Zendara zigs and zags forward, using the wall and some gymnastics to expertly twist past her friends and then vault over the immobile assassin and past the ghost.
Then she shoots the assassin, being careful to avoid hitting the ghostly apparition.
(humanoid)
(humanoid)
Xindyra tries to get past Eric and to north of the assassin's current square.
If this is not enough, Xindyra has to skip her turn, she is not going to bomb her companions.
If it is enough, circumstances considered,
Edwin stabbed at the assassin again.
Zendara's arrow slams into the assassin's back and this time the arrow struck home!
Unused to fighting helpless opponents, Xindrya fumbled her rapier blow but Ediwn didn't, his blade bit deeply and Yukarii sent a fusillade of missiles slamming into the assassin's back.
Jack's skeletal hands continued to grasp the woman's heart and she arched her back in a silent scream!
<--- HIT JUST (denied dex)
<--- FAIL
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Zendara moves closer and shoots the woman in the eye.
(humanoid)
Xindyra runs the assassin through with her rapier, a good three inches of the steel poke out the other side. She pulls it out with a spray of arterial blood. Zendara's arrow slams home, jutting out of the assassin's centre of mass.
Blood dribbles out of the assassin's mouth and her face goes slack, but then something surprising happens. One of her rings flaire with power and with a sudden pop the assassin's body vanishes, leaving behind her clothing and some of her equipment!
She had a cloak of resistance +3, a timeworn (and now broken) shield bracer, a keen cruel adamantine returning throwing dagger +1 with a diamond in the pommel, a belt of incredible dexterity +4, and an amulet of natural armour +2. She also has a bunch of minor alchemical items and 500gp of cash in various sizes.
Finally she has an encrypted journal.
Jack's ghost was standing there, holding her adamantine dagger in one hand and a squirming transparent image of the assassin in the other! He stared at the diamond gem in pommel for a long moment. His voice echoed strangely as he told you, "This gem was cut from one of mine. Disgusting they fashioned something cruel and ugly from from such a beautiful stone, somebody must pay for that."
Brandishing the struggling spirit with his other hand he told you, "She may not have been the one that wronged me, but she was cut from the same cloth and now her soul is mine! Finally I can cross over, and as my final act on this plane, I shall share with you a secret I took to the grave! 27.02976 63.12149, look underneath the large rock that shouldn't be there."
With that both spirits faded away.
From below the Inn Keeper shouts nervously, "What's going on up there is everyone OK?"
(pass)
(fail)
(fail)
Zendara just stands there, stunned, and growing ever more angry.
When the Innkeeper shouts she is barely able to take a breath and keep her head, and she walks downstairs to talk to him privately rather than shouting to the whole place. She explains that they had a run in with an assassin and the ghost, but the haunting should be over. She asks for some bandages, so they can make sure Mike is okay.
When she comes back upstairs she says, with barely-contained fury
I can't believe she got away. Hopefully the lethal wounds and the ghost stealing her soul does some good, but I doubt it. Stupid cult will just get someone to call her back. Next time we cut her freaking fingers off first.
Seeing a lot of her loot left behind cheers her a little though.
Xindyra, too, was disappointed, at the 'evacuation' of the assassin's corpse.
"That's cheating!", she says somewhat annoyed, as she makes a swift slashing motion, to whip away the blood dripping from her rapier.
With Zendara's passionate frustration, she muses a disturbing story she's heard a long time ago.
"I met a war vet once, he said they came across a prisoner of unknown affiliation. No fingers, toes, tongue, nor eyes. A fate worse than death. That man's jailer must have been a very cruel person."
She steps closer towards Zendara, looking her curiously in the eyes, with some concern.
"Hey Zen, passionate suits you, but don't walk such a path of darkness, please.", at which she just gives Zendara a quick hug, in hopes of calming the obvious tense in her friend.
Letting go, she thinks back about what phantom Jack told them of the coordinates. "I'd have to check a map of the land, but i think that is a hill near cinder crater."
Edwin said, "I think one of her rings had a contingency spell to teleport her."
"Let's check those coordinates! Does anyeone have a map handy?"
Zendara accepts the hug, but When Edwin talks about the contingency spell, she says
Yeah! Exactly. If she has a ring like that, then we need to cut it off her finger so she can't use it again!
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The shield bracer looks pretty fried, it might be possible to repair it however if you can find some replacement parts.
