Thrak and Paxs both look in fairly bad shape. Thrak worse than Paxs.
The large cinder things flow forward like smoke in the air. One attacks Slumper with a slamming attack! , however Slumper catches the slam on his shield, the smoking tendril bursting into flame as it hits.
The other slides five feet toward Asyra and seems to flow into her mouth and nose, sliding through the chains that cloak her! Asyra coughs and hacks, but manages to exhale the thing before it can do too much damage to her!
Slumper charred and blistered but undaunted attacks back at the cinder creature.
rapier +1
rapier +1
shield +1
shield +1
crit confirm
rapier +1
Thrak charges the fiery creature attacking Slumper.
Slumper and Thrak manage to slay one of the smoke monsters, but the other one is still up and looking healthy!
Whenever there is a question, Pai has an answer...Magic Missile wand!
Damage
16 charges left.
Ruperta quickly casts Communal Protection from Evil and touches as much of her friends as she is able to protect them... Duration 10 minutes divided between all the touches creatures.
First, the subject gains a +2 deflection bonus to AC and a +2 resistance bonus on saves. Both these bonuses apply against attacks made or effects created by evil creatures.
Second, the subject immediately receives another saving throw (if one was allowed to begin with) against any spells or effects that possess or exercise mental control over the creature (including enchantment [charm] effects and enchantment [compulsion] effects, such as charm person, command, and dominate person). This saving throw is made with a +2 morale bonus, using the same DC as the original effect. If successful, such effects are suppressed for the duration of this spell. The effects resume when the duration of this spell expires. While under the effects of this spell, the target is immune to any new attempts to possess or exercise mental control over the target. This spell does not expel a controlling life force (such as a ghost or spellcaster using magic jar), but it does prevent them from controlling the target. This second effect only functions against spells and effects created by evil creatures or objects, subject to GM discretion.
Third, the spell prevents bodily contact by evil summoned creatures. This causes the natural weapon attacks of such creatures to fail and the creatures to recoil if such attacks require touching the warded creature. Summoned creatures that are not evil are immune to this effect. The protection against contact by summoned creatures ends if the warded creature makes an attack against or tries to force the barrier against the blocked creature. Spell Resistance can allow a creature to overcome this protection and touch the warded creature.
Pai's magic missiles strike the smoky form, while Ruperta's protections surround her friends. The smoky ghoul glides forward and seems to flow into Slumper! Slumper begins to hack and gasp as his lungs burn with smoky fire!
27 Asyra
24 Corbyn
18 Cinder Things
14 Paxs, Thrak and Ruperta
12 Laori
9 Slumper
8 Pai and Sial
Round 1: Move and attack.
Round 2: Full attack.
Slumper chokes on the cinders and flails at the fire creature.
rapier
rapier
shield
shield
crit confirm
rapier
Corbyn's swift strikes seem to hack away at the thing, and Slumper's strikes finish it off! Suddenly the smoky form disperses with a hiss and the room goes quiet once more!
The door to the south is revealed to be a pantry. These pantries contain collapsed shelves, fragments of crates and other containers, stacks of crumbling firewood, and plenty of dust.
The doors to the north seem to open onto the room with the minotaur skeleton guards. There is also a staircase headed up...
Ruperta uses her wand of Cure Moderate Wounds on Slumper.
"Be still, let me heal you!"
Then she trades a "Divine Favor" spell to cast a Cure Light wounds on him.
"Corbyn, can you please check ahead?"
Search for anything
"Thanks I really needed that I feel a lot better."
"My pleasure."
Ruperta tiptoes to kiss him...
Pai holds back, knowing that dealing with all these undead isn't her strong suit. She follows with the less scrupulous newer members of the group, trusting mighty Slumper and Thrak to hammer most of them into nothingness.
Corbyn looks ahead.
Ruperta asks her friends (and even the "other" guys) to get close so she can channel Desna's blessing and heal them.
She then uses her Wand to heal them some more.
Then she trades a "Shield of Faith" spell to cast a Cure Light wounds on Pai.
Corbyn's scouting reveals four of the minotaur skeletons standing guard in the next room, so still as to be statues.
"It looks like the skeletons will leave us alone, so long as we don't activate them. We might be able to hole up in a room and recuperate. It's probably worth a try, and if it doesn't work, we can retreat out of the castle and come back tomorrow."
Ruperta thinks the room where she cast Consecrate would be a good place to rest.
Okay! You head back to a defensible position, barring the door as you do. You manage to pass a strange 8 hours, resting in the dead castle. Nothing comes to bother you, but you do have strange dreams featuring being trapped in small oak boxes while the air runs out...
Where to?
Ruperta wakes up grasping for air...
"I normally love to dream... tonight is my first time I didn't like it."
Pai casts Mage Armor and then False Life, gaining hit points, both of which will last for 10 hours.
Paxs casts mage armor on Thrak.
You open the doors and go in, swords and claws flashing. In a matter of moments the skeletal minotaurs are still once more. Numerous arrow slits along the northern wall look out over the castle courtyard, and a pair of doors look as if they open onto it. The burnt stubs of torches hang in iron brackets between the arrow slits, and small puddles of rain have formed beneath them, staining the stone. Opposite these, metal rings have been driven into the stone wall; some have short lengths of chain attached to them.
There are a pair of large double doors to the north, toward a courtyard, as well as a pair of double doors to the south that you have not yet explored.
"How about we head south? It's exciting not knowing exactly where we are going!"
"Exciting and deadly, but I think you are right."
Ruperta uses her Door Sight ability to see what is on the other side of the door.
The door to the south leads to another staircase heading upstairs flanked by two normal sized doors.
The door to the north leads to an open-air courtyard. This wide courtyard stands at the heart of Castle Scarwall, giving an inside view of the castle’s looming walls and towers. A chill breeze whips through the courtyard, carrying a few dry leaves from scraggly scrub bushes that grow fitfully at the yard’s edges. A wide, stone-rimmed well stands at the western end, though the stone lip is crumbling and has collapsed in places. To the north, stairs rise to a platform fifteen feet above the courtyard. Atop it, a black double door provides entry into the castle donjon. Double doors to the east stand open, creaking on their hinges, as if left open by someone leaving in a hurry. Bent, rusted, and in some cases partially broken spikes protrude from the walls of the courtyard, and here and there, holes in the hard-packed soil hint at long-missing structures or poles that once stood within.
"Corbyn, can you help us check the south door for traps..."
Corbyn checks the door.
Corbyn finds nothing and opens the door carefully. The rooms to the east and west seem to be empty rooms with rotted furniture and storage, but the room directly to the east of the stairs are very very different. On the walls of this dismal room are hung innumerable bags of netting holding bottles, clay jars, dried plants, desiccated bits of animals, and similar things. Tattered, gauzy curtains have been strung throughout, creating a diaphanous kind of maze. The whole is choked with a danksmelling smoke that seems to be issuing forth from a pitted iron brazier in the center of the chamber. Hanging in one of the nets on the walls is an older halfling woman, dressed in a peasant dress and wearing a handkerchief around her head.
"Oh thank the gods you've found me! I feared ye were more of those dreadful undead things!"