Kaya scurries out to aid in the battle and fires her crossbow in haste...sending the bolt sailing over the high wall behind the creatures.
Alaric and Shredder rush out as well. Shredder soundly slices the opponent in twain.
As Tere's wounds continue to bleed. Seeing his closest foe has fallen, Wraith tries to corner the foes in a tactical fashion. His blow however is unable to find it's way past the creatures armor.
Gwendolyn solidifies her feathery friend with the same magic Kaya used. A shimmering shield begins to appear in seemingly random locations around the owl.
Capone rushes to Tere's aid, bringing him back from the distant light.
While one of the armored undead lumbers forward and swings his blade into the dirt, the second turns to the woman nearby and brings its blade high. Swing for her head, it deflects off the tent; failing to connect.
Guardian Phantoms
Kaya
Alaric/Shredder
Wraith
Tere
Gwendolyn
Capone
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Kaya steps to the side to get a better view, reloads her crossbow and fires again at the same enemy. "Great job with that healing Mr. Capone! Can you hurt those undead with that same magic? I think I read about that once. I mean it makes sense right? Heal the living does the opposite for the unliving?"
for
Shredder moves up, and lays into yellow.
The dino does not seem pleased by the taste of the target.
Kaya fires another bolt, but can't quite get a clear shot at the enemy. Though it doesn't seem to harm her demeanor, her bolt slams into the ground a few feet away from her target.
Alaric and Shedder team up on the same aberration. While Shredder manages to sink a claw in, and get a mouthful, the undeath remains for a moment. Spotting a weakened point in the foes armor, Alaric capitalizes on his dino companions revelation. With a single smooth swing, he removes the helmet from the rest of the corpse and it collapses.
Fueled by her fear for Tere's safety, Wraith begins her attack. Suddenly, one of the promised hunter's of the Twinhorn darts out of a nearby tent and distracts the creature. As it turns away from Wraith, the martial woman spots a glaring hole the protective barrier and splits the beast down the center from aft to stern!
Tere
A few more Twinhorn appear from the surrounding tents; one steps forward.
"Thank you for convincing our elders this land is worth saving! We've got this mess...but we do have need of you. As long as the rift remains open, the dead will continue to rise. Go forth at once and close it if you will!"
With a few quick words of thanks, the hunters point you in the direction of "The Portal" and send you on your way as more spawn begin to force their way into camp. They rush off to hold the undead foes at bay.
A short walk later you come to a cliff overlooking a riverbank flanked by forest terrain. Over the treetops you spot a clearing.
The clearing on the riverbank features a circle of standing stones with a large stone altar at its center. A shadowy tear floats above the altar, so dark that what little light shines from the stars seems to become trapped inside. Eight large tendrils of inky darkness coil around the menhirs as if keeping the stones in a stranglehold. Other tendrils lick out from the shadowy rift as if tasting the air. As you watch an oversized rotting hand plops out of the rift, propelled by thick, stubby fingers. Its pale, necrotic flesh pulses and crawls with sickly boils.
Immediately behind it six fleshless creatures emerge. They fan out across the circular opening in the forest, turning to look your way. Though they seem to be covered by a supernatural shadow, the moonlight glistens off their white bones.
Human Skeletons
Undead Traits
DR 5/Bludgeoning
Immune to Cold Damage
It's a 'Giant Crawling Hand'
Undead Traits
Mark Quarry (Su): A crawling hand is assigned a quarry by anointing the hand with a drop of the intended quarry’s blood. If the hand has no current quarry, it automatically gains the next creature it damages as its quarry. Once attuned to a target, it becomes aware of the target’s location as if under the effect of a continuous locate creature spell. The hand gains a +1 bonus on all attack rolls, damage rolls, and skill checks made to seek out and destroy the marked quarry. The mark quarry ability lasts until the quarry or the hand is slain.
Pus Burst (Su): When damaged by a piercing or slashing melee weapon, a spray of vile pus strikes the attacker unless the attacker makes a Reflex save. Weapons that provide reach protect the attacker completely from a pus burst. Creatures struck by pus become nauseated for 1d3 rounds and take 2d6 points of negative energy damage.
======================
Wraith
Tere
Capone
Kaya
Undead
Alaric/Shredder
Gwendolyn
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Kaya wonders what the people who can see are looking at, then with a word and a motion her crossbow starts glowing. "So uh what do you all see out there? Something cool? A big pile of rock candy glinting in the moonlight?" Expecting hundreds of undead or something worse, her normally cheerful voice has just the smallest of quivers as she moves forward down the stone steps.
