"Oh, you are simply no fun at all," Oradi sighs. The women reach into their robes for spell components...
Allie races in, grabbing at Oradi's arm and twisting violently.
"My sister is far better than yours!" She proclaims as she forces the redhead's arm back against the joint. "Let's watch!"
"Argh! Unhand me!" Oradi shouts as Allie grabs her. Both sisters pull patches off their robes and hurl them to the ground, where they swell into full-sized ogre zombies! The diseased undead swing on Allie, one of them pummeling her.
Gabbi turns her attention to the ungrappled sister and looses her arrow.
... followed quickly by another.
Ulrich reaches out for the Ogre zombies' mutilated souls and twists them to his power.
Kamosh prepares to attack Savenna the moment she tries to do anything.
Allie ignores the ogre's blow and grabs Oradi's hair with her other hand, manoeuvring the woman into position as a shield as she wrenches her head back, exposing the pale throat.
"You've already lost. Give up now..."
"Hey! Nobody bruises these two except me!! And even then it's by accident." Ellie looks momentarily embarrassed, before looking at Gabbi and Alessandra sheepishly. "Well, it's true. You both bruise really easily and it's not my fault, OK?"
She hastily swings her flail at the nearest ogre, trying to knock it down and change the topic.
Gabby shoots Savenna once, the second shot skipping off her mage armor. Elly fails to trip the ogre zombie but bashes it with her flail, then Elka rips into it, causing it to collapse in a burst of putrid gore that splatters over the changeling and Elly.
The other zombie falls under Ulrich's command!
As Allie pins Oradi to the desk, Savenna attempts to regain control of her zombie minion, but it resists her magic and remains under Ulrich's sway! She curses and steps through the south door. "Hold on, sister! I will get aid!"
"Let me go!" Oradi wails. She struggles in vain to escape from Allie's inexorable grasp.
"Ha, hiding behind oversized jocks! This ain't college, you idiots!" Elká may or may not have a deep-rooted issue with privileged magic-users of dubious alignment. "Oh, don't run!", she yells at the yet-to-be-caught second sister with more than a couple of drops of mockery blended into her authentic vocal bloodlust.
Ellie scowls as one of the redhead twins tries to run away. "Oh no you don't!" Her feelings on over-clever magickers who try to hide behind meat shields are much the same as Elka's.
Dashing past the zombie, she thrusts her flail between the girl's ankles, and then smacks her as she hits the ground.
She stands over the fallen girl. "Not so much fun when the meat shield hits back, is it?"
She raises her flail, ready to strike again.
Elká may or may not have a deep-rooted issue with privileged magic-users of dubious alignment.
Her feelings on over-clever magickers who try to hide behind meat shields are much the same as Elka's.
Ulrich grins as he grabs control of the zombie and holds firm against the girls' control. He walks up to Oradi and says "New deal, girl. We can interrogate you while you're alive, or once you're dead. First question: How did you monitor us? Second question: How were you dumb enough to stand before us with such weakness?"
Allie wrenches Oradi's head back even further and grazes her fangs over the woman's throat. A trickle of blood emerges and the dhampir licks it up with relish. The threat is obvious...
Ellie knocks Savenna to the ground and batters her with her flail, leaving her badly hurt. Oradi whimpers as Allie tightens her grip and nicks her throat. "It's not worth it, sister. Stand down." Savenna sighs and raises her hands in surrender.
"We weren't actually monitoring you," Oradi confesses. "We weren't even aware of your presence before your first attack on the Bastion yesterday. It was a ruse to try to get more information out of you. Obviously, if we had known more about your capabilities, we would not have tried to confront you directly on our own!"
Ulrich flips through Oradi's spellbook. "Hmm interesting. I know most of these, but I find it difficult to have the time to continually study before I have unlocked the next tier of spells. Personally, I find Command Undead to be a bit of a waste. It is more effective to channel energy like a priest to assert dominance. My goodness, you are really lacking in cantrip knowledge. Where did you learn necromancy? Is your master home?"
Gabbi nocks another arrow, but doesn't draw the string as she approaches the prone sister.
"Where's the other vampire?" she snaps at the one on the ground. "We know there's one here; Where is he?"
Oradi pouts as Ulrich criticizes her spellbook. "We studied under master necromancers of the Whispering Way in Virlych," she says sullenly. "Our master is long dead."
Ellie scowls as the two sisters surrender, but she's not about to kill them if nobody else does; although she does mutter something about supplies being limited. It's not as if they can forage in this wasteland, after all, what with the poisonous mist and everything.
"What do you know about the poisonous mist? How do we get rid of it?"
She waves her flail meaningfully as a prompt for them to keep talking.
"What do you know about the poisonous mist? How do we get rid of it?"
"The mist is generated by the gem in the hallway," Savenna says pedantically. "It is a minor artifact known as a fetoring maw. The fog will last for a total of 3 months or until the gem is destroyed, whichever comes first. In order to destroy the maw, you'll have to immerse it in a mixture of holy water blessed by a priest of a deity of healing and antitoxin in equal measures, then smash it with an enchanted mace or other bludgeoning weapon. Unfortunately for you, our leader Valthazar has invoked a ritual known as the invisible aegis to protect the gem. A sphere of force surrounds the fetoring maw, and Valthazar is the only one who knows how to lower it."
Oradi looks at Gabby. "Vampire? Perhaps you mean Valthazar. He is not a full vampire, but a dhampir, like yourselves. You'll find him in the deacon's office in the northwest wing of this floor."
