Attack the same one again.
Riley 5 ft steps to flank the skelly with Kjel.
Riley and Kjel both hit with their attacks, Riley's seeming to do more damage than Kjel's, who's seems to have done minimal damage. Riley's target seems the most damaged at this point, while Lineera's skeleton seems mostly undamaged now. Kjel's is somewhere in between the two, but closer to Lineera's than Riley's.
The darkness seems to swirl again for a moment, rolling in upon itself. Then the drow speaks once more. "Now push that one back! Get it away from the others!"
"This feels so... good." The distorted voice of Lineera emanates from the darkness again. Then more of the necromantic energy is pulled from the tower and rushes into the darkness.
And then, just as it began, the darkness fades, revealing Lineera in the middle, looking perfectly fine, and normal.
As the darkness abates, Lineera, looking healthy as can be, is already in the midst of casting a spell.
Junior V attempts to attack the skeleton next to him.
He misses.
Eva throws a bomb into the darkness behind the skeletons, hitting them with splash damage.
Lineera decides to take the opportunity Mahb provides to join into the attack against the middle skeleton.
"Riley! Junior's in position! Let 'em have it!"
The remaining two skeletons attack, one at Kjel and one at Lineera.
Both miss.
Kjel, out of the corner of his eye, notices that a large flower bulb has, while everyone is distracted, lowered from the roof to the altar, and is now opening, revealing a half-orc that you know from town. Tanyasha, she's been missing since between the two kids disappearances. Nobody thought much of it, since she was never real popular, being a half-orc. She has her dog on her lap, and seems to be watching the fight with amusement.
"I think the cause of all this has come to gloat" and he nods over to the half orc while chopping at a skeleton within reach.
power attack
The middle skeleton goes down under Kjel's blade.
The Half-Orc smiles and gives a golf clap before kissing her dog on the head and giving it a snuggle.
Riley moves into a flank with the last skeleton. He goes around to avoid an AOO (arrows).
Riley looks over his shoulder at the half orc as he attacks the last skelly. You're next b&@@*!
The half orc laughs. "Oooh, he's cute, Rylee. I think we'll save him to play with later?" The dog growls at Riley.
Mahb turns at the sound of the voice, her dark eye examines the plant/woman while her cataracted eye tries to hex it. "Well, you're a sight... Gotta a green thumb, do ya? If ya wanted to talk, now's yur chance."
Eva holds her action, not sure how to throw anything without hitting an ally.
Kjel will move adjacent to the orc, but it's a doubel move so he can't attack.
"I'll get that smile off your face hag!"
The half-orc looks up as Kjel charges over, and the smile vanishes from her face. "Oh darn, well, I guess if you want to play before the next wave of fodder comes in to kill you, I have no choice. Ok Rylee, time to eat..." She pushes the dog off her lap, and then she screams in pain as her skin begins to writhe on her body. The skin moves as if something under it were moving, like snakes or vines, and then it splits open and falls off like an over-rotten rind. From inside emerges a combination of plant and orc, with thorn covered tendrils that dance and move independently from her arms.
The dog howls in pain as it goes through a similar transformation, but instead of something that looks almost alive it's flesh rips and tears and falls in bloody gobbets. What is left is a much larger skeleton wrapped with the same vines that the half-orc now exhibits.
Her hissing voice fills the tower, every leaf and vine vibrating in perfect harmony, making the voice reverberate around the party. The vines whip around her, hissing through the air.
The skeleton continues going for Lineera, it's favored target.
The skeleton's vine wrapped arm slams into Lineera again, and the sound of bones cracking is heard. Unfortunately, the cracked ribs appear to be Lineera's, not the skeletons.
Lineera grits her teeth and pushes herself through the pain. "Put it down Riley, Junior!"
"I am about tired of you Junior! Leave my best lady alone!"
Between Lineera and Riley, they take down the last of the plant skeletons. It collapses in a pile of vines and powdered bones.
The plant-woman shrugs off Mahb's evil eye.
Junior, being rather unintelligent, smashes the downed skeleton.
You are unsure exactly what she is, however, the plant parts of her resemble plants you've seen diagrammed in books about the negative energy plane.
Junior, not being the brightest of skelly's, smashes the downed skeleton again.
Eva moves forward, knowing she's taking a risk, but feel's it's worth it. Pulling out and concocting one of her bombs, she chucks it at Tanyasha, aiming to hit her on the right. .
"OK, I didn't expect that."
and he will chop away at the weird plant lady thing.
The bomb goes wide, but only Tanyasha is hit.
It is not a shock that Eva misses, for she is shocked when the vines on the woman's body whip out and strike her, making blood spray as they impale her through the stomach, taking advantage of her momentary distraction from attacking by throwing.
The dog runs forward at an angle, dodging to avoid an attack of opportunity. Kjel blinks at the odd movement, and fails to get off an attack.
The skeleton dog rips into Kjel's leg, tearing tendons and flesh as it bites down.
Kjel is pulled off balance for a second, and almost knocked down, but manages to recover despite the damage to his leg.
Kjel's axe then lands a good solid blow on the plant woman, but she doesn't appear all that upset by it.
She grins widely, showing off triangular teeth, and then the vines on her body whip out, one at Kjel, another at the wounded Eva.
The attack on Kjel misses horribly, but the vine whips forward and slams into the diminutive gnome again.
The small gnome looks near death after two vicious attacks.
"Eva!" Lineera winces as her rib tells her not to move too fast. Hobbling forward, Lineera outstretches her hand once again calling on her power and the power of the tower to surge towards Rylee. "Riley! Keep an eye on Junior, see if he starts acting weird! If so, put 'em down!"
Mahb ignores the passions of the moment. "She bears the marks of the Dead Plane but she ain't no demon of that realm... Lineera, she might be one of the dead. Do you recognize her?" The hag takes a moment to weave a foul spell. Webbing sprays across the plant-woman trying to pin her between the ceiling wall and pedestal.
Mahb shuffles forward cautiously, her bleeding wounds still dripping.
Eva hit the ground, her wounds bleeding. She thought she had been far enough away, and for just a moment, the world blacked out. Next thing she knew she was just lying there on the floor, though her wounds were a little less major. She just laid there, not wanting to move yet.
The dog shakes itself and growls at Lineera.
Junior collapses into a pile of dust.
You've heard of these things, when you did research on the creature the others were trying to summon. It's a merger of undead energies and living plants from the negative energy plane. It has all the benefits of undeath, and all the benefits of being alive at the same time. It's considered an abomination, obviously. Unfortunately they don't seem to have any of the drawbacks of either, so they can be healed by negative or positive energy.
Riley double moves to within 20 ft of Tanyasha.
"It's undead voodoo with live plants, good parts of both Mahb! Doesn't mind negative or positive energies!"