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Having successfully dispelled one of the half-orcs' spells, Aroden holds his gunhand over his spell component pouch like an arcane gunslinger, ready to slap leather and disrupt the sorceress again.
N'Aranav gives the woman a vicious uppercut to the jaw, making her tusks rattle.
Kahwen
---
Yellow Elf
---
N'Aranav
Aroden
Quillen
Dale
---
Orange Half-Orc
---
Kimiya
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Satisfied the archer at his feet can do no further harm, Quillen marches ahead to the lone remaining archer - this one apparently a blonde.
"'allo. You have shot at your last 'alfling."
The pauses for a moment to reflect on the fact that this particular archer may not have ever actually shot at a halfling before he shrugs and then lashes out with lightning speed at the archer's gut.
for with sneak
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Quillen thrusts his rapier deep into the elf's guts, and the halfling menace leaves her shaking.
Desperate, the half-orc steps back, determined to take as many of her foes as possible with her on her journey down the River of Souls.
Aroden, alert to the sorceress's tricks, points his finger pistols at the caster, and four bolts of arcane force blast into her. Like a tower of jenga blocks, she topples to the ground of the garden.
Kahwen
---
Yellow Elf
---
N'Aranav
Aroden
Quillen
Dale
Kimiya
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Aroden, alert to the sorceress's tricks, points his finger pistols at the caster, and four bolts of arcane force blast into her. Like a tower of jenga blocks, she topples to the ground of the garden.
Kimiya is about to strike the half-orc when she drops to the ground. His eyes follow the path of the magic missiles and he stares at Aroden, his jaw on his chest. Nonplussed, he shifts his focus to the last remaining elf. Kimiya steps up, appears suddenly as he slams his naginata down. He draws it back and swings again, chuckling as he realizes he wasted the entire battle sneaking around.
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Kahwen is less than pleased by the results of the first exchange of sword strokes between himself and the elf. He's a bit more pleased as the rest of the battle goes in the way of the Pathfinders.
But now he has to prove himself...although he's probably not going to get a chance, given Kimiya's attack.
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The blond elf wilts under Kimiya's assault, and the samurai demonstrates, not for the first time, that nonlethal damage can be deadly.
Kahwen
N'Aranav
Quillen
Dale
Kimiya
Searching the elf archers, you recover ten +1 arrows, two potions of cure moderate wounds, ten alchemical silver arrows, ten cold iron arrows, two masterwork breastplates, two masterwork composite longbows (+2 Str), two masterwork elven curve blades, two cloaks of resistance +1, two sets of masterwork artisan’s tools and 134gp.
Searching the half-orc sorceress, you find a potion of cure moderate wounds, two scrolls of fly, a masterwork falchion, a masterwork heavy crossbow with 10 bolts, an amulet of natural armor +1, a ring of protection +1, and 225gp.
While you collect and redistribute the loot and treat the wounded, a Pathfinder cleric approaches, wounded and gasping for breath. "The astral invaders are almost vanquished, but our brothers fighting the undead hordes are struggling, could you lend them your aid?"
She takes a knee and drinks from her waterskin, waiting to hear whether you where you will choose to fight next.
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Kimiya takes a knee beside the cleric, "we can lend them aid. It looks like you've seen battle, too. A channel could help us all but if you're tapped, I have my trusty wand." He indicates the potions, "Does anyone mind if I grab one of those? And here's my wand if anyone needs some healing."
That potion tasted a little off - maybe it was designed for an elven palate!
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Kahwen
N'Aranav
Quillen
Dale
Kimiya
Kahwen
N'Aranav
Quillen
Dale
Kimiya
Dale smiles as he starts working his way through the salvaged equipment, using his wayfinder to detect any wayward magical auras and a practiced nose to identify any potions. "Excellent. Good thing they had these under utilized healing draughts!"
He picks up the bows and struggles mightily to draw them back "Nope, that isn't going to work!" He grins. You've noticed his muscles have wasted away significantly today for some reason.
He does grab one of the scrolls of fly and eyeballs the ring of protection +1. "I can't say I have anything like this yet, a magical forcefield would be quite nice!"
He prepares himself to battle the dead "I do have some holy waters. They are quite effective verses the walking, ghostly, and even flying dead! So long as they're not too far away..."
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Kahwen also joins the line of people who need someone else to activate their wands of healing.
He'll take some of the arrows, dividing them evenly with anyone else who has a bow, though letting them take the lion's share. He'll take some of the defensive magic, too, though again let others take the lion's share.
He leaves the potions to others.
At the cleric's announcement, he looks a little disappointed when he looks to where more invaders are coming but nods when the decision to face the undead is made.
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Quillen crosses his arms as the cleric approaches.
"You are wounded, no? Why do you not heal yourzelf?"
