Rasil's head nods forward, then he starts awake with a snort, "Hm? What'd I miss?"
Yura answers, himself considerably less whelmed with the aberration before him, "Defiled temple, necromantic fluid of some kind, dagger akin to the key found in the puddle. Likely The Dagger Befouled."
"Right, can we go now?" Rasil springs up like a man a quarter of his age, which he immediately regrets, crouching over and placing a palm to his lower back, "Ow."
"Slow down there. You're no spring chicken. "
"Didn't seem to stop me from putting down that fire monster back there." He sticks his thumb unknowingly at the north wall.
At Rasil's comment, Gabriel snorts slightly, but otherwise makes no response. He finishes his inspection of the room, and then says "There's nothing else interesting here. So we have our lockless key and our dagger befouled, we just need a sister's keepsake and Thrasillus' voice. Have we looked everywhere in this building? Should we move on to the next place?"
"Think we're done in here. Best off to the next one. "
I guess F is right nearby, so try it.
With a curt nod to Vars, Gabriel begins to slowly make his way out of the building, his walking cane making light tapping noises on the ground as he does. The whole way, he is grumbling to himself...
"Don't know why they always have to make these blasted things so bloody complicated. What if they needed to get into the crypt themselves? Hey Bill, where'd you leave the dagger befouled again? Oh, it's in the necromantic water in the desecrated temple! What about Thrasillus' voice, where was that again? Must've taken them a bloody week just to get into the blasted crypt, every time. Can't just grab the key, no..."
Once outside, he will make his way north to the next building, once more gathering the aether strands around himself to fade from view as he gets close.
The sepulchrum's opening, facing south, was once blocked by heavy iron bars. Time has rusted them, though, and they come off rather easily with a couple of solid pushes. Inside, you see nine stacked internment vaults on each of the three other sides, names engraved on limestone and eroded by time's ravages.
The center of the sepulcher is dominated by a large sarcophagus, marble rather than limestone. The inscription on it has been spared by destruction, and reads:
Marcus Iulius Adella
3711–3758
Great Patriarch of Our Clan
Died Valiantly at the Battle of Istavala Vale Saving Prince Abelard from the Undead Hordes of the Whispering Tyrant, Earning the King’s Gratitude.
Herein Lies Our Claim to Nobility.
May Great Woe Befall Any Who Would Violate His Most Sacred Rest.
After Yura reads off the inscription, Rasil shrugs and walks about, keeping a weather ear out for anything out of place. Of course the ninja is also always aware of the subtle vibrations in his vicinity.
having picked up something in Duke school Vars pipes up. "They got the name wrong. It was Junius."
To no one in particular Rasil adds, "Look for a tombstone with a woman's name, with the Junius or Adella surname who was age-appropriate to be Master Marcus's sister."
Thinking this comment was aimed at him, Yura starts reading all the names and birth years he can make out, searching for one that fits the description. "Female name, birthdate near 3711..." He thinks out loud.
Most of the names have been made unreadable by the decay of the stone, and among those who still can be made out, none match the description.
"Is it possible that they got the name right, and we know the name wrong? Seems like they would know, while history is a fickle record keeper, at best."
Sweep the room with detect magic, particularly the marble sarcophagus.
"'May Great Woe Befall Any Who Would Violate His Most Sacred Rest.' Interesting. Wonder what sort of woe they had in mind?"
"Look, I didn't pay much attention in Duke school, but this particular thing stuck because the instructor woke me from a hungover nap I was taking in class to hammer it in. "
Gabriel's senses don't pick up any magic aura in close proximity, only the necropolis' one, and several faint, distant ones somewhere underground.
"As we are here to investigate the claims to nobility of this family, seems like we aught to get a look at their claim to nobility, which lies here. I'm going to open her up. You might want to step back..."
With a loud crack, the slab covering the sarcophagus opens. Looking inside, you can see a flight of stairs, large enough for two people at once, descending down into the underground darkness...
"See, I did get something out of that damned class! Aha!" Then squinting down the stairs he comments "You're gonna want me to take point aren't you?"
As the crack echoes down the staircase, Rasil's head tilts, "Huh, I did not see that coming."
Yura snorts.
Gabriel chuckles at Rasil's comment, then responds to Vars, "If it helps, you can pretend I'm on point, and you just can't tell on account of the invisibility."
Before heading down the stairs, Gabriel will use a couple of wands on himself, all while remaining invisible.
"Think I'll just do my job without the added fantasy. "
Vars will trigger the light on his wayfinder, and head down the stairs.
Rasil and Yura take the middle.
Rasil prepares to vanish at the first hint of animate threats.
You walk down the winding tunnel for an inordinate amount of time, until it suddenly widens, leading you into a crypt. The walls of this room are brick. The ceiling is twenty-five feet above, and from its center hangs a ghastly chandelier, made entirely of skulls and bones. A pair of tapestries flanks a corridor that exits to the east, so ancient that the fabric retains only hints of the original color and the scenes they depict are insubstantial. Written on the stone above the archway seems to be some sort of phrase, although letters seem to be all strung together, reading "SOONENOUGHYETOOSHALLSLEEP".
