Aska's trip attempt finally finds purchase. The skeleton goes down, but instead of immediately attempting to rise, it swung out at Ian, trying to force him back.
Nearby, the body of the Zombie has begun to shed the same ghostlight.
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(6)
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While the attack should have hit, Aska's grip was such on her weapon that it slipped out of her hands when the skeleton moved, swatting the weapon away with its shield as another attack was launched at Ian. To their benefit, it looked as if there was some effect as the sword attack fell short, possibly due to her interference.
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(6)
Round 8
After Aska nearly lost her weapon, Ian thinks it might be time for a change of tactics. "Just hit it," he yells. It wasn't world shaking but the more people trying to kill it rather than knock it over, the more chances they'd have at surviving before it got another lucky strike.
Round 8
"Fine!" Aska shouts as she picks up her weapon and swings it upward towards their undead foe, trying hard not to think about the lights from the other dead creatures.
The Skeleton(?) clatters apart as the animating magic is disrupted, rendered once again lifeless. Aska and Ian are left in the ghostlit expanse of terrain just outside of the town.
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All is quiet after the bones clatter to the ground. Ian breaths heavily from the fight but tries to keep it quiet to listen for more enemies.
If he hears nothing, he finally lowers his weapon. The action causes him to wince. He looks at his shoulder and groans. That was a lot of blood. He reaches into his pack and pulls out a wand.
With a word and a wave, the wound closes and knits itself back together. "That could have gone worse." In fact they were very lucky. But that didn't feel like that was the end of it. "Wait. Did we make it all the way back?" He didn't remember traveling that far. They might as well make sure the town was okay. He heads for the front gate, still carrying his weapon just in case.
"Whew...Could have been worse, but it could have gone better." Now that the danger has passed, Aska takes a moment to examine the ghostly lights above their fallen enemies. "Hmmm, do you know what these are?"
Nothing immediately presents itself to Ian's senses beyond the oddity that is the corpselight over the bodies. To his senses, though they shed light, they might as well be black as ink. As to what is doing there, that is uncertain. It could be a product of the fog, for all the experience that the two of you have not had with it.
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"It could just be lingering magic, but I think maybe we should try to burn them just to be safe. We wouldn't wan them to reanimate." Aska says, but she waits to hear Ian's opinion as burning skeletons could take a bit of time.
"What?" Ian turns and notices Aska staring at an orb of light over the re-dead skeletons. He'd thought the whisp would disappear after a moment but they appeared to be lingering.
"You can't burn bone conventionally. We could smash them though." He sets his pack down and fishes out the any-tool. A sledge was one of the few things he knew how to make.
The orbs continue to linger over their respective creations, providing them light to see by in the immediate area. The chill in the fog does not dissipate, and you still feel the sensation of eyes on you, stalking you through the fog.
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"The fog isn't passing either. I don't want to just ignore these lights, but I don't want to get ambushed either." Aska keeps her ears sharp while they decide the best course of action.
He wasn't sure what was going on here but Ian guessed it would take some higher power or ritual to banish the dead for good. He looks at the lights and the bones and begins to wonder. His ability to eat sin only worked on certain kinds of undead. Most were mindless, only a fragment of a soul remained. Not enough to the thing to think on its own and not enough sin to absorb. Only the ones that were partial or full souls would it work on. And these certainly seemed to fit. They road horses, moved to flank, wielded weapons as one would in life.
He approaches one of the lights and focuses, drawing in the evil.
Eating the enemy’s sins heals the inquisitor of a number of hit points of damage equal to 1d8 + her inquisitor level (maximum +5). The enemy must have been killed by the sin eater within the last hour, and it must have had at least as many Hit Dice as half the inquisitor’s level. The inquisitor can use this ability once for each enemy she kills. This ability has no effect on mindless creatures or those with Intelligence 2 or less.
To Aska's eyes, the fog might have well have been a wall. Ten feet of her vision was relatively clear, lit by the corpselights, but barely five feet beyond that, the fog was too thick. It still felt like there was danger out there. She does get to see Ian's absorption of one of the corpselights; whatever it was he did making it look like he was breathing in the light, the orb dimming as it was absorbed.
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Once the act has begun, Ian cannot stop it, try as he might. He wasn't sure he wanted to actually eat the light but it happened anyway. "Woah," Ian reels back a step as the surrounding fog becomes...clear? He could still see it but it no longer hampered his vision of what was behind. And there were many things beyond. "I can see them," he says staring out into the mist. Then a greater thought pops into his head. "I can avoid them. We can get back quickly without running into anything now." He looks at Aska then in the general direction of Ardis. "We can do this now." He then sets off at a good pace, eyes moving back and forth, leading them around everything in he mist.
Aska knows better than to ask questions and follows quickly after him.
The sight is brief. Within a trio of minutes, it gradually begins to fade. The first to go is the sense of where those beacons were to avoid. Then within a minute of that, the fog begins to obscure his vision again until it had completely faded, leaving them in the thick fog like they had been before.
"S%!&. It's gone." Ian curses as the new sight fades. It was only a temporary boon. If that wasn't going to work, he'd have to rely on other senses in that case. Ian drops his pace as half his focus becomes devoted to scanning for evil.
