Sadlark keeps his dirge going as he encourages Esme. Nearly the end of his reserves, Black Dhougal does what he can.
and she ignores his spell as easily as she did Tully's.
Nakapan smashes her twice. the second time she involuntarily turns to smoke! He wounds her too much for her to maintain her form. She has no choice but to retreat to her coffin, where she can be destroyed!
Ileosa's body screams in frustration, but it's silent on this side of the wall.
Round 24:
Crowley (117/209): Go
Esme (54/128): Go
Aliriel (Dirged): TBD
Sadlark (128/128): TBD
Tully (62/105): TBD
Black Dhougal (73/116): TBD
Nakapan (160/175): TBD
The Body: TBD
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Aliriel: 211!!!!
Ileosa: 11
Crowley stays within flanking distance of her as he strikes. "This ends now!"
+1d6 Persistent Bleed (1d12 on a crit)
On a crit target is FF until End of my next turn.
On a crit target is FF until end of my next turn.
HP 117/209 | (Drained 1 94/197)
AC 31 (30 w/ Rage)| Resist Fire 5; Slashing 3
(Rage - +15 Temp HP, +6 Damage, and -1 AC, Darkvision, +10 Speed)
Battle Medicine:
Hero Point 1/3
Esme lashes out with her weapon, a potent blade capable of harming ghosts!
In sheer frustrating she repeats her blade swings at the shadowy form.
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Having sharpened a torch into a point specifically for staking strigoi before, Esme retrieves her makeshift tool and stakes her.
The vampress turns to dust instantly after Esme stakes her with the torch! The Ileosa shell continues to scream impotently.
Round 24:
Crowley (117/209): Go
Esme (54/128): 1 Action
Aliriel (Dirged): TBD
Sadlark (128/128): TBD
Tully (62/105): TBD
Black Dhougal (73/116): TBD
Nakapan (160/175): TBD
The Body: TBD
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 11
Pathetic. Shorshen would be ashamed. Sadlark shakes his head, more than a little part of him entranced by the gothic beauty and horror of vampires and runelords.
Crowley moves to the edges of the barriers, taunting at the woman as he is eager to rush through and end her miserable existence.
Crowley rushes over, getting right to the edge of invisible wall.
Round 24:
Crowley (117/209): Move
Esme (54/128): 1 Action
Sadlark (128/128): Go
Tully (62/105): Go
Black Dhougal (73/116): Go
Nakapan (160/175): Go
The Body: TBD
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 11
Crowley rushes over, getting right to the edge of invisible wall.
The vampress turns to dust instantly after Esme stakes her with the torch! The Ileosa shell continues to scream impotently.
Round 25-29:
Crowley (117/209): Go
Esme (54/128): Go
Sadlark (128/128): Go
Tully (62/105): Go
Black Dhougal (73/116): Go
Nakapan (160/175): Go
The Body: TBD
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 11
Sadlark moves into position and maintains his dirge.
Sadlark thinks there's enough mind in there that she understands the situation, and she clearly has goals...
Round 25-29:
Crowley (117/209): Go
Esme (54/128): Go
Sadlark (128/128): Move and ready, no contingent action
Tully (62/105): Go
Black Dhougal (73/116): Go
Nakapan (160/175): Go
The Body: TBD
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 11
that's actually a good point...
Tully will take the several seconds they have, and study her carefully. Maybe he can glean some more information about what this thing really is...?
Then, with a warning to crowley, Tully drops a Chromatic Wall on this side of the WoF.
Black Dhougal sends off a few more bursts of healing energy.
Tully spends some time studying her like a voyeur in a menagerie. He can tell she's neither mummy nor vampire. She's something utterly unique. Tully concludes, thankfully, that she doesn't seem to have Ileosa's spellcasting power.
Black Dhougal closes some wounds before the final showdown.
Round 25-29:
Crowley (149/209): Go
Esme (86/128): Ward Medic Contingent Action?
Sadlark (128/128): Move and ready, no contingent action
Tully (94/105): Prismatic Wall
Black Dhougal (109/116): Move and heal, no contingent action
Nakapan (175/175): Go
The Body: TBD
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 11
Crowley readies his blade. "Last chance to give up..." He grits his teeth and readies his blade to cut her head from her body.
