The Quest of the Missing Quill

[Haahque]

In the east room things go smoothly in the combat. Ishan and Benjamin step in behind Zurgo, flinging projectiles over his broad shoulders. Benjamin raises his crossbow as he chants and lodges a bolt into the skull of one of the cultists, while Ishan tosses a grenade-like potion, which easily hits a slow moving zombie and explodes, dealing severe damage to it and killing two of the cultists who were standing too close. Meanwhile Warren stands at the back and starts a chant ending with, "I call upon the powers of Sarenrae, cleanse this foul place from the taint of Urgathoa, may it be put to better use in thy service." This seems to disrupt the cultist activity in the room, making them slower and less sure of themselves, especially the undead. This in turn, helps Zurgo as he stands in the door and parries all the blows aimed at him and attempts to get him out of their way.

Quieter Warren mentions to Ishan "Sorry, but I'm all out of holy water myself, and I don't have any more water on me that I can bless."

In the south room, things are a bit more complicated. Gaheris gives helpful advice to Kannock as he launches the arrow that slays the cultist that Humfrey Brooks had wounded. Kannock starts into a reply "Thanks, I'll remember it but I have a much more..." And then he stops as the undead slams its shield into his face, sending him staggering back. The undead then interposes its spear in between Kannock and itself, to make closing the distance again dangerous. "And I might just need to use it." Kannock surmises. Brooks shoots the other bolt from his double barreled crossbow, but for what he has in determination, he lacks in training and experience with the weapon, and the bolt clatters on the ground at the feet of the cultist he aimed at.

Jasmine hops up onto the table, her foot nearly slips on some of the research notes as she does this, but she's quick enough to steady herself without incident. Running along the table she slices into one of the cultists performing the ritual... which sure breaks his concentration, but the other two cultists continue their dark chanting as if nothing had happened. The one that she did wound starts a completely different strain of dark chanting. Soon her world goes dark and the cultist has disappeared. Then she finds a skeleton walking towards her, intent on slicing her up. Furthermore, as she's parrying the skeleton's blows, a bolt of dark energy flies from somewhere out of sight and nearly grazes her left ear.

Gaheris shoots at cultist 1 (point blank)(1d20+8): 21 vs AC, hit for (1d6+2): 7 damage. Cultist 1 is slain.
Jasmine jumps up onto the table (1d20+6): 10 vs DC 10, success.
Jasmine moves to P21 and attacks the cultist (from the high ground) (1d20+8): 24 vs AC, (1d6+1): 7 damage, cultist is critically wounded.
Ishan moves to R11 and thorws a bomb at W11 (1d20+6): 16 vs touch, hit (1d6+2) 5 fire damage and z3 makes a reflex save (1d20-2): 3 vs DC 12, failure, z3 is set on fire. Splash damage reflex saves: 16, 18, 1, 2, skeleton is hit for 0 fire damage (5 fire resist), c9 evades, c5 and c6 are hit for 3 fire damage each and are killed.
Benjamin moves to R10 and shoots at c8 (1d20+4): 18 vs AC, hit (1d4+1): 5 damage. c8 is slain.
Brooks moves up to P18 and shoots at c2 (1d20+1): 7 vs AC, miss.
Warren moves to Q11 and concencrates the room centered on V11: (20 foot radius, 10 hour duration, DC of positive energy spells +3, Undead get -1 attack rolls, damage rolls and saves, undead cannot be raised)
c2 casts cloud of darkness and casts Dark Bolt on Jasmine: 13 vs touch, miss.
z3 is on fire and takes: 4 damage
s4 attacks Jasmine: 14 vs AC, miss.
u uses shield push on Kannock: 20 vs AC, hit, 4 damage and Kannock makes a fort save: 6 vs DC 12, failure, Kannock is pused 1 square and staggered.
Enemies in east room move.
c9 puts out the fire on z3
c6 attacks Zurgo: 11 vs AC, miss.
s1 attacks Zurgo: 11 vs AC, miss.
As it is now turn 2 of the combat, everyone can act.

[keymeister16]

The explosion was the opening to his eternal dance with blades and spikes (Benjamin's surprisingly passable assistance for someone with a 'weiblich' War Voice made it quite literal). the first of the blows came, and it seemed the gods themselves directed his eye to the bomb that sailed over his head as he deflected and bullied his way past mortal death. The light of the blaze made him VERY aware of the remaining cultist standing in blades reach, and the one far in the back.

