Before Nethan moved to his current location, "Thank you Spook for whatever you did to my blade, it feels more well balanced."
Back the Present
Then says to Amelia, I'll cover you Amelia and doesn't this remind you of our adventures in Varisia?"
Dreyyn lashes out at the graveknight twice with a spinning flourish of his blade.
Round 2
Amelia attempts to undo the luck, she almost gets it but not quite a little while longer and she might have it! The girl you presume is Atenzuki walks up to the front. "You're getting me out?! Why would you help me?" she all but demands.
Elise manages to redouble her efforts and dig her claws into the captain ripping past his magic armour.
He attempts to block one of the claws but doesn't manage to. Dreyyn does a flurry missing his first attack the slashing through with his second.
Nethan approaches one of the ghosts and slashes at it, cutting through it's incorporeal form.
Al moved forward, calling once again upon a spell that bent time. He was all too aware of the potential consequences. In addition to the physical toll on humanoid bodies, there were things that guarded against callous uses of such magic.
Round 2
Alþórel enhances everyone's speed to strengthen them against their foes.
The graveknight enhances himself with some more negative energy.
He then takes another swing at Elise.
The blade comes down hard, faster then ever before, hacking into Elise's side.
Spook seeing the danger that Elise is in enters the fray and brings his hand close. Uses the wand that is currently on her person to get her further away from death's door.
The ghost next to him doesn't like this very much so retaliates against him and swipes at Elise too.
Despite it's flurry it doesn't manage to hit either of them.
The other ghost continues its assault on Dreyyn.
One swipe connects.
The ghost blinds Dreyyn with its etheral claws for a short while.
Round 3
The captain then casts another spell this time exuding from his armour.
A negative aura floods the room, seemingly draining everything living from it.
Nethan, Amelia, Al and spook are all drained a little of their life force. It is absorbed into the captain.
The world seems to slow down. Alþórel has all the time in the world to draw his cold iron longsword as he moves, and charge it with stored arcane energy. There is a discontinuity as it starts to glow faintly purple, then he is around Spook and ready to strike.
Alþórel blurs forward, past spook, and strikes at the ghost that attacked Elise with Black.
Dreyyn presses the attack, even though blinded.
Nethan attacks the Ghost again hoping to hit more than the ethers and help both Amelia and Dreyyn;
Missing wide the first time and most likely the second
Quickened by Al's spell, Elise unleashes a lightning fast flurry of slashes. But in her haste, the accuracy of her strikes suffer and only one connects.
Round 3
Amelia unlocks the cell letting out Atenzuki. She looks to the floor saying partly in disbelief "Are there really people like that? I think you have an ulterior motive but for now that doesn't matter, I'm getting freed for now!" She steps out looks to Amelia and says. "Most of my magic is locked, and I have lost a lot of blood but I guess I still have a few tricks up my sleeve." She braces her arms into her self then throws them out as if to throw something off her chest. Suddenly everyone's hearts start to beat slower than usual, but stronger. They feel the might of whatever that was.
Nethan's blade phases through the phantom on his first strike but pulling back on coming back from a thrust he feels the blade meet the creature as he pushes through.
Despite Dreyyn's blindness both of his attacks hit the graveknight and the heavy armour he has is proving not to pose a threat to the party.
Alþórel rushes in to the aid of Spook and Elise, striking the ghost with his magical strike.
The captain continues to heal himself through the blows with negative energy.
He seems intend on bringing Elise down and takes another large slash at her. Leaving her all but standing.
Spook continues to try and keep their tough guy standing.
The ghost with two new targets harassing it lashes out at spook and
Alþórel.
Both the attacks hit with equal fervor.
However both of them manage to resist the ethereal force trying to blind them.
The other phantom seeing that Atenzuki has been released tries to get to her.
It manages to fly past Amelia with no issue but opens itself up for Nethan to strike. It then if alive attempts to grapple Atenzuki.
