Zaashakar seems clearly pleased that her hex worked, but then watches Styrian's activity with curiosity.
She doesn't recognize your casting.
The speedy kitsune glides to the steps and up the other side opposite Brun, drawing his rapier as he goes.
He expects to have caused her to bleed, but curiously, she does not.
She then turns her gaze to the crystal on the pedestal behind Bartolomey. A sickly ray shoots out of it towards him.
She then takes a cautious step backwards down the steps at an angle.
Zaashakar -23
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Bartolomey (STR DMG 3, DC14 Fortitude to reduce to 1)
Brun
Styrian
Kyunjiro
Nalaia
Uroon
Gint (STR DMG 3)
Brun goes around into the flank with his master.
The kitsune dances along with the witch, but it seems as though she's starting to see things come before they arrive. She dodges his rapier, and then the giant man's hammer after that.
She watches Gint's fire shot glide past her in the air just before turning around to be caught by Bartolomey's scythe.
She winces and scowls at the party in extreme frustration.
This cannot be...
The little poppet squeaks in its high voice.
If you cannot even do this simple task, perhaps you are not worthy. Try harder.
She suddenly looks stunned, more blind-sided by its brutal honesty than any of the party's previous attacks.
As she stares at it in her hand, Brun catches her from behind with a final slam, dropping her to the ground in an unconscious heap.
Her hand opens up and the poppet rolls out of it to her side. Those next to it can faintly hear it call out plaintively, imploring you to come and pick it up, crying “I’m free! Free from that evil witch! Please take me with you and allow me to serve Abadar with a righteous ally!”.
[Dice=sense motive]1d20
"Yeah let's take that sucker to the Archive for sure! Now, about that shield shard you stole."
Gint sets the sight of his pistol on the witch and cocks it.
"Hand it over!"
As she stares at it in her hand, Brun catches her from behind with a final slam, dropping her to the ground in an unconscious heap.
You briefly search her robe pockets and very quickly come up with the fabled shard. It doesn't look like much at a casual glance, but it stands out well enough from the other detritus in the room.
The party cautiously handles the poppet with some spare cloth and tucks it away into one of their backpacks for safekeeping during the return journey. Thankfully, your use of divine power was minimal and inconspicuous such that your exit from the city is smooth.
The trek back to Manaket is likewise uneventful. Obo is pleased to find that you've recovered the shard but concerned that the unknown benefactor who asked Zaashakar to steal it in the first place remains hidden in the shadows.
You know, I have to thank you for preserving Torvad's anonymity. He's a valuable asset on the ground for us in Azir, and there are certainly more goings-on that we need to continue to monitor there. I know it wasn't easy for you to minimize the use of your abilities, Nalaia.
He snaps his fingers as his eyes light up in sudden remembrance.
Ah! I've received word that he's all healed up! I thought you might like to know. Also, after the incident at the auction, and your uncovering of the Grave Wager, he did a bit of snooping around. He was able to interview some of the desperate clientele of the Grave Wager and learned about our "Zaashakar"...
House Ul-Ravi is a noble family in Azir with roots dating back centuries. The family lineage is so old, in fact, that many of its members openly worshipped Abadar—the god of cities, law, merchants, and wealth—long before the First Law ever came to pass. When Rahadoum declared religious worship to be illegal, the ancestral tomb in Alhanzir Cemetery that had housed the remains of their family for centuries was stripped of any external evidence of the family’s veneration of the Master of the First Vault.
In life, Zaashakar Ul-Ravi was born to parents who had excelled as merchants in Azir’s Grand Souk (much in part, they believed, to their secret worship and devotion to Abadar in spite of the Pure Legion and the Laws of Man). Zaashakar exhibited an exceptional talent for and understanding of mathematics throughout her adolescence, and her parents encouraged her to pursue a career as a merchant, professor, or politician. But as Zaashakar matured into a young woman, she learned to love a different side of mathematics, specifically probability. Harnessing and honing the ability to calculate outcomes quickly and commit complicated strategies and sequences of play to memory, Zaashakar made a name for herself in Azir not as a merchant but as one of the most formidable professional gamblers the city had ever produced. In secret, she also venerated Abadar, believing the god of profit and wealth to have blessed her with her talents so that she could use her winnings to better her community. Zaashakar was careful never to cheat or manipulate the rules of a game, always gambling fairly and earnestly. Astonishingly, she gambled herself into prominence and wealth before she was even 30, and she gifted most of her earnings to libraries, hospitals, and schools in Rahadoum.
Zaashakar’s downfall came when she left the city to participate in a gambling tournament in Katapesh. Little did Zaashakar know the tournament was organized by a prominent crime family in the area who had arranged for certain other gamblers to win. In the first few days of competition, Zaashakar’s skill allowed her to handily defeat several of the other players, using her intellect to place the right bets at the right times. As the tournament neared its end, Zaashakar had qualified for the final table and appeared to be the crowd’s favorite to win it all. Just as she sat down to begin play on the final day of the tournament, however, she was approached by the owner of the gambling hall, who accused her of cheating. Though Zaashakar was innocent, the criminal organization paid several other gamblers to corroborate false accusations against her, fearing that Zaashakar could interfere with their plans. Zaashakar was removed from the tournament and kidnapped by the crime family that had conspired against her. That family attempted to torture and intimidate her into working for them, and when she refused, she was forced to fight for her life in a deadly competition that pitted desperate gamblers against undead monstrosities. Zaashakar was slain by a ghoul in combat and awoke later to find she had been transformed into a ghoul herself. Hungry for flesh and revenge, Zaashakar stalked and hunted the criminals and gamblers who had betrayed her, slaughtering many of them in one swoop as they gathered for a private game. Upon their deaths, a strange, dark force called to her, and Zaashakar felt compelled to desecrate their remains. Hardly aware of her actions, she crafted a poppet from their skin and filled it with their fingernails, hair, fat, blood, and flesh, adorning it with a sculpture of a jawless skull made from the gold awarded to the gamblers who won the tournament that had led to her downfall. On that day Zaashakar became a witch, gaining dark powers from her poppet, Vaultkeeper, which constantly whispers promises that Abadar still watches over Zaashakar and that all will be made right as long as she follows Vaultkeeper’s instructions.
Now Zaashakar has returned to Rahadoum, desecrating the Ul-Ravi ancestral tomb and the remains of her ancestors by transforming the tomb into a macabre gambling hall known to its unfortunate patrons as the Grave Wager. Over the last few months, the Grave Wager has gained more and more clientele, mostly desperate and damned citizens seeking fast wealth to solve a problem, pursue a dream, or leave the city
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Somewhere, out there, the force that guided her hand still lurks...