Quillen procures a small wooden stick and suggests the man heal the both of them swiftly if there is an undead menace waiting to be dispatched.
He then nods curtly to the Pathfinder.
"Ah am ready to continue."
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The cleric declines your kind offer of healing. "Thank you, but I'm out of this fight now. Save your resources for those are still in it."
Having agreed to help the Pathfinders who are trying to fight off the undead spawning from the tapestry, you make the 10-minute magical journey to the thick of the battle.
You witness a gaping hole marring the sky of the tapestry. Every fiber of the tapestry continues to unravel, its soul stitching is out of control. Wild undead rip their way out of the demiplane, causing damage faster than the tapestry can be repaired.
As you head toward the undead hordes, Master of Scrolls Aram Zey speaks through the tapestry. "The undead are strongest in the tapestry’s ancient ruins. Cut this problem off at its source."
The massive rent in the tapestry causes hundreds of undead to spawn as the demiplane’s soul stitching accelerates. Countless smaller tears appear throughout the realm as the tapestry cannibalizes its own fabric.
The undead are hungry for living flesh and souls. The Pathfinders must destroy them to allow the tapestry to consume their lingering soul residue for the raw materials to repair itself.
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You spot an undead horror, stumbling around near the crumbling walls of the ruins. The flesh of the medium-sized emaciated creature appears charred or dried, and its empty eye sockets seep trails of smoke.
The twisted, misanthropic desiccated husk possesses a strange, otherworldly sheen. Its body is disproportionate and distinctly androgynous. Hairless and with only vague hints of facial structure, the bodak’s eyes are deep set in their sockets and constantly weep foul-smelling smoky vapors.
Kahwen
Aroden
Dale
N'Aranav
---
Undead ??
---
Quillen
Kimiya
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Dale quickly climbs to the top of the bluff and provides the team with some recon of the offending undead. "Ah yes. Why I was just reading about these extra planar undead: The Bodak! Besides the usual and expected oddities of being both extraplanar AND the walking dead, these guys have resistances, special attacks and special defenses like no other!"
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Dale the Sage almost craps his drawers when he recalls a few of a bodak's abilities.
He trembles as he shares what he knows about their resistances and special defenses. "A bodak is immune to electricity and highly resistant to acid and fire damage. Cold iron weapons are most effective against it; weapons made of other materials will have difficulty penetrating its hide and doing serious damage."
Dale lets that sink in for a moment, then he adds, "And the undead within the tapestry have that nasty 'unraveling' quality. Let me remind you... "
UNRAVELING CREATURE (CR +0)
The creature retains its statistics and special abilities and gains those listed below.
Senses: An unraveling creature gains blindsense 30ft while in the Hao Jin Tapestry.
Tapestry-Bound (Ex): An unraveling creature feels an inexorable pull toward the part of the Hao Jin Tapestry that created it. It cannot willingly travel more than a mile from the location of its creation. If it is forced to do so, it is staggered and takes a –2 penalty on all d20 rolls until it returns.
Tapestry-Woven (Ex): Unraveling creatures lose any abilities that would allow them to create additional creatures, such as create spawn.
Traverse Tapestry (Ex): This creature can pass through any material of the tapestry demiplane (from earth and stone to water and lava) as easily as a fish swims through water. If the creature ends its turn while passing through the tapestry (except through air), it has a 50% chance to be reabsorbed into the demiplane and destroyed. This does not grant creatures the ability to fly if they cannot already do so.
The alchemist coughs, delivering the worst news last.
"Special attacks? Oh, yeah. Let me tell you about its death gaze... "
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"Well...if it's only got to look at me to kill me, I might as well give it a good look, right, Companions?" Kahwen declares. By the way he giggles afterwards, it's possible that the effect of the Haste spell is having more than it's normal impact on him, in particular.
He rushes up the steps and across the plateau, taking a swing at the undead monstrosity before it knows what's happening...or at least before it can react.
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Hearing the creature's abilities described by Dale, Aroden retrieves a scroll and uses it to cast haste on the team.
A quick and giddy Kahwen makes haste toward the bodak, subjecting himself to its draining gaze en route. In his eagerness to draw first blood, the tengu fumbles his attack.
Kahwen
Aroden
Dale
N'Aranav
---
Bodak
---
Quillen
Kimiya
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N'Aranav, hearing about the bodak's death gaze, chooses to shut his eyes against that particular threat, just before he gets within 30ft of the creature, and the vanaran suggests the rest of the team consider doing the same.
The brawler relies on his martial training and flexibility to enable him to fight blind. Even if he misses, he can always try a second time to hit the walking corpse. Fortunately, Kahwen's noisiness gives N'Aranav a good idea where to find his foe.
