"Poor bastard..." Muttered Drakus under his breath as he watched the phantom fade through another wall. He turned to the others.
"He might be a victim, but he's a threat to the city. We gotta take him down. Now, while we know where he is."
Gregor hangs his head "This is true. Left to roam, he could cause more lives to be lost within the city proper."
Donagar casts lesser restoration on himself.
"Anyone want a charge from my wand o magic weapon?"
Ok - thanks to Donagar's very useful spell, you are able to surround it without it being aware of you.
The ghostly spirit is utterly surprised by your sudden appearance out of nowhere, so you all are able to get in the first round without it being able to act.
As they prepare to attack the unfortunate thing, Gregor offers words of wisdom and encouragement "Remember, it is undead and semi-solid. Magic, especially divine, will have greater effect than our weapons."
"I hate ghosts......"
Drakus accepted the enchanting of his otherwise normal pilum.
Surprise round___________________
for a possible piercing damage.
Battle axe
attack
damage
"Die ghost!"
After he's offered his words of advice and wisdom, he takes his wand of divine healing, and tries to touch it to the creature
Round 1_____
Embarrassed at his performance at the ambush, Drakus recovers to try again.
for a possible piercing damage.
Normal.
for a possible piercing damage.
Normal.
"..."
The spirit is taken completely by surprise at your sudden appearance and aggressive intent. Drakus' spearpoint is deflected away at the last moment, almost as if it had taken on a life of its own, but Donagar's axe cleaves through the apparition and Gregor also lands a hit, although the Wraith cringes away from the wand enough that only a minor discharge of positive energy reaches it.
With a hiss and a lighting of its eyes (visible even behind the beaked doctor's mask that it wears) the Wraith lashes out at Donagar, as he is the one who inflicted the most damage.
and
Its touch is beyond cold (you're already numbed to that), it is soul-wrenchingly painful...
Fortitude save
"Yarrrgghhh! Yah be ignoring mah armor yah dead ting!"
Battle axe
attack
damage
Gregor prods again with the wand, but this time his visibility makes him easily avoidable. Hopefully, the heavy swings of his companions will make up for his ineffectiveness.
Round 2_____
Full attacks again...
for a possible piercing damage.
Auto miss.
for a possible piercing damage.
Auto miss.
...but his weapons pass through the wraith with no effect!
The spirit desperately contorts its shape to avoid coming into contact with the positive energy emanating from Gregor's wand, but succeeds only in throwing itself into the path of Donagar's and Mai's blades. Drakus thrusts at it with his spear, missing with his first attack but striking true with the second.
The ghostly form is flickering badly now, its shape shimmering and ragged. Does this mean that you are prevailing?
The wraith turns its attention to Drakus, its claws lashing out - bypassing Drakus' armour completely...
Saves!
Gregor is surprised to see that they were being fairly effective with thier weapons, "Scratch what I said earlier, you are doing fine with your weapons, keep at it and we will remove this threat to the citizens just yet."
Mai goes for another strike
"Eat this yah ghost!"
Battle axe
attack
damage
Mai's and Donagar's blades tear through the spirit - who is suddenly rent entirely apart in an explosion of dark energy and a horrifying, unearthly wail:
"NO...! She approaches - I am looosssst..."
You glimpse - for the merest fraction of a fraction of an instant - the outline of a leering, fleshy skeletal woman; an image that is seared onto the back of your eyes in a flash of sickly pale green light.
As quickly as it appears, the image is gone; and with it, the spirit; all that remains - a black cloak, a beaked mask and a tarnished unholy symbol - slowly falls through the water to the deck of the ship.*
You have won - the Wraith will trouble neither you nor the citizens of Korvosa any further! Cause for exulting, if it weren't for the darkness, the cold, icy water and the utter alien nature of your current surroundings...
That really is it for your underwater expedition - the next post will be focussed on getting you out of here and back on dry land (but NOT out of trouble...) asap!
