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Zorlo threw up as he watched the horror. "This... is horrible... beyond words," the man said as he picked up some of the dirt from the island. The dirt burst into golden flames before vanishing into dust. "This place... is overlaid with curses... and nightmares... and monsters. These images... what the hell happened here?" Zorlo asked as he placed his hands upon his head and began coughing up blood onto the landscape again. This feeling... this crushing feeling. Never had Zorlo felt such evil before... never had he been so overcome by the horror that was whatever this was.

"What magic is this? I feel as if my very existence is at stake," Zorlo said as his stigmata began to bleed as Zorlo sat there, calming his mind. Deep breaths came and went from the Holy Vindicator as he stood up and stopped the bleeding. "We must be quick. This pressure is crushing me... so I fear if I stay too long, I'll be of no value to this journey any further. Let us move onwards, right boss?" Zorlo asked Jenkins, smiling at him.

Though Maerlyn saw none of what Zorlo could see, the feathers on her Hackles refused to lay flat. This place felt 'unnatural' to her, though she wasn't able to put words to it. As a result, she'd taken a moment to discreetly place a Ward Hex on everyone and not so discreetly cast Mage Armor on herself. It didn't help any that she was ill at ease walking and so tended to fly with them and hover nearby when they stopped, generally just staying off the ground and helping guide the group toward the castle in question.

"Right." Jenkins said uncertainly. He didn't like being here any more than the others, it felt like a graveyard, but he had been able to push the induced fear aside until he saw how badly Zorlo was being affected. There had been talk of elves being driven mad by coming here and the way Shanks had been talking made it sound like the expression god forsaken was no mere expression here. The howling occured twice more, louder each time, as they drew closer to the castle. The castle's gate lowered at their approach, it's gears and chains creaked like snapping bones. Padding onto the platform as if to challenge the interlopers stood a crimson eyed dog which stood taller than a man. A shadow mastiff, a hound from the plane of shadows who's body was hard to discern from the shadows of the realm around it, and this seemed to be a big one. It unleashed that same terrible howl the party had heard on their way to the castle, inducing panick into those faint of heart and made all the worse for Zorlo whose mind was already in tatters. As loyal dogs called by their master over a dozen skeletal soldiers still wearing the cracked rusting remains of the armor they wore when guarding this castle when they were still alive, their swords and bows terrible and wicked shadows of their former selves just as their wielders were. Zorlo could still see them as they once were but their forms were twisted and they were covered in flames. Between the howling and the images Zorlo's mind finally snapped, he dropped his sword and the shield and turned screaming as he ran.

Jenkins took a deep breath, steadying himself after he saw Zorlo turn and run, running would only get himself run down by the beast. He had to hope Zorlo would recover his senses before the hound or the skeletons could finish him. He fired the musket at what he thought was the dog's head, but the bullet seemed to pass through the dog and glance off one of the skeleton's armor. As the hound charged he picked up Zorlo's forgotten shield and braced behind it. Jenkins's feet dug into the dirt as he was pushed back several inches. He drew Asp and stabbed under the shield, aiming for the hound's belly. He couldn't do much about the skeletons as they arced a volley of arrows over the hound against Rain, Maerlyn, and Zorlo.

Rain: { he places his hand on Jenkins shoulder} Jenkins..........were going to die arent we?........ Ah....?! CRAP! { he creates a Great sword Rune weapon as he swipes it and the magic energy from the blade manages to shield the group from the Arrows as the weapon disappears he draws his regalia blade} damn.....What do we do here { he manages to fend off a few oncoming attacks as he manages to slash through even more oncoming arrows} we need to get rid of the Skeletons First! { his rune shines brightly} Thunder Fall! { Thunder strikes the nearby skeletons revealing to only of dispersed to group and not nearly get rid of as many enemies as Rain expected} of course that wouldnt of worked { ebriaclux appears} I don't know about you guys but I don't want to die today

The shouting... the fear... the oncoming foes. Terror had set in with the roar... and it had caused Zorlo's already fragile mental state to completely shatter. He found himself ducking under the shadows of some ruins and rocking back and forth. "I can't... I can't... I can't... I don't want to die... I don't want to be here..." Zorlo whispered as he rocked back and forth in terror.

