"Well, let's hope it's just monkeys. A good show of force should scar them off."
"There's something familiar to this....i can't quite put my claw on it....darn. those bite marks are rather particular...."
"As is the lack of droppings... ever been to a zoo, like the one in Oppara? A collection of animals in one place for showing, and cleaned daily I believe. Still, there's no stopping the inexorable tide of animal poo, or so I was told. Especially after extensive 'goblin' dinner? Then why is there none here? Hm..." The armored pretty poy seems to think deeply. "Alternate excremation method? Recent rainfall washing it away perhaps? I feel like I should know more..."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"There's something familiar to this....i can't quite put my claw on it....darn. those bite marks are rather particular...."
"Great... sounds like good neighbors."
He drew out his rapier, cracked his neck and slowly looked about.
"Of course. Ghoul Monkeys! Charming. Please try to not get hit, or at least infected with Ghoul Fever. I am as yet unable to magically remove diseases. I am working on it, however," Oliver says, sighing. "Before we head up, let me ward you against most forms of evil, including undead."
If there's any silver lining to this discovery, it's the fact that, from your collective knowledge, you know that while animal ghouls can still spread ghoul fever, they typically lack the paralytic touch of humanoid ghouls. Furthermore, their lack of sentience means they also lack a resistance to divine energy channeled by clerics and priests.
"No paralytic touch at least." At the offer of the protective spell for them all "I am thanking you, Olivert."
"Right, so what are we waiting on, exactly? If I remember correctly, the village has numerous problems and many mouths to feed. Salvage ahoy, I say! Let us clear out these undead while we can. Even were they to stay clear of us, who is to say they wouldn't harm the villagers at a later time? Any source of ghoul fever should be culled."
"Right, so what are we waiting on, exactly? If I remember correctly, the village has numerous problems and many mouths to feed. Salvage ahoy, I say! Let us clear out these undead while we can. Even were they to stay clear of us, who is to say they wouldn't harm the villagers at a later time? Any source of ghoul fever should be culled."
Claudia has her bow in hand.
There's another precaution Claudia and Sargon would have taken, provided this is all open space. A dragon rider's dragon can carry the rider of the same or smaller size.
Thus Sargon could carry Claudia into combat flying. Flying up to 20ft altitude. As far as pre encounter could have been possible.
The innkeeper proves to have the sharpest reflexes of the party, for when you begin to hear a cacophony of screeches echoing from within the gatehouse's upper level, heralding the imminent onslaught of the undead creatures, Francoix is the quickest to react.
A half dozen, half-rotted monkeys come boiling out from the ancient, moss and vine-covered gatehouse. They fall upon the party in bestial hunger.
Francoix lashes out with a readied thrust of his rapier, skewering one of the undead creatures as it attempts to bite Varr. With the innkeeper running interference, the dwarf from Stoneriver fends off the gnashing of their filthy teeth.
Dargys also evades the snapping jaws of one of the creatures that leaps for him.
Olivert turns aside the bites of two undead monkeys, but the third manages to bite down upon his wrist, inflicting a stinging pain.
Mia will give a small chant, before striking a flint and tinder, creating a small spark that catches light into a ball of flame. It rushes over the one of the creatures surrounding Olivert on the far side.
Darygys, with a monkey in his face, backcs up, and then invokes a shield spell. He may not get so lucky again.
Sargon, hovering in the air with an archer on his back, seems to enjoy his new size.
"I wonder how far along this has developed..."
He inhales, then exhales a line of lightning, trying to catch as many ghoul monkeys in its path as possible.
rounds.
Claudia shoots two arrows at the monkey attacking Dargys.
Varr moved forward towards the undead, and as he did so his weapon began to glow with a light blue hue.
It's difficult to see in the melee what happens to Oliver as he twists and turns to avoid the sudden onslaught of monkeys, wondering why most of them seemed to be targeting him in the back. Just his irresistable charm, he supposed.
He stumbles back out of the quadruple sandwich of ghouls and summons a blinding cloud of light that would hopefully obscure the vision of their foes!
Olivert quickly looks at his wrist and realizes that the undead's teeth failed to make contact thanks to the protection of the group's magic.
= Success
= Failure
= Success
= Success
= Success
= Failure
= Failure
= Failure
= Hit
= Success
The small, undead monkeys prove to be as irritating as you feared. They bound around, making it difficult to nail them with your magics - but the effort is not wasted.
Two of them are singed by Sargon's breath, while a third takes the entirety of the electric arc. Claudia, his rider, sinks one of her arrows from above into the mangy gut of the ghoul monkey leaping at Dargys.
Four of the creatures are coated in the glittering magical dust Olivert unleashes, as they fail to interrupt his practiced casting, and two of them are entirely blinded by the dust.
Mia's rolling sphere of flame all but incinerates one of the small ghouls that was injured by Sargon's breath weapon, leaving behind a smoldering heap.
