We should probably at least try to get some more information. So, I'll try talking. If that fails, initiative it is. Note that if the undead try to do anything to anybody I'm attacking immediately.
If you'll allow me a swift action out of initiative without starting combat I'd declare smite on the leader. If not, talk first tgen smite :-)
"Let us talk like civilized people. I am Sir Haldern. Perhaps you would tell us your name and your mission? "
He frowns, and lowers his dagger. His figure remains rippling back and forth, a flurry of defensive magics. "...very well."
"I am a civilized man... though one pushed so very close to the brink. Understand, then; I have no desire to harm my recruits, yet I will if you attempt subterfuge or arrange yourself against me."
"I am Eldran Tesh; once... once, lord of Talamir, pride of Taldor. I seek a gem containing the tormented souls of the people of my poor, destroyed, long-forgotten city. A gem held by the monstrous dragon Horranath, thrice curse her fetid spirit."
He gestures. "And... with the spirits of my fallen loyal citizens supporting me... I will accomplish this task. Through these methods, by these means, no matter how perverse."
"You cannot help me other than by leaving me to my work. If you seek the return of these lives? Fine, we can bargain a fair number in return for your departure."
"Subterfuge is not one of my strengths :-)
Perhaps I could offer a different bargain, if my comrades agree to it. You free the ones that you have enslaved and enslave no more. In turn, we would go and recover your gem.
We'd need to know a lot more to agree to such a bargain. But, in principle, if we can iron out the details, would that be acceptable to you?"
Kenjakana carefully studies Eldran Tesh's words.
He shakes his head firmly. "The dragon is strong... stronger still, fattened by the powers of the gem. Only through sacrifice, through the strength of those she has destroyed, will she be brought down."
"Help me in the attempt, if you wish; guard the townspeople from the worst of her fire when she returns. But I will not give up my all of my soldiers."
Kenja detects sincerity.
"I cannot allow these people to be turned into undead, even if the cause may be a just one. If you do not free the ones that you have already enslaved, I have little choice but to kill you and hope that frees them. If nothing else, it will ensure that you enslave no others. I'd like to find another path but at the moment you're leaving me little choice"
Kenjakana nods at Sir Haldern's remarks. Sensing no other way for things to play out, she quickly casts Greater Invisibility on herself and then tries to hide her presence.
Eldran nods thoughtfully, then raises a hand and points it at one of the standing women. A pulse of necromantic power grows above his palm. "Do you then know your choice, Sir Haldern? To let the few die, and then to see more die when the dragon returns? To see the souls of my people continue their torment 'till eternity? For as surely as my soul is damned, I swear I will take these mortal lives before me with me if you stop me now."
Not quite. I'd like to make one more desperate attempt since he has just threatened the hostages. But if it fails just roll initiative
"You claim to be be anything other than evil yet you threaten innocent hostages? If we indeed have no choice but to fight, and I still hope that we can find some compromise, at least let us just fight each other and NOT innocents. If your threat is meant to dissuade me it won't, because a clean death for them is better than undeath. So, let these people go for now. If you win, you can doubtless gather them together quickly. If we win, you have lost nothing and done a little good to weigh against your sins.
Or lets move this battle outside. You have my word to not try anything untoward while we relocate"
I'm pretty sure the above will fail, but in case it has a chance:
To be clear - Haldern is utterly sincere. He believes death is better than undeath, he'd LIKE to come to some deal, etc
"...In exchange for letting these people go, we could always slay the dragon for you. Sometimes, an exceptionally powerful strike force works just as well as a strong army. Sir Haldern has dropped powerful demons with one smite, and the rest of us have similar awesome feats to our name."
To Kenjaka.
"My strength is ordained and supplied by the spirits of my passed, loyal townspeople. No other will suffice in saving them."
To Haldern,
He glares balefully into your eyes. "Oh, Sir Haldern; I will never claim to be other than evil. I will and would willingly walk down paths darker than this to save my people."
He waives a second hand to point at another mind-fogged innocent. "Is your resolve so great, Paladin, that you can withstand a passed life?" He waits for Haldern's gaze to flicker; when it does not, he growls a curse and lowers a hand. "Damnations of Erebus..."
He gestures his bloodless to attack.
Kenjakana nods at Sir Haldern's remarks. Sensing no other way for things to play out, she quickly casts Greater Invisibility on herself and then tries to hide her presence as she slowly flies closer to better aim her spells.
Bladud’s features harden once more as his patron takes over. He slams the butt of his polearm on the ground thrice, each crash resounding supernaturally loud in time with a shouted word. ’NOW. WE. FIGHT!”
Then, with surprising speed, he rushes across the room, eyes focused on the opponent as he closes.
Staring down Eldran with a smirk, Damien raises a free hand. "All your fine words; I see through to the truth. You're just another fraud, a villain, binding souls to perform your work." He mutters an arcane syllable. "Watch now as I bind your trapped spirits to me, and let them go."
Taking a breath, Damien utters a long chant of arcane syllables, a vein pounding in his forehead as he finally finishes. With a sudden intake of breath from nothing at all, the spirits barrel across the room to surround him. "There... now, to... to free the..." whispering another syllable, the spirits hover a moment, some slightly drifting up to a sudden light in the ceiling. Then, with a terrible, wet and meaty sound, they bind themselves to Damien's form tightly like an undead suit, covering him utterly. He tries to team them off in vain, before with a terrible scream, falls to the ground, every bone and muscle in his body compressed to forcibly occupy a space half their kind.
The spirits waft over to their master, who lets out a loud and terrible laugh.
High in the ceiling, hiding amid the chandeliers, beady rat-eyes see their opportunity.
A small grey shadow jumps fast and far to flank the creature.
"Abadar won't forgive your transgressions!"
