The Necromancer's Pact IX: City of Weeping Ghosts

[Koji]

Khazrael

By flapping his little wings much harder than he needs to, Khazrael makes his irritation at the change in the situation known. To his servant, he shouts, "Stick close, but stay out of sight! I'm fairly certain we're going to have to do something stupid to get out of this!"

He waves his tiny clawed hands and a translucent disc of force shudders into view before fading away again.

((OOC: Casting shield. Zeodoras should go invisible.))

[blackfox]

Anika

Anika rushes back to the group, drawing her sword as she goes. "There's three undead coming down the stairs, and they look pretty strong. One looks human, the other two looks like some sort of demon zombie golems... Should we try to hold them off?"

[Koji]

Khazrael

Khazrael's eyes--still an unnerving blue-white--lock on to Anika. His lips peel back in a vicious grin, and a sadistic little snicker escapes between words.

"No, silly, we're going to kill them!"

[Dr._Bob]

Tiriel looks back at her beleaguered companions. "Why isn't someone else flying over?" she wonders.

Suddenly remembering, Anika pulls the silver dragonfly ring off of her finger and hands it back to Tiriel. "I was the last to use the ring!" she reminds her friend.

...

For a moment Grynde is visible. The half-elf for all of his bluster is impressive in combat. Fury in motion, his twin swords tear into the zombies, destroying at least five before he disappears from view.

Elthan falls back before a wall of more zombies. Glints of light flash off of his spear as he thrusts and chops. Just when it looks like he is going to be overwhelmed, he leaps into the air, dark wings lifting him aloft. He soars over the zombies' grasping claws and lands beside Tiriel. The shadowy bat-wings collapse suddenly, forming a simple black cloak.

He is surprised to see everyone's attention focused away from the cistern. It takes him only a second to realize that an even greater threat is approaching from the dark passageway ahead.

...

The trio take their time, striding confidently down the passageway. Tiriel steps forward, sheathing her flaming sword with her off hand and drawing the silvered blade with the other. Khazrael and Anika stand to either side, slightly behind her. Fizahn, Damian and Tryntha form a second row behind them. Elthan stands to the rear, closest to the cistern.

The three undead do not hesitate, though the undead human smiles looking directly at Khazrael. "Haven't we met before?" His sharp fangs glitter in the torchlight as the three undead break into a charge.


OOC: The vampire spawn is in the center and the two undead demons flank him to his right and left. At the end of their move they are 30 feet away from your front line.

[Diarmuid]

Tryntha

Initiative - (1d20)[4]

Making sure to stand behind the more battle skilled of the group on the other side of the cistern, Tryntha decides that with their forces split, it might be prudent to use one of the magic she had been saving for their meeting with this "Valentine".

"By the light of the heavens, I release your spirit to freedom"

Weaving her hands through arcane gestures and speaking words of power, she unleashes a beam of light energy at what she perceived as a Vampire in front of her.

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Cast Searing Light at the Vampire Spawn.
If she is threatened she will take a 5' step back before casting, or cast on the defensive if a 5' step is not possible.
Concentration DC 18 - (1d20+9)[25]

Ranged Touch - (1d20+5)[16]
Spell Damage - (7d6)[26] (normal undead damage)
Spell Damage - (7d8)[20] (undead especially susceptible bright light)

[Matticus]

Grynde

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An all-roll post. How wonderful.
I'd say another five rounds of attacks should fit the bill. If he finishes five more, he'll aid Callos.
Attacks
16, 13, 23, 7 | 14, 19, 22, 6 | 20, 10, 11, 10 | 19, 16, 7, 15 | 25, 10, 18, 14
Nine primary hand hits, five off-hand hits.
Woo, fourteen damage rolls...
Damage is... 9d6+27 and 5d6+10. My calculations state that I need 80 damage in total to fufill my quota of zombies. Here goes: 80 damage exactly! Whoop! Who killed his zombies in ten rounds? Grynde killed his zombies in ten rounds! Wooo!

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan

Stepping forward to get a good view of the undead, Elthan clears his mind of events in the cistern behind him as he casts to dominate the undead demon infront of Khazrael, calling out once he finishes. "Attack the Vampire Spawn!"

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Initiative - (1d20)[16]

Casting Command Undead, DC 17 will to resist if they're intelligent. Next round, casting Command Undead on the other as well, same command.

