Delia is startled to see the flames turn into skulls, but is not actually surprised to see it happen. Vesorianna's hold must be slipping. Again, the politics of the council is slowing their progress. Acting like she did as the stirges appeared at the party, she summons the aid of the eagles to help the citizens.
Father runs up to the nearest enemy, striking it as hard as he can with his heavy fist.
Round 1
AC: 13
HP: 23/23
Arch Luck: 4/5
Bombs: 5/6
Ried reaches into his bags and pulls out a mixture of substances, quickly smashing them together and lighting a fuse. Calling upon his luck, he takes aim and hefts it at the closest group of baddies.
OR
(Reflex DC 15 for half)
Baring his teeth, Valachi stands beside Kendra, defending her against any skulls that fly close.
Startled by the sudden conflagrations, Alistair tumbles backwards in his chair, as the skulls appear he leaps to his feet, and in his standard tactics, weaves a sign, forming a protective glyph as he chants, "arcaniss troth ve." Translucent purple energy materializes and snaps into place around Alistair in the shape of overly large armor plates, the energies are visible for only moments and they quickly fade as Alistair takes stock of what is happening around him.
Round 1
Alistair, seeing the commotion breaking out around him, breaks out with a strong instinct towards self-preservation. As he casts his spell, shimmering plates of magical armour fall into place around him.
Councilman Vashian Harthmount runs to the front of the stage looking towards the villagers. His right hand drops to his belt, looking for a sword he is not presently wearing. He shouts, his words mostly lost in the din, "Out! Everyone out! Don't press or those in the middle will be crushed!"
The skulls fly out chaotically, wizzing about just above the heads of the townsfolk. Some smash into walls or furniture, causing them to burst into flames upon the impact. One dives down hitting the fore of the stage, lighting it aflame. The others look for the nearest threat or victim, and fly at them like flaming battering rams.
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Agnar stands from his chair, and draws his greatsword. He smashes it down on the skull in front of him that just lit fire to the stage . ; ; . The skull disentigrates as the massive blow hits it, and the sword smashes through the stage as well. The massive speed and force of the blow flicks out the flaming wooden beams like a candle.
Delia stands, and summons some of her extra-dimensional allies to assist her. They fan out from the center of the room, each attacking one of the skulls. One fails to strike, but the other's succeed, raking at them with their claws. The flames surrounding the creatures bite back unfortunately, ; , ; .
Councilman Gharen Muricar steps forward, drawing his rapier. It hisses as it comes free, and bursts into flames with a woof. He makes a fine thrust at the skull that attacked Vashian . ; ;. The skull is pierced through and through, and winks out, becoming dead bone again.
Sheriff Caeller draws his longsword and strikes at the skull that attacked him . . He misses.
Father moves round the burning fire, and slams his meaty fist down towards the skull that lit it. The swift skull is not where he lands his hand however.
Kendra raises a hand and unleashes a ray of white light towards the skull that attacked Valachi. . In her haste, the blast goes wide.
Ried assembles one of his bombs, and throws it at one of the skulls lighting the building afire (B4). The acid bomb hits the burning undead in a tightly contained splash, and begins to eat it away. It looses its flight, and the skull falls limply into the fire it set.
Ember dashes to the center of the room, in advance of the peasants that are likely to start crowding the aisle. He holds aloft her holy symbol and chants off a prayer releasing the white light of holy energy that drives off and destroys the undead.
Valachi steps in front of Kendra and hissing swipes at the attacking skull with his claws. Small and flying, the skull evades the swipe.
Now panicking for real, the villagers rise and begin to swarm towards the doors. Most seem to be making their way's out okay, except for a few in one corner, trapped by the fires and skulls.
The fires, burning unchecked, begin to grow, little by little.
Round 2:
Delia points at the remaining skulls nearest the birds, certain that the creatures would likely go after the closest ones. "Father, see to the wounded in the back." She moves down off the stage, toward the back of the room where the two had fallen. As she tries to make her way over and around the pews, the birds strike out, but are reluctant to claw at the flaming enemy.
Father attempts to help the injured man, making his way as best he can to him.
Round 2, Init 3
Concerned for the injured villagers clouds Ember's face, and she makes the only decision that she feels she can.
Pressing forward in the crowd, she again channels, but this time to heal the wounded.
"This is gonna get bad," Valachi says to Kendra. "Is there a window or other exit we can get out of?" He slashes at the nearest skull.
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Ried will drink a targeted bomb admixture.
Alistair quickly recovers from his surprise, cowardice aside, his years of chess have given him a tactically oriented mind when he needs it. He quickly steps back and to his right, using the chairs as cover, while stepping back he also pulls out his summoning bag and candle. When he reaches Kendra's flank he gives a small nod to Valachi as if to affirm to him that Kendra is protected, and to urge him toward the enemy.
