Dadna takes some time curing Fley while the others look around. Leothar finds nothing hidden the the crypt; all is smashed and ash.
Ian and Ardriel look outside and in the distance they see their armies have all stopped and are concentrating on something but at this distance it is hard to tell which direction they are looking. The crypt entrance faces east and you see nothing apparent.
Turning back towards the others, Ian nods in answer to Dadna's question. "Sort of a roaring, I can't see anything apparent, but the armies have all stopped and are concentrating on something." He gestures towards the tomb. "There is something about the tomb that blocks the light from my faith. Maybe we can come back and cleanse it once we take the city." Pointing his sword towards the army for emphasis. "But for now, maybe we should see what's going on."
Without waiting, Ian moves outside of the crypt, where he may be able to get a better look.
Without waiting, Ian moves outside of the crypt, where he may be able to get a better look.
Without waiting, Ian moves outside of the crypt, where he may be able to get a better look.
"I think there is something more in here - something the undead were guarding - but maybe now is not the time to search if there is a problem outside."
Leothar moves outside with Ian.
Fley sighs while following Leothar and Ian. "See anything up ahead?". His old eyes scan the horizon while the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Anton takes a position up front, trying to cover his allies.
…with Dadna standing behind Anton, ready to support her allies with the reach of her weapon.
Ardriel cautiously emerges from the mausoleum, looking for the source of the roaring.
As the group assembles they look around and see a large creature with three heads that swoops in. They can see heads of a snow leopard, a white dragon, and a mountain goat. It swoops in and breaths a cone of freezing wind and shards of jagged ice (on the group as it lands.
Initiative Order
Enemy
Dadna, Leothar, Ian, Fley
Enemy
Ardriel, Anton
and -10
Round 1
Dadna, Leothar, Ian and Fley up (in any order)
Feeling the icicles crush and penetrate his armor, Ian looks up and sees the large dragon goat leopard headed creature that the army had been watching. He again calls on his bastion of good as the thing lands in front of him. Lifting the longsword he chops repeatedly at the creature, glad that the thing had attacked them instead of the more vulnerable troops in the army.
Charging through the freezing cold, Dadna swung her weapon upon the beast. Again and again she swung it, using momentum and her divine powers to push herself as far as she could go.
Leothar will Smite Evil, 5' step, and attack the monster.
"Fley, can you heal us?"
Fley manages to dodge the breath attack of this creature. ).
Curiously, Fley examines the creature, seeing if he knows anything more about it.
Not knowing what the creature is, Fley focuses in on his companions and notices just how hurt they all are.
"Watch out! This may sting a little bit."
Ian activates his Bastion of Good to protect the party but can't hit the creature. Dadna moved forward and managed to get one solid hit on the beast. Leothar moves up and smites the creature but can't seem to hit it. Fley then channels to heal everyone.
The creature then attacks Ian. The dragon head misses him but the Leopard head bites him and the goat head gores him. The claws can't seem to get through his armor.
Round 1
Anton, Ardriel UP
S-19
Leothar watches as the Sacred Shield is bit and gored. The healing from Fley is all that is keeping Ian upright.
"Ardriel, heal Ian!"
Antone swings around and uses his divine powers to defend his allies.
"Yarnala, help Ian!" Ardriel steps away from the creature as the raven hops over to Ian, brushing him with its talons to heal his wounds a bit.
"Try to surround the creature so it can't breath ice on all of us."
He then focuses on the creature and calls out to Yuelral to aid him as he fought this creature, and, risking retaliation, fires two arrows at it that miss.
Antone moves up and adds his divine protection to the group. Ardriel steps back and asks Yarnala to heal Ian. The little bird moves up and brushes Ian with his wing healing him. Ardriel then looses two arrows but fails to hit the creature.
The chimera then attacks Ian again. This time it only manages to get a claw into him.
Round 2
Dadna, Leothar, Ian and Fley up
S-19
Leothar hammers away with Radiance.
He will use Fleet Charge as a swift action for an extra attack, though he will only move 10'.
