"Well then I can always pull you down!" Xerice says and coilds her whip around Grine's legs to pull down hard.
Ezechias slides down the ladder to the cellar level, then moves over and begins ascending the ladder to Grine's upper level.
Sonny moves to the mongrelman who attempted to warn him and heals his wound. The mongrel man clasps his forearm in thanks and mutters "Grine and Vorkstag are murderers. Look for the closet; it'll tell the tale."
Caesare drinks a potion, already beginning to grow larger.
ROUND 2:
21 - Augustus and Zanu
20 - Xerice
18 - Ceasare and Sonny
16 - Grine
6 - Ezechias
Augustus begins to analyze the gnome, describing a wicked childhood. Grin snarls and spits in anger.
Zanu slides down the ladder and finds an angle on the floor where he can see Grine and casts his spell! The arcane missiles strike Grine where he stands, causing him to curse loudly.
Xerice slides down the ladder and heads up after Ezechias, stopping just below him and close enough to whip Grine! Her whip lashes his ankle and drops him prone!
Caesare drinks another potion, his arms lengthening and becoming giant. His great size makes it hard for him to fit between the vats and he thumps one, causing a splash of acid to overflow the side of the vat and hit the ground, hissing.
Grine smiles from his prone position and suddenly the world becomes dark! The dim light in the Vat room becomes darkness! Only the Professor, outside the sphere can see normally!
Sonny's voice rings out in the darkness, commanding respect! Grine's voice whispers out from the darkness, "I don't think so, holy man."
Round 3
"Yes not well timed on my part as you were already on the ground. Your petty darkness has no effect on me though, but why don't we even it out for my human friends."
Sonny then snaps his fingers and daylight emanates from his scimitar.
"Bah Sonny! don't spoil the mood with that awkward lighting!" Xerice protests. She grips the wasp amulet around her neck and channels dark energies, avoiding hitting her friends once again.
"But it's so me! he says with a smile.
Ezechias pulls himself up onto the same ledge as Grine, his orc heritage making the darkness superfluous. He makes it to the side of the gnome just as Sonny dispels the darkness with his light!
ROUND 3:
21 - Augustus and Zanu
20 - Xerice
18 - Ceasare and Sonny
16 - Grine
6 - Ezechias
Zanu's spell hits the ledge beneath Grine, burning small holes in it but doing very little damage.
Xerice calls upon the vengeance of Calistria and feels the retributive energy flow! Grine grunts in pain, but not nearly as much as Xerice would like!
The prof comes closer to Caesare and says to him, nodding to himself "I think you should try to attack him while speaking about his sad childhood!"
[b]"I think I misread you. I can see, it was sad that your mother loved your siblings more. Really, really sad. I mean you shouldn´t have threatened to castrate your brother, I mean that is what he told me.
Augustus whispers his insights into Caesare's ear, who stabs at the gnome! Unfortunately Grine is agile and dodges the attack!
Grine snarls and sneers at the words the heroes speak. "Flap your mouth holes, worms. We'll soon see what you say when your corpses lie below!" Grine suddenly darts at Ezechias, his axe flashing! He hits, scoring Ezechias across the arm for damage!
Seeing that Grin is up and about again, Xerice thinks it is a good time to take him down a peg
Ezechias' smite slices deeply into Grine's chest, downward through his collarbone and into his ribs, nearly cutting the gnome in half. He looks at Ezechias, grins and spits out the words, "For Father Skinsaw!" as he pitches forward. A holy symbol, clearly recognizable as that of Norgorber, rolls off the ledge and to the floor below.
Suddenly the body of Grine erupts into a blinding bright light that threatens to blind those close to the corpse!
ROUND 4:
22 - Vorkstag
21 - Augustus and Zanu
20 - Xerice
18 - Ceasare and Sonny
6 - Ezechias
As Grine dies, the door to the north opens, and a tall thin man wearing a bathrobe steps out in time to see Grine fall. "Grine! No!" The man appears oddly wild as he throws a bottle of smoking liquid at Ezechias! , hitting the paladin and dealing acid damage!
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Ezechias manages to cover his eyes in time to be spared a dire fate! He walks to Vorstag and slashes at him after laying his hand on himself.
"Vorstag! You suspected to be an accomplice in many crimes. You will abandon any hostilities and come with us for interrogation. If you don't comply, we will subdue you."
Augustus seems despaired. "Why? Why always violence? Couldn't we just exchange in friendly terms, between human beings?"
Sighing and shaking is head, the prof looks deep in the newcomer's eyes.
"Didn't it bother you that the properties of acid are unstable? As a scholar, you should have paid attention to that, well acid is not really that offensive for human skin..."
Augustus starts to claptrap the man, telling him the weaknesses of his researches as a doctor.
