Torrosk charges a hunter that he has a clear path to, and throws a forearm shiver.
Finn is way too absorbed in the struggle to notice small details about the attacking mob. As Radavek goes by, Finn reaches out and touches him with the luck of Desna, hoping to give a small dose of that to the Varisian fighter.
Ravin's song appears to have its effect as the hunters seem distracted by the satire, though they continue trying to light the cathedral on fire.
Jonhilda turns and moves slightly to line up two of the hunters, while minimizing the crowd who might be effected by his spell. Some are affected, as is one of the two hunters who drops unconscious. One of the crowd who survived the spell snatches up the torch and begins attempting to extinguish it.
Finn touches Torrock as he moves to intercept the hunters, granting the half-orc luck on the next round.
Torrock appears to be lucky this round as well as he slams his forearm into the hunter closest to the mayor, stunning him. Seeing his opponent dazed, the mayor lays a haymaker into the hunter and knocks him unconscious. The mayor then reaches down and grabs the torch the hunter was wielding. As the hunter was able to act before Torrosk, there are large scorch marks on the door. Fortunately it did not ignite.
Radavek attempts to punch one of the hunters and misses.
The hunters then respond, with many continuing to attempt to burn down the cathedral, but those directly confronted do fight back. The only one who was engaged and is still standing turns and swings at Radavek but appears to be confused as to why anyone would try to stop him and misses widely.
Torrosk nods to the mayor appreciatively, and looks around at the hunters. "Someone throw or conjure some water on those fires!"
Ravin, rapier in hand, thinks, I'm no good in a fist fight... I'll just have to make sure not to accidentally kill anyone..., then attacks the man in front of him, Don't put your heart in front of my blade, fool.., while continuing his song.
for
Unable to conjure water, Finn looks around the cathedral for a source.
"Not that lucky today. Don't have my water spell prepared and really could use it now.
He yells to the Mayor, "We need to fight that fire before it spreads farther. Where can we get water? Can you start organizing the villagers?"
Torrosk growls, There's SNOW all over outside, cart it inside and throw it on the fire before it gets too big!
Hearing what Torrosk says, the Mayor stops fighting the hunters and instead stands in front of the door barring attempts to open them. "No one is going outside!!!" He looks ready to fight over the issue.
The crew of adventurers who were recently healed seem to be joining the fray as well.
The child-like gnome throws a pinch of sand into the air while casting a spell, and one of the hunters falls asleep. The large bald adventurer steps forward and grabs his torch, extinguishing it. The armored adventurer steps forward and tries to grapple the lone remaining hunter, draws his sword, and attempts to disarm. The hunter swings the torch flailing, but the warrior easily avoids the swing and expertly disarms the hunter of his torch. Juriendor moves in and grabs up the flaming torch, still shouting not to harm the hunters.
The fire is climbing, but is not yet out of control. The southern wall is definitely getting the worst of it as the allies have joined the conflict on the northern wall.
Torrosk growls at the mayor, then looks around for tapestry or something, and yells at anyone not engaged in melee, "Pull down something and smother that fire." He looks back at the mayor, "Unless the tapestries are too important, in which case I hope you had a lot of beer, since pissing on it is about all that's left."
Radavek ducks the torch and tries a low kick.
...
Radavek moves into kick as the hunter flails towards him awkwardly with his torch. Radavek easily avoids the blow and connects strongly, slamming the hunter back into the wall. The hunter hits is head on the wall and crumples unconscious.
Finn, on the orders of Torrosk, rushes to the nearest tapestry and tries to rip it down and smother the flames with it.
Finn, on the orders of Torrosk, rushes to the nearest tapestry and tries to rip it down and smother the flames with it.
[dice=Str check, just in case]1d20+2
As Finn pulls down a large tapestry and begins to use it to beat out the flames as the hunters near him light them, the tapestry falls partially one of the hunters. This hunter reacts very differently than the others, cursing in a foreign tongue and suddenly casting a spell... Completing the spell, the hunter disappears in a flash of magic!
Both of you notice that when the tapestry fell on the hunter, it seemed to injure the hunter gravely - tearing off an ear! Looking closer, you see that it actually pulled off part of a disguise and that the ear was false. You caught the flash of a pointed elf-like with dark hued skin before the hunter vanished.
Ravin inserts a discordant verse into his singing, one that clearly does not fit the structure of the jaunty, satirical melody, "They're not your hunters, they're dark elves in disguise...".
He then takes a breath and continues his mocking performance, shifting from Burn your own House Down to The Ballad of the Idiot Imposters.
