Karo moves up to flank the undead dog with Morin. He swings his curved blade down at the thing.
Seeing the tide turn against the dogs, Morin calls out "A fine shot, Karo. Let's end these beasts!" He strikes at one of the remaining hounds.
Chloe blearily looks on, relieved that the battle appears almost over. All the same, she channels one more time; more for her own sake than anyone else's.
Tekk begins cursing in Orcish as he unleashes an overhand strike against the undead monster.
With most of the corpse pack destroyed, Sarusa stays with Gellig, hoping to aid her paralyzed companion.
Karozekas rushes forward and carves a massive slice of rotting meat off the undead wolf's haunch. Morin buries one of his swords inside the thing's maw, destroying its brain and releasing whatever fell necromancy animated it from the animal's decaying flesh.
Tekkis finally manages a swift kick to his opponents face, driving it back enough to follow through with his mattock. The heavy maul breaks the putrescent canine's back and mashes it into the turf.
Chloe releases life-giving energy once more, drenching everything in golden light for an instant, before the muted colors of the overcast day return.
The battle is over, and the silent mists once more reign over the Pauper's Graves.
In less than a minute, feeling returns to Corbyn's and Gellig's extremities as whatever foul slaver held them motionless dissipates in their bodies. The only sounds are your ragged breathing, and Dodi's nervous whinny.
"So...lunch?"
Sarusa looks around for a moment, giving Gellig a reassuring pat, wiping blood off of his skin. "Oh, we forgot to explore the tomb. Tomb exploration, then lunch?"
Yes, tomb then lunch.says Karo as he puts away his blade and begins to climb back onto the roof of the tomb.
Morin waits for Karo to climb the rope back up to the roof, then skimbles up after him, saying as he does so "I finished my lunch the first time I climbed up here, so I'm ready to go in whenever you all are. Though I might want to have someone go with me, this time..."
The instant the battle ends, Chloe takes a seat on the roof, clinking in the plate.
"Well, if... if we're going to do this normally, then Tekkis should get his armor back, though.. I'm going to admit that I-I'm not at my best."
"Glad y-you're mobile, Corbyn. I don't blame you for the a-aversion, but with any luck, you'll be in the back, with me... where your b-bow does the speaking, yes?"
"Let's see if we can figure out how these dogs got out of the tomb. Sure would be easier to walk in than climb down from the roof."
"And Chloe, thanks for soothing our wounds. But all the same, would you mind if I got my work clothes back? I feel naked out here without a metal shell around me!"
"Oh, o-of course, Tekkis. Forgive me, though... I may have bled on them a bit... I can clean them later, of course."
Chloe removes the helmet first so she can see what she's doing when removing the rest of the chassis.
Tekk raises an eyebrow and grins, "I'm more worried it'll smell of a woman now than any of your blood."
"And it has been a long time since anything of Tekk's smelled like a woman," says Sarusa with a chortle. "We are still up and about; let's draw weapons and look to see how they exited the tomb."
She and Gellig walk and amble that way.
"O-okay. Sorry, this takes a long time to take.. off...," Chloe concedes, trying to move hastily.
"Also, there doesn't... doesn't seem to be anything wrong with smelling like a woman, I think? But it's okay, you'll still smell like very... much yourself, I imagine. Unless you want t-to smell like a woman, Tekkis? I can oblige, all we need.. are a few grasses, some water, scrubbing..."
Sarusa stops after a few paces. "Yoo hoo! Anyone coming with? They couldn't have just been trapped in there. "
"P-patience, Sarusa, please...?" Chloe begs, dropping bit by bit of Tekkis's armor down below after she roughly ascertains where that is. She then tries to put on her leather armor. If left unchecked, it is exceedingly obvious that she will put parts on inside-out.
"Karo, before you go up, can you help get these straps tight? Tough to do myself."
"I'll go with you Sar, just let me get dressed."
Tekk proceeds to don is plate as Chloe drops pieces down from the roof, dancing around on the ground as her aim changes from one moment to the next. The half-orc wisely lets the heavier pieces just hit the ground. Occasionally he scowls as he sniffs a piece before putting it on...
"Be sure to tighten his corset well, Karo; Tekkis is a proper gentleman," snorts Sarusa as she stands a few paces off.
As Tekkis dons his armor and his friends jibe him mercilessly, Morin chuckles and looks down from the roof, saying to everyone, "I think whichever way we're going to go, we should all go together, rather than splittin' up our crew. We can try to find where the beasties came out, and if we can't find it or it's too small for all you big folk, we'll come back here and go in through the roof. What I don't want to do is have me and Karo and Chloe wait here while the rest of you wander off in the fog, in a graveyard that we know to be infested with devil dogs, and just hope everything works out okay. So give us a moment to get back down and we'll join ye."
Morin then turns to Chloe and offers to assist with her descent, "I can rig up a rope with a turn around one of these stone teeth on top of the wall, and Tekk and Corbyn could lower ye down easy once I tie ye in, if you'd like."
"Oh, it's... it's okay, Morin, I don't need lowering if there's no rush now that I'm not in Tekk's shell.. provided n-no more dogs show up, of course!"
Finishing with her straps, Chloe chuckles.
"Judging by the way... this is going, we can go Sarusa's way, first, then back up here..."
Seeing Morin help Chloe, Karo climbs down the rope and help Tek with his armor. So are we all going to investigate then?
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"I can rig up a rope with a turn around one of these stone teeth on top of the wall, and Tekk and Corbyn could lower ye down easy once I tie ye in, if you'd like."
"Thanks for the offer Morin, but I think I'd rather take my chances following Sarusa. I dont have a god vantage point to shoot into the mausoleum from the roof and am nervous about lowering anybody in a second time after just about dropping you to your death. Dropping poor Chloe too would not sit well on my conscience. Besides, we cant just let her run off all by her self."
Without waiting for a response from anybody he runs off after Sarusa.
After Tekkis re-armors himself and Chloe, Morin and Karozekas return from the top of the crypt to the earth below, Corbyn easily spots the trail of crushed grass and weeds left by the corpse pack. It leads west, through the mists, amongst the grave stones. By the dates on the monuments, this section of the graveyard ranges between twenty-five and sixty years since interment.
The mists swallow the crypt behind you, and the tracks lead to an open grave with rotted wood planks, bone fragments and scraps of cloth over a sinkhole large enough for a wolf to squeeze through.
Tekk grimaces at the size of the hole the wolves used. "Well, I'm not getting in that way."
He stomps back to the tomb. "Let's get this over with, but lower me first." He raps his breastplate with his knuckles. "If anything else shows up, I'll hold it up until everyone can get down there and help out."
Morin looks at the hole that Corbyn is working to expose and says, "Well, it's about as I expected, I'm the only one of us likely to fit in there, and there won't be room for much beyond dagger work once I'm in. If all of us - or at least most of us - are going to go in, we'll have to go down the rope. You ready to do some more climbing, Karo? You and I will get good and fit, we keep adventurin' with these folks."
"Back to the lowering plan? I prefer that to squeezing."
"I fear I'm not p-prepared to be buried, just yet. I'd also prefer.. the way we'd already seen... Sorry, Corbyn..."
"Rather than lower you in Tekk's armor again, Chloe, I suggest that Tekk and armor go first, and we follow as a group. With the rope well tied off, of course."
I could be lowered first. I still have a spell that sends flames from a distance. Karo glances at Tek with an appraising eye. I think I weigh less too, no offense Tek.