”SQUAWWWWWK!” Wan gives a short, sharp chirp before diving to the ground. He rolls over with a heavy sigh.
”That was most unwelcome. It appears that something isn’t happy to see us returned.” Wan pats his bandolier under his armour to make certain that his newly-purchased vials remain intact.
”Ouch!” Akkaboo rubs her face where the beam from the bloody phantom had struck. ”But quick! We need to follow her up!” The witch hurried up the stairs and pulls at the trapdoor.
Toska promptly seized and begins flailing once he’s hit by the eerie light.
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Zin grabs ahold of the little goblin's ear. "Hold fast for a bit. We all get severely burned by that light." Zin motions to the groups injuries as he shoves a roll of bandages and ointment into the goblin's hands. "Help me put this on everyone."
Zin obviously gets Toska and Mazul while the goblin drinks the ointment and wraps Wan up like a mummy and sticks the remaining roll on Zin's foot.
Already taking nearly an hour Zin sends out a small pulse of magic for himself and Wan.
"That is all I am able to do for now."
Once everybody is patched up (more or less), you head upstairs to the top of the lighthouse. 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!
Wan tries to re-address the healing efforts that he suffers from Akkaboo's assistance, but eventually just gives up after the elf hits him with a small pulse of positive energy.
"Zin, dear, allow me to roll these gauzy wraps back up so that you might use them again sometime. Your medical assistance did a fabulous job in unravelling them," Wan says, springing up the chest-piece of Proto and shoving the bundle of bandages inside the cavity.
The tengu clicks his armoured shell shut once more before moving to climb alongside the others. At the top of the light, Wan reviles in fright at the ooze.
"This looks like a job for my newly-purchased alchemist's fire!" he squawks, foreshadowing his actions.
Mazul blinks up at the ceiling as Zin wraps her in (surprisingly effective) bandages. "Thanks again. I have got to learn how to do that." Feeling much more like herself, she's fine with following the blood ghost thing upstairs.
She is completely unsurprised when the thing is waiting up there to attack them. "You know, I'd like to meet something nice and friendly here. Just once. Just for the novelty of it."
As she talks she moves towards the mist creature and slashes at it.
◆
"We did meet the dubious king of the mitflit tribe. He spoke to us and didn't immediately try to gut us." Wan points out, raising his voice to pedantically be heard over the murderous blood blob.
The new fresh spot of blood covering the light seems to snap the noise from Zin's mind as it clears his head. "Where did that come from!?" His voice shakes as he draws his blade and slashes quickly at the creature.
AC 16
HP 14/14 | +0 Temp HP
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 2/2
Curse Stage: None
Spells (1) 1/2 |
Zin misses the monster, and while Mazul lands a solid blow, it resists the physical damage. The rogue can find no vital spots to sneak attack!
The misty monster reaches for Mazul with its tendrils, but she dodges its attacks!
Zin's hand shakes too much as he tries to keep the misty creature at bay before retreating. "What is this thing?"
AC 16
HP 14/14 | +0 Temp HP
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 2/2
Curse Stage: None
Spells (1) 1/2 |
Circling around the thing in order to avoid its gripping tentacles, Wan runs a stream of consciousness banter.
"I am certain that those gripping tentacles would likely grab onto dear Proto and squeeze the stuffing - and myself - out of him if I were to venture to close, so I will pick my way through you, Toska, with apologies."
"Dear Mazul, I apologise in advance for disrupting your melee prowess, but if you could step away from this beastie for one mo, I might be able to test a theory of mine."
A strange hum starts emanating from Proto-Wan, like a new gear being shifted.
And then the gear splutters out with a puff.
"Poop-sicles."
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"Eeeek!" Akkaboo finally gets her voice back and shrieks in fear. "Blood's supposed to be on the inside, not the outside - right?"
Coaxing a bit of heat and flame from the air, the goblin hurls them at the terrifying creature. "Burn!" she yells. "Or melt!" She pauses. "Or both!"
Akkaboo 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.
Fortunately, the goblin has plenty of fire to spare. She hurls a flame directly into the mist's central mass, and it shrieks as the fire ignites its cloudy body and wreaks havoc!
Hissing reflexively as Wan almost steps on him he readies himself and takes a deep breath... and then promptly exhales when he sees Akkaboo light the abomination up like a good meal. "Ya'know, I should being surprised we keep running into undead stuff." With that thought he promptly ignores common sense and attempts to hack up the mist into smaller mist bites.
◆ Step
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"We did meet the dubious king of the mitflit tribe. He spoke to us and didn't immediately try to gut us."
"True, but I wouldn't exactly call him friendly..." Mazul swings again at the red mist, more out of frustration than any belief it will actually do anything. Then she heeds Wan's advice and steps back while raising her shield protectively.
”Nice!” Toska congratulates Mazul.
Toska slices into the vampiric mist, then Mazul follows up with a lucky slice that destroys the strange aberration!
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.
Zin leans over the edge to follow the light with his eyes. "That's probably not good. We should head back down and see what the light is focusing on."
