The Bone Servants's page

Soon the last of the reddish smeared skeletons is gone, and the portal winks out of existence once the last of them has withdrawn. Behind them, they leave an expanse of sand and dust through which the ruins of the palace protrude like decayed teeth, surrounded by acres of dessicated salt flats; only beyond the edges of the flats do the straggling remains of the swamp reassert themselves.

Whilst some had been actively seeking to expand the area of sand and dust, others of the reddish smeared skeletons had begun to excavate in the ruins of the palace, excavating what treasures they could find, but discarding items broken, of little value, or carrying curses. Occasionally, a pile of valuables had been removed back through the portal to whatever place they came from.
Now however, they suddenly cease their labours, and begin to withdraw, leaving much of the ruins unexcavated.

The pair who attack the portal have, for a moment, a glimpse through it of a vast cavern with thousands more of the skeletons advancing towards the portal, and then the portal slams shut, and every reddish smeared skeleton on the battlefield explodes, driving shards of bone which corrode away into toxic sludge into everything within fifty feet of them.

The reddish skeletons close with the right flank of the army of undeath, with devestating results for both sides. The massed hordes of flailing mindless undead can defeat the reddish skeletons, but many of them collapse into ash and dust too. More lines of the reddish smeared skeletons continue to advance down the hill towards the undead.
Meanwhile, blue lightning springs up around one of the units facing the dwarves, and they begin to close in one one of the dwarven flanks...
If the stone lord might like to nip behind their lines and pop a disjunction or dispel evil on the portal that they're coming through?

As the advancing dwarves meet the shielded ranks of reddish skeletons, they find their weapons unable to harm the shielded skeletons. The claws of the skeletons scratch back, though, at the darves, with horrible results.
The shielded skeletons seem reluctant or unable to leave their positions however, and the dwarves are able to fall back a little way to regroup.
More units continue to form up on the left flank of the Army of Life, and the phantasmal shields appear in front of two more.
Meanwhile, the lines on the right flanks of the army of death begin to advance down the slope, towards the undead...

The starhawks circle over the field using their powers as best they can, as well as their beaks and talons. Three of them band together to hit the advancing line of skeletons with a telekinetic push.

Shielded reddish skeletons seem immune to the push, others fall over, collapse and turn to ash.

The reddish smeared skeletons continue to arrive. Shimmering grey-blue shields spring into existence in front of the three units arranged to the fore of the dwarven advance.

The reddish smeared skeletons continue to deploy, forming up into lines, four deep, and a couple of dozen long....

Ancient magic disturbs the air, and a portal tears open. On a low ridge overlooking the flanks of both armies (the left flank of the the 'army of life', the right flank of the 'army of death'), reddish smeared skeletons with glowing blue eyes begin to deploy, out onto the ridge. The land shrivels beneath their feat, becoming sterile sand and ash, in which life is as devoid as the rot of undeath.

The cold, life-sapping, incorporeal touches of the wraiths have no discernible effect on the reddish smeared skeletons; they simply ignore the wraiths and continue about their business.

The strange reddish skeletons continue in their conversion of the thread to an ashen waste.

Even the occasional stray corporeal undead creature is not immune to the corrosive touch of the strange skeletons, zombies or regular skeletons, the animated and discarded products of itinerent necromancers, collapsing to dust before the strange onslaught. Only incorporeal undead seem untroubled by them for now.

Where the strange skeletons march, the water hisses, bubbles, and evaporates, whilst plants wither and crumble to dust. Those creatures which are able to do so flee them; others simply perish.
Where they are gathering and marching, the swamp is beginning to turn from a place of rot and decay to a place of sterile sand and dust.

Moving through a portal from an undetermined location, rank on rank of the reddish smeared skeletons are marching into the swamp, their eyes glowing blue.

Meh. The area is currently clear of us. There were only the couple more hiding out behind the dune, and The Dalesmen got them.

From behind one of the dunes, if anyone happens to be looking in that direction, the top of a red smeared skull pops up briefly, before dropping back down again.
I did sort of try to hint that there might be a few left, with Auruns saying he wasn't sure how many he saw, but he thought it was between ten and fifteen; just because a couple of groups attacked it doesn't mean that there aren't one or two observers out there still...

The Dalesman wrote:

"The Oasis is too, though in a different way from the Grove. They still managed to get in somehow, which is why I'm concerned..."

Yes, I'm still not sure how they managed to get through Sirone's wards...

We're experimental creatures; we might even be constructs animated by necromantic energy, as opposed to true undead...

[tinfoil] Or someone might have sabotaged or over-ridden the wards... :D [/tinfoil]

Down to one on one fights, it's clear that whilst these creatures have some sort of ability to fight co-operatively, as part of a pack or group, that they aren't nearly so good at coping on their own.
The last two quickly go down, finished off by Nimora and Mirathan. The skeletons on the ground rapidly start to dessicate, and crumble away into a fine grey ash.
The Oasis defenders stand there panting and sweating beneath the sun.
How good is it for aquatic subtype characters such as Nimora and Mirathan to be fighting out in the air, under the sun, irrespective of whether or not the bard's tattoos allow them to respire normally?

The two flanking Mirathan lash out at him, as he manages to swat one of them over; ignoring the sting of his wounds, Mirathan finishes the one prone one off as it thrashes on the ground.

The Bone Servants wrote:

I'm not sure if these things are undead or not, yet, but if anyone tries to channel energy to stop them, it will do so with these ones, but they will explode sending bone-fragments everywhere in a ten foot radius.

No channelers currently at the Oasis. Would that still happen if someone hit them with a cure spell, since that's likely what Allura would do, in the battle not currently on screen?

I think a cure of 4th or lower level might just slow them down for a few seconds; a cure of 5th or higher level would probably cause these ones to go 'bang' too.

I'm not sure if these things are undead or not, yet, but if anyone tries to channel energy to stop them, it will do so with these ones, but they will explode sending bone-fragments everywhere in a ten foot radius.

As the merciless sun beats down, baking the combatants, Nimora is able to draw two about her, and get a side shot at the one Auruns is fighting, and to explode into a whirlwind of action.
She breaks several ribs, and red stuff dribbles out, to sizzle on the ground, whilst the two not distracted by Auruns as well, lash back at her.

Mirathan snares and drags one down, but as he moves to smash its skull with the butt of his trident, two others close in to flank him and rake at him with their claws.
They'll get attacks in unless Mirathan is pretty nimble or backs off on finishing the downed one off...
On the other hand, smashing the skull of the downed one (assuming Mirathan is stout of arm) will finish it off, causing it to go still (and the plant destroying effect from that one will stop within moments).

One of the groups of red 'skeletons' heads into a different part of the Oasis, whilst the other six make for Mirathan, Nimora and Auruns. They open their mouths and emit a reddish haze from their gaping jaws as they close to within ten feet.
This mist isn't actually toxic or anything, but their mistress wants to observe how the defenders react to apparent threats from unknown quantities.
Edit:
I'll assume other defenders of the Oasis handle the ones attacking elsewhere, basing any account on observations of how this fight goes.

Two groups of skeletons, each half a dozen strong and roughly adult human in shape and size, break from around the flanks of a dune, and charge towards the oasis across the sand, flexing their bony talons as they come.
The blue lights burn in their skulls, contrasting with the red smears that cover them from head to foot, and they leave red stains behind them on the sands.

From behind the dune which Auruns pointed to, a couple of hundred yards off, a number of red-smeared skulls pop up for a moment, points of intense blue light glinting in the depths of their eye sockets. Then they duck down again, out of sight.