The woman with the flail smiles menacingly at Brock, welcoming the challenge, "Bring it on little man," and starts whirling her flail again to build up momentum. As Brock advances with his blade, the barbarian attempts to dodge to the side, but Brock's hand is too quick and he leaves a nasty slash in her torso. Before she can retaliate with a blow of her own, however, she is hit by the concussive force of Danicka's merciful missle. The Kellid woman just sniffs derisively at the wizard before returning her attention to the real fun.
Unable to fend off the fury of the Kellid leader, Forrest falls to the floor with a extremely serious looking wound in his chest. The leader, enjoying her moment of revenge, then starts laughing. However, the laughing stops mere moments after it had begun as every bone in her chest is suddenly shattered by Yaiho's truly terrifying attack.
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Sinaryn is watching the melee ensue below as the arrow comes flying at her. Used to dodging shrapnel and scrap from her pistol she attempts to dodge out of the way.
She then moves to stop the retreat of the fleeing Kellid (Yellow) with vengeance in her eyes.
She races alongside them on the ridge and unleashes a wicked shot from the pistol.
In an impressive display of athleticism, Sinaryn jumps out of the way of the arrow headed straight for her heart. However, the bowman was too close and the arrow too fast and the tip still grazes her side, leaving a significant cut. After a short chase, she returns the favour and the Kellid man looks down at the hole in stomach in shock. His legs wobble as he looks back up at the smoking barrel, the look on his paling face makes it apparent this is the first and probably the last time he has ever seen a gun in action.
___
Umbru advances towards the fleeing bowmen, making sure to maintain the same distance between them as he whips out another vial. Safely away from the duel between Brock and the Kellid woman, Umbru tosses the bomb at the man with purple warpaint engulfing him in flames.
With the tunnel vision that comes with rage, the tall Kellid woman ignores all else but Brock, and she seems to be truly relishing the challenge. Her earlier failed attempt to dodge his blade brings her around to his side and she whirls her flail towards Brock's head, narrowly missing with what was sure to be a fatal blow.
The man with the hole in his stomach glances around, and blanches at seeing the mangled mess of his leader, the other woman soon to be surrounded by clearly very capable warriors, and his fellow bowmen on fire. Torn between running or fighting, his friend makes up his mind for him as the man with purple warpaint advances on a target of his own. Not wanting to face the dishonour of being the only one to flee, the man in yellow warpaint draws back his bow, but screams in pain as his wound worsens. He passes out as soon as he releases the arrow towards Sinaryn.
The remaining bowman advances towards Umbrutani, suffering from severe burns and trailing smoke from his scolded armour. Apparently not enjoying the ranged contest between them, he tosses his bow aside in favour of drawing his longsword "Enough of cowardly witchcraft!" He slashes viciously at Umbru's torso, but is somehow unable to draw blood despite the leaving shallow gash in his studded leather armour.
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Brocks grin widens as he narroely escapes death one again, never feeling quite as alive as he does in the midst of lethal combat.
Whirling his blade he strikes again.
Missing, he taunts the barbarian, unperturbed.
"Know that you are dying this day, and you will be forgotten. Run now and you may yet live to be remembered."
The tall Kellid woman sways away from Brock's blade and stares him down as she prepares for a strike of her own. However, her eyes widen ever so slightly at Brock's threat, perhaps realising for the first time just how bad things have gone for her comrades. She doesn't flee though, but steps closer instead, whirling her massive flail, "I would rather die than shame myself by fleein-" Her speech is cut short when the side of her head suddenly caves in from the impact of Yaiho's blow. Without another word, she crumples to the floor with a heavy thud.
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Umbru freezes briefly in terror as the sword's swing comes within inches of slashing open his throat, and a strange sense of deja vu descends upon him.
Umbru starts glancing around rapidly around the battlefield, his first close combat and he senses a well of fear threatening to overwhelm him. On one hand, he is filled with the urge to just turn and flee from this warrior in front of him. He also glances at the dying Forrest, knowing that he holds Yahoi's the wand of healing that could bring him back before he dies.
