OH crap!
The Wizard attempts to placate the ghost!
The Catfolk sniffles.
Really hoping that 9 Lives s@++ is not a myth!
The force missile slams into the shadow, causing it pain.
Round 1: Shadow
Angered by the force damage, the shadow reaches over and tries to touch Idari, but thankfully misses!
Alarmed by the sudden manifesting of the shadow, Sabha quickly draws upon her magic, enhancing her blade as she lashes out with a quick strike, before taking a step back from the menacing undead.
"I'm low on magic! Ananet, some divine, fell burning power would be VERY good right about now!"
"Whoa...I guess we are thieves..."
Falric casts Cure Light Wounds and attempts to touch the shadow.
"I'll give it what I can! A bullet definitely won't hurt it much, I'm not a darn graveslinger!"
Ananet reaches for her holy symbol, holding it aloft as she channels positive energy from it onto the undead creatures within the area. She whispers in Ancient Osiriani, a bit shaky in her voice as she does so:
"Bastet, may you keep us alive a bit longer to enjoy in life's pleasures!"
Afterwards, she once again calls on the powers of one of Bastet's domains to make sure she is missed by any touch attacks.
However: "When laying your hand upon a living creature, you channel positive energy that cures 1d8 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +5). Since undead are powered by negative energy, this spell deals damage to them instead of curing their wounds. An undead creature can apply spell resistance and can attempt a Will save to take half damage."
This is a magical attack from a corporeal source (me) and it is not channel energy, so it automatically takes 1/2 damage. Then it gets to roll a save for 1/4 damage.
Bosco yells, "No one touches my Brother but me!"
Idari-lucien's feet Step 5' away from Mr. Tickle Me Elmo!
Bosco's attacks fails to affect the undead creature.
Round 2: Shadow
The creature is angered by Ananet's holy energy and focuses its attacks on her. It reaches into her chest, through her armor, and Ananet feels the cold touch of death, which weakens her a little.
Falric tries to touch the shadow again with his CLW spell.
"Do any of you have Disrupt Undead?!" under the newfound weight of her armour, Ananet sounds as if she's both yelling and hissing at the same time.
She holds up her Holy Symbol aloft, channeling Positive Energy once more to damage the undead in front of her.
Afterwards, while panting, she manages to create another illusory double of herself
Being 5' away (and the Shadow being quite obsessed with Ananet), Idari-lucien decides the view is properly better (safer) 30' further away!
The Wizard also--Swiftly--grants Luck to his companions!
A number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier, you can predict an ally’s success, bolstering others’ resolve. As a swift action, you can shout an inspiring prediction, granting each ally within 50 feet who can hear you a +4 luck bonus on her next attack roll, saving throw, or skill check
The grinning Catfolk then takes aim!
You're doing great, bro!
"Why do you....think....I took a step....back?!" Sahba retorts, doing exactly that as she raises her free hand, completing an intricate gesture, and unleashing a ray of positive energy at the looming shadow. With incredible fluidity, she immediately follows with another attack, taking a single step forward to strike with her enhanced blade, the magic channeled into her weapon causing a sizzle as it passes through the shadow.
Assaulted by Falric's CLW, Ananet's channel energy, Idari's magic missile, and Sahba's spell combat (buffed by Idari's luck), the shadow screams as its essence is destroyed, dissolving into the ether. You look inside the sarcophagus and find a beautiful funerary mask on the corpse worth about 500gp. There are no other treasures.
Idari-lucien's blue eyes shine.
I am all out of Luck for today. Probably could use a drink and a bath unless we want/need to continue? We have a few good fines for initial day...kind of.
The gunchemist-slash-cleric pants heavily, burdened by her armour with her newfound weakness. "That... it?" she manages to eke out between pants. "We... should head back... even if we're not done..," she then curses in Ancient Osiriani, followed by Amurrun, followed by a pause, followed by clutching her Holy Symbol for a sense of peace.
"Half of my ordnance... more than half of my channeling... more than half of illusory doubles, gone..." Ananet recounts her spent resources. She still has her extracts and spells, but Cure Light Wounds cannot heal the Strength damage.
