Nature:
Aldelenna hands Finlogan back his borrowed staff, with a nod of thanks, and a strong squeeze on the hand. She then stares at the scene of slaughtered animals for a moment, subsequently she looks up the steep hillside that they just had to carefully, carefully, oh so carefully come down with rope, stick, and considerate footstep. "Two things strike me," she says to no one in particular. "How in the name of any good god did these ponies get down the gorge without breaking leg or neck? Is there a long way 'round?" Then she takes a good slow walk around the corpses, avoiding stepping in the bloody mud as much as she can. "Second: where are the owners of these animals? They didn't just wander down here of their own accord. Altogether, this is disconcerting to say the least. Are they tomb robbers? If so, who killed their animals? It's possible we've got tomb robbers and some other ruffians about, both of which takes whatever joy we might have had at safely arriving swiftly away into the ether." She says, with her right hand gripping the hilt of her rapier.
Finlogan smiles and retrieves and stows his staff. With his shield ready for an ambush, he investigates the corpses.
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"Hmmm, you seem to have the right of it, Aldelenna," he said, giving her a small smile. "I like not either of these things, that pack animals are here when we do not have them, or that they are now dead.
Have you ever tried to kill a herd beast? Father once let me oversee his slaughterhouse. Nasty business that. Takes a strong man and a sharp axe two or three tries, and that while the beast is held and tethered!
To have simply come up to them and killed them under these casual conditions. Brrr. Chills the blood. Still, nothing for it. Perhaps it has nothing to do with us. Shall we?"
Rankev casts Light on his Staff of Propoket and peers in to the entrance.
Venssa: Your skills tell you these animals were slain about two days ago by crude blades or perhaps claws. It's hard to be completely sure.
Finlogan: You notice scattered bones beneath the corpse of one of the horses.
The ponies were laden with many packs.
Rankev: The interior of the crypt appears to be unlit. Even here at the entrance, the walls are decorated with a scrolling pattern of villagers fighting off masked bandits and monsters. Despite exposure to the elements, the artwork is still in good condition.
Finlogan approaches the cave cautiously. "Here we are. And it appears something has made the crypt, it's lair."
"Look. Below the slaughtered horses and ponies, there are some older bones. Venssa, is this meal too big for the bear that prowls around the lake?"
Does someone have a light spell for my shield as I lead us in, or should I light the lantern.
Venssa tells the group that the horses and mules were killed only a few days ago, and it looks by claws or crude weapons.
She examines the bones beneath the current carrion to decide its age and possible what it was and what happened to it.
Nature:
Venssa gives a shiver as she examines the bones under the animal carcasses.
"These bones are old...really old, and are from some kind of humanoid. They feel...off? I cannot describe it, but they make me feel very...uncomfortable."
"Right. So, do we want to inventory those packs before we head inside out of the rain. Maybe Rankev, your friends want to stay out here while we enter the crypt?" Finlogan suggests.
Most of the packs are empty, but there is one still sealed and somewhat dry. It contains 2 days worth of rations, a pair of large comfortable seeming pillows, 2 flasks of oil, and a quiver of arrows.
"Weird. Cole, ever seen these blunt tipped arrows before?" Finlgan asks offering an arrow to the older ranger to examine.
Cole:
The doors open onto a long chamber, with raised platforms of stone to either side. Solid stone pillars rise up to the ceiling. The room is faintly lit from the sunlight (what little there is) outside, but you can make out few details. You can hear an echoing wail in the distance.
Fin, those arrows look alot like trainin' arrows. I been hit by 'em before when trainin' with thd Nirmathas Rangers. They're likely to be found in places with a large military presence.
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Rankev casts Light on his Staff of Propoket and peers in to the entrance.
Rankev nods and motions for his servants to wait for him inside the mouth of the cave. The trio quickly nod in agreement, starting a small fire and passing around a small skin.
Rankev holds his lighted staff and peers at the grusome scene of battle. "Ach! Most disturbing."
He prods the bodies on the floor with his staff, as if expecting them to get up again. If they do not, he leans down and examines them.
Rankev is slightly startled on rolling over the villagers to discover that these are people he knows. The Vargidan family is about as close to nobility as Kassen gets, given that its a meritocracy (their gold has merit!) and these were friends of the mayor he would have been expected to acknowledge and (try) to be polite to: Gerol and Vark. Both died fairly horrible deaths, being rended by rake-like claws.
As you are bent and studying, ancient bones around you begin to creak and shamble...
[bigger]Initiative[/b]:
This gives us three groups:
Group 1: Venssa, Cole, Finlogan, Aldelenna
Group 2: Skeletons
Group 3: Rankev
There are eight skeletons, two of whom are decrepit and non-functional. Perhaps the villagers didn't die so easily? They shamble forward, some wielding just their clawed hands, others holding broken shards of old weapons.
You're in combat!
