Agrippa will climb down the rope and make ready to return to the Inn.
The Heroes of Briarstone take the better part of valor and manage to creep away from Fort Hailcourse seemingly undetected. Getting the grappling hook back down was a little tricky, but Filbert was more than up to the challenge! Still it was a miserable affair, the damnable rain just wouldn't stop and it was almost pitch black, so you felt glad to be back on solid ground without breaking your necks.
The plan was to go back to the Inn and wait till morning, but it didn't quite turn out that way. Halfway back walking through the eerily dark and brooding quiet town a sudden blood curdling shriek from an alley to your left shocks you!
Initiative rolls:
Combat order:
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Something BAD
Filbert Springbit
Lizzie “Beads” Tamar
Luxina Tenebris
Momijii
Heinrich is up!
Filbert yelps as the blood curdling scream reverberates between the alley walls, a sudden fear of the dark grips the gnome. Even as fear tries to crush him with the darkness, four torches wink into existence each 5' away from the gnome, circling slowly. Throwing dancing shadows in a macabre merry-go-round.
Agrippa has a Sunrod, which he now draws and activates.
Agrippa pulls out a foot long alchemically prepared iron rod. He strikes the golden tip solidly against the ground and with a fizzle it bursts into light! The actinic glare reveals a twisted and mutilated corpse shambling towards you with dreadful intent! Fingers of sharpened bone reach out to crush the life from you!
The undead horror lifts it's head to she sky and utters an unearthly screech fit to curdle blood! Half the party bolstered by Lizzie's presence shale it off, but the minds of Luxina and Momijii buckle and they cower in fear!
<--- PASS
<--- PASS
Lizzie “Beads” Tamar Immune.
<--- FAIL
<--- FAIL
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Something BAD
Filbert Springbit <----- WE ARE HERE
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Luxina Tenebris
Momijii
Spoiler:Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Something BAD
Filbert Springbit
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Luxina Tenebris Fear (4 rounds)
Momijii Fear (4 rounds)
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Something BAD
Filbert Springbit
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Luxina Tenebris Fear (3 rounds)
Momijii Fear (3 rounds)
Filbert Springbit, Lizzie "beads" Tamar' and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa are up.
"What is that?
Nevermind that question, it's banishing time, YEAH!"
Lizzie aims her morningstar at the monster.
"You're going down, you ugly freak!"
After moving forth, she readies an attack, bracing for when it comes close.
Agrippa knows this creature, and he knows just how much this thing wants to harm them!
It is targeting someone here! Agrippa draws Red Destiny with his opposite hand and prepares to defend himself.
Filbert yelps as the blood curdling scream reverberates between the alley walls, a sudden fear of the dark grips the gnome. Even as fear tries to crush him with the darkness, four torches wink into existence each 5' away from the gnome, circling slowly. Throwing dancing shadows in a macabre merry-go-round. Moving forward he looks to see what comes from the alleyway.
Momijii heard the unearthly howl and felt a cold sensation rand down her spine and into her heart. Her eyes bugged out a little and she became pale as the blood drained from her face. She knew that she would need to face this thing, this, caricature of a man but no sooner had she resolved to put him down than she heard the hideous howling sound again. It was even worse than before and she suddenly collapsed to her knees almost in tears at the thing's vile presence.
As the creature screams, a sound from beyond the grave, Luxina sags to the ground covering her ears.
"Aaahhh!"
It's not all in my head, it's not all in my head. This thing is real.
Luxina looks to the ground, sobbing and gasping for air at the same time, afraid of looking up and seeing the creature that made the sound.
Filbert yelps and summons a quartet of ethereal lights which slowly circle him, casting huge shadows on the surrounding area!
Lizzie tenses and prepares to strike the monstrosity, should it approach.
Luxina and Momijii are cowed by the baleful sound of the things cry, momentarily unable to act.
Agrippa recognizes this undead abomination as a Revenent and he shouts a warning, while waiting for it to attack!
