“One thing before we go further...I think you’ll all find this most invigorating.” Bertrand summons his accordion again and plays a brief but spirited tune. Those who listen feel slightly more vigilant.
Bertrand is aghast. “What a grisly scene. And is that a human bone?”
Nodding his thanks to Bertrand, and trying not to inhale the terrible, coppery scent of drying blood despite his impressive sense of small, Khalaban looked around.
The smell of blood was overwhelming, however, and the Ragebred snorted and shook his head.
Following Bertrands gaze, however, he moved over to examine the bone. "It certainly seems small for a horse," he agreed.
Vixie finds herself feeling more alert at just the wrong time. ”O-oh no...” says the halfling, feeling entirely better about her decision to leave the sheep untethered, but mood considerably dampened overall.
She notices the open backpacks, but is averse to getting much closer. ”...Sh-should we turn around?”
It's stuck under the horse, though. The carcass will need to be moved if you want to pull it out.
“That bone looks quite old. Whatever poor sap it belongs to likely died long ago. So, ah...we’ve got that going for us.”
"And leave whatever has done this so close to your homes?" Khalaban shook his head at Vixie. "I fear that will only give it more time to fester. However, it is clear that this is not the simple quest of tradition. If any wish to return to town and report what we have found, it will be a blessing to warn them." And a good way out for those who did not wish to continue in the face of...this.
Looking at the bone, Khalaban frowned. "How odd. An old bone? What is it doing here?" Were the horses some kind of necromantic rite? With a grunt he tried to move the horse.
Despite Khalaban's efforts, the horse doesn't budge.
Adriana takes in the scene and asks,
"Does anybody recognize the saddles or anything?"
She will go over and check out the closed bacpacks.
Adriana finds in the closed backpack:
--2 days worth of trail rations;
--2 large, comfortable pillows;
--a quiver with 10 blunt-headed arrows;
--2 pints of lamp oil.
Vixie takes some time to size up the horse, barely holding back her breakfast at this point, but determined to help—and keep the group moving. After lifting a few individual limbs to get a feel for it, she soon hefts up its shoulder onto her back and carries it off of the bone a few feet before dropping it with a sound that’s hard to write down, but even harder to hear.
Underneath the horse isn't just a bone, but an entire yellowed skeleton--its ribs trampled and crushed from what appears to have been a blunt weapon.
Watching for a moment, Khalaban's jaw dropped as Vixie hauled the horse off which he hadn't even been able to budge, and then bellowed out a belly laugh. "Excellent! I shall know who to call next time I buy a home and need some furniture moved."
Still chuckling, he moved to look at the freshly exposed bones. Examing the damage, he looked at the horse. "Did they do this?"
Adriana looks at the little halfling with a look of speculation and lost and says,
"I think tonight we are playing a game, Vixie...after a bath."
Bertrand nods to Khalaban. "Perhaps, but probably not alone. Judging from the necromantic magic we saw earlier and this skeleton's unusual location, I'd venture to say we're dealing with undead." He gestures to the crushed skeleton. "A re-deadified undead, in this particular case. And since the remains of the presumed owner of these horses and supplies are nowhere to be seen, they must be elsewhere...perhaps inside the crypt."
Vixie smiles wide; she’s fond of a fair amount of Adriana’s games! Her face falls, however, when Bertrand voices his theory.
”A... at least we w-won’t be k-killing anything alive...?” she says, hoping to at least put her morality at ease, since nothing else was at ease lately. The wet, dead horse smell in her nostrils (and covering her back) especially.
"That... would make a great deal of sense." Maxilla offers, after having been quiet for most of the trip to this place after the descent down the slippery slope.
"If it's tied in with the wolves and that's an animated skeleton... the horses should probably be disposed of in a way to prevent them from animating themselves -- better safe than sorry, right?"
The little dragon is more focused and serious, even as they watch for possible ambushes or the like.
”I s-suppose that m-makes sense,” says Vixie. ”D-do we... bury them?”
"I think we will have to burn him."
Khalaban considered how long it would take to dig graves for the creatures, even with his powers. "Yes, I believe burning would be the wiser option. We've all heard the tales of zombies clawing there way from the grave. Better to give the poor beasts peace." And not make Khalaban do a lot of foot tapping. "I have flint and steel, but alas my torch is Everburning, and so I only have a splash of oil for cooking. Does anyone have some oil for lanterns and the like?"
"There is two pints in the backpack."
”I h-haven’t heard the t-tales,” says Vixie quickly. ”P-please don’t t-tell them to m-me.”
The two pints of lamp oil Adriana found is enough to ensure the horse bodies burn.
With the smell of burning, decaying horse behind them, the party pushes the stone doors of the crypt open. The light from outside dimly illuminates the room before them.
Before the party stands a long chamber with risen platforms on either side. A faded painting of Kassen is on the far wall. The room appears to be the site of a gruesome battle, with two bodies with backpacks piled in the centre and a number of skeletons scattered around. An echoing wail can be heard somewhere in the distance, beyond this foul chamber.
Two exits from this room are visible--one on the western wall, and one on the eastern wall.
