Keil does not find any traps upon the door and as the secret door opens, the scouts smell a horrible stench of decaying flesh. Faint chattering can be heard from down the corridor and see bits of bone and flesh litter the way as it heads into the darkness, opening up into a larger chamber.
Keil has seen enough of this ruinous flesh in these dungeons to know he should call in an expert. Quietly closing the door, the fetchling signals for Grey, "This may be your domain."
Brok slips over to Grezzor and whispers "Smells like not-deads, kill them with fire!"
Grey took a moment to smell the fetid air.
It doesn't take the witchdoctor long to determine there is a mix of ghouls and ghasts smells up ahead.
"Kill them with fire!"
"Perhaps." Grey replied to Brok. "If they cannot be reasoned with, then yes."
"Ranulfus, do you know others of your kind in this area?" Grey asked the Ghast at the rear of the group.
Ranulfus shakes its head in response, "I have been trapped in that room for many years, yet I do know ghouls and ghasts are a common foot soldier for the priests of Orcus."
"How many?" The shadowy man directs his question to Ranulfus fully expecting the ghast to have no clue. Upon confirmation of his suspicion, Keil points a thumb in the direction of the door, "Let me know. Should you make friends, so much the better."
"I will return in a few minutes."
Grey and his skeletons walked back to the room they fought the ogres and filled two large sacks with the fresh meat left behind when the skeletons ripped themselves free. The skeletal ogres hefted the heavy sacks of meat, Then Grey and his retinue returned to the rest of the party.
"I am going to attempt negotiations. Ranulfus, with me please."
"If this does not work, we will resort to Brok's suggestion."
"Open the door."
As the door is opened the stench is nearly overpowering to even the witchdoctor's practiced nostrils. The door opens to a star-shaped room , with a pentagram inscribed within a hexagon in the center of the room. In each of the points of the star there are numerous wooden coffins, some broken. Dozens of hunched humanoids move about in the dark shadows.
As you enter deeper into the room, the skeletons fanning out in a protective circle, the shambling forms move to surround you...
With a gesture Grey instructs the Skeletons to toss out their bags of meat. Then Grey and his guardians backed up to the door.
"There's too many, it's too dangerous. Brok's plan. Grezzor, when they gather on the bags, light them up."
Arlok prepares to kill more dead things.
"Fire goblin Grezzor burn, Arlok wait."
Brok readies an arrow to shoot any hostiles that emerge from the passage.
Drawing his swords, Keil positions himself behind the muscle, "How many Grey?"
"Dozens," Grey answered.
The shadowy man sneers and spits, "Keep them choked at the entrance. Cut them down one at a time."
Grezzor nods, and an unusual gleam seems to find its way to his eyes - "They shall burn" - he replies, moving forward and pointing his finger at the undead amalgam.
A glowing, pea-sized bead streaks from his pointing digit - when it impacts the first of the creatures, a fireball blossoms, encompassing all the undead in a low roar detonation that seems to suck away all the air in the room.
The flaming inferno sets fire to the ghouls shredded tatters of clothing and to the monstrosities themselves in an instant.
The goblin only chuckles in face of the inferno.
The fireball loosed by the goblin wizard explodes in a flash of bright light and a *whoosh* of flame, incinerating many of the ghouls. Yet as your eyes re-adjust to the darkness again, your darkvision reveals there are still some ghouls that are unscorched...and moving towards you...
A burst of necromancy energy rolled forward from Grey.
Arlok stands at the ready shielding off his friends with his Glaive ready with reach.
Brok is readying an action to shoot any undead that come out of the tunnel, just in case Grezzor's magic doesn't take care of them
Praetor fails to ensnare any of the remaining ghouls, and of more consternation is the realization there are more powerful ghasts among the remaining undead...
The sound emanating from the room does not quite sit well with the fetchling. Inching his way to the back of the group the shadowy man keeps his swords at the ready yet prepares to bolt should the muscle be overrun.
