Cardinal Lucius d'Borja wrote: Lucius watches the woman with cold, but sorrowful eyes. "It is the life in question. This woman has committed crimes beyond imagination. The slaughter of innocents and vile rituals. She is cunning, powerful and one of the Devil's greatest servants. If we return her to the surface and she escapes then the evil she could wreak will be incalculable. We have the chance to strike a blow for God and His Holy Church, it is His Will."
So saying the Cardinal swings his greatsword in a swift arc and into the witches back.
[dice=CDG]4d6+6+4+6+2d6
Dies Irae falls and the Striga Lucrezia is slain, her spine severed!
She shrieks and collapses, her body lifeless, her soul cut free to plunge into the fires of the Pit!
Seeing a glimmer of hope (a vulnerability to requests for compassion) in the merciful natures of the shapeshifters, with hearts more humane than even a noble human churchman, ironically, the devious witch seeks to sow further doubt and discord among the Crusaders...
Did Jesus not teach forgiveness, Father!? I beg of you! I can repent, if you but give me a chance! Please!!
Bluff 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (16) + 20 = 36
No longer Striga Lucrezia, but SISTER REBECCA!! A NEW LIFE!! PLEASE!!
Striga Lucrezia throws herself at Lucius' feet, kissing them in a piteous display of submissive groveling! She implores Johann with wide, seductively pleading eyes...
Bitte schöen, handsome and mighty Herr Bruin! Please do not let this tragedy and travesty of justice occur! I can become a nun! I swear to GOD ON MY IMMORTAL SOUL!!
Bluff 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (12) + 20 = 32 @ Johann's Sense Motive...
Cardinal Lucius d'Borja wrote:
Lucius is waay to suspicious of this to roll normal SM but's its not beyond realms of possibility. Hence the +5 for an unlikely bluff.
"If you speak the truth then you have nothing to fear from returning with us." Lucius responds. "There are holy sisters who can help return you to the light."
Unless prevented he continues to methodically deprive the woman of anything that might help her cast spells.
Also, battle of the shockingly low rolls much? :)
A glimmer of hope appears in her brown eyes at the Cardinal's words, and she passively allows him to divest her of spell component pouches, wands, broom, haversack of scrolls and potions and whatnot...
I pray thee, Your Grace, to have mercy on my wretched and sinful soul... Perhaps you could arrange to have the demons exorcised from me? And...I could take the vows... Could I be saved, Father?
Bluff 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (8) + 20 = 28... Another shockingly low roll in the battle of such lol...
Defeated and dejected, the witch sobs, grieving for the foolish and evil choices that led her to this fate. She falls upon her knees before Cardinal Lucius, hands clasped in supplication, face streaked with tears.
I beg your mercy, Your Grace!...*sob*...I was foolish to forsake the light of goodness and truth...the way of Our Lord...I am possessed by demons, Your Grace...God has forsaken me...*sob*...I wish that I'd never been born!
Bluff 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (4) + 20 = 24 against another Sense Motive from Cardinal Lucius, please...
Zagathoth wrote: "It does not matter why," Zagathoth answers the bear, "you always obey priests and nuns, its one of the rules..." As he speaks, he shifts towards the woman and raises doomcresent menacingly. readying an action to attack if she moves, or tries to cast anything, or Lucius says to attack... Flinching at the menacing approach of Zagathoth, she begins to weep pitifully and cowers before the hulking orc!
Oh! Please don't kill me! I beg of you! Have mercy!
Johann Kaltgeboren- Dire Bear! wrote: Johann doesn't know what to do. The boss is saying to hold her, but she just looks and sounds like a frail old lady.
[dice=wisdom check dc 15?]d20+4
Confused, he just sits on his haunches and looks at Lucius with his head tilted.
"Grrr..rawrr... grrr.grrrr...rawr? Zag, why does his Grace want me to wrestle an old lady?
Striga Lucrezia is actually only in her late twenties, so she's not really an old lady. Sorry I did not adequately describe her at first...
