He had cast it but then Kreel cast bane to end it. Do you want to recast it?
...Edward.....hits!
"Strike hard and strike fast, gentleman!" Edward says as he swings at the venerable target.
Smite evil(bypass all DR)
In his excitement, Edward masterfully fumbles the hilt of his sword and just manages to keep a hold of it as he swing downward, striking hard the ground and managing to kick up an extremely pathetic piece of flooring. Discouraged, "Gentlemen, I do believe by no chance that I could possibly strike water if I were to plummet from a watercraft. Truly a horrific showing of swordsmanship if I do say so myself," he states in a perfect matter of fact way.
Richard recasts his spell and Kreel attempts to lurch to his feet (Edward, Sir Rollynd, and Ty get AoOs versus prone (+4 to attack).
Assuming he survives, which he likely does unless some serious criticals happen here, he thrusts his sword at Ty, trying to make good on his promise.
Ty easily hops over the low thrust.
Edward has an AoO to make, and everybody else has a regular action to take for round 3.
Conri casts another spell, forcing another Reflex save from Kreel.
Alas, the grease spell does not land successfully on the undead knight's sword hilt.
Sir Rollynd swings at the same place he hit before.
This time, however, the plate mail does its job and harmlessly deflects the halfling's sword.
Ty, you do get an AoO. On your regular action, you could move 5 feet up onto the dias to get into a flanking position with Edward. However, that's up a significant step, so it can't be a 5-foot step; thus, he would provoke an AoO if he wanted to do that (or he could try an Acrobatics check to make the move without provoking).
"Careful!" Ty says as Kreel falls to the ground. But then he follows it up with a stab of his dagger as the armored skeleton tries to stand back up.
He ducks under Kreel's swing, and instead of standing back up, he exits his squatting position in a leap up to the next step of the dais.
Ty bends his knees and brings both daggers up before him in a defensive measure, opting to study his opponent before striking.
The surge isn’t necessary, because neither succeed. He can still make the move, but Kreel tries to take him down anyway.
But fails to hit again.
Edward and Richard left to go.
Edward continues the assault, unconcerned about his previous failures.
Spells that require attack rolls can crit on a 20.
Kreel swings his great sword in a huge arc at Ty’s neck.
Blood sprays from Ty’s neck, coating Kreel’s armour, and the youth crashes to the floor. ”Careful,” the undead knight cackles. He adjusts his grip as he prepares a coup de grace for next round.
Everybody’s up (except Ty, who is down).
Seeing Ty fall, "Sir Richard! See what you can do for him!" Edward yells as he swings with all he has toward the undead enemy.
Sir Rollynd stabs forward also, similarly failing to inflict any damage.
Conri casts another spell.
In his efforts to readjust his grip, he doesn’t have a secure hold of his sword, and when grease appears on the hilt, Kreel can’t hold it any longer. The greatsword clatters to the floor, sparing Ty for the moment.
Kreel attempts to cast a spell defensively.
He touches himself and some wounds heal over.
Ty comes to, finding himself on the ground. His daggers lie next to him, as does Kreel’s sword. The undead looms over him, unarmed for the moment, the artifact cloak you search for brushing Ty’s face.
Everybody is up.
Blinking in confusion as he comes to, Ty flinches when he sees Kreel standing over him. Glancing around in a panic, he spies the fallen knight's sword on the ground, so he kicks it off of the dais , and then rolls off of the dais to the ground next to Richard.
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Ty kicks the greased sword away (it slides pretty far, too) and rolls off the Dias and onto his feet.
Edward continues to attack.
Conri casts a minor spell, sending acid at the knight, but missing.
Kreel grasps the cloak in one hand and with a flick of his wrist, it extends outwards, slashing at Ty with the strength and sharpness of polished steel.
Everybody is up.
Ty hisses in pain, and then glances at the cloak-induced cut. "Okay, kind of cheating, but that's pretty cool."
Ty draws two daggers from under his shirt and flings one of them at Kreel's stupid face.
It didn't do much, but that's okay, because it was just a distraction for the second dagger he throws.
Alas, even the distraction does no good against the knight’s impressive armour.
Conri burns some mythic power and casts another spell, sending two magic darts into Kreel.
Sir Rollynd continues his valiant efforts, to little effect.
Edward attacks again.
No. He has AC 25
”Stop healing him!” Kreel snarls, dropping his guard to make his way to his sword (provoking AoO from Edward, Sir Rollynd, and anybody else with a weapon in hand).
He fails to pick it up, however.
Sir Rollynd clatters his sword uselessly against Kreel’s armour.