But he pushes all this away. If we want to be part of this world, then we have to prove it. Forrest, hang in there. Umbru takes a step away from the warrior, whips out another bomb and throws it at him at near point blank.
The final Kellid curses as his sword swings just short of it's target, but before he is able to try again he is once again surrounded by the flames of one of Umbru's bombs. The man falls to the ground, as Danicka rushes to Forrest's aid, kneeling beside the ailing halfing and pouring the healing potion the Pathfinders had acquired from Ninefingers down his throat. The nasty wound on his chest closes and his eyes flicker open.
Now that the danger has passed, a peaceful quiet returns to the mountain top.
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Brock snarls as his opponent is crushed in front of him, his glory robbed.
He started to rip out a sulphorous oath and reprimand for stealing his glory.
Then he saw the blood mad face of his raging barbarian companion, and decided that thanks were a more prudent option.
Smiling at the half orc, he says "well done!"
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Sinaryn slides down from the ridge with a cheer. "Did you see that big one carry on with a hole in his gut? Glad I was up there. Forrest, y'ok?" she talks fast being pumped up with adrenaline.
As she winds down she winces at the slice on her side but it isn't serious so she just applies pressure. She walks up beside Danicka and Forrest and speaks quietly, "Hey, while i'm not sorry for what we did...I am sorry that we had to do it. Good work patching up our table dancer."
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Brock again lets out a sardonic grin, more of a sneer, as he looks over the now still battlefield. Shaking the blood from his blade he sheathes it and recovers his crossbow.
Looking about, he mutters "Well, I did warn her we would be looting her corpse before long, so I might as well get to looting."
Matching action to words, after seeing the others save Forrest, he pokes about the barbarians bodies, looking for interesting loot.
Finishing with his task, he wanders to rhe group. "Where to next?"
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our table dancer.
As the potion works its way through his system, Forrest's eyes flicker open. "What... That woman! Stronger than any commoner I've ever seen." He looks up at Danicka. "Thank you, friend. I am sorry I insulted you at the bar. I owe you a debt."
He slowly gets up and smiles gingerly at Yaiho. "That is good, friend. I could use some help in that area. Perhaps you can teach me some tricks."
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Yaiho helps Forrest to his feet and then points down to the female leader that hurt him. "Yaiho crush her for you." Then points to the other closest warrior, "Yaiho crush her too."
Yaiho tries to think hard on the other missions and then one pops into his head. "Raid tomb next. Take heirloom, fight undead, avoid traps." A big grin shows up, "Fun!"
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"Oh, my goodness Forrest!" Danicka exclaims. "Are you alright? I thought you were dead!" she throws her arms around Forrest and gives him a big hug.
Suddenly she pulls back, blushing furiously and wiping tears from her eyes.
"You... You don't owe me anything."
Seeing the carnage around her she scrambles quickly over to the other dying people all over the road and tries her best to do what she can...
"Oh, my! If I put this here, maybe?"
"Oh, these definitely belong inside..."
On anyone she can't save, she apologizes to their corpse quietly.
"Does anyone have a shovel?" she asks.
If someone borrows her a shovel she gets to work digging a grave for the dead, and if no one has one she instead starts making a cairn for them.
She doesn't put in an opinion on where to go next, instead solemnly laying the dead to rest and looking sad about it.
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Umbru takes a second or two to still his racing heart as he takes down the warrior, knowing that it was only a matter of chance that he is still standing. He shakes that off and races over to Forrest's side but Danicka has already brought him back from the brink of death. He steps aside to give them a moment.
He turns to examine the carnage, his heart unsettled over the killing on one hand, yet recognising that the Kellids had started the combat first. Is it ever going to be like this as a Pathfinder? Killed or be killed? He quietly joins Danicka to help keep the former enemies alive but skilled he is in alchemical agents, he knows little about things living and is little help.
He looks solemnly at Danicka and assist with the grave.
