As always, Prizzard was bad at reading people but forged ahead with how he understood the situation. He relaxed first, no longer expecting a fight as the situation seemed to have changed. "That necromancer is using you as a mental weapon against your family while he usurps everything. After this wedding he will have no need for you or your mother. Evelyn brought us here to save what's left of your family."

rolled 9 using 1d20-2.  Sense Motive.

With Graystone out the window Tanzy slips back into human form looking a little worse for wear. She stoops to retrieve her weapons and then starts tearing apart the room, looking for anything that might be the phylactery.
“There is nothing you can say that will convince me to spare that monster. My brother is dead, we met in the underworld. He is the one who encouraged me to come.” She explains to the Anders imposter, trying to ignore the twinges of doubt. He looks and sounds so real…

OOC: Search 19

Raknesh too had spotted the slight hesitation of the fleeing necromancer.

'Rocky, search and destroy mode!'

The little rock began to fly around, going to places hard to look at because of the height or narrowness of the place.

He was trained to spot anything, not for minute search, but he hoped to find some clues, at least.

Prizzard: You do, indeed, have a hard time reading him. Though you attribute it to your own deficiency rather than deception on his part. At your words, he shakes his head. Confused. No. But...he saved me. He claims.

Everyone: At Tanzy's words, her brother looks stunned. What? Underworld? No, Tanzy. You're wrong. I've been here. I've been here all along. I did die. Years ago. You remember? There was...an accident, he frowns, as though trying to remember. Graystone saved me. Brought me back. I've tried to find you, but you'd left. He saved me, Tanzy! You can't kill him!

Obviously, distracted by her brother so, Tanzy doesn't find anything. Rocky, however, saves the day. The little creature zipping this way and that, finds the hidden panel on the wall faster than anyone expected. There it is. A little black box. But, before you can grab it, you all feel the air in your lungs disappear, as if suddenly snatched away. You're suffocating. Even Anders, who looks shocked and distressed. As you all gasp, fruitlessly, you see the ooze creeping back in the window, no doubt already aware you've found his box...

ooc: Ok everyone. You need a fort save DC 20. If you succeed, you're staggered for a round. If you fail, you are staggered and then the next round you fall prone, the next one after that you go unconscious and the 4th round...well. Let's hope you don't have a 4th round. Each round you get to reroll your save, however. So you get 4 chances! Good luck!

*note* here's a reminder of what staggered means: https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Staggered

"Well done Roc..." Raknesh's hearthfel congratulation is cut short when the deadly effect of the new attack takes hold on him.

"Curse this frail body of mine" he thought while grasping for air.

He vision starting to blur, he still tried to fire at the little box, gathering all his strenght to do so.



OOC standard action, manyshot.
--> expand psifocus --> attack becomes a ranged touch attack
--> adamantine gauntlet ('sacrifice' a +1 enhancement bonus to give the adamantine properties to the weapon) so no D6, only the 2D6 holy damage
This message was last edited by the player at 18:08, Sat 18 June 2022.

Prizzard used the last of his charges to eke out a bit more action. He made it to the phylactery and tried to break it with that adamantine blade.

HP: 80/162
AC: 19/17/13

rolled 36,14 using d20+19,2d4+9.  Attack.

“Accident?” Tanzy frowns toward her brother, “he killed you. I watched him do it without hesitation. And if you really were my brother you would value my safety above your own.” Her last few words are rushed as she gasps for air. Seeing the ooze returning she moves to block it’s way, rapiers in hand. Hopefully the others manage to destroy that blasted box…

OOC: Fortitude 30 (20+10)

Between Prizzard and Raknesh's efforts, the blasted box is thankfully destroyed. That said, the lich does not die, nor will he unless he's finished off. The difference is, he will not regenerate this time. Dead means dead. Sensing his box destroyed, the ooze turns back towards the window, obviously in a panic to get out while he still can, doing his best to try to slip past Tanzy.

