The divine energy sustaining the heat and flight of the disembodied head snuffs.
It crashes to the ground, cool, and cracks into pieces...
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Franzine takes a step toward the red mummy.
She slashes at its chest with a powerful stroke in an attempt to cut the thing in two.
She then hoists her shield in front of her to block any incoming blows.
(Reaction) Trigger: An enemy damages your ally, and both are within 15 feet of you.
Your foe hesitates under the weight of sin as visions of redemption play in their mind’s eye. The foe must choose one of the following options:
•The ally is unharmed by the triggering damage.
•The ally gains resistance to all damage against the triggering damage equal to 2 + your level. After the damaging effect is applied, the enemy becomes enfeebled 2 until the end of its next turn.
Manny manages to avoid the stumbling zombies while slicing back at them in return! His whip's crack cuts down one of the horde outright though there are still so many undead still reaching out towards him...
Franzine in turn approaches the mummy and with Zenith holding it still delivers a deep cut through its bandages.
Moaning, and with more of its withered flesh now exposed, the mummy lashes out right back at the Iomedean
for
The fist slams past Franzine's raised shield, though a flash from Zenith softens the blow and has the champion feeling lighter on her feet.
The mummy then turn to try and swat back the figure holding it in place, but Zenith easily dodges.
for
It wriggles even harder as a result, but remains well in hand.
Initiative
Anjo
Manny, frightened 1
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Manny's inspiration lingers for a bit longer as he lashes at the creature in Red.
Normally Manny wouldn't mind a crowd trying to ogle him but these zombies are not his style. He takes a careful Step back before lashing out again at them.
Hmm, he's off his game. But he's close enough to Zenith to feel some kind of protection.
Manny's swings miss but his words and Zenith's grasping hand allow Anjo to land three good shots on the mummy.
One. The other bandaged figure continues haltingly approaching Manny. He gets a quick cut in as it nears but it lands a blow against the off-guard bard.
for
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Itka, frightened 1
Zenith, frightened 1, panaché'd, circle of protection around them, need Will Save v blue's despair aura
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Zenith remains resolute against the undead and they stand their ground while repeatedly trying to slice the grabbed red mummy with their starknife!
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"Hmp." From her relatively safe (for now) vantage point, Itka can see the the backs of her allies and, beyond them, a shambling horde bearing down on Manny's flank, and she caught a glimpse of another linen-wrapped thing just around the corner. Crooking her fingers just so, she conjures a floating pool of black miasma from which she pulls three balls of force that shoot off toward the horde, trailing black ooze behind them.
Manny doesn't feel great about getting smacked by a moldering thing, but it could be worse.
...for example he could be Franzine, who starts to feel a strange itching sensation where the mummy struck her.
Zenith stands their ground while this is happening, and though Eclipse's first two slices fail to really penetrate its final slash scores a cut. That mummy's wrappings are starting to get fairly flimsy.
Itka's strange force orbs slam into the zombie mass and seem to drop another of the undead. But the swarm flows hurriedly towards you - and through you! The mass of undead pushes around Manny, Frnazine, and Zenith, encircling them as the dozens of zombies batter at the fighters and lash out at the mages beyond.
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Moonlight, frightened 1, need Reflex save
Franzine 73/82 HP, frightened 1, feeling a bit ill, need Will Save v blue's despair aura, need Reflex save
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Unfreezing finally, Moonlight easily relies on his best weapon: the font of divine energy his tower of elven will posts sentry over!
His third eye burgeoning orange with sudden agitation, a radiant glow rises like the desert morning sun over the dune, bringing about a blistering end to the night's long freeze, ray by ray trickling in and waking what wretched creatures had found themselves alive in the sand, and casting onto their skin the slow bath of blinding light! With a pounding fist, our shady hero slams his gauntlet into the ground, shooting the tiny glow into a total dilation spreading out and encompassing every creature in the room, some soothing, others cindering, his own ego swelling with pride at the torrent of raw power unleashed by a few gestures and low hums, his holy symbol to Ng a catalyst to turn the tide.
◆◆◆) Heal
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Zenith is smashed into the support column and they look back to see Moonlight about to suffer a blow himself. The duskwalker's constellations on their fullplate quickly glow and celestial energy arcs over to protect him.
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Still a bit frightened by the mummy's despair, Franzine tries to hold her ground. She's suddenly surrounded by a horde of zombies.
"Gah!!! Get them away! I think we're getting overwhelmed by all of these undead!"
She moves around the corner of the wall and out of the horde.
She swings her sword across the chests of the zombies in front of her.
And she brings the blade across backhanded across their chests again.
(Reaction) Trigger: An enemy damages your ally, and both are within 15 feet of you.
