|
The clown, no longer smiling, takes aim at wraith spawn #3 and vanquishes him!
________________________________________
Sensing a pending bolster of their numbers, the wraiths go after Kyra Junior.
, ,
, ,
________________________________________
Kyra Junior heals herself:
Kyra Junior has lost a grand total of 3 HP and 7 CON.
________________________________________
Enemy Damage Tracker:
Wraith: 33
Spawn 1: --
Spawn 2: --
Spawn 3: --
Spawn 4: --
Spawn 5: --
Spawn 6: 31
Kyra, S: undamaged
________________________________________
Kyra Senior starts to stir. But she looks awkward and strangely insubstantial.
________________________________________
The party is up!
|
|
The half-orc, recognizing the danger posed to the party, strikes the prone Kyra Senior. Though, as a now-incorporeal being, only half the damage goes through!
Enemy Damage Tracker:
Wraith: 33
Spawn 1: --
Spawn 2: --
Spawn 3: --
Spawn 4: --
Spawn 5: --
Spawn 6: 31
Kyra, S: 5
Blackheath, Gravleon, and Sharien are up!
Sharien yells out to his summoned archon. "The cleric is rising as a shade as well! We must save her from that fate!"
She then uses an acid dart on Kyra, and her archon uses both of his light beams.
|
|
With two arrows, Blackheath brings down Spawn#6! The tide has definitely turned for the party. But, will it be enough?
____________________________________________________________
Kyra Senior, now a wraith spawn, reaches out for her apprentice with a hand:
, Miss
But Sarenrae protects her own!
Themaster wraith reaches up from below the ground:
, ,
Kyra Junior has lost a grand total of 4 HP and 12 CON. She is 2 CON away from becoming a spawn herself!
____________________________________________________________
Kyra Junior, low on resources, full withdraws.
The party is up!
Sharien's archon readies to fire a ray at the wraith the second it pops up (the archon is only around for this round and one more).
And Sharien readies a disrupt undead spell as well.
|
|
As the wraith pops up out of the ground and readied actions go off:
Grog swings mightily, but misses.
Sharien's disrupt undead attack also misses.
Her archon's light beam just hits, but only does half damage.
Gravleon's spiritual weapon attacks and misses.
____________________________________________________________
The wraith chases down Kyra Junior:
, ,
Kyra Junior has 1 CON remaining! The party is up!
|
|
Gravleon drops to a knee exhausted, he prays
"may your light shine with the dawn flower..."
Then he gets up and checks on the rest of the party
-Posted with Wayfinder
|
|
You continue to investigate the village:
|
|
"Having to deal with the angry spirits of murdered children -- that may have been the worst yet. And Kyra Senior's sacrifice shall not be forgotten. As we have a deadline, I suggest we head back to the city and get our information in order. Perhaps little Kyra can suggest a place we can restore our spirits -- mine feels woefully drained."
|
|
You have some choices with regards to restoring your CON. You can pay for spellcasting services--a Restoration at the standard PFS cost. Or you can try to finagle some sort of trade of goods and/or services.
|
|
(1) I think the biggest thing is that at least one death happened AFTER the Beast left the area.
(2) There were no marks left at any of the murder sites. You now know this is due to the incorporeal nature of the killer. The beast is too big and bulky to avoid leaving tracks.
There are other bits of flavor that you can choose to use or not-use.
|
|
Got any suggestions for the group?
As long as Gravleon or Sharien can burst through the doors and yell: "OBJECTION!" We should be good.
Grog can be called us a witness to discuss the footprints he tracked and Blackheath can testify about the wraiths -- they are both expert witnesses.
We can even call in Kyra Jr to tell about the death of Kyra sr.
|
|
That sounds fantastic! You can arrive at the courthouse at the speed of plot! Don't worry about any hindrances.
Please feel free to RP out your courtroom histrionics with as much bombast and righteous indignation as you like. :-)
Then, everyone should roll a check. As I've mentioned before, if you don't have a social skill, feel free to roll something else--just describe how it applies to the situation.
"What my less-than-eloquent friend is trying to say here, is that the timeline of these attacks doesn't make sense if the Beast was the one that performed all of them, and we found evidence of other dangerous creatures in that area... a group of undead monstrosities that could easily have been the culprits. We even lost someone to the creatures, and had to destroy the undead creature that she was becoming. In addition, several of these wraiths were the ghosts of children, and those poor children's souls had to come from somewhere. It is likely that the children were killed by the 'alpha' wraith, then raised as wraiths themselves. Thanksfully, we were able to destroy the creatures and put the souls to rest."
Sharien then gives a detailed description of the battle with the wraiths and their abilities, including the methods used to destroy them.
|
|
The half-orc burst through the doors of the courtroom and excitedly starts presenting the evidence. Unfortunately, he is so loud and boisterous that nobody can understand what he says.
____________________________________________________________
Sharien then follows-up quickly with more salient information about the attacks. Those in attendance who are also in the know, begin to frown and nod their heads--putting together some of the pieces. But, many still need to have the evidence presented to them eloquently. Remember: they are near-rabid in their mob-mentality and desire to convict the Beast.
|
|
Blackheath sweeps into the courtroom after his friends.
"MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT," he roars, "I have an item of pressing evidence that I would like entered into the record!"
The bard scans the crowd and nods. Removing his hat, he then flings it across the room where it comes to rest atop a statue of justice.
"Your honor, my lords, ladies, and gentlefolk of the jury, today you will hear testimony of such great import that we near paid for it with our lives!" With that he undoes the clasp on his long cloak and lets it slither over his shoulders and drop to the floor.
"As my friends have begun to tell you, the tragic deaths of the children at Hergstag -- those were not the work of the Beast, here accused. No! These crimes were committed by an immaterial enemy, a psychical abomination, a twisted and depraved spirit. Unlike the miserable Beast who stands before you chained, the Shadow over Hergstag would not be stopped by bars, or cages, or locked doors..."
Blackheath slowly removes one of his gauntlets and places it on the defense's table.
"The physical powers of the Beast, need no attesting, for they are obvious to us all in his very physique. We could not fail to recognize an attack by the Beast because it would leave clear marks of physical destruction... AND YET, no such marks appeared on the child victims in Hergstag!"
Now, finger-by-finger he removes and discards the other gauntlet.
"I think we all know that in this land is a terror --AN EVIL-- more ancient, more insidious than any beast. 'Tis a malevolence that mothers dare not think about, lest it comes creeping upon their napping newborns, a vile spirit that causes grown men to look over their shoulder and hurry home on moonless nights. Haven't we all felt this primal fear of the dark? Of the bodiless malignence stalking us?"
Without waiting for an answer, Blackheath carefully begins unbuckling his studded leather armor.
"The children were not torn apart, they were cruelly killed by a formless foe -- the embodiment of fear -- a walking nightmare!
He slings his armor over his shoulder, and with a twirl and a wink, casts it into the audience.
Not only were these poor innocent souls slain, they were made to rise again as wretched spirits -- mockeries of life! Shadow children! Whose free and easy smiles were warped into perverse sneers and grins of unfathomable corruption."
Blackheath undoes the top button of his shilk shirt.
"Grog, an expert in the markings of the Undead, tracked the broken revenants to their master, and within its umbral aura, we fought!"
Next, the penultimate button is undone.
"We put those poor, poor children to rest, but at what cost?! We sent the wraith into the oblivion it so richly deserved, but OH MY FRIENDS, what price did we pay?!"
One more button on his shirt is popped.
"Before my eyes, a brave crusader of right and good fell!" He gestures melodramatically at a spot on the floor as if the action was happening right in front of him now. "Kyra Sr.! Your name will live on for ages! She, a holy priestess, gave her life fighting the wraith -- struck down -- drained of essence. And then WOE!
At this point the bard pulls his shirt open to reveal his chiselled abs and developed pecs. The shirt is whipped over his head and then sent sailing off somewhere into the jury.
Blackheath stands half-naked before the court and nonchalantly flexes as he finishes his story.
"Kyra Sr. fell, but even worse, the Wraith tries to dominate her spirit and we were forced... forced... to extinguish her light from this world."
He looks up to the heavens as two perfectly formed tears run freely down his cheeks.
"Kyra Sr, died for the children of Hergstag. She died so that you good people could sleep easy and not fear every bump in the night. She died so that this innocent Beast would not be unjustly convicted of murders he did not have a hand in. But I cannot forgive myself for Kyra Sr DIED FOR ME!"
In his grief, the bard stumbles over to the jury box and presses a hand over his eyes.
"Yes! The wraith had me in its grip and with one more fell touch I would have perished and been reborn as a grovelling shade who hungered for naught but human suffering!"
He turns quickly to face the judge and says: "I wish to introduce as evidence MY OWN FAINTLY BEATING HEART!"
And with that the nearly-naked Blackheath grabs the hand of the nearest member of the jury and presses it to his bare chest. "Can you not feel how the heartbeat fades and shrinks? We have come straight her from Hergstag and I have not yet been restored. What you are sensing in these palpitations through my Charisma 16 and very buff chest is the working of a heart that was an instant away from death! NAY!!!! FROM UNDEATH!!!"
To prove the point, he holds the faces of various jury members against his chest, while sighing romantically and tragically.
"The heart does not lie, my friends. THE BEAST IS INNOCENT!"
Blackheath then swoons into the arms of his nearest admirers and speaks no more.
Sharien, having been enthralled by Blackheath's speech, finds her heart fluttering at the man's words, feeling things she's never felt before, as her studies have always kept her too busy for romance. She takes a very deep breath to compose herself.
"As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, we were attacked, and all while the beast was here in custody. The wraiths killed those children, not this poor creature!"
|
|
Grog burst in. There was a murmur in the court. The general attitude was: "What's he doing? We have an execution to get to?"
Sharien laid out some facts.
Blackheath shook his money-maker and gained some groupies.
After his stirring oratory, the courtroom flew into a cacophany. Judges called for order, bailiffs were summoned. Some people started angrily yelling. Some people were dumbfounded. Most started applauding and cheering!