Still, as he's alive yet, his spell remains intact and it remains difficult to breathe...

ooc: Attack of opportunity for you all plus ranged when he gets outside. Also, remember, if you failed your initial fort save, you need to make another, same DC of 20. If you fail, you fall prone...if you succeed, you're good to go.

Tanzy:
Anders looks confused. Kill me? Graystone wouldn't do that. He shake his head. No. No, it was an accident. I had an accident. He told me. You're wrong, Tanzy. You are. And he'd stop attacking you if you left him be. He's a good man. You have to stop this! He sounds desperate, bewildered, and more than a little shaken at Tanzy's accusations.

Prizzard pursues with reasonable accuracy. Not sure of the distance he would need to move, if a Standard or Full attack would fit.


HP: 80/162
AC: 21/19/15

rolled 33,15 using d20+19,2d4+9.  Attack of Opportunity.
rolled 28,16 using d20+19,2d4+9.  Standard Attack.
rolled 32,14,17,11 using d20+14,2d4+9,d20+9,2d4+9.  Others if Full Attack.
rolled 2,6,3,1 using d6,d6,d6,d6.  Truedeath Damage.

Maybe it was the loss of the phylactery that weakened the lich's power, but this time Raknesh managed to resist the power.

12:00, Today: Raknesh Kaltash rolled 22 using 1d20+8.  fortitude DC 20.

His arrows had little effect on the strange form, but there is nothing else he could use so he launched another volley.

move action: move toward the window to keep sight of the lich
standard action: many shot.
arrow 1: ATT 19, DMG 13, fire 4, holy 6
arrow 2: ATT 27, DMG 13, fire 5, holy 8

Tanzy slashes at Graystone as he slips past. She’s still intent on killing him but the false Anders pleading is putting a damper on the situation.

OOC: attack 24 Damage 5

Fortunately, between your combined efforts, the lich's little remaining strength is spent. He falls the rest of the way out the window, transforming back to his true form as he does. He hits hard on a parapet, then falls the rest of the way down to the courtyard, quite a distance to fall. You lean over and see him, still and unmoving as a pool of blood forms around him. Several onlookers scream.

Meanwhile, Anders also rushes to look, gasping in a panic. No! What have you done? He cries, looking genuinely anguished. Then, he suddenly seizes in pain, eyes wide and bewildered in utter confusion. He sinks to the floor, leaning against the wall for support. W-What's happening to me? he gasps. Indeed, he's turning deathly pale, his body shaking...

Tanzy rips her attention from the window and crosses to Ander. Dropping her weapons she falls to her knees beside him and takes his hand. “Is there nothing we can do for him?” The question is for Raina, though Tanzy already knows the answer.
It doesn’t matter that this person is not her Anders, his belief that he was is enough to break her heart. “I’m so sorry. If there was any other way…I will stay with you until it is over. She positions herself next to him, propping him up against her shoulder. The scene is uncomfortably familiar and she doesn’t bother fighting the tears that trail down her face.

I'm so sorry, Raina shakes her head sadly. He's already dead. He never was truly alive. Just made to be a shadow of your true brother. Without his master, he'll die soon.

Anders hears this, his own tears falling now as he groans in pain. No. You're wrong. I'm real. I'd know it! I'm Anders. How can I remember our childhood if I'm not? He turns to Tanzy then, desperate, frightened. Remember that tree we always played in? How you fell out of it and broke your arm? Remember the stories father used to read to us? How mother always thought they would fill our heads with nonsense? He gives a half smile at the memory, wincing again. Remember how we found that baby rabbit, and made it our pet? You named it Winter. How, how could I know all that and not be me? I'm Anders! I've always been your brother! He says with desperation. By now blood starts coming from his ears and mouth. He coughs, choking on it. Please! I don't want to die! he sobs, turning to Tanzy, pleadingly.

"Touch that rapier there, its gem harms undead at the merest touch. You were a very well made shadow, and a shadow can only be cast by something real. Perhaps you were made well enough to meet your original self in the afterlife and tell him what he missed."

He hopes knowing will help them both accept this easier. Perhaps also the idea that this is not a final end.

