Even as Lia absentmindedly walks through the graveyard behind Father Zantus, she notices something off.
"Hey, does anyone else see these footprints?" She points out the footprints. "Lots of small ones and some big ones."
Sesi hangs her head in shame.
"I must still be drunk. I can't see anything."
"Yes, just over there!"
He points over to where Lia is pointing as well.
"What kind of footprints are those?"
Hemlock takes a look as well. "That's odd, certainly. Maybe goblins, maybe not." Gripping his mace firmer, he quietly approaches the left side of the mausoleum door, motioning for you to take similar positions.
Karst takes up a position opposite the Sheriff, hammer and shield readied.
Sesi goes to the other door, sword drawn.
"Let's just hope they didn't leave us any surprises," she says as she waits for the signal."[/b]
Lia wordlessly steps into position with her blade readied.
Okay, this ought to be easier than last time--we've fought goblins before. They'll be easy. Just don't swing wildly like a bucking horse and everything will be just fine.
Pendrix was staring at his companions. Something clicked in his mind, and his eyes lit up. He reached into his cloak and pulled out his loaned dagger.
He stands ready, with his knife drawn, looking more like a chef than a combatant.
"Let's do this!" Under his breath he added,"I still owe you for the knife...we'll settle up after this."
As Hemlock pushes the ajar door open, a fell gust exhales from the opening, followed closely by a pair of skeletal arms.
"Well, I didn't know goblins could do that," Sesi blurts out in surprise.
Pnedrix's eyes grew wide.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Pendrix, eyes wide, surveyed the battlefield. He quickly scanned the group, looking for weaknesses in their defense.
"ForgeFather's Beard!" Karst yells with alarm. He plants himself in the doorway, shield held high, ready to clobber anything that tries to emerge into the light.
Sesi dives in, as seems to be her usual tactic.
Lia almost jumps out of her skin when the skeletal arms reach out from the mausoleum door. "EEK!"
She drops her sword in fright and fumbles with the club at her side, calling forth an incantation to protect herself.
Pendrix moves behind Sesi. He casts a quick spell on her, patting her on the shoulder after.
Sesi's swing causes a skeleton to shatter into 206 pieces, but another avoids Karst's shield, leaning backwards into what is perceived as two more within the tomb.
Hemlock is taken aback, muttering in Varisian, before trying a swing at the remaining skeletons. Before he can, his swinging arm is struck by a claw-like hand.
Another skeleton approaches, and swings at Sesi.
One hits her for 5 damage, long bloody trails down her arm.
Sesi grits her teeth against the pain where the skeleton had ripped into her arm just below the shoulder.
He strike is shaky as she tries to return the favor.
Pendrix, eyes wide, begins murmuring a spell. Purple energy surrounds his hands, and he shoots it out toward the skeleton. The beam strikes the skeleton, and has no effect.
Karst brings his hammer sideways to smash through the skeleton's ribcage.
Lia advances on a skeleton and swings her club at it!
The purple ray passes through the targeted skeleton harmlessly, but Lia's club cleaves through another undead victim, leaving it in pieces. Hemlock attempted to bash another, but missed his foe, as did the dwarf's shield.
Murmuring a prayer to Desna, Zantus' hand glows blue and the wounds on Sesi's arm lessen in severity.
Pendrix swears under his breath, unsure of how to proceed. He grips his knife, and stays where his is, watching, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Lia swings her club at another oncoming skeleton!
Sesi shouts a thanks at Father Zantus before she strikes out again.
Growing frustrated, Karst grits his teeth, chokes up on his hammer haft, and strikes.
Karst's blow, fueled by righteous anger, shatters the skeleton opposing him. Their blows landing together, Sesi and Lia lay waste to the last skeleton, the bones of the dead once again laid to rest.
The fight done, Sesi chants a short verse and light begins to shine from her sword's blade as she runes her fingers down it.
"Figured it'd be better to have some light in case of any more nastiness waiting for us," she mutters before heading into the mausoleum.
Lia shivers and retrieves her sword before following Sesi inside. "Eugh..."
Karst mutters a short blessing requesting peace for unquiet spirits before crushing a skull under his boot as he follows.
"Not to worry, lass. There's worse things under the earth than the dead."
"Yeah, the dead that are still moving," Sesi mutters.
Pendrix is visibly shaken.
"My magic didn't work....why didn't my magic work?"
Zantus places a reassuring hand on Pendrix's shoulder, hoping not to startle the dark man. "While I admire your willingness to contribute, your spell is meant for living targets. The foul undead have no fleshly body to be enfeebled, so your spell was for naught."
Hemlock grunted as he moved to follow Sesi. "How are undead here, Father? I thought-"
"Perhaps a tool meant by a dark force to dissuade any from venturing further." Zantus mused, his hands firmly grasping Desna's midnight butterfly hanging from his neck. He gingerly stepped around the bones as he too descended.
Pendrix looks crestfallen.
"I see. That does make sense. Still, everything worked out alright, I suppose."
"We're still alive and the bones are not moving anymore, so yeah, I guess things did work out."
Sesi continues to go deeper into the crypt.
The inside of the crypt is lit by magical torches that brighten as the living step inside. In the far corner, a blackened robe lies in a tattered heap. Inside, the sole stone coffin lies open, its lid discarded and broken to the grave's left.
The grave of the previous high priest, Ezakien, is empty, his remains missing from their resting place.
Zantus, still on the stairs leading down, is able to see this and he makes a butterfly over his heart, whispering a prayer to Desna.
Sesi scowls at the state the crypt is in. Whoever had left the skeletons for them had also done this, and disrespecting the dead, to be blunt, was not a wise thing to do when a Varki might find out.
"So, anyone know why they'd want the bones laid here?" She asks the question in a voice as cold and pitiless as the plains of Windhome.
Pendrix, mouth agape, looks aghast at the sight before him.
"This...this....is...ATROCIOUS! How could someone, anyone do a thing like this? Necromancy is afoot, if those skeletons are any indication."
He turned to Sesi.
"You don't think those skeletons...was one Ezakien, maybe?"
"We're in a graveyard. It could have been anyone," Sesi says as she looks over everything, being careful to not touch the robe with her hands when she picks it up.