You go to rest, getting some food and sleep. You are able to sink into the ambient of that place. The rare, but still present, skeletons living within the camp still does not stop to amaze you.
The following day you prepare for whatever is there to come.
You gather in the center of the town. With a final whack of Tomas’ masonry hammer, the keystone settles into place on the corner of the great hall. A golden light radiates from the magically imbued stone, and as if on cue the scouts on the outskirts of the town blow their horns to warn of incoming danger.
You hear some yells and sound of steel clashign on steel, like from incoming troops. In between the buildings you can spot some undead heading your way, accompanied by Seldrick Dralstone, the undead of your visions.
Sir Cray says "I will take townfolk and protect the attack from the east, you take care of them!"
One of the skeletons runs in between the buildings with a bow in their hands and shoots an arrow at Mork
The arrow hits the wall couple of feet away from Mork.
Seldrick moves not that far from the skeleton and casts a spell.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Seldrick
Skeleton Green
➤ Peter
➤ Mimi
➤ Quickblade
➤ Mork
➤ Quan
➤ Henri
Skeleton Blue
Skeleton Red
|
Mork dodges as an arrow flies past him. Before acting, he waits for what he hopes is inspiration from his favorite minstrel.
He shakes his head at the skeleton. "Not a nice way to introduce yourself to new people. Your people skills need work, my frriend." Mork then moves closer, hugging the building, and turns his attention to the leader to study him.
Exploit Vulnerability link
You scour your experiences and learning to identify something that might repel your foe. You retrieve an object from your esoterica with the appropriate supernatural qualities, then use your implement to stoke the remnants of its power into a blaze. Select a creature you can see and attempt an Esoteric Lore check against a standard DC for its level, as you retrieve the right object from your esoterica and use your implement to empower it. You gain the following effects until you Exploit Vulnerabilities again.
Critical Success: You remember the creature's weaknesses, and as you empower your esoterica, you have a flash of insight that grants even more knowledge about the creature. You learn all of the creature's resistances, weaknesses, and immunities, including the amounts of the resistances and weaknesses and any unusual weaknesses or vulnerabilities, such as what spells will pass through a golem's antimagic. You can exploit either the creature's mortal weakness or personal antithesis (see below). Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren't already.
Success: You recall an important fact about the creature, learning its highest weakness (or one of its highest weaknesses, if it has multiple with the same value) but not its other weaknesses, resistances, or immunities. You can exploit either the creature's mortal weakness or personal antithesis. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren't already.
Failure: Failing to recall a salient weakness about the creature, you instead attempt to exploit a more personal vulnerability. You can exploit only the creature's personal antithesis. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren't already.
Critical: Failure You couldn't remember the right object to use and become distracted while you rummage through your esoterica. You become flat-footed until the beginning of your next turn.
You can attempt to Exploit Vulnerabilities in one of two ways: either by invoking properties that repel that type of creature, or by attempting a more improvisational, ad-hoc method with your esoterica that can impose a custom weakness on any creature, albeit one that usually isn't as dire as a creature's existing weakness.
Mortal Weakness: After identifying a creature's weakness, you use a thematically resonant bit of esoterica to attune your attacks to your discovery. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes activate the highest weakness you discovered with Exploit Vulnerability, even though the damage type your weapon deals doesn't change. This damage affects the target of your Exploit Vulnerability, as well as any other creatures of the exact same type, but not other creatures with the same weakness. For example, when fighting a pack of werewolves you might use silver shavings or crushed moonstone to deal damage that applies their weakness to silver to your attacks against any of the werewolves, but you wouldn't apply this damage to any other monsters with a weakness to silver.
Personal Antithesis You improvise a custom weakness on a creature by forcefully presenting and empowering a piece of esoterica that repels it on an individual level; for instance, against a tyrant, you might procure a broken chain that once held a captive. This causes the target creature, and only the target creature, to gain a weakness against your unarmed and weapon Strikes equal to 2 + half your level.