He draws a deep breath and with it, power from the cosmos, his eyes close momentarily and when they open they are focused on something seemingly far away, and are charged with vibrant azure energies, "Aqua particularum veni foras!" With those words, a point in the hot dry air starts to cool, and moisture begins to congeal from nowhere. It gathers, one drop, connects to another, and another, a quick splash, that joins with another, suddenly it comes together, and begins to animate. A creature made of water appears in the middle of the Hall.
The creature though small lets out a half pained, half, enraged shriek. It yells something that sounds very much like string of horrendous curses. It roils forward smothering the flames as it moves upward, onto the bench, taking itself off the ground. The water gathers into a pseudopod which rises up and slams toward the flaming skull.
The surreal limb of water slams into the creature, much of its limb hissing and crackling into steam, but enough of the mass connects to cause what seems to be catastrophic damage.
Round 2:
Alistair begins casting a summoning spell, losing himself in the intricate casting.
Vashian runs back to a corner of the room, opens a cabinet and pulls out a decorative two handed mace, likely some sort of ceremonial object. However, it is big and sturdy enough that it looks as though it would make an effective and impressive weapon.
The Flaming Skulls again weave and dive, attacking the building, defenders, and building alike.
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Agnar moves to the table in the corner and yanks the covering from it, scattering the assembled and displayed contents of the table upon the floor. He turns and tries to smother the flames igniting that corner of the stage. . He snuffs of the flames there
Delia hops down from the stage, and shielding her face agianst the heat of the flames on her right with her face, she takes wide steps from one pew to the next, managing to bypass most of the villagers . She is brought up short by one of the Flaming Skulls that moved into her path to attack a fleeing villager. The eagle she summoned continues its attack, destroying the skull with a swipe of its talon. ; . Though its talon strike destroys the skull, the bird itself is overwhelmed by the intensity of the flames, and vanishes, back to its home realm. Another eagle moves across the room, diving at another skull. It strikes, hitting and destroying the skull. ; . Uninjured thus far, the eagle is burned badly, but not destroyed. The last eagle turns and attacks yet another skull, destroying it as well. ; . Unfortunately, he is also overcome, leaving only one of the eagles to aid on this plane.
Gharen moves to the side of the stage, and then taking a page from Delia's book, runs over the tops of the pews, his flaming rapier poised to strike when he gets in range.
Sheriff Caeller swings his sword at the skull in front of him. ; . Though appearing to be only a glancing blow, the skull cracks and falls into the flames. Caeller steps forwards, trying to move beyond the flames before he is walled off from escape.
Father moves through the room, over pews and around flames, trying to reach one of the injured villagers.
Kendra fires another bolt of light at the last remaining skull. ; . The skull fills with white light, and then shatters. None of the flaming skulls remain, but the room still burns, and smoke is filling much of the air.
Ember channels out her healing light, stabilizing and healing those still alive to receive the aid.
The building does have windows, but the type would be hard to access. At the end of each row of pews the wall bears a window. They are all 10 ft from the ground, 2 feet wide and about 8 ft tall, meeting in two semi-arches that meet in a peak, in the gothic style.
Ried halts with the extract at his lips and looks around at the fire, sees Agnar's success and runs to also grab a covering from a nearby table to put out fire
If there are no tablecloths, he'll grab a curtain or worst case use a cloak.
Start escorting Kendra to the exit.
Ried runs to a table, but finding no more coverings, and the table contents scattered, he grabs a tapestry off the wall and rushes to smother a section of the fire.
Valachi tries to help Kendra to the exit, but the center aisle is still packed with villagers pretty much right up to the stage. He moves her near the pulpit, and helps her down at the top of the aisle.
End of Round. Round 3:
Alistair finishes his summoning, with no enemies, he leaves the water elemental to fight its own enemy, the fire. He decides he should join also, taking a step back from the flame Alistair removes his cloak, and pulls out his waterskins. He empties the contents of both unto the inside of the cloak, allowing the wool to soak up as much as possible before he starts to use the sopping cloth as a weapon against the blaze.
Ried moves on to either B4 or E4
Ember moves to help Ried fight the fire, encouraging him to move to help the villagers cornered by the fire.
Continue escorting Kendra. Use brute force to shove the pews aside and widen the center aisle.
Seeing Ember's point out, Ried skips over to that corner of the room to put out those fires.
Agnar having put out one spot of the fire, moves to attempt to do the same with more of the fire about hoping to put it out as quickly as possible.
