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"W-wow...I hope he w-wasn't skimming from the c-coffers for that," Marigold whistles when Maxim reveals his find. "M-maybe those papers will t-tell us more, once we have t-time to slow down and l-look at them..."
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JJ looks concerned. "I was almost hoping that Ike wasn't involved in this. But these records seem to show that he is active in the church at the moment... could he be unaware of what is going on? "
He shakes his head. "I admit it seems unlikely."
Kikinnin regards Ike's stash with distracted indifference. "More doors, Bror. One of 'em, looks like it should reveal another chamber in this tower. The other door heads back towards the main section of the large hall. Leads me to believe that we've got another, smaller grand room waiting for us above. Let's check the second to last door, first, eh? Your lockpicking is proving quite useful."
The black beard comes to stand next to the door he's interested in opening, and waits for the blond beard's skill to pop it.
"There might be one or two more skirmishes just ahead. How is everyone's strength? I don't want to rush us, if we're weakened from both fights on the ground floor."
"I'm g-good," Marigold responds, her voice resolute as she follows Kikinnin and the others up the winding stairs. "Still have m-most of my magics at hand so I'm r-ready to fight again if we have t-to."
"I'm feeling okay, thanks to Marigodler" says JJ as he directs a smile to his little sister.
"But I am getting tired. It has been a long day."
Maxim smirks at Kikinnin's kudos;
"Tis a skill bror. May not be the most virtuous o' attributes, but its got its uses! Long as the rest o' you honest souls can make peace with such nefarious activities..."
The gun-mage chuckles, then gives Marigold the nod as he sets about the remaining locks;
"Feelin' hunky dory here Lil' Miss. Most o' my spells ready an' have the wands also."
It has past about 20 minutes since you entered the temple, but the fights, interrogation and exploration has been intense. Likely, even if the impression is a long day has passed fir JJ, just barely a couple of hours ago you were cornered by the assassins.
With a bit of work Maxim's skill make the magic and the door finally opens.
A thick red carpet, emblazoned with the holy symbol of Pharasma covers the entire floor. The circular chamber has no windows to the outside, but a large window, currently covered by a thick curtain, overlooks the Grand Hall. The furniture consists of a well-made bed, a beautiful wooden armoire, and a small but beautifully carved wooden desk.
Over the table there is a fair amount of paperwork that outlines the day-today activities of the Cathedral's faithful. The names in the notes make you think this is Embril's Aloustinai's chamber.
The room has no relevant possessions on wardrobes and chest, as if she is not living here currently.
You find out the City Council and a bunch of Lords have been injecting large sums of coin into the temple coffers for the last couple of years. The concept of the payments is "Construction works".
Interestingly the accounting finishes two months ago and there are no more recent documents.
A thoughtful exploration of the desk reveals it has a false bottom in one of the drawers. The hidden stash holds three potions and a bunch of notes.
JJ cautiously enters the room, expecting horrific death-magic traps at every footstep.
He then reads the papers as he pokes about. "Hmm, it is like Ebril hsa been gone for the last few months..."
"Oh look, a secret compartment."
When JJ opens the hidden bottom, three potions and a bunch of notes pop up.
The sheaf of notes are letters exchanged between Embril and what you conclude to be a Cagewright loremaster named Fetor Abradius. Most of the letters are brief reports that allude to a continuing and taxing search for something unnamed. Each letter concludes that all remains on schedule, but that the final answers still elude the searcher. One of the letters goes into far more detail than the others.
The three potions are cure moderate wounds.
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Maxim eyes the area, scanning it for any hidden threats...
:
As JJ rifles the tables hidden drawer, he pauses;
"What them secret papers containing Surabar? Please tell me they ain't love letters or ripped pages o' a romantic novella!"
"Love letters between Embril and cagewrights. That giant was making cages, we found bars way back somewhere. And ... I'm sure we have heard that name before somewhere else too. Anyway, writing to someone called Fetor who works for them as some type of sage."
