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For the purposes/burden of Time Zones and RL, we've halved this effort into two scenes, which is totally plausible, as there will be a lot going on.
You know from your intel that there are two obvious ways to get in: 1) the main entrance to the burrow, or 2) the vent shafts that have been built in that pump oxygen into the ceremonial antechamber, where the hostages, all 40+ of them, are currently being held.
Team One has gone in through the vent shafts.
Investigation has revealed a lot about what the Rat Hosts are capable of, specifically the weakness of their Discorporate ability in the face of fire.
This scene is taking place at night, so take vision into consideration; there will be very few natural light sources, and the Rat Hosts are fine with the dark. That also means that many of them will not be at the Burrow; they'll be out, collecting resources, hunting, and executing the will of their Alpha/Minister.
Your task is daunting. While the stealth extraction team makes sure that the PC hostages escape their cells unharmed, you need to take away the rest of the Rat Hosts' ammo, which, in this case.... is human beings. From intel, you know there are approximately 40 of them spread across a dozen cells. If you have any q's ask now!))
A highway riddled with graffiti tags, dilapidated buildings taken back by natural growth, mountains of trash where people have been dumping illegally, and the hiss as noxious fumes leak through cracked pavement, secreting those long-burning, poison fumes into the air.
Centralia is a real-live (real-dead?) ghost town. Population: zero, down from five at the last census, a city on top of a giant burning clot of tar-like coal, smothered underground, the fires raging, still, after half a century. What kind of creatures would make this place their home? That had been answered.
Dandelion's phone had been found near the Odd Fellows Cemetery, a sad little collection of tombstones that went, more oft than not, without visitors, and about halfway between that cemetery the constructed ventilation shafts, is the entrance to the burrow, just as the exploratory investigation and scrying had revealed.
Occasionally, in view, one of the loathsome Hosts came, or went, difficult to make out in the dim light.
"Are we all ready?" Amity asks as she checks the heavily padded jacket she's wearing, yet again. "I should be able to get us inside to the tunnel we talked about easily enough. Hopefully all the other spells we're using are enough to keep anyone from noticing us while we go about our business."
Harmony nods, her sword strapped to her back. Thanks to Hearth, she's less worried about that drawing eyes her way. Her own spells are weaved and ready and she sticks close to both Amity and her cadremate. "They should be. In. I'll have everyone fall asleep, you'll hit the doors Hearth? And then we can simply teleport everyone out?" She taps her sword. "I'm ready in case we get noticed as well."
"I'll get the doors," Hearth agreed grimly. "I was going to prep something for them in advance but without seeing them first it could have all been wasted. So I'll work on the fly."
"Will it make a big difference for you? How much prep time do you need?" Maddy asks, holding back her urge to rush ahead to actually take a bit more time for planning. "I can give you a view of the cages if you need one. I've been able to Scry the area before."
Mary steps to the front of the group as they discuss, paying attention to the area as she listens.
"It's the difference between doing it as a ritual or doing it quickly. It'll be fine. We're not going to hang out down here for hours while I chant or whatever."
"Okay." Maddy nods and holds her hands out. "It's easier to move us all if we're touching," she says. "Ready to rock?" She's usually fairly upbeat and... Acanthus... but the current situation has her a lot more grim than her usual.
"Agreed. Not a place I'd want to linger." She smiles without humour. "So will be good to get everyone out to stop that being a thing." She does bounce slightly on her feet though, highlighting the unearthly grace she's currently moving with. "Ready. Take us on in."
She nodded. She held her own sword unsheathed in one hand and laid her other in Maddy's hand.
The casting takes them to a dead-ended outcropping of a tunnel just off the main floor of the chamber, with a clear view straight to the cells. Approximately a half dozen Beshilu linger around, but it's clear that none of them is particularly charged with guarding the hostages, perhaps considering them expendable, easy to replace, and low-value except for their capacity to fill the Soul Jars.
Only a few moments after Teleporting, the Beshilu in the chamber begin to unexpectedly stir. The flicker of a bright green Nimbus comes from the vent; Team One, no doubt. But it causes the Beshilu to begin to bolt from the chamber, sending two of them right towards the tunnel where Team One is now hidden.
Maddy does her best to stay out of the way of the incoming Beshilu, since they shouldn't be able to see her anyway, and moves toward the chamber with all of the cages in it. She doesn't say anything to the others, since she doesn't want to do anything that might draw attention even with the magic.
There are strange jars, glass and completely non-uniform, that line the walls alongside the prison grill doors, which are not quite bars, but grates, each hole only barely large enough to fit a finger through. In the midst of the scurrying, the sound of one of the doors faintly creaking open and then back closed again can be heard; again, likely Team One. Shuffling sounds come from the main burrow entrance.
The Beshilu, for their part, have vacated the chamber floor, at least for now.
Mary ducks back with eerie grace herself, sliding past the scurrying rats and heading after Maddy herself. She looks around, measuring the steel doors and focusing. Time for those within to sleep, to ensure their rescue happens without dissonance. She casts away from the Beshihlu, of course.