Gabriella glances at Ulrich.
"Dhampir? We heard he was a vampire. And what kind of pretentious name is Valthazar, anyways?"
She sounds like she's stalling.
The conversation is entirely too civilized for Elká. Yes, the sisters are happily sharing important information with the group, but are they to be trusted? And really, is creating a framework of civility needed when the both of them deserve to choke on a holy symbol of Pharasma to ensure their souls find their way to the Lady's boneyard? Needless to say, the changeling growls as the conversation unfolds, and paces about. She aches for blood.
Noting Elká's impatience, Gabbi glances at Ulrich again before turning her gaze on the captured sisters.
"You have been judged and found guilty of crimes against the Lady of Graves. The price is your lives," she announces in a solemn voice. "Your lives are forfeit. May the Lady judge you fairly."
She nods at Allie and Ellie.
"No, please! We know much of the Whispering Way's operations! We can still be of use to you," Savenna pleads.
Allie nods to her sister and jerks Oradi's head to one side in a single brutal motion. As the bone cracks she lances in, sinking both teeth into the jugular vein and gulping down the fresh blood - even the taint of necromancy infusing it doesn't put her off drinking much of the woman's blood until the corpse's skin is nearly as white as Allie's own.
Gabbi's nostrils flare at the strong scent of blood, but she doesn't move to join her sister.
Ulrich takes a deep sigh as Alessandra drains the rest of Oradi. "I happen to know from my studies that a broken neck is not necessarily an instant or painless death. It may cause paralysis or unconsciousness, and if done incorrectly may have no apparent damage at all."
He sits down on a nearby chair. The ogre zombie also sits down with the same sigh of exhaustion.
"There were still more questions to be asked."
"There are always more questions to be asked, Ulrich," Gabriella counters, not meeting the man's eyes. "But judgement can only be delayed so long."
"Do you doubt my allegiance?"
"Not a bit," the woman replies in a sad voice. "You have my complete trust, Ulrich. But my allegiance is to my sister first and the Lady of Bones second. I've never made a secret of that. She holds my judgement as well as yours in Her hands."
She continues to look away from the man and reaches up to wipe her face.
"I've been training for this longer then you've been alive, Ulrich, so don't ask me to renounce my purpose because I won't."
Ulrich stands up and walks over to Gabriella. He puts a comforting hand upon her shoulder and gives a kiss to the top of her head. Then he walks forward, towards Savenna. He crouches down, then hears his back pop, and slowly goes into a seated position while trying to make the least groaning possible.
"Is there anything you would like to tell us before we send you with your sister? I am a doctor by trade, so I will do my best to make it as quick and painless as possible."
When she's done speaking, Ulrich will deliver the final blow himself, to prove to Pharasma that he is loyal, that his actions and knowledge are redeemable. He gets Savenna to sit upright, and tilt her chin to her chest. Then he brings his crossbow to the back of her head, right between the earlobes.
Savenna looks at her sister's drained corpse and shakes her head defiantly. "I have nothing more to say to you. When our brethren returns us to unlife, rest assured we will hunt you down and take our vengeance."
With a gruesome *THUNK*, Ulrich ends her life.
Ellie turns her head away, refusing to take part or acknowledge what's happening, what her companions are perpetrating against an enemy that surrendered. She shudders at Savenna's final, defiant words: clearly these people see death as a new beginning.
"Can we PLEASE get out of here?" Even to her ears, her voice sounds small.
"I'm starting to understand why orcs take the hands and heads of their foes ... hobbles them real good when they come back from the dead to get their revenge on you." It doesn't sound like Elká is suggesting something, but the changeling does stare at the mutilated remains whilst imagining something. "Anyway, yes, let's. There's a dhampir to take care of. Are you all still good with magic? Maybe we ought to prep for this, you know, do it right."
"I still have quite a few spells remaining, which I have saved for the fight." Replies Ulrich.
"Fine, then let's finish this," Gabriella snaps in a cold voice.
Keeping an arrow ready, she leads the group to the single visible door in the northwest section of rooms.
As you draw near the pillar holding the fetoring maw, before you can head down the northern hall, dripping globs of sludge fall down from the ceiling. The slime congeals together to form the slimy ghost of a large man that starved to death, his flesh hanging in loose folds. "Four women, a man, an ogre, and a little bird," the ghost burbles. "Two women look alike. Flail, bow, bare hands."
A festering spirit's slimy touch can drain its victim's constitution. A creature killed by the spirit rises as a spawn under its control.
"Oh, for the sake of bones!" Gabbi snaps before drawing and firing at the spectre.
Allie contributes preparatory spells, renewing the enchantments of strength on Ellie and Elka before placing her hands briefly over Ellie and inspiring her with new-found power. She holds off on the shorter use spells and is thus caught somewhat unprepared when the slime ghost appears.
With the aid of Alessandra's magic, Ellie shrugs off the foul stench of the decaying horror. She steps forward, smashing at it with her flail.
Ellie scores two powerful strikes, splattering slimy ectoplasm across the hall. Gabby lands two arrows as well, further disrupting the creature.
"Ouch! Flail-woman hits hard. Tough woman," the spirit burbles. It reaches out for Ellie, draining her health and coating her with noxious slime!
Elká unleashes her frustration in a combination of yelling and screaming as she tries to rip apart the essence that keeps the ghost here rather than 'there'. "Oh come on, Pharasma! Got troubles collecting souls of the damned now haven't we?!"
Thankful for her sister's ammunition enchantment, Gabbi draws another arrow and releases it.