Delia takes a page from Alistair's playbook, and after thanking the remaining eagle for its aid, dissmises it. She then summons again, this time also creating a small water elemental, in the hopes it will combat the flames. The thing appears and lashes out at the flames.
As she does so, she sets Father to task, "Get the wounded out of here, especially those that can't move themselves."
Father nods at Delia's request, and stoops to help the two injured near him. He lifts them as best he can and makes his way to the door.
The water elementals each take stock of the scene, and then begin fighting the fire in concert. As they close to each fire, they reach out to touch it, and douse it in a torrent of water that causes a brief eruption of steam. The villagers continue to push and strive towards the doors, and it is not long before they manage to escape. Within moments, a fraction of a minute perhaps, Alistair's elemental vanishes, its time of service complete. Delia's however, continues moving about the building and eliminates the last few spot fires. As the smoke and steam begin to clear, it moves and douses the hot coals, over and over, saturating the ashes and assuring the fire will not return on its own.
Valachi is able move Kendra to safety before the last of the fires goes out, and Father is able to pull the wounded man to his feet, and carry the second out into the rain.
Taking stock of the situation afterwards, it is evident that minor injuries are commonplace, and more people seem to be nursing twisted ankles, strained knees and hips and the like than people who are not. One boy, in his early teens has a broken wrist received when he was shoved into the door from behind, he doesn't know by who. Another middle aged man broke an ankle trying to jump over the pews. The only serious injuries however are the two men hit by the flaming skulls, and a woman who was forced to the ground and trampled before someone was able to pull her free. One of the men injured by the skulls was healed and revived by Ember's healing energies, though he still sports some evidence of burns. The other is unfortunately dead. The burns to the body are extensive, complrising most of the face, neck, and chest. He likely died moments after the impact, if not instantly. The woman has multiple broken bones, but it appears she should live.
Everyone is silent for the most part, though a few can be heard crying, and heavy, panting breaths sound from everywhere.
Ried looks around in dismay, running his hand through his hair."We've got to end this terror, soon!"
Valachi nods in agreement. Even though clear of the burning building, he stays on guard beside Kendra, hackles raised and ready for further assault.
Ember tends to the injured as best she can, even using some of the charges in one of the Cure Light Wounds wands.
Curious as to the origins of the flaming skulls, as they didn't seem to come in from the outside, Alistair begins to investigate the inside of the building, casting detect magic and examining the areas where the skulls seemed to appear.
Ember tends to the injured as best she can, even using some of the charges in one of the Cure Light Wounds wands.
Seeing as these villagers have only an average of 4 hp each, and as closely gathered as they are in the village square, a single CPE would likely cure nearly every ailment received, and be a very efficient use of the ability.
The council members move among the people for a time, trying to calm nerves, and reassure those who are injured. They spend a particularly long time speaking with a woman who is wailing over the body of the fallen man. You hear whispers saying, "Poor Taela. Grellis was so young. How will she get by without him?" Form the speak, it becomes apparent that the dead man was a local farmer, from one of the smaller farmsteads. He was married, but young enough that his wife and he had not yet had children. When the council members have each given her their condolences, they gather a ways off from the villagers to talk in private.
"This is the second or third time we've been attacked in town. I think we should avoid gatherings like this until this problem is solved."
"Wise, Valachi ... the town needs to avoid putting itself in places where people can be trapped, for now. Alistair, any ideas on how this started, so we can pass on info to the town guard? Regardless, we need to get back to the ruins and end this nightmare."
Delia tries to comfort the woman as best she can, sympathetic to her loss. "I'm sorry I could not act faster. I tried to get to him as soon as I could. If you ever need to talk, come see me when I'm around."
As the council gathers, Delia storms up to them, frustration and anger obviously her prominent emotions. She points to the crying woman and her dead husband. She yells quietly through clenched teeth, so as to not be overheard, almost as one would reprimand a child in public. "This! This is EXACTLY what I was talking about. I kept telling you that you were causing us delays. Because of that we have been slow to find and remove the cause of these events. If you would have held on to your blasted politics until the whole affair has been resolved, this man may not have lost his life. We need to get back in there, remove the threat, and avoid anymore of these ridiculous meetings until we have finished."
As the town’s folk take stock of their loss, and the mourning of Grellis begins, Alistair spends a bit of extra effort to be nowhere near the mourning. Instead he busies himself with further investigations of the structure. He examines the outsides of the structure, trying to determine if the creatures entered from the outside, or holes came from the inside out. He also takes to examining the surrounding area, looking for scorch marks nearby leading up to the building.
In response to Ried's question, Alistair holds up his hand in a gesture to ask for a few more moments time.