Grimor then takes a step back and Jean-Pierre steps up and smashes the skelly in front of him to smithereens.
Jean-Pierre raises an eyebrow, and playfully responds to Pontia:
"If you like, we can all retreat behind you, so that you have an unobstructed shot... However, that would swiftly result in you becoming the front line of the melee..."
Round 2 (partial)
Dexter's arrow flies wide.
Grimor delays until after the skeletons act, swings but misses then takes a step back after getting attacked.
One skeleton attacks Marsk and another attacks Grimor.
Marsk swings at the skeleton in front of him but misses.
Jean-Pierre destroys one of the skeletons.
Burick steps up closer so he is behind the front line.
Pontia sends off an orb of acid and hits the skeleton at the back, but it is still standing.
Round 3 (begins)
Dexter, Grimor(9), Skeletons(0)(3), Marsk, Jean-Pierre, Burick, Pontia
Round 3 (begins)
Dexter aims and misses at a skeleton.
Grimor delays.
One skeleton steps up to attack Jean-Pierre and the other one attacks Marsk.
Dexter, Grimor(9), Skeletons(0)(3), Marsk, Jean-Pierre, Burick, Pontia
Jean-Pierre attacks the skeleton in front of him.
Round 3 (complete)
Dexter aims and misses at a skeleton.
Grimor delays.
One skeleton steps up to attack Jean-Pierre and the other one attacks Marsk.
Marsk takes a swing but the skeleton dodges at the last second.
Jean-Pierre swings wide.
Burick delays.
Pontia's aim is off.
Round 4 (partial)
Dexter takes aim at the skeleton that was already harmed, but his aim is only slightly off.
Grimor delays.
The skeletons attack the person in front of them, but they just end up swinging wildly.
Dexter, Grimor(9), Skeletons(0)(3), Marsk, Jean-Pierre(4), Burick, Pontia
Unperturbed, Jean-Pierre takes another swing at the skeleton in front of him.
Marsk takes a swing at the skeleton in front of him and finally uppercuts its skull off. As he connects he realizes these skeletons are alchemical skeletons, due to their alchemical creation they are slightly stronger and more resistant to positive energy .
Dexter aims at the last skeleton and is just able to defeat it.
Jean-Pierre brushes himself off.
"Right. Good work, everyone!"
He then sets about healing the wounded.
Jean-Pierre then conducts a careful search of the room.
The only things that Jean-Pierre finds are footprints in the dust going back and forth from the last alcove on the right.
Jean-Pierre gestures towards the last alcove on the right.
"I think that we should take a closer look at this alcove... there appears to have been a lot of traffic to and from it... Perhaps there is a concealed door?"
Jean-Pierre and Marsk find a door in the alcove.
Jean-Pierre nods to the hidden door.
"Shall we?"
Assuming there is no dissent, he then opens it.
The acrid stench of chemicals and reagents fills this chamber, and the walls are marred by strange stains and scorch marks. Several tables are scattered about the room, covered in a bewildering plethora of glassware, alembics, retorts, tubes, simmering cauldrons, and smoking beakers full of brightly colored liquids. Scattered pages of written notes in a crabbed hand lie strewn about the chamber. A large alcove in the northwest corner contains a bookshelf groaning under the weight of heavy, dusty tomes and scrolls.Three large glass vats stand against the eastern wall, filled with bubbling green fluid. Floating within the vats are three grotesque objects—putrescent corpses, tubes and wires embedded in their rotting flesh, their skin discolored with decay and chemical stains. Bent over one of the tables, Jean-Pierre sees a hunchbacked, haggard-looking man in his 30s, with black hair starting to turn gray. Standing next to him is a well made zombie. With barely a glance at him, the man waves him away. "Go away I'm busy. Mr. Marrow, please see them out." The zombie turns toward Jean-Pierre and shooes him away.
Jean-Pierre arches an eyebrow, and turns to the others.
"What do you want to do? Rather novel, I know, but it seems like we might actually be able to talk to/reason with this one..."
|
Grimor looks into the room and is overwhelmed by the contents of the room, none of which he understands.
"He looks like the one who's been disturbing the undead, and using alchemy on them. I say we destroy the zombie and knock out the man so that we can bring him back up with us so he may answer the priestess directly."
"That is certainly one option; however, we are being paid to find out why corpses are disappearing, and to clear out this complex. Since he doesn't seem to be immediately hostile , wouldn't it make sense to talk with him first?"
The man stops. "More corpses?" he wonders aloud. He straightens up, puts a fist to his mouth and his other hand goes to his elbow in a sort of thinking pose. "Hmmm, I was starting to run out of available ones here." He turns to Dexter. "Yes. More corpses is just what we need. But I am still in the middle of my experiments here. It will take time that I don't have to get moving." He then sighs. "But if I don't stop and go to this new area, I will keep getting interrupted. Very well, where is this place?"