With sudden ferocity the Revenent surges forwards and grabs Momijii with one bony fist, lifts her clean off the floor and starts squeezing!
<--- HIT
<--- YES
Drawing upon the power of the gods, Lizzie's morning star descends like a meteor onto the Revenent's back, impacting with a flash of light and the smell of burnt flesh. So focused was the Revenent on Momijii it doesn't notice.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Revenant
Filbert Springbit <----- WE ARE HERE
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Luxina Tenebris
Momijii
Spoiler:Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Revenant
Filbert Springbit
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Luxina Tenebris Fear (3 rounds)
Momijii Fear (3 rounds), Grappled
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Revenant
Filbert Springbit
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Luxina Tenebris Fear (2 rounds)
Momijii Fear (2 rounds), Grappled
Filbert Springbit, Lizzie "beads" Tamar' and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa are up.
Filbert takes a step to the north, looking between Lux and Lizzie at the abomination attacking Momijii. "Leave her ALONE!" he cries out as he flings his hands at the creature, is a shoving motion.
Pebbles sucked up in the power associated with his gesture streak towards the Revanent.
"I couldn't agree more with Filbert. You need to be put down."
Lizzie steps into flanking position, and swings her mace at the revenant again.
With the Sunrod in one hand, and Red Destiny in the other, Agrippa moves close to the undead monstrosity
It seems Momijii was a bad girl....this beast seeks her out. Use that to our advantage!
He stabs at the creature with Red Destiny
With a crack like thunder pebbles propelled by Filbert's haunts pepper the revenant. Lizzie once more smashes her mace into the monstrosity's back and again there is a flash of light when it thuds solidly into rotten flesh.
<--- FAIL
<--- PASS
Luxina is still trembling at the ferocity of the revenant's cry, but the pain from the awful ice cold fingers clawing into Momijii's neck breaks the spell and she is suddenly able to counterattack!
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Action posted
Revenant
Filbert Springbit
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Luxina Tenebris
Momijii <----- WE ARE HERE
Spoiler:Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Revenant Reason to Hate
Filbert Springbit
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Luxina Tenebris Fear (3 rounds)
Momijii Grappled
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Revenant Reason to Hate
Filbert Springbit
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Luxina Tenebris Fear (2 rounds)
Momijii Grappled
Momijii is up.
Momijii felt the overwhelming fear fall away and found herself right next to the...thing. She rose from her crouch and took up her stance before quickly attempting to reverse the thing's grip on her neck. If it wanted to play that game she was willing.
Momijii quickly broke it's hold on her throat with a blow to the insides of it's wrists from each of her fists then ducked inside it's grasp and looped her arms so that she maneuvered behind it and held it below the arms. once there she smashed her forehead into the back of it's skull.
Luxina is rocking forward on her knees, thinking and muttering to herself.
If I don't pay attention it will go away. If I don't pay attention it will go away.
Fear still has the better of her mind.
Giving it everything Momijii threw her self into the counter grapple. Her whole body arched and the Revenant swayed but then it shifted it's position and slammed her to the floor. Heinrich stabs it with red Destiny up to the hilt, but it doesn't notice, it's total focus is on Momijii. With her at it's mercy, it looks at her strangely. Momijii screams briefly before her throat is ripped out and it savages her in a display of elemental brutality. Bits of flesh and blood fly everywhere splattering the party from head to toe. The ruin of what was once Momijii slumps to the floor next to the Revenant. It rears it's head back one more and Keens so powerfully it makes your ears ring before collapsing in a heap beside her.
<--- HIT
<--- HIT
<--- HIT
COMBAT OVER
"Momiji!!!!", the little gnome almost yells. She knows her friend is dead, but still she felt compelled to call out her name.
Slowly walking towards her savaged corpse, she checks if Momiji's eyes were still open.
Seeing they are, she kneels down to close them.
"It was hellbent on killing her. Her former self must have done something really bad, if the dead want a specific person dead so badly."
