Rakarech roars in pain as he is brutally slashed by the skeletons. Heeding Vaashti, he shuffles backwards to switch places before he swings out weakly at the skeleton to his south.
"Lady of Courage, aid us now!" Vaashti cried, squeezing her eyes together in effort. A corona of blue-white light surrounded her and then pulsed outwards. Where it touched living flesh, wounds healed and spirits raised. The changes weren't massive, but subtle, and yet those around her felt that much more able to carry on the fight.
"Dammit! Vaashti, can you get Rakarech out of there? I have my bomb ready!"
The young man gets less picky about his targeting, and tries to simply pummel the skeleton with a Mantis Fist or elbow, whatever he can make contact with!
Br. Shartol's blow knocks the skeleton to the floor, and the bones fall apart in a heap.
Rakarech limps off into a corner and collapses to clear room for the others.
Kervos groans, then remembers where he is and glances around quickly to get his bearings. Realizing he needs to get back on his feet, Kervos tries to maintain safety against the skeleton nearby while pushing himself back up. Still punch drunk, he tries to balance himself and prepare to continue fighting.
"Vaashti, Kervos - see if you can draw them into my line of fire..."
After channeling, Vaashti grabbed a feebly struggling Rakaresh by the collar and began tugging him away from the fight.
Skeleton 1: 4/6
Skeleton 2: 6/6
The two skeletons now surround Vaashti, and reach out with their claws. Claws bounce off her armor and shield, but one is able to penetrate to her flesh.
Vaashti cried out as the skeleton's claws bit into her shoulder and she scuttled away from the creatures around her. She tried to keep a firm grip on both shield and morningstar as she moved, but the pain made it hard to keep her mind straight.
Withdraw to out of range
Seeing an opening, Ruhk casts a spell to give himself extra protection, then he moves in to occupy the area Vaashti previously left.
Seeing Vaashti move past, Kervos turns to call for Sutandir's fire as Ruhk rushes in to fill her place. Shrugging as much as he is able at Sutandir, he limps out of the way to put a wall between himself and the skeletons. Satisfied that at the very least he's protected for the moment, he calls out to Milani in the hopes that she can both bolster Ruhk's defenses further and help to mend Kervos' own injuries.
As soon as he has completed his quick prayers, he draws his morningstar in preparation to rejoin the battle.
Watching the dance of companions on the other side of the skeletons, Shartol steps up and tries to deal with the next skeleton in line . . ..
Not having a clear shot, Sutandir continues to hold his flask, ready to throw as soon as he is able to do so.
Skeleton 1: 4/6
Skeleton 2: 6/6
Br. Shartol's attack doesn't hit home, but it does draw the attention of the skeleton. The undead creature lunges out at the monk, but Shartol is too shifty, and neither claw hits home. The other skeleton sees a new target in Ruhk, and gets past his armor with one claw, slicing his skin.
Frustrated is an amazing word. It manages to describe an emotion with a thousand causes, and a thousand shades which exist as a result. Right now, the young monk is frustrated. The best techniques he knows to gain advantage in a fight really don't work well on moving skeletons. They have no eyes, no nerves, no simple soft tissue pressure spots . . .. AND they are managing to avoid most of his traditional attacks, while continuing to rip the flesh of his companions.
Should the group fail in their efforts to retrieve the potential medicinal ingredients, the entire village could die from this disease. Another layer of frustration, with its own multiple shades of the emotion involved.
As si typical, Shartol's not really thinking about this while he's fighting, but it is boiling away, under his thoughts, increasing the urgency of the fight beyond that caused by the fight itself, creating a tension that could never be replicated in a sparring match. "Stay put and fall down you, you, you VIOLATIONS!"
While expressing himself seems to have helped, the wild look in his eyes doesn't match anything you've seen from this young human before.
Deciding to try and take down the skeleton that only he can reach at the moment, Ruhk whispers a quick magical word to Bethany, enchanting her capabilities before he swings.
Vaashti heard Ruhk get hit and immediately started searching her repertoire of spells for anything that would help. All she could think of was to heal everyone once more, and she bent her mind to that task. Calling once more on Milani's power, she sent a burst of healing energies outwards, encompassing all that struggled near her.
Br. Shartol's new-found determination lends strength to his blow, and the skeleton collapses into dust as he makes contact. Meanwhile, Ruhk directs Bethany straight through the bones of his skeleton, and it falls to the ground as well.
Seeing the battle ended, Kervos turns to look at Vaasthi.
"My thanks. Without you calling for Her aid on my behalf, I fear I would not have regained consciousness."
Kervos tiredly secures his morningstar to his belt, then makes his way around his companions and the piles of bones to retrieve his greataxe. Rising up to his feet with his weapon once more, he surveys the party.
"How is everyone holding up? Are we fit to continue, or do you all believe we need to rest?"
"Well, this DOES look like a pretty good place to rest, the door was secret, so we might be safe in here.
That is, assuming the door can be opened from THIS side, and that we search and secure it first in case there are any other nasty surprises."
Rakarech groans and wanders over to his bear who spent the fight whimpering in the hallway. He rubs Grobu's head.
"I sorry, did not plan battle well. Put everyone in danger. Next time will think better. If there are more undead here, rest may be good. Many spells were cast."
"Ok, I am in good shape now thanks to lady Vaashti, and for a little while longer, I'm better protected, I'll stand guard by the door while the rest of you search this room top to bottom.
