Astrid does not want to be on fire, so she decides that she'll risk losing her hammer in this moment and does her second Ol' Reliable move: Yeet. She flings her hammer right into the fiery lady's chest, which floors her immediately. The stream of fire turns up and leaves a scorchmark from the wall all the way to the ceiling. The woman heaves, barely able to breathe, and Astrid rushes over to collect her hammer.

The last standing hooded figure up here at this point has taken several steps back. This one seems to be the only other set of brains in the group, as they have no interest in fighting nor the skills the do so. They were just along for the ride to identify the artifact. "D-Don't hit me!" they beg, holding a book up in front of their face as if that'll stop the half-dwarf's fury. "I-I'm just the archaeologist. I was just supposed to pick out the a-artifact." 

"Oh, good," Astrid says, seemingly relaxing. Then she tromps over and grabs them by the collar and yanking them down to her level. "Then you'll be helpin' me too."

With the ice wizard, the huge man, and the fiery lady all dealt with and the last one a weakling, Hylltywyll doesn't have to worry about being attacked anymore. The little Fairy ran over to the smelly, slightly charred fish sticking to the side of Ronaldo's head. Hm, you know what, it looks kind of good there. He wanted to retrieve it and hide it somewhere, but maybe he could find another one. Maybe that fish lady had another one on her. This one seemed to have found the perfect place for it on its own.

Hylltywyll started running toward the hole in the ground, but noticed the fiery woman on the ground had a bit of nice jewelry on her limp wrist. He quickly ran over and pulled it off, tucking the gold and red bracelet into his fur. It was pretty and shiny and he wanted it. With his new prize, he ran back over to the hole and looked down to see wine spilling all over the ground with the ice wizard looking around blindly. It was pretty dark in there. Only a small spotlight reached down through the hole in the floor that the Fairy had created.

The ice wizard looked hurt from the sudden fall. He was limping as he looked around into the pitch black, trying to find Tsarra. He was surprised by the sound of him stepping into a puddle as he stepped in the spilled wine. Hylltywyll could see perfectly fine in the dark, but he didn't want to get hurt jumping down into the hole.

He needed something to cushion his fall. Luckily, there was a really big cushion on the ground he could use. He jumped on top of the huge, unconscious man and conjured a hole right beneath him. The man fell, right down onto his friend below with the little Fairy riding him down, laughing excitedly.

Tsarra scrambles across the wine-soaked floor. Her head finds a barrel first. 

"Ow! Salina damn the dark." She mutters and rubs her head then looks over as she hears the heavy thud of the unconscious man crumpling the frost mage all the while the little fairy cackles in delight. 

"Anyone gotta light?" The triton asks as she fumbles about in the gloom of the room. 

As if on command, a light emits from the side, illuminating the space filled with rows of wind barrels. 

"Ah, thank ye kindly." She gets to her feet and shields her eyes as she looks towards the light. 

"Frosssty! Chunk! You foolssss, letting thesse moronsss get the better of you." The snake-like individual hisses from behind the magic glowing in their hand.

Tsarra realizes this is the hooded figure who ran off earlier to find the basement. "Aha! Just 'as I planned! Ye're outnumbered! Surrender!"

The snake woman hisses. "Never. I will complete the missssion and take what we came here for."

"Take this!" Tsarra grabs a pieces of the broken barrel and throws it at the snakefolk but misses terribly, the wood clattering against the wall next to them. 

"Ha! Pathetic fissssh."

Tsarra scoffs. "Rude, ye light is in my eyes."

With two holes in the floor, Astrid has easy access to the basement. And hearing Tsarra shouting below, she figures it's not going too well for her current partner. She looks to the nerdy cultist who flinches under her gaze, then tugs him by the collar and simply jumps into the hole. He screams, she "woo-hoo"s. They land roughly on the unconscious burly man. Astrid bounces up onto her feet. The nerdy cultist crumples helplessly to the floor. Astrid looks around, her eyes shimmering gold in the darkness and spots the last threat: the snake. 

"Yer goin' down!" barely makes it out of her mouth before she's thrown her hammer right at their chest. It narrowly misses, embedding itself in the stone beside their head. The snake woman sweats a little, then sees the hammer is stuck and looks back at her, a hissy laugh bobbing her head up and down. "Slippery jerk!" she yells, charging forward and simply jumping up on the snake and hanging on him until the weight of her and her armor drags him to the ground. In their tussle, she manages to drag her hammer out of the wall, and when they're grounded, she bonks the snake on the head. Then she gets up with a huff. 

