As the men open their eyes Tereze flashes a winning smile and asks:
So how did two strong boys like yourselves end up in a horrible place like zis?
Both men awake upon the wave of healing energy, with mildly different reactions. The Osiriani man flinches and covers his face, as if expecting an attack from an insectile creature of some kind; while the man with the eye-patch tenses his fists as if to fight for his life against an assailant. When they both realize the situation around them, they relax a bit...albeit both appearing incredibly exhausted.
"You lot with the Black Marquis?" the Taldan pirate asks bluntly with an irritated expression, while the Osiriani man is falling over himself to profusely thank each Pathfinder individually. He looks infinitely relieved when Kegan mentions they are here to rescue them. "Name's One-Eyed Farl. Don't ask about how I have one eye, that joke gets old fast. My friend here is Zukka Nephmet, he was traveling on our ship with us." Zukka nods graciously at the introduction.
"Indeed, I was. I have spent some time in Deadbridge, and had just received a missive to return to my homeland of Osirion. My presence on the ship was to pay back some favors I owed to the Marquis before I began my journey back to the south." Zukka explains with a thick Osiriani accent. "I should have just left town given how this turned out, however." Farl nods in agreement emphatically at this statement.
"This place is a death trap, there is nothing here but moldy shrines to some creepy god of some kind." He turns his one good eye towards the exit with a squint. "Riverbane sent us on a gods-dammned suicide mission. There was nothing here. I am certain she meant for all of us to die here. We have to get back to the Marquis and warn him of what she has done!"
Kegan gives a low whistle, then tells Farl “Yes, the Black Marquis sent us. Unfortunately it was on Riverbane’s ship!”
Farl gapes in horror at this statement. "She came with you? Please tell me she did not follow you here?" he almost pleads. "We need to leave now if she is with you, there might be a chance that we can avoid her and get back to Deadbridge another way." Nephmet nods in agreement with the pirate, a grim look on his face.
"My friend's concern is a good point," the Osiriani says. "Riverbane is reknown for her cruelty to those she hunts. Should you encounter her, it would be wise to be prepared for a fight."
With a grim look, he adds “This will make the return trip much more interesting than anticipated. I was really hoping for a different sort of goodbye with Riverbane....”
It is actually Nephmet who makes a comment to this, a look of grim amusement on his visage. "It might have been in your best interest this way, friend. The last five men who have had dalliances with Riverbane were found drowned by the banks of the Sellen the next day. She is a black widow, in more ways than one."
“We may not need to kill Riverbane, only cause her to release her grip.”
Both men look at each other briefly, before turning back to Kegan and saying simultaneously: "You will need to kill her." Nephmet gives Farl a lifted eyebrow, while the pirate gives a shrug of his shoulder. ""Riverbane is not that type of pirate. Once she has her mind set on something, nothing will deter her course," Farl says firmly. "If she means to double-cross the Marquis, Riverbane will view you as an obstacle in her path. Kill her before she does the same to you."
“Well,” calls Riverbane, the sun glinting off her jet-black hair as her lips twist in a grin. “Shiver me timbers! Look who made it out alive. I hoped the crawling horrors would be the end of you, but I suppose vermin don’t eat each other.” She spits on the moss covered ground before continuing. “Why do Pathfinders always have to meddle in what doesn’t concern them?” Pulling out an ancient-looking tome from a pouch, she throws it unceremoniously in the mud in front of her. “Fools! All this for a book …” She errupts in maniacal laughter.
“Bazzak dies tomorrow and you die today! KILL THEM!” Riverbane shouts as the four pirates accompanying her string their shortbows and begin to aim them in the Pathfinder's direction!
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Giving and sigh of disappointment Kegan nods to Farl and Nephmet as he says “Thank you for the warning, I have no interest in someone like that. I do like competent women but had noticed a certain uncomely viciousness in her.”
With a certain sadness, he admits “I have no reason to doubt what you say is true.”
Looking to the rest of the group, he asks “So any ideas how to avoid an ambush as we leave? If I sent someone in here, I would set up an ambush as they are leaving and are hopefully hurt.”
Do the trees the men are behind grant cover? Any other terrain of interest? difficult, other cover, etc etc?
Initiative Order:
Round 1:
Kegan
Tetsudo
Aryxis
Melisande
Riverbane
Tereze
Locke
Pirates
Riverbane please give me a DC 19 will save or be blinded.
