Hustavan looks to Castoris in surprise. ”Me? How the deuce would I know anything about all of this?! How dare you imply… You simple… Simpleton!”
Yvette searches the cleric and finds the note. After she reads it aloud to everyone, Hustavan grabs the note out of Yvette’s hands, ”Let me see that.” He reads it again to himself, muttering the words as annoying nobles tend to do. ”What is this nonsense?” He throws the letter back into Yvette’s hands. ”Perhaps we should depart from here? The zombies are bad enough, but the performance was disastrous. I do not want to be caught dead here. It could be the demise of any reputable man of means.”
Trying to ignore Hustavan’s driveling, Yvette cannot recall a Fel or any other information gleaned from the letter.
Barnaby tries to shirk Hustavan, but he refuses to leave the group. ”Don’t you think we already tried to open the doors? They will not budge. They must be magically bound. No, I will stay with your group until all this mess is over. It is my duty to stay alive, and it is your duty to ensure it.”
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"Good job, people...", the halfling exhales, pulling her axe out of the zombie's body. She stores the axe on her belt, then looks up and notices Yvette holding something.
"What's that?", she asks, looking at the letter in her hand. Suddenly, she remembers something and turns around to the crowd. "You folks okaaaaaay?", she stretches the last word for a few seconds. There is but one man standing in front of her now, but she could swear there was a crows here not a minute ago.
After she sees the man's manners towards the pathfinders, her jaw drops. After seeing him speak, she frowns at him: "And you are who, exactly?"
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"Huh, some up-and-coming lesser deity wants to take over the portfolion of the Lady of Graves? I doubt they have much of a chance, but these power plays can be messy. Best to stop if before it goes too far."
Then he turns to the noisy noble.
"Most Noble consul Hustavan, I feel it is my duty to inform you: zombies have poor eyesight, but keen hearing. They strike first at the loudest target. Please do the utmost to protect your valuable life, and speak as little and as quietly as possible."
"If no one is hurt, lets take the next room..."
Jormond stands beside the door in readieness.
Hustavan opens his mouth to object to Jormond's request, but then shuts it for now.
Yvette reviews the enchanted doors to the opera house. She senses a mass dimensional anchor spell. While this magic can be dispelled, it’s going to require the source or something close to it to drop the barring of the doors.
Castoris and Jormond open the door to the opera bar. Known to regulars as the Immortal Drunk, this bar serves theatergoers before the opera, during intermission, and hosts after-parties for wealthy merchants or socialites who are not part of the nobility. The red carpet indicates that this room is also an entrance for wealthy non-nobles.
Various parts of a dozen corpses lie strewn about the floor. Blood and gore stain everything, making the floor slick and filling the room with a metallic aroma. Bodies lie askew, mouths hanging open in silent screams, faces contorted in fear.
Hustavan begins tugging at Jormond's arm, pointing with fear at the bodies. Everyone in the group notices that two of the bodies/zombies are twitching – almost “playing dead” and ready to strike any gullible victims that pass them. Only two of the bodies seem to be threats, and they are prone on the ground, among the other corpses. Hustavan, moves behind Jormond for protection.
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Azura lets out a sorrowful sigh as Yvette reads the note, her eyes turning the color of dense rain clouds. "So it is unlikely we will be able to save our missing Pathfinder. This Fel must have lured him here under false pretenses. By the chimes of Elysium, we will avenge our brother and end this sacrilege!"
Then he turns to the noisy noble.
"Most Noble consul Hustavan, I feel it is my duty to inform you: zombies have poor eyesight, but keen hearing. They strike first at the loudest target. Please do the utmost to protect your valuable life, and speak as little and as quietly as possible."
Despite her dark mood, Azura cannot help but smirk at Jormond's clever handling of the mouthy noble. As they move toward the next room, she reaches up to give him an approving pat on the back.
Once the zombies are spotted, she moves into the room, drawing her longsword. She then begins a new song, this one a foreboding dirge of lament for the fallen and those who soon will be!
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As Yvette gives her analysis of the doors' enchantments, Barnaby's frown turns into a scowl. [b]"Some heavy duty stuff then. Dammit! Guess a full sweep it is then. Even if Wuthers has gone on, we can at least make sure this Fel joins him. And I do not like the sound of this 'stone' in the least.
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As Castoris charges in to reverse the zombie's trap, Banraby hurries forward to support the other half-elf.
for
Castoris rushes into the room and dispatches one of the zombies before it can get up.
Azura prepares for the upcoming battle with a supportive tune, and Barnaby readies an attack.
Jormond calls onto Desna for assistance, and the zombie rattles on the floor in affliction.
Nergi is able to calm the noble down as she moves into the room of zombies.
"Better you all than me," Hustavan mutters, wringing his hands as the group takes out the undead.
