"Remember though, we saw that note. The Crows might be on a murder spree right now, but they're targets for Gildais too. Loose ends." Ketra sighs. It all seems so crazy spoken out loud.
Leaving Dondun tied to his chair, you quickly locate the Precentor as she conducts her own interview-interrogation of Brunna Sootbeard in another room down the hall. Heliu excuses herself from the room to listen grimly as you relay your findings.
"Your judgement has been good so far; unless he's a very talented liar it seems he's just habitual criminal who's found himself in over his head with death cultists who are making a much bigger play. It troubles me that we don't know what they wanted the Shield fragments for--they wouldn't have gone to the trouble for no reason." She eyes Zsofia suspiciously but doesn't say anything further on the matter.
"I dispatched several of my agents already to bring in Ranton Gandry for questioning. I've not yet been informed of their return but I'll send a second team to back them up, just in case. I know we've asked a lot of you already, but I'd like you all to retrieve Lieutenant Doeswn, if she's still alive. She commands a watchpost on the North Road, maybe two hours' ride from the city. Can you ride?"
"Not even a little! But I think we've got a wagon we could take. We're definitely going to give Doeswen a visit - and maybe even get a hold of one of these Crows in the process." Ketra thinks for a moment then adds "You know, do you have a messenger bird we could take with us? Just in case we need to send word back more urgently than we can travel?" She glances at the others to see if they have anything else they would suggest.
Heliu frowns, then turns and sends one of her aides sprinting away only to return in a few minutes with a small figurine.
"This is one of my personal message delivery tools; given the circumstances I lend it to you now."
"Be careful, but above all be swift."
LAMASHAN 5, 4PM
You take your leave of the War College and make your way down the hill to the Pathfinder compound nearer to the docks. This time the guards at the door quickly usher you in to meet the Lodge's quartermaster, a bespectacled, grey-haired halfling named Deona. When she sees you, she snaps her fingers and retrieves a set of papers--the requisition list you'd provided the Pathfinder Society the day before.
"Took a lot of doing to get all this on such short notice, the Venture Captain must like you quite a bit! Never had to move so much on such short notice before," she grumbles good-naturedly.
Ketra thanks Heliu for the raven figurine (though she's hoping someone else knows how a paperweight is supposed to send messages) and waves "We'll be as fast as we can."
Once at the Pathfinder compound, she grins to Deona "Not sure if she likes us or just wants us out of her hair and getting things done. Thanks for the help." She shies back from the horses and gets into the wagon that the quartermaster has obtained. Once inside she checks out the bundle of goods bought with money from the Boneyard and other unbelievable locales. It seems strange to be so well equipped. She dons her new armor, passing the loaner back to Deona, and buckles all her new bits and bobs on.
Silvia raises an eyebrow at the veritable treasure trove, clearly impressed. Not bad.
Feeling a bit better prepared to take on your foes, your group piles into the wagon and begins the slow process of picking your way out of town. Even with most citizens being cooperative the sheer press of festival-goers slows your progress and it takes well over an hour to get out of Vigil's Northgate. Luckily the crowds thin out quickly after that and you're able to pick up the pace on the road that winds its way northwards.
The temperature drops as evening arrives, hovering somewhere just over freezing as you pull your cloaks more tightly around you, and the shadows grow long as you roll your way towards the checkpoint. From the directions you'd been given if should be more than a mile ahead, likely less--and that's when you smell smoke. Charred wood and hot metal; the checkpoint's garrison no doubt has its own cookfires and braziers to keep the sentries warm, but your minds cannot help but conjure darker causes.
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Ketra winces at the smell of char, memories of the fire elemental burning down the smithy still fresh in her mind. "Lets go in quick. If this is another arson there may be people still to save."
You decide to push the wagon up closer, the jangle of harness and labored grunts from your mules preceding you as your make your up the little ridgeline that the road cuts through. In the dying light you can just make out the outline of the outpost, cut into the rocks of the ridgetop, and you dismount to continue afoot. The smell of char only gets stronger.
As you move close enough to make out details of the checkpoint, you behold an imposing stone wall thirty feet tall that blocks the roadway entirely, its gates open but its portcullis down. Just inside the gate is the smoldering remnants of a burned building--barrack, tollhouse, whatever purpose it served before it's now a smoking pile of rubble. Worse still, three corpses hang from ropes tied off to the wall's crenelations; they slowly twist and turn, the stone behind them spattered with red smears.
Two of the hanging bodies have the stiffness of rigor mortis, but the third twitches weakly--astonishingly, they seem to be alive still, though given their condition that won't last for long.
With only the last rays of sunset for light, the hoardings atop the wall cast it deep into gloom. Still, you think you spot movement up their--two or three figures, armed and moving stealthily. An ambush!
