Black dust clings to the two priests near Ayako. The magic dust drains the energy from one of them.
Sebastian's attack kills the last priest in the barracks.
Iolana's ice blast hits the two priests full on. Unfortunately, they both have a little life left in them.
Priests A and B spread out and retreat away from the display of magic that nearly laid them low. They then both heal themselves.
The other four all cast the same spell on themselves but it doesn't have any visible effect.
Finally, Lucien's attack kills another priest.
The Queen's Physician pursues Lucien with his club but his attack is blocked again.
Regroup, Iolana! Ayako does a kind of fast hobble to the east.
"Let's go into the other room. That lot just cast Divine Favor." She moves into the room, murmurs a few words, and flings a sling bullet at the priest in front of Sebastian.
"Ah yes, divine favor! What does that do again?" Ignorant of his enemy's enchantments, Sebastian steps up to personally arrange another priest's meeting with his foul goddess.
"It makes them stronger, Seb. Beware!" Lucien ducks an attack and immediately retailiates, bringing his sword down on the Queen's physician with righteous fury. "Out of the way!"
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Ayako hobbles into the room with the others.
Sebastian stabs and badly wounds the priest in front of him and Iolana finishes him off with a magically enhanced sling bullet to the skull.
Priest B double moves to chase after Iolana and the fatigued priest A huffs and puffs behind him.
Ayako may have thought to avoid the Urgathoan priests but is intercepted by another pushing through into this room and is slashed by his scythe.
The final priest moves up to attack Sebastian but he avoids it.
Lucien finishes off the final Queen's Physician. "No one escapes Urgathoa's wrath!" he shouts as his dying words.
The blow turns slightly as it strikes Ayako, being less deep than it would have been. But still, Ayako hisses and stabs back at the priest
"Beware, he says! We're winning!"Sebastian fends off the scythe, compromising his form, and his returning thrust goes wide.
Iolana steps back and fires an Elemental Ray from her finger at the priest in the doorway. "How many more of these creatures are there?"
“We’ll see!” Lucien moves toward another priest of Urgathoa and brings down his greatsword on him.
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Ayako stabs at the closest priest but he steps back and the point grazes off his magical shielding.
Sebastian's attack also misses, however, his boast does cause the priest to be shaken.
Iolana's ray strikes the injured priest in the doorway. The icy shards melt and mix with the blood oozing out of his wounds. The priest looks like he is struggling to continue fighting.
Priest B refuses to give up despite his wounds and angrily charging forward at Iolana. Fortunately, Iolana manages to dodge under the swing.
Priest A follows up behind B and unleashes a wave of negative energy that sweeps over everyone in the room affecting enemy and ally alike.
The shaken priest tries to hit Sebastian. His determination is there but his fight is gone. The last priest turns from Ayako to Lucien who is the greatest threat but has no luck against him.
Lucien thanks the priest for his effort with a swift death.
Iolana takes a step back and casts Burning Hands at the priests right in front of her.
Ayako moves over to help Iolana and stabs at the Physician
Pressing his advantage, Sebastian takes a wild thrust, neglecting to adjust his footing properly for the technique. He pays for his mistake as he nearly breaks his weapon on the wall. He backpedals, hoping he can fix his footing before it's too late.
Lucien starts to feel a little tired and weary, but does not give up. That negative energy filling his body only made him angrier. Right after Iolana casts her fire spell, Lucien darts to her and positions himself in front of the girl in order to protect her from the priests' retaliation. "Take this!"
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Ayako and Sebastian both struggle to score a hit this round.
The priests in the doorway have no time to dodge and Iolana freezes both of them dead.
The last priest gets one more failed attack at Sebastian before Lucien steps up and finishes him off.
Finally all is quiet. Corpses are strewn throughout the room. But for the moment you can rest.
Ayako pants and takes out her wand and begins healing Lucian and Sebastion
I have some magic left, we should decide if we are going to press on or retreat.
You collect up the bodies and barricade yourselves in a room for a short rest. No one else comes by to disturb you during this time and you are refreshed to continue your fight.
Ayako wakes from her meditation and pushes herself up, the cold of the underground halls making her crippled leg ache. Ah..Shall we continue? There are doors to the south and east.
Iolana rises from where she was slumped in the corner sleeping, when she hears Ayako speak, "Yes let's go. We need to clear this place as quickly as possible. Should we check for keys on the bodies or in the room? It might make our journey easier if something is locked."
Ayako checks the bodies for anything like a key
Each of the (10) Priests of Urgathoa have the following items:
Potion of cure moderate wounds, masterwork scythe, and +1 breastplate.
One of them also does have a key, but it looks like it is a key to a door, not the glass cabinet that you saw.
The (3) Queen's Physicians have the same gear as the previous ones:
Leather armor, masterwork club, healer’s kit, and plaguebringer’s mask.
Footlockers and shelves about the room hold the sparse—and often disturbing—personal effects of the cult of Urgathoa’s members. You also discover 12 bottles of midnight wine worth 14 gp each, a robe of bones bearing the images of a goblin skeleton and a wolf zombie, a rune-etched onyx sculpture of a skull worth 35 gp, and 11 pp, 40 gp, 58 sp, 160 cp.
