Zinnath does not sense magic, but Domeric definitely senses supernatural evil - the room itself is faintly suffused with it. He is unable to pinpoint the source from this angle; the wall must be in the way.
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Kyrie frowns as the presence of undead is stated. "This means that any of the bones around us might belong to monsters."
Starting with the nearest, Kyrie starts throwing bolts of Disrupt Undead at each skeleton she can see. "These are shards of positive energy, so you may be calm that I'm not defying the dead. 'Tis only harmful to undead constructs powered by negative energy. Mostly harmless to inanimate objects, and I'm told it tickles a little to living beings."
She keeps throwing as many bolts as she can.
Heironeous has provided insight that there is evil in the area. says quietly.
All: "Hey! Be careful with that ability of yours, it might confuse scary with evil! I know how you Paladins are with dragons!"
Bataleigha moves forward cautiously, a bit spooked by Kyrie's insistence that there are undead lurking about. She readies a use of her potent (against undead) positive energy channeling in case she gets attacked by multiple living dead.
Fezzik pauses to listen to the paladin inform them of the evil presence. When Bat and Kyrie try to go past him, he blocks them. "Why you two always rush into front. You get yourselves killed. Stay behind me," he says as he leads the way into the room. He scans the room, ready to attack anything that comes at them with his greatsword.
"Not that I have any idea how you all work tactically, but the big guy has a point." Avendryl comments, retrieving his bow.
As Fezzik enters the room, figures crawl out from the alcoves on the north (bottom) side, climbing over coffins and broken pieces of bone.
Both Fezzik and Domeric are alert to the would-be ambushers, though, and are not surprised.
"They certainly don't look pleasant." Avendryl comments as he takes aim at the third creature from the right.
(PBS)
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Errr, I gather that I am surprised and receive no actions this round.
Both Fezzik and Domeric are alert to the would-be ambushers, though, and are not surprised.
Zinnath hurls a ray of cold at the nearest undead...
vs touch (flatfooted too?)
Zinnath catches one of them (#4) off guard as it's crawling out of the catacomb. Avendryl launches an arrow at the same time and precisely impales the skull of the ghoul next to it (#3); the creature shrivels with alarming speed, turning into little more than a badly-dessicated husk in a matter of seconds. Domeric advances to the corner and chops into the ghoul there, which was just blasted by Zinnath; his sword blow cleaves it in twain.
As the ghouls advance on Fezzik, he swings his sword in a lazy backhand, like it's a habitual maneuver.
This misses, but his counterpull, ready for the creature to close in, hits and destroys it (#1).
The final ghoul (#2) steps up and claws at Fezzik, snarling and gnashing its hideous teeth. (5' step, no AoO.)
One claw manages to catch the half-ogre's arm...
...but this time the big man is not frozen with unnatural terror!
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Domeric advances to the corner and chops into the ghoul there, which was just blasted by Zinnath; his sword blow cleaves it in twain.
All: "I loosened it!"
Bataleigha steps up and swings her mace hard at the last remaining undead menace. ]Too hard.
for
Fezzik looks down at his arm, irritated that the ghoul struck him.
He then steps back to give him room to swing his sword.
Kyrie makes her way in to do some more ranged hurting; she causes the ghoul to stumble back, which makes Bat's mace miss, but Fezzik hits it with his sword and it staggers from the force of his blow. Nearly ruined, the ghoul - now dribbling brown ooze from its injuries - glances from side to side, looking for an exit.
Avendryl draws another arrow and takes aim at the remaining ghoul. "I don't particularly care for firing at a target that close to an ally, but here it goes."
(PBS, firing into melee)
Avendryl's shot is true, and manages to feather the ghoul's narrow ribcage. Like the others, it collapses in on itself, turning into nothing more than a withered husk.
The crypt remains silent in the wake of your short but vicious battle.
All: "Hold still big guy!"
Zinnath alights on Fezzik's shoulder, casts detect magic and scans the area intently, occasionally directing Fezzik to move around so he can see other places.
+1 vs traps
Fezzik looks around, satisfied that they eliminated the ghouls quickly. He freezes when Zinnath tells him to hold still, concerned there is something he can't see. He flinches when the small dragon lands on his shoulder but is relieved when he figures out that Zinnath just wanted a ride. He moves around the room as directed.
