Edrakk starts running after the rest of his allies, trying to avoid slipping on the greased floor, and starts trying to patch up Jisara as he runs. He quickly slams the door behind him once he's through and draws a small vial of murky purple liquid, just barely leaking a thick vapor.
Jisara moves into the barracks and smothers the flames.
Chance moves into the barracks and tries (and fails) to patch up Jisara.
Edrakk moves into the barracks and heals Jisara.
The erinys Flies through the greased hallway , she then opens the door that Edrakk just closed, then fires an arrow at the nearest target!
The squadron Forms Up then Strides twice over toward the western side. They then Form Up into a better position.
Round 7
==============
Vitalis (-58) {sickened 1; Hasted: Round 4 of 10}
Lucian Thrune (-52) [15’ above ground]
Wyvern [15’ above ground]
Jisara (-53)
Chance (-10) {sickened 1}
Edrakk (-34) {sickened 1; +2 status vs mental}
Erinys (-88 from “0+1” attacks [before resistances])
Guard Squadron (-61)
==============
Vitalis spins as the erinys makes her reappearance. "I admire your dedication, but you've merely returned to die." He rushes the other doorway and swings at the devil.
Then he uses his lay on hands to heal Jisara again.
"Watch your flank. I hear the soldiers approaching from the west."
Vitalis moves forward and attacks the erinys before healing Jisara.
”Soldiers! Reposition and advance! Elulae! Retreat!”
The squadron follows the captain’s words and continues to reposition in the hallway.
The erinys retreats down the hallway.
Round 7
==============
Vitalis (-58) {sickened 1; Hasted: Round 5 of 10}
Lucian Thrune (-52) [15’ above ground]
Wyvern [15’ above ground]
Jisara (-23) {+2 AC: Round 0 of 1}
Chance (-10) {sickened 1}
Edrakk (-34) {sickened 1; +2 status vs mental}
Erinys (-116 from “0+1” attacks [before resistances])
Guard Squadron (-61)
==============
Jisara gives a pained but grateful look to her comrades as they pull her back from the brink. She rushes through an incantation, her hands briefly tapping Edrakk and Vitalis on the shoulder. Then, she turns toward the western door with a conjured shield, speaking quickly.
"Wish I'd cast that earlier, but things turned worse much faster than I expected. I hope you all still have some surprises left."
"I've got tricks but I need to be able to see the bad guys to use them! They keep running away and we keep closing doors to avoid getting stabbed or shot full of magic Hell arrows! And I still feel gross!"
Chance retches again, then tries to bandage up Vitalis before walking over to stand by the west door.
Jisara makes Edrakk and Vitalis resistant to fire.
Chance tries to retch and heal Vitalis, but fails on both counts.
Then he drinks the mistform elixir in his hands.
The erinys Flies over, Strikes at Edrakk, then Flies back.
The squadron open the door, then they Fire Crossbows!
Success
Success
Success
Success
Round 8
==============
Vitalis (-66) {sickened 1; Hasted: Round 5 of 10; Resist fire 10}
Lucian Thrune (-52) [15’ above ground]
Wyvern [15’ above ground]
Jisara (-31)
Chance (-10) {sickened 1; Dazzled: Round 0 of 1}
Edrakk (-42) {sickened 1; +2 status vs mental; Resist fire 10; Concealed: Round 0 of 3}
Erinys (-116 from “0+1” attacks [before resistances])
Guard Squadron (-61)
==============
Jisara throws a hand out, returning the squadron's volley with a wave of negative energy that flows through the door and down the hallway. She then retreats back into the corner of the room.
"No more tricks, devil! You can't escape a Hellknight that easily!" Vitalis rounds the corner and leaps over the grease in a single bound. His halberd held overhead comes slashing down upon his landing.
Vitalis leaps over the grease and lands a final, chopping blow of his halberd against the erinys, knocking the devil unconscious!
Captain Thrune looks over and watches as his diabolic soldier falls. ”Hellknight! You shall know the fury of Her Majestrix! Zailosorn, HYAH!”
