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Monty growls, hunching over a bit more, one hand over his face. He breathes deeply, trying to keep control over himself. His back is hunched, his face contorted into a more bestial version of his normally calm and serene face. The Primal screams of his comrades causes him to round on them.
They may feel the mists, and want to be the leader of the pack, but the blood of the jungle flows through Monty, and he is no stranger to how it works, to how the ape and the monkey handle themselves. He let's out a guttural growl, shouldering first Dru, then Faliana, then Brady, baring his teeth and massive canines to the other two in a clear show of dominance. He speaks in Vanara for a moment, guttural growls and hoots, before shaking his head and forcing himself to speak in common.
BEHAVE PACK. Mists infect minds. Mists make you tree-swinger. You are not tree-swinger. Us...
He flips out his wayfinder he got from his confirmation so long ago, holding it aloft.
Us Pack. Us PATHFINDERS. Us work together. Us find mist maker. Make them give back spirit to Faliana. Now, Come Pack.
He starts to amble, hanging his wayfinder from his staff and activating the light, turning it on so that it glows with vibrant light as a symbol to concentrate on. It swings slowly with each step of the old monkey monk as he continues forward. After a moment he turns back and growls again, baring his canines in a simian threat that his now bestial comrades would understand instinctually.
No Stop Pack. Come. Before continuing to walk.
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As Dru raises her battle scream in opposition of her's, Faliana has a momentary sensation she doesn't quite understand. ...should face challenge... prove dominance... She violently flips her spear upside down and jams the point onto the flagstones, luckly hitting a crack and leaves it standing there. She then whips around to face Dru, her mouth compressed into a flat line and her shoulders hunched as if trying to look larger. Just as she starts to advance on Dru, Monty bumps her shoulder starling her for a moment into listening to what he has to say.
As Monty makes his rallying speech, Faliana has another blip of that same sensation. ...he's right...should follow... She takes a more subservient posture as the vanaran takes the lead and heads out into the mist. She picks up her spear and, with a final challenging snarl at the blond woman, Faliana follows.
First sorry for not having the correct symbol, I don't quite know how to type it here.
Second, I'm guessing because Faliana's spirit hasn't completely gone away/had her influence cut to 0, Faliana still has connections to her. I'm currently role-playing that almost all of the connections between the two are blocked, corrupted, or, worst-case senario, severed and the only thing of Anavi that can get through are instinctive responses, such as fight or flight and threat recognition. If you don't like this, then I'll pass off the thoughts from earlier as a partial loss of the recognition of one's own thoughts and ideas. Oh, and one final question, can she still use the Marshal's Orders ability?
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Side by side with Monty, Brady sees the simian breathe in some of the mist; the sounds of coughing arise from both Monty and somewhere behind, and Brady instinctively--accidentally--takes in a deep breath himself. Even as his lungs begin coughing to expel the toxic mist, his body begins changing in subtle ways.
Stronger. Quicker. No fear. A suspicion starts growing in his mind. Make me more me? More orc? He realizes that his gaze has settled on the pillar next to him, and an instinct kicks in. He drops his shield and sunrod to hug the pillar with both arms, then quickly shimmies halfway up with barely a thought. Not orc then, something... different.
Mr. Monty shoulders into his leg, bringing his attention back to the immediate situation. More like Monty. Brady with a little Monty. Could be good.
He slides back down the pillar; picking up his shield, he falls back in with the pack. Yes, pack. Brady like pack. Stay with pack and do good work.
Both Dale and Tad are disconcerted to see their comrades appear to devolve right before their eyes, becoming more bestial and savage. The initial concern is only slightly mitigated when they realize that all of the others seem to still be clinging to some semblance of their former selves... at least for now. Neither is sure how long that will last.
After a bit of quite literal chest thumping, banging of weapons on the floor, and surprisingly very few words, the four affected Pathfinders seem to come to some sort of consensus... then with a guttural challenge they lumber across the mist-filled room, Monty in the lead, heading deeper into the museum with strange loping gates.
On the far side of the room, a long hallway runs off to the north, ending at the halls of the Grand Exhibit Hall. Nearer the atrium, are two doors, one on each side of the hall. Above the East Gallery door a large placard reads 'Hunting the Beasts of Legend' in large block letters. Above the West Gallery door a similar placard reads 'The Honored Dead', though this sign is written in blood-red calligraphy.
The map the Venture-Captain gave you earlier indicated the offices (and possibly Nigel with some answers) could be accessed through the western gallery. Though it's hard to say how well some of you are processing that information at present.
