Rain found that they had to be careful in moving towards the Battle of Bones, the ancient battleground that Mordoc was able to draw the dead out of, since there was no telling if he had other lesser vampires watching the city for any signs of a group coming towards his lair. Allessia and the others spent a short period of time getting the last minute supplies that they would need for the journey, before they, Jherek, and Kharne slipped out of Baldur's Gate under the cover of darkness, since it was best if next to no one knew of their departure. Of course Rain knew that Jherek had told Randalla of the fact that they were leaving, but other than that even she was left in the dark as to what they were doing, just to make sure Mordoc's spies were left in the dark, so she remained quiet as she and her friends departed with their new companions. She didn't trust Kharne, not after everything he tried to pull before their encounter in the depths of the old Guild hideout, but Jherek told her that they needed his skills to find and enter the Keep of Pale Night, Mordoc's resting place, so she said nothing as he joined their group.
He was still afraid of her, that much Rain could tell with just a quick glance, no doubt wondering if she still held the same terrifying power that she had used in the past or if her skills were different after her adventurers, but she decided to focus on the journey and nothing else.
When they reached the edge of the Battle of Bones Kharne called for them to stop and set the horses outside the foul area that was where the dead refused to remain dead, especially since it was where the Orb of the Undead had come from, one or Mordoc's toys no doubt. Such a thing caused everyone to get off their horses and make sure they were placed in an area where they would be safe, or at least that was their hope right now, before gathering at the base of the valley that would, according to Kharne, bring them to the Keep of Pale Night. The area in front of them was definitely an ancient battlefield, with all sorts of siege weapons littering the area, in bits and pieces, while there were scattered caravans that had once carried weapons, armor, and all sorts of supplies to those who were fighting. In addition to that the valley had a large number of corpses resting all over the place, forces slain either by the hands of their foes or those that happened to sneak up on two weary forces, but all Rain knew was that if Mordoc awakened them it might be enough to destroy most of Baldur's Gate and the areas that surrounded it.
Once they reached the area that Kharne wanted to enter the Battle of Bones through, likely one that would allow them to get a fair distance in before being discovered, even though he hoped their enemies wouldn't find them at all, he turned for a moment and glanced at the rest of the group.
"From this point forward the lot of you will be following me... I will hear no arguments, because the quicker we get to the Keep of Pale Night the sooner we get this done." Kharne stated, where Allessia and the others readied their weapons as Jherek nodded his understanding, it was why he was here after all, to guide them to where Mordoc's domain was located, though as he said that he activated the spell that would allow him to do his job, "Rain, are you with us?"
"Do you even need to ask?" Rain replied, as she turned and hacked through a ghost knight that charged at her, the edge of her blade severing his connection to this world, but even as she did that she glanced at the path in front of them and knew that this would be one of the greatest challenges of their adventure, "There's something sinister at work... some dark force working in the shadows..."
Kharne suspected that it might be the key Guardians of the Battle of Bones, Nightwalkers, might be what Rain was feeling and that aspect terrified him to his core, because they were monsters from the Plane of Shadow, unnatural and malicious beings who delighted in corrupting mortals. It was said that they were beings of death and shadows, possessing terrible powers over darkness itself, and if that was the case it stood to reason that one of them must have created the Orb of the Undead, no doubt after Mordoc bargained with one in some manner. He had half a mind to instantly stop and ask Rain if she could track down the exact number of Nightwalkers that were residing in this place, because if there was only one in the Battle of Bones he could leave it for her to take care of, both for their mission and for later ones in case the rest of her friends were killed. The other half of him didn't want to know if she could do that, because if there were more than one, as in five or more, he was sure that they would track them down, combine their powers on the group, and take great delight in mentally destroying all of them until there was nothing left.
His thoughts were interrupted as Dorn slashed his way through a pair of spirits as Allessia purified the remains of those who fell, to keep more from springing up to fight them, leaving the others to secure the area as he regained himself and pushed forward, as he didn't want to be here any longer than absolutely necessary.
As they pushed deeper into the valley, and dealt with the undead that were guarding the outskirts, Rain glanced from one side to another every now and then as they walked, because she could tell there were several powerful energy signatures coming from all over the area they were currently passing through. There was a surge of magic as a number of skeletons rose out of the ground and attacked them, no doubt groups from different armies since she could see what appeared to be the remains of humans, dwarves, elves, orcs, and who knew what else mixed into the force. With all the undead it did make her wonder how long this place had been like this, saturated in both deathly energies and the shadow magic that Mordoc used to hide his domain, and what it would take to purify this place entirely, something that would no doubt take far too long based on her current observations. One thing that the energy signatures revealed was the fact that Mordoc had to be incredibly powerful to control so many strong beings, while at the same time maintaining his dominance over the rest of the corrupted valley, before she paused as a familiar surge of energy struck the valley's floor and she heard the sounds of a larger force starting to move.
Kharne also paused as that happened, because while he didn't have Rain's experience clashing with the orb that had been brought into the crypts beneath Baldur's Gate, rather he had seen it all wrapped up and felt very little of it's dark energy, he could tell that something bad had happened.
"What is it? What's going on?" Jherek inquired, keeping his voice low so only the adventurers and Kharne could hear him, because if Rain paused over something it had to be important, especially since there was no telling what might be lurking in the valley they were trying to sneak through without drawing too much attention to themselves.