With Ian's site gone, Aska falls back on her own senses to to stay alert for attack. Her thoughts of her newfound friends keeping her moving through the fog.
Much like before, the two of them are left to navigate the cursed fog with their own eyes and wits alone. Ian's confirmation that they were not alone in the fog nearly guarantees that they would likely encounter something else before they can reach Ardis. However, at the moment, they have drawn no attention.
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Ian gives up that line of thought quickly. The fog itself was evil and blocked any sight through it. But judging by the effect absorbing the light did, everything else could see. So they were at an extreme disadvantage. Couldn't be helped now.
Carrying on.
Either due to a stroke of luck, or good navigation, or both— the two of you make good time towards Ardis, though the trip involves a significant amount of detours from Ian, and in some cases, dropping low and remaining motionless as something passes by just at the edge of your perception. The fog has remained as malevolent as it first seemed, the influence of evil in the air not waning as the night proceeded. You have, at least, made it to the burned ground, the dark ashes of the plain giving an ominous air to the fog. Time will tell whether or not their luck holds, but they could not be that far from Ardis, could they?
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After the third time Aska bumped into him, Ian realized it was very dark and she was having a hard time following him. Ian pulls out a rope, tying one end to himself and handing her the other to do likewise.
"Thanks..." Aska whispers, doing her best not to slow Ian down in the darkness. Focusing her ears for any incoming attacks.
More hoofbeats. Something was approaching. What could it be this time, though? Could it see you? The hoofbeats had not diminished and either it was keeping pace with you two at a distance, or it was following your trail, in which case, it would likely catch up to you soon. The sound of metal against metal is intermixed in with the pace of the horse, whose hoofbeats are more felt than heard in this fog.
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"Damn. One behind us." They were not getting away from whatever was following them. He was pretty sure they could see in this fog. So Ian stops and picks up a rock or stick. He whispers a prayer and the stick lights up. He tosses it to the ground and prepares for a fight.
Aska will likewise ready to throw another Tanglefoot Bomb if and when it catches up.
The light does not travel far in the fog, but it is enough to light up the area around you, the fog swallowing it before it gets too far away. Not as much illumination as perhaps would have been liked, but it was something. The hoofbeats and jingling of metal comes closer, and as it turns to a full gallop in your direction, a sense of dread comes over you that you try to shake off.
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Aska feels a chill creep up her spine until her hands begin to shake. She couldn't see what was coming, but she felt her heart skip with every beat of its hooves.
Fear could cause some to start shaking, tense too much, or flee in terror. But in Ian's case it gave him great focus.
The sounds of the galloping grows thunderous as a mounted, headless, armored form bursts out of the fog, just shy of Aska! Her bomb flies wide at the sudden appearance of the rider as Ian's ray connects with the figure. The dark, tarnished armor and tattered black cloak can be seen flapping behind as the flash of the arc of a sword catches the light as it rides by.
Aska, the wound is deep. The wound is cold.
"Wretched souls, treading in the dark when they should have hidden.. Your lives are forefit."
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(12)
,
,
Barely still on her feet, Aska will 5ft step away and then drink one of her extracts of Cure Light Wounds.
"RAAAAAH!" Not a lot of good comes from anger and neither did Ian's attack. In an attempt to draw attention from his companion and strike it down for harming her, he spins once and takes a massive swing. It misses but the force behind it would have easily unseated the rider.
A dark chuckle sounds as Ian swings and misses, the rider wheels the horse with a return sword swing and rides back into the cover of the fog.
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(12/3) ,
Aska will ready another bomb for when he reappears, but will target his horse.
"Aska." When she turns to look at him, Ian grabs the rope at his side that is connected to her. "Get ready. We can't out run him. Gotta dismount him and kill the horse. Then we might be able to run." Victory was no longer on his mind. Survival was now the top priority.
"Agreed"
Ian's reactions are spot on as he gets a solid attack off on the wheeling rider, connecting solidly with it. Then, they are alone in the fog again, with muffled hoofbeats bringing a strangely muted echo in the fog nearby.
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(22/6)
Aska will abandon her bomb(as using ranged attacks in fog actually doesn't seem like the best idea now that she thinks about it), and will draw her Guisarme and ready an action to attack the horse instead.
The thunder of hooves come out of the fog and the two of you orient to it just as the headless rider bursts out of the fog, its sword raised to attack. The two of your attacks connect, and the horse disappears in a burst of black smoke, the now-unseated rider having not anticipated this, tumbles to the ground just past you due to its momentum.
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(26/9)
"Run!" Ian leaves the downed undead warrior behind and hauls Aska along with him. Dangerous as it was, he ran as hard as he could, through the fog, relying on adrenaline-amplified reflexes to dodge incoming obstacles.
Aska runs with Ian, but keeps her ears open. It was on foot now, but that didn't mean it couldn't keep up.
For a few seconds, the only thing that can be heard is the grass under their feet, the racing of their hearts, as they try to put distance between themselves and the headless rider they had downed. A handful of seconds later, the both of you can hear the infernal scream of a horse cut through the fog, and faintly, Aska can hear the sound of a horse at a gallop.
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(26/12)
"Crap...I think he can summon himself a new horse. Do we try to hide and wait for him to pass or do we ambush him?" Aska asked, knowing they'd never outrun the horse.