”Stop healing him!” Kreel snarls
Ty nods thanks to Richard and then pipes up in response to Kreel.
"You know, your fixation on the kid with two little daggers instead of the two guys with big, honkin' swords or the other two guys with magical powers all because I made you face some uncomfortable truths about yourself doesn't say anything good about you."
As he jabbers on, Ty picks up his two daggers from where they were dropped on the dais earlier, and then hustles over to where Kreel was denting the paladins' swords.
"Just saying."
Sir Rollynd continues to dent his sword on the armour.
Richard is left to go.
Kreel again provokes AoOs by trying to retrieve his greased sword.
He nearly kicks it further away, but then he gets a hold of it.
Each attempt to pick up the sword provokes, so if you have Combat Reflexes, you get two AoOs.
The halfling’s sword finds an opening.
Conri sends some magic missiles.
Kreel again provokes AoOs by trying to retrieve his greased sword.
When Kreel brazenly bends down to pick up his sword, Ty scans the bent-over figure for any gap in the armor. Spying a likely spot, he reverses his grip on his dagger and stabs downward at the spot in question.
"Careful!" he chirps.
Ty finds the sweet spot, and even though the skeletal nature of your foe blunts much of his dagger's effectiveness, it's enough to pop the skeletal spine from the skull.
"Your time is at an end, Asmodean" a stern-sounding woman's voice sounds from all around you. "And good riddance to you."
A foul smell of decay wafts from the bones as they begin to disintegrate in front of your eyes. Kreel looks from his bones to something in the distance: something at first pleasant, then horrific. He opens his mouth to scream in terror, but his jaw falls to dust before he can. In the end, you are left with a pile of dusty equipment, save for the red cloak which somehow remains pristine.
"You have done well, here. Greater dangers await you, beyond what even I can see. Gods may live or die by your actions before this is all complete. Take my cloak: you will need its powers."
The room to the north is somewhat of a treasury, filled with the spoil Kreel claimed for himself, in addition to the artifact. There are 3,000 gp, 2,100 sp, and 1,500 cp, various gems and jewelry worth 1,800 gp, silver temple utensils from the Seventh Church worth 500 gp (the Church will offer 600), and a rolled-up rug bearing scenes of Iomedae’s Seventh Miracle worth 500 gp (the Church will offer 600).
Kreel's remaining equipment includes a human bane great sword, and glamoured full plate.
Sir Rollynd falls down to his knees, pulling off his helm, revealing a sweaty-haired, late 30s halfling with several battle scars across his face. He looks up at you with a mixed expression of uncertainty and wariness. ”That voice is familiar to me: I heard it once in a dream. A dream I had the night before I first encountered you a the Seventh Church. I am not accustomed to sharing her Lady’s revelations with outsiders, but the vision I received concerns you, as you are part of it. Perhaps you know something of our history – that is, the history of the Knights of Ozem? The Inheritor herself was once numbered amongst our ranks. While she lived as a mortal, and led my order, the Knights of Ozem fought the undead minions of the Whispering Tyrant – and they revered Arazni, the herald of Aroden, as their patron saint.”
”Arazni lead the Knights against the undead hordes for five years before she herself was slain. It was a terrible defeat, and a terrible time for the order, but Iomedae showed her true potential when she rallied the Knights to throw back the Tyrant’s forces, and personally recovered Arazni’s body, which the Knights laid to rest.”
”After Tar-Baphon was imprisoned, and the Knights founded Lastwall to watch over Gallowspire, they started to get restless. Defeating the Tyrant was a major deal, and the Knights at the time were spoiling for another victory, so they went after another undead target: the lich-king Geb. That offensive did not go well, and not only did Geb easily repel the Knights, the lich sent his forces to steal Arazni’s body, to teach the over-confident Knights a lesson. To further add salt to the wounds, he animated her body as a lich and set her to rule Geb in his stead while he remained behind the scenes. She still rules in Geb, known as the Harlot Queen.”
”Desperate to reclaim what honour the Knights of Ozem had left, a group of them, under the command of Sir Patens Moore, infiltrated Geb. They were unable to slay either lich, but they did retrieve four artefacts: canopic jars containing some of Arazni’s organs that had been created in Geb’s profane re-animation process. These artefacts contain fragments of the divinity of Arazni, Arazni before she became the abomination Geb created. It is believed that these artefacts could be used to destroy her, possibly Geb as well. The two tried to track the Knights, but failed. They’ve tried to find the artefacts, but failed. Geb’s forces attacked Lastwall, but couldn’t find the artefacts for the simple reason that they never made it back. Even we don’t know where they are. Many a Knight of Ozem has quested across the world looking for the Bloodstones (as they’ve come to be called), and many a crusade was launched, but to no avail.”