He pulls out a final one... This is interesting, even if the writing is hard to make out."
Kikinnin eventually takes his turn at the last letter, between High Priestess, and Fetor Abradius.
"High Priestess,
As many have heard me say, the cages alone will not afford the completion of the ritual. The Cagewrights have built a matrix on which to support them, but due to the shortsightedness of the others, I have been left out of these discussions.
You are my only ally amongst the Thirteen now.You must warn them that there is more hidden in the Soul Pillars that could prove of great import to their plans.
What more is needed, I cannot say, and so I continue to explore the mysteries of the Soul Pillars at great peril. Dittziss Bale grows ever more restless, and the insanity that lies frozen in Razzan-Ruzal begins to stir.
And yet I shall remain here until the end, in hope of unveiling the last of the weavers’ hidden lore.
Still, the risk is great. My price has doubled.
F. Abradius"
Kikinnin drawls through the two names he barely makes out in the reading. "Dittziss? Razan-Ruzal? Never heard of them. That ring more clearly in anyone's ears?"
When it's clear that they've searched Embril's chambers thoroughly, Kikinnin returns to the hallway, and the last door in the tower, yet to be opened. He relights his Axe, and readies to push through the door into whatever confrontation awaits them. They've taken long enough for those waiting to prepare themselves, he gathers.
"You all ready? This is gonna hurt, likely."
As he speaks his worry, he also asks Abadar for a little more protection.
"Th-thanks for translating that, K-Kikinnin. This F-Fetor's handwriting is atrocious. But it s-seems to confirm that...Embril is in on whatever g-grand conspiracy is happening here in C-Cauldron," Marigold sighs heavily. "Or at least a p-part of it."
As Kikinnin moves towards the only remaining door, she nods. "R-ready as I'll ever b-be, I th-think. Is anyone still h-hurt from earlier? If so, l-let me patch you up before we g-go any further."
Razzan-Ruzal does sound familiar to Marigold, it triggers a name she has read somewhere while she was researching Vaprak's Voice. Karran-Kural, the ruins of an ancient spell weaver empire that dominated the area long ago. The ruins are believed to be near the Demonskar, but finding the exact location would require a good source of that area geography.
Marigold thinks Dittziss might refer to a draconian name spelled Vittriss, but she does know nothing about Vittriss Bale.
Although she does not know about the Soul Pillars, Marigold deduces they refer to some sort of knowledge that shall be hidden in Karran-Kural.
This is information you can quickly recall, but of course, more specific information might be available with access to proper books, maps or magic.
Once more Maxim works on the doors, and after a bit of effort they are forced once more. The group finds a set of stairs that climb up around the main tower of the Hall. After a couple of minutes of climbing you discover some light coming from the end of the stairs, and you hear some voices, although it is difficult to fully make the speech.
"...cannot be them... we... discrete..." and a different voice "...not pay... outrageous..." a pause follows another sentence from the same person but you barely listen "...soon..."
You attempt to be stealthy on your approach.
But it serves nothing, Kikinnin's full plate is clearly audible from atop.
The speech quickly stops "They are here! Get ready!" and you overhear some people start casting spells while you make the last meters of ascension.
The ceiling of this vaulted chamber rises over fifty feet. A low dais commands the center of the room, and a strange silvery-gray cage hangs down from the ceiling above.
On top of the room, starting to fly on the ceiling to the dome where the cage is, you find Ike Iverson with a scroll on his hands.
Around the dais, you find five hulking beasts with slick, gray, hairless zombie skin, with numerous yellow eyes and a wide toothy maw. In front of them, there is a bony devil with the most horrifying features of carrion-fed insect and withered cadaver, moving in unsettling lurches.
In front of the bony creature, just on the dais, stands the woman that recently attacked you at the Coy Nixie. Her clothes are still smeared by blood, but her wounds are healed.
At the end of the room, past the dais, you glimpse a ghostly creature little more than a dark shape with two flickering pinpoints of light where its eyes should be.
