Gritting his teeth an lowering his shoulder, Ty tries again.
...and again...
...and again...
Overcoming his initial surprise, Ty barrels into the iron door, sending it flying open, with the half-hammered wooden beam ripping from the door frame.
You see three creatures, clearly undead with long tongues and sharp claws.
Ty casts compel hostility and draws his warhammer.
Initiative!
Order: Daniel, Rhylellia, Thanephos, Sparky - Enemies - Alexis, Sir Rollynd, Ty
Daniel wastes no time putting arrow to string, and arrow to the centre creature.
HP: 13, 6, 13
AC: 14/12/12
F/R/W: +2/+2/+5
Rhylellia and Thanephos up next.
Thanephos steps as far from the creatures as he can, concentrating for a moment as the floor beneath their feet suddenly loses all traction.
If you step back, you'll lose line of sight. However, since they haven't gone yet, he can cast without fear.
The centre creature falls.
Also...
Rhylellia tries to Jolt Ghoul 2.
I Hate Ghouls! Take care their bite can paralyze you.”
Ty will use his primed compel hostility on the first ghoul to attack someone not him.
Growling at being stuck in a bad spot again. Gripping her blades tighter and waiting for a chance to hit something.
The fire elemental pushes past Ty (nearly singing him) and over the ghoul, but he slips in the grease. The smell of sizzling fat fills the room. Sparky stands up once he's through the ghouls, blocking their escape.
The ghouls ignore the fire elemental and concentrate on Ty. Ghoul 2 stands up. He would trigger an AoO from Ty, but Ty is flat-footed.
The ghouls claw and bite, but get nothing but handfuls and mouthfuls of armour.
Sir Rollynd draws his sword and stabs at ghoul 2, but his thrust is impeded by the doorway.
PCs are up.
Ty takes a swing at the ghoul right in front of him.
The warhammer lands right on the forehead of the creature in front of him, caving in its skull.
Stepping further away again, Thanephos raises his bow and sends two arrows spinning towards the nearest ghoul,
Ty brings down the centre ghoul and Thanephos' arrow brings down the southern ghoul, leaving just one, who looks like he's getting ready to make a break for the stairs, despite having to charge through a fire elemental to do it.
Alexis and Rhylellia left to go.
[ooc]I actually do not seem much that I can do. The one remaining I do not see though the wall. With how often I take lots of damage Alexis would not push past Ty.[/oob]
Stepping up just past Ty and slashing at the undead abomination. Why can't these things stay dead?
Alexis lands a solid stab, but with the people and wall in the way, Rhylellia's spell goes wide.
The ghoul turns tail and runs around the stairs (Alexis gets an AoO) and if it survives, will try to overrun the fire elemental and escape.
Edit: hang on, it was the northern ghoul that was still up. Alexis could still get to that position and hit it, though, but now it doesn't have to run around the stairs. Alexis still gets an AoO as it begins its overrun attempt on the elemental, however.
I'm applying a +4 cover bonus for attacks around the corner of the door frame.
As the ghoul turns to run, Alexis calmly runs it through the back.
"Nice!" Alexis hears a man say, congratulating her on the strike.
Twisting her head around and looking at Ty, Did you say something?
Ty grunts and shakes his head no, his eyes searching for the source of the voice.
Twisting her head around and looking at Ty, Did you say something?
There's also the -4 for firing into melee. Turns out to all have been moot since we had the wrong ghoul still up, and there's no way she could have seen the north ghoul from where she was.
Ty grunts and shakes his head no, his eyes searching for the source of the voice.
Sorry, only Alexis heard the voice (forgot to spoiler it).
Searching the bodies of the ghouls nets nothing of interest save for some centuries old pocket lint, and a few bones that look to have been human. Searching the basement itself reveals nothing of interest, save more discarded human bones, and the four silver harnesses. You estimate their value at 300gp each, but considerable effort would need to be made to remove them from the walls.
