Even as she closed in again to flank Allamar, Alyczandra quite expected the foe to attempt to flee the position. But her move towards the east, is she actually going to jump through a window??, was unexpected and only the lightest edge of her blade had any hope of contact.
As Allamar bolted towards the eastern wall, Alyczandra's blade flicked out but glanced harmlessly against the Sword Knight's armor. Jerax's spiked chain, on the other hand, snapped out as if guided by the archfiend, whipping around the fleeing woman's neck. There is a wicked pop from her neck as her body jerks at the end of the chain's length, nearly ripping it out of Jerax's grip. Yet the very momentum that nearly sent the priestess to land in the graveyard beyond the stained glass seals her fate and she dies before her body even hits the floor.
Alixus exhales heavily, "Unfortunate it had to come to this. Doubly so that we will not learn what she knows. Her decision was made when she attacked us, though. Come, let us see what we can find of interest here."
Alyczandra shot Jerax a smile before the expression turned into a vile grin directed at Allamar's body. No great loss really, she replied to Alixus while never taking her malevolent gaze off of the Iomedean priestess' lifeless form, her brats will know what she did, and maybe we can come up with a way to get them to tell us. I have an idea in that regard. Finally taking her eyes off Allamar, the pale woman glanced around the room before proceeding to rummage through the place.
Slenk seems to deflate as the stream if infernal ceases. "She began the fight as soon as she saw us and if she got through that door things could have become very difficult. Now, we can hopefully find what we she was so keen to hide. I will also again suggest we invest in a healing wand for the Magister to keep for us in case it is needed. Also, may be worth bringing this one's head to the Archbaron..."
Slenk will take 10 to aid Alyczandra's perception.
Jerax returned Alyczandra's look, then back at the corpse of the cleric. This was someone who, along with her bastard sons, tormented the tiefling's early life. Yet, Jerax found it all.. unsettling. Like a major chapter in his life just closed. The knight of Asmodeus steeled himself back to the present. "Take anything of import" was all he said until jerax went inside the church.
Now that his head was clearing, the towering tiefling walked up behind the noble and wreathing his hand in purple flame, touched Alyczandra's exposed neck.
Beginning at 2nd level, an antipaladin surrounds his hand with a fiendish flame, causing terrible wounds to open on those he touches. Each day he can use this ability a number of times equal to 1/2 his antipaladin level + his Charisma modifier. As a touch attack, an antipaladin can cause 1d6 points of damage for every two antipaladin levels he possesses. Using this ability is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Alternatively, an antipaladin can use this power to heal undead creatures, restoring 1d6 hit points for every two levels the antipaladin possesses. This ability is modified by any feat, spell, or effect that specifically works with the lay on hands paladin class feature. For example, the Extra Lay On Hands feat grants an antipaladin 2 additional uses of the touch of corruption class feature.
Rummaging through the various rooms of the church, Alyczandra made a point of going back to the small room where she had hopped up on some cloth-covered objects to fight Allamar. Something about what she had stood on caught her interest. Pulling back the cloth revealed a coffin, and for a time the pale woman simply stood in front of it staring. It draws me Her finger traced the outlines of the oblong wooden box, and she considered opening it as she felt a cold, yet soothing sensation on the back of her neck.
A gift. From Asmodeus, m'lady
Standing up straight for a moment, Alyczandra let irritation wash over her. Not at Jerax, but herself. She could hear the odd drawl of the Illizmagortian accent ringing in her memory, the red-clad mentors who trained her harshly noting her failure to detect someone sneaking up behind her. Not even sneaking, the tiefling had proven himself in a fight but stealth was not his forte. No, she had let her fascination with the coffin distract her in a way that her mentors would have beaten her for on her first training day.
A long exhale to calm herself followed. That did feel good, she thought with amusement. Jerax must have been paying attention when the Reverend "healed" her. So he too knew a secret of hers, more might follow in the future and having those one can trust is critical. Winning in tough fights together helps with such bonds.