A small short sword tries to cut the back of one of the enemy's knees.
The assassin's blade digs deep into Eldran's knee; but spirits warn him, allowing him to dodge the worst of the damage.
Letting out a scowl, the possessed lord steps back and charges a fingertip with dark power.
Sorry, I'm not completely sure which icons represent who right now.
I believe that I was in a position to charge the creature that I charged, AND that the one I charged is one of the poor trapped undead. If both of those are true, I declare a smite on it and charge it
for
177 pts damage
Haldern's holy lance descends upon one of the bloodless, bright golden light running it through. Blood and bone are ripped away to reveal lines of spectral energy which waver and dissipate as the creature collapses to the ground, dead.
The remaining two bloodless spring into action. One charges Bladud.
The second moves, and raising its hand, casts two spells in quick succession, aimed at Haldern's mount.
Ganorok, noticing the enemy ability to avoid flanking, tries a new approach. He moves to an side, but then jumps to the other, trying to confuse it so he can take advantage of a lapse in its defense, moving 5' trying to keep behind it, while trying to set up the flank with Bladud, unconsciously. He knows the flank don't work, but his habits are deeply ingrained, so he keeps moving as if preparing for one.
Ganorok shimmies to the left and right, trying to put Eldran off-guard. He almost succeeds, but the man's undead nature leaves him unmoved by the attempt.
Jensal gets my Charisma bonus to saves as I'm mounting him right now. He also has Spell Resistance of 26
+4 vs enchantments, +6 since he is being ridden
Jensal : "Squaaaarrrrrrkkkkkk"
Haldern translates : "He says that your foul magic is no match for one sent by Ioemedae herself to do good in this world"
Damien! Kenjakana mentally cries in horror.
Fury burning in her eyes, the little sorceress glares at the man who murdered her friend and begins to summon something absolutely big to smash his face in. However, she nonetheless takes precaution, moves forward to make herself harder to locate, and hides in the shadows as best as she can under pressure.
The half-orc steps away from the unliving to remain focused on Ganorok.
"YOUR MAGIC IS A FLIMSY SHIELD!” he thunders as he reaches out with hand and will to strip the opponent's magics away, ”YOUR WEAKNESS WILL BE LAID BARE!”
Bladud's strikes trips away Eldran's protective blinking effect as he howls a curse.
Focusing a further scowl on Ganorok, makes a quick gesture and re-summons his blinking protection; then he fires two dark necrotic blasts at the ratty rogue.
Could you please identify which icons are which?
I think that Eldran is the dude with a little bit of red just to the left of where Haldern is. But I'm not sure if both the ones I've identified as 1? and 2? on the map are more bloodless.
At any rate, Haldern charges Eldran. Hope I chose the right one :-).
As always, declare a smite first
for
171 pts if that hits
Charging forth, Haldern again slams into his enemy with the force of heaven itself. The foul undead barely withstands the blow. For the first time, fear shows in his eyes. "No... no... you will not stop me from saving my people!"
The two bloodless work to protect their master. One launches two spells at Bladud.
The other steps back and flings two necrotic blasts at Ganorok.
Bladud shrugs off both affects, the second one only barely. Then—seeing their new mysterious ally on the ground—the warrior steps over and blasts him with positive energy.
"FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED, TINY WARRIOR!" he booms encouragingly to Ganorok.
As her summon materializes, Kenjakana carefully flies closer to the action. Once safely tucked in the Greater Earth Elemental's massive shadow, the Sage Sorceress quickly conjures a holy array of celestial chains. They immediately lash out at Eldran, intent on binding him.
The Greater Earth Elemental takes a second to get his barrings. Bestowed with the knowledge of his summoner's enemies by nature of the calling spell and seeing Eldran as the weakest link among the remaining threats, he quickly takes advantage of the situation by bring his massive earthly fists down on the fallen man.
The nimble Eldran dodges the chains and the elemental's blows; he seems prepared to flee.
Ganorok takes a Tanglefoot bag from his Handy Haversack, without standing up.
"Oh no! You are not going anywhere!"
He splash it at the feet of Eldran, trying to entangle him or at least slow him down.
"What?" Eldran stares down disbelievingly at the bag speaking his legs. "...WHAT?"
He staggers a little, a decent sized light shining through the hole Haldern charged into his chest. He raises his hand and mutters a spell. "My work... my work will not be halted. I have res... responsibilities. I will not fail them.."
He vanishes.
With Eldran gone, the bloodless shiver and jerk as dark energy flows out of them into the spot where he vanished. Shadows flow through the walls from the rest of the city, likely from the other bloodless. The energy amasses, then vanishes after its master. The bloodless fall, dead.
For a moment all is still and peaceful. Then the ceiling above shatters, burning rock smashing down across the floor, smashing three of the drugged people into bloody smears. A vast shape moves across the sky—a winged beast spitting flames onto the world below—and then it is gone. The dragon has returned.
Flames begin to lick at the corners of the walls, and the people are in danger.
I can channel with my blessings. Obviously this isn't quite by the rules but may work as some seem thematically appropriate.
I have my auras of courage and resolve. I can channel to remove the following conditions :
Blinded, Diseased, Cursed, Stunned, Fatigued
So, would channel with all my mercies to see if that has any effect. If not, Haldern will dismount from Jensal, and then both of them will start forceably prodding people, moving them along, calling out to them to get moving, etc.
Probably Intimidate
+14 if could use diplomacy instead
Roused by Haldern's holy light, animation and emotion returns to their faces. Some collapse to the ground, strength drained from their limbs as a nervous murmur goes up.
The dragon makes another pass near the temple. Alleria locks a surprised and grateful gaze with Haldern, and hurries those around her towards the temple's front door.