Lyrica wraps a bandage around the slash in her neck and rallies her fighting spirit, certain this is just a test from Sarenrae to prove her worthiness. You are healed.
Lyrica feels the healing energy and she smiles, knowing that the Everlight flows through her.
"All is well, and we may continue!"
Entering into the room of the ornate sarcophagus, Lyrica looks around with wide eyes. "A silver sword, a brass lever, and an ornate sarcophagus. This is a rather strange sight. I wonder what this is all about!"
Lyrica will concentrate and use detect evil before entering the room and look into the other spectrum to see if she can see any auras of evil.
Lyrica moves boldly to the doorway - with Marcus trailing more cautiously - and sweeps the room with her holy vision...
"I am not sensing the presence of evil auras, but stay alert, because I am still not feeling at all safe here. There could likely be traps or some sinister magic waiting to curse us. I wonder if we should draw forth the silver sword, or pull the brass lever? This is where I wish I had some foresight into what consequences my actions may cause."
Lyrica puts her club away and draws forth her scimitar, just in case.
Marcus approaches slowly and cautiously, looking for evidence of any hidden mechanisms.
Marcus creeps towards the sarcophagus, spotting no traps along the way. As he draws close he can finally see what awaits in the coffin...
Lyrica will remain still at S31 for the present.
Jak follows Marcus (S.32), detecting for magic again.
"For all we know, that sword might be keeping something in that sarcophagus. Best to leave it alone. The lever might open up the doorway to the Forgotten though."
Marcus creeps towards the sarcophagus, spotting no traps along the way. As he draws close he can finally see what awaits in the coffin...
Marcus lifts the glowing bracelet high to look into the deep, thick walled sarcophagus and sees... a woman. Correction, it was a woman. Marcus stands near her feet looking across the naked and mostly decayed form. Like the body, the once plush furnishings in the coffin have gone to rot. They are tattered remains now. The silver-bladed sword is sheathed through her sternum and into the coffin's bottom. The flesh has pulled away from the wound - seared it seems. You imagine the woman must have been dangerous at one point because, while her body and furnishings have decayed, the restraints that once held her have not. Broad and ornate manacles trap her forearms and chain them to the sides of the coffin. Thick metal straps bolted to the floor of the coffin encircle her hips and neck. Even her ankles are manacled.
From the twisted position of her arms and legs, she didn't die well. Her long-nailed hands, frozen in rigor, claw at the lining of the coffin. Her face, turned to one side and pressed into the rotting cushion amid a luxurious spray of black hair, is locked in a fanged snarl. Despite how gaunt her face is now... she must have been quite pretty once.
MAP: Overview (updated)
""For all we know, that sword might be keeping something in that sarcophagus. Best to leave it alone. The lever might open up the doorway to the Forgotten though."
"I'm not certain what happened here, but what you are saying seems reasonable, Aerik. Let me try the lever."
Lyrica walks over to the lever (Q27) and waits for everyone's approval before she attempts to move it.
Jak frowns, "Well, hold on a second, Lyrica." He looks at the sarcophagus, the sword, the lever, and the mural. "I can't see any magic coming off the sarcophagus or the sword, but I hate to do anything hastily."
He wanders closer to the murals, looking to see if there are any images of reminiscent of anything they've run into in the Barrows.
Ezekiel keeps an eye the way they came, near the end of the group, though he can't help but look over his shoulder back towards Jak occasionally. He mutters to himself, though with the quiet it's not nearly as silent as he had thought, "This waiting is worse than charging ahead."
"I agree with Jak. Sometimes magic can be masked. I don't like the idea of disturbing that corpse right now. Help me check this area. The obvious lever seems suspicious to me."
While Jak is investigating the walls, Lyrica will iinvestigate the sarcophagus itself. She will not touch anything, but she will look inside and outside to see if there are any markings on it.
Aerik and Lyrica look over the brass lever and the wall around it very carefully. They find no religious iconography that they recognize on or near the handle. It seems devoid of traps - either contact, needle-like, or anything else their minds can readily imagine. For all intents, it appears to be an operating lever... the question is: to what?
