Viktor wipes his blade off. "I am sorry Halara, if I slowed us down. Let us continue on." He searches the room.
Besides the bodies with the open chests, and the covered in blood map of Mendev there doesn't seem to be much else in the room.
"What do yall make of the open chests? Something came out of them or wounds?"
"No idea. I still don't see the shard. Perhaps this map was used by them?" She takes a look at the map, trying to identify anything that could be of use. Halara also searches the open chests for anything inside.
The map seems to have been in the place beforehand, but an examination of the bodies reveals that all of their hearts are gone. The wounds around the chest area of each body seems to indicate that the hearts were torn out by some creature with powerful jaws like a wolf.
Ophelia scratches her chin thoughtfully.
"Maybe this was a meeting room, but this creature stumbled in here and saw a buffet..." she speculates. "Unless we are missing some significance about that map, it seems like there is nothing of use in this room. Perhaps we should investigate elsewhere."
"To the next room, then!" She points to one of the rooms they missed, and which was on a favored spot near the stairs. They could not leave it unchecked before going down the hallway.
Viktor nods in agreement with Halara, leading the way into the room near the stairs she suggests.
The southern portion of this room holds a wide alabaster basin filled with bloody entrails. The outside of the basin is carved with images of warriors around a raised sun, holding longswords aloft. A flight of stairs ascends to the west. Six zombies stand in the room looking into the basin mournfully. When they turn and see you they begin to move forward and attack.
"Let them come! Bottleneck them at the door" She readies an attack to go off when any enemies gets in range of her fauchard (in front of Viktor). "Once they get close I'm gonna show them my love!"
Val will delay and see what happens.
Without a clear line of sight, Ophelia again finds herself unable to do much of anything.
Micah also waits for the bottleneck with the others. The zombies begin their advance towards the party their stench reaching the group before they do. As the first one reaches Viktor Halara cuts it down with her fauchard. The next one reaches Viktor, and tries to slam him with its meaty fists.
The zombie's fist fail to connect as Viktor quickly raises his shield and blocks the incoming blow with it.
"Hah! I can hold off these creatures for days!" Viktor cuts at the one in front.
"I can cut them in seconds!" She strikes once again, and then talks to Viktor. "Take a step back Viktor, let us circle the one who come and kill them faster!" She moves to the side, letting him occupy her previous space, if he wants.
Viktor cuts the zombie, but it remains standing defiantly for a few seconds before Halara's blow brings it down. Slicing the body into two pieces.
Delay with no action..
Seeing that Viktor and Halara have things under control, Ophelia opts to simply wait and conserve her firepower for a battle when it will actually be needed.
The shaman thus gets ready to slice the enemies as they show up!
Another zombie moves forward and attacks Viktor.
And the zombie assault is bravely weathered by Viktor as he defends from each attack without pause keeping the undead in check at the doorway. Halara's first attack taking down a zombie so that another may move into it's place for Viktor to smite.
Viktor continues his own chopping, laying the undead to rest. Cannon fodder like these shouldn't waste their spellcaster's precious resources when swords are so readily available.
Under the combined blows of Viktor and Halara all of the zombies are sent back to the peace of death. The room in front of the party falls quiet, but still has a horrible stench rising from the entrail filled basin.
Halara steps into the room after Viktor, making sure there is no one else there. She then detects magic to see what's the deal with the basin.
"Excellent work, you two," Ophelia says with a grateful nod. She also scans the area with Detect Magic.
The basin doesn't detect as magic, but it appears that it could be used as a focus for divination magic. Closer examination of the basin reveals holy symbols to Iomedae set around holy warriors raising their swords upwards, but the each symbol has been defaced .
"They made a mess everywhere." If there is nothing else, they move to the door to the rigt.
Val follows to the right.
At the sight of more desecration, Ophelia lets out a forlorn sigh but silently vows to keep fighting until the city is liberated.
In the room to the right lie six cots sitting in two orderly rows in this room. The bedding has been tossed on the ground, and an iron lockbox lies on its side, empty. A lidless box holds scraps of moldering food, while a pair of large barrels nearby look to be filled with water.
In the room to the left stacks of scrolls, books, maps, and more sit atop a large hexagonal table in this room. The walls are painted with detailed maps of Sarkoris, over which features of the Worldwound have been painted.
Halara detects magic around the room, and after a quick inspection in the place she is ready to leave, since she does not want to deal with the lockbox right now.
"Next room?"
Party moves to the first room to the left.
Ophelia readily follows the rest of the group.
"Lets get this place cleared already.. Lead on Viktor!"
Viktor finds the nearest unexplored room and kicks the door in.
Bookshelves line the walls of this small library. Many of the tomes have been torn to shreds, and smoldering piles of ashes fill the room with an acrid stench. One small stack of books on a circular table seem to have escaped destruction. A man-sized fiend with a goatlike head, patches of filthy fur, and hoofed feet stands guard here leaping into action as Viktor kicks down the door.
Halara will try to end the combat early, putting the enemy to sleep and making the life of a hero much easier than the books say it is.
"Slumber!"
Ophelia once again finds herself with little options other than staying put and waiting for the others to take care of business.
The arch-shaman Halara just glances over at the demon as it rises and waves her hand. The demon's eye's close without warning as it falls to the floor snoring.
Excitement, adventure, a Shaman crave not these things!
"One more for the collection... If at least all of them were so easy to handle..." Halara moves closer and gets ready for the coup de grace gangbang.
Viktor positions himself with the rest and prepares to execute.
"Ready when you are!" The party searches the room quickly and if nothing relevant is there they proceed to clean the next one, still searching the ward piece.
The goatlike demon dies on the floor without even landing a glancing blow against the party. Halara's inspection of the room finds six books on geography and tactical manuals worth 50 gold each and one book that seems to radiate magic. Nothing else seems to catch Halara's eye as she looks around.
"Nice job Halara.. That ability is starting to seem op.."