While Brock searches the bodies for anything valuable, Danicka does her best to stabilise the fallen Kellids. The leader is obviously too far gone to even try, and the burns all over the Bowman with purple warpaint, even with Umbru's help, proved far too severe for Danicka to deal with without proper medical supplies. However she does manage to poke around inside the man with a hole in his gut and pulls out the bullet before closing the wound, and she believes that if left alone, the man will likely wake in a few hours. Surprisingly, the woman Yaiho smashed in the head with that terrifying blow will also make it, although she will need considerable time and care (or magic) before she eventually wakes from her coma.
Unfortunately for Brock, Kellids are an austere people and carry very little worth looting. Although their weapons are huge, they are also quite primitive and will be of little value to anyone. The same goes for their jewellery which consists of impossibly large animal teeth and claws threaded through leather cords or of small charms made out of bundles of twine, hair, and stone. The only things of any real value are the two potions of cure light wounds, one on each of the women, and a total of four thunderstones.
While the others decide on their next course of action, Umbrutani and Danicka lay the two fallen Kellids to rest by building a cairn with the ample supply of rocks on the mountain top.
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"Thank you, Umbrutani" Danicka tells him, grateful for his assistance with the wounded and the dead.
Eventually, exhausted from the physical labour of building a cairn, Danicka is ready to move on. She offers a quick prayer over the graves, picks up her broom-like staff and follows the others back to the boat quietly.
---
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After reading and rereading the journal for information on the trip to the mausoleums, Danicka comments aloud.
"Ulisha sounds so... Mean! She worked for these men, betrayed them, robbed one, and now that one died she wants us to rob his grave? What importance could a recently deceased mans coffin have for the Pathfinders Society?"
She sighs and shakes her head, clearly disapproving of Ulisha and her greed.
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Having finished searching the corpses and the soon to be corpse and the probably not going to be a corpse, Brock scoffs, "Bah! A measly potion, no wonder they wanted to rob us," he stops to spit in the dirt, "and no wonder they lie bleeding in the dust. Very poor brigands they are... er, were"
He listens to his compatriots debate the morals of the missing Pathfinder with his signature sardonic smile, but chimes in "I share your concerns about Ulisha. Disreputable woman like that probably intended to stiff us the whole time." he sighs, "But we have to complete this wild goose chase or we don't get paid."
He turns away muttering, "Or get browny points for spreading peace and love or whatever you do gooders do this stuff for."
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Umbru frowns and sighs deeply upon reading the note. He is clearly disturbed, enough that he actually speaks up, albeit still no louder than a whisper. "This is my first mission with the Pathfinder Society, and I would normally keep my opinions to myself. But I have to agree with Lady Danicka. I would keep my word to support the Society regardless, but this particular task is leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Is the Society no more than an organisation of grave robbers?"
Despite some growing misgivings about Ulisha's character, the group of Pathfinders decide to get the tomb-robbing over and done with. Even though the journey to Gralton is slightly further than it was to get to the mountains from Daggermark, it takes roughly the same amount of time to get there. Thanks largely to the fact that most of way was downstream, but the fact that you hired a carriage from Artume, a town famous for their superior horses probably helped as well.
Once in the small city of Gralton, some of you look for information about the job while Danicka sets about finding someone who can tell her what possible use there is for a bracelet that does what it does to her hair. The process takes quite some time, since none of the usual sources could figure out the first thing about it, but eventually she stumbles upon a small curio shop squeezed between the magic shop and an alchemist’s. Heading in on the off chance, Danicka finally finds someone who knows what he is talking about, "C’est is from Numeria, non?" The human proprietor asks in a thick Galtan accent as he scrutinises the bracelet carefully, pointing at a strange series of lines on the inside, he continues, "Ah yes, this thing, it is most interesting! See these lines? They are the power of this device, not magic..." After a little experimentation, he manages to identify the bracelet’s properties and explains them, "...Thank you for showing this thing to me, mademoiselle! If only it were not broken..."
