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With a gasp, Shade carefully pulls the telescope from the skeleton's hand. "Could this be it?"
A tear falls from his eye. "Desna, at long last, I... we... have recovered the Starless Scope!"
Phaed walks up to the jars. I think I know who these belong to…
While the rest of the party is exploring the room, Tuco watches in horror as Ioseff’s ghost rises, floating, out of Tchekuth’s gravestone, pulling with him long tethers of sticky green ooze as he turns to face Abella. He points his good finger at her and cries out, “And now I shall take what is mine!”
For a moment, it seems as though Ioseff is about to cast a spell, but he notices the ring Abella carries, and stops himself!
"How dare you bring that ring here!"
In a rage, he attacks Tuco instead, who happens to be nearby, sending a tendril of ectoplasm to strike the monk!
Abella can sense Asethanna's outrage flowing through the ring!
Ioseff
Shade
Tuco
Abella
Pavo
Phaedria
Shade raises the newly found scope to his eye, peering through it at Ioseff.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected, and the starless scope's lens shatters.
Success The creature shines with starlight for 1 round. During this time, the creature can't be concealed if it is visible. If it's invisible, it's concealed rather than being undetected. The creature takes a –1 status penalty to saving throws against divine effects while it shimmers with starlight.
Failure As success, but the creature also suffers an additional effect. An incorporeal creature loses its incorporeal trait as long as it shines with starlight. Any other creature becomes slowed 1 as long as it shines with starlight.
Critical Failure As failure, but the duration of the starlight is 1 minute, and the status penalty to saving throws against divine effects increases to –2.
He then casts guidance on Pavo.
Tuco grunts as he gets crit. Taking a moment to get into his stance and add to his defenses. Tuco then raises his shield and strikes twice.
"You'd use my tool against me?" Ioseff resists the effects of the scope, but not entirely.
Ioseff shines with starlight!
Shard identifies Ioseff as a ghost, an incorporeal undead. Ghosts have the ability to possess the living!
Tuco lands a punch on Ioseff, but hardly any of the damage goes through unfortunately.
Ioseff -1
Shade
Tuco
Abella
Pavo
Phaedria
”Desna’s tool, you mean. And,, yes!”
Ioseff it's time to PLAY for everything you've done, not the least of which is IGNORING ME!!
You add a flourish to your composition to extend its benefits. If your next action is to cast a cantrip composition with a duration of 1 round, attempt a Performance check. The DC is usually a standard-difficulty DC of a level equal to the highest-level target of your composition, but the GM can assign a different DC based on the circumstances. The effect depends on the result of your check.
Critical Success The composition lasts 4 rounds.
Success The composition lasts 3 rounds.
Failure The composition lasts 1 round, but you don't spend the Focus Point for casting this spell.
She then casts Bless! Let us end this!
Ioseff is frightened by Phaed's dirge, which allows Pavo to hit the ghost!
"You? Why would I pay attention to you?"
"We shall all be one soon!" He says to Pavo.
Ioseff -12
Shade
Tuco
Abella
Pavo
Phaedria
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Ioseff floats over to Phaedria.
"You want to be my chosen one? Jealous of your sister? Search your feelings. You know it's true."
"Why don't the two of you fight it out?"
Ioseff then tries to possess Phaed's body!
Critical Success The target is unaffected.
Success You possess the target but can't control it. You ride along in the body while the spell lasts.
Failure You possess the target and take partial control of it. You no longer have a separate turn; instead, you might control the target. At the start of each of the target's turns, it attempts another Will save. If it fails, it's controlled by you on that turn; if it succeeds, it chooses its own actions; and if it critically succeeds, it forces you out and the spell ends.
Critical Failure You possess the target fully, and it can only watch as you manipulate it like a puppet. The target is controlled by you.
Ioseff -12
Shade
Tuco
Abella
Pavo
Phaedria
Phaed gasps. Siste—
Her shoulders slump, then she raises her gloved hands and laughs and laughs… with someone else's voice.
Phaed: "Now I shall take what's mine!"
