"Let's dock and see what's what."
"I agree. They are guarding something."
"Well done, everyone." Alex says cheerfully. "Do you need healing, Finlogan Escalus?"
Finlogan looks a bit surprised at Lady Hightower, "it's merely a flesh wound. Thank you for asking."
You moor your boat and disembark. After a few minutes of searching, you discover a section of ground that looks to have a trap door underneath, evidenced by a rectangular set of irregularities in the dirt and grass. However, no obvious handle or mechanism of opening presents itself. The trapdoor area is about 10ft on a side.
"I believe it is time to see who haunts these lands." Alex digs her fingers under one side of the door and tries to lift it.
Finlogan spirals away from the trapdoor deliberately looking for the trigger mechanism.
"We should be careful that the trap door isn't trapped. Worst case if we can't find a way to lift it, I can smash it with my hammer."
"Maybe that's just an exit and not an entrance? I don't see any handle on this side. But I bet there will be an entrance somewhere close by."
Gwen speaks up too late, and something resembling purple lightning surges up through Alex's arms as she touches the door!
Alex's body convulses from the surge of death-magic, knocking her over. She finds her hands to be discolored: nearly black at the fingertips; a deep, unnatural purple up the length of her fingers; and painfully swollen and darkened veins spiderwebbing across her hands and up her wrists.
A few moments of clenching and unclenching her fists successfully wears down the pain to manageable levels, though the discoloration seems to be sticking around.
Looking at the door again, you can see burn-marks in the shape of some sort of rune showing incompletely in the dirt and grass; you'd guess that this magical trap was a one-time thing, so the door should be safe to pry open now, if you're ready to proceed.
Alex screams as the spell courses through her and falls backwards. After the worst of the pain subsides she pulls off a gauntlet and a glove to se the damage. The purply injury matches the ones on her neck she got from the choking monster yesterday. "It seems." She huffs, forcing a small laugh, "That the entity behind all thisnis conspiring to turn my entire body purple. I think I would look rather fetching in purple." She channels a small portion of her power to heal some of the damage and puts her gauntlet back on.
"You look fetching in any color, Alex."
"Let's proceed with caution, I'm sure that's not the last trap laid for us. Pfft. Me, saying to use caution; what's happening to me?"
Sadly, the discoloration on Alex's hands is only slightly alleviated by her magical healing, despite the damage seeming to be undone.
Lifting open the door reveals a spiral staircase of old-looking stonemasonry heading down into the darkness.
Teo volunteers to cast Dancing Lights to help guide everyone into the darkness.
"Thank you, Gwenifer White!" Alex says chipperly. "I will go first as my color transformation is not yet complete, unless someone better knows the threats of old dungeons? I am used to open fields of battle, truth be told. I would greatly appreciate your light Teo Brissett."
"I'm certainly not afraid but I don't have any means of trap detection. I'll follow right behind you, Alex."
You descend the spiral staircase into the darkness, Alessandra leading the way by the light of Teo's spell. After what feels like about two stories' worth of stairs, you reach a broad landing with a heavy wooden door that stands slightly ajar. Peering through, you see a corridor about 15ft wide that extends beyond the reach of your light. On the right-hand side of the corridor is a T-junction whose stem goes to the right (about 15ft ahead of your current location) and then a closed door about 20ft beyond the T-junction. There are no clearly-visible creatures or light sources in your field of view (besides your own).
"If anyone is here, I suspect they would be behind a door somewhere." Alex stalks to the closed door, wary of more glyph traps, especially on the closed door. as interesting as being purple sounds, she isn't sure she would survive a total conversion at this rate.
"Yes, the door first." Finlogan supports. He follows behind the armored lady casually looking at any tracks in the dust that she did not disturb.
You advance down the corridor toward the door. As you pass the T-junction, you peer to the right and see that the hallway extends past the range of your vision, except that further down (maybe 80ft?) there's a thin, faint light at ground level, as though light is escaping under an unseen door.
Meanwhile, reaching the first door, you see no sign of hazards, and try the handle. It appears to be locked.
"One of you strong ones want to kick that door in?"
"If that is our only recourse. I had hopped one on you might have an alternative." Her eyes fall on Teo. The smaller races did tend to have a penchant for mischief. Alex braces herself on her left foot and drives her right leg in to the door next to the lock. "Ayah!"
"Nice kick!" If the door opens, Gwenifer charges in after Alex.
