Míril examines the interior door, looking for its mechanisms. It isn't a 'see' thing but a shift of the weight when she presses against it indicates to her clever hands where a deadbolt must be on the other side of the door. A thin sheet of metal through the jam and Miril thinks for a moment she will be stymied by the simple barrier - a bit of energy runs down from her fingers, through the metal, and she hears the bolt slide open as if an unseen hand opened it for her.
The door swings open to reveal the vault proper. The walls are a rise of small niches that look like the once held hundreds of ash urns - but the shards of pottery and the thick piles of ash are testament to the current occupants disregard of the fallen.
In the center of the room, floating slightly above the ground is a gaunt and winged body, its form shimmering oddly in the pure black darkness of the vault.
The shiny force rapier presses its attack. With little to no effect as the berbalang apparently learned how to dodge since the previous evening.
Chancre walks up to Roshan and places his hand on the monk's back.
Roshan freezes for an instant, shivers, then almost jumps out of his skin, whether to put a little distance between the incorporeal life-draining ghosty or the cold of Konstantin's snowballs might be subject to debate. He does not go far, however, still dancing around and in front of the berbalang, trying to read the insubstantial forms movements have proved difficult so far, but now it has his full attention.
The berbalang looks like he is about to ignore the cold and shivering Roshan, as its incorporeal body shifts towards Konstantin - but it was only a feint and its claw is deflected by Chancre's shield and Roshan's own quick movements. A twisted smile curves the creature's lips as it turns its back on Roshan, staring steadily at the sorcerer.
Konstantin hurls another snowball at the mostly intangible creature. But this time it passes through the form with no effect.
Save DC 21
"We seem to have found our target." She raises her weapon to swing at the creature, then hesitates, and turns to Miril. "Is there any reason you can think of that should stay my hand?"
Then she grins and strikes out at the winged creature anyway. Asking the question aloud was really more of an internal question being voiced, apparently.
"None at all!" replies Míril as she moves to a flanking position and stabs at what she presumes is the berbalang's corporeal form.
Roshan
magic: +2/+2
"Oh no you don't" seems to cross Roshan's face as the berbalang stare fixes on Konstantin. He punches up through the length of the incorporeal creatures body, seeming to find slight purchase along the way, then rotating his arm swiftly at the elbow his golden blade whips through where the creatures neck might be....but seems to encounter no resistance at all.
Chancre tracks the creature's motions. Rolls his eyes. His force rapier strikes again.
Chancre moves back to Konstantin, and lays his faith across the taller man like a mantle.
Samirah moves into the room, on the far side of the comatose body - swings... and hits nothing. The body appears to be about a foot from where Samirah was swinging.
"None at all!" replies Míril as she moves to a flanking position and stabs at what she presumes is the berbalang's corporeal form. But - again - the body just is not where Miril was striking, by about a half a foot.
;
Finally, Samirah's blade manages to find where the body is despite the obvious magical interference. The moment that iron breaks skin though, the berbalang's body convulses, and the eyes fill with malevolent intelligence.
The now conscious and corporeal berbalang parries Samirah's second attack with a wing.
With a vengence, the berbalang lays into Samirah with tooth and claw.
But Samirah easily parries its physical attacks.
Chancre tracks the creature's motions. Rolls his eyes. His force rapier strikes again. This time with panache and success, the blade leaving the spirit body dripping ectoplasm.
"Oh no you don't" seems to cross Roshan's face as the berbalang stare fixes on Konstantin. He punches up through the length of the incorporeal creatures body, seeming to find slight purchase along the way, then rotating his arm swiftly at the elbow his golden blade whips through where the creatures neck might be....but seems to encounter no resistance at all.
And less than a second later the berbalang incorporeal form pops out of existence.
"It's realized our gambit," Konstantin says (presumably) gratuitously.
Save DC 21
Samirah presses the advantage of close quarters as her scimitar flashes and dances across the now very-sliceable berbalang, and she's humming some Ignan tune as she fights.
Míril keeps where she thinks the berbalang's body is between her and Samirah, and tries again to introduce her adamantine short sword to its innards.
Samirah quickly turns one of the undead's attacks back on it.
Seeing the berbalang's incorporeal side pop out of existance, Konstantin moves hurriedly towards the crypt entrance.
Chancre and rapier move toward the entrance.