Meanwhile, Marcus keeps an eye on the the silver sword, the sword-pierced corpse resting in the deep bowl of the sarcophagus, and his fellow townsmen and kinsmen as they examine the room.
Jak slowly and meticulously works his way along the wall, scanning the mural and throwing an occasional glance at the sword and corpse. Several of the murals feature the armored gnolls. A smaller fresco in the northwest corner shows a scene of gnolls, under the overseeing humans, carrying a set of elaborate coffins into a tomb. The top of the last coffin is open and holds a manacled human-ish figure who appears to be screaming and trying to break free. The mural is too old to see the features on the figure - so it isn't possible to tell if it is a woman or if he/she is fanged. For Jak, this fits no tale he's ever heard save for the ones regarding the punishment of vampires.
Jak rounds the corner and begins to examine the northern wall. His curious glance falls on the fanged woman's head again, since her mouth snarls in his direction. Her eyes spring open and her ancient jaw works to make words.
"Wanna show a girl a good time, lover?" She smiles lasciviously. Then, from beneath the metal band at her neck, the head twists and yanks free of the body, pulling most of the writhing internal organs along with it. Her beautiful black hair acts like dark wings that propel her head and 'body' from the sarcophagus... and straight at Jak. Her fangs seek his throat. Wary as Jak is, he throws an arm up to evade the foul creature's 'kiss'.
Marcus is so shocked by the sight, he fails to notice the clawed hands getting a firm grip in the casket. They pull their severed wrist stumps from beneath the broad fore-arm manacles then - like necrotic spiders - they scuttle expertly up the inside of the sarcophagus and leap at their victims. Marcus, reeling from the suddenly flying, organ-dragging head, manages to bat the five fingered abomination away from him as it scrabbles up his armor and attempt to choke the life from him.
Lyrica, back to the casket, turns a moment to late. She sees the fingers mount the edge of the coffin and then there is only a blur as the spidery hand leaps and buries its dirty claws in the side of her neck. Slick with blood, it can't maintain its grip and falls back onto the lip of the sarcophagus.
9|14
10|10
10|10
13|15
12|14
Hand v Lyrica AC:16 FF
Hand v Marcus AC:15 FF
Aerik is the first to shake off the horror of what you face and spring into action...
ORDER:
MAP: The Judas Kiss
9|14
10|10
10|10
13|15
12|14
Aerik, a look of sheer revulsion on his face, strikes out at the nearest hand with his sickle.
"Will these horrors never end?"
Aerik leaves a groove in the back of the hand but the necromantic energy is strong in it. It's joints and sinews remain firm. It tenses to spring as the druid steps toward the corner of the room.
The foul head presses close to Jak, its organs rubbing wantonly against his armor as her hair twines about his face. She whispers seductively in his ear, "Come'on, love. Give us a little kiss, eh?" before burying her elongated fangs deeply into his neck.
Blood belches from the wound and she greedily sucks it down. As she pulls back to regard Jak, his blood giving her lips a glossy sheen of crimson, he can see color has also returned to her pallid skin - flushing her cheeks. Even her organs appear less dessicated.
ORDER:
MAP: The Judas Kiss
9|14
10|10
7|10
13|15
12|14
Round 1
"Jak, I really wish you had better taste in women. Normally I wouldn't interfere, but If you don't mind, I will try and get you out of this date!"
Lyrica takes her scimitar and hacks at the hands that are moving closer (Q28).
Lyrica's blow cuts two fingers from the hand but it still dodges capably on the remaining three clawed digits.
"WHAT THE HELLS?! GET'ER'OFFME!" Jak yells as he stumbles back next to Lyrica. Maybe it's the plaintiff horror, maybe it's the now-bone-deep sense of companionship everyone feels, maybe it's just something about the situation... but for whatever reason, his yell makes everyone fight a little harder.
Marcus waits until Jak disengages from the floating head, then steps up, swinging Beula at the fanged mouth.
