"The Shadow knows..."
Search Posts
Ignoring the poison that slows his defense, the last priest drives his dagger at Sarah's back, his blade sinking deep into her left shoulder. Once again, its unholy energy wracks her with pain sapping away her life-force. Rolls:
Once again, both cultists try to sink their daggers into the flesh of the woman before them. She deflects the attack of the first man while her flaring aura negates the attack of the man behind her. Rolls:
Eyes narrowing at the woman's ability to keep reversing their destructive force, the three cultists descend upon Priyya with their daggers, the one by the window charging her. A flare from Priyya's aura knocks aside the blade intended for her back, but the other two men sink their wavy black blades into her, the chill of anti-life shocking her from the inside. "Zaal shall take you for aiding the so-called Lightbringers!" Further south, the man flanked by Aerys and Alis aims a deadly slash at Lisa's throat. While the attack would have surely struck any of the rest of you, the disguised princess turns the attack aside with her supple blade. From outside, you hear further commotion and in one fell swoop, the front doors of the tavern are shattered. The familiar figure of a beautiful woman with flaming red hair, and black, feathery wings (one of which is has been shorn in half) flashes before you. She crashes hard into a table and hits the floor. In her hand, she holds what appears to be a broken longbow. For a moment, your heart seizes. Lucia?! No. Her facial features are different, so is the pitch of her voice as she calls out to Homeku... Rolls:
Perception Checks
Once again, the dark priests unleash their foul power. While Alis and Priyya are able to resist the worst of it, and while it is not as potent as before, Alton, Aerys, and Mal are wracked by pain, their breath catching in their throats from their proximity to the unholy energy. On the ground, the man felled by Malandraenas suddenly evaporates in a cloud of stinging black fog. Instantly his brethren seem to be reinvigorated, the wounds done to them beginning to heal! Priyya notes bitterly that the assault has finished off Greyson as his body crumbles to a pure white ash leaving behind only his sword and dented armor. From outside you can hear the muffled screams of fighting in the streets and further chanting. Behind Priyya, the eastern window shatters and another cultist enters the tavern eyes filled with cold hatred for the shining woman before him. With a flick of his wrist, he hurls a black dagger at her back, but she is not taken by surprise. However, Mal notes grimly that no sooner did the wavy blade miss its mark then it reappeared in the man's hand ready for another throw. Further south, another breaks thru the window by the bar. Seeing the fight well in hand, he begins to make a beeline for the old woman singing the holy hymn that is blasphemy to their ears. Rolls:
Will Saves DC 17
; Cultists
Without any words between them, the burned man approaches to stand beside the two closest to Priyya, while the one facing off against the two sailors moves away easily avoiding their hasty attacks. "Foolish woman," the closest man says in a sepulchral tone, "all that is needed for darkness to prevail is but for light to vanish. Ours is the eternal absolute to the wane candle of your feeble home. Time is on our side. Stand there and taunt if you like, you won't live an instant longer, you fate is sealed." With that, they intone the profane name of their lord and waves of crackling blue-black energy arc out from their bodies, wracking each of you in pain and siphoning your lifeforce. Instantly, Kestrel and Greyson collapse from the withering assault and Karyon's splashing in the water ceases. In the split second it takes for his Kestrel to hit the floor, you note that he, Briston, and Wolfstein are all shriveled there can be no mistaking that they are dead. Greyson, if he is still alive, must just barely be holding on to life. Aerys and Alton fare better, but pale as they are, you have reservations about their ability to survive another negative energy wave of that magnitude. Rolls:
Will Saves DC 18
; Cultists
As the nobleman talks and Mal carries his prisoner to back behind the bar, Aerys and Alton take up positions by the front doors. Still listening to him, Alis walks to the doors on the west side and props some chairs under the handles to bar them against any intrusion. Silently waching the proceedings, Priyya casts her gaze over all those within her line of sight...
Priyya:
Outside the bar, you see a number of locals quickly hustling out of the way as a number of men cloaked in black begin to come out of the woodwork, gathering in the streets. All of them radiate moderate evil.
Turning your gaze inside the bar, you do a systematic sweep of the people inside, going clockwise... Sasha: none
Kestrel manages to get potions down the throats of his two companions even as the nobleman wakes the downed northman. "Ah, Lord Briston," Wolfstein says, "I never hoped to see your face again in this world after those dirty Xerakai dogs piled on me whilst I was yet still in the process of espousing a more amicable solution to the differences between–" When Mal shouts his promises of violence, the man trembles, his bound legs dangling several feet above the floor, glinting blades near his eyes. In a panic he cries out, "The woman with the wasp blade and the viper on her b– AAACK!!!" Suddenly the man gives a terrible convulsion. His eyes and lips blacken, his tongue swells up in his mouth and his skin turns deathly white, growing sunken and shriveled in death. With a rattling gasp, he expires amid the fightened shrieks of the barmaids! Seemingly unperturbed by the gruesome spectacle if they even looked up from their drinks to notice it, one of the Setenbori men with his back to Priyya comments, "Lord Briston is it? I have heard it told that tolerance is the one virtue of man who lacks conviction." The two with their backs to Briston and Wolfstein then calmly pivot in their chairs and run both them through with black daggers concealed within spring-loaded wrist sheathes. Wolfstein drops to the floor immediately, his incessant talking cut short. Briston falls to one knee clutching at his wound which refuses to stop bleeding. As all four men stand, the last man says dispassionately, "Open-mindedness is a virtue only to those who have not yet learned Truth." With that, shadows begin to swirl about them and their appearances and clothing changes becoming like that of the dead man now rapidly mouldering behind the bar. In unison they intone: "" As they chant, their words like the churning shadows grow rapidly threatening to fill the entire tavern in blackness. Outside, everything grows dark, the brightness of the sun swiftly replaced by the gloom of night. Priyya:
As the men chant and their disguises melt away, you a buffeted by an aura of strong evil emanating from their group.
Inside your mind you hear a woman's voice call out, it is at once like the roar of flame, and the bray of a thousand battle horns, "You are Surya-ka-Vahaak. You are the shining in the darkness!" It is soon followed by another woman's voice, softer, with all the quality of crystal chimes, and a gentle unwavering confidence. "You walk this path, a light to all who see you. No root can turn you foot, nor any stone your countenance..."
Rolls:
Initiative Rolls
, ; Enemies —
|