The floating figure avoids the flames of the sphere.
The first figure returns, wincing in the sunlight.
"Dhira! Tavik! Wachira! Run away! We'll try to hold them off!"
She stabs a ghostly rapier at Zarke.
negative damage plus a Will save
DC 25
Critical Success The creature is unaffected and is temporarily immune to spectral corruption for 1 minute.
Success The creature is stupefied 2 for 1 hour.
Failure The creature succumbs to the corruption and becomes a spectral thrall. The creature is controlled by the specter, obeying the specter's telepathic or spoken orders, though a spectral thrall does not obey obviously self-destructive orders. It can attempt a new Will save at the end of each of its turns; on a success, it is no longer controlled by the specter but becomes stupefied 2 for 1 hour.
Critical Failure As failure, but the creature remains a thrall to the specter until the curse is removed or until the specter succumbs to pain starvation; it can't attempt new Will saves to recover on its own.
Initiative!
Sister 1, -9 hp
Zarke, -16 hp
Fuchsia
Asta
Sister 2
Jack
Yuturr
Asta moves next to Zarke, quickly patching up some of the kobold's wounds before drawing a small metal canister.
Zarke recoils at the touch of the specter and can't quite seem to get his tongue back in his mouth.
Never the less he takes a swing at the fleeing ghost.
Zarke nods to Asta "Sanks" unable to get his tongue back in his mouth.
Zarke has T'gon'l carry him into melee with #1 and then back again, after making a pair of hammer swings in the mean time.
Fuchsia whispers: Maybe we can trick them? They seem to think they're somewhere else… and that we're attacking THEM.
Fuchsia makes her suggestion and then moves in at #1, whiffs but maybe does some damage thanks to Panache and then moves out. She tries to spread out in the sunlight.
full damage on miss (precise finisher).
Fuchsia's voice quivers. The fear is real!
They're too strong! We have to retreat!
Zarke withstands the corruption as best he can! Asta heals him up, then T'gon'l moves Zarke in for a big hit!
Fuchsia darts in and out, dealing some damage despite the miss.
The other figure darts out, stabs at Yuturr, and rushes back to another part of the shadows, away from the flaming sphere.
"They didn't do anything! Leave them alone! Damned Aspis."
negative damage plus a Will save
DC 25
Critical Success The creature is unaffected and is temporarily immune to spectral corruption for 1 minute.
Success The creature is stupefied 2 for 1 hour.
Failure The creature succumbs to the corruption and becomes a spectral thrall. The creature is controlled by the specter, obeying the specter's telepathic or spoken orders, though a spectral thrall does not obey obviously self-destructive orders. It can attempt a new Will save at the end of each of its turns; on a success, it is no longer controlled by the specter but becomes stupefied 2 for 1 hour.
Critical Failure As failure, but the creature remains a thrall to the specter until the curse is removed or until the specter succumbs to pain starvation; it can't attempt new Will saves to recover on its own.
Initiative!
Sister 1, -53 hp
Zarke, -16 hp
Fuchsia
Asta
Sister 2
Jack
Yuturr
Yuturr manages to avoid the appartion's blade and opts to stay in the sunlight rather than pursue them into the shadows. He recasts his shield spell and readies for the next one to try and stab him.
Action 1: Interact
Action 2-3: Acid Arrow
Irritated that the nimble wraiths easily dodge his flaming sphere, Jack let's the fire peter out. He pulls out a wand from his bandolier, points it at the nearby undead, and whispers the command word. An arrow of green acid fires from the wand!
plus DC 22 Fort save or Sickened 1
Jack tries to blast one of the figures with acid, but has trouble targeting the floating spirit.
The first spirit darts out to strike Fuchsia, then returns to the shadows.
negative damage plus a Will save
DC 25
Critical Success The creature is unaffected and is temporarily immune to spectral corruption for 1 minute.
Success The creature is stupefied 2 for 1 hour.
Failure The creature succumbs to the corruption and becomes a spectral thrall. The creature is controlled by the specter, obeying the specter's telepathic or spoken orders, though a spectral thrall does not obey obviously self-destructive orders. It can attempt a new Will save at the end of each of its turns; on a success, it is no longer controlled by the specter but becomes stupefied 2 for 1 hour.