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Dale seems completely oblivious to the others, as he dives headfirst into a potted plant attempting to identify it. "Hold up now, I haven't even had the slightest chance to rule these plants out of producing that weird mist!" He looks around as the others continue on. Another group, same as the others!
He hustles to catch up with the group. "I GUESS I'll just have to take a closer look LATER." He says with annoyance.
Tad (though not so much Dale) is disconcerted to see their comrades appear to devolve right before their eyes, becoming more bestial and savage. The initial concern is only slightly mitigated when he realizes that all of the others seem to still be clinging to some semblance of their former selves... at least for now.
After a bit of quite literal chest thumping, banging of weapons on the floor, and surprisingly very few words, the four affected Pathfinders seem to come to some sort of consensus... then with a guttural challenge they lumber across the mist-filled room, Monty in the lead, heading deeper into the museum with strange loping gates.
On the far side of the room, a long hallway runs off to the north, ending at the halls of the Grand Exhibit Hall. Nearer the atrium, are two doors, one on each side of the hall. Above the East Gallery door a large placard reads 'Hunting the Beasts of Legend' in large block letters. Above the West Gallery door a similar placard reads 'The Honored Dead', though this sign is written in blood-red calligraphy.
The map the Venture-Captain gave you earlier indicated the offices (and possibly Nigel with some answers) could be accessed through the western gallery. Though it's hard to say how well some of you are processing that information at present.
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Monty gives a raised eyebrow to Dale before shaking his head and looking at the two halls. He points his staff and the wayfinder at the "Honored Dead" exhibit.
Need Answers. Hunt Nigel. Make him explain.
He turns around and looks at the others with a knowing look.
No kill Nigel until have answers. Come Pack, We hunt.
He starts walking up to the door, pushing it open to see what is in the exhibit.
Monty seems to still have at least some of his mental faculties still on point as he indicates the door on the left and pushes it open.
He is met with a large chamber in which the mists seem to congeal in thick silvery fog that cools the lungs and swirls about on the floor despite there being no breezes to move it.
Throughout the hall are arranged numerous exhibits, all seemingly focused on the funerary traditions of several ancient civilizations, along with many preserved corpses arrayed in poses of grim stillness.
A giant warrior looms from the haze, his arms crossed at the chest, his helm solemn and still. Beyond him, lay sarcophagi in various designs, and a few glass cases in which the withered dead are held upright by rods and string. Grim exhibits of of long-dead citizens whose fallen empires were erased ages past.
The mist swirls and eddies around all of them, reflecting the light in odd ways, giving the impression of twisted life.
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As the pack starts to move off, Faliana gets a brief sensation of surprise, and gives a small start and looks around. Seeing nothing she relaxes. A moment later, a flash of From the left! fills her senses, and she ducks slightly to the right. These odd flashes of sensation continue as the pack moves down the hallway with Faliana visably twitching and flinching every few seconds. Unable to completely focus on what is going on around her, Faliana lets the rest of the pack decide what they do next.
As Monty throws open the door, Faliana gives a look around the room. Her eyes seem to rest on a particular peice of the fog and she gives out a cry. "Anavi!" She then rushes into the room before stopping and getting a confused look in her eyes.
________
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Monty follows swiftly after his affected teammate, giving her another shoulder shove and baring his fangs at her in reprimand for going before him. He glances around at the room, trying to look for the door before seeing the large warrior. He carefully moves up and prods it with his staff with a loud "OOK!", jumping back a little after tapping it.
As the mist-affected Pathfinders move into the room, and their two unaffected comrades follow, their motion sends the fog whorling off in all directions. No one quite notices, that its motion is not entirely random, or directly explained by the motion of the Pathfinders. The mists start to accumulate at the bases of five of the exhibits, and small tendrils start to lap their way up the sides... but everyone does notice as suddenly four of those exhibits suddenly lurch to sudden activity!
Right by the doorway, an armored warrior reminiscent of a long-dead empire, dressed in heavily discolored bronze plates and helm, suddenly turns it's head with the grating sound of metal on metal. Directly beside Faliana a display case, containing the posed skeletal remains of a kellid chieftain wielding a large mammoth tusk as a club, suddenly shatters, and there is the popping of wires as the figure inside suddenly comes to some mockery of life, pulling itself free from support wires it no longer needs. On the far side of the room, another skeletal display, this time dressed in ancient Qadiran garb with a shiny silver scimitar, convulses to freedom as well. And from one of the sarcophagi nearby, the withered mummified remains of one of the corpses displayed there, wrapped in white rags with a jeweled scarab on its chest, slowly crawls free of the confines of its tomb. The fifth exhibit remains as it was, the mists seemingly having no affect.
