"Stay DEAD!", Auric grunts as he drives his hammer down on the undead stag with all the force he can muster.
Warhammer w/power attack and inspire courage:
William continues to urge on his companions, "Keep at it! We can prevail my friends!"
If the stag is still in good fighting shape, William moves to try and get a clear shot at the flailing stag.
Shortbow :
Damage :
"First people, now animals!! Mimir preserve us!!"
I then unleash two rapid kicks to the downed stag.
Unarmed Attack 1 w/inspire:
Damage 1 if hit:
Unarmed Attack 2 w/inspire:
Damage 2 if hit:
Jon loads and hurls another stone.
Attack:
Damage:
Round 3:
Gendo's first kick is deflected by the fallen creature's flailing hooves, but the second connects, breaking ribs.
The bonepile lurches and somehow manages to find its footing, drawing attacks from Gendo and Auric as it attempts to rise.
Gendo, AoO:
Auric, AoO:
As it comes up, Gendo sends a fist into its head, removing the lower jaw. Then Auric's hammer comes down, splintering antlers and crushing the skull. The remaining bones finally give up the ghost and fall back to the grease-slicked ground.
As the party pauses for a moment, catching their breath, a small giggle is heard. Turning, you can see that your prisoner appears to have regained consciousness, and has wriggled a few feet from where Jon put her down. As the druid goes to retrieve her, he notes she is lying on her side. A partial skeleton of a tiny animal sits next to her head, and she is rubbing noses with it (or would be, had the thing still owned a nose.) She is making little cooing sounds like one would expect of someone enamored of a cute animal, or possibly an infant.
"Yeah, that's not disturbing...",Auric says with a look of disgust,"She didn't even cast a spell..."
He concentrates for a moment, reading the woman's aura.
Jon pulls the woman away from the skeleton. "Indeed. Her mastery of unnaturalness gives me the chills. What manner of strangeness is this that calls to the dead even without trying?" He checks her bindings, ensures they are tight and not going to give out and hoists her back upon his shoulder.
As Jon goes to retrieve the woman, the three-legged, tailless squirrel skeleton makes an attempted rush at him, snapping its teeth. Auric brings the hammer down, crushing it before it gets a nip in, drawing an outraged squeal from the woman as she struggles to get at him, gnashing her own teeth.
In the end, the party ends up having to gag the woman. Her bonds are still secure. Once again you are off on your journey, watching warily for any other dead things to respond to the woman's silent siren call.
"Hey, Gendo. Do us a favor- stay about 10 or so paces ahead of us and keep an eye out for any dead stuff and either smash it apart or direct us around it. I get the feeling we can keep this from happening again."
"Fiend! How dare you pervert the cycle of life in such a way! The dead should stay dead, heathen woman!" Jon takes great pleasure in gagging and binding the hands of the woman in an effort to prevent wiggly spell casting.
William stares at the woman as Jon binds her, a small shudder runs through him, "Hurry up will you, the sooner we get her to Amara the sooner we can be rid of her defiling presence. Just being around her sucks all the joy out of life..."
My face tightens a bit in puzzlement at Auric's suggestion.
"Seems a wise course of action. Is this wisdom or insight?"
I ask politely as I move to forward as Auric suggested.
My face tightens a bit in puzzlement at Auric's suggestion.
"Seems a wise course of action. Is this wisdom or insight?"
I ask politely as I move to forward as Auric suggested.
"Anything wise that comes out of my mouth can be more or less chalked up to Baal's gifts- like now for instance. Her aura of nastiness spreads out into the surroundings- which is probably how she animates corpses without casting a spell."
William shudders again, "Well that's just wonderful, she's necromancy incarnate. I don't even want to know how someone manages such a feat. Keep your eyes peeled Gendo. Just in case, can one of you lend me something with a bit more weight than an arrow? My bow is a little lackluster against these walking bones..."
With their newly instituted precautions, the group advances towards the House of the Pearl a bit more slowly, but manages to continue on without any more skeletal horrors rising up to attack them. Your prisoner hums an odd, discordant tune through her gag during your journey, but makes no attempt to escape.
Finally the old mill comes into sight again. Gendo wisely guides the party in an approach that takes you nowhere near where you assisted the two acolytes in burying the skeletons that attacked them.
