Esperanza yelps in pain as the blade bites into her leg, before being mentally assaulted by the Dreamstalkers.
Esperanza yelps in pain as the blade bites into her leg, before being mentally assaulted by the Dreamstalkers.
Lily just jumps up at the trap in a bit of a frightened state. Completely caught off guard by the people with the same exact ability as her.
Undari catches a glimpse of one of the Bugbears and says, "There's one now! Ware the ambush!" and casts a quick spell, dropping a ball of flame on the Bugbear he spotted!
The bugbear upon the stairs evades the flaming sphere with inhuman celerity.
The foe posing as the survivor takes two more swings at Esperanza with his sword cane whilst kneeling upon the ground, but she is now better able to defend herself.
The other imposters unleash another bolt at Undari and another sword swing at Lily.
One of the two bugbears marches up beside Thorek, drawing punching daggers in either hand, and delivers the first of an onslaught of quick stabs.
Grunting in pain from the knife that jabs up through the thin chain under his arms, Thorek gives ground against the bugbear and shouts a battle prayer. "Esperanza, these bastards have shed blood on holy ground. Hack them down!"
The flaming sphere continues to threaten the bugbear in the alcove since it did not move away, Undari/Eagle gets hit by another dagger (ac 20 in small eagle form) but flies deeper into the room, trying to avoid the enemies until he lands next to Thorek. When the Eagle brushes the dwarf with a wingtip, healing energy flows into him.
Esperanza spins away from the fake acolyte, dragging the edge of her glaive across his body as she does so. She brings her weapon around with a flourish, flicking the human's blood from her blade and into the bugbear's eyes.
Thorek's second swing connects, fracturing some of the bugbear's bones.
Esperanza's own glaive swing is potent, hewing an arm from the imposter priest's body.
The other bugbear continues to swing about upon the stairs, evading Undari's fiery magic.
"You know there's only one master of deception here and that's me. Your disguise may have fooled us at first but you'll see true deception at play," she says while firing an arrow to fake out the man with the beard.
"Dropped your guard, a%~&*$~!" Thorek bellows with righteous anger, swinging his dorn-dergar at the assassin's kneecaps.
"Don't strain yourself Thorek," Esperanza chides, as she carves another bloody furrow through the man.
These infiltrators must be fanatically loyal to the Legion, for that would be the only explanation for why the one between Thorek and Esperanza continues to fight even after losing an arm and now, courtesy of Esperanza's quick, opportunistic swing, he loses a significant amount of blood from a stomach wound.
He lands a lucky swing on Thorek, delivering a slice just beneath the plates of his armor.
The infiltrator closest to the entrance of the temple takes a step into the aisle and draws out a thunderstone. He hurls it in the midst of the melee dominating the nave, and it erupts with a terrible boom.
The third infiltrator also delivers a painful cut upon Lily as she skirts around the mesmerist.
One of the two bugbear assassins sizes up Thorek before she continues to attempt to punch holes into his armor with her daggers.
Unshaken by the thunderstone, Thorek gives ground against Bregga, swinging his dorn-dergar in heavy arcs above his head, seeking to shatter the bugbear's skull or arms.
The downside of having excellent perception is that sometimes you just get overloaded. With a massive explosion of sound, Undari is left with his head ringing and unable to hear. Rather than continue spellcasting, Undari rolls the flaming sphere onto the injured impersonator, figuring that maybe he can't dodge as well as the bugbears.
Fire, DC 17 Reflex Save to avoid.
He then wildshapes into a Huge Tiger!
Esperanza frowns as the man, surely mortally wounded now, continues to attack Thorek with a single-minded devotion. She snaps her glaive out at him a third time, hoping to finish him off, before joining Thorek's assault on Bregga. This second, near perfect strike sends the blade whirling over Thorek's head, aimed at the bugbear's neck, with the momentum carrying Esperanza across the battlefield.
"Hold on, Lily!," she shouts. "We're coming!"
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Thorek's strike leaves the false Zane on the brink of death - and Esperanza proves more than able to ferry him the rest of the way. Esperanza becomes a whirlwind of steel, and with two swift, flowing strikes she hews the heads from both the false Zane and the nearby bugbear assassin.
