Eva is readying to throw a bomb out the door to hit what ever is in the square ten feet in front of Kjel. (Currently the Back Left Square taken up by the Big one). If she can get one through right now, she'll do so.
Eva waits, hoping for something to throw a bomb at.
The skelly's slam into the door again, but the ancient weathered wood is holding up surprisingly well.
The big bad finally reaches the door, and while hanging from the ancient stonework over it, slams the door.
Wood splinters, flying into the room like daggers, bouncing off people's armor and embedding itself into their flesh.
The skelly's slam into the door again, but despite the damage done by the big bad's tentacles, it still stands, although the group inside can now see the skeletons and the writhing tentacles of the big bad.
Skelly's begin to boil into the back room that Alexis guard the door of. Cathran's bardiche reaches past her (-2 for partial cover) and slams into a skeleton, damaging it. It's pushed back, but replaced by another skeleton almost immediately.
Then the door explodes into splinters, no longer able to withstand the attacks of the tentacles. Wood scatters through the room.
Eva chucks one of her bombs, aiming to hit as much of the zombies as she can and as little of their group as possible.
Splash Damage: 5 DC 15 Ref for Half Splash
If it is possible to attack the big bad from the doorway:
power attack
nevermind
Bomb (Ranged Touch): 24 to hit
Direct Hit Damage: 13
Splash Damage: 5
"Alexis! Get back from the door!" Cathran bellows through her newly enlarged larynx.
The sorcerer nods and steps back from the vine-wrapped skeleton, then fires a spell into the closest one.
The half-elf grits her teeth and widens her stance, her burnished armor clanking. She brings her bardiche down on the skeleton she pushed back earlier, hoping to destroy it.
She watches for any more skeletons who dare to move in on the group.
Cathran shatters two skeletons with two well placed hits.
Eva throws a bomb into the room, further damaging some of the skeletons. The plants on them seem to be very moist, with lots of water in their tendrils, so most of them seem to be ok, although one does seem to have taken more damage than the others.
Mahb almost throws her torch on the oil soaked wood, but then Kjel roars and attacks through the doorway, and she realizes that he's standing amongst her piled up wood and would be in the middle of the fire if she lit it.
The group manages, just barely, to fight their way through the skeletons attacking them, and kill the undead creature in charge.
Looking through the remains, they find some clues that the skeletons were recently alive, within the last few months.
Hurrying on to the Chateau, they find the small village devastated. Doors ripped from hinges, shattered older skeletons littering the ground, rotting bodies laying in houses, ripped apart.
They find two new coffins, one blue and one red, in the old Chateau, in it's now desecrated chapel. Unable to sanctify the chapel, the group burns the Chateau down, to destroy the tainted site.
While searching, prior to the arson, the group finds a dead cultist, a halfling, tortured on the altar. The group determines this was the cultist from Perdition's Point, punished for her failure. Realizing that the cultists have succeeded in all but Perdition's Point, the group races back to town.
They arrive just as the cultists are attacking the town again. The church troops are valiantly fighting the undead that swarm the town.
Kjel fights like a madman, swinging his ax from one target to another. Shattering skeletons and roaring a war cry. Despite many wounds, he fights on, swinging his way through the skeletons to attack the horribly mutated cultists.
Alexis's eyes blaze as she flings spell after spell at the undead and their controllers, shattering bones, burning cultists, and avenging her friends and family on these creatures.
Mahb hobbles across the field, hexing everything she can bring into sight, and her raven rips it's way through the fight as well, digging into eyes where it can on cultists. Valiant though he fights, poor Pyewacket finally is ripped from the sky. The old witch burns the cultist that kills him with flames from her fingers, one spell after another until it's a pile of smoking debris.
Cathran guards Mahb throughout the fight, her polearm keeping those who'd stop the witch's hexes and cackling with violence from coming near. Despite grievous wounds, the valiant guardian forces herself to fight until the end, only collapsing after the battle is over.
