Rhyfedd continues to assault the damaged undead creature. He knows that this fight is hurting Valdern and that if it doesn't come to an end soon, he might send away from this place temporarily.
Rhyfedd first strike is again avoided, but his second hits home, knockng his enemy back once again.
Bhookaaj moves around to a flanking position and strikes with his machete, a frosty aura enveloping the blade. It cuts deep, and the cold somehow dissipates the smoke surrounding the undead.
One undead lashes out at Rhyfedd, but its burning claws are deflected by magical force. Bhookaaj is not so lucky, and the undead retaliates with two quick but strong and fiery slashes.
Yelping in pain from the fire, Bhookaaj will take another swing at the undead that he and Rhyfedd are now flanking:
Ebirah hacks again at the undead.
Valdern, having recovered from the pain, tries another stab from his spear.
Rhyfedd continues his assault, trying to bring one of the creature down.
Lorelei channels healing energy for her companions.
With the undead now close at hand, Elia attempted to zap the nearer one with a spell.
Bhookaaj and Rhyfedd's attacks seem to injure the undead, but they prove to be both quick and tough, evading or blocking Ebirah, Valdern, and Elia's attacks. The undead seem singularyly focused on their chosen enemies, although their claws are turned aside by Elia's ward. They manage a glancing blow on Bhookaaj and a stronger hit on Rhyfedd.
"Please return to death," Ebirah asks the undead creature he is hacking at.
Despite being in poor shape, Bhookaaj takes another swing at the undead that he and Rhyfedd are flanking:
Lorelei flings another icicle at the closest undead to her.
"These things really hurts." Valdern uses some more magic to heal Rhyfedd.
Rhyfedd attacks again. The first attack goes for the torso, leaving a good size dent in the creature. The second goes the head, with the hope of being able to attack the second one soon.
In a war of attrition, the undead seemed to have the edge. Accordingly, Elia did her best to escalate her efforts, stepping back and turning a crackling thundercloud loose on her enemy.
The undead evades Elia's lightning bolt, but not Bhookaaj's machete, which slices through charred flesh. The other undead takes numerous deadly hits from Lorelei, Rhyfedd, and Ebirah. It suddenly ceases attacking, and its mouth twists into a smile. Then it explodes in a blast of searing flame, laeving only a small pile of ash. The other undead does not appear to have been harmed, but was briefly blinded, as its claws find nothing but empty air.
[/ooc]
Jumping back at the last second on instinct as the undead combusts in its death throes Ebirah uses the momentum to hustle over to flank the other one with Bhookaj.
Somehow avoiding the blast of the one undead, Bhookaaj decides not to take his chances on another blast like that and puts himself prone into some of the water near the destroyed undead
After the explosion, Lorelei channels healing energy to her group.
Elia managed to throw herself clear of the brunt of the explosion but, being on the fragile side, it was still sufficient to cause her vision to grey out for a moment until the healing energies washed over her.
How did you fight an enemy which would explode in your face if you hit it hard enough? Elia started by trying to put as much distance as she could between herself and the remaining undead.
Valdern tries to duck safely from the explosion, but the dwarf was just too slow. As he falls to the ground, Rhyfedd vanishes from sight. As Valdern lay there, a wave of positive energy brings him back. Slowly he gets back on his legs. "What in the nine hells was that?" He uses some of his remaining psychic energy to mend some of his wounds.
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With the rest of the party trying to recover from the explosion, Ebirah steps up to the undead to block it. The undead attacks, but its claws can't get through his armor.
Lorelei channels positive energy again to try to make sure that everyone can survive the destruction of the next undead.....
Being restored to near full health, Bhookaaj gets up and warns the others:
"Everyone who isn't in full nick, get away from that thing!
"I might be able to kill it, but that will be explosive!"
Elia needed no further urging to put more distance between herself and the undead, waiting until the others were clear before directing the thundercloud to attack.
Ebirah shall wait for the others to clear the room before retreating.
As the party retreats from the fiery undead, Bhookaaj runs forward, swinging his machete. It cuts a long line across smoldering robes and skin, and the creature becomes a brilliant ball of flames, leaving behind only smoke and ash.
The doors to the North and East are both sealed, with no apparent keyhole other than a small indentation. Some of the metal inlays on the doors lead to the indentation, and the one on the North doors looks to be about the right size for the spindle-shaped Ioun stone.
”You okay Bhoo?”
~~~
Heading to the north door Ebirah pops the ioun stone out of the hilt of his sword and places it into the door.
Not nearly as graceful as the last time, Bhookaaj takes the full brunt of the undead explosion.
"THAT was painful! But it did the job!"
He'll then follow along with the others to the North door.
"We may want to think about how to deal with any more exploding undead," Elia noted, "If we end up with one or two people keeping them at arms' length from the rest, that will wind up being tough on those people."
When the spindle-shaped ioun stone is slotted into the indentation, inlays on the wall flash and the doors retract into the wall. The room beyond seems mostly collapsed, although how big it once was is unclear. The silver inlays in the floor lead to a large smooth metal dais covered in arcane sigils. Surrounding the dais are four thin crystal pillars, which occasionally flicker with light.
”Yeah!” Ebirah says to Bhookaj. When Elia points out the rather glaring flaws in their current tactics he can only nod.
”I belive this room was used for communications of some sort.” he says while surveying the room.
"Before we open any more doors, I need to bring back Rhyfedd back with us. It will take but a minute." Once the phantom is back with the group, Valdern proceed to the next room. After Ebirah's comment he turns toward him. "You sure? It just looks like a bunch of nonsense to me."
"Well it is a bit rubbish in it's current state, but look here at the sigils on the dais, and the crystals. We were trained to identify magical means of communication in case we needed to hijack or intercept such means." Ebirah states as he looks over the damage.
Lorelei looks about the room.
The damage appears to be mostly from age, and the partial collapse of the room. Ebirah is able to partially repair the device, activating a playback feature. He touches a sigil on the dais, causing it to glow blue. A monotonous voice states ”Replaying message” in Azlanti, and the four pillars begin to shine colored light on the dais. The beams combine to form a familiar image of a human in black robes and a face-concealing helmet, although one of the pillars flickers and dies just as the image begins, causing it to look less realistic and more spectral. “The time we have been preparing for is now upon us. Our enemies move to bring about our end, but we will not allow them this victory. Hold fast, remain brave, and have faith that the final solution is at hand. Soon we will rid the world of this veiled menace. Glory to Azlant!” The spectral figure raises a clenched fist and then disappears like the blown-out flame of a candle as the remaining three pillars cease projecting light.
Ebirah stares at the image as it plays out. "... I don't know why I didn't think it wouldn't be in Taldane."
"I wonder what the "veiled menace" was and if it died out with them or is the shapechanger from the tower? I'm guessing that was the last message played over that device."
"We keep finding messages for people long dead.
"So maybe their enemies have also died long ago."
... don't want to deplete the stock more than I need to!