"Alright Donagar! Now let's get outta here..."
Vaguely curious, Drakus grabs the wraith's stuff (cloak, mask and symbol) and starts making his way back to the dock where they came from.
Does anyone want to stop Drakus picking up an unholy symbol...? :)
"Let Donagar tell you if it's safe to pick up any of that ghost's stuff as it could be cursed."
Drakus hesitated at being warned, then nodded and left the wraith's stuff alone.
"OK; it's all yers then."
Donagar casts detect magic and looks over the items.....
Spellcraft
"I'd also be afeard o leavin it lay."
Gregor makes a quick check over the items before going any further, to include a brief perusal of the symbol.
The only thing that registers as magic is the beaked mask.
With that religion roll, I'm afraid you can't identify the symbol, except to say that it's definitely unholy! Not to worry, I'm sure Gregor will let you know.
Gregor looks the items over before letting them know what he's found, "Well, only the mask is magical, so I see no issue with picking it up. That said, the symbol is one of Urgathoa, so it is possible that it could be tainted with some sort of foulness. I would avoid using bare skin. Otherwise, let us take these things we've found and get out of here."
"I'm gonna have to agree with that as this water is cold, and has some large aquatic predators"
Donagar wraps up the unholy symbol in a cloth and puts it in a bag.....
"I agree let's get out o here an back on some land....."
The point from which you entered the water is some way upstream of the wreck; it is highly unlikely that the thought of swimming back (against the current!) to your original position is favoured.
Accordingly, you come to shore at a different point, among the shanty towns of the poorer Varisian quarter. As you emerge from the depths, the dawn is breaking: a weak, pale, uncertain light reflects off the water and lets you know just how much time you have lost - effectively an entire night's sleep.
As you trudge - no doubt wearily - up from the docks toward the road, and thence toward a well-earned rest, your gaze meets one of the city's many plague carts, doing its dreadful duty of collecting the bodies of those who have succumbed overnight (picture here - be warned, slightly graphic). Behind it walks a procession of local folk, no doubt friends/relatives of those who have died and who are being carted away. Hollow-eyed, gaunt, themselves many of them bearing the marks of the blood veil disease, these wretches barely have the energy to muster any interest in the unusual sight of four individuals emerging from the water...
The streets here are unfamiliar to you, although you're not terribly far from Trail's End, where you encountered the child Brienna Soldado (and cured her of the blood veil); you are aware of this and the general direction you need to be going in order to return to more familiar surroundings.
As you wander through the streets, you notice a marked absence of the Sczarni gangs you saw in your previous visit to these parts. The streets are empty, at least as much due to the disease as to the early hour: normally there would be a buzz of activity even this early in the morning.
You also see that the doors of nearly every dwelling you pass are marked with a variety of symbols, representing almost in microcosm a tale of recent events: etched high up and confidently on each door you can see the scale of Abadar. In the earliest few days of the plague, nearly all were confident that it was a mere passing and that Abadar would not permit them to suffer.
As the disease spread and fear grew, other markings proliferated: further symbols known to be favoured by Abadar (coins, vaults); and symbols of the other patron deities worshipped in Korvosa. You can see the sword-symbol of Iomedae and the flame-wreaths of Sarenrae clearly marked on many doors. In addition, here and there you can see the five-pointed star of Asmodeus. Worship of Asmodeus is not forbidden here and - whatever your own feelings toward the Prince of Hell - you can only acknowledge the fact that His priests, though few in number, have made the same efforts as the priests of the other deities in combating the spread of the plague.
Finally, as the plague spread and the deaths mounted, almost every door is marked with the spiral of Pharasma - the Lady of Graves - carved there by someone grieving the loss of a husband, a wife, a parent, a child.
Whatever count you may attempt to keep in your head is foiled by the sheer number of spirals that you pass...
Donagar breaks the silence of the journey back to town...
"It's lookin worse an worse, wonder if tha disease has peaked yet or is it gonna get worse afore it gets better."
