as soon as the creature begins to form, a cloud of smoke envelopes Preli as he fires his pistol
Arkady takes the longsword in both hands and attempts to strike at the creature with a powerful overhead blow.
Darian loads and fires his crossbow, though the chaos of the fighting makes it unlikely that he'll hit anything.
(includes -4 for firing into melee and -4 for firing past cover)
Shocked as the creature writhes with life, Ozymandias throws a wild punch as he waves Adrien back with his other, broken arm.
The creatures goes down under a clatter of blows, to the extent that by the time Preli and Kayla attack, they're firing into and attacking what is essentially a corpse - a messy, purple, long-limbed, starfish-like creature inside what is now a broken carapace. A white unguent, striated with purple, bleeds from the body into the sand beneath.
The group is able to move to the area where Kayla and Darian had been standing, without incident. In the absence of wind, the sand still contains multiple tracks of other explorers, all following a similar route to the east.
Kayla again takes the lead, not worrying about stealth in this vast open area where their light source would be seen be anything in it, but to look for traps or other signs of danger. She only needs a couple of feet - not the longer gap...
"Astonishing... who would have thought, such a vast cavern like this in the caves beneath Torch," Adrien muses, almost instantly forgetting the strange creature that attacked them. "Not that most Numerian ruins are what I'd call natural, but this... what could have caused this? It's amazing."
"It seems to be constructed," Darian says, stating the obvious.
"Constructed? But how? Even dwarves know to put a roof on eventually," Arkady says in his usual raspy tones.
"If there were no roof there would be sunlight," says Darian. "This seems to be a ruin that has become covered over by earth and stone, much like a massive amphitheater from a deserted city."
"Well, of course it's some type of ruin," Adrien says, continuing to walk inwards in awe unless someone extends a hand to stop him. "But the question is, what created this cavern? It's unlikely to see such a structure naturally this close to the surface, and with the other strange things we've seen... it has to be connected to these machines. Why else would those automatons, even inactive ones, be guarding the entrance? Why would they be pulling such things from these caves if they weren't linked?" Amazed, Adrien leans down and lets the sand sift through his fingers. "We could learn so much here, discover so much about what happened here."
Reloading his pistol Preli wonders to himself then let's out a shrill whistle, attempting to gauge the size of the cavern by listening to the echoes
"Not how but why. Why build a huge cavern unless you've got something massive to keep in it..."
Preli shudders and scuttles to stay with the others
With your low light vision, you can just about make out the roof of the chamber, at this point about 50ft up but curving upwards.
Darian looks up, then says, "There is an arched roof overhead - I can make it out in the dark."
"As to why you would create such a thing - it seems these people created places for use just like any other people; but, their skills in engineering were superlative."
Arkady harrumphs quietly to himself, his voice quiet though no less raspy, as he looks up. "It's been many a year since I spent any much time beneath the earth, and those quarters were cramped with the stone cut nary a whisker above our tallest's scalp. Wide open spaces like this should be left for what is above ground."
Kayla vaguely listens to the conversation of her group, instead focusing on the tracks she sees. Following them to the east, she looks for any signs of trouble or danger...
Led by Kayla, the group progress along the path laid out by the tracks in the sand. About ten yards south of their starting point within the vast chamber, something scrambles out of a dune. It's a four armed skeleton, similar to some that were painted on the walls of the Gathering's caves, apparently armed with nothing but claws. Its eyes briefly glow bright green.
Darian and Kayla can see a similar skeleton emerge from the sand some way off to the east, and this skeleton in turn starts to shamble towards the group.
Kayla shouts out a warning about the two skeleton-things coming at them, then focuses her attention, and her shortswords, on the closest one.
Although with those rolls it won't matter =(
Darian retrieves a small ceramic vial and breaks off the top. He lobs it at one of the nearby undead and it detonates on arrival.
(includes point blank shot bonus)
Darian's bomb hits the nearest skeleton, blowing it to smithereens - and showering Kayla in shrapnel from the nearby explosion. The shattered bones sink quickly - perhaps a bit too quickly - back into the sand.
The second skeleton lurches swiftly across the sand, to within 10 feet of Kayla.
"My apologies. I reacted in haste to a sudden threat."
Kayla moves away from the second skeleton in order to nurse her wounds...then imbibes the healing potion she purchased.
Arkady strides forward to the four-armed skeleton, gripping the longsword in both hands. He swings the weapon in a wide, cleaving arc in an attempt to cut the creature's legs from beneath it.