With a loud crash, the door breaks from its latch. It swings open and slams against the room's inside wall with a resounding thud.
The room is about 20 feet on a side, with no light source but your own. It seems to be being used as a storage room: there are barrels (marked with an insignia matching the sign on the front of Silverwood's inn), wheels of cheese, bottles of wine, crates of dried and salted meats, and so forth. There are also a few cash boxes, like the kind one might use in a shop.
As you look around, you hear footsteps approaching. Turning back toward the door you kicked in, you see armed skeletons arrive!
"Teo, give Gwen the doorway." Finlogan suggests and draws his longbow. He waits for someone to wound the skeleton or fires if everyone misses.
Gwenifer swaps places with Teo. "It's skeleton smashing time!"
Teo takes a step back and calls out. "Bring them out here! That will give us more room to deal with them."
"Alas! Trapped in the back again. My blade itches for combat. This is unfair." Alex tries the tread the needle with a javelin from her place at the back of the room.
Alex throws a javelin with surprising precision, though it mostly goes through the space between bones with no flesh to stop it.
Finlogan follows up with an arrow, and manages to put it right into the skeleton's sternum with enough force to crack the ribcage and make the whole thing collapse!
The doorway now free, Teo takes the opportunity to step into the hall to make room for Gwen, who steps into the doorway and crushes the nearest skeleton to bits!
Gwen and Teo can now see that there are 12 more skeletons in the hall, all pressing their way toward Teo and Gwen! They surge forward, the ones in front brandishing scimitars alongside their shields, and the ones further back throwing javelins!
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Alex steps into the doorway and scolds the other ladies. "Get back in here, you two!" Protection magic enfolds her and she draws her warhammer to better deal with the bony beasts.
"Eeek! Shut the door, shut the door," she cries out after moving back into the room. "I don't know where they all came from!"
Finlogan readies his longbow for a target.
"There's too many of them! Back into the room where they can't utilize their numbers!"
Gwenifer strikes at another then tries to back into the room. Also uses second wind.
Alex takes a position in the doorway, then Teo carefully disengages and returns to the room. Gwen clobbers the nearest skeleton to pieces, then uses the opening to get back behind Alex.
The skeletons approach, and Fin tries firing an arrow over the ladies' heads, but can't hit his target!
The skeletons, swarming the door, hack at Alessandra!
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They swing shakily at the paladin, to no avail!
"Hah!" Alex shouts in triumph. Between her positioning and protective magic this is an ideal situation for her. "This is more like it! Face me, monsters!" She tries to bludgeon the skeleton before her with shield and hammer.
Finlogan readies his longbow for another target.
Does Teo have line of sight on any of them?
[ooc]Yes, nearly half a dozen. They'd just all have cover, so you might prefer save-based magic over attack-based magic.
Alex knocks down a skeleton and clobbers it, but the hit is a bit weak and the skeleton hasn't stopped moving.
Teo sighted two of the closely grouped skeletons outside the room and used her acid splash to try and damage both of them.
Acid damage
Gwenifer will take her chances with the cover. There's no much else she can do. She attacks the next nearest skeleton in the doorway.
Against all odds, Finlogan finishes off the skeleton that Alex toppled, and Gwenifer shatters another!
Teo burns two of the skeletons out in the hall!
The skeletons continue to surge forward, focusing their strikes on Alex!
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The skeletons swords catch on Alex' shield or the door frame. She decides not to knock anymore skeletons down so that Teo and Fin can see them better around her, so she knocks another with her hammer. This was a bit easier than she had hoped it would be. "The skeletons are not very good at what they do."
Finlogan readies his longbow for another wounded target. He detests the undead, perversion of life.
Teo sighted two more of the closely grouped skeletons outside the room and used her acid splash to try and damage both of them.
Acid damage
Alex batters a skeleton, but it still stands!
Finlogan fires, but misses!
Two skeletons evade Teo's spell!
Gwen finishes off Alex's target!
The skeletons press their attack!
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One of the skeletons manages to land a blow on Alessandra!
His mind wanders during repetitiveness of the battle causing him to miss.
Finlogan readies his longbow for another wounded target.
"When will this stop?"
Gwenifter smashes another one.
Uhf! That one does not appreciate its efforts being questioned. Alex remarks of the skeleton that hits her harder than expected. Maybe it's the boss skeleton. "There are only a few more left, Gwenifer White. They are a threat to others that must be dealt with."