Marklin rushes forward to engage the lion but is unable to land a hit. He curses his weapon, "A bastard sword indeed!"

He had been trained to fight with spear. How the Gods saw fit to bestow a boon of a magic sword upon him is only further proof of his privately held belief the deities have a dark sense of humor and only exist to inflict suffering and misery on their mortal thralls.

09:47, Today: Marklin rolled 5,2 using d20+1,d8+1 with rolls of 4,1.  attack ghost lion.

Taerix steadies his nerves and calmly fires another arrow, this time with much more success than before.

OOC: Hit for 2 points of damage.


09:53, Today: DM Pawn, on behalf of Kane Taerix, rolled 14,2 using d20+1,d6 with rolls of 13,2.  attack.

Seeing the lion single Valthur out as it's target, Eoni moved swiftly to buoy his vitality.  "May Avandra's Grace flow into you and keep you whole," she intoned, laying a hand upon his shoulder as she kept the dwarf between herself and the ghost lion.

She was disappointed in her failure to drive it away with her divine prayer, but Avandra would see them through this challenge.

OOC: Eoni Daflin rolled 4 using 1d6+1.  Cure light wounds, Valthur.
Valthur healed 4 hit points.

14:38, Yesterday: Aldara rolled 6,1 using 1d20+1,1d4 with rolls of 5,1.  Aldara Dagger (Thrown, Medium).
Throwing a dagger, but in vain!

Finding a little bit of resolve despite her pain, Aldara reaches clumsily for the nearest of her daggers, and throws it.  Still wracked, the mage's throw goes wide.

Sarah, believing that she intuited the reason for her failure with her darts, retrieves her club and tries to bash the lion on the side.

15:00, Today: Sarah rolled 10,4 using d20+1,d4+1 with rolls of 9,3.  Attack Ghost Lion (10 to hit).

Valthur winces as the specter rips into him again. Sweat drips from his brow as he counters with a strike of his own. He senses a successful hit, although the ghostly makeup of his foe makes it difficult for him to determine exactly how successful.

22:07, Today: Valthur Ironhelm rolled 18 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 15.  Axe vs. spectral lion.
22:07, Today: Valthur Ironhelm rolled 5 using 1d8+3 with rolls of 2.  Damage.

The adventurers seem to be making some headway against the spectral lion now, but the undead beast fights on, unaware of the overwhelming odds it now faces. It rakes Valthur with its claw and grabs the dwarf's shield arm in its powerful jaws and sinks its ghostly teeth through his greaves.

A painful wound to be sure, but not enough to take Valthur out of the fray!


OOC: Valthur takes 4 points of damage from one claw attack.

Ghost Brute Lion
AC: 6
HP: 6/23


PC         AC   HP    9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1  0 -1 -2 -3
Aldara     8   3/15   9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 20
Eoni       8  18/24   9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 20
Marklin    2  13/19   7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Sarah      4   9/21   8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Taerix     1  13/22   7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Valthur    4  10/26   7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

[Private to GM:

  HD       9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1   0   -1  -2  -3
Up to 1    10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  20  20
1+ to 2    9   10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  20
2+ to 3    8   9   10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20
3+ to 4    7   8   9   10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19
4+ to 5    6   7   8   9   10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18
5+ to 6    5   6   7   8   9   10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17
6+ to 7    4   5   6   7   8   9   10  11  12  13  14  15  16
7+ to 9    3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10  11  12  13  14  15
9+ to 11   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10  11  12  13  14

]

PCs are UP!
This message was last updated by the GM at 23:40, Thu 03 Jan 2019.

20:39, Today: Aldara rolled 9,4 using 1d20+1,1d4 ((8,4)).
Throwing dagger at the scary cat.

Aldara throws, and bungles, another dagger.

Valthur grimaces as the sweat begins to sting his eyes, but he has little time to wipe it away. He growls in pain as the savage lion rakes him again, and replies with a score of his own, albeit equally non-decisive.

"Moradin, help me," he murmurs under his breath. "I cannot stand against this ghostly apparition much longer, but I dare not retreat from it now."

21:55, Today: Valthur Ironhelm rolled 11 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 8.  Axe vs. spectral lion.
21:56, Today: Valthur Ironhelm rolled 5 using 1d8+3 with rolls of 2.  Damage.

[Private to GM: Point of clarification, Valthur doesn't carry a shield anymore. He ditched it when he switched to the battle axe, which according to Labyrinth Lord is a two-handed weapon. He still has AC 4 thanks to the +1 chainmail. Lemme' know if I've calculated anything wrong (assuming I live past the next couple rounds, that is).]

Sarah swings at a what she thought was a wisp of the lion's ghostly body, but the lion's incorporeal state makes it hard to judge the target . . . .