Kahwen
Aroden
Dale
N'Aranav
---
Bodak
---
Quillen
Kimiya
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With an ally adjacent the bodak, Dale foregoes throwing a bomb, and fires two magic missiles from his wand instead. There's a little sizzle of force energy as both arcane bolts strike the target.
"Look into my smoky eyes, tengu," the bodak invites Kahwen in a raspy, archaic Taldane, a voice full of profound emptiness, sorrowful longing, and vengeful hatred of all life.
Kahwen
Aroden
Dale
N'Aranav
---
Bodak
---
Quillen
Kimiya
|
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Quillen glares at Dale as if their enemy's special abilities are actually his fault (as he was the bearer of bad news?).
"Merde... a life draining bodak? But only if you look upon it, eh?"
"Un moment, ah need zomething zmokey..."
The halfling begins rummaging around in his pack before procuring not a cigarette, but a pair of smokey lensed goggles, whereupon he promptly dons them.
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It worked the first time so why not try once more? Dale points and clicks the wand, keeping himself at the safe distance. He draws out a holy water, just in case.
The wand fires off again, a pair of much larger missiles this time. "Heh, really got this wand thing down don't I?" He quickly looks away from the beast, just in case it comes a bit closer.
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It is possible that Kahwen has made a tactical error.
Not quite as bad as he might have expected. Which is probably worse since it just drives him to push his luck. He gets the undead creature between him and the blind monk and strikes out with blade and beak. The latter attack indicates just how desperate he is, since he finds it so uncouth.
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When Kahwen gets within 30ft of the bodak, he suffers the negative effects of its death gaze, but somehow the tengu resists its powers, when he's standing right in front of it.
Quillen dons some protection, à la a pair of Bono-inspired smoky purple shades.
Averting his eyes, Kimiya moves to the sound of the fighting, but the samurai has trouble hitting a target he can't look at directly.
Kahwen slashes at the bodak twice with his elven curve blade, and the first attack hits the undead monster. His misses with his second sword stroke and his pecker, too.
Drawing a feather from his spell component pouch, Aroden casts fly and rises 15ft into the air.
Dale locks and loads his wand and fires another double-tap into the bodak.
Fighting blind, N'Aranav still manages, with a second effort, to land a punch.
It's clear the undead horror is able to shrug off much of the damage from your weapons, though the missiles from Dale's wand seems to work just fine.
The unraveling bodak moves back a step and counterpunches Kahwen twice.
Dale calls in a couple of favors.
The patchwork allies you secured earlier join the fray, launching an allied offensive. And Janira Gavix hustles up, gasping for breath and sweat drenching her blouse, like a halfling hussy in a wet t-shirt contest, offering the team some timely inspiration.
Kahwen
Aroden
Dale
N'Aranav
---
Bodak
---
Quillen
Kimiya
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Eyes averted from the bodak's gaze, Kimiya swings once and misses. Not to be outdone, N'Aranav swings three times and strikes out.
Aroden flies a little closer to danger with his eyes wide shut.
Dale squeezes the trigger on his peacemaker, and *Bam* *Bam*, the alchemist pumps two more rounds into the undead menace.
"Fire in the hole!" A fire team of four mages from the team's patchwork allies launch a volley of magic missiles in support of the mad bomber.
Kahwen
Aroden
Dale
N'Aranav
---
Bodak
---
Quillen
Kimiya
|
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Quillen gives Aroden the "thumbs up" sign as he charges ahead. With the assistance of the magical haste, his march is doubly effective as he moves into a flanking strike with Kahwen.
Quillen shudders for a moment as he catches a glimpse of the eternal damnation of his soul but shrugs it off after a second of fleeting contemplation.
"You do not scare me, foul bodak. You are no final blade! Hnnh-ha!"
Quillen lashes out with his rapier, hoping that his strike will be precise enough that such details as cold iron will matter not. He was promised by that Society merchant that adamantine was the wisest choice in his purchase.
for with
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To be entirely honest, Kahwen is more than a little surprised that he's not dead. After he didn't cut down the creature with his last burst of attacks, he assumed that it was going to suck his soul out of his body. Needless to say, he is relieved that's not the case.
As his crew of Pathfinders and even more pile on the creature he does his part, voicing a quiet prayer to the Might Dai Shrolla to bestow his blessings.
Fickle Dai Shrolla gives him success but dangles critical success just out of his reach.
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Eyes still averted, Kimiya's backswing slashes another gash across the bodak's emaciated corpus.
Eyes wide open and pupils dilated, the brave Kahwen risks his own life and soul to save his companions.
The tengu swordmaster's elven curve blade carves a ragged 'X' from stem to stern, felling the foul undead creature and dispatching it to its eternal damnation!
Kahwen
A medic assigned to one of the Society's tapestry repair teams, rushes over, dangling healer's kit, swinging to and fro with every exhausted stride. "You lot need help? I've got spells, if you need them."