The skeletons are facing toward the front door of the house, so away from you. They make no motion to show they heard you. They also do not seem to notice you moving around outside their room.
"It doesn't seem like they notice or care about us out here. Maybe they are supposed to guard this specific room? Hajar, try blasting one from out here."
"Let's be careful though. If need be, stand behind me," Khere whispered to the others.
Hajar nods to his companion and complies, " If that is your wish, may these noble guards finally feel the rests that their bodies did not so long ago. "
A heavy disk lances towards ones ribcage.
One of the skeletons crumbles to a pile of bones. The others turn towards you.
Jeggare moves up to the front of the group and stands ready.
As Hajar destroys one skeleton and Jeggare prepares himself for another, Malik lifts his wand and sends a pellet of magic flying into the third skeleton.
His target crumples into a pile of bones.
The remaining skeleton walks toward Jeggare, who promptly sends it, too, crumpling. The look of surprise on its face would be comical if it wasn't creepy.
You walk out the side door. The western side of the estate forms an L-shaped yard mostlygiven to sand, sun-dried earth, and the ancient husks of dead trees. Stone benches line the walls of the yard, and a large tiled pool sits in the southwest corner, dried and partially filled with sand. A short flight of steps leads between a pair of pillars to a set of stone doors in the west side of the house. At the north end of the yard stands a squat stone building with columns at
every corner.
As you come out, a huge insect-like creature crawls out of the dry pool and comes towards you.
Hajar swirls his arms around, summoning the latent sands around the area and form sharps discs of the material to cut at the Insects legs. Moving such that the barrage goes unobstructed.
The dwarf walks out and tries to identify the huge beast as he moves to get a good angle. "Oh me, that thin' be huge! What be that?!"
Striking with his warhammer, he slams his weapon into the beast with expert precision but with little force.
Braydir, Kn:religion tells you this is a living creature, not undead. Kn:arcana tells you it's not a magical creature of any kind, but is instead something natural.
Morharis makes a face behind his sleeve of disgust before firing his soulbolt at the creature.
"If you weren't covering your eyes that might have hit!"
Hajar's blast and Braydir's hammer both injure the big bug. Morharis's bolt shoots past it.
Khere walks up to it and strikes at it with his Khopesh.
The bug bites at Braydir.
Its mouth sinks deep into Braydir. Braydir also feels poison seeping into his body from the bite.
The bug's tail slaps into Khere
but it bounces harmlessly off his armor.
Jeggare moves in slightly, channeling holy energy through his gauntlets. With one hand, he strikes the bug. The other he waves toward Braydir, restoring some of his vitality.
Jeggare can hear a cracking sound as his gauntlet strikes the bug. The bug is still standing, but clearly badly injured.
Braydir groans loudly as the bite sinks into his body. Surprised by the massive amount of damage it deals he is completely unprepared for his retaliation and misses horribly. Thankful for the healing that washes over him he gasps out, "This ain't a magical thin' and surely nae be undead. It's prety damn close ta dead now though, finish it off fellas!"
Braydir feels his sturdy dwarf body fight off the poison.
Hajar sees that his comrade is heavily injured and chooses brutality or safety as the great insect seemed deadly.
Sand swirled around and sought the cracks in the bugs carapace from previous blows and shredded at the soft tissue inside.
The bug cracks and falls.
"Braydir, come here and let me see those wounds. Hold still."
Jeggare takes a second to concentrate, then socks Braydir in the face.
"I am sorry for the rough treatment, friend. My medical style is unorthodox, I admit."
The party carefully approaches the remaining door in the courtyard.
A rectangular stone building sits in the northwest corner of the
estate. At each corner stand columns carved to resemble men
and women with their arms crossed over their chests. A set of
stone doors stands in the southern face of the building, carved
with bas-relief faces of two men. Hieroglyphs are carved into
the doors just beneath the faces. Your knowledge of history tells you this is likely to be the family crypt.
When the first punch in the face lands, Braydir's eyes flare and he draws his own fist to retaliate and lands a blow square on his jaw. "Why ya sonuva-" When the healing relief washes over him it catches him by surprise and he lowers his fist.
When the second punch comes he raises his own fist to retaliate once more, but stops to see if the same feeling of relief washes over him. This continues until his bleeding and weariness has passed and he is only left with a bruised face (and ego).
He reaches up and grabs Jeggare's shirt and pulls him down towards is own face and whispers, "Dinna do that again without warnin' me first. Alright thar?"
He nods as if it is settled and adds, "Thanks. I think."
Once the issue is done he leads the group to the crypt.
Jeggare rubs his own jaw.
"I don't believe you've quite mastered the technique yourself, Braydir. The positive energy burst afterward is a key part of the process."
" One does not need to inflict pain upon an ally do do so either. I know of similar methods... friend Jeggare. "
Hajar holds on to his disk quite firmly.
" Though it seems the current way has yielded results... on one side at least. "
Braydir grumbles to Hajar's comment but doesn't make his thoughts audible.
Morharis checks the door to the crypt for traps and then opens the door. The party walks carefully down the stairs, Morharis continuing to look for danger.
A stone altar sits upon a raised stone platform in the
center of this square room. Caryatid columns carved
in the likenesses of male and female figures with
their arms crossed over their chests and khopeshes
or ankhs in their hands stand at each corner of the
platform. Empty torch holders are built in all four of
the room’s corners. Two stairways exit the room—
one climbs to the south, while the other descends
from this chamber to the north.
Waiting for you in the center of the altar is a creature wrapped in strips of something. It is clearly hostile.
The entire party may act before the monster.
Hajar springs into action! Unsure what the beast could possibly be he sends lances of hardened sand into the wrapped monstrosity.
" Evil, be cleansed from this creature and let the sands of time carry you into the next world! "
"Bloody hells! Reminds me of my mother in law."
Morharis laughs and fires a bolt at the creature before him.
Jeggare, you know that this creature is not undead.
Hajar's blast and Morharis's bolt both seem to damage the monster.
Khere charges the strange monster!
Jeggare also charges inand strikes the creature from Reach.
The monster dodge's Khere's flail. When Jeggare hits the monster, he finds that his gauntlet sticks to the creature. Jeggare grabs the monster and grips it tightly.
The monster seems very badly hurt.
Being as the group caught the monster by surprise, he quickly moves behind it to achieve flanking with his companions. Once in position behind it he lashes out with his warhammer with expert precision.
The monster falls over at Braydir's blow. However, its stickiness doesn't release.
Braydir, you know that the monster was an adherer. It was a human warped by the ethereal plane into something evil. Most interesting to you right now, its stickiness lasts for an hour after death.