"I will do it! Ulrich, protect me." Kamosh yells out. He receives a magical shield to protect him, then flies over to the spectral thing and pecks it!
He says in Abyssal "We will purge you, scum!"
Ellie moves forward to attack, striking at the thing with her flail to distract it while Kamosh goes hunting for the bottle.
The polong winces as Kamosh pecks at its spectral form. The wince turns into a full-on shriek as Ellie's flail and Gabby's arrows disrupt it futher.
"For the master... For the master..." the creature mutters as it rakes its clawed hand across Ellie's chest. The touch opens up terrible gashes from which blood pours forth!
Gabbi's eyes go dark and her nostrils flare at the blood pouring forth from the Loremaster. She moves closer to the woman and calls down a prayer of healing before touching her back.
"Po-what?!", Elká stammers as the bloody visage works its terrible magic on Ellie. Knowing better than to think, the changeling joins the melee and tries to somehow damage the spectral foe with her claws.
Ellie shudders in pain (and fear) as the thing slashes her open - she briefly takes one hand off her flail to give Gabbi's a quick squeeze of thanks as the dhampir heals her. Turning her attention back to the blood-beast, she attacks it with full force.
Alessandra recoils from the spectre and is halfway through a backwards step when Ellie's chest is opened and she suddenly freezes as primal huger surges through her.
Her sister is quicker off the mark, as always, but Allie steps up with magic of her own. The dhampir twins catch each other's eyes and the pure desire for blood they share surges through them.
Kamosh harasses the spectral figure in order to protect Ellie.
Ulrich prepares to cast Dispel Magic, should the undead try to cast a spell.
As the dhampir sisters heal Ellie, she and Elka each score a god hit on the polong. Ulrich stands ready to dispel while Kamosh aids Ellie.
It's not enough, though, as the creature glares and glowers menacingly at Elka before ripping through Ellie again. "For the master... For the master..."
"Keep her standing," Gabbi snarls at her sister as she pulls another arrow to the string.
The foe's otherworldly powers strike fear in Elká's heart. From Ellie's terrible wounds that won't stop gushing blood to the fact her claws barely manage to leave a scratch - she isn't feeling it.
Kamosh keeps trying to protect Ellie.
Allie slaps her hand over the wound and the bleeding stops, although not before it covers the dhampirs hand...
"Her blood is mine freak!" Allie snarls at the creature.
Ellie narrows her eyes and strikes at the creature once more. "Can we discuss the finer points of ownership later?!"
Ellie and Gabby each score one good hit, but Elka misses with her attacks. The polong reaches for Ellie again, but this time Kamosh's interference pays off, as it narrowly misses the fighter! "For the master... For the master..." it continues to mutter.
"Will you STOP saying that! Who is this 'master' anyway?"
Ellie continues to attack, trying to end this creature for good.
Ellie narrows her eyes and strikes at the creature once more. "Can we discuss the finer points of ownership later?!"
"You stay out of this!" Gabbi snaps at the Loremaster as she draws another arrow.
Gabbi's booming voice snaps Elká out of her dazed state. There's a fight to be won! You don't want to be hugging Mictena anytime soon again, right?! The actions of her unnaturally long and sharp claws scream the obvious answer to the rhetorical question. No!!!
Ulrich is feeling a mix between gritting his teeth in stress, and sighing dismissively. Conserving his abilities, he fires a ray to disrupt the undead.
Kamosh keeps trying to protect Ellie.
Though Ulrich's spell misses, each of the rest of you score one hit on the polong, and with a final shriek, the crimson specter dissipates into nothingness. Once it is defeated, a search of the befouled fountain reveals the creature's bottle--useless now that the undead has been destroyed. Removing it should clear the water of its taint, though it will take some time before it is pure again.
Gabriella checks to ensure that Ellie and Elká aren't going to fall over any time soon and then slowly approaches Allie. Her eyes move from her sister's to the blood covering her hand.
She closes her dark eyes and draws in the coppery scent before pulling two of the sanguine-covered digits into her mouth. The twins spend a few moments removing all traces of red from her hand while periodically looking up with dark eyes at the source. Once finished with her hand, they remove any traces from their lips by the simple expediency of mashing them together.
Their eyes still dark when they finish, Gabbi approaches Ellie again and places a hand on her to render more healing.
"Are you ok?" she asks in a husky voice.
She then moves to Elká to do the same.
After the thorough (-ly erotic) cleaning of hands that she shares with her sister Allie hops into the fountain until she finds the bottle, which she proceeds to crush easily in her palm. Even the formerly magical creation was unable to stand up to the strange power in her hands, developing cracks ever as she holds it until she closes her fist and grinds it into powder.
"Well that should help." She says with a smile. "Anyone else need healing before we push on?" She steps in close to Ellie and brushes her lips across the Lore Warden's. "I'm sorry I got possessive Little One. But I don't like it when people hurt you. Forgive me?" She throws in large, round puppy eyes for good measure.