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Kaya starts babbling everything she knows about the common skeleton that has now been identified. "Like most Undead a lot of stuff doesn't work. However, these specifically have extra resistance to anything that isn't bludgeoning. Obviously though, that makes sense. You can see right through them I'd assume a pointy or bladed object would just do less damage. Anyway, they are also immune to cold so... I'm pretty much useless."
She continues, "oh that hand thing is cool! It is also Undead like the skeletons of course, but it also has a special ability to mark a quarry. It uh... essentially works like this. Once it hits you or gets your blood on it somehow then it will just keep coming for you until you re-kill it. Also, watch out for those boils. Smacking it with blunt things works or just hitting it from a distance is smart. Otherwise that goo might spray. So be careful and I'll try to get some light on everything!"
Quite familiar with Capone's standard chain at this point, Tere and Wraith wait impatiently for the man. As quickly as he can, he draws his wand and casts bless as the pair leap from the ledge and take off for the foes.
As Wraith moves to jump from the ledge, she catches her foot on a rock and stumbles over the edge. Without even blinking an eye, Kaya snaps her fingers and the ninja slowly floats to the ground where she takes off down the path.
Not to be outdone, Tere leaps from the edge, landing with a soft crunch as his knee hits the ground. Undeterred, he sprints after his flanking partner.
Unsure what's got her companions in such a hurry, Kaya tries to light the way, peering into the dark reaches beyond.
The strange undead beasts lurch forward. The skeletons jeer at you, calling out "Yes, come! Our master has plans for you!"
Gwendolyn and Hera move closer. While Hera flies over the trees, Gwendolyn takes the more reserved approach down the stairs.
Undead
Alaric/Shredder
Gwendolyn
Wraith
Tere
Capone
Kaya
[/ooc]Wraith, Tere, Capone, Kaya up Round 2[/ooc]
Alaric and Shredder move forward with an attack order given.
Tere and Wraith Prepare to smack the first foe that comes into view as the others move to engage.
Though still out of sight, a *SSSHHHH*POP* rings out from the sight of the stone circle. The rustling trees give evidence a few have begun moving through the underbrush as another walks right up to the duo at the front of the pack.
Though Wraith swings high, Tere smacks the bony creature with his mace. The blow carries so much force, the beasts spine shatters and it falls limp.
The rotting, fleshing hand quickly steps over the bones of it's former ally.
Round 2:
Undead
Alaric/Shredder
Gwendolyn
Round 3:
Wraith
Tere
Capone
Kaya
"Snarl!!" growls the deinonychus, as it bites at the bones
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Kaya continues moving forward up the path and slips past her allies to get into the middle of everyone. Once her light shines upon the undead she starts spouting all the information she recalls.
Shredder steps forward and rips a phalange from the corpse, gnawing on it with pleasure. Alaric presses on, hoping to help soon.
Gwendolyn casts another spell into her impatient flying companion which takes off over the trees.
A bit unclear where to hit the disembodied hand, Wraith beats all around the foe, nearly connecting a couple times. Swinging with his mace, Tere too finds the beast hard to hit.
Capone moves down the path, ready to end the undead opponents as Kaya recognizes their enemies and calls out what she knows. Her light now highlighting the region.
The skeleton with the missing finger lashes out with it's chipped blade. However the finger proves more important that initially realized and the foe nearly drops the weapon. The other skeletons push their way forward, approaching their tasty treats.
The hand thing reaches out and slashes Wraith across the chest as it wraps it's rotting fingers around the woman; her blood coating it's fetid flesh.
Round 3:
Undead
Alaric/Shredder
Gwendolyn
Round 4:
Wraith
Tere
Capone
Kaya
Shredder continues his assault, dropping his initial target with a bite, he turns to the skeleton nearby. Missing with one talon, he catches it square with the other.
Alaric, seeing his foes are within reach, draws his club and steps forward, dropping the skeleton with one solid thwack.
In an attempt to divebomb the undead below her, Hera rushes groundward. Getting caught in one of the tree branches, she fails to connect with the combatant. Gwendolyn quickly puts some distance between herself and the undead.
Wraith swings her nunchucks wildly, missing with the first pass. Building up momentum, she connects with a good *THUNK* on her second swing.
Keeping his mace out, Tere beats on the hand thing, trying to break his companion free.
Showing his symbol of the gods, a bright light radiates outward from Capone. Two of the bony beasts promptly dissolve, though the hand persists.
Take a slow breath, Kaya lines up her crossbow. Confident in her aim, she releases the bolt. Sailing through the air, he slams into the rotted flesh of the things index finger! Yellow pus oozes out of the new hole.
The remaining skeletal figure lashes out at Wraith, but the wiry woman manages to twist away. The squeezing hand holds on tight to the woman and slices her neck wide open with a nail. Though limp within its grasp the fleshing foe holds onto the ninja.