Mai replies
"To quote a man who went through dark times and said "It's Darkest before the Dawn," which I think fits the bill here."
Drakus grunts, marching along stoically.
"With any luck, we got ahold of the tail end of this thing. We give it the right yank, we'll wrap this up tight."
As you make your way across the city, the mud and filth from the slums slowly gives way to the more reassuring feel beneath your feet of cobblestones, and then finally of proper paving as you enter the more commercial districts.
Your journey is taking you toward - and through - the Market Square, which (as the name suggests) is one of the largest open spaces within Korvosa; it is used every day of the week (except public holidays) for buying, selling and trading - activities which are almost sacred according Abadar and his followers. It is therefore no surprise that, even this early in the day, you can hear activity from the Square long before you see it.
It is only as you approach more closely that you realise that the sound is ... wrong.
Terribly, horribly wrong. Those are not the shouts of people selling and buying at the top of their voices; those are screams and cries of pain, of suffering.
Hurrying your approach accordingly toward what sounds like trouble (the natural haunt for adventurers!), the sight that meets your eyes is almost beyond description.
The entire Square has been turned into a makeshift hospital for what resembles a war zone; scurrying guards in the uniform of the city watch - and the Gray Maidens - are rushing here and there, some newly arrived and fresh; others battered and marked by the signs of some terrible struggle.
The noise and the scene wash over you...
...
... here you see a small child - a girl who cannot be more than 5 or 6 - struggling to describe to a couple of ministering guardsmen how she has seen her family butchered before her eyes; her left arm ends in a stump just below the elbow. She screams once as the wound is cauterised with a red-hot blade before (mercifully) fainting...
...snatches of conversation...
..."I'm telling you, a rat the size of a horse..."
...there you see a young guardsman, barely old enough to shave, desperately trying to hold closed a savage wound in his neck; from his pale appearance you can tell he is losing the fight - even as you watch, his eyes slowly glaze over in death...
..."man-rat it was, took poor Marius' throat right out with its teeth, it did..."
...everywhere, the shocked, pale expressions of folk who have suffered through a night of horrors...
..."never stood a chance..."
...piles of blood-soaked rags ...
..."I ran and left them all - what could I do...?"
..."fresh bandages - now! I don't CARE what those blasted priests say..."
...
The road you need to take for the most direct route home is across the Square; it is currently being guarded by a solitary Gray Maiden, whose armour is fearfully battered. She holds - and is almost leaning for support upon - a sword; its blade is covered in blood, gore - and fur.
There is another route home that you could take from here, but it's at least an hour longer, which in your current state means additional fatigue - if not outright exhaustion. What will you do?
Sgt. Drakus snap a salute to the guard, but he marches steadily on, not intending to deviate for the fear of rat scum.
seeing the site makes Mai's jaw drop and raises some feelings of sorrow and despair,
but she does her best not to let it get to her.
"Holy crap, what happened, did some cheese off a massive rat colony?"
"What tha hell!"
Donagar heads to the middle of the makeshift hospital......
......and channels positive energy
Donagar's selfless act causes wounds to close (but not, alas, eyes or limbs to re-grow) on all within a 30 foot radius of him.
Donagar: you're suddenly aware of just how small a space a 30' radius really is... the Square is .
"That dwarf can heal!"
"The dwarf! Over there! Grab him - he can save Isla..."
"...can save Derren..."
"...can save mother..."
"...save father..."
"save him... her... sister ... daughter... son..."
From all around the square: maimed, wounded people stagger and crawl toward Donagar
Mai seeing the people's movement and hearing their words
"Oh crap, this could get really bad.
There is nothing worse, then when people get desperate for a form of hope and saving a family member."
Drakus sighs as the wave of desperate people approach.
"Now ya done it fool of a dwarf. They'll take everything ya have an' it won't be enough."
He looks at Donagar.
"Do we stand or do we run?"