|
Post by henwen88 on May 25, 2014 15:09:54 GMT
Leath raises his arms to the sky and calls down a rain of stone to bludgeon the skeletal gunmen. [Stone Call] Flann gallops up to the party, standing ready beside Leath, and awaits an opening to charge the cultist.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on May 26, 2014 1:44:24 GMT
The burst of stones cuts down three of the skeletal gunmen, but five remain. They are still fumbling with their muskets, but this may change soon. [Stone call deals 9 damage.] --- "By Herostratus, Defiler of Antioch, I leave this blood for the!" the cultist chants. A magical shield appears around him, a green sphere of energy. --- The skeletal crossbowmen advance to fill the depleted ranks of the musketeers. While the musketeers are unready for a volley, the crossbowmen are. They unleash a volley of crossbow bolts at both flanks, firing in an arc. This has the effect of preventing their fire from having more than an irritating effect on both units, however. Poor Flann, however, is grazed by a bolt. [Skeletal units merge. 1 damage to right flank, 3 to left flank unit, 1 to Flann.] --- The ogre is near death, but its rage has not dissipated. The creature attacks the regrouping right flank squad, but can do no more than swing wildly with its fists. An unlucky soldier is knocked away, but his comrades soon fill the gap. [Ogre deals 4 damage to right flank unit.] --- The right flank unit is quick to return the favor. With a wall of pikes, they surround and finish the ogre with a pike through the neck. --- "There's a wall of skeletons between us and that cultist," Erik shouts. "Turn those pikes around and bludgeon them! Wizard, spray them with fire!" The unit reverses their pikes, using the butt to bludgeon the nearest skeletons with. Ranks of men and living dead clash, as the skeletons struggle to reload. A skeleton is knocked down by a pike's buttspike, but its others quickly advance beyond range.
---
Jiao begins to channel positive energy, hoping to heal his allies and harm the skeletons. Wounds begin mending as soldiers come back with a second wind.
[Unit and player characters all heal 6 HP, skeletons damaged by 6 HP.]
Of the skeletons, a line of a dozen or so remain between the party and cultist.
---
[Next: Hans, Psychlis, Leath, cultist.]
|
|
|
Post by kooshster on May 27, 2014 16:56:21 GMT
Hans twirls his sniper rifle, reloading it with a flourish before taking aim at the cultist and his shield. "Any shield will fade with enough firepower," he mutters before taking aim and firing once more.
"Easier done than said!" Psychlis roars, turning his flamethrower onto the skeletons and opening fire.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on May 27, 2014 20:50:49 GMT
[Attack roll: 15]
Hans' shot strikes the dead center of the cultist's shield, causing it to flash. The cultist turns at Hans, glowering. "There are others than I, by the Yellow Sign they come," he chants. He starts drawing a symbol on the floor with yellow chalk.
---
The torrent of flame strikes the assembled skeletons, frying the ones in the first rank. The flame thrower's stream is hot enough to cook bone, as the assembled soldiers witness. However, due to firing with care not to hit his allies, Psychlis does not hit the rest. At least two of the skeletons stop moving, though.
[Psychlis deals 6 damage to skeletons.]
---
[Order: Leath, Cultist]
|
|
|
Post by henwen88 on May 29, 2014 2:59:15 GMT
Leath conjures up a wave of water and sends it at the cultist, hoping to knock him over and blast the chalk off the floor, interrupting the summoning he presumes the cultist is attempting.
[Cast Hydraulic Push]
(If the skeletons are close to the party, in easy melee range, Flann kicks out at them, but if they are not that close and Flann would have to run towards them, isolating himself, to kick them, he doesn't do it, and remains in a defensive position near Leath.)
|
|
|
Post by Admin on May 29, 2014 23:45:14 GMT
The spell knocks the cultist off his feet, and splashes his intricate chalk drawing. The cultist struggles to recover, but is noticeably shaken up. He barely has the strength to stand, but he starts casting another spell. ---- [Round 3 Initiative: Skeletons, Right Flank Squad, Left Flank Squad (contains PCs, but has a separate HP by itself), Jiao, Hans, Psychlis, Leath, cultist.] The skeletons unleash a volley at everyone in front of them, ignorant of their own declining numbers. Their volley strikes down the nearest rank of soldiers on the left and right flanks, and also a pony charging towards them. [Volley of fire deals 22 damage to left flank (including 3 for Jiao), 20 damage to right flank, 2 damage to Flann.] --- The right flank squad, already bloodied from the ogre, eagerly takes vengeance upon the undead missile troops. They smash and bash into the skeletons, some soldiers even striking up close with ranged weapons. The undead ranks buckle and fold, just as their comrades take note. --- "Finish them!" Erik Redsword shouts to the left flank squad. "Avenge our kin!" His soldiers descend upon the skeletons like blood thirsty barbarians, destroying all that stand in their way. The party is caught up in the mad melee, but realizes the skeletons are now finished. The last skeleton is smashed by a Varangian's axehead, leaving the path to the cultist opened.
---
Jiao fires his revolver at the cultist.
[Attack roll= 6]
His shot goes wild, and ricochets on the floorboards instead.
---
[Next: Hans, Psychlis, Leath, cultist.]
|
|
|
Post by kooshster on May 30, 2014 12:25:43 GMT
Hans takes another aim with his rifle directly at the cultist. "We've got him on his back now!"