Wan pauses, alchemist's fire vial cocked and ready to throw, as Mazul cleaves through the blood blob with the killing blow. At Zin's words, the tengu squawks.
"RAWWWWK! Are you kidding, Zin? Let's rush around like we did the time before where we ran down three levels and into even more horrible things, this time into a cemetery where NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS?!?!?"
Wan sniffs, popping the head-piece of Proto as he places his vial safely back in his bandolier. "I, for one, am not going to be lead any further on a cat-and-mouse game with this vindictive beacon." For emphasis, Wan thunks whatever casing of the strange light that he can reach.
"I say that we use more consideration and less acceleration."
Mazul blinks in surprise as her fadeaway hit causes the mist to disintegrate. "Huh. That thing was far more dangerous when it wasn't corporeal. Mostly corporeal, anyway."
She joins Zin in leaning out the window, a frown on her face. "You know, Wan has a point. Our track record with following strange glowing lights hasn't been good. Vandy was saying that green light we followed earlier might have been something like a will o' the wisp, given that it kept leading us to ever more horrifying monsters. Maybe this light is trying to do the same..." She pauses. "Then again, Wrin did ask us to check out the light, and the light points to the graveyard, so I suppose we wouldn't be doing our due diligence if we didn't go."
"Maybe we go, but we do so slowly and carefully? And if we see any more strange mist, we don't run into it."
"Exactly! Wrin asked us to investigate this light? And now we don't follow it?" Zin points out into the open air towards the graveyard. "Obviously it can't be good but it is trying to tell us something."
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"I am simply stating that I am SO OVER rushing heedlessly and headlong into following this bloody illuminative imp. There's likely some deranged oni pointing the light at the most dangerous thing it can direct us to, snickering at our foolish haste. It is malicious and naughty, this light. I trust it not."
Wan punctuates his statement by kicking at the light housing once more.
"We can follow and think at the same time," Toska suggests.
"Well let's move on then - while we think," Wan looks around the room, sniffs, then disdainfully pokes through the remains of the blood ooze, half-expecting to find nothing.
Just as Wan half-expects, he finds nothing of value.
You quickly make your way back through the Fogfens to the graveyard west of town. 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. It looks like it will be up to you to destroy the lingering skeletons and zombies!
Zin looks on in horror as the undead fling themselves from the cliff and onto the town below. "We need to figure out what is happening with that light before it raises all of the dead here."
He draws his blade, reaching begins his back as he pulls what appears to be a swirling mass of shadows over himself.
The shadows quickly expand out concealing him from sight as he circles around the side of the zombies.
◆ Draw Weapon
◆ Cloak of Shadows
◆ Stride
AC 17 ; (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
HP 22/22 | +0 Temp HP
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 2/3
Curse Stage: Minor
Spells (1) 2/3 |
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"Oddly prescient of them, to build the graveyard next to a cliff." Mazul sounds calm, although she visibly winces at the sound of the undead hitting the Dawnflower Library. Maybe those books were safer with me after all.
"We need to figure out what is happening with that light before it raises all of the dead here."
"I think it already did." Mazul hides behind a gravestone while she racks her brain to try and remember if she's ever heard anything about the Gauntlight being able to raise undead.
The tengu pulls out a vial of alchemist's fire from his bandolier, placing it in Proto's gauntleted hand.
"It appears, regardless of the cause, that we have been called. Prepare yourself." He then cocks his head to the side and looks directly at Mazul. "Ka-CAWWWW!" The tengu makes a jape in sotto voce, then moves to find cover behind a tree or wall before launching his vial at the nearest zombie, and then ducking back behind that cover.
"... that ain't right," Toska says in a resigned tone as the dead rise and fling themselves below. Hefting his sword over his should he rushes the nearest one.
◆ Stride
◆ Stride
◆
Mazul has never heard anything about Gauntlight ever shining blue light like this, even in the days of the Roseguard! As she and Zin circle around the graveyard and hide in the shadows the elf conjures, Wan kicks things off by hurling alchemist's fire at the nearest zombie. His strike hits home, and Akkaboo adds more fuel to the fire with her own magic. Toska rushes up to the burning zombie and cut it down with a slice of his blade!
The other undead respond to this disturbance. The two zombies slowly shamble towards the kobold. The skeletons are quicker to close the distance, and three of them engage Toska in melee, slashing with their claws. They all land lucky blows, one scoring a critical hit!
Zin moves in close, releasing a wave of small sparkling stars from out of the darkness. He tries to catch as many of the undead as he can to keep them off of Toska. "Get them off of Toska!"
The small flicker of bright light from the darkness burns at the undead.
AC 17 ; Curse Stage: Moderate
HP 22/22 | +0 Temp HP
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 1/3
Spells (1) 2/3 |
Curse:
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
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"On it!" With the skeletons surrounding Toska, there's no point in trying to be stealthy. Mazul springs out from behind the gravestone and charges towards the fray. Circling around behind one of the skeletons, she smashes it in the ribs with her mace.