”But why am I telling you all of this? The morning the new god arose, I was deep in prayer, and I received a vision from the Inheritor. It was an image of the four of you, your faces perfectly clear to me, and I also saw a jar, sealed and made of stone. No description has ever reached us, but I was certain that it was one of the Bloodstones of Arazni, and I still am. I believe you are to find one of the Bloodstones, perhaps all of them. I didn’t believe it when I first saw you, but now, here you are, with the Cloak of the Inheritor in your hands.” The halfling pauses to reach a hand reverently out towards the garment, but he withdraws it quickly. ”I did not believe when my Lady first spoke to me, but now I do. That crisis of faith is of my concern, and something with which I must wrestle, but if you will overlook it, I will swear whichever oath you would have of me, save that it does not go against my Lady Iomedae in any way, to serve and protect you in this most holy of quests.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, Edward nods as he retrieves the cloak. "Well done, all." Edward then looks up and looks around trying to pinpoint the invisible voice. He then turns and listens to the halfling paladin. Grinning, "We would be foolish not to accept aid from such a true warrior. Of course, my good man! As long as you can tolerate this 'rag tag' group of ours I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have you tag along," he says with a wink.
"Now, I believe we must return this back to the temple," he says motioning to the cloak in his hand. "How does everyone fair?" he then asks as he looks to Ty. "Sir Ty took the brunt of the attacks so if you need any extra healing, my good man, Sir Richard or I can help you in that regard. Once that is settled... let us be off."
Ty watches strangely horrified and strangely fascinated as Kreel dissolves into dust. He flinches out of his fascinated stare when the woman's voice speaks, and then he keeps quiet as Sir Rollynd speaks, feeling like events are transpiring at a higher level than he has any business being involved with. When Edward shows concern for Ty's injuries, Ty begins to wave him off.
"Nah, the battle's done. We should check out that room and get back to your friends with the cloak."
Ty stretches to show he's fine, but flinches again when his numerous injuries make themselves known.
"Gah! Ow, he got me good right here. And here, too, I guess. Dang, down there? These were my best pants! ...Yeah, okay. Maybe I could use some healing juice."
"I will most assuredly help in that regard Edward."
Richard spends some time channeling positive energy and casting spells until the party has completely recovered from this last battle.
[dice=channel]1d6
[dice=channel]1d6
[dice=channel]1d6
"Thanks, Richard! You really saved my bacon back there. I appreciate it. You did great, too, Conri!"
Ty starts to think about all of the loot the group can lay claim, too, but he begins to realize that his cat burglary has never been about wealth, but about the challenge and excitement of obtaining it. The stuff that they can easily carry away is a bigger haul than he's ever had before, and that's plenty enough for him. (Plus, he doesn't have to give the guild their cut!)
Gathering what they can carry (including Kreel's vile greatsword), the group heads back to Absalom.
Indeed you do.
While you are in danger of not arriving back in time before the city gates are shut, you manage to hustle your buns through with minutes to spare. The streets are far from empty, but Ty especially notices that there's a different energy about Absalom, though maybe it's just that he's much more grown and matured after his life-and-death adventures.
You arrive at the Seventh Church. An acolyte who clearly doesn't recognize you, though Edward does have a vague memory of (and not a fond one) of the man, greets you stiffly. He does at least recognize the signs of two Iomedaen paladins. He is quite shocked when you ask to speak with Genedair, and politely but firmly refuses to disturb the old man, but will eventually agree to send a message back to Valla.
A few minutes wait is all before you can hear the sound of booted footsteps practically running in your direction. Valla appears and attempts to seem dignified in her haste to arrive, but can't contain herself, and blurts out, "Did you get it? Do you have the cloak?"
Grinning, "We do, milady." He then removes it from his pack and shows her.
Valla reverently reaches a hand out towards the cloak, but doesn't take it. Instead, she tries to swallow her exuberance and motions you to follow her back into the cells of church's residential area.
As she leads you into starkly ornate conference/war room (that practically screams Iomedae), she whispers something to a passing young acolyte who dashes off. One acolyte soon arrives with a platter of food and a tray of wine for you to refresh yourselves with. As you're eating, the doors open again and two acolytes assist Genedair the Faithful into the room and to his chair at the head of the table.
"Please. Sit, friends. When you did not return right away, we assumed you had somehow found a way into the Citadel after all. Tell us of your adventures."
Ty starts and stops numerous times, and then finally throws his hands up in the air and huffs out a big sigh. He indicates that one of the others should talk.