Having seen your approach, Lessa meets you at the door with a smile of greeting. The more reserved Marten heads upstairs to fetch Amara as you settle yourselves around the great millstone, depositing your prisoner in a nearby chair.
When Amara arrives, she immediately tends to your group's wounds. Then she takes a chair as Lessa brings a pitcher of cold water from the stream outside for the group.
"It seems you were successful. Who is this unfortunate woman? Was she behind the walking dead?"
Jon frowns. "We do not know who she is, or what she is, but she is definitely a part of the undead. She has the strange custom to create the walking dead (Jon spits) as if by her very presence. She is tainted, and must be kept far away from any dead things lest she cause them to walk as well."
Amara looks momentarily appalled, but quickly controls her reaction before continuing.
"Hmm, I see. What has she to say for herself? Have you been able to determine why she is here?"
William looks at their prisoner with revulsion and a touch of fear, "We have not questioned her yet, I'm afraid. She was knocked unconscious during her capture, we thought it best to avoid waking her while staying at the Chapel. From what I can tell she has magical ability beyond her reprehensible aura and we were unwilling to risk removing the gag until we had made it back here. You're presence makes me a great deal more comfortable, my lady. If you wish I will try to discover her intent now?"
Amara nods.
"That is acceptable. I doubt she'll be much trouble, trussed as she is. If she attempts spellcasting, a simple rap on the head should be enough to deter her. Proceed as you wish."
I look to the woman,"She seems quite mad, if the moment with the risen squirrel is any indication. It may be whatever allows her to cause the dead such unrest, is also that which has driven her to madness. Some care and caution should be kept in her questioning, lest the madness and taint spread to us."
My expression becomes deeply contemplative, as I begin rubbing the eyebrow of my right eye with the middle finger of my right hand.
"My mentor used to say that a flower will attract more butterflies than thistles."
I pause a moment, allowing my words to linger in the air, my face hardening, though my voice stays level and even before continuing, "Perhaps we should find some small dead creature and allow it to cuddle with her to make her more open to answering questions. As apalling and detestable as the suggestion is, it may be just the thing to open her up."
Turning to the others, "She didn't have a book bound in what would look to be leather and ceramic? If so, it must be returned to my order for safekeeping. Though the actual materials be something as deteastable as that which she is capable."
"Yeah, she had a book in her bag. Not sure if it's yours. Let's see what you have to say..."
Auric leans in, looming over the captive.
"Look,"he says in a surprisingly gentle voice"If you want us to take my friend's suggestion and bring you a playmate, you'll answer our questions. Understand?"
Dilplomacy:
He pulls her gag out.
"Why are you raising the dead and who are you doing it for?"
Jon's jaw sets, his shoulders tighten with anger. "Indulging her unnaturalness will serve no good end. I will not be a party to it." He stalks angrily outside, heading toward the woods to allow his nerves to cool.
You pull the gag from the woman's mouth and she takes a moment to run her tongue over her cracked lips, eyes wandering the room but not seeming to actually focus or bring recognition. Then she responds in a soft, sing-song voice.
"I do not do it for the bones; the bones do it for me. I hear their song and dance to it, and they come to join me...the lovely, lovely bones. Not for Varas, no. He must command and force. For me, they come for love. Lovely bones..." She trails off, humming a discordant tune.
Auric crosses his arms, leaning back against the millstone table.
"Who is Varas? Don't the bones love him?"
She giggles. The far-away look in her eyes fades for a moment as she seems to find clarity in memory. Her face takes on a facade of seriousness and she parodies a man's voice: deeper, stern, reciting words she has apparently heard often enough to repeat by rote:
"Mesira, your fondness for skeletons is an affectation, nothing more. The art of necromancy extends power to all flesh and spirit. Do not limit yourself through fancy."
She giggles again, returning to her normal voice.
"Flesh is disgusting. Flesh rots, leaving only clean, clean bone. Spirit? What is spirit? Some airy thing, unseen, unheard, unfelt. The real resides in the bones...lovely bones. See how white and pure they become when exposed to the day? That's beauty. All else vanishes. Varas cannot see truth, but I can. The book showed me. Showed me..."
At this point, her gaze turns crazed and frightened, looking through Auric as if seeing something beyond him. She lets out a long wail.
"Noooooooo!!! Toomuchtoomuchtoomuchtoomuchtoomuchtoomuchtoomuch..."