◆
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Wan strides towards the beleaguered kobold, attempting to pincer one of the skeletons in a flanked position.
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Akkaboo claps her hands together and rubs them back and forth vigorously. "Clear!" she yells, holding them out so the sparks dancing around her fingertips can jump to the zombies. Just in case, she conjures up her trusty translucent disk for protection.
Toska swings at the skeleton around him, destroying one of them. Mazul and Wan move to flank the others that have engaged the kobold, annihilating them with critical strikes!
Zin moves up and blasts the two zombies with a spray of stars, dazzling one of them. Akkaboo unleashes lightning upon them, scorching the dazzled one worse than its compatriot.
The zombies shamble at Zin to attack him while the two remaining skeletons move up to claw at Mazul and Wan. Mazul is the only one injured, taking a light scratch to her leg.
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"Ow!" Mazul glares at the skeleton attacking her, more annoyed by the situation than frightened. "Those claws are not sanitary!"
A concern she hadn't had before flipping through The Complete Manual of Things That Might Kill You (And How To Survive Them). The illustrations were very...informative.
"I'll come back for you in a minute," she hisses, then moves up to flank the skeleton ineffectually swiping at Proto.
Akkaboo continues throwing lightning at the zombies. "Go away!" she yells angrily, hiding behind her disk for safety.
Zin feels one of the fists slam into his ribs, easily cracking one. He takes two quick swipes before retreating to a safer position.
AC 17 ; Curse Stage: Moderate
HP 14/22 | +0 Temp HP
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 1/3
Spells (1) 2/3 |
Curse:
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Wan turns to the shambling corpse grasping at him.
"Off, you filthy pest!" Wan releases one hand from his khakkara and uses it to draw a second weapon - a short, angled blade - from Proto's greaves. With it, he stabs in quick succession at one of the zombies.
"Thanks!" Toska grunts to the others before hissing and continuing to hack at the remaining undead.
◆
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The remaining undead don't last long at all, as you take them out with a series of powerful blows and a blast of crackling lightning!
A few moments pass as you catch your breaths. But then, Gauntlight's beam focuses on the five of you. The baleful light's illumination raises gooseflesh as it touches you, then an instant later, a spiderlike aberration manifests in your midst--and, just as quickly, Gauntlight goes dark. The monster chitters and prepares to attack!
"What cosmic entity did I piss off?" Wan yells at the appearance of the next enemy. "Hei Feng?! Is this your doing? Do I need to eviscerate a fish and eat it raw to appease you??"
"The God of Storms sometimes likes that, but in actuality, it's usually a delicious penance - so not really a sacrifice, as it were," Wan explains.
"What the f@#$ is that?!" Mazul had been having a perfectly good time slaughtering undead, and then this giant spider crab thing shows up to ruin her fun? (Okay, so slaughtering undead wasn't exactly her idea of a good time either, but at least she knew what they were and how to kill them.)
Well, it's presumably an animal, and that means it can be killed. Right? And if Gauntlight's gone dark, hopefully that means there won't be any more surprises. Always look on the bright side, like her father says.
She drops her mace in favor of her shortsword and circles around the very large creature until she finds what she thinks is its back. If nothing else she's now farther away from the dripping fangs.
Mazul drives her blade between the creature's oily, chitinous plates, drawing blood. The thing screeches and whirls on her, snapping at the rogue with its jaws! Its fangs tear into her, leaving her barely standing and injecting her with paralytic venom!
(1 round); Stage 2 clumsy 1 and slowed 1 (1 round); Stage 3 clumsy 1 and slowed 2 (1 round).
”This is why you never let spiders live! Just crush them or eat them and be done with it - or you’ll get this!”
Seeing Mazul’s success at penetrating the scales with a blade, Wan relies again on his short, exotic blade, but before he does so, a familiar whir of high-velocity energy begins.
”Eeeek!!” Akkaboo shrieks. ”What is that!? Too big!” Sparks again leap from her hands towards the creature as she tries to remember if she’s seen a picture of this thing before - besides in her worst nightmares!
Mazul doesn't scream, mostly because the wind has been completely knocked out of her. I suppose the bright side here is that it may be too busy eating me to attack anyone else.
Dad? Sometimes looking on the bright side sucks. Hope I get to tell you that.
Whatever poison is on the creature's fangs is slowing her movements and loosening her grip. She attacks anyway.
◆
◆
Zin is still in shock as spider-like beast emerges from the light. The goosebumps on his skin only seem to grow in intensity as it seems all too real. His mind wisks back through all of the books he has read on the cosmos.
Seeing one of the fangs sink into Mazul's shoulder Zin leaps in behind the creature and slashes at it with his blade.
AC 17 ; Curse Stage: Moderate
HP 14/22 | +0 Temp HP
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 1/3
Spells (1) 2/3 |
Curse:
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Toska snarls as the abomination savages Mazul, hefting his sword bits of the eerie light and soulstuff from the destroyed undead cling to his blade as he swings.
◆ Rage
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