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Leo raises his ivory colored gauntleted hand in the air and forcefully says, "Sana." Golden runes alight on the gauntlet and another wave of vitality energy bursts from from him, encompassing a portion of the battlefield. A small amount seems to remain on the sword in his other hand as he strikes at the undead with it.
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Pink disintegrates into ash, but before doing so, slivers of bone shoot out from the wight in a 5' radius.
Lena fires two arrows, trying to drop Yellow. Her second arrow finds its mark, punching through Yellow's eye and out the back of its head, dropping it. The wight stumbles and attempts to take Lena with it.
for
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Astrid unleashes three cuts on Red. The first connects but is partly turned aside by its shield. The other blow slices into the wight's chest (or what's left of it).
Katrina holds her breath and steps up to Blue. Both strikes connect. Blue appears to be on its last legs.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 5
Tactical Map
Special Conditions:
* Bonuses from Freedom Town Defenses (See below)
* Fire Hazards (See below)
* The heat is nearly unbearable, dealing 30 fire damage to all creatures at the end of each of their turns for the remainder of the combat.
Active Conditions:
* End your turn beside a burning tree: 15 Fire Damage
* Enter a burning area: 16 Fire Damage, DC 25 Reflex (2d6 Persistent Fire on failure)
* Courageous Anthem (1/1)
Before your Turn:
DC 25 Basic Reflex vs 24 Piercing: Leo
DC 28 Fort Save vs Drain Life:
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Those with ** may go
**Jiki - AC 26, 96/96 (Sickened 1)
**Marta Sanz - AC 26, 80/80 (Invisible; Sickened 1)
Leo - AC 31, 39/96 (Quickened; Resistance 10, 16 minutes; Drained 1; Sickened 1)
Katrina Caldwell - AC 25, 48/78 (+2 vs Mental; Drained 1; Sickened 1; Holding Breath, Air - 123 rds)
Lena Starstrider - AC 32, 158/162 (Holding Breath, Air - 5 rds)
Astrid Gertasdottir - AC 33 (35 w/shield), 74/162 (Quickened; Shield hp: 72/104; Holding Breath, Air - 6 rds)
Blue (-46; Sickened 1)
Red (-106; Shield up; Frightened 1; Sickened 1)
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CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS REFERENCE
--------------------------------
WARDS (3 DP): +1 to saving throws
SCOUTING (3 DP): +5 Speed, Ignore Difficult Terrain
F: Drained 1 (value increases by 1 on each subsequent save up to 4)
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Astrid points to Red as the biggest threat. Marta gets the message and targets both Red and Blue. Blue is cut to pieces but before crumbling to dust, it tries to get a final attack in on Katrina.
for
She then sends the wind at Red but it ducks behind its shield.
Jiki continues to sing, belting out a battle melody to inspire his companions. He sees then points at Leo and sends him some much needed healing.
Red swings twice at Astrid before raising his shield.
for
for
Red's strikes bounce off Astrid's shield.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 6
Tactical Map
Special Conditions:
* Bonuses from Freedom Town Defenses (See below)
* Fire Hazards (See below)
* The heat is nearly unbearable, dealing 14 fire damage to all creatures at the end of each of their turns for the remainder of the combat.
* The smoke is so thick that it’s nearly impossible to breathe. Creatures must hold their breath or begin suffocating
Active Conditions:
* End your turn beside a burning tree: 16 Fire Damage
* Enter a burning area: 16 Fire Damage, DC 25 Reflex (2d6 Persistent Fire on failure)
* Courageous Anthem (1/1)
Before your Turn:
DC 17 Fort Save vs Drain Life: Katrina
DC 25 Basic Reflex vs 24 Piercing: Leo
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Those with ** may go
**Jiki - AC 26, 66/96 (Sickened 1)
**Marta Sanz - AC 26, 50/80 (Invisible; Sickened 1)
**Leo - AC 31, 81/96 (Quickened; Resistance 10, 16 minutes; Drained 1; Sickened 1)
**Katrina Caldwell - AC 25, 42/78 (+2 vs Mental; Drained 1; Sickened 1; Holding Breath, Air - 123 rds)
**Lena Starstrider - AC 32, 158/162 (Holding Breath, Air - 5 rds)
**Astrid Gertasdottir - AC 33 (35 w/shield), 74/162 (Quickened; Shield hp: 72/104; Holding Breath, Air - 6 rds)
Red (-131; Shield up; Sickened 1)
--------------------------------
CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS REFERENCE
--------------------------------
WARDS (3 DP): +1 to saving throws
SCOUTING (3 DP): +5 Speed, Ignore Difficult Terrain
F: Drained 1 (value increases by 1 on each subsequent save up to 4)
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With the smoke becoming unbearable, Marta reads the threads that were magically stitched into her robes.