Oh, but first!"
Ruhk casts detect magic and searches for any magical auras.
Afterwards, he steps outside the room and closes the door so the others can make sure it opens from the inside, if it does, he will step in, close the door and stand guard.
Sutandir puts away his fire bomb. "Sorry I wasn't more help, but I couldn't get a clear shot off."
He helps search the room and prepare for resting.
As you search the room, and Ruhk looks around with Detect Magic, you find a fourth dwarven skeleton that didn't rise with the others. Ruhk immediately notices that the skeleton is wearing a gold ring with a red gemstone, and he can detect a magical aura coming from it.
Also, growing out of the chest of this skeleton, are two ironbloom mushrooms.
"Jackpot! That ring is magical. And the shrooms gives me hope we can wrap this up soon and go back to saving some lives...not to mention the inevitable toasting to the new heroes of Falcons Hollow."
Rakarech grunts with relief and carefully gathers the mushrooms.
"Good, we are in right place. Just have to keep looking. Anyone who want to rest, I can watch first. Not tired and have all my magic still."
With that Rakarech takes up a guard post by Rukh and busies himself cleaning and caring for his greataxe.
Grinning with delight, Ruhk slips the ring on a finger and admires the shine of the gemstone.
"I'll just hold on to this until we know what it does, it looks good on me doesn't it?"
The night passes rather uneventfully , but those on guard duty at various times did notice a decent amount of noise and movement throughout the halls and rooms beyond the secret room.
Discussion points from the young monk through the night will include:
"Do you think we can pull this off? Actually gather everything and get it back in time to matter?"
"Do you think this medicine will actually help against this plague?"
"What is working against the village that such monsters and beasts are protecting the things that we hope will save our friends and families?"
Sutandir eyes Shartol at that last comment. "I never even considered that something might be actively causing the illness ... I just assumed we had fallen victim to a random plague. As to whether this will work, all we have to go by is that book. We just have to hope the recipe is what we need."
When the group wakes, he checks his supplies and mixes a new dose of his clarity serum. s
Though in a dark mood, Kervos is willing to engage Sutandir and Shartol in discussion about the plague.
"Better than that, Sutandir, this medicine will have to work. The very fact that we are encountering trials to accomplish getting it all together should show we're on the right track. I would be more concerned were we having too easy a time." He pauses, thinking on the time they are spending hunting down the ingredients and Shartol's other questions.
"We will get this back in time to matter, Shartol. My sister and others are depending on us, and I will not fail them. The Everbloom has been blessing us thus far on our journey - we will succeed as long as we stay determined."
His piece said, Kervos turns away and curls up for the night until it's his turn for guard duty.
Rakarech grunts at the conversation.
"Pull it off? People will die, but not all of them. So we save those who are not dead yet. If it works, it will help."
He then furrows his brow as Shartol and Sutandir talk about some force behind the disease. "Is possible. No way to know just yet, but good to think about. Worrying though. Maybe something in the forest is mad about the lumbering like I am, but wants to hurt town instead of help it to fix problem."
During his watch, Ruhk had spent some time thinking, analyzing the previous combat, searching for flaws that could be remedied.
Despite appearances, underneath the alcohol, the women, the jewellery and the boasts, Ruhk had a pretty keen mind.
Right now it was trying to find a good likeness to describe the group, a way to help everyone find a natural place in the flow of combat.
In the morning, inspiration struck at last, and as the crew ate a meal of travelling rations and such, Ruhk began to speak.
"You know, in battle, we should see ourselves as a body.
Now now, listen to what I have to say and then decide if it is silly or not."
"I am the spine and the ribs, with my magic I can add quite a bit of defence, and draw the enemy towards the body.
I hold the centre as it were."
"Now Rakarech and Kervos are the arms, strong warriors capable of dealing a great deal of damage.
The arms work best near the body, able to defend or attack as the flow changes.
If the enemy gets too close, then they can fold across the body protectively, and when the enemy is away, the can lash out."
"Vaashti would be the legs, for without steady legs, the body will falter.
She keeps the rest of the body standing, giving us a steady supportive ground to move from."
"Shartol would take the role of the hands and feet, able to move with agility and freedom, but still working best in concert with the arms and legs.
As such, he is able to move freely across the battlefield, going where needs to be going.
If an enemy strikes at the ribs, the arms can move to the sides making sure no additional threat can approach while the hands can reach around and strike the enemy in the back."
"Now finally, Sutandir is the head, with eyes to see what is going on, a mind to direct the flow of battle, and a mouth to shout instructions of need be."
"If we work together like that, nothing can stop us I believe."
Sutandir listens to Ruhk. "Well, I'm flattered at my position in that analogy, I hope I can live up to it. Although," he adds with a grin, "I'm not sure whether I should be flattered or offended at the comment about my mouth!"
Shartol looks embarrassed as Ruhk provides his description. "That sounds like something the elder monks would say to describe how a group works together." Then he manages a very Ruhk-like smirk. "Of course, the one providing the description would never put himself as the center of the group . . .."
Ruhk merely laughs at both Shartol and Sutandir.
"Course not; you hear it in the title itself don't you?
"Elder monks"? No time to go gallivanting around in the countryside on quests, gotta stay at home in the monastery and train the young un's innit?"
"As for the mouth, well, SOMEONES gotta do the talking right? Can't be me, quiet withdrawn guy like I am and all."