All four of the animated creatures' eyes glow with a malevolent yellow light.
-- Round 1 -------------------
Proto-Brady <----- We are here!
Kellid (green), Qadiran (yellow)
Dale
Legionnaire (black)
Proto-Faliana, Proto-Dru, Proto-Monty
Osirian (blue)
Tad
Brady is the quickest to react!
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After following along into the next room, Dale finally starts to notice most of the others are acting... ODD. "How's everyone doing so far? Everything ok up there guys?" I've got to get out my journal and ... are those exhibits coming to life? YOW!
Dale stands a bit slackjawed in awe as the nearby suit of armor creaks to life, and then even more so when he swears he sees the yellow skeleton to the north mouth I keel you! to him....
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Brady notices the movement through the mist... off to his right, just past that... object (he couldn't be bothered with such details now; he's on the hunt!). He raises his nose to the air and instinctively sniffs, then crouches low to the ground, his arms hanging slack and his shield almost dragging as he lurches off towards the mummified remains. He swings widely, perhaps not feeling quite at home in his body at the moment, but he gets his shield up, ready to defend a counterstrike.
Brady lopes across the mist-filled room, taking the fight to the mummied corpse crawling out of the sarcophagus, but most of his attack deflects off of the stone coffin, doing no damage at all to the undead creature.
Next to Faliana, the savage kellid warrior skeleton rips free from the last of it's support wires, brandishing its massive bone club with a silent howl. It brings the weapon around in a wild swing that clips her before she has time to get out of the way!
The skeleton in Qadiran garb, at the back of the room, rattles across the floor towards Brady, now standing nearby. It thrusts its silver scimitar at the half-orc, but he is able to deflect it harmlessly with his shield, despite his regressed state.
-- Round 1 -------------------
Proto-Brady
Kellid (green), Qadiran (yellow)
Dale <----- We are here!
Legionnaire (black)
Proto-Faliana (-6), Proto-Dru, Proto-Monty
Osirian (blue)
Tad
Dale can go!
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I will study you! Oh, good you are way up there... later! Dale instead pulls out an explosive. A larger vial with a yellow smiley face painted across it. He pushes the activating ingredient in from the stopper on the top and shakes it violently before tossing it at the black suit of armor. "Incoming!"
Dale then hightails it up around a bookshelf to hopefully avoid the wrath of the suit of armor.
Dale lobs an alchemical missile towards the creature in the bronze armor, before bravely putting one of the displays between himself and it. Though his aim is not great, it's more then accurate enough to hit the slowly moving creature. There is a brief crash of the vial breaks, then a small explosion of fire, as it washes over the armor, and some of the nearby exhibits.
The undead warrior seems to ignore the fire entirely, as it slowly clanks across the space towards Thaddeus, raising an ancient bronze longsword as it goes. Despite ignoring the bomb, it clearly did some sort of damage, as it seems to have some problems bringing the sword back down again, narrowly missing the unprepared grippli!
-- Round 1 -------------------
Proto-Brady
Kellid (green), Qadiran (yellow)
Dale
Legionnaire (black) (-8)
Proto-Faliana (-6), Proto-Dru, Proto-Monty <----- We are here!
Osirian (blue)
Tad
Bold can go!
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Looking around in confusion for her spirit who had been there just moments ago Faliana completely misses the reviving of the corpses around her. That is until the Kellid right next to her brings it's club down on her shoulder. Hissing in pain and anger, she turns and leaps back a few feet, then with a look of pure rage she screams at the body, flicking specks of spit all over it,
She then takes her longspear and thrusts it at the creature.
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Monty hoots and howls at the Kellid.
YOU HURT PACK! MONTY DESTROY YOU!
The Monk dodges in close, bringing his Hanbo staff around in a vicious series of attacks.
Unfortunately, it seems the loss of control has greatly hindered the monk, as all technique and skill goes out the window in favor of completely ineffective thwaps that don't even bother the undead warrior.
Filled with rage, Faliana steps back and thrusts her longspear into the undead kellid that struck her, screaming. Unfortunately, her weapon appears to do little damage, as it mostly just goes right through the creatures empty rib cage and out the other side. Not to be denied, the furious medium then demonstrates that skeletal barbarians do not weigh the same as actual barbarians. She lifts her spear, the skeleton still tangled on the end, and smashes it over and over onto the hard floor. Whatever spirits were animating it quickly prove unable to maintain their hold, and pieces of bone and musty armor go flying everywhere as it falls to pieces at her feet.
