unfortunately, both Malavin and Kephry miss in their attacks.
Hickle's action before the cultists.
Both reprime their shots onto one of the cultists approaching the group, finding their marks and dealing heavy damage!
The cultist still manages to stumble forward, but loses his footing from the injury and stumbles into the pit, where he meets his demise.
one moves up and the two attack Zelda:
The final cultist attacks Kephry twice.
Top of round. There are three remaining cultists: two inside the doorway, and the one fighting Kephry.
Malavine, Kephry, and Hickle.
Cease and surrender, cretin! Kephry roars with the intensity of the lion, righteous fury coursing through her veins and power exuding from her pores as she smacks away the strike and swings at the cultist with the might of the spirits.
"Or don't," Malavine added with an amused smirk. "If you really want to sell your lives to delay us by half a minute, they're yours to sell." Hopefully it would drive the point home, how hopeless this battle was for them. She used her Starknife on the nearest to drive the point home.
Kephry injures the one she is fighting, but he still stands. Malavine's attack is a miss.
Hickle's action.
"Zelda! Dear girl, no! I can't allow you to fall at a time like this- Shmick, cover me." Getting close down onto thr ground, he uses his mighty gnomish might to drag her a short distance away fromt he combat zone using the large construct as a barrier. Once free of the danger zone he tries to search the woman for one of those potions she always kept on hand, intent on feeding it to her by force.
Red eyes burning like smoldering coals, Shmick clicks his gun once again with precise measured movements. In the very same action he pulls the trigger, an iron bullet smashing straight into the face of one of the cultist.
'Damn.' his eyes narrow into razor thin slits, watching the projectile fly out in slow motion. 'My aim was half an inch too short of piercing their brain completely.'
The cultist survives the shot, and leers at the party with a maniacal grin.
He approaches Shmick and attacks.
The other cultist in the doorway attacks Malavine.
Finally, the third remaining cultist attacks Kephry.
Meanwhile, Qasin has been working to free her friend, the cleric. She has finally succeeded. Ptemenib moves laterally and casts Cure Moderate Wounds on Kephry.
Zelda comes to, having drank the potion Hickle found on her person.
Zelda's action, then top of round.
Wincing as the blow actually did some damage, Malavine considered - healing or taking him down? At least the priest had helped the fallen Zelda. taking a step back, she decided to heal herself.
Top of round. Malavine has already acted.
Hickle and Kephry act before the cultists. The one fighting Kephry is pretty seriously injured. The one in front of Shmick is also injured.
The robot kicks off the crazed man before him, dodging the attack completely before firing off another shot. By his count, he was dangerously low on proper ammunition by this point. If only they'd had time to install the gun.
hickle himself, seeing that the girl is taken care of, aims his crossbow at either the or before shmick or the other injured cultist, whoever is still standing.
Emboldened by the healing received from the cleric, she makes another strike at the cultist that just refused to die.
Hickle and Smhmick's attacks drop the cultist near Zelda, and Kephry beats down her opponent powerfully.
This leaves only one cultist, near Malavine. Seeing he's alone, he drops his knife and swings powerfully at her with two hands.
Having missed, the cultist casts himself into the spiked pit, rather than allowing himself to be captured.
The battle now over, Ptemenib casts Cure Moderate Wounds on himself to undo the effects of his torture, before addressing the party.
"Thank you, my rescuers," he says, as Qasin flits happily about the cleric. "You do not yet understand the importance of what you have done here. There may still be time to stop this madness!"
"We don't, no," Malavine agreed, eyeing the pit. "But we'd like to. What in all the planes is going on here? Does it have something to do with the dead roaming the streets?"
"yes, I'm rather curious about that myself."
"It is an ancient curse, come back to haunt Wati; an artifact of great power thought long lost, has been found. I will tell you all, soon. But I must get to Sebti and inform her of this as soon as possible! Will you see to it I safely reach her?"
Malavine looked at the others. "If they agree, sure. Can you give us any details that might help get you to...I'm gonna guess the temple of Pharasma?"
"I really just need your protection to help me get there. Once we're there, we can see Sebti and relate what I have found."
The group manages to get Ptemenib through the dangerous Wati streets. It looks like the local authorities are starting to get some level of control over the undead at this point, sectioning off dangers areas where there are lots of zombies, while the populations inside flee the areas via the rooftops to safer locations.
At the Grand Mausoleum, Ptemenib is greeted quietly by two acolytes, both of whom are quite alarmed at the recent turn of affairs. It seems most of their friends are out assisting against the undead. They escort Ptemenib back into the private chambers, grudgingly allowing the party of mismatched heroes to come with them.
Sebti is in a chamber that appears to function as a dining hall, though the only consumable present at this time is a large pitcher of wine, which she seems to have been drinking from tentatively.
"Well, Ptemenib," Sebti says imperiously, "I judge from the urgency of your request you've discovered something?"
"Yes, oh Reverend High Priestess Sebti," Ptemenib says from a kneeling position. "Though, unfortunately not soon enough to stop this...abomination."
"I finally made contact with the cultists of the Forgotten Pharaoh, though if it had not been for my friends here, they would have ended me before I could deliver this information. I was at the auction, suspecting one of their agents might be present seeking information on the recovered artifacts, and I was correct. So when he left part-way through, I ducked out and followed him back to the harbor district known as The Veins, and into an abandoned brickyard. Near as I can figure, this was about the time that the zombie effect started. It was but a few seconds later that I was waylaid by the cultists, who overpowered me. Fortunately, Qasin escaped, and searched for someone to assist."