The man and mount Fly over, then do a Powerful Charge against Vitalis!
Jisara launches a wave of negative energy at the squadron!
Jisara’s spell proves particularly effective, as several of the squadron likewise drop into unconsciousness!
Round 8
==============
Vitalis (-86) {sickened 1; Hasted: Round 6 of 10; Resist fire 10}
Lucian Thrune (-52) [15’ above ground]
Wyvern [15’ above ground]
Jisara (-31)
Chance (-10) {sickened 1; Dazzled: Round 0 of 1}
Edrakk (-42) {sickened 1; +2 status vs mental; Resist fire 10; Concealed: Round 1 of 3}
Guard Squadron (-82) {2 persistent bleed}
==============
"Vitalis, stay low!" Chance runs east, through the door and into the hallway. He skids to a stop just ahead of Jisara's grease. Swirling a finger in the air as though miming a cyclone, the gnome sings out,
"When the Fury runs,
And the dragon flies,
On whom can you rely?
Poltergeisties!
"Mi ne timas fantomojn!"
Edrakk runs over to the door, patching himself up along the way. Once he gets there, in one swift motion, he grabs a vial of yellowing liquid and tosses it in the direction of the squadron before slamming the door shut.
Chance moves over and calls forth the echo of a poltergeist.
Edrakk moves to the door, heals himself, and chucks a bomb before closing the door. He watches as the squadron cough and scratch in pain, but as he shuts the door, the sounds stop as it becomes clear that the squadron is no more.
Round 9
==============
Vitalis (-86) {sickened 1; Hasted: Round 6 of 10; Resist fire 10}
Lucian Thrune (-65)
Wyvern (-26)
Jisara (-31)
Chance (-10) {sickened 1}
Edrakk {sickened 1; +2 status vs mental; Resist fire 10; Concealed: Round 1 of 3}
==============
Vitalis plays off his injuries to further insult the Captain. "Not now, Lucian, we're busy."
Vitalis ducks under the snapping wyvern. He dashes around to build up speed then leaps over the grease again. Then quickly tucks into the safety of the barracks.
Vitalis ducks through the wyvern’s space, but the dragon lashes out with its fangs!
But Vitalis ducks away and leaps back to safety.
Lucian Thrune grits his teeth urges his mount to do a very risky maneuver: squeeze into the hallway!
Lucian tries to squeeze into the little passageway, but his mount has a difficult time gaining traction and becomes stuck with the Thrune sideways. Lucian growls something in Draconic at his wyvern, who inelegantly squeezes its long tail through to try to attack Chance!
Round 9 —> 10
==============
Vitalis (-86) {sickened 1; Hasted: Round 7 of 10; Resist fire 10}
Lucian Thrune (-65) {prone}
Wyvern (-26) {prone}
Jisara (-31)
Chance (-28) {sickened 1}
Edrakk {sickened 1; +2 status vs mental; Resist fire 10; Concealed: Round 2 of 3}
==============
"Ouch! Again!"
Chance Steps away from the wyvern's tail, then Sustains his pernicious poltergeist. Once the spell is causing rocks and other debris to batter Lucian and the wyvern again, the gnome Steps through the doorway but leans out to keep the spell effect going.
◆: Step
[spoiler=GM]
Reaching into her sleeves, Jisara pulls out a tiny vial, glowing with red energy. With an expression of grim determination, she pops the cork and hurls its contents at Vitalis's face.
Then, she backs herself into the furthest corner from the door she expects the wyvern to come through.
"Time to take care of the real threat." Vitalis pops out into the hallway and slashes into the wyvern, then dashes back behind cover.
Edrakk runs over to Vitalis and tries once more to treat his sickness with whatever medicines he has on hand. He then pulls out a healing potion and holds it out for Vitalis to grab.
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Jisara casts longstrider on herself then moves.
Chance moves back and sustains his spell.
Edrakk tries and fails to Treat Condition, so he heals Vitalis with his gloves.
Vitalis moves forward and attacks the wyvern, but Lucian twists him and his mount in the greased hall to take the brunt of the blow!
