Etiana starts forcing the ape-like to focus much attention on her by successfully attacking his breast, giving Yakanzi a better opportunity to fight the creature.
The invisible Yakanzi easily grapples the ape-like without much problem under the thing surprise by not seeing him. The attack makes the Mwangi brawler visible.
Ragnar tries to hit the bestial creature but even with the clumsiness of being grappled, it is able to dodge the attack in the last moment.
The creature tries to slam his grappler with a direct punch to the head.
The man though dodges the punch with ease as he maintains the grapple.
Ragnar hits the ape-like with the blunt part of his sword, leaving the thing almost unconscious but still fighting strongly to kill everybody in the room.
Yakanzi feels a sudden pain in the stomach, perhaps some piece of the breakfast? The ape-like profits it to break the grapple.
Xoricon expert attack strikes the brute stabing an arrow in a lung. As the ape-like goes unconscious in Yakani's arms, the Mists seem to pour out from his mouth and his body comes to a more relaxed and human shape.
The second channel brings the bald man up, he looks around at you, backing himself at your sight clearly scared.
"W-What happened?" he then looks at the fallen body next to him and starts to sob "Oh no! Sheg! Sheg! Who beat your head like that..." he places his head over the fallen half-orc guard and cries inconsolable.
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Etiana rushes over to the sobbing guard, and comforts him as she speaks in a soothing voice. "I am so sorry about your friend."
The cleric of Calistria gives the man a moment to grief, before broaching the subject of the happenings. "We're trying to keep this from happening in the future. Can you help us? What do you remember about your time here?"
Understanding the party are here to help the guard talks out trying to keep his mourning. He squints to see you, probably lost his glasses, "Sorry, my name is Maldroog. I know nothing about what is going on in the museum. We were enjoying the day, just a person has come so far. He sold out some objects he has said to bring from the Mwangi Expanse. Some time later, this Mists surrounded the whole museum. The last thing I remember is Sheg and me saw Nigel carried away by a host of mad, slavering apes and monkeys. Then everything went black." he looks at Etiana, cristal eyes "Can I go now? I want to go far from this mist and bury my colleague."
A bit soothed by Ragnar kind words, the man takes the fallen body "Thanks a lot kind fighter. I hope you are able to help rid the museum from this curse. I hope Nigel has survived the horror." and so he leaves disappearing through the mist.
Before leaving he says "Nigel offices are past the Honored Dead Exhibit"
At that point someone shows Yakanzi the map the venture captain provided.
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"Well, that was mildly helpful. You know, in Taldor, we have windows to let out the bad vapors. Mind you, we need them. Some of those nobles are quite overfond of their broadbeans, if you follow me." Xoricon smooths his beard and looks about. "Well, on to the Honored Dead. Let us up they stay dead and we stay alive, friends."
The mists here congeal into a thick and silvery fog that cools the lungs. Arranged throughout this large hall are exhibits on the funerary traditions of several civilizations, along with preserved corpses arrayed in grim stillness.
A giant warrior looms from the haze, his arms crossed at his chest, his helm solemn and still.
Beyond lie sarcophagi of varied designs, and a few glass cases wherein withered dead are held upright by rods and string; grim exhibits of long-dead citizens whose fallen empires were erased an age past.
A placard above this hall reads “The Honored Dead” in blood-red calligraphy.
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The petite cleric peers in from the side of the door, behind the hefty brawler. Her eyes take in the sight of the solemn warrior and the various sarcophagi, and she fights the slight unease within her. "I much prefer the presence and the company of the living to the dead. Didn't the guard say Nigel was taken away by apes and monkeys? Do you think he's still at the office?" Her glance follows her thought over to the right, looking for the door to the office.
All Etiana can see from the door is another area covered in shadows, where probably the wall with the offices door lies.
After throwing the light bolt with her crossbow, Etiana can better see the North-East region, where a door lies, most probably leading to the offices.
Coldness and silence is the only thing receiving the Mwangi warrior.
You hear a whisper in the Mists, a promise for another life "Bring me the fresh souls, bring me the fresh meat and you will be free from the torment of this death."
Once you carefully reach the centre of the room, the corpses in 4 of the exposition coffins start to move, stand over the coffins and getting out. They are clearly looking at you aggressively.
The farthest one, next to the office door, is a withered, mummified thing from beneath Osirion’s sands bearing a jeweled scarab on its chest among its spiced wrappings, a scarab seer and warrior-priest of an old Pharaonic age.
The creature is a ghoul. An undead able to paralyse with its attacks any victim but elfs. They don't have damage reduction. Undeads can be damaged by positive energy like that one from channel energy or cure spells.
Another is a hulking skeleton, a towering ancestor of the Kellid race who wields a greatclub fashioned from a mammoth’s ivory tusk.
The third is a shrunken, emaciated corpse wrapped in rotten silks, and holding a silvered Qadiran scimitar in its bony fists.
Both creatures are human skeletons, an undead creature. They have damage reduction against any weapon not dealing bludgeoning damage. Undeads can be damaged by positive energy like that one from channel energy or cure spells.
The last one is an armored warrior of a long-dead empire, clad in heavy discolored bronze plates and helm.
A human zombie, an undead creature. They have damage reduction against any weapon not dealing slashing damage. Undeads can be damaged by positive energy like that one from channel energy or cure spells.
As the party was advancing carefully the surprise is only mild, Yakanzi even succeeds to react faster than the foes!
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Etiana looks at the risen undeads pensively. She manages to recall enough about the skeletal undeads to call out some advice. Pointing to the hulking skeleton and the shrunken, emaciated corpose whose bony fists gave away its character, the halfling cleric warns the party as they prepare to engage. "These two can absorb weapon damage. It's best to try blunt force against them!" Sadly, the servant of Calistria does not carry such instruments by habit, and she eyes the undeads warily as she wonder what she can do to help.
The drawing movement of his morningstar makes Yakanzi miss the balance and fail to hit the skeleton standing in front.
He then listens behind the kellid war chief raising his finely crafted ivory greatclub and stepping down of the coffin ready to hit the Mwangi warrior from it's back!
The attack though is clumsy due to the skeleton poor movement and the ivory head hits the floor, with a resounding Clonk!. That could have easily dropped a normal humanoid.
Similarly, the Qadiran Warlord of Old raises his scimitar and tries to slash the warrior.
The old Qadiran warlord still remembers how to move the scimitar, and even the warrior is carefully watching for the incoming attacks, a small slash goes over his defenses by very few.