The yellow eyed beasts are Gray Renders, savage predators capable of grabbing and rendering their victims with great strength.
These ones though seem to be dead and animated as zombies.
The bony devil is in fact a bone devil, also known as Osyluth. They delight on torturing and inspire great fear to those directly around them. Also they are famous for being able to quickly turn invisible and using walls of ice to keep their enemies at bay.
The ghostly creature is a Dread Wraiths, a superior versions of the incorporeal undeads. Their touch drains the constitution of livings but they are powerless to sunlight, which left them staggered.
Before you can act Ike climbs up in the air like if it was solid for him, and recites the scroll in his hands. images of himself appear around him.
The other enemies cast spells or move to their current locations.
Marigold's Round 2
Oh dear...
"ಮೂಳೆ ದೆವ್ವ ಮತ್ತು ಭಯಂಕರ ಕ್ರೋಧ!" Marigold cries out in warning. "ಮೂಳೆ ದೆವ್ವಗಳು ತಮ್ಮನ್ನು ತಾವು ಮುಚ್ಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬಹುದು ಮತ್ತು ಹಿಮದ ಗೋಡೆಗಳನ್ನು ವಿಭಜಿಸಲು ಮತ್ತು ಜಯಿಸಲು ಬಳಸಬಹುದು! ಭೀತಿ ಕೋಪಗಳು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಸಾರವನ್ನು ಹರಿಸುತ್ತವೆ ಆದರೆ ಅವು ಸೂರ್ಯನ ಬೆಳಕನ್ನು ದ್ವೇಷಿಸುತ್ತವೆ!"
"A bone devil and a dread wraith!"
"Bone devils can cloak themselves and use walls of ice to divide and conquer! Dread wraiths can drain your essence but they hate sunlight!"
She moves up to the top of the stairs, pulling out a copper coin as she goes. Once at the top of the stairs she conjures a powerful light spell upon the coin and heaves it towards the center of the room!
______________
As their foes assemble before them, Maxim casts a critical eye o'er their collective nature;
:
"Them big, grey buggers are Renders - as the name would suggest don't let 'em pull ye apart! Though these 'uns look on the dead an' risen side, so might not be as savvy. As fir boney an' the Wisp they're beyond my ken!
Maxim draws a wand from his belt , then with an outstretched hand unleashes his magic upon their foes;
""Bliksem!"
Causing a bolt of lightning to steak across the room engulfing the furthest most Risen-Render and the lurking shadow...
: (DC16 Reflex Save for 1/2 damage)
JJ hurries up, almost pulled towards the bone devil by the staff in his hands. "Die!" he cries, the word seemingly oddly appropriate for this ally of the death goddesses renegade priests.
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AC = 32 (Protection from Evil)
HP = 124/124
Weapon Equipped = +5 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Divine Bond, Divine Favor, Protection from Evil, Prayer(9r)
Kikinnin moves to the top of the stairs, and stops. He looks over the entire room, his mind racing for the proximity to all the undead and devil creatures.
His eyes dance towards the bone devil and dread wraith as Marigold explains their natures, before turning to size up the renders as Maxim speaks knowledgeably regarding the large undead beasts. He welcomes their education, as the spirit's nature eludes him.
Craning his neck around the pillar, he spies Ike, flying above it all. The black beard twists his gaze to gain the layout of the chamber. If the flying priest has any exit from this room, Kikinnin tries to understand it.
Were his will alone enough, he'd launch into the air, and behead the unholy priest in one fell swoop. But all he has in the moment are his words. He feels the bile rising to the back of his throat, an urgency to protect his own, while hindering the cabal in front of him.
"Abadar, see through my eyes, and mark these monsters for Your Justice. We're in the heart of Your city, help me burn the rot from our rafters here."
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Marigold quickly acknowledges some of the enemies defending Ike and casts daylight on a coin. The light floods the room with strong lightness all around the halfling.
Maxim pulls out one of his wands and rises his hand over the stairs' hole edge to send a crackling lighting bolt that crosses the domed hall impacting one of the zombies and the incorporeal.
