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"Sounds like another case of use having to fix someone else's mistake." Elemenar exhales a long breath. "But to be honest, this sounds like it might be a bit more interesting than some of our other missions. We might find something interesting in the vault."
The thought of exploring new objects, especially forbidden and dangerous objects, sparked an interest in Elemenar. Maybe this time he'd be rewarded with more than a few gold coins.
The Paracountess smiles at the aasimar. "That is precisely what you are to find out, my dear."
She rests her chin on her hand, elbow propped up against the table. With her other hand, she pops a few grapes from the trays of hors d'oeuvres into her mouth, affecting the airs of a bored noblewoman.
"What I know is that the Vault of Erya Bastorieth is home to relics from the self-same woman. She was a so-called weeping vampire accused of stealing her victims' youth by bathing in their blood. The Society recovered quite a few disturbing treasures from her holdings. And the thing that's loose... Well, the Society periodically sends groups of Pathfinders into their Vaults to ensure that nothing is amiss. Apparently one of the agents ran into trouble, as evidenced by breaking glass and screams. Her companions tried to save her but only succeeded in sealing off that section of the Vault."
"Are there any...other questions?"
Zarta leans back in her chair and claps her hands once. An aging dwarf with bleary eyes ambles in. "This is Hasjald. He's a groundskeeper and custodian of the Vaults," she says. "He'll guide you to the Vault in question."
Hasjald in turn nods slowly and looks the group over. "Ye'll need to be blindfolded once we get nearer to the Vault. Standard precaution."
Assuming that the party agrees to that condition, he leads them out to a wooded area near a part of the Grand Lodge called the Wall of Names. Blindfolding you all, he has you place your hands on each others' shoulders in single file order, and leads you through what you're sure was a hidden entrance, past several presumably-locked doorways, and down several winding tunnels.
At length, he stops and announces, "We're here."
You remove your blindfolds and find yourselves in a dank, dimly-lit stone hallway with no visible windows. A plaque on a nearby door reads 'The Vault of Erya Bastorieth.'
"I'll open the door for ye, and seal it behind ye. When ye're ready to leave, give me this signal," he says, and makes a lengthy, but easily-repeated series of taps on the door.
He readies himself by the door, and looks at you all. "Ready?"
At the wall of names, Aya whistles and suddenly a large bird swoops down!!
The large sized bird is a mix of a Roc and a giant falcon and its beak is hooked and designed for slashing and tearing.
The bird’s feathers appear brown and black currently but seem to change colors.
Bjk looks to the Aasimar woman and signals that he is ready with a screech.
Hasjald ushers you into the Vault, and the door creaks as it closes behind you. You find yourselves in a small, unlit foyer surrounding a plain stone stairwell. After lighting a few torches to push back the darkness, you descend the stairs to enter a room lined in dark lacquered wood panels. A number of macabre items stand carefully positioned around the room, including a guillotine, a gold-lined iron tub with claws shaped to resemble lion's paws, and gruesome abstract paintings depicting tortured figures donning strange, birdlike masks and engaging in acts of ritual scarification. Another wall displays a number of exquisite white lace dresses drenched in sanguine stains set upon mannequins fashioned from human skeletons. Lastly, two crystalline display cases sit upon wooden pedestals, one holding a wickedly sharp athame with a flame-shaped blade, the other containing a simple circlet of braided silver and bronze.
A dozen mirror-like fragments of glass are scattered across the floor, and a young woman's body lies in a congealed pool of blood at the center of the room. A pair of shadow-shrouded alcoves flank the stairs.
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"What could have happened here? Did a vampire really attack this woman?"
Ki Chin wondered out loud.
Taking a closer look at the shards of glass nearby the magus racks his arcane knowledge for a clue. "These fragments...seem to be part of some sort of magical prison. This woman probably broke it and released whatever it was holding!"
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To-to descends the stairs very cautiously expecting something to happen any given moment. After Aya has examined dead woman's body, To-to shudders as if he had heard something horrifying but he doesn't say anything just looks around with concern. Moment later he casts protection from evil on himself.
Concerningly, the light doesn't seem to penetrate the darkness in the alcoves at all. As Elemenar strays from the rest of the party, a large clawed hand reachs out of that impenetrable darkness and takes a swipe at the elven wizard!
The ethereal claws connect with the elf, tearing through his robes and leaving large gashes in his arm. As the claws touch him, he feels as if the very heat was being sucked out of him for a split second as well.
Round 1:
To-to-obika
Lin Ki Chin
Shadow-thing
Aya
Aylanna
Glorin
Elemenar (-12 hp)
The owb, what seems to be a skeletal human torso covered in liquid shadow, darts from the darkened alcove and takes a swipe at Ki Chin with its claws. Fast and agile, it disappears into the opposite alcove before anyone can react.
