1d20 + 9
Seriously? Man, one of you has got to fail eventually... ; )
Team PC
Batter up!
Half-orc Skeleton #2 (13/11/12): Healthy and friendly---Bruised---Wounded---Near Death---Unconscious---Bleeding Out---Dead
Halfling Skeleton (15/14/12): Healthy---Bruised---Wounded---Near Death---Unconscious---Bleeding Out---Dead
Stirge #1 (7): Healthy---Bruised---Wounded---Near Death---Unconscious---Bleeding Out---Dead
Stirge #2 (16/16/12): Healthy---Bruised---Wounded---Near Death---Unconscious---Bleeding Out---Dead
Stirge #3 (12): Healthy---Bruised---Wounded---Near Death---Unconscious---Bleeding Out---Dead
Stirge #4 (12): Healthy---Bruised---Wounded---Near Death---Unconscious---Bleeding Out---Dead
Stirge #5 (12): Healthy---Bruised---Wounded---Near Death---Unconscious---Bleeding Out---Dead
Stirge #6 (7): Healthy---Bruised---Wounded---Near Death---Unconscious---Bleeding Out---Dead
The Piper of Illmarsh: unknown
Raj feints and dips then delivers a powerful brass knuckled blow to the jawline of the halfling skeleton, knocking the skull backwards.
The thief weaves through the combatants intent on rendering aid to Dragomir and Karrik.
Lem recoiled, pulling his hand back from the wall as the spectral apparitions flew forth. His neck hairs stood up and he could feel his heart beat faster, but he stood his ground, craning his neck to stare directly into the eye sockets of the ghostly piper.
The Piper is angry--the divine energy is working! There was a Varisian woman, near a workbench. Theron, attack the haun...
The priest spoke as he turned, looking on with dismay to see his companions swarmed by the huge insects.
I have to do something!
Lem ran through the chaos, drawing a dagger as he ran and ducking under the legs of Karrik's skeleton to end up next to Dragomir.
Take heart, friend. The gods will not abandon us.
Lem cast a spell of protection and tried to deliver it to Dragomir, but couldn't touch him as he thrashed around to dislodge the stirges.
The priest then brandished the dagger at the stirges awkwardly, holding his holy symbol with conviction.
Raj feints and dips then delivers a powerful brass knuckled blow to the jawline of the halfling skeleton, knocking the skull backwards.
The thief weaves through the combatants intent on rendering aid to Dragomir and Karrik.
You are indeed correct sir. And I think the stirge would have a hard time battering you with anything other than an errant limb, so you're good there. (EDIT: also, as pointed out to me earlier, the stirges have a reach of 0ft.)
The pesky halfling skeleton is vanquished at last. : )
The Piper is angry--the divine energy is working! There was a Varisian woman, near a workbench. Theron, attack the haun...
Theron had been getting ready to draw another arrow, but stops himself when he hears Lem. The inquisitor looks around, trying to find the wall where the piper's tune seems the loudest, and begins casting. "Be silent, or Iomedae's justice with continue striking you down!"
Lem's stirring words mean nobody needs to save against the Piper's dirge this round.
Theron's effort to destroy the haunt draws an anguished wail from the walls, but the music continues...
Feeling the fatigue of today's activities, Rose gives a thankful smile to Lem for the created opening. "Once more, Dragomir," as she takes her sword and strikes at the remaining stirge affixed to him, followed by a beam of positive energy into the flow beneath him.
Dragomir continues to howl and thrash, until Rose cuts away the little bloodsucker still attached to him. He flashes the eery woman a grin of thanks and then springs at the stirge circling him with a curse.
He hacks and stabs at it with powerful blows of his huge fighting knife.
Power attack - assuming its got a lower AC due to it being stuck to me.
Rose slices half of the stirge's legs away and it falls from its place on Dragomir's shoulder. Then, in a single fluid movement, she fires a coruscating beam into the floor, evoking a howl of protest from the Piper.
When Rose tries to dismiss the beam, it fails to respond. Moments lengthen into seconds, and it feels to Rose like the building is sucking the energy from her now, pulling it from her very soul, taking as much as she can pour through the spell. Small ice crystals begin to form on her hand.
Then, there is an explosion of movement--ghostly stirges flit about amongst you all, appearing and disappearing as if their images were momentarily transposed from somewhere else, their movements jerky and stilted like there are fragments of missing time in between their wingbeats.