(fail)
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"Hmm, hang on. For resurrecting her, one's soul would need to be unobstructed to return, right? But phantom Jack took her with him, not releasing it from his grip."
A smile that follows, quickly turns to a frown, as she realizes another issue with that.
"Though they could try reanimating her corpse."
Yukarii managed to catch up with the others just in time to see Jack's ghost holding the soul of the assassin and the body vanishing. When she heard what Jack said to them she bowed deeply and said, "Arigato Jack-san, may the Reaper guide you to your long denied rest."
With that Yukarii listened to the others talk and felt sure that Xindyra was correct about the assassin. While she had felt a bit guilty at using the ghost like that Yukarii was pleased it all worked out in the end. Maybe one day she wouldn't have to see any more suffering spirits becaue they had all been freed but she somehow thought that was unlikely. Looking to the others she set to helping tend to teh injured and cleaning so they could finish resting.
The Inn Keeper gave you some bandages and he went upstairs andstarted making a fuss about the door which Dr Munroe smoothed over with some coin for repairs.
When the man had calmed down, he asked "So you saw Jack. Reckon he's gone for good?"
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Yukarii turned to the Inn Keeper as he came back by and bowed slightly as she said, "Yes, Jack-san has finally crossed over and took the soul of an assassin connected to his killer with him. You should not see him again."
After the innkeeper is calmed down and has left, Zendara says
I know it has been a crazy night, but I think we should all go back to sleep. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, and we'll need it. Feel free to sleep in a little and get a good sleep. We'll leave when everyone's up.
That is, Mike, if you are still up to the trip?
Mike looked rattled but he nodded, "Yeah. I'll be damned if I'll let some cult stop a little prospecting. Besides after what they did to poor Andrea I'm feeling rather contrary..."
Cracking it takes half a day, but once you'd figure it out reading it wasn't hard. The notes contain details of various jobs she'd taken on. She also kept tabs on a large pool of potential targets, containing basic biography, appearance, habits. Notes of who might be dangerous etc.
It seems Red previously accepted missions from a variety of people. Not all missions where assassinations: she was sometimes hired to steal rare items (always small, always high value); other times she was hired to drive somebody away, usually a rival in business or love. Two years ago this represented the bulk of her work, but gradually over time she was killing more and more with the main sponsor being the cult.
Six months ago she was hired to kill five other prominent assassins, leaving her the most feared assassin on the island.
One urgent mission two months ago stood out, she had been hired to deface certain menhirs - three of which where of particular importance according to her employer. This job was particularly difficult because the stones had a guardian (you suspect a type if angel from her description) and where largely impervious to damage. The menhirs could only be deactivated if the cult's accursed ritual chisel pierced through the guardian's still beating heart.
There was a long list of other lesser menhirs she needed to deface, to ensure the main ones didn't reactivate over time.
The other entry of note contains detailed information about Andrea and how Red had meticulously planned a robbery and murder. Various people who had come into contact with Andrea, including Mike had been marked for death. She maintained extensive notes on his personal habits. According to Red, he was exactly what he claimed to be, an aging and slightly eccentric geologist.
(pass)
Zendara is able to decipher the text the next day, and explains the cipher to the others so that they can read it too.
(pass)
She also notices that the three main menhirs form an equilateral triangle ten miles on a side, surrounding Cinder Crater, but she tells this privately to only her traveling group, not wanting to freak Mike out any more than he already was.
(fail)
Catching on much of what Zendara occupied herself with, chiming in where useful, Xindyra deduces a theory about repairing the monoliths.
This too, sharing among the others, to keep the others from worrying too much.
It was decided to head off early. In the pre-dawn light you had fantastic views of the volcanic summit which lead down to the open air beyond the edge of the island. Bands of clouds formed a distant haze line which blurred the horizon in a vertigo inducing way.
Mike selected a quicker path which lead you up the mountain at a steep angle. As you gained election scrubby grasses made way for vast ash planes. The trail was mostly rocky ground poking out of the ash. By lunchtime your thighs were burning and by evening so we're your lungs. Looking back the small village was a speck and you'd gained well over five thousand feet of elevation.
You camped at a small log hut, whose construction near boggled the mind considering the logistics of hauling everything up that incline.