[Naleh]

Retay

The Wyrmslayer hacked and slashed at the zombies. His face was cloaked in fury and some of his swipes went wide, but this time the berserker maintained control of himself. For more than a minute, he cut his way through the zombie ranks, until he could get close to Elthan. He is weak. He has lived an outcast. I will not leave him to Fate.

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This is going to be fun.
Rolls here and then here. I don't think I like IC's new layout.

Working my way around...
r1: 10dmg, 12dmg. z1=-6hp.
r2: 9dmg, miss. z2=7hp.
r3: 12dmg, 10dmg. z2=-5hp. z3=6hp.
r4: 6dmg, 8dmg. z3=0hp. z4=8hp.
r5: 10dmg, 13dmg. z4=-2hp. z5=3hp.
r6: 5dmg, 9dmg. z5=-2hp. z6=7hp.
r7: 6dmg, 7dmg. z6=-6hp.
r8: 6dmg, miss. z7=10hp.
r9: 11dmg, miss. z7=-1hp.
r10: 5dmg, 8dmg. z8=3hp.
r11: 14dmg, 14dmg. z8=-11hp. z9=2hp.
r12: 10dmg, miss. z9=-8hp.
r13: 13dmg, 12dmg. z10=-9hp.

Thirteen rounds to kill ten zombies, and that's without applying any strategy to which zombie was hit when. After this, he'll assist Elthan (because he's squishy, and Retay doesn't like Callos).

Obviously, that's before Elthan flies away. When he does, Retay will help anyone who's still in difficulty, although after all that time the zombies are probably gone.

(I'll wait until the rest of the combats are resolved before reacting to the vampire spawn and undead demons, because it would throw in even more complication to have him walking to the other side while the others are still cornered.)

[Koji]

Khazrael

The little quasit laughs at the vampire spawn.

"I'm surprised you recognize me. I probably won't know you the next time I see you, when you're nothing more than a slug being used as currency in the abyss."

His tiny claws trace the pattern for the lightning bolt spell, and he launches a lurid purple blast of energy at the man.

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Lightning bolt, Reflex dc 16 for half. Damage:
7d6=25

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Bugger. I screwed up big time. Fizahn draws his short sword and slips quietly into the shadows. I don't suppose they'll have any organs I could target. This is horrible. Muscles tensed, he peers into the darkness waiting for the other undead to appear.

Hide: - (1d20+14)[23]

[namo]

Adalmar

There is not enough time - he can see the sea of unholy creature surging towards them. Just in time, he shoulders his bow again and draws his sword. From then on, he's hacking and slashing left and right, trying to keep an eye out for any friend in mortal danger. He slowly closes in on Callos to help the frail man survive the onslaught.
The power of the ring is helping him a lot, though he is not conscious of it at the time.

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His AC is 22 - but DR seemed to say it wouldn't matter much ? Otherwise Adalmar may fight defensively.
Link to the rolls...

(Haste gives +1 to attack and an extra attack)
1- 17 dmg (1 killed)
2- 13 dmg
3- 3 dmg (2) + 17 (3)
4- 17 dmg (4)
5- 16 dmg (5) + 3 dmg
6- 14 dmg (6) + 3 dmg
7- 13 dmg (7)
8- 15 dmg
9- 8 dmg (8) + 15 dmg
10- 4 dmg (9) + 10 dmg
11- 6 dmg (10) + 8 dmg [starts helping Callos]
12- 8 dmg (11) + 7 dmg
13- 13 dmg (12)
14- 25 dmg (13)
Wow, that took some time...

edit: if I do like Matticus and group the damage together he probably kills them a bit faster than indicated

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Tiriel puts herself in front of her friends realizing that she's the only one qualified to take the front line. Okay think, we have Gala, Retay, Grynde, Callos and Adalmar still in the pit... Hopefully they can make it over here. Until then, it's me, Anika, Fizahn, Damian, Tryntha, Khazreal and...Elthan. Okay great. That means I get to tear into which ever one makes the first move while the rest of them do whatever it is they plan to do. Wonderful.

Tiriel takes a 5' move forward (if possible) and then waits for one of the three undead to move into fighting range. If they do, she'll attack the first one with the rolls below:
1d20+11, 1d8+6= Attack =[20+11] = 31, damage =[2+6] = 8

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

"Fizahn, you better pray I don't make it out of this!" It was the only thing Callos could think to snarl out as the zombies clambered up over each other and one by one isolated each person in a sea of horribly dead and decaying bodies. He couldn't help it though, he started to shake with fear and rage. It was exactly how the necromancer's nightmares had been, surrounded by the undead who reached for him with a dread and unholy drive and hunger.

