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The skeletal warrior, badly injured, with breaks and chips in many of its bones, withdraws from combat and makes a run for it. It is disconcerting to see a creature that looks so much like the mindless skeletons you've all seen many times before react so much like a normal person, thinking tactically, and acting to preserve its 'life', such as it is.
And yet, it is still an unnatural abomination, animated by unholy energies.
Skeleton 1: withdrawing
Velidor
Elliot
Acolyte 1
Acolyte 2
Kuryn
------
Milton
Veilwar
Iranar
Lamare
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Velidor sees nothing in the direction the skeleton is heading except the distant wall of Corpselight; much too far for its defenders, if any happen to be looking this way, to see what is happening here.
Velidor trains his sights on the fleeing skeletal creature, breathes, and squeezes the trigger, and the unliving warrior's skull explodes in a shower of fragments, accompanied by the sound of thunder. Its legs take a half dozen staggering steps before tottering to the ground.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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The Pharasmin priest hears your words, and says, "Stand down, acolytes -- they may look like ghouls, but they're not undead."
He allows Lamare to approach, and accepts the positive energy healing him and his acolytes of their minor wounds.
"I am Bishop second class Kuryn Jexel, third battalion of the Nexian Parish, Church of Pharasma, Militant. As you can see we're here to save these poor souls from being devoured by the undead. The Nexians are setting up a portal for everyone we're able to liberate. We've been scouting the area for a few weeks, setting up this raid. But what are you doing here? Who are you? From the way you destroyed them, I take it you're no friends of the undead, but deceived them into leading you here."
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"Joktan Heth! I'm afraid to say I have. We encountered him and his companions a few weeks ago, but we thought he was a ghoul, and unfortunately, thought his protestations to the contrary were lies made up to preserve the mockery of life that these abominations have. So it is. I slew him, and for that I am truly sorry. After death, the magic faded and his body became that of a normal, formerly living man. I was able to use a spell to speak to his spirit and find out what I could, but I have not the magic ability nor the resources to raise him from the dead.
"If I could take you to where we buried him, I would, but I must oversee the escape of these freed people to Nex. If you have a map, though, I will mark it. He is probably still there -- we consecrated the ground where we buried him and his comrades, so he should not have risen as any sort of undead.
"When I spoke to his spirit, he told me his goal was the Urgathoan temple atop the hill south of the city, and he was certain the document was there. It was in a path through the swamp, on the way to that temple, that we encountered him. He asked me to contact the Pathfinder Society after my mission here was done, which I intended to do, but now I suppose I have done so by telling you this. We buried him in the swamp in a relatively dry spot and put a cairn of stones on top.
"We must go; I can see my raiders are already falling back with the people they've been able to save. If you wait here in this corral, I'll make sure none of them bother you, and then you can be about your business, finding your fallen colleague and the artifact he was searching for."
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"You're kidding right? That man is responsible for the death of a Pathfinder, and you have caused us to let him go. You can rest assured that I will place the details of this in my report. In all my days, I never thought to see a fellow Pathfinder's killer treated thusly. Did you offer to buy the Pharasman a drink back in Absalom while you were at it?"
Milton stalks off in a tirade of legal verbiage and precedent!
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"Yes he admitted as much, when he had the opportunity to lie about it. Joktan did not reveal he was in disguise to the man, he took him as an undead enemy. The same could have occurred had we not informed them of our ruse. Report what you will, just make sure you spell my name correctly if need be."
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"Why is it that they need to be destroyed exactly? These particular undead appear to have established a nation, with laws, and a society. They are raided by outsiders who come to kill them. I assure you sir, that the parallels between what we have witnessed here and say demon raids into Kyonin are quite apparent, At least to any without your racist, or perhaps I should say "lifist" attitudes. A dispassionate discourse would surely show that we and the Pharasmans are the invaders here, and to bring your outside prejudices to a paradigm which is entirely beyond your previous experience is quite the height of hubris sir!"
"Need I remind you that the Pathfinder Society has numerous necromancers within its ranks, would you be so quick to slaughter them because of their dealings with the undead? Perhaps you would indeed, since apparently letting Pathfinder-slayers go is the order of the day."
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"Show me a state outside of Geb that keeps undead penned up for consumption and I will agree with you. These folks raided to free slaves who were going to be eaten or worse. I believe your morals are questionable at best for the Society, but one expects differently from a Dark Archiver I guess." and with that Velidor turns and starts heading for the burial mound.
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"I concur partially with our barrister. It is true that this is a legetimate state that we are breaking law and that pathfinders are our priority.
But the fact they are trying to forgot they were also alive in the past to be able to eat them is inacceptable. "
-Posted with Wayfinder
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The Pharasmins have left the corral as you began your argument.
The group stays in the corral, watching the other raiders pass by at a distance. Eventually they are gone, and you are free to resume your journey. There are roads that will take you around Corpselight to avoid further interactions with the undead, but you can also go into the town, using your disguises, if you need to purchase supplies. (Of course, some supplies may not be available in a majority-undead town.)
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"I will know when I see a true Paladin. I do not see one yet based on some previous actions. Regardless, let us continue."
"Every deity's Paladins are subject to a separate code, some of which seem a bit barbaric to me, although I must admit an affinity for those who follow the Dawnflower.. It is only important that I understand my compact with Him, and that I live up to it. Now, which of these two tasks shall we do first? Obtaining the body seems to me as if it will be easier to do first, as once we get the artifact we might be pursued. And while carrying a decaying body around Riddleport might be considered bad form, it might seem perfectly reasonable for a bunch of ghouls to be carrying it, if we tell anyone who asks that it is 'a snack for later',"
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"You would know about harlots." Velidor replies and then walks on whatever path skirts around the town. "Just come up with a better lie for us if we run into more undead patrols. You Asmodeans are good for that at least, a skill I never developed."
"Oh no my friend, you all made the decision back there to blow our cover. You don't get to relinquish responsibility now after your little mutiny back there. I trust you all had a plan when you did that, so have at it."
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Taking the road around Corpselight adds a few miles to your journey, but probably saves you time. There are few travelers, and the only ones who pass you are a young, living human -- probably a boy, but it's hard to tell -- walking alongside a ghoul, of all things. As you pass, you hear the ghoul whining to the boy, "When do we eat, Omaire? I ate everything we brought with us hours ago."
"Everyone you brought with us, you mean," the boy replies with a snicker. "There's a meatmarket at Corpselight, anyway. Boy, how'd I end up on an errand with you to the sticks, Arduga?"
But they've passed by before you hear the ghoul's reply.
It's like world turned upside-down while you weren't paying attention -- living humans and ghouls bantering together like friends?
The sun suggests it is nearly noon by the time you pass through the dry land around Corpselight and enter another swampy fen. A narrow, twisted, forking path of dry land winds through the wetland, leading to a low, solitary hill rising from the horizon to the south. An ominous stone cairn serves as the crown to the hill's crest, and this is right around where the priest indicated on the map that they buried Joktan.
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"That poor child back there, imagine the atrocities he has seen, and imagine what he may be subjected to in his future. The life of a dispossessed child in Egorian or Almas is surely no picnic, but they are not in constant fear of being eaten as a snack. It is a shame that our mission urgency demands that we could not have stopped to save that wretch."
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"Oh, now you worry about the living being around the undead? Convenient..." Iranar mutters, mostly to himself.
"I am unsure if I find it more troubling that you are not concerned about the poor child, or that you ARE concerned that I am. As a rational and accountable being, I am always concerned about the welfare of those around me, although seemingly I am in the minority in that regard with respect to present company. The inconsistency of your words and actions is stark, but not entirely unexpected from your ilk."