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Nalfeshnee had begun licking the blood off the floor just as the haunt abruptly burst into view.
Vengis is only slightly affected by the thing, but observes it carefully.
This reminds me of the religious widow--what did I say to her?
He steps forward as the haunt manifests. "Light shall dispel the darkness--and the dawn's rays bring radiance to all it illuminates!" he bellows.
Or something flaky like that.
The beam sears deep into Eyenia's being and she splutters for air. It was cold, colder than she ever thought possible.
She powers through the pain, summoning forth all her willpower and knowledge of rituals of banishment. She blasts the being with holy light as she yells, "Go to your rest across the River of Souls! Judgement has long been overdue!"
The prayer works! The bloody phantom shrieks, then sprays upward in a spiral, dousing the trap door at the top of the stairs before draining upward through the door's keyhole.
Zetty sways, rather seriously injured by the wave of negative energy. Through blurry vision she watches Vengis and Eyenia drive the phantom off, but she's not able to get anything down on her writing slate. "What... was that? Was that the ghost?"
Not at all interested in pursuing the ghost, she scurries over to the fallen Bella to check her state. "Eyenia, can you help her with that wand we found?"
Grem immediately turns Bella over and starts to treat her wounds with his mediocre skills in Medicine.
Despite her fearsome wounds, this was not the day that Bella was destined to die. Her friend's healing kept her from meeting the Lady of Graves.[/ooc]
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Vengis felt a little drained, but had not been nearly as hurt as his allies.
"Since I am somewhat of an expert on religious things, I will say that was some kind of haunt--a poltergeist, if you will--that has manifested in this place. When a soul is unable to rest, it is disturbed and unable to rest. This one was quiet powerful, though Eyenia and I were able to turn it away with our combined righteousness."
He strokes his moustache.
"If there is a way to stop it, it is usually to find all of its treasure and take it away from this place. That will keep it from manifesting in the future, I believe."
Eyenia nods, "Yes, of course."
Bella was aware that the people around her were talking, but she couldn't focus on the conversation.
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Once he's sure that she's out of immediate danger, Grem tends to Bella's wounds.
Bella responded to her friend's treatment and sat up, "Thanks Grem, what happened? Last thing I remember was a ghostly woman turning around like the lighthouse lamp, spewing forth dark energy."
Once she was better, Bella returned the favor by healing Grem, until he was fully recovered.
Then she started healing the others.
Zetty keeps watch on the trapdoor as Grem and Bella slowly work on patching up everybody's wounds. She attempts to sketch the bloody ghost from memory in the long rest period, and while her rendition lacks any detail regarding its features, the apparition looms ominously and seems to deepen the shadows around it.
"Hmm. That's not right though... it was more..." She flips over, then stows her slate for the moment, smiling at the halfling "Thanks Bella. I'm really glad you're here to patch us up!"
"Now, how do we feel about opening that trapdoor? Maybe that's what our key here is for? We'll probably come face to face with that ghost again."
Bella responded to her friend's treatment and sat up, "Thanks Grem, what happened? Last thing I remember was a ghostly woman turning around like the lighthouse lamp, spewing forth dark energy."
Grem nods in response. "Vengis and Eyenia were able to cast out the ghost, or some such thing."
"Now, how do we feel about opening that trapdoor? Maybe that's what our key here is for? We'll probably come face to face with that ghost again."
"If everyone is ready to carry on, then let's go."
Regarding the idea of the trapdoor Bella replied, "Eyenia is still looking pale. I think she needs more healing."
Bella decided that healing Eyenia was prudent, given the thing they'd already encountered in the ruins. She took out her healer's tools and got to work.
Finally she announced, "NOW we're ready to try the trap door!"
It is the wee hours of the morning by the time everybody is patched up. Still, you head upstairs to the top of the lighthouse. The iron stairs creak and sway alarmingly but are quite sound. The key you found with the lighthouse on it opens the trap door.
Rows of black metal bars encase the circular chamber at the top of the stairs like a cage. Shimmering waves of force flicker between the bars and gives the illusion that softly glowing glass encases this entire area. The room appears empty save for a human‐sized encasement of glass and iron that flickers and glows with an unsettling, almost nauseating pale blue shimmer—Gauntlight’s lantern!