07:32, Today: Sarah rolled 3,4 using d20+1,d4+1 with rolls of 2,3.  Attack Ghost Lion (10 to hit).

The Sister of Avandra once again laid a hand on the dwarf's shoulder to imbue him with the Mercy of Avandra's Grace.

"May Avandra's Grace sustain you in our time of need," she intoned, concentrating on their great need to overcome the forces of the Red Hand through this quest to return the phylactery.  She felt a glimmer of Avandra's gaze turned in her direction as the Grace of her Mercy flowed through her into the dwarf.  She felt as though a smile had crossed her deity's lips as she watched the epic quest they had undertaken to save the Vale against all odds.  The friends they'd made, the lives they'd saved.

When she'd first set out from the cloistered environs of her convent, she was unsure of purpose and direction.  Now, she knew exactly what needed to be done.

OOC: Eoni Daflin rolled 7 using 1d6+1.  Cure light wounds, Valthur #2.
Valthur healed for 7 points.

Marklin, with a powerful sword strike, and Taerix, with a well-aimed arrow, deliver the final two blows needed to fell the ghost brute lion. The semi-corporeal monster dissipates into a stream of fleeting energy, exiting the prime material plane with a hollow roar.

Moments later, the tunnel becomes deathly silent.

Now that the undead monster has been defeated, Valthur is able to access and manipulate the secret door...

The stone wall shifts to reveal a 15x25-foot chamber beyond. This room appears empty, except for a low stone bench set against the western wall. Carvings of undead lions on this wall loom over the bench, as if about the pounce on anyone foolish enough to sit there. A stone spiral staircase rises up near the northeast corner, and stone doors to the north and east provide additional exits.

Sarah drops her club and sinks to her knees, holding her stomach as if she were sick.

"Sarah!" Eoni exclaimed, hurrying to the girl's side.  "How bad is it?  Does anyone else feel a pain in their stomach?"

The Sister looked around to see if this were some side effect of the lion's attack.  She didn't feel it, but others may have suffered more seriously than she had.

"I've -- I've never felt anythin' like that b'fore," the girl gasps.  Slowly, the color returns to her face and she tries to stand.

Her effort is successful, although she appears to be in a fair amount of discomfort. "I dunno know what that lion thing did, but I don' like it.  Never hurt so bad
. . . "

"Maybe you should wait out here, dear," Eoni offered the girl.  She looked around to see if anyone else was the worse for wear.

"Not by herself, surely? Sarah, if you can't go on, I'll see you back out."

"There's no need to fear, Missy," Valthur offers. "Twas a ghastly apparition, to be sure, but it's gone now.

"Eoni, my thanks to Avandra for the healing. As for moving ahead, I say we stick together. There's safety in numbers."

Sarah hesitantly asks: "Is . . . is there somethin' that'll take the pain away?"

"Moradin's beard," Valthur exclaims, turning back to Eoni. "The poor girl's scared out of her wits. I know Avandra can heal flesh and bone like she did for me, but can she do the same for the soul?"

"I don't know about no soul; it just hurts."

"I don't have enough strength to make everyone feel better," Eoni admitted, looking over to see the sorceress slumped against the wall looking like she'd just awoken after a hard night's drinking with Marklin.  "We're almost there, though.  We just have to return the phylactery and then we can all leave.

"Why don't Sarah, Taerix, and Aldara wait here," she suggested, picking up the glowing club from where it had fallen and gently placing it back into her small hands, "and Marklin, Valthur, and I will try these stairs.

"If anything happens, we'll shout out and you can come running.  Or you'll see us running back to you.

"How does that sound to everyone?" she asked, looking around at the others with a forced smile.

"Split up the party!?" Marklin asks incredulously. Glancing back at the roughed up companions he continues, "All it's going to take is for a strong breeze to come along and do 'em in, state they're in!"

The fighter shakes his head in mock disbelief, "And, who's going to look after 'em if something shows up?"

Sarah takes her club and gets up.  "Not stayin'" she says softly, but with conviction.

[Private to DM Pawn: Just so you know what I'm doing: Sarah took 12 points of damage in a single blow -- more than she's taken in a single blow and enough that, until recently, would have killed her.

Adrenaline let her fight, but with the fight over, I thought it worth roleplaying the pain (and hopefully get some healing)

Relatedly -- I have a potion of healing, but no stats on it.  Is it a standard potion from the DMG?]

The Sister didn't feel pointing out the obvious would sway their decision.  If they hadn't all come with her, only half of them would be as beat up as they were.  She didn't have the strength to heal all of them.  If they ran into another lion like the last...

"All right," she sighed, waving at the spiral staircase.  "Valthur, lead the way."