Cassiel sighs in resignation. "Moving right along."
"Righto, come on Ed, let's pick up the pace." Judah said, moving toward the next unexplored area.
Lorant smiles a bit, his sharp canine teeth showing a bit.
"At the very least, we've established a solid system for checking the rooms."
Ella snorts. "True. Tedious though it may be." She waves Edmund forward.
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Returning the way you had come, back through the dining hall, and out the western doorway. Turning south, you find yourselves between two rows of cells, each door having a small, barred window through which one can observe the occupant. Each cell holds a single human skeleton, inexplicably animated, which claws and scratches at the door to its cell. As you press on, moving down the corridor, a disembodied, mournful dirge begins to sound, as if played on a flute. Cassiel and Lorant are visibly shaken by the sound . In the same instant, a skeleton emerges from an open cell to the south. It is joined by four more; one to the south and the others to the north. They begin to advance upon the party...
INITIATIVE
Lorant
Eleanora
Skeletons
Cassiel
Judah
Mathus
Ella hisses in fear as the skeletons emerge. "Move, Ed!" She waits for Edmund to float forward and engage the skeletons, then digs in her bag and, pulling out the flask of holy water she's been saving, steps forward and hurls it at the skeleton directly in front of her!
Move: Retrieve holy water.
None: 5' step forward.
Standard: Attack skeleton 4!
Ed, hearing the sharpness in her voice, mutters, "Uh-oh," and leaps out of the way to engage with the skeleton on the right.
None: 5' step northwest.
Full round: Full attack skeleton 3.
"The Piper of Ilmarsh!" Lorant cries when he hears the unearthly music. Upon seeing the spooky, scary skeletons he tries to muster his resolve.
"For victory, for The Heart," he manages, as he advances to one of the skeletons and takes a swing at it with his morningstar.
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Lorant dashes forward, intent upon crushing a skeleton, but his sudden charge and (reasonable) fear leave him off-balance and he mistimes the blow. Ed steps forward and also tries to attack a skeleton, but misses as well. Eleanora has better luck and her holy water splashes over the undead creature, dispelling the magic that held it together and causing it to collapse into a pile of inert bones. Droplets that splash upon the two to either side sizzle and boil.
The remaining skeletons move to attack Lorant and Edmund. They miss Lorant, but Edmund is hit twice!
They were pinned in from both sides! There was nowhere to run! Judah threw himself at the door opposite him in a panic, fumbling at the latch.
At his hip, unnoticed in his fearful frenzy, the golden pyramid clicked and turned.
Something lunged out of the darkness. It was impossible to tell for sure what it was. It stayed to the shadows around the corner. A strange maw, like a hairless dog who's jaws split one too many ways, snapped out grabbing a leg bone and jerking it around, slamming the skeleton violently into the floor and wall.
The alchemist screams, sort of a high tinny scream that would be close to that of a girl, and flings a holy water at the skeletons.
Attack for . (5 slash damage to all around the target).
[GM can work out where it misses/scatters]
"Arrrraaaaaghhhh! G%$+##, why does that hurt?!" Edmund cries, enraged.
He lunges at the skeleton directly in front of him!
Whiffing again, he swings around wildly.
The phantom is clearly thrown, throwing wild haymakers.
"Oh sweet Pharasma, Ed!" Ella snaps, sounding far more annoyed than anything else. Seeing that Lorant is struggling, she cries, "It will all work out well, Lorant. You'll see."
Cassiel swallows nervously (rather uncharacteristically dropping his sword as he does so), steps up to a skeleton while bringing up the club from his belt, and swings at it!
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Cassiel dashes forward to protect Eleanora, dropping his sword and drawing a club as he does so. The weapon smashes into the skeleton, splintering bone. The enchanted thing falls in a heap, the enchantment clearly removed.
As Judah fumbles with the latch on the door nearest him, the skeleton within the cell rises to its feet, clearly anticipating his entry. At the same time, a dog appears at the head of the corridor.
It's intended opponent now a pile of bone, the dog switches its attack to the remaining skeleton on that side of the corridor and slams it hard against the wall, shattering the thing.
Mathus hurls a vial of holy water at the two remaining skeletons, but only manages to throw it behind Lorant, where it impacts harmlessly with the wall (if Lorant is susceptible to holy water, he takes 1 splash damage).
Feeling bolstered by Eleanora's aid and sort of snapped back to reality by the splash of holy water, Lorant takes another swing at the skeleton before him.
"For Victory, For the Heart!" he repeats, this time much more confident.
Seeing the inquisitor get ruthlessly torn down by the skeletal claws, Cassiel's nerves turn from shaken to enraged and he runs at them with his club at the ready!
Lorant went down. Judah's heart surged. He stopped fumbling with the door. The pyramid hanging from Judah's hip twisted itself again.
He ran to Lorant, grabbing his shoulder and starting to drag him backwards.
The grotesque creature that had attacked the skeleton ducked back into the shadows and vanished.
It came out of the shadows on the other side of the hall to lunge at the skeleton in front of Lorant.
