Hilde looks at Iskender with a serious look.
Iskender shrugs, turning his hands outwards and mouths the word "what?" back to Hilde.
Hilde frowns at Iskender and continues forward.
"Women!?"
Kit picks up the unconscious woman, and everyone else follows Hilde towards the burned down Temple, skirting past the Sheriff office. Once there you see nearly three dozen charred bodies lie among the ash and debris of this burned-out temple where statues carved with common runes of protection have similarly fallen into ruin, pulled down by ropes and half-melted chains.
As you approach the building, when you get with thirty feet, three skeletons crawl out, stand and move towards you to attack. One of the skeletons has golden, gem studded holy symbol around his neck on a thin golden chain that seems to not have been touched by the fire that burned down the temple.
To what religion does the holy symbol belong?
What do I know about skeletons?
Hilde charges, silently, against the skeleton with the holy symbol.
Round 1, Initiative Count 7
Dilwyn makes up for his slower speed by charging at any remaining skeletons left after the others have acted, swinging his staff to try to scatter these unnaturally mobile piles of bones.
Kit mumbles Apologies, lady! as he drops the bound and gagged woman behind him. Wait here while we deal with these. He will then draw his greataxe.
Zaladrel pauses at the sight of the creatures. He knew skeletons to be generally fragile creatures and Kit and Hilde were anything but. The elf waits to see how events unfold before acting. Zal pulls his sword just in case.
Iskender will stay back and let the Warriors move forward. "Do well!"
He commences an inspiring performance to give everyone +1 to hit and damage, and saves vs charm and fear.
As you get close, you can see the skeletons have a fiery glow about them, and you can feel the heat from their bones.
Hilde charges the skeleton with the holy symbol still hanging around his neck. The barbarian critically wounds the creature, and even its resistance to her weapon is not enough and it collapses in a pile of bones. However the skeleton explodes upon its death in a fiery burst and wounds her.
Zaladrel moves up with the group, pulling his sword and waits to see the outcome of the more aggressive folks before joining in the battle.
Kit drops the woman, and draws his axe, preparing to kill any skeleton that attacks him.
Iskender notices the holy symbol is one of Torag, and with the low fiery glow he realizes that these skeletons will do fire damage to anyone hitting them or when they die as evidenced by what happened to Hilde.
Dilwyn also charges and using his quarterstaff kills one of the fiery skeletons and he also is damaged by the fiery explosion.
The remaining skeleton approaches Kit and swings with its mace but misses the Ranger. However, just being next to the skeleton causes Kit to take some fire damage.
Hilde seems unfazed by the skeleton exploding, and charges against the surviving one.
Kit yelps as his skin is burned by the proximity of the skeleton. He draws back his axe to deliver a blow to the skeleton when Hilde comes up and hacks the skeleton with her Greatsword. As the skeleton explodes in burning embers, he turns to the barbarian and smiles. I had that all under control! He then goes back to check on the bound and gagged woman.
Discovering that these are exploding skeletons, Dilwyn immediately starts backing away from them to put some distance. It all seems for naught, though, as the enthusiastic Hilde keeps chopping away at them. He gathers a small jolt of electrical energy and prepares to fling it at the remaining skeleton if it's still there by the time the energy finishes coalescing.
+1 inspire courage, -4 shooting into melee
"In case anyone cares, I believe those are flaming skeletons. Being next to them will burn you, and when destroyed, they explode. I hope the information is useful, even if late."
You don't have to tell me twice! Kit laughs as he looks down on his reddened arms.
Hilde happily kicks the bones around, a wide smile in her mouth.
Iskender casts detect magic and scans the remains looking for, well, anything magical. After that, he walks up and checks if the holy symbol has cooled down before inspecting it.
"Torag huh? Interesting."
Zaladrel shakes his head as he re-sheaths his sword, So are we thinking one malady that causes murderous rage, suicidal tendencies and a fiery disposition upon apparent undeath? The elf shakes his head at his own question.
Zal places a hand on Kit and Hilde each to mend some of the damage
"It seems hard to believe that they could all be the result of the same disease. The disposition of these priests bodes ill for the likelihood of finding answers from them, but perhaps there are answers to be scavenged from the remainder."
Dilwyn begins searching through the ruins of the temple, detecting magic as he goes just in case.
"I don't suppose any of you noticed any empirical differences between the overall size of the explosions when those things went? I mean, it would make sense that a larger one would explode bigger, per se."
Hilde looks at Zaladrel, and nods, while keeping a serious face.
Iskender recalls Zaladriel's question. "What makes more sense to you? One world-ending disease that does three things, or three different but complimentary world ending diseases that all arrive at the same place and time?" He waits before continuing, "the common flu can cause coughing, sneezing, muscle aches, vomiting, and diarrhea, or any combination thereof. Sure, there are separate diseases that can cause each of those on their own, but it would be far more likely to get the common flu than a combination of the others, to mimic the effects. Until such time as proven otherwise, Orrack's Razor suggests we should assume we're facing the common flu sort of world ending disease, Q.E.D."