Within are four healer's kits and 23 black onyx gems worth 50 gp each. At the back of the cabinet are four identical flasks of potions of cure moderate wounds.
"Urgathoan potions? I wouldn't drink those if my life depended on it! They probably taste like festering death."
Posting up by a southern door, he checks to make sure the others are ready before throwing them open.
Some rather disturbing personal effects. Some bottles of good wine, a magical robe called the 'Robe of Bones' and some jewelry and coins
Ayako places the breatplates and weapons to the side and gathers up the potions. As for the weapons and armor, we can leave these for later. If we fail we will not need them. The potions should not be snubbed, they can save our lives. Ayako looks mysteriously at Sebastion. Unless of course...you want me to tend your wounds.
Lucien waits for his companions to organize the priests' belongings. "Don't be so skeptic, Sebastian. They probably used those potions to actually heal themselves". The paladin takes 2 potions.
So let us head to the southern rooms, unless we want to continue going east.
Ayako bullies everyone south.Come Sebastion, our son Billy needs to be rescued.
Sebastian shudders at the thought of Ayako tending his wounds again. Thanks to that wand, he hadn't had to undergo that experience for a number of months, and the thought of having to choose between that or an Urgathoan healing potion made for quite the rock and a hard place.
You head south from the barracks and through the room of glassed-in zombies. Either of the doors leading further south open up into the same room.
Eight cold, iron beds stand here, their sharp frames threaded with worn manacles and stained leather straps. Several are occupied by obviously unwilling patients, each bound and in various states of consciousness, their combined moans murmuring throughout the room. Between them stand several small tables, each strewn with gore-soaked pans, flasks of mysterious fluids, and all manner of cruel-looking cutting instruments. A sizable brown-crimson stain covers much of the eastern wall, as if all the blood from a body once held there had exploded forth in a single violent eruption.
Two Queen’s Physicians and two priests of Urgathoa currently work in this room, encouraging and observing the diseases at work within their prisoner-patients here. Their work is in turn observed and guided by a foul necromancer.
Pale and blotchy from scars caused by various diseases he's exposed himself to, the necromancer wears thick leather robes lined with dozens of pockets that bulge with surgical and mortician tools.
When the necromancer sees you, he becomes enraged and shouts profanities in your direction, "You! You are the ones who destroyed my lab! You gods damned vandals! You accursed crooks! You thought I wouldn't find out! Dead men can tell tales! And now you have the gall to waltz upon my work again! You will beg for death before I am done with you!"
Unlike Rolth, the two Physicians silently step away from their patients and move to block Sebastian and Lucien. The one Physician's club rings loudly off of Lucien's shield but Sebastian takes a hard whack to the head.
Rolth leans over the patient on the nearest metal bed (who happens to be dead) and jams an onyx into its mouth. With a quick incantation, the corpse rises from the dead as a zombie and shambles forward to attack. "Kill them!" Rolth shouts and points in your direction.
She loads a few bottles wine and the robe into her haversack. "I've got room to carry those things and more. We may need the wine before this is through. The whole place should be destroyed."
She picks up a club, and walks into the room with the glass cabinet. She swings at the glass breaking it, and grabs the healer's kits, gems, and potions.
Iolana looks confused at Sebastian's hesitance to be healed by the Oracle. Who's Billy?" she asks as she follows the group to the south.
"Lucien, I've been meaning to ask. Do you have an objection to growing a size or two?" She casts Elemental Ray on the priestess she can see.
Ayako sends glittering motes of darkness to explode between the physicians and priest
"I'm sorry, who are you? I don't believe I've had the pleasure," says Sebastian. Who was this strange man and what lab did they destroy?
His sarcasm is duly rewarded by a solid crack on the skull. Cursing, he shakes the stars out of his eyes and quickly advances forward, stabbing at the offending physician as he passes.
Sebastian stabs the offending Physician who drops to the floor clutching his wound and bleeding out.
Physician 2 and Priest 2 become fatigued as Ayako's dust particlues cling to their skin and sap their energy. Priest 1 brushes off the dust and resists its effects.
Iolana's ray was poorly aimed but even so, the fatigued priest is just a little too slow to dodge out of the way and is slammed with a freezing blast of ice.
Priest 1 takes a step away from Sebastian and both Priests can a spell on themselves grants a bit of divine luck.
Lucien beheads the second Physician then steps over his dead body to get closer to the necromancer.
The zombie still adjusting to un-life lazily swings a fist through the empty air in front of Lucien.
"Who, who am I!?" the necromancer sputters. "I am the infamous necromancer Rolth! You destroyed my lab in the Dead Warrens while I was away like cowardly thugs and set back my flesh golem project months! You will not disturb my research here as well! I will not let you! With the help of the Urgathoans, I'm making huge strides into new and more powerful strands of the blood veil. This is just the beginning but you will not be around to see the end!"
Rolth moves further back into the room and casts a spell that creates magical hailstones that pound down a top all of you. There is no shelter to be found as you are bludgeoned with the freezing stones.