You awoke the next morning to a layer of fresh snow which turned the grey ash planes white. The ground was slippery underfoot and the higher you went the steeper and more rugged the terrain became. Mike selected a path that went up a knife edge ridge towards a pair of craters.
Dr Munroe looked dubiously at the path and said "Mike that looks technical..."
Mike nodded, "Aye freehand it would be but look just up here, past that boulder there's a Via Ferrata!"
Sure enough there was a stout steel rope sunk into the boulder which lead up the ridge. Mike opened his bag of holding and pulled out harnesses which he distributed. Each harness had a pair of special hooks () which meant you wouldn't fall if you slipped and you could go past the heavy iron rings sunk into the rock at intervals.
The passage up the ridge was a mixture of terror and exhilaration which turned to misery when it started snowing and the wind grew so strong you had to shout hard enough to hurt to be heard.
What seemed like hours later and you were walking on the relatively flat ground between two craters. The one on the left was filled with thick acrid yellow smoke which the wind cut like a knife, above the level of the rim the air was clear, below it was a sulphurous nightmare.
Late afternoon the weather cleared up affording an amazing view. You could see hundreds of miles off into the blue infinity of Oberon. Behind and far below was the postage stamp size Port William. In front was a great caldera a dozen miles across surrounded by numerous craters. Clearly this had its own micro climate with the lower levels full of thick jungle surrounding a wide turquoise blue lake.
Looking exhilarated, Mike said "Behold, cinder Crater! The sides are seriously steep so we'll have to use the Via Ferrata."
As you made your way down from the rim, the temperature rose steadily and soon you were stripping layers off. Down here there was no snow and soon you were among strange tropical plants many of which had peculiar luminous glows. The air buzzed with unfamiliar insects and there was a strange mix of tropical and sulphurous smells. Every so often you passed fumerolles and volcanic springs bubbling with hot or even boiling water.
Towards the flat bottom of the crater, the tropical foliage petered out and the ground was mostly ash with various hardy pioneer plants poking out, a stunning emerald green contrast to the crunchy blackness of the ash.
It was evening and Mike said, "I bought us some tents, let's get them put up. We'll need to set watches, there are strange creatures here and elementals sometimes too."
pointing up, Zendara adds
Looks like we already attracted the attention of a Frost Drake.
Slowly the Drake circles down, clearly it's eyeing you before deciding whether to land and attack! You don't have much time to prepare.
With the mention of a draconic foe,
Xindyra will share what she recalls at the moment, and chugs as much as time allows.
Resists energy, mutagen, long arm, iron skin
Resist cold 10
10ft reach
+4 Dex, +2 NA
+4 NA
------------------------------------
+2 Reflex, +2 to attack, +1 Dex to AC (armor), +6 NA
Long arm extract for Edwin (optional if time allows)
Zendara casts Gravity Bow and True Strike, then shoots at the Drake.
(true strike, bullseye shot)
The journey was not too bad until they had to start climbing and Yukarii did have trouble with that part so it was a good thing they were prepared. Going down wasn't as bad as far as she was concerned, at least not until they were told about the frost drake. Once it seemed it was coming for them Yukarii began to prepare herself in case it came to a fight.
Yukarii casts several spell in preparation for battle. As does Zendara.
Empowered by her spell, Zendara stares into the sky as knowledge poured in. She felt she could feel the texture of the wind and how it was like a layer cake flowing in different directions. Intuitively she could see the course of the arrow's flight in her mind as she sighted the drake circling above. The beast looked almost regal, as the firing solution entered her mind. Loosing the arrow was pure instinct and it darted up, impossibly fast. Edwin and Yukarii thought it was going to miss at first but an upper layer of wind pushed it back on course to slam into the Drake's belly. It let out an outraged hoot of pain and dived down towards the insects below that had encroached on it's territory and hurt it!
Environment: Full darkness
Buffs and Debuffs:
Edwin
Miriam
Xindyra Resists energy, mutagen, long arm, iron skin
Yukarii False life, mirror image
Dr Munroe
Zendara Gravity Bow
Frost Drake
Edwin
Miriam
Xindyra Resists energy, mutagen, long arm, iron skin
Yukarii False life, mirror image
Dr Munroe
Zendara Gravity Bow
Frost Drake
Damage Log:Round: 0
Drake was hit by Zendara for 15 (total damage taken 15)Totals:
Drake: 15 damage
COMBAT ORDER:
Edwin <----- WE ARE HERE
Miriam
Xindyra
Yukarii
Dr Munroe
Zendara
Frost Drake
Edwin, Miriam, Xindyra, Yukarii, Dr Munroe and Zendara are up.