Bosco catches Ananet with a grin, "No time to rest yet. You have a climb still to do. I know a few caydenites who'll make you feel better."
Bosco moves to leave gathering up the mask and high tailing it out of there.
"Good job all. That shadow creature was scary. Ananet, if you're really struggling, take one of the potions that I identified. It should recuperate your strength. Otherwise, you will not make that climb out of the tomb."
"I can probably climb it if one of you... would carry the pack." She pauses on the walk back to take a breath, "Might be a hundred or so bullets in there... stockpiled for Wati, back when I left Alkenstar... bullets were cheap there."
The party exits the tomb and the necropolis after its successful venture and returns to Wati.
"We should definitely unload what we've found, and get some much-needed rest." Sahba suggests on the return to Wati.
"We can stand to get something to eat and drink, but I am all for that otherwise," Ananet replies to Sahba on the return to Wati
Bosco asks as he sorts the items for various merchants to purchase, "Someone said this smelled like magic. Anything special or just better at it's job?"
The Wizard waves a hand mysteriously over the found items...
He grins.
Perhaps, after a hearty dinner.
Sell, have a good meal, and learn some gossip on the other groups and rest.
After showering/bathing and selling your newly founded treasures, you enter the Tooth and Hookah, where you see a number of adventuring groups already gathered inside the main room, seated around the tables. As you enter, a loud bell is rung. The majority of the patrons stops their conversation and raises their mugs in a toast, screaming "Survivors, welcome!" Then they go back to their conversations and laughter.
You are brought to a table near the center. Drink orders are taken and rapidly brought. You are adventurers with newly found gold, so you are treated as A-listers. Around you, as you await your meal, you see a number of adventuring groups seated around: a group of 4 adventurers from Absalom known as the Cryptfinders; an all-female (5 members) adventuring group known as the Daughters of the Desert, who include a pair of twins; a pack of halflings with their war dogs, known as the Dog Soldiers; another group of 4 known as the Sand Scorpions, said to specialize in poison; and the Scorched Hand, a group of 4 who appear to worship Nethys, the goddess of magic.
After getting a nice refreshing bath, Ananet trades her Tekko-kagi out for her sistrum, choosing to look as non-threatening as someone with a holstered pistol and a few left over alchemical ordnances can look, choosing to up-play her natural resemblance to her deity for the occasion.
Once she arrives at the Tooth and Hookah, she sits down with the rest of the group, ordering an alcoholic beverage and a meal, before saying to the rest of the group, sans Bosco: "Did y'all ever come up with a name for this group? The topic never came up!"
After a few sips of her alcoholic beverage, she takes a minute to observe the groups around her, noting the bits about each one that she can. After, presumably, a response to her first question comes in, she turns to the Scorched hand in particular, Nethys being a god she hasn't seen much of whatsoever before she entered Wati. She goes and tries to start conversation with the group: "Y'all are followers of Nethys, I take it?"
She makes no attempt at hiding her holy symbol, introducing herself as "Ananet Bast, Alchemical and Divine Healer" to anyone who asks, because it's more of a coherent image than that of a gunchemist and cleric, even though that is what she is.
Falric enjoys the meal and the scenery in the tavern, while trying to keep an ear open for the other groups' adventures and initial forays.
"True, we do not have a name. Maybe we could come up with one tonight. But I did want to say that you all acted well in battle today. Proud to call you companions. I also propose a toast for our late companion, Tethys."
After chatting with the party, Falric will make his way toward his fellow brothers, the Dog Soldiers, and try to learn gossip about them, as well as entertain them with his group's stories.
A long hot bath is extremely welcome, and very much the ideal thing to help wash away the stresses of the day. Freshly bathed and dressed more suited for relaxing in a tavern that crawling through dusty hallways, the magus joins her companions at the Tooth and Hookah, teacher to enjoy a meal, and gather news of the other expeditions.
"Agreed, to Tethys! May she enjoy her explorations beyond!" she says, raising her glass to their fallen comrade. As the others begin to mingle, she makes her way over to the Daughters of the Desert, intrigued by the group of female adventurers, and eager to hear of their success.