Riverbane gets blasted in the face, the sparkles getting right in her eyes and blinding her! She appears unable to remove the glittery nonsense from her sight by the end of her turn, though she does weave her hands sinuously to cause 3 duplicates of herself to begin swirling around her defensively!
Tetsudo and Roshi advance forward, jockeying for a good charge position.
Aryxis's muscles begin to twitch with bottled speed, before he unleashes himself across the intervening distance, completing his movement with a swing of his sword at the nearest archer...
Aryxis' strike lands on the pirate thug hard, causing his target to spray blood in all directions! The man remains standing afterwards, though barely.
Initiative Order:
Round 1:
Tereze
Locke
Pirates (Red -16)
Round 2:
Kegan
Tetsudo
Aryxis
Melisande
Riverbane (Still blinded, 3 images)
Tereze
Locke
Pirates
The pirates readjust around the trees, three of them firing arrows that fly uselessly past their targets. The one engaged in combat with Aryxis drops his bow and pulls out scimitar, but his attempted strike is about just as useless as the ranged attacks made by his allies.
Round 2:
Kegan
Tetsudo
Aryxis
Melisande
Riverbane (Still blinded, 3 images)
Tereze
Locke
Pirates (Red -16)
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Kegan sprints between Orange and Green archer, thrusting his rapier at the blind pirate Riverbane. “So, why are you fellows following a viper like this? You know she doesn’t care if any of you live or die.”
Crit 15-20
5 is precision damage
“Shouldn’t mess with the Pathfinder Society, Riverbane. We are quite good at killing snakes.”
Kegan sprints between Orange and Green archer, thrusting his rapier at the blind pirate Riverbane. “So, why are you fellows following a viper like this? You know she doesn’t care if any of you live or die.”
Kegan's attack does not land, his strike instead landing on one of the images darting around Riverbane; causing it to dissipate with a puff of smoke. The thugs in her entourage appear to focus on the fight at the moment, rather than regard Kegan's comment.
Tetsudo charges valiantly forward, his lance piercing Aryxis' combatant and perforating him into nonexistence. Aryxis, finding himself with one less target and not wanting to be outdone by Tetsudo, turns to the next pirate and cleaves him in twain with a mighty swing of his blade.
Melisande moves up some so she can more clearly see the targets, then casts Grease on the orange square.
Both Riverbane and her pirate goon slip for a brief moment, but retain their footing as the ground beneath them becomes incredibly slippery with a greasy substance. Riverbane adopts a defensive stance as she finally manages to clear the glitter from her eyes to see once again.
Round 2:
Tereze
Locke
Pirates
Round 3:
Kegan
Tetsudo
Aryxis
Melisande
Riverbane (2 images)
Tereze
Locke
Pirates
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“Locke, do you have any reason to believe she cares about what happens to these men?”
Keeping his rapier in position to attack Riverbane, Kegan glances towards blue and says “If you are going to survive, you should probably surrender now. It sounds like my friends aren’t looking for prisoners. By the way, do you have a name?”
Locke flies 40ft closer, but with three Riverbanes down there, it'd be tricky.
Instead, Locke takes aim at orange.
The pirate targeted by Locke's arrow bomb is knocked unconscious by the blast, crumples to the ground in a burning heap.
Keeping his rapier in position to attack Riverbane, Kegan glances towards blue and says “If you are going to survive, you should probably surrender now. It sounds like my friends aren’t looking for prisoners. By the way, do you have a name?”
The man begins to open his mouth before Riverbane cuts him off. "Do not even start to think of mutiny, laddy-boy. Remember what happened to the last brilliant pirate that decided to try something?" she hisses in his direction. The pirate next to Riverbane visibly begins to turn white in fear as he drops his bow while pulling out his scimitar, stumbles through the grease towards Kegan, and makes the incredibly stupid decision to attack him with a slash of his weapon. The attack goes almost laughably wide as he slips slightly in the grease, leaving him wide open for a riposte if desired!
Round 3:
Kegan (Possible riposte available)
Tetsudo
Aryxis
Melisande
Riverbane (2 images)
Tereze
Locke
Pirates
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Shaking his head, Kegan tells the guy attacking him “Bad life choice.”
