Yekskya continues firing one arrow after another up at the skeletons. Finally seeing a few of their bones shatter and break, he renews his assault with vigor.
Zag completes the intonation of his spell and gestures towards the bridge, where dirt and stone accumulates into a small earth elemental which immediately sets itself upon one of the skeletons. Zag himself moves forward with Shiv and takes cover behind the next column in his path.
Slam Attack: for bludgeoning damage.
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Round 3 continued
Grym keeps on scrambling up, but the truth is that the going is slow. The rock wall is fairly smooth and doesn't offer many toeholds for big half-orcish feet.
Zaghigoth completes his casting, and a swirl of rock and rubble and dust swirl up to a point on the rock wall just above Grym's head. The half-orc ducks as a hulking, vaguely humanoid creature of dirt and stone forms and climbs up the wall easily, its hands and feet melding with the wall. It leaps over the edge of the bridge with an earth jolting thud and starts striding purposefully towards the nearest skeleton.
Round 4
The skeleton on the far side continues to throw javelins at you. This time his throw manages to pierce Yekskya's armor, hitting with great force. The other skeleton turns its attention on the elemental, and goes at it tooth and claw. Its claws scour away some levels of dirt on the elemental.
Aerys and Rowena continue to keep climbing up to the bridge. This time Rowena is able to make some progress, inching ahead of Aerys.
Yekskya continues pinging arrows at the skeletons. This time, you can see the skeleton's bones chipping away, until eventually it crumbles and collapses. Now, only the skeleton fighting the elemental remains.
Initiative
24 – skeletons
19 – Aerys
16 - Rowena
14 – Yekskya
7 - Grym
6 – Zaghigoth & Shiv
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elemental climb
javelin
damage
damage
Aerys climb
Rowena climb
Yekskya shrugs off the javelin and changes his target to the skeleton battling the elemental.
Current hp 25/36
As I continue my arduous climb to the bridge, I see one of the skeletons crumble into dust. Looking briefly down at Yeskya:"Well done, Yeks. If you keep it up, we'll have only to clean up the mess.
Turning towards Aerys, I urge her on: "Come on dear. Not getting tired, are you?"
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Round 4 continued
Grym keeps trying to climb up the wall, desperate to get at the remaining skeleton. It's slow going.
The small earth elemental attempts to slam into the skeleton again, but its fist is stopped by an even larger skeletal hand. The elemental keeps trying to push through but is held fast.
Round 5
Still in close melee combat, the serpentfolk skeleton rips apart the earth elemental mercilessly, gnashing and rending with teeth and claws. The elemental battles on, but under the skeleton's focused attack all that remains is a pile of rubble. The slain elemental then disappears, rubble and and all.
Aerys seems to be having a particularly difficult time climbing up the wall, climbing up a small way, then sliding back down. At Rowena's words, she smiles ruefully: "Tired? No way. I could do this for hours. Literally." Rowena seems to be doing not much better.
Yekskya calmly continues to target the skeleton with his arrows. One of his two shots is a near miss, passing between the monster's ribs.
Grym is still attempting to climb, his feet scrabbling to find purchase on the wall. At this rate, the wall just seems to be toying with the half-orc.
Initiative
24 – skeletons
19 – Aerys
16 - Rowena
14 – Yekskya
7 - Grym
6 – Zaghigoth & Shiv
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elemental slam
skeleton attack
damage
skeleton attack
skeleton attack
damage
Aerys climb
"Damn, that skeleton is brutal! Are you all sure you want to climb up there!?!" Yekskya takes aim again at the remaining skeleton. His first shot rattles off a bone, but his second shot is perfectly aimed, right at the monster's spine.
"Got that right, Yeks! I want to get up there. It beats staying down below and play target for those accursed skeletons. But first I need to find a few decent hand and footholds to be able to get up there. In Cayden's name, this wall is a downright nightmare to climb. And with no way to attach my rope, I don't see how I could make the climb any easier."
Zag narrows his eyes at the battle overhead as his elemental ally is destroyed. Knowing he is out of useful spells and that he is unable to climb the wall in his armor, he curses himself for not being a bigger help to the group in this fight. He stays behind the pillar for the cover and watches on as Yekskya delivers distant justice to the abominations.