After an afternoon of sight-seeing, window shopping and two visits to the baths, Idari-lucien enters the Tooth and Hookah. Resplendent in flowing robes of crimson with silver thread runes stitched into the hem, cowl and sleeve ends.
Seeing his company early, the Wizard crosses the common room to join them.
Toasting to dear Tethys? We may need another round or 3!
Idari-lucien's hand begins performing a bit of arcane gesturing, as a few gold coins float from his pocket to set upon a passing server's tray.A round of drinks at this table, please.
Idari-lucien stays at the table, drinking, talking, toasting and eyeing the door for his tardy brother.
Probably just purchasing some outlandish outfit. He can be so vain.
The smarty dressed wizard chuckles.
Ananet wanders over to the four members of the Scorched Hand's table, where she sees a human wizard (Azaz), a female dark-skinned half-elf warrior (Idorii), a male Osirion human cleric of Nethys (Khelru), and their female leader, Velriana. Khelru approaches and has a theological conversation with Ananet about the majesty of Nethys and aks about her group's tomb adventure. During the conversation, Ananet hears Velriana, after a few drinks in her, looks quite pissed, as she speaks at the table in a loud voice. "This is BS. The high and mighty grand Mausoleum refuses to assign specific sites to groups that requested them. We work our asses off and what do we get as our first site? Some ancient brothel, with a nest of zombies?! Really? We dispatched them quickly and found chump change there! That's not why we're in Wati. We're here for an ancient temple or shrine known as the Erudite Eye. Anyone heard of it? Yeah, we know zilch also. This is frustrating."
Falric meets up with “Mad Dog” Marrn, the halfling leader of the Dog Soldiers, who seems pretty pissed and sad. After a few drinks, they start talking and he tells you that the Dog Soldiers were sent to explore an abandoned tannery, where half of our dogs died fighting a gelatinous cube they found within! Our poor babies burned in its acid!"[/b] Tears threaten to fall, but he hold them back and pulls out a shiny shortsword. "But ya know what? At least, we were able to salvage this baby from the cube after slaying it. Ya knows anyone interested in buyin' me sword?"
Sahba meets the Daughters of the Desert, who appear very secretive and hush hush around men, but they open up a little to another female. They tell Sahna that they were assigned the house of a wealthy pawnbroker to explore; they encountered several traps, but little else in the way of opposition. Sigrun Firehair, an Ulfen warrior, tells Sahba that she came to the desert hoping to pen an epic tale of her exploits to take back north. She asks Sahba about the group's tomb adventure.
Upon hearing the toast, although she never got to meet her, Ananet holds up her glass in the toast to Tethys: "To Tethys indeed!"
Ananet, being from Alkenstar, is more accustomed to Brigh worshippers than Nethys worshippers when it comes to the scholarly-pursuit types of deitites, and reacts as such, "Haha, first time seein' so many Nethys worshippers in one place, if I'm gonna be honest! But, can appreciate someone who seeks knowledge and secrets, even if his scope is uh... more limited than Bastet, and Thoth and Isis, are in those respects."
Upon hearing the group's frustration, she commiserates with them, perhaps a little jealous they got where there were, potentially, servants of her goddess at the time the place was actually open. "I hear ya there. Maybe they don't wanna hand out a holy site of a god, still as widely worshipped as Nethys, to people on the first attempt? Don't need extra shadows to deal with, and all!" She takes a sip of her drink, before setting it back down on the table, and continuing, "So y'all ain't from Wati at all? Where do y'all come from to land here aimin' for this Erudite Eye place? I'm originally from Alkenstar, myself, but landed in Wati a few years ago and have worked as a healer while I've been here. And no, haven't heard of this Erudite Eye myself, sorry to say. "
She takes yet another sip, before spilling the beans about her group's adventure, "Well, I wasn't there for all of it, ended up oversleepin' in a night of drunken revelry with a few Caydenites the night before, but that might have been fate or somethin'. The group I'm with lost two of their members, one in a violent fashion," she shudders as she recalls the blood on the wall, before continuing, "the other was some inept cleric who didn't heal her enough. Dealt with some glowin' beetles, an animated sarcophagus, and a shadow that called us thieves. Dealt with the beetles with gunfire from me and melee from the others, while the sarcophagus got dissolved and burned with bombs and alchemical ordnance after gettin' clawed by our muscle! Havin' two alchemists in a group is a show, lemme tell ya! The shadow was dealt with by a wand of magic missile from our Chronomancer," after which she points to the guide Idari, before taking another sip of her drink and continuing, "a bit of magic infused melee from the Magus," after which she points at Sahba near the Daughters of the Desert, before holding her holy symbol aloft and continuing, "As well channelin' positive energy from me an' our trapper, who's probably like me in that they're more than just an Alchemist, knowin' that you can't exactly force an extract down a shadow's throat!" She finishes her drink, before going to grab the one ordered by Idari and taking a sip from the second one.