At that moment, the Stigmata began to bleed again as Zorlo felt the light of Erastil began to fill him again. "Yes... you're right, my Goddess. I may not have my Paladin powers... but I possess the powers you gave me as a Holy Vindicator. I shall cleanse this landscape of these foul creatures... and continue to help these people... my friends," Zorlo said with a smile as he drew his sword. The blood from his stigmata covered the blade of his sword as he lashed out at the shadowy creature and slashed.

CLANG!!!

Zorlo stared at the creature's body as his sword cracked and shattered into pieces against its carapace. Zorlo shifted as the creature turned and back-handed the Paladin into a nearby wall. For the first time in his life, the lack of heavy plate armor had worked out. The leather armor he was wearing didn't protect him much from things, but in this case, it did help prevent more damage from the being tossed and falling than normal.

Zorlo bumbled up as he saw his friends occupying the shadow beast as the skeletons moved in. "I can't help them against that thing... but those skeletons... are easy pickings with my powers..." Zorlo said as he removed his holy symbol from his satchel. THe Paladin rushed to the front and held the symbol in front of him. Blood from the Stigmata covered the holy symbol as powerful, ancient magic began to radiate from the object.

"Begone back into oblivion! Blood Rain!" Zorlo said as a powerful surge of Channel Positive Energy erupted in a cone in front of him and engulfed the undead marching towards the group. A splash of sacred blood splashed out from the center and began to wash away the undead as they tried to march through the powerful sacred energy that erupted from the holy symbol. The holy symbol ceased glowing and the Stigmata ceased glowing for a moment as Zorlo stepped back. He coughed up some blood again with a sigh as he stumbled back. "Dammit... well, that should at least slow the undead down, yes?" he asked himself with a smile.

Maerlyn could feel the Ward Hex on Zorlo shatter and almost as soon as the Paladin took off, Maerlyn was airborne once more, the few arrows that hit her deflecting harmlessly off of her Mage Armor as she moved higher. From this vantage point is was easy to see where the Paladin ran to on top of the skeleton positions. Jenkins or Zorlo? She thought about it a moment as Jenkins blocked the Shadow Mastiff with Zorlo's discarded shield. For now, the Paladin was weapon and liability in one. Better to find him later and deal with the problem as hand before things got too bad. So when she took a deep breath, she was mildly surprised to be smelling so much of Zorlo's blood and fresh at that. The Paladin was back and after breaking his sword, aided in Skeleton wiping. Unexpected, but nice all the same. "Primordial Illumination, roar forth and show us your power. Volcanic Storm!" The sudden Hail storm of burning ash and blazing rocks engulfed most of the remaining Skeletons in a fiery embrace to continue a possibly even finish what Zorlo's blood rain started. It would certainly take care of those pesky archers and isolate the Shadow Mastiff.

The skeletons had been wiped out in the magical storm created by Jenkin's fellows. Rain, Thunder and Lightning, and Hail this is quite the- The mastiff tearing the shield from Jenkins's arm tore him from his thoughts, he managed to raise his arm intercepting the claws although they still dug deep furrows in the armor. He retaliated with a slash to it's shoulderblade. I drew blood. At least I know my attacks can harm it. Speaking of harm, depress and throw. He pulled a grenade out of his bag as the beast pinned him to the ground. Maybe just depress and pray. "Eat this." Jenkins shouted as he tried to shove the explosive into the hound's mouth without getting his hand eaten in the process. Ultimately the explosive ball slipped out of his fingers and rolled down the dog's back. A sizzling could be heard from the little hand sized clay ball, but that wasn't what was on Jenkins's mind what was on his mind was keeping Asp between his throat and the dog's fangs. The blast shredded the creature's backside, punched a hole in the bridge, and made Asp bite his hand, but it did get it to let up long enough for him to jam his blade up through it. Not that the effort seemed to do much more than make it's eyes burn a little brighter with rage. The beast bit down with bone crushing force on his arm and Jenkins kicked the dog as hard as possible with both legs. The shadow mastiff's hind legs stumbled back trying to maintain it's footing and found itself slipping down the hole; it tried to claw it's way back up onto the bridge but it's weight carried it down into the moat's black sludge below.

Breathing hard he sat up, "I really hope that thing's dead. Speaking of dead. I think it's safe to say that the rumors are true and this place is inhabited with undead. Heading back to the ship seems like it would be the safest thing to do, but..." He looked over his shoulder at the foreboding castle. "I've heard tale that there used to be a phoenix that lived here. If we could find a some of it's molted feathers that would serve as a great reagent, wouldn't it? What could kill a phoenix anyways? Aren't they supposed to be impossible to keep dead?"

