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Mimi moves to join Domini at the window, curious and fearful at the same time. When she sets eyes on the stranger rider, she studies it for what little good it will do from inside the Manor.
"I've heard stories. An old, old, very old witch employed Riders, one of them Black. Suppose they all look black at night. In service to the Crone, the once humans became something more... eternal. If the stories were true, the last one was a female sellsword. Probably eternally grumpy, if she had to obey the witch..."
Mimi turns back to her boys. "You sure you don't want to follow it? Might be a messenger, being all alone. The horse might be a problem, but the Manor continues to get way too much attention."
vs DC 14
”Yeah, if it’s a messenger, it can come and knock on the door.” Flemming begins with a grin, ”But I rather think it’s more nefarious, as in your old stories. This is a place of old stories I think.”
He’ll keep watch for his shift and get some sleep, ready in the morning.
Assuming morning comes, and they don’t investigate the dark figure, Flemming mulls over their options. ”Since we’re here, let’s check out the trail this morning. Then spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon helping the town with the church, then the late afternoon, and maybe supper, with the traveler’s camp. What do you think?” he turns to the others for their opinions.
"I've heard stories. An old, old, very old witch employed Riders, one of them Black. Suppose they all look black at night. In service to the Crone, the once humans became something more... eternal. If the stories were true, the last one was a female sellsword. Probably eternally grumpy, if she had to obey the witch..."
Borracho spits, nodding.
* * * *
The morning, Borracho takes some time with his special book to begin his morning preparations that usually take an hour. It's hard to tell if he's reading or just looking at the pictures, or admiring his own hands.
Maybe he's just memorizing poetry, as his many beautiful womens fans seem to like poetry.
And he will apply some nice smelling cologne today, he just feels he needs it to be his most Borrachoest.
"Flemming, yes, you are wise as Borracho had thought for the same plans for this day. When you and the others are ready, we should do exactly that."
Tural spends his first hour in prayer to Sarenrae as usual. After he joins the group. "And we need to see if that horse left any prints."
"And.... We need to pay better attention to the time of day. Coming here after dark wasn't wise."
Your morning preparations go smoothly followed by a simple breakfast of toast with blackberry jam and a cup of tea. With the morning dew still clinging to the grass, you return to the zombie trail. The trodden ground is easy to find, and you quickly spot large paw prints pressed over the top of the zombie shuffling and heading back into the woods. You carefully proceed along the trail for nearly two hours. It doesn’t follow any road or even animal path and only deviates from a direct line to avoid fallen trees or difficult terrain. You’re starting to grow concerned about time when the trail takes its first large turn and circles around behind the high bank of a stream.
Perception
Survival
"Hmm...these tracks are tricky, but one must be very tricky to fool Borracho," Borracho climbs to check out the high trail that he thinks the creature left, and points it out to the party.
"Much like Sinashakti knows the road, so does Borracho. We troupes are known for our travels, and in this, we are not fooled by such tracks."
Mimi hones in on the trip wire. "Watch your step, boys. There's something here seeking to snag your pant legs..."
She approaches, then hunches, looking for the best way to undo what might prove dangerous to lesser townsfolk.
Mimi warns the troupe away from the trap. After a half minute of careful inspection she casually unhooks a second line to the side of the road and smiles at her success.
Borracho shows the tracks that lead off the zombie trail and circle around to the other side of the high bank. The tracks follow the edge of a thicket that offers good cover for a stealthy approach.
Both paths lead to the same high bank ahead of you. The presence of the trap indicates something intelligent was waiting for unwanted visitors.
Tural watches as Mimi disarms the trap. "Any idea what the trap would have done? Harm? Or maybe alert someone that enemies are coming?"
Conditions = Mage armor (60m)
Melee: Attack: BAB +4, Dex +4, Focus +1, PS -2 Damage: Dex +4, PS +4 DR: Magic, Silver Crit x2
Ranged: Attack: BAB +4, Dex +4 Damage: +0
Ki Powers (8/8) (extra attack, barkskin (40m, +2nat armor))
Stunning Fist (4/4) (stun or fatigue, DC 15)
Reroll Charm or Compulsion (1/1)
Wand Mage Armor (45, +4 armor, 1h)
"Good questions."