"Are there any more of ya?!" she shouts over at the cowering archaeology nerd. 

"N-No, just the f-five of us," he meekly replies.

"Good! Point us ta the artifact or whatever!"

Hylltywyll sniffs at the wine spreading across the floor and licks a little bit of it before grimacing and spitting. He hates the taste of alcohol and has pretty much zero tolerance for the stuff. Any more than the tiny taste he just had, and he'd probably be as knocked out as the guy he's using as a little island to keep his feet dry in this shallow sea of wine.

He looks around to the others walking around in their boots, splashing through the wine like it was nothing. Well, for them it probably was nothing. The little Fairy didn't have anything to protect his feet like they did. The unconscious guy was lucky his head was sideways, or he might have drowned. If he'd been face down, it wouldn't have taken much.

The only conscious cultist left is currently being threatened by the little girl, leading her through the wine and deeper into the basement to where the clue they were looking for must be hidden. Hylltywyll doesn't actually care that much for whatever it is. He was just having fun messing with them.

He looked over to the fish lady and held his little arms in the air like a child asking to be picked up.

"Carry me. I don't want to walk through the wine."

Tsarra, who is totally drenched in wine from crawling across the floor, immediately lights up in delight at Hylltywyll's demand. She rushes over and scoops him up. 

"Aaaaah! Yer so fuzzy!" She gives him skritches behind the ears. "This is officially the best day of my life. Okay, let's go find the thingy."

Tsarra spins on her heel and strides with confidence through the dark...until her knee makes unwanted contact with the corner of a crate. 

An outburst of primordial curses stream out of the triton as her eyes water from the pain radiating from her dented shin. She stumbles through the dark bumping into all manner of things as she tries to follow after Astrid and the whimpering invader. 

---

Meanwhile, the front door creaks on its hinges as a pale, graceful hand pushes it open to survey the damage within the manor's walls. 

Ronaldo is still sprawled out on the floor and hangs halfway over the hole Hylltywyll created, his head turns to look at the newest arrival as his long finger points down into the basement below. 

"Maaaaaasssssteeeeeeeer, innnnnntruuuuuuuuddddeeeeeerrrssss...."

Unimpeded by the darkness, Astrid hurries through the basement. It's a complex layout, befitting the complex manor above. The dank halls very much feel like a dungeon. Maybe it is a dungeon. She's not sure. All she knows is that the group needs to find this artifact and get the heck out of here before more zombies come after them. Should she be running away from the responsibility of having wrecked a manor? No. Is she doing that anyway even though it seems like the owner isn't a cultist after all? Well, whoever they are, they still have an undead answering their door. She's wants to leave.

Eventually, she leads them to a door down a hall that's lined with sconces and burning torches that surely must be maintained by someone. The door at the end is large and elaborate. This has the first bit of light in the whole dungeon, so it must be the place to be. Astrid releases the shirt of the frightened cultist archaeologist and fearlessly pushes the door open, completely disregarding the possibility of traps. If that's how she goes, that's how she goes. At least, that's what she's feeling like at this point. Finally, with the door pushed open, and with no traps to impede them, Astrid drags the feeble cultist into the chamber full of various scrolls and trinkets. A single shaft of light falls into the room from above.

He stumbles forward and starts glancing around for whatever seems familiar to him. Astrid taps her foot impatiently, just expecting things to go even more horribly wrong the longer they stay here. The man with glasses pipes up and hurries over to a strange looking metal object with intricate parts sitting on a pedestal. It looks like an astrolabe, with small parts made of bronze and copper. Astrid doesn't know what it is, but if this guy says it's a clue, it must be. 

"That's what we're lookin' fer? That's the Sol Stone?" she asks, pointing at it with an unimpressed face. It doesn't look like a soul nor a stone. 

"N-No, it's a compass, of sorts... It should lead us- er, you -there," he replies, quickly correcting himself. 

"Sounds good ta me," Astrid says, scooping it up. The cultist cringes at her mishandling of a delicate object. "Let's get the heck outta here!" She immediately heads for the door.

After seeing such excitement in the fish lady's eyes at the idea of holding the fuzzy Fairy, Hylltywyll thought his demand may have been a mistake. He turned around to run from Tsarra, but he could already feel her hands on either side of him, lifting him by the arm pits. She held his back against her chest with one arm across his front. It was awkward and uncomfortable, like a child holding a cat too large for them hold correctly.

"Ah! Nevermind, I'll just walk! Let me go!" he called out as she lifted him up.