"THE BACK! KILL HIM NOW AND END THIS HEXERY!"

The axe did not slice Zurgo's intended quarry first, first Zurgo flicked his axe high up, catching his lip.

"I would feel REAL bad for you right now," he grinned, looking at the man as one might study a pig, ripe for the cleaver. Zurgo licked his lips, tasting his own blood. all the Cultist saw was the half Orc blink. Then the blood shot eyes of a demon with all the killing intent of one stared back at him. "if i didn't find this so ADDICTING! sieben Rittern von Blut und Gemetzel..."

the words he started rapidly shouting also carried this killer intent. even though he was casting, Zurgo's wild and enraged incantations seemed to physically hold back any retaliation.

"wahre Streik!"

(Zurgo rages as a free action for +4 STR, Arcane strike as a swift action, full round action spell combat, casting True strike defensively with +3 on caster check for -5 to attack roll, attacks c6, just a reminder Crowd Control (Ex) is up!)

[Vrindlevine]

Worried about Zurgo's rage removing any chance of prisoners Ishan grunts and hopes he can remove at least one of the cultists from the furious orcs bloodlust in some way.

Ishan shrugs, "Every time I have to work with someone......" And downs his dose of swallow he grunts as it works its way through his bloodstream speeding his natural healing, risking a glance back he can't see much of Gaheris' group as he turns back around he looks at the farmer, "Hey at least if you die I'll get that piece of cow." Readying his bow he prepares to shoot the closest cultist in the knee.

(Aimed shot at c6's knee)

[Just_Ice]

The bard allowed himself a slight celebration at his kill- there wasn't much in the room his pea-shooter would work on.

Realizing that Zurgo's rage and strange dialect were singing their own song of destruction, Benjamin looked to the other passage- sounds of fighting came from there, but no enemies were in his sight and their allies seemed to have things in hand for now. He'd save the holy water in case something went wrong, instead gesturing at the closest cultist to close off avenues of escape from Ishan's bow.

"If you ever get tired of being stabbed at," he directed towards their vanguard, "I might have a different sort of tune to clear the air- and one you won't want to be in the way of."

[stay put, aid another on Ishan, maintain song.]

[JadedDM]

"Damn darkness," Gaheris grumbles. "Learn some new tricks already!" He looks to the farmer. "Back up Jasmine, I'll help the dwarf here." Taking hold of the bottle of holy water in his pack, he chucks it at the undead warrior. "Catch!"

[HorizonsDream]

Despite the darkness, Jasmine focuses her attention on the skeleton. "Stop the other cultists!" Jasmine calls out to the others, as she was kind of busy at the moment.

[Haahque]

Zurgo would have had a significant impression on his enemies by his performance, if any of them were alive. But as it was, there were only two living opponents facing him, one of them took an arrow to the knee and fell unconscious before Zurgo fully went berserk, while the other didn't live long enough after it happened to so much and puzzle out "that orc knows magic?" Benjamin and Ishan can at least rest easy knowing that the cultist Ishan shot is merely unconscious, not killed. They will have at least one prisoner when this is over, if they win.

One of the zombies makes his say to the opposite effect, lunging into Zurgo with surprising speed and catching him off guard. The blow is vicious and he feels a little bit of zombie tooth tearing flesh while it's on its way back out.

"Actually, I can get you some holy water." Warren declares, holding some flasks overflowing with water. "Just give me a little time to bless it properly."

Meanwhile in the other room Jasmine is doing pretty well considering her hindered sight. With one sword she deflects the skeleton's next swing and with her other sword, she breaks it apart into little pieces. From their past experience, the necromancers aren't powerful enough to bring skeletons back after they've destroyed them, so that's one less enemy to deal with.

But the other undead creature seems to be refusing to die, even to holy water. The shower that Gaheris and Kannock give it appear to annoy it significantly, but it presses on as if nothing had happened. Sure, undead are known for doing that, but it didn't even have an arm fall off or anything. Instead it stabs Kanock with its spear, a minor wound but these wounds add up quickly. "I was expecting that to work a bit better." Kannock admits, "Perhaps I need to call upon a greater power to smite it."

