Pel lowers his hand from casting his spell. It's easy for him to forget how destructive his magic can be. At least in this case it's being put to good use.
As the group moves to follow the elf, Pel says, "Stay together. She'll be more dangerous if she manages to split us up. Don't give her what she wants."
Below in the manor's great hall, you can see other corpses moving and shambling about. From your vantage in the gallery, you see no sign of the elf.
Zamanda responds
I think we should finish searching up here.
Varor stopped on the stairs and counts the number of undead he can see on the first floor. He plays with his holy symbol as he thinks of how he would handle this situation if it was a robbery. “Find, we got eight more undead down here, so make it a sweep. That's quick looks and no detailed examinations. Don't slow down until we know this place is clear.”
”Fine. I suppose the bodies aren’t going anywhere. But we should still take time to thoroughly break them. If they can be raised once they can be raised twice. The arms and legs should be sufficient.”
Bashiel scowls at the corpses roaming below. "Bah, she's gone already." He glances at the doors to the north. "Go ahead, I'll cover the stairs in case any of these suddenly decide to come after us. Once you're all done with... breaking these bodies and checking the rooms, we can go together."
Bashiel is clearly not satisfied. He's absolutely burning to go after the elf and take care of the undead downstairs at the same time.
Zamanda opens the door that Ilsa suggested.
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Pel stays upstairs as the group does a sweep of the second floor. When it comes time to deal with the zombies downstairs, Pel suggests, "Perhaps we should try attacking them from up here? I think that would be ideal if we can deal with most or all of them before they can even get to us."
"That'd make sense Pel. You wouldn't happen to have another one of those exploding light spells? Like you used up here? Would make things a lot safer down there." He readies his bardiche in case any of the undead decide to rush them while the rest of the team is occupied.
"I do, actually," Pel replies. "If you want me to use it, I certainly can. It should be able to effect several of them. Perhaps if we let them shamble around a bit more I could even strike all of them. I can't guarantee it will be as potent as the first one, but it should soften them up a bit at least. Just say the word."
There are three doors on the north wall of the art gallery. Zamanda opens the one closest to Ilsa and finds it contains a finely appointed washroom, replete with a glazed ceramic tub and wash basin that must have cost a fortune.
Finding nothing of interest in the washroom, Zamanda moves to open the middle door. On the other side is a palatial bed chamber with a massive four-poster bed. What was once a beautiful room, however, has been cast into disarray with fixtures smashed and destroyed, bed linens torn, and blood sprayed about and congealed on the floor in black puddles. In the center of the room are two figures, once women but now undead. The first is dressed in a pearl-studded gown with an elaborate, powdered wig so tall it nearly brushes the ceiling. The second, dressed as a Qadiran princess, attends the first. They seem caught in whatever parody of life they have been acting out for days and do not immediately notice Zamanda's presence or the newly opened door.
Once everyone is ready, Pel casts another blast of light at the zombies below, hoping to end their threat before it’s truly begun. He puts a bit more magical energy into the spell than before.
==Perception Checks vs Snipe==
Ilsa closes the door on the zombies and, while she hears a curious grunt and shambling of feet, they seem to otherwise take little notice. Shortly after, Pel casts another spell, this time into the Great Hall below. Despite the infusion of arcane energy, this blast is somehow less forceful than the previous one. The zombies are badly burned by the explosion, but still standing. They are, however, reduced to waving their arms about as they have clearly lost the ability to see their surroundings.
Yet, just a fraction of a second later, there is an almost inaudible <snick> from below and another tiny crossbow bolt comes up through the banister and grazes the arcanist's neck.
Though she tries to duck behind the wall before you see her, a cackle of delight betrays the elf's presence and you all see a wisp of her hair before she darts behind the wall again.
Seeing the elf, Kalem took off in a spring after her. Trusting that the zombies would be too blind to stop him, he planned to use his speed to it’s greatest advantage. One way or another they had to corner this elf, otherwise she would pick them off one by one.
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Ilsa peers down below and frowns as Pel's spell has less effect this time. She is then alarmed to see the crossbow bolt graze his neck.
