Baron Volst's page

The Eternity Bracer unlatches, falls off of Quinn's arm, and plops onto the snow. You all see in your mind's eye your group of allies on the ground. Agent S, Sabina, and Paige still hold their own in their efforts to defend the prisms, but Volst is overwhelmed.

He is caught in a blast of threnodic energy. "NOOOOO!!" he cries. His robes are vaporized. Slowly, horrifyingly, his skin melts clean away from his bones. And yet, miraculously, he remains on his feet trying to fight against the blast.

He is reduced to a skeleton. From deep within his hollow eye sockets, pinpoints of blue light emerge. In a moment, it becomes clear what has happened.

There is a phylactery somewhere.

Blackacre's nemesis has become a lich.

His skull evilly chattering, he turns and flies off into the night. He has abandoned the battle.

Unfortunately, Quinn's hardiness works against his noble intentions. The bracer triggers a survival response in his physical body, on a deep, involuntary level, that resists the life drain. It won't happen again; the effect grows stronger each time and will soon overwhelm him. Even so, Quinn tries to marshal his inner discipline to overcome the element of chance and force the life drain to himself. But the cursed magic item is too strong! The violet-black current is repelled away from him.

The chaotic redirect targets 1d6 ⇒ 4 Blackacre!

Blackacre takes 1d6 ⇒ 6 damage.

"HA, HA, HA!" cackles Volst's mouth. "A delightful outcome! I am renewed."

"Ahem, still here, by the way," Volst's mouth (on Blackacre's forehead) interrupts. "And now, it's time for another one of these..."

SECOND WAVE OF SKELETON MINIONS DEFEATED. BATTERY NEEDS NEW CHARGE.

The Eternity Bracer flares blue and begin sparking. A bolt of electricity, like an anaconda, coils around the half-elf policeman!

Quinn, make a Fortitude save.

"You don't know what you speak about" says Volst's mouth. "I built that feature into the bracers. Quinn can't help it, he adheres to the deal in that he's our default option. However, any wearer's body automatically resists the life drain each time it occurs (although this becomes harder to do each successive time).* If successfully so, I added a failsafe. It finds a random target.

"Genius, really, if I do say so myself." The mouth smiles.

* The Fort save DC increases by 1 each time.

"Ouch!" cries Volst. "Stop that!"

FIRST WAVE OF SKELETON MINIONS DEFEATED. BATTERY NEEDS NEW CHARGE.

The Eternity Bracer flares blue and starts sparking. A current of black-violet electricity zaps the length of Quinn's body!

"Excellent!" enunciates Volst's mouth triumphantly.

Quinn, make a Fortitude save.

Volst addresses Quinn. "The battle against the undead is going well so far, thank you for assuming. Which is fortunate for you." The mouth smiles.

Despite Volst's mocking, the eyes strain and the mouth grimaces from time to time, indicating times when the battle becomes particularly hard.

Volst's eyes examines the two figures. Volst's mouth groans in dismay. "Interesting. These are corpses of myself and Agent S. Yes, yes, I remember this place. If we consider the implications, I'd say this is some time-displaced tableau where instead of 'S' and I killing Ludo...he has killed us!" The mouth gives a low whistle. "This is very bad. It means...oh! He's around here somewhere."

At that moment, Ludo steps out from behind the throne. A thick tangle of discolored entrails clings to this lurching skeleton's torso and winds upward to loll from its jaw like a clawed tongue.

"Oh! I forgot to mention. He's also a mohrg."

As mohrg-Ludo advances upon you, it causes a disturbance in the aerie above. There's loud pounding and shuffling thuds, accompanied by gibbering. Three large gorillas appear on ledges, 40 feet up. The gibbering becomes frenzied. They pound their chests. Powerful black wings spread out from their backs with a rustle of feathers. They carry wickedly curved swords in their simian hands.

"Oh, there are flying apes here too, of all things," Volst remarks. "I never figured out that one. Such a strange place the future."

Roll initiative.

The mouth speaks. The voice has a familiar ring to it.

"It's me, you twit! Volst!"

"I didn't want to miss out on all the fun, and wanted to check out the inside of this tower for myself. (So maybe I sneaked a little modified scrying/messaging spell when Blackacre wasn't looking...)

"Now Blackacre, there are corpses over there by that throne. Move that big oaf fighter out of the way and hold up your hand so I can better look at them. I think one of them bears an uncanny resemblance to me!"

"Fine," Volst says and quickly steps forward. He makes as if to shake Ianez's hand and finalize the arrangement. At the last moment, he feints and reaches for Blackacre instead. He is too overeager, too petty. For all his reinvention, a part of his old, clumsy nature reasserts itself. He trips and catches himself on the arm of Kwanjan Quinn.