Her posture relaxed and the thin, lithe woman slowly turned to the tall tiefling. I thank you, she purred, with a smile that again showed her too-long bicuspids. and please, call me Alyczandra. Taking a step back to stand alongside the Asmodean knight, she gestured towards the coffin, perhaps you would also like to help me open this?
Jerax nodded at Alyczandra, making sure there wasn't anything the tiefling could see interfering with it's opening, attempts to open the long box.
A search of Allamar's corpse turns up a few things:
A masterwork longsword emblazoned with the symbol of Iomedae on the hilt
Sling
Potion (unidentified; Allamar's body)
Two doses of Silversheen
Breastplate
Heavy Steel Shield
Silver Holy Symbol
Pearl
A key
40 gold
In the room north of the sanctuary (behind the blue curtains) is a locked wardrobe.
In the priestess's office, you find four scrolls, as well as the tome that Alixus already collected.
Alixus hears footprints, heavy but staggered and irregular, approaching from outside the doors of the narthex.
Slenk quickly casts a spell while concentrating on the items.
Alixus says quietly, "Strange footsteps from outside. We may have some more company coming."
"I believe those doors were barred when the Demi-Baroness tested them, are they still?"
"Perhaps I can dissuade them..."
Slenk moves into the Narthax, closes the door behind him, removes his sash and uses it as a cloth to begin lightly dusting furniture.
As Slenk adopts a posture to appear as a volunteer cleaning the church in the off hours, the door opens and through it stumbles an armored figure in a crimson and black tabbard. It's one of the archbaron's guards. His armor has been torn as if by a beast's claws with a deep rending wound in his gut and he is pale from a loss of blood.
When he sees Slenk, he is momentarily confused before recognition comes to him. "You, uh..." Where he would have already stumbled over how deferentially to refer to the former slip, in his present state he's completely befuddled and instead just skips to the point... "Staelish sent me, said you'd be here... The barkeep, the twins... he's a beast... we need help." He doesn't quite collapse but does wind up leaning heavily against the doorframe.
Slenk raises his voice to be heard by the others. "It appears we are needed elsewhere by the Archbaron, I believe we grab what we can and hurry!"
As the others gather in the room, the halfling pulls forth a potion of cure light wounds and feeds it to the guard. "That should keep you on your feet. Lead the way.."
”If there is work to be done, let us attend to it with haste. I must warn you, though, the favor my master has allocated me for the day is nearly expended.”
Alyczandra pulled her eyes off the coffin with some effort at Alixus' warning of footsteps at the door and darted back to Allamar's body, where she grabbed the potion, silversheen, pearl, key and gold for the party. Hoping that one of the others would grab the scrolls from the priestess' office, she then considered a hiding spot before Slenk announced that the group was needed elsewhere. The pale woman then ran over to the locked wardrobe and tried Allamar's key on it, giving up on it if it does not work. She then headed out with the others to follow the Archbaron's guard.
As the group follows the guard, Alixus says to him, ”Ensure some of your compatriots keep this place under constant watch. Seditious elements will likely see it as a valuable target.”
As the worst of his wounds slow and the least of them scab over, the guardsman dutifully rallies himself. He leads you through the church square, down the road at the southeast, then past the Trellis flowershop and to the edge of the open-air market. There, across the empty market, laid out before the jail's façade, is a scene of chaos. One of the stocks -- the one that held Caggan -- has been split in twain, the body of one guardsman lies facedown in the dirt and another leans against a post support the jail's porch.
Flames flicker from within the jail as a fire seems to be spreading, silhouetting Cimri, bleeding from multiple wounds, who is facing off against a beast-man in a fight for her life.
From the shadows at the edge of the jail, you hear a voice call out, "Caggan! Time to go, now!"
Perception DC 5:The voice from the shadows belongs to a male.
Perception DC 10:There are actually two figures in the shadows.
