Drael shakes his head as he listens to the others, Oh good, so the rest of you had the same dream huh?
Layaali nods. "Ominous."
"We should make camp. While we could press on, it would be perilous; perhaps too much for those of us who can't see in the dark." She eyes the gnomes and Razif, then nods. "Yes. And it would be best not to face the gnolls while exhausted."
"Looks like it, I had the same dream, anyway. Honestly, I'm not entirely surprised. The Rough Beast has had its fingerprints all over our enemies. And with every step, we get closer to his influence, his domain."
Razif nods towards the others. "Let's camp. There's something to be said about speed, but I don't trust these lands to be safe when most of us can't see."
"Yantuk does not care either way, although night is nicer on poor Yantuk's eyes. Still! Yantuk prefers when everyone can see, in case of nasty creatures in the night. Yantuk does no finger wiggling, so perhaps they will take less sleep than the others, yes?"
"Come on Min! Pat King Jack-Jack! Then we can go to bed." Rab-rab tells Min.
|
With the stench of sulfur wafting through the air, the team attempts to make some form of makeshift camp.
Not much in the way of shelter can be gleaned from the rocky foothills widely surrounding the peak of Pale Mountain, but the ranger fashions something rough that will at least provide shelter. Yantuk insists that the 'finger-wigglers' rest and avoid watch, and so the suli, kobold, and ranger divvy up the shifts through the night. Everyone forces down an unsatisfying meal of trail rations, their stomachs too jumpy with anxiety over how their arrival at their target tomorrow might unfold. Before ducking into sleep, Layaali makes the rounds, looking over any wounds, tending to injuries, and invoking any protections from Vildeis over their dreams.
Drael passes an uneventful watch over to Yantuk. The gold-scaled kobold similarly sits through a boring watch shift, notable only for the drop in temperature from brisk to chilly, and then hands over to Razif.
The temperature continues to dip on the ranger's shift, and Razif finds himself shivering under his cloak and blowing into his hands to avoid numbness. An hour after the kobold starts snoring, a familiar low moan seeps from the darkness, just out of the range of Razif's light source. Something has been following them - the edimmu returns!
Razif springs to attention!
Razif springs to action and enchants his scimitar with flame. He then calls to the others. "Edimmu's back! We need light in here, fast!"
Not again!... Rab-rab moans.
"Who's an Edimmu? What's an Edimmu? Why is it waking Yantuk up in the middle of the night? Is it here to give Yantuk congratulations for being so helpful?"
Drael immediately reaches for his axe, holding it tightly as he slowly rises to his feet. He stays near the others, looking around as he asks quietly Did you see it, or just know it's around?
He bows his head in concentration, and begins to glow with a faint gray aura.
Layaali activates her halo immediately upon waking, casting a brilliant light from a nimbus around her head. Then she stands and looks for the creature. "Where is it?"
Razif repositions himself a little, and attacks with his scimitar.
The surprise and his shaken state make this decidedly difficult, however.
Drael yells loudly as the edimmu appears from the darkness, beginning to glow and fade in and out of reality as he runs towards it and takes a swing.
"Get up!" Layaali exclaims, shaking Rab-rab awake.
|
|
It takes Layaali far too long to wake up Rab-rab by shaking her, but finally the pink-haired gnome opens her eyes. Unfortunately, the edimmu seems to have learned from its last encounter, and drifts past Drael and Razif, intent upon attacking the oracle!
The edimmu's outreached claw passes through Layaali's body, its chill touch corroding Layaali's form.
Rab-rab screams.
|
|
Rab-rab's efforts are rewarded as Min awakes from his curiously-persistent slumber. The kobold remains asleep. Unfortunately, both of the gnomes become aware of the edimmu's moans.
Both Razif and Drael connect with...something...as the incorporeal edimmu floats past them, intent on Layaali.
Drael follows the creature back towards the others, doing his best to draw its attention with another well-placed chop.
Layaali nimbly steps back and to the side and shakes Yantuk awake. Then she turns on the edimmu and brandishes her holy symbol of Vildeis. "Come then, spirit! I am Layaali, Twice-Dead and Thrice-Born! I am the Templar of the North Wind! In the Cardinal Martyr's name I would purge your evil from this world."
|
|
Drael's axe thunks into the strangely-vaporous predator, carving away another slice of negative energy. Layaali heroically shakes the kobold awake and then turns to face the edimmu's irrepressible icy surge!
The oracle suffers a painful rime of frost as Yantuk awakens. Sadly, the kobold hears the wails of the edimmu upon shedding his cloak of sleep.
"Who's an Edimmu? What's an Edimmu? Why is it waking Yantuk up in the middle of the night? Is it here to give Yantuk congratulations for being so helpful?"
