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Liadain is quite nearly knocked out by the sudden collapse of the statue onto her. She looks incredibly dazed and, indeed, on the verge of passing out. Coughing out small bits of plaster, she weakly reaches for a thin, nondescript brown wand around her waist and heals up the nasty welt on the back of her head with it.
Now that she can stand again, Lia follows the rest into the mausoleum. Having been burned once by the unkempt nature of this place, Liadain carefully scans the area for anything that looks potentially dangerous (and/or likely to fall on top of her again).
Terrill detects moderate evil coming from three of the coffins.
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Terrill points out the three coffins where he has detected an evil presence, saying "If this is our next surprise, we could have a fight on our hands. Shall we move on, or pop one of these open and take the fight to them? I'm for seeing what's inside."
He casts a glance at Taklinn, smiling and saying, "I can guess what your vote will be. Any preparations we should make before opening one?"
The moment Terrill's hand touches the coffin lid, it and two others shatter. Three musty skeletons bearing ancient arms and armor climb out and attack!
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Terrill considers the value of a nice, crushing blow on these bony creatures for a moment, then drops his blade. He waits the briefest instant, as promised, for Castien to get off an arrow, then moves toward the nearest skeleton, drawing his mace as he does so. Before the creature can react to him, Terrill smashes it hard with the steel head of his mace.
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"Aha, and there they are!" Lia exclaims, deftly gesturing to the skeletons with the tip of her dirk. "To arms, men, to arms! Let them feel the crushing weight of your blows!"
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Terrill's mace, driven by the aasimar's melody, smashes the first skeleton into scattered bones. Castien has less luck and his awkwardly shaped arrow clatters off of his target's shield.
The surviving two skeletons shamble forward to attack.
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Lia moves into position behind the rank of skeletons, while her inspiration drives Terrill to strike stronger and surer at the next skeleton. His mace hits harder than ever before, and the skeleton is quite simply pulverized, leaving nothing behind but a small pile of dust with a handful of teeth scattered through it.
Terrill smashes the next skeleton to bits and Taklinn finishes the third.
Within their coffins, Taklinn finds scraps of cloth similar to the robes other worshipers within the temple have been wearing.
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Liadain shrugs as the battle winds down, setting her dagger back in her boot. "Maybe he raised then from the dead as guardians, or maybe they are merely corrupted by whatever evil the Sifkesh worshiper has brought with him. Better that they can now rest peacefully in either case."
She then makes her way to the far door to check for any more unfortunate surprises awaiting them beyond.
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Beyond the door Liadain finds more coffins. These ones do not bear undead monsters. Neither the aasimar nor anyone else finds anything else of interest or value in the crypts.
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Terrill suggests that Taklinn wait a moment, so they can finish their appointed task in the crypts, and then move on. "Good thinking, Castien. We can get another task accomplished, now that those damn skeletons are out of the way."
He sets to helping the elven warrior, then points at Taklinn and the boarded up door and says, "Okay, Tak, go to it."
After a few minutes of tedious but careful work, Castien and Terrill collect a good rubbing of the carvings.
The temple garden is badly overgrown with tangled vegetation. Vines and briars climb the temple walls on three sides, surrounding the large windows into the chapel and the smaller windows into the library. The garden itself is a profusion of wildly growing bushes and root vegetables. Except for a clear space in the center of the garden, the foliage grow taller than an adult human. At the center of the garden sits a crumbling fountain, long dry, with a statue of a noble turtle in the center. Heaps of foliage choke two similar fountains, each with a large stone orb resting in the fountain’s center.
A single gnome moves about tending the garden.
The gnome, dressed in a green tunic adorned with several small bells, greets Terrill and the rest of the party with a deep bow.
"Greetings. I am Gastidem. I was a pilgrim but I've enjoyed this temple's hospitality for near 12 years now. Would you like to participate in a sacred ritual? It's called the 'Kiss of Korada'."
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Castien looks at the overgrowth and sighs inwardly. The subjugation of this temple and its inhabitants borders on the profane. These gardens should be well-tended, a place to contemplate the harmony found in nature; instead, it is an exercise in laziness, at best. As before, he chooses not to join the gnome in the ritual.
”All you must do is insert a finger into the mouth of the turtle!” the gnome explains. ”As you do, Korada will you with divine thoughts.”
Terrill recalls nothing about turtles in Korada’s mythology or teachings. He does notice tiny glistening needles around the turtle’s mouth.
The wild-haired gnome almost immediately caves under Terrill’s intense scrutiny.
”Okay! Okay! You got me. It’s not part of Korada worship but Dakang let me. In fact, when he found out he smiled!”
The gnome appears a bit calmer now that the heat's been diverted from him.
"I don't know who he is but he's not the holyman everyone thinks he is. He lets me grow flayleaf in the garden too!"
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Castien grunts. "Tell us something we don't know. We've determined for ourselves that he isn't who he says he is. What we don't know, however, is how the other residents of the temple will react if we...deal with him. Will they listen to reason when we show them proof, or has he built himself up as some sort of prophet that people will seek to avenge?"
The gnome squirms gain under the pressure.
"I told you all I know! I know he keeps the rest of the temple duped by keeping them drugged. The food he brings in puts their heads in a fog."