Perception DC 15:It's Loran and Lacall, the Allamar twins.
Jerax bellows across the empty market.
Alixus says calmly, but full of contempt, "Caggan, working with the Allamar twins. We should've hung him when we had the chance."
"I do recall favoring execution..." The halfling walks forward and tosses a pinch of sand into the air.
As the group approached the scene, Alyczandra attempted to hide and move in stealth to close the distance.
Seeing a pitched battle underway, Alyczandra sprinted forward, placing herself roughly equidistant from both the voices and the fight between Cimri and Caggan.
Jerax bellowed across the market, "CIMRI," while Alyczandra darted into the fray. Alixus calmly took in the scene while Slenk stepped forward and wove a spell to lure the twins to sleep. It was only partially effective as one of the twins slumped to the ground in an unconscious heap.
Cimri's attention flickered towards the sound of Jerax's voice and the slightest of smiles comes to her face. Unfortunately, the distraction was the opening the man-beast needed. He lowered his head and barreled into her, tusks burying into her chest and lifting her up before he shook his head and tossed her body to the ground.
From the shadows, "Bolgart! Enough!" One of the twins, clad in breastplate, kicked his unconscious sibling awake, and they began to retreat to the back of the jail.
The beast glowered at Alyczandra, Cimri's blood dripping from its tusks while claws glittered in the firelight growing inside the jail. He growled, "Next time..." With surprising quickness, he then darted about the corner of the jail to follow the twins.
Slenk calmly continues forward, again casting sand before him.
Slenk rushes forward to take stock of the situation, pacing behind his companions with his shorter legs.
Filled with rage and concern, instead of getting his revenge, Jerax ran to Cimri's side, and took one potion of cure light wounds and made the human rogue drink. "C'mon. Work. C'Mon. Work...", the tiefling murmured over his unconscious..What?..friend?..or maybe..love?
Yup! Standing Twin used a standard action to wake up Sleeping Twin, then move action to head 20' north. Sleeping Twin move action to stand, then standard action to head 30' north. Caggan standard action to gore Cimri, then move action for 40' while avoiding AoOs. While trying to handle this a little looser than a typical combat, I'm also trying to stay honest. (It's hard.) :)
I look forward to it, Alyczandra hissed back at the beast-man as he passed, her eyes locking with his until he moved on. The pale woman had hoped to take advantage of the slip's spell, but seeing the dead priestess' offspring running off changed her calculus.
A quick look around revealed no remaining threats, but Alyczandra frowned at Jerax as the tiefling administered a potion to the injured Cimri. Emotional attachments bring weakness...others may use that against him....maybe even Cimri herself...need to be careful there.
Keeping her swords drawn and her senses aware of her surroundings, she approached Cimri. So it seems things went...poorly here. Can you tell us what happened?
When Slenk tried again to send the twins to sleep, the slower moving one in the heavier armor fell to the ground. The other twin briefly paused, as though to turn back, but the massive beast that Caggan had turned into growled, "You said 'go', so 'go!' I've got 'im!" He bounded forward, scooped up the armored lad as if he were no heavier than a sack of potatoes, and the three fled into the shadows.
With the street lit with a flickering amber light from within the jail, Jerax knelt next to Cimri and fed her a potion. As her body was wracked by a painful shudder, she stopped bleeding out and returned to consciousness, though her wounds were still severe. Not only had she been gored in Caggan's last attack, one of her arms was slashed clear through to the muscle tissue and she had a deep, lacerating cut in her side. Fortunately, though, the bleeding had stopped.
As she came to, her eyes slowly focused on Jerax as a wan smile came to her lips, though it was fleeting as she remembered what had just happened. "Thank you..."