Vitalis then attacks the wyvern—for real this time—and retreats.
”I thought lubrication made moving through tight spaces easier!”
Lucian and his mount right themselves as they once again try a Powerful Charge.
In complete opposition to ANY kind of fascist strongman narrative, Captain Thrune and his mount make absolute fools of themselves as they try and fail, once again, to move through the grease!
Round 10 —> 11
==============
Vitalis (-71) {sickened 1; Hasted: Round 8 of 10; Resist fire 10}
Lucian Thrune (-123) {prone}
Wyvern (-65) {prone}
Jisara (-31)
Chance (-28) {sickened 1}
Edrakk {sickened 1; +2 status vs mental; Resist fire 10}
==============
Chance lets the pernicious poltergeist fade as he tries - again - to cough out the toxins still making him sick. Wiping his mouth and glaring at Lucian, he opens his mouth to shout, and the sound explodes down the hall around the Peacock and his mount.
Vitalis tries wretching so that he can accept potions but the sickness is stubborn.
He then continues his hit-and-run tactics to take another swing at the wyvern.
Unsure of what exactly is taking the wyvern and its rider so long to come kill them, Jisara creeps slightly closer to the door (and Vitalis's aura of protection) to try and figure out what's keeping them.
Jisara moves and casts shield.
Chance retches and FINALLY feels the nausea subside. He then casts sound burst.
Edrakk Retches then Treats Condition on Vitalis.
Vitalis moves over and attacks the wyvern. This time, though, Lucian does NOT interpose himself to protect his mount. But the wyvern lashes out with its tail!
Lucian rights himself and his dragon and tries, yet again, to Powerful Charge.
”FOR THE LOVE OF ASMODEUS!!! JUST HIT HIM!”
plus 1d10 persistent fire damage
Round 11 —> 12
==============
Vitalis (-71) {sickened 1; Hasted: Round 9 of 10; Resist fire 10}
Lucian Thrune (-147) {prone}
Wyvern (-95) {prone}
Jisara (-31)
Chance (-69) {1d10 persistent fire; Dazzled: Round 0 of 1}
Edrakk {+2 status vs mental; Resist fire 10}
==============
"OOO AAAA OWWWW!"
Stabbed, shredded, and on fire, Chance hops back from the door and sings his healing song.
Vitalis steps out into the hallway. Shoving forward with his polearm, he knocks the wyvern back into the grease. "Oh you were so close Lucian. You'll get it eventually. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were a cadet rather than a captain." He taunts the captain. Then he steps back for the cover of the doorway.
Edrakk tries once more to heal Vitalis's condition.
Failing that, he draws a blight bomb in the event that Lucian breaks through.
"What in the hell is going on out there?" Jisara asks, her curiosity and confusion overwhelming her sense of caution.
Jisara protects herself and moves.
Chance moves over and heals himself.
Edrakk tries (and fails) to Treat Condition.
Vitalis moves forward and completely skewers the last remaining bit of life out of Lucian’s dragon before attempting to demoralize the captain himself.
But while the captain is unfazed by the paladin’s words, he is clearly disturbed. ”My men are gone…I…I’ve…” As he speaks, though, a sorrowful resolve fills his eyes. He looks at the massive flag he carries in one hand, his eyes lingering upon the Chelish Cross. ”I am sorry, Your Majestrix. I have but one duty remaining.”
Lucian looks down at his unconscious, draconic mount. He says no words of condolences, no touching final remarks. Instead, he brings the massive flag down, straight through the wyvern’s back! The dragon releases a final death rattle as what remains of its life utterly leaves it.
Lucian then looks Vitalis in the eyes as best he can. There is no respect or anger in his eyes. Just sorrow. Leaving the flag impaling his mount, the Thrune awkwardly dismounts.
Lucian’s awkward dismount causes him to slip on the still-remaining grease and hit his face on the stone masonry. He growls, punching at the bloodied masonry. He musters the resolve to Stand back up on his own two feet.