The woman the devils had been dragging along now stands before you. She is tall for a woman, at nearly six feet, Italian, with long brown hair braided and clasped with jeweled copper clips, garbed in green and russet dress. Her feet are bare, and she wears a silver necklace with an odd eye-shaped gem depending from it, and a gold ring on her left hand. A haversack is strapped on her back, with a birchwood broom slung to the side of it and wrapped at the end with a bindle. She smiles with obvious relief at being rescued, her brown eyes glistening with tears...
Thank you for saving me! I'm Medea of House Sforza. My family must be anxious, wondering what has happened to me... I am certain they will reward you handsomely for freeing me!
Cardinal Lucius d'Borja wrote: The Cardinal whirls around and levels his greatsword at the witch. "Surrender, Striga and His Holiness may show you leniency! Johann! Hold her!"
If she starts trying something Lucius will attempt to cast Silence on himself and foil her spellcasting! Whether it will work is another matter!
Striga? You are mistaken, Your Grace, I am no witch...
[ooc]Bluff 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (13) + 20 = 33[/ooc]
Bluff 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (5) + 20 = 25
In English: Oh! Thank God! Praise the Lord!! You’ve saved me from these wretched devil-worshippers! I thought I was doomed to be a sacrifice to their evil demons and devils!
Striga Lucrezia wrote: A look of relief and exultation on her beautiful face, the disowned and excommunicated D’Sforza witch carefully backs five feet away from the remaining devil and the Cardinal, Zagathoth, and Johann, and reads the scroll of teleport, escaping to her tower on Mount Vesuvius for now! Concentration vs DC 25 to cast defensively off scroll 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (2) + 17 = 19 fails! The spell fizzles! Lucrezia does NOT escape...yet...
Dammit!! Dammit!! Dammit!! It’s materia transplasia, not materia transporta, you dumb witch! LUCIFER’S B%&++~&S!!
A look of relief and exultation on her beautiful face, the disowned and excommunicated D’Sforza witch carefully backs five feet away from the remaining devil and the Cardinal, Zagathoth, and Johann, and reads the scroll of teleport, escaping to her tower on Mount Vesuvius for now!
Readies an action to retrieve a scroll of teleport from her handy haversack if the devils release her.
LET ME GO, you BUFFOONS!! THESE BRAVE HEROES ARE GOING TO DESTROY YOU!! HAHAHAHAHA!!
Infernal: You are the ugliest! Now UNHAND.ME, GRISTLECHOPS, or by LUCIFER, I’ll have you FLAYED AND IMPALED ON YOUR OWN BARBS!!
The witch struggles ineffectually in the iron grip of the barbed devils...
Reflex vs Fox grease 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24 succeeds! No one slips in Fox’s grease this round...
Barbed devil of Silver Tower wrote: The fiends hesitate with their captive, listening...
Normally, they’d march around the corner to see who’s playing around in the green slime throne room...
...but they’d recently heard rumors of a band of mighty crusaders cutting a swath of furious justice through the Catacombs...
One whispers to the other in Infernal: Hey! D’ya think it’s Those One Guys!?
The other looks askance at its fellow and queries, What one guys are you talking about, idiot?
In Italian: He means... The BRAVE CRUSADERS OF THE CATACOMBS!! YES!! PLEASE, LET IT BE THEM!! HEEEEELLLLP!! screams the tricky witch!
Behind the majority of the Crusaders, in the back of the north corridor, the sound of doors swinging open and a shrieking woman’s voice, accompanied by heavy footfalls and sinister snorting can be heard!
In Infernal: NOOOOO!!! PLEASE!! I BEG YOU!! I will make a deal...A DEAL!! PLEEEASE!! UNHAND ME, you WICKED BRUTES!!
In Infernal: FOOT!! Not FEET!! He said just the left foot, you cruel devil!! *SOB!!*
The sobbing witch struggles feebly against the inhumanly strong devils’ grips on each of her arms, preventing her from teleporting to Freedom...
And I’m a WITCH, not a bloody WHORE, you foul PIG!!