Frantically pushing and throwing himself away from one set of grasping hands and mouths to another for his efforts, more and more of a crazed look came into Callos's eyes. Trying to find footing and time to fend off his assailants was proving far more difficult then he had imagined and soon he just didn't care. The filthy claws and teeth would find him anyway, better to ensure their destruction even if it cost him some flesh and blood. Jockeying for just the right angle the human spat out of the sizzling words of arcane power that he had used so many times and put his thumbs together. Temples throbbing from the level of sheer stress that had him quivering like a leaf in the wind, it found an outlet through the spell. Cleansing arcane fire spat from finger tips to wash over the zombies, incinerating flesh and bone with equal vigor, not that it'd be enough. Even though it was effective Callos could hear a snide little voice in the back of his head clinically telling him which ones hadn't been damaged just enough to stay and pointing out he probably didn't have much time.

Terror was beginning to wash away the fear and it was his own self-disgust that propelled Callos to speak the words again, snapping out the words as if on reflex as he tried to stumble away from the zombies. Vision tinging read as he kept his fingers together, clamping down on his anxiety and using it as fuel. Again the flames leaped from his fingertips, not as bright as before and tinged with gray and black. Similar to the black lightening bolt that some had viewed before and by the time the flames had ended, Callos was panting hard and peering at his opponents hard to see how many was left.

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...Well I figure it's impossible to fit ALL ten zombies into a nice cone in a single 5-foot adjustment/move action so I put the next round of actions in here as well.

1st round: Move to get as many zombies in the cone as possible, then burning hands.

Damage: (5d4)[13]

2nd round: Again with the trying to get as many zombies as possible in a cone shape then burning hands once more.

Damage: (5d4)[15]

Ref: 13 for half

[barawn]

Damian

When the new creatures come into range, Damian immediately glances around at the others around him, and immediately slips beside Tiriel, quickly handing her something.

"Tiriel. Use this. Don't ask me where I got it. Argue with me later. Right now we just need to survive. It's ixen, if you didn't remember."

With that, he steps back, readying the use of his meager wand. Best I can do under the circumstances, I guess.

[Aveda]

Gala

Surrounded by zombies on all sides, Gala has no time to think. Her sword slashes through any zombie flesh she sees. I can't die like this...there's so much more to do down here than die at the hands of some underling zombies. Her sword hums as arcs of electricity pulse down the blade, and the bodies of zombies pile up in a circle around her. As soon as she finishes the ones in her immediate vicinity, she continues her attack on the nearest zombie mob.
(ooc: I'd like it if Aeroz doesn't die, but it's more important to help the others first. Who needs help? Callos?)

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I just decided to go ahead and do rolls for 10 rounds...and, uh, I think I did it right...let me know if anything's off, I'm still not 100% sure of what I'm doing sometimes.

Attack rolls here (Oh yeah, made all of them!)
And now, damages:
Oh, crap! I just saw the dr5/slashing. I just had to recompute all of these. Since I sorta forgot the whole having a mace thing I'll assume Gala did too. And here I was thinking I was kicking some serious zombie butt.
Round 1: (2+6)8, (3+4)7
Round 2: (10+5)15, (6+5)11 (1 Zombie down)
Round 3: (5+3)8, (2+3)5 (2 Zombies down)
Round 4: (7+5)12, (8+4)12 (3 Zombies down)
Round 5: (6+2)8, (1+1)2 (4 Zombies down)
Round 6: (6+3)9, (1+3)4 (4 Zombies down)
Round 7: (2+1)3, (7+6)13 (5 Zombies down)
Round 8: (8+4)12, (8+5)13 (6 Zombies down!)
Round 9: (7+6)13, (9+4)13 (7 Zombies down)
Round 10: (5+5)10, (4+2)6 (8 Zombies down)
Um...guess I'll need 5 more rounds:
Attack, Damage:
Round 11: (8+4)12, (3+6)9 (9 Zombies down)
Round 12: (9+1)10, (8+2)10 (10 Zombies down)
Round 13: (9+1)10, (5+5)10 (So many 10s! 11 Zombies down)
Round 14: (10+1)11, (9+3)12 (12 Zombies down)
Round 15: (4+6)10, (10+1)11 (13 Zombies down!)