Fulvia's ring begins to glow!
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Abella stands mouth agape, her expression one of indignant surprise, as though someone had just told her she in fact *did* owe the fifteen years of library late fees on Necrowomancy: Deconstructing the Patriarchy through Bone Constructing at the Whispering Way’s Scholomance.
So, inspired by the revelation she just received from her ring—a revelation she instead attributes to her own genius—she does exactly what she would do if Lady Demetrias showed up asking for one gold times 365 days times 15 years. She strides right up to the possessed Phaed, raises her skeletal hand with the ring resting on the middle finger, and backhands her across the face.
”SISTER?! What in the bloody hells are you talking about?!”
And, in case that does not do the trick, she follows with an open-palm slap. ”You cannot just say something like that then get possessed! It’s rude! Dramatically unsatisfying to me, personally!”
With her backslap, Abella knocks the mask off Phaedria, revealing the disfigured face underneath!
But, the ghost is not expelled!
Phaed smiles through the blood.
"I'm not leaving that easily!"
Tuco moves up and tries to trip Phaedria
Having Failed Tuco then grabs Phaedria.
Getting at least an arm.
”Sorry, Phaed. Hopefully the Song of Spheres will help us save you in the end. ”
He casts a spell, focusing through the Starless Scope.
His concern for Phaed causes his concentration to lag for a moment, but then he yells out, ”Never again!”
He then casts guidance on Tuco!
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The face behind the mask is finally revealed… identical to Abella's own!
Ioseff — or perhaps Phaed in her madness — grins. You can never get rid of FAMILY, twin sister! We'll all be together forever here in XARWIN MANOR. She turns and looks meaningfully at the brain jars.
|
Pavo clambers back over the furniture in the laboratory to get to Phaedria. "This is going to hurt me more than--No. No, it's just going to hurt, but you've got Ioseff trapped right where we can strike him. Well done!"
He swings the hatchet at his possessed friend without holding back. "Shade will put you back together."
He then calls upon Desna to shield him.
+
+
Phadria/Ioseff struggles against Tuco's grip, but isn't able to break free.
Spittle flying, she shouts, "You're all going to die down here! Then we shall become one!"
Phadria/Ioseff speak in an eldritch tongue, and summon forth a gibbering mouther to attack the party!
The mouther appears next to Pavo and Shade and it's loud gibbering is confusing!
The mouther bites at Pavo!
plus
The mouther then spits at Shade!
plus Burn Eyes
Ioseff -39
Shade
Tuco
Abella
Pavo
Phaedria
ooc]Party is up! DC 19 Will Saves from all vs the mouther's gibbering, and a DC 22 Fort save for Shard.[/ooc]
Shade gets a wild look in his eye.
Though that wild look comes with a lack of focus.
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Abella stands in full on shock and surprise at seeing Phaed’s face revealed as her own. The expression quickly turns to indignant confusion. ”Okay well first, there are about a million different magical ways to achieve that effect, and second, if we are to accept the premise, then what in the godsdamn nine hells were you doing not saying anything about the fact that we have the same face? You are just that into drama, I suppose? Bloody artists.”
She almost does not realize that Iosef has summoned something, but that lack of notice comes to her benefit as she does not actually hear any of the gibbering enough to be affected. Instead, Abella turns to Iosef/Phaed and opens and closes her skeletal hand like a chattering mouth while rolls her eyes and puts on a dumb expression and voice. ”’You’re all gonna die!’” Having eloquently made her point, she ceases the impression.
She gets a bit caught up in absolutely destroying Iosef with facts and logic that she forgets that she’s actually supposed to be destroying him with spirit-expelling slaps.
Rather than waste trying a third slap, she conjures a shield in anticipation of a retaliation.
Tuco ignores the gibbering and holds onto Phaedria.
Tuco focus on his own body, healing with Wholeness of Body.
Tuco finally trips Phaedra to further reduce their effectiveness.
In shock at seeing her own face, although no doubt disfigured, Abella fails to hit the ghost.
Tuco trips Ioseff/Phaed and they fall to the laboratory floor with a smack!