Atenzuki however wriggles free of it.
End of round 3
The captain this time steps back and uses the negative energy to heal himself and blasts it in a cone towards the group, that over the fight seems to have managed to fit itself quite nicely into.
The negative aura continues to sap strength from the party.
Nethan responds to the ghost moving to grapple Atenzuki, "Where are you going Ghosty?!"
Before giving the ghost a departing hit, he noticed that Elise is starting to change to an unhealthy color.
Dreyyn 5' steps to follow the graveknight, and presses the attack.
concealed
not concealed
haste:
not concealed
Alþórel spins around the wraith, desperately trying to keep his still glowing longsword inside the apparition. There is no doubt he is a skilled swordsman - his blows would kill any normal opponent. But in this company his martial ability is outmatched and outshone.
Round 4
Dreyyn's hasted attack is too fast for the graveknight to block and it strikes him before he moves out to exude his negative energy.
Nethan slashes at the ghost as it flies over him, the ghosts fades from existence and the want on his person gains more power as it feeds off the glory of combat.
Alþórel gets through the ghosts defenses twice as he slashes through with his magically enhanced sword. Amelia heals Nethan from some of the wounds he has been sustaining.
Dreyyn isn't so lucky missing the graveknight twice but stepping forward and getting his last strike in.
Nethan holds his position providing cover for Amelia and Atenzuki, "I'll go where you ladies want to go next but Atenzuki we need to help my friends before we leave since I am guessing you prefer to leave. If we are going to move, we should move as one and Atenzuki please don't stand close to the wall. I do not want a ghost to surprise attack you from inside the wall."
Nethan looks to Amelia, "You too Amelia." Then smiles at her.
Elise quickly slashes towards the graveknights helmet, seeking to press their advantage!
Round 4
Atenzuki thanks Nethan "Thank your aid, once we are able to get through whatever that thing is I know where they keep some of their more valuable items, I would mind if we robbed them a little. They also keep my sword there!"
Elise does three quick slashes missing the first one but she follows up with two big strikes. Bringing him to the brink, though his healing is keeping him up you doubt for much longer.
Intending to take at least one of you down he redoubles his efforts and gives up on casting spells and leaves defense behind, he drops his shield and holds his sword in two hands.
He returns Elise the favour and brings her to the brink as well, they stand staring at each other battered and bruised.
Spook continues to heal Elise as that's perhaps the best course of action. She might have been eating the floor if not for this expenditure of magic.
The ghost harries on Elise trying to bring her down as well.
Though only one of it's strikes gets through
Leaving Elise in a not great state despite the healing.
Round 5
Seeing Elise is all but done he lets the aura do the last bit of work and redoubles his effort on Dreyyn.
With one sweeping slash he knocks Dreyyn off his feet and leaves him a heap on the floor. Dreyyn is not dead yet but is on death's door.
The aura continues to drain them, affecting spook, amelia and elise this round.
"Excuse me ladies, time to heal so all is not lost."
Nethan looks at Dreyyn and sees that he is badly injured and still breathing. In addition, he sees Elise in trouble, he takes out the wand and moves within 30' of her but out of AoO range of the Grave Knight. He points the wand at her, utters the command word while spending a mythic point.
Eager to end this battle once and for all, Elise launches and all-out attack. Sadly, in her hurry, the blows are missaligned and clatter off the metal armour without any effect.
Alþórel continues to do his best to leave his glowing swords inside the ghost. There was little point in cutting through an incorporeal undead, it was the energy in the swords that was important... and the longer it could stay in the wraith the better.
Dreyyn, on the ground and bleeding profusely, presses the attack yet again in hopes of distracting the graveknight long enough for Dreyyn to be healed again.
Round 5
Nethan goes to heal Elise making sure she's back and swinging, Amelia goes to help Dreyyn. They both come out slashing and finally bringing the captain down.
Alþórel does his bit and eradicates the remaining phantom.