Meanwhile, the other bugbear evades Undari's flaming sphere yet again with uncanny grace.
Lily carefully withdraws between a row of pews to remove herself from the swings of the imposters' sword canes.
The remaining bugbear, seeing her sister's demise, leaps over the railing of the stairs and withdraws into the niche behind it. She uses Shadow Walk to escape from the losing battle.
Thus abandoned by their bugbear allies, the last two imposters pose little challenge to the party, yet they still fight to the death. Once slain, they lose their human guise and return to their true forms: grayish humanoids that seem almost unfinished, with narrow heads, gaunt limbs, and sinister, noseless faces
Immediately after the battle concludes, Undari/Tiger rushes to the alcove where the escaped bugbear just left. Trying to get a good handle on her scent, he lithely pads outside and sniffs the air and ground outside the temple.
"Sacred Flames!" Thorek exclaims in horrified surprise when the assassins revert to their presumptive true forms. Kneeling in the blood and carnage, the dwarf says a prayer for the slain and then follows Undari out.
"Anything?" He asks the druid. Pointing to any nearby guards, or gawkers if no guards can be seen, the dwarf starts barking orders. "You there! Get the sheriff, we need a squadron of watchfolk here swift as Erastil's arrows, go get him! There's an assassin on the loose!"
"This explains much," Esperanza says, looking down at the creatures. "The mayor's advisors were not traitors, after all, but instead it seems they were abducted and replaced." After a moment, she realizes something that causes her nose to wrinkle in disgust. "Not abducted. Disposed of, most likely."
Undari can suss out no trace of the escaped assassin, her spell having carried her beyond the Material Plane and to the edge of the Plane of Shadow.
Esperanza's assessment is proven true, as the corpse suspended just beyond the temple's alter is soon identified by Sheriff Irontusk as the remains of the real Banker Soloman Zane. By the day's end, her deputies also turn up the remains of Garret Graygallow and Seneka Volstadt, slain by the Legion's dopplegangers who had, until recently, impersonated them.
Sheriff Irontusk snorts in derision.
"Who knows what they might've done when the time for battle arrived," she muses bitterly.
They would have murdered you and the mayor, then wandered around giving ineffective orders while wearing your faces. Thorek doesn't voice this thought aloud, not wanting to damage morale.
"A bittersweet conclusion to the mystery--your people weren't traitors, but sacred flames there seems to be no end to the vile tricks up the Ironfang Legion's sleeves!"
It is approaching midday as you thus resolve this dire threat to the defense of Longshadow.
There is still time enough to either direct further preparations for the coming battle, now without the risk of sabotage from the infiltrators, or to investigate one of the nearby sites of interest related to the Legion's offensive.
Wiping blood from his weapons, and armor as best he can, Thorek frowns at the sky as he thinks. "If they're already launching sabotage missions inside Longwall, anything outside the town will be doubly at risk. We should go retrieve that local wizard before the Ironfangs dispatch a kill team--if they haven't aready."
"Tomorrow, I think. We've lost much of the day already, and there's plenty of work to be done shoring up the town guard before I would feel comfortable leaving the city in their hands alone."
If there are no objections, Esperanza goes to do just that, working to undo the sabotage to the militia's readiness with a renewed focus and drive.
”That sounds reasonable. I will attempt to improve the health of the community that we may be combat-ready when the time comes,” says Undari, transitioning back into his human form now that the enemy has fled.
Esperanza and Undari find great success in their endeavors. Perhaps owing to the party's quickly growing reputation, having rooted out the Ironfang infiltrators, the people of Longshadow sincerely heed your work.
Thus, Esperanza ensures the town's primary militia is properly battle ready, and Undari imparts basic first aid training to those unfit for frontline combat.
Internal Defenses - Thorek has Craft Traps +10
Siege Supplies - Thorek has Survival +9
Townsfolk Readiness - Thorek has Heal +7
Thorek throws himself into his work, coordinating with Sheriff Irontusk to create fallback redoubts, enfilade lines, and killing fields both inside and outside the town.
