Stam blows a line free of the poisonous cloud, sandblasting all in the room with the dirt this picks up. The cloud slowly flows towards the western wall (bottom left) so that now the hands and the place in front of them is free of fog again.
Stams face pales as the cloud weakens his stomach and makes him feel ill.
"I don't feel so good right now"
HP 11/27 (5 con dmg)
Reservoir Points 6/10
Arcanist Spells Prepared (CL 8th; concentration +12)
4th (3/3)— Displacement
3rd (5/5)— invisibility sphere , stinking cloud (DC 17)
2nd (4/5)— Gust of wind, summon monster II , telekinetic volley
1st (4/5)— enlarge person (DC 15), mage armor , magic missile , obscuring mist , thunderstomp
0 (at will)— acid splash , arcane mark , detect magic , disrupt undead , light, mage hand , prestidigitation, read magic
Wand of Spider Climb 39/50
Scroll of Identify x 2
Silver Arrows 8/10
Arrows 10/10
Blunt Arrows 10/10
Silver Blunt Arrows 10/10
Smoke Pellet
Smoke Stick x 2
wand of burning disarm 13/50
wand of charm person 19/50
wand of grease 4/50
Staff of the Swarm 10/10
Assuming Grergof passes the with either immunity or the Fort Roll:
Not in the mood to talk? Shame that, I guess We'll have to take your secrets from your corpse.
For the crime of raising the undead you shall not escape!
With that He 5'steps around the necromancer to set up the flank and attacks twice at the Necormancer.
Then Goat, Goat the Destroyer moves to flank and tries to get into the Act
Grergof flails the necromancer once, entangling him in flames. But the second swing misses. The goat attacks too, but to no effect.
The evil guy only lets out an evil laugh on Grergof's comment. Though it is not clear why, as he coughs blood already.
The hands turn on Grergof and attack him. Both slap him and one grabs him.
AC 16/12/14 (20/14/16 with mutagen) (26/20/22 With Protection from Evil and Shield)
Saves F8/R8/W4(6 fear) (+6 vs. Poison) Add +2 w/Protection from Evil
Weapon in hand:Mace+1
Special effects: Heroism (+2 morale bonus on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks.)Protection from Evil,Shield,Con loss 2 (53 hp)
Bombs:8/13
Spugnoir attempts to thread the needle and tosses a Frost Bomb at the evil wizzard, making to to avoid Varsk
When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it inflict cold damage. Creatures that take a direct hit from a frost bomb are staggered on their next turn unless they succeed on a Fortitude save.
DC 19
He then tosses a Fire bomb at a hand, avoiding Gregof
Spugnoir hits the evil wizard, but he doesn't become staggered, but goes for dead instead. Not that the bomb would have necessarily killed him. But as he falls down unconscious it throws him into wild convulsions. He begins foaming at the mouth, and his eyes turn blood red. Soon after, his entire jaw dissolves.
Also the hands take there share of damage.
Darius goes after the undead animated hands, sword still in his hand.
"Get back here you little..."
As soon as he gets close enough to them he...
Stam moves forward out of the cloud, coughing and sputtering he manages to get a spell off, flining magic bolts of force at the left hand (his right) holding Grergof.
One of the hands breaks as it is hit by the holy energy again, the other when hit by the magic missiles.
The poisonous cloud slowly dissipates.
On the table in the tent you find vivisecting small animals and then painting elaborately detailed watercolor still lifes of this work.
Upon the ashen pathways tread
Softly, as the whispered dead.
As mortal flesh doth rot and fail
To leech and maggot, ebbing frail.
Unhallowed words cannot be spoken,
With whispered oath, death lies broken.
Shed fear, shed life, shed pain, shed time,
Eternity seized shall soon be thine.
First spirit torn from Grave-Lady’s grasp
Be rent and sown as soured ash.
Soft the spiral song reverses,
Judgment lost, damnation surges.
Keeper of the damned’s soul take,
With packlord’s heart the beast shall wake
And flesh be wrought in disarray—
Stillborn cocoon, to blessed decay.
A hundred slain lie innocent,
Grind bone and marrow to cement.
Craft now a skull of splintered graves,
Unmake life, unmake the slave.
