"Enough!" Irnk barks agitatedly at Skitterfoot's constant whining. Turning to the others, he asks. "Anyone else got bedding they are willing to sacrifice to this?"
Seeing as Irnk seems to calm down and turns back his attention toward taking care of old Megus's bone, Sybil lets go of her vial and tries to take charge of the corpse.
"We could simply turn over a table, lay miss Megus's remains on it and take them outside. Mister Avan, D..." for a moment, Sybil looks quite surprised.
"Where is Dao... did he find something interesting in the shed." she thinks, not having noticed that Dao had entered into the house earlier.
"Mister Avan, Irnk, help me put miss Megus's remains on the table and bring it out."
"No, leave the bones, the ratling has not told us everything let it deal with them" Said Avan to Sybil his voice surprisingly stern "We must go, we still have work to do" He continued as he stepped out of the door.
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You bury the bones, silently covering the remains in the wet marsh land.
When you are about to leave you see the small figure of the ratling in the house door.
"I'll be waiting, don't forget the candy! And scrolls!!"
You go away and in a clearing examine the book. They seems old and interesting, but in such a bad shape there is only unusable fragments readable...
... except for a very detailed map of the Brinestump Marsh. The craftmanship of the map is excellent, and is in pretty good shape.
Having lived there for so many years, Old Megus was perhaps the greatest living expert on the swamplands.
The map shows every significant location in the marsh, even indicating a hidden path at leading from the Goblin Village to the Lost Coast Road following a cliff and two places marked as shipwrecks west from where you are. The cave network south west is shown merely as a cave entrance, and bear a skull-shaped rune of warning and a note indicating that she hadn't explored the caverns because she didn't think it was worth the risk.
Looking over the map, Irnk nods. "That will please those in Sandpoint." Contemplating, he adds. "If it's accurate. Looks as though it should be though. That," pointing to the indicated cave, "looks about right for what Ghorg said."
Avan ran his fingers through his hair as he stared at the map. They got what they came for, but there was something else of interest here "Didn't the goblin mention only one shipwreck? The map marks two" He commented as he gave more of his focus to the map, his face no longer showing the bored expression he was known for.
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"This's all that I could find while you all were inside talking to that creature. Some how the whole thing didn't feel right and most of these are damaged. Between Apex and Auntie Sybil, don't you have some way to restore them?" Galford asks as he perches on a nearby rock after examining the map with the rest.
Apex looks curiously at the books and map, and answers Galford with a distracted tone.
Yes... I might know a spell that could help... These could prove to be valuable. And the map.... I feel bad for stealing these but that creature was likely to try to double cross us anyway. We should be careful for a while that it doesn't come for revenge...
"We should warn the guards about it" He added before going back to studying the map "I want to see the shipwreck the goblins didn't find" Avan stared at the map longer "I haven't seen many ships before, never one that's broken" His eyes turned upwards, as his hand stroked his stubble.
-Slighly earlier-
For a short moment, Sybil is relieved as she sees Dao outside the house. That is, until she notices the books and the map... and learns that they were stolen. Yet, she stays silent, too busy to try and find a way to avoid troubles with Skitterfoot.
-Now-
"You are both right. Skitterfoot is likely use scrolls for unlawful purposes. Yet, if we do not pay him soon, we might endanger ourselves, the goblins or the citizen of Sandpoint. Since he will most likely discover the disappearance of the books and the map, I suggest we deliver harmless scrolls as a payback as well as candies. Miss Stormshard, you are knowledgeable in the magic arts, could you write these scrolls?
As for the shipwrecks, I agree, let us visit the ship which was not discovered by the goblins."
Before falling into marching order, Sybil approaches Apex.
"Miss Stormshard, I am truly sorry I did not seem to give though about trading your scroll of 'burning hands'. However, it did sound like a dangerous spell which should not have fallen into Skitterfoot's hands."
Cautiously, his flail left with the others & his bow strung at the ready, Irnk follows Galford.
Sybil stays 20ft behing the two others, curious to see what the wreck might contain.
Apex stands by Sybil.
Avan continues with his position as the rear guard, making sure that they aren't taken by surprise from behind.
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Galford and Irnk advance cautiously nearing the ruined ship. They see the old derelict, and hardly can imagine it when it was sea-worthy, as the years and elements have damaged it severely. Galford discovers a verdigris-encrusted nameplate that reads, with somme effort, "Kaijitsu’s Blossom".
Avan and keeps guard with the women, at some distance, and notices a strange green / whitish branch tugging, softly, at Apex clothes.
Then he notices something tugging his ankle.
