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Motes of light gather around Garret's finger as the spell builds, until the pent-up energy is released in a radian lance of sacred light. Searing right through the enormous zombie, the halfing drags the beam through its torso and it collapses, cut in twain.
Eyes wide in shock and awe, the cultist's knuckles go white from his grip on his daggers. "I-immortality a-a-awaits me," he mutters it like a mantra, then lunges forward to try and drive his daggers through Garret's neck, but the halfling's shieldling magics turn the blades aside!
+ ROUND THREE +
Jando
Garret (-18hp)
Blue Cultist
Green Cultist (-22hp)
Ketra (-25hp)
Silvia (-14hp)
Sanduro x2 (-20hp)
Zsofia (-13hp)
Woman by Altar (-18hp)
Reaver Zombie
”Amazing! Good shot, Garret!”
With the fall of the enormous zombie, Sanduro changes the spell he was readying himself to cast and instead conjures up a small ball of flame and flings it at the green-garbed cultist. “Nothing awaits you save Pharasma’s judgment, you murderous wretch.”
Sanduro darts up the west aisle to get a better shot at the enemy spellcaster. Holding another little ball of fire in his palm, he waits for her to begin to cast another spell before flinging it at her.
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“Hey, kid, not so far! Wait for me!”
Zsofia throws a wild haymaker at the staggering cultist, then runs after Sanduro.
Confident that Silvia and Zsofia will finish off the remaining skulking cultist to the south, Ketra kicks into gear and rushes northward, circling around the pews to hem the evil spellcaster in.
Silvia keeps up her fire, focusing on the cultist now threatening Garret.
As Silvia guns down the wounded cultist the rest of the party turns north to deal with the spellcaster. As Sanduro and Ketra hem her in between the ancient pews, the woman bares her too-sharp teeth in a snarl. "Fools! Nothing you do here will make the slightest difference. You're dead already, you just don't know it yet!" A trio of black bolts fly from her clawed hand to pummel Ketra further.
"She's a wight," Jando growls, dropping his sword to scoop up his bow. With the smoothness of long practice he nocks an arrow and looses. "No fancy resistances, just put her down."
+ ROUND THREE +
Jando
Garret (-18hp)
Blue Cultist
Green Cultist
Ketra (-39hp)
Silvia (-14hp)
Sanduro x2 (-20hp)
Zsofia (-13hp)
Woman by Altar (-30hp)
Reaver Zombie
Maneuvering to get a clear shot now that the cultist is off of him, Garret sends a ray of holy sunlight towards her.
Ketra rights herself after being pummeled by the missiles. There's no place to hide from them, so she endeavors to keep pushing forward until the wight can't cast any more. She steps in and strikes twice with her knife.
Garret's light-beam narrowly misses the woman as she ducks behind the pew for cover, but the maneuver leaves her poorly place to evade Ketra's next slash which cuts deeply.
+ ROUND THREE +
Jando
Garret (-18hp)
Ketra (-39hp)
Silvia (-14hp)
Sanduro x2 (-20hp)
Zsofia (-13hp)
Woman by Altar (-42hp)
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Sanduro throws another ball of flame at the wight.
Zsofia moves up to flank the wight with Ketra . She doesn't bother clambering over the pews and broken timbers, but oozes through them instead.
Silvia advances on the hemmed-in wight mage, but unfortunately the shot jams, gumming up the inner workings instead of ejecting as intended. Jando's arrows prove more effective here, striking the wight in the leg but failing to put down the supernaturally resilient woman.
With an furious shriek the mage turns her long claws on Zsofia but the experience pugilist knocks the swipe aside with a mocking sneer.
+ ROUND FOUR +
Jando
Garret (-18hp)
Ketra (-39hp)
Silvia (-14hp; rifle Broken)
Sanduro (-20hp)
Zsofia (-13hp)
Wight Sorceress (-57hp)
With the sorceress hemmed in, Ketra enters an easy twirl, driving her mithril knife forward to bite at the wight's chest and neck.
Ketra's knife is perfectly aimed, neatly separating two vertebrate and dropping the wight in mid-shriek--she's crumbling to grave-dust before she even hits the ground.
As the noise of combat and gunfire fades, you can hear muffled shouts of alarm and the slamming of doors all around you--the ruined temple's new garrison knows you're here!
"Quickly, fall back to a defensible position lest we be overrun!" calls Garret, motioning towards the way they entered.