The captain is sent stumbling and he laughs "You haven't seen the last of me, my mistress will get her heart back. Of this I swear." Finally collapsing into a heap and his armour evaporates leaving the remains of someone not too familiar to the group. It looks like an aasimar. You are pretty sure Moretti wasn't an aasimar.
Atenzuki breathes a sigh of relief and sits down resting against the bars of her prison. "I thought I was done for. Bad enough these, what do they call themselves.. Eldred? Take me for all I'm worth, I almost ended up being kidnapped from my kidnappers!" She shakes her head with her hands in ruffling up her hair. "Who are you people then?"
Combat over.
Dreyyn stands up in an attempt to not appear so feeble, but lightly leans against the bars of an empty cell, forcing his breathing pattern to slow to a normal rate even as blood flows from his wounds.
Alþórel slumps a little as the last ghost falls, reflecting how eery it is to see the captain fall - seemingly in slow motion with everyone else accelerated.
"Let's move" he says, not bothering to slow his speech down "This spell will last a little longer. If you want your sword, let us get it."
He notices Dreyyn "Perhaps we do need to stop and recuperate. Should I drop the spell?"
Elise looks as the graveknight crumbles away, spitefully smiling at his oath. Hoping to add some insult to the injury, she remarks in a belittling tone.
"Good. You are useful practice ..."
When his 'death' finally seems complete, she slumps a bit and sighs in relief. Like Dreyyn, she seems to be in a sorry state.
"Ow. That was quite something! Could use a moment collect myself ..."
Finally, she turns to their prize. Mistress heart? I wonder how literal he was ... Elise scrutinized the other woman curiously.
"We're ... friends. The undead were stirring and it was suspected it might have been something lingering since Tar-Baphon's time so we were sent to investigate. Then things got interesting!"
Dropping from the corpses hand is the stone that was used to locate Atenzuki. It is pulsating quite rapidly with the proximity of her being so close.
"Friends? Well you're at least the first that doesn't want my blood. Quite literally." She says being quite exhausted. "I know where they're keeping some of the stuff I had, I also saw some things that you guys might want... at least to give my captors a run for their money." Atenzuki sighs, laughing with relief. "At least you must have taken care of the guards?"
The group remember that Daeron said that he had no way to pay them for this, however there was some magical equipment that they wouldn't miss.
Nethan points the Wand of Valor at Elise and Dreyyn, uses (2) Mythic Point, and heals them;
After healing, Nethan picks up the stone and looks to Atenzuki, "Atenzuki, do you know what other purposes this stone has besides locating you? In addition, we would be interested in the treasure and some of the guards have been dispatched but not all."
"Aight." Elise nods and looks around, shooting Nethan a quick thankful nod for the heal.
"How are you feeling Atenzuki? Can you walk and, if needed, run? Blood loss weakens and saps strength - and the Gods only know how much they stole from you ... I'm Elise by the way."
She starts the motion to offer her hand, but halts when she realizes how blood-soaked and torn they are. With an apologetic shrug she looks around to find some cloth to quickly wipe off the worst. As she walks around, she pokes the aassimar with her boot.
"And lets take a quick look at this scum. He might have something on him - a clue or something we can use ..."
Atenzuki shakes her head at Nethan "No, I'll be honest. I don't know what it has to do with me or anything related to me." She reaches out to the stone, the shattered pattern on it points at her for a bit. Flashing a yellow glow, suddenly a red one appears, faintly pointing towards the east. "What's that?" She asks.
"I don't recognize the Aasimar sorry." She says to Amelia. Amelia kneels down next to the Aasimar and sees all the wounds from their recent conflict with the captain on this body. It seems her suspicions of possession are correct. The captain seems to be the armour more than the person wearing it.