Ketra draws her weapons as she takes in the still-smoldering building "We were too late... but maybe not by too long. The ones behind this might still be around somewhere. Or we might find tracks or signs that give us a way to find them. Anyone else see anything?" She looks around the front of the outpost, in hopes of seeing some kind of tracks that might reveal someone or multiple someones leaving the location.
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"Let's move up and see what we can do...perhaps there is more to be found closer," suggests Garret.
As they approach, Garret will cast Shield on himself in case there are enemies still about.
Likewise, Silvia readies her rifle and scans the surroundings, before turning her attention to the hanging bodies. Her eyes widen in realization and she begins to take a step forward but stops as soon as she's started.
She whispers to the others, trying not to give anything away by turning her head. "One's alive, barely. Armed men waiting a bit past them, doubt they're friendly."
”If you are relatively sure they are foes, I can drop a Burst of Radiance on them. It will only hurt them if they are evil,” offers Garret.
Silvia spots the glint of faint light on steel arrowheads, giving her a split second to react before the ambush is sprung!
+ SURPRISE ROUND +
Silvia
Mysterious Attackers
+ ROUND ONE +
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Ketra
Mysterious Attackers
Rosalind
Garret
"Anyone who would come to this place to burn it down likely is."
Ketra scans the area around the hanging bodies for a way to lower the survivor Silvia identified safely, prior to the fight starting. She trusts Silvia's eye, but it seems anyone who looks that badly hurt likely needs immediate medical attention.
Silvia reacts immediately, stepping clear of Ketra with her rifle already raised to her shoulder. The satisfying crack of a gunshot soon follows.
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Silvia whirls and snaps off a shot at the shapes, catching one in the shoulder before your enemies can loose their own shots. A cry of pain and some shouting in orcish precedes a return volley of barbed arrows with black fletching. One narrowly misses Silvia and another scrapes against Zsofia's ectoplasmic skin without piercing it, but a third sinks into the paladin's leg with a meaty thump.
"~Damn, they spotted us!~"
"GAH! She shot me!"
">So SHOOT THEM BACK!!
+ ROUND ONE +
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia (-9hp)
Ketra
Orc Raider Blue (-20hp)
Orc Raider Red
Orc Raider Green
Rosalind
Garret
Silvia's stride falters briefly, but she presses forward with gritted teeth, covering her allies' advance with a steady fusillade, all while roaring at the raiders in their own language.
Seeing a passage into the hill and an opening up top on the wall, Ketra puts two and two together. "Maybe I can reach them going up through there. The rest of you, take cover if you can, or follow me." She rushes eastward into the passage, though she halts if she comes across any opposition.
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Ketra sprints towards the stairs leading up into the gatehouse, advancing down the hall towards the ominously open door to the main structure. She reaches the doorway just as a new opponent does the same from the opposite door—a tall, hairless undead thing with a mouth full of sharp teeth whose jagged flamberge and runic tattoos give it an unmistakable aura of menace. Coming up behind Ketra a little less nimbly Zsofia gasps. ”Damn, he’s ugly! Like really ugly! Just horribly, amazingly, eye-wateringly ug—“
”We get it, Zsofia!” Sanduro moves to take cover in the mouth of the gatehouse tunnel before joining the return fire at the orcs on the wall. His arrow finds its mark, injuring one of the orcs even as a hail of fire from the paladin finishes off her target.
Chuckling evilly, the undead creature lunges across the guardroom at Ketra, swinging its heavy blade with alarming ease; even the agile dancer is unable to avoid a vicious slash—worse still, she feels a numbing chill spread down her spine, as though the sword itself were draining her life!
The two remaining orcs send out another volley of arrows, focusing on the proven threat--Silvia avoids the first but catches a second through her upper arm, though she's far from down or out.
+ ROUND ONE +
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia (-9hp)
Ketra (-15hp; 1 negative level)
Orc Raider Blue
Orc Raider Red (-6hp)
Orc Raider Green
Rosalind
Garret
+ ROUND TWO +
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia (-18hp)
Ketra (-15hp; 1 negative level)
Orc Raider Blue
Orc Raider Red (-6hp)
Orc Raider Green
Rosalind
Garret
”We’ve got the archers, but we’ll need help getting the hanged person down without injuring him,” responds Garret, preparing a spell to target the two remaining orcish archers.
At the last second, Garret decided to cast Fly on Rosalind and
says, ”I can’t cast on both archers without risking hitting the hanging person. Can you fly up to engage them?”