On a crit target is FF until end of my next turn.
Tully spends some time studying her like a voyeur in a menagerie. He can tell she's neither mummy nor vampire. She's something utterly unique. Tully concludes, thankfully, that she doesn't seem to have Ileosa's spellcasting power.
Black Dhougal closes some wounds before the final showdown.
Round 25-29:
Crowley (187/209): Ready (Posted)
Esme (128/128): Ward Medic Contingent Action?
Sadlark (128/128): Move and ready, no contingent action
Tully (105/105): Prismatic Wall
Black Dhougal (109/116): Move and heal, no contingent action
Nakapan (175/175): Go
The Body: TBD
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 11
The monk bounces lightly on the balls of his feet for a moment longer. Then he lets out a long breath. Nakapan moves over next to the wall of force. He kneels and takes a few moments to meditate.
for whatever it's worth, the wall is RED
Nakapan prepares before Tully's wall of fire. Ileosa bides her time, not wanting to tempt the magic. Once everyone is prepareds, Tully nods.
When Tully drops his wall, she lunges forth!
Crowley is ready though. He cuts her as she approaches
Round 30:
Crowley (187/209): Hit
Esme (128/128): Go
Sadlark (128/128): Go
Tully (105/105): Go
Black Dhougal (109/116): Go
Nakapan (175/175): Go
The Body: TBD
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 26
Black Dhougal adjusts his position slightly and drops a strategically-placed grease under MechaIleosa.
Sadlark continues his dirge. He tries an opening:
Black Dhougal greases the floor, causing the half-formed woman to slip and fall. Sadlark connects with his arrow, but only does the tiniest bit of damage.
Round 30:
Crowley (187/209): Hit
Esme (128/128): Go
Sadlark (128/128): Hit
Tully (105/105): Go
Black Dhougal (109/116): Grease
Nakapan (175/175): Go
The Body: TBD
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 28
Pointing her blade at The Body, Esme speaks a prayer before releasing a ray of buring sunlight at it.
She them moves in close, ready to protect her allies should they be struck.
Round 30
The monk pops up to his feet and takes a low Wolf Stance. With a quick canine patter he steps up close to the corpse flanking w/ Esme. He brings a flurry of Dragon kicks and Wolf strikes.
Stance *
Strike *
Flurry *
Flurry1
Dragon kick
Flurry2
Wolf Strike
The wizard is out of his most effective magic, so he decides to simply try to blast the abomination with electricity.
<--DC 31
Nakapan finds her an easier foe to hit. Twice he connects, and twice she reels from the blow.
She completely avoids both Tully's Spell and Esme's attack.
Despite the danger, she stands!
Round 31:
Crowley (187/209): Hit AoO
Esme (128/128): Miss
Sadlark (128/128): Hit
Tully (105/105): Miss
Black Dhougal (109/116): Grease
Nakapan (175/175): Hits AoO
The Body: 2 Actions
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 51
AoO
Dragon Knee
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The Dirge is just enough to throw her off her game as she stands, and Nakapan knees her in the face as she stands!
Round 31:
Crowley (187/209): Hit AoO
Esme (128/128): Miss
Sadlark (128/128): Hit
Tully (105/105): Miss
Black Dhougal (109/116): Grease
Nakapan (175/175): Hits
The Body: 2 Actions
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 63
"You made a mistake." Crowley moves to cut her down.
On a crit target is FF until end of my next turn.
Crowley also makes her pay for stepping up.
She immediately moves to sink her fangs into Esme:
for . The wound immediately starts spurting blood, that she's quite obviously looking to drink. She grabs hold of her neck to start sucking.
Round 32:
Crowley (187/209): Go
Esme (100/128, Grabbed, 2d6 Bleed): Go
Sadlark (128/128): Go
Tully (105/105): Go
Black Dhougal (109/116): Go
Nakapan (175/175): Go
The Body: TBD
Location: ??????? ?? ????? -
Tactical Map
Ileosa: 81
Round 32
The monk quickly moves to strike the corpse queen and try to rescue Esme. Nak also draws his sh sword to increase his defensive capabilities.