In his confusion, Shade draws his starknife, steps, and takes a stab at Pavo!
Shade
Tuco
Abella
Pavo
Phaedria
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Pavo lets out a short shout as the gibbering mouther takes a bite out of his arm. However, he manages to keeps his wits about himself even as this companions begin turning on each other. His eyes look worried when Shade stabs him in the back.
He moves away from the aberration and continues to work on bringing down Ioseff's host. "I'm sorry, Phaedria."
+
+
Having taken too much damage, Phaedria goes unconscious.
Ioseff's ghost rises from Phaed's body to stand, and holds up the stump of his left arm. The streaming blood begins to form a ghostly hand that he then points at Tuco!
Critical Success: The creature is sickened 1 by a sudden, agonizing pain in their left hand.
Success: As critical success, but the creature also takes 2d6 slashing damage and is clumsy 1 for 1 round as they feel as if their left hand just got lopped off by a hatchet.
Failure: The creature is sickened 2, takes 5d6 slashing damage, and is clumsy 2 for 1 minute as they feel as if their left hand just got lopped off by a hatchet.
Critical Failure: The PC is sickened 3 and takes 8d6 slashing damage and 2d6 bleed damage as their left hand appears to detach and fall to the floor before instantly decaying into bones. The PC is clumsy 2 and wounded 1. As soon as this wounded condition is removed, the PC’s hand miraculously returns and the clumsy condition ends.
Ioseff sustains his summoned entity, which continues to attack!
The Gibbering Mouther bites at Shard!
and Grab
This time the creature's teeth hold on!
Ioseff -56
Shade
Tuco
Abella
Pavo Grabbed
Phaedria Dying 1
Tuco holds their left hand in pain.
Tuco tries to clear the pain from his head.
Not succeeding Tuco lifts his shield despite the pain in his arm and unleashes a pair of kicks.
Tuco feels the sickening pain of amputation! And unfortunately, Tuco's kicks are not able to connect with the ghost.
Ioseff -56
Shade Grabbed
Tuco
Abella
Pavo
Phaedria Dying 1
Abella fires off a full volley of magic missiles right into Iosef’s face.
"My beloved," Ioseff gasps as Abella blasts him with magic missiles.
Ioseff -68
Shade Grabbed
Tuco
Abella
Pavo
Phaedria Dying 1
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Pavo removes a pungent poultice from his bandolier and hastily wafts it under Phaed's Abella-faced nose and then presses it to one of the wounds he made. "Shade is busy being driven mad," he says. "Wake up!"
He then turns his attention to hacking at the ghost, which was easier to hit inside Phaedria.
"Desna will have words with you, Ioseff! And so will Phaed!"
Shade attempts to escape the grab.
Failing to get out, he chooses to attempt to heal Phaed.
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GASP!
Phaed expands her Bless spell then grabs her mask and puts it back on!
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"Cat's out of the bag, Phaed. Do you really need the mask?"
Ioseff flies over to the ectoplasm-cacked tombstone, and pleads with Abella.
"Why, my chosen one? I loved you the most, but I will be denied no longer!"
Ioseff conjures the most fearful image imaginable to kill Abella!
Success: The target takes 4d6 mental damage and is frightened 1.
Failure: The target takes 8d6 mental damage and is frightened 2.
Critical Failure: The target is so afraid it might die. It must attempt a Fortitude save; if the target fails, it dies. On a successful Fortitude save, the target takes 12d6 mental damage, is fleeing until the end of its next turn, and is frightened 4. This effect has the incapacitation trait.
Meanwhile, the gibbering mouther maintains its grip on Shade, and rolls across the cleric in an attempt to engulf him!
Ioseff -68
Shade Engulfed?
Tuco
Abella
Pavo
Phaedria
Suddenly, the sound of hundreds of whippoorwills fills the room. The algea has arrived!
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The most fearsome imagine Abella can think of right now is…actually being this horrible man’s lover. First of all, man. Second of all, Thrune loyalist stooge. Third of all, if he is related to Phaed, and Phaed is really her twin sister, wouldn’t that make him her relative?