By the time everyone is ready to head to the cemetery indicated in Ulisha’s journal, the sun has started to set. It’s probably just as well since you are planning to break into someone's tomb. The cemetery is surprisingly ostentatious for such a small city, an indication of the heritage of the city and how most of the population consists of refugees from the revolutions that have racked Galt for generations. Here, deposed Galtan nobles have erected grand tombs in a vain attempt to evoke memories of their lost glories. The tomb of one such noble, Laban Tullivor, lies just beyond the cemetery gate that currently hangs ajar and unguarded in front of you, his treasure ready for the taking.
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Danicka blushes at the shopkeep's gratitude. "Thank you good sir!" Danicka replies with a sweet smile. "Your help is much appreciated."
Turning her attention back to the bracelet she remarks aloud, "Fascinating..."
---
Nearing the Mausoleum, Danicka sighs once more, shakes her head, and gets down to business.
"Laban Tullivor--the man we are to rob--was said to be a corrupt and cruel man. He boasted about a great treasure that was to be buried with him, and the magical trap which would protect his tomb which can be bypassed by 'one who earns Tullivors' thanks.' An unlikely outcome for us since we're about to break in. Still, there might be some trick to the words. A clue, perhaps."
Seeing the ajar cemetery gate, Danicka slows her pace and looks around nervously.
She grips her fancy broom tightly in her slender hands and takes a steadying breath.
Keep it together! You're not about to become a criminal... Oh, dear! I am! No, it's for the greater good! No, it's not! Oh, dear, this job is horrible! Oh, I'll never be a hero at this rate! Mother forgive me!
Lost in her own tangled thoughts, Danicka creeps along at the back of the group.
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Brock travels simply, eating the long hours playing various card games with his companions and fellow travellers, or long nights at tavern stopovers.
His luck and skill were barely adequate to keep even, but it passed the time.
Approaching the cemetary he notices the unlocked gate and mutters, "This gate should be locked, locals say. We may not be the only grave robbers this night. Maybe someone else will do is the favor and trigger any traps before we get there."
He keeps a keen look out for trouble.
Once you step through the gates, you have very little trouble finding the baroque marble tomb of the Tulivor family, as it clamors for your attention like a gaudy flag waving for a once noble house. Its most audacious feature is a sculpted badger that looms, gargoyle-like, above the door. The iron door itself is decorated not only with the Tullivor name and crest, but also with an elaborate arcane rune.
It seems that Yaiho may have spoke too soon, though, as both Brock and Danicka soon spot a humanoid figure slumped over the small marble pedestal just in front of the tomb. However, because of the long shadow cast by the spire of the neighbouring mausoleum, you have to get very close before you are able to make out that the body is that of a young human male. His outfit is very fine, marking him as a noble of some sort, and his arms are wrapped around a marble bust, bound around the wrists by rope.
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---
"Oh, my!" Danicka exclaims with worry, rushing over to check on the corpse. "This poor man!" she cries, unable to save him.
She looks around, worried at first, but then with determination.
"Yes," she agrees with Forrest. "We could follow their trail, if we wanted."
She eyes the tomb behind the poor dead man.
"Dead right outside the tomb we're here for..." she remarks ponderously. "That's unlikely to be a coincidence." She seems lost in thought for a while. "But if it's related to the Tulliver's and their trapped treasures, why kill some poor man? How could that earn their thanks?"
After another few moments of silence she sighs. "It could be unrelated... A message to the Tulliver's perhaps? A message. A warning... A threat?"
She turns a wary eye to the surrounding cemetery. "Should we go after the m-m-m-murderer?" she stutters, clearly nervous now that the reality of their situation has sunk in.
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Brock approaches the dead man, looking him over. "From the looks of his belt buckle and features, we might have a relative of old Tulliver, I agree. Looks like our killer did him in with a sword."
Looking around, "Looks like we definately have company. Wonder if they killed this man here to get in the crypt?"
He grips his crossbow tightly as he looks around.
As soon as those investigating the dead body start moving away, the bust he is wrapped around starts talking. The bust's mouth actually moves and it speaks one sentence before falling silent once more "When the last sun falls upon this spot, receive my thanks." If anyone investigates further, they find that the message repeats every time someone stands right behind the body, "When the last sun falls upon this spot, receive my thanks..."