Pinkie continues moving slowly south twords the lone corpse trying to stay alert of any other dangers.
"I'll bet he is right this is to good to be true........yea maybe your right also......I'll wait here for Brother B........no you can not.....I did just fine without you taking over"
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Perception
Cats' jaw drops, staring into the mists.
"Hey Pinkie, I thaut I taw a puddy tat," Cats stutters, looking into the mists for confirmation. He moves up behind Pinkie.
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Fearless looks back as even more of his companions are drawn to the mist. "Awww hells." He looks back at the door, contemplating leaving them all, though he knows he stands a better chance with them of surviving. He cups his hands around his mouth. "There is nothing there! The mist is playing tricks on your eyes."
He stays away from the mist as he places his back against the wall, muttering to himself. "Damned bunch of shiver users in here. I tell you what."
Though the weather has been as crazy as the Ward of the Wicked since the Watchmen woke in the dungeons, a sudden stillness has settled in the courtyard. The mists hang suspended, shrouding the area like a veil on a corpse.
Burning incense in hand, Brother Butterfly moves closer to the corpse. It has been gnawed on by ghouls, but the cause of death appears to be blunt force. One arm is clearly broken, the bone protruding. A leg bends the wrong way. His jaw broken, the side of his head caved in. Yet even with all of his injuries the undamaged side of his face is almost beautiful, and Brother Butterfly recognizes him from his first day in Briarstone.
You recognize the corpse as Brin, a patient from the common ward. As recognition dawns on you, another realization comes as well.
Hoof beats break the silence as a white horse with a gleaming silver horn appears from the north, bearing down on Brother Butterfly!
Then, just before impaling the rotund priest, the unicorn pulls up and rears, circling and snorting in agitation, keeping itself between Brother Butterfly and the corpse.
When the Mariner hears Brother doing unicorn calls, 'unicorn, unicorn', he moves over to Fearless, "The idiot has lost his mind. What's he doing?" Calling over to mist, "Oy! Get back get right now!"
At the sound of snorting and neighing, the Mariner throws his hand up, "Come on Brother, stop embarrassing yourself."
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Cats creeps up closer, trying to check if what he sees is what he sees.
Perception
"Psst! Pinkie! PINKIE! PSST!" Cats hisses at Pinkie. "What the piddlespot is a piddlecatting unicat doing here?!"
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Seeing that the Unicorn is there to impale him should he take steps closer, Jasper doesn't want to provoke the body protector.
So, he takes a step back and says in a soft but frustrated voice to Cats and Pinkie. Knowing that there are guards on the other side of the courtyard, so he doesn't want to yell. But his frustration level is high, barely controlled.
F@!!, F&*@, F#$#.
Brin is a Doppleganger! Back at the sanctuary, that Brin is a Doppleganger!
The real Brin is here. Dead as can be.
He moves towards where the door is/ and Mariner and Fearless should be.
Upon seeing them,
Fearless - come here. You talked with Brin on our first day here. I just found his body father south. I need you to identify him, because if he's here and dead -- then there's a doppleganger mimicing him in The Sanctuary.
If Fearless comes with BB.
Don't get too close to the body, the Unicorn seems to protect it.
Thinking to all the PC's and projecting his thoughts to the Unicorn - using the magic item - He tries talking with the Unicorn.
Please don't attack us. We just need to see if the charge that you are protecting is a kind man named Brin. Can YOU confirm that it's Brin?
"I got no catting idea. Are they suppose to be good luck though or something like that."
Pinkie motions for Cats to stop
" Maybe we should let Brother B try something before we go any further"
looking back over his shoulder Pinkie almost squeaks "You guys get up here you gotta see this"
Fearless hesitantly follows Brother Butterfly's voice as he makes air quotes with his fingers. "Unicorn...Right"
Fearless makes his way through the mist, unable to see this so called unicorn as he moves to Brin's corpse, plugging his nose. "Damn..." He whispers underneath his breath.
"Might as well get murdert all together..." the Mariner puts his left hand on the shoulder of the little fella and follows with polearm in the other.
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"Oh yeah, we should get back then...but maybe after we deal...uh, we deal with the horse with the catcone on it?" Cats waits to see what happens with the unicorn, and agrees about getting back (hopefully with food) to the Chapel to deal with Brin.
"Brother, maybe you should back away from the unicat, huh?"