The echoes of the atrocities of yore took hold of Zorlo's mind and he saw a twisted shadow of the aforementioned phoenix flare up inside the courtyard. Countless arrows and spells struck it from all over the castle and it's flames raced across the castle's battlements striking down many elves and blasting down a shadowy version of the gate/bridge Jenkins now rested upon. A couple dozen humans ran terrified across it past the resting man. Elves started chasing them down but were struck by a blast of flame leaving charred bones by the bird. As it tried to take off the phoenix was struck down by a ray fired by a weeping yet regal elven woman wearing a twisted winged crown and wielding a cracked black rod topped with a bleeding ruby beating like a living heart. She stood upon a bridge of glass between twin spires. The phoenix's body turned to ash and was carried past the woman, she clutched some of the ash within her hand and held it to her chest as the vision faded back to the horrors he had become accustomed to.

Where in the vision there had been two towers now one was a ruin of it's former glory and the shattered remains of the glass bridge spanning them could be seen scattered across the landscape of the castle's courtyard. The darkness twisted and deepened around the shards.

Zorlo pointed at the towers. "There... the phoenix... the woman, it was slain there... and... there were once two towers. What happened here... an elven woman brought down the great fire bird. It's intense powers were overwhelming... but hers was greater. It's flames reduced everything to ash." The stigmata started bleeding as Zorlo stood up and looked at Jenkins. "We must head that way. If anything is left of what that woman did... the ruined tower might be a good place to start. From there, we should look at the other one, though," the paladin said with a smile as the stigmata stopped bleeding and he began to fall apart again. It was all he could do to prevent himself from collapsing mentally.

Jenkins looked at the tower and reached to adjust his sword. "Ah, I lost it again. I swear this doesn't usually happen. I'm going to have to get a chain or something for Asp one of these days." He ducked into the guard house and came out holding a small round steel shield and a pair of hand and a half swords, he gave the shield and one of the swords to the paladin. "Zorlo, here, I realize it's not quite the same as what you had before, but it's better than nothing." Jenkins strapped the second bastard sword across his back and test drew it a couple of times. "I guess hanging up on that wall kept these from suffering as badly as the other gear."

Throughout the castle skeletons began picking themselves up from where they fell, some with their hands around one another's throats, and started stumbling through the halls towards the intruders. Doors and other barriers impeded their progress some, but they were slowly and steadily moving.

The walk to the ruined tower was uneventful, although half way there Jenkins stopped jumping at every little noise and just kept his hand on the blade's hilt. They picked their way through the debris and arrived at the long collapsed doorway. While there were breaks in the ruined walls large pieces of rubble blocked their passage. Jenkins dug out a few grenades and held them up in offer. "We could probably blow some of the rocks away, but what's left might fall on us." The nearest of the skeletons were blocked from view by the debris behind them, but they were clambering their way closer.

Zorlo was still swinging the sword and getting a feel for it. "You're lucky I have some training in this kind of weapon, otherwise I'd have a hard time using it," Zorlo stated as he continued trying to keep the visions and terror from taking over. Swinging the sword helped his mind relax. For now, he would prepare. The click-clack of bones against the floor was the only thing that queued Zorlo into the fact that something might be getting nearby behind the debris. "Hmm... how to deal with this... how to deal with this?" the half-elf asked as he stepped back and watched. "More skeletons?" he asked, sighing a bit. Man this might be annoying, he guessed.

Maerlyn simply kept silent a moment as she watched Zorlo a moment and listened to everything. When she felt relatively certain that Zorlo wasn't going to break down once again, she took to the task at hand. Getting through the wall. "In truth, I don't find that entering the ruined tower of a woman that killed a Phoenix and from the sounds of it, did it relatively by herself, to be all that conductive to a long and health life. But for the sake of this mission, I do have two options. The first is that I can teleport us inside, though it might be risky at best. The second is that I use Jenkins' bombs & my flames and I carpet bomb the interior from above."

