Dervak takes a 5' step, picks up Combat Reflexes with Barroom Brawler, and casts Longarm.
Ellery winces in pain but stabs at the skum again...
As Dervak's arms grow to an unnatural size his bones sound as if they are cracking and breaking. From where the floor meets the wall and other corners of the room something can be seen. No one is sure exactly what since when you look directly at it nothing unusual is there.
Again as Ellery stabs the creature and electricity arcs through the rapier into Ellery, though the pain is less.
Mara stepped forwards behind Dervak, continuing to chant, and cast a spell to heal Rowan.
"I hope Ellery's OK down there," she said to Dervak, Rowan and Theo.
Rowan looks a little reluctant about fighting the zombies again.
”Does anyone know what will hurt these things? I punched them last time, and it did not seem very effective.”
"Maybe an Axe?", Mara suggested.
"Trip them! Grab their swords!"
Theophilus peers down the staircase at the slum sorcerer.
He looks as if he will have many misfortunes coming his way.
Rowan hesitates but is not lost yet.
Dervak swing his falchion at the unsuspecting zombie as it goes to fire its bow. He feels an ever so slight foreign tug on his sinister hand which is enough to bring the weapon down on the zombie's head splitting it down to its throat. Thick black sludge tumbles out of the exposed wound.
A sudden gust of wind blows across the rampart sending two of the arrows off harmlessly. The third finds its mark and Theo gains another arrow.
The claw rakes across Ellery's chain but the fine armor is not penetrated. The skum steps back and glances at the mirror in the next room and croaks.
Mara continued chanting, waiting to see what Dervak and Rowan were going to do.
Dervak steps up, slashing and biting at zombies.
Mara stepped up behind Dervak, still chanting, and focused her attention on the closest zombie. Her eyes turned pitch black, her color drained, then a cloud of shimmering stardust surrounded the undead creature.
Grinning with Insanity's face, the gentleman stares at Zombie 3!
He continues to Cackle.
Rowan squeezes through the doorway past Mara and attacks the zombie in front of him with his handaxe.
Dervak's magical blade easily slices through the zombie's head, destroying its brain and the corpse falls to the ground unmoving. Rowan also hits a zombie in the skull with his handaxe but has much less luck penetrating it.
The zombie is latest to fall the witch's curse.
Ellery takes a five foot step back and drinks his potion of cure light wounds.
From down the stairs another spell, shocking grasp.
The skum’s hand, writhing in electricity, touches Ellery on the chest. Ellery’s body convulses but before everything goes black he sees someone wearing his face walking up the stairs.
Over the next couple of seconds the party easily dispatches the remaining zombies.
Found equipment: 5x masterwok longswords, 5x masterwok longbows,46 arrows, +1 chainshirt, +2 headband of wisdom (I imagine Rowan wants this), and a key ring with several brass keys.
Ellery returns to the tower, he points downstairs and then draws a finger across his throat.
"Let's heal up and keep going."
A coral wand also lies on the skum killed on the battlements.
Mara healed Ellery, asking, "How many were there downstairs? Did you search them?"
If someone searches the skum killed downstairs they don't have any gear on them.
Ellery holds up three fingers, then nods, then makes a zero with his index finger and thumb.
Ellery seems awfully 'quiet'. She said to the mute rogue, "We should try to stay in sight of each other from now on. If something had happened to you or Rowan downstairs, we wouldn't have been there to help you."
She picked up the coral wand and examined it.
"OK, who needs more healing?", she asked.
”I’m still feeling good after that last heal you gave me.”
Theo slaps his forehead. The gentleman reaches into his jacket, producung a wand.
Cures light wounds. Who's next?
Mara walked over to the closest donjon and looked in. "That spellcaster might have kept a spellbook around here somewhere."
"Ellery" grins at Mara and says, "You're perceptive AND capable. For what it's worth I think you'll defeat me but I'm compelled to try in any case."
Ellery can speak now? "Wait a minute..."
"Ellery" still holding Red Destiny stabs Mara.
Betrayed Mara suddenly realizes something that was bothering her. His face is backwards, as if she was looking at Ellery's reflection in a mirror, and he's holding Red Destiny in the opposite hand he usually does.
Suddenly there were four copies of "Ellery" that shifted in, out, and through his square. Theo knows that "Ellery" cast mirror image as a spell-like ability.
Mara eyes turned pitch black again. "You should have fled while you had the chance!", she declared in an netherworld voice, and opened a shortcut in the fabric of space for Rowan to step through, to right behind the shapechanger. Then she stepped back to make room for Dervak to enter the fray.
The two smartest people in the room have no idea what kind of creature could have replaced Ellery.
Rowan happily accepts the heavens leap, stepping in casually, but emerges throwing a Superman punch.
He says, in a different language:
Dervak is furious at this betrayal. He was never sure about that Ellery, and now... he loses control in a red haze of anger.
Reality starts to tear itself apart as the abomination within Dervak emerges.
Rowan punches down on "Ellery's" head but finds nothing but air as one of the Ellerys disappears.
Dervak's furious strike destroys an illusory target, only two "Ellerys" remain.
"Traitorflesh weak sneakcreep lipstitch! Kill you! KILL YOU! The Dervak was weak to trust!"
Theophilus painfully tears his Remy blue eyes away from the healing wand.
I hate this town!
The Witch casts a spell.
School transmutation; Level psychic 3, sorcerer/wizard 3, witch 3
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
EFFECT
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration concentration, up to 1 round/level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
DESCRIPTION
Your hair animates and extends to grapple and constrict an opponent. Make a grapple check against the target using your caster level as the base attack bonus plus a bonus equal to your Intelligence bonus (if a witch or wizard) or Charisma bonus (if a sorcerer). This grapple check does not provoke attacks of opportunity. If your hair succeeds in grappling a foe, that creature takes 1d6 points of damage or your unarmed strike damage, whichever is greater, and gains the grappled condition. Your hair receives a +5 bonus on grapple checks made against opponents it is already grappling, but cannot move foes or pin foes. Each round that your hair succeeds on a grapple check, it deals an additional 1d6 points of damage. The CMD of your hair, for the purposes of escaping the grapple, is equal to 10 + its CMB.
Once you choose a target, your hair continues to attack that target independently of your own actions. You may designate a new target as a move action, which causes your hair to release its current target (if any) and attack the new target that round. Your hair cannot be targeted as a separate creature, but it can be dispelled.