Sasha rankles as he smells something inside the cellar that he clearly doesn't like.
From within, Bashuk can hear the sounds of a number of creatures slumbering fitfully.
Silverwing's keen, avian eyes don't spot anything through the dormer windows on the upper story, but their narrow width only offers a limited field of view within.
With Sasha gone after communicating his dislike of the place and the diminutive earth elemental in his stead, Valeska is ready to walk through the doorway.
Let's go inside... she starts through the door.
Tremorsense (Ex): The creature is sensitive to vibrations in the ground and can automatically pinpoint the location of anything that is in contact with the ground. Aquatic creatures with tremorsense can also sense the location of creatures moving through water. The ability’s range is specified in the creature’s descriptive text.
As Valda bestows her blessing upon the party, the countess' summoned elemental becomes agitated, apparently sensing some sort of movement via its tremorsense. The language barrier makes it difficult to understand the information, but it seems that a cluster of bodies have begun to stir.
Bashuk, Valda, Nikolai... it's time. The counted signals entry.
Bashuk gives Valda a nod as the paladin strides to the cellar doors. As flames crawl up her arms, the half-orc glances at the others. "One of you next, or me?"
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You can hear a guttural growling sound as one of the creatures inside alerts its foul kin before stampeding up the stairs, into the town hall atop the hill.
As light flares out from the cellar door, Bashuk hurries down the steps. "I count five ghouls," she calls back over her shoulder, the lines of fire snaking up her coiling into a ball before spinning out into the darkness.
Kain moves into a position better suited to aid the others.
Valda's divine magic tears through the gang of ghouls, having just risen to their feet. Three of the five clutch their eyes, blinded by the holy light; the others are also clearly dazzled by its radiance. Their mottled skin blisters and peels beneath the burning touch of the light.
Valeska does not see a clear path to the action, and waits.
Nikolai draws and loads his crossbow, craning his neck to see past his allies. However, his ears pick up the sound of crunching gravel. He warns the party that more enemies may be approaching from the southeast.
Inside the cellar, the first of the blinded ghouls makes a lunge for the party, but it quite literally never sees what hit it as Bashuk's fire blast incinerates it.
One of the ghouls lunges forth alongside the wall and attempts to bite Bashuk, but she handily evades the gnashing jaws.
The others swarm around Valda, setting upon her with tooth and claw.
The first ghoul to lunge for Valda, despite its eyes being almost burned away by her magic, manages to bite her and rake her with its claws.
Valda!
Valeska moves toward the nearest ghoul, lashing out with her starknife!
Boulder-Fist lumbers forward past Bashuk and attacks the closest ghoul, understanding that these are Valeska's enemy.
Shaping her flames into a white-hot scimitar, Bashuk steps up to the nearest remaining ghoul and cuts it down. Her eyes glowing with golden light and smoke curling from her searing skin, the half-orc roars out a wordless battle cry as she plunges into the melee.
Kain moves up, taking his lance in his hands and thrusts around the right side of Valeska's Waist. It wasn't the greatest of angles, but he hoped the blinded creature wouldn't be able to avoid the admittedly poor strike.
Valere secured their flank, blocking the entrance way save a small path for ranged attacks.
The party makes quick work of the ghouls in the cellar. Valeska manages to catch one in the vitals as it blindly swings too high, and Boulder-Fist's eponymous fists smash the head of another like an overripe melon.
Bashuk's kinetic blade cuts a burning swathe that nearly severs a ghoul at the waist, whilst Valda's swing decapitates the remaining one vexing her.
Kain cuts off the escape - and the legs - of the last one, trying to flee.
Back outside, you hear a sharp 'twang' followed by a cry of pain from Nikolai, who has an arrow come close to piercing his shoulder blade. The ghoul who fled upstairs has climbed out one of the broken windows and used the roof as a vantage point to shoot the scholar in the back.
You also hear terrified shouts from Doctor Evets as ghoul reinforcements arrive out of the fog at your rear. A pair of ghouls each approach from the southwest and southeast, and another with a bow also stands in the latter direction.
A mangy black cat, the same that you glimpsed lurking and watching from the general store, stands near the feet of the ghoul huntsman. Its undead nature is now plain to see, having led its master and coterie to new prey.
"Good, they're coming to us. That means we don't have to root them out." Reshaping her fiery scimitar back into coiling tongues of flame wrapped around her arms, Bashuk stomps up the stairs in response to Nikolai's cry of pain. Face set in a grim mask, the Cinderhand slips past Valere to confront one flank of the ghoul ambushers.
"Hope you don't spook easily," she whispers to the griffon before sending a coiling arc of fire crashing into the the oncoming undead.
Kain gives a whistle and motions towards the ghoul on the roof, sending Valere up after it before moving out towards the ghoul archer on the ground, putting himself between the ghouls and Nikolai. He readies to strike out at any foe approaching them.
Valere flies up towards the ghoul on the roof and hovers above it before feircely giving it a peck. Sadly, what they pecked was actually a small statue on the corner of the roof.