Psychlis, knowing that the rush of his allies would get in the way of his flamethrower, shrugs it off. All he has to do is stall the cultist before he can cast his spell, giving time for the remaining soldiers and vikings to complete the kill. "Daze!" he casts, aiming it directly at the weakened cultist.
|
|
|
Post by henwen88 on May 30, 2014 21:02:24 GMT
Leath launches a round from his sling at the cultist's forehead as Flann charges in through the gap, aiming to crush the weakened cultist with his hooves.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on May 31, 2014 1:06:33 GMT
Hans' shot his squarely in the cultist's center of mass, the area just above his stomach. Or it would have, if the shield had not been in the way. The rifle round collides with the shield, and the magical shield vanishes.
[Attack roll=18, damage=4]
---
The cultist is taken back for moment, even before Psychlis' spell distracts him.
---
Leath's stone clatters amongst the carnage in the defiled cathedral, missing the cultist by a long shot. He barely notices, given how his companion is doing.
[Attack roll: 7, miss]
Flann uses the distraction, darts before the raging pack of Varangians, and kicks the cultist off his feet with both hind legs. The cultist is sent flying through the air, before crashing into a stone wall. He does not move after that.
[Attack roll: 20, crit confirmed, 8 damage dealt. Cultist killed and combat ends.]
---
Inside the once majestic cathedral is a grotesque charnel house, with corpses and mangled body parts strewn about haphazardly. There is an opening in the floor with a ladder protruding from it behind the altar, something that becomes apparent as the guards sweep the cathedral. Psychlis notices a small spellbook near the center of the floor, likely the ritual that cultist was trying to perform. Leath notices some city guards and Varangians lift up the hapless Flann and start carrying him out to the street as they cheer. Hans notices many of the gold religious symbols around the temple are strewn about and damaged, so perhaps looting some or offering to repair them (at an increased price, of course) may work.
Erik walks over to the dead cultist, and cuts off his head with an axe. "Send this to the Emperor with my regards," he says to a runner. "I think it's time we chase these Signed fools out of the city."
As the runner prepares to leave, another unit of soldiers enters: the Italian mercenaries. They stand at attention as an ornately dressed man with a cape and half-mask walks in. He has a rapier by his side and ornately carved armor. He blocks the runner's path, grabbing the head from him.
"My men have already taken the liberty of informing the Emperor we have handled the incident," he grins. "And his Varangian guard did nothing but hire some outsiders to abet his incompetence. You should would leave now, before you defile this place further."
"Burn in hell, Cesare," Erik spits back. "Your men stood by and did nothing. Now, you leave, before I take your head!"
The runner snatches the head from Cesare's grasp and runs out of the cathedral, one of the mercenaries grasping for it before Cesare orders him back in line. The runner and head leave the cathedral doors, but tension between the two is raised. The Italian mercenary leader's hands move towards his sword, but flinch.
"My men have to keep the rabble outside under control. Such a troublesome people, these Greeks," Cesare says as his men walk outside.
"Bastards," Erik spits. "Now, you've all fought well. Those who fell entered the High Hall! The outsiders fought well, but your work isn't done yet. I want you to scour this cathedral, and find out anything that can lead us to more cultists!"
|
|
|
Post by kooshster on May 31, 2014 2:32:51 GMT
Psychlis, noticing the distraction caused by the two groups, hastily hides the spellbook in the folds of his robes for inspection later.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on May 31, 2014 3:49:21 GMT
Jiao points to the ladder emerging from the hole in the following. "Hey, anyone know where this leads?"
|
|
|
Post by henwen88 on May 31, 2014 14:41:22 GMT
Leath is overwhelmed with pride and mirth at the sight of Flann, helpless, being carried aloft in celebration. Through his laughter, he thinks calming thoughts in the direction of the horse, letting him know it will be okay.
He bends over the hole from which the ladder emerges, in response to Jiao's question. "I would imagine there's some sort of crypt down there, right? Do you think that's where some of these bodies came from--unless they were all freshly killed? Perhaps the skeletons were created down there?"
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 1, 2014 1:10:05 GMT
"These bodies were killed by the cultist," Erik says. "But the skeletons could've been raised in the crypt. Set up a perimeter around it, but don't venture down/ I want the wizard to check for wards and a thorough look for traps."
|
|
|
Post by kooshster on Jun 1, 2014 12:06:35 GMT
Psychlis, having safely hidden the spellbook away, joins the rest of the group. "Shouldn't be a problem."
[perception check]
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 2, 2014 4:30:39 GMT
[Perception roll=11, Spellcraft check=18]
There is a ladder coming out of a hole, and there appears to be not traps or magic about it, save a thin aura of necromancy further down the tunnel. It seems likely that the necromancer probably had a fast way into the crypts, likely keeping his reanimation facility nearby. The destroyed holy symbols on the altar attest to the fact the cultist probably smashed them before bringing his skeletal minions up. The ogre, given its infernal appearance, was likely conjured by summoning.
"Olaf," Erik orders. "Take a squad to sweep the crypts. See if they can find any traces of intruders. If the cultist had a hidden entrance, I want to know about it."
His underling salutes and heads off.
"Could the cultist have used it as an escape route?" Jiao suggests.
"Unlikely. The Signed cultists prefer suicide attacks and murder sprees. They try to evoke copycats, and wherever they strike, they draw this yellow star," Erik says. "Anyone care to wait here and see if Olaf comes out, or would you join him? I will pay either way."
|
|