Her vision begins to fade as she reads the last words... But a moment later she takes in a breath of fresh air far from the battle. She had nothing left to do but wait and hope the others succeeded.
◆◆ Cast a Spell (Translocate - Rank 5)
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Jiki realizes that the only hope for the Pathfinders is a quick end to the fight and then organizing the town to stop the spread of the fire. He mentally reviews the options available to him, and finds the bow to be the only one that will not wither harm his allies or fail outright is simple archery. He sputters out a final set of inspirational music before taking two shots.
◆ Cast a Spell
"♪ Anthem of valor, *koff* hearts ignite,
♪ *koff* With melody's fire, we rise *koff* to fight.
Courageous *koff* Anthem!"
◆ Strike
◆ Strike
He then gulps in a lungful of air while he still can.
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Katrina and Astrid both step up and take Red down. Before disintegrating, Red blows an old brass horn, raising corpses.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 6
Tactical Map
Special Conditions:
* Bonuses from Freedom Town Defenses (See below)
* Fire Hazards (See below)
* The heat is nearly unbearable, dealing 14 fire damage to all creatures at the end of each of their turns for the remainder of the combat.
* The smoke is so thick that it’s nearly impossible to breathe. Creatures must hold their breath or begin suffocating
Active Conditions:
* End your turn beside a burning tree: 16 Fire Damage
* Enter a burning area: 16 Fire Damage, DC 25 Reflex (2d6 Persistent Fire on failure)
* Courageous Anthem (1/1)
Before your Turn:
DC 17 Fort Save vs Drain Life:
Out of the fight: Marta
------------------
Those with ** may go
Jiki - AC 26, 52/96 (Sickened 1; Holding Breath, Air - 7 rds)
Katrina Caldwell - AC 25, 28/78 (+2 vs Mental; Drained 1; Sickened 1; Holding Breath, Air - 121 rds)
**Lena Starstrider - AC 32, 158/162 (Holding Breath, Air - 5 rds)
Red (-28)
Astrid Gertasdottir - AC 33 (35 w/shield), 60/162 (Quickened; Shield hp: 72/104; Holding Breath, Air - 6 rds)
Leo - AC 31, 69/96 (Quickened; Resistance 10, 16 minutes; Drained 1; Sickened 1)
Blue
Yellow
--------------------------------
CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS REFERENCE
--------------------------------
WARDS (3 DP): +1 to saving throws
SCOUTING (3 DP): +5 Speed, Ignore Difficult Terrain
F: Drained 1 (value increases by 1 on each subsequent save up to 4)
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Lena's arrow finds Red's eye and punches right through the thing's skull. It drops to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Leo manages to gasp out a final spell. Yellow runs right into it and is instantly incinerated. Blue manages to avoid the instant incineration but fails to avoid Leo's slash, which removes its head. It lunges at Leo as it disintegrates, hoping to get one last slash in.
for
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Katrina goes for the summoned undead but presumably they are taken down in rather short order. So she retreats out of the head and smoke and lets the remainder of her held breath out with a *phewow* before breathing again and stripping off her outer armour.
Woah ... that was INTENSE. I'm gonna find somewhere to have a swim and cool off. Anyone wanna come with?
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Astrid is the last to emerge from the smoke, Her toothy grin a stark contrast to her soot and ash covered form. She sheathes her sword and consumes a potion to close the most immediate of her wounds. She unstoppers a wineskin and takes several large gulps before turning to the group. "Ha! Well that was fun. Shall we go help the orcs rout the remainder of the Tyrant's lackeys?" She draws her sword once again and charges into the fray.
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With the wights down, you bolt from the forest fire, pausing only long enough to grab Red's fancy shield. Getting a good look at it, you realize that it's made from adamantine.
Once out in the open, you notice that the undead army is mostly wiped out. A combination of Freedom Town’s forces, your defenses, superior tactics, and the wildfire made quick work of most of the undead. Mahja finds you shortly after the battle, wounded but generally well. She carries a joyful look on her face and the head of one of the powerful wights in her hand — a trophy to take back to Urgir.
She rushes to you excitedly, eager to trade war stories.
"So! How did your fight go? From the looks of the soot, I'd say it was pretty intense." She sees Katrina and Leo, looking more wan than normal. "So what happened, my friends?! You appear like you're about to drop!"