Just as Rose begins to feel faint, the Piper himself shimmers into existence, seemingly impaled by the beam of energy that Rose still wields. His skull visage looses one final scream before his form explodes into a dizzying display of glittering fragments.
It takes you all a moment, but you realise that the halls have fallen silent--the dirge has stopped playing.
Dragomir cuts the circling stirge almost in half. It flops to the floor, bleeding profusely.
Just Karrik, Walter and Septimus to go. : )
Walter, surprised by the appearance and destruction of the ghostly creature, simply glanced over to Septimus and watched one of the stirges supernaturally ignite. Exhaustion overtook him, adrenaline thundering hard in his ears with his heart and the screaming trill of the voices, which started to become quieter now.
"Is it over?"
Urg..., Dragomir grunts and leans drunkenly against a wall.
Karrik gives a quick nod towards Septimus as he barks out a quick command in orc. < "Kill the stirge on that human!" > He then brings his morningstar once more onto one of the damned blood-suckers.
"Is the siphon the only way to truly destroy the Piper?"
Septimus winces as the stirge ignites at Walter's touch, quickly brushing the charred corpse of the creature off of his shoulder. He nods at the boy. "Too bad we can't bottle that."
Rubbing his wound, Septimus takes in the wreckage all around him. He stows the vial of green liquid he drew forth seconds earlier. Something for a rainy day. It's still not quite stable, anyhow...
He turns to address the group. "This...Piper...seemed rather perturbed at our presence. You say he was one of the prisoners committed here? If there are more like him, we'd best consider our tactics before moving forward."
As Septimus listens to the group's responses, he pulls forth an empty vial from his pack, then crouches to the ground admist the variously mutilated, burnt, and bashed bodies of the party's foes. "No use letting good reagents go to waste..." he mutters, scraping up flesh and bone while occasionally nodding to no one in particular.
The last two stirges succumb to your attacks. The silence is overwhelming.
(EDIT: also, I neglected to mention it at the time, but all the skeletons that were battering at their cell doors fell quiescent with the Piper's demise.)
###
Stabilisation rolls:
They all fail.
Let's try again...
Stirge #3 stabilises, stirge #6 expires.
Septimus probably reaches them about this time; you've got two live, stable and unconscious creatures on your hands. Three others are still dying and one is beyond your help.
Now, XP...
(I will make a plot-related post in a while.)
The last two stirges succumb to your attacks. The silence is overwhelming.
You'd like that, wouldn't you? ; )
You'd like that, wouldn't you? ; )
###
When you open your eyes, you are no longer in the hallway in the cell block. You are in a room full of workbenches, most of them with woodworking tools on them. Before you, a young brunette Varisian woman in her mid- to late-twenties wearing a simple but elegant dress and a choker at her throat set with a large red gemstone leans on one of the benches, as if it's the only thing holding her up. Her head is bowed, and she is breathing heavily.
As if alerted to your presence, she looks up, and her eyes narrow as she quickly takes a step back. But then, she seems to relax, and her shoulders drop as she closes her eyes for a moment. She takes a deep breath before opening them again.
Thank you, she says simply, before the scene swirls into nothing and you open your eyes again with a start--this time finding yourself back in the cell block.
What next? Explore some more? Head home? Head to the cathedral?
By now, is is approximately 9:45 in the morning.
The battle over, Rose falls to her knees, dropping her sword and hugging herself close. The haunt proved to be quite overwhelming, and the fatigue of it all finally takes it's final toll. "I....I can hardly believe...so frightening." The shock of the Piper's seeming death from undeath is too much for her to take in since her rebirth, past traumas coming to surface.
Raj lets Rose gather herself together before speaking. Untouched by the Piper directly, he can only imagine what the others experienced. He puts away his brass knuckles and flips his blade to his other hand before wiping a sleeve across his sweaty brow. "That was interestin'. If I recall rightly, the Piper was locked up in Reaper's Hold. If this be that place - the Mosswater Marauder could be around here too. That's the fella who liked to hammer skulls. I'd like to sweep this level quick before we leave. Might turn up something useful or figure where we need to go next. That sound alright to you folks?" He looks to Rose and the others who are wounded or shaken by the events of the last few minutes. "I can do it myself if you all need a bit of a rest. Won't take me more'n a few minutes..."
Well done, friends! Rose, it's ok, he's gone. He won't trouble us anymore,
Lem walks over to Rose and puts his arm on her shoulder.
Yur welcome, Dragomir mutters then his eyes snap open, almost with an audible 'click'.