Before you can tell more, the mists blow past and you're looking at random fog once more.
Monty, seeing the closer creature taken care of, lets out a animal-like howl, reminiscent of his primitive ancestors, and hurls himself across the floor towards the two creatures attacking Brady. He moves to flank the mummified one with the brawler and swings his staff... but his mind is not as focused as it once was, and he uses it more like a club then a finesse weapon. It ends up bouncing off of the edge of the sarcophagus, doing no damage at all to the undead.
That very target looks at both Monty and Brady with its yellow eyes, and appears to try to say something, as you see it's desiccated lips moving... but all that comes out is a raspy wheeze. It throws its head back in a silent scream, then throws itself at Brady! Unlike the others, it was not interred with a weapon, but it does not seem to care! Its desiccated hands claw at the half-orc with surprising strength, and it tries to tear out his throat with blackened teeth.
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,
Despite the quicker reflexes afforded by his regressed condition, Brady is not ready for the ferocity of the attack. Its all he can do to deflect one of the grasping claws, but the other manages to pierce his armor at the shoulder and the creature uses the leverage to haul itself on top of him and sink it's teeth into his other shoulder. . Even as the blows land, he feels some sort of foul poison leaching through the open wounds, and his muscles start to seize! Soon he finds himself unable to move to defend himself and can only watch helplessly as the creature continues trying to rip him apart!
-- Round 1 -------------------
Proto-Brady (-9, paralyzed, fort save pending)
Qadiran (yellow)
Dale
Legionnaire (black) (-8)
Proto-Faliana (-6), Proto-Dru, Proto-Monty <----- We are still here(ish)!
Osirian (blue)
Tad
Dru and Tad are up now!
The skeletal kellid warrior that Faliana just demolished, and the one in qadiran garb over by Brady just appear to be normal skeletons... just dressed in whatever they had when they were on display.
The creature in the armor, appeared to be a zombie... though between your bomb and Dru's morning star, it has ceased to function.
The mummified one that came out of the sarcaphagus, now that you've seen it in action, is clearly a ghoul of some sort!
All of them quite common, though how they suddenly animated here, at this time, you're not sure!
You will know all the important stuff about all such creatures... was Undead 101 in Pathfinder training school!
DR/blunt on the skeletons, DR/slashing on the zombie, both basically mindless. The ghoul however, will likely still have its mental faculties and can paralyze with its attacks, and often spreads disease! You're not sure what a 1000 year old disease might be though...
Oh, and usually their eyes do not glow yellow.... you think...
,
Dru instinctively steps forward to protect her smaller pack mate, smashing her morning star into the helm of the bronze legionnaire. Her blow is hard enough to get through the creature's heavy armor, and she caves in the entire helmet... and whatever head was inside it. It collapses to the mist-covered floor with a loud crash, no longer moving.
No longer threatened, Tad moves forward, holding up a golden ankh, the symbol of his goddess! Suddenly holy energy washes out from him, in all directions, filling the room and passes over both the remaining animated undead.
The skeleton in Qadiran garb starts losing pieces of itself, as whatever negative force animates it starts to lose its hold, but it does not completely fall apart. Instead, it continues to stab mindlessly at its previous target... the now paralyzed and helpless Brady!
The mummified ghoul however, stops chewing on Brady, as its hateful yellow eyes suddenly turn towards the small grippli on the other side of the sarcophagus...
-- Round 2 -------------------
Proto-Brady (-12, paralyzed*, disabled, fort save pending)
Qadiran skeleton (-2)
Dale, Proto-Faliana (-6), Proto-Dru, Proto-Monty <----- We are here!
Osirian ghoul (-2)
Tad
Bold can go!
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Faliana again sees something in the most off to her right and belatedly realizes it is only the mist. She still almost moves to follow but the mists swirl again this time much faster due to the fighting. But before they swirl away completely she sees something, no someone, else in the mists. A look of confusion on her face, she turns to the right again and takes a step forward.
She gives a momentary pause as she apparently does some mental acrobatics, but seems to reach a decision as her face sets into a mask of cold, hard determination. "Anavi fight, I fight!" She then thrusts her long spear out again.
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Recognizing the danger from the ghoul, Dale takes a step forward and pulls out a shiny vial with a cross on it from his bandoleer, he raises it up in the ready to toss it at a moment's notice.
