26
Ragnar's first blow chops into the pale faced man, but the second misses as he dodges aside. The man lets out a barking laugh as both of your swings land but bounce harmlessly off his unnaturally tough skin. You notice that the huge gash from Ragnar's begins to close!
The man speaks-I can't believe the two of YOU were able to best the Mazeflesh Man...feel Norgorber's wrath! a pulse of negative energy flows out from his form doing points of damage to you and Ragnar.
You feel another force push again at your mind.
Make a DC 17 Will save.
Next round.
Muscles bulge and eyes go wide Can't believe it, eh? Believe THIS!~raging~
Sudden strike (last one)!
Remember Sudden Strine and Suprise Strike bypasses DR!
"I will not be your puppet, stay out of my head!"
Hold up the relic, close my eyes and Sunburst!
"How do you bastards like the sun?"
Remember Sudden Strine and Suprise Strike bypasses DR!
[dice=will]1d20+6
"I will not be your puppet, stay out of my head!"
Hold up the relic, close my eyes and Sunburst!
"How do you bastards like the sun?"
64 Ragnar hacks into the quick healing foe once more, almost felling him but again the wounds begin to quickly knit themselves closed.
You struggle against your mental foe and drive him once more from you mind. With furious zeal you hold up the eagle head and as you do feel a benificent force surge throughout your body. A blast of sun flows from your upraised hand causing:
DC 22 Reflex save or take damage and be blind.
(assuming you make your save):
You hear cries of agony from Ragnar and another voice, as the sun washes over the foe in front of you his body changes to a dark grey color and collapses into ash! The voice behind you continues to scream and you turn and see another pallid form, but this time the flesh loosley hangs from his form and in some cases has fallen off in huge chunks. He thrashes about wildly with two giant stakes in his hand and slowly changes into smoke. The smoke funnels it's way back towards the overturned coffins.
-26HP GAHHH! I can't see!
~exits rage and takes a knee with fatigue~
"Hold on Ragnar, I've got to take care of this thing first before it reconstitutes."
Move over to where the smoke is moving towards coffins. I will lead Ragnar there if I won't be able to keep an eye on him from the coffins.
Is the beast forming back up or does the absence of the dirt somehow prevent it?
You grab Ragnar's shaky hand and follow the slow moving smoke back to the coffin room. The smoke spirals down towards the dirt but seems to be rebuffed by the now cleansed soil.
It quickly solidifies into the male form again, but now the skin is a little more firm and waxy. Looking at the soil and then at you, Now brave adventurer finish the hideous un-life of mine. He lunges at you with two keen wooden stakes in his hands.
You get your attacks in first but here's his:
Two misses!
Bring him close so I can give him a few licks from my blade.~Ragnar says wearily.
doubt either of those were confirmed so just rolled normal damage
40Your blades slash into the foe but don't do anywhere near as much damage as you would expect. The cuts quickly begin to close.
He luges at you again with the stakes!
But misses twice.
Your action.
40Your rapier goes wide but you put a nice cut on with the dagger, which immediately starts to close itself up.
The man stabs you with the first stake for
Your action.
I will use the relic to blast him with sunbeam.
Would roll damage but not sure about caster level.
You unleash the power of the sunbeam (CL 15th BTW so you get 4 more beams 1/round) on the creature for .
The ray of pure light blasts the creature, shredding it horribly but it somehow still comes at you!
The first stake stabs painfully into you for
The damage from the sunbeam does not appear to heal itself...
11 36
Your action.
Unleash another sunbeam on the vamp.
"Enough! Time to die your final death!"
maybe I'll let you roll again if he's still up next round, that roll sucked!
Despite the creature's quick reflexes, the power of the sunbeam is to great for it to withstand and it is blasted into dust.
***end of combat***
"Ok Ragnar, that thing is dead. I will try to cure your blindness using a scroll."
UMD for scroll is 20 + caster level (caster level on the scrolls of dispel magic that I have is 10)
"Thank Desna, I think I got it, can you see again Ragnar?"
That was so lucky
Desna guiding your words, Ragnar just rubs his eyes and smiles at you weakly giving you the 'thumbs up'.
I am down 41 hp so gonna use wand.
"Ragnar, do you need some cures as well?"
Better Caldir, thank you. Feel like I've been working in the fields all day without my shirt on, but I guess I'll live. Give me devils over undead any day...
Any more areas or doors down here that we are aware of but have not yet explored?
There are the dark areas E/W from where you came down the stairs that you have not explored yet.
Gear from the two dead-dead vamps:
+1 leather armor, +1 wooden stakes (2)
wand of inflict moderate wounds (38 charges);
+1 chain shirt, +1 short sword, masterwork hand
crossbow with 10 poisoned bolts (greenblood oil; Fort DC 13;
1/round for 4 rounds; 1 Con; cure 1 save), gold holy symbol
worth 200 gp, wayfinder
Collect the loot and head to the East dark area.
The hallway runs nearly 100', maintaining it's 30' width the entire time, before ending with a double door in the N wall.
"Damn Ragnar, I thought we were done with this place."
Move to the door and check it out.
Desna doesn't love us THAT much...