"Get into cover, Garret!" Silvia shouts, letting up her fire long enough to make a break for the passageway herself. As she runs, she tugs at one of the prayer beads hanging on a strand from her rifle, invoking one of Ragathiel's war blessings.
---
Ketra whirls back from the strike, regretting the lack of the heavy barkskin that Sanduro usually provides. She stabilizes her stance and then goes in to deliver a flashy feint before twirling into a pair of biting stabs with her dagger.
Her dagger flares with searing light as it hits, immolating the undead creature before her.
|
”We’ve got the archers, but we’ll need help getting the hanged person down without injuring him,” responds Garret, preparing a spell to target the two remaining orcish archers. ”Damn, I can’t cast on both archers without risking hitting the hanging person. Can you fly up to engage them?”
Stopping dead in her tracks, Rosalind glances at the presumed dead bodies. "What do you 'getting the hanged person' - Oh god, one of them is alive!?" 'What was I thinking? How did they notice? How did I NOT notice? Is the stress of this investigation getting to me?"
Shaking her head, she quickly nods at Garret's suggestion to fly up, accepted his spell and turned towards the orcs, hoping she would still be in time...
Ketra's payback is as elegant as it is ruthless; the dancer pirouettes with the force of the slash across her ribs, coming back around to drive her dagger up under the undead warrior's ribs. The magic imbued by Garret flares to life, burning the creature from the inside out and leaving nothing but a smoking husk.
"That's what you get when you mess with us! Me and Ketra, undead slayers!" Zsofia flexes and poses, then moves into the room with a pat on the dancer's shoulder as she passes. She crosses the room to the other door, peering left and right but not moving too far ahead. Sanduro, satisfied that Rosalind was taking the fight to the archers on the wall, hurries to catch up with Ketra and his phantom.
Silvia moves towards the tunnel and offers a divine blessing and Garret gives Rosalind the power of flight. Thus empowered, the Watchknight captain surges forward, a single brutal strike taking her foe's head from their shoulders.
Heavy boots thud on stone as someone thunders down the stairs towards where Ketra, Zsofia, and Sanduro have gathered. The phantom gawps as a hulking grey-skinned orc, easily over seven feet tall and likely well over three hundred pounds of muscle comes around the corner. Lips peeling back in a snarl, the strange black-eyed orc closes in and delivers a nasty cut to Zsofia with a jagged falchion. From somewhere up the stairs, a woman's voice intones the incantations of a spell.
As Rosalind immediately slays his companion, the third orc fires off a panicked shot that misses badly, then turns and runs for the stairs leading down.
+ ROUND TWO +
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia (-18hp)
Ketra (-15hp; 1 negative level)
Strange Hulking Orc
Orc Raider Red
Orc Raider Green
Unseen Spellcaster
Rosalind
Garret
+ ROUND THREE +
Sanduro
Zsofia (-11hp)
Silvia (-18hp)
Ketra (-15hp; 1 negative level)
Strange Hulking Orc
Orc Raider Green
Unseen Spellcaster
Rosalind
Garret
|
|
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Rosalind lets the orc run - saving her comrade was more important than striking down this lowlife. She ignores the numbing pain of more of her allies drawing from her lifeforce and reaches down to pull the prisoner back up on the ramp. "Hang on!" She says - then winces over her poor choice of words.
Garret moves south to join Rosalind from below, but he stops long enough to cast a spell on the fleeing orc archer, hoping to eliminate or delay the threat.
(sonic damage and daze 1 round).
He looks worriedly up at the barely alive prisoner, hoping he and Rosalind can save the lone remaining survivor.
Ketra whispers to Sanduro and Zsofia "Back off, draw them out while we can." If they agree, she heads north herself and rounds the corner.
Silvia bounds up the steps two at a time, invoking another blessing for her own strength of arms, aiming her rifle down the hall to the south.
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Zsofia slams an elbow at gigantic ugly orc.
She isn’t sure he even noticed, but she sure does - it feels like she broke her ectoplasmic elbow on his stomach. She doesn’t wait around to f8d out, but takes off running instead.
“Go kid go go GO!” The phantom slams through the doors, whooping with excitement and a little terror.
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“What?” Sanduro watches Zsofia run out the doors and down the hallway towards Ketra and Silvia before turning to look in the direction Zsofia came from. “Oh, shiiiii…”
He fires an arrow in the creature’s general direction, then races through the doorway after Zsofia.
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The fleeing orc archer is targeted by Garret, the magic taking hold as the orc clutches at their head, leaning against the wall to avoid toppling over.
Rosalind pulls the soldier up and over the side of the wall with a grunt of effort; he's a young man of twenty at most, and he's in bad shape. The broken shafts of two arrows poke out from between his ribs and his neck is swollen and bruised; were the rope not partly snagged on his damaged gorget it would no doubt have snapped his neck or strangled him well before your group arrived.
