Kaley lets out a small bark of surprise as the casket bursts open and Briar calls out a warning. She lets her sword slip through her fingers, and it clatters loudly to the ground. The skeleton lunges toward her, but she is already spinning to the side, ripping through its bones with sharp fangs and long silver claws - visible for the first time as they catch the fungus's glow.
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From the hall, Petros scuttles out to his ally Dorin, hand glowing with energy as he presses his hand against the dwarf. Warmth spreads across Dorin's skin, focusing on his wounds, as a few begin to seal up...
Just as the tingling fades from Dorin, the casket next to him opens, and the skeleton within rises up. Its ambling movements turn it to face Dorin, but the dwarf has ample opportunity to take a swing at it.
While Dorin swings true, he is only able to chip off a bit of bone as his ax swings through the skeleton's ribcage.
coglen moves forward to Kaley's side and takes a slash at the skeleton.
Briar scuttles into the room waving his flag about as he approaches Kaley. "That's it, one of them down! Let's keep it up!
Here, see if this helps."
He begins an incantation before casting on her.
Seeing that his attack has little effect on the Skeleton, Dorin grabs his hammer instead, swinging it with all of his might at the Skeleton.
Kaley steps past the skeleton in front of her and lunges at the one behind.
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While one of the skeletons only receives a glancing blow from Kaley's first swing, her second connects with its spine, sending it toppling down to the ground. Kaley then catches the arm of the remaining skeleton in front of her, and tears it off, after which the skeleton turns to dust.
Petros, meanwhile, lobs a bomb at the skeletons approaching Dorin and himself...
"Oops!" yells Petros as he ducks behind Dorin.
Coglen will step out and attack.
Briar moves up and from behind Kaley before lobbing a ray of positive energy at the skeleton
Dorin moved back towards his allies, seeking to block the dead creatures path towards the squishier members of his party. As he does he draws down on his power, causing his beard to stiffen and become hard and sharp.
Woops. I was running out the door to work. I'll do it when I get home now
Kaley begins to panic from the relentless clawing of the undead, lashing back with claws of her own. She stumbles forward, clutching at a gash in her side. As she presses her palm against the wound, her flesh begins to bubble and steam, rippling for a moment before settling into a somewhat normal shape.
Coglen attacks the skeleton nearest him.
Briar keeps behind the others in safety and attempts to belt the skeletal humanoid with a ray of positive energy as he lobs it over Dorrin's shoulder
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The small bolt of light flits over Dorin's shoulder, catching the skeleton in the eye socket, and sending the head rolling off as the shambling mass of bones clatters to the ground, the forces keeping it animate finally giving way to the onslaught.
With the fight over, two sarcophagi remain shut.
The note reads: "To whomsoever should find this, my companion Frederick died to the dangers of the Emerald Spire on an expedition sent by the Pathfinder Society. While the chances of his ever being found are slim, and my resources to reclaim his body for a proper funeral are minimal to nonexistant, I can only ask that you please bring his body to the Priory dedicated to Irori in Fort Inevitable. If you do so, recompense may come your way in the future, and even if not, you may go through life having done this good deed. Regards, Kasideen Mortmoth."
Coglen tries to open one of the sarcophagi and notices that it is locked, and sets about picking it. When he opens it, he grabs a note and reads it, before handing it off to one of the more pious types.
"You might want to read this."
Kaley searches the sarcophagi as well, scanning with detect evil before lifting the lids and rooting through them.
She holds a ring of silver and sapphire up to the light from the fungus before pocketing it and begins inspecting the wayfinder curiously, but ignores the armor and shield.
At Petros' comment, Kaley reads the note quickly before passing it to Dorin and Briar. "Looks like a chance for a small good deed," she comments with a slight nod. A moment later, however, she looks back at the sarcophagus and frowns. "But something seems off. How did this note get here? What happened to the person who wrote it? She scans the note again over the shoulder of the next reader, trying to recall what she could of Iroran burial customs from late nights of reading or periodic stays at whatever temples would take her in.