Brother Butterfly backs away from the unicorn and corpse, warning his allies about trouble among the survivors. Fearless peers through the mist, seeing the unicorn, but only the vague form of a body amid the rubble.
This unicorn is the manifestation of a haunt. Such a thing is not truly a real unicorn. You do not think it will obey reason for long.
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"We need to at least confront the false Brin in the sanctuary.
So, let's as a group, return to the kitchens where Lilly is . Pile up the dead ghouls outside the door, so she can see we did some good. We then ask for some good to sneak to the Sanctuary.
With food in Fearless pack, we come back here and break the window to Dr. Losandros office and get to the Sanctuary that way.
We then swoop in and surround the Doppleganger. Forcing it to surrender or die. Remember, they like to take hostages- so don't let it escape. "
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+ 1 if haunt or undead
"We need to at least confront the false Brin in the sanctuary.
Fearless holds up his hand as he watches the mist shift and form. "Hold up Shapeshifter." He exasperates. "See. That is definitely not a unicorn. If you look closer. There and there are telltale signs of a haunt, which fits well into this friendly neighborhood asylum. " The little halfling tries to peer past. "Now are you sure that is Brin? Cause, I doubt that haunt is going to let us peer past much further and I can't tell."
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Seeing his fine plans unraveling - plus being told that the Unicorn is just the telltale manifestations of a haunt (by Fearless of all people) - Brother Butterfly throws his hands up and seems overwhelmed by everything.
Gaining his composure of voice:
You are right Fearless. Thank you. You have displayed an adroit eye and I did not pick up on the cues. I was wishing for the plain truth (haunt) to be something different (a real friggin' unicorn).
It now makes sense why the Unicorn didn't try to communicate with us. "It is a haunt" afterall.
Thinking :
I leave it to the group. Desna can blast this thing with holy light and dispel it. I also think I can use this "Blessed" wand to prepare vials of holy water for those with good aim to throw.
ADDITIONALLY, I picked up the patient files for Maura and Brin and the mute boy. I think I still have them. Do I know which God Brin worshiped from his patient file?
Or, we can dig a couple graves and I can consecrate the ground. We can then put Brin's body and the Cook's body in their own consecrated grave. That should properly bury them and dispel their restless spirits.
All of these options take time. We need to unmask the doppleganger Brin soon. My question - what do you want to do first?
Let's see a show of hands.
"Give em the light show Brother. I'll get started on the graves, don't want to be standing around out in the open for longer than we have to." the Mariner uses one of the daggers he'd picked up to grout out a shadow grave, then gathers what loose stones laying about to form markers.
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"Nah," Cats disagrees with Mariner. "Leave the dang caticorn, it ain't hurting nobody. Let's grab some food and report back. No telling what Brin is doing."
Cats don't know nothing about no haunts.
Pinkie nod in agreement with cats " I agree if it aint hurting nobody and we don't need to get around it leave it alone. We could tell the apostles about it though and maybe they will come and get the crap beat out of them if they think its important."
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Fearless points through the mist. "I have to agree with Shapeshifter on this one. I can't tell if that over there is Brin or not, without getting closer." He sweeps his arm in the direction of the body. "Could be anybody. We don't want to go back accusing the fool of being a shapeshifter and possibly killing the idiot without investigating further."
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Excellent, a tie. 2 for staying, and 2 for leaving.
Let us stay for 20 minutes and work on a shallow grave.
One of us needs to be "bait" to occupy the pseudo-unicorn - while Mariner (for his strength) and another grabs the body and tosses it into the grave. I will bless some holy waters to sanctify the grave and maybe use against the haunt - if it's still around.
With that, he pulls out the wand and takes some empty medicine vials from his partially used healer's bag. He creates water in the vials and uses a charge to "Holy Water" as many as he can with one charge.
BB stares at the results for a few moments, even putting his fingers into the vial and tasting some of the droplets.
The look on his face is all that is needed. His "holy water wand" didn't work.
Hmm, that might not be as potent as I'd like.
But he doesn't give up that easy. He takes the 4 vials and sprinkles them into the shallow grave sight. Calling blessings to Desna.
(because creating a show is part of the process) and ends it with using the Wand of Blessings on the area of the new grave.
(I used 2 charges total).
Before using the bless wand -He takes his shield and gives a bit of help in creating the grave for Brin.
He's pretty lazy, so his help is probably token at best.
******
While the Mariner digs a grave in the courtyard, Brother Butterfly pulls out Brin's patient file and reads through it.