Mork shares what he learns from recalling knowledge, and grins, "Ahh, so you are Seldrick. Claudiette sends her regards." Mork rattles his wind chimes to empower his attack, and hurls his returning trident at Seldrick.
Mork sincerely hopes his trident is more effective against Seldrick than the earlier skeletons. He can't wait to find out....
|
|
"Ugh! More skeletons. I could use sometheeng more in de vay of a zombie right about now." Mimi's a little frustrated by the distance to the enemy but she's pretty quick when she wants to be. She rushes around the corner and straight up to the nearest skeleton. She ducks under its reaching hands and popping back up, punches him in the skull.
vs Flat-Footed
|
|
When Quan asks about potions, Mork's orcish ears perk up. "Ahh, most generous! If you can spare Haste potion, Mork would like to be speedy!"
Mork quickly adds, "Or any potion to improve speed!" He gladly accepts whatever speedy elixir Quan provides. "With cheetah potion, Mork would be fastest of his tribe!" He quaffs the potion before battle.
Peter moves and inspires his allies, then he sends magical aid towards Morc.
Morc analyzes Seldrick, he believes that he is a deathless acolyte, capable of casting spells. He is immune to death effects, disease, paralyzed, poison, unconscious but has no weaknesses.
Morc throws his trident, hitting Seldrick.
Mimi moves forwards and thumbles through the skeleton. She then punches it with a panache.
Henri rushes towards enemies and shield himself.
Quickblade designates green as his pray and shoots. His bolt smashes the spine and bones fall to the floor.
Qen recalls the potions that she gave away to others.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Seldrick
Peter
Mimi
Quickblade
Mork
➤ Qen
Henri
Skeleton Blue
Skeleton Red
Qen moves from behind the corner and sends a bolt at one of the skeletons.
Blue skeleton moves carrying a glaive and strikes Mimi
Glaive catches Mimi with the end of the blade.
THe other skeleton moves twice and strikes Mimi
Seldrick looks at Mimi with his dead eyes and cuts the air with his dagger, Mimi feels her mind being attacked with magic. Then he steps backward
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Seldrick
➤ Peter
➤ Mimi
➤ Quickblade
➤ Mork
➤ Qen
➤ Henri
Skeleton Blue
Skeleton Red
|
|
Mork sees Seldrick try to slink away. He shakes his wind chimes in the direction of Seldrick and chases after him, using his extra long strides thanks to the potion. "No more terrorizing village. Time for you to take permanent rest." Inspired by Peter's lyrics and having already identified Seldrick's personal weakness, Mork hurls his trident twice in succession.
|
|
Mimi tries to dodge the glaive strike but the point just barely catches her upper arm. "Uf. If only I'd prepared a parry." She then sees Seldrick staring at her and a shot of pain lances through her brain...
...but she manages to shake off the worst of the effect.
With Mork going full Godzilla on Seldrick, Mimi concentrates on his lesser minions. She's about to take on the skeleton to her right, but Quickblade's crossbow bolt comes out of nowhere and smashes through the bones of the creature's chest so she takes on the creature before her. Robbed of her verbal weaponry, she once again resorts to flashy footwork to confuse her opponent and duck behind it before smashing it twice with her fist.
vs Flat-Footed
|
|
Qen remembers handing out two cheetah's elixirs as well as making and drinking one herself. She also remembers that she has alchemical items made by these backwards hicks, but figures that they're worth a shot since nothing else she has formulae for has worked.
◆ Interact to draw bottled sunlight
◇ Bend Time
◆ Stride
◆ Strike vs. Blue
plus splash
(no splash)
◆ Interact to draw holy water
|
Henri gets closer to his other allies combating the enemies in melee but stays close to others. He then lances a positive energy to Blue to disrupt the undead. "How about you take to this!" he exclaims as he does the casting of the spell.
◆ Stride
◆◆ Cast a Spell, Disrupt Undead, DC 18 basis Fortitude save of Blue vs positive damage (and Enfeebled 1 for 1 round if it crit fails)
Peter can't get the tune right, but he keeps inspiring allies.
