Voren shrieks in fright as the undead reveal themselves. Jokum's comment makes the tiefling think for a moment. He wonders if these things are some kind of demons.
He steps forward and glares at one of them, eyes turning black.
Voren shrieks in fright as the undead reveal themselves. Jokum's comment makes the tiefling think for a moment. He wonders if these things are some kind of demons.
However, his knowledge tells him otherwise. "Zombies! My hexes can't do anything!" He decides to be brave and runs forward. He meets the first zombie with Karthak and swings down his masterwork cold iron heavy mace.
"S#~&!" She cursed in abyssal as she dashed past Jokum and Arthas in pursuit of Voren, slashing the zombie he had attacked with her Black Blade. "Don't separate unless you want to be eaten!" At the look from the zombies staring dead eye she growled loudly at them and start to bob and weave to hopefully avoid them if they surrounded her.
"Embrace my blade brothers and I shall lay your martyred bodies to rest."
Round 1_____________
Karthak Ironbreaker_____
Seeing the creatures advance Karthak moves inside the room slashing wildly with his waraxe!
Karthak moves in and attacks zombie #01
Jokum of the Breakbones_____
"These don't look like demons,"Jokum growls grimly as he steps into the door, takes a step to the side to open up maneuvering room, and snaps off a shot.
Move 10' down and 5' east, take a shot at #2.
Voren the Outsider_____
Voren shrieks in fright as the undead reveal themselves. Jokum's comment makes the tiefling think for a moment. He wonders if these things are some kind of demons. However, his knowledge tells him otherwise.
"Zombies! My hexes can't do anything!" He decides to be brave and runs forward. He meets the first zombie with Karthak and swings down his masterwork cold iron heavy mace.
Move Action: Move to I8
Standard Action: Attack zombie 1.
Danua_____
"S@~#!" She cursed in abyssal as she dashed past Jokum and Arthas in pursuit of Voren, slashing the zombie he had attacked with her Black Blade. "Don't separate unless you want to be eaten!" At the look from the zombies staring dead eye she growled loudly at them and start to bob and weave to hopefully avoid them if they surrounded her.
Arthas Sword of Ragathiel_____
Enter and power attack to 2
"Embrace my blade brothers and I shall lay your martyred bodies to rest."
Enemies__________________________
Moaning, the walking dead of former allies shuffled forward to kill.
Zombie 3 staggered up to Arthas to attack.
for a possible bludgeoning damage.
Zombie 4 staggered up to Arthas to attack.
for a possible bludgeoning damage.
Zombie 5 staggered up to Arthas to attack.
for a possible bludgeoning damage.
Zombie 6 staggered up to Danua to attack.
for a possible bludgeoning damage.
Zombie 7 staggered up to Danua to attack.
for a possible bludgeoning damage.
Zombie 8 staggered up to Danua to attack.
for a possible bludgeoning damage.
3:12
4:12
5:12
6:12
7:12
8:12
Round 2______________________
Players take their turn in order of posting, enemies will go last.
She was thrown off by the two attackers however she reacted quickly as sparks flew from her attack glancing off the bloodied fountain. She lifted her flexible leg and shoved back one zombie as she fought defensively. Casting a spell as she sought to reduce their numbers.
As she slapped away the second zombies groping hands she growled. "You wish!" Before slashing him with her second enspelled attack...
Fighting Defensively AC changes
Karthak steps forward and attacks the zombie on his right aiming for the head...
Arthas steps towards the next zombie and brings his holy sword down.
"Step towards me, my General shall guide you to unto your just reward."
Seeing that his bow's not doing much, Jokum tosses it aside with a growl. "Don't know why I carry the thing." Drawing the ranseur from his back, he circles around to flank a zombie with Arthas.
Voren decides to move forward and take the place of the zombie that Danua took out. He focuses on one of the zombies and swings his heavy mace!
"Heh heh, Jokum, you just aren't built to be an archer it seems. Feel free to take out your frustrations on these corrupted mortal shells!"
Round 2______________________
Danua_____
She was thrown off by the two attackers however she reacted quickly as sparks flew from her attack glancing off the bloodied fountain. She lifted her flexible leg and shoved back one zombie as she fought defensively. Casting a spell as she sought to reduce their numbers.
As she slapped away the second zombies groping hands she growled. "You wish!" Before slashing him with her second enspelled attack...
Karthak Ironbreaker_____
Karthak steps forward and attacks the zombie on his right aiming for the head...
5 ft step forward and attack zombie #6
Arthas Sword of Ragathiel______
Arthas steps towards the next zombie and brings his holy sword down.
"Step towards me, my General shall guide you to unto your just reward."