"While captive, I learned that the cultists now suspected the artifact they were searching for, The Mask of the Forgotten Pharaoh, has indeed already been found by someone else, a personage who has activated the dread artifact, so they supposed, base on the recent return of so many dead to the living."
"Finally, just before my rescue, several of the cultists left, hoping to recover the Mask. How they hoped to find it, I am uncertain, but they did possess an odd device, an ancient form of compass."
At the mention of the compass, Sebti's eyes go wide, losing her cool facade for the first time since the heroes had seen her. She almost choked on her wine.
"Compass, you say?" Sebti motioned to one of the acolytes, who, having heard her whispered instruction, stole away quickly.
Within a few minutes, the acolyte returned from the reliquary, carrying a small, very ancient looking box. Sebti carefully removed the item inside, and Ptemenib glared in surprise.
"Did the compass resemble this one?" Sebti asked, holding up a silver device, etched with symbols in unknown black substance.
"Yes, your highness!" Ptemenib stammered.
"What does the compass do?" the ever curious Malavine asked. The fact that it wasn't the only one suggested it wasn't too powerful an artifact, but you never knew.
"An absoultely dreadful turn of events, I say. Ah, now what's this?" Hickle moves a bit closer up, adjusting his spectacles in the hope that he might somehow magnify the image.
Sebti locks eyes with Malavine, her malevonlent stare almost intimidating, but she does finally answer. "This is an elegiac compass. It was created almost two thousand years ago, using magic we have now lost. It's purpose was to detect large sources of necromantic energy, and was used to assist hunters in exterminating powerful undead in the necropolis. This is the last of it's kind, or so we thought. It has not been used in many generations."
Hickle is unable to tell if the device does exactly what Sebti says, but it does have strong divination and necromancy auras.
Malavine nodded. "It's hard to think of a good reason they might have one," the Oracle considered, although it was very easy to imagine several bad ones.
[b]"Truly fascinating piece... might I see it?"[/i]
Malavine raised an eyebrow. That didn't seem like the kind of thing they would agree to.
Shmick looked upon his master, giving him the robotic equivalent of Malavine's own expression.
"That depends," Sebti says, a wicked grin crossing her face. An idea has just occurred to her.
"I'm afraid I must ask your assistance, you and your friends," the matriarch says to Hickle. "Would you use this device in the service of Wati? You've done much already, but I fear a time of great need is at hand. I would relinquish the compass to you, for a time, that you might use it to track the necromantic energies that caused this wave of undeath. Find this mask, and retrieve it from its user!"
With that, Sebti offers the compass forward to Hickle, symbolic of the quest she has asked the party to partake.
"Well, I suppose we've already done what we've done so far, why not go the extra mile, hm? Shmick, girls, I'm sure you're inclined to agree?" With a smile under his bushy mustache, Hickle happily takes the compass in hand to begin expecting it thoroughly.
The construct's shoulders deflated. "Do I even have a choice in the matter?"
Malavine sighed. "Pretty much, yes. I can't leave the people like this." She glanced at the compass. "At least that will help find the damned mask."
"Urh," Kephry conceded.
My people revere the Lady of Graves as part of our pantheon, so I will gladly accept this holy mission, Kephry concedes with a solemn air, watching the compass dangle in the hands of the priestess. So shiny...
Can I assume the heroes would like to rest for the night and heal before heading out on their quest?
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Given the group's willingness to take on the quest of behalf of the Pharasmins, any healing you cannot provide yourselves will be provided by the Church. Consider yourselves fully healed and with a full compliment of your daily class abilities.
As you move through the empty streets, the occasional scream still errupts in the distance. The town guard have done their part to help make the living half of Wati as safe as possible, but hundreds of the walking dead still shamble in the streets. Until the cause of the undead uprising is found, Wati is still in danger. You pass a few of the dead occasionally; overpowering loan zombies and skeletons is not much of a challenge for adventures of your calibur, and you dispatch them without effort when you do.
I need a Knowledge/Arcana or Knowledge/Religion check from whoever is holding the compass (presumably Hickle).
The compass is relatively simple to understand; it almost feels like the needle is also "pulling" on Hickle's mind as you navigate through the city. As you follow the compass, you begin to get the feeling it's leading you inexorably back to the Necropolis, city of the dead. If all of the dead in that place have risen, you face a daunting task.
Normally, entering Wati’s necropolis is a relatively simple matter. Two large gates provide access to the city of the dead, and provided they have the permission of the priests of the Grand Mausoleum, mourners and visitors generally have free access to the necropolis during daylight hours. Following the event that caused the awakening, the gates have been sealed to keep the small army of ghouls, skeletons, and zombies now swarming each gate from entering the living half of the city. While the sturdy walls of the necropolis are holding for now, the gates cannot hold forever.
A young acolyte of Pharasma and several town guards currently watch the necropolis gates, behind which a mob of undead creatures can be heard groaning and pounding on the metal. As you approach, she greets you. "Hold! I am Bal Themm, and I control this outpost! State your business!"
"Sebti has asked us to hunt down the source of...well, that." Malavine gestured to the undead behind the gate, and hoping there was an easier way in than destroying them all. "As for the proof..." She pointed at the compass Hickle was holding. Any devotee of Pharasma in this part of the world likely knew it.