He delivers three solid blows to the beast (I think).
Again and again Dadna swung her weapon at the beast, her own wounds healing as she inflicted damage upon it.
Fley runs around the others to get a better angle at the large creature in front of him.
"Argh!!! Die creature die!"
With his kukri, he stabs up at the goat head. "Evil beast! Rot in Hell!"
Feeling Fley heal him as the the creature attacks again, Ian is unable to fend off all the creatures attack. He starts to bleed profusely confused as the chief orders Ardriel to heal him again. Feeling the healing rush through him as the raven's talon brushes him, Ian is shocked as the creature attacks again. He lifts his shield as the Leopard head tries to bite him, avoiding the dragon head's bite and the goat horns, he's raked again by the claws. Almost screaming out, "The thing is twice as fast as I!"
Realizing the beast is targeting him, he breaths a prayer, putting his longsword to his lips. "Iomedae help me!" He shifts his feet raising the shield, preparing to defend against the creatures onslaught.
Leothar calls down his god's wrath on the chimera and pounds it twice but doesn't seem to do the damage he expected. He then calls on his mythic abilities and moves past the beast as the dragon head misses him and pounds the beast again this time knowing the full thrust has gone through. Dadna then managed to pound the beast once. Fley moves up to engage but misses the creature. Ian switches to a defensive stance which seems to draw the creature in even more as he prays to Iomadae and heals himself.
The chimera looks a bit more desperate in it's attacks on Ian as it begins to be surrounded.
Round 2
Anton and Ardriel Up
S-105
Bolstered by Dadna, Anton does his best to help bring the creature down.
"This chimera is no ordinary chimera! It resists all weapons that are not cold iron or aligned with the forces of good, as well as something else. Like demons, it is immune to electricity and poisons, as well as resisting burning through flame, acid, or intense cold! As we experienced, its breath weapon is far more potent than a normal Chimera."
Ardriel takes another step back as Yarnala hops along the ground towards him, then looses two cold iron arrows.
Anton moves and slashes the beast twice. Ardriel then let's the group know about the chimera and fires two arrows at it, but only one hits the creature.
The creature again unleashes all of it's fury on Ian but doesn't break through his defenses.
Round 3
Dadna, Leothar, Ian and Fley up
S-154
”We can do this!” Dadna called out as she laid into the beast. ”Don’t let it flee, bring it down!”
Dadna swings her weapon and pounds the dragon head causing it to slump, she then manages to heat the leopard and goat heads causing it to fall to the ground dead!
The armies let out a cheer as they see the beast fall to the ground. Silence now falls over the cemetery though it is still dark and slimy feeling where you are. You are filled with hope and strength as you savor your victory.
"Well struck, Dadna!"
Leothar assesses the situation. "Ian, thank you. I know that this tactic does not exactly cover you in glory. Even so, Torag teaches that a strong defense is essential.
In the history of dwarven warfare, we have needed to emphasize defense because we dwarves cannot replenish our losses as fast as orcs can. But the situation here is somewhat analogous. There are just a small handful of us who have been given this power by Fate, and seemingly endless demons ahead of us."
Breathing out a heavy sigh, Ian nods in agreement. "Yes, well struck indeed." Sheathing the longsword he looks at the front of his shield to see if the monster scratched it any. Realizing Leothar had started to compliment him the young paladin blushes. When Leothar finishes speaking; "Um Thanks Leothar, but all the credit really goes to Iomedae I just stood here and held the shield."
Unconsciously he flexes his mutilated right hand in the shield harness. "Besides I stopped looking for glory a few years back. Now I just want to help." He looks at the others, standing near. "The chiefs right, we can do this if we work together."
Gesturing towards the crypt they had exited. "Do you think we can do anything right now to cleanse the crypt, or should we wait until the city has been delivered?"
"It was a lucky hit." She muttered, looking down at the corpse. She realized, at that moment, on how much more effective it was to pick her blows carefully. So many attacks had rained down upon the creature, but it was the final one to the side of the head which had felled it. There was much to think about there.