"You don't have to tell me twice Garret!" Ketra picks up anything the wight dropped and then leaps over the pews to head back to the south and the entrance to the room. "You don't happen to have some trick that'll hide us, do you?"
”No,” says Garret, ”But if there is a fire source I can possibly blind those in sight of it.”
"A fire?" Ketra quickly looks around the room for any burning torches or other possibilities to combo with Garret's magic. If there's none in view, she doesn't waste time investigating.
"That's easy enough!" Silvia shouts, pouring out a measure of powder from the horn on her hip. She raises her kukri above it, ready to strike a spark from the stone nearby. "Let me know when!"
"Light it up and get back here under cover," says Garret from the stairwell, "You need to be well away from it or behind cover to avoid being blinded yourselves!"
Sanduro runs to join Garret and Ketra by the south stair and holds up yet another ball of flame. “Come on, Silvia, Jando! I can light it up from here!”
Once the paladin and the archer reach the group or take cover, the druid looks over to Garret, waiting for his signal. Once the sorcerer gives the go ahead, Sanduro lobs the flame at the explosive power.
Silvia immediately lights the powder, waiting only long enough to confirm that it catches, and then runs.
Ketra waits only for the powder to begin burning and the foes to show their faces before booking it for the stairwell. She figures with the party injured, fighting foes one or two at a time sounds a lot better than all at once.
As the door opens, enemies begin to pour in--strange looking, bulky zombies covered in bonelike splint armor and long knifelike blades grafted to their fingers. Behind them you can see more women dressed similarly to the wight spellcaster you just fought.
As the draw near, Sanduro flings his ball of fire and ignites the black powder, Garret's own magic coaxing the burn into a white-hot flash! The zombies groan and shake their heads back and forth, and the nearest wight woman cries out in fury as she covers her eyes. Two of the muscular zombies cease groaning and start forward again after only a second, but the other continues fruitlessly shaking its head.
Lowering the hand that was shielding his eyes, Jando grunts in satisfaction at the effects of Garret's spell. Maneuvering around the pillar for an angle on the wight caster, he takes aim and delivers an arrow directly to her torso.
+ROUND ONE+
Jando
Silvia
Wight Yellow (-11hp, Blinded)
Wight Orange
Ketra
Garret
Necrocraft Red
Necrocraft Blue (Blinded)
Necrocraft Green
Sanduro
Zsofia
Ketra twirls her knives in her hands, ready to leap into action the moment one of those shambling monsters gets close.
Silvia works the action on her rifle as fast as she's able, pouring fire into one of the unblinded undead prowling forward. The blinded wight caster slowly feels her way back through the doorway she'd emerged from, muttering vile curses against you in Necril as she goes. From the same doorway emerges another researcher in similar garb. Glaring daggers at the one who hurt her sister, this newcomer sends a wave of stinging black bolts thudding into Jando.
"Gods damn it, how many of them are there?!" The ranger snarls. "The big ones are a sideshow, kill the mages first!"
The hulking undead headed your way are necrocrafts--a broad category of undead created by fusing together a variety of corpses from any number of creatures to create specialized servitors. Necrocrafts might fly, or burrow, or spread disease, or carry passengers, or any other use their creators have the resources and imagination for.
These particular necrocrafts appear to be large humanoids with heavily reinforced bodies and alchemically hardened bone armor in addition to knife-blades grafted to their overlong fingers. They are far hardier than your garden-variety zombie and no doubt those metal claws are nastier than their natural equivalents.
+ROUND ONE+
Jando (-13hp)
Silvia
Wight Yellow (-11hp, Blinded 1/2)
Wight Orange
Ketra
Garret
Necrocraft Red (-14hp)
Necrocraft Blue (Blinded 0/3)
Necrocraft Green
Wight Purple
Sanduro
Zsofia
Ketra pauses, waiting for a good moment to strike.
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Garret tries to fight through the mental fuzziness of the curse to identify the undead...
"These are necrocraft undead foot soldiers--avoid their claws if you can!" says Garret. He then sends a fireball their way (green circle) to try and slow them down and/or take out some weak or slow ones.
Garret's fireball engulfs the crowd of enemies advancing across the cathedral; two of the necrocrafts are charred to husks, with only the blinded one evading the worst of it through sheer dumb luck. The wight sorcereress also avoids being burned too badly, though her outfit and hair are scorched and blackened.
As the flames die down yet another wight emerges from the doorway, hands already moving through the motions of a spell and sending a fusillade of black bolts whirring unerringly towards Garrets--but the halfling's shield absorbs the bolts a handspan from his body. Both wights snarl in frustrated rage, lips pulling back to reveal too-sharp teeth.