Both are surprised by the arcane powers of the dwarf and shocked by the electricity.
Surprisingly someone else shouts in pain when the electricity travels through the room.
JJ quickly makes up the remaining stairs profiting his extra speed and throws himself at the bone devil that tries cut him in half with his claws.
Although the bony claw opens a wound on JJ's right arm, the young man crashes his staff with greater strength on the tail bones of his enemy, his holy power bypassing the monster defenses.
While his companions open the fight, Kikinnin raises a prayer, his words rising its pitch as he walks closer to the stairs end. By when he finishes everyone at this side of the room feels the power of Abadar guiding his or her actions.
Noticeably disliking the light and the electricity, the wraith floats down melting with the stone and disappearing under the hall ground.
The bone devil uses a quickened spell to disappear in front of JJ, who notices the devil moving away.
You notice the devil flight up away from JJ.
Immediately after, a solid layer of ice materializes around Maxim forming a hemisphere that might trap him in the stairs.
Somewhere near the green zombie you overhear casting words, and two rays of fire spring forward over JJ.
Despite the surprise, the young man has astonishing reflexes and dodges, although barely, both rays.
From the top of the dome, Ike shouts back at Kikinnin "I have nothing personal against you Kikinnin. But you have grown too powerful and I have been charged to finish you and your group before you cause more problems!" as he finishes his words, the priest raises his arms, says an arcane word and when he descends the arms, a column of divine fire goes down over your heads!
The woman on the dais, says magical words while readying her shield and rapier.
The light on Marigold's coin tingles but nothing changes in the end.
The Grey Render zombies advance then over you. Two of them clumsily charge over JJ.
Overwhelmed by so many attacks over him, JJ fails to dodge this two that bite on his shoulder and arm.
Other two zombies totter clumsily behind the first two, unable to reach their target. And the last one drags slowly his feet climbing up the stairs to the dais.
AC = 32 (Protection from Evil)
HP = 104/124
Weapon Equipped = +5 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Divine Bond, Divine Favor, Protection from Evil, Prayer(9r)
"Who charged you, Ike? You worship Pharasma, but you take orders from some mundane? Your high priestess, of course. There's still time here, Ike. You can still atone for your actions here- call off your undead, and surrender, and we'll do our best to protect you from your superior. She's just using you, man."
Kikinnin moves forward to strike at Red, but his foot catches the top of the stairs, and he swings his Axe into the floor.
For a moment, Marigold's form is obscured by the pillar of fire that erupts within the room. As the fire and the light of it fade, she reappears - clearly worse for the wear but with a defiant gleam in her eyes.
"ನಾನು ಸರೆನ್ರೆಯ ಬೆಳಕು ಮತ್ತು ಆಕ್ಸಿಪಿಟಸ್ನ ಬೆಂಕಿಯಿಂದ ಹೊಸದಾಗಿ ಜನಿಸಿದೆ! ನಿಮ್ಮ ಜ್ವಾಲೆಗಳು ನನ್ನನ್ನು ಹೆದರಿಸುವುದಿಲ್ಲ," she cries as she returns fire with a spell blast of her own, bathing all of the zombies in holy light!
"I was born anew by Sarenrae's light and the fires of Occipitus! Your flames don't scare me!"
She then follows this up by reaching down deep to conjure up another spell right on the heels of the first one - except this one is a boon to her allies, granting them increased fervor.
______________
JJ steps up to the closest of the grey renders and unleashes a barrage of blows against it.
All at +1/+1 from prayer.
Hasted attack
Kikinnin raises his shield soon enough to cover himself from the raging fire. Then, he advances but he is too focused on Ike and fails his axe swing.
Marigold survives the fire and brings up a spell of holy power that fills the dais!
The woman and two of the zombies reel back on the pain, touching their eyes in a sign of blindness.
JJ steps forward an unleashes a barrage of blows on the zombie striking with all his attacks, one of them even in the head itself. Despite the tremendous beating, the zombie survives, thanks to his dead skin, tougher than expected.