Group 1: Venssa, Cole, Finlogan, Aldelenna
Group 2: Skeletons
Group 3: Rankev
It is round 1, current turn: Group 1
Waiting on: Vennsa, Cole, Finlogan, Aldelenna
---
Skeletons shamble toward you. Ancient looking clothes hang off of them and the bright light of Rankev's staff sends fierce shadows to hang menacingly on the walls.
---
Venssa moves forward, charging her staff with the power of nature as she passes Finn to attack the skeleton hiding in the corner of the room (Pink)
Attack:
Damage:
Crit Damage:
Finlogan steps forward drawing his longsword and swipes at the animated dead. The heavy blade connects and breaks some bones. The half-elven ranger brings his blade behind his shield in a defensive position.
Group 1: Vennsa, Finlogan, Cole, Aldelenna
Group 2: Skeletons
Group 3: Rankev
It is round 1. Current turn Group 1
Waiting on Cole, Aldelenna
---
Venssa sees the creature and it is as though her spirit of nature is incensed, speaking her prayer over her sturdy walking staff, she strikes at a skeleton that had been shambling in from the corner of the room—strikes and pulverizes in a blow that sends shattered bits of bone flying across the room. What little is left of the skeleton crumbles into a pile and stirs no more.
Seeing another skeleton behind a pillar, Fin steps forward and slashes mightily. bone chips go flying, but the skeleton pushes forward, as though the weapon isn't even there. Astonishingly Finlogan realizes this is a foe that doesn't care if it gets hit! Mindlessly, it advances, heedless of the loss of part of its rib cage.
It is round 1. Current turn: Group 1
Waiting on Cole, Aldelenna
Cole steps up to the closest skeleton and swings with his axe.
Cole's vicious axe chops through brittle and decayed bone, and the skeleton before him collapses.
Group 1: Venssa, Finlogan, Cole, Aldelenna
Group 2: Skeletons
Group 3: Rankev
It is round 1. Current turn Group 1
Waiting on Aldelenna
---
The stink of death is heavy in the room, and the shuffling of undead creatures unnerving, made more so by the enlarged shadows cast by Rankev's staff upon the walls.
The sound of clanging steel and the thwack of Venssa's staff speak of bravery, but shivering, cold and wet at the door is Aldelenna. She has seen combat before. She tried her trickery on the wolves, and no barmaid escapes the occasional brawl.
But these are the implaccable undead. She cannot distract them with visions or tempt them with song. These are creatures risen from the grave and they are ready to kill... have killed. Villagers Aldelenna knew—Gerol was a regular customer at the inn, and the sight of his face, no longer leering at her behind but dead and eyes staring into the forever of that place beyond, has her both frightened and angry.
Some logistics for Aldelenna to consider:
The two skeletons toward the back of the room have some fairly effective cover between the staircases and the pillars. They won't be easy to hit if she uses her crossbow. She can get a reasonable attack angle on either the orange or green skeleton from just inside the entrance. The green skeleton has been fairly significantly chipped away at by Fin, who is slashing at the creature with his longsword.
Functionally the skeletons in back (red and blue) have 3/4 cover (+5 to their AC) from the entrance. This goes down to half cover (+2 to their AC) if you move to the middle of the room, as they lose cover from the stairs.
Though the darkness bothers not her half-elven darkvision, Aldelenna knows that darkness is the ally of their enemies, and so she steps into the room and casts her dancing lights spell. Putting the dimly glowing orbs in positions that will take away the skeletons advantage of the shadows. As she strums the magical chord on her lyre, she speaks quietly to her friends nearby. "Gerol was a good friend. I pray you, send these undead monsters back to the hell from whence they've come, for Kassen!"
Group 1: Venssa, Finlogan, Cole, Aldelenna
Group 2: Skeletons
Group 3: Rankev
It is Round 1. Current turn: Group 2
---
The skeleton from the southwest corner moves forward to attack Rankev.
The skeleton strikes feebly, but Rankev is able to get his staff up to ward off the blow.
The skeleton from the southeast corner also moves to attack Rankev.
The second skeleton also attacks, but it is as if the workings of the creature are so decayed with age that it starts the blow, hesitates, and then finishes, allowing Rankev plenty of time to dodge out of the way.
The skeleton on the western ledge leaps down off the ledge between Aldelenna and Cole.
It nimbly dances down and strikes at Cole.
But while it jumped down nimbly enough, it can't seem to get its scimitar past Cole's defenses.
The skeleton opposite the pillar moves forward and flails at Finlogan from behind the pillar, as though unwilling to move around it in its thirst for blood.
Fortunately Fin is well armored and the creature's claws are kept on by half shattered bones in the forearms and it cannot get hold of him.
