Imperia stabs at the Loper with her newly magiced rapier. "You chose badly sir."
The Lopper twists in the air, causing Imperia's rapier to barely miss him.
At the apex of its spin, the wraith brings its axe down on Bramwell once again!
...and something peculiar happens. The axe strikes Bramwell on the neck, and... it doesn't hurt him. If anything, a scratch on the dhampir's neck closes over.
The Lopper goggles at Bramwell, completely dumbfounded.
Cawthorne takes a two-handed swing at the Lopper with his newly enchanted cane, taking advantage of the spirit's distraction in avoiding Imperia's rapier.
"Well played, Miss Albus - let us keep this villain off balance!" His eyes dart to the empty space below the floating murderer's spectral feet. If such a thing is possible!
Dr. Cawthorne's strike feels as though it's impacted a thick glob of something viscous, but it causes the Lopper's form to tear all the same.
Bramwell's eyes go wide as he wacthes the blade's trajectory towards his neck, but instead of a searing pain, the blow is followed by a surge of relief and well-being. The dhampir knows the sensation well: negative energy, he immediately tells himself. His mouth curls up into a disturbing grin as the lord realizes he is impervious to the Lopper's attacks. A moment of hesitation hangs between the two of them, and Bramwell speaks up, panting, "So, you are helpless against me. I see it, yes; it is fear you feel now, like your victims did. Fear of being at someone else's mercy." He dashes forward and attacks again, screaming viciously. "I have none to spare for you!"
Bramwell viciously rips away another chunk of the Lopper's form, leaving it half-gone.
Imperia looks grim as she stabs at the Loper again. "Let's finish this."
Unsure what else to try, Filiana unleashes another blast of Heavenly Fire at the Lopper
Khardan rears back and then rams home his longspear.
"Back beyond the wall! Go to your judgment, you bastard!"
Filiana's fire flies past the Lopper's head, Imperia's rapier skewers the wraith in the throat...
...and Khardan's spear pierces its core, causing it to moan and break apart in one last pitiful gasp of pain.
Khardan stands there huffing and puffing, more in rage than in exertion. He slowly calms himself, evidently not without a struggle.
"Anyone hurt?" he growls.
"I'm quite all right, thank you." The doctor looks over Imperia and Filiana with a critical eye, seeking signs of wounds. "Ladies, are you well?"
"I am actually better now," Bramwell replies running his clawy hand around his neck. "The Lopper is no more. It has ceased to be. Shall we move on?," he asks, taking a look at the room they now find themselves in.
Filiana continues to stare at the spot where just a moment ago, the Lopper was twitching and writhing on the end of Khardan's spear as its unlife ended and it fell into nothingness.
"Lady of Graves" she speaks softly, "judge this fallen soul and if it is his fate, consign him to your graveyard, for he has done great wrong in this life."
Looking across at Khardan, she manages a weak smile.
"I am fine, thank you Khardan."
"Is anyone hurt? I think he was only able to hit Lord Bramwell, and that didn't go well for him." She keeps her weapon out.
"Not well indeed," the lord agrees while hunching over the pit and staring into it. "There is something down there. Something that glows." Bramwell shuts his eyelids and whispers something uninteligible, a sound that resembles a hissing reptile. His eyes gleam red as he grabs the metal grating covering the pit and tries to pull it out to clear the path to the bottom.
When Bramwell points out that there is something at the bottom of the shaft, Filiana utters some words that although unintelligible, are beginning to sound familiar. She then leans slightly forward and looks down the shaft with softly glowing white eyes.
There's a loud *GROANING* noise as Bramwell grabs the grating and pries it loose.
The tengu steps back as Bramwell rips the grate from the floor. Such strength, and ferocity! While he's curious as to what lay at the bottom of the Lopper's pit, he decides to exercise discretion, moving around Filiana to peer into the cell that had the sound of moving bones within it.
Dr. Cawthorne can tell that the bone-rattling noises came from the side room preceding the cell block. He pushes the door to the room open...
Within stands a table surrounded by a few rickety chairs, along with a pair of mouldy but serviceable cots. And next to them, silently flailing about, is a burning, headless skeleton. Its bones are charred black, and it's swinging a sharp-looking handaxe about wildly.
It doesn't appear to have noticed the good doctor yet.
Cawthorne's eyes widen considerably as they take in the bizarre sight. He carefully swings the door closed again and quietly retreats back down the hall to his companions, where he clears his throat for their attention.
"We have a bit of situation in the chamber off the hall," he croaks in a whisper, motioning back with his cane. "A headless, axe-wielding skeleton that's on fire!"
Imperia moves behind Dr. Cawthorne, and fires her shortbow into the skeleton.
The arrow strikes it right in the back... and there's a *crack* as the blunt arrowhead splinters off a piece of bone. The skeleton flails and whirls around.
And then it starts to advance.
Filiana can see there is no place for her in the corridor outside the door so she will move to the other side of Khardan to try and get a view of the door. Then she will wait for her chance to act.
Filiana's ray leaps from her finger... and strikes the skeleton squarely in the chest, causing its burning sternum to crack and splinter!
It turns and starts swinging madly, stumbling to the doorway and hacking at the first thing in its path...
...which is apparently the door, as it takes a large gouge out of the decaying wood. It may have been trying to strike Dr. Cawthorne, but one could be mistaken.
Knowing his signature spear is little use against skeletons, Khardan drops the weapon, draws his morningstar and advances into the fray.
