time to break a glass heart
The halfling first looks carefully at the phylactery, making sure it isn't somehow trapped.
Maybe we need some positive energy to destroy the evil of it, he muses.
"Or brute force." Koldur after getting the go ahead attempts to smash it with a brutal overhead chop downwards.
The heart glows and the bones nearby rattle.
Beorn readies and action to shoot the first unfriendly thing moving. "Make it snappy!"
Hey, Rognar. Why don't you cast some sort of healing at it while Koldur whacks it? It's undead. Can't hurt us, but it hurts it.
"Rattle no more and rest in pieces Vile one." Koldur says as his axe makes contact with the crystal heart.
With the axe connecting with the heart and the positive energy affecting undead, the crystal breaks. The bones no longer rattle. You think it is over. A few more rounds pass and you are sure it is over.
We did our good deed for the day. Yay us!
"Outstanding boys! This was interesting but would this thing have created this dam? Or was it merely used as a guardian?" Beorn says as he studies the blockage to find the best way to dismantle it.
"Most likely as a guardian of some sort but the question would be why a dam here?"
With a few well placed branches and just a bit of torque the dam begins to break apart.
Once figuring out how to move the dam but before yanking stuff out of the way, Beorn tries to recover the bodies of any men or women. (I believe bodies were mentioned, possibly only animals) With that done he works with Flouncy to break the thing apart.
Let's keep looking.
Flouncy casts Detect Magic again, and carefully looks for anything of interest or value. He's too small for heavy lifting.
Koldur sees to the unfortunate remains of the humanoid victims of the beast if any.
Digging a mass grave for them if warranted.
Koldur and Beorn pull the bodies free from the mess and begin the burial.
Flouncy finds a few glowing items:
Treasure: Though difficult to spot in the powerful,
churning currents, the skeletal remains of a long-dead
explorer makes up the tatzlwyrms’ meager horde. A DC 12
Perception check spots the skeleton wedged in the debris.
The skeleton still wears a suit of +1 scale mail, while clutched
in one bony hand is a masterwork cold iron longsword. A
DC 18 Perception check reveals additional treasure in the
rubble and mud below the skeleton within a rotting leather
backpack that contains 38 gp, 520 sp, a pewter drinking
stein worth 12 gp, a silver ring worth 35 gp, a jade carving
of a nude female elven monk worth 85 gp, and a watertight
scroll tube. Inside the tube is a partially completed map of
the northwest corner of the Greenbelt that seems to indicate
that the explorer approached from the north, reached
the source of the Skunk River, and was working his way
downriver.
Too skinny for my taste. This map looks interesting, though.
Flouncy studies it, trying to see if it's accurate or useful in some way.
If you were heading North which you are not it should help.
I'll just keep the map in case we ever go that way. We can at least give the guy a decent burial. Maybe you can say a few words for the departed.
That was beautiful, Flouncy says, a little choked up. The poor guy didn't stand a chance.
"Gents, I think we should fly on for another couple of hours before we bed down."
After digging a proper hole hours have past. After Rognar's words it takes less than an hour to bury the bones. Back upon the pegasus your group finishes exploring that hex before landing and making camp,
As you likely set a guard while the others sleep, you are lucky nothing comes near the camp site. The sun rises and most of you slept well.
[/b]"Ahh, what a trip. Quite eventful. Looking forward to today."[/b] Beorn says as he is roused by the early morning watch. He then proceeds to buildup the fire, put on coffee, and a side of bacon.
The next day the group begins exploring via pegasus, hex 32. Most of the area is swamps. You do spot a white spot that seems out of the ordinary.
Flouncy points it out. Let's check it out, guys!
"May as well." Beorn says and takes his pegasus down for a closer aerial view.
Koldur follows as well.
"Interesting spot though."
Getting closer you see that it is a body. Closer still you see it is a dead horse. Landing and dismounting to walk the last 100 feet you see that the unicorn is dead. Its horn has been cut from its head and lies dead on the ground. The flies and bugs attack your skin and you can see a pond nearby with rife with such things. Though not a single bug upon the dead unicorn's corpse. Looking at it, you don't even see how it was killed.
"A Pity. Someone harvested its horn and left it's body here. Could we clean this place up? " Koldur gives a look of pity at the loss of a magnificent creature.
Terrible!
Flouncy sees that the flies are all over us, but not the unicorn.
That's odd...
He casts Detect Magic and focuses on the corpse, wondering what could be going on here.
The stink of moldering plants and a strange quiet in the sound of birdlife surrounds a somewhat sunken clearing in the woods here. At the center of the clearing, the soggy ground becomes an insect-infested, stagnant, swamp-like pond, and sprawled at the pond’s southern edge is what appears to be a dead horse. Further investigation reveals the creature to be a dead unicorn, its horn broken off at the brow and its body strangely untouched by insects or other necrophages. The stink of mold comes not from the body, which is weirdly odorless, but from the fouled water of the pond.
An examination of the unicorn reveals no obvious cause of death, although the creature’s eyes are milky and sightless, indicating the creature was blind at the time of its death.
creature’s horn was removed after its death, and that the
lack of obvious wounds would indicate the unicorn was
likely slain by some form of death effect, such as finger of
death. The fact that the bugs and scavengers don’t seem
interested in the body is a mystery.
a faintly lingering necromancy aura, identifiable as
being caused by a finger of death
Let me get a look Adney says and bends down a bit to see what he might know.
Don't know much about history.... On this unicorn.
This is weird, but I can't figure it out. Let's just go.
Looking at the map that Koldur has he can see that the temple of the elk is at Hex 22. Also it appears that all of the North has now been explored with notes for many of the places that have already been explored.
"I don't know what did it in but there is no sense in staying here. Who knows what we could contract from these bugs before we could get the unicorn buried. I suggest we leave."
"I have no idea what killed it either but we are close to where the temple of the Elk is. We have explored much of the North. As for the unicorn, I'll bury it first I can't bear to leave something as such lying around after it has begin despoiled. If I could come across the killer, I'll have words with the culprit with my axes." with that said, Koldur begins the task of digging a grave for the unicorn.
"That can work. I'll bear it in my portable hole."