Sharing a few drinks with the Daughters, Sahba listens as they share the events of their day. "Im sure before this is all over, you'll have a tale worthy of the great halls!" she says with a smile.
Our first foray below was more eventful than your own I fear, so much so that it cost us one of our own...two actually... our cleric quit afterwards, the adventuring life isn't for everyone, after all, is it?"[/b] she says, taking a long draught of her drink.
"Once we took a little time to regroup, we headed back down with a few reinforcements, our wizard's brother and a cleric friend of theirs, she's also pretty adept with a gun. We drew the personal tomb of a General, trapped, and occupied by undead...including the General's shadow."
She finishes her drink. "That was more than a little harrowing."
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Nasir enters the Tooth & Hookah and pauses inside the door as his eyes adjust to the gloom. He makes his way to the bar and orders a drink. While he waits he turns and scans the room.
He had arrived too late to make the original lottery but had hoped to join a group for the next foray into the necropolis. Until then he waits with a cool drink in his hand and watches the byplay between the assembled groups.
Upon hearing the toast, although she never got to meet her, Ananet holds up her glass in the toast to Tethys: "To Tethys indeed!"
Ananet, being from Alkenstar, is more accustomed to Brigh worshippers than Nethys worshippers when it comes to the scholarly-pursuit types of deitites, and reacts as such, "Haha, first time seein' so many Nethys worshippers in one place, if I'm gonna be honest! But, can appreciate someone who seeks knowledge and secrets, even if his scope is uh... more limited than Bastet, and Thoth and Isis, are in those respects."
Upon hearing the group's frustration, she commiserates with them, perhaps a little jealous they got where there were, potentially, servants of her goddess at the time the place was actually open. "I hear ya there. Maybe they don't wanna hand out a holy site of a god, still as widely worshipped as Nethys, to people on the first attempt? Don't need extra shadows to deal with, and all!" She takes a sip of her drink, before setting it back down on the table, and continuing, "So y'all ain't from Wati at all? Where do y'all come from to land here aimin' for this Erudite Eye place? I'm originally from Alkenstar, myself, but landed in Wati a few years ago and have worked as a healer while I've been here. And no, haven't heard of this Erudite Eye myself, sorry to say. "
She takes yet another sip, before spilling the beans about her group's adventure, "Well, I wasn't there for all of it, ended up oversleepin' in a night of drunken revelry with a few Caydenites the night before, but that might have been fate or somethin'. The group I'm with lost two of their members, one in a violent fashion," she shudders as she recalls the blood on the wall, before continuing, "the other was some inept cleric who didn't heal her enough. Dealt with some glowin' beetles, an animated sarcophagus, and a shadow that called us thieves. Dealt with the beetles with gunfire from me and melee from the others, while the sarcophagus got...
In response to the question, Khelru speaks, "Well, Velriana, our leader is Taldan, fromb Absalom, a grand city according to her. Personally, I've never been. The rest of the group, we're natives of Katapesh, so the desert is what we are and what we know. We're knowledge seekers so if you hear anything, that would be great." After Ananet's tale, the priest looks impressed. "Wow, that is so much more exciting than what we faced. And you tell the tale with such great detail. Thank you for that. Please stay safe and maybe our groups can meet up tomorrow night and compare stories after explorations. We will see if, perhaps, I can produce such an exciting tale of our adventures. Speaking of that, I need to pray and rest." Khelru claps Ananet on the back and excuses himself.
