Mako extends forth his quarter staff in protection from the shadows. "The best way to get rid of shadows is with light." He utters a word in his native tongue while waving his a hand over the end of the staff. "光!" The tip of the staff lights up as bright as a torch and illuminates 20 feet around. "Be gone you!"
Seeing the very shadows come to life around him sends a chill through Loche's Pictish blood. It is one thing for a man to stand against the living, but what hope has he against the spirits of the damned? With trembling hands, he grasps for a dagger on his belt and prepares to defend himself.
Gronda does not like the looks of this situation one bit. She has heard of creatures that can exist with no soul or tangible form, but never hoped to encounter one of them, much less a bakers dozen. She looks around at the others to gauge their reactions before aiming her bow at the nearest unengaged creature (S3?) and firing off two stone tipped exploratory missiles to see if it actually does any good against such monsters.
Atilla drops his bow. The Shadows come alive! He shouts and pulls his javelin.
Save vs Magic: [1d20] = 3
Int save: [1d20] = 16 I think these 2 rolls somehow inverted themselves.
Re: Chapter 4: Verulia in Darkness
Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:54 am
by hedgeknight
Roan, Son of Rune
"What is this vile sorcery!" Roan exclaims, brandishing his torch in one hand, his spear in the other. He waves his torch and readies his spear to attack.
Hall of the Slain (13), Third Tier of the Great Pyramid
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Two. Mid-morning. 14th day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia
Surrounded by majestic, sublime imagery of the suffering and death of ancient Verulian warfare...
...the explorers of the Great Pyramid are besieged by living shadows that have impossibly emerged from off those very walls!
Uncannily reflecting the peerless depictions of strife and discord around them, a war erupts in the Hall of the Slain. At the sight of the unnatural shadow men, blood turns to ice in the adventurers' veins.
Drawing shafts to their stone arrowheads, Gronda looses two missiles into a hulking pitch shape (S3), violently piercing its penumbra flesh. Etheric black blood sprays from the twin impalements...
...and the shadow-thing dissipates into nothingness, leaving behind only the arrows which fall to the ground.
Mako, conjurer of the distant East, recites magic words and white light suddenly ignites from atop his quarterstaff.
Those sorcerous shadows within Mako's halo of luminescence grow pale, wan, but their silent onslaught does not abate.
Then, with horror, Garrin, Kiri, Loche and Mako recognize some of the spectral silhouettes, from recent memory!
Garrin's assailant (S1) wields a shadow hook and chain!
Skuth, the Brythunian deserter who was slain by Garrin.
Kiri's attacker is a broad, simian figure of terrible strength (S7).
A creature of Zargoth, bestial degenerates of Verulians, whose ranks were cut down by several of the adventurers.
A wraithlike phantom (S13) charges Loche with two short blades. The Pict thief blinks in recognition.
Shevata, the wily Zamoran rogue who was killed by Loche.
No shadows lunge at Mako, but the wizard recognizes the shape of the black apparition (S5) that descends upon Roan! In life, he called him "friend."
"Monkey," a mad, drug addled Verulian who was murdered in cold blood by Roan.
The eerily half-silent, supernatural battle between the living and the dead explodes.
Attila the Hyrkanean nomad drops his bow, pulls his javelin and drives it deep into the throat of a faceless ebon spirit (S6), feeling the resistance of flesh and spine suddenly give way as the shadow evaporates before his eyes!
Neither Loche nor Roan can sink dagger or spear into their phantom assailants (S13 and S5).
Arthfael the Cimmerian backs up in disbelief as noble Garrin's sword whispers from its sheath and he smites down the shadow-Skuth (S1), killing him a second time. The haunted silhouette fades away like vapor.
Then mighty Kiri thrusts his trident into the belly of a broad, thickly muscled shadow (S7), to the shaft! Three prongs emerge from out its back in a torrent of black blood!
It soundlessly howls in agony as it disintegrates from existence!
The remaining revenant shades of dead men work to exact a terrible revenge upon their killers. Talons, knives, swords and arrows, comprised of intangible shadow, cut like razor sharp steel!
Two ghostly archers (S8, S9) impale Gronda to the feathers with arrows of pure shadow (-10hp). The black missiles remain intact in the huntress' shoulder and thigh!
Roan the barbarian beats down a dagger thrust by a bewitched shape (S5).
A giant, dark form (S2) whirls a great shadow-sword over Garrin's head, almost taking it off.
Another monstrous, prehuman figure (S4) lopes forward, bludgeoning Kiri Khutan with an immense club (-2hp).
A cunning, nimble shadow (S13) feigns with one blade and slices Loche with another (-1hp).
A stout silhouette (S12), bowlegged like a Hyrkanean horseman, cuts Attila with a sword as curved as his beard (-2hp).
