BMO slips back out to the lab, and rummaging through the leftovers of the deceased alchemist, he picks out three smaller objects; flasks or vials, or pebble sized ingredients, whatever. He then sneaks back into the crypt and then throws one of the items at the closest skeleton diagonally across from the entrance , to rouse it, in case it is rousable; .
BMO sneaks further into the crypt , and coming all the way up to the same first skeleton, he stabs it up real good;
.
If there is still no sign of activity, he gets Dolgrin and Davina in too, and they quickly dismantle the skeletons...
BMO's rather ineffective dagger flourish gets the skeletons' attention and they begin moving towards him.
Dolgrin:
Davina:
BMO:
skeleton:
skeleton:
skeleton:
skeleton:
Dolgrin, hearing the clamor of blades on bone quickly makes his way into the crypt, to help BMO . During his move, he deftly swaps his greatsword for his mace, so as to more successfully strike the skeletons to the ground.
BMO, not entirely happy about skeletons' ability to not be hit by his blades, he steps in front of the skeleton, and attempts to hit it regardless;
Davina moves into view of the skeleton BMO just tried to hit, and makes an attempt at firing her flaming catapult with ammunition laced with special skeleton repellent;
:-C
She misses...
If only daggers worked better against bones...
The skeletons move in to surround BMO, claws flying everywhere.
BMO is not very happy at all, and suggests to Dolgrin that they retreat, to see if they can lure the skeletons out of the crypt one by one. Or at least find some position less exposed that the one they are currently in.
Dolgrin agrees, and all Two (Davina included) withdraw out into the alchemist's lair again, BMO begrudgingly accepting that the two flanking skeletons would get to scratch at him as he leaves.
One of the skeletal claws swipes BMO forearm as he moves out. All the skeletons follow the Two's reteat, the foremost of them reaching the door.
Dolgrin, with his mace in hand, lets the skeleton really feel it;
If the skeleton is still standing, BMO tries to snip at it with his daggers, even if the skeleton's ribs prove hard to hit;
Davina does nothing for now.
Dolgrin smashes his skeleton to dust, leaving BMO nothing but empty air to stab his daggers at.
With (presumable) all the skeletons now dusted, the Two are free to look around this crypt. There are lines of footprints marking the dust on the floor. All the burial nitches only contain ancient scraps of yellowed linen. A gate that appears to be crafted of bleached bone blocks the southern exit of the tomb.
The bone gate at the south end of the crypt is rigged with a sharp bone spear that stabs in front of the gate whenever it is touched.
This gate is somehow fueled by negative energy so channeling positive energy near it will likely disrupt that and cause it to open.
After taking a short rest, and chit-chatting with Magus Girl, The Two make their way back into the crypt. BMO goes first, feeling a little bad about how useless he was, intent, now, on making amends by finding all the traps.
Walking up to the very poorly hidden trap, BMO attempts to disable it;
.
While he is busy securing the area, Dolgrin and Davina investigate the crypt further.
They don't find much of interest and make their way over to BMO after a while, eager to see what's beyond the bone gate.
Around the corner BMO finds a narrow corridor ending in a solid wall. A narrow alcove in the east wall is filled by a square shaft dropping straight down into the darkness.
BMO gets quite excited about the pit, and trots back up to Davina and Dolgrin, making them come with him to look at it too.
As Davina and Dolgrin make their way down the corridor, they too are quite taken by the apparent depth of the pit.
BMO suggests roping down there, while Davina and Dolgrin suggests not to do that. The Two proceed to go back to the alchemist's lab, and then they carefully squeeze past the chute down which rotten hands must have been dropped, across to the bedroom of the alchemist and Magus Girl. Once there, they take a proper look around;
This large chamber has a vaulted ceiling, and unlike the rest of the ossuary, bears a distinct impression of habitation rather than abandonment. Lit candelabras reveal old tapestries hanging from the walls to ward off the subterranean chill, and a threadbare carpet covers the floor. Shabby furniture—a few chairs and tables, an armoire, and a dresser—flanks a large canopied bed in the center of the room, topped with satin sheets and a heap of lumpy pillows. Although everything has obviously been setup with great care, the pieces themselves have likely been liberated from rubbish piles.
Now that The Two have a proper overview of the crypts layout, Dolgrin makes some quick calculations, and estimates where the door to the west of the Skeletal Champion ought to be. In the process of doing so, The Two spend some time also properly looking through the crypt, and discussing where they think the door might be.