Iskender checks for magic, and finds none, however he looks at the, now cooled, holy symbol of Torag, god of protection, and sees that it is quite nicely made from gold with some gems set in it.
Dilwyn begins searching thru the remains of the temple, but finds nothing of interest even when trying to detect magical auras.
"Alas, I have discovered nothing here," says Dilwyn, sadly. "I hope that the Silverstone Hall has fared better, though it's on the opposite side of town. I'd still like to head there, though considering what we found here it may be wiser to head for the Sheriff's Office first, as there seems an equal likelihood of finding information there, and it doesn't leave us without an escape route back to the ferry."
If nobody objects, he'll lead the way to A5 keeping an eye out and, as usual, trying unsuccessfully to be quiet about it.
Iskender looks at Hilde and points at Dilwyn while he shrugs.
He follows...
Moving back towards the path that came into town you head towards what you were told is the Sheriff's office, and you see a sign above the door of this stout, stone building identifies it as the local sheriff ’s office. A single-story structure with a flat roof, the building seemingly has all its windows boarded up, and the solid oak door bears a number of deep marks from the heavy blows of an axe. A small porch runs along the front of the building, its boards stained with dried blood.
"I am unsure where this evidence fits into my hypothesis."
This is the first time I am trying to get into jail. I am usually trying to get out! Kit says with a laugh.
Hilde tries to bring the door down by bashing into it.
Dilwyn gives a light chuckle at the comment and warily moves forward to try the door. It's probably locked, it's usually not necessary to batter down a door when it's open, but it doesn't hurt to try. He pushes from a slight distance with his staff before actually moving close enough the handle.
After Hilde bounces back off the door, Dilwyn tries to just turn the door handle, but finds that the door is locked.
A stout door. Perhaps we should look elsewhere? Or we could try to take off the boarding on the windows?
"I don't think we should give up so easily. Assuming there are cells inside, this could also be a handy place to keep our guest where she can neither escape nor hurt herself. Let's try the door again, but this time working together. On three, Hilde. One... Two... Three!"
Dilwyn lunges at the door upon his cue.
"Buffoons," ponders Iskender.
Hilde helps Dylwyn bring the door down.
"Strong buffoons, but buffoons they are."
Double teaming the door works as together, Dilwyn and Hilde crash thru the solid oak door. After picking themselves up off the floor, everyone comes into the building and looks around.
There are three jail cells, all open, and a door into a small room, that once opened you immediately close as the smell of the latrine is a bit overwhelming. There is also a locked sturdy cabinet that takes up a large portion of the far wall, as well as a desk and chair, and a bulletin board that has a map pinned up by the corners that seems to be Holver's Ferry and the surrounding area, including the Lake and a road that travels along the edge of the Lake heading south. Two additional pins are stuck into the map along the shore of Lake Shimmermere. One about three miles from Holver's Ferry, and the other another five miles beyond that.
Zal pulls out a ration and places it in a cell while motioning to Kit, Shall we put her in here for now? Do we...er...strip her of possessions? So she doesn't hang herself or something?
The elf considers the cell for a moment to see if that is even really a possibility.
Depending on what Knowledge skill you want, this roll could be 4 higher...
Does it look like the map is tracking something? My immediate thought is that it is instances of disease getting tracked or something. Also, can I tell what is located on the map at those two places?
Dilwyn begins to search through the desk and the area around it, looking for either a set of keys or some additional information to supplement the map that Iskender is studying.
"We should certainly remove anything she could use to harm herself, yes. If it seems distasteful, consider it a treatment for her condition. Unless we find some keys, though, we'll have to tie the cell closed."
Noting that Dilwyn is searching for keys, Zal will move to Iskender. We should mark the spots and take the map. Who knows, it may be helpful again. We can check this closest mark, its not far...
"Taking the map seems a good idea. Now I don't know what this near spot is, but this other one further to the south is where the old ruins of Arvarenhode Manor are located. The line of Arvarenhode ended about 120 years ago according to tales, although I don't know much more about it than that."
Searching thru the desk, Dilwyn finds a large iron ring with two keys on it. One is obviously for the cell doors.
"Aha," says Dilwyn, raising the key ring triumphantly. "Now we're in business."
Keys in hand, he locks the unconscious and unequipped woman in one of the cells where she can rest safely without encumbering them during their investigations. That accomplished, he figures the other key is for the sturdy cabinet and tries unlocking it. Hopefully there are some useful supplies, or perhaps documents detailing the town's descent into madness.
Leave it to the ruins of an old manor to be a point of interest. Such places always seem to spell trouble. Well if we find little else around here perhaps its best we check that house?
Inside is found, three suits of studded leather armor, six hand axes, three short spears, nine daggers, four light crossbows with five cases containing 20 crossbow bolts each, and a very well made greatsword. A small, wooden box at the foot of the cabinet also holds three potions, a wand, a hollow mithral tube about 1 foot long and a purse holding 22 gp and 77 sp.
There are no papers either in the desk or in the cabinet.