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Tiriel is surprised when Damian hands the cloisonné ring to her. She is happy that the ring had never been "lost" but also a bit disappointed that it had been Damian who had taken the ring from Grynde after he had denied doing so.
"Whatever. We have more important things to do." She tells Damian as she slips the ring onto her free hand.

"Ixen." she whispers, activating the ring.

ooc: I suppose Tiriel does this instead of holding her readied attack
Tiriel's stats with the Holy Aura bonuses = AC: 25/ Saves: Fort-11, Ref-8, Will-6 / Spell resistanc: 15 normal, 25 against evil

[blackfox]

Anika

Anika scowls. It's the same ones as before. I should have known.

She slips into the shadows, figuring that if the undead can't see her, then they can't hurt her, even though they don't have any painful vital parts to stab.

(OOC: Anika will move around to flank the vampire spawn and attack.
Attack Roll (1d20+8=18)
Damage (1d6+3=4) )

[Dr._Bob]

On the far side of the cistern ...

As Elthan rises from his crouch, his wings transforming into his cloak of the bat, he assesses the situation instantly and immediately reaches out through the shadow weave to wrest control of one of the undead babau from the vampire spawn.

Before he can force the demon-zombie to attack, however, Tryntha cries out in her native tongue, striking the vampire spawn with a beam of blindingly bright pure-white light.

The vampire spawn is as surprised as everyone else when he is almost instantly incinerated, his body collapses to the floor in a cloud of ash.

Elthan's demon-zombie shudders, the half-elf's geas now broken. It and its companion do not react to their master's destruction, continuing their charge.

Khazrael shifts his aim and blasts the closer demon-zombie with his usual lightning bolt. Tiriel slams into the same demon, slashing it with her silvered sword, knocking it backward.

Fizahn and Anika disappear into the shadows. The shadowdancer re-emerges from the shadows behind the other demon-zombie, stabbing it in the back. Spinning with surprising speed, the undead babau slashes Anika, opening up a jagged wound across her upraised forearm.

Before Tiriel can press forward, Damian slips a ring into her hand and whispers in her ear ...


On the near side of the cistern ...

Gala and Retay fight themselves free of the zombie mob, then help Grynde finish off the last few zombies surrounding him. Adalmar fights with unnatural speed, slashing the slow zombies into pieces before they can lay a hand on him. Callos is already safe, surrounded by charred zombie fragments.

Grynde and Gala bleed from random superficial lacerations. Retay and Adalmar have emerged from the melee completely unscathed - the barbarian protected by ironskin, the ranger simply too fast for the zombies to touch ...

Around the four of them are more than 50 destroyed zombies. The other zombies seem to have vanished ... and with them, Aeroz.

Looking around desperately for their elf companion, their eyes fall on the combat across the, now cleared, cistern. Half-blinded by the glare of Tryntha's searing light, they blink away the afterimage of the vampire spawn's obliteration just in time to see Tiriel suddenly wreathed by a holy aura.

Grynde's eyes narrow as he recognizes the ring's effect ...



OOC: The vampire spawn is utterly destroyed. One babau-zombie takes 33 damage from Tiriel and Khazrael. The other takes no damage from Anika. Anika takes 7 damage.

Grynde takes longer than 10 rounds to destroy his zombies. Grynde takes 12 damage. Gala takes 10 damage. It will take a full round to get across the cistern to join the others.

[Koji]

Khazrael

Khazrael shrieks and recoils from the nimbus of light surrounding Tiriel. He flutters backward rapidly and looks behind him to see if the others are coming.

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

(ooc: If she can take an action this round, it'll be to attack the same babau-zombie, if not, she does what I posted prior, mainly, puts on the "ixen" ring and activates it.)

attack & damage rolls.
attack:(1d20+11)=[17, 11]= 28, damage: (1d8+6)=[7, 6])= 15

[Naleh]

Retay

"AEROZ!" bellows the zombie-splattered barbarian. No, no, no! I was using his ring!

Suddenly the cavern is illuminated and his eyes fall on the new combat. Shielding his eyes from the various pyrotechnics, and desperately hoping that the elf made his way across on his own, Retay hefts his axe and charges across the cistern.

[namo]

Adalmar

Pausing to wipe the sweat off his brow, Adalmar makes a quick tally of the group... and realizes Aeroz is gone. In sync with Retay, he shouts out : "Aeroz !", but he actually stops to try and perceive an answer.