"Awwwww, did the fancy-pants man get bruised?" Edmund sneers. Still, he glides back down the hallway, moving around Mathus to approach the two skeletons as Judah drags Lorant away from them.
bludgeoning
"Lorant!" Ella cries. "No, no no no no no..."
Rushing down the corridor, she waits till Judah is able to move Lorant to somewhere within her reach, and waves the wand of cure light wounds over his still form.
Mathus throws another holy water at the two skeletons
for or 5 splash damage on undead in squares surrounding the hit square.
Lorant's eyes widen as the skeletons tear him down and everything becomes muffled as the others shout and grab his limp body. His eyes roll back into his head and he passes out.
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Cassiel moves to the skeleton and swings his club in a broad arc, managing to break a few of the skeleton's ribs and remove its left arm at the shoulder.
Even as Judah drags Lorant from the fight and into Eleanor's healing touch, Mathus throws another vial of holy water. This time, his throw is on target and the vial bursts over the skeleton, splashing the one standing next to it. There is a loud hiss, like a rush of air, and both skeletons dissolve into gooey puddles.
Cassiel pointedly stomps the skeletal puddle once. "Don't come back."
The urge to say something snarky to the ghost following them around is strong, but when Cassiel sees the state Lorant is in he immediately represses it. "...s*@@."
Lorant lets out a groan, at least displaying he's still alive.
Cassiel steps over to Lorant's prone body and lays a hand on him, channeling healing energy to (hopefully) at least get him up again and not, say, flay him alive from the inside out.
The strange creature slinked back into the darkness and was gone.
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Judah felt helpless. He wasn't a healer. He hadn't done anything in that fight. He'd panicked and tried to run. For a while it had seemed so easy. The haunts had become little more than minor irritants and inspiration for jokes. He'd been fancying himself an adventurer.
He was a coward.
Lorant had nearly died fighting. Protecting him. Protecting all of them. Even Edmund had done more than Judah had. It was probably easier when you were dead. Nothing to fear. Nothing to lose.
Maybe he'd be better off...
He slumped against the wall, his hands shaking and his breath shuddering in his chest.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't... I couldn't." He pulled a flask out of a pocket and fumbled with the lid. He dropped it, picked it back up, still couldn't open it, then finally threw it as hard as he could at the opposite wall.
"Is... he going to be alright?"
"With time," Ella murmurs, running the wand through the air over Lorant's injuries once more. "Don't be a child, Judah, throwing things won't help," she adds, somewhat sharply. "If you want to make yourself useful, go keep an eye out at the end of the corridor. It will take a few seconds for me to bring Lorant back to his feet. Edmund, guard the other end!"
"Ha! Leave him to guard the place?!" Edmund whirls on Judah, closing to within inches of his face. "This worm couldn't protect you if his fully armored body was the only thing standing between you and a horde of rapacious and bloodthirsty orcs. We should leave him in this prison to rot."
He howls suddenly as Ella glares at him, and floats away to take up his position at the opposite end of the passageway from Judah.
"And you were such a help, flailing ineffectually at skeletons." Cassiel doesn't even bother looking over his shoulder to call out the idiot ghost. "Never send a ghost to do a mortal's job."
Mathias breathes easier once the skeletons are destroyed but still is pale as new milk. His constant encounters with the dead are eroding his mind one step at a time but somehow he managed to keep it together long enough to get his vial into the maw of the undead foes oppressing his newly formed team.
I... understand you better than you may think, he says to Judah.
Lorrimor taught me a lot of what I know about... fighting... these abominations but I go weak at the knees and feel like I am about to wet myself every time I see them closing on me.
"Exposure may yet inure you to it," Ella comments wearily, sitting back as she finishes healing Lorant.
Judah turned his face away from Edmund, clearly ashamed, but as the ghost became threatening a low, guttural growl came from the darkness around the corner. Judah tensed, wanting to run again but he nodded to Eleanora and went to the other end of the hallway, looking around the corner with his torch.
"I don't see anything. Not sure what that was."
As Cassiel and Eleanora practically pour healing magic into Lorant's body, he starts awake with a gasp as white light seems to shine from his eyes, mouth and wounds, even as the wounds close leaving only faint scars. When it's over he groans as he attempts to stand, still a bit wobbly.
"It seems it was not yet my time to enter the Boneyard. Thank you. Thank you all."
Ella sighs in relief. "It had better not be," she says with a crooked smile. "But I think it may be our time to get out of here. For the moment, anyway." She scoops up her torch again and glances around. "Some strange...things...came out and attacked those skeletons before vanishing. And we've heard some strange noises. I'm growing weary of the running and jumping."
"Me too." Judah said quietly, still eyeing the darkness beyond his torchlight warily.
Mathus just goes silent and back to shaking.
"Agreed. Let's get back to the Lorrimor House." Lorant replies, taking point and leading the way back down the stairs and out of the prison.
Lorant stands near the door, waiting for the others to join him.
"We'd best hurry. I figure we've attracted the Piper of Illmarsh's attention, and I'd rather not have him pursue us."