Andrea moves away from the deadly axe and lays her hand on Wren healing the wittering Wizard for
Oh well at least it stops the bleeding
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Updated Positions
Summary last turn
The Lopper tries to hit Kevin but fails. Nym tumbles past but gets hit by a swing with the axe for 7HP and 2 HP bleeding.
Kevin is the only who manages to damage the Lopper in this turn for 11 points of damage.
Andrea heals Wren and stops her bleeding.
Lopper:
11 HP taken
2 HP healed
28 HP lost total
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You see a maniac evil smile on the face of the Lopper. Having mauled Nym he seems to look around for a new target. He seems to notice the fear of the members fleeing from him.
For a moment he seems to contemplate - Aldous feels threatened when his eyes lock with the one of the Lopper as if being investigated as next target. But the moment seems gone as he suddenly swings his axe.
Target: Galadan 1, Kevin 2
Attack:
But is seems the swing of the Lopper was only half heartedly. He then suddenly moves with astonishing grace.
Acrobatics check:
Kevin is taken by suprise and can't bring down his sword quickly enough on him (no AoO). His eyes are fixed on Aldous and Andrea and Aldous feels he is unconfortably close.
Gulping in fear, Aldous fires off another spray of acid, before retreating further into the original room.
Kevin continues to press the Lopper.
Move right behind him
Attack:
Damage:
Andrea lifts her hand letting it glow with the positive energy of her healing hex..she knows she can't outrun this ghost but backs away a little anyway forcing him to come to her if he wants her.
"Andrea, the Aspergillium's holy water can damage the thing." Galadan says as he moves away from the ghost with a 5 foot space (unless Kevin is in my way). He loads the crossbow and fires the last ghost touch crossbow bolt.
Staggering under the force of the gash delt him, Nym blanches, knowing another strike like that will take him out of the fight.
Wren will again execute a chittering full withdrawl action from the Lopper, moving 4 squares down, 4 squares to the left of Andrea.
"Come now you! You can't even hit a bird!"
Wren will scramper away.
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Summary
The Lopper misses and moves South.
Wren and Aldous move quickly away from the Lopper. Andrea only backs up a little.
Kevin and Nym miss in their attempts to hit the Lopper but Galadan lands a precise shot for 7 HP of damage.
Nym is still bleeding (-2 HP) and the blood turns into ghostly vapour which floats towards the Lopper.
Damage on Lopper 7HP
Healed 2 HP
Total 33 HP
New Map Updated Positions - this already takes into account the next actions of the Lopper.
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Target for the Lopper: Andrea 1, Kevin 2
Acrobatics check to avoid AoO (movement either before or after depending on target)
Attack
The movement of the Lopper seems less fluent as he chases Andrea (AoO for Kevin and Nym - please roll yourself at start of your turn)
But his maniac smile reappears when he swings his axe towards Andrea and hits her.
Damage
Bleed
AoO:
Crit Confirm:
Damage:
Crit Damage:
Crit Damage:
Kevin continues to follow the lopper.
Attack:
Damage:
Nym will likewise continue to persue...
Heartened slightly by the blows of his companions, Aldous throws another blob of acid at The Lopper, and then continues to back off.
With the evaporation of The Lopper, Aldous regains his composure, and moves forward again.
"I say, those were some jolly good hits there, Kevin and Nym. Shall we finish-off exploring this wing, and then call it a day? That side chamber the burning skeleton came out of his nothing of value in it, but there might be something else from where The Lopper came from..."
He then moves forward to investigate the Northern chamber.
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The cells are all open. Nothing of value or interest remains. Most of the cells are even bare of straw with remains of ash instead - as it seems some sparks must even have reached this area.
But there wasn't enough flammable material to keep the fire alive here.
When you look down into the hole you notice that the rope dangling down is only 1 feet long. More rope seems to be on the floor of the hole - together with the remains of a human and a few other items. One looks like a mace, another one like a crossbow and part of a blade can be seen.
Aldous casts Detect Magic, and focuses on the items at the bottom of the shaft.
"I have some rope, if anyone is willing to climb down there..."
"I hope we never run into any thing like that again. Is everyone ok?"
"That was the last ghost touch bolt, unless I can find the one that missed."
Galadan goes to search for it.
He also peers down into the oubliette, summoning a cold blue sphere of light to illuminate the darkness.
"I have no skill at climbing, but I will gladly go down there to retrieve those things, and to see who that poor soul is. Could be one of the Agents that caused this whole mess."
Aldous nods to Galadan.
"Very well, then."
He then looks for somewhere to fasten the rope (using pitons as necessary), so that Galadan can descend into the pit.
"Good show Kevin..."Nym says, slumping to the ground. "You sir are a chirurgeon with that axe. Andrea, my dear, would you be so kind as to give me a hand. Preferably one charged with your flesh-mending charm."
Galadan is thoughtful for a moment.
"Do you know what this means? We have defeated three of the five prisoners!"
Andrea smiles and lays a gentle hand on Nyms hurts...
...then pulls her wand out.."Very well, who is still injured." she asks.