+ROUND ONE+
Jando (-13hp)
Silvia
Wight Yellow (-11hp, Blinded 1/2)
Wight Orange (-21hp)
Garret
Necrocraft Red
Necrocraft Blue (-21hp, Blinded 0/3)
Necrocraft Green
Wight Purple
Ketra
Sanduro
Zsofia
+ROUND TWO+
Jando (-13hp)
Silvia
Wight Yellow (-11hp, Blinded 1/2)
Wight Orange
Garret
Necrocraft Red
Necrocraft Blue (Blinded 0/3)
Necrocraft Green
Wight Purple
Ketra
Sanduro
Zsofia
----
Ketra rushes in to finish off the straggler among the necrocrafts, slicing at its neck with her mithril knife.
Sanduro puts a hand on Ketra’s shoulder before she runs back into the fray. “Pharasma, please close the worst of Ketra’s wounds so that she may live to destroy more of these unliving abominations.”
Sanduro invokes a quick bit of healing on Ketra, who rushes forward to slash at the remaining necrocraft. Unfortunately her knife scrapes against the bone armor, scoring it without biting deeper. Jando and Silvia reposition before putting a bullet into the necrocraft and an arrow into the wight sorceress.
+ROUND TWO+
Jando (-13hp)
Silvia
Wight Yellow (-11hp, Blinded 1/2)
Wight Orange
Garret
Necrocraft Blue (-21hp; Blinded 2/3)
Wight Purple
Ketra
Sanduro
Zsofia
+ROUND THREE+
Jando (-13hp)
Silvia
Wight Yellow (-11hp, Blinded 1/2)
Wight Orange
Garret
Necrocraft Blue (-36hp Blinded 3/3)
Wight Purple (-9hp)
Ketra
Sanduro
Zsofia
Worried about more spells coming from the wights, Garret moves to where he can see the two who have entered the room and the open doorway behind them. He then centers another fireball as close to the doorway as he can, as long as it still gets both of the wight spellcasters.
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As Garret's fireball detonates a chorus of pained screams is followed by streaks of movements as the two nearest wights dart in opposite directions. Another wave of black bolts slam into Silvia and Jando.
"Kastri, you useless b+%~@! Get out here! Defend your master's hall!" Purple yells over you shoulder.
"I'm blind!" Yellow snarls back. "That little bastard! I'll eat his tongue and flay his fingers while he watches!"
The remaining necrocraft swings powerful but ill-aimed strikes at Ketra, who easily evades the blinded undead.
+ROUND TWO+
Jando (-23hp)
Silvia (-12hp)
Garret
Wight Yellow (-50hp, Blinded 2/2)
Wight Orange (-19hp)
Necrocraft Blue (-36hp; Blinded 2/3)
Wight Purple (-19hp)
Ketra
Sanduro x2
Zsofia x2
+ROUND THREE+
Jando (-23hp)
Silvia (-12hp)
Garret
Wight Yellow (-50hp)
Wight Orange (-19hp)
Necrocraft Blue (-36hp Blinded 3/3)
Wight Purple (-19hp)
Ketra
Sanduro
Zsofia
Round 1: Sanduro takes a 5-foot step and uses Healer's Hands to patch up the worst of Garret's wounds.
Sanduro stumbles and somehow discharges positive energy ineffectively over the halfling's head. "Sorry, Garret! Give me a moment to tie down one of these wights and I'll try again!"
Round 2: When the wights split up, Sanduro casts crypt burning sands. Sand floods the floor a foot deep around the orange-garbed wight, centered a little closer to the party. Flames erupt from the shifting sand at random intervals throughout the area.
Sanduro draws his +1 dagger.
Round 1: Zsofia glides forward to keep up with Ketra, double-moving to get into position to flank the blinded blue necrograft on her next turn.
Round 2: "C'mon Ketra, let's take this ugly down and then bring the stabby boom to the weird wight witch woman!"
With a 5-foot step, the phantom flanks the necrograft and delivers an uppercut followed by a haymaker aimed at its stolen jaw.
"Wow, nice swings Zsofia!" Ketra flourishes her knife with a grin for the phantom, then wheels toward the purple wight. She closes the distance to the purple wight with a cartwheel, then strikes with a flick of her wrist.