As the hulking horned devils haul her away, she screams: NNNOOOOOOOO!!!
Antichrist Nero wrote: Striga Lucrezia wrote: While in the secret sanctuary of the Antichrist, the clawed and acid-scarred Striga Lucrezia reluctantly and humbly reports the copper dragon’s attack on the diamond mine in Africa...
In Infernal: I barely escaped with my life, My Lord! I was no match for this copper dragon... Not by myself... The gnolls and miners were no help, they were struck with dragonfear, panicked like hares before a hound!
The Antichrist Nero scowls at the witch...
You failed me again, Lucrezia... Lowering her eyes in shame and fear, the witch begins to weep...
Please, My Lord... I did the best I could...
While in the secret sanctuary of the Antichrist, the clawed and acid-scarred Striga Lucrezia reluctantly and humbly reports the copper dragon’s attack on the diamond mine in Africa...
In Infernal: I barely escaped with my life, My Lord! I was no match for this copper dragon... Not by myself... The gnolls and miners were no help, they were struck with dragonfear, panicked like hares before a hound!
Mirabilistia the Copper Dragon wrote: Striga Lucrezia wrote: You drive a hard bargain, as well you should, noble keeper of the diamonds... How about we get, um... forty, and you get sixty?
You ain’t getting s&&+, you beady-eyed whore, I’m going to murder you in your sleep and loot your hoard, you greedy, bossy, flying copper lizard-cat!
How ‘bout this deal: You get a free spit-shine to clean off all the desert grime from your smelly little apeling hide, and then, if you’re still standing after that, you get a bona fidé butt-whomping from a real live dragon!! And I get what’s left when the acid sinks into the hills! Haha! I had hoped it would not come to this, dragon... Lucrezia unravels a swiftly-produced scroll and reads it loudly! CORRODUS NEGATUS!!
Pulls out and reads scroll of protection from acid, gaining 72 points of acid resistance...
Mirabilistia the Copper Dragon wrote: Striga Lucrezia wrote: You drive a hard bargain, as well you should, noble keeper of the diamonds... How about we get, um... forty, and you get sixty?
You ain’t getting s&&+, you beady-eyed whore, I’m going to murder you in your sleep and loot your hoard, you greedy, bossy, flying copper lizard-cat!
How ‘bout this deal: You get a free spit-shine to clean off all the desert grime from your smelly little apeling hide, and then, if you’re still standing after that, you get a bona fidé butt-whomping from a real live dragon!! And I get what’s left when the acid sinks into the hills! Haha! I had hoped it would not come to this, dragon... Lucrezia unravels a swiftly-produced scroll and reads it loudly! CORRODUS NEGATUS!!
Pulls out and reads scroll of protection from acid, gaining 72 points of acid resistance...
You drive a hard bargain, as well you should, noble keeper of the diamonds... How about we get, um... forty, and you get sixty?
You ain’t getting s$$*, you beady-eyed whore, I’m going to murder you in your sleep and loot your hoard, you greedy, bossy, flying copper lizard-cat!
You drive a hard bargain, as well you should, noble keeper of the diamonds... How about we get, um... forty, and you get sixty?
You’ll get stabbed by a dozen blades at once while you sleep, you greedy, beady-eyed, flying copper lizard-cat! And I’ll get you’re f&!&ing hoard and ALL the f*$&ing diamonds!!
Um... We get sixty, you get forty?
Um... We get sixty, you get forty?
In Draconic: I’d rather we worked out a deal, lovely copper guardian of the mountains! What if we split the diamonds mined by my laborers... we take eighty of every hundred diamonds mined, and give you the other twenty?
Diplomacy 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
In Draconic: I’d rather we worked out a deal, lovely copper guardian of the mountains! What if we split the diamonds mined by my laborers... we take eighty of every hundred diamonds mined, and give you the other twenty?
Diplomacy 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24
Casts dimension door to teleport to a mountain ledge some 30 feet southeast of the dragon!