Flemming waits for the answers before suggesting, "Let's take the more stealthy path shall we?"
When ready, he'll request another mage armor and head quietly up the trail.
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Mimi guesses that it was an alarm style of trap.
You take the stealthy path away from the zombie trail and along the thicket. Moving quietly you find a narrow trail between bushes that leads down to the stream. The babbling of the water helps hide your approach. As you creep around the edge of the stream bank you see it has a large rocky overhang creating a dry sheltered area beneath it. Standing unmoving in the sheltered area is the horse like creature you recognized last night as a Vukodlak. At the back of the sheltered area behind the vukodlak a large crevice leads into the hillside of the stream bank.
It doesn’t appear the creature is aware of the troupe. Rocks, shrubbery, and the sound of water splashing over rocks can help to aid your stealthy approach.
Borracho will wait and give Flemming the space he needs to move in, and follow after casting a spell to create fire in his hands. Then, he will follow.
Conditions = Mage armor (60m), Barkskin (40m)
Melee: Attack: BAB +4, Dex +4, Focus +1, PS -2 Damage: Dex +4, PS +4 DR: Magic, Silver Crit x2
Ranged: Attack: BAB +4, Dex +4 Damage: +0
Ki Powers (7/8) (extra attack, barkskin (40m, +2nat armor))
Stunning Fist (3/4) (stun or fatigue, DC 15 Fort)
Reroll Charm or Compulsion (1/1)
Wand Mage Armor (45, +4 armor, 1h)
Flemming points out the creature, making sure the others have time to prepare. For his own preparation, he uses his Ki powers to layer Barkskin on top.
Then he creeps forward!
If he gets close enough to surprise the creature, he attacks! Naturally he tries to stun it, though he’s not sure it’ll work.
plus DC 15 Fort or be stunned 1r
Unsure what the creature is, Tural doesn't want to waste his strongest spells. He moves along with the group, scimitar in hand. Once they get close enough to attack he casts a spell affecting everyone's weapons.
Mimi doesn't like this hunt. Nothing like the cretins who jumped bail, and required 'shepherding' back to justice. No, this is unholy stuff, and she's uncomfortable for how much is being asked of Tural to overcome the decay of the undead.
If Mimi can join Flemming in the approach, she'll do her utmost to introduce the vukodlak to Noogie. She does look the vuk up and down, laying her Whammy down.
If she and her Noogie get within 20', she lets her silver-studded weapon, newly magicked by Tural, fly.
Borracho and Tural prepare with magics, then Flemming and Mimi sneak forward.
The vukodlak continues standing motionless as Flemming and Mimi sneak forward. Flemming’s strike hits the dead flesh of the creature without hurting it, but Mimi’s noogie thumps into it with a crack. With the surprise sprung, Borracho and Tural leap to action.
Tural charges in to attack.
Tural joins Flemming and Mimi and the attacks catch the undead creature by surprise. It sluggishly turns glowing red eyes towards it's foes.
Conditions = Mage armor (50m), Barkskin (40m), Weapons against evil (4r, ignore up to DR/5 on evil)
Melee: Attack: BAB +4, Dex +4, Focus +1, PS -2 Damage: Dex +4, PS +4 DR: Magic, Silver Crit x2
Ranged: Attack: BAB +4, Dex +4 Damage: +0
Ki Powers (7/8) (extra attack, barkskin (40m, +2nat armor))
Stunning Fist (3/4) (stun or fatigue, DC 15 Fort)
Reroll Charm or Compulsion (1/1)
Wand Mage Armor (45, +4 armor, 1h)
Flemming takes Tural’s spell. ”Thanks Tural! Let’s see if it worked!”
He quickly punches the creature before the magics fade.
”It worked!” Flemming grins.
Flemming punches all the way through the creature's chest getting his shiny new wraps covered in ick. The vukodlak collapses in a heap with the smell of its rotting insides fouling the air.
In the quiet that follows the quick demise, the troupe can hear the faint babbling of the allip from inside the crevice.