With a deep breath she responded to Ian. "Leothar is right. Ye held your ground. While the Inheritor works through ye, the amount of power that is channeled is limited by what we can hold. But as for the question, I say that we leave it for now. We're on the outskirts of the city, and they can sally forth at any time. We don't even know if they have more of these beasts. There will be much reconsecration to do once we have Drezen back in Crusader hands."
"I disagree - the aura about this place could cause the ghouls here to return, and other creatures of evil will likely feel its draw and come in to inhabit it. We should deal with this now."
As the Heroes discuss their plans Yarnala lands next to him and suddenly transforms into a a tiny pantherlike dark-blue almost black cat, with green eyes and a red blaze on it's chest. It looks up at Ardriel and says in the celestial tongue "It is time for me to reveal my true form to you young Ardriel. Yuelral has sent me to guide you to becoming all you can in service to her. You are always so dirty after a fight." Yarnala raises a paw and Ardriel is clean from head to foot. Yarnala then looks around and shivers and says "Let's get out of this evil shadow and you all can decide what you shall do next."
Leothar regards the celestial cat with some interest and respect.
"A blessing indeed, Ardriel."
He follows the cat out of the shadow of the crypt.
"I think Ardriel is right, and we should at least investigate to see if we can do anything about the evil aura on the crypt.
I would suggest that we gather our advisors; Irabeth, Aravashnial, Sosiel, and Aron.
There may be magic needed to remove the evil that is beyond our abilities.
But Ardriel, can you first determine what we are dealing with?"
Ardriel is shocked by Yarnala's revelation, but he nonetheless says, "Thank you, Yarnala, for placing this trust in me. I can only hope I will prove myself worthy of this."
Once outside, he says, "I can't say for certain. Let me search for magical auras."
”Just as we debate on whether to go further, a literal divine intervention occurs. Let us proceed then, and see what we might do.”
Seeing Yarnala transform into an oddly marked panther-like creature, Ian smiles at its comment about Ardriel's cleanliness and follows the others out of the shadow.
Feeling like a child listening to the adults talk, Ian curses his youth and inexperience as he listens to Ardriel, Leothar and Dadna discuss what to do. As Leothar suggests they gather the advisors, Ian volunteers. "I'll go fetch them chief."
Moving quickly to where the armies leadership were located he invited them to return to with him to join the discussion. Returning to the others with the advisors, Ian asks, "So what have we figured out?"
Anton nods, frowning in concentration. "I agree, the evil in this crypt reeks of something that must be undone, but the means to do that feel beyond me. If we have other allies at our disposal who might provide guidance in how to do that, let us consult them."
Ardriel casts detect magic and examines the the vault and detects a sphere of magic radiating out 40 feet from the center spire of the vault.
Fley doesn't know a thing!
Ardriel studies the magic auras for a moment but can't discern what is going on.
As Leothar suggests they gather the advisors, Ian volunteers. "I'll go fetch them chief."
Moving quickly to where the armies leadership were located he invited them to return to with him to join the discussion. Returning to the others with the advisors, Ian asks, "So what have we figured out?"
Ian returns with Irabeth, Anvenn, Aravashnial, Aron, Sosiel and surprisingly Horgus. When explained what is going on Aravashnial moves toward the vault and casts a spell. He studies the area for a while and then says, "The structure has an unhallow effect on it with a darkness spell tied to it. You would need to dispel the darkness spell and hallow the structure."
"That would require a powerful cleric to do, would it not? Anyways, it is far beyond the power available to me." Dadna said.
Knowing even less than his companions about magic, Ian frowned slightly when Dadna, the most capable divine caster among them explained it was beyond her abilities. Looking to Aravashnial, he asked "Is that something you would be able to do?"
Aravashnial shakes his head at Ian, "That is divine magic, not arcane. Sosiel would be the one to talk to about divine magic but I don't think he is capable of casting hallow. Anyone capable of casting dispel magic would be able to take care of the darkness but the unhallow has to be countered by hallow."