I feel less bad about using a rapier all of a sudden..
Jonnie moves south and catches a single hunter in a spray of colors.
School illusion (pattern) [mind-affecting]; Level sorcerer/wizard 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (red, yellow, and blue powder or colored sand)
Range 15 ft.
Area cone-shaped burst
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
A vivid cone of clashing colors springs forth from your hand, causing creatures to become stunned, perhaps also blinded, and possibly knocking them unconscious. Each creature within the cone is affected according to its HD.
2 HD or less: The creature is unconscious, blinded, and stunned for 2d4 rounds, then blinded and stunned for 1d4 rounds, and then stunned for 1 round. (Only living creatures are knocked unconscious.)
Torrosk moves in drawing his longsword, and advances on one of the hunter's. "I will do my best to not let you die."
Ravin steps beside the "hunter", keeping his song going, and tries to draw his rapier across the burning tapestry, cutting it off the wall in an attempt to be able to smother it (or, with luck, having it fall onto the hunter-elf next to him).
Radavek closes on the remaining bandit, again feinting and parrying with his dagger and punching at the man's head with his fist.
...
Finn sees the dark elf slip into view, then disappear. He shelves that for later, the fire is his more pressing concern, and he beats at another area, trying to douse the flames, but the work is much harder than he imagined.
"Gotta pray for that water spell more often. It'd be really handy now!
Jonnie looks around to see if she sees any dark elves. She can think of no reason they would be here.
Torrosk moves in dropping his hunter with his sword, the hunter falling to the ground bleeding.
Ravin does cut down a burning tapestry and begins to smother it. The hunter next to him moves a bit away and keeps trying to burn the Cathedral down.
The child-like gnome adventurer unleashes a second blast of blinding colors into the crowd, hoping to fell the final hunter. Many the crowd begin to rush away from the cone of swirling colors, but the cone has its desired affect and the hunter drops unconscious. Unfortunately a large portion of the crowd on that end of the cathedral also pass out.
The people working together, along with Juriendor's summoning of water via divine magic, eventually get the fires out. The hunters are all restrained, though several seem to snap out of their trances upon being ministered to by Juriendor. There are substantial burn marks on the walls, especially the southern wall. The injured (including the one Torrosk used his sword on) are ministered to as well. With the smoke, the magic, and the chaos it seems that the mood in the Cathedral has definitely changed to nervous fear rather than the calm anticipation that the crowd had when you arrived.
The fires out, Ravin suggests, "At least some of these are elves in disguise. We should figure out who is who. "
"Not just elves, but Dark Elves." adds Finn. "Have you had dealings with these creatures before?"
Finn considers if he's seen or heard of dark elves here before and what he might know of this strange race of elves.
Jonnie casts and Senses magical auras.
She moves to the dark elves to see if any of their gear is magical.
As the group begins to inspect the remaining hunters, none appear to be anything but known villagers - all human. None of their gear appears to be of any worth, let alone magic. Those hunters who have not snapped out of their trance have an aura of compulsive magic about them. The mayor confirms that all of those unconscious are citizens of the village as he ministers to some with minor wounds and still reeling from the magic that knocked them out.
The room remains fairly smoke-filled, but with the high ceilings vision is not impaired.
Radavek sidles close to the mayor while he tends the injured.
"Your honor, what's going on here? You've got your own townspeople ensorcelled against their friends while the rest of you hide in this church. What has you all so afraid?"
Although related to the elves, the drow are a vile and evil cousin at best. Sometimes called dark elves, these cunning creatures prowl the caves and tunnels of the world below, ruling vast subterranean cities through fear and might. Worshiping demons and enslaving most races they encounter, the drow are among the underworld's most feared and hated denizens.
Drow are shorter and a bit more slender than their surface-dwelling kin, but they are otherwise physically similar. Drow have dark skin, ranging from black to a hazy purple hue. Most drow have white or silver hair and white or red eyes, but other colors are not unheard of.
Drow have darkvision and are prone to use poison.
Drow society is ruled over by powerful nobility, themselves governed by sadistic and dangerous matriarchs who constantly plot and scheme against rival houses and lesser kin within their own families. The majority of drow are the common soldiers and decadent citizenry, with base stats as presented here—drow nobles are more powerful and dangerous, and are detailed below.
In combat, drow are thoroughly ruthless, with little regard for fairness or mercy. They prefer to attack from ambush or to lure enemies into situations where they clearly have the upper hand. If things turn against them, drow are quick to flee, leaving slaves and minions to cover their escape.