Zurgo enters a controlled rage and uses arcane strike.
Zurgo uses spell combat with -3 attack to cast true strike (1d20+8): 18 vs DC 12, success. And then he attacks c6 (1d20+23): 27 vs AC, hit, (1d12+8) 9 damage. c6 is slain.
Benjamin maintains his song as he aids Ishan shoot c9's knee (called shot)(1d20+5): 14 vs AC, hit, (1d6+1 non-lethal) 6 non lethal damage, c9 is knocked out.
Gaheris throws holy water at undead (1d20+5): 23 vs touch, hit, (2d4+1) 2 damage (After 0% + 4 damage reduction).
Jasmine makes a full attack against s4 (high ground) (2 attacks 1d20+8): 18 and 24 vs AC, both hit, (1d6+1 each) 0 and 2 damage (5 slashing resist), s4 is destroyed.
Kanock throws holy water at undead (1d20+3): 20 vs touch, hit, (2d4+1) 0 damage (after 0% + 4 damage reduction).
Brooks reloads his crossbow.
Warren casts create water.
c2 re-casts darkness and shoots a dark bolt at Jasmine: 3 vs touch, miss.
u attacks Kanock: 22 vs AC, hit for 3 damage.
Enemies in east room move.
s1 and s3 attack Zurgo: 14, 2 vs AC, both miss.
z1 attacks Zurgo: 15 vs AC, hit, 9 damage.

[Just_Ice]

Noting that even Zurgo's axe is poorly suited to fighting a skeletal foe, Ben looks around for debris- ideally a solid piece of wood- for use instead. He does not intend to use his lute.

[maintain song, perception to find club or pole and if so, make it available for Zurgo (or Ishan in the latter case) to grab and use.]

[JadedDM]

Gaheris frowns. "I guess you get what you pay for," he remarks, referring to the faulty holy water. Having no idea what the dwarf is talking about, as he had no idea he was a paladin, Gaheris shrugs and says, "If you think that will help!"

He then fires an arrow at the undead at point-blank range, hoping that will be more effective, since the holy water wasn't.

[keymeister16]

The bite did not make him feel pain, it told him who was up next for post-mortem correction. He ripped his axe out with such vigor that his next swing wound up hitting the rotting flesh bag board-side, runes still flaring despite the drop in efficiency.

(arcane strike, attack z1 with axe as improvised club, healing would be nice plz!)

[HorizonsDream]

Jasmine heads in the direction of the ritual area, remembering that she saw a cult member in front of her. ~He still has to be there,~ She thinks to herself as she plunges further into the darkness with her swords swinging.

[Vrindlevine]

Ishan tries to formulate a better plan. It's well known that when a battle is almost won is when everything can fall apart he yells to Zurgo, "Move somewhere so I can get beside you, use your orcish brawn or something!" Thinking on the bards words he hopes he can take advantage of multiple opportunities

Ishan readies his spear handle first and prepares to duck If the minstrel/percussionist fires off a spell. Preferably after hitting a skeleton.

(Move and a attack a skeleton if zurgo lets me. Ready action to prone if Benji casts something.)

[Haahque]

Benjamin and Ishan come up against a problem, they use a crossbow and a bow, which are great weapons against most targets they come across, but aren't all that much use against either the skeletons or the zombies that they've been matched up fighting against. Furthermore, Ishan is out of bombs and wasn't there when the holy water was being handed out. With Zurgo effectively blocking the door, they search around for new weapons that would be useful in this situation. Benjamin finds a long piece of solid looking wood falling off of the staircase, with a swift kick he's able dislodge it. With a little bit of imagination it should be effective as a long reaching weapon that should be effective against skeletons. This, he passes to Ishan just after Warren finishes blessing some new water and handing that over to Ishan as well.

Zurgo is being a very effective obstacle in the undead's way. He improvises using the flat of his axe to work like a thin mettle maul, but in his experimentation he hits a zombie with it this way and discovers that the flat of the blade on manages to spread out the shock of the blow, so that the tough zombie skin can distribute the damage evenly and come away from the awesome blow almost unscathed. Perhaps if he were to slice the zombie it would be more effective. However, while he's still thinking of using the like a maul, one of the skeletons stumbles on its way to attack him, falling into the wall. Zurgo wastes no time in bringing the axe down on it with this oppertunity and smashes that skeleton to dust. Unfortunately, this just made room for another zombie to fill in its place.
Behind the front line of undead, one of the skeletons seems to be getting an idea. It cuts off the head of one of the dead cultists and lifts it up like a projectile. Since when were skeletons allowed to do that?