Jean-Pierre looks thoughtful.
"Well, we have created a few as we have been clearing out this level... I would be happy to come a mutually beneficial understanding with regard to them..."
"If you are concerned about interruptions, have you considered relocating? The Pharasmins up above are unlikely to leave you alone, especially if bodies keep disappearing..."
At the mention of the Pharasmins, the man sneers. "Narrow minded fools! If only they had listened to me...But anyway yes, as long as I have my helping hands, my love and my books I'll be fine." He turns to his zombie. "Mr. Marrow, let the zombie out of the vat and go get the other guards to carry my work." As Mr Marrow heads to the south corridor he turns back to Jean-Pierre and Dexter. "Wait right there, I'll be right back." He turns away and heads down the north corridor...
He comes back with two skeletons of the normal shambling type and one female zombie that looks very well made. She wears makeup and perfume (seemingly trying to cover up the rotting flesh but doing a terrible job at it) wearing clothes that were at one time fashionable but has definitely seen better days. Her arm is linked with the man's arm as they come back toward the group. The skeletons are carrying boxes.
"Are these the ones, Svilennius dear?" the zombie asks the man.
"Yes, Esme my love. They are the ones that will tell us where we can find more bodies for me to turn." He turns his attention back toward the group. "I have a wand of command undead, a scroll of ghoul touch, scroll of mage armor, two potions of cure light wounds and two potions of enlarge person if you are able to give me a destination worthy of my attention."
Turning to Pontia he responds "I used to be a Pharasmin cleric a month ago. That changed when I stumbled upon a secret entrance to the ossuary. I came down the stairs and came upon this room. In this room I discovered proscribed books from a heretical sect calling itself the Chymists of Life in Death. These tomes dealt with the creation of the undead through alchemical rather than magical means, which the sect believed provided a loophole around Pharasma’s prohibition against undead creatures." As he explains he starts getting excited.
Then he starts getting angry "But then one of those fools found me reading through one of the books and brought me in front of an ecclesiastical tribunal. They excommunicated me after I told them that we could create the undead and have them work along with us, increasing our manpower and solving the problems of space inside the ossuary itself. So I snuck back down here using the secret entrance and starting experimenting. Shortly after I created Esme here, then Mr Marrow."
Jean-Pierre does a double take when the man returns with his entourage, but recovers quickly.
"Well, we found a whole pile of bodies, some quite remarkably well preserved, in the crypts down here..."
He then goes on to give detailed descriptions of where they can be found, as well as the more 'exotic' ones that the party produced via combat. He also helpfully points out the location of the tunnel to the outside.
"I like the tunnel to the outside. Very well. As soon as Mr Marrow gets back, we will pack what I need." As soon as he finishes speaking, Mr Marrow and the zombie that was in the vat reenters. With them are five alchemical skeletons and one more zombie that looks similar to the one from the vat.
"Alright you lot," Svilennius orders the undead. "We have a lot of packing that needs to be done. Once we are done, we leave."
"Where are we going, dear?" asks Esme.
"Back to my home town, my love." he answers.
"Alright people, let's move out." Svilennius announces, then the undead group start moving in the direction of the tunnel, with Svilennius following. Then he stops, turns around and says "Oh yes, I nearly forgot." He walks over to Jean-Pierre and party and gives him some things to divvy up. He winks "The extra is a bonus for you guys. Farewell." He turns around and leaves.
Once again, Jean-Pierre does a double-take as the size and composition of Svilennius' party is made apparent; the idea of a box-carrying entourage of undead strikes him as mildly ridiculous, but he refrains from commenting, especially when the man hands over the pile of items, but he still shakes his head when the man's party is safely away.
"Well, that is something that you do not see every day..."
Pontia can tell that a lot of what is being used is chemicals but she can't tell which chemicals they are. She does see that he has a formula book but a lot of it she cannot decipher. As she is looking though, she also sees that Esme has a spellbook, kind of similar to her own but it only has three level 1 spells in it (burning hands, cause fear, and color spray).
Heading out the lab room into the hallway, the party sees a small chamber to the left. A stone staircase fills this small chamber, curving up in a spiral to disappear through the ceiling. Continuing on through the hallway, the party comes upon an intersection. Straight ahead is an unlocked door that is standing open and to the left is another unlocked door standing open. The door ahead leads to an empty room, the original purpose of this plain stone room has been lost to history, but numerous footprints have disturbed the dust covering the floor. The door to the left leads to a hallway.