There is only one sarcophagus in the room, made of plain limestone. The fitted lid is without mortar and somewhat askew, as though replaced in haste. Carved in its surface is:
“Marcus Junius Adella, 3711–3758, Hero of Taldor, Patriarch.”
Along the lid’s edge are the words “While my bones rest peacefully here, the guardians need not protect me.” Looking within you see an empty burial shroud—the body is missing.
"While I could probably use a nap, I'm not really sure I like the implications of that. "
He will also wander around the room squinting a bit taking a close look.
"Nope, definitely not inviting" Gabriel agrees, still hovering invisibly in the back. He begins to make his own circuit of the room, flying at a height of 15ft, and using detect magic to see if there is anything magical in the room.
After making a circuit of the room, he will also fly up to get a closer look at the bony chandelier, to see if there is any more to it other than a grim decorative conversation starter.
The ninja makes his own assessment of the room as well, his hearing and feeling being more acute than his comrades.
But just as his master was beginning to really search the room with his heightened senses, Yura came tumbling loudly down the stairs, and collapsed with a loud thud at the bottom.
There doesn't seem to be much of interest in this room, not even cobwebs or rodents. It looks like even the creepy crawlies are kept away by the necropolis' unnatural aura.
After a close examination, Gabriel can conclude that the chandelier is, indeed, made of human bones, ribs and vertebrae interconnecting. It's fairly large, about six feet in diameter, and linked to the ceiling by a silvered steel chain, blackened by time but relatively untouched by rust.
"Seems to be nothing in here. " so the Duke walks into the next room due east.
Gabriel follows Vars, staying airborne and invisible.
Rasil and Yura follow as well.
The ceilings in the catacomb are very low and the corridors are riddled with burial niches. Some host one or two full skeletons in tattered rags; others are packed with bones stacked in an artful, if grisly, manner—one niche may hold nothing but thigh bones, another jawbones, another an array of vertebrae. Some of the walls feature decorative brickwork, others are adorned with frescoes, and still others have bones and skulls mortared into place as though they were the most convenient and mundane building materials.
After hitting a couple of dead ends, you find the corridor opening into a larger crypt. Arranged in various raised niches in the ornately-bricked walls are several dozen mummified corpses, attired in clothing of bygone eras, standing in lifelike poses as though engaged in conversation.
Four oval niches in the north wall are obvious places of honor, as each holds but a single mummy bearing valuable-looking treasures. The room itself is lit brilliantly by two spheres of bright light floating near the center of the thirty-foot-high ceiling above.
Vars will start to walk around the room getting close enough to look at things.
Gabriel will hover just inside the room, at a height of 15ft, and have a look around. He will get his magic radar up and scan the room. .
Vars' and Gabriel's curiosity proves to be dangerous, as the spheres of light reveal their true form as emaciated, child-like creatures with taloned hands. With a shriek that's heard in your mind, more than your ears, they flood the room with white-hot light before attacking. Two dazzling rays of light project from the horrors, which hover out of reach, and strike at the old warrior, both connecting. The smell of charred flesh spreads through the crypt.
Though I'm not sure if I'm still up or not. Depends on if we healed up completely after the last fight and I didn't update my HP total.
Hearing the other-worldly shrieks, and Duke and Yura crying out in pain, Rasil vanishes.
Seeing these new foes target Vars and nearly knock him out, Gabriel calls upon his abilities, and a wave of electricity passes through his allies, energizing them. He puts some extra umph into it, causing the effect to linger on.
Still benefiting from his invisibility, Gabriel will fly off to one corner of the room, and prepare himself for the next round.
Vars activates Blinded Blade style, and moves out of the room "Medic!" trying not to collapse.
"These kids are lucky I'm not the sort to have a gingerbread house." The hag's hair grows with alarming rapidity, coiling like snakes - great and small - along the floor and walls within 20' of her. One tendril lashes out to brush Duke. A jolt of energy flows from it, healing Duke.
Spell Effects:
Ascendant Mage Armor - +6 AC, 50% critical hit or sneak attack becomes normal hit - 15 hours
See Invisibility - 150 mins
Celerity - +1 attack on FULL Action; +1 AC/T; +1 Reflex - 15 rnds
Feeling the energy buzzing through his nerves and muscles, Rasil steps up, focuses his ki into his invisible back, arms, and hands, then begins quickly firing arrow after arrow at the floating enemies; all the while trying not to show his concern for Yura as the farm-boy clutches his splitting head.
Felling fully rejuvenated, Vars pipes up "Thanks Mahb, that thing almost dropped me. "
Only one of Rasil's arrows strikes true, the others are deviated by the light corona of the monsters. Their rays of brilliant light graze the elderly man, singing some of his hair but leaving him otherwise unharmed. An eldritch clicking that doesn't sound like any language is heard through the room - or is it in your mind?
Duke Vars will activate his winged boots and fly back into the room towards where he remembered them to be. He has blindsense 30' so he can pinpoint them when he gets close.