"You dare to desecrate this temple? Throw your defiance in Urgathoa's face? You will see the power of the Pallid Princess!" The tall, pale, dark haired woman strides out behind the Maidens as though walking down a red carpet. In one hand she holds a huge, wicked looking scythe while in the other she presents her holy symbol- a fly with a skull for a head, made entirely of an enormous onyx.
"Goddess! Show these nonbelievers the result of their sacrilege!" Nothing visible happens, but a wave of pure pain washes over the entire room.
Must… fall… b…
Mirela keeps herself up only through sheer force of Will.
And Whisper whimpers in pain.
Artegall can't do much. He can't deal enough damage to take these zombies down in even three rounds, let alone get to the casters. But he can maybe help Mirela.
He will use Total Defense and move. This will provoke an AOO from Purple, but his AC is 29 this round (and CMD is 26).
Wizard 0: Acid splash, Mage hand, prestidigitation, read magic. 1:Mage armour, Vanish, Magic weapon, (S)Colour spray.2:Spectral hand, Spectral hand, (S)Blur | Subtle misdirection 2/6.
Bonded item A:0/1, D: 0/1. Pearl Lv1 0/1, Lv2 0/1. Wand cure light (3). Wand daze monster (8). Wand prot.evil. (46). Wand magic missile (18)
Nargun winces a little, then grins savagely at the unholy priest
You will soon see the sharpness of my axe.
The rapier-wielding swordsman darts out of the hallway to stab at Nargun again, lunging over the fallen Maiden's twice-dead corpse. "Watch the madman, lady! He's dangerous!"
He hits home but the little blade does barely any damage in Nargun's rage-fueled state.
Wizard 0: Acid splash, Mage hand, prestidigitation, read magic. 1:Mage armour, Vanish, Magic weapon, (S)Colour spray.2:Spectral hand, Spectral hand, (S)Blur | Subtle misdirection 2/6.
Bonded item A:0/1, D: 0/1. Pearl Lv1 0/1, Lv2 0/1. Wand cure light (3). Wand daze monster (8). Wand prot.evil. (46). Wand magic missile (18)
Twilight was at a loss at how to deal with the situation. One thing was certain however, she could not withstand another wave of negative energy from the priestess of Urgathoa. The Pallid Princess' chosen was indeed powerful.
With that in mind her course of action became clear: self preservation.
Under the circumstances Twilight knew that most other Callistrians would have simply run, but even with this in mind she was loath to abandon her friends so she compromised.
"Callistria, despite the foolishness of this action, I beseech you to see fit to ward this dwarf" With the brief prayer complete, she headed back outside the door to regroup.
The Maiden zombies continue to struggle, with Whisper's target pushing up to its feet while its companion attacks Mirela's wolf.
Whisper ducks the blade while Artegall's opponent charges him, coming within inches of taking off his head.
With the heroes on their back feet, the spellcaster in the hallway ducks behind one of the dead leukodaemons floating in a tank and aims a black ray at the raging dwarf.
The ray hits Nargun dead center, sapping his energy as cold leeches through his limbs.
Mirela looks in horror at the Priestess before her drains the life force from her and Whisper:
Watch the Priestess, she do be a stronger Priest then we are, and can be bringing that pain multiple times!
She backs up out of the room to get away from the priestess and calls Whisper to Heel, in an attempt to heal her.
Whisper moves out to Mirela.
Meanwhile Mirela Heals herself up to get back in the fight.
Suddenly, the dwarf finds himself out of breath, his powerful muscles aching, as if a week of sleepless nights weighted on his massive shoulders. He does his best to hit his foes, but never has his axe felt so heavy...
Whisper tries to bite the Maiden as she rises from the ground but the undead warrior blocks the wolf's teeth with her shield.
She nearly skewers Whisper through the neck as she finds her feet again and then does hit the wolf in her hindquarters as Whisper turns to run away, dropping Whisper to the floor with a heavy thump.
Nargun hits the doctor solidly with his first strike but the slender man dances out of the way of the second.
Artegall's Studied Target on Blue has expired by now. He studies Purple's movements, slashes, then takes a step towards the corner.
Edit: moved towards the corner instead of behind the cylinder - really don't want to get flanked.
Artegall expertly pierces the dead Maiden's defenses, slashing off a chunk of muscle that would have disabled a living warrior. The undead monster before him fights on, though.
It awkwardly slashes at him as he retreats but nearly loses its sword as it tries to compensate for the missing part of its upper arm.
The spellcaster behind the doctor murmurs another spell and Nargun can feel it as his muscles try to freeze in place.