"So much undeath in this land. Too much." Her voice barely carries, and she waits for the others to ready themselves for breaching the crevice. She tries her best to determine how vulnerable the first forward is going to be.
No light emits from the crevice. At a depth of five feet it curves to the right blocking further view. The passage is narrow enough that only one person can pass at a time.
Conditions = Mage armor (50m), Barkskin (40m), Weapons against evil (4r, ignore up to DR/5 on evil)
Melee: Attack: BAB +4, Dex +4, Focus +1, PS -2 Damage: Dex +4, PS +4 DR: Magic, Silver Crit x2
Ranged: Attack: BAB +4, Dex +4 Damage: +0
Ki Powers (7/8) (extra attack, barkskin (40m, +2nat armor))
Stunning Fist (3/4) (stun or fatigue, DC 15 Fort)
Reroll Charm or Compulsion (1/1)
Wand Mage Armor (45, +4 armor, 1h)
Flemming hears the babbling, and hopes he can do better to resist it this time. ”I agree. Let’s see to it there’s one less.”
Flemming tosses an ioun torch overhead for light - even if it gives them away. He needs to see. When everyone is ready, he’ll lead into the chamber beyond.
Borracho, wanting to keep things moving quickly while he has his flame ready, follows Flemming into the hole rather than wasting words.
Tural follows, wondering what else would be ahead. If healed the allip would be dangerous again. But what might be with it? "We don't know what the rider was.... Careful."
Wasting no time or magics, the troupe bravely surges through the crevice and finds it opens into a vile chamber. Directly ahead of you the withered rider stands at a disgusting workbench with a bloated corpse upon it. To your left the allip curls around a carved brazier filled with a red blackish liquid. As your light illuminates the chamber the rider turns a withered corpse like face to you and it’s jaw stretches unnaturally as an unholy sound begins to rise in volume.
Round 1, Init 17
AC = 20
HP = 36/36
Weapon Equipped = Noogie(+1 Silvered Aklys)
Condition(s) = Weapons Against Evil? Not sure how quickly we got into the Crevice...
"Tural, what is that horrid thing?" She's primarily looking at the corpse rider, but she does glance at the allip from time to time.
Mimi steps forward just close enough to throw Noogie at the rider.
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Conditions = Mage armor (50m), Barkskin (40m), Weapons against evil (2r, ignore up to DR/5 on evil)
Melee: Attack: BAB +4, Dex +4, Focus +1, PS -2 Damage: Dex +4, PS +4 DR: Magic, Silver Crit x2
Ranged: Attack: BAB +4, Dex +4 Damage: +0
Ki Powers (6/8) (extra attack, barkskin (40m, +2nat armor))
Stunning Fist (3/4) (stun or fatigue, DC 15 Fort)
Reroll Charm or Compulsion (1/1)
Wand Mage Armor (45, +4 armor, 1h)
Flemming 5’ steps to I-7 and flurries, trying to take down the unknown undead.
He looks down at his fist, "I don't know what you did there Tural, but that spell is amazing!"
Mimi and Flemming combine their strikes on the withered corpse and shatter its bones. The broken body falls against the putrid workbench and remains still.
The allip continues babbling softly while curled around the carved brazier. If you didn't know better you would think it was sleeping. You notice thin trickles of the black liquid in the brazier are streaming into the cloud of shadows.
Seeing the Allip resting, possibly recovering from the previous encounter Tural steps forward and calls on Sarenrae to end the existence of the creature. "Sarenrae. Let your power flow through your servant to smite this horrid creature."
Round 1
"Ah Flemming! Much like Borracho, you fight like a lion, and foes tremble when you walk," Borracho says moving into the room stand heroically with hands on his hips. "Together, whatever ails this village will soon be gone, and the beautiful womens will pay us generously."
He poses for a second all most as if he thinks the battle is over before noting the allip still alive and threatening.
"Ah, good, you have left a foe for Borracho! Borracho is feared by the undead, no doubt," he claims as he tosses not one, but two, rapid balls of fire at the allip.
touch to hit; (+pbs, -rapid)
fire damage.
touch to hit; (+pbs, -rapid)
fire damage.