** spoiler omitted **
Thorek throws himself into his work, coordinating with Sheriff Irontusk to create fallback redoubts, enfilade lines, and killing fields both inside and outside the town.
[dic=Craft (Traps)]1d20+11[/dice]
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Thorek and Sheriff Irontusk prove to be an effective team. The coordinate with her deputies and local artisans to set up internal defenses within Longshadow to stymie invaders that get past the walls.
Up early in the morning, Thorek walks the walls and meets with the Mayor as soon as he is able, asking the others to attend to make certain the Mayor is willing to throw his full support behind their group and the defense of Longshadow against the approaching Legion forces.
As the group exits the meeting, the dwarf turns to them. [b]"We've gotten off to a good start, and I mean to build on that foundation, but I truly do think it best if we go retrieve that wizard. If they're half the spell-slinger Gaius is they'll be worth their weight in gold when the fight comes."[b]
Esperanza gives Thorek a strange look.
"Most wizards I've met have been on the lighter side," she quips. "But I take your meaning. Let us go, while we have the full day ahead of us."
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Shrugging, Undari says, “Midas well go get the mage if he is that valuable,”
Thorek hands the Mayor and Sheriff a stack of papers he wrote up containing a few sketched maps and detailed instructions of additional fortifications, ambush points, stake-lines, and other unpleasant surprises for the Ironfangs. "We'll be ranging out to retrieve that wizard you mentioned, shouldn't take more than half a day. We're expecting to meet enemy patrols or raiders, so once we're back we can look in to rounding up those herds that ran off!"
Thorek provides blueprints for some ingenious defenses that utilize the layout of Longshadow, establishing choke points with traps to slow or injure advancing foes.
The mayor provides clear directions to Navah's Tower, marking it on a map for you. The tower sits some 20 miles northwest of Longshadow, nestled against a northerly arm of the Mindspin Mountains.
You also note that about halfway along this route, positioned at a natural crossing in the Marideth River, is a location mentioned among the documents and messages you seized both at the Ridgeline Camp and the infiltrator's hideout. This is apparently where the Legion's forces will be moving a set of siege engines into position in preparation for the assault on Longshadow.
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"I think it makes the most sense to address the siege engines on our return trip," Esperanza suggests, when the topic is brought up. "If the Ironfang learn of our presence in the area before we collect the wizard, they may move against him faster than we'd like. Besides, on the way back, we'll have a wizard with us."
”Well-reasoned, Esperanza. Shall we attack from eagle’s back as before?” he suggests, ”As long as our wizard friend doesn’t mind the breeze.”
"Agreed. Wizard first, then we'll scout out the battery site."
"Everyone who's seen us do that is either dead or captured, so..." Esperanza gives a shrug of approval.
Undari will prepare the harness and his poultices, making sure we are well-stocked on Ironskin, Bull’s Strength, etc. A Bull’s Strength and an Ant Haul later, Undari transforms into the giant Eagle while on the edge of town, preparing to take flight with his companions.
Soaring across the sky on Undari's feathered back, you spot the site where the Marideth grows shallow enough to ford. The crossing is empty for now. However, you can spot large shapes on the horizon, suggesting the siege weaponry is only a day or two away from reaching the crossing.
Ten miles further upriver, you soon spot Navah's Tower.
The structure is carved into the face of a 30-foot tall basalt cliff jutting out from the foot of the mountains. The bulk of the tower rises from the floor of a shallow cave at the base of the cliff and rises through the stone above. A smaller, adjacent tower sits atop the cliff, and both towers are topped by conical slate roofs. The walls are smooth, and the windows are narrow.
"Wizards..." Esperanza mutters.
A small, damp cave opens into the face of a sheer cliff. Though twenty feet tall at its mouth, the ceiling of the cave slopes gently downward to a height of ten feet at its back. A sixty-foot-wide stone tower blocks almost the entire entrance.
Oak splinters and iron banding lie scattered across the cave floor.
Based upon the tufts of brown fur and the claw marks on the walls and earth, you believe that it may be a family of some manner of bear.
"Good looking stonework. We'll pop in, get the mage, and leave again. In and out, no time for the Ironfangs to try to bottle us up." Thorek