Pressed by the fumbling flaming skeleton, Cawthorne gives a mighty swing with his cane before taking a step back out of the doorway, hoping to draw the undead out into the corridor where they may more effectively surround it.
"Let it some out to us!" he calls to his companions.
Dr. Cawthorne's cane strikes the burning skeleton in the ribs. A fracture appears in one of them.
"Come out of there, you headless monster!" the doctor squawks.
Bramwell sighs and waits for the headless skeleton to stumble out.
Once again seeing no place for her better than where she is, Filiana will stand her ground and cast Disrupt Undead at the monstrosity.
Filiana's ray strikes the skeleton in the arm, and causes it to flinch.
The skeleton swipes at the doctor with its axe...
...and the axe whistles an inch over Dr. Cawthorne's head.
Imperia waits for the skeleton to step outside the door, and then she strikes.
Imperia's rapier strikes the skeleton in the ribs, and manages to stick a bit in a fracture before she pulls it out.
With Imperia providing distraction, Cawthorne has the opportunity to better aim at the skeleton's joints to maximize the effect of his blows - assuming his strikes hit true!
Unable to come to grips with the burning skeleton, Khardan lays a meaty palm on Imperia's shoulder. "Bulwark, bless this warrior, and grant her your protection this day."
War Mind (minor): At 1st level, you can touch an ally and grant it a tactical advantage for 1 minute. At the start of its turn each round, it can select one of the following bonuses: +10 feet to base land speed, +1 dodge bonus to AC, +1 insight bonus on attack rolls, or a +1 luck bonus on saving throws. Each bonus selected lasts for 1 round.
Before Khardan can impart his blessing, Dr. Cawthorne's cane strikes the flaming skeleton in the back and shatters its spine, causing it to fly apart and gutter out.
"Have I mentioned that I don't like this place? Let's finish up here so we can find the ones that desecrated the Professor."
Khardan will search the cells. Take 20.
Filiana stares for a moment at the scattered bones that only moments ago were fighting the group. "By the gods," she whispers, almost to herself, "Is there no end to the horror of this place?"
Then she clears her throat and speaks again, a little louder this time.
"Ahh, I was just about to say, when Doctor Cawthorne noticed the skeleton... thing, that I think there is something down at the bottom of the well. When I used my magic sight, I saw some things down there glow."
Khardan looks around at the fancy people around him and sets his jaw. "I'll get it," he says.
He gets out his rope and grappling hook and lets himself down into the well.
At the bottom of the dark shaft is a human corpse that looks very similar to the Lopper's wraith, alongside 30 feet of old rope.
Scattered about the bottom of the shaft are the following items:
--120 gold pieces;
--A broken masterwork heavy crossbow;
--An expertly-crafted masterwork longsword with images of skulls engraved on the blade;
--A stone heavy mace with its head carved in the shape of Pharasma's holy symbol;
--A stone cube;
--A ring of keys.
Khardan scoops up the loot into a bag, ties it to the rope and yells "Bring it up!"
He spends some time squatting over the corpse. "What in the Bulwark's name were you doing with a Pharasmin holy symbol?" he asks it. "Was it a victim's? Or yours? Either way I'm not leaving you down here where you can just come back and terrorize more folks. You're coming with me."
Taking out a second sack, the half-orc priest shovels in all the bits of the corpse he can find. It should be mostly bone now, but he takes it all, tugging on the rope and climbing up when it is lowered back down.
"We're going to take this to the graveyard, where Father Grimburrow can properly inter his bones so that he'll never rise again." he announces.
Filiana stares at the pile of items that Khardan sends back up from the bottom of the well for a few seconds with her eyes glowing white before pointing at the mace and the cube.
"Those two," she says, "those two are glowing with enchantment. They must be what I saw down there." Then her brow furrows in puzzlement. "But I... well, I don't know what else to tell you. I'm not seeing anything like I did when I did this with that awful axe. They're both enchanted in some way, but I don't..." She raises an eyebrow as a thought strikes her. Hmm... the glow on the stone looks ... sort of... similar to the glow from my protection spell. Not the same... but similar."
She looks downcast for a moment. I'm sorry, that's probably not much help."
When Filiana looks at the Lopper's weapon, it's no longer glowing with magic.
Looking slightly disappointed in her inability to tell the group anything useful, Filiana starts to turn away when she notices something odd. Turning back to stare at Lord Bramwell, still standing on the far side of the well, with the Lopper's accursed axe in his hand, her eyes, still glowing white, widen slightly. She points with a slightly shaking hand.
"The Axe! It's gone! Oh, ah ... no. I don't mean the axe is gone. The magic. That black and evil magic is gone from it. It just looks like an ordinary thing now."
For a moment all the disappointment, fear and worry drops from her face and Filiana smiles a simple, happy smile of a sort none of the group have seen from her since she arrived in Ravengro several days ago.
"I think ... I think that means we did it. We killed him ... if that's the right word to use. Sent him on to his proper judgement. And that lifted the curse from the axe. He won't be back now."
"It will take me a couple of minutes, but I should be able to examine those two items." She'll start with the longsword, and move to the mace.
"I'll take a look at the axe after that. Everyone is all right, yes?
...you get a vision of the bottom of the shaft where the Lopper was imprisoned. The smell of burning timber is in the air. Smoke begins to flood the shaft.
The memory blurs together, shifting until you're looking through someone else's eyes. A nobleman sits at a desk, his head in his hands, his brown hair going grey with stress. Out the window behind him, you see acres of fallow farmlands.
"I'm fine," grumbles Khardan, putting away his warhammer and retrieving his spear.