When the last skeleton falls, Finlogan surveys the scene and asks, "is anyone injured?" He sheathes his longsword and scatters some bones with his boot.
The wounds on the villagers were clearly caused by the skeletons, and they match the wounds on the horses and ponies outside. It appears they managed to fight, briefly, but were overwhelmed, despite taking out two of the skeletons themselves.
One of the packs contains a large pillow and two quivers filled with more of the blunted arrows you found in the pack outside (10 in each quiver). The second pack has two days of rations, a full waterskin, and some common gaming dice.
A closer inspection of the area shows that this appears to have been set up as a base to camp from for the night... most likely the villagers were surprised while they were asleep.
The idea of being woken by skeletal creatures intent on killing you sends shivers up your spine.
"Should we take time now to bury or fire the dead? Or should we take care of it when we finish the quest?"
"Is it possible that this entrance could make them turn into skeletons if we don't take care of their bodies now?" Finlogan asks the team.
Nicely done, all. How should we continue to retrieve the flame?
"Is anyone else bothered by the fact that there are other villagers here ahead of us? I mean, if we're the chosen, what in the nine hells is Gerol doing here? Dead no less! This whole scene doesn't fit. Before we go anywhere I want to scour this room, including these bodies, for clues."
Cole nods and also begins to investigate the villagers for some indication of tjeir presence here at the crypt, beyond simply shelter.
Venssa looks around the room as well, but is looking more for signs of animal habitation. A large, empty cave like this should have animals living in it. The skeletons seem to be a new addition, otherwise the town folk would have been prepared for them.
Nature:
Investigate:
There's not a whole lot more that you can discover.
Venssa is able to tell you (she doesn't even really need to roll) that the moaning from the east is some sort of humanoid rather than animal.
But the contents of the room stand on their own.
Venssa:
It's likely that the crypt door had previously been closed. You did find one pack unemptied on the horses and ponies outside... maybe they were unloading supplies? Or kept the door open so they could hear if there was a disturbance with the animals outside?
But you think it's likely that the door hasn't been open for more than the two days where the bodies were killed.
i think we need to make our way to the east, and the moaning sound. Someone could still be alive.
Cole moves towards the east and the sound, awaiting the othets to join him.
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"I admit, I don't understand the pillow. Nor the practice arrows. How did they expect to just get here unopposed? If they were targetted by a pack of wolves such as we already faced, how would they fight them off with blunted arrows?
As for the rest, aye, we can lay them to rest, but there's no need to dirty our hands."
Power calls out to his servants who come at his call. Attero, the old warrior, has seen death afore, so he is not overly moved at the gruesome sight. Rick is too much the brute to show disturbance. But Hanse, the handsome young man, has not seen such things, and he bends over, heaving mightily into the muck.
"Ach, lord, burning will make a mighty smell. We'll bury 'em, if it pleases you. Besides, best way to preserve 'em, should...other parties need more proof. An' we'll burn th' bones. Old, dry ones will go up good as kindling. Just to sure," Captain Attero comments.
Power nods. "Make it so."
To delay setting himself to the dirty task, Hanse asks for and receives permission to store away the rations, the pillow, the skin and dice, though if any ask for them he would make them available.
"Well, perhaps they were here to make the way safe for us," Rankev muses. "If so, they have at least partly succeeded. Still, we're here for a purpose, and we'll not find out what is making that racket just standing here. Shall we?"
That said, he follow Cole, his lighted Staff of Propoket swaying.
This is a large chamber, filled with a maze of giant pillars that obscure the way in every direction. Next to the door is a pile of empty saddlebags and three brooms.
As you start to make your way forward, Finlogan's foot catches on a tripwire and he tumbles into a pit!
Except, the bottom of the pit is lined with pillows.
You continue to explore the room, and while you are careful, Cole finds himself the next victim, again tumbling into a pit... and again the floor is lined with pillows, cushioning him from any lasting damage.
As you walk through the room, you can see switches on some of the walls, essentially large pull levers.
The moaning is louder here.
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As none others have claimed it, Hanse also tidies the entryway, packing up the pony's sack that has the rations and oil and things.
"Ah! We seem to have solved the mystery of what they were doing here. Meseems that yon villagers were transporting pillows to make the place safe for we unknowing youngsters, taking the fangs out of the teeth of this place, as it were. Alas! That the bones animated and slew them at an inopportune moment, but at least they seem to have done their work. That much we can tell from the empty sacks and the pillow-laden pits.
We should move forward more slowly, but the the wires should be easier to find, now that we know they exist."
Finlogan thanks Rankev for burying the dead.
He smiles in his stupidity when he lands in pillows at the bottom of a pit. He doesn't expect to be so lucky next time.
While he wears his shield, the half elf takes out his staff and pushes it in front of him along the floor to trigger any tripwire to prevent him from falling into another pit.
"I wonder if those levers on the walls are part of the locking mechanism for the door? Maybe if we switch them all?" Aldelenna says, and then moves to the lever nearest her, on the eastern wall, and looks at it thoroughly.
Aldelenna studies the levers. She doesn't think any single one will open the door, but perhaps if they were all pulled at once? It seems like the levers will slowly go back to their positions. That could mean the door won't remain unlocked for long.
"Fin, I think if three of us pull these levers down, it will open the door, but we'll need somebody strong to hold it, because from what I can tell, the levers and the door will slowly go back to their original positions. Best be about it too, that moaning is unsettling my nerves." Aldelenna says, tucking her stray strand of curvy, red hair that never seems to want to stay behind her slightly pointed ear. Then grabbing the lever, and waiting for two others to get to the other levers.
Cole offers his strong arms to accomplish the task.