Warren, however has a plan. "If you guys can get me into the room somehow, I might be able to wipe out most of those undead in a burst of holy energy. If you guys happen to be in the room as well, all the better, it should heal the living. I however, only have enough power to do it once before I take the time to rest and pray, so I want to be ideally situated in the center of the room for maximum effect. Do you think you can get me in there somehow?"

Down in the south room Kanock and Gaheris continue trying to destroy this one very resilient undead. Gaheris launches an arrow at it, which hits something he thought was vital in the undead, but it just bounces off its skin as if nothing had happened. Kanock calles upon The Stone to lend him strength to destroy this abomination, making his weapon gleam as it streaks towards the undead, which the undead blocks with its heavy shield before the blow gathers very much strength. "Blasted thing. Don't worry though Gaheris, this thing is mine, it can't withstand my axe now. You go help Jasmine."

Jasmine finds the edge of the table that she was walking along, and hops down to the ground, which thankfully goes well, even though its too dark to see the ground properly. She however, is coming out of the cloud at this point, and finds another cultist intoning the ritual. A swift sword stroke ends his incantations and he turns to her with a poisoned dagger, swinging furiously but carelessly. Jasmine is easily able to avoid his dagger, for now. She does notice two other things, first of all, Humfrey Brooks has come around this side of the table and is laying down cover fire for her, and secondly the runes on the ground (which she can now see part of them again) are glowing brightly, this, along with the raising voice of the one remaining cultist who is chanting the ritual, suggests that whatever evil plot they're hatching is comeing to fruition soon.

Benjamin maintains his song and searches the hallway for potential weapons (1d20+5): 16, he finds a long plank that can be used as an improvised longspear (except dealing bludgeoning damage)
Gaheris shoots an arrow at u (1d20+8): 22 vs AC, hit for (1d6+1) 0 damage (after 50% + 4 physical damage reduction).
Zurgo attacks z1 using his axe as an improvised club (1d20 + 2): 10 vs AC, hit for (1d6+8) 3 damage (after 10 blugdeoning resist).
Jasmine moves to P23, off the edge of the table in the dark (acrobatics): 14, pass, she gets to the ground safely.
Jasmine finds c3 and attacks him (1d20+8): 23 vs AC, hit for (1d6+1) 5 damage. C3 is heavily wounded.
Warren does creates a vial of holy water and hands it to Ishan.
Ishan recieves improvised pole weapon, a vial of holy water and forumaltes a plan!
Brooks moves to O22 and shoots at c3 (1d20+1): 6 vs AC, miss.
Kanock shifts to R16, declares smite evil on undead and attacks undead (1d20+5): 12 vs AC, miss.
s1 and s3 attack Zurgo: 3 and natural 1 vs AC, miss. One skeleton stumbles into the wall provoking an AoO from Zurgo: (1d20+2) 18 vs AC, hit, (1d6+8) 10 damage. s3 is destroyed
z1 attacks Zurgo: 12 vs AC, miss.
s2 walks over to a body and aquires a projectile weapon!
c2 recasts darkness and casts Dark bolt at Jasmine: 8 vs Touch, miss.
c3 attempts to stab Jasmine: 6 vs AC, miss.
u attempts to shield push Kanock: 12 vs AC, miss.

Well this turn was pretty slow, mostly due to a ton of low rolls, especially on the bad guy's side, but next turn I expect some more decisive action, or else bad stuff might start to happen

[keymeister16]

Zurgo must have heard Warren's plan, because his next step was out of the doorway straight into the culled legion, it seemed to give him time to adjust his axe as he brought it down swing after furious swing, blade trying to find purchase in the any of rotting skin that enclosed him.

(arcane strike as swift, attack Z1 (blade this time) and move to V11 if he's dead, i'll eat the AoOs)

[HorizonsDream]

"Finish him off," Jasmine calls out to Brooks, as she goes in search of the other cultist that is chanting. She has to rely on her hearing, but once she figures she is close enough she attacks.