Saying that, the swashbuckler easily parries the attack and then tries to knock some sense into the fellow’s head with the guard of his rapier.
Crit 15-20
5 is precision damage
Then he takes a step to the side and attacks Riverbane again.
Crit 15-20
5 is precision damage
“I’m really surprised he still listens to you, Riverbane. Your desperation is showing, but that tends to happen when someone who depends on their magic gets into melee.”
Kegan easily parries the pirate's flailing strike, but fails to land his counterattack. His strike against Riverbane, however, manages to land on a solid target as opposed to one of the images, drawing first blood from her.
Tetsudo, seeing Kegan at least attempt to do damage non-lethally to the thug, decides to attempt to do something similarly. So he charges up to the pirate and attempts to soften his thrust at his enemy. He is incredibly unsuccessful at this, in the sense that the turtle knight still completely perforates the pirate and leaves him barely clinging to lift as he spleen leaks out partially from his body.
Aryxis, seeing Melisande aiming up for a ranged area of effect spell, plays the part of a gentleman and lets the lady go first. Her blast of flame roasts the pirate on the ground to a crisp, while surprisingly Riverbane does a back flip over the blast and is completely untouched by the spell.
With the spell blast out of the way, Aryxis steps up and lands an attack of his own on Riverbane; his attack striking despite the two duplicates darting around her. Riverbane winces from the continued attacks on her, and she turns defensively towards Kegan as an eerie glow surrounds her.
"Enough of this. Your friends should be sufficient to handle this, why don't you go and secure the ship while they take care of things?" Riverbane suggests to the swashbuckler as magical power suffuses her voice.
Round 3:
Tereze
Locke
Round 4:
Kegan (DC 16 Will Needed)
Tetsudo
Melisande
Aryxis
Riverbane (-38, 2 images)
Tereze
Locke
Riverbane winces from the continued attacks on her, and she turns defensively towards Kegan as an eerie glow surrounds her.
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She was in the 10ft blast radius when i shot at orange before, wasn't she, if i'm not mistaken? There was a splash 8 fire dmg, reflex DC 18 for 1/2.
Locke continues flight north, then shoots an arrow at Riverbane.
The arrow flies wide, striking and dissipating one of the darting images in the process.
@GM Irish, Sorry, I tend to not look in spoilers unless told to. Too late to edit my post, pick whichever attack seems fair as my attack for the round.
He quickly follows up with an attack!
Kegan's strike lands, dealing another blow to Riverbane as she appears to be heavily damaged!
Round 4:
Kegan
Tetsudo
Melisande
Aryxis (Attack Pending)
Riverbane (-56, 1 images)
Tereze
Locke
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I suggest you surrender now unless you wish to float and bloat.
Melisande sighs at her own terrible language and turns to the party members.
I must appologize. I've no idea what came over me to spout such drivel. Anyway, here's looking at you, kid.
Melisande casts Magic Missile, targeting Riverbane for
As Aryxis' strike dissipates Riverbane's final image, Melisande's trio of magic missiles slam into her; the damage from the projectiles sufficient to finally knock her into unconsciousness!
Out of Initiative
shirt, rapier, ring of mind shielding, jewelry (500 gp value), pouch with 150 gp, book on the ground titled "Memoirs of the Silver Brotherhood"
Farl turns to the group as the combat finishes. "Can I kill her?" he asks with a hopeful look on his single eye. "I am owed that much for what she has done to me and the other men." Nephmet merely appears relieved that the situation is over and wishes to return to the boat as soon as possible.
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As much as I sympathize, Farl, killing helpless prisoners is not the way we do things in the Pathfinder Society. I imagine your Marquis will want to resolve this situation himself. We should just bind and gag her and bring her back on the ship. Melisande considers the situation and pulls the pathfinders aside. Do we think the Marquis was in on this or is he just another duped by Riverbane?
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“No.” Kegan automatically replies to Farl.
He nods agreement to what Melisandre says as she explains why killing Riverbane is wrong.
To the group he says “Let’s check who is bleeding out and fix that first. Maybe some of her men survived.” It is clear he doesn’t expect that to be the case.
He then proceeds to bind Riverbane to the best of his ability, carefully checking for hidden weapons and items as he does so.
Once she is secured, he lets Melisandre pull him aside for a conference.
Shaking his head, he says “I really doubt it. What would he have gained?”