Míril keeps where she thinks the berbalang's body is between her and Samirah, and tries again to introduce her adamantine short sword to its innards. Now with its incorporeal and corporeal side united, he proves much easier to hit... or at least he really is where he appears to be.
Roshan sprints for the entrance to the vault.
Samirah presses the advantage of close quarters as her scimitar flashes and dances across the now very-sliceable berbalang, and she's humming some Ignan tune as she fights. Her first swing scores a massive blow, leaving the undead looking harried and near re-death. But it manages to dodge her second slice.
With his attacks the previous round thoroughly parried, the undead turns on Miril - ravaging her with a bit and a claw.
Konstantin runs for the crypt and ducks inside. When he sees the berbalang in the flesh, he hurls a ball of ice at the creature's corporeal form. But it just manages to dodge that as well.
Roshan
magic: +2/+2
Noticing Miril's lack of mobility, Roshan interposes himself with her, protecting her body with his own. The golden star knife he sinks in the creatures ribs probably doesn't hurt his cause.
Save DC 21
Confirm
"I have come to deliver your death, beast." Samirah says, swinging her blade at the winged monster.
His force rapier flies past his head (narrowly missing an ear) and attacks the body of the berbalang.
His force rapier flies past his head (narrowly missing an ear) and attacks the body of the berbalang. But the rapier came far closer to hitting Chancre's ear than the berbalang's solid form.
Noticing Miril's lack of mobility, Roshan interposes himself with her, protecting her body with his own. The golden star knife he sinks in the creatures ribs probably doesn't hurt his cause.
"I have come to deliver your death, beast." Samirah says, swinging her blade at the winged monster. Her first attack misses, but her second bisects the body, leaving two pieces to thud messily to the ground.
The gloom and darkness, the depression of the crypt does not lighten though.
Now that Samirah no longer has the battle to distract her, she appears to be seeing the room she's standing in for the first time. She shivers, stepping backwards slightly to move towards the door outside.
"Death delivered. We are finished here now, yes?" She asks, voice full of false optimism to combat the oppressive atmosphere.
Roshan's head moves. Jerks. Scans the room, then looks directly at Chancre, catching his eye. His left hand pulls out a silver butterfly, easily identifiable as a symbol of Desna. His hand gestures towards the Inquisitor, then sweeps the room again and an eyebrow rises questioningly.
"Definitely something still wrong," Chancre says.
He starts with Detect Magic, as one does.
She stays, but her eyes continue to dart to the door. "If by 'wrong' you mean 'a filthy mess', then yes, that is true." She frowns, looking between Roshan and Chancre. "Are there spirits that cannot materialize to fight us?"
"Something like that. There is still danger here."
Chancre hums as he concentrates.
Roshan catches Samirah's eye. Puts his hands together as if preying, then makes a number of small complicated gestures with one hand.
"Oh, yes. It would not hurt to have both opinions." Samirah responds with a few basic signs in addition. She sifts through her bag, pulling out a torch and lighting it. It appears to be as much for her as anyone needing more light to see by in the crypt, and she relaxes slightly.
As she shakes off her paralysis, Míril exclaims, "Gods above! That's a horrible, helpless feeling!" She shudders briefly.
"What do we do about those that are left?"
Chancre opens one eye and peers at Míril. "Those that are left?"
"I saw things in my peripheral vision. I'm not sure what they are, but some look hungry and some look like they just want this to end."
"Oh, yes. It would not hurt to have both opinions." Samirah responds with a few basic signs in addition. She sifts through her bag, pulling out a torch and lighting it. It appears to be as much for her as anyone needing more light to see by in the crypt, and she relaxes slightly.
The light from Samirah's torch does create light, but it does nothing to counteract the gloom of the crypt. If anything, the bright light of the torch emphasizes the odd movement of shadows.
(+1 Nurah's inspire, +2 Anevia's battlefield advantage, +1 shiny new magic weapons
**Ghouls have no ranged attack
**Knight deal the ghoul army 10 points of damage
**would trigger a morale check, except undead.
**Ghoul army deals 0 points of damage to the knights. Knights deal 6 points of damage to the ghouls - routing the army.
As the group, having bypassed the bulk of the ghoulish army, fought the incorporeal mastermind of the undead the knights used their tried and true combat tactics to the east. Even holding back on the divinely granted smite (in the case that they need to fight demons later in the day), the opening barrage of arrows rends undead flesh leaving animate bodies twitching on the dusty bare ground between the graveyard and the gorge. The ranged advantage doesn't last long as the undead race across the ground to engage with paralytic claws and teeth. Even when a few of the front-lining men fall prey to the frigid touch which would normally be a death sentence amid the flesh-hungry undead - the fellow paladins rally quickly and cut down the ghouls foolish enough to have moved into melee with the primed fighting force.