Tanzy will nudge the rapier closer in case Anders wants to test it.
“Death is not so terrible,” she attempts to wipe some of the blood from his face. “I died once and when I awoke I was in a beautiful place, with sunshine and gardens as far as the eye could see. There was no darkness, no evil or fear, no pain.”
Any of her companions can easily recognize this as a lie. Tanzy rarely speaks of her time spent in the underworld, but the occasional nightmares she has are evidence enough that it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Still she refuses to send this copy of her brother into the unknown without hope.
“My brother or not, there is a place like this for you. And you will feel peace, and our father will be there waiting. He will take you in his arms and tell you how proud he is. And eventually I will join you and we will be together again.” She presses her forehead to his and her tears mix with the blood running down his face. “You will feel peace,” she repeats as if saying it again will make it true.

Anders looks at Prizzard's outstretched rapier like it's a snake. No, I'm real. I have to be, he half sobs. He starts to reach for it, tentatively, but stops. I-I don't think I want to know, he says at last. If I'm not really Anders, then what is the point of me? No. I have to believe I am, he trembles. At Tanzy's description (a rather false one), of the underworld, he seems to take comfort. Father. I miss him so, he gives a sad smile. Just as I've missed you, sister He wraps one arm around Tanzy's waist a long moment, breathing shaky and rasping. Then, his arm drops. He's gone.

Mere moments later, you hear a shriek from the open doorway. Tanzy's mother, seeing the scene before her, rushes in, howling her grief at losing her son, again. What have you done? You've taken everything! Everything! she snarls at her daughter.

The  victory had a sour taste, like a vengeance from the beyond the  grave from the Lich.

The being he had created by some unholy means, without doubt, was incredibly well made... Too well...

Raknesh wondered if it had a soul. Would it, or maybe he ?, meet himself in the afterlive?
Or would its existence simply end, like a puppet cut from its strings...

Seeing the mother and hearing her complain again ruined the little patience he still had.

"What has she done, you ask?  She endured a great pain to GIVE you everything, to set you free from the strings, no... the chains that lich had wrapped around you, fooling you with false hope and a false son."

"There are many who are weak or tired enough to prefer what they know to be a fantasy to the truth. It's so much easier, even if you know it's killing you."

“Only a coward would prefer a fantasy over the truth.” Tanzy snaps back at her mother. Standing she gives the faux Anders one last look before picking up her weapons. “We’re done here,” she adds, moving for the doorway.

Bryon remained hidden with her invisibility.

Tanzy's mother listens to everyone's words with a look of pure hatred. It's clear she's not going to see reason, but she says nothing. Merely collapses in a heap by her dead son, sobbing. As you leave, though, she shouts back to Tanzy, Don't you ever come back, you hear me? My children are dead. YOU are dead to me. You're nothing to me now! Nothing!

You leave, fortunately fairly easy in all the pandemonium. What was to be a great wedding has turned into tragedy. The lord of the castle, dead, along with his lover's son. It seems like quite a panic has taken over everyone, rushing this way and that with looks of sorrow. The guest list was also extensive, so there are many horrified nobles from several kingdoms that will be adding to the trauma. The whole ordeal has gone up into chaos, and there is something both saddening and satisfying about it.

ooc: Ok, finish up thoughts here. I'll be moving you along to a new chapter soon. Let me know if you have any last second plans, actions etc and we'll get back to the next temple!

Tanzy visibly flinches at her mother’s harsh words but doesn’t stop her retreat. She slips a chain with her signet ring from around her neck and let’s it drop to the floor. She’d never planned to return to that life anyway. “I have one stop to make on our way out,” she adds to her companions, once out in the hall. “It won’t take long but I would prefer a little solitude,” she adds with a forced smile. Her intent is to pay her respects to her father in the family graveyard then meet back up at the inn.

The evening was eventful to say the least. Prizzard will as usual be on the roof over the rooms window but not concealed in the usual oversized hooded robe. That would be buried later.

Bryon left, giving no second thoughts to the situation. She left and waited for the group to regroup.