Your foe hesitates under the weight of sin as visions of redemption play in their mind’s eye. The foe must choose one of the following options:
•The ally is unharmed by the triggering damage.
•The ally gains resistance to all damage against the triggering damage equal to 2 + your level. After the damaging effect is applied, the enemy becomes enfeebled 2 until the end of its next turn.
As Franzine is temporarily frozen up from the mummy's despairing aura, the still-stuck-in-place mummy lashes out as her still form. The champion is battered by a pair of punches, though its third slam clangs against her armor.
for
for
for
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Anjo
Manny 69/85 HP, frightened 1
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Manny's Inspire Courage continues for a bit longer.
Manny runs to the edge of the crowd. He cracks his whip against the Red mummy, hoping to finish it off.
Manny whips the zombie horde, hoping his aim is better this time. How did I miss a crowd of zombies?
Manny Strides to the rest of the group.
Manny lands another lash but even though its wrappings are heavily in tatters the mummy still stands! He then dashes around for a better position.
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Anjo
The damaged mummy proves tough, but Anjo's second arrow finally causes whatever fell energy was tethering its spirit to break. The corpse slumps over, bones spilling out of now unraveled bandages
changing targets quickly, Anjo can't get a great read on the other bandaged form - probably another mummy, but is he sure? And what does that mean? - but he does get a great bead on it. His last arrow races though the zombie throng to pinnion his target right in place.
Moaning, it easily yanks the arrow loose and shuffles with difficulty amongst the zombies and up to Zenith. But the kayal is easily able to dodge its clumsy and weakened swing!
for
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Itka 59/62 HP, frightened 1, need Will save v Despair aura
Zenith 74/86 HP, frightened 1, panaché'd, circle of protection around them
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"Hmp." Itka's lip curls in disgust as she swallows her fear. Taking a step back from the hideous swarm and stretching to her full height to see over the zombies, she casts Slow on the remaining linen-wrapped shambler.
Itka and Moonlight resist despairing, but unfortunately the bandaged man also fully resists Itka's spell.
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Zenith 74/86 HP, frightened 1, panaché'd, circle of protection around them
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Zenith hears Franzine struggling and the kayal shoves their starknife as hard as they can into the mummy, opening up a small window for Zenith to take their free hand and touch Franzine. "Shine like the stars. Your time is not yet!" they say as more celestial energy pours from their half plate's constellations through Zenith's hand. Lastly, Zenith attempts to tumble through their mummy friend for some flair.
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What are you!?...
Once again Moonlight holds out his gauntlet - favored weapon of almighty and ever-wandering - aloft, clutching his fingers from outstretched into a balled fist, as if catching an object thrown to him, a swirling wisp of orange divine energy, encapsulated in his grasping hand a moment, now filtering itself through the middle of his forehead, glowing his third eye, which upon enlightening, he layers in the vocalization of a low hum, breathe steady, stern, constant...
↺) Scholarly Recollection
◆) Recall Knowledge vs Activated Statues
◆◆) ???
Archeologist Dedication: You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Recall Knowledge about ancient history, peoples, and cultures.
Arcana (via Ancestral Longevity) (*) +12 or +13
Crafting (*) +12 or +13
Lore: Desert (*) +12
Lore: Herbalism (*) +12
Lore: Sothis (**) +14 or +15
Medicine (**') +15
Religion (*) +12 or +13
Society (**) +14 or +15
Zenith lands a tremendous blow against their target, badly cutting through their linens and causing them to leak a brown fluid. The kayal then dances about the damaged undead while also tending the worst of Franzine's injuries.
The zombie horde continues to surge forwards but as it approaches Manny and Itka the bard's lash strikes cuts down several on the nearing undead. The throng is starting to loose several of its members but Zenith and Franzine still find themselves surrounded and battered by many zombie fists!
Moonlight finds his mind flush with a memory. Is it from Ng? Or just from him recalling his training? Either way he feels confident the wrapped man is another mummy, and while it looks pretty damaged by now Fire might help it get put back in the grave even quicker.
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Moonlight 52/56 HP, frightened 1 (2 actions left)
red mummy
Anjo
Manny 69/85 HP, frightened 1
Franzine 53/82 HP, frightened 1, not feeling great, need Reflex save
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Manny feels the tide is turning. Too bad his Lingering Composition is gone.
"Come on! We got this!" Manny Inspires Courage among his friends.
He looks at the the Blue thing caught in the undead mass. [b]"Man, I wish I could dance around a crowd as well as you can. Hey, can you do Thriller? Manny begins bobbing and weaving, clapping, hooting in a rhythmic manner. He hopes to get a bit of Roaring Applause from his foe.
As the last lingering words of wisdom from Manny fade, he begins to orate anew! He also tries to get the last mummy dancing, but it doesn't seem exactly the type...