Where history churns dream to blister,
Necrophagous secrets whisper
Through chronicles of Raven’s tongue—
A legacy of fear unspun.
Blood spilt atop the Iron Thorn
Invokes that which cannot be born.
Arise the Tyrant now unbound,
Bearer of the Carrion Crown!
Looking down at the dissolved jaw Grergof asks Darius?
Oh... Will that cause a problem with getting him to speak with magic? He probably has a bunch of information that would be really helpful to know...
Then he bows his head and says simply.
May the Lady of Graves treat this one exactly as he deserves from his actions in life.
Raising his eyes back up he looks at the others.
Bone Armor. Do we think this could be who dropped the statue on the Professor?
While he waits for an answer he glances around the tent
Darius walks over to Grergof, kicking one of the giant hands as he passes it.
Looking down at the smashed necromancer he cratches the back hos his head as he answers.
"Yeah that isn't going to work my friend. His mouth needs to be intact for that spell to work unfortunately."
"Not in the mood to talk? Shame that, I guess We'll have to take your secrets from your corpse."
"Muhahahaha!"
Stam looks around the area for any other magical auras that might be hiding.
"Is it safe now? Darius do you think you can help me out with relieving my body of the toxin from that cloud?"
I wonder if we could repair the corpse? I don't know of any alchemy that might do it? or find a priest of somewhat dodgy ethics to raise him? Maybe one of gorum or Methys?
"So we killed this... undead again, and now we need to figure out why the cultists were fighting the werewolves?" Stam says picking up the spell book.
Finding a priest to raise him may take time. For now there may be clues to what's going on around here too. We should search his tent
Stam holds up the poem and reads it for all.
Upon the ashen pathways tread
Softly, as the whispered dead.
As mortal flesh doth rot and fail
To leech and maggot, ebbing frail.
Unhallowed words cannot be spoken,
With whispered oath, death lies broken.
Shed fear, shed life, shed pain, shed time,
Eternity seized shall soon be thine.
First spirit torn from Grave-Lady’s grasp
Be rent and sown as soured ash.
Soft the spiral song reverses,
Judgment lost, damnation surges.
Keeper of the damned’s soul take,
With packlord’s heart the beast shall wake
And flesh be wrought in disarray—
Stillborn cocoon, to blessed decay.
A hundred slain lie innocent,
Grind bone and marrow to cement.
Craft now a skull of splintered graves,
Unmake life, unmake the slave.
Where history churns dream to blister,
Necrophagous secrets whisper
Through chronicles of Raven’s tongue—
A legacy of fear unspun.
Blood spilt atop the Iron Thorn
Invokes that which cannot be born.
Arise the Tyrant now unbound,
Bearer of the Carrion Crown!
That poem writer must have worn a lot of black eyeliner, I wonder what it is about.
It doesn't remind you of historic stuff. But you get the idea that it might have relevance in the presence. As the packlord's heart is a recent piece of interest around here.
Darius looks around, thumb on his chin as he takes in the scene trying to figure out if he missed anything.
Hmmm... Well those lines in the middle could refer to the things we just dealt with.
First spirit torn from Grave-Lady’s grasp
Be rent and sown as soured ash.
That could well refer to the Harrowstone and the Warden's Soul that someone in Bone Armor summoned and took away.
Soft the spiral song reverses,
Judgment lost, damnation surges.
That could be the whole trial, and stealing of the Crazy demon artifact.
Keeper of the damned’s soul take,
With packlord’s heart the beast shall wake.
Obviously that seems to be why they messed with wolves here. They needed the Packlord's heart for something.
That means the rest of the poem may be about future events or the plan they are trying to execute?
And flesh be wrought in disarray—
Stillborn cocoon, to blessed decay.
"This could be to something they are seeking to bring back, what they need the heart for?"
A hundred slain lie innocent,
Grind bone and marrow to cement.
Craft now a skull of splintered graves,
Unmake life, unmake the slave.
"Is there more towns around here? Somewhere with a large cemetery?" Stam rubs his head.
Where history churns dream to blister,
Necrophagous secrets whisper
Through chronicles of Raven’s tongue—
A legacy of fear unspun.
"This part I am not sure of."
Blood spilt atop the Iron Thorn
Invokes that which cannot be born.
Arise the Tyrant now unbound,
Bearer of the Carrion Crown!