Sharing a few drinks with the Daughters, Sahba listens as they share the events of their day. "Im sure before this is all over, you'll have a tale worthy of the great halls!" she says with a smile.
Our first foray below was more eventful than your own I fear, so much so that it cost us one of our own...two actually... our cleric quit afterwards, the adventuring life isn't for everyone, after all, is it?"[/b] she says, taking a long draught of her drink.
"Once we took a little time to regroup, we headed back down with a few reinforcements, our wizard's brother and a cleric friend of theirs, she's also pretty adept with a gun. We drew the personal tomb of a General, trapped, and occupied by undead...including the General's shadow."
She finishes her drink. "That was more than a little harrowing."
Sigrun takes a drink, "That sounds exciting. Perhaps, we can catch up tomorrow and you can delight me with more tales. If they're good enough, I promise you they will make it in my book." She smiles and excuses herself.
Nasir enters the Tooth & Hookah and pauses inside the door as his eyes adjust to the gloom. He makes his way to the bar and orders a drink. While he waits he turns and scans the room.
He had arrived too late to make the original lottery but had hoped to join a group for the next foray into the necropolis. Until then he waits with a cool drink in his hand and watches the byplay between the assembled groups.
Upon seeing the warrior with a holy symbol of Sarenrae (), Falric excuses himself from the halfling band, offering his condolences for the loss of their pets and wishing them luck. He walks over to the bar. Nasir sees a 3' tall with black hair and hazel eyes, with a scimitar at his side. "My good man, I am Falric Dawnstriker, adventurer extraordinaire. May you be a fellow devotee of The Dawnflower, the Cleansing Light? I am a Dervish of Dawn in her service." The male halfling bows dramatically.
Idari-lucien's blue eyes follow the progress of the Kelshite male, as he enters the Tooth and Hookah.
Check list: chain shirt, light steel shield, crossbow bolts (20), dagger (2), light crossbow, morningstar, mwk scimitar, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, and silver holy symbol of Sarenrae.
The Wizard grins.
Ordering a round of drinks, the Catfolk meanders over to the obvious paladins table.
Salutations, my good Sarenrae warrior. Idari-lucien members of our exploration team are of a mind to aquire services of such one as yourself. Interested?
Idari-lucien winks at Falric.
"Thanks for the reminder about prayin', and stay safe to y'all as well," Ananet says, as she excuses herself from the Nethys followers to head over to Idari and Falric talking to the Paladin, noticing his holy symbol. "Ah another follower of Sarenrae besides Falric, welcome!" Ananet whispers something to Idari quickly in Amurrun
She then turns to Nasir, continuing in Modern Osiriani: "Anyways, nice to meet you! Ananet Bast, alchemical and divine healer in service of Bastet, the Sly Enchantress herself." She gives off a grin, offering her hand (without the sistrum in it) for a handshake, if the Paladin wishes to accept. "What brings you here?"
Idari-lucien's smile turns to Ananet.
Hostage in a yarn shop?
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Nasir is suddenly overwhelmed by the attention he gets as he settles in. He looks at Falric and smiles "Yes, I am a servant of the Cleansing Light. I just arrived in Wati this morning. I had hoped to be here in time for the original lottery but I was delayed by a sandstorm, and then a tribe of gnolls." He nods to Idari and takes Ananet's extended hand "One was a nuisance, and one will be nuisance no more."
Falric smiles when Nasir confirms that he is a servant. "Well met. I am sorry I did not catch a name." After Nasir gives a name, "Well, you may be in luck. We're a sanctioned group and I am sure our group will have space for a servant of the Dawnflower. Are you a priest or a warrior or some combination of both?"
Wishing Sigrun good fortune with the next day's delving, and promising to share stories again, Sahba meanders over to where her companions are speaking with a swarthy Keleshite warrior, quietly joining the gathering to listen.