(Sigh)
"We should try and find a priest, or winter preferably, see if they can do something."
By the Lady. Agrippa gasps
Yes, we should find something to cover Momijii, and then bring her to the Chapel at once.
As the undead thing overpowered her and bore her to the ground Momijii remembered everything she had done to him in life. She managed to gasp out with her last breath before her throat was torn out, "I'm sorry Klyn." Then all that was left for her was the screaming and the dying.
Hearing the scream Winter knew who it was and that she was too late. Regardless she rushed to where the group was just in time to see the revenant collapse beside the mangled body of the monk. She came to a stop as she reached them and said quietly, "No, I was too late."[/]b Her shoulders slumped as she said, [b]"I'm sorry Momijii, I wasn't quick enough."
She looked at the group and said, "The Lady of Graves gave me a warning about a revenant and I had hoped to reach you before it did." She looked down, "I'm afraid I failed." She approached the body of Momijii and said, "I can't bring her back, not right now, and I don't know of anyone who can, but I can tend to her body and keep her whole while we look for a way to restore her. The Lady says it wasn't her time, and I believe she will lead us to a way to restore her, when the time is right." She muttered a prayer to the Lady and then touched the mangled body preserving it, for now.
The sounds of the undead monster close to her, the howling, the sounds of its unearthly wail still crept through every nerve of Luxina.
Make it stop, make it stop Was the only thing that crept into her mind.
Then a blood-curdling scream mixed with the sounds of claws and teeth ravaging flesh made Luxina crawl even deeper into the ground. She expected it to her turn soon. But then suddenly the sounds stopped, the haze of fear faded. Unaware as to what changed, a calm crept over the elf and she heard one last whisper: "I'm sorry Klyn."
I recognise that voice...Momiji...
Then as if she just woken up out of a stupor she looked up and saw the ravaged body of Momiji close her eyes just as she breathed out her last breath.
"Momiji!! NO!!"
She crept closer and held one of Momiji's strong hands in her own, then she bursted out crying.
"I'm sorry... I've failed... I couldn't keep the darkness at bay...I couldn't keep you safe..."
"What will take it to get her back? I will do anything.."
Luxina looked ready to sob once again.
The rain washes away the blood and soon little is evidence left of the fight beyond the rapidly disintegrating body of Klyn. With great care the party transport Mojiii to lie on the altar of the new chapel.
There Winter shows the party a letter she found.
Salutations!
My flock have been troubled. Strange dreams and stranger rumors. One of them, a normally reliable stevedore called Jacob Allen vanished for some days and came back last Oathday in a bedraggled state. Initially I thought he had been mugged but there was a wildness to him, a vacancy of the eye and a tremor in his hand that was entirety absent mere days earlier. He confessed to me that several newcomers to the area had been drinking with him and convinced him to take part in some peculiar kind of ritual. Apparently this group had been sneaking into the old defiled chapel presumably on some kind of lark. The rituals started off innocently enough, chanting gibberish names and so on but they rapidly descended into the macabre. Sacrificing goats and chickens and drinking the still warm blood, mutilating the corpses and marking profane symbols with entrails. Supposedly there was a yellowed scroll which contained various rites. Jacob initially felt this seemed to have the air of an elaborate if unsavory prank but then peculiar things stared to happen. Chitterlings in the darkness and a crawling pressure in his mind. He witnessed something he is unable to recall, whatever it was warped his personality.
He remembers little beyond chanting as a group holding hands round one of the Thrushmore standing stones. Supposedly they where trying to bring back from our lady's care someone called Ariadnah who died over two thousand years ago! I have searched my tomes but that name is unknown to me. I did examine the Star Stelae when I first came here. There's two of them, ancient beyond measure, but they only radiated a latent magical aura. Quite how they proposed to achieve such a feat is beyond me. I'm half tempted to put this down to them smoking something illegal, the town has been awash with narcotics of late.