Marcus parts the creature's black wings of hair with a well placed axe blow to the skull. Jak's blood intermixed with black bile spurts from the wound. The fell beast turns on the ranger pouting. "Wait your turn, sugar... unless you boys want to tag-team me?" She licks the remains of Jak off her ruby-stained lips.
Jak takes the gift of the monster's shift in attention to fall back next to Lyrica.
Round 1
Hearing the commotion, Ezekiel heads back. Seeing the creepiness before him, he pulls out and thorws one of his explosive concoctions into the middle of the swarm of creatures.
The sound of breaking glass precedes a wall of fire exploding from the sarcophagus. The head screeches in anger, her black hair charring. Along the rim of the coffin, a three-fingered hand leaps for Lyrica's face and is briefly backlit by the blast before it is blown into ashes. Skin blisters on the remaining hand as it springs for the ranger's throat. The blast sends it tumbling - to bounce off Marcus' chest.
ORDER:
MAP: The Judas Kiss
9|14
10|10
7|10
13|15
12|14
3 DAM
3 DAM
6 DAM
Hand v Marcus AC:17
Aerik lunges forward (R-28) strangely inspired by Jak's plea for help. ;)
The point of Aerik's sickle enters the fleshy portion between the creature's thumb and forefinger and only stops when the tip collides with the sarcophagus on the other side - neatly skewering the hand and severing tendons. As he pulls the blade free, the thumb drags uselessly behind the beast.
Marcus has little time to react as the head - amid dripping organs - floats languidly over towards him and enshrouds his face with her scorched and stinking hair. She bats her eyes like a harlot and purrs at the ranger, "Are you as ready for me as I am for you?" Then she surges forward to bite deeply into the side of his face - gnawing on his flesh and drinking his blood amid coos of pleasure.
As she pulls away her face - from cheeks to chin - is heavily streaked with Marcus' blood and she looks younger than she did a moment before. It's almost as if the blood is renewing her...
ORDER:
MAP: The Judas Kiss
9|14
10|10
7|10
13|15
9|14
All - Inspire Courage +1
~ Bad Guys ~
All - major creepout factor
Let me tell you all about myself...
Our girl here is a variant of a Vargouille called a Pananggalan. Normally they have a 'living body' so during the day they walk around like any other person and at night the head and organs detach and go hunting. Then, before dawn, they return all fattened and fed and sink their organs into a jar of vinegar to shrink them down to normal size so they can fit back into their 'body'. Sweet, eh? :D
Anyhow, on to the stats and goodies.
AC: OK - 15
CMD: Good
HP: Good - 3 dice and change
Saves: Fort and Ref are good, Will is a bit weaker
Attacks:
Attack 1: Bite + Poison... the poison will make any magical healing VERY difficult (essentially a caster level check vs high DC for a spell or potion to work). Natural healing works fine.
Attack 2: 'Kiss'... that will slowly begin to turn the victim into a Pananggalan over the course of a day or so. Curing it would require a Cure Disease... in other words, it would be nearly impossible at your level and, given how far you are from civilization, you are unlikely to reach help in time.
Attack 3: 'Shriek'... This has a pretty low save but will paralyze everyone in sight within 60' of her for several rounds. There are a few ways to end the paralysis.
1) Time
2) Losing sight of her
3) Any victim she successfully attacks (with Bite or Kiss) is 'released'
DEFENSES:
Standard stuff EXCEPT... the blood she drains from her bite damages the victim and heals her - point for point.
Round 2
Lyrica dances past Jak and around the sarcophagus to O29 and attacks the head of this fiend with her scimitar.
"Excuse me, Jak. Let me show you how to deal with an undesirable wench!"
As she approaches the undead, she declares boldly "Sarenrae will not tolerate your undeath. It is time to die again!"
As Lyrica gets a close inspection of this strange undead creature, she tries to determine what it is.
Suddenly, a string of his ma's famous campfire stories come to mind, "Gray Fog! She's a Pananggalan! Her bite's poison will block healing magic, and her kiss's poison – whatever that means – will turn you into one of her kind. And the Mist take us if she screams! The blood she bites from you will heal her, so we need to overwhelm her fast, though in the stories they have weak minds!"