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Round 5 continued
Spells depleted and out of reach for melee combat, Zaghigoth ducks behind one of the pillars and watches as Yekskya picks off the skeleton with his arrows.
Round 6
The snake-headed skeleton, its earthen foe vanquished, turns its attention back to the rest of you. With single-minded focus, it picks up one more javelin and hurls it at Yekskya. The shaft whizzes just over the archer's head, missing him, but only just.
Aerys and Rowena continue to climb, egging each other on but neither really getting anywhere.
Yekskya continues to fire at the skeleton. One arrow bounces off the stone bridge, but the other neatly severs the skeleton's spine, and falls apart in splinters of bone!
With the sounds of battle dying away, a heavy silence settles over the chamber. With peace to look about, you can see that on the ground level there are the two large bronze doors along the far wall of the chamber. The doors look even more eerie on close inspection, seeming to drip with blood. Forty feet above, on the stone concourse, are sets of double doors at either end of the span. The walls are unsettling, covered all over with images of the walking dead, of bats and sacrifice.
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skeleton javelin
Yekskya shakes his head, "This is a bad place my friends. I don't know what awaits us past those doors, but I am happy I have companions like you to face it with. Shall we see what lies beyond?" With bow still in hand and a new arrow nicked, Yekskya begins advancing toward the door.
Grym clambers back to the floor and nods.
"Yes, we should press on. We'll be able to prevail with all of us ready."
"I still have healing spells available to me if anyone is in need now or soon." Zag moves towards the doors with Shiv and the rest of his companions.
"They definitely nicked me with those javelins, but I think I can go on a little longer."
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You press on, through the disturbing-looking bronze doors. Cat quickly checks for traps around the door; not seeing any, you pull the doors open, which turn easily on their hinges. Ahead of you is a long passage, stretching away from you into darkness to the right or the left.
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Cat Perception
Cat Perception
Zag nods to Yekskya and moves up to the doors and peers down the dark hallways, seeing if his darkvision will allow him to spot anything ahead.
Perception:
"Left first, then loop our way back to the right if it doesn't loop on its own? Zag, do you want to go first with your vision or should we just give up on surprise, use our light and make sure we don't miss anything?" While waiting for a response, Yekskya takes a quick look and listen to the extent the light illuminates.
Zag nods, then scratches his chin. "Left then. I can go first, I say, but use light too if you will. I would remain predator rather than miss something behind us and be prey. Leopards may hunt by dark but they eat less often than bears, and bears care little for stealth, I say."
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Scriptorium
Heading left, you follow the steps up. You soon come to the end of the corridor, where it makes a turn to the right and up some more steps. Following these you arrive at an irregularly-shaped room. Bits of bone and fragments of wood lie scattered all around. The walls are covered with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of strange runes interspersed with the periodic image of a stylized rune that looks like a fanged skull.
As Shiv enters the room behind you, his great bulk scatters the wood and bone fragments, and you realize just how large Zaghigoth's reptile companion has since he first emerged from the jungle.
The stylized rune of the fanged skull is identifiable as the symbol of the demon lord Zura, Queen of the Vampires.
The carvings and writings all around the walls appear to mostly be prayers to Zura, Queen of the Vampires. Deciphering the runes is frustrating as the walls are cracked and missing pieces and the ancient inscriber had an unfortunate fondness for awkward metaphor, but after several minutes of careful study you are able to glean four important facts:
* This chamber was once a scriptorium where books and scrolls sacred to the worship of Zura were transcribed and illuminated.
* This temple was built on the remains of an even more ancient temple - one that was dedicated to a deity referred to only as the "Beheaded One," an entity that was apparently an enemy to the ancient Zura cultists.
* Several prayers seem to indicate that the ancients made use of undead slaves created from "both humans culled from the unbeliever and slave of the "Beheaded One."
* As much hatred as the Zura cultists had for the "slaves of the Beheaded One", they also seemed to despise their own kind - especially those they called the "misbegotten of Saventh-Yhi." You recognise this as the name of a legendary but still undiscovered lost city said to lie somewhere in the depths of the Mwangi Expanse. Knowledge of Saventh-Yhi is rare, and these mentions would be of great value to a scholar interested in the topic.
"I do not know the name of the one worshipped here, but with that bones and the runes, it leaves me troubled. Should we keep moving on to those doors?"