Critical Failure As failure, but the creature remains a thrall to the specter until the curse is removed or until the specter succumbs to pain starvation; it can't attempt new Will saves to recover on its own.
Initiative!
Sister 1, -53 hp
Zarke, -16 hp
Fuchsia, -44 hp
Asta
Sister 2
Jack
Yuturr
Fuchsia's mind seems a little muddled, but she seems otherwise okay. uhhh… that… really… hurt… what did I ever do to… you?
She thrusts a shaking her hand into a pocket and tries to drink a healing potion…
… but spills half of it on the ground.
We'll never beat them! Fall back, Aspis! Let 'em go!
Asta's ears perk up at the mention of Aspis. "We must be on the right path, then!" He renews his study of the nearer creature.
"They don't leave many openings, do they? I agree, fall back! I'll cover you!"
Seeing the state of his ysoki ally, Asta tries to interpose himself between the creature and Fuschia, ready to strike should it approach.
Zarke charges forward once more, trying to finish off #1 to make an easier retreat with a hammer smash and a healing spell.
Zarke then moves to protect Jack and Fuchsia.
Yuturr, battered and bruised as well, joins Zarke in the fighting retreat, though prudently trying to both keep in the sunlight and the dragonrider between himself and the ghosts. He strikes at the first ghost that comes into melee range.
Let's get outta here! Maybe we can lure Aspis over, and these ghosts can have their revenge!
The group carefully moves forward, defending against the specters who keep to the shadows until finally, they retreat to their bodies.
Fuchsia writes a note and leaves it in the bole of a tree (or another place where communication might be logically be found) along with the bronze aspis badge, and cuts a snake symbol into the trunk.
Valued Agent,
Our recent caravan of "goods" has been disrupted. Dhira, Tavik, and Wachira escaped. They murdered a promising new agent, one Beelzebob Edgelard! We're tracking them down, but it might be weeks. We have agents at the crossroads; go there and show this badge of our fallen agent and we'll take you to the main camp.
She includes directions to the specters' location.
Any other ideas? It would be fun to lure Aspis slavers into that nasty trap, and those ghosts might enjoy killing 'em — might even help 'em find peace.
Death would be too good for those Aspis, Yuturr says, pleased to see Fuchsia's clever ruse. He offers to lend a hand. What if we use the badge to hold the note in place, like so...
The group lays a trap to try to make sure that any more Aspis go straight to the vicious specters. You move as far along as you can, to make sure that you are well out of range of the specters, and then have a safe night's sleep.
The Plaza of the Feasting Fiend is on the northern edge of the city of Holy Xatramba. The plaza is hemmed in on three sides and consists of a series of chambers and rooms in the shadows of looming, crumbling stone buildings.
There is an obvious path leading to the plaza from the east. You search a little and see two others: one leading from the north and one from the south.
Which way do you think? I'm a straightforward thinker myself; the big path seems best.
"Hm. Let's take a moment to look around for signs of recent activity before deciding."
Zarke nods "Although unlikely they're still here with those spectres, better to be safe."
Everyone looks around. Jack finds signs of recent footprints, but they all seem to use the northern and southern paths.
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Maybe we should follow the footprints…
"Ain't nobody never liked the obvious route, especially this lot. The northern entrance works for me and Meg."
[b}"I think it makes sense to follow the tracks, one way or the other. North sounds good to me."[/b]
You creep along the northern path and reach an opening to the plaza that is open to the sky.
This irregularly shaped room provides a good view into the weed-choked streets of Holy Xatramba. Two long-dead corpses, each with skin the purple of a livid bruise and a strange rune adorning their bare chests, hang from the ceiling’s wooden beams.
Zarke looks to his more learned allies to help explain the nuances of the designs while keeping careful eye on the bodies to make sure they don't also rise as undead.
Fuchsia drinks her antidote and then her antiplague.
Bottoms up!
Zarke joins Fuchsia clinking them together.
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You open the door to the East. A few precariously stacked tables contain bedrolls, ropes, cooking pots, and other supplies suitable for a lengthy and arduous expedition.
