Round One (Complete)
Garrath, with his Greatsword, strikes at the snake woman. One of Xanesha's Mirror Images dissipates.
Stone and Devora move up to the top of the tower.
Brandark hacks at Xanesha, but misses the snake woman.
Round Two
Elektra moves up and fires a Magic Missile at the snake woman. Two of the missiles strike Xanesha and two others destroy Mirror Images.
Glistenwing tries to Confuse the large snake woman.
Flynn continues to fire his bow. But the arrows appears to bounce off a force field surrounding the large snake woman or its remaining Mirror Image.
Garrath comes out of his rage and begins to sling Chakrams at Xanesha. One of the sharp round rings appears to take out Xanesha's remaining Mirror Image.
Stone weaves a spell to provide greater attack and defense for the party.
Xanesha become momentarily confused and hesitates.
As Devora continues to tell her tale of the brave Heroes, she adds a spell to her repertoire. A winged woman rises from the darkness of the city below.
Brandark gives it some of his best hacks and slashes, but none of the blows seem to land true on the large snake woman.
Xanesha sees the winged woman rising from the city below. She turns away from Brandark, moves, and attacks the brightly shining angelic looking creature. The image disappears as quickly as it appears. It was just a figment.
Round Three
Breathing hard in the aftermath of his rage, Garrath grabs his throwing axes and hurls them at the snake woman. [b]Someone heal me so I can get back in her face![/dice]
Trying her best to help Elektra casts Slow on the enemy.
Only to stumble over the poor footing and drive his axe through a wooden beam.
Hold still you miserable misbegotten sot of a snake
Devora moves next to Garrath and touches the big Barbarian, "Every little bit."
Seeing his bow not working, Flynn puts his bow away and draws his blade. Dammit we may be in over are head here, It's a Lamia Matriarch
As Xanesha chases a figment, Brandark stumbles and drives his axe into a wooden beam.
The tower begins to shake.
Round Three
Elektra cast Slow on the snake woman. Sadly, the big bad evil woman resisted the attempt.
Flynn puts up his bow and draws his scimitar. He concludes that Xanesha is a Lamia Matriarch.
Garrath, hanging back to get some healing, throws a pair of axes at Xanesha. Both axes appear to glance off the large snake woman before making any contact.
Stone and Devora both provide healing to Garrath.
Brandark tries to hack and slash at the large snake-like creature.
Xanesha is quick and agile. She maneuvers around each attack. Xanesha then flies up and back about five feet, and attacks the Dwarf Cavalier.
Round Four
Elektra casts enlarge Person on Garreth
The tower begins to shake more violently. The large onxy angel statue begins to crack at the base. It appears like it is coming loose from its foundation.
Feeling the tower start to shake, Brandark pulls back to near the others.
I think we need to go NOW
Agreed, let's get out of here.
Letting his compatriots go before him, swaps his Greatsword for his hammer. Garrath uses his size and the new length of his Hammer to keep Xanesha at bay. Letting everyone go past the weak spots of the stairs before stepping past himself. He moves down the stairs as quickly as possible, keeping his weapon at the ready for defense.
Devora goes invisible.
Xanesha goes invisible.
Round Five
The tower continues to shake.
Breaking of her spell Felicitas grabs stone and Glistenwing and dimdoors to safety
Flynn quickly retreats down the stairs
Brandark starts moving down the stairs after all the others have moved, but just before Garrath.
The silence of the cold darkness under the great Irespan was interrupted by first the rattle then the shaking and then the tumbling and crashing of the large onyx angel as it creates a giant crater in the cobblestones below. It was a miracle that no one was happening by when this great work of art gouged itself into the street, shattering into hundreds of nearly worthless pieces.
The bells of the great Shadowclock began to ring again, not from the mechanisms of the clock, but from the shaking and eventual collapsing of the tower.
Brandard was moving rather quickly for a Dwarf. The large Garrath too was moving down the stairs in leaps and bounds, stumbling here, breaking a stair there, but always catching himself and moving quickly and always downward. Flynn was nimble and quick and in the lead.
Large beams along with plaster began to drop and collect on the ground floor burying the already dead Scarecrow and Faceless Stalkers.
It was a wonder that none of the party members succumbed to this great calamity. Devora, invisible as she was, was the last member to escape the falling tower. One of the bells broke from the belfry and cascaded down the sides of the tower's inner staircase, barely missing the Pathfinder.
Screaming, "Clear the streets!" The party exits from the once great Shadowclock and keeps running.
A safe distance away Elektra, Stone, and Glistenwing look at the events as they unfold in what seemed like slow motion.
Through it all, the large Snake Woman was nowhere to be seen.
The great Shadowclock would become history. This night will be well remembered. Only five would lose their lives this night. An ugly giant of a man, (the scarecrow) and four others that were so damaged that no one was able to recognize them (the four Faceless Stalkers).
