Marya steps in closer, continuing to inspire her comrades.
Everyone from town knows the history and the story behind the Red Reaver that devastated this temple, The Bastion of Light, twelve years ago. If his eyes are true, Damian believes this creature is a Gray Reaver, an undead form of the creature that laid siege to this town long ago.
When Gerdish talks back to the undead woman, she scoff and says "What? Fine!" before throwing another set of missiles forward.
Feena's fireball is burns all of its targets, though only one of the cultists gets the worst of it.
Coral steps up to attack and the zombie was ready for her, biting her as she moves up. She lands her attack though, cutting a small section of the creatures rotten flesh away. Vlad's scythe buries into the big guy just as each of Gerdish's skeletons attacks do the same.
When Vlad get's englarged, it seems to draw the reaver's attention, quickly losing interest in Coral and the skeletons. Giving the barbarian it's full focus, it bites him before slashing him twice with its wicked claws. .
The two burning cultists stumble forward out of the flames, waving their warms wildly in front of them to make sure they don't run into anything else. As they stumble forward, they catch sight of Coral and move to engage her. Luckily for her, neither of them can see quite clearly enough to hit her as they swipe their daggers in the air all around her.
The woman in the pews fires another round of missiles, but changes her target to Coral this time.
Damian's blood runs cold as he recognizes the giant undead creature they were facing, then he winces as it lays into Vlad mercilessly. Coral was getting pummelled as well, and while the paladin wanted nothing more than to smite the reaver, he had to keep his friends alive.
Coral strikes at the giant zombie, then steps away from the cultists.
She calls on holy power to heal her wounds.
Gerdish removes a vial, and drinks it, and a pales slightly. He grins, and his lips part much more than had ever been seen before, revealing that other than his four normal front teeth on top, the lower teeth and the remaining have all been filed to sharp points, like that of a shark, or a ghoul. "Xertala wasn't wrong - but you have a chance to walk out of this with a semblance of a life, or unlife. A better chance than most get from the Tyrant. Lay down your weapons, ." The command from the previously quiet Gerdish is forceful, dangerous, and magically terrifying, "you cannot hope to win, and why would you, when the rewards can be so... delicious..." He removes a shriveled piece of meat from his pouch and holds it up, and it is clear that it is the flensed flesh of a humanoid finger.
He tears into it with his sharpened teeth, still grinning, then pops the rest into his mouth, and steps next to Feena, menacing her with his shovel. Apologetically, he says to her quietly, "really, it isn't personal, I like you folks, but a man's gotta eat..."
Dead Bill turns his sight on Vlad and claws at him.
Dead Bob tries the same to Coral.
Coral hadn't reacted to the undead caster's revelation about Gerdish, figuring he had turned over a new leaf. But as he and his skeletons attack the party, she realizes she was wrong.
"Damn you, Gerdish!"
I guess we should have judged on appearances.
Reacting quickly, she defends Vlad against the skeletons.
Xertala sighs heavily "Finally. So much drama. Just kill them already!"
Marya scowls at Gerdish. While she might have written this off as mind control or a horrible joke, but she can read a room. And those teeth. Of f#&#ing course something like this would happen. She sheathes her sword and takes a step to a more central position. She holds up her arms as if in surrender. Until she folds down all but her middle finger, lowering it to point directly at Gerdish.
”The Tyrant can suck my dick.”
With her hand free, she throws out a burst of Iomedae’s divine energy to fill the room, hindering her enemies and aiding her allies.
Feena felt the two cultists, or whatever they were, who had been invisible were getting a bit too close for comfort so she quickly moved along the wall to put the bulk of her companions between her and them. As she did she began casting a spell and when she stopped sent another red bead flying out. The bead exploded catching the two cultists and the big monstrosity in the ensuing conflagration.
Feena saw Gerdish's teeth transform and watched in dawning horror as he ate flesh from a humanoid's finger. Before she realized it he cast a spell and burning words of hate washed over them all.
Feena was thoroughly shaken by what she just saw and the betrayal of Gerdish and withdrew as fast as she could to get away from him.
Damian fills the room with positive energy, healing his injured allies.
Despite Gerdish's betrayal, Vlad continues to engage the large undead zombie before him, landing both of his attacks.
Feena retreats and pulls back, moving away from the traitor.
The large zombie ignores Coral and tries to continue engaging with Vlad, but the halfling in between distracts him enough that he misses.
The undead woman laughs as Gerdish switches sides, firing more missles at Coral.
The two cultists stumble forward to try and attack Coral, but with glitter still in their eyes they cannot pinpoint her and succeed at only blocking her escape.
If Vlad's attacks fail to finish the giant zombie, Coral will lend her sword. (If he did drop it, then this goes against Dead Bob instead).
If that manages to drop the giant zombie (or if Vlad already did), she will then try to move to safety through Vlad's square, using Acrobatics to avoid AOOs from Dead Bob and Dead Bill (the cultists are blinded so she doesn't care about them).
