Shalelu moves to the corner and fires an arrow at one of the monsters without hesitation.
Her shot bounces off the shoulder of one of the beasts, not causing serious injury but certainly startling it and letting it know that she's not messing around.
Round One:
Hiro's eyes widen in surprise at the sight of Shalelu's arrow bouncing off of her undead target. The samurai catches Ameiko's eye and steps to Kenji's other side, drawing Whispering Shrike as he moves. The Tian bodyguard then taps Kenji's shoulder with the flat of the wakizashi's blade as he activates the weapon's protective magics.
Ameiko draws her blade and starts singing a haunting melody, one that evokes a longing for home but has a strange tonality -- something more Tien than Varisian. Invigorating sorcery fills the music underlying her words.
Magnauk charges down the stairs into the crypt and slams his sword into one of the monsters -- the one that batted away Shalelu's arrow. His attack slices heavily into the gray-skinned monster. He almost brings it to the ground with the force of the blow!
The creature that Magnauk struck claws back at him, and lunges with a wide, serrated-tooth maw.
One claw strike breaks through Magnauk's defenses.
The second monster closes and swings one of its claws at the half-orc as well.
The paladin easily avoids any further injury -- for the moment.
The third monster comes hustling up the stairs to engage Hiro.
Vaulting into action,Lyraesel rushes past Jinda, intercepting the foul creature as it makes it to the top of the steps, her club striking low as she smashes the monster, attempting to trip it as well.
Lyraesel's club lands a solid hit!
"Any idea what these things are?"grumbles Jinda, wondering why he gets into these messes and really hoping they don't have fireworks.
Pointing a finger and concentrating, Jinda shouts,"जादूची क्षेपणास्त्र" and a sparkling bolt of force energy hits the creature directly in front of Lyraesel.
Jinda's magical blast causes the creature to struggle, but it lets out an angry hiss and keeps on its feet.
Kenji's fist ignites and he lunges at the creature that threatens the group (monster #3).
He smashes the creature in the chest and leaves a smoking mark where his gauntlet impacts!
Not quite enough to finish the job, unfortunately.
ROUND 2
Shalelu, heedless of the danger, fires her bow point-blank at the monster.
The creature lashes out at her suddenly with a claw, but it skids off her armor as she hugs the wall.
Amazingly, the point-blank shot misses, likely because of the creature jostling her aim. She fires a second time.
This shot also misses!
Round Two:
Hiro sidesteps to flank the creature with Lyraesel. Following Magnauk's example, the samurai slashes wildly at the creature with Whispering Shrike.
Foul evil creatures you will pay for leaving a poor boy orphaned
The rage that builds within Magnauk is easily visible on his face and the tremble in his voice.
Hiro's strike crushes the creature, and as it falls to the ground its body shrivels in upon itself, whatever unnatural unlife was sustaining it now fled and gone.
Ameiko continues her enchanting tune as she draws and brandishes her rapier, though she hangs back to let the warriors handle the front line.
As the undead creature falls, Lyraesel leaps over it's fallen body, charging down the steps to meet those facing off against Magnauk, attacking from the opposite side.
Lyraesel's attack slams home and keeps the creature busy, giving Magnauk a chance to take a swing!
Magnauk swings with his whole soul.
Magnauk's amazing blow utterly crushes the creature he's fighting. Its companion hisses and claws at the paladin, heedless of the danger.
One swing of its claw manages to penetrate Magnauk's guard as he's recovering from his tremendous swing, and skitters along the paladin's armor.
Magnauk easily shrugs off the attack and keeps fighting!
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Kenji's rush and series of flaming blows crush the creature, which falls into a heap.
This chamber seems to be a burial room. Unfortunately, many of the coffins have been broken open. Bones are scattered about and show traces of having been gnawed upon.
Shalelu remains in the corner, covering the approach from the hallway in case anything comes from behind.
Ameiko approaches one of the slots in the wall. There's a wrapped corpse inside, which has been clawed open, with its withered flesh partly torn. Ameiko wrinkles her nose and says, "Ugh. Flesh-eaters. This must be one of those ancient pre-Varisian tombs."
"Disgusting." Kenji adds, frowning.
"Damn them!" he snarls after a second. Kicking the already singed corpse with another flash of fire. "Poor kid's lost his parents."
Kenji goes to join Shalelu looking out for trouble.
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Lyreasel stares at the undead bodies with unrestrained disgust. She hated the complete and utter violation of nature that they represented, just fighting them made her feel like she needed a bath. Looking over at the remains of the boy's parents she checks to see if there was anything on them they could give the child as some means of remembrance.
As she crouches down,the vision of them torn apart all to vividly brings to mind the image of her mother butchered by goblins. Almost numb she falls to her knees, understanding all to well what that boy would soon be feeling.
"Probably more in here," says Shalelu curtly. "Ghouls maybe came here for food, or maybe were made."
Magnauk searches the bodies that have recently been brought in by the creatures for anything that he might give back to the boy. After finding anything he gathers the bodies to concecrate them and bury them.
Kenji looks at Shalelu with some concern. "Uhm... made?" he asks.
"By an evil priest or some unholy power," explains Ameiko in response to Kenji's question about the undead. Shalelu nods in the affirmative. Ameiko continues, "There might be a shrine or something of the sort in here. Tombs are usually religious edifices, after all."