Transitis Exspacia! cries the Witch of Gulls, and leaps through a dimension door to a mountain ledge about thirty feet from the copper dragon...
Casts dimension door to teleport to a mountain ledge some 30 feet southeast of the dragon!
Transitis Exspacia! cries the Witch of Gulls, and leaps through a dimension door to a mountain ledge about thirty feet from the copper dragon...
Initiative 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18
Damn it! Looks like she’s helping herself anyway...
Initiative 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11
Damn it! Looks like she’s helping herself anyway...
Startled but not panicked by the copper dragon’s sudden flyby, the witch gasps and readies her broom of flying in case she would need to flee or give chase...
She watched as the dragon looped skyward again, while her miners (except the fearless zombies) and gnoll foremen scattered, terrified, seeking cover...
It’s toying with us! Maybe just curious? Perhaps a bribe will send it on it’s way...
Startled but not panicked by the copper dragon’s sudden flyby, the witch gasps and readies her broom of flying in case she would need to flee or give chase...
She watched as the dragon looped skyward again, while her miners (except the fearless zombies) and gnoll foremen scattered, terrified, seeking cover...
It’s toying with us! Maybe just curious? Perhaps a bribe will send it on it’s way...
Noon, Wednesday the 17th of January, in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains of Morocco:
Lucrezia’s mining operation is under way, with losses from overworking and heat exhaustion remedied by animating the corpses to continue laboring as zombies. The mainly European laborers, essentially reduced to slaves, work fearfully under the whips of gnoll overseers recruited locally by the evil witch.
As her divinations promised, a large ore of diamond is unearthed, and eagerly harvested. The sparkling carts of ore hauled out of the mines are processed at a site on location in the rugged, arid hills.
Good! Soon, I will be able to resurrect my comrades, who will no doubt be in my debt, and far more malleable than they were prior to their time in Hell...
Noon, Wednesday the 17th of January, in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains of Morocco:
Lucrezia’s mining operation is under way, with losses from overworking and heat exhaustion remedied by animating the corpses to continue laboring as zombies. The mainly European laborers, essentially reduced to slaves, work fearfully under the whips of gnoll overseers recruited locally by the evil witch.
As her divinations promised, a large ore of diamond is unearthed, and eagerly harvested. The sparkling carts of ore hauled out of the mines are processed at a site on location in the rugged, arid hills.
Good! Soon, I will be able to resurrect my comrades, who will no doubt be in my debt, and far more malleable than they were prior to their time in Hell...
Tuesday afternoon, January 18th:
The company assembled by the satanic witch Lucrezia begins mining for diamonds in the divination-indicated areas of the northern slopes of the Atlas Mountains. The witch and her crew of locally-recruited gnoll overseers and whip-crackers push the team of mostly Italian and Spanish laborers to their limits, with several succumbing to exhaustion and being raised as zombies to continue their labor tirelessly and for free...
Tuesday afternoon, January 18th:
The company assembled by the satanic witch Lucrezia begins mining for diamonds in the divination-indicated areas of the northern slopes of the Atlas Mountains. The witch and her crew of locally-recruited gnoll overseers and whip-crackers push the team of mostly Italian and Spanish laborers to their limits, with several succumbing to exhaustion and being raised as zombies to continue their labor tirelessly and for free...
The satanic witch scowls at the band of miners and caravan of camels trekking from Anfa port down the arid coast toward the diamond-rich Atlas Mountains...
This had better be worth the time and effort, by Lilith! Those mountains had better be s+&$ting out diamonds like a pig with diarrhea!
Gullroost Tower, at the same moment Toshio Okumura is in competition with John Dunstable:
Lucrezia, Queen of Gulls, squints in frustration at her crystal ball...
In Abyssal: Damnation! Where has the Fox disappeared to!? It’s as if he fell off the face of the Earth!
Her bat familiar Figaro chuckles dryly in Abyssal: You fungus-addled slut! Why on Earth did Demogorgon stick me with a dumb b*&+! like you!? You still haven’t sussed out the Fox’s secret, because you’re a bird-brained, illiterate, promiscuous little trollop! You’re no witch! Hahahahaha!