Drow are immune to sleep, dazzled by bright lights, and speak a silent tongue made up of handsignals.
About one out of every 20 drow is gifted with special powers from birth—the overwhelming majority of these exceptional drow are female, and as a result, drow society tends to be matriarchal in nature. These special births are engineered and encouraged among the ruling caste, and are far more likely to occur when the mother is of noble heritage. Strangely, the status of the father seems not to increase or decrease the chances of a child being born a drow noble. Common drow children born to nobles are usually put to death—sacrificed to one of the many demon gods to whom the drow offer worship. It is rare for a drow noble to be born to common parents, but those who are usually murder their parents or family before they come of age in order to hide the truth of their base upbringing and to ease the processes of joining one of their society's noble houses. Drow nobles are more powerful than the majority of their kin, and as such they quickly rise to power within their houses. Advancement through the hierarchy of a drow noble house is usually accomplished through a combination of assassination, seduction, and treachery, leading most drow in power to be overly paranoid.
Spell Resistance: Drow nobles have spell resistance equal to 11 + their character level.
Spell-Like Abilities: Drow nobles can cast dancing lights, deeper darkness, faerie fire, feather fall, and levitate each at will, and have detect magic as a constant spell-like ability. A drow noble can also cast divine favor, dispel magic, and suggestion once per day each. In some cases, a drow noble's spell-like abilities might vary, although the level of a particular spell-like ability does not. A drow noble's caster level for her spell-like abilities is equal to her character level.
The mayor looks shaken as Finn speaks to him, but he responds with the calm deliberateness of a good leader. "Nothing like this has ever happened before... There is a special evil about this Mitternact. And that is what we fear outside, the Mitternacht. While you southerners may celebrate the longest night, here it is a real threat. If you walk from this Cathedral tonight you would be accosted by demons and the undead, wandering looking for those unprotected.
For many years we fought every Mitternacht, the warriors of the village defending the week venturing into the night to kill the demons and undead to defend the town. Even then we gathered the weak into this Cathedral as a fortress to protect them, and stood with weapons before the doors to keep the foul night out. That was until Juriendor came, with the moon stone and his ceremony. The Cathedral became true protection to the creatures of the night with the ceremony, and every year we have gathered here under the protection of Jureindor and his moon stone and since then we have lost no one to the Mitternacht. Well, except for a few fools who decided not to seek the succor of the Cathedral."
The mayor then shakes his head grimly, "there is something different about this night, however. Nothing has ever interfered with the Ceremony before, and never has anything like what happened to the Hunters occurred. I don't know what to think..."
With that, the Mayor waves you off saying, Juriendor is preparing to begin again. Light send that nothing will interfere this time. With the Mayor take a place standing almost as a guard before the Cathedral doors. The other citizenry, a nervousness about them return to the pews anxious...
Gathering the group together as the service begins again, Finn whispers: "Well, there's some explanation for the strange behavior about going outside at least. Before the one hunter vanished, I saw its disguise slip, and dark elven ears beneath. Did anyone else see it? Not sure what it means, but if the Dark Elves are here, it can't be anything good."
Radavek listens patiently to the mayor and then drifts over to Finn, "I didn't see anything. What's this about dark elves anyway?"
Ravin nods, "I saw it too... Though I do wonder why they wanted to disrupt the ceremony."
"Elf's an Elf, Human's a human, dwarf's a dwarf. Ain't the race that matters, it's the actions. Clear they mean no good."
Jonnie looks skeptical and pontificates. "Many use dark elves as bogeymen. Sort of a common evil force in lore."
And she adds: "There may be nice black elves and literate goblins, but some stereotypes are around for a reason."
Unsure how else to proceed at this point, Finn suggest they re-group after the ceremony.
"Let's see what the Mayor and this Juriendor know about it after the show ends. Perhaps we just ought to move on after our orignal quarry anyway."
Ravin nods, "Keep on our toes... But aye, let's try to enjoy the ceremony and figure out what to do in the morning. "
"Good by me." Radavek elects to stand by the doorway in case another interruption occurs.
Jonnie goes to Juriendor somewhat reverently. She stands as close as she can get to the man and takes notes.
Jonnie explains: "I am an expert on the lore of the dark elves. They are serious foes and not be taken lightly."
Finn sits through the rest of the town's religious ceremony participating politely and a bit intrigued about this Juriendor and the moonstone that has so captivated the community.
When finished he approaches the priest, seeking discussion with whichever of his allies will join him.