Round 12 —> 13
==============
Vitalis (-71) {sickened 1; Resist fire 10}
Lucian Thrune (-147)
Jisara (-31)
Chance (-54) {+2 status vs mental}
Edrakk {+2 status vs mental; Resist fire 10}
==============
"Do you surrender? Too much blood was spilled unnecessarily this day. Do the deaths end here or is one more required?"
"Well...I suppose one more is required..."
"Well...I suppose one more is required..."
"Oh, HELL no!" Chance stomps past Vitalis into the hallway and points at Thrune. "Listen up! He offered you a chance to surrender, how about you calm the #%^$ down and take it!"
"Trankviliĝu!"
"Oh, for the love of...Vitalis, stop him!" Jisara shouts, hurling her own disabling magic at Lucian.
Edrakk continuous trying to patch up Vitalis, and almost becomes to immersed in his work to realize what Lucian is saying.
Almost.
"...stupid extradimensional demon blight...it just HAS to be this hard to treat, doesn't it...of course they COULD'VE taught me how to treat this in school, but NO, that wouldn't have been APPLICABLE to REAL-WORLD MEDI--" He stops, as the meaning of Lucian's statements starts to sink in. "NO!" he squawks rather violently. "No, nonono no! What the he--you can't just--I--wh--" He struggles to find any words to argue, or anything he has that might stop him without hurting him, but comes up empty.
Vitalis leaps over the grease and the wyvern and drives the butt of his weapon into Lucian's forehead.
Failure --> Success (incapacitation)
Chance and Jisara bombard Lucian’s mind with some efforts to stop him, but a clean blow to the back of the head by Vitalis is enough to knock the Thrune unconscious.
After several seconds of silence, the door to the immediate south of Edrakk creaks open a few inches as a man’s voice echoes out ”Are we finished with the bloodshed? I know you yet live, Master Thrune.”
The door opens the rest of the way to reveal an exotic and well-groomed gentleman with a charcuterie board of cheeses in one hand and a butter knife (his only attempt at a weapon) in the other. Jisara and Chance pretty quickly realize this person to not be human, but a genie—a janni, to be specific.
The genie is surprised to see a tengu and a tiefling, as he knows no one of those ancestries are stationed here. He looks down the hallway to see Vitalis standing over the unconscious body of Lucian Thrune. The genie squeezes his way through the hallway with the dead wyvern and checks Lucian’s pulse.
”He is still alive. Curses.” The janni droops his shoulders. ”I hoped I could finally be rid of this man. Well, at least he’s not screaming orders at me.”
The janni turns to the PCs and gives a half-hearted bow. ”Zorumar, unfortunate servant to Master Lucian Thrune. I presume you do not wish to kill me, since you left my vile master—who is much more deserving of death—alive?”
Edrakk looks between Zorumar and Lucian, scratching his head. "Ah. Hmmm."
"I-I definitely don't disagree that he's deserving of death, but... I don't know. It feels so... not needless, since it'd free you, but... he doesn't pose much of a threat, and not to mention the information he could give, but..." He taps his foot a bit and ruffles his feathers. "Is there another way we could help free you? Or is it only in the event of his death?"
"You presume correctly," Jisara says, still breathing hard from the chaotic melee. "Not here to kill you. Mostly, I was worried he had, I don't know, some kind of bomb or death curse."
"You presume correctly," Jisara says, still breathing hard from the chaotic melee. "Not here to kill you. Mostly, I was worried he had, I don't know, some kind of bomb or death curse."
”That would be a worry, yes.” Edrakk pauses. ”There’s nothing like that here to your knowledge, correct?” he asks Zorumar.
Zorumar notices one of the PCs starting to take Lucian’s armor off and the janni sighs. ”No, that’s not how you…Oh just let me.” He moves the PC out of the way and begins efficiently removing the Thrune’s full plate, clearly having done so before.
”No, unfortunately, there isn’t a way to sever my servitude to Master Thrune while he lives—devil magic is all about the terms and conditions. So long as the master lives, I am contractually bound to travel no further than a mile from his side, and I cannot use any of my innate magic that he does not authorize—which is currently limited only to my arcane power to create food and drink.”