"Likely that infernal snake-god, I say. But yes, I agree...the spirits do not like this place. It is a place of dead things and things dead before. Dead things should return to the earth, not walk again. Let us go."
"I don't imagine any of you can read this. Let's see what's past the doors." Yekskya nocks an arrow and moves forward to the door on the left, pausing to listen at it.
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Before moving on, Aerys studies the markings closely, squinting up at the ancient runes. "This looks like some sort of Azlanti script, if you ask me. I haven't a clue just now, but give me a few hours to work on it I might be able to work out what it says. A lot of the runes seem to have been worn away."
Taking the door on the left, you find another long passageway, narrower than the last. This hallway is lined with bare alcoves, each containing a scattering of wood and bone fragments. A few of the alcoves seem to have skeletal remains propped against the wall. A larger empty chamber lies ahead.
Before you can investigate though, you hear a grinding of bone against bone, as the skeletons begin to move, pulling themselves to their feet and lurching towards you! There are four in number, wearing tattered remnants of chain shirts and armed with ancient, broken rapiers. Roll initiative!
Initiative
11 - Grym
9 - Aerys
8 - skeletons
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Aerys linguistics
skeletons init
Aerys init
Grym init
Init:
Joining Aerys in studying the runes, I shudder involuntarily when I realize we are in a temple dedicated to the worship of a vampire goddess. "This is dark stuff, Aerys. Glad I'm not facing this alone."
Suddenly hearing the sounds of bones grinding on bones and stone, my hand drops to my belt, finding my mace and lifting it from its loop, ready to face this next threat.
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Round 1
With cat-like grace Rowena reacts to the moving skeletons, drawing her mace and lobbing an attack at the nearest skeleton stumbling to her right. The mace smashes several bones, and really its only the negative energy giving it animation that is still holding the skeleton together. She reaches past Shiv, who you have noticed seems to have doubled in size since being called by Zaghigoth. You reckon this is partly due to Zaghigoth's influence, and partly due to Shiv's voracious appetite.
Grym backs another skeleton into a corner and hacks away at it with his greataxe, hewing through ancient, brittle bones like butter. A gleam of delight shines in the half-orc's eyes as the skeleton collapses in a heap of splintered bones and dust. The jagged scimitar it was holding clatters to the stone with a loud clanging, while Aerys hangs back, guarding the rear.
The skeletons mindlessly press the attack, but in such tight quarters you are easily able to cover each other, and none of the ancient warriors are able to get past your defences.
Initiative
16 - Cat
11 - Grym
9 - Aerys
8 - skeletons
7 - Zaghigoth
6 - Yekskya
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skeleton 1 attack
skeleton 2 attack
skeleton 3 attack
skeleton 4 attack
Grym attack
damage
Zag grunts and grumbles again about this plague of spirit-insulting abominations. "Aberrant things...return to dust and dirt, I say.." Having battled such creatures time and time again now, he instinctively reaches for his club and swings 'round the corner in an attempt to disassemble one of the foul things threatening Yekskya. As he does so he growls a command to Shiv. "Break it! The crocodile responds with a thrashing tail slap attack into the skeleton.
Club attack:
Damage:
Tail slap:
Damage:
Confirmation:
Additional crit damage:
Recognizing the quarters as too tight for his arrows, Yekskya drops his bow and draws his greatsword to attack the skeleton in front of him.
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Round 1 continued
Despite the awkward angle of attack while trying to reach around the corner to get the nearest skeleton attacking Yekskya, Zaghigoth shoves his club forward like a battering ram, knocking the skeleton to bits until it is a crumpled heap.
Then, at Zaghigoth's growled command, Shiv turns and sweeps his tail like a scythe, catching the nearest skeletal guardian with such force that it is thrown against the far wall of its cell, the skeleton smashed into small fragments that fly everywhere.
Yekskya decides to forego his bow in this situation and draws his sword. The action draws an attack from the remaining skeleton, who makes a clumsy thrust at the archer. However, when tries to cut down the undead warrior, the skeleton brings up its blade neatly to block. Perhaps some warrior instinct is still rattling around inside its skull.