Lucrezia snarls at Figaro, tries to grab him to fling him against the tower wall, but the little fruit bat is too nimble and swift, and deftly chomping her little finger hard enough to draw blood, the demonic bat darts up to a rafter to sneer at his mistress, chirping: Oh! You almost had me there, Mistress! You’ve got to be quicker than that! Hahahahaha!!
Figaro, her bat familiar pauses from sucking blood from his mistress’ neck to whisper in her ear, in Abyssal: What else do you see about the Fox, Mistress? There is something else...a secret...do you ken it?
Lucrezia growls in frustration. In Abyssal: No! Just tell me what it is already, Figaro! Stop toying with me!
The bat chuckles and nips her ear...
Ouch! Damn you, you flea-bitten mouse with wings! What was that for!? scolds Lucrezia...
For your impatience, Witch of Gulls! rebukes the demonic bat... You demand lore you have not yet earned! When Our Dark Lord deems thee worthy, only then wilt thou ken the Fox’s secret! Until then, my Sweet, keep eating cherries, red apples and honey... I like how they sweeten thine nectar...
The Ogon Fox wrote: [dice=Will save vs scrying]1d20+6 In her crystal ball, the Witch of Gulls descries the Fox, lying in his bed at the Palazzo D’Borja... She sees the Duke of Florence and Pope by his side...
Our Little Fox is attended by powerful friends indeed... But oft times a friend is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing... I wonder when the Little Fox will learn that lesson? When all lessons are learnt, of course—after it’s too late and the trap is sprung...
Attempt a DC 20 Will save vs scrying, Ogon Fox...
In her Tower of Gullroost on Mount Vesuvius, the Witch of Gulls gazes into her crystal ball and chants: Horseman of Plagues and the Creeping Pox, show me the one called Ogon Fox!
Her familiar Figaro the bat having whispered into her ear that the Ogon Fox was currently suffering from ghoul fever and might make an easier target for scrying attempts, the Witch of Gulls was eager to take advantage of her foe's weakened condition...
Town crier wrote: The town criers of Rome call out the victories of the Crusaders of the Catacombs over the undead monsters that lurk below the streets!
THE GOOD CARDINAL LUCIUS D’BORJA LEADS A MIGHTY BAND OF PAPAL CHAMPIONS INTO THE CATACOMBS TO CLEAR THEM OF THE RESTLESS DEAD THAT HAVE BEEN PREYING ON OUR CITIZENS BY NIGHT! THE LORD BE PRAISED!! WE HAVE SAVIORS AMONG US!! BRAVE MEN OF HIGH QUALITY AND HARD METTLE SUCCOR THE CITY OF ROMA!! HALLELUJAH!! HALLELUJAH!! REJOICE, PEOPLE OF ROMA!!
So... Eugenius has a new team of meddlers to thwart our plans... I shall have to have a look at these interlopers and gauge their strengths and weaknesses...
In her tower in the dark wood that grows in the vale on the slope of Mount Vesuvius, the witch and her bat familiar, Fausto, peer at a crystal orb supported on a wrought iron stand shaped like a dragons’ claw...
Casts scrying on Cardinal Lucius D’Borja... Will save DC 20
I shall not fail you this time, My Lord! I work better by myself... No distractions or arguments like with the Hounds... Their death was their own fault, not mine... They were arrogant, impatient, greedy imbeciles... This time, when we bring them back from the torment of Hell, they will appreciate Lucrezia’s wise counsel a little more, I think... They will be humbled, which will make them more compliant to our plans, My Lord...
I shall not fail you this time, My Lord! I work better by myself... No distractions or arguments like with the Hounds... Their death was their own fault, not mine... They were arrogant, impatient, greedy imbeciles... This time, when we bring them back from the torment of Hell, they will appreciate Lucrezia’s wise counsel a little more, I think... They will be humbled, which will make them more compliant to our plans, My Lord...
|