The door offering no threat and hearing nothing beyond, you open it:
"The shelves along the walls of this room are filled with glass
cases, each containing a different expanse of parchment
covered with stylized writing and elaborate wax seals."
The room is about 70'x70'.
So its some sort of display, like a museum or something?
A brief examination shows that the documents behind the glass are treaties of various sorts.
Anything else in the room? Other exits?
Just the various treaties and documents. You figure this was one of prize collections of the Lodge given it's location.
"Well Ragnar, I suspect this stuff must be of value but I'm not going to disturb it."
Leave this room. Go to the dark area to the West of the stairs.
The West side of the mammoth hallway is similar to the E side with a set of massive double doors. A brief check shows they are safe to open revealing:
"The walls of this room are lined with shelves, although they
are badly scorched and burnt, the scrolls and books that once
rested upon them now nothing more than ashes."
The room is 70'x70' same as the E room.
There is nothing in the room but ash and fragments of old parchment and paper.
Congratulations, you have cleared the Lodge!
Welcome to level 7 adventurer!
"We're done here. Lets head back to the boot for some well earned wine and ale!"
Count ME in twice!
You blearily make your way back to the Boot, realizing that more than a day had passed sinc you entered the Lodge....
After a few weeks of rest and refitting your life almost begins to feel like 'normal', whatever that is. The NSK appear to have some rising influence in Westcrown, in large part to the growing fame of your exploits. Rumors of your foray into the Lodge are enough to catch the interest of the rest of they city that was not already impressed with your work on stage, foiling villans in the Cader, or other various exploits. It's nearly imnpossible for you (or even Ragnar) to walk the streets without some citizen stopping you to ask about various rumors that are either real or attributed to you.
Ailyn leaves Westcrown with a promise to return with the full might of the Pathfinders and reopen the lodge, one way or another. She is effusive in her praise of your efforts, especially determining the final fate of so many legendary Pathfinders that had been lost to time and the chaos surrounding Aroden's fall. She warns you to beware the power of the Morrowfall relic and that it may try to twist your mind similar to what happened to the leaders of Westcrown's Lodge.
Your rest at the Boot is disturbed one fateful night as every window in the building is rattled and various items fall off their shelves to the floor. The patrons of the Boot rush outside screaming various forms of 'earth tremor', for a moment totally ignoring the terrors of the dark.
You and Ragnar run outside to make sure none of the folk you have met over the past few weeks are snatched by dark spirits only to behold a terrifying sight: a huge plume of fire and smoke rises into a mushroom-shaped cloud to the south.
"Hmmm, that does not bode well, but at least we weren't in there. Do you remember anything about the manor that could explain such an explosion Ragnar? And did you notice it looked like a devil's face?"
Shivers at the sight of the rising cloud, Aye, I saw it alright. Looks like trouble and no mistake! It was rumored that House Thrune would sometimes slave mighty devils to important structures. Rare outside of their personal domains and fortresses, but on occasion they would do this arcane feat for strong friends and allies. The first Thrunite mayor of this town, my 'friend' Anvengen Doskivari was just such a man. It would not surprise me one bit if they locked some infernal evil away in that building and now it looks like the stuff has hit the proverbial fan...
"We should probably get back inside for the rest of the night, we can see if we can find out more about the explosion in the morning."
You troop back in to the Boot to try and get as much rest as you can.
Over breakfast the next day you hear all kinds of wild stories surrounding the previous night's explosion, the only thing that rings the same out of all of them: Five pillars of fire, like stationary tornadoes of flame, now spiral up into the sky around the explosion site, trailing into the clouds above and lighting the southern view with an infernal radiance.
Head over to NSN HQ to see if they have any additional information about the explosion.
A quick trip south to the safehouse finds it relatively deserted. Only a handful of the lesser members are there and they look shaken and scared.
You recognize Ermolos, most senior of the members currently in the hideout, he tells you that Janiven and Arael are busy leading small groups keeping the peace in the city as folks are in a panic and there are widespread rumors of devils walking the streets or worse!
His nerves are less frayed than the others, but you can tell that it's mostly because of your presence. He doesn't seem overly sure of what will happen next and what he should be doing.
"Don't worry Ermolos, Ragnar and I will take care of this. Please let Janiven and Arael know that we came by."
Ragnar and I will head down to the area near the manor to see what we can find out or observe.
As you walk the streets towards the sight of the explosion you realize that there is far less traffic than normal and most folks have a panicked look about them. The Dottari move in large groups and you even see a unit or two of Hellknights with armingers.
Where once the Mayor's manor once stood, for the most part there is now just a gaping hole. A 90' crater centered roughly on what was once the entrance to the manor grouds is surrounded by five pillars of fire, each 15 in diameter and extending out of a smoking hole in the ground, spiraling up into the sky above to a height of 500 feet (high enough that the tops are lost in the low stratus clouds that often loom over Westcrown).
Yet despite the spectacle, no nearby buildings burn. There's plenty of damage-the estates to the N & E & S of Aberian's Folly in particular being partially collapsed with the manor itself in complete shambles save for a single surviving wing to the E. But the 5 columns of fire seem curiously self-contained, and even at a close distance where the roaring flames are enough to make one's teeth shake, the heat seems only barely above normal.
Perception check please...