You turn to see Jiki trying to direct people to control the fire. Some of the townspeople have started forming lines and trying to either smother the flames or establishing firebreaks.
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Astrid laughs. "Ha! You two act like that was actually dangerous. The smoke and fire just made things interesting. It would have been boring otherwise. Maybe next time the Tyrant will send something actually dangerous." She pulls out her wineskin and takes a long drink before offering some to Mahja and the others. "Ale?"
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Please Katrina replies. And I agree, it was so hot I was tempted to doff my armour and do the entire fight in my swimsuit. As for the smoke, I was nowhere near my breath holding capability.
She grins over to Astrid as she takes a swig. But yeah. I'm used tae escaping from being trapped underwater. Never really tried fire and smoke before. Fire can be so ... unpredictable.
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Leo looks at Astrid with a little bit of a hurt expression. "Some of us rely on air. My magic requires me to breathe."
He was disappointed though. He could think of a simple spell in his spellbook that would have solved the problem. As usual, his father's teachings came to mind, "There's almost always a spell for every problem." If only he had prepared that one..
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Mahja Firehair unleashes a bellowing laugh. It almost sounds like a howl as it echoes throughout the valley. "Well, I think we managed to stop the undead. If there are more, I’m sure we could take them, but I think we’ve earned a bit of rest for the moment." She holds up the wight’s head, its eye sockets filled with a jet-black emptiness and thick, dark ichor dripping from its torn neck. "I think this one will fit well among the nine broken skulls in Urgir. I’m sure Ardax will be pleased to—"
The head’s eyes flare to life with the all-too-familiar red glow typical of wights. Almost instantaneously, the light shifts to a dark purple hue and a loud hissing begins to emanate from the head. The symbol of Sarenrae pinned in Mahja’s hair glows bright and a horrified realization flashes across her face. Quicker than a flame burns dried grass at the height of summer, Mahja pulls the head in to her chest and turns away while yelling "Get back!" As she throws herself to the ground to cover the head, the hiss becomes a deafening pop and Mahja becomes enveloped in a pitch-black light. The light is gone in an instant, leaving Mahja’s unresponsive body thrown about on the ground.
Checking on Mahja, you find that she is dead. Nothing you do can bring her back. Eventually, the rest of Freedom Town’s forces learn of Mahja’s fate. Regardless of how the Burning Sun learns of Mahja's death, there is immense grief. "What happened?" Uirch asks.
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Jiki tries to stop Mahja from throwing herself on the bomb, but is just a hair too slow to stop her from taking the full blast of the explosion. He rushes to her side, finding the life had left her body. Pulling the scroll the Society lent him from his pack, he calls her spirit back into her body, but with no success. He calls over the other Pathfinders skilled in healing and joins them in pouring magic into the fallen orc, to no avail.
Seeing that there is no hope for Firehair, the bard lets forth a keening wail, which seems to alert Uirich that there is a problem. Jiki leaves it to the others to explain what has befallen her, instead singing her praises as she treads the path to Pharasma's hall.
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Astrid shrugs at Uirch. "One minute she was fine and trading war stories and the next the wight head she was holding turned all purple and started hissing. She yelled at everyone to get back while she dove on it and it exploded. Looks like the Tyrant had one last trick up his sleeve. She died a warrior's death though, protecting others."
The shield maiden leans over to whisper to Leo. "I don't suppose you know any way to make sure that she won't turn into some sort of undead."
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Leo think for several moments and then outbursts
He looks around at the, likely, confused expressions. He follows it up awkwardly with, "I..uhh.. that's the spell that can prevent undead-ing. Well, that's what most people refer to it as...If I can talk to someone who knows it I should be able to figure out a, more lasting version. Half an hour at most."
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"Interesting thing about that, " he says excitedly responding to Katrina. "There's been an exciting near unanimous shift recently in the academic magic community to modernize a number of the colloquial references to 'spells', as it were. See, many 'spell' names are said to have originated from the sharing of magic by dragons way way back. Throughout the millenia, the information gathered of magic, 'spells' in particular, from adventuring into ancient dungeons and speaking to dragons and other mystical entities, heavily influenced our 'spells' of today. However, the 'spells' of today aren't exactly the same as those gathered throughout time. They are different enough, as the argument goes, that it seems appropriate to give many of them a more modern reference. To denote that the magics of today are different than those of say their dungeons or dragons origins. Especially now in this age of lost omens. We want to move forward. That is not to say we forget the origins, but merely don't allow it the opportunity to perpetually lay claim to our future. "