Group 1: Venssa, Finlogan, Cole, Aldelenna
Group 2: Skeletons
Group 3: Rankev
It is Round 1. Current turn: Group 3
Waiting on Rankev
---
The gods, or perhaps the spirits of Kassen's ancestors, have favored you. The skeletons, despite their vicious attacks, have done little more than scrape armor and staff.
They continue to press their attack, and Rankev is too keenly aware of two of the vile creatures practically on top of him.
Rankev, your servants call out fearfully for your safety from the entrance. What do you do?
Finlogan steps forward to clear the pillar and slashes with his longsword. He misses the skellie. He steps back to take cover behind the pillar.
Round 2
Venssa takes a step forward and, charging her staff with the power of nature once again, strikes at the skeleton before her (green)
"Back to the grave with you. You are a perversion of nature and must be destroyed!"
Attack:
Damage:
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Rankev grinned as the blades of the undead monstrosities cleaved only air. Another man would've run.
A lesser man.
"Now you shall learn why you fear the light. Now you shall learn there are things not to be trifled with, Now you shall learn I...
...am Power!"
He casually strikes his Staff of Propoket onto the ground. Where it hits dirt three darts of ephemeral light shoot out. The first heads toward Finlogan's foe. The other two head to the skeleton directly across from him!
Group 1: Venssa, Finlogan, Cole, Aldelenna
Group 2: Skeletons
Group 3: Rankev
---
Rankev's darts of ephemeral light strike true. One slays Finlogan's foe, the other two fly into one of the skeletons hovering over him.
Seeing Finlogan's foe fallen, Venssa sees another of the creatures attacking Cole and Aldelenna. Her quick staff work is sure, and her enchanted staff shatters the skeleton into pieces.
---
It is round two. Current turn: Group 1
Waiting on: Cole, Aldelenna
Cole steps up 5 feet to the orange skeleton nearby and swings with his axe.
Group 1: Venssa, Finlogan, Cole, Aldelenna
Group 2: Skeletons
Group 3: Rankev
It is round 2. Current turn: Group 1
---
Cole swings his axe through the air, chopping one of the skeleton's attacking Rankev in half. Mercifully, after a few twitching movements, it collapses.
---
Waiting on Aldelenna
Watching her friends dispatch the skeletons with such ease, and realizing her own weapons and reach are far too ineffective to do anything useful, she decides to use her noggin instead. Wracking her brain, she attempts to conjure up any and all memories of things she's read about fighting undead, hoping some useful tidbit will pop to her thinking surface.
Aldelenna:
You've heard that properly blessed holy water will have an affect when thrown at undead. Also, bludgeoning and smashing weapons will tend to do more damage to skeletons (you've observed that yourself from the effects of Venssa's staff), but you have to say, it looks like Fin and Cole have still been able to chip away at them, even with their non-bludgeoning weapons.
These seem particularly old, and you are glad that you were better prepared than the mayor's friends, who perished horribly from the undead swarming over them. You can also guess that these undead are what slaughtered the horses outside.
Some tales tell of skeletons that seem to mend themselves as they fight, though you are glad these do not seem to number among them.
Group 1: Venssa, Finlogan, Cole, Aldelenna
Group 2: Skeletons
Group 3: Rankev
It is round 2. Current turn Group 2
---
The final skeleton attacks Rankev, its broken scimitar swinging viciously toward the sorcerer.
Just as the terrifying creature swings at Rankev, the chronically lucky sorcerer trips over the feet of the dead villagers, stumbling under the blade as it slices where his head as only moments before.
---
It is round 2. Current turn: Group 3
Waiting on Rankev
Group 1: Venssa, Finlogan, Cole, Aldelenna
Group 2: Skeletons
Group 3: Rankev
It is round 3. Current turn: Group 1
Waiting on: Venssa, Finlogan, Cole, Aldelenna
---
Cole moves in to attack the lasy skeleton with his Battleaxe.
Enough of you unnatural curds!
Venssa moves forward with her newly enchanted staff and again swings a a skeleton.
"Unholy vermin, back to your natural state!"
Attack:
Damage:
Venssa strikes out with her staff, just missing the shambling skeleton, whose erratic movements make it an unpredictable and dangerous foe.
Cole's strike however is sure, once again severing the skeleton in half, and leaving a husk twitching on the floor for a few moments before it grows still.
The sounds of combat give way to the heavy breath of exertion, and a resurgence of the moaning coming vaguely from the east.
--
This is a long narrow room, now scattered with the bones of your enemies. In the center of the room, the bodies of two of your fellow villagers lay collapsed over two half open backpacks. The villagers have fallen from many sharp wounds, from claws and the broken scimitars of the skeletons. A stair on either side of the room climbs to a slightly elevated walkway on the east and west sides of the room—on the western side a door exits towards the northern portion of that walkway, on the east toward the southern side.
On the south wall, now more clearly illuminated by the dancing balls of light conjured by your bard, is a scene of Kassen's founder fighting against bandits in the gorge.