Ike seems nervous as the group survives to his column of fire "It's too late. If I don't stop you here and now, things worse than death will go over my head" the priest makes a sign to all his minions "All! Attack! Kill them all!"
:
Admist the clamour of battle Maxim gaze is drawn to the devil engaging JJ. As it disappears the mage tracks the tell-tale arcane ripples and bellows a warning;
:
His warning is cut short as an ice wall begins to rise around him... with an uttered curse he deftly avoids it, disrupting its frigid entrapment;
"Hell's Teeth this is a tight scrap an' no mistake! Need to thin the risen herd!"
Calmly the gun-mage levels his wand at the oncoming Rot-Renders and invokes its magic...
"Magische Raket!"
.. sending 5 glowing bullets towards the nearest ;
Spurred into action, he then moves against the wall, angling to try and use a pillar as partial cover...
With lightning reflexes Maxim puts his wand on the wall as it is forming, disrupting the creation that crumbles to icy dust.
After letting JJ know about the devil's position, the blonde dwarf swings his wand and five missiles of magic force fly and burst on the green zombie!
The invisible bone devil makes his things under the curtain, and once more a wall of ice starts to materialize around Maxim!
The invisible sorcerer casts again, two more rays of fire springing over JJ!
This time one of the rays strike true, bursting the young man's back in flames!
On the dome, Ike casts a quickened spell, then followed by more complex magic that starts to open blistering wounds in all of you, while the wounds in most of the zombies close up as the dead skin regenerates.
The quickened spell was a shield of faith.
The woman in the dais let's the zombies take the worst while she readies for combat by casting another spell.
bull's strength
The zombies clumsily adjust their positions to attack both JJ and Kikinnin!
The blinded zombies attack the air, not quite getting where JJ is.
One of them makes his claws and mouth in blood when it rends Kikinnin's axe arm.
The other only connects with one of his claws as JJ dodges to one side and the other avoiding most of the attacks.
The pink one descends the stairs and reaches JJ, unable to charge him through the obstacle.
Marigold's Round 4
Marigold gasps in pain as the negative energy rips at her being, though she's able to weather some of the effects.
This isn't good...we need to level the playing field quick! But two can play at that game...
Deciding to borrow a page from Ike's prayerbook, Marigold begins casting a spell of her own and rejuvenates her allies with a boost of positive energy...as well as affecting their undead enemies.
______________
JJ continues his assault on the red render, hoping to drop it before his own energies falter.
Trying to keep the blind attackers confused, he steps forward, to keep them guessing about his real location.
All at +1/+1 from prayer. Bonus attack from blessing
The lad screams in pain as the dark energies wash over him. "Whyyyyyyyyy?" he cries out.
JJ destroys one of the zombies with his first attack, and starts hitting the other one with his staff, although it seems to receive less damage than expected due to its hard dead skin. The young man then shifts his position a little to confuse the blind zombies.
:
As a second barrier of ice once again forms, Maxim manages to avoid it with n'er a frosting on his whiskers!
Any triumphant quip from the gun-mage dies on his lips as he is hit with the wave of necrotic energy...
:
... resisting most of its ill effect
Attempting to discern what is occurring in the clamour of battle, Maxim scans the room as the lumbering undead reel under Marigold's divinity.
:
:
Canny eyes pick out the incantations of their foes, and once again he bellows to his fellow Watchers;
Augmented by Marigold's Blessing, the dwur speedily moves across the chamber
Arm outstretched Maxim levels his wand once again;
"Magische Raket!"
.. sending 2 glowing bullets towards the hovering Ike and a trio banking off into the woman spell caster;
Maxim disrupts the ice wall once more, and then jumps over the stairs edge with great acrobatic skill and pushed by Marigold's fervorous blessing. The dwarf completes his lightning movements with a barrage of force bolts that burst on Ike and the cleric woman!