AC 20, touch 16, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +2 shield, +2 dex, +2 barkskin)
hp 31/31
Spells:
Barkskin +2
Combat:
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The allip had nearly been destroyed by the party earlier and it has no strength left to withstand the assault. The positive energy rips through its shadowy body scattering the last remanents of the darkness and the flame strikes squarely upon its chattering jawbone setting it ablaze. The burning jaw falls from the air bouncing off the brazier and shattering on the floor of the cave. The troupe breathes a sign of relief as the babbling is replaced by silence.
Borracho moves closer to the downed allip, checking to see what it was protecting.
Perception
And check if there is anything (ir)religious about it as well:
Know (Religion)
And beyond that, as Borracho is as wise as he is gracious, he will cast Detect Magic as he searches.
Thorough is the way of Borracho.
The brazier seems ancient, an evil artifact that existed long before Barovia fell upon its curse. The black liquid swirls slowly as if an unseen hands stirred the pool. The workbench is nothing so extraordinary. The stained, rotting boards hold a bloated corpse, the final attempt at creation of undead by the zuvembie. Your search of the debris and rags in the cave turns up nothing useful.
Borracho is both wise and knowledgable as he informs the troupe of the magic brazier. The brazier is a font of negative energy. Despite its power, it’s also fragile and shattering the stone basin will destroy it.
Outside the cave a search of the area turns up tracks of the vukodlak going in multiple directions.
"Now that is how we do that!" Flemming can't believe their luck. They caught them totally by surprise, and trounced them. Teamwork.
Outside, he pokes around trying to see what the land will tell him. He's not very good at it, but always sort of wanted to be. He thinks it's cool.
vs DC 15
He rolls another messy cigarette, but stuffs it in his pouch for now.
"Now would you look at that. There's a trail, less used, off into the woods. Now I call that a lead. Quietly, let's follow that up and see where it leads. Shall we? When we're done smashing this brazier of course - that looks foul..."
Tural nods to Flemming's words, then looks around the area for a rock. "It might be wise to destroy it at a distance if possible. As a font of evil it might die with one final blast of power. Does anyone have a sling?"
Borracho unwisely bashes the font with his shield, making sure it's good and destroyed.
"The question still remains why the allip is interested in the woman, and who is controlling these undead to create that interest," Borracho says, looking to his companions. "Much like Tural, Borracho is wise, but not even Borracho's keen intellect has enough pieces to figure that out yet."
Mimi holds up Noogie, ready to speak about how nice it is to toss it and retrieve it by its tether, when Borracho bashes. She lowers Noogie, secretly glad that her Noogie wasn't needed. Who knows what happens to all that swirl-evil.
"You good, Borracho? Nothing daunts you. Just don't get any on you."
The old woman follows their hound down another rabbit trail. She doesn't like the mental image when breeding rabbits and breeding allips pass behind her eyes...
As the troupe discusses careful strategies for destroying the font, Borracho bashes it with his shield sending it crashing to the floor where it shatters into dozens of pieces. The unceremonious end to the source of negative energy provides no explosions or hellfire, just a puddle of black muck with fragments of bone in it. You detect for magic and find none remains.
With the font destroyed, the troupe exits the cave and turns their attention to the trail across the stream. The tracks lead over a gentle rise and soon join a deer trail. After another hour of slow travel the dilapidated shapes of collapsed buildings appear from the fog. A tiny hamlet existed here long ago, but the few buildings are rubble with moss and tree roots growing over the ruins. The tracks continue to the old graveyard behind what must have been the church where you see the only signs of recent activity. The graves have been freshly dug up and the remnants of coffins litter the ground. The only mausoleum has a hole of blackness where the door once sat.
”Well. This village, and its graveyard, must’ve been the source of all those bodies.” Flemming shakes his head, Such a loss.
”It’s probably empty, but shall we check out the mausoleum just in case?”
He’ll head in, first as usual.
Borracho pushes some dancing lights (vaguely humanoid) into the mausoleum ahead of Flemming, making sure that everything within can see Borracho clearly as he follows.
