Several large pits and trenches surround village, clearly the villager's last-ditch effort of providing protection. The scorched remnants of walls of the hamlet leave no doubt that it was unsuccessful.
Though nothing is moving, as you study the battlefield, you begin to get the distinct impression that you are not alone. As you begin to grow more on edge, you take note that the mustard-colored vapor that is hanging low over the ground seeps into several large remnants of armor.
As you continue to observe, the gore-streaked armors of some former large creature suddenly rise up and begins to move toward you, it's lumbering movements slow and methodical, but clearly hostile as they wield heavy flails.
The vapor is not slow however, the amorphous creature surging forward overtop of you and engulfing your group quickly before your can react.
Reflex
Already weakened, Wren was not prepared for the mist to take her so quickly. ”Help,” was the only sounds she could make.
DC 22
Father Emil:
Pila:
Pila is quick to get out of the way of the strange moving mist. She dashes west and stops short of attacking the big suit of armor nearest her, ready to bite the creature if it advances.
Emil retreats and makes himself a beacon of luck, drawing in beneficial karma from the natural world.
to recognize the armor creatures, assuming they are undead.
Caspan's so busy watching the big creature, he doesn't even notice the gas creeping up on him.
Seeing Wren falls, Emil flees the abomination and immediately channels positive energy to heal himself and anyone else harmed by the gas. Pila retreats with him.
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Thael narrowly avoids being engulfed by the mustard-colored mist, having regained his wits just before it came upon the group.
he observes it carefully, trying to determine if his vast store of knowledge has ever read about something like this.
"Get out of that mist!" he wizard implores, moving as quickly as he can while he figures out a strategy.
Emil recognizes the armor zombies as giant phantom armors, creatures that are raised from the corpses of knights and soldiers slain by treachery rather than battle or conflicts considered crimes even in the heat of war.
The three giant phantom armors stride up to Caspan and Grenwold, swinging their mighty flails at the duo, but all three attacks miss.
Heeding the order to retreat, Gren casts his spell and you all literally run for your lives away from the horrific mist and undead creatures. After several minutes of fleeing, you feel comfortable you've left the creatures somewhere behind you.
Grenwold and Ringo seem to dodge out of the way of the horrible mist, and he turns, scooping up Wren as he goes, and gestures at the assembled party. A whisper of airy energy, and a merry laugh echo through the ruined town, and then it is as if elemental spirits were carrying all along, the party feels lighter on their feet, like running downhill with wind at their backs.
He stays in the back with Ringo, and the badly hurt Wren, watching the others flee. After the few minutes, he looks back for any sign of deadly mist. He pulls off his bandana, revealing a mop of dirty hair, and wipes down his forhead. He's obviously shaken by the monstrous thing which attacked us. "What depravity has the legion inflicted upon the people of this land that such a thing could have arisen..." he checks on Wren more cautiously, "I believe Wren, here, is more injured than most, and requires tending. Alas, my healing abilties are for naught. An evening's respite may be warranted." Hopping off of Ringo, he moves to check the deer for injuries as well.
For the first time, it becomes clear how Grenwold's ability to move without Ringo is severely limited. The little knight, while strong, cannot overcome the length of his legs and the constriction of his armor.
Caspan looks at Ringo, carrying both Wren and Gren and grunts.
"Your cow's stronger than it looks. She's pretty heavy!"
Grenwold takes off his gloves and puts his hand on the side of Ringo’s neck, then looks at Thael. ”I have some prowess with protective magic, despite my lack of healing. Shelyn provides me with gifts to preserve the beauty of the world.”
To Caspan he stares for a moment, then nods, ”but those who call the Fangwood home know - not all is as meets the eye.” He then whispers something in Gnomish to Ringo.
Ringo grunts, and snorts, stamping his feet for a moment, then shakes his head back and forth, then snorts again.
He lowers him head to the ground, and begins to eat some grass.
Grenwold watches Ringo for a moment, ”I think we are blessed that my holy servant finds you amusing, Caspan.”
”This is a really bad day, yannow. My head feels like a got auroch trampled and I’ve never seen most that could knock anyone for a loop before. It’d be nice to just find some simple hobgoblins and take it out on them,” Wren says, laying herself on a comfortable piece of grass. ”Thanks for saving me again, everyone,” she says with her eyes closed.