He turns and sees an skeleton hand holding it!
Apex and Sybil turns to see what happens to Avan, and see his eyes widen while looking at them... Two skeletons are raising from the marsh, drawing old rusty swords from their skeletal chests!
With little to no hesitation, Avan begins trying to wrest control of his ankle from the fleshless ambusher; keeping his other leg firm to avoid falling, while wailing on it with one arm and pushing it away with the other "Move" He spoke, his voice eerily calm despite the predicament he was in.
Sybil gasps at the sight of the skeletons but quickly regains her composure. She puts a hand down one of her satchels and pulls out a vial filled with sediment, she adds a bit of liquid to it from an other vial and throwns the mix toward the undead which is the furthest away from Avan.
After throwing the bomb, Sybil tugs on Apex to signal her to take a few steps toward Irnk and Dao. She herself takes a few steps back from the monsters once she sees that Avan is not in immediate danger
At the sounds & the violence behind him, Irnk turns, quickly assessing the danger. Cursing vigorously to himself in Goblin, he hurtles back to the others, tossing his bow aside as he does so.
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Sybil throws an alchemical bomb, but it misses the skeleton and explodes in the murk, not damaging anyone. She moves back, trying to get Apex with her. The Skeletons don't pay attention to the bomb, fixed on the living beings invading their repose place.
Irnk drops his bow and moves to help his friends, grabbing his Flail from them.
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All the heroes join at the middle, in a dry patch of land, except Avan, 10' away and still grappled.
Two other skeletons pull themselves out of the ship ruins, rusty swords in their bony hands.
They surround the party, readying attacks against anyone that approaches them (10' away from them).
The one grappling Avan tries to trip him.
Avan falls backwards, as the Skeleton releases him and stands up, tall and filled with moss and dirt, this one without a sword.
Apex stays near the group, sending her staff in a gust of wind to strike at the skeleton standing over Avan.
Using the momentum of his movement, Irnk hurls himself into the nearest skeleton.
What?? We are surrounded? How smart are these things?
"Anybody! How intelligent are undead skeletons? Is this strategy normal?" she says, her usual combat panick finding a way to weaken her voice.
Hoping to open the ranks of the skeleton, or maybe even stop them, Sybil throws another vial, this time, at the ground, next to two of the ennemies .
"Worry later. Kill Boney Dead now!" Irnk bellows as he swings his flail around once more, missing the skeleton completely.
Avan keeps pounding on the skeleton, while trying to remove himself from its cold grip.
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Galford uses the gap Sybil's bomb caused to move behind an skeleton (they are 10' away, so you can't flank them yet).
The Skeleton turns to face the Tengu, but Galford is to fast, and his blade strikes true, lodging between the skeleton ribs... to no effect, as the bones are unaffected by the blade!
The skeleton empty sockets look at Galford, almost making fun at him, like saying "Your blade won't cut me".
But them (Critical hit - remember, no need to confirm) Galford uses the sword as a level and makes the bones fly in all directions!
Avan makes a sweeping kick while on the floor to try and trip the Skeleton, but it jumps with incredible agility 5' back and avoids the attack. The skeleton stands tall, puts a hand covering a bony fist of the other, and bows towards Avan. After that it assumes a Martial Artist pose, awaiting for Avan to stand.
The other remaining skeleton attacks on Irnk!
But Irnk is able to avoid the attack easily!
Apex, seeing the skeleton attacking Avan display incredible prowess at battle, let's out a small gasp, and summons a ball of air in her outstretched palm. She quickly surveys the rest of the small battlefield, seeing Irnk holding his own, Galford destroying one, and Sybil's bomb destroying two more. She speaks a few arcane words, and the ball of hardened air becomes a small cyclone, which she sends on an unerring path at the Kung Fu skeleton.
Avan! Look out! That one is.... a lot different than the others!!
For a moment, Sybil stares at the remains of the skeletons she destroyed, before jerking out of her thoughts and taking rapid looks around. Finding so many skeletons misssing, she is confused for a moment.
Why would it bow in the midst of battle? Wondered Avan as he considered the display to be completely ludicrous, as he got back to his feet, he raised his arms in preparation to defend himself but then he felt something rush past him at great speeds. Then his brown eyes witnessed his foe on the ground and mostly defenseless, he spared a glance to his back and saw Apex' arm outstretched. He had fought alongside others before, many times in the arena, but never had anyone bothered with helping him when it didn't serve their needs or when they could have helped themselves instead...it made him feel surprisingly motivated, he hopped forward, entered his stance with surprising fluidity and unleashed a hail of fists of low aimed fists at his downed foe.