In the blink of an eye, a black snake with glistening scales, black as jet, materializes and springs out of the right bracer. It slithers down Volst's wrist and along Quinn's arm. It rears back, and digs its fangs on the inside of Quinn's forearm. There's a pinch from the bite. The snake burrows under his flesh. It isn't painful. Quinn feels only the whisper of shadows.

Volst now wears only the right Eternity Bracer. The left one is on Quinn.+

"What?!" Volst yelps. "Villainy!" He snarls at Blackacre; now his true aggression is laid bare. "That wasn't how it was supposed to go!"

He's about to go into a tirade, but the undead are bearing down on you and closing in fast. He flaps his arms peevishly, choking down his frustration. The necromancer waves you away towards the tower. "Well? What are you waiting for? The bracers are activated. Go! Go!"

*Eternity Bracers*
Status: activated
Power source: Kwanjan Quinn
_________________

+ (Quinn still receives the full benefit from his usual bracers of armor).

Volst sneers, and is about to object and demand it be Blackacre. But he holds back, bitterly realizing that due to the exigencies of the situation, he, like you, also has no choice.

"Fine," he says without enthusiasm. "Make up your minds. Which one will it be?"

Volst flexes his fingers and looks at the bracers admiringly.

"I'm a dirty, no-good scoundrel necromancer. Of course, this battery recharges by draining a target of some of its life energy on a periodic basis. Don't worry, nothing fatal. The kind that can be healed up if you've got enough spells.

"The Eternity Bracers allow me to drain life energy from one of you while you are in the Tower. " He rubs his hands together. "I'll be able to keep on fighting...for an eternity." He shrugs. "At least theoretically, assuming you manage to keep yourselves alive."

"Hmm...who should we use?" He points, brings his finger across going down the line. He stops at Blackacre. "I choose you!"

To learn more about the bracers, make a Spellcraft check.

"Quick now, this is how this is going to work," Volst says. He retrieves a glowing blue coil from the folds of his cloak. "This is a necromantic "battery". It enables me to significantly boost my spellpower."

He points to the approaching armies of undead. "Those are the bad skellies."

He waves his arms and starts spellcasting. Cobbles fly up, soil erupts. Bloody skeletons burst up from the ground all around you. Paige and Sabina smile approvingly. There are tens...then hundreds...then thousands...then tens of thousands... The necromantic battery grows very brightly. Volst points to his new undead. "These ones, my friends, are the good skellies!"

"However, it takes a lot of power to charge the battery. More than I possess. As waves of Grey's undead defeat my skeletons, we'll need a power source to recharge the battery, so that I can raise new ranks of defense."

The necromancer sighs. "I command the forces of undeath, but Grey's mess would even overpower me."

He steeples his fingers together. "You mustn't flog yourselves about it. There was no hope otherwise. You had to use the crystal foci to summon the Tower Out of Time. But when you did, it triggered a threnodic resonance...an large-scale alarm of epic proportions throughout all of Golarion. All the armies of undead are being drawn to the signal. When they reach us, they will destroy the crystal foci, and your opportunity will be lost. You'll lose your access to the Grey's stronghold. Or, if you're in it, you'll be trapped there forever."

"Based on our respective talents, I gently offer a suggestion. Your party can enter and ascend the Tower as a forward strike team, and do battle with Grey. We will remain behind to repulse the undead and protect the crystal foci."

The Baron addresses Quinn. "The four of us have been in contact with each other regarding helping you defeat Dr. Grey. To combine our forces."

"You've lost friends along the way. Souls better than we." Volst waves with a flourish, indicating himself, the sorceress, the drow. "The fact is we are here now. The only ones left. The survivors.

"You fight to save the world. You and us, imperfect as that may seem..." he shoots a hard look at Blackacre, "are the future of this world."

Volst looks out over the skyline. "Dear boy, note the endless armies of undead out there. Their shuffling gait. Their rotten flesh. Observe how they stumble and crawl over each other, massing together and breaking apart in their endless, mindless quest to destroy." He inhales deeply and smiles. "They are ravenous. Feel the unholy hunger in their bellies!"

He wheels around and turns on Quinn. "They're all waiting to converge..." he points to the spot of ground in the center of your party "...here! To tear us apart and gnaw on our bones."

"Which was a fortuitous coincidence for Miss S," the Baron points out, interrupting. "Left to her own devices, Ludo would have killed her. But as it turned out," (again here he pauses for emphasis, unwilling to give up his beloved melodramatics) "the two of us defeated him, by the sheerest margin of luck!"

"Friend or foe, friend or foe..." muses Baron Volst. "That is the question." He stares at Blackacre with veiled intent...something odd in his manner. Like a cat waiting to pounce.

He works his fingers, blue death energy crackling from his palms.

...and finally, the one who spoke.

In their company -

The new and improved necromancer, Baron Dragomir dan Volst!