Though you don't immediately find anything magical, searching the room turns up that the back side of one of the alcoves has been broken open - dug out by claws, it looks like. It seems to have a long, irregular tunnel behind it, between two of the catacomb niches.
"Claws? More of the ghouls you suppose, or is this the work of something more mundane?" Avendryl asks, taking a closer look at the alcove.
Hard to say. Looks like the tunnels are old waterways that were further excavated by claw. Possibly something else broke in to the crypt and the ghouls took advantage of it... or maybe the ghouls got in this way somehow, or even got to the crypt and then dug through the wall? An engineer might have a better idea.
Looks like a break from the outside in - a tunnel connecting somewhere outside (or deeper underground!) that was eventually clawed into the crypt. The claw marks are consistent with medium-sized creatures.
Fezzik watches Kyrie throw a stone in and looks over at Zinnath. "Me no fit, you just right size," he says while motioning to the tunnel.
The tunnel's no more than five feet high and a bit of a squeeze at several points... but Zinnath is able to follow the light.
Eventually his mindvoice comes back to you: "There's a whole nest down here! The ghouls must have resided in these tunnels. It looks like a lot of really windy, twisty-turny stuff. Bones and skulls - these ghouls sure are messy eaters! Ehhh, I think I smell some silver. I don't think I can carry all of this back, so someone will have to come down here to help if there's anything worth taking."
Avendryl shrugs, "I suppose I can go with him."
"I'll go as well, just in case there are more ghouls down there."
Bat and Avendryl make their way down the smelly tunnel. As described, Zinnath is sitting atop a small outcropping of rock in the midst of several windy passages that meet in a hollowed-out round chamber, still only about 5' high. A nauseatingly disgusting pile of offal and broken bone remains fills the middle of the chamber, in which is scattered a variety of coins and small objects.
Picking carefully through the remains to avoid diseases and filth, you eventually parse out:
* 800 silver pieces
* seven vials of clear, watery liquid
* a vial containing a murky violet liquid with small black balls in it
* a scroll (divine)
Bataleigha hands the vials and scrolls to Kyrie, mumbling something that sounds like "Wash your hands before you eat" under her breath. Then she gives Domeric's question some thought.
"There's a flight of stairs leading even deeper underground off to the west, but I think I recall an area on this level we never fully explored...."
Fezzik follows Bat as she returns the way they came. He pauses for a moment to look down the stairs they recently found, but shrugs his shoulders and continues to follow the cleric when she doesn't stop. When she finally does stop, he moves up in front of her and waits for Zinnath to scout ahead.
"Lead the way...or at the very least point that way. As the rest of you save our Heironean friend have been here before, I defer to your prior experience." Avendryl says following along with his bow in his hand.
Eschewing the stairs for now, you head west. You discover a large chamber with three doors, similar to the one you encountered before. Avendryl notes that the center door, just as in the other room, seems to be trapped and is a false door.
To the south is an irregular room shaped like a diamond. It has no other apparent exits.
A thorough search turns up some refuse (chewed bits of bone, scraps of rotting meat, threads of fur) and signs of a campfire, but whoever used to be here is gone now.
"They do seem to like their false doors around here." Avendryl quips.
Zinnath's eyes twirl, and he flutters his wings in annoyance.
All: "I would like to present as exhibit B, this other false door! When the elf checked it, it became a false door again! He is cursed as a door checker!"
A thorough search turns up neither traps nor treasure, so you head back to the staircase, lacking other options.
As you come down the stairs your light glints off water - some kind of pool. The walls become unfinished. Either the diggers didn't ever seal off the walls here to keep water out, or someone deliberately decided that they wanted an underground wading pool.
From the stairs you don't see or hear any movement; the water ripples slightly, but that is all.
Hearing Zinnath's latest little comment, an annoyed look crosses Avendryl's face.
"Is the tiny, winged lizard always this annoying? It's really quite amazing that you all put up it. Furthermore I am not an elf...might look a lot like one, but I am not one, nor am I cursed...at least not yet."
Hearing Zinnath's latest little comment, an annoyed look crosses Avendryl's face.
"Is the tiny, winged lizard always this annoying? It's really quite amazing that you all put up it. Furthermore I am not an elf...might look a lot like one, but I am not one, nor am I cursed...at least not yet."