Khardir rumbles, "All right Bernard, this poor child needs to be laid to rest." He waves his statuette airily near the fighter.
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Peaking around the corner and trying to keep an eye on Bernard though Dusk fur. Flinching when the long dead child leaps at the patchwork man and waiting for the shared pain that is sure to follow.
Horror clutches at Bernard's heart as the ghastly undead child springs forth, but his cry of anger and disgust chokes in his throat as he finds himself unable to speak. For a moment he nearly panics, weakened as he is by the sound of sobbing and the fear over losing his voice, but then anger floods in, anger mostly at the world that would allow such a wretched thing to exist, and he swings his blade.
"What in the absolute f@@$..." Syksy miserably grumbles as she steps over behind the undead child, pinning it between her and Bernard before raising her weapon. "Rest now, little one."
Vibenia drowns out the worst of the babbling, taking careful aim before firing at the sorrowful undead creature.
The horrible babbling noise washes over Dusk, raising her hackles and assaulting her sensitive hearing. Rushing forward, the wolf-dog slips into a flank with Bernard before biting at the unnatural creature.
Just as Bernard chokes on his words, the little creature speaks out in a perfect imitation of his voice, if somewhat monotonous and halting in its diction. It says, "Father... mother... children... good..."
Moving with the uncoordinated speed of a child, the walking corpse that was once a girl named Dawn dodges Bernard and Dusk's attacks, taking cover in its former resting place. However, before it withdraws, Syksy manages to hack off most of its ribcage, which crumbles into grit when struck—as if the creature was not a real skeleton at all, but some approximation of bone moulded from grave dust, scraps of cloth, and other sepulchre debris. Vibenia's bolt has much the same effect, though lesser in impact, blowing off the back of Dawn's skull. The creature is much diminished by these attacks, its crumbling remains trailing behind it like a tattered veil.
Leaping up to straddle the edges of the coffin, the dead thing lashes out at Syksy with its teeth, drawing a bloody tear on her wrist. Immediately, she feels like all the air has been sucked out of her lungs. All the while, the creature rambles on in Bernard's voice, "Horrors, horrors... blasted... fire and bolts... "
Syksy lets out a gasp that is abruptly cut off. Stomping her feet she sluggishly raises her blade again.
Khardir tries to squeeze in to swing his warhammer, uselessly.
Vibenia takes careful aim, firing again at the undead child, pushing through her concern.
The mad babbling overwhelms Dusk as she fakes a feeble effort to snap at the terrifying creature.
Gritting his teeth, Bernard swings the flaming blade.
None save Vibenia manage to catch the uncannily nimble creature: the ranger scores a hit on its left clavicle, setting off another shower of dust. The increasingly unstable monstrosity staggers about restlessly, losing more and more of its cohesion as the fell energies animating it continue to dissipate.
Suddenly, it leaps out of the coffin and lashes out at Khardir.
"Rest now, rest now..." it pleads in Syksy's voice, and then in Bernard's, "Settle... in... coffin..."
Unable to express his rage and horror, Bernard tries for another swing in absolute silence.
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Snarling Syksy silently steps up and swings one more time.
It takes a moment, but Zaijka, unnerved by the weirdness of the child, marshals herself and springs into action, weaving the lines from her hands and forearms into the image of a wild dog in front of her.
Finally shaking off the disorienting noise the bone thing was making, Dusk leaps up, bringing her jaws crunching down on the creature's skull, the loud cracking of bone filling the chamber.
One bolt, blade, and bite at a time, the undead creature is whittled away. Under concerted attack from every direction, Dawn finally collapses into dust. For a moment, there is a swell in the ambient whispering, and then an uneasy silence. If you expected that putting the girl back to rest would tear away the shroud of desecration draped over the tomb, there is no sign of such an absolution. At the very least, you find yourselves able to speak once more.
Peering inside Dawn's sarcophagus reveals more dust, but little else. The rest of the coffins hold nothing but child-sized bones and miscellaneous toys.
Behind the secret door, the spiral staircase leads down to a large chamber. You arrive at the western end of this sepulchre. To the north lie three circular alcoves, each with a single pillar of black marble in its centre—each pillar, in turn, has dozens of niches carved into its surface, each of which holds a clay urn. To the south, in a single large alcove, a spiral staircase descends to a deeper level of the crypt. Four stone sarcophagi sit on the floor on the south side of the main room, flanking the southern alcove. Faded plaques on the stone coffins bear the names of long-forgotten scions of the extinguished line of House Belhaim, perhaps cousins of Lady Tula herself.
Most striking, however, is the huge mosaic of a red dragon which decorates the floor. Displayed rampant, it nonetheless appears distressed, belching flames and clawing at the walls, as if it knew it was trapped and buried underground. There is an inscription in the mosaic's centre, written in archaic Taldane:
Drawing spectacles around her eyes, Zaijka takes in the room. "Magic, of fair strength," she chimes in, "on both the mosaic and the pillars. The auras are too similar for them not to be connected somehow, but I cannot tell much more about it...best be careful." Carefully, she draws Zev forth from her arm to materialize in the air with a croak. "Zev, do you know any stories of this 'Red Arazmo'?" The raven examines the mosaic with his piercing gaze, then shakes his head firmly, no words needed to understand the gesture.