There's hardly a sound when the hostages (except Dandelion and Calamity) are lulled to sleep. A few soft thumps as some who had been standing crumple, yes. And the bars themselves evaporate, vanishing and leaving only a gaseous mist in the shape of those doors behind. For reasons unknown, a handful are able to resist, and don't fall asleep, though they are dazed, sleepy, considerably pushed in that direction, but consciousness doesn't quite come to a close...
But then something else happens. Another Nimbus flash from the one un-affected cell, and the Soul Jars start to crack, wobble, splintering into glass fragments and a hiss rises up from them.
That hiss keeps hissing. And hissing. And hissing. Far from a gas leak, it sounds like a voice. And then it screams.
A voice punches through the air like a scream and the sound of Beshilu hurrying back to the main chamber can be heard.
Amity moves out to the center of the room and pulls out a silver coin as she does. She flips the coin into the air as she starts forming the imago for her spell in her mind, catches it, and slaps it on the back of a hand. As she's checking the result, the captives who are sleeping all disappear with a faint shift in the pressure of the room, as air suddenly fills the space they vacated.
The air was so heavy, ugh, and breathing: like pulling cotton through a straw. It weighed on them, on all of them, Team One, Team Two, those few souls still awake in their cells, drifting in and out of consciousness, even their sleepiness not enough to keep the hairs on the back of their neck from raising.
With nothing more than a tiny pop, the vast majority of the hostages disappear, deposited harmlessly into the overgrown grass of the Odd Fellows Cemetery, and almost at the very same moment, that heaviness dissipates, wilts away. While still putrid, the air does seem much easier to breathe.
The earth inside the Burrow is starting to shift. Whatever entity that cast that Ban is aware that its trap has been sprung.
In Twilight, Vermin spirits dart along the perimeter of the wall, and motes of Essence rise up through the air. The Gauntlet is so, so thin here. It practically bleeds Essence into the air. There's no indication of an Iris, at least not in this chamber, but Spirit Mages can feel one nearby pulsing now, like a wound.
"Good work so far," Amity says as she starts to look around and then remembers she can already see everything. "Does anyone have an idea for what to do with the couple of Sleepers who are still awake?" She and the other mages are hopefully still beneath the notice of anyone coming into the chamber. "Everyone but that one," Amity points to the one who is definitely a Sleeper, "are some sort of non-Sleeper. That one seems to be a Sleepwalker, and that one is kind of but not really Changeling." She keeps pointing. "If you can put them all to sleep somehow, I can get us all out, but if you can't, I can fairly safely remove most of them."
"I can, I think." Mary nods, chanting softly, this spell stronger. She releases it with a flick of her wrist, waiting.
"I can also make them effectively sleepwalkers, temporarily if necessary," Hearth said unhappily. "Not ideal, but neither is leaving them here."
That's all it takes. The Willful Five fall asleep, and in just enough time, because Beshilu are starting to stream back into chamber. They've not noticed Team Two, but as the chamber fills, there's not much time before not being seen won't be enough to avoid being detected. The Beshilu are inspecting the shattered Soul Jars and screeching.
"If we have to get them out, we have to get them out," Amity says with a shake of her head. "I'd rather leave a mess for the Guardians to clean up later," this comes with a smile at Hearth, "than let them die." Mary gets them all to sleep, though, and she says, "right, well, here we go." With another coinflip and an effort of will the last 5 vanish.
"Do we want to do anything else while we're here, or get ourselves out to safety?"
"I'd love to tan the hide of some these things." Mary hums. "but that's not why we're here. I'm ready when you both are."
"Me too," Hearth agreed with Amity, smiling wryly. "And no, no beshilu rugs at home. Gross. Let's get out of here, we've done our part."
Drawn by the screaming, screeching, by the commotion, the Tunneler Beshilu have started to plow towards the chamber, shuddering the earth, opening up a fresh tunnel in the slabs of granite and rock only a couple yards from the team. It rattles the ground so hard that the shards of the Soul Jars clink and tinkle, a strange high note amidst all the bass of the rumbling. It's enough to throw someone off their feet, and it almost does, but not quite.
But a tremendous, warped Host, gravel-skinned and with a twisted black maw like a void, lined with jagged edges, steps out of the newly ripped-open tunnel. It roars, practically on top of them all, separated from them by no more than just a couple of feet. If it moves, if it takes a step forward, it will be touching Hearth. That roar is ear-splitting, quakes the brain inside the skull, jiggles organs, and is just too much for ear drums, this close.
This time Amity doesn't wait for everyone to be holding hands before she moves the trio of mages back outside. It's worth the extra expenditure to make sure nothing goes wrong in the meantime. She clasps her lunargent coin in a clenched fist, forms her will, and applies it, bending the space between the trio and the outside world and then snapping it back, leaving them all standing in the cemetery amid almost 50 unconscious captives.
Then she reaches up to bap herself on the side of the head like she's trying to get her ears working. Yawns. Shakes it. "Damn, that was close."
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