"Well I certainly do not wish to consign someone to continued slavery, especially to a bastard like a Thrune. But before we resort to more killing, let's look around the keep. Maybe there is a loophole to free you. Can you tell us, Zorumar, are there any other threats we should be aware of here? Is it safe enough to rest here? We are rather beat up after that fight."
Jisara looks thoughtful. "Could he free you himself? Otherwise, well..." She trails off, draws a finger across her throat, and shrugs.
Chance is excited to meet an actual genie, and even more excited by the cheese.
"Nice to meet you, Zorumar! Oh yes, I agree with Jisara - if the only choice available is between his life and your freedom, well, that isn't a hard call. We would have finished him where he was but he said something that made us think that all of these deaths weren't entirely pointless: Well...I suppose one more is required..." He shrugs at the janni. "It seems unlikely that he meant to kill himself just to free you from your contract, doesn't it? So what could one more death have been required for"
"I-I don't suppose we could see the contract? We might be able to find some kind of loophole, a-although I do doubt it. I-I'm not a fan of executions, so if there's another way I'd want to take it, b-but it seems like the best course of action."
Chance is excited to meet an actual genie, and even more excited by the cheese.
"Nice to meet you, Zorumar! Oh yes, I agree with Jisara - if the only choice available is between his life and your freedom, well, that isn't a hard call. We would have finished him where he was but he said something that made us think that all of these deaths weren't entirely pointless: Well...I suppose one more is required..." He shrugs at the janni. "It seems unlikely that he meant to kill himself just to free you from your contract, doesn't it? So what could one more death have been required for"
"...that's a good point, actually. It might just be h-he didn't want to get captured, or couldn't live with failure, but we should be sure. I-is there any event where his death wouldn't free you? Do we need to do something specific to free you?"
"...that's a good point, actually. It might just be h-he didn't want to get captured, or couldn't live with failure, but we should be sure. I-is there any event where his death wouldn't free you? Do we need to do something specific to free you?"
Chance is excited to meet an actual genie, and even more excited by the cheese.
"Nice to meet you, Zorumar! Oh yes, I agree with Jisara - if the only choice available is between his life and your freedom, well, that isn't a hard call. We would have finished him where he was but he said something that made us think that all of these deaths weren't entirely pointless: Well...I suppose one more is required..." He shrugs at the janni. "It seems unlikely that he meant to kill himself just to free you from your contract, doesn't it? So what could one more death have been required for"
”Pride. He likely assumed the worst and decided he’d rather die than be captured or tortured by his enemies. Not to say that that was your intention, just that he probably believed it was.”
Zorumar sighs. ”But it’s fine. My lifespan is measured in centuries while his is only in decades. I’ll outlive him eventually.”
"Can you tell us, Zorumar, are there any other threats we should be aware of here? Is it safe enough to rest here? We are rather beat up after that fight."
”Um…” Zorumar takes inventory for several minutes of the unconscious bodies. The master…his pet…the devil…40-ish soldiers…Nope, that should be it. Well…” The janni chuckles under his breath in amusement. ”There is the secret staircase. I was cleaning the armory some time ago and noticed a hidden passageway on the far wall that had a staircase going upward. I didn’t dare search further, but I did find a small bit of delight in knowing something about this keep that the master did not.”
"That passageway sounds promising. But I'd definitely prefer to rest before we explore it. The keystone may have a guardian and I'm not prepared for another fight. There are enough beds here in the barracks. I'll help clean up the gore first. Also, even though we're bringing this place down, I'll dig each of these soldiers a grave. If we had the means to send them home, I would, but lacking that resource, I can at least afford them the dignity of a burial here."
Jisara rubs at her own cuts and bruises, nodding. "A rest would be appreciated. Thatch will probably want out as well, now that it's safe."
Edrakk nods and starts setting up his medical kits to patch up the groups wounds. "W-we should at least tie up and gag Lucian, i-in case he wakes up."
"Could always roll him up in a carpet and toss him in the bag," Jisara mutters.