Emil sees to the wounded, starting with Wren. "In the morning I can prepare spells to restore your strength and take the stiffness from your joints. For now I can heal these wounds."
Emil channels energy until wounds heal. Then he asks, "Those suits o' armor're a form o' undead that get the energy o' their creation from motives an' methods more evil than merely being killed in battle. Does anyone know what that gas was? How can we fight it? Or should we simply avoid goin' back an' find a way 'round the ruins ta try ta stave off similar abominations elsewhere?"
Caspan shrugs, having no idea what it was. Then he realizes what Gren said.
"What do you mean, I amuse him?!"
Know. Dungeoneering
Wren rubs her temples, hearing the others talk about the nasty fumes. Her headache kept her from remembering much, if anything.
"Agreed," Emil says. "I'll prepare some spells to try to get Wren back to normal. I'll plan on summoning some creatures to make any initial attacks, to try to occupy it and maybe hurt it before they are overwhelmed. But we need to keep spread out so it cannot engulf us again, and try to avoid the kind of harm that Wren suffered."
Thael identifies the mustard-gas as a trench mist. These mists are created anywhere that deadly gas attacks are used for the wholesale slaughter of troops, whether attacks of a mundane poisonous nature, or from the magical effects of spells such as acid fog. Under mysterious circumstances likely born of the horrors of war and the final throes of young soldiers dying before their time, these mists linger over the battlefield, absorbing the departing souls of the slain. This commingling of loosed life energy and strange chemicals grants the miasma a sly, malevolent sentience. Once so born, the trench mist then seeks only to impart misery and share its singular fate with those fortunate enough to have escaped the poisonous attacks that birthed the creature in the first place. As it preys upon the living it absorbs the afflicted into its growing horde of shambling servants. Victims of its acidic mist rise as hateful zombies under the creature’s control, and a trench mist that gains a horde of zombies is a dangerous foe indeed. On battlefields where trench mists are known to have arisen, wise commanders arrange cease-fires during which both sides abandon the site, lest their troops succumb to the horrifying fate of their comrades.
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Thael shares everything he knows about the mist with his allies. As always, his knowledge is extensive.
"So how to proceed? We can battle it out and try to kill it, have someone infiltrate past it to see if there is anything in town worth saving, or we could bypass the town entirely. Any wise words of counsel?"
”I think I’d go around the mist and try to check the town that way. I don’t want to get hit by it again, that’s for sure. If we can get by it, that’d be preferable to me.”
Grenwold shakes his head, ”such an abomination must be destroyed. Can you imagine what would happen should it choose to leave the ruin? If it were to move into a town, or the Fangwood - and ally with Arlantia?”
He looks grim, ”the chance any within a hundred miles, other than the Legion, have to defeat it is only due to our steel and magics. Can anyone here say that the folk of Nirmathas have such skill? I have seen you all fight, and yours is nearly without parallel. If we cannot kill the beast, I doubt any others can.” He opens his hands, ”even my expert compatriots of the Chernasardo would largely fall to your weapons, should you turn from the path of nobility.” His eyes are clear, as is the compliment. To Caspan, he does not respond.
"Hngrh," Caspan grunts. "Little new guy makes a good point. We're pretty form-i-table. But I don't know that I'm going to be any good at punching mist. Isn't anything in there likely dead anyway?"
He shrugs. He doesn't see the point in going into the dead village -- and if the mist hasn't left, is it really likely to? -- but if the others want to do what the cow-boy wants, he'll go along with it.
To Wren's suggestion about going around the mist, Emil shakes his head and says, "Wren, only our animals can outrun that mist. But your magic missiles will hurt the mist an' so will many of Thael's spells. Anyone with a ranged weapon kin attack it, provided they are magical, but there's a spell that can make that happen. It's a great big mist, so hittin' it shouldn't be that hard.
"Thael, I believe you have a spell called fickle winds that, if I understand it, may be able to surround us and do what a wind wall can do but without blocking our own weapons. If that mist cannot move to where we are, it can't hurt us. I think we can defeat it. Those suits of armor must be dealt with, or course, but we can handle them, I think."
Emil votes to proceed with the plan that uses Thael's spell to protect the group from the mist while the group uses ranged attacks on it and the suits of armor.
"Thanks, father, but I also got these vials of fire I've been herding for the right day. Might be today."