"This is beyond my understanding," Konstantin says, gesturing at the trapped souls. "Chancre? Miril? Is there anything you can or wish to do to assist these poor devils?"
Not immediately, but eventually.
Míril shrugs. "I never studied Undead Lore at Thief School. This is Chancre's bailiwick."
"It feels...." Chancre flaps his arms as he attempts a gesture that encompasses the nebulous feeling. "Unhallowed is the best word I have for it. As long as this area is unhallowed, undead will continue to rise. We're going to want somebody with a different connection to the divine than I have." Chancre takes a drink. Looks at his flask. Shakes his head. "Or a hundred gallons of holy water."
"So this is another item on our ever-growing list of things to follow-up on?"
"Then we tell the clerics about it, I suppose," Konstantin says.
Samirah takes this as her cue to take her torch, and herself, outside of the creepy crypt. "Perhaps we will bring Sosiel back once we have reclaimed the city." She says on her way out.
With that decision made, it also becomes apparent that the undead army, for now, has been decimated. Once back at the relative safety of the block of buildings well protected by your two armies, you can see the last hurdle - Citadel Drezen itself. There are signs of multiple armies within the curtain wall - humans, tieflings, and lesser demons.
Samirah turns to the Tactical People once everyone is back to base camp. "I would like to finish this. Would this be another situation in which it would be good to send a few of us in to kill various generals and disperse the ranks from above? Get up to the top of the citadel and skip whatever awaits on the stairs up?"
Surprisingly, it is Aron that says something first. He shakes his head, "Won't work. The citadel," the fingers of his left hand tatoo against his thigh rhythmically, is pretty much just one level. Except for the wizard's perch."[/b] He quickly adds this, his eyes scanning back and forth as if looking at a map, shakes his head, "And I'd think they'd have sealed that off."
Irabeth, who had been talking quietly to Anevia, comments, "I think the fireballs and the siege engines are the most obvious resource that will benefit the defending armies."
"So fireballs, siege engines, and then we take out what is left?" She looks pleased at the concept of large fires being utilized in the next conflict.
"It may be worth having Roshan and I take a look and see if they have sealed off the Wizard's Perch," comments Míril. "And if it is, see how hard it would be to UN-seal it."
Chancre nods. "I like that plan. There's too many there for the Chief to freeze them all at once."
A moment's thought. "Do you want me to scout with you?"
"The enemies would hear you coming when your flasks clinked against one another in your bag." Samirah teases.
Roshan makes a fast sketch of Citadel Drezen and it's defensive walls and towers in the dirt. He marks the manned siege engines on the top of the towers he noticed on his previous sojourn past the walls and the round spot he assumes would be a tower in the middle of the armies and alongside the Citadel itself. He scratches in "Wizard's Perch"? and turns a questioning eye to Aron.
Turning his attention back to the others, he scratches in "options?"
Then holds up one finger. Waves to everyone assembled, then points to one tower at a time marking a slash through each. Then points to the Wizard's Perch (if that's what it is) or any entrance into the Citadel, if not.
He holds up two fingers. Points to Miril, himself and Chancre (quickly followed by an upward turned palm), then makes a hopping motion with his fingers over a section of the wall, through the armies and towards the Wizard's Perch (again, assuming it's the tower to the west of C.D.). He makes a motion to encompass the rest of the group and points again to the towers, beginning to "x" them out one after another. Pointing again to Miri, himself and Chancre and "X"ing out the Wizard's Perch after the first tower is taken. He indicates two of the next towers in line and makes an alarmed face then his hands mimic sound broadcasting from his mouth. He taps the area indicating their encamped armies and makes a motion like a wave into the entrance and over the walls where the towers have already been taken.
He looks up towards the group, raises an eyebrow, smiles and shrugs, then sits back.
"The enemies would hear you coming when your flasks clinked against one another in your bag." Samirah teases.
Roshan again smiles, but then points at Chancre and then, with that same left hand makes sneaking motions with two fingers exactly simulating the two fingers of his right hand directly before them.
He then straitens up and signs:
"Miril, Roshan, find us a way in. Everyone else, heal up and get ready."