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Moonlight 52/56 HP, frightened 1 (2 actions left)
red mummy
Anjo
Franzine 53/82 HP, frightened 1, not feeling great, need Reflex save
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Zenith follows the ebb and flow of combat, deftly dodging many of the zombies in the horde. Their lifesense aura overwhelmingly alerting them of being surrounded on all sides. The Kayal looks back at Franzine, "Shine..." they say as another spark of light emits from their breastplate's constellations.
Anjo just lets loose a volley at his target. Half the arrows miss, but the pair that connect finally fell his target.
There is immediately a sense of relief as the faint fear tickling the back of your minds fades away. Moonlight is thus able to redirect their show to the zombie horde and manages to skewer a pair of the undead shamblers.
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Itka 59/62 HP
Zenith 66/86 HP, panaché'd, circle of protection around them
Franzine 45/82 HP, not feeling great
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"Hmp." Grunting in satisfaction, Itka steps forward, grimaces, heaves, and spews a surprising quantity of worms, centipedes, and maggots onto the swarm, barely missing her teammates. Wiping the last of them off her mouth with a sleeve, she remarks: "Hmp. The dead should be well acquainted with those."
The zombies finally start to dance...out of the way. Luckily even avoiding some of the swarm the sheer spread of the biting insects appears extra effective against the horde.
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Zenith 66/86 HP, panaché'd, circle of protection around them
Franzine 45/82 HP, not feeling great
As Franzine slices and dices her way towards the others her second swing cuts down a zombie and cleaves off the legs of another. The dropped undead causes a few more to stumble and the horde shrinks even further. It's now looking preeeety straggly....
Initiative
Inspire Courage up
Zenith 66/86 HP, panaché'd, circle of protection around them
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"Just a few more!" Zenith briefly shouts as they confidently pivot on their legs while their arm is outstretched---starknife slashing nearby foes. The kayal then attempts to dance through the horde in spectacular fashion.
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Zenith slashes out before dancing through the horde. . With that Critical strike, the shambling troop falls - the zombies are cut down enough that there are only a couple of straggler remaining, stragglers easily cut down.
With the undead destroyed, the chamber falls silent...a silence quickly broken by the words and cheers of other Pathfinder agents as they appear, armed and battered, at the western and northwestern entrances to the cistern. You see Po'ogaat, venture-captain Balentiir, and even some of the recovered agents from the Old Gate siege (including the dwarf) rushing from their own pincer movements to reinforce you.
Seeing you having put down the undead in the chamber, Balentiir calls out: Pathfinders: are you all right? He takes in your condition with a concerned look. Then his gaze falls on the shimmering shadowy-energy at the far side of the chamber with alarm. Gods, what is that?
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"Good job, everyone!" Manny claps as the zombies fall and the Pathfinders arrive.
"Uh... anyone knows what that is? Some kind of portal?"
Moonlight is always the dramatic type. Manny likes it, although the... uh... elf? Anyway, he's a bit too bossy.
"Looks like we found where the undead are coming from. I'd love to hop in and seal it off but... I'm tired." He wipes some sweat off his brow. "Maybe in a few days?"
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"Oh! Thanks, Anjo. I really took a beating."
Franzine sways a bit, the wounds from the mummy giving her more pain than normal.
"I think that mummy did something really bad to me."
Franzine is about to relay her condition to Balentiir to let him know she feels quite ill, but then, she too is startled by the shimmering shadowy-energy at the far side of the chamber.
In fact about a minute after Franzine was struck the champion finds herself wracked with that also leaves her light-headed . What's worse, while Anjo's medicines were able to treat her earlier wounds, this new pain seems resistant to restoration.
The venture-captain rushes to her side. Ah, I've seen this before. 'Mummy Rot'. A terrible disease - cursed, whihc means its tricky to remove or heal until the magic of the infection is stripped away. He frowns. Our supplies have grown strained over the siege, but there are clerics about Sothis that may be able to help, and I'll do what I can to call in some favors and defray the cost of it.
Balentiir then turns to the far portal, where Po'ogaat and a few other agents are also cautiously examining it. A portal then? But to where, and how did it appear here... The man motions for one of the other squads of Pathfinders to begin securing the cistern entrances. Well, the tide is stemmed for now at least. Now that we know the source of the undead tide we can pick them off if and when they trickle in. But we can't leave this portal unexplored. I'm going to need to get a team of experts in here to study this thing and learn how it works. Once that's done and we understand what we are dealing with we can send a team in to investigate what lies beyond it - and how it could be ended.
He looks back at you knowingly. Of course that team will need to be recuperated. And I can't say how soon it may take to decipher this. If you cannot linger in Sothis I understand, but either way know that the Sandswept Hall still stands thanks to your heroism.