You can see that blood has slithered and flowed over Gauntlight’s lantern. As you enter the chamber, it slides off the lantern and transforms into an amorphous monster of semisolid red mist. The thing hisses and surges to attack!
Zetty recognizes the creature as a vampiric mist. With an amorphous body that consists as much of fluid as it does of air, these creatures dwell in swamps or moist underground regions. They are distantly related to will-o-wisps. They resist physical damage but are weak to fire.
The creature surges at Grem, lashing him with a misty tendril!
Failure: The creature is drained 1, and the vampiric mist gains 5 temporary Hit Points.
Critical Failure: The creature is drained 2. The vampiric mist gains 10 temporary Hit Points and takes on an intense red until the end of its next turn. During this time, it gains a +2 status bonus to AC and saves and is quickened. It can use its extra action only to Strike.
Getting hit by the mist seems to literally sap the life force from Grem, causing his tanned complexion to look somewhat whitewashed. Not one to easily be cowed, though, he easily settles back into his trained fighting stance and returns the attacks back on the mist.
◆ Mountain Stance
◆ Flurry of Blows
How do you fight a red mist? Bella hurried around behind the strange cloud and stabbed with her magic rapier.
Zetty, recognizing the threat posed by the vampiric mist and its peculiar weakness, says "Oh come on! Everyone, fire will work against it!" She rapidly flips through the older pages on her writing slate, things she drew during some of her earlier more solitary wanderings. Finding the sheet she wanted, she slips it free and tosses it into the air with a tear in her eye. "Sorry!" is all she offers to the artwork before it begins folding in on itself.
The artwork glows as it folds itself into an intricate origami sprite, ink turning colorful and tiny features growing lifelike and distinct. Zetty points the paper sprite toward the mist "Fire away little guy!" The paper sprite sends a pair of glowing, fiery sparks down at the mist.
Eyenia takes a step to the side to avoid the mist before she sends out an aura of courage and says, ”Fight on! We will prevail.”
Bella moves to flank the vampiric mist. While she can't find vital points to sneak attack, she still lands two hits. Bolstered by Eyenia's blessing, Grem manages two hits as well. Vengis misses but Zetty's Sprite burns the mist.
The monster turns to attack Bella, ripping into her with its tendrils. It turns back to Grem as the halfling falls, narrowly missing the dwarf!
Bella fell to the ground, grievously wounded.
Zetty calls out "No Bella!" but finds herself unable to do much to help the halfling. Instead, she maintains the link to her paper sprite, and focuses her magic on driving away the evil mist. She scrawls a dark circle around a simple representation of the vampiric mist, focusing a mental attack on it.
Meanwhile the sprite continues to lob glowing sparks down at the mist.
Grem balks at seeing Bella fall again, and resumes his barrage of attacks against the creature. "My fire has gone out. I can't use it again until I've rested!"
◆ Flurry of Blows
Eyenia maintains concentration on her bless spell as she casts heal on Bella.
Bella came to and remembered that Grem was in danger. She got back to her feat and tended to his wounds, then stabbed at the vampiric mist again.
The vampiric mist resists Zetty's spell. Grem lands a good hit, and Vengis's magic missiles strike home. It lashes out at Grem but fails to hit!
Bella then around the creature to give her friend and opportunity to flank, then launched a series of attacks in an attempt to destroy it.
◆Step
◆Strike
◆Strike
Without much else to do, Grem continues to swing his fists with strong, practiced movements.
◆ Flurry of Blows
Eyenia points at the vampiric mist, shooting a ray of searing moonlight at the beast.
Glad to see Grem blocking and evading the vampiric menace, Zetty uses her magical art to lift and propel a nearby loose brick at the bloody foe. She calls out encouragement to the paper sprite as well "Keep at it! Come sit over here and you'll have an even better angle."
The sprite flits down to hover over Eyenia before tossing another glowing ember.
With a redoubled effort, you land numerous hits on the mist, including burning it with moonbeams and faerie sparks. The strange aberration lets out a shriek as it fades into nothingness!
Silence reigns for a moment after the vampiric mist's defeat. Then, Gauntlight shudders and its light suddenly blazes with a sickly, pale-blue illumination. This beam arcs south, falling not directly on Otari, but onto the sprawling graveyard located at Otari’s western edge...