She slowly sat up and replied to Alyczandra directly, in too much pain to remember her distaste for the noblewoman. "You all went to the church but I stayed to watch the Allamar's house. When darkness fell, I was about to give up when the twins showed up, but they left almost as soon as they arrived. I followed them here to the jail. They seemed to have a plan because, once they got here, they didn't even pause. Lacall went right up to the guardsman on the porch while Loran went to Caggan's stock. Before we knew it, Lacall had knocked the guard unconscious, Caggan had turned into... into..." The paused, remembering the fight, but pushed her way through the memory, "...into that thing, broke the stock without Loran's help, and then s#** went sideways."
She looked past all of you towards the jail, the fire still growing inside it. "Lacall went inside. I started to charge Loran, but he cast something on me, holding me in place. Caggan went inside the jail, too. A patrol came around the corner just as the spell broke. I sent one of them to find you while the other guardsman and I tried to get into the jail, but then Caggan came out, and..."
She looks down at the daggers by her side, then shook her head. "I stabbed him, three of four times... Should have killed him, but it hardly did a thing."
She coughed and, as you gazed about the scene, you realized a small crowd was forming despite the curfew. With no sight of the twins or Caggan, the townsfolk seemed confused by the scene but alarmed by the fire. Someone yelled for buckets, and they slowly began to organize a bucket brigade to try to fight the fire.
Jerax carefully picks up the bloody human woman in his arms. "I'm taking her to Rohalendi’s. If I see them between here and there, they will die." The towering tiefling said with the same certainty as the sun rising in the morning. "Someone should report to the archbaron. I'll be at the hospice if you need me." With that, Jerax turns from the burning building and his comrades and walks into the night.
Slenk nods at Jerax, "Perhaps I should accompany the Demibaroness to the Archbaron while the Magister accompanies you. While we may wish to split up, it may not be optimal to spread our forces too thin and Cimri is quite injured. I will also again suggest, with some urgency, that we should pool our resources to acquire a wand of infernal healing. Being dependent on others for such matters presents significant security concerns."
"Then take my coin purse from my hip, AND GET IT DONE!" Jerax barked at the halfling in anger. "STOP TALKING ABOUT IT, AND DO IT ALREADY!!" The tiefling waited for Snenk to remove his coin purse, before continuing to the hospice, his arms occupied by Cimri.
Know Local on Caggan's transformation 1d20+8
Alyczandra listened dispassionately as Cimri explained what had occurred, and then nodded and turned towards the burning jail. She was about to take a look inside when Jerax's shouting at Slenk caught her attention. She had heard the halfling mention the wand again, but had made little of it.
He is rattled, and nothing good can come of it, she said to Slenk in a low voice after Jerax and Cimri were a distance away in the gloom. His...attachment to that girl could become a problem at some point. As it is, his first suggestion seems correct. He should report this situation to the Archbaron right away.
Alyczandra spares a moment to assess the jail, a bit curious if the previously caged captives had made it out before the fire started. Afterward she heads to the Archbaron's with Slenk.
While walking beside Alyczandra, Slenk mentioned what he observed of Caggan's transformation.
"Caggan's corruption seems to have manifested in a form of lycanthropy, a wereboar is the term for the piggish lout. I did see some wounds from Cimri's efforts, so it is likely that he is afflicted rather than natural born. If this is the case normal weapons can still harm him slightly, but we should still likely arm ourselves with silver to take him down."
Alyczandra takes a moment to observe the jail. It looks like it will be salvageable as the structure is largely made of stone rather than wood.
It's hard to tell what happened to the three deputies who had been jailed. The bodies of the two guardsmen are pulled away from the jail. One slowly wakes up, wincing from a giant welt on the side of his head. Someone pronounces the other guard alive but unresponsive.
Alyczandra approached the waking guard, as she did with Cimri showing little to no concern for the man's injured state. Guardsman! What became of the jailed captives who were inside? The Archbaron will be receiving a full report on this incident. If they have escaped it would be best he heard it up front, yes?