"We're playing into her hands," she frets. "Let's stick to our original plan and deal with this up here first, then mop up the rest downstairs while we deal with her."
With the burst of light searing away at the zombies, Bashiel steps forwards (switching spots with Varor) to better cover the entirety of the stairs. He reasons that if the zombies are going to try to rush the group, now would be the most obvious time. What he's not at all ready for is a second surprise attack so soon after the first, and this one aimed at Pel. How had the elf managed to hide herself so well, so quickly?
Pel doesn’t have a chance to frown at the zombies’ survival before he finds himself staggering back as an arrow takes him completely off guard. He reflexively raises his hand to his neck and feels something wet. He pulls it away to see his hand covered in blood.
Nearly passing out from the sight, Pel does his best to appear to do just that. He falls to the ground, trying to make himself as little of a target as possible. As the grievous wound on his neck continues to spill blood, the arcanist struggles to find something in his pack. His vision is darkening. He doesn’t have long.
Finding what he is looking for, Pel pops out the vial’s stopper and throws its contents back into his mouth. Despite the gash in his throat and his blood loss, Pel forces himself to swallow all of the vial’s liquid.
Though some of the pain remains, Pel can tell that his bleeding has stopped and he’s not at risk of immediately dying.
To his companions, Pel says, “Guhhh…” He spits up blood. Trying again, he says, “Go get her. I’ll be okay.”
Rage. Attack!
Kalem: Leap and Chase
Bashiel: Descend stairs and kill zombies (rolls to follow)
Pel: Chug a potion
Ilsa: Delay/Pending
Zamanda: Delay/Pending
Varor: Delay/Pending
Before anyone quite realizes what is happening, Kalem has leaped over the banister and charged after the cackling elf. The zombies about him are, fortunately, either blinded and can only flail madly or are too surprised by the leaping tiefling to take any action. From above, Bashiel sees what is happening and begins moving down the staircase to begin clearing out the shambling remains of the nobles' grand ball.
Kalem whips around the corner into what appears to have been a den. There is a door in the far, northeast corner, which he sees slowly swinging on its hinges as if someone recently went through but, what is confronted with in the den itself proves to be of a more immediate concern. There, in the center of the room, is a hideous monstrosity crafted from body parts stitched together with thick string, wire, and metal staples. Still more grotesque is the fact that while the thing appears to have been crafted from the body parts of the deceased guests, those parts have been stitched together into the form of a fierce hound. Dead eyes snap to attention on Kalem as he enters the room and it lunges to the attack, but not before Kalem gets in a first swing.
Nonetheless, the tiefling's weapon is aimed too quickly and only glances off the hound's thick hide. In turn, it lunges forth, slashing at the tiefling with a mangled mouth filled with impossibly sharp teeth.
The thing's jaws clamp down on the tiefling's arm, biting deep and tearing flesh before he manages to pull his arm back.
Varor follows behind Bashiel down the stairs while switching his scimitar to his off hand but doesn't get to the turn before vaults over the handrail to the ground below.
Landing in a crouch next to one of the zombies he uses his free hand to grab his holy symbol and channel energy to damage the undead.
Varor summons a burst of holy energy to cleanse the undead of their animating forces. Those already hit by Pel’s earlier blast collapse while others are injured. However, the beast squaring off against Kalem is unaffected.
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Ilsa, seeing Kalem vault like a madman over the railing after the elf, ignores the two undead in the room next to Zamanda and follows after Bashiel and Varor.
Thinking some protection might be nice, she imagines multiple images of herself at her side, and abruptly several more appear.
*Mask Misery: The subject can shrug off a condition for a short time before succumbing to it. The mesmerist can trigger this trick when the subject becomes affected by a minor condition listed under the touch treatment ability. The subject can ignore the effect of that condition for 1d4 rounds, after which the subject takes the full effect. This has no effect on any conditions affecting the subject other than the triggering condition, even if those other effects are also listed under touch treatment. The rounds during which the subject ignores the triggering effect still count against that effect’s duration; if the duration of mask misery is longer than the effect lasts, the subject isn’t affected by the condition at all. If an effect that imposes more than one condition triggers this trick, the subject ignores all eligible conditions. If the mesmerist is 6th level or higher, he adds the moderate conditions to the conditions he can ignore with this trick, and this trick ends minor conditions entirely instead of suppressing them temporarily. The mesmerist doesn’t need to have touch treatment to choose or use this trick.