Just as the Pathfinders thought they had a good handle of the situation, two more of the corpses further down the room begin to stir. The group notices them, and the door a few feet in front of them bursts open with a group of undead barging into the room – one looks like an undead bugbear!
Hustavan shouts, "By all that is unholy! Protect me, you fools!" Hustavan runs up to hide behind Azura.
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Jormond steps infront of the the other Pathfinders, and his birthmarks blazes. He roars,
"Did you not hear Her voice, un-beings?!? DESNA SMITES THEE! Abominations!"
"Less that nothings, RETURN TO DUST!"
School evocation [fire, language-dependent]; inquisitor 2,
Casting
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Effect
Range personal
Area 30-ft. radius
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Reflex partial, see text; Spell Resistance special, see below
Description
You unleash an insulting tirade so vicious and spiteful that enemies who hear it are physically scorched by your fury. When you cast this spell, make an Intimidate check to demoralize each enemy within 30 feet of you. Enemies that are demoralized this way take 1d10 points of fire damage and must succeed at a Reflex save or catch fire. Spell resistance can negate the fire damage caused by this spell, but does not protect the creature from the demoralizing effect.
(The DC of this check is equal to 10 + the target’s Hit Dice + the target’s Wisdom modifier.)
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Too focused to be annoyed, Azura continues her inspiring song. She looks back and catches the nobleman's eye and points with her longsword to the sturdy bar in the corner, nodding in that direction and hoping he will understand he may take cover there.
She then moves ahead, through the cluster of her comrades and swings her sword at the closest zombie.
Hustavan runs for the bar and jumps over it for cover.
”Umph! …. I’m alright. Ow… Keep killing, peasants. Keep killing!”
Jormond makes such a blistering insult that even Nergi turns her head to him. The force of the enchanted insult rushes through everyone in the room, but it doesn’t seem to affect anyone, including the undead.
Azura dashes up to a zombie that just joined the party and hacks into a bit – all while she continues singing. Sheesh, she must have some fantastic lung capacity!
The zombie with the red overcoat clambers into a standing position and hobbles over to Jormond. ”Arrrggghhhh…"
Yvette drives 4 bolts of power magic into the zombie in red. He moves back a bit, but he keeps pushing forward. Barnaby tries to finish him off, but to no avail.
Jormond expresses his frustration on how the gods clearly must be working against him when his spell didn’t go off as planned.
Castoris whiffs on the bugbear, and Nergi does the same.
Hustavan yells from behind the bar, ”Do better you cretins! My life is in your hands!”
The zombies stand up and move closer and closer to Nergi. She is now piratically surrounded. One moves up to Barnaby, ready to attack at any moment.
Nergi takes more than just a scratch.
The Bugbear then shifts his gaze onto Castoris. The Bugbear raises his morningstar and smashes it down.
The morningstar leaves a bruise.
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Azura dashes up to a zombie that just joined the party and hacks into a bit – all while she continues singing. Sheesh, she must have some fantastic lung capacity!
Azura continues to sing, but winces as she sees Nergi taking heavy blows. She takes a step back and offers a silent prayer for the halfling to be surefooted as her kind were likely to be. She reaches into her component pouch and scoops a bit of butter, rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger and blending the verbal component into her song as she flourishes her hand toward the floor beneath the bugbear zombie.
Jormond just can’t seem to make contact with the red zombie. On the other side of the room, Azura splashes the floor with grease.
The zombies don’t seem to mind, but the Bugbear immediately loses its footing and falls flat.
Nergi feels the floor get slick –
Nergi does some fancy footwork, and Yvette slices the air with more magic missiles. She’s chipping away at the red zombie, but he’s still moving.
He retaliates by taking a stab at Jormond.
And barely misses him.
Finally the red zombie falls for good.
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Barnaby takes out the red zombie. ”It’s about time!” chimes in Hustavan. The group all shoot him a death stare and he he slowing goes back to hide behind the bar. In a meager voice, "Good show. Good show. Carry on."
Castoris fumbles against the bugbear, while Nergi takes out only a small junk out of the orange undead (let’s say a pinky finger).
The zombies, all at once, seem to attack. The purple and orange zombies moan, ”Arrrggg… Arggghhgh…”
”Hey, Jack. It’s too bad they didn’t bring an archer.”
”Why’s that, Bart?”
”Because then we could have eaten his bone and marrow.
”Bart, you’re the worst.”
"What do you expect? I'm kinda brain dead here."
The purple one chomps at Castoris.
And gets a piece of him:
Orange and Yellow after Nergi.
But she's far too nimble.
The Pink turns its attention to Barnaby.
And he deflects with ease.
The bugbear, still prone on the floor, reaches for Castoris’s leg.
Castoris chops down the purple zombie, but Jormond can't seem to make contact with much of anything.
Yvette begins chanting, summoning something majestic.