Round 1/2:
To-to-obika
Lin Ki Chin (-13 hp)
Shadow-thing
Aya
Aylanna
Glorin
Elemenar (-12 hp)
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At the start of Aylanna's turn, her Life Link triggers and Elemenar and Ki Chin (potentially) each heal 5, and Aylanna takes that damage.
"Need some light you say?" Aylanna moves to the alcove where the creature just vanished and casts a spell at the darkness - Burst of Radiance. (It's a second level light spell for if that matters)
Net HP:
Aylanna -5 (or -10 if Ki Chin was hit)
Elemenar +5
Ki Chin +5 (if he was hit)
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“Move to the center so we can use area attacks and also all try to hit it in case it comes in our direction!!“ she shouts.
She readies to cast sound burst.
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The attack is so swift that Elemenar doesn't have time to react. He barely noticed the swiping arm before he feels the sting of his injuries. He sucks in a deep breath to try to control the pain. At the same time, Ki Chin grabs him by the waist and pulls him away from the dark opening.
A moment later an atrocity of a skeleton flashes out of the dark, swipes at his companions, then disappears into the other dark alcove.
Elemenar reaches into his bag to get a wand then uses it to cast mage armor on himself.
The owb hisses as its darkness is momentarily dispelled by the burst of radiance, providing Aya another glimpse of the creature before the alcove is plunged back into darkness.
It then flies out into the room, speaking some strange syllables and touching a statue on the northern wall. As it concludes its incantation, the uppermost two-thirds of the room are engulfed in the same supernatural darkness as the alcoves. At about the same time, Aya finishes her own spell and hammers it with a piercing wave of sound, but it seems to shake off the effect quickly.
Even with torches, the darkness that the owb conjured forth swallows up the light and leaves the northern half of the room enshrouded in darkness.
Round 2/3:
Effects: Prayer
To-to-obika
Lin Ki Chin (-8 hp)
Owb (-11 hp, dazzled)
Aya
Aylanna (-10 hp)
Glorin
Elemenar (-7 hp, mage armor)
Glorin douses his eyes with a potion’s liquid contents, but unfortunately still cannot see within the inky darkness the owb called forth.
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Aya orders Bjk to move to her and she also walks back … now she takes a stance and readies to channel negative energy to daze the owb!
An iconic ability of clerics is their power to channel positive or negative energy, whether for healing, for damage, or to turn or command the undead. However, given the great variety of deities and their divine portfolios, it naturally follows that some deities would endow their mortal servants with the power to channel energies in other ways that more closely mirror their particular focus. The following categories are examples of alternative channeling abilities based on the nature of a deity's power; for example, a fire deity's negative energy channeling may deal fire damage as part of or instead of the damage from channeling. When you create a cleric character, decide whether she uses the standard form of channel energy or a variant presented here based on one aspect of her deity's portfolio. Once this choice is made, it cannot be altered. Variant channeling has the same area of effect, save DCs, uses per day, and other rules relating to channeling energy. Feats and abilities that modify or present alternative uses for channeled energy (such as Command Undead and Turn Undead) work normally with these variant channeling abilities. A variant channeling either modifies positive channeled energy when used to heal or modifies negative energy when used to harm. When using positive energy to heal, affected creatures gain only half the normal amount of healing but also receive a specific beneficial effect. When channeling negative energy to harm, affected creatures take only half the normal damage but take an additional penalty or harmful effect; a successful saving throw negates the additional penalty or effect but does not reduce the damage any further. Creatures that would normally ignore the effect of a particular channel (such as undead with respect to a positive energy channel used to heal) ignore the variant effect of that channel.
• RULERSHIP: Harm—Creatures are dazed for 1 round.
Various preparations are made as the party realizes that the darkness is going to hinder them substantially.
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At the start of Aylanna's Ki Chin and Elemenar each heal for 5, and Aylanna takes 10 damage.
Sylanna quickly heals herself with secret Pei Zin techniques suspiciously reminiscent of paladin lay on hands.
She then backs out of the darkness, and turns around to ready a casting of scorching ray.
Net HP:
Ki Chin +5
Elemenar +5
Aylanna +1
The owb flies out from the cloud of darkness, taking a swipe at Glorin before vanishing out of sight back the way it came.
for and
The party, having had a moment to rally themselves, let loose in a fusillade of magic. A pulse of magical energy washes over the owb from Aya, while Aylanna's ray of flame scores a direct hit on the shadowy outsider, and a dart of magical force from Ki Chin's wand slams into the owb as it vanishes again. Even in the short period of time the party can see it, they see one of its most minor wounds close.
Round 3/4:
Effects: Prayer
To-to-obika
Lin Ki Chin (-3 hp)
Owb (-37 hp, dazzled round 2/2)
Aya
Aylanna (-9 hp)
Glorin (-12, potion of darkvision)
Elemenar (-2 hp, mage armor)