Kevin bows as if if at a ball to the others and then tosses the axe on the ground. "Thankyou my friend but that is the last and only time I will use that. It is ment to chop wood, not to be a weapon of beauty such as a fine sword. Nay some one else keep it, or use it if we ever camp in the woods, we may need it to hew limbs for a fire." He turns, placing a trembeling hand on the hilt of his sword and reaches once more into his jacket for his flask.
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** spoiler omitted **
"Good show Kevin..."Nym says, slumping to the ground. "You sir are a chirurgeon with that axe. Andrea, my dear, would you be so kind as to give me a hand. Preferably one charged with your flesh-mending charm."
Nym - you will need either a heal check to stop it or some magic healing.
Your blood won't revive the Lopper but the bleeding isn't stopping on it's own.
"Thank you, my friend. Being that you have the wand out and handy I could use a little more attention, if you would. It's been some time since I recieved such a debilitating blow."
"Right you are Galadan, that leaves who? The Splatterman and?"
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Inside the Oubliette
The body at the bottom of the Oubliette has some broken leg bones. You manage to identify them as the remains of The Lopper. Next to him you spot a single skull which seems to belong to the burning skeleton.
The Lopper’s remains lie in a heap at the bottom of the oubliette, along with about 30 feet of old rope. In addition, a fair amount of gear and other treasures looted from murdered guards or stolen from guard rooms lies among the Lopper’s bones (and Gurtis Vortch’s decapitated skull). These objects consist of 120 gp, a broken masterwork heavy crossbow, a masterwork longsword with the insignia GV, a +1 heavy mace, a stone of alarm, and a ring of keys (these once belonged to Gurtis Vortch, and can be used to unlock any of the doors or cells in the dungeon.
With some searching you also find a discarded vial.
This block of cells was once used to house the most violent murderers in Harrowstone—killers who couldn’t be trusted alongside even other prisoners. The grating in the middle of the room was once kept locked with lengths of chain, but today the grating is unlocked. The pit below
drops 30 feet into a deep oubliette—a cell from which its occupant’s release was never intended. The walls of the oubliette are polished smooth with very few handholds.
It is difficult to navigate the oubliette’s walls. The rope hanging into the pit is only a few feet long, terminating at a frayed end—the remainder of the rope lies at the bottom of the pit, coiled around the mortal remains of the oubliette’s final prisoner.
The last occupant of this oubliette was the serial killer known as the Lopper. Despite the indisputably violent nature of his crimes, a number of bureaucratic complications kept pushing back his expected date of execution—unable to proceed with what he felt was a simple judgment, the warden instead had the Lopper dropped into this pit. With both of his legs broken, the Lopper malingered in these depths for months before salvation came in the shape of a potion of levitation smuggled into his cell as part of the Splatter Man’s complex plan to engineer his escape from Harrowstone.
The Lopper waited until just before his daily feeding before he drank the potion. He floated up to the edge of his oubliette above, and when
Gurtis Vortch came to dump the day’s food into the pit, the Lopper was there to ambush him. He grabbed Vortch through the bars of his oubliette’s grating and pulled him prone, then deftly disarmed the guard of his sword and, with a few expert cuts, decapitated him. After fishing the keys to the oubliette’s lid out of the still twitching body’s beltpouch, the Lopper was free. He quickly released the other prisoners from the nearby cells, and the growing distraction was enough to allow the Splatter Man to stage a similar coup.
The riot spread quickly after that, ending only after 7 hours of violence in fire and ruin. Faced with death by fire or asphyxiation, the Lopper fled back to this oubliette, hoping to wait out the disaster in the depths below. Yet while the Lopper’s theory was sound and the smoke never did reach into the oubliette’s depths, the rope he used to lower himself into the pit had been damaged in the fire. When, several hours after the fire burnt out, he tried to climb to safety and escape, the rope broke, dropping him back into the pit, breaking his legs anew, and consigning him to a lingering death from thirst. Of the prisoners of Harrowstone, the Lopper may have lived the longest after the fire, yet in the end, he perished as well.
The first victim of the Harrowstone riot was the captain of the guards, a cruel man named Gurtis Vortch who wasn’t much better than the prisoners he enjoyed torturing and tormenting. He was the first
casualty during the riot, murdered by the Lopper with his own stolen sword.
In death, Gurtis Vortch’s soul, unshackled from society’s tenuous hold, became one with the ambient cruelty of the place. Like the prisoners, he now lives on as an undead remnant—in this case, as a burning, headless skeletal champion. Blind and deaf, Vortch is trapped
within his own insanity for much of the time—yet his ability to sense living, intelligent intruders is enough to rouse the headless undead back into “active duty” as soon as anyone comes too close.
"Andrea, dearie, I could use a touch of that wand. The small one." Wren points to the lesser of the two cure wands.
Healing
"And one more time? Thank you."
Healing
"What a nasty thing that was! Jumped right out at us! The stories of it appearing from no where seem true."
Wren looks around, casts Detect Magic, and spends a few minutes identifying the above.