Haltingly Jacob told me that another group of these 'cultists' had a violent disagreement with the group he'd fallen in with over the plan to bring this Ariadnah. Jacob didn't find out the nature of the disagreement but there was a lot of shouting. Supposedly a fight ensued at the Old Chapel and there where several fatalities. During the melee he got scared and ran off and hid under a bush till morning. All this seems rather far fetched but I've heard other disquieting rumors. I asked him where the scroll might have been kept. He claimed it was inside a secret basement under the Chapel's altar. I've never heard of such a thing but I suppose I must check. I'll write back soon and let you know what I find.
Yours faithfully, Trilliss
We should investigate the Old Chapel at once. Important evidence could be obtained.
"I read something similar in this, Miss Winter." Filbert says quietly, reaching into his pack pulling out the journal from his search of the new chapel and handing it to her.
"Miss Winter, does Cesadia have anything that might be of use?"
Filbert is more than willing to stop by and see what may be available to benefit their group. Allowing Agrippa and Winter to move the group back to the Sleepless Building. as they walk along though he pesters Winter for answers about what he has forgotten about the Old Chapel. (approach points, interior layout, ect)
abandoned for more than a century, since the mad priest Causton Creed alienated his followers and met a mysterious death at the hands of some demonic entity. What exactly happened at Old Chapel remains a mystery, one that nobody in town wants to discuss.
The old chapel is located just out of town in the woods on a low hill to the east. The wooden structure is somewhat dilapidated now.
Winter considered the question Luxina posed to her about how they could bring Momijii back and shook her head sadly, ""I don't know, not yet anyway. She will make the way known to us when the time is right though, I am sure of it." She looked down at the monk's corpse and said, "We can take her to the old chapel, her body will be safe there." As they went towards the Chapel the changeling woman responded to Filbert's question and said, "She might, we can stop and ask on our way to the chapel."
Once they had gotten Momijii to the chapel Winter pulled out a letter she had received and passed it around for the others to examine and then took the book the gnome offered her. She read it carefully and nodded, "Yes. there do seem to be some things common between them don't there."
once we have made it to the old Chapel
Filbert eases along the outskirts of the roadway, really not much more than a trail now due to its lack of use - or is it, GM clarification if needed .
Searching for signs of guards or occupation.
Lizzie was casually walking, the morningstar bobbing on her shoulder as they went.
"I wonder what we'll find in there. More crazy cultists, undead, or something freaky we don't know even existed."
She waits for Filbert to complete his survey, before approaching the entrance.
Guided by the wan light of Heinrich's sunrod, the party heads towards the Old Chapel. The path is overgrown and of course it's raining... By the time you get there, it must be 3am and everyone is at once tired yet filled with a nervous energy. The chapel itself is showing it's age and in places is quite dilapidated. All is eerily quiet, bar the soft patter of the rain there is no sounds other than those of your passage.
Should the above roll not be good
Noticing a faint red light emitting from the otherwise apparently abandoned chapel Filbert holds a hand up for the others to stop so that he can quietly talk to them.
"it's faint but there is a red light coming from beneath the door to the chapel, someone or something is home. I'm going to creep forward and see if I can see anything better."
Turning he continues forward towards the chapel trying to look under the door.
Luxina nods solemnly as Filbert approaches the door.
Hopefully there will bo no more revenants inside the chapel.
Luxina seems flexed to mix up a bomb at the nearest sign of trouble.
As they approached the Old Temple Winter's mismatched gaze traveled over the area. She could sense this place was very wrong somehow but not what exactly was the problem.
The sense of the heebie jeebies left her too distracted to notice the light that Filbert spotted but she accepted that the small man might be right. As Filbert began to approach the door Winter pulled free her dagger, a relic she'd been entrusted with before coming here, and readied her prayers in preparation for what might come next.
After handing off the Sunrod to Luxina, Agrippa stalks up and checks the door
If the door is unlocked and untrapped, Agrippa will ease it open to try and get a look at what is making the light.