If he can't hear anything, he will shake his head and rush forward to avoid thinking about the loss ; if he does hear a reply, he will ask Gala and Grynde to follow after him in that direction.

Spoiler

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Listen - (1d20+15)[24] as a standard action, move 60' towards the other fight or towards Aeroz.

[blackfox]

Anika

Anika gasps and attacks the demon-zombie again.

(OOC: Attack Roll (1d20+8=12)
That probably doesn't even hit... *sigh*
Damage (1d6+3=7))

[Aveda]

Gala

Still breathing heavily from killing the zombies, Gala doesn't notice Aeroz's disappearance until both Retay and Adalmar shout his name aloud. "Aeroz is gone? No..." Frantically, Gala looks for a place where the zombies could have spirited him away.

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Spot Check 1d20-1=9

If she sees anything likely, Gala will inform the others before heading in that direction. If both she and Adalmar find nothing, her countenance hardens and she moves towards the rest of the party at the other end of the cistern.

[Dr._Bob]

Ablaze with white light, Tiriel looks for all the world like an angel of vengeance as her silver sword bites deeply into the babau's neck. The babau's flailing claws flash into blue flame as Tiriel's holy aura protects her. Even undead, the babau grimaces in pain.

Anika is struggling, however, as she battles the other babau. Her sword has trouble piercing the demon's tough hide. She barely manages to avoid its counterattack, twisting out of the way at the last possible second taking advantage of her ring-augmented agility.

...

Gala and Adalmar look about desperately for Aeroz. Presumably the zombies dragged him away down the passage back the way you had come. They hesitate before reluctantly following Retay towards the rest of the party.

[barawn]

Damian

With a dive and roll, Damian slips over to flank the babau which Anika is fighting. Having the nasty feeling that his dagger would be just as ineffective as Anika's, he mutters a command word in Draconic and unleashes a blast of magic at the demonic undead.

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(I'm assuming Damian drew the wand and a dagger in the previous round). Tumble past the babau to flank it, and then use the wand of Disrupt Undead on it. Here goes the roll-o-rama.

Tumble (1d20+13)=20
Use Magic Device (1d20+13)=21
Ranged Touch Attack (1d20+8)=27
Damage (1d6)=5

(Damian doesn't get the flanking bonus - like he'd need it - because it's not melee, but he is still flanking the babau for Anika's purpose if he's successful in positioning himself there, since he is still threatening it with the dagger.)

Looking across the babau at Anika, he grins. "Well, we can't do much to it, but we'll keep it busy for a while, that's for sure!" Zombies. I hate zombies.

[blackfox]

Anika

Anika doesn't respond to Damian; she only grits her teeth and attacks the babau again.

(OOC: Attack Roll (1d20+10=27)
Damage (1d6+3=4))

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan

Slightly stunned, Elthan stands and watches for a moment as his companions battle the two undead demons. His eyes narrowed on Tryntha. While all events of her casting were easily understood, understanding did not take away from the spells impressiveness. It is not often one witnesses a creatures disintegration.

That woman.... If she does that again, our fight with Valentine will be short indeed!

The sorcerer glances down at his own palms in quick ponderance and realizes that despite being a necromancer, he was only mildly useful in dealing with undead. He looks back up and makes the motions for one of his spells, still mulling in thought.

When, or perhaps even before this is done, I believe it will be time for a direct change in my study.

Spoiler

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Casting Slow on the two undead babaus, DC 17 Will to negate, lasts six rounds

[Diarmuid]

Tryntha

Heady with the rush as she often gets when channeling her powers, Tryntha offers up a thanks to the spirits once again.

The success of her spell against what she assumed was a full blown Vampire sparked her hope that this group would be able to succeed in its task. Upon hearing the shouts from the cistern, she quickly sees the zombies have cleared out and Aeroz is indeed missing.

Unsure where her abilities would best be suited at this time, she holds onto her action to see if anyone gets seriously injured fighting the last undead-demon thing.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Damn. Fizahn dives out of the shadows to help Anika. Can't think about my stupidity. Gotta act. His dagger quickly slices at the babau. "I'm here Anika. Not much help, I know, but I'm here."

OOC: My internet enjoys randomly crapping out on me. It's not cool.
Fizahn is going to try to flank the babau with Anika unless Damian gets there first, in which case he will not be flanking. I have not added the flanking bonus to his attack.
Attack: - (1d20+10)[28]
Damage: - (1d4+3)[4]