"They probably ran like a coward."
"After hanging around long enough to write a paragraph about their companion's corpse and put it in his coffin?"
"Strange indeed, who is this Kasideen, have any of you heard of them?
Perhaps they went to venture further into the Tower's depths. Or perhaps they were unable, or unwilling, to carry their companion out themselves.
Either way, what to do with the corpse? I think we should bring it back, a good deed could always gain the favor of some god or lesser being. One never knows when such favor might be valuable. Of course, that is after we continue exploring for a while longer, his corpse doesn't seem to be going anywhere by itself. At least it better not."
At that last thought, Briar eyes the corpse suspiciously ready to blast it with positive energy should it so much as twitch.
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With a few moments of pondering, Kaley is able to recall that Iroran worshippers place particular emphasis on cleanliness and good condition of the body in burial.
Dorin sighs and sets the head of his hammer on the floor, before going to one knee. "Lord Torag, yeh of the Forge, the great and powerful Father of us all who do be children of the Forge, please provide may yeh never let me fall victim to such a horrible death and burial as this!" after blessing himself, he stands, turning to the others.
"Aye, we do be right to be taking this man home with us, when we leave next. We deliver him for no other reason that it be the right thing to do!"
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Petros looked between their compatriots. "I'm all for doing a good deed as well, but if we intend on continuing onward for the time being, I think perhaps it would be best if we performed some healing on ourselves. Dorin, do you still have that wand of cure light wounds we found in the upper level yesterday?"
"Aye lad I do! I'll heal us up right proper now!"
Kaley borrows the wand from Dorin, sealing up most of the skeletal claw marks before passing it back.
She then slips the wayfinder in her backpack, retrieves her sword, and stands by the door to the south to wait for the others.
Briar motions for the wand, "Here please, I've been feeling a little famished from all of that time in the cage."
Kaley pushes through the door into the room, stopping short in front of the pile of rubble and eyeing the skeletal hand curiously. "Looks like someone wants us to go left."
"Very suspicious."
Briar moves up the rubble, picking up a piece and inspecting it for a few moments before dropping it. The rubble falls, mysteriously arcing several feet away from him. An eyebrow raises as he watches it, and curses fall from under his breath.
Turning his attention to see what Kaley and Coglen are doing. "Clearly we should not go left then... Right?"
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Coglen surveys the surrounding area, but sees no signs of traps.
Petros enters the twisting hallway behind Briar, his eyes lingering on the hand before beginning an inspection of the area for traps.
"Never go where others want you to go, first rule of being underground," he commented.
As Petros rounds the bend of the hallway he lurches to a stop before pulling out a piece of chalk from his bag and drawing a line across the hallway. "These floor panels are hinged. It looks like they're meant to give way to anything trying to walk across it." Petros then backed away, stretching his back out.
As he looked upwards, he saw the hole formed from the collapsing tunnel and squinted his eyes. "Erm... Kaley, Dorin, you both seemed to be good at looking into dark spaces, how deep do you reckon that hole in the ceiling goes?" he asked, pointing upwards.
Kaley looks up at the hole in the ceiling and reports her findings to Petros and the others.
She then looks down at the apparent trapdoor in front of her. "If this is a trap, then there might be something important on the other side." She slips her backpack off of one shoulder and begins rummaging through it. "Want me to seal it up? I have some alchemical glue in here that should do the job in a moment or two."
Dorin follows along, stowing the wand at his belt, till they come to the Trap door. Looking up in to the hole, Dorin begins to focus.
"If you'd like, I could take a look at that for you." he says, patting a leather roll strapped to his back.
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Coglen begins applying the glue to the seams of the trap, but as he adjusts his position, the floor gives way...
Coglen is able jump back before sliding into the pit. Below, several spikes line the bottom, and movement can be seen from a darkened alcove.
Briar stands eyeing the trap nervously, not immediately paying much attention to the spider. "Who would do something like that?"
Seeing the movment Briar prepares for the worst, his nerves on edge from the trap and prepares to coat whatever it is with acid.