Coral will just move 15' straight south on the map (will wait for confirmation of Giant Zombie's demise before moving her; if Giant Zombie is still up, then she will not try to move away).
Vlad lands two good hits into the zombie and Coral adds an even more powerful strike of her own. Threatening to topple, the large zombie still remains standing though it's very clearly close to be taken down.
No longer caring about leaving the various undead that Gerdish summoned out of the effect of her spells Feena happily dropped a fireball right on top of the majority of their enemis.
Marya raises her fist high as she crackles with shining energy. She feels a clarity of purpose she has missed, the pure glory of being a conduit for something greater than herself. Even as she rages at the betrayal, she feels happy.
”Burn in the Inheritor’s Righteous Glory! Burn to ash in flame and light! See what wrath the Lady of Valor holds for traitors!”
She explodes with a burst of holy energy, firing out in waves in all directions, melting the undead at the touch.
Feena's fireball whooshes through the room, catching the zombie, the skeletons, the cultists and Coral inside of it. A second later, Marya's positive energy sweeps over the same area to help reinforce their assault on the undead. As the flames subside, both of Gerdish's skeletons, the large zombie and one cultist all lay smoking and charred on the ground.
Damian takes aim at the surviving cultist and buries and arrow in his shoulder.
The woman back in the pews fires another round of missiles at Coral, all of which her hiding in the aftermath of Feena's fireball.
Taking advantage of the confusion, the remaining cultist nearly lands a critical hit on Coral, but misses its intended location of her artery and barely scrape the knife across her neck instead.
Coral nimbly dodges the flames.
She takes another round of Magic Missiles. Stupid cheating wizards...
Gerdish grumbles as Feena escapes from him. He shouts over to the woman in the pews. "Great work blowing my cover, you idiot. I could've turned on them later, and done more damage, but you had to ruin the plan. You are a bloody simpleton." He snaps his fingers and Dead Bob and Dead bill re-emerge, this time flanking Marya, and he shouts, "they're your problem know, I'm taking out their support if I can."
Gerdish looks... almost apologetic, as he approaches, and menaces with his shovel. He mutters, "nothing personal..." Dead Bob and Bill attack Marya, with flanking.
You hear the sound of music playing. A stringed instrument, to be precise.
Marya is too into her moment to have much thought to turn to anything but what is immediately at-hand. There is evil here, and she has the power to protect the good, and that is all that matters. She can be strong enough for that at least. Moments like this remind her of why she joined the Reclamation, the swell in her heart of being on unambiguous side of good. That is all she ever wanted. She does not even notice the joyful tears coming to her eyes as she raises her holy symbol once more. ”You have forsaken your circle and betrayed the divine heart that beats within all children of Golarion. Your heartless flesh will burn in shame at the touch of Righteous iron, your weapons recoil against our shields as water against the dam.”
Could it be?
Coral dares not give voice to the hope that wells up inside her.
"Vlad, take down the traitor!"
She stabs at the nearest cultist.
Feena saw a chance to do some damage as the two skeletons re-appeared and stepped forward. She said a few words, gestured, and sent a gout of flames to wash over Gerdish and the two skeletons. Just afterwards she burst into flames since she was so close to them to try and keep the three back from her.
Dead Bob and Dead Bill take the brunt of the fire, but Gerdish shrugs some of it off.
When her immolation kicked in it drowned out the flames that had been covering her, seizing their fire to make it her own so it could no longer harm her.
Damian takes a shot at the sole remaining cultist, burying another arrow into his body.
Breaking off the arrow as he steps backwards, the cultist curses loudly as he moves to put Coral between him and the others. He tries to cut her again, but isn't as successful this time and misses.
"Don't blame me for your ineptness, Gerdish! Just finish them off!" the caster shouts before once more sending a series of missiles flying into Coral.
The undead woman looks around as a strange sound catches her ear. He says to Gerdish, "What is that, more of your trickery?"
Gerdish licks his lips, and says, "blast it..." He tries to shovel Damian.
Dead Bill and Dead Bob try to re-engage Marya.
But only one seems to hit.
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With a thunderous clap, the main doors of the cathedral open inward, blowing in a cold wind and dead leaves.
Stepping into the cathedral is a familiar... figure? She wears a blue broadcoat with silver clasps, a fine-looking embroidered cloak, and a broad hat over her extremely messy hair. She has a skull mask pulled over her face, but her eyes are visible, and they burn with a white light. She has a stringed instrument, somehow spotlessly clean, despite the remainder of her appearance, which is... terrible.
The woman looks like she was run over by a horse, and clawed her way out of the nearby ditch. Her clothes are torn and covered in dried blood. They are filthy, and she has leaves, roots, and twigs hanging off of her. She's breathing heavily, and she rests her bloody fingers on the neck of her instrument, just for a moment, as she calls out,
She strums her guitar, once - the sound echoing through the cavernous room, and draws her similarly filthy-looking spear, stepping up to the investigator, and trying to bury the point deep into his side.