From there, it becomes mumbled nonsense. A trail of drool runs down one corner of her mouth to drip from her chin.
Upon hearing the wail, Jon barrels back into the room, sickle in hand. He stops when he sees the drooling necromancer.
"Well, it would seem that nature has corrected her errors. She now is face to face with the horror of what she has wrought. Perhaps now she will be able to throw off the wicked habits she has gained and embrace a more natural path."
Amara takes a moment from chewing on her lower lip to reply to Jon.
"I do not think nature has anything to do with this. The girl has been touched by something powerful--too powerful for her--and her mind has paid the price.
If what you say is true, and all the dead spring to unlife in her path, I shudder to think what one able to control the full power of this book would be able to do."
Auric passes a hand before the comatose necromancer's eyes, looking for signs of life while he reaches out to take her pulse.
"I think the book may have more answers for us than than this wretch. So Varas was the teacher and she, Mesira, was the student. Seems like everything she did was just madness- no rhyme or reason or larger motive..."
Auric checks on the prisoner and finds her physically fine, though she hardly seems to notice his touch. Her head lifts slightly and her eyes flick in his direction, but she doesn't appear to see him. Whether this is simply a temporary state or a final snap, he can't be sure.
When William addresses her about Varas, her eyes seem to gain some focus again. She murmurs his name, her mouth moving as if tasting a certain type of food for the first time. Then, she whispers.
"Varas will teach me. He makes me mighty, like he is. I will command the bones and they will love me. Varas formed the Triad, but he secretly loves and wants only me. Me, me, me..."
At this point, Marten comes stomping in from outside, looking upset.
"I just had to kill the roast chicken we had the other night, again. The bones, anyway. I'd dumped them in the midden out back. I don't think there are enough bones from any other meals to make a whole skeleton. This woman is a menace."
Amara nods.
"I'm not sure what to do with her, but for now she should be relatively harmless. We can keep her in the cellar until we decide what's to be done."
She turns to Jon.
"You have her possessions? We should see if that book she carries is what Gendo seeks."
Jon hands the pouch containing the book over to Amara. "We've tried not to touch it or for the Green, read it." Jon looks around quickly, especially watching Auric to see how his slip of the tongue is received.
William raises an eyebrow at Jon's words but quickly moves on, "Yes, lets see if this is the book sought by our companion? I sincerely hope so, if not it would mean we have two books of terrifying power laying around..."
Amara has Marten summon your companion Oroupah from upstairs to assist. You hand over the bag containing Mesira's possessions and they are carefully laid out on millstone. Both Amara and Oroupah cast spells and examine the contents, identifying those things bearing auras of magic.
- 2 masterwork silver daggers
- a polished ring of bone
- a silver ring set with a carved skull of black stone
- a scroll case containing two pieces of rolled parchment
- a waterproof bag containing:
- a detailed map of this Jarldom, with several sites marked, and
- a book bound in leather the color of ivory, etched with skulls
After determining that the book contains no magical auras, Amara proceeds to examine it further. It appears to be Mesira's spellbook as well as a journal. She hands it over to the group, who manage to find a few interesting bits of reading within that seem pertinent to their current situation.
Excerpts from the journal of Mesira the Lost
Spell listing from the book will be provided later.
William frowns as he flips through the journal, "It would seem she has not one but 3 accomplices. Each of which seem to have powerful magical abilities and are able to remain inconspicuous enough to stay in populated areas without attracting attention. We do have some clues as to their next move though, does anyone know of this barrow that is mentioned? Perhaps it's marked on that map?"
Knowledge (Geography) :
He looks to Mesira again, "It would seem the book they stole is indeed the source of her madness. We must find it quickly so that it may be hidden away once more."
Auric gives no outward signs of alarm at Jon's exclamation, his attention seeming focused entirely on reading the journal. His lips move as he reads, silently shaping out each word.
"So we have Varas, a human necromancer, Zapazarus a creepy gnome with command of an ogre and Devrik an outcast dwarf. Moxug- another minion, maybe the ogre? And four days ago, they headed for a barrow. I assume we'll be following, eh?"
Jon nods. "It would seem we must. Whatever scheme they plot cannot be allowed to be hatched.
With the map, which is well marked with symbols and notes, your group should be able to navigate through the vale quite well. William and Auric note that one location in the hills is marked with the symbol of a hand. William is fairly certain it is the location of a bolthole for the Hand of Jorin fighters.