While questioning the guardsman, Alyczandra shows no concern for the burning building, and after receiving whatever answer she can about the fate of the captives she moves to head to Archbaron Fex's manor. If the subject of the fire comes up she simply shrugs, let them build another. Taking prisoners rather than simply executing has proven a poor choice.
Noticing Aleczandra's ambivalence about the fire, Slenk approaches the Magister. "While this is far out of my expertise, your oratory skills may prove valuable to organize efforts of the citizens to douse the blaze. The jail may be lost, but we would not want the fire to spread..."
Alixus nods, before stepping forward, saying in a loud, clear voice, ”Just as we, your protectors, do our part by hunting down the villains that started this fire, so too must you do yours. Extinguish the blaze in the name of law, order, and Longacre!”
Slenk chimes in, "Yes, we must all do our part...". However, his quiet, subservient demeanor do little to add to the Magisters presence.
"M'lady, I..." the guardsman winces and clutches the side of his head, blinks a few times, the continues, "I'm sorry, I... I don't know. All I remember is I was standing watch on the porch, one of the Allamar boys was approaching and then... nothing, m'lady, I'm sorry."
Alixus and Slenk try to rally the townsfolk to greater speed but it seems the people are a bit too stunned and confused, his voice not quite cutting through the commotion.
The noise and clamor from the events around the jail spreads through the area and, even at the Castle Gate, the old caretakers, Bo and Dent, have come out in their nightclothes and cast curious eyes towards the firelight. This is the moment when Jerax realizes that, by the Archbaron's own order, the gate was ordered closed. If he can't get this gate open in order to reach Rohalendi's -- practically on just the other side of this very gate -- will require a trip all the way to the southern end of the village and then back up along the western wall.
Meanwhile, Cimri slips into a delirious state. Her eyes are open but have lost focus and she seems to be babbling incoherently as she lifts a hand in front of her face and looks at the open palm. "So much blood, why is there so much... Not like theirs -- he's going to make me, she warned me, but..." Her head lolls about weakly then some lucidity seems to come to her as her eyes focus on Jerax's face over hers. "It's you, my knight, my..." She suddenly stops, a panicked look as she seems to see something else, then shrieks, "NOOOOOO!" With a shudder she seems to fall unconscious.
The Gramels look over towards Jerax, Cimri in his arms, finally noticing him over the excitement to the northeast, and seem shocked by the sight, unsure what to do.
"OPEN THE GATES!" Jerax bellowed. "MEDICAL EMERGENCY! BY ORDER OF ARCHBARON FEX, OPEN THIS GATE!!"
To call Jerax's utterance a "scream" would have ascribed a shrillness where the was none. The loud, forceful command jolted the Gramels back to their wits and, if they were cognizant of any irony in ordering the gate to be opened once more, it would only dawn on them later with some reflection. For the moment, one ran up the tower to the mechanism while the other went to the door and pulled it open as soon as the catch was released.
When Jerax charged by, old Dent caught a glimpse of the young Staelish woman in his arms and paled. In the tiefling's wake, Dent could be heard saying to Bo, "It's Rhona's niece... what -- what happened?"
From the gate, it is a short hundred feet or so to Rohalendi's hospice. Though it is the middle of the night and the house is quiet, Jerax is easily able to barge through the door and wake the residents. The doctor is quickly roused from her sleep and hurriedly rushes into the central hall wearing her nightgown and cap. "Calm down, everyone, Dawnflower save us, what is..."
Her admonition for calm comes to a pause when she sees Jerax and Cimri, her mouth briefly agape. It closes almost as quickly as a focused and determined look comes to her face. Looking squarely at Jerax, she points towards the back of the house, "Put her on the kitchen table, now!" To the more able residents, "Posta, there's a lockbox in the bottom drawer of the dresser in my room; go get it. Ario, gather the lanterns, light them, and bring them into the kitchen, all of them. Aida, keep the others calm and take care of them."
As Rohalendi and Jerax move into the kitchen, in a clear, clipped voice she demanded, "What caused these wounds? How long ago?"