Khalaban's ears prick at the sounds of the screaming. While he'd like to check the bodies here - another party, from Kassen, that had defied the traditions or something else? - the screams suggested someone in trouble now. He glanced between the two passages, gritting his teeth in irritation. "Can someone with better ears than I work out which way the came from?"
Vixie is starting to question her decision to come along. She was expecting considerably less dead things, perhaps. Maybe there was a reason Shyla had advised against it...
”I-I’m not sure...” whimpers the halfling, shivering in her armor—and nearly jumping out of her skin as she steps on a broken skeleton.
Adriana pauses to listen...
"I can not tell..."
"Before we go charging off to see about sounds we can't seem to focus on, why don't we make sure this room is secure first? We already know there's necromancy going on, we should probably check the two guys and their pack and ensure the skeletons aren't going to stab us in the back!" Maxilla offers pointedly, watching the exits of the room warily.
"But if somebody needs our help...a delay may make us too lare."
"If we had the time," Khalaban agreed, giving the things here a quick glance, "Then I'd agree. If we take the time, however, whoever is screaming might..." Considering his words for a moment, he settled on, "Stop." After a moment he asked, "Can you sense any magics here?" That was a thing all spellcasters could do, wasn't it?
Max will turn their attention to the bodies and the bags.
"Okay, so I'm a True Dragon. And True Dragons in their snarls ALWAYS do things like this to drag in invaders into no end of traps. We may be small but we will attrit any invader until they are begging for mercy, which we will not give because someone invaded our home and we're protecting it. Same principle applies here in this spooky place!... only we're the invaders."
Bertrand kneels down to get a closer look at the bodies.
"I know them. Gerol Tanner and Vark Lassitre... friends of the mayor." He puts a finger to his lips pensively. "Now what would they be doing here?"
Bertrand points out the exits to the others. "When we're done here, we should explore these passages. Likely to be more clues there. Oh... and unspeakable horrors, no doubt. But also clues."
As Vixie steps on a skeleton's hand, it twitches. A cold wind floods the room, carrying with it the rattling of bones. Before the party's eyes, six of the fallen skeletons pull themselves together and rise with a chilling rattle, blue fire lighting their eyes.
"Oh! It seems the horrors are already here!"
Bertrand quickly loads his crossbow and fires a shot at the skeleton next to Vixie.
Bertrand's bolt flies past the skeleton and hits the far wall.
The skeletons swarm the front line, with Vixie barely managing to block the wild swings & claws coming towards her. A rusted scimitar bounces off of her shield while claws swipe past her head and neck!
Khalaban isn't so lucky--he manages to fend off a claw and dodge a rusted scimitar, but one of the skeletons gets a lucky swipe in, raking his throat with a vicious claw and sending blood flying!
Vixie wails as a lashing wave of blades and bone fall upon her shield, and manages to toss them off in a frenzy.
Her wailing becomes considerably more of a high-pitched shriek as her cheek is spattered with porcine blood, and she finds herself in a panicked rush to intercept any further incoming blows.
"Figures." Maxilla offers with a bit of a grumble.
Why can't they understand that we're in hostile territory? Well, maybe this will help drive it home? the little dragon muses, forgetting briefly that for most of their teammates, this is the first really dangerous encounter -- the wolves the night before hardly seemed a threat, but now... things are much more obvious.
Momentary musing aside, Max murmurs some incantations and a shimmering outline surrounds him.
Adriana says...not quite in 'I told you so' tone of voice...
"Are you sure you want healing?"
Not waiting for a response she focus her mind with lustful thoughts of Khalaban. Than carefully calls on the divinity of her goddess and defensively casts a cure light wounds.
As Maxilla's magic comes to the fore, Adriana's efforts to summon her goddess' magic without provoking harm fall flat. Her spell fizzles.
Adriana curses under her breath as she looses the spell dodging the skeleton...
Grabbing his throat, Khalaban roared at the skeleton. Or tried to. What came out was a horrible, bubbling noise and a spurt of blood. Realizing he was badly wounded, Khalaban spat once, and braced himself.
Grimacing in frustration, Bertrand takes another shot.
This time, Bertrand's bolt flies true and strikes the skeleton square in the temple. It staggers back, but the unnatural magics holding it together keep it from falling apart--though its skull has a large crack in it now.
The skeletons descend upon the front lines again...
The skeletons' claws swipe madly and their rusted blades flourish, but Vixie's impressive defensive efforts keep the undead creatures at bay. One skeleton hops down from its perch, misses the landing and nearly breaks itself apart trying to reach Bertrand--and as it stands up, it does so slowly, leaving itself wide open to attack!
Maxilla closes their eyes and tries to block out the screaming and the clattering of the bones and hopes with all their heart something will help Khalaban!
Adriana will growl,"I need space!" and she swings her sword at the green skeleton.
Vixie, in all of her flailing, manic defense, soon finds herself an opening; her eyes grow wide and she lashes out, nailing a skeleton under the jaw.
Vixie's shield succeeds where Adriana's sword fails--her shield knocks a skeleton apart with a single strike!
Grunting, Khalaban took his chance and punched the skeleton as it fell.
He spat again, to add insult to injury.
Khalaban's punch sends the battered skeleton flying into the wall, where it shatters.