"I suspect Nightwalkers, powerful beings of death and shadow." Kharne stated, likewise keeping his voice low as he found that the adventurers seemed surprised by his statement, though at this point he was sure that several of them were here, somewhere, causing him to glance over to Rain for a moment, "What do you think?"
"There are eight powerful signatures: seven scattered around the valley and one in the middle of everything." Rain said, where she barely noticed the expressions that Kharne and Jherek made, they were worried about the news that she was now giving them, before she turned her gaze towards the sky and felt the familiar energy that was in the air, "The seven seem to have sources of magical power that have to be Orbs of the Undead, meaning the one we crushed a lifetime ago was likely a new one crafted for Mordoc and either stolen by the Zhentarim's agent or gifted to them. Based on what I'm feeling the seven Nightwalkers likely know we're here and they are combining their power into a central point... either to raise their entire army of undead or raise something that's buried further underground. Either way, we're in danger if they complete their ritual..."
"Can you crush them and open a hole for us to slip through?" Jherek asked, because if there was anyone who might have the power to deal with one or more Nightwalkers, without being killed in the process, it was Rain Shine, especially after she and her friends took care of the Elemental Foundations.
As Rain opened her mouth to reply, however, a group of undead soldiers rushed at them and she swung her blade at all of them, slashing through them with ease as she dropped their bones to the ground, something that was followed by a quick shift to her stance as her wings pulled out of her back and her tail changed into it's draconic form.
"Wait... when could you do this?!" Kharne remarked, as this was the first time he had seen or heard of Rain taking on what appeared to be a humanoid dragon form, even though he did hear Aizagora talk about a 'False Dragon' from time to time, and it made him wonder just how much power Rain Shine actually had.
"No time, talk later!" Rain stated, though instead of going full dragon, and potentially tipping off Mordoc that something powerful was on it's way to his domain, she focused on the humanoid form as the scales finished washing over her body, because this way she could hide herself for much longer, hopefully enough to distract their foe so the others could slip in and she could join them without being discovered.
Rain wasted no time in propelling herself into the air, allowing her to catch the wind as she aligned herself with the closest Nightwalker, because if she took it down she would open the hole that Jherek wanted her to open for them, plus if she cut apart another foul orb it would weaken the ritual that was going on. In the next moment she got her first glimpse of the creatures that sent a shiver down Kharne's spine, a shadowy beast that stood at least twenty feet tall, with smooth skin all over it's body, no hair to speak of, curved horns on it's head that curved backward, and just seemed to radiate pure evil, or at least it's aura felt like that. She then discovered that there was a dark orb in the creature's right hand, an orb that was a complete match for the Orb of the Undead, where she found that the creature noticed her coming and the darkness that was around it answered it's call, surging towards her while the orb allowed it to summon a group of skeleton archers, no doubt to take her out of the air. In addition to that she felt a foul change in the air as she moved around the area, because it felt like deathly energy was being used to corrupt the area around the Nightwalker, no doubt to counter any living foes so it could reign supreme, causing her to focus on taking out the archers first.
The undead were easy to take out, since they were like what she and the others had fought so far, but once they fell Rain had to turn her focus on the Nightwalker as it called forth the power of shadows, sending out bolts and tendrils of pure darkness that she had to avoid since she felt that being hit by either attack would be a bad thing. She swung her blade at her foe and found that it was tougher than what she was expecting, which revealed another reason as to why Kharne had been terrified of the creatures, but she was fortunate that the onyx blade was her weapon, otherwise she was positive that her attacks would have done nothing. The unfortunate thing was that being touched by the creature was painful, or at least she assumed so since one of it's fingers brushed up against her leg as she backed away and it hurt more than she had expected it to, so she knew that being grabbed would be bad. As such Rain had to carefully move around the area her foe was currently standing in, slashing and hacking at it without wasting time, though when an opening showed up, and it was small, she turned her sword and cut through the orb it carried, breaking part of it's hold over the area before cutting it down.
The result of her action caused the creature to turn into dark mist, though as it started to disappear Lyran's ring glowed and all of the mist surged into it, but as she started to question it she found that the bits of the orb were absorbed as well, which made her wonder what was going on as Lyran explained that he was siphoning the safe bits of power to boost her own power, to make sure she could crush the other Nightwalkers with greater ease.
With that in mind Rain turned her focus on taking out the rest of the Nightwalkers, because the more she took down the more she wouldn't have to worry about her friends being caught, though Lyran warned that his task would no doubt burn through his own energy and, when everything was said and done, he might be a shade of his former self. Rain suspected that he understood the danger that the world was in right now, with the threat of the Onyx Tower's return, and his actions were his way to make sure she was successful, even if it burned him out to the point that he might fade into nothingness, a sacrifice that would go unnoticed by everyone. Rain, of course, wasn't about to let him kill himself and funneled some of her power into the ring to counter the strain he was putting on himself, figuring that if this was to boost her power it might offset what he was doing, causing him to tell her to focus on the remaining Nightwalkers. She did so without delay and just repeated her motions on the other ones, cutting through all of the summoned undead, dodging any attacks that might be coming at her, and slashing through both her foes and their orbs as Lyran did his thing in the background, as her focus was on stopping their ritual.
When all seven of them were slain, and she was sure of that since only Mordoc's energy remained, Rain figured out where her friends were located and flew towards them, landing right outside a large keep that had to be their destination, which caused her to brace herself for whatever was lurking inside the imposing structure.