Plans from here? The tower has been cleared. Do you wish to take your loot back to the city? You can fit it all in the wagon you serendipitously thought to bring with you, though you won't be able to ride as well. It will be after dark before you can return to the city.
Alexis, are you interested in determining the source of the voice that only you can hear?
Either way, we should head back to Absalom and show that we've recovered the cloak.
Do we need to waste the time to take the harnesses. I want to leave this place.
Thanephos shrugs, We have enough to carry back with us, I think we can leave without them.
Then lets go.
You finish loading your spoils into the wagon and head back to the city. It is early evening by the time the walls are in sight. Sir Rollynd motions for the driver to stop a moment, and to take a walk out of earshot, before he addresses the group.
"Before we return to the Seventh Church, I need to tell you all something, something I only told Sir Daniel here, though he may have spread my story amongst you all. Before I met you on the steps of the Church, I had a vision of you all. I had never had a vision before, and so had first taken it to be some sort of vivid dream, but in that dream, you were on a quest for the Cloak of the Inheritor. I am ashamed to say that, as a knight, I have failures in my past, and my vision was very clear that I could find my redemption if I should find the Cloak of the Inheritor. Of course, at the time, this filled me with despair, as it seemed certain that I was doomed to my iniquity. But now..." he pauses and reaches out towards wherever you have stored the Cloak, "my redemption seems possible. I am not accustomed to sharing private visions from My Lady, mostly because I have never had them before, but I feel now that your fates have become tied to that Cloak, and you deserve to know everything I saw."
"Perhaps you know something of our history – that is, the history of the Knights of Ozem? The Inheritor herself was once numbered amongst our ranks. While she lived as a mortal, and led my order, the Knights of Ozem fought the undead minions of the Whispering Tyrant – and they revered Arazni, the herald of Aroden, as their patron saint.”
”Arazni lead the Knights against the undead hordes for five years before she herself was slain. It was a terrible defeat, and a terrible time for the order, but Iomedae showed her true potential when she rallied the Knights to throw back the Tyrant’s forces, and personally recovered Arazni’s body, which the Knights laid to rest.”
”After Tar-Baphon was imprisoned, and the Knights founded Lastwall to watch over Gallowspire, they started to get restless. Defeating the Tyrant was a major deal, and the Knights at the time were spoiling for another victory, so they went after another undead target: the lich-king Geb. That offensive did not go well, and not only did Geb easily repel the Knights, the lich sent his forces to steal Arazni’s body, to teach the over-confident Knights a lesson. To further add salt to the wounds, he animated her body as a lich and set her to rule Geb in his stead while he remained behind the scenes. She still rules in Geb, known as the Harlot Queen.”
”Desperate to reclaim what honour the Knights of Ozem had left, a group of them, under the command of Sir Patens Moore, infiltrated Geb. They were unable to slay either lich, but they did retrieve four artefacts: canopic jars containing some of Arazni’s organs that had been created in Geb’s profane re-animation process. These artefacts contain fragments of the divinity of Arazni, Arazni before she became the abomination Geb created. It is believed that these artefacts could be used to destroy her, possibly Geb as well. The two tried to track the Knights, but failed. They’ve tried to find the artefacts, but failed. Some scholars believe that the belevolent divinity remaining in Arazni's organs obscured the evil magic of the liches. Geb’s forces attacked Lastwall, but couldn’t find the artefacts for the simple reason that they never made it back. Even we don’t know where they are. Many a Knight of Ozem has quested across the world looking for the Bloodstones (as they’ve come to be called), and many a crusade was launched, but to no avail.”
”But why am I telling you all of this? The vision I received from the Inheritor. It was an image of the four of you," he pauses, pointing to Alexis, Rhylellia, Ty, and Thanephos (he frowns slightly as he glances at Sir Daniel, but continues) "your faces perfectly clear to me, and I also saw a jar, sealed and made of stone. No description has ever reached us, but I was certain that it was one of the Bloodstones of Arazni, and I still am. I believe you are to find one of the Bloodstones, perhaps all of them. I didn’t believe it when I first saw you, but now, here you are, with the Cloak of the Inheritor in your hands.” The halfling pauses to reach a hand reverently out towards the stored garment again, but he withdraws it quickly. ”I did not believe when my Lady first spoke to me, but now I do. That crisis of faith is of my concern, and something with which I must wrestle, but if you will overlook it, I will swear whichever oath you would have of me, save that it does not go against my Lady Iomedae in any way, to serve and protect you in this most holy of quests.”