The Professor excoriates Vorkstag's fitness as a researcher, while Zanu sends a glob of acid unerringly at the man. It hits, burning away some of the man's bathrobe and flesh beneath.
Meanwhile Xerice pulls herself up the level of Ezechias and Vorkstag and moves behind them. Ezechias castigates Vorkstag, who seems enraged and not at all ready to surrender. However, the Professor's words must have shaken him slightly, for Ezechias is able to strike him, despite the fact that the man seems blurred around the edges!
Moving closer and striking again with his spear, Caesare taunts his enemy again.
"I know what you are. You are something, that can not abide it´s own reflection. You are a thief, a murder, a skinstealer"!
Vorkstag sneers, his mocking voice filling the room. "Words, petty man, only words! Jealous of those of us who seize power, who don't wait for the crumbs of the great to fall down upon us! You call them crimes, holy man? I call them the works of the great!"
Vorkstag suddenly steps off the ledge, falling down to the plank below, perched precariously between two vats! He lands with a cat's grace, balancing carefully! He smiles and flings at bottle at Caesare! He hits, dealing of acid damage and eliciting a Reflex save from Zanu!
ROUND 5:
22 - Vorkstag
21 - Augustus and Zanu
20 - Xerice
18 - Ceasare and Sonny
6 - Ezechias
Round 4
Sonny calls out to Sarenrae, "Dawnflower I pray your favor on my friends and your displease to my enemies!"
Round 5
Sonny then pulls out his crossbow and shoots at Vorkstag.
When he hears what the investigator says, Augustus opens his eyes wide. "A skinstealer you said? What a fascinating creature!"
The prof steps back to have better look at the creature and throws ground mica in the air. Suddenly, the outlines of the creature become much more visible.
"Really Zano, you wish to keep the villain alive, but you kill innocents at a whim. You amuse me to no end." Xerice laughs.
She lets out another wave of negative energy, avoiding her allies and hitting the skinstealer head on.
Ezechias swipes at the man as he steps off the ledge, but misses by a hair's breadth. Similarly, Sonny's bolt flies past him as he moves with an inhuman grace. Zanu's arcane missiles fly and hit the man unerringly, however they stop a mere breath away from the man and seem to do no damage!
"Argh!" The sudden blast of glitter seems to catch the man off-balance. He rubs at his eyes hard, then wavers as Xerice's channel hits him! He manages to keep his balance and avoid falling. He hisses under his breath.
ROUND 6:
22 - Vorkstag
21 - Augustus and Zanu
20 - Xerice
18 - Ceasare and Sonny
6 - Ezechias
Feeling in his pockets, he pulls forth a vial and drinks it! Blinking his eyes, he seems to recover from his blindness!
"Than lets see if we can't dislodge him." Xerice says with an evil grin on her face. Her whip shoots out and coils around one of the man's legs. She laughs and pulls back hard.
Xerice's whip snaps and the man wavers on the board! He falls into the vat of bleach! and He struggles to the surface, spewing bleach from his mouth and gagging. As he does, the bathrobe he wears and his very skin itself sloughs off, revealing a creature from a nightmare!
Sonny winces as he sees the "man" enter the bleach and gasps as he reemerges as something not a man.
Sonny reloads his crossbow and then waits for him to reappear where he can get a clear shot at him.
Ezechias moves down the ladder to the bottom floor, where the vats sit. Sonny holds his shot until the flayed man appears at the edge of the vat, but misses him as he bobs up and down. Caesare is more lucky, as he skewers the flayed man, his blood turning the bleach momentarily pinkish.
Xerice looks down at the result and giggles lightly.
"Looks like the bleach took his second skin off. Perhaps we should dip him in the other vat and see what happens with him then."
Augustus, satisfied, draws a crossbow and loads it.
ROUND 7:
22 - Vorkstag
21 - Augustus and Zanu
20 - Xerice
18 - Ceasare and Sonny
6 - Ezechias
Vorkstag bobs to the surface and drinks one of his vials he grabs from his floating coat. Suddenly he shoots up the side of the slippery vat quick as a wink, emerging on the same plank he fell from. He takes damage from his immersion in the bleach!
Caesare stabs at the skin stealer as it drinks, but misses. However his strike is much more accurate the second time, as his spear sinks into the side of the skin stealer, causing him to fall to his knees, clutching the wound and clinging to the plank. "I surrender! Mercy! Please, mercy." He holds his wound, which bleeds freely, blood falling into the bleach vat below.
"Well, very good, my dear. Let's interrogate the... creature on the matter we came for!" says the prof, putting back his crossbow at his place.
The skin stealer known as Vorkstag tells you that he was the innocent dupe of horrible Mister Grine, a terrible murderer who threatened routinely to kill him in his sleep if he didn't act as his accomplice in his murderous, villainous ways.
While he speaks, you notice he has a strange scar on his shoulder, a series of small punctures in the shape of an elongated U.