Quickblade, focuses on shooting at the skeleton and takes them down with another well-aimed shot.
Morc runs forwards and throws his trident twice, which is the end of Seldrick the wicked!
Mimi tumbles through the last skeleton and strikes it twice. After that, it only needs a well-thrown bomb from Qen to convince them to fall to the ground.
After Seldrick is dead, most of the undead begin to flee. The battle soon is over, and you find Sir Clay tending to the wounds of a villager who got a spear in her hip while trying to fend off a pair of skeletons that attacked Tomas, the skeletal mason. Tomas, however, didn’t survive.
Beside Tomas there is at least 10 of bodies lying on the ground "It would be much worse if you wouldn't come here with Supplies."
He turns towards where the tower is
"That Ivory Reaper wasn’t the only threat in the area. If he won’t be back, the knights of the Dark Watchtower will be. We should bring the battle to them! I planned to attack the tower. With you at our side, the dozen or so of us that can fight might have a chance. The other refugees can follow your directions back to Ustalav. This town clearly isn't safe." says Sir Clay but you can see that his heart is not in it
"But with the information that you provided, I can clearly see that this attack is a waste of lives. We need to survive to fight tomorrow."
You search the bodies before departing.
Seldrick carries a bag of holding type I bearing a stylized monogram of his and Claudiette’s initials intertwined, and inside there are mapmaking tools, a volume detailing the legends of the forests surrounding something called "The Dark Watchtower," a sullied copy of The Bones Land in a Spiral, and the former Pathfinder’s remaining wealth (worth 50 sp) along with his wayfinder. Folded in a pocket of his robes is a small parchment that is a portion of the map of enclaves and towns hidden away in the Gravelands. This parchment can be used to help fulfill the Horizon Hunters faction mission. However, Seldrick’s portion of the maps has been marked to represent the towns he has destroyed to add to his forces while searching for his wife to return to him in death.
With the way back and dangers involved fresh in the Pathfinders’ minds, the remaining refugees are able to make it across the old stone bridge into Ustalav. Venture-Captain Evni Zongnoss vows to reach out to the contacts she’s forged over the years in Ustalav to help each one find a new home and job, and to provide those who have expressed interest in joining the Pathfinder Society a path to membership. She asks the Pathfinders if they could assist in this much less dangerous task while they wait for their next mission. Claudiette, meanwhile, dedicates herself to training new recruits from among Steadfast’s population under Evni’s watchful eye, lauding the PCs as heroes in her eyes and the eyes of every refugee of Steadfast.
|
|
Peter sings on the way back to Ustalav, "Seldrick's Song".
♫ When I return, and villagers are dying
I am dead, as dead I yearn to be
I’ll come and find the place where you are lying
And I'll cast an animate spell for thee
You shall hear, dark magics called by me
And your grave will then empty be
For I will bend the nat'ral order for thee
I shall not sleep in peace until you come to me ♫
He also tries to re-confuse the three men who were guarding the bridge.
"No, I didn't say we were entering Ustalav on the way in, I said we were going to the Gravela-ah, never mind. RUN FOR IT EVERYONE!"
Peter bolts, a long furry fox tail dragging behind him.
|
|
After his trident strikes Seldrick down, Mork turns to help his allies. But it seems they've been just as successful. As he's cleaning his trident, he says, "Many thanks, Qen. Cheetah potion was good idea -- helped Mork get in position for battle." Then turning to Peter, "Inspiration makes Mork's orc-ish blood flow. Big help in battle."
Mork is relieved when Sir Cray comes to his senses and agrees to save the tower fight for another time. Mork collects Seldrick's Wayfinder and monogrammed Bag of Holding. "Claudiette will want Seldrick's things." And he excitedly adds, "And Calisro Benarry will love map fragments. Who will join Mork to track her down? I'll introduce you!" There's an excellent chance that Calisro Benarry has no idea who Mork is, but that doesn't deter his enthusiasm.