Kikinnin resists the worst of Ike's spell and steps forward calling for higher defense from Marigold's fervor blessing, he swings at both zombies on that side.
His axe results more effective than JJ's staff, and the dwarf brings peace to both zombies. The corpses are destroyed in holy flames.
The dread wraith emerges from the floor, but Marigold's powerful coin's light renders it staggered and the incorporeal remains trapped half-body on the stony ground.
The invisible bone devil repeats once more his ice wall. Without constrictions, this time the hemisphere is created surrounding Maxim. The blonde dwarf is trapped in ice!
Without the zombies in the middle the invisible sorcerer says arcane words and brings a cone of cold into the area, catching both Kikinnin and Marigold in the area. He seems not to care for the wraith, as it is also caught in the area.
Being an incorporeal, the spell seems to have way less effect on the staggered wraith.
Ike brings more power down from the dome to heal his zombies and wraith and damage the party!
The woman in the dais advances past the zombies to face Kikinnin.
She pierces the dwarf shoulder and he can feel an evil energy corrupting the wound as the blade goes inside.
The remaining zombies attack JJ.
Although JJ dodges most of the attacks, some of them rag his skin, opening pernicious wounds.
Inside his frigid prison Maxim shivers, then feels the power of Marigold's empowerment still coursing through him...
Hell's Teeth Lil' Miss... Ain't you quite the pocket-sized powerhouse!
He focusses on the ice surrounding him and raises his hand;
"Place needs a little heat..."
The gun-mage smiles and traces a symbol in the air... casting a familiar spell - yet unfamiliar as it needed no words...
From his hand two rays of searing heat fire forth, each but 5ft apart! .
:
:
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Realising he was on his last legs, JJ advanced on the woman, hoping that if she fell, maybe the zombies would too. Alakast lashes out at her in a quick series of strikes designed to keep her off balance.
+2 to hit and damage from FE
+1 to hit and damage from prayer
"I'm not sure I can keep this up..." he says, a note of desperation in his voice.
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AC = 32 (Protection from Evil)
HP = 52/124
Weapon Equipped = +5 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Divine Bond, Divine Favor, Protection from Evil, Prayer(9r)
Kikinnin hears JJ's woes, feeling a kindred worry as both cold and cripple wrack his body.
"A little while longer, JJ. Dig deep, and let's finish this."
When the powerful undead thing rises up from the floor, it takes all of Kikinnin's focus, as every hair on his person gooseskins. He disregards the lower undead threatening JJ. He also disregards the rapier being pulled from his shoulder. He knows that the dread wraith is the biggest threat to their continued survival, so he turns on it with the full might of Abadar.
edit:
Marigold's Round 5
Though she manages to dodge the worst of the cold blast and once more shrugs off some of Ike's negative energy blast even Marigold is beginning to look worse for the wear. She glances up at the flying priest, a scowl on her face.
Magic from above and claws and blades below...this isn't good!
But with both Kikinnin and JJ flagging she knows that she needs to do what she can to help keep them on their feet. She steps over next to the nearby pillar and begins casting once more, attempting to heal some of the damage to herself and her friends and blasting the nearby undead once more.
______________
Kikinnin and Marigold resist the assault of magic the best they can.
The halfling heals the party and damages the undead. The positive energy fully damages the wraith despite its incorporeal nature.
Maxim shots his gun against the wall, and the fire that burns from it easily melts a small section of the icy hemisphere. A 5 feet hole of smog is opened in the wall. The blonde dwarf profits the opportunity to run out and escape.
Kikinnin marks the wraith and then smites it with a devastating blow. Despite its incorporeal nature, the magic axe of the dwarf is able to damage it, even if less than expected, but the wraith is destroyed nevertheless.
The dwarf is able then to step and deliver the rest of his blows on the zombies. With that second attack cuts a good chunk on the pink one, that is followed by a devastating one that burns the zombie into sacred flames. Further pushed by Marigold's fervor, Kikinnin connects another blow on the yellow zombie, who barely manages to survive the dwarf.