He struggled, wriggling and squirming, trying to break free of this arm prison. He tried to break out of this one armed prison, but his efforts stopped when he felt a scratching behind his ear. Damnit, his one weakness! He hates that he enjoys such a sensation, but his arms and legs hung limply from the Triton's grasp as he relaxed. This was fine. He could just stay like this for a little while, that'd be okay.

He payed hardly any attention to what was going on around him as the group followed the cultist deeper into the basement, found the compass, and began their retreat from the villa.

Tsarra catches up to Astrid just as she starts rushing back towards the door. 

"Oop! Got the thing? Awesome!" She whips around and follows the eager half-dwarf while hugging Hylltywyll against her.

They follow the stairs up back to the main floor of the mansion and round a corner to the main hallway. Standing before them between the hole Hylltywyll created in the polished floor now scratched and damaged from the fight and the front door which is still left ajar is a tall pale man with long red hair trailing down his back. He is dressed in a loose fitting white shirt with billowing sleeves and high waisted trousers secured with a belt around his waist. His ruby red eyes gleam as his gaze lands on them. 

Ronaldo lifts a hand and points at them. "Innnnnnntruuuuuuuudddeeeeeeerrssssss...."

"Bless Salina." Tsarra breathes before pointing towards the hole the other invaders had created in the wall upon their loud but less obnoxious entry. "Quick! Through the hole in the wall!"

She sprints towards the hole, still carrying Hylltywyll as she makes a rapid exit and mad dash for the beach. 

Once they are clear of the mansion, she puts Hylltywyll down and catches her breath. "Woo! We got did it! Good job everyone. Side note, that red-headed cultist was super hot. Too bad we gotta get the hell outta 'ere."

At the cross hall where the battle took place, Astrid bumps into Tsarra, having not expected her to stop. The fish lady seemed to have some indication of where they needed to go, but she absolutely does not expect to see the presumed master of the villa standing in the wake of their destruction with a big sun hat looking exasperated with a trowel in one hand and a pair of shears in the other. On his arm hangs a basket of fresh clippings. Where did he come from? Outside? Did they seriously walk past him when he was in the garden?

Trying to avoid a confrontation, Astrid just shouts, "Sorry 'bout yer house! Some cultists showed up!" and bolts out the open hole in the wall after Tsarra. Nope, nope, nope. This day was too hectic for this. Speaking of cultists, she just kind of left the guy with glasses down in the basement. Whether or not he followed them out, she did not pay one ounce of attention to. If Zarius finds out about the chaos that happens here, he's going to be so upset. But then again, Astrid and Tsarra are not exactly the stealthy infiltrators that someone else might be. 

They rush out along the backside of the villa through the vineyard, beelining for the beach. "Ya should let the weird monkey thing go, Tsarra! I think he lives there!" She runs as fast as her little legs will take her back towards the front side of the manor. "If we're fast, I think we can cross the path before the water fills in! I don't want ya ta drag me past the sharks again!" At this point, Astrid doesn't care if Tsarra follows or keeps up. She is out of here for good and hopes to never return.

With their prize stolen by these three other weirdos, the group had no other choice than to just get out of there. Frosty and Snake were still unconscious, but Terry had finally come to. The huge terramancer rose up, the front of their robes completely soaked in wine. They saw through the holes in the floor, their pyromancer friend, Nani, still upstairs but also coming to. They motioned to her and called up in a hushed tone to get her attention. She noticed and lowered herself into the hole before dropping into Terry's arms. They grabbed Frosty and Snake, easily lifting the two and threw them over his shoulder.

With a whispered chant, Terry and his companions each sank into the stone floor of the basement and made their escape. The final man, the archaeologist the group had hired, stood in the basement and looked around for the others.

"Um, guys? Where'd you go? Aren't you going to take me with you!?" they called out to no one who cared.

Meanwhile, Hylltywyll sat on the ground next to Tsarra. They had seen Bellighul as the group had made their escape, but had pretended to be limp and unconscious. They wondered if the man would do anything about his apparent kidnapping. Probably not, it wasn't like they were friends. They'd probably even be happy that the Fairy was gone.

It might be fun to go on a ship for a while. Terrorize someone else for a change, and then come back to the villa, ruining Bellighul's relief! That'd be perfect. And they'd be sure to grab plenty of fish while at sea to bring back and hide places.

Hylltywyll climbed onto Tsarra's back with a grin. She seemed excited to take him with her. For now. He'd make sure she came to regret it.