Valda, I can take care of the roof-runner. Work with the others.
Bashuk unleashes her fiery coil upon the ghoul, leaving a charred, smoking body upon the gravel.
One of the reinforcing ghouls charges for Nikolai, but Kain cuts the creature down with an opportunistic strike before he can lay his claws upon the scholar.
Unfortunately, this allows another one of the wretched things to get the jump on Kain. Fate is not on his side here, as the ghoul's teeth manage to find a gap in his armor. Kain avenges himself by decapitating the undead with a single mighty swing.
The last of the grave-garden-variety ghouls charges for the not-so-good Doctor Evets. The creature chomps down upon his arm, leaving him paralyzed with terror.
Nikolai cries out in pain as the arrow grazes along his back, the heated sting of a fresh wound running along his skin. He catches sight of Doctor Evet's being attacked by one of the ghouls. His mind immediately prioritizes combat efficiency and he turns towards Kain and gives the man a nod.
"This will sting. The breaking of limbs will only be momentary. Don't be scared." The investigator would then draw out one of his needles and jam it between the armor plates of the warrior beside him. As soon as it was injected, Kain would feel the magic catalysts begin to change through his body and aura. To the ghouls outside, the man would begin to grow in size and in power.
"It worked... Nikolai says in amazement, grinning wide before Doctor Evet's cries of pain call out to the man. As an accomplished scholar, Nikolai despised the man but no man deserved the fate of being eaten. "I'll rescue the charlatan." Nikolai says to Kain, rushing over with his rapier in hand. He eyes his enemy, studying him and instantly picking out the most painful and effective means to end him. "Release him, beast, and maybe tomorrow there will be old marrow for you to swallow."
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The ghoul huntsmaster takes a step back and draws a pair of sinister arrows. He fires them at the enlarged Kain, finding him to be too large and tempting of a target to pass up. Moments after the twang of the bowstring, Kain feels a pair of stings pricking him. A burning pain quickly radiates from these wounds, wracking his large limbs with pain.
The huntsmaster's undead feline companion positions itself between its master and Kain, hissing at the towering general.
Valda, Bashuk... take out the cat first, allow Kain to charge!
Good bye, my Terran friend, until we meet again.
Valeska dismisses Boulder-Fist... only to summon forth a small air elemental, within striking distance of the roof-runner.
Then the countess moves away from the building, keeping Kain between herself and the undead huntsman.
"I could've just blasted it off the roof..." Bashuk grumbles.
Kain lets out a grunt of pain as the two shafts stay sticking out of his armor. He doesn't show it in his standing, but the arrows locations and the blood dribbling from the punctured armor certainly show the rather bad condition he is in.
He replies to Valeska.
No need, not now. Focus your efforts on the ghoul upon the house!
He then glances towards the ghoul that shot him.
You will kill no more, monster.
He charges forward towards the ghoul, lance ready. He gives a whistle to Valere as well.
Valere moves to aid his rider, flying to and just above the huntsman on the ground.
Valeska summons a new elemental to join the battle, and Windy Fists conjures up a whirlwind around the ghoul hunstmaster to obscure his vision.
The ghoul on the roof takes a shot at Valere as he flies off to help his rider, but the ghoul fumbles the shot so badly that it almost drops its bow right off the roof.
Kain, large and in charge, sallies forth and delivers a potent blow against the ghoul that wounded him. The minor victory is all the sweeter as he finds his feathered companion at his side again.
As the ghoul on the roof is enveloped in a cloud of debris, Bashuk flips it a rude gesture and sends a spiraling strand of fire arcing towards the ghoul that bit Evets. This accomplished, she strides towards the scrum involving Kain and the other archer-ghoul. "You look like you've got this, big guy, but I'm here if you need a hand," she informs the towering knight.
Nikolai and Evets feel the heat of Bashuk's latest fiery shot as she snipes the ghoul accosting them. The ghoul violently lunges in the direction that the flames came from, only to be met by Valda's steel. The creature soon lies dead at her feet.
Nikolai pulls the slain ghoul off of Doctor Evets and begins assessing his injuries. The ghoul on the roof unleashes another arrow at the scholar, but with almost preternatural reaction speed. Nikolai deflects the arrow with his drawn rapier. He sets the weapon down and draws his crossbow to take down the rooftop-nuisance.
"That's enough from you," Bashuk scolds the archer, sculpting her fire into a spear which she grasps and hurls into the air at the ghoul.
Nikolai waits for his moment, relying on the holy magic around him as well as his own expertise with the crossbow. Patiently, he waits for the ghoul on the rooftop to show himself before firing back.
Calling down the blessings of Grandmother Crow, Valda closes up the worst of Kain's injuries and instills new resolve in her companions.
The ghoul archer on the roof of the town hall ducks down, causing Bashuk's fiery spear to harmlessly strike the damp, warped shingles behind him. However, when he raises his head again, he is wounded by Nikolai's readied shot, delivering a spot of vengeance.
Valere moves to flank the huntsman as he Pecks away and Kain unleshes two heavy strikes towards him.