Seeing a clear shot on the purple wight from his current position, Garret unleashes a holy ray of sunlight at the creature, then he moves back under a bit more cover...just in case.
Wounded and outmatched, the two wight casters reposition, the one trapped in Sanduro's whirlwind of sand struggling free, while the other gets some distance from Ketra and sends a wave of black bolts thudding into Sanduro.
As Sanduro conjures a cyclone of burning sands, Zsofia contributes to the blinded necrocrafts demise with a pair of vicious bone-splitting strikes that leave it crumpled in a heap at her feet. Rushing past, Ketra delivers a slash against the defensively-raised arm of the nearest wight sorceress. Snarling in fury, she hops back from the dancer's blades and begins to weave a spell--only for Garret's beam of white-hot light to sear through her torso! On a living being such a blow would have been fatal, but her unholy resilience sees her survive the strike even as her spell-weaving is lost.
Piling on, Jando and Silvia turn their weapons on the sun-scorched wight. Though Silvia's bullets send shards of broken stone spalling off the pillar, Jando's arrows find their mark!
+ROUND THREE+
Jando (-23hp)
Silvia (-12hp)
Garret
Wight Yellow (-50hp; no longer blinded)
Wight Orange (-19hp)
Wight Purple (-80hp)
Ketra
Sanduro (-8hp)
Zsofia
+ROUND FOUR+
Jando (-23hp)
Silvia (-12hp)
Garret
Wight Yellow (-50hp)
Wight Orange (-19hp)
Wight Purple (-80hp)
Ketra
Sanduro (-8hp)
Zsofia
Sanduro falls backwards with the impact of the arcane projectiles, dropping prone , then begins to cast a spell of his own.
"Lady of Graves, give me the power to strike down these enemies of the living!" Over the next six seconds, he recites a long verse from The Bones Land in a Spiral about the cleansing power of storms.
Over the next round, Sanduro attempts to cast crypt call lightning .
Zsofia starts to charge after the badly-injured wight, but feels a tug pulling her back before she completes a single step. She looks back at Sanduro and scowls. "Kid, you're keeping me out of the fight! You need to move closer to the ... oh, brilliant, the old 'fall over and play dead' ploy."
She calls out to Ketra, "I think you're gonna have to take her the rest of the way down yourself! I can't get any further from the stupid kid!"
Muttering angrily to herself, the phantom glides - in a stompy way - back to the druid and glares down at him while he prays.
Unable to line up a clear shot on either of the remaining wights, Garret evokes a brilliant flash of holy energy in a sphere around the yellow wight's body, hoping to blind it so it can't keep casting magic missiles at his allies!
He then takes some cover himself behind one of the columns.
rounds
With a flick of her wrist to remove the purple wight's blood from her knife, Ketra turns and crosses the cathedral with long, loping strides. Her advance takes her to up near the orange wight in a matter of seconds.
Jando and Silvia move up, the latter putting an arrow into the wight Ketra is menacing while Silvia's shot shatters the pew the undead sorceress is hiding behind in a hail of splinters. Garret's spell-working burns and blinds the wight, who howls in fury and fear as the spell she was working on is lost.
Her sister staggers back out of the side room, eyes blinking and hot with rage. "There you are," she hisses with menacing sweetness at the halfling not-quite-hidden behind the pillar. With a word and a gesture she sends a trio of black bolts zipping towards Garret, arcing perfectly around the pillar only to slam against his ward in a ripple of magic.
"He's warded you half-wit!"
"You might have said so you useless clod!"
There is a clear edge of fear beneath the exchange--these two are losing badly, and they know it.
+ROUND FOUR+
Jando (-23hp)
Silvia (-12hp)
Garret
Wight Yellow (-50hp)
Wight Orange (-39hp)
Wight Purple
Ketra
Sanduro (-8hp)
Zsofia
+ROUND FIVE+
Jando (-23hp)
Silvia (-12hp)
Garret
Wight Yellow (-50hp)
Wight Orange (-39hp)
Ketra
Sanduro (-8hp)
Zsofia
Ketra leans back as Garret's burst of divine radiance engulfs the wight. Even as she does so though, she's adjusting her stance. A moment later she falls into a practiced flurry of whirling stabs, all aimed for orange's center of mass but coming from different angles.
With the orange wight blinded and another one showing up on scene, Garret doesn't want to take the chance that this new one has more powerful spells than the other two. Lacking a clear line of fire at the newly-arrived creature, he instead drops Holy Light all around it, hoping to blind it as well!
(vs. yellow)
rounds.