Your recent experiences have left you feeling stronger and more capable of facing the challenges that lay ahead.
Grem let's out a breath of relief when the creature dissipates, but is put immediately on guard again when the Gauntlight suddenly ignites. He watches the beam it creates and nearly gasps in dread, until he realizes that it didn't hit the town.
Suddenly filled with curiosity, he asks, "What was that all about? It almost seems to be pointing us somewhere...."
"Hey! We got it!" Zetty pumps a fist into the air in victory. "And everyone's intact! Though Grem you lost an awful lot of blood." Even as she voices her concerns, her writing tablet is back up and she's drawing the vampiric mist in motion, attempting the capture the malevolence of the creature on the page.
As she does, the strange changes in the Gauntlight attract her attention. "What in the world? What could that mean?"
”A light that shines upon the dead, shone from a tower full of undead. This does not bode well.
Bella breathed a sigh of relief when the vampiric mist was vanquished. She replied to Vengis, "If Wrin's hunch is right, this is about protecting the people of Otari from a growing threat."
When the Guantlight suddenly re-aimed it's beam to the graveyard, she wondered what it could mean. "I think we should have a look at the graveyard, in case something strange is happening there.
"But first, I could use a good night's sleep. Shall we return to Otari?"
Looming over the western cliffside and crowned by a grove of scraggly trees that no living person in town can remember ever having borne living leaves, the Otari Graveyard is tended by the Dawnflower Library acolytes. A wooden stairway ascends the cliff face from the library below, but most priests prefer to take the half-hour walk through town to tend the graves. Cremations and burials at sea have become more popular in Otari, so burials in the graveyard tend to be the province of older families who value tradition.
Bella finds nothing of value in the lighthouse cupola. She's not sure what significance the light shining on the graveyard might have.
You make your way back through the Fogfens to Otari to find a scene out of a nightmare! The soil of Otari’s graveyard roils and churns in the eerie blue light. Dozens of skeletons and shambling corpses haul themselves free from the ground and rush to the south. Without any hesitation, the walking dead plummet over the cliff’s edge to rain down upon the domes of the Dawnflower Library below!
Most of them plummet to their grisly destruction over the cliffs, though a few remain in the graveyard. Yet the damage is done—Otari’s citizens are horrified and panicked by the situation. Even the four nearby town guards are too scared to be of much help. If you want to restore the peace, it looks like it will be up to you to destroy the lingering skeletons and zombies!
Grem agrees to resting for the night, but on seeing the horror that has taken place in the graveyard, he grits his teeth together. "Can we really go to our beds knowing that this is right here?"
Bella commented, "I agree, we should do something about these roaming undead before we rest. I guess it's a matter of staying in a tight group, and destroying isolated undead quickly before more converge on us. Then move on to the next one and repeat." She tried to recall any religious lore that might give her insight into the problem, particularly weaknesses of these particular types of undead.
She replied to Vengis, "You should consider the advantages of going barefoot. Just wash your feet off afterwards!"
"Can we go rest? No way!" Zetty peers down at the undead mini-apocalypse currently infesting the graveyard. "What if there's some kind of unique Gauntlight-infused zombie in there? What if I missed it? And anyway, Vandy or some of the acolytes might be in danger right now."
Fortunately, skeletons and zombies are common enough forms of undead that it is easy to recall information about them. Basic skeletons aren’t very tough, but they are resistant to cold, electricity, fire, piercing, and slashing damage. Zombies are tougher and dangerous if they grab a hold of you, but they are slow-moving. They are weak to slashing and positive damage.
Eyenia sighs, "I cannot in good consciences rest while the dead horrors lurk in town. We must give them rest."
Bella asked Grem to trade the rapier for her sword, which he had been carrying for her, saying, "While the blade is not magical, I think it will be better than the rapier against those zombies."
She prayed to Sarenrae for light on her blade, and was pleasantly surprised when her prayer was answered. "Let's do this!", she declared, moving towards the walking dead.
Zetty relays her knowledge of zombies and skellies, then casts Magic Weapon upon Bella's shortsword. "OK, time to clear this mess up!" She follows after Bella.
Bella leads the way into the graveyard, rushing towards the nearest skeleton!
Bella recited a prayer for divine protection and advanced resolutely, slashing the first skeleton.