I think... , he searches for words silently, that there is something else here.
I just had a vision of a woman who thanked me for... something, perhaps for killin' that Piper? Maybe she was one o' his victims....
The reels a bit and then starts working at his wounds - the holes left by the stirges.
We've had a few good fights and a victory or three and we're feelin' pretty good, right? Want to press on and win another battle right? Seen this before, an' heard of it before... but its askin' fer trouble.
Not for nothin' but I'm feelin' like I'm a half drunk bottle - some of us are dinged up some, an' we're usin' up our fire bottles an' holy water - we press our luck too much more an' only Desna can call what happens.
I'm fer headin' back to get workin' on some more fire bombs, gettin' more holy water and lettin' us get re-prepared. Not sure how much magic some of you can sling around.
"Well, um... maybe we should gather ourselves up for a moment first. If there are, um, more things like that lurking around, then, um... it might get really complicated," Walter explained, longwinded. The headache distracted him from his words and he massaged his scalp, weighing his longsword in the other hand awkwardly.
Well done, friends! Rose, it's ok, he's gone. He won't trouble us anymore,
Lem walks over to Rose and puts his arm on her shoulder.
She hugs Lem tight, whispering to him as she does "Thank you, Lem." Releasing the small cleric, she picks herself back up, retrieving her sword as she does. She still appears a little uneasy. "I can continue if we desire to, but I agree with rearming. And to be quite truthful, I don't know how Dragomir can stand. I'd be ready for my next incarnation after that."
Lem winces at the hug, trying to hide his grimace of pain. He holds his dislocated wrist with his right hand, while blood soaks through the sleeve on his right arm.
Yes, retreat would be wise. I expended the last ounce of divine energy I can channel today to help dispel the Piper. At the very least I'll need to wash this blood stain out, heh heh, .
He smiles, but sweat drips off his forehead as he breathes heavily.
I'm not sure how much farther this old man can go today, but while Raj is scouting perhaps we should sweep the bones of these poor souls into the locked cells before we depart, in case the Piper manifests again and animates them. When we return, I'll bring my wagon and we can carry the remains out of this evil place and build a funeral pyre--maybe we can give them their final rest after all these years.
Lem sheathes his dagger, retrieves the aspergillum and tucks it in his belt, and draws the unloaded crossbow, trying to huddle behind Karrik and Rose while he awaits their reply.
Raj, hate to have you wander off on yer own... and, well... not come back. Hate even more if you wander off on yer own, scream and have me haring off after ya and not come back meself.
He picks up his great sword wearily.
If it were just some bandits or a band o' cutthroats? I'd be fer it... you're damn good, but these things are ghosts an' such - they don't need eyes to see ya and ears to hear ya - you can't out sneak a ghost... strength in numbers friend.
Walter watched Lem drip blood onto the floor and grimaced. "I'm sorry, I can take care of that in a minute if... just, one second. Sorry," he apologized again, and closed his palm over his eye with a pained expression. He pinched his nose between his thumb and forefinger and stayed like that for a moment.
On the disease save front, it's not so bad. For each different stirge that attacks you, you have a 10% chance of contracting a disease (against which you then get to save). So (low is bad):
So Dragomir, you have to make one save, at your full Con bonus, against DC 12. Everyone else escapes. : )
Which reminds me: .
What? Nothing to see here. Move along.
So Dragomir, you have to make one save, at your full Con bonus, against DC 12. Everyone else escapes. : )
Mwahahaha!
(writes secret notes)
:(
Theron leans against one of the walls of the prison, breathing heavily. "Well, I think that was the worst situation I've ever been in. If we're going to scout around, let's do it quickly... I think we should rest before pushing any further. Who needs healing? I think I can manage a few more healing spells."
We've had a few good fights and a victory or three and we're feelin' pretty good, right? Want to press on and win another battle right? Seen this before, an' heard of it before... but its askin' fer trouble.
Raj leans heavily against the wall sporting a weary half-smile and shakes his head. "I leave glory-seekin' to others, Dragomir. I don't see the Piper trapped in that siphon flask... so I figure he ain't beat yet and we've got a small window of time before he comes back. I'd rather not fight the same spook again tomorrow. Doing a quick sweep now might show us a way to bypass this fella altogether... But, I'll go with what you folks want to do."
Right, jus' call me a Shepard... cause I am gettin' the flock outta here.
He grins and then weapon ready starts moving back out of the Prison, facing down the corridor.