For a few seconds, Nargun stops, all his muscles blocked by the foul spell.
Then, fuelled by his rage of all things Lamm, or by the powers of Calistria's holy servant, the dwarf starts slowly walking again, grinning ferociously, to the dismay and horror of his foes, as if he was an unstoppable force of vengeance.
Wizard 0: Acid splash, Mage hand, prestidigitation, read magic. 1:Mage armour, Vanish, Magic weapon, (S)Colour spray.2:Spectral hand, Spectral hand, (S)Blur | Subtle misdirection 2/6.
Bonded item A:0/1, D: 0/1. Pearl Lv1 0/1, Lv2 0/1. Wand cure light (3). Wand daze monster (8). Wand prot.evil. (46). Wand magic missile (18)
Even from outside the room Twilight recognized the significance of the necromantic spell that had been cast at someone. Due to the nature of the spell she suspected either Nargun or Artegall. Regardless, there was nothing she could do about it and she had a more important problem to deal with anyway.
Unweaving her last remaining spell from Callistria, she simply let the raw divine energy wash through her.
Emboldened somewhat by the healing energies, she pulled out one of her healing scrolls and made ready to head back in to assist in whatever way she could.
"Finish them!" Premature, perhaps, but the doctor yelled his order as he confidently stabbed at Nargun again. The undead Maidens surged forward to flank Artegall and Nargun, the last two opponents left in the room.
As before, the doctor wielded his rapier with the precision of a scalpel but also doing a tiny bit of damage like a rapier.
Even moving in concert with their allies, though, the zombie warriors couldn't breach Nargun and Artegall's expert defenses.
Artegall misses as the zombie moves to flank him.
Then he turns his focus back to his quarry, slashing with his longsword and stepping out of the flank. As this is the second (and last) round of Studied Combat on Purple, he will discharge it for a Studied Strike.
THe first blow is easily dodged by the rapier wielding maniac, who taunts the dwarf, noticing his tiredness, feeling the barbarian gave his best shot.
The second attack is as powerful, and way more precise, coming as a bloody surprise for the Urgathoan thrall.
Whisper didn't be coming, that's not good. I 'ave to go back in to see if she is still up...
Mirela ducks back into the room, keeping the glass case between herself and the priestess. Moving away from the zombie, as she comes around she sees Nargun hard pressed, and launches an arrow at the doctor giving orders, while staying away from the third (red) zombie.
Nargun barely manages to catch his quick opponent but he nearly tears the man's shoulder apart with his axe and the doctor screams in pain. Mirela follows up with a well placed arrow that takes the doctor in the same arm.
The pale woman seems annoyed this is taking so long. "Kneel, surrender, and I will make your deaths of greater use than your life. Prostrate yourselves before Urgathoa! Grovel for her blessing! Fall!"
Mirela drops to the floor as she feels the force of the other priestesses will control her.
Nargun uses all his bodily strenght, but his will fails him, and he gets on the floor
Lamm's expression turns into an evil, malevolent smirk as he walks over to the dwarf struggling on the floor.
He reaches out and touches Nargun on the back but after a moment frowns and withdraws his hand, looking puzzled while Nargun looks none the worse for wear.
Wizard 0: Acid splash, Mage hand, prestidigitation, read magic. 1:Mage armour, Vanish, Magic weapon, (S)Colour spray.2:Spectral hand, Spectral hand, (S)Blur | Subtle misdirection 2/6.
Bonded item A:0/1, D: 0/1. Pearl Lv1 0/1, Lv2 0/1. Wand cure light (3). Wand daze monster (8). Wand prot.evil. (46). Wand magic missile (18)
Satisfied with her own safety, Twilight rushed back into the room and surveyed the scene with dismay. Everyone was scattered all across the room and surrounded. The wolf was down and the fight was a lot closer to the doors than she remembered.
Unable to reach Nargun or Artegal she tapped Mirella with the wand and watched for an opening in the melee that she could exploit to lend some aid to the beleaguered fighters.
The Maidens and doctor continue their furious attacks, taking advantage of Nargun's vulnerable position but finding it hard to hack through his blessedly thick hide.
Artegall continues to fight off his pair of attackers but misses a parry and takes a slice across the shoulder.
With great effort Mirela forces herself to her feet. Then she takes her bow and fires at the wounded (Red) Zombie trying desperately to give Nargun a path to get out.
Must Help Whisper…. She mumbles as she fires.
Nargun fails to get up, and tries to maim the spellcaster legs in a powerful horizontal swing
Nargun swipes at the spellcaster but he contemptuously just lifts his foot. "Just die already," the man snarls in a voice that sounds just like the hated Gaedren Lamm's.