The ghouls and ghasts immediately swarm the entrance trying to reach the witchdoctor who dared to invade their domain...only to find they are not able to breach the wall of defenders Praetor created just prior to entering here. While several of the ghouls (or ghasts?) are able to land solid blows upon the ogre skeletons, their skeletal forms are able to shrug off most of the damage.
Soon the pentagram chamber is littered with scorched and crushed remnants of the undead creatures...
Grey sighed at the waste. "Ghouls are remarkable creatures, but their hunger left uncontrolled makes them self-destructive. It is a shame. I did try to offer them an alternative to destruction." For a moment, Grey seemed to be expressing genuine regret, but it passed quickly.
Brok enters the chamber with his sword drawn, leaving nothing to chance.
He stabs any undead bodies in the head, making sure to get the brain.
"Got to be sure with not-deads...." he mumbles as he searches the room.
(+2 for traps)
The shadowy man tenses at the noise as the battle inside begins yet as the melee progresses, Keil realizes these sounds are not growing, but steadily dying. Relaxing his stance the fetchling waits with mixed trepidation for things to quiet down. When they do, and he sees all is well with the party, he sheaths his swords and turns to inspect the doorway to the north.
The scouts enter the pentagram room making sure no further threats are lurking inside. They see this star-shaped room does indeed have a pentagram inscribed within a hexagon in the center of the room. In each of the points of the star there are numerous wooden coffins, some of them broken.
There is also a sizeable amount of coinage here scattered about the opened crypts totalling 2,301 gp, 4,204 sp, 2,910 cp, along with all manner of common weapons and armor, including several suits of chainmail, a breastplate, a full suit of dwarf-sized half-plate of an ancient vintage, yet all still useable.
Brok looks to see if any of the weapons are sized for a halfling, gnome, or goblin.....
"Surely someone small died here at some point..."
Unfortunately for the goblin, all of the weapons are sized for humans.
Disgusted by the overall lack of goblin sized loot in this place, Brok slinks off to join Keil at the door to the room marked #1 and checks it for danger.
(+2 for traps)
"Where go next?"
Brok can tell the locked, untrapped door leads back to the entrance hall where the party first entered this level.
Brok motions the herd forward, into the entry hall.
Then he checks first door in the west wall.
(+2 for traps)
Brok can tell the locked, untrapped door leads back to the entrance hall where the party first entered this level.
The fetchling rolls his eyes as Brok attempts to pass through the locked door without first unlocking it. Fortunately the door is opened in no time* and now the shadowy man quietly stands behind the limber ranger checking the goblin's work. "Check the mortar."
Brok opens the door easily and sees an empty corridor that winds its way southeast for a ways, before ending at yet another door.
Brok listens at this door and checks it for traps while waiting for the rest to catch up.
(+2 for traps)
Brok finds no threats upon the other side of the door, which reveals this room contains a huge stone coffin and the moldering corpse of a small humanoid next to it. The stone coffin itself contains the skeletal remains of a human female clad in rusty chainmail. A sword lies over her in a rusted scabbard, as does a rotted wooden shield.
A passageway heads north for around 50 feet before ending at another room, the goblin noticing the temperature drop as he approaches the corridor, which is littered with smashed bits of armor, bones, etc.
Brok examines the coffin and corpse for danger.
(+2 for traps)
Brok easily sees both the corpse in the coffin and the one on the floor are infested with a nasty parasite know as rot grubs, which have the terrifying habit of burrowing into a living body until they reach the heart or other vital organs, causing a painful agonizing death.
"Brok thinks we should leave these bugs alone." Brok tells the others, pointing out the rot grubs.
Arlok follows along
Brok approaches the cold corridor to the north, looking for the source of the smashed armor and bones.
(+2 for traps)
Grezzor steers clear from the grubs, and waits for the report from Brok.
As Brok creeps closer to the corridor entrance the temperature does indeed drop further...scanning the corridor does not immediately reveal any source of the cold, or of the source of the cold.