Kamosh grabs the bottle and pushes it over the fountain for it to break.
Ulrich casts Eagle's Splendor on himself in preparation for the next fight. He uses the rod to extend the time.
"Are we heading upstairs now?" Gabriella asks. "If so, let's take the eastern stairs."
As the begins climbing to the second floor, the woman speaks quietly with her sister. "Could you use your spell of ammunition on my quiver?" she asks. "I'd rather not have to totally depend on it by depleting the few arrows that I have left."
The last two rooms on this level are a back hall and ruined scriptorium. Neither contains anything of interest or value.
The stairs ascend to the Bastion of Light's upper floor. Four hallways intersect here in the four cardinal directions. A three-foot-high square marble pillar stands in the center of the junction, a sickly green gem the size of a human fist sitting on top of it. A black mist swirls within the gem.
Gabbi looks over the gem nervously. "Any idea what in the hell's that is?" she asks the others.
Allie gives her sister a big smile and puts one hand into her sister's quiver.
"Done!" She says a moment later. "As long as you don't empty it it'll keep making sure you arrows for the next few minutes. I can do it again later too." She plants a kiss on her sister's cheek and moves onwards to support Ellie. Normally she'd bounce but even the unnaturally cheerful vampire still seems burdened by the loss of Cuddles.
Turning and looking at the various halls and doors, Gabbi steps to the nearest one and attempts to open it quietly.
Two square wooden tables, each holding a handful of bandages, bottles, and tin canisters, occupy the northwest and southeast corners of this room. A human skeleton stands attached to an upright pole in the southwest corner, and several of its bones have been painted one color or another. Doors exit to the north and south.
While most of the chemicals and reagents once stored here have either spoiled or been plundered, 10 vials of antitoxin are packed in a large tin canister on a table.
"That gem is almost certainly what is responsible for the deadly fog." Says Ulrich.
"Then we find the vampire. Kill him. Clear this place and then fix the gem." Allie decides, settling on the logical and most personally satisfying course of action.
"You're always so good at summing up the situation," Gabbi says with a smirk before moving to the southern door. "No vampire here. Moving on."
A tattered, woven mat covers the floor here, flanked by two low wooden benches. Doors exit to the north and south. There doesn't look like anything of interest is here.
The dhampir shakes her head in annoyance and heads back towards the central hall to try the next door.
Two L-shaped mahogany tables stand between the northern and southern exits of this rectangular room. Atlases lie open on the tables next to rolls of parchment. Several cloth maps hang on the walls, showing the surrounding area, the whole of Lastwall, the southern border of Ustalav, and the southeastern border of the Hold of Belkzen. Many of the maps have tiny flags pinned to them. Most of the maps bear thin films of dust; only the map showing the area around Roslar’s Coffer is clean.
Two half-elven women are here. The pair look nearly identical, tall with red hair and freckles, and they both wear matching dark robes with a skeletal motif. Only one wears a pair of small, round spectacles.
"Look, sister! Twins, just like us!" one of them says with a chuckle.
"Ah! So, you're the new recruits, are you?" the other asks, adjusting her spectacles. "Come on, then, let's have a look at you."
Ulrich gently touches Gabriella's shoulder and gives her a knowing wink, then approaches the twins. "Hello there, dears. What do you need of me?"
Kamosh can sense that Ulrich is trying to be sneaky, so he ducks away and turns invisible. Once invisible, he quietly hops closer.
"I doubt that you're anything like us," Gabriella says showing her teeth. She seems to want to say more, but she accedes to Ulrich's intent.
"I am Savenna, and this is Oradi," the bespectacled woman says. Her sister nods. "We have been evaluating your progress for some time, and I must say, we are impressed. There are few creatures, if any, that can survive the dome of poisonous fog around Roslar's Coffer. How ever did you make it through to reach this chapel?"
Gabriella gets the sense that the women are not fooled at all by Ulrich. They seem to be playing along to try to get information out of you.
"You've been surveying us?" Asks Ulrich as he's taken aback. He takes a quick look over them to find a spellbook or some other magical item that would allow scrying. "How?"
"Answer our question first, and then we shall answer yours," Oradi says coyly. Savenna giggles at Ulrich's distress.
Ulrich gives a nervous sigh and responds. "We bypassed the fog by travelling through the Boneyard."
"Planar travel, of course," Savenna says. The two half-elves share a nod before turning back to Ulrich. "You came through Roslar's Coffer. What sort of creatures did you see there? Is the spirit of the cemetery still present?"
"They're playing us, Ulrich," Gabbi says in a stern voice. "Don't tell them anything else."
She pulls up her bow and nocks an arrow.
"I'll answer your question after you've answered mine."