She spits out a clot of black blood, seemingly satisfied, and points at the woman across the room. "YOU. VENGO POR TI A CONTINUACION, PENDAJA."
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Marya barely even notices the pain, the healing light of The Inheritor surging through her. ”You see, Gerdish. You see how the strength of the grave does not avail you when you need it most? You see, you are expendable. To the Tyrant, you are just meat. Meat he might use to slow us for a few moments. You gave up the chance to be something more.” She blasts off another burst of healing energy.
Marya’s intense focus on her task is interrupted as she spots…no. There’s no f#%*ing way. ”Lola! Inheritor tie me down and f@~# me raw, is that you?!”
The woman bows theatrically, "who else looks this good when they've just crawled out of a grave?"
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I KNEW IT! thinks Coral, before correcting herself.
I hoped.
Marya's healing offsets most of the latest Magic Missile barrage, and Coral finds herself still in the fight.
She strikes at the nearest cultist.
Coral shrugs off her failure, looks to Lola, and says with a smile, "Faith manages."
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Vlad turns toward the sounds of familiar music, but only long enough for recognition to sink in.
Turning back toward Gerdish, he is filled with hope and vigor. Swinging his scythe in large arcs like he's harvesting wheat, he says "When you hear the sound of Chiquitita, you know it's over!" he grins.
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Vlad’s blade cuts deeply into Gerdish’s side and the gravedigger falls to his knees, blood dribbling from his mouth, he coughs, leaning on his magic shovel, ”… Roslar’s coffer… deserved this… hypocrits! I did your dirty work for years without any thanks!” He shouts, the life draining from his face, ”… cruel hypocrites!… You…” and with the second swing, Vlad decapitates the man.
His shovel falls from his hands with a clatter, and the body drops with a thud.
Dead Bob and Dead Bill, a moment later, wave their boney claws at the party, clack their mandibles once, and then dissolve into a foul-smelling mist of bone chips that lay in a pile on the floor.
Feena thought things might go very bad for a moment, until the front door burst open and Lola re-appeared. The inspiring music she sang brought courage back to Feena and she cried out in joy that sounded not unlike the cry of a phoenix, "LOLA!" and was ready to end this fight.
Gerdish made his last futile attempt to kill them but was quickly killed by Vlad and Bill and Bob seemed to wave goodbye before collapsing into foul smelling goo. Feena felt sorrow for Gerdish at hearing his last words and vowed that she would say her good byes after the last cultist was dealt with.
Feena moved quickly as she tried to reach the remaining cultist. The woman was obviously a caster like herself and she felt sure she could take her down if she could only get close enough.
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Vlad smiles grimly as Gerdish goes down.
"Bah!" he spits. "I was kinda starting to like that guy--but clearly it was all a lie."
But he wheels on his heel and rushes toward Lola, his eyes going up and down to make sure it was her. He had been the most skeptical of her when she first joined them, but now he picks her up and spins her around in a bear hug.
"I never could get your song out of my head!"
Putting her down, he raises an eyebrow. "It's really you? You're not a trick of this place, are you?! How is this possible?!"
"It's a miracle! But keep fighting!"
Damian is utterly shocked, first by Lola's reappearance, then by Vlad decapitating Gerdish. The paladin glares at the gigantic fighter, but then his gaze slides beyond him to Coral, and the source of the magical attacks that had been plaguing the halfling. Time enough to sort this out later, once all the threats were dealt with.
Pulling back the string of his bow, he takes aim at the woman lurking towards the back of the cavernous room, and lets fly.
The woman in the pews who repeatedly peppered Coral with missiles curses loudly at Damian's arrow finds purchase in her chest. As Gerdish drops she blurts out, "Gerdish you FOOL! Wait until I bring you back to teach you a lesson!"
She still continues with the same action, sending three more missile at Coral
The last cultist exclaims loudly "For my rebirth!" and lunges at Coral with his dagger, but once again misses.
The woman in the pews who repeatedly peppered Coral with missiles curses loudly at Damian's arrow finds purchase in her chest. As Gerdish drops she blurts out, "Gerdish you FOOL! Wait until I bring you back to teach you a lesson!"
She still continues with the same action, sending three more missile at Coral
The last cultist exclaims loudly "For my rebirth!" and lunges at Coral with his dagger, but once again misses.
Marya laughs at Lola’s repartee. ”You look like s*@%, but you don’t look undead, so I will give you that you look much better than a typical grave-escapee.” Feeling the rush of Lola’s return and her song, Marya moves to strike down the lackey cultist on her way to help engage the leader. ”Everyone! Take down this one and the leader! Let none escape to spread their evil elsewhere!”
Coral moves back towards Damian, Feena, and Lola.
"I can't do much," the halfling says.
"One more spell like that and I'm done for."