*Mesmeric Mirror: An illusory image appears near the subject to throw off attackers. The mesmerist can trigger this trick when the subject is attacked or becomes the target of a spell that requires an attack roll. One duplicate of the subject appears, and the attacker must determine randomly which it hits (as mirror image). For every 5 class levels the mesmerist possesses, one additional image appears, to a maximum of five images at 20th level. Each image lasts for 1 minute per mesmerist level or until destroyed. This is an illusion (figment) effect.
Bashiel advances down the stairs the old-fashioned (and safe) way, swinging his bardiche in a great arc to cut at the relatively uninjured zombie at the foot of the staircase.
As the swing cleaves apart another zombie, he looks past it and towards the room Kalem just entered, and from which a massive crashing just emitted . "Dammit Kalem! What in the hells was that?" He readies to chase into the northern room and after the headstrong tiefling.
Most of the zombies seem to resist the full blast of Varor's channelled energy, but that combined with a slashing blow from Bashiel's bardiche is enough to destroy one of them.
The zombies shamble forth to attach Bashiel and Varor.
The one zombie going after Bashiel seems to have trouble navigating the stairs, while the other pair bludgeon the priest with flailing arms.
From somewhere in the house, you can all hear a peel of maniacal laughter.
Bashiel slashes through a second zombie as it clumsily approaches.
Kalem swung on the hound. It was a fairly well swung blow, though if it were not for his injuries it would have been stronger. He was bleeding fairly badly from ripping his arm out of it's maw. He would have to kill it quickly so as to see to that. He had hoped to corner the elf, but it seemed like he had just walked into her trap. How had she moved so quickly though? He was certain that she was but moments ahead of him. He was really starting to hate her.
Kalem swings at the fleshwork hound and, while connecting, the creature's strange composition -- without any organs and thick hide -- seems to mitigate some of the blow.
It ignores the chunk of flesh and bone cleaved off by the tiefling and lunges for another attack.
Kalem tries to parry the attack by slapping the hound in the mouth with the pommel of his weapon, but the "hound" is too fast, diving its head to the side and down to bite the tiefling's thigh.
Bashiel kicks the rest of the undead zombie his opportunistic attack finished down the stairs, then advances down them himself. He steps warily, trying to split his attention between the rot-slick steps, the two remaining zombies, and Kalem's injured form ahead.
He calls out to the tiefling "Get back here Kalem, I'll cover you!" then spins around to slash at the neck of a zombie harassing Varor.
Back to the wall after being literally slammed to it and with no idea of Kalems plight, and with no idea where the evil elf is, Varor decides that self-preservation is the best course and cast a spell of Protection from Evil on himself.
Zamanda will shoot at any target that remains standing.
Unfortunately, she judges the distance poorly trying to shoot from the second floor and fails badly.
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With the risk of near-instant death on his mind, Pel wrestles with the urge to hurry downstairs to assist his companions and the need to survive long enough to do so. Compromising, he decides to move slightly closer to the stairs while recalling a spell that might help him survive a bit more easily.
Ilsa: Claws (hit)
Bashiel: Hack (hit)
Varor: Cast PfE, +2 AC
Zamanda: Fwooosh (miss)
Pel: Study
The last of the zombies in the great hall are destroyed when there is the sound of another <snick>, this time from the east. Another tiny crossbow bolt arcs towards Varor as the crazed elf in a jester's outfit blinks back into visible existence.
Having fired her shot, she darts off through an archway to the southeast, laughing and cackling. "Welcome to my party, my pretties. Join my menagerie, join the festivities! Blood on the floor, don't clean it up, you'll be spilling more." It's a terrible rhyme, though she seems to enjoy it.
One chance. He had one chance to put the wolf down before it took another chunk out of him. Eyes and hammer blazing, Kalem swung his hammer...
The elf’s bolt flew and struck Varor weekly, failing to even embed itself as it fell to the floor.
Varor fell to the floor, throat bleeding.