Rain: { he brandishes his rune guns} JUST BLOW A HOLE IN THE DAMN THING! { he starts fireing with pinpoint accuracy as he incorporates his rune magic into each shot} AAAAAAAAH! { a sharp pain runs up his arm but he keeps fireing} dammit not now Im almost running on empty { he continues to fire as his ammo slowly gets lower and lower}

Rain's shots did in fact blow a hole in the ruined tower, however more rubble took it's place. "At this rate we'll just level what's left of the tower, and I'm not even sure I have enough gnome magic to do that." he shot off the nearest skeleton's head, dropping it. "If whatever's causing this is in there, I doubt we'll be reaching it anytime soon and in a castle this size, there could be hundreds maybe even thousands of skeletons headed our way. And I doubt that even on the best of days Zorlo could turn that many. So we try to find the source and either neutralize or destroy it. An elven woman powerful enough to drop a phoenix. Probably the ruler or the ruler's champion either way, with luck we'll find them in the throne room, as my captain was fond of saying we shoot and scoot or in this case throw and scoot." He pulled out a handful of egg sized grenades crushed them in his hand and threw them into the crowd of skeletons. "Biggest room in the tallest tower, right? Let's move." The exploding grenades cleared out the makings of a path towards the tower, although they would still have to cut down planty of skeletons to get through, but at least they wouldn't be fighting all of them.

As they ran Jenkins stayed in the back dropping grenades behind them to slow pursuit. Inside the dark tower the group almost ran straight into a strange translucent gelatinous cube, the only thing that saved the group was that there was some sort of strange purple glob inside the blob making it's presence apparent. "Someone deal with it, just don't get swallowed." He tossed a grenade around the corner behind them and pulled out the bastard sword and took up position in the middle of the hallway to cut down any skeletons that tried to get past while they cleared the way.

Zorlo stared quietly at the cube as he drew his sword and spun it in his hand. "Okay, now we have a gelatinous cube. Wonderful..." he said with a powerful swing that cleaved part of the ooze away. THe paladin stepped back as the creature attempted to slam him and entrap him within it's gelatinous body. The paladin stumbled a bit, but caught himself. WIth a deep breath, he spun his sword in his hand again and began to focus. Without his powers, this was going to be tricky. They had to get through this trial. THat was their only option.

"I need someone to back me up. Who's with me?" he asked, smiling as he prepared to charge again.

((Character sheet Updated!))

"I need someone to back me up. Who's with me?"

A quiet chuckle was all the reply he got as Maerlyn called frost to her talons. "You might want to move, Zorlo." She didn't need to said it twice as the Half-elf jumped back from the strange cube. She had the perfect spell in mind for such a foe. "Empowered Ice Storm!" The Hailstorm of Ice was nearly as destructive as Zorlo's blood rain on the skeletons earlier, the almost Melon-sized hail punching through, freezing, and shattering the Gelatinous Cube. But that wasn't all that surprising since an ooze's body was mostly liquid in nature. What was surprising, was the almost feminine cry the party heard as the Gelatinous Cube began dissolving in death and the partially frozen, bluish-purple blob in the middle hit the floor. "Did I just hear that...?" Maerlyn murmured to herself as carefully approached the thing.

It moved, getting to become the target another Frost spell that seemingly made in writhe as the frozen part increased and it shifted again. Part of the unfrozen part formed a roughly female head, neck and shoulder, the one arm it had enough material for held up defensively. Though unfrozen, parts of the face and neck were plated in frost and stiff. "P-p-please... it h-hurts...." the Slime said in a quiet feminine voice that seemingly stuttered from cold. "..N-n...no m-more... You...you'll k-kill...me..." it finished weakly.

The Harpy was lost for words for a moment as she stepped back to look at the others. "What... do you guys make of this...? I'm..." She shrugged. "I've never heard of this before..."

Zorlo looked at the Goo girl and removed his holy symbol from his side and held it out. Power began to flow from it as the sacred light enveloped everyone within the room, healing their wounds and relaxing their bodies. "I can't do much about the ice, however, I can heal your wounds," Zorlo said as he looked at the Goo girl and smiled. "MY name is Zorlo, and I'm a Paladin. Since I can't tell good or evil about you, I'd rather play it safe and assume good," he told her, his stigmata bleeding again to allow him the focus needed to speak clearly and wield his holy powers.

The man smiled once more before standing up and the bleeding stopping. He shook his head and began to shiver. Man he hated this place.