Initiative
16 - Cat
11 - Grym
9 - Aerys
8 - skeletons
7 - Zaghigoth
6 - Yekskya
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skeleton 1 aoo
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Round 2
Rowena and the others crowd behind Yeskya, wanting to help destroy the last skeleton but the narrow corridor doesn't leave much room to maneuver. They defer to the archer, trusting him do the job.
The skeleton though, has no such problems. It takes a great swing at Yekskya with its rusted scimitar but misses. With the force of the swing, the blade sweeps across and clangs off the stone wall, become wedged. Mindlessly, the skeleton stops and tries tugging at the blade to pull the sword loose.
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skeleton attack
"I think I've got the knack of it now." Yekskya swings his greatsword in a devastating blow, intended to cleave the skeleton in twain.
Zag looks on as Yekskya succeeds in delivering a mighty blow, dismantling the undead abomination. "You're near as good with a blade as you are a bow, I say."
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Round 2 continued
Yekskya swings his greatsword in a devastating blow, indeed cleaving the undead temple guardian in twain! The severed skeleton is blasted apart, leaving the corridor clear. It leads on to a larger, rectangular chamber. If the alcoves served as dwellings for this temple's guardians, then this must have been some sort of communal chamber. Another doorway across the room leads to another corridor lined with alcoves, bringing you back to the scriptorium.
Returning to the chamber, Rowena and Aerys take some more time to try to work out the meaning of the carvings on the wall. It's difficult work and takes quite some time, as neither speaks Azlanti, and several of the carvings are cracked or have been worn away. Rowena squints as she continues to examine the walls. "This is confusing. Apparently this is some temple dedicated to a demon god of vampires and cannibalism, Azlanti of course, but it was originally an even older structure. I'm not sure who it was dedicated to, it just keeps referring to the 'Beheaded One', it was apparently an enemy of the cultists. There are a lot of references here to a place called Saventh-Yhi as well, I think they were a war or something." Aerys suggests taking a rubbing of the carvings, as anything that ancient could fetch a good price if you find the right scholars.
While the two women study the chamber, you take the time to rest up, and nothing disturbs you. A heavy silence hangs over you, the silence of a crypt. When you are ready to move on, you find your choices are to either track back down the steps to the long corridor, or through the double doors and across the stone balcony where you fought the two serpent-headed skeletons. The walkway is strewn with a heap of rubble from Zaghigoth's spell and splintered bones. Nothing is moving.
Zag shakes his head solemnly throughout the summary. "We must put a stop to whatever dark, unnatural magic is at work here, I say.. might be it will help heal the poison that has seeped into the spirits of this island. Demons, vampires, vile gods, risen dead..what other evil things will we dig up, I say...Well then, across the bridge?"
"Smart thinking Aerys. And while you're at it, you might wanna rub my back too. Think I overstretched a muscle when I was climbing up to the bridge."
Listening to Zaghigoth, I nod in agreement. "Indeed, Zag. Time to put the dead to rest permanently and end the rule of these dark creatures."
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Leaving the scriptorium chamber, you head out over the span across the outer sanctum where you came in. You climb over the heap of rubble to reach another set of double doors. Through these doors you find another long corridor that ends in a "T" junction. You make your way along, Rowena and Zaghigoth leading the way at the moment.
Suddenly, there is a deep rumble and Zaghigoth and Rowena have a sinking feeling as they can feel the floor beneath them starting to give way - it's a trap. With a rogue's instincts, Cat throws herself to the side trying to hurl herself out of the way, but a 30-foot stretch of the floor splits right down the middle on well-concealed hinges, there's no escape. The two fall down a pit 30-feet deep, landing in a heap.
Once the dust settles, you can see your companions down below. Rowena and Zaghigoth notice that there are small tunnels leading away from the pit, one to the north and another to the south. The tunnels are tight, maybe only two feet across; you could make your way through them, but it would be a tight squeeze. For those up above, you can see that bypassing the trap doors would require a athletic jump 30feet across to the other side. The trap doors remain hanging open.
Updated Map - the trap is the 20 x 30 foot dotted rectangle.
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Cat Perception
Grym Perception
Rowena Reflex
Zag reflex
damage
"I'm not sure I like the idea of entering those small tunnels. Perhaps it would be better though for all of us to lower ourselves into the pit and then climb up the far side?" Yekskya knots his rope and unfolds his grappling arrow to provide a purchase against the edge of the pit, then lowers the rope.