Elise can't see much else on the person but the sword and shield are still there. They are both masterwork gear from Golarion. A longsword and a large shield. The shield you knew to be emblazoned with markings of Aroden before, looking at it you instead see the markings of the modern day Knights of Ozem. The sword too looks like it was also from a Knight. This might've been one of the soldiers that was sent into the well. At least at first glance. Could also just be a looter.
"I'm fine Elise, well mostly fine. My magic is locked with something they injected me with. They didn't want me breaking free. Perhaps one of you knows something about alchemy? This might wear off since they had to keep injecting me with the stuff but I'm not sure." She does look rather pale in the face from the loss of blood over the days she's been here. "I guess I can explain how I came to be here at some point but I for one don't want to stay here longer than we need to."
Atenzuki gathers herself and waves for the group to follow here out down the hall. She takes a left turn opening a door, goes upstairs to loop back round on herself. You can see blood trials presumable where they dragged her sometimes. They go off left whereas she is turning right. You eventually reach a small semi circular room ordained with lots of magical goods and chests. Atenzuki suddenly slows as she reaches this room feeling around in front of her. Her hands suddenly recoil as if she hit something. She then speaks of word of elven then a low hum can be heard before it goes calm again and she strolls on through to the room. "It was a password, my ears thankfully didn't fail me during my captivity." She ignores most of the other things in the room and goes to a single chest where presumably here belongings are kept. This room seems to hold a great many items that could be of use to the group.
"Is this a possessed Knight of Ozem? That's not good. I wonder if the whole company of men led by the supposed Captain might also be some knights." Amelia frowns at the thought.
A grim look came over Alþórel's face. "Hard to imagine a worse fate than such possession, ending in death."
With a word and a gesture he shrinks the body to a diminutive cloth doll, and picks it up. He explains "There are ways to question the dead, and means by which they might be returned to life. At the least I would like to find out who this poor unfortunate was, and how and why this happened."
In the room Alþórel detects for magical auras, and is taken aback. "By the Light! Nethan, do you see this?"
Atenzuki shakes her head at Nethan "No, I'll be honest. I don't know what it has to do with me or anything related to me." She reaches out to the stone, the shattered pattern on it points at her for a bit. Flashing a yellow glow, suddenly a red one appears, faintly pointing towards the east. "What's that?" She asks.
[ooc]Just wanted to check before I said anything. Is it reasonable to assume that if the gem was to find Atenzuki, and when it was touched to her picked up another source, that the 'Captain' was looking for more than one target? That he might be heading to this other source through alternate means? Not sure if this is a step too far because I've OOC knowledge. If you want to do as roll, I'm okay with that too.
"Good."
Elise nodded in response. Having to carry the girl around might not be feasible if they needed to leave the city in a hurry! With a grin she collects the fallen warriors sword and shield as Al collected his body.
"No need to leave more clues laying about then necessary. And I'm not sure how you southerners do it, but if we are to honour this dead warrior he should be buried with his sword. Or if he can live again, he will need it!"
Nethan puts the Wand of Valor away and wipes the sweat off his brow, "Phew! That was a close and good battle."
Nethan watches the compass point to another location, ponders the new development, and waits until the treasure chamber before looking at it again.
Nethan looks to Atenzuki then to Al and back to Atenzuki, "I am not trained in alchemy nor do I believe Al is either? Perhaps, collectively we can come up with a cure for you Atenzuki?"
Nethan looks down at what remains and watches Al shrink the former Knight, "Hopefully the permanently dead Knights are now at rest. I do worry if their honor is intact in permanent death?"
He then looks at Elise when she picks up the shield and sword, "Elise, do you want me to wrap up the sword, and place the sword and shield in my bag of holding?"
Nethan looks at Atenzuki after her remembering comment with a smile, "Thank you and nor do we."
When Nethan walks in with the group, his mouth drops at the sight of the treasure room and responds to Al, "Yeah Al, I do see what is before us!" Before inspecting the various items to see what he wants, he takes out the compass to see if it is still pointing in its new direction.