Mirela has better luck, snapping an arrow into the side of a Gray Maiden's helmet, finally inflicting enough damage to overwhelm even the unnatural power that animated her. The heavily armored Maiden clatters to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
The dark haired women's expression turns annoyed and she shakes her head at the noise. "You will see that disturbing my mistress's worship is a deadly mistake." Turning her head, she looks for... something, apparently finding it as her frown turns to a smirk. "You will see the power and the promise of Urgathoa!"
She strides over to Whisper's body and pulls out a black gem, then begins chanting over the wolf's corpse. As she reaches the end of her prayer, the gem crumbles to dust which scatters over the fallen wolf's form and a dark flame kindles in the back of Mirela's faithful companion's eyes. Lurching unnaturally, the undead wolf rises slowly to its feet.
Artegall will use Total Defense and move towards Twilight.
One of his opponents gets in a lucky slice as Artegall retreats toward Twilight, coming close to landing a deadly shot to the back of the investigator's neck.
The spellcaster with Lamm's voice growls "Stop moving!" at Nargun and tries to hit him again but misses as the dwarf convulses in his attempts to throw off the magical command.
Wizard 0: Acid splash, Mage hand, prestidigitation, read magic. 1:Mage armour, Vanish, Magic weapon, (S)Colour spray.2:Spectral hand, Spectral hand, (S)Blur | Subtle misdirection 2/6.
Bonded item A:0/1, D: 0/1. Pearl Lv1 0/1, Lv2 0/1. Wand cure light (3). Wand daze monster (8). Wand prot.evil. (46). Wand magic missile (18)
Twilight looked around at her scattered companions and once again thoughts of abandoning the fight crossed her mind. That is until the priestess used her unholy magics to infuse unlife into he wolf's corpse.
"Get UP Mirella! This woman has taken something dear to you and corrupted it. Do not let this affront stand! Accept the lady's blessing, you have the means to exact your own retribution. Make her regret crossing you!"
Fiery zeal in her eyes, Twilight imbued Mirella with Callistria's blessing to twist luck in her favour to avenge her fallen companion.
"As for you..."" She then dropped the wand of magic missiles she had been carrying and pulled out her wasp shaped dagger to harass and harry the zombie between Artegall and herself.
Showing more of their continued human intelligence, the pair of Maidens move to catch their quarry before he can get back to his friends, one charging in to force Artegall to turn toward it as the other rushes around the broken remains of the leukodaemon's to chop into the investigator's flank.
The doctor stabs Nargun twice more in the back, doing a little more damage this time.
Feeling the burning flame of vengeance that so often accompanies Callistria's blessing Mirela doesn’t even register
The shock at what happened to Whisper. Instead she is consumed with revenge.
You think to take something from me! Let me take your right hand from you!
Then she launches two quick arrows at the Doctor who spread so much plague, and now is trying to skewer her Dwarf!
Finally she steps over to hold the door in case Nargun can manage to stand up and they decide to retreat.
For once, Nargun tries to restrain his fury, at least a little, wanting to try another strategy
Missing his intended target only infuriate the dwarf a little more
Nargun will stand up, shouting defiantly
I'll kill you ALL! Twice of I need!
Mirela takes aim and almost hits the Lamm soundalike in the kidney but he takes a step back at the last second as Nargun struggles to his feet and the arrow merely grazes him.
The spellcaster once again tries to touch Nargun but the vengeful dwarf shrugs him and his spell off. The doctor, however, nearly puts his rapier through Nargun's throat.
The dwarf swings wildly, missing once but managing to land one solid hit on the man who sounds just like the hated Lamm.
Whisper's corpse slips up next to one of the corpse Maidens and bites at the first target it sees- Twilight.
Whether from lingering feelings for its former friends or awkwardness as it gets used to its newly dead limbs, the wolf can't connect with any of its attacks.
The pale woman scowls at Nargun and slams the butt of her scythe on the floor, screaming "YOU DARE!?" Her anger lashes out in every direction, washing over everyone in the room like a wave of pain.
Nargun be getting out of there!
It was hard to tell what was going on as the massive tank and its contents obscured Twilight's vision from behind it, but she did recognize the familiar effects of negative energy washing over everyone again. Artegall in particular looked like he was fighting to remain conscious.
Making matters worse the undead wolf was now nipping at her.
Twilight evoked a pearl of glowing positive energy on the tip of the wand and fought an urge to expend it on the zombie canine, instead tapping Artegall with the healing energy.
Reinvigorated by Twilight's healing, Artegall will slash at Purple, hoping to drop at least one of the foes.