Although he had made significant strides during his stay at Briarstone, Brin Cerznalo struggled with a fasting illness (anorexia) for years. One place he found respite from his dread of weight gain was in sleep, where he frequently dreamed of serene forests and storybook creatures, silver-voiced dryads and a unicorn
"Well you can call me a lot of things but BAIT aint gonna be one of them. Bait always dies where i am from."
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He reads the report.
Although he had made significant strides during his stay at Briarstone, Brin Cerznalo struggled with a fasting illness (anorexia) for years. One place he found respite from his dread of weight gain was in sleep, where he frequently dreamed of serene forests and storybook creatures, silver-voiced dryads and a unicorn named Charley featured prominently.
"You're assigning bait? You want to what the what?" Cats' face scrunches up as he tries to understand the logic involved here. "Why are we messing with this dang unicat at all? I trust you, Brother, when you say you saw Brin's body...ain't no doubting that, but he's dead here and now and whether he's buried now or not."
"Charly, huh? A caticorn named Charly?"
Cats waits to help but doesn't like the plan. If someone wants to volunteer to be bait, he'll help, but won't ask anyone to volunteer.
"Why the hell would a unicorn have a stupid name like Charlie?" the Mariner chides. Knowing who the most obvious bait is in this situation, he hefts his large wooden shield in his left hand and straps it in. "Let's see em try to swallow this bad meat" When Brother's burial ritual has concluded, the Mariner nods ready to deal with the haunt.
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Okay, here goes. Desna will grant you a shield to help protect you from Brin's dreams that have come alive.
he starts muttering.
Desna - protect this man- Trojan-Sheik-Ramsey!
Shield of Faith.cast at level 4. +2 deflection bonus and it lasts 4 minutes.
Brother Butterfly then waits with shield/shovel to officially "bury" Brin with dirt and a few words as an "official" rite. He is doing that as soon as the others drag the body to the shallow grave and throw the body in.
With more reverence than thought possible from the Mariner, he puts down the polearm and carefully grabs a sturdy part of Brins corpse and drags it into the grave. "Alright dear departed one, let's get you on that boat. Brother here is gonna bid you fond farewell."
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Strapping on his shield and taking up a defensive position behind it, the Mariner angles in on the body. As he closes he too recognizes the handsome features of Brin, but before he can reach the corpse the unicorn attacks.
Snorting in agitation, it kicks the ground, lowers its horn, and breaks into a galloping charge!
The horn smashes into the Mariner's shield, but the sturdy wood and Brother Butterfly's magic hold!
INITIATIVE
Unicorn
Mariner (40/40) *Shield of Faith, diseased -2 Dex, -1 Con (1 save)
Cats (24/24)
Pinkie (27/27)
Fearless (22/22) *mage armor
Brother Butterfly (26/26) *diseased -2 Dex, (1 save)
Round 1
"Charly, NO!" Cats yells at the unicat. "Don't cat him!"
Cats fires twice at the unicorn.
to hit; (PBS,-rapid)
piercing damage
to hit; (PBS,-rapid)
piercing damage
AC: 17 (dex + leather)
HP: 24/24
[ dice]1d20+6[/dice] to hit;
[ dice]1d6+2+2d6[/dice] damage.
Mini Smite: 0/1: Once per day as a swift action, you can add your Charisma bonus to your attack rolls and deal 1 additional point of damage for each class level you have against evil creatures for 1 round. You must have a good alignment to take this trait.
The Mariner continues his grip on the corpse while keeping his shield on guard. Backing away as fast as he can to the grave.
Pinkie moves in jabing his sword at the creature
Fearless is a bit startled as the 'haunticorn' rams into the Mariner. "Don't know if this will work but I will give it a try." he draws his crossbow and fires a bolt into the unicorn hoping to distract it and but the Mariner some more time.
HP 22/22
AC 18
Spells 1st 1/3
Inspiration 1/3
Tactician 0/1
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Well, the process isn't what I intended, but I need to make certain the end results are the same.
He takes the needed steps to get within range, and lets loose with a ring of pure positive energy - intending to dispel the Haunt.
Desna - Break down the barrier that keeps Brin from getting the rest and peace of a proper burial.
The Mariner grabs Brin's corpse and turns to take it to the grave. The unicorn thrusts with its horn, getting past his shield and badly injuring his arm.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Watchmen assault the manifestation of Brin's haunt. An arrow from Cats Pericles its side and Brother Butterfly's divine energy saps its undead strength.