Eva pulls her townsfolk to safety, her brother and her acting as a team, throwing bombs and alchemical flasks in explosions that pepper the town, sending bones and blood and gore everywhere. They rescue as many of the townsfolk as they can.
Halfway through the fight, shortly after the group shows up, their allies show up. Lord Kalvant, Lineera, Aurora, and Riley show up to help bolster the defenses, Lord Kalvant and his priests charging into the fray on horseback, bellowing calls upon their patron Ragathiel to destroy the evil before them.
Just as the fight is thought to be over, a creature rips it's way through the weakened space the cultists have managed to create.
The creature is ancient, an outsider from beyond. An abomination amalgam of tentacled skull and plant that walks the earth and makes the land around it wither and die with each step.
But it is weakened by the failure of the full ritual to be completed, and by appearing early, and not on the equinox.
Despite their wounds, the allies rally. Eva pours the last of her healing potions down Cathran's throat, getting the warrior back on her feet.
Lord Kalvant uses his last smite to declare a holy vengeance on the creature.
The fight is long, and many are lost.
Lineera, with her bony crow, latches onto the creature, sucking negative energy from it until she dies... only to be raised up again by the bony crow. Despite the agony she endured, Lineera repeats the drain of negative energy, again until she dies of it. And a second time the raven brings her back to life. And a third time she drains the creature, and a third time the raven brings her back.
Lord Kalvant and his mount charge the creature, over and over again, taking attack after attack, until finally he is ground under by the creature's thorny tentacles, ripped assunder.
Aurora too gives her life to defeat the evil demi-god, standing toe to toe with the creature until it finally rips her apart, her blood dripping from it's mouth. To the end, her glowing blade cuts bloody swaths out of it's half alive half dead body.
Old Mahb pushes Cathran out of the way of a tentacle, taking the blow on her frail old body, her bones shattering, but as blood pours from her mouth, she casts her death curse on the creature, smiling as her one good eye hexes him.
Finally though, even though the bony crow has flown off and left her, Lineera steps into the creature's embrace and drains it of negative energy, even as Mahb's hex hits it, and the creature screams one last time in agony as both it and Lineera vanish in an explosion of negative energy that sends the survivors to the ground, their breath nearly ended.
----------------------
It's some time before the survivors, shell shocked though they are, are able to recover. The town, only newly rebuilt, is devastated again. But the evil is stopped.
And... as they sit, and wonder if it was worth it... two young voices call out for their parents... a little boy and a little girl, climbing out of the wreckage that was the new town hall. Both are pale, but breathing.
Alexis collapses, hugging the boy to her, her son restored. Her daughter finally comes near, and breaks down as well, but crying, no longer screaming at the sight of her.
The girl's parents rush forward as well, wrapping her in hugs and tears of joy.
The clouds then begin to pour, and while at first it seems as if the sky is also weeping at the losses... the warm summer rain begins to wash away the smoke and blood, cleansing the area, removing the taint and washing it away.
-----------------------
Not everyone is willing to stay in Perdition's point. Some move on. The church sends a new priestess, Sivalla Reville, to rebuild the local church. Elena and Elijah, now married, move on, too many memories for them to stay, but they are happy now.
Alexis stays, taking over for Mahb as the local sorceress. Her cranky manners a nice fit for the lost witch's empty place. Cathran stays on with her, as a guard, no longer wanting to wander the land.
Eva and her brother, their hair paler than it was before, stay on. Their quick smiles always welcome, even if they are a bit slower to spread on their small faces now.
Kjel plans on moving on, but there's always something else that needs doing around the small town. Another house to be rebuilt, a new watch tower to be put up, a new guard to be trained. The irascible northlander ends up being the new head of the town guard, taking Elijah's place when he leaves.
Riley ends up moving on with Lady Jalice, taking on a position with the Church Clergy as a 'troubleshooter'. The pair go on to make something of a name for themselves, investigating mysterious magics and dealing with dangerous arcana.
For at least the rest of the group's lives, the small town of Perdition's Point finds some peace, and while it ends up larger than the village it was once upon a time, it's no longer the focus of evil...
...for a generation at least...
[/fini]