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Shi continues to fire his arrows from overhead but the arrow is once again repelled, this time by the skeletal champion's heavy armor. Fargrim swings a punch at it, but her fist is still blocked by its shield. Hskoro pulls back and fights defensively, and in the process, his swing fails to connect with the skeletons who are ducking and weaving from his attack. Vanya, frustrated with the progress, pulls away and races around the crypt, hoping to flank the undead later.
The skeletal champion, noting how Fargrim is avoiding his attacks, elects to swing its sword with less power to attain greater accuracy. Despite Fargrim's supreme agility, its swing is lucky and connects against her. Before she can recover, the skeleton beside her rakes her with one of its claws.
The other two skeletons attacking Hskoro fails to get past his defences. Looks like his gambit to fight defensively paid off, for now.
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Fargrim feels the her divine energy starting to fade. In desperation, she swings with a mighty upper cut, punching into the ribs of the skeletal champion. Shards of broken bones burst forth from her blow.
Hskoro, however, still finds difficulty in connecting his warhammer at the skeletons, while keeping them from hitting him.
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Rilia taps Hskoro with a belay pin that somehow magically restores some of his health.
In the midst of the fierce combat between Fargrim and the skeletal champion, Vanya circles around the crypt, coming up behind the undead. It ignores Vanya, concentrating on Fargrim, which turned out to be a rather unwise move. Vanya dives forward, plunging her dagger against the skeletal neck, her precise strike smashing one of the vertebrae. The skull falls off, followed shortly after by the entire skeleton collapsing into a pile between Fargrim and Vanya.
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Shi continues firing his arrows from overhead but the skeleton is too agile and ducks in time before the arrow connects.
The mindless skeletons seem oblivious that the leading undead have been destroyed and continue their attacks on the same targets. Despite Fargrim's preternatural senses, one of the skeletons still manages to land a lucky rake across her arm. Thankfully, Hskoro manages to duck and parry all the attacks away from him.
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Hskoro continues swinging his warhammer at the skeleton in front of him, but being focused on parrying the attacks against him make his attacks less effective and the undead just ducks away in time. Fargrim has no problem, however, and with yet another mighty swing, punches the same skeleton across the jaw, sending it skull flying across the graveyard, and the rest of its bones collapsing into a pile on the ground.
Vanya steps forward and stabs at the skeleton beside Fargrim and despite the hard exterior, the two strikes causes enough damage to bring it down.
Shi fires one blunt arrow directly onto the head of the remaining skeleton, knocking it off and ending the undead existence in one final stroke.
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With the evil priestess Shirin taken care of, and her undead creations destroyed, you pick yourself up carefully and return back to the manor. You break the news to Aaqir that she had taken the place of Umut for some time now, and likely have already murdered her. Aaqir sighs in sorrow at the news, and utters a prayer to Pharasma to guide the soul of her priestess.
Nonethless, Aaqir thanks the Pathfinders for ending the threat to the Bahjari household, allowing him and his family to conclude Zarmina’s burial without further interruptions. Everyone involved is more than happy to lay the blame for the recent troubles — including the assassin — on Shirin. Metella Rauger and Temel Passad, however, continue their silent feud against each other and the two rival merchants continue to regard each other warily all the way til they prepare to depart.
After the ceremony is over, Aaqir meets the party one last time in the study. "When I met you earlier this morning, little did I expect the funeral proceeding to take such an unexpected turn. I must indeed thank you again, for without your presence, surely a disaster would have befallen everyone present. But let's return to the original task at hand. Before they left, all the merchants save for Temel Passad left notes seeking to establish trade relations with the Pathfinder Society. The testimonies from Metella, Doritania and Jakti were especially glowing. So you have done an amazing job in swaying these influential merchants to our sides. Well done!"
"Some loose ends still remains. I do not believe the assassin was sent by Shirin - she seemed rather fixated on undeads, and besides, from what you described, the assassin seemed just as surprised as you when the undeads burst in. But I doubt Temel is involved either - it is too crude a method for him, and clearly the suspicion would fall on him, even more reason why he would not have arranged it. Besides, I know he treats the rivalry with the dwarf more as entertainment. I can only surmise that there are other feuds that I am unaware, for each I certainly hope to correct."
"Ah well, I have spoken enough. You have all had a most tiring day, and still need to time to recover from your wounds, so I would not delay you much further. I'll write a full report of the recent events to send to your venture-captain and the Grand Lodge so that you would be recognized for their efforts. Once again, for the lives of my family and me, thank you. You will always find welcome under the roof of Aaqir al’Hakam."
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Amelia wakes to a golden glow dissipating from her, healing her wounds as the light fades away. "huh?? What? The Fore.." Bewildered, she stares around for a moment at the sprays of skeletal remnants and the wounds her companions bear. "Oh DEAR!!"[b] She exclaims. [b]"I am so sorry!! I can't believe they took me out like that!!" Quickly she gets to her feet and tries to make amends for sleeping through the fight by tying up wounds and assisting with magical healing where she can.
Back at the Manor, she sits in introspective quiet as Aaqir praises the Pathfinders for their acts. For perhaps the first time in her long life, she feels.. inadequate. She has never fallen in such a manner before, and it will take some time for the effects of such a near failure to be accepted.
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Back at the Manor, she sits in introspective quiet as Aaqir praises the Pathfinders for their acts. For perhaps the first time in her long life, she feels.. inadequate. She has never fallen in such a manner before, and it will take some time for the effects of such a near failure to be accepted.
"Perhaps a dip in the hot springs? Also I'm a fair masseuse, if you need any tension worked out." Rilia says with a broad smile.