Round 4:
Undead
Alaric/Shredder
Gwendolyn
Round 5:
Wraith
Tere
Capone
Kaya
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As Medda and Anok join the group of Pathfinders around the stone circle, she assists them with the binding ritual. Medda thrusts Ivvora’s hilt into the portal, calling on Vildeis for aid. The shadow rift shrinks and closes, releasing a massive shock wave that knocks the Pathfinders, the Twinhorn warriors, and Medda to the ground. A field of dark, rippling energy remains, suspended above the stone altar. As Medda reaches out to pick up Ivvora’s hilt—the already broken blade now spider-webbed with new cracks—a supernatural silence descends. Only the telepathic rage of some unseen menace cuts through the quiet. “You dare to shut me out?” it rages. “I see you, but I do not see her. Where is the dwarf woman, Ivvora, who fought me so long ago? Has her mortal body failed at last? Has the realm of the
living at last lost its protector? Know this: when the long shadows reach out again, I will grasp them and claw my way back into your world to see your flesh devoured by my children.”
Sound returns to the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, and Medda cautiously stands. “It seems that Eshimka still lives and has even left this foul scar on our world,” she declares. “If we are to believe its promises, the fiend will attack on the next winter solstice. If we are to survive, we must be ready. Nearly a millennium ago, Ivvora held the key to defeating Eshimka. By following her legends and discovering her fate, we may harness the same holy power that banished this fiend—and together end the beast entirely.
“When we set out, it would be the privilege of this following to have the Pathfinders at our side. But that is a trial for another day. Tonight, at last, we rest.”
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Celebration and preparation have filled the last two days. The Twinhorns are both relieved to have thwarted the villain Eshimka and resolved to help the following’s spiritual leader, Medda, retrace the paladin Ivvora’s millennium-old steps. After hours of considering and retelling ancient stories preserved by oral tradition, Medda gathers the Pathfinders. “The holy warrior Ivvora came to us in pursuit of Eshimka, whom she vanquished and banished with the Twinhorns’ help. However, she would not rest for long, and she insisted on seeking out other evils in the area. At that time, the most fearsome threat was Grathatonhakis, an immense white dragon that lurked in the Tusk Mountains and would strike our camps. Ivvora learned what she could, left her dagger with us, and departed to slay the dragon. She never returned, and neither did the dragon. Exactly what transpired is unclear from our legends.” Medda cradles the fragile remnants of Ivvora’s dagger. “This blade kept Eshimka at bay for so many generations, and now it is ready to fall apart. Ivvora held the key to defeating Eshimka, and by learning her fate or communing with her spirit where she fell, we might harness the same power. Then we shall not just reseal the shadow fiend but destroy it once and for all! From our tales we have learned where the wyrm Grathatonhakis laired. Let us set out together to learn what happened—and who might have taken the caves since.”
The trek is long and cold, taking the group first across the tundra and then into shadow of the frigid Tusk Mountains. As the trail winds around a frozen lake, the snap of a snare echoes over the ice, and a Pathfinder is whipped into air by a cleverly laid trap. Medda scowls and announces, “Pathfinders, we have kobolds. Keep within earshot and spread out. They aren’t just a threat; they may also be our best better to finding the dead dragon’s lair.”
Alaric and Shredder make their way towards the grappling hand as Hera soars across the treetops and blasts the remaining skeleton to smithereens. Capone again shows his deific symbol and the blast of energy swims outward, the pooling blood around Wraith vanishes as her wounds mend.
Suddenly, a large group of Twinhorn warriors burst from the trees and plunge their weapons into the hand, ending it's unlife once and for all!
Joining Medda and Anok at the stone circle, you quickly begin to bind the rift.
The Twinhorn were kind enough to supply any that needed cold-weather outfits as you ventured out of the warmer hills. As the numerous groups of pathfinders spread out over the terrain, you hear a heated argument from up ahead.
"你關閉它。我們會讓你燉一個吃你的！砍你一點點!"
"Geturðu ekki séð? Þú verður að fara af stað. Vertu farinn að eilífu! Við getum ekki leyft þér að vera hér!"
"You shut it up. We'll turn you to stew an eat you. Chop you to itty bits!"
"Can't you see? You must leave this place. Be gone forever! We can't allow you to stay here!"
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"Ah. Of course a gnome would know Sylvan. Yeah... the other voice is a bit less... confrontational. I guess the draconic voice is more likely to become Shredder treats!" says Alaric, as he pulls his wand to cast longstrider on himself.
"Let's approach cautiously. Cast some defensive spells, maybe? Gwen, would you mind using the mage armor wand on Shredder?