Crimson Sands of Time

Quote from PyromaniIsDeadThankGod >>

"For crying out loud can we get a break...?!"

 <You got a long rest, remember?>

Baseball one narrowly misses the nearer wraith, the second finds it's mark and the third strikes the farther wraith.

Picollo's daggers quickly follow Ethan's baseball, plunging into the Wraith's chest. 

The wraith speaks in a haunting ancient language. The Netherese you have learned living in the ancient flying city is enough to decipher some of it.  The yellowing words seem to emanate from the walls of the chamber rather than the focus of undead energy. "I command ... brave warriors ... defend ... honor... death.. eternity!"

Around the wraith the whisps of shadow that comptise the shade coalesce into 5 more entities.  The vague shapes snap into sharp relief and the four warrior Wraiths ready their weapons as they follow their commander, now clearly defined in his ancient battle regalia, into the breach.

The commander charges at the intruders...

The commander fires an arrow at Ethan, then charges toward the chamber entrance.

24 for 5 piercing and 9 necrotic damage.

The warriors rush up to Ethan and then retreat ten feet, leaving room fkr the next attacker and encircling him.

They seem to ignore both Randy who has not attacjed them and Picollo (who appears to be a young girl, though she did throw daggers into their commanders chest)

1 16+6 for 9 slashing 20+6 for 9 slashing.

2 20+6 for 9 slashing 16+6 for 9 slashing.

3 20+6 for 9 slashing 11+6 for 9 slashing.

4 19+6 for 9 slashing 12+6 for 9 slashing.

5 20+6 for 9 slashing 18+6 for 9 slashing.

*Any of the grunts taking 2 swings lose their defensive advantage, giving attacks against them AD.

(Sorry I typed those to hits weird, the +6 should be inside the brackets, added to the roll)

2 critical hits, add: 4 and 10 slashing

<Ethan can get an aoo on any if thise guys, btw>

The wraith in the distance floats quickly to the front line, phasing through one of the warriors to appear before tje trio of adventurers, not busy looting a corpse in the next room, casts lightning bolt at Ethan and Picollo, wailing as the arcane energy that duels his undead existence sinks into the fountain of electricity cascading from his ephemeral fingertips.

DC15 Dex save for ½ of 19 lightning damage 

21 Trisk ✅️▶️

20 Randy✅️▶️

19 Ethan✅️▶️

17 Picollo ✅️▶️

16 Wraiths ✅️⏸️

14 Tetrevess✅️⏸️

Randy, Picollo,Trisk and Ethan are up.

Let me know if Ethan died before the lightning, though, because that would call for a retcon. I really don't track PC health. I tried for a second, but it's too much effort. 

Piccolo raises her tiny instrument (think an Obi-wan absorbing the lighting from Dooko.), and casts counterspell, negating the lightning bolt.( Reaction) Then she winks at Ethan (how damaged is Ethan?, is everyone in ok shape?)

It doesn't work. Counterspell fails.

Piccolo dex save: 15: (Trisk takes 3 damage. )

(Ethan's DEX: 16)

Barely hanging on (32/143hp left), Ethan manages to block all except the commander's arrow, the lightning and the nat 20 hits with his Shield, but he coughs up blood in the process despite his lack of fear in his face. Closing his eyes for moment, his bat suddenly glows a darker shade of blue; When he opens his aggressive eyes, his pupils have disappeared as the same menacing glow like his bat as he prepares to retaliate tenfold on the ones that injured him the most, aiming for their faces as his sense of reasoning begins to fade; He doesn't respond to Piccolo, but it looks like he's finally in need of help.

AOO on Grunt 1: 29, 15 total

Strike 1 (Grunt 1): NAT 20, 25 total 

Strike 2 (Grunt 6): 26, 21 Total (Rerolled due to Savage Attacker)

Her counterspell failing, much to her surprise, Piccolo runs to Ethan, pulling out a healing kit (fast hands heal: 24 healing)

As quickly as she heals him, she draws magical thorny daggers and again throws them at the leader.

to hit advantage sneak: 28, damage: 15 magical piercing

second dagger: to hit 29, damage 12

"NO! Ethan! Please! Don't lose yourself...!" Randy yells out as he watches his brother go into a mindless rampage. With quick thinking, he moves over to him and presses one of his gauntlets, healing him for a further 19hp. (DEX: 17, Flash of Genius)

BA: "Look what you idiot did... you awakened another monster we never wanted to fight! Are you all stupid?!" The 17 year old trooper snarls at the wight that casted the lightning and prepares to launch his biggest burst of energy yet... 18 Damage: 21, pushed back 10ft

clarification: wraith (not sure if I wrote wight somewhere, sorry if so. Theyre all wraiths

1 and 5 <there were only 5> are struck by Ethan, but neither's spirit is ready to depart this mortal coil.

the commander takes two more daggers but seems undeterred.

The wraith who spawned the lightning is pushed back ten feet by the force of Randy's attack.

21 Trisk ✅️✅️

20 Randy✅️✅️

19 Ethan✅️✅️

17 Picollo ✅️✅️

16 Wraiths ✅️⏸️

14 Tetrevess✅️▶️

Tetrevess and Trisk are up

<not posting a new map to show one npc moved 10ft back (down and left)>

Trisk takes (free action) some of the items (whatever Tetrevess doesn't take) found on the body and moves over to the open doorway until he can see one of the enemies. He will then cast Chill Touch on it.

Attack: 22 Damage: 15 necrotic damage, and it can't regain hit points until the start of my next turn. Until then, the ghostly, skeletal hand clings to the target.

If you hit an undead target, it also has disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the end of your next turn.

"Look for exits or gates! We've got to keep moving, fighting them is pointless! There will always be more undead! Their purpose is to wear us down!"

 Trisk hits a random baddie with the finger of death. 

<rolled a 5, edited for incomprehensible spelling>

The warrior is held fast by the hand, but it doesn't do much damage. 

Tetrevess is up.

The wood elf captive on hte shrine looks up from her daze, realizing that you're here and not with the thsyans or yet more undead horrors, she calls to you "Beware, the spirits of the lost linger here, their Despair an insidious threat."

Piccolo plays her instrument to the wood elf.
She projects with her musical notes an image of the party freeing the wood elf, then escaping the area.

(On her action or when the time works, feeling a sense of being a trapped kindred spirit, Piccolo also looks around, trying to decipher if there is a way to release the spirits from this place (a crystal holding them, magiks that were placed here, a ritual)

<trying to figure out how to reveal it, but.. she is here because Picollo escaped. She's kind of her replacement>

Picollo does notice something about this shrine uncommon to the other shrines of binding found throughout the temples of Extraction. Upon a pedestal sit three small amber stones, shaped like teardrops, arranged in a triangle.  At the center, a sprig of oak, bearing three acorns, leaves now brown, brittle and wilted. Pools of yellow wax surround the tableau, evidence of candles burned to exhaustion.