Loose sand flies from the ground as Ozymandias charges towards the second skeleton, the strange ratcheting sound echoing of his mechanized fist faintly echoing off the walls. "Engaging target," his voice drones, just seconds before he brings his massive fist around towards the skeleton's chest.
Preli curses hops to one side to get a better view then fires off his pistol at the remaining skeleton
Preli's shot misses the skeleton, as does Arkady's blow. OZ's charge and its momentum, however, manages to utterly pulverise the attacker. The broken bones sink back swiftly into the sand.
Two more skeletons appear, moving toward the group from beyond the dunes.
"Ozzy, hold on a moment!" Adrien shouts, rushing up beside his armored automaton. He places his hands on the machine's side, muttering a few arcane verses under his breath, and a moment later Ozymandias is surrounding by a pale, white glow before it subsides. "That should keep you safe," Adrien says, before stepping back with his staff outstretched towards the other skeleton, held tightly in both hands. "Take it down!"
"Affirmative; moving to intercept target," Ozymandias says, after allowing Adrien to grant him some magical protection. Once his master steps back, Ozymandias bursts forward again with tremendous speed towards the other skeleton, swinging his open hand around towards the undead monstrosity. Instead of pulverizing it in one blow, Ozymandias attempts to grab the creature and crush it in his oversized hand, before casting the broken bones aside into the sand.
Darian switches to firing his light crossbow at the skeleton that is not currently engaged by Ozymandias.
Kayla rejoins the group, launching an arrow from her shortbow as she moves.
Darien's bolt hits, but for some reason does no damage to its target. Kayla's arrow misses completely.
Arkady, seeing a clear line between himself and Ozy's current opponent, growls as glowing green cracks appear around his knuckles and his eyes begin to glow as if the inside of his skull were lit by green flames. He roars as he charges across the sands, swinging the longsword with all his might when he reaches the skeleton.
Deftly emptying the chamber of his pistol and replacing the charge, Preli fires at the skeleton approaching from the north east
Preli's shot hits, breaking several of the skeleton's bones, but it still stands, and continues to move toward the group. Although Arkady's blow misses, OZ slams hard into the other skeleton, smashing it completely. The bones sink quickly into the sand, as had the others.
Thum breaks into a run towards the remaining skeleton (the one shot at by Preli), swinging his warhammer two-handed as he moves, shouting and snarling some incomprehensible Kellid battle-cry and bringing the warhammer down heavily as he reaches the skeleton.
The skeleton folds before the blow, the scattered shards falling, like those previously, quickly beneath the dunes. Thum stands over the scene, half breathless, half exhilarated. "Har!" he roars. "Tales to tell shall I have, for my dear ones!"
Then he looks up.
"Others come," he says, grimly.
Two further skeletons are approaching, one from the north and one from the east .
"Maybe we need to get through this area before they stop attacking...let's move towards the east along the path as much as we can!" Kayla calls out.
Eyes still aflame with arcane rage, Arkady charges across the sand towards the approaching four-armed skeleton, roaring incomprehensibly as he does.
"I do not appear to be armed adequately for this conflict," says Darian. Regardless, he jogs into position by Arkady.
"Quite right Kayla. Discretion's the better part and all that..."
Preli's more than happy to get moving, move action to reload, second to move 20ft along the path.
Kayla moves east, then fires an arrow at the northern skeleton...
Kayla's shot hits the oncoming skeleton but seems to do no damage as such, the arrow simply lodging between two ribs.
"Adrien, multiple possible thr-r-reats have appeared and engaged," Ozymandias says in a matter-of-fact tone as the discards the crushed bones of the last skeleton. "Please remain at a safe distance; I will aid the others in their elimination," he continues, rushing forward to aid Arkady and Darian. The robot swings his giant, metal fist again for the nearest skeleton after rushing to reach it.
The skeleton dodges OZ's charge, which therefore misses, as had Arkady's. Thum moves swiftly back to rejoin the group, and to take on the southern skeleton, again swinging his warhammer with both hands, accompanied by a loud scream.
The skeleton takes the full brunt of another of Thum's attacks, shattering into a thousand pieces that, once again, sink swiftly into the sand.
Another skeleton can now be seen, further along to the east.
Darian stows his crossbow and moves between OZ and Arkady in preparation for helping them - and staying out of the way of the fighting.
The skeleton to the north shambles towards the group, but not far enough to immediately engage in combat. The one to the east moves towards the first combatant it meets - OZ. It reaches out with four arms and tries to rake its claws along the side of the construct.
One of the attacks connects, scratching deeply into the eidolon's body.