A decision having finally been made, Ardash wastes no time in leading the party to left, skirting the skirmish as quietly as possible. Knocking an arrow to his shortbow, he scans the terrain ahead for any threats.
Starknife ready, Sharae moves as silently as she can behind Ardash...
The party circles left, and no threats are scene. You are soon distant front the battle which ends with the death of the last monster about a minute after you leave. From what you can see the two surviving robots enter into the cave with the bio-lock, out of your sight.
The strange sky above seem to be like a night with no stars, and a cold wind blows past you. Like many deserts, this place is quite cool at night. After a bit, a cave opens up on your left. You are abou to examine it when...
A skeletal figure unearths itself some 20 feet from you. It is about 6 foot tall, with four arms, and reveals itself to be the skeleton of some strange creature. Its eye glow with a green, hellish light as it views you.
Initiative
sorted initiative
Strange skeleton 27
Creik 22
R6 21
anody 20
Valia 17
Sharee 4
Ayla 3
The strange skeleton moves forward to R6 (who is on point if memory serves) and attacks
Creik is up
Ardash grunts as the strange skeleton's claw slashes him deeply across his bicep. He drops his shortbow, drawing his greatsword and takes a mighty overhand chop at the creature.
...only to have the creature quickly dodge to the side.
Sharae, appalled by the presence of the undead in this place, calls forth the power of Desna…
…Banish this lost traveller…return them to Pharasma’s court so it’s journey may continue…
"By my falling stars!" Valia proclaims. He tries to protect Criek, waiting to see what the ratfolk devides to do.
"Eek!" -- keeping an eye out for anything else that might want to experiment on him, the twitchy Criek reacts quickly to the strange skeleton, hurling a bomb before making sure Ardash or Valia is between him and it.
Valia swings wide of his mark, moving close to keep the opponent away from Criek.
"I've no idea who or what this is - I can only guess from it's skeletal from that it is an undead"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You are very correct Sharae, This is an undead skeleton and as such should be susceptible to blunt weapons as well as positive energy. No idea what kind of creature it is though which is quite fascinating and I'd really like to get a chance to examine the remains after we get done....
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It is different now. With Khonnir gone it appears I am alone. He knew the desire to free this place. He knew of its people, its history before the technological blight spread. He was a master of technology, but more than any mere advocate or spellbound investigator, he understood its repercussions. The slavery and death imposed through soulless weapons. As Criek would tinker and clean the lab late into the night, Khonnir and I would spend long hours on discussion and debate as the councilman poured over his research.
These soulless row-boughts, we believed, were opponents outside of life. Truly, they are dangerous weapons. Weapons of the like so powerful as to corrupt the mind.
Like khonnir, they seem to obsess over all the little trinkets for hours on end. And yet, when they see what these mechanisms can do, will they be willing to do what is necessary? Yes, even Criek. Even Criek must match Khonnir's mettle.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Noya attacks it
after seeing it take her hit
"This thing is one of the undead."
The party springs into action as the four armed undead attacks. Most of it is ineffectual, due to the creature agilely avoiding the attacks, but two attacks strike home.
A burst of holy light erupts out of Sharee's holy symbol, burning the skeleton (2hp), distracting it as Ayla's attack slams home. The creature staggers for an instant (7-5 DR=2hp), but keeps attacking, focusing on the one who damaged it the most, Ayla.
Creiks bomb strikes the skeleton, burning it badly, and badly damaging it. Sharee's and ayla's attacks finish it.
Nothing else moves, except a cold breeze across the sand. A cave opening is in front of you, to the right, and of course you could continue past it. every thing is quiet now, except the clink of cooling, burnt bones.
Actions?
I'll be putting the map up shortly.
"Nice shot Criek...those concoctions of yours are quite something", there is genuine warmth in Sharae's words.
Waiting for a few moments to ensure that the skeleton is truly returned to death, Sharae approaches it carefully, "What do you think Professor? Have you ever seen anything like this before? If this thing was of flesh before being reanimated, what do you think it looked like? It is truly unlike anything I have seen before."
Well now that we have a moment to study it... Anody peers at the remains and brings his knowledge of natural physiology to bear.
I, erm, thank you. I'm still but a novice, but I'm glad I have a few tricks to contribute. Criek's gaze fixes on the ground around his feet for a moment. Sometimes being ratfolk has it's benefits--the fur hides the blushing.
Letting Sharae and Anody inspect the corpse, Criek peers cautiously into the side tunnels for any sign of danger or artifice.
Anody shrugs frustrated. I just don't know, can't even tell if this is local to the area or not
[spoiler=if you made the last role and can make a DC 22 spellcraft or DC 15 know planes roll]This could be a demiplane. This could explain to sky with no stars, and its confined nature
OR!