"I'll do it! Don't make me do it! Destroy that GHOUL!" Please don't make me use this... they aren't cheap!
Dale draws a vial of holy water, he purchased at great expense, off of his belt, and prepares to use it if the others can not handle the ghoul.
He need not have worried. Monty and Faliana descend on the mummified creature with primal savagery, the vanara sending it reeling with a powerful blow from his staff, before the half-elf skewers it on the end of her spear. It twitches for a moment, it's mouth open in another silent scream, before the yellow glow recedes from it's eyes, and it returns to the dead state it was in before you entered.
Only the skeleton remains, its attention still mindlessly focused on the paralyzed and helpless Brady.
-- Round 2 -------------------
Proto-Brady (-12, paralyzed*, disabled, fort save pending)
Qadiran skeleton (-2)
Dale, Proto-Faliana (-6), Proto-Dru, Proto-Monty, Tad <----- We are here!
Dru and Tad to go!
Calling on his goddess once more, Tad gives Drusilla a small combat blessing just in time for the spear-maiden to march across the room, and pound the skeleton into a dry powder.
Brady manages to break himself free of the paralysis just as the skeleton explodes into its component parts before his eyes. He he can barely stand from his wounds and seriously thinks about joining it on the floor.
There is momentary calm amongst the remaining displays in the room.
Proto-Brady (-12, disabled, *success*)
Proto-Faliana (-6)
There is no change in the mist that swirls around your feet.
Across the far side, on the northern wall, you see a door that probably once consisted of a large pane of frosted glass... but it has been shattered, leaving just the jagged outline of where the door once stood. A sign beside it reads 'Office - Employees Only'.
With more time to look now, you will find that something on the ghoul has a magical aura of some sort, you think its the jeweled scarab that was on his chest.
You recognize the carvings on the blade as belonging to a mwangi tribe known as the Jambala Jaeg... one of the few tribes in the Expanse who once vehemently opposed the demon lord Angazhan and his followers. Such opposition eventually leading to their eventual extermination.
You also notice both the skeletal undead you defeated were outfitted with high quality weapons in their own right. An ivory greatclub on one, and an alchemical silver scimitar on the other.
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Seeing the last threat fall, Dale quickly puts his holy water away, as well as his crossbow and pulls out his large wooden spoon. "Someone give Brady a shoulder to lean on would you? Help is on the way!"
Dale moves over and gives him a light thump on the shoulder with the spoon while repeating the phrase "Mmm Soup!" The spoon then glows a dull white color and the sound of a giggling baby can be heard while some of Brady's wounds close up.
"Well that wasn't very effective! Damned Halflings! Lets try again." "OUTRAGEOUS!" hollers Dale as the wand is pretty poor.
"Gah finally. If I ever find them again I expect a partial refund!"
Afterwards Dale checks out the rest of the exibits and returns from the unaffected one with a cool looking kukri in hand. "Check this out! Anyone a big fan of kukri's? Let me tell you a story, Monty you may already have heard this one..."
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Faliana gives a scream of success and throws her arms in the air. The scream shortly turns into a whimper as she aggravates the wonlund on her shoulder. Seeing the spoon that Dale is using is knitting together Dr's wounds she approaches the alchemist and gives him an pleading look. "Bomb man heal?" she says as she points at her open shoulder wound.
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Dale gives Faliana a slight sideways look She seems odd too.. hrm.. "Sure can Miss Faliana! Here hold this kukri here while I do my work ok? AND I'm going to need to take a look at both you and Brady's injuries once we find a safer place, to be sure there's no infections or weird diseases from those undead."
He hands her the kukri and watches for any change in her demeanor while he draws and uses the wand. "MMM SOUP!" Giggle!
Once he's done he hollers over to Brady "Hey, grab that club and that sword, those are real high quality! Anyone want to use 'em? That club is great against those bags of bones and the sword against those zombie types."
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Faliana takes the short weapon and looks at it, a look of confusion on her face. She starts tapping it against the counter unsure of what it's supposed to be used for. She's just about to throw it away when Dale asks for it back. She clutches it to her chest as her eyes narrow. "Why Bomb man want? Mine now," she hisses at him, taking the kukuri as important now and keeping ahold of it.
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Dru looks at the monkey-leader, then at the not-door, then at the monkey leader again, then at the not-door again.
Wanting to impress the leader of the pack with her might, she looks around, and walks carefully, pushing aside the shattered glass with her armored foot. She seems ready for another fight, but shivers, as her human side tries to resurface.
It's stone cold here, or is it me?