JJ connects all his attacks but one, punishing strongly the rapier woman who barely stands the rapid succession of staff blows.
The invisible bone devil does his things out of view and a pool of lava emerges all around Marigold, leaving all the ground around her covered with the red and hot substance.
You notice the thermal feeling is weird like if this is only an illusion and you could cross it as easily as you walk through stone!
With his companion in the middle, the invisible sorcerer turns towards Maxim, and sends forth another wave of coldness.
"You should never had returned to Cauldron!" Ike blames the party while he conjures suddenly doubling his size and descending to 30' height.
The woman attacks again with her rapier, trying to finish JJ.
The pointy blade leaves an ugly wound on JJ's belly.
The remaining zombie focuses its rage for the living on Kikinnin.
The dwarf blocks a couple of blows, but another one cuts him on the neck!
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"Cauldron is our home!" cries out JJ, blue celestial light falls from him wounds as he does so.
"And the home of the living... not the dead. Why did you do it Ike?" he asks, as he eyes up his opponent and reaslises with a shock she is a swordswoman.
Why is it always the women
"I've crossed a better swordswoman than you before." he says, momentarily distracted. "And I learned a lot. Such as... always guard my heart."
The youth then lashes out with another series of blows, one of which connects with bone crunching force.
+2 from favored enemy, +2 from prayer, both added in
Marigold's Round 6
Marigold looks around at the lava that surrounds her, unsure of where it came from, but then shrugs and simply walks through it as though she were walking through (or on) water.
"ಭ್ರಮೆಗಳು? ನಿಜವಾಗಿಯೂ? ಯಾರೋ ಹತಾಶರಾಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ!"
"Illusions? Really? Someone's getting desperate!"
She hurries up behind JJ and then adopts a defensive position, attempting to cast another spell...
...and reaches out to heal her brother.
"Thanks Marigold." he calls over his shoulder, his eyes never leaving his deadly opponent.
"ಅಂದರೆ .. ಮಾರಿಗೋಲ್ಡ್ ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು"
AC = 31 (Protection from Evil, BoF)
HP = 57/124
Weapon Equipped = +5 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Divine Bond, Divine Favor, Protection from Evil, Prayer(9r), Blessing of Fervor
Kikinnin audibly exhales a sigh of relief when the ghostly thing disappears as quickly as it rose from the floor. "Praise Abadar!! I was sure we weren't going to avoid its deathly rakes!!"
The black beard repeats his request from Abadar, healing himself quickly, before reassessing the room for threats. One more zombie, the swordswoman, Ike of course... there's more. Two I can't see- the devil, and the bastard that iced us. We're not done here.
To keep the momentum going, Kikinnin tries to knock another pawn off Ike's dragonchess board.
Kikinnin will reposition to the other side of Marigold, in case something invisible threatens from the south.
As he exits his igloo, Maxim strides into a hailstorm of frost! He deftly avoids its frosty effect with a beard of icicles for his troubles...
:
He takes in the ongoing combat with a scowl. His baleful gaze spots the floating Ike and he grins, once again extending his pistol hand;
"Verdrijf Magie!"
:
The gun-mage then presses on through the blizzard
JJ sends the woman to the ground with a couple of swings, his second attack with the tip of his staff breaks the ribs of the assassin. This time the broken heart went the other side.
Marigold walks over the newly appeared lava and heals JJ, while Kikinnin's own wounds also partially disappear.
With an expert acrobatic jump Maxim avoids the blizzard and focuses on Ike magics. Suddenly the priest images, not powerful because they were cast from a scroll, collapse and disappear! Ike shouts in anger against the blonde dwarf "The wizard! Can you not dam stop him?!"
As in response, the bone devil reappears in front of Maxim after a fast flight.
His attempt to skewer the dwarf fails short when his magic armor stops the sting close to his face.
Just at the moment, a crackling energy emerges from the air at the column near the stone column. A powerful lightning bolt takes Kikinnin, JJ and Marigold!