Edwin cast a spell, surrounding himself with magical armor, and drew his weapon.
In trying to scare it off, Zendara seems to have attracted its attention, and presumably more of its fellows. Not good, but what choice was there now? There was no cover to run to. They just needed to kill it as fast as humanly possible and hope there weren't too many to handle.
She shoots again at the diving drake, this time with poorer aim, but more speed, as many arrows as she can get into the air.
(Manyshot--fires 2 arrows)
(Rapid Shot)
Xindyra prepares a jab if the drake comes within 10 feet of her.
A wedge shaped shield of force snaps into existence to protect Edwin.
Miriam had her composite hunting bow in her hands, she took aim but much to her annoyance the arrow fell off the string, dry firing the bow.
<--- MISS
Xindrya studied the drake tensed, ready to strike should it come close enough.
Yukarii flung one hand with fingers outstretched towards the drake, and a fusillade of missiles pulsed out!
Dr Munroe clenched and unclenched his fingers as he waited for the drake to approach, or not.
Zendara's bow string blurred as she fired a three arrows in five heartbeats. All three arrows slammed home, one wedging itself deeply into the neck of the drake, just below it's head.
The Drake's measured descent turned into a swan dive and it slammed into the floor with a bone shattering thud.
"Cracking shot!" cried Dr Munroe as he moved to take a better look at the mangled corpse. The impact had dug a hole two foot deep into the earth which was filled with gore and flecks of bone.
Heads up. Three more incoming.
Zendara whispered a spell to herself, then aimed carefully at one of the circling shapes and let fly.
Round 1: True Strike
Round 2:
(true strike, bullseye shot)
Round 3: True Strike
Round 4:
(true strike, bullseye shot)
Round 5: True Strike
Round 6:
(true strike, bullseye shot)
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If there was a drink with a straw, Xindyra would be staring up, slurping it, as the drake is taken out of the air....
Taking a frost drake down that quickly. Impressive.
"Excitement on a trip fine and all, but three of those at the same time?"
Yes, even the overly curious can be cautious.
The drakes start circling up high above, so high they're little more than dots in the sky. One lets out a piercing cry and together they dive towards you. Remarkably Azarra was able to hit the lead drake while it was still hundreds of feet up in the air.
Her shot caused a raucous series of cries and after a tense moment all three banked sharply before flying off into the distance.
Mike was impressed, "Well I think you've scared them off for now, although I suppose it's always possible they'll be back later... I think we'd better put the tent up and set watches."
Zendara helps to set up the tent and volunteers to take first watch.
You share a meal under the stars before turning in. Miriam had shot a deer the previous day which had been stored in her bag of holding, she and Dr Munroe butchered it and roasted it on a spit over a fire. They'd rubbed salt and herbs into the meat resulting in a mouth wateringly delicious meal.
As the remains the of the meal was tidied up, Mariam noted "There's a strange atmosphere in this crater. I keep on feeling like I'm hearing distant thunder..."
Mike nodded, "This place has always been special. If you want to see why, look up friends and witness!"
In the sky above there where slowly shifting curtains of color, mostly greens and reds. An aurora! As you watched spellbound, a shooting star silently crossed the sky leaving a trail of sparks. Some of these fell down and illuminated ever so briefly what looked for the world like a vast floating castle in the sky, right above the very centre of the crater!
"Woah!" breathed Mike, "Did you see that?"
(fail)
I did! Like a floating castle. I wonder what it was. ... Wouldn't it be cool to visit someplace like that?
Yukarii looked up and saw the flying castle, a look of wonder crossing her features as she did, and wondered how that happened. Was it always like that? When the world cracked apart did it start to float? Or maybe it was done after the sundering? She didn't really know for sure but she began to ponder the question.
She truly had no clue what might have caused it.
"Woah! Would you look at that!" whispered Dr Munroe. To Miriam he muttered, "How about doing some archeology up there! It's clearly some kind of holy place, I'm sure we could get a paper or two published!"
He spoke softly with her for a fee minutes before suggesting, "Maybe we'll take the second watch. Miriam is hoping to see some more shooting stars and perhaps get another glimpse of the sky castle... Who is taking the third watch?"
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