Jokum of the Breakbones_____
Seeing that his bow's not doing much, Jokum tosses it aside with a growl. "Don't know why I carry the thing." Drawing the ranseur from his back, he circles around to flank a zombie with Arthas.
Drop bow, move to avoid AoOs (drawing sword), and attack #4. If it's down, switch the attack to #5.
Voren the Outsider_____
Voren decides to move forward and take the place of the zombie that Danua took out. He focuses on one of the zombies and swings his heavy mace!
Move Action: Move to G9 Standard Action: Attack zombie 7.
Enemies__________________________
The remaining walking dead crusaders shuffled forward to kill.
Zombie 3 attacked Arthas.
for a possible bludgeoning damage.
Zombie 7 staggered up to Danua to attack.
for a possible bludgeoning damage.
3:12
7:12
Round 3______________________
Players take their turn in order of posting, enemies will go last.
Voren shrieks as Danua's blade almost cuts him. He continues to swing his heavy mace at the same zombie.
She bobbed out of the way of the zombies feeble strikes. Her defensive fighting keeping her out of harms way, as she weaved she slashed her opponent. Quickly casting her simple cantrip shs lashed out again as she tried to bring the fight to a quick close....
Arthas steps up to the last zombie.
"Peace be upon you, your final rest has come."
And executes a near perfect Boar Coming Down the Mountain sword form.
Voren missed, Danua exploded hers, and Arthas cleanly split his in two.
This battle is over.
As gobbets of undead flesh rain down you examine the room.
There is only the eight former crusader bodies wearing broken armor, whatever else they may have carried must have been previously looted. A wide alabaster basin filled with bloody entrails stands in the middle of the room. The outside of the basin is carved with images of warriors around a raised sun, holding longswords aloft.
Danua uses her blackblade to drag some of the entrails out of the basin, crudely sploshing them back on their former owners with a blank look. She gives the basin an appreciate look over but otherwise keeps what she is thinking to herself. The splattering of the blood on her legs or body doesn't seem to phase her at all before she looks over at the stairs with a determined gaze. "I'll check it out."
She moves to the stairs and looks cautiously around to make sure the coast is clear...
Peering around the corner, Danua sees the straight section of the stairway up to the third floor as clear. No opposition forces, no barriers or traps.
She gives her blade a twirl and gives a low purr in satisfaction before reporting quietly. "All clear. Ready to move when you are..."
When he sees Danua removing some of the entrails from the basin, Voren decides to remove the rest of them from the basin and clean it up a bit.
"Thank you Voren."
Arthas pulls out a wooden holy symbol depicting a sword held in an arm that ends in an angel wing. He drops to one knee, Radience held point down, the paladin points his face towards the heavens.
"These fallen brethren have had their bodies defiled, they were not allowed to rest, but worst of all I fear for their immortal spirits my general. Foul magic is at work here, desperate to undo us. I pray that you may guide their souls to take their place at your side or to their Lady should she have other designs for them."
"Furthermore, I ask for your strength and courage, you have given me your blade, you have given me powerful, loyal and stalwart companions, some in your very image. I pray that you do not find me wanting in what we are about to undertake."
"Vengeance for you and the fallen."
Arthas stands and recites the Litany of Rengful Souls over the bodies as he touches each on the head.
Jokum retrieves his arrows, but this time keeps his sword drawn. He watches, looking slightly exasperated, as Arthas recites his prayer. "Dead is dead. Or at least that's what my people say. Now come on, we have a task we must complete." Keeping his sword in hand, he prepares to proceed up the stairs.
Danua is already ahead of him, moving with her blackblade drawn and creeping up the stairs lest they run head long into an enemy.
"I disagree" says Karthak answering Jokum's. "As we just witnessed Dead may very much be alive sometimes. And I agree with Arthas on this one. We need to give these falled brethen closure. Otherwise we might have to fight them again and they'll never know peace" so saying Karthak starts helping Arthas taking care of the dead crusaders.
Voren nods. "It's true. What if they come back as ghosts? We need to take care of things here!" With that, he continues aiding everyone.
As Arthas stood up from administering what blessings he could to the dead, and Voren sluiced water from a discarded helmet to clean the font, something caught your eye...:
As Voren sluiced out the horrid dregs befouling the font with a helmet full of water, you both see through the turbulence and pinkish brown fluid to see a vision.
You see Danua cautiously climbing the narrow stairway. As she gets to the top and peeks around the next landing, your viewpoint shifted around to the other side of the opening.
You realize that the wall around which Danua was peeking had been deliberately weakened on the other side.
Suddenly you see a massively muscled bull headed man charge into view. Crashing into the wall, he bullrushed the wall section AND Danua across the top of the stairs and into the opposite wall of massive external masonry blocks. There is an explosion of blood...