Ayako is about to return the favor on the necromancer bur realizes that they need to concentrate their efforts and so send her own freezing blackness of energy at Priest 2
"The priests just cast divine favor. No idea what the soon to be dead guy cast." She laughs a little as the cold doesn't affect her. "Cold is my element." She fires her elemental ray at the priest in front of Lucien. Then she moves further into the room.
Sebastian groans and shivers audibly as he's pelted by hailstones and the cold. "Th-th-that m-makes one of-f us," he chatters in Iolana's direction. Cursing to himself, Sebastian makes a mad dash across the room, dodging between the priests. His magic boots may not keep his feet particularly warm, but they give him the extra spring in his step to clear the distance.
Breaking through the other side of the gauntlet, Sebastian spins on his toe, positioning himself behind the cultist. "Say 'hello' to your Princess for me," he quips, plunging his sword into his enemy.
The priest spins around to face Sebastian. His eyes widen with fear of his impending death just before Sebastian's sword plunges through his chest killing him.
Ayako surrounds the remaining priest with the void of space. His eyes bulge and his skin hardens. The priest grits his teeth and resists the full effect. Unfortunately for him, the attack is followed up Iolana's ray of ice. His body can't take anymore cold and freezes to death.
Lucien pushes past the ineffective zombie and forces his way right up to Rolth. He swings his sword at Rolth's head but the necromancer ducks underneath. "You'll have to do better than that." Rolth retorts.
The zombie turns and attacks the new nearest opponent who is now Sebastian. The attack is close but not close enough.
Rolth rattles off another spell and imbues his hand with negative energy. He lays his hand upon Lucien and the energy seeps through his armor and paralyzes his flesh. Worse yet, Lucien's body begins exuding a carrion stench as if he were a rotting corpse.
"Here's a taste of death." Rolth then takes another step back but is quickly running out of room.
Iolana looks at both Rolth and the zombie. "That spell was Ghoul Touch. The necromancer first I think. He's more tricky than a zombie is. No mercy. I don't want this one as a prisoner." she murmurs to Ayako. She moves past Ayako to get a good line on the necromancer and fires a Scorching Cold Ray at him.
Ayako draws a scroll of Remove Paralysis from her satchel that she had saved when they fought ghouls in The Greys and casts it on Lucian.
Sebastian, gaging from the putrid stench, finds himself unable to deliver a retort to Rolth. So he simply delivers unvarnished steel instead.
Sebastian pierces through Rolth's thick leather apron and draws first blood.
Ayako frees Lucien from his paralysis ending the ghoul touch spell, thus removing the aura of stench as well.
Iolana's cold ray blasts Rolth as well. The spell hurt him bad but he continues to fight.
Lucien steps into flanking with Sebastian and traps the necromancer from stepping away. However, the ghoul touch needed another few seconds to fully wear off and Lucien fails to swing his sword.
The zombie staggers up to Iolana and stops unable to coordinate movement and attacks at the same time.
Rolth takes a five-foot-step away from Sebastian and tries to cast defensively next to Lucien but flubs to spells. "Curse you! You've only bought yourselves a moment's reprieve."
As Rolth steps toward the wall, he gives Sebastian the only opening he needs. "You've escaped death for the last time, graverobber!" Advancing, he angles his thrust up, taking Rolth in the throat.
Ayako fires a slingstone at Rolf
Iolana can't move away from the zombie so she defensively casts Magic Missile at the zombie.
Rolth does not get another chance. Sebastian stabs Rolth through the throat. He grabs his neck and looks like he intends to issue one last curse but only manages to spit up blood instead. A moment later, he falls down dead.
Ayako and Iolana finish off the zombie.
Now that things have quieted down, you can get a better sense of your surroundings.
Six patients lie strapped to the metal operating beds scattered throughout the room. One of the patients is dead, his body still highly contagious with blood veil. Two of the other patients fade in and out of consciousness, their bodies wracked by blood veil, coughing violently and whimpering through their restless fever dreams. The other three bodies suffer from a new strain of blood veil. The men each died within the past two days and have partially wakened as zombies.
A pair of sturdy iron doors is in the back of the room and are locked.
The Queen's Physicians and Priests of Urgathoa have more of the same standard gear.
Queen's Physicians (2): leather armor, masterwork club, healer's kit, plaguebringer's mask.
Priests of Urgathoa (2): potion of cure moderate wounds, masterwork scythe, +1 breastplate.
Rolth has the following items:
wand, masterwork dagger, cloak, headband, ring, unguent (6 doses), mortician's tools, 6 black onyxes worth 25 gp each, spellbook.
The spellbook contains the following spells and is worth 1,390 gp:
4th—animate dead, dimension door, enervation, ice storm
3rd—dispel magic, hold person, lightning bolt, ray of exhaustion, vampiric touch
2nd—detect thoughts, false life, ghoul touch, scorching ray, spectral hand
1st—charm person, chill touch, grease, mage armor, ray of enfeeblement, shield
0—acid splash, detect magic, light, ray of frost, touch of fatigue
A wand of Magic Missile, 43 uses
Cloak of Resistance, first level
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Who is wounded the most? I have my wand and potions Ayako drinks a potion of CMW