Shatter Bombs and Barbecue Harpy

Once Dhaz went down, subtlety stopped being useful.

Ash opened the warehouse door and found construction materials, barrels, corners, and enemies hiding behind the shape of the room. Maine pushed in after him, warning the others that Dhaz needed help. Nick followed the sound of danger. Jonah moved toward the doorway with healing and a weapon of faith ready to keep the fight from becoming another body on the floor.

The warehouse defenders were not one kind of threat.

Harpy-like singers clawed from above and around corners. Young bomb-throwers used shatter bombs that burst with thunder, disorienting Maine and tearing through clustered bodies with a magnetic pull against metal parts. A larger horned harpy with a skull belt slept on barrels until Maine's magic woke her badly.

Nick answered one harpy with Scorching Ray, turning the birdlike attacker into smoke, fire, and a smell the party immediately regretted naming. Ash knocked out a young bomb-thrower instead of killing her, even after she had thrown explosives at the group. Maine hexed the horned harpy and hammered her with Eldritch Blast hard enough to slam her into the wall.

The horned harpy screamed.

For a moment, charm tried to take the room again. Then the fight broke back into bodies, claws, bombs, and desperate triage. Jonah kept Dhaz alive, stabilized enemies with Spare the Dying when he could, and tried to keep the party's moral line from vanishing just because the room had become chaos.

Ash reached the horned harpy in a burst of movement and punished her with fists, tentacle, and a brutal falling strike from the barrels. She survived long enough to drop him in return, then vanished upward into the rafters.

The warehouse was not only a hideout.

It was a lair with music, explosives, children used as fighters, and something larger still hiding above them.