And you jolt back to reality. The vision is gone.
Voren is shocked and panting heavily from the vision. He turns to the door and yells, "Danua! Get back here now! There's a trap up there!" He then heads for the bottom of the stairs.
Danua pauses on the stairs and gives an annoyed growl at Voren's call, she clenches her fist as she stopped from grinding her teeth. "Yes, Fine fine."
<:Remember, you owe them for the healing earlier.:>
<:So? Kept zombies off him remember?:>
<:And you would have fought them anyway.:>
She gave an annoyed growl. <:Your Point?:>
<:Also backed you against Joku-...:>
<:Yes, fine fine.:>
She turns back, reluctantly, backpedaling down the stairs quietly like before.
Jokum stares at Voren, then grabs him and pulls him back from the stairs roughly. "Fool!" in a strangled whisper. "Now any demon atop those stairs know we are coming!" Letting go of the tiefling, he steps back and rubs his hands over his face. He peers at Voren suspiciously. "What sorcery makes you think there is such a trap, in any case?"
Voren shrieks as Jokum drags him and gets in his face. "S-Sorry. I was focused on Danua's safety." When he asked about how he knows that there's a trap, he quickly moves to the basin. He puts his hands on the lip. "This. I was cleaning it and it showed me something. At the top of the stairs, there is a wall that has been weakened on purpose. On the other side of that wall, there's a bull headed monster. I saw Danua reaching the top and then the monster runs through the weakend wall and into Danua. It then crashed into the other wall and... there was so much blood." He looks at Danua. "You didn't make it." He looks at his allies. "You have to believe me!"
She sighs heavily, running her hand across her slick skin and looking between the angered Jokum and flustered Voren. "I do..." She wipes her hand across one of her scaled legs as she speaks. "Never trust them to fight fair." Looking to Jokum. "They know we are here either way... We just rush the stairs instead. Unless someone has another plan? I know of no other routes."
"Come on. We did what needed to be done here. We were given a glimpse to a possible future as a reward. Now let's climb up those stairs and do what we came here for. There's demonspawn in dire need of slaying" says Karthak, grimly taking a tentative swipe with his waraxe before moving towards the stairs, ready for anything.
Jokum's scowl fades when Voren makes his explanation, though now he still seems...angry? Perhaps disappointed or apprehensive is a better word. "We don't know what it was you saw," he mutters. "Could be your gods...or could be some demon sorcery meant to lead us astray. Karthak!" he calls. "Your people are said to be good with stone. Can you identify this weaker wall? Before we get to it?" He frowns. "I would not want to walk into a trap, if it does exist."
Voren relaxes as the tension is lifted (though he still stays wary of Jokum). He decides to try and help point out the wall to Karthak... from a safe distance, of course.
At this point a horn blared from abovestairs.
Loud.
Everyone in the citadel, as well as half a mile away, heard that signal.
Not the pure tone of a trumpet, but the alien Blatt of a hollowed out mammoths tusk blown on by a barbarian.
The basso profundo shook right through your bones. And the hair on the back of your neck screamed at you that there was a huge animal, bearing down on you, with a large number of very sharp teeth. You have a strong impulse to crawl under the nearest heavy object.
Before the mammoth horn blares, Athas adds his voice to Voren's
"Yes, I was granted the vision as well. Either as a warning, or as a gift."
As the alien sounding horn sounds, Arthas grips Radiance tightly.
"Stand fast, the enemy tests our resolve!"
"The enemy fears the Wrath of the Righteous. Remain calm, for we are the gods hands at work, their eyes are upon us, and our immortal souls safe as long as we hold onto our faith."
Danua's tail twitched wildly at the horn blast, before every scale on her legs suddenly flaring in a defensive way as a cold sweat ran down her glistening skin. She started swaying back and away, flicking her sword a couple of times as her tail stood stock still. Her long legs easily carried her across the room, her claws barely made any noise as she moved hastily to make her way back towards the library...
Where there was a nice Large, Heavy, Table to hide under...
Just in case...
Jokum snarls as the horn sounds, whirling around, gazing above the group to try to locate the source of the noise. His golden eyes are wide. "What is that?! I do not like it..."
He joins Danua in backing slowly toward the door.
When the horn sounds, Voren's eyes go wide. He looks at the others. "If I caused this, I'm sorry!"
Karthak looks around ready to take on whatever may come...
Arthas is immune to the intimidating effect.
Are any of us close enough for Arthas's Aura of Courage to be added to the Will Save?
Danua is definitely outside the aura, Voren is definitely inside the aura, the rest of you I don't know. It's a 10 foot radius.
Is the creature originating this effect in sight?
The origin of the sound is not in view, out of sight up the stairway.