Drael takes another chop at the creature, frantically trying to distract its attention from Layaali and the gnomes.
Razif rushes to Drael's support, also trying his hardest to turn the monster towards them.
"The Edimmu is bad news! I'll congratulate you later, but for now we need to take this thing down!"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As Yantuk has at least one point of panache left, he can stand up without provoking! Which he will do.
"A ghost! Yantuk can't hit that, nothing good to stab!"
So instead Yantuk jumps in front of Layaali, and makes a bluff check to try and get this thing's attention. (If possible, I'd like to total defense as well, but I get if that's not doable.)
"Yahh! You dumb ghost, you don't even know how to have a body! You are dead, why don't you try lying down? Yantuk does it all the time and it makes Yantuk feel much better!"
Rab-Rab stands up then she take a step back and shoots the edimmo.
Min scrambles to his feet with a shriek. "Ack! Not again!"
Not wanting to blind his friends this time, he scowls. Min's eyes turn black as he makes strange hissing words. "Skerhar hesesh nahaaa!" A beam of holy light shoots from his eyeballs at the undead!
|
|
Rab-rab lands one of her pneumatic blows, but Min's positive energy misses the undead foe wildly.
The edimmu's wail continues, but the incorporeal form of the undead creature begins whirling concentrically about itself at nigh-impossible speed, casting winds at a gale-force spread about itself in a tightening circle. Its wail is amplified to a near-deafening keen!
Drael swings out at the creature again, but is distracted by the howling winds. He yells out to the others, doing his best to be heard above the din, Are we doing that?
Layaali takes a quick five-foot step back and shouts, though her voice is mostly lost over the wind, "VILDEIS, BANISH THIS EVIL!"
A burst of holy light surges from Layaali, and slams into the edimmu.
"Oh gods, this wind pattern, he's trying to summon a cyclone!"
In a desperate attempt, Razif tries to strike the ghost down before it can achieve this.
Yantuk, who still has no magical weapons, or elemental attacks, wracks his brain for a way to stop this thing. But he has no ideas, outside of helping his new friends hit this thing harder.
Rab-rab isn't sure if this will help, but she was deperate to try to shield Min from the cyclone! She focuses on the protective air around herself and stretches it out, encasing Min (and possibly some others!) in a cozy shroud of air.
Min frowns. "Quit moving!" Min's eyes turn black as he makes strange hissing words. "Skerhar hesesh nahaaa!" A beam of holy light shoots from his eyeballs at the undead!
|
|
A bubble of pink-tinged air pops up around the gnomes, dampening the sound from the rapidly-shrinking funnel around the edimmu (and their party members). Min fires off a beam of holy light, but even his divine energy gets blown off-target.
Then the howling vortex mercilessly worsens, and the kobold goes flying!
Yantuk lands heavily near the gnomes. Within the wind tunnel, the still-shaken pair of Drael and Razif desperately attempts to bring down the ghostly creature as a mocking 1/2-laugh-1/2-wail echoes around them.
Drael tries to swing at the spectral foe again, but the wind makes it even harder to both keep his balance and attack their enemy.
Layaali's brow creases in surprise to see the edimmu unharmed by her prayers, but she doesn't let it slow her down. Noting the creature's positioning she dashes a few feet to the side and casts out her arms, the words of her prayers inaudible over the wind. A brilliant flash of light surrounds the edimmu, leaving her companions unharmed.
Razif desperately continues his assault.
Rab-rab shots a air blast at the edimmu.
Min's eyes turn black as he makes strange hissing words. "Skerhar hesesh nahaaa!" A beam of holy light shoots from his eyeballs!
:(
Yantuk uses a panache to stand as a swift action that does not provoke.
In melee Combat, you can help a friend attack or defend by distracting or interfering with an opponent. If you're in position to make a melee attack on an opponent that is engaging a friend in melee Combat, you can attempt to aid your friend as a standard Action. You make an Attack Roll against AC 10.
Yantuk goes charging back in, ready to do whatever he can to provide a bonus to hit to this nasty creature. He makes a mental note to himself to ask his new friends to prepare a spell that will make his blade able to hit nasty ghosts for the future, as he grits his teeth, going into the windstorm.
It's far too blustery for the Kobold though, and once again he goes flying back.
|
|
Yantuk kips up and rushes back to the battlefront, but finds his forward momentum impeded by the buffeting winds.
The wind funnel around the edimmu tightens further as the winds somehow increase in volume to a deafening roar. Both Drael and Razif find their footing slipping as they are drawn towards the cyclone!
Somehow, the two remain on their feet.