The Shadowclock Pub did good business this night, though the air inside was thick with dust. And many patrons coughed up dust and ale upon the wood planks of the establishment. The proprietor had a large mess to clean up, but he cheerfully went about his worth jiggling the extra coin in his pockets.
Hedrox Bink, a street cleaner who lived just a block away, won the bet for guessing that five would lose their life when the Shadowclock fell.
Report, go through the debris for clues and then research Lamia matriarchs.
"well! Wasn't that interesting? By the way, I saw this crumpled letter on the top of the tower and grabbed it as we were leaving." Devora shows the party the crumpled piece of parchment.
Flynn takes a look at the paper reading it aloudDammit, well at least we have a location. We should inform the local Pharasmin's Lamia anything should fall under their jurisdiction.Sighing Flynn continues So where to now? rest and then off to investigate Fort Rannick
"That is a good point Stone. But how to prevent it. She really was a tough opponent."
We might need more than just dispel magic, that thing is way out of our weight class. Lamia's are already gifted in magic, that one was a Matriarch and on top of that trained in magic.
Sounds like a plan, also, we could go shopping to see if there are things that we overlooked first time, that might come in handy now.
I'm not saying we don't need to hunt it down, quite the opposite. I'm saying we will need more than a few buffing spells. She had spells that made her impossible to hit, and some field that negated my arrows.I think we need to do research on this thing, find a weakness or maybe an enemy it might have.
Bah...Get me into a position to hit her, and she'll drop. Just like anything else. He grins at Stone, Brute and Force, Stone. He looks back at the bunch, Take out any of her defenses, and she'll fall. The fact that she has a sister concerns me more. And Turtleback Ferry is where we'll find them. Seems they are cultivating evil traits. The things in Sandpoint made us feel rage when bitten, and here they talk about greed. Also, who is the Lord they are waiting for? Those should be concerns more than the Mayor of this city.
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Well if we are to believe that letter. Xanesha will need to be heading back to her sister because we have closed her down here. But she will need to save face and will probably not leave till she can get the Lord Mayor. This gives us an advantage. We will not fighter her under her terms she will have to come to us and fight us under ours. This mean we get to be ready and she won't be. On top of that I'm sure the Mayor would be vary great full to us for saving his life.
Greed...She want's the Mayor's soul because he is worth several times others according to the letter. If they are harvesting Greed and want the mayor all we have to do is trust the mayor is a greedy bastard and will protect himself, that will leave us to free to either hunt down or ambush Xanesha. Either way i don't think we should bother ourselves protecting him. This letter wasn't written with the intent to lie to anyone, it seems almost as if bragging so the information in it has a good chance at being trustworthy.At least what ever information we may need. And then what was this rage biting creature's business? Flynn seems to almost be in a trances of sorts sorting through information aloud. not really making sense at times.
until he calms down a bit, speaking slowly and clearly There is something bigger going on here, these things are working for something strong enough for a Lamia Matriarch to consider her boss. We need more answers than what we have. I don't think we can trust the mayor, if he falls into the category of people Xanesha has been harvesting then there is a chance is he corrupt. I'll follow where ever this leads, but i think we should go investigate the Turtleback Ferry. Either way i agree with Garrath, we have more important concerns than the mayor
No, I would rather take them down one at a time, but tell me Stone, how do you propose that we take even one of them down
Brandark looks at stone with a questioning look.
Elektra chimes in."Also greed does not make someone bad or a bastard. While charity is nice and good, really, a healthy amount of greed is useful in a mayor. Like a little bit of envy or, wrath. It just has to be balanced by virtues! And I think our firend Garreth would agree that some wrath can be benificial." With a smile Elektra is silent again.
I agree, in my profession there are certain sins that are necessary, hell I've learned to lie so well even magic can't tell the difference. But i think he might be a bit more than a little greedy, if his soul's greed is worthy several times the other victims. We aren't going to let him die, that would be us not informing him of the threat potentially coming his way. Xanesha can prepare in the exact same way she did here, we would be waiting on her attack, there is also no guarantee that dispeling the magic she cast on herself will work. Without the guarantee that will work we would be taking a huge risk
"On the other side... I think the Lamia is working through proxies. Granted she is a dangerous enemy, but then I have a feeling direct confrontation is not her style! Let us bring back our friend and then report to the authorities."
Seems to me she's going to be going to her sister, not the mayor. If we're bent on going to the Mayor, let's go now. If we sit there for a while, we'll know we have to fight two at the ferry. We go to the Ferry and beat Xanesha there, we only have to fight one of them at a time."
While the party was watching the aftermath of the collapse of the Shadowclock tower, a familiar face walks up, "Report. I trust that you can explain all this."
"Oh, this saves us some time. Excellent. Do you want the report here, on the street, or would you prefer your office. As far as we found out, no citizens were harmed and we were able to drive off ... something quite ugly."