Regardless of whether The Two find the door or not, they need to sleep to prepare some nice spells to deal with the runt, and to gain other resources back as well. Unless the Magus Girl objects, they go back and spends the evening and night in the alchemist's lab, talking with her, probably skirting around getting her on their team. BMO is the only one with any diplomacy to speak of, so he does most of the skirting .
The Two can indeed find a secret door behind the statue directly south of the western entrance to the large central cavern. Davina and BMO both notice that all the statues in this room actually have secret doors behind them. BMO realizes that seven of these statues are trapped to shock anyone touching them . With a bit of help from a detect magic spell that Davina is sure to remember to cast, the statue of Phrasma (south-southeast statue) has an aid effect on it that will affect any creature to touch it once a day. All the statues will need to be moved over several feet to open the doors behind them.
Esme (zombie magus girl) doesn't seem too bothered by BMO direct approach to conversation. Actually, she seems to find it preferable to Svilennius’s mad ramblings. She doesn't seem inclined to join the Two in actual adventuring for the moment, but could likely be convinced to provide support (scrolls, crafting, etc.) in exchange for their protection and assistance in finding a way to help her.
The Two go over to the statue to the east-northeast, where BMO gets cracking at disabling the trap;
BMO slips, and triggers the trap, taking 4 damage.
While the trap is resetting anyway, they take the opportunity to move the statue. Dolgrin grabs it, while Davina and BMO try to help him;
.
First of all, BMO realizes that he needs to use patience with the harder-than-expected mechanism of the trap, and hunkers down for the long run, meticulously studying and then disabling the trap while it is still recharging anyway .
BMO and Davina, then, both take good hard looks at the door, and also listens at it, to determine if it's dangerous to open it;
If it seems safe, BMO opens the door, and peeks inside.
BMO is not thrilled at having to go through all the remaining traps if every one of them ends up shocking him...
Neither BMO nor Davina hear anything through the door. Upon cracking the door, BMO sees that the skeleton must have heard all the noise the Two made moving the statue because he's watching both the secret door and the other entrance. If he has noticed BMO peaking through the door, there is no indication that he intends to do anything before someone actually enters the crypt.
Davina:
BMO:
skeletal champion:
BMO, and the other two of The Two just stand outside the passage, and waits for the champion to make his way out to them.
They are lined up so that his shitty ranseur cannot immediately strike them.
The skeletal champion turns towards the now open secret door and waits for someone to enter his crypt.
After waiting for a minute or two, Skelethor remaining where he is, BMO grows tired, and goes to disarm a few other traps. Dolgrin follows, while Davina remains to keep an eye on Skelthor.
BMO starts with the first statue clockwise after Skelthor's crypt .
As he moves his tools up to the statue, he sneezes, for the first time in his entire thousands-of-years existence, and the violence of it all propels him toward the statue;
In an instant he regains control over his body, and manages to twist just at the right second to not get struck by the statue's shock.
With the trap already triggered, he easily disarms it, and Dolgrin can pull the statue away from the door.
Instead of listening at the door, though, he moves to the next statue, clockwise, and repeats the process;
.
This one he manages to disarm in the nick of time, no sneezing involved, and Dolgrin pulls away the statue.
The next statue over gets the same treatment;
Feeling that he was getting close, he makes a false move, and inadvertedly trips the trap;
but easily pulls back his hands right before the shock strikes proper.
With the trap already triggered, he takes the time to disarm it, and Dolgrin then pulls it away from the door.
He then moves on to the next statue in line, to the east-northeast;
but also this time he slips up
and worse than before, , taking quite a sting.
Be that as it may, he still disarms the trap now that he has plenty of time after being f%*&ing fried, and then Dolgrin removes the statue.
On to the next in line, to the east-southeast;
Having triggered a good many traps by now, he is getting more familiar with them. Dolgrin removes the statue.
Now the statue to the south-southeast;
"Dammit! OINVDosodivomc iamedfo imswerim i owmefiowiowet094gioeofnvsascoid weoiwemf!" he trails off on a tirade of Azlant swearing as he deftly dodges away (he's bodging the trigger at a particular point, usually, so he is at leat a little prepared for having to skedadle when he eventually does trigger the thing).