"Happy to have you."
"Is there any connection between these bloodstones and the other 'artefacts of Aroden'?"
Thanephos nods thoughtfully as Rollynd shares his visions, I can't speak for the rest, but any way to restore the honor of Arazni and to purge the lichdom from her corpse is a worthy cause in my eyes.
Sir Rollynd smiles, looking like a great weight is now off his mind. "What other artefacts of Aroden do you mean?"
"Albar Tolion asked us to find the Cloak. We found out after he died that we might need to find what he considers to be other artefacts of Aroden."
"Perhaps the road to the Bloodstones will involve finding other artefacts," Sir Rollynd says with a shrug. "Valla Timonae at the Seventh Church would be the person to ask. She has made a study of such things."
"She's already doing that for us. We should tell her about your vision."
Standing silently with a surprised look on her face as Sir Rollynd explains his vision. Keeping silent as the others talk for a little while as she processes the information. Quietly mumbling Ok. More to herself than any other.
Is there any information on the path those knights might have taken before they fell and the jars were lost?
"Only that they traveled by land, heading from Geb in the south towards Lastwall in the north. Nobody knows any details of the journey, only their intentions."
If you have other questions, feel free to insert them.
Sir Rollynd motions for the driver to come back, and you get under way again. It's mid-evening when you pull up in front of the Seventh Church. Your driver quickly makes his way inside, and returns minutes later with Valla Timonae and the aged Genedair the Faithful.
"Your driver tells us you were successful. Did you really...do you really have it?" Valla asks eagerly.
Before anyone can respond, Genedair's raspy voice calls out, "Valla. Let them be. The front steps of the Church are no place for such a friendly reunion. Why don't you all bring in any personal items and come inside, and we'll have some acolytes unload your goods for you. Much more comfortable to talk inside."
Before getting into the wagon Alexis turns to Sir Rollynd, Is it possible that the Seventh will have more information? Or that they could put us in-contact with someone from Lastwall that might know more?
Sitting silently on the way back lost in her thoughts. If spoken to it takes a moment to pull her from her inner dwellings. Once back at the Seventh Church Alexis quietly follows the others.
Nodding at Genedair, Inside would be better, thank you. Taking a moment to grab her things and then following the others inside. Staying in the back of the group.
"Certainly possible that someone there knows more. Again, Valla is the person to ask. Nobody at Lastwall knows anything I haven't already told you. If the Knights there ever had a single clue about the Bloodstones, they'd be off on a crusade."
"The goddess Arazni is connected to Aroden, as is Iomedae. Both are Aroden’s former heralds. It stands to reason your goddess would know more than most of Aroden.” Rhylellia face looks saddened, and her face then hardens. “I do have an issue of 6 people poking a vengeful super ghost. Who you know, was responsible for the corruption in the first place.”
“I however feel that it should be mentioned that at the insult of attacking Geb the country, Geb the ghost stole and mutilated a former goddess. The question is not should we find these jar to redeem Arazni, but even if we are successful … BIG if there, what are we going to do about a slighted and wrathful Geb. He defeated your order last time, and has a nation-state of un-living easily reanimated dead. Oh, she, the queen Araznii seems to have settled into her new role, and she may be angry at us for cleansing her. Are we going agree to keep this quest secret?”
You all follow Genedair the Faithful inside the Church, matching his slow pace. He leads you into his office, and once he is settled in his chair, waves his hand-holder acolytes away. He motions for one of you to pour wine for everyone from a decanter on a side table, and when everybody has refreshment, leans forward, suddenly seeming twenty years younger.
"So is it true? Were you actually successful?"