Grenwold moves over to a nearby stone and whispers, placing his hand on it. Suddenly, a trap door appears in the stone. He opens the door and gestures, ”you all may stay here, for the evening, if you would like. I would keep watch for some of this period, and Ringo must remain above ground. He cannot fly, yet, and as a result, he finds the stone ladder difficult to navigate.” He points at Ringo’s hooves, and says something in Gnomish.
Once Wren’s bruises began to heal, she sat up and opened her eyes. ”I guess I could use some of my force Missiles against it. And I can fire those from pretty far away,” she says, saying the second part lower than the first part.
Emil is willing to use Grenwold's shelter, although he is happy to take a turn at guard duty if needed.
Caspan heads into the trap door, looking around.
"Yeah, this isn't too bad."
Part of living in the wild and surviving for so long is learning when you are outmatched and retreating. Making your way to a camp and regrouping with rest and preparation, you return back the following morning better prepared for what lay ahead.
Once everyone is ready, you spread out and return to the scene of your previous battle .
Before you can reach that point however, you take sight of the phantom armors and trench mist approaching much closer than they were yesterday. Their proximity catches you off guard and they act first, closing the gap quickly and ending roughly 40'-50' in front of you.
The mist is much faster and flies through the air quickly, surrounding Grenwold and Ringo with its noxious fumes.
Wren casts Haste on everyone she can target, and moves back 40’, hoping to start firing missiles at it next turn.
Spells cast before battle:
Life Shield on self, duration: 8 minutes or until discharged. Effect: damages undead whenever they do damage to Emil.
Communal Protection from Evil on everyone in the party. Duration: 1 minute. Effects: +2 deflection bonus to AC and a +2 resistance bonus on saves. Both these bonuses apply against attacks made or effects created by evil creatures.
Weapon of Awe on Emil's +1 longbow. Duration: 8 minutes. Effect: Emil's bow gets a +2 sacred bonus on damage rolls, and if the weapon scores a critical hit, the target of that critical hit becomes shaken for 1 round with no saving throw.
Barkskin on self: duration: 80 minutes. Effect: Emil gets a +2 enhancement bonus to the creature's existing natural armor bonus.
Shield of Faith on self. Duration- 8 minutes. Effect: Emil gets +3 deflection bonus to AC.
Emil casts his trusty spiritual weapon spell to start things off. The bow and arrows appear between him and the trench mist and it begins firing force arrows at the mist. Then he and Pila retreat to delay the arrival of the undead suits of armor.
HP 83/83
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16, CMD 24 (+1 vs. grapple; +2 vs. dirty trick; +4 vs. trip); 25% chance to negate criticals
Fort +10, Ref +9, Will +3 (+1 resistance bonus to recover from a continuing effect)
Unbreakable Survivor (11 hp) 0/1
Martial Flexibility 0/7; knockout (DC 18) 0/1
Effects: haste
Caspan steps up, ready to fight the armors when they get a little closer. Seeing their reach, he ready himself to be at a bit of a distance.
Grenwold steps out of the way of the mist before it can hurt him, though the fickle winds spell seems to help keep him safe.
He and Ringo try to obliterate the mist, using the spellpower provided by Wren.
Swift - Grenwold - Switch Ringo from Stag focus to fire focus
Full - Grenwold - Full Attack
Full - Ringo - Full Attack
Ringo snorts, and his eyes blaze at the trench mist, seemingly angry that the evil creature has desecrated the land.
The mist manages to avoid damage from the lightning, but the metallic armored phantom does not.
Emil's spiritual weapon lands both shots on the mist.
Unable to reach Grenwold thanks to Thael's spell, the ranger is positioned nicely to land all three of his attacks against the mist. Ringo also lands all of his attacks, further compounding the massive damage that is quickly adding up on the creature.
The three armors advance and as the one near Caspan closes in, the brawler lunges with his fist as he tries to punch it. He just narrowly misses though, falling back into his readied stance.
HP 83/83
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16, CMD 24 (+1 vs. grapple; +2 vs. dirty trick; +4 vs. trip); 25% chance to negate criticals
Fort +10, Ref +9, Will +3 (+1 resistance bonus to recover from a continuing effect)
Unbreakable Survivor (11 hp) 0/1
Martial Flexibility 1/7; knockout (DC 18) 0/1
Effects: haste, lunge 2/10
Caspan steps into the closest suit of armor as he falls into his fighting stance and tries to knock it over before pummeling it.
"They're not so tough!" he calls out as his fists slam into metal.