Pinkie misses with Red Destiny, but Fearless sends a bolt across the unicorn's nose, distracting it for a moment.
The unicorn continues thrusting its horn at the Mariner, but fails to get past his defenses twice.
INITIATIVE
Unicorn (-10)
Mariner (28/40) *Shield of Faith, diseased -2 Dex, -1 Con (1 save)
Cats (24/24)
Pinkie (27/27)
Fearless (22/22) *mage armor
Brother Butterfly (26/26) *diseased -2 Dex, (1 save)
Pinkie continues jabbing at the horselike creature while trying to slip around it.
Round 2
Cats fires twice again at the unicorn.
to hit; (PBS,-rapid)
piercing damage
to hit; (PBS,-rapid)
piercing damage
AC: 17 (dex + leather)
HP: 24/24
[ dice]1d20+6[/dice] to hit;
[ dice]1d6+2+2d6[/dice] damage.
Mini Smite: 0/1: Once per day as a swift action, you can add your Charisma bonus to your attack rolls and deal 1 additional point of damage for each class level you have against evil creatures for 1 round. You must have a good alignment to take this trait.
The Mariner takes a step for momentum and give the corpse a heave into the grave spot behind Brother.
Fearless wings another bolt in the haunt's direction, skimming the ground as the Mariner drags the body further.
HP 22/22
AC 22
Spells 1st 1/3
Inspiration 1/3
Tactician 0/1
The Mariner trudges past the unicorn, deflecting another blow as he makes for the grave and unceremoniously heaves Brin's corpse inside.
Pinkie and Cats stab and shoot the haunted beast again, and it stumbles, badly injured. Fearless firs another shot near its feet that puts it badly off balance.
Bloody froth dripping from its mouth, the unicorn leaps after the Mariner, leaving itself open to another attack from Pinkie.
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Seeing the body placed into the grave, but also noticing that the unicorn is staggering and almost incapacitated (is that even possible for a haunt?) Brother Butterfly chooses to concentrate on the important objective, to give Brin's body a proper burial and to put his soul to rest.
projecting his Preacher voice of calm and authority.
Though you have walked through the Valley of Drow, Duargar, and Ropers, you no longer need to fear The Evil. Shed the darkness of the underdwellers, and instead see the radiance of the the majestic butterfly.For at this time, your soul can Ascend. These past three years, you dreamed of Unicorns and fairies, now - if you follow the spiritual butterfly - they will lead you to PEACE. Go now Brin, to see and visit those silver voiced dryads in the paradise Forest of REST.
All the while, he takes the prepared shield full of burial dirt and dumps it onto Brin's body. He gets on his knees and takes a big push of the mound of unearthed dirt and starts the landslide.
Pinkie slices at the creature as it leaps at Mariner.
Brother Butterfly begins a hasty burial rite.
The unicorn makes one last leap to protect his creator, but Pinkie thrusts Red Destiny into its side as it passes him, piercing its heart. It crashes to the ground near the grave.
"Good job. You all killed the majestic unicorn." Fearless taps Brother Butterfly on the shoulder. "Don't forget to take the ring off his finger. It ain't no good to the dead."
Fearless then kneels down, turning the corpses head to try and determine if this is in fact Brin.
Fearless checks the body and finds that it is indeed Brin.
"Well damn, it is him. We should head back and take care of the imposter before it is too late. Hells, he may have already killed Winter and the others." Fearless suggests.
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Finishing the burial rite in proper fashion, Brother Butterfly he begins a Gregorian chant in a deep baritone voice.
"Chrome-i-um, Bar-i-um, Einstein-i-um,
"
While repeating this chant, he moves into the grave and plucks the ring from Brins skinny finger and tosses it to Fearless.
All the while keeping the chant going and even managing to do it in "cascade" (by himself!). It is an amazing performance of inflected voice.
He keeps adding dirt and chanting until the burial is complete.
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Cats helps and grunts and digs and lugs and is quiet when Butterfly requests it to pray appropriately. He is attentive and makes efforts to be pious for the poor Brin who just loved horses with daggers through their skulls unicorns.
When that is done, he will return with the others to confront Brin.
He won't make a big deal of looking for Brin when he gets back, but of checking things out and acting casually at first. Not trying to tip the shapechanger to anything.