Zsofia lands a cheeky elbow strike into the orc's sternum, feeling a rib crack before she takes to her heels while Sanduro covers her with an arrow that rebounds harmlessly from the orc's grey skin--this is no ordinary orc! The phantom does catch a swipe from the his falchion as she goes but the brute doesn't take the bait and follow the party out of the gatehouse. Instead, he steps back from the doorway deeper into that hall and speaks in a hissing crackling language that is certainly not Orcish.
"There are at least five of them, not unskilled. If you don't have it out of her yet then use the oil and we can leave."
+ ROUND THREE +
Sanduro
Zsofia (-21hp)
Silvia (-18hp)
Ketra (-15hp; 1 negative level)
Strange Hulking Orc (
Orc Raider Green (-18hp; Dazed)
Unseen Spellcaster
Rosalind
Garret
+ ROUND FOUR +
Sanduro
Zsofia (-21hp)
Silvia (-18hp)
Ketra (-15hp; 1 negative level)
Strange Hulking Orc
Orc Raider Green
Unseen Spellcaster
Rosalind
Garret
With no great view of the happenings inside the gate tower, Garret repeats his attack on the visible orc archer, hoping to give Rosalind time to heal the rescued prisoner.
He then moves over behind cover from the gatehouse entry and asks, "How is it going over here? I thought I heard something."
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"Out of her?" Ketra murmurs, then swears under her breath "They've still got a captive alive, I'd guess. And I heard some spell casting earlier, so there's some kind of sorceress upstairs. Do we gather up and then rush them? Not sure how much time we have."
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"Not sure how much time we have."
"Not much, I'd wager," Silvia says, clearly annoyed that the orc failed to run straight into an ambush. She reaches a gloved hand out to Ketra, giving the dancer a reassuring squeeze. "I've got your back, Driscoll."
Then she heads down the hallway, rifle up and at the ready.
Ketra nods to Silvia. "Lets do it."
She strides together with Silvia down the hallway and takes up a defensive stance rather than immediately try to rush in.
Sanduro casts barkskin on Zsofia as they turn around to follow Ketra and Silvia back into the room they just left.
"You'd better move or Ketra's going to dance with that ... whatever it is without you."
Zsofia grins. "Don't have to tell me twice, kid!" The phantom runs back through the doorway and skids into the room, leaving a faint trail of glowing ectoplasm behind her.
"Hey gang! Which way did he go?" She leans forward to stick her head through the doorway into the hall to find out for herself. "Oh, he went that way! Not very far, though!" Zsofia points south. "Hey, big guy! It's lunchtime, come and get it! We're serving knuckle sandwiches!"
Coming up behind Ketra and Silvia, Sanduro sighs and mutters, "Well, you wanted her to draw him out..."
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That orc isn't undead, but he's close--he's a type of being tainted by undeath called a 'mortic'. Mortics are not dissimilar to dhampirs or sorcerers with necromatic bloodlines, though their powers are less explicitly magical. More precisely, he's a lifeleecher; a type of mortic notorious for being difficult to kill thanks to their ability to drink down the life force of their enemies.
[ooc]Mechanically, mortics can inflict Level Drain with their bite attacks, have the Ferocity ability, and SLAs that can include Death Knell and Vampiric Touch. Their primary weaknesses are sunlight sensitivity and a strange vulnerability to resurrection magics, which leaves them staggered and cut off from their magical and life-draining abilities.
Rosalind quickly and carefully extracts the arrows--thanking the gods they aren't barbed--and quickly sets to work healing the both of them. The young soldier's breathing eases and his eyes flicker oven, struggling to focus for a second. "Halt and state your name," he wheezes, then lets out a sound that's part cough, part laugh, and part pained groan.
At the same time, Garret double-taps the injured orc archer. With a pained whine the raider shudder and collapses at the top of the stairs. As the halfling turns back towards the stairs that lead into the gatehouse Silvia, Sanduro, Ketra, and Zsofia return to the doorway. The grey orc doesn't come to meet them, peering out only once from his spot in the hallway. He speaks again in that hissing and crackling language, though again whoever he addresses does not answer.
"Be swift, priestess. They're finding their nerve again. I will hold them but Rugas is already destroyed."
+ ROUND FOUR +
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Ketra (1 negative level)
Strange Hulking Orc (-13hp; Total Defense)
Orc Raider Green
Unseen Spellcaster
Rosalind
Garret
+ ROUND FIVE +
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Ketra (1 negative level)
Strange Hulking Orc (-13hp; Total Defense)
Unseen Spellcaster
Rosalind
Garret