Thanks for sharing that information! I *love* hearing the back story that so often gets passed over. Awesome.
"If no one objects, I will claim this mace for my Order. It will prove useful if we have more magical undead to fight."
"May I recommend we return to Ravengro, take stock of our situation, try to rest, and then return when we are replenished and refreshed?"
Wren, still clutching her precious spellbook as if it was a part of her own dear soul, reluctantly agrees to return to town.
For a brief instant, her face flashes as you can tell she *really* wants to go down the south corridor and face the other who thinks that they own *her* book, but she relaxes it.
"Can that Crossbow be repaired" Andrea asks"..I could use it I think, to more effect than hand to hand combat anyway" "
CLW on Nym from the wand
Charges left 10
Aldous looks over the crossbow with a critical eye.
"If you let me have it this evening, I should be able to fix it for you before we head back here tomorrow morning."
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Dreams in the night
By now you dread the evenings in Ravengro as they always seem to be followed by a non-refreshing slumber marred by nightmares.
Your dreams are of a big huge axe. An axe that seems to wield itself and attacks innocent. You follow the axe as it lies in the shadow - waiting for the two lovers to pass by to behead them both - blood gushing all over you and no matter how hard you try - you seem unable to remove the stains.
You feel back into slumber - you see the axe go hunting. It is a house, all lights are out, it is early morning and the victim sleeps in his bed - unaware of the danger that is coming closer. The axe raises above the neck - somehow everything looks familiar. The axe has reached it highest peak and comes falling down.
In this moment you recognize that it is you sleeping there. The axe falls down - the head chopped off. You wake up - feeling deep pain around your neck.
Will save DC 13 or lose 1 CON
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You leave the no longer entangled holy symbols in your belongings. When you wake up next morning you realise this has been the first night in a long while that you have slept undisturbed by any bad dreams.
You dream of a White washed wall. You see your name slowly appearing - one letter after the next. They are written in blood. You try to reach the wall, you try to erase the letters - but you seem unable to reach them.
Which each new letter some more life is sucked out of you. You try to scream but no voice comes out of your mouth.
You resign and slowly see your names finished and yourself die.
The dream is still vivid in your mind when you wake up.
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You dream. You are back to Harrowstone. All your comrades are dead. Moments ago you remembered how they died and why you are the only one left - but something seems to make it hard to remember.
And then you know - there - between you and the Splatterman lies your precious - your new spell book. Yes - this is more important. But you know the Splatterman wants it back.
As if on cue - you both advance forward. Both of you manage to grab one side of the spell book. The Splatterman is strong - but trying to keep your precious gives you powers you haven't been aware you had.
Suddenly something gives way - for a short moment you think you won. Then you realise - the spell book ripped apart. It couldn't any longer take the strain. Something breaks inside you. You hear a scream - is it yours, is it the Splatterman - is it both of you.
Suddenly everything turns bright like a ball of lightning. You lose consciousness - or did you die. You don't know, you can't remember, you seem not to care.
You are walking through the night. A hammer in your hand. Somehow it feels familiar - something about the hammer attracts you - but something repels you. You turn around - there are your friends - all dead. Someone must have smashed their skulls with a blunt object.
You keep walking - suddenly you notice several skeletons blocking your way. You take out the hammer - you know they are no match for you. They need to die.
You raise the hammer - and suddenly you stop. You remember what happened to your friends. You look at the hammer in your hand - you try to throw it away. You feel shame but this is not the right moment.
You know you need to use the hammer or the skeletons will kill you. But all strength is sucked out from you. Nothing seems left, no will to fight. You drop the hammer and embrace the claws ripping you apart. Please, please - just let me forget again.
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you dream - you wander around the bowels of Harrowstone. You are alone. What happened to your friends? You turn around and remember. Everything collapsed - they are still buried under tons of stone.
It was just your luck that saved you. But how did it happen. There was this haunt - you tried to defeat it. But then - the dream suddenly makes no sense anymore.
Try to remember and you know you can save them, try to remember ...
Galadan is nursing a headache the next morning at breakfast. The torturous nights were taking their toll on him. Fortunately, the food was well beyond par, and with a little mint, the tea helped take a lot of the pain away.
"Well, I hope these nightmares stop soon. And that I don't have to carry this cursed hammer around anymore. Everyone else have just as bad a night as I did?"
Wren barely looks up from the spellbook she is reading at breakfast. Her mouth is full of seeds and nuts and she just grunts, so engrossed is she in whatever magics she can glean from her precious.
Mumbling, Wren will respond.
"Yes, I did not sleep well. It has been days before I had a good night's rest. Both with visions of evil and thoughts that someone might want to steal my new spellbook have kept me awake." Wren pecks at a bit of fruit.
"Today we go back and finish off the last two ghosts, yes? End this once and for all?"
Wren looks up at anyone eating breakfast.
"I think one of them thinks that they own this spellbook. Well, we shall see about that, won't we?"
Wren goes back to reading her spellbook, idly preening the feathers on her 'armor' as she waits to go back to Harrowstone.