Torrosk looks at Jonnie, "Well, we know they bleed, and they don't like burning tapestries dropped on them, so serious or not, they seem to be as mortal as any other kind of elf." He gives a tusky smile to Jonnie, "No offense intended."
Ravin chuckles, "Well, that much does seem to be true.. "
As things calm back towards normal, you all gather back to the pews and continue in quiet conversation. The rest of the congregation seem to be doing the same. The tension in the cathedral has risen considerably, and the peaceful almost celebratory air that existed when you first arrived is gone.
Finally Juriendor once more holds the moonshard aloft and with a powerful chanting sends a massive blast of bright energy throughout the cathedral that flows back to the moonshard and forms a glowing
blue gateway centered upon the stone. Through the portal two orbs emerge—as soon as they enter the room, all normal light patterns warp and are drawn towards them! The attracted glow forms into a swirling pattern around the spheres before being absorbed directly into the dark floating orbs.
Judging by the gasps and screams of panic erupting from the crowd, this does not normally occur during the Vigil for Light ritual. The orbs begin to circle around Juriendor, spinning wildly, then begin to lash out with cold, cloying bolts of darkness that send the high priest to the floor! The moonshard falls to the ground and then through a crack in the boards to somewhere deep below. You can almost feel the frigid, lifeless grasp of some ancient evil slip its fingers around the artifact as it is dragged out of sight through the cracks.
The High Priest, prone, seems frozen in place as the orbs assault him. “Juriendor! No!” one of the villagers calls as he charges torward, pulling a short, metal candle holder from its bracket at the end of a pew. He swings the makeshift weapon and seems to hit one of the creatures. The orb is unaffected and before you can step forward it strikes the charging man with a ray, the effect of which forces him to his knees. Screams erupt from the crowd of villagers and, as one, they panic—suddenly people are running everywhere, towards both sets of stairs and opening the doors to run outside into the darkness of the blizzard.
This creature is a hooded archon, a small outsider celestial that is the dark twisted cousin of the usually friendly lantern archon. Tge creature attacks using bolts of dark energy and is very magical.
Aside from the bolts of dark energy, the archons have the following powers: Aura of menace, damage reduction 10/good and magic, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to electricity and petrification, magic circle against good, teleport, tongues
Radavek stares dumbfoundedly at the orbs and streaming crowd for the briefest of moments. We're being flushed out. Those orbs look like something for the mages to deal with. Gods only know what's waiting outside, but maybe steel will suffice there.
The young man throws off his cloak and moves toward the door, drawing his broad scimitar.
Jonnie steps up and shoots her hands in a jet and acid erupts.
Mayor Igor Leonid steps up to quell the chaos, calling out to his fellow townsfolk, "unsheath your blades, stout fellows, and let us rain ruin upon whatever these fiends are within the grounds of the cathedral!" He hefts a great glowing maul and moves toward the front doors.
Sage Yuri appears from within one of the storage areas, a pair of what look like ice crampons strapped around his forearms to make cruel-looking claws. He exchanges glances and a nod with the mayor then rushes out the front door with many of the villagers in tow.
As they pass outside, the glow of the Mayor's maul spreads some light into the snowstorm... you see that the Mayor and townsfolk are suddenly surrounded by a mob of walking dead. The mayor turns to you saying, "You’ve shown yourselves capable. Please, save the clergy—most are little more than untested students—and protect the Cathedral. I'm off to defend the rest of my village!" He races out into the storm to confront the undead, the congregation grabbing various solid-looking items from around the cathedral, looking grimly determined to fight. (You can still join the Mayor if you wish, or take your last 15' of move back into the Cathedral)
The other set of adventurers step forward towards the northern ball of darkness, look to you all shouting "We'll take one, you take the other!" Juriendor remains slumped on the floor as if stunned by the turn of events.
After the gnome moves, he chants and gestures towards the northern orb with a bolt of magic streaking from his hand, striking the darkness.
Magic Missile
The orbs of darkness shift position slightly, then each cast forth two beams of darkness, absorbing the light around them. One sphere focuses upon the gnome and the other upon the armored warrior.
The warrior dodges and both beams miss, but the gnome is struck once and appears to be injured by the blast.
Juriendor remains in a stupor on the ground.
"You’ve shown yourselves capable. Please, save the clergy—most are little more than untested students—and protect the Cathedral. I'm off to defend the rest of my village!"
Radavek stares at the fey-minded mayor. He can't deny the man's devotion to duty and bravery and it's that instant respect that causes him to return to the cathedral.
"We'll do our best, sir!" The young adventurer raises his heavy blade in salute before moving back inside.