Other fearsome visions (S10, S11) maneuver into position, searching, hunting, thirsting for their chance at dark vengeance.
Actions?!
Map: PCs are the first two letters of their name, in white. Shadow specters are red S's.
Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin. Healing Mists of Osorus (All): All lost hit points are recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping for less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 hit point per hour. Duration: "months." Light (Mako): Duration: 79 rounds
Loche's eyes widen as he sees Shevata lunging at him. "You shuid hae stayed deid th' foremaist time, ye bastard!" he cries out, slipping inside the Zamoran's attack and attempting to drive his bone dagger under the spot where Shevata's ribs should be.
His face betraying no particular emotion, Kiri yanks his trident back from the first specter and, hunkering behind his shield, jabs his weapon upwards through the form of the next (S4).
Unnerved by the shadowy dead, the Vanir pokes at his foe in vain, his eyes wide with barely controlled fear. Spear attack: [1d20+1] = 2+1 = 3, [1d6+1] = 6+1 = 7
Under his breath, those closest to him can hear what sounds like a cross between a plea and a prayer. "Mitra save me! Mitra preserve me!"
Re: Chapter 4: Verulia in Darkness
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 10:36 am
by Mant72
Garrin:
"This is a place of evil where the dead do not sleep," Garrin muses while taking a slice at the nearest shadowy foe.
Hall of the Slain (13), Third Tier of the Great Pyramid
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Two. Midmorning. 14th day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia
Within an ancient Verulian chamber that honors the fallen of warfare...
...a new war takes hold.
Ghostly shadows of the dead seek to exact terrible retribution upon their killers: the explorers!
Mako's mystic illumination pales the shade spirits that stand within its white glow...
...weakening them, making them vulnerable to the adventurers' ferocious counterattack!
Gronda of Zembabwei ignores the shadow arrows that impale her flesh. Her bow fires again at insidious, spectral archers targeting her from the dim recesses of the hall. One of her missiles pierces a phantom's beating heart (S8) and he fades into the void, along with the arrow he placed in her thigh!
Attila and Mako thrust javelin and glowing quarterstaff at the ghost of a horseman (S12) and the baleful spirit of vengeance melts away!
Loche cuts out the throat of Shavata the Sly's restless spirit (S13) and the devious Zamoran's soul gushes ebon blood from its ghastly wound until it dissolves into thin air!
Roan and Garrin cannot land a blow against the eerie poltergeists. But Arthfael and Kiri drive their spear and trident into another simian silhouette (S4), reaping a gruesome harvest of black gore. The feral phantasm disintegrates upon its violent death.
Despite the decimation of their number, the umbra specters do not capitulate.
Turbaned shadow archers (S9, S10) rain black death among the adventurers, piercing Gronda and Loche with merciless barbs! (-11hp and -6hp respectively!)
Impaled four times, stalwart Gronda finally succumbs to her wounds and slumps to the cold stone floor, warming it with her spreading blood.
One towering black shape (S11) steps back from Mako's halo and gestures long-taloned fingers as if somehow weaving black sorcery wordlessly!
Arthfael feels a sharp pain in his chest, like being stabbed in the heart by an invisible dagger! (-2hp)
Wheeling like a jungle cat, Roan evades his attacker's slim blade. (S5)
Garrin's gigantic foe (S2) bounds aside from a whistling cut and slashes a great sword under Garrin's guard, trying to disembowel the paladin (-5hp).
Actions?!
Map: PCs are the first two letters of their name, in white. Shadow specters are red S's.
Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin. Healing Mists of Osorus (All): All lost HP recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 HP per hour. Duration: "months." Light (Mako): Duration: 78 rounds
Having disposed of Shevata, Loche reverses his grip on his dagger and hurls it at the nearest shadow warrior. Then he reaches down to his belt and begins to load a bullet into his sling.
While not being a thinker, Atilla would notice an advantage when the shades are within Mako's daylight spell (Perhaps all magic is not evil). His Barbarian wits would also realize that the 3 just at the edge would be the biggest threat, and retrieve his bow. Mako, take your daylight fore! And he'll let fly.
Didn't know what you'd allow me, but this are his intentions.
Re: Chapter 4: Verulia in Darkness
Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 1:18 pm
by DadsAngry
Mako:
The illumination of the Easterner's staff casting upon the shadowed figures relieves the true form of past fallen foes. The light seems to weaken them as the mage has anticipated. Mako with his staff clutched with both hands and raised above as a beacon to follow, he moves forward into the room to encompass the shadows still hiding in their silhouettes.
Mako moves to the upper left corner of the block below block 13. That should illuminate all of the shadows.
Re: Chapter 4: Verulia in Darkness
Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 1:00 am
by Mant72
Garrin winces from the shadow's strike and fails in trying to drive his blade into the specter's throat.