I can hold that for ya.
Venssa moves into the room with the others and studies the levels as well.
"Give them a pull and perhaps we can see where it leads and block the opening so we can all make it in."
Perception:
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"Hold a moment," Rankev quips.
He goes back into the former room and scoops up a brace of long bones, and asks Attero, who is gathering other bones for burning, to look about for a stout leg of wood that could be used to hold a door. That done, he returns to the group. "I've no wish to be trapped here, so we can use these bones to hold the thing open, until we find something better and after we deem it safe.
Uh, Fin, do you still have your hunting trap? If so, would you mind popping it in front of the door? If that moaning is from some rabid, wounded beast, I'd much rather it ran in to your trap and slowed its charge down."
"Yeah, sure." Finlogan unslings his shield and backpack. He removes his hunting trap and sets it in front the door. He looks around to anchor it somewhere. He'll settle for tying to one of the levers.
He shoulders his backpack and readies his shield. Then, he takes hold of a lever nodding to Cole and Aldelenna signaling his readiness.
It opens to a corridor. The corridor runs south very briefly then hits an east west "T". The passage continues off at least twenty or thirty feet west, but the eastern corridor turns almost immediately south, and that's where the moaning appears to be coming from.
Finlogan shrugs and stows his trap. "Considering that there were pillows in the pit, the moaning is probably just some illusion."
He leaves the others to figure out how to keep the door open. Maybe Rankev will have to hold a lever.
Knowing a thing or two about illusions, Aldelenna gives a careful listen and tries to discern if the sound is magical or not.
Aldelenna is fairly sure the moaning is not an illusion.
Feeling a little out of her element, Venssa follows the others as they gather the broken weapons and prop the doors open. The weird moaning has set her nerves on edge and she seems jittery and less sure of herself.
Cole, following the light provided, moves to the south door, and he checks the door for traps, then to see if it is open, without yet opening it.
As you get closer, you note the wailing seems almost mournful, and it grows louder as you get closer to the end of the hallway. There are more bones here, craked, broken and inert. Someone killed one of those skeletons in this hallway.
The door is closed, and appears to have been barricaded shut. The wailing grows quiet as you test it. Then there's an almost whimper, before the wailing begins again.
"Hello, the room. Do you need help?" Finlogan calls out hoping someone in there is alive to save.
Cole sets a shoulder to the door.
Venssa stands back as Cole attempts to force the door open. She keeps her staff ready just in case!
"No!!!"
As the door starts to give way, the crank of a crossbow being winched and loaded emerges from the room.
"You'll not have me! Angry bones! A trick... that's it... it's a trick of the dead, the dead that speak!"
A crossbow bolt fires and hits the door. Behind the door you can hear the slow winch of the crank as he loads another bolt.
The door will take another a good push, perhaps two, to get it open. It's clear this man is from Kassen, but his speech suggests that he has not survived the horror of his experience well.
Cole continues to work on the door.
We've dealt with the bones, friend. We're here to help. Quit shootin' at us.
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Rankev had held back, little interested in the seiging of a room or the opening of a door, and simply contented himself to stare down the other way, makign sure nothing took them in the flank.
But at the sound of conversation pops up, he looks at what is transpiring.
(add modifier as appropriate)
"Pause a moment, friend Cole. The man does not wish his domicile defaced, just yet. Give us a brief time to see if there is still a man there to be reasoned with."
Power steps forward, casting the light of the Staff of Propoket into the room.
"Ho there, friend. You speak as local townsman. If so, have you heard of the Vargidan clan? I should certainly hope so. And if you have, then you may have heard of me, for I claim their blood.
Now, what my overly-enthusiastic friend here says is sooth--we have lain the skeletons to rest, and their bones now crackle in my servants' fires. Come now, lay up thy bow and let us find you something warm to eat and something warmer to drink, and you may share thy burdens with us."
Aldelenna steps to and offers her voice as a compliment to Rankev's. "Rankev has the right of it. I'm certain I'd know you if you just show yourself. I'm Aldelenna, the serving girl and bard's apprentice from the Seven Silvers. Do you recognize my voice?" The half-elf says, and then playing her lyre, hums a soft and soothing melody, aimed at calming his nerves.
"What? Who's there?"
You here a sound. It *might* be the crossbow being set down, you're not sure.
"Angry bones! There's danger! The dead... dead that speak. No... is it a trick? Must be a trick!"
There's the sound of shuffling and then again it sounds like the crossbow may have been set back down.
"My poor Dimira. I've failed you! The bones! Walking in ancient mail... the voice of death. He's taken you, and I just hide, the coward. But the bones... they ripped us apart... my friends... I saw them die. One by one. Claws of death. The angry bones! Oh, Dimira, my poor sister..."
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Rankev hears the man trembling upon a knife's edge of sanity. In his experience, such instances demand a firm hand. Though it might seem cruel, one must re-assert reality firmly, and only then the healing may begun.
Besides, what is important is that the man not shoot them for a moment too long.
"How DARE you say that I am a trick! I am Rankev Davis of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Vargidan! I am a sorcerer of of Mystic Arts, keeper of the Crimson blood and...ah, and...Wielder of the Staff of Propoket!
We have lain waste to the walking bones and ALREADY avenged thy kin.
You shall stand aside, citizen, and you shall allow thy betters to say who is or is not coward here!"
Rankev nods to Cole. No sense in delay.
The burly Cole nods to Rankev and lays into the door a third time.
Aldelenna wracks her brain to try and remember Dimira and her brother.
She also adds her voice to Rankev's again in the hopes that her voice and his can persuade the man to calm down and let them come in, for his own good.