"Are they referring to the whispering tyrant here? I don't know if we would be enough to take him down again."
If it is, we bertter go get an army
You pack up everything for later examination and leave the tower as it is an uncomfortable place that reeks of death. As you stand outside you get a glimpse of someone moving in one of the buildings. You could have sworn it was Duristan Ariesir.
I am afraid I have nothing that can cure the damage done to Stam, that would be up to Darius
Before they go outside, can someone identify if any of the items are magical?
Once that is done, Gerergof dons the Amulet of Natural Armor and uses a moment to refresh himself.
Is anyone else hurt? He asks.
darius walks over to Stam. "Here Stam. this may help." Touching Stam's shoulder, Darius cleanses the mage of his malady.
CASTING
Casting Time 3 rounds
Components V, S, M (diamond dust worth 100 gp or 1,000 gp, see text)
EFFECT
Range touch
Target creature touched
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
DESCRIPTION
This spell functions like lesser restoration, except that it also dispels temporary negative levels or one permanent negative level. If this spell is used to dispel a permanent negative level, it has a material component of diamond dust worth 1,000 gp. This spell cannot be used to dispel more than one permanent negative level possessed by a target in a 1-week period.
Restoration cures all temporary ability damage, and it restores all points permanently drained from a single ability score (your choice if more than one is drained). It also eliminates any fatigue or exhaustion suffered by the target.
Then Darius closes his eyes and lets Iomedae's healing energy flow over his teammates.
Stam feels his constitution recover, "I thought I was going to be sick there for a minute, that was terrible. Darius you don't look so well yourself, can I help?" Stam allows the magical spectrum to infuse his body and looks the items over.
"Did anyone else see that person in the building over there?" Stam points to where he thought he saw Duristan
Looked like Duristan
Why do I get the feeling that is not a good thing... But maybe he escaped that den of wolves unharmed.
However the rest of you notice he grips his no longer glowing silver flail tightly as he says that.
Well, no point in standing here let's go and see him.
Grergof leads them in the direction of the building Spugnoir thinks he saw Duristan in.
"tHanks Stam. Looks like I'm going to have to rough it till we get to the city."
You walk over to the building. Entering you find that this was a blacksmith's home. A large open forge stands in the far corner of this building, surrounded by deep stone basins and next to a huge black anvil atop a bench. Another workbench, laid with metalworking tools, polishing stones, and dried oilcloths, partitions the forge area from the remainder of the room. Two doorways exit through the wall opposite the forge.
You also find Duristan here who is surprised, but glad to see you. "Oh, hello old friends. You made it here too? Too bad we got separated in the wood. How did you fare?"
"Well lets see what happened after he got captured and brought here then," Stam waits for the others and moves off with them.
we've ended up hip deep in diced beast, how about you?
"I was ambushed in the wood and suffered some serious injuries. I fled into the woods for shelter, but my scar-ward saved me from the horrible curse of lycanthropy. When I recovered, I set off in pursuit of the Demon Wolves, following them to Feldgrau. On the way I have hired a small group of mercenaries who are waiting for me in another building in the center of town. Do you want to come and meet them? I'm done searching this building, so we could as well go back there." Duristan answers.
Yes, How did you end up all the way out here in this Light Forsaken Town? We worried the beasts ate you.
"That's nice of you. But as you see, I'm uneaten."
Grergof turns to his companions:
What say you are you up for more exploring, or should we return to our camp and wait a bit before continuing on?
While Grergof waits for for a response he turns back to Duristan.
Do you want us to help you check this building? We might see something that you missed.
Grergof starts looking around the forge, but really is stalling for time as he tries to detect evil on Duristan.
There is nothing found in this room. But opening the door you find a flight of stairs leading down and at the bottom lie two dead cultists.
Hey there are bodies down here...
Grergof under the cover of searching if the bodies were looted looks quickly to see how the cultists were killed.
Was it a sword stroke, claws, bite, etc?
Grergof returns back near the rest of the group. Then he faces Duristan.
Was that your work down there?
He nods at the stairs down.
"Me and my mercenaries. They are good. Better than those hirelings I had before." Duristan answers.
Stam will Detect magic on Duristan, "Well I am glad you are alive, when did you have time to hire some Merc's? Where from?"