Shortly after Varr finishes casting his spell, he finds the ghoul in front of him suddenly skewered through the small skull by Francoix's rapier, the innkeeper having slipped behind the undead creature.
One of the blinded monkeys staggers towards Francoix, but its flailing claws and teeth fail to hurt the innkeeper. However, one of the still-sighted creatures does manage to nibble him.
The other blinded undead makes another wild leap for Olivert, and this time, its teeth miraculously manage to sink down upon the Taldan expat.
The last of the surviving undead presses its frenzied attack against Dargys. His own magic and that of the rest of the party protects him from most of the onslaught, but one of the creature's claw-like hands manages to rake his leg.
"Nimble little monkey." He feels a moment of disorientation and steps back, and rather than firing on the foe on him, goes for hobbling those on his allies.
a stream of mystic light seems to bounce from one foe to the other, softening targets for his allies even if it does leave the one closest to him alone. Each bounce wounds them further. "Still got mine, but hurt more of them this way. A good wizard spreads the wonders of magic to as many as he can, no?"
Claudia fires two more arrows at the ghoul monkey harassing Dargys and Mia.
Sargon starts flying to the north west, to 20ft altitude.
Having spent so much energy summoning his powers, Varr was determined to make it somewhat worthwhile. He rushed in against the last standing foe and swung his hammer with all of his strength...
He follows after Varr, doing his best to aid in his attack by making sure to flank the monkey stabbing at what he hoped would be a vital spot.
Seeing himself swarmed with undead, Oliver decides to channel energy, specifically to harm them!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Dargys' bolts of magical force strike his targets hard, almost stunning them, setting up a successful string of attacks from the rest of the party.
Varr utterly pulverizes the undead monkey between him and Francoix.
The innkeeper then turns on his heel and delivers a firm thrust of his rapier that fells the foe that tried to attack him from behind.
Claudia sails above the battlefield atop Sargon and delivers arrows that bring the two remaining ghouls to their knees.
Olivert's pulse of divine power obliterates what remains of the undead enemies, ensuring that they cannot rise again and leaving only ash and the smell of burning fur to mark their passing, and cements the party's victory.
Claudia and Sargon land a little after combat had ended.
"Undead monkeys....it sure leaves to question what did -them- in."
Meanwhile, she goes recovering her (durable) arrows from the dead simians.
She's particularly careful to somewhat separate them from the 'fresh batch'.
Oliver lets out a sigh of relief. "Well fought, everyone. I'm glad no one seems to be hurt. Well, other than me, that is."
However, it's but a flesh wound, so he leaved it unhealed for now. "Would you like me to conjure some water to thoroughly wash those arrows for you, Claudia? I suppose one can never be too careful," he offers, when he sees her activity.
Back on the ground, Claudia grimaces as she notices bits of diseased flesh still caked on the bodkin heads of her arrows. Even after washing them in the water that Olivert's cantrip summons, she worries that they remain tainted.
"Should we see if anything was up here before we go on?" Oliver asks, and would head to inspect the now supposedly safe area the moneys were previously in.
"I have a few scratches." A shrug.
You climb the stairs to the upper level of the ancient gatehouse, finding it to be a single room with a clay tiled floor covered in bones. A hatch in the ceiling offers access to the rooftop parapet, but there is no surviving ladder.
A stone statue that served as an armor stand has been toppled and battered by the undead monkeys. The statue is still clad in silver-studded leather armor of an archaic design, while the heavy wooden shield it once cradled has slid across the floor. An oilskin pouch dangles from a wire around the statue's waist. Inside, you find five gold coins minted with the face of a Kaskkari god-king who's been dead for millennia.
The other obvious furnishing is the bronze-plated winch apparatus dominating the center of the room. It clearly operates the portcullis that blocks the gate below. On the wall beside the wince, etched in a bas-relief, is some manner of rune in the ancient Kaskkari language.
You don't notice any dangerous traps connected to the winch, but you notice that the mechanism is more complicated than needed to simply raise or lower the portcullis. You suspect that it may also affect something elsewhere in the ruins.
Olivert calls out his findings, and kneels by the shield. "What an odd but fortuitous twist of fate, to find a strictly better, magical version of the same shield I'm currently using," he says - and leaves it there. "But I am not so daft as to touch something in a room filled with spreaders of Ghoul Fever. I say we carefully gather everything in a bag and try to wash it over time, or hold it in a fire, like Claudia's arrows."
He then moves to the wrench to the gatehouse and notes the unknown Rune on the wall. "Hm... could these be instructions? Perhaps I can read them with a bit of magical help..."
Through his magic, Olivert is able to interpret the meaning of this message from a long-dead language: "The way is shut."
It takes a moment for Olivert to process the information, but he also discovers that the portion of the rune that signifies the word "way" has a dual meaning, capable of being interpreted as either "gate" or "royal door."
"Hm... looks like this lever might operate both a 'royal door' as well as the gate. I don't immediately see how to choose between the two, though. Anyone have any ideas?" He asks the others, watching the wrench.
"It may open more than one thing," Curious