Rain: { he rushes through the skeltons providing Jenkins Cover as he weilds ebriaclux and the regalia blade} RAAAAH! { with every slash he incorporates his rune magic into every strike} This is just ridiculous....{ he continues to slice through the skeletons as ebriaclux forms into a rune gun as he fires at the sekeltons from far away and he slices the skeltons that are close to him}

Jenkins took a quick breath and sheathed his blade. "Thanks Rain, just keep them busy a few seconds longer." He knelt next to the strange girl. Oozes aren't known for being fast. Guess there's little choice. "And I've never heard of a harpy helping a human before. Regardless, we need to keep moving. With luck we're close to the throne room, come on. I'll carry you." He handed his grenade filled handy haversack to Maerlyn and put his arms around the jelly like girl as best he could.

Their running was eventually rewarded with a giant ornate door, with a normal sized door built in. The skeletons were still hit on their heels and by now pretty much everyone, with the exception of Jenkins' passenger, had a few injuries as they had not risked being overwhelmed by taking the time to heal. Jenkins took an exasperated breath, thought back to when he and his friends were younger and shouted, "Sam!" as he kicked in the door.

Jenkins finally set the girl down once inside. A terrible familiar howl echoed from down the hallway. "Brace the door and heal up." He ordered and took in their surroundings. They had indeed found the throne room, which seemed like it could double as a ballroom. Lying against the wall bordering the door they had entered from were a dozen elven bodies. Unlike the other corpses they had encountered these weren't trying to kill them and they were remarkably well preserved. On the walls were a dozen paintings all masterpieces and beneath those were mahogany chairs, pianos, and tables and other types of furniture. The chandeliers above were giving off a dark light that helped little with the gloom. A large swathe of the wall that once faced the other tower was almost purely a gigantic pane of glass depicting a beautiful elven queen with a winged crown and a scepter topped with a phoenix. Sitting on a throne of onyx sat the fiery red and yellow remains of the queen from the window although her features were twisted with rage and grief.

The body nearest the door had no clear signs of cause of death and he was smiling as if remembering the taste of his favorite food. The elf was clad in ornate mithral plate complete with a large shield, the armor looked to be made of feathers and seemed to glow with an inner flame. His blade was sheathed on the backside of the shield and despite being covered a shine of untainted sunlight escaped from the top of the sheathe. This elf, clearly once the queen's bodyguard is the first thing Zorlo has seen since he got to the island that wasn't perverted into some form of horror.

While the others secured the door Jenkins crossed the massive room. He was halfway across when Maerlyn called to him, saying he should get over there and let someone heal him unfortunately at the same time as she hollered something howled coming from the direction of the throne. The, queen's ghost materialized. The first thing he noticed, and he was surprised that given the circumstances this is what his eyes focused on. The ghost wasn't wearing a ring on it's hand. The body had a golden ring with a strange marking on it that was missing from the spirit. He took in a breath to shout a warning about the incorporeal monster to the others when the ghost loosed a wail that sent Jenkins physically flying backwards. Jenkins landed unceremoniously in front of the group, his eyes were wide unblinking and his irises/pupils had become long vertical slits that stared at the group unblinking and lifeless. The banshee's keen had knocked the breath of life out of him.

Plus for the group, the banshee won't be able to shriek anybody else to death for a good minute. Downside, it will be trying to beat people to death with it's rod and incorporeal things are resistant to all forms of attacks even magic and nonmagical weapons are useless against them.

The ring.

Zorlo drew his sword as he turned from the armor, the sword that seemed to leak sunlight, and the shield. "As much as I want to take those things right now, I've got some fighting to do," the man said as he held his sword out as blood began to cover his blade as sacred powers danced around it . "I am a Holy Vindicator of Erastil. I shall cast your ruins upon the landscape for the evils you have perpetuated," the man said as power began to pulse from his sword as he rushed forwards. Bloodfire under Channeled SMite would do the trick to at least keep her busy.

Rain:JENKINS!...****! { he readies his regalia blade without any rune weapons as he follows right behind zorlo as he manages to help zorlo fight off the creature } damn I can't use my magic atleast not for abit I'm all out... { he blocks an attack from the creatures rod at zorlo}....don't take me lightly...I don't need magic! { he continues to help zorlo fight off the banshee} HEY ZORLO! do you have a plan? { he lands a pretty strong slash across the creatures chest}....wait! oh crap! { he jumps out of the way of an attack} perfect this things practically invincible! my sword can't hurt it