Tural readies his scimitar. "A dark mausoleum is a good hiding hole for undead. Let's be ready."
Seeing the dancing lights ahead he offers his Light orison for anyone else.
The dancing lights fully illuminate the small mausoleum. It’s a simple chamber with shelves holding three coffins each on the right and left sides and one ornate coffin against the back wall. Coffin lids lie broken cluttering the floor between the shelves. The empty coffins contain a few golden trinkets, but no bodies. In the largest coffin at the back you’re surprised to find a beautifully carved crossbow inlaid with silver and decorated with a family crest. Clearly, the mausoleum wasn’t pilfered by grave robbers looking for wealth for such an expensive item to be left carelessly behind. A quick detection shows the item to be magical.
A continued search uncovers nothing more of interest in the little room.
The troupe explores the ruins of the hamlet for another half hour without finding anything of note. It’s still late morning when you head back towards the village.
The three hour trek passes easily with the knowledge that you’ve defeated the dark rider and the allip, destroyed a font of evil, and found a valuable weapon in the process. By the time the burgomaster’s manor comes into view your bellies are missing their noon meal.
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Casting Detect Magic Borracho will examine the inside of the Mausoleum, and eventually settle on examining the crossbow. Sadly, it seems Borracho needs to be points into Spellcraft to really be good at it.
Spellcraft
Borracho's face fuzzles with confusion as he tries to parcel out the magics. He fails, and looks to see if anyone else can gather an understanding about it.
Spellcraft
Borracho ah-has! loudly in triumph.
"You can only fool Borracho once or twice, but Borracho will always catch on! Such is the way of Borracho, wise and clever by half!" Borracho says victoriously.
Flemming will take the grave goods, but he has a plan. ”Let’s donate these to the church, for its rebuilding. Is that OK with everybody?”
He likes the idea of the traveler’s camp next as well. ”Maybe they’ll give us lunch. Not interested in road-jerky if we can avoid it.”
Seeing Borracho examining the crossbow Tural waits. He knows how hard it can be to understand the weave of the threads of magic on a device. When Borracho indicates a lack of success Tural casts the Detect Magic himself to try and puzzle it out.
He also fails.... "It is magical. But I can't tell any particular detail about it either."
"That's a good idea Fleming. Bring a little bit of sparkle to the living from this dead town."
With grumbling bellies you follow the west road that leads towards the waterfall then twists up the ridge to the castle. You can faintly hear the crashing of the falls when the trail leading to the traveler’s camp branches from the main road and you can see the ring of wagons in a clear meadow. You’re still a hundred paces out when a gnome strides from the wagons and starts yelling in your direction. ”Took ya long enough, chowder heads. Hurry up then, we’ve been keeping the stew warm.” A curl of smoke rises from the gnome’s pipe and, if your eyes aren’t deceiving you, it’s Horatio. As you draw closer he removes the pipe and a wide grin breaks across his weathered face. The gnome is older than you remember from your meeting a few days ago, but it’s definitely him. ”Madam Eva said you’d be guests for lunch today, come on, food’s awaiting.” He leads you into the ring of wagons, where a kettle bubbles over a fire pit in the center. The travelers seated around the fire rise and greet you with enthusiasm. A huge man with a salt and pepper beard strides over with arms outstretched and engulfs Flemming in a bear hug lifting him off the ground. ”My boys said you saved their skins at the manor. You’re part of the clan now, you hear that!” He sets Flemming back on the ground and claps Borracho heavily on the shoulder. ”I see you have the panache of a traveler already my friend. And you, holy man, it is good to have a follower of the gods among us.” His other hand clamps just as heavily on Tural’s shoulder. ”Fill your bellies, the stew is hot and the bread is fresh. Ma’am, may I escort you to a seat?” He offers a thick, hairy arm to Mimi with a slight bow.
"Horatio! You could not get enough of Borracho, I see! Much like the beautiful womens, you admire Borracho and wish to break bread," Borracho says, helping himself to the repast.
"Where is Madam Eva? Will she be joining us?"