Valia picks at ont of the thing's arm bones with his sword. "Should we lay it to rest then?"
Anody is distracted from the bones by looking around. This could be a cavern but... the way we've been traveling makes this area look like a perfect circle. I'm finding it harder and harder to believe that this is natural. I think we may be in a created demiplane. Fascinating. Maybe used by the robots as a... zoo of some kind maybe? Stocked with Alien creatures?
”A small prayer will suffice Valia”, Sharae whispers a quiet prayer to Desna asking for a better journey for the released soul of whatever the skeleton was…
”There is something unnatural about this place Professor – do you really think it could be a demi-plane? Maybe we were transported during that ‘cleaning process’. Do robots do that? What purpose could they have for creating a zoo? I don’t know how but it seems we should try to communicate with one – maybe that would reveal more about what is happening here”, Sharae’s last observation / comment is quietly whispered out of earshot of Valia and Ardash.
”We should press on – shall we continue around the circumference of this…I don’t know…crater?”
Sharee speaks a short prayer over the remains.
"Criek? Is there anything in that cave? Do you think it might be safe to explore...or shall we continue onwards?"
Spearheading the group, Ardash peers into the opening after being prompted by the others.
The cave goes back into darkness for some distance. No sound is heard. Creating light you move in to investigate.
After a short distance, it opens into a small cavern. A pit, about a foot deep, is in the centre of it, and paintings adorn the walls.
The paintings show many four armed humanoids kneeling towards an object in the sky above, which is shaped like a snowflake. Another shows two armed humanoids with strange gear, talking to the four armers. What are obviously robots are with them.
”Professor? What do you think?”, pointing out the various features of the painting, ”We have our four-armed friend here, some ‘robots’…but who are these folk? And what do you think they might be carrying?”
Sharae looks around for any further paintings, while she does that she asks, to no one in particular, ”Is this cave occupied do you think? Or are it’s previous inhabitants long dead?”
Sharae, the fire pit here hasn't been used in ages -- whomever created it must be long dead, or otherwise departed? Frowning in thought, I can't imagine the automatons building fires for cooking or warmth, or the tentacled beast, so the most likely candidate we've seen is our four-armed friend...in his past life, at least? So I would imagine these paintings are theirs as well?
We just fought a four armed skeleton.... Safe to say the paintings depict the same species... and they were awed by these two armed technologically advanced beings and robots. I'd say this is some confirmation that these beings were captured by whoever built these tunnels. Fascinating.
"Looks like primitive axes.
And they are sharp."
"Axes? Strange, do you think these may have been used by the four-armed creatures in life? That would indicate a primitive race though, wouldn't it Professor? It seems unlikely that they would...or could...be responsible for some of what we have seen here - that painting shows a two-armed race...maybe they are the masters of this Demi-plane?"
If there is no way forward within this cave, Sharae suggests retracing steps and working their way further around the circular cavern.
Hrm, they seem like quite the valuable artifacts. Perhaps we should take them back with us. Other then that I do think we should move on.
You collect the artifacts and turn to go, when Ayla notices something gleaming in a nook. On examination it is an armband or clasp, made of green jade, studded with amber. Inside the amber are frozen insects. This is a beautiful piece, and probably quite valuable. These creatures had very good craftmenship.
You exit the cave turning left as you leave to continue your arc around the cavern/demiplane/illusion/whatever.
You move about 100 feet, when to your right you see a still, standing figure. It is another of those skeletal creatures, its eyes glowing a sickly green colour. It is about 100 feet it is about 100 feet away, on a mound of sand. It does not react to you, as it seems to be staring the opposite direction. In front of you (120 feet) is a ridge of rock, about 20 feet high, but easy to climb (DC5). There is a light on the other side, also sickly green.
Criek whispers, Do you think we can avoid it and get to that ridge?
Though how foolish am I, to think we should be moving towards that light? The hue alone suggests it is related to whatever force animates the green-eyed skeletons, and wisdom suggests we should therefore move away from it. But...Khonnir would have been drawn to investigate any energy source here, considering his mission, and so therefore must I.
I think we should go over.. cannot talk with skeletons I don't think
Anody tries to follow Criek's lead.
"You can certainly talk to them. They never hold up their end of the conversation well, I find. And if they do speak, the heroes of the tales never receive any good news from them..."
Cautiously following Criek and the Professor, Sharae endeavours to be as quiet as possible during the scrabble up the ridge
The screed and loose rocks impede her climb as Criek and the Professor easily outpace her, "What can you see up there? What's making that awful colour?"
The party has to cross the ridge to continue so it does. The skeleton does not move. Climbing the rocks is fairly easy, except for creik who struggles, and on the other side...
You another skeleton waiting for you!