Turning back his attention to the main group and JJ's question Ike answers "Did you really thought you could cleanse this city?" the priest sighs "Well, it's clear if you have something to be done you have to do it yourself" he draws a massive bastard sword he holds with a single hand, says some divine words and a ritual dagger made of force materializes next to Marigold.
The force blade stabs through Marigold's armor hurting her.
Kikinnin's divine favor spell comes to an end.
Marigold's Round 7
Though Marigold continues to weather the magics and now the blades being directed at her it's clear that she can't hold out much longer without some sort of healing magic. She staggers back towards the nearby pillar, attempting to put some distance between herself and her friends to make it harder for the hidden magic user to target them all. Then she conjures another bit of magic, mending some of her wounds.
JJ sizzles in the electricity, catching the full force of it on his chest as he surveys his handywork.
"ugh." he groans.
"You still haven't explained why Ike." he mutters, charging forward on his last legs toward the devil.
Maxim avoids the devil's damage and shifts , calmly raising his wand and invoking its magic;
"Magische Raket!"
.. sending 5 glowing bullets into the bony abomination;
AC = 31 (Protection from Evil, BoF)
HP = 59/124
Weapon Equipped = +5 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Divine Bond, Protection from Evil, Prayer(9r), Blessing of Fervor
This time, Kikinnin's focus is pulled towards the source of the lightning. The immunity of the invisible spellcaster offends him, and he charges the stone column with a wide-arcing swing, hoping to hit something hidden, and fleshy.
Marigold and Kikinnin partially wade apart of the lightning, but JJ is giving attention to Ike and is surprised by taking the blunt of the electrical attack.
The halfling, Lord of Occipitus, backs up feeling pressed and heals a good chunk of her wounds.
The group scatters trying to avoid more of the area attacks, and JJ charges on the now visible bone devil. As he approaches the devil attempts to stab the tip of his bony tail on him.
The young man hides his face to avoid the sting and smacks the devil's tail with his staff. A wave of holy energy smites the outsider who shouts in pain!
Maxim follows in, stepping back and using his wand to burst the devil with force magic! After the sparks of magic fade away, the outsider seems badly damaged, but still survives.
Kikinnin also scatters away, charging upon the origin of the lightning bolt. Not that surprisingly, he finds "meat", her axe feels opening gash on the invisible caster.
The bone devil opens his eyes wide at the picture of Alakast. It casts a quickened invisibility and disappears from sight.
You hear a voice talking directly in your mind I cannot defend against a soldier of the angels. I have no interest to perish in this layer of existence. Give me quarter and I will just keep around until you free me from the planar ally magics that tie me to the priest. I promise I will leave back to my home plane afterwards. I have no interests in your businesses in this plane of existence
Kikinnin notices a presence going away from him. An instant later another blizzard covers the area taking both the dwarf and the halfling.
Ike walks in the air, closer to Marigold "Your understanding is just so limited. And I have no interest in you knowing more if I fail to stop you." Suspended in the air he casts a new spell while her force dagger continues harassing Marigold.
Once more, the dagger stabs true.
AC = 31 (Protection from Evil, BoF)
HP = 45/124
Weapon Equipped = +5 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Divine Bond, Protection from Evil, Prayer(9r), Blessing of Fervor
Kikinnin debates his standing for the time it takes for Abadar's swift healing to pour through his veins like molten metal. Ike's out of reach, gaining strength with every whisper of prayer. The caster is gonna be the death of me, and I have very little to leverage against his hiding. Now, the bony thing, I can at least do something there...
The black beard circles the invisible spell caster, stepping up alongside JJ. "JJ, if I can, let me end the skelly. There's a caster right <here>," Kikinnin throws a thumb at the area recently wreaking havoc in cold blast. "Throw all you've got at the invisible bastard."
With his pronouncement of his intention, Kikinnin takes a single swing at the bone devil.
With a nod toward the space where the devil had been moments before, JJ hurries across the floor toward the central plinth.
Even as he moves, the youth draws out his bow...