Wolf Drag **
Drawing Blade *
Wolf Drag
Or perhaps Nakapan flails a little in the grease...
Crowley times his strikes with Nakapan, "Let's bring her down."
+1d6 Persistent Bleed (1d12 on a crit)
On a crit target is FF until End of my next turn.
On a crit target is FF until end of my next turn.
HP 117/209 | (Drained 1 94/197)
AC 31 (30 w/ Rage)| Resist Fire 5; Slashing 3
(Rage - +15 Temp HP, +6 Damage, and -1 AC, Darkvision, +10 Speed)
Battle Medicine:
Hero Point 0/3
Tully continues to try to electrocute the beastie.
<--DC 31
Sadlark continues the dirge, wondering how long this epic will take to compose.
He moves toward Esme and tries to Aid her in her escape, skipping his arm across to lever her off with skill not strength.
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Crowley strikes Ileosa and the wound begins to bleed WAY more than it should. She starts shooting forth fountains of blood. The hollow corpse immediately melts into a pool of blood, at the center of which lies her still-beating heart. A moment later, a crimson ghostly shape—Queen Ileosa’s soul itself—rises from the heart. After the soul shrieks in relief at escaping from Hell, it rises through the ceiling and vanishes while the heart dies and rots!
Sadlark tries to understand what's happening — is the ghost going to possess another body?
"Did we win?" Esme asks, taking a second to make sense of the situation.
Sadlark is confident that the Ileosa before you has been destroyed, and he thinks that he knows what just happened. That was no ghost. That was really Ileosa's soul.
With Aliriel defeated, and Toff MIA, you are poised to report your success to King Odric.
"I am IMMENSELY satisfied with your success and payment is already being prepared. If you are okay with it, I'd like to offer you congratulations publicly if the you are comfortable with me doing so; in this case, it'll mean another round of celebrations kicking off in the city, and the heroes shall be added to the roster of famous figures celebrated during each year’s Crimson Festival! Also, I've got a new barrel of stout ready!"
The party has plenty of time to figure out what (literally) the Hell happened.
It appears that Aliriel, and presumably the head of the Academae had plans to bring Ileosa back from Hell. With the ability to look around unmolested, the party looks around the hidden dungeon, and pieces together some notes and clues.
Aliriel knew Ileosa’s legacy remained strong in Korvosa. If she could rebuild the queen’s body, free her soul from Hell, and bring her back to life, the restored queen would be in her debt—a powerful puppet the vampire could use to bend Korvosa to her will.
If Ileosa merely died, it'd be a simple matter, the complexity it seems was access to her soul - a soul she had traded to Hell itself.
It takes time for Korvosa to return to normalcy. The blow to the Church of Abadar nearly toppled it in the kingdom. Still, with agents like you, and a king like Odric... it'll happen.
Eventually.
The monk makes and shares a pot of tea with his comrades before they part ways.
Crowley spends the next few remaining nights hunting down the remnants of the Vampiric covens. "Can't let a single one get away or that disease will spreadlike wildfire."
Where’s the old head of the Academe? Did he get away?
Sadlark begins working on their tale, weaving in as much of King Odric and Morkeleb and the rest of the Upturned Cup to give it a sense if continuity. Their adventures might not have been quite as epic, but they’re another chapter in Korvosa’s histories.
Black Dhougal is happy to leave the dungeons beneath Korsova behind. I'm used to dealing with the underground but not vampire hordes, he says with some distaste. The former only threaten to bleed you dry, but they're largely bluster. The latter, though...[/b]
Crowley spends the next few remaining nights hunting down the remnants of the Vampiric covens. "Can't let a single one get away or that disease will spreadlike wildfire."
I am with Mister Crowley. I refuse to leave until we are BOTH satisfied there are no more undead here!
Also, I've got a new barrel of stout ready!"
...I'll TAKE that action! Tully brings out a stein. But...what are you rewarding the rest of my brave friends here???
Sadlark knows that the Upturned Cup largely disbanded after saving the city. There's still some contact between them, but not much. He also knows that if Toff is MIA, then Morkeleb is likely in line to take over the Academae....
As for Aliriel's fate, only time will tell.