Coin Blitz: Malefio

Pingle makes it back to Zynkar without incident.  Zynkar calls out to the cloaked figure.  The hood flips back as a pair of fluffy ears perk up underneath.  The wolf-like tail wags a moment.  "Free me!?  Bu-"  Her eyes dim and the wagging stops.  "No, the guardian in the next room holds the key.  He is very powerful.  I beg you, run.  Flee from this castle and never return."

You can hear a soft growling in the next room.

Your skeleton key looks like it'll fix the door.

You slide the key into the latch and give it a twist. The lock clicks and releases. The prisoner jumps up, her mouth open in surprise, tail wagging happily. She slides the gate open. "I don't... know where you got that key, but thank you, thank you... I'm in no condition to fight, but allow me to heal your wounds." She produces a staff and swings it over Pingle and Zyrkan while chanting softly.

The party is fully healed

"I am going to flee this place, but I can tell you refuse to retreat... IF you press on, beware. The guardian ahead is not the only threat in this place. The Demon Lord... possesses frightful regenerative power. Even if you think you've slain the monster, do not let your guard down." With that advice, she turns and bends over, taking the form of a wolf and running back towards the entrances. Well... the rumors of a priestess and a werewolf in the dungeon... weren't exactly wrong...?

The way back is clear. The only path forward leads through a small room. You hear a frustrated growling coming from the next room.

Pingle blows the door off its hinges with a beanstalk and Zynkar tackles it, using it as a shield for any potential ambushes.

"What?" a dignified voice asks of the maneuver.

Zynkar peers around the door, and Pingle through the doorway. The room's about 50ft wide, circular with a high ceiling lit by a small, lone chandelier. There's a short, muscular man with ruddy-brown, curly hair and a massive beard waiting in the center of the room. A pair of other men stand at his side. One is about the size of the apparent leader, but thin. The other is taller, but equally muscular.

They all begin to crouch, similar to the woman from before, just before she transformed. Which probably means they're about to...

Mmmm... I'll say Bastian is pretty well under it, his backup right on the edge.

Pingle creates a beanstalk under the chandelier's clamps. The guardian look up at the sound of it breaking loose. "Move!" he orders the others.

Zyrkan opens fire on the other two as they dive out of the way of the falling chandelier. They transform mid-leap, dodging some of the spray, though he can tell they've taken significant injury.

The guardian himself transforms as the chandelier falls. It lands solidly on top of him. All the candles it holds either blow out or fall and clatter to the floor, extinguishing in the shallow water. The room falls to near pitch-blackness, other than a thin beam of light coming from the dimly lit hallway to illuminate the entrance.

The sounds of the tiger and cat creeping around in the dark echo through the small chamber. They stalk around, but hold off on attacking for now. A pale red aura comes from the center of the room, where the chandelier fell. The sound of shifting metal can be heard. "Beorc mages... Even when they're small... That really hurt, you insolent little cub...!"

Zyrkan flies up and manages to find the cat and tiger, shining lights on them. The cat attacks first, and leaps right into one of Pingle's flytraps. It snaps shut and the cat seems to be dead.

Before the tiger can attack, Pingle grapples to the fallen chandelier. She feels it shift underneath her, then it gets shifted aside. She finds herself face-to-face with a red lion several times her size. He seems fairly badly injured, but more importantly he's very angry. He roars in her face and lifts a paw to smash her.

Zyrkan takes a few shots at the lion's paw.  It clearly hits and leaves a noticeable, severe injury, but the lion seems to completely ignore the damage.  He swipes at Pingle as she tries to grapple away, slamming her as the vines wrap around her target.  She's injured and knocked away by the impact, but it doesn't break her grapple.  She pulls herself away to relative safety as the lion tries to follow up with a pounce.  She notices the lion wasn't using his claws...

She summons a flytrap and it bites at the tiger.  Unlike the cat, the tiger isn't immediately slain by the attack.  It continues thrashing while Pingle's holding him, throwing her off-balance.

Zyrkan is uninjured.  Pingle is moderately injured (~60%) and grappling the tiger.  The cat is dead.  The tiger is critically injured and grappled.  The lion appears to be severely injured, but is glowing with a red aura.