With the statue triggered, he disables it easily enough, and then Dolgrin removes it, with a sly smile on his face, at seeing BMO so flustered with the traps.
Having gone all the way around, BMO is now at the last statue;
,
and almost disables it, but not quite;
but no matter, he dodges the shock, disables the now triggered trap, after which Dolgrin removes the statue.
Dolgrin decides to spend the last of his fervor for today on healing BMO back up a bit; , to almost no avail...
Assuming Skelethor has remained put, The Two walk up to the first door, and listens at it;
.
If it seems safe, BMO cracks it open, and peeks inside.
Hearing nothing behind this door, BMO opens it to find a crypt with attractive, pristinely preserved, naked bodies carefully arranged in lewd positions. Many of these bodies are, however, wearing jewelry.
The Two are now 400 gp worth of jewelry richer.
Moving on to the next door, both BMO and Davina listen carefully;
Convinced it is all clear, BMO cracks the door open.
Wanting to NOT be caught in the roiling flesh, BMO, and the other two of the Two, remain outside, and move on to the next door;
Hearing nothing at the door, BMO cracks it to reveal another crypt. All that remains of the corpses in this one is bare bones, many of which seem to have been chewed on.
BMO steps inside this chamber, looking out for any sort of danger;
Davina and Dolgrin follow after him, also keeping their eyes and ears peeled;
BMO cautiously moves into the crypt, unaware of anything other than more piles of gnawed bones in the deeper alcoves. As Davina passes the first set of alcoves, she notices a pair of eyes tracking her from behind the bones.
Dolgrin:
Davina:
BMO:
ghoul 1:
ghoul 2:
After Davina has a chance to take her surprise round action, a humanoid creature with long sharp teeth and saggy pallid skin hanging off of its starved frame bursts out from behind its bones, biting at the air over a foot in front of Davina's face.
Another creature steps out of the Alcove to the north-east of BMO, biting the air well over his head.
Davina deftly lets the ( ) ghoul taste her wrath, and lays him down with a mighty arsenic blow to his chest;
She fails.
Cocking a new sledge on her bad boy, she reattempts her knifing;
She fails again.
She shouts to Dolgrin and BMO that the creatures behind the piles are ghouls.
BMO, no hint of hesitation to his poise, strikes the beast with his dual blades;
and easily connects with the creature's sickly flesh;
"Nice B-)" he says.
Dolgrin, realizing that Davina will be in trouble since she's in a fight, rushes in to strike down the ghoul that would try to bite her. He drops his mace to the floor, wasting no time, and draws his greatsword as he moves;
His blade fulfills the destiny bestowed upon it by Gorum's destructive might;
"Gorum hath no patientsie for thy, laying wasted at my feet." He says.
BMO is pretty sure that the two ghouls are no more, that they are ex ghouls, that they have passed on, and are now roaming the hills of ghoul heaven, and subsequently, he and the other Two search the crypt;
While Davina/Dolgrin's ghoul is dusted, BMO's is still lurching towards him, guts spilling everywhere.
With surprise, BMO notes that the ghoul is still lumbering along, and he gives the undead a good talking-to;
----------------------------------------
After having dealt with the tenacious ghoul, BMO and the Two find themselves rather disappointed by the lack of valuables in this crypt. They take a breather, and move on.
At the next door, BMO and Davina, as is tradition, listens intently;
Since everything seems nice and safe, BMO cracks the door, and peeks inside.
Hearing nothing through the door, BMO peeks into another crypt, this one with a plush red carpet running down the narrow corridor between wood-paneled walls polished to a high sheen. Floating lanterns cast a gentle glow into each alcove flanking the corridor, where bodies wrapped in pristine linen are laid to rest in niches. Rather than the clammy chill of most underground rooms, this chamber is pleasantly warm, and the soothing sound of chimes tinkles softly in the distance.
While BMO cares little for the warmth, he appreciates that the crypt seems rather free of enemies at the moment. Davnia and Dolgrin are pushing a little from behind, wanting to reach the comfort of the tomb.
BMO, not seeing anything noteworthy by the entrance walks in, Dolgrin behind him, and Davina at the rear, hoping to find treasure.
The flashing colors take all Two by surprise;
and both BMO and Davina slump to the floor, seemingly as unconscious as two lumps of rock.