Fuchsia carefully sifts through the pile without disturbing it. She discovers a salve of antiparalysis marked “Ghoul Prevention” and a pouch containing 12 chips of polished obsidian worth 40 gp each.
She hands the anti paralysis to Zarke then moves to the Eastern room.
Yuturr sticks close by his ratfolk friend, mirroring movements and keeping his eyes peeled for anything.
"Hm" Asta says, looking over the bodies. "A warning to a rival, it seems."
Zarke responds to Asta "Hmm, what rival I wonder?"
As you mull the decision over, you open the door to the next room. This large room has a low table bearing a few half-eaten slabs of bloody meat. A dinosaur-like fiend is currently training two dinosaurs.
"Get them! Get them!"
Initiative!
Zarke
Gargzith
Fuchsia
Jack
Yuturr
Dino 2
Dino 1
Asta
T'gon'l squeezes through the door as Zarke shouts "Begone fiend, how dare you abuse these dino friends!."
Zarke then casts goblin pox on the fiend.
Success The target is sickened 1.
Failure The target is afflicted with goblin pox at stage 1.
Critical Failure The target is afflicted with goblin pox at stage 2.
Goblin Pox (disease); Level 1. Goblins and goblin dogs are immune. Stage 1 sickened 1 (1 round); Stage 2 sickened 1 and slowed 1 (1 round); Stage 3 sickened 1 and the creature can't reduce its sickened value below 1 (1 day)
before smashing the foul creature with his hammer.
The fiend is slightly sickened at the thought of goblins!
Zarke misses by millimeters.
The fiend pulls out a longspear and a javelin and grins. The human hand hanging from his neck vibrates a little.
"What a beautiful monitor lizard you have there. Once I've killed you and soaked the ground in your blood, I shall add this lizard to my pack."
Initiative!
Zarke
Gargzith
Fuchsia
Jack
Yuturr
Dino 2
Dino 1
Asta
Zarke looks worriedly down at his beloved dragon before smashing down on the fiend as he draws his spear.
Yuturr glides into the room, not about to let Zarke face this fiend alone. He maneuvers about the room deftly, winding up adjacent to the lizard coveter. Hmm, I have to say, I don't think we're going to let that happen, he says with a smirk, sidling up with a flourish. Instead, I'm quite sure these poor, abused animals will enjoy gnawing on your bones, when we're through here.
Fuchsia moves in, and sneers at the fiend's fashion sense — particularly the human-looking hand. Humans are so last season.
full on miss.
Action 1: Stride
Action 2-3: Ray of Frost
Meg - Action 1: Stride
Jack and Meg both move closer to the action, though it's Jack that follows through with an invocation of magic. A ray of frost leaps from an outstretched finger, aimed at the talking dino.
Yuturr slides into position and deftly stabs the dino fiend.
Fuchsia tumbles through, getting in a deft stab or her own.
Jack tosses in a ray of frost that misses, but the fiend flinches. You suspect he has weakness to cold.
The first deinonychus moves up to Fuchsia darting in and out as it strikes!
plus 1d4 bleed
plus 1d4 bleed
The second does the same to Yuturr.
plus 1d4 bleed
plus 1d4 bleed
Initiative!
Zarke
Gargzith, -37 hp
Fuchsia, -10 hp
Jack
Yuturr
Dino 2
Dino 1
Asta
Asta moves into the room and takes a look. Not thrilled with the options available to him, he elects to draw a heavy knotted length of rope into his off hand in preparation of knocking out these innocent creatures if needed.
Zarke continues his assault this time opening with a fear spell on the fiend before smashing with his hammer.
Meanwhile T'gon'l snaps with his jaws.
In the heat of the moment, Asta can't manage to identify the creature.
The fiend shudders a little at Zarke's spell, but Zarke can't quite convert that into a successful attack.
The fiend moves out of the flank, tosses a javelin at Jack, and grips his longspear carefully in both hands. He eyes everyone carefully, waiting for a chance to strike.
Initiative!
Zarke
Gargzith, -37 hp
Fuchsia, -16 hp, 1d4 bleed
Jack
Yuturr
Dino 2
Dino 1
Asta