Not far from it, perhaps a couple days travel, is a small sheltered valley, marked with a gravestone and a question mark.
"Huh.",Auric says, looking at the map,"Somehow they know about that bolthole- which is troubling. Maybe that's our next destination, if it's on the way."
He scratches his chin.
"This map isn't actual size, right? So what we have to do is assume that a small distance on the map is actually a larger distance in real life..."
Auric spaces two fingers out on the map between the gravestone marker and Three Oaks, then holds his hand up, fingers spaced apart.
"How big would that be, do you think?"
If the map's dimensions are accurate, judging from similar distances between places the group is familiar with, you figure it's about two days on foot to the Hand's bolthole. From there to the hidden valley would take perhaps another half a day, possibly longer depending on the terrain.
"Bolthole? Why would we travel to Bolthole in pursuit of the Necromancers, when a gravesite is marked with a question mark? It would seem to me, that the gravesite would be the prudent choice."
My tone questioning, yet spoken with certitude.
"Also, did the journal not mention that she was traveling with her master and allies to an old barrow that MAY have items of use? To my understanding a barrow is a large mound of earth or stones over the dead - a grave."
"I'm aware of what a barrow is. We should head for the bolthole first, in my opinion, because: first, it's been compromised since it's on their map and we have to see if these necromancers did anything to it and second because we very nearly died fighting the apprentice, in case you don't remember. The bolthole is half a day from the barrow and may have supplies or support to help us if we catch up with our enemies. Fools rush in, as my mother used to say, so we should look into being better prepared."
"Auric speaks wisdom. Haste will only lead to our downfall. They do not know that we know of them yet, thus any haste will only be to our detriment. Besides, we have friends in that hideout; I will not abandon them."
"I agree, the bolthole lies on the way and we are already behind our quarry. There is no reason to believe we will be able to catch them in the act. We must see to the hand's safety first and then move against them from a position of strength. Besides, if they already know about the bolthole it stands to reason that they may well strike there first, on their way to the barrow."
"In any event," Amara adds in, "informing our allies of what has happened and who is responsible will aid everyone. They will be aware of the trouble and can prepare themselves. They can also have their scouts and patrols looking for these people which will increase the chance of finding them."
"Seems like we're settled on a course of action. Should we set out from here or head home to Three Oaks for the night? Might be good to say some goodbyes and square our business... just, well, if things don't go our way."
While I believe a short stop at the Bolthole is necessary my friend, I'm unwilling to fall any further behind this sinister trio."
William shoots Auric a quick grin and a wink, "Besides, have you so little faith in our abilities? I'm confident we'll have this whole unpleasant business wrapped up in no time."
Looking to Auric, A fool rushes in, a coward holds back. Both have their eyes wide open. Both die. The difference, is that one will taste life before death and the other only ever tastes death.
My voice is respectful, if terse.
I agree with William. If a stop at Bolthole is to be made, let it be short. I say we head out from here. No need to extend the chase more than necessary.
Auric shrugs, throwing up his hands.
"Whatever you say, Gendo. I just thought it would be reckless to dive straight for where these guys might be after defeating their least powerful counterpart by the skin of our teeth. Probably a good idea to check with the people familiar with the area before we go running straight at them, all I'm saying. You want to tell me I'm being a coward without one of your aphorisms, I'll be outside. And that's where all of you can find me when you're ready to go."
With that, he shoulders his pack and walks out the front door.
As Auric leaves, Amara's brow furrows. As the rest of the group prepares to leave, she holds up a hand to pause you.
"Gendo, I understand your need to pursue these men. They are thieves and murderers, and no good can come from them being in possession of such an item. However, you have been blessed with capable companions. Do what you can to earn their friendship and loyalty, and be sure your anger does not overshadow the need for their help."
That said, she smiles again.
"I ask Daena watch over you as you go forth. Is there any other aid I can provide? I'm sorry to say that Oroupah will not be continuing on with you. She has brought a startling revelation to my attention, and I wish her to stay and assist me in understanding it."
William bows deeply to Amara before heading outside. Once the group is assembled to he claps his hands together, "Well I suppose we had best be off! By the way, who here is going to lay claim to that mildly unsettling ring the poor girl possessed? It may not be entirely fashionable but from what I understand it is quite powerful and may just save our sorry selves yet."