As Dolgrin prepares to pull Davina back outside of the crypt, he sees a gore-soaked skeleton emerge from the second northern alcove.
skeleton:
blind/stunned +1
stunned +1
BMO: unconsious/blind/stunned 7 rnds
blind/stunned +2
stunned +1
The skeleton smacks BMO with a claw, but it harmlessly glances off of his armor.
Dolgrin quickly figures that getting Davina out of the chamber is less pressing than getting BMO away from the skeleton, and as such, quite forcefully, Dolgrin rips BMO from his slumber;
BMO jerks awake, his head spinning 360 degrees, running through some sort of self test of his systems, Dolgrin realizes, as BMO keeps saying "Post on self test, Post on self test". Quickly, though, a gradually less confused BMO steps to the side, into the northern alcove, to get some cover from the miserable skeleton.
Dolgrin grabs his chance, and steps up to the skeleton, letting it taste the sweet steel of his mace;
The skeleton manages to scratch Dolgrin before gory shards of its skull are scattered across the crypt.
Davina and BMO's blindness and stunned-ness will fade within a minute. If the Two search the crypt, roll will saves again (DC 20), this time with a +2 bonus.
After a short while, Davina and BMO regain their sight. BMO wants to investigate the rest of the crypt, now that there is no skeleton of cones flying around;
"Oh, sweet lord, those are some nice gems! Help me grab them, guys!"
"I... BMO... It's not really, eh, real? You know about illusions, don't you? Yeah, this is one of those," Davina says.
"What are you on about? See here," BMO says, grabbing at a large gemstone in a sconce, but grabbing only air. "What the..."
After some more back and forth, BMO gives up, accepting his lot as gemless and illusioned.
Determined to find treasure in the next hidden room, BMO walks passes the stairs, sortwards, and listens at the door, Davina next to him, doing the same;
If all seems clear, BMO cracks the door ajar, and peeks inside, especially attentive for loot.
Hearing nothing, BMO opens the door to the next crypt to find a room even colder than the rest of these rooms. A rime of ice crystals coats the walls and the remains of the dead interred here.
Both BMO and Davina keep their senses tuned, as it seems pretty unlikely that there is nothing masty going on in here;
"Hm, there is a thick brown substance covering the floor at th..."
BMO moves into the crypt proper;
aiming for the sludge.
As he gets there, he carfully pokes at the thing with his dagger really hard;
Dolgrin comes trotting into the crypt when he sees BMO attacking something.
As BMO reaches the brown stuff, the temperature continues decreasing and he feels his arm start to seize up as he stabs it with his dagger . He does succeed in liberating enough of the stuff from under the dust to get a decent look at it.
To the best of BMO's knowledge, the Two have no simple means of doling out cold damage at the moment, and as such, he disengages the mold, and indicates to Dolgrin that he should make his way out of the chamber posthaste.
After thawing, BMO and the other Two advance to the next chamber.
At the door, both BMO and Davina listen fr dangers;
Provided all seems safe, BMO cracks open the door as usual.
BMO opens this door to find another crypt, although this one is somewhat different from the others. Only one side of this crypt has alcoves and the bodies they contained are mostly dust. The Two are able to find several ancient holy symbols of Pharasma among what's left of the remains . There is also a bone wand of disrupt undead and a secret door in the far wall.
Davina takes the symbols and the wand, fully intending to hand the symbols over to the Pharasmins at some opportune time.
BMO checks out the secret door;
If all seems safe, he cracks it open and peeks inside.
This secret door opens into the dead-end of the secret crypt in the alchemist's lair.
After listening carefully at the door, neither Davina nor BMO hear anything from the crypt beyond. Cracking the door revels a final crypt with several alcoves on either side, the remains of their occupants mostly decayed.
BMO, quite suspicious of the rather silent assailants they have faced lately, looks long and hard into the room upon entry;
He's pretty sure there are no traps or nothin'.
Davina agrees.
To BMO's surprise, he gets a big-ass glaive right in his face upon stepping into the room proper.
Unfortunately for BMO, the glaive is attacking him, not reflexing him...barely nicks him though, so maybe his reflexing helped?
Within about 10 seconds of beginning to search the crypt, BMO and Davina notice that the glaive trap resets itself. Despite their best efforts at searching, they are only able to find about 50 gp worth of coins and jewelry.
BMO takes a breather, and then Davina moves back to the doorway behind which the roiling mass of flesh was hanging out.
She launches a mega crazy hopped up spell right into the center of it;
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