Thankfully, she gets caught up so much in enumerating her reasons for her visceral disgust that she is not fully crushed by the power of the illusion.
Feeling extremely shaken, Abella does the first thing she does when she is scared and turns to her undead. She weaves together one of her massive zombies. ”You are Judy. Kill the fleshy one! S-s-so that Shade can heal me—I mean us.” “Judy” immediately sets to work beating on the gibberer.
Judy swings angrily at the mouther, and even with books in the way is able to connect.
When Abella fails her save against his spell, Ioseff reacts with a pleading, pitiful look, as his spells can carry a strange alien disease!
"It hurts, so bad..."
Critical Success: The target is unaffected.
Success: The target becomes clumsy 1 for 1 round as pain wracks their body.
Failure: The target is afflicted with internal insurrection at stage 1.
Critical Failure: The target is afflicted with internal insurrection at stage 2.
Internal Insurrection (disease); Level 7. The target can’t recover from the clumsy condition from internal insurrection until the disease is cured; Stage 1 clumsy 1 (1 day); Stage 2 clumsy 2 (1 day); Stage 3 clumsy 2 and flat-footed (1 day); Stage 4 clumsy 3 and flat-footed (1 day); Stage 5 death, and the target’s body splits apart into a mass of fragments that crawls outward in a 10-foot-emanation before perishing, leaving a bare skeleton surrounded by gore.
Ioseff -68
Gibbering Mouther -14
Shade Engulfed?
Tuco
Abella
Pavo
Phaedria
Abella’s body looks out of sorts, but she manages to hold on remarkably well, all things considered.
Shade avoids being swallowed!
He worries some that the mouther is going to kill him before they can take care of Ioseff, but the ghost is doing terrible damage to his friend, so he just tries to channel Desna's will.
He fails to cast the spell while trying to heal the party (and harm Ioseff).
"Desna! Don't abandon us!"
Phaed stands, casts another Dirge of Doom, and moves next to ioseff!
Forever Friendship Manor[i] will be [i]cleansed of you!
Tuco moves into melee range across fromt he zombie and wails on the ghost.
Tuco continues holding their shield up.
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The algae swarms Ioseff, attacking with a frenzy of beaks, each bite an attempt to cage his soul!
Already severely wounded, Ioseff writhes in agony but cannot escape the shackles of the nosoi.
“You will be with me again soon, my loves!”
His ghostly body shrieks as it finally melts away.
The mouther bites at Judy a few times, and then returns to its home plane.
A tentative calm settles across the manor. There is one last task to perform to truly destroy Ioseff’s ghost: putting the brains of his loved ones to rest.
Phaed stumbles dramatically to the floor.
NOOOOOO!! The Nosoi get to just waltz in here and steal the show like it was nothing!?
—
As Ioseff fades along with her malevolence condition, Phaed's shoulders slump as if she were being released from a heavy burden. I feel like I’ve been acting in a bad play for days now. Not only have I been a hamming it up about my manor, prone to long and dramatic monologues, positively narcissistic about my involvement in this place’s history, but I was also wrong about a couple things.
Such as, naming this place "Forever Friendship manor." Clearly that sobriquet needs to be workshopped. Also, wanting to impress my ancestor Ioseff. What a selfish man, spoiling a dramatic reveal for Abella. Among other things. I had been waiting for the perfect moment after all these years to bring it up, and this manor was the perfect opportunity for a masque of revelations. What an egomaniac! I am so very glad he is gone.
Shade just stands there, dumbfounded, and a little chewed upon. ”Um, ok, Phaed, calm down. We all know you weren’t quite yourself for a while.
“Um, should we be putting these brains to rest?”
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Abella slow claps for the dissipating Iosef. ”Bravo, you are just as inconsequential as expected. What you get for deep diving without water breathing in the Dark Tapestry. Good riddance.”
That resolved, she pinches Phaed by the ear with her skeletal arm. ”You have a great deal of explaining to do, dear sister. Especially now that you are finally lucid.”