"And very few undead spontaneously occur." Lyreasel says after taking a few deep breaths to gather herself ans standing up.
"If there is an unholy shrine or necromancer in here creating undead monsters, we should destroy them before they harm anymore innocents," Hiro says, moving up the stairs to keep watch and listen for any new monstrosities that may approach.
"Well, thats mildly reassuring." he mutters. "Wonder if someone 'made' other kinds of living things, too. Like those treasure chests that eat people."
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"There are so many more creatures that exist in nature than you could possibly imaging Kenji." Lyraesel replies shaking her head.
Mulling over the philosophical ramifications around the creation of undead creatures, Jinda follows after Hiro, grumbling something about smelly dank graves not being as nice as a stout dwarven tunnel.
Going over the bodies, Magnauk finds that they each have a small belt pouch; the woman has a small amount of coinage -- probably just what they had to survive on the road. The man has a backpack and carries a bedroll and the tools of a cobbler. Each one also wears a very simple wooden ring.
The group heads back to the intersection and further west. The next room has a dry, desiccated stench, and several corpses are wrapped and piled in a corner. You hazard a guess that they are so poorly preserved that even the cannibal undead wouldn't eat them. Most of them have leathery skin stretched over brittle bones, or are nearly-dust inside of badly-wrapped bandages without proper embalming fluid. Whoever put these bodies here either didn't know much about how to preserve and prepare corpses, or didn't have the time to do it right, or just didn't care.
"Lyraesel, Shalelu, do either of you see any tracks of creatures who may have moved through this area?" Hiro whispers to the trackers of the group.
Lyreasel crouches, studying the disturbed dirt and earth in the crypt.
Magnauk solemnly gathers the parents possessions and places them in his pack.
Magnauk gets up and joins the others.
Let us purge this place of evil.
Magnauk’s brow furls low and his scared face gets real serious as he steps forward to follow.
Lyraesel searches the crypt's hallways for signs of passage. In addition to the skittering, clawed feet of the maneaters, she discovers a pair of footprints that don't fit with them -- no claws -- that look humanoid, one set slightly smaller than the other. It's like two people moving about the interior of the crypt as a pair, both adults, one larger than the other (but not by much -- both would be Medium size).
Lyraesel also notes with her hunter's eye that there are no signs of ash or oil anywhere that the tracks go, which means that whoever they are, they are not using torches or lanterns. Either they have magical light or they can see in the dark.
(Will update map after lunch today!)
"If there is some evil force here animating the dead, it is probably deeper within the tomb," Hiro mutters softly to his companions as he steps forward to peer around the corner.
Lyraesel moves forward eyes alert for any sign of activity, living or undead.
Your advance through the tomb continues to be forbidding. Dust and mold coats the hallways and occasionally you find deep scoring in the walls that looks like it comes from claws rather than tools.
A quick jaunt to the south finds that the passage splits in several directions. To the west, Lyraesel finds more of the tracks of the humanoids, but further south are more of the claw marks.
"West?" Hiro whispers the question to his companions.
"Better to get the ones creating them first then deal with the rest of the undead." Lyraesel agrees.
The group carefully follows the tracks to the west and you find two additional chambers: to the south, a rude hole that bears roots grown in from above; to the north, what was once a small storage chamber, with alcoves in the walls that perhaps were made for a catacomb but never filled, and an ancient crate. Two withered, gray-skinned figures stand over the crate. One is (was) a man, with a tattered robe and adorned by grave jewels: a silver circlet on his head and a torc about his neck, as well as bracelets. The other is (was) a woman, wearing a battered breastplate and a rotting leather skirt, and with an ornate greatsword strapped to her back via a leather thong.
"But what does it mean?" says the woman. "After all these years...""
"It's not coincidence," says the undead man. "It is finally a chance for --"
That is the point when they realize that you have intruded upon them.
The creatures are clearly dead, with their skin taut over their bones and corded muscle, eyes little more than glittering points of green light in their skulls.
Shalelu pulls back on her bow...
Hiro takes a slow step forward, sheathing Whispering Shrike and raising both hands in a placating gesture. "Please forgive our intrusion. We do not wish to provoke you. A pack of feral ghouls has been attacking and abducting travelers on the road, and we tracked them back to this tomb. Do you know what force may be responsible for releasing such creatures to prey upon the innocent?"
The two undead creatures seem taken aback briefly by Hiro's speech, but the face of the undead woman quickly twists into a distorted and hideous visage.
"Living fool! she shouts. "Those ghouls are ours, and now you'll replace them!"
Round 1
At the sound of Hiro trying to converse with these vile fiends Magnauk grunts and steadies himself to charge at the first show of aggression.
Hearing the voice confirm their evil intents is all he needs to charge and attck.
"Living FOOT!" Kenji shouts, charging up besides Magnauk and jump kicking with a flaming leg.
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Magnauk crashes into the female undead as she is scrabbling at the leather thong to draw her ornate greatsword. His strike hits hard and skids along her steel breastplate, but she still manages to get the sword unlimbered. Kenji follows with a leaping, flaming kick, but he quite literally bounces off of the creature's armor.
Radying herself for what looks like a tough battle with the undead, Lyraesel unleashes a bloodcurdling howl as she draws her dagger, radying to charge the enemy.