Bernard stares at the mosaic with distrust, then peers the southern chamber which houses the stairs heading down.
"Well, I can't see what might be up this room, but magical dragons should probably not be stepped on as a general principal. Instead..."
Bernard hoists himself up onto the sarcophagus closest to him. "Sorry," he says to its owner, and then steps over to the next one, to hop off at last in the room to the south.
"I hate this place, I hate it so much..." Syksy groans as she gets her voice back.
---
"Hopefully we won't stir up more dead for playing 'the floor is lava' in this tomb," she remarks as she watches Bernard hopscotch across the sarcophagi.
"Wait! It's a trap!!" Vibenia says suddenly. "Probably magical, see the subtle magical symbols on the scale tiles?" she says pointing them out.
Syksy whistles. ”Nice catch.”
With three powerful leaps, Bernard makes his way onto the first sarcophagus, then to the other, and onto the floor in front of the southern alcove. There is a moment of suspense on the second jump, as the weight of Baccus' armour tilts him backwards, but the former guardsman wheels his arms and manages to keep his balance all the way. To everyone's relief, the occupants of the sarcophagi do not seem to mind being used as stepping stones.
Vibenia gives a low whistle as Bernard makes it across the crypts. "Care to try your hand at disarming the trap, Khardir? Might be easier than all of us trying to jump across."
"Hrm." The dwarf strokes his beard. "Let's see what I can do. Probably a fire trap, themed with the red dragon and all."
The dwarf takes out a ledger and starts consulting several scribbled notes about traps and cunning puzzles from a variety of infamous tombs and haunts across the lands.
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Trailing behind the others and keeping a focus on those red lines that lead to Syksy and Bernard. And there are enough eyes pointed forward so the tiny gnome keeps her gaze behind them.
Khardir takes a good hard look at the symbols, seeing where they connect and intersect. Finally, he starts to carefully scratch away one that he thinks must be the key to unraveling the enchantment. However, as he mars the surface of the mosaic, there is a violent spark... and then everything goes awry.
All of the symbols start sparking at once, letting out smoke, and then bursting with spirals of fire which lance and blast through throughout the room—only those standing right next to the walls are spared from the sudden conflagration. The whole thing only lasts for a moment, but the heat is intense.
Following the pyrotechnics, each of the pillars in the norther alcoves issues forth a gout of flame and smoke, out of which coalesce three fiery serpents.
With a bark of pain Bernard tries to turn away from the outburst of fire, but still the flames score his face and sear his flesh through his armor.
There's no time to evaluate his burns, however: seeing the three serpents manifest across the room, he draws his great sword and charges with a roar!
Bernard cleaves one of the serpents in twain, both halves dissipating into smoke and embers.
Khardir is wrecked by the sudden explosion of the magical trap and when the smoke clears he sits, hairless and comically scorched, some five feet away from where he was working. Flames still lick on his tabard and backpack.
Vibenia lets out a curse of surprise and dismay as the room explodes into fire. As she sees the elemental snakes appear she takes aim at the furthest one and fires.
”Graauuuuugh! I hate this place.” Syksy coughs out after the blast, shaking it off she moves to the nearest serpent to slice.
Syksy makes short work of another one of the elemental creatures, soothing her anger, if not her burns. The remaining serpent flickers across the room, heedless of its own safety as it makes a beeline for Khardir. It closes the distance in a flash, slamming into the dwarf's armour with an accompaniment of crackling and popping sounds, reminiscent of a lively campfire. The impact is miniscule compared to the erstwhile inferno, but as it retreats, some of the serpent's bulk sticks to Khardir like oil or alchemist's fire, threatening to set him alight.
"Oi!" Syksy calls out as she spins around in a swing at the last serpent.
Vibenia signals for Dusk to remain at her side, before firing at the serpent again.
Syksy cleaves the last serpent into two sputtering halves, which then burn themselves out in a violent shower of sparks. All that is left is the eye-watering odour of smoke, which has gathered near the vaulted ceiling, and is now rising in plumes through the shaft you just descended through.
”This place sucks.” Syksy grumbles as she inspects her sword for scorch marks.
Quickly, Zaijka begins to examine the area again with her second sight. "We don't have long," she chimes in. "The trap is already regaining its strength. I wonder...the magic of the trap is connected to the pillars. Do we need to put something into those alcoves on the pillars, something of worth as an offering? It says "Give the Dragon her Due"..."
"She got m'beard already," says Khardir, still seated. "Dunno what's left."
Syksy nods to Khardir. "Dwarf beards fetch a good price on the black market, I wonder how good this thing is at appraising? Probably something in the sarcophagi it wants... not really interested in looting them to appease a fake dragon though."
"Maybe a gold coin on each? Zaijka, how much time do we have?" Vibenia asks with a sense of urgency
Bernard crosses the chamber into the southern portal once more, looking to his friends as he goes.
"Why bother with the trap? We've defeated it for now - shouldn't we just press on?"
"It's hard to be certain," Zaijka responds to Vibenia's question. "Not long - maybe Bernard's right, it's best to press on while we can. We can always try again, or I can conjure a force being to try placing coins once we're through."