Arrenopos reels from the succession of blows, but immediately retaliates to try and end the threat.
HP-8/18
AC-17
Hoping to do better, Trem tries again to use his healing on the skeleton.
Skivven continues to dodge the skeletons' attacks. "Hey, raggedy bones! I'm still here! Yikes!"
Once Valeria takes a swing he will duck and dart behind the skeleton.
Harrash moves to the next skeleton and swings his sword at it, taking advantage of his position next to Valeria and Trem, but he doesn't seem to hit it.
Arrenopos cracks the collarbone of the undead he's fighting, but otherwise is unable to hurt it. Meanwhile, the skeleton surrounded by the rest of the party, dodges both Trem's healing hand and Harrash's blade.
The monster attacking Arrenopos again lashes out with its sharp, bony fingers.
He is able to block most of the attacks, but one of the claws overwhelms his defense.
Luckily, it leaves only a shallow scratch.
Go ahead Valeria.
Valeria lunges with her sword but she grimaces with disgust as the blade passes through the creature's chest cavity, barely leaving a mark on tthe bones.
Skivven continues to dodge the skeletons' attacks. "Hey, raggedy bones! I'm still here! Yikes!"
Once Valeria takes a swing he will duck and dart behind the skeleton.
Skeleton 2 makes an attack against each of the people surrounding it.
While Skivven dodges another swipe and Harrash blocks the blow with his shield, Valeria and Trem are struck by the attacks aimed at them.
Skeletons 3 and 4 move up to attack Skivven.
Skelton 5 moves into Arrenopos field of vision and up to threaten him, but does not make any attacks.
Skivven, Harrash, Arrenopos, and Trem can go.
Harrash attacks the second skeleton who had tried to hurt him. He only gets nowhere near the skeleton, and only barely misses his nearby allies.
"For undead creature, these things are quite fast." Trem uses positive energy again, this time with better result.
Trem takes a step back. "That is all I can do against this one."
Trem lays his hand upon the undead creature. A violet light washes over it and it stumbles backwards.
Seeing the other approaching skeleton, Arrenopos tries to finish off the one in front of him.
AC- 17
hp-6/18
Arrenopos decapitates one of the skeletons attacking him.
Knowing that animated dead are a possible threat in mysterious underground ruins, Skivven had brushed up on common forms of undeath. He learned that skeletons are vulnerable to bludgeoning weapons that are well built to crush and smash the bones, but cutting and piercing weapons do not fair as well against them. Also, they are completely immune to cold based attacks.
Skivven tries to talk while dodging the claws of the skeletons.
"Guys! The edges and points don't work... Whoops! ...Use something blunt! You need to crack the bones!"
Skivven darts between two skeletons to get on the other side of the skeleton Valeria is fighting.
Valeria go!
Heeding Skivven's advice Valeria drops her sword and draws the club from her belt. Using the distraction provided by the ratfolk she attacks.
Arrenopos looks askance at Skivven.
"Not really an option here." He says as he keeps hold of his sword.
Skeleton 2 dodges Valeria's attack. It responds by swiping and slashing at everyone around it. It swings twice at Valeria, as she is the most wounded.
None of the blows get through the party's armor.
Skeleton 3 moves just north of Valeria and Skivven. It claws at both of them twice.
Valeria's armor protects her from the attacks while Skivven makes the best use of his excellent reflexes.
Skeleton 4 attacks Skivven with all of its arms.
Refusing to strike back, Skivven is spending all of his concentration to block and dodge the undead assault.
Skeleton 5 full attacks Arrenopos.
Arrenopos is fully protected by his armor.
Everyone can go.
Arrenopos looks askance at Skivven.
"Not really an option here." He says as he keeps hold of his sword.
Arrenopos looks askance at Skivven.
"Not really an option here." He says as he keeps hold of his sword.
Seeing Arrenopos all alone and injured, Trem rush by his side to use some healing on him. "Nnent Vhaantss" He also wave at him to take a flanking position. With his dagger, Trem knew he could do much damage, but the Skeleton didn't know that.
Lacking any other weapon, Harrash takes a cue from Trem and tries to bombard the undead with positive energy.
Skivven continues to evade the skeletons.
"Come on, you've almost got it!"
Harrash lays his hand upon the forehead of the skeleton. A soothing gold light washes over the bones as a bright beam emits from the eyes and jaw. A flash later and the undead crumples into a pile of dust.
Skivven rolls underneath the skeleton's legs and takes up a position across from his teammate.
AS the healing energy washes over him, Arrenopos breathes a sigh of relief. A brief nod of thanks towards Trem as he concentrates on the second skeleton.
Arrenopos steps over to a flanking position and attacks.
Arrenopos cuts through another of the skeletons.
Valeria continues to swing her club at the skeleton between her and skivven, to no avail.
Skeleton 3 claws twice at Skivven and twice at Valeria.
Skeleton 4 wildly slashes at Skivven.
Valeria is able to dodge and parry the blows while Skivven is busy avoiding all the attacks aimed at him. One of them gets close, but his armor protects from any harm.
Everyone go
Trem circles back behind the enemy to give a flanking opportunity to Harrash.
Arrenopos moves closer to the remaining skeletons.
AC-17
hp- 15/18
Harrash tries once again to hit the undead with positive energy.
"It's working, but I can't keep this up for long!" Harrash tells the rest of the group.
This time, the positive energy doesn't completely disintegrate the skeleton.
"This is taking too long!"
Skivven takes his dagger and swings at the skeleton in front of him, trying to distract it, giving Valeria a better chance to hit it.
"Hey, sure pick on the little guy! It's because you don't have any guts!"
With Skvven continuing to provide a distraction, Valeria scores a hit to the creature's midsection cracking a rib.
Skeleton 3 makes one attack against each of the people around it.
The undead's claw punches through Trem's protective barrier, cutting bloody lines across his stomach.
Skeleton 4 also divides its attacks against the people surrounding it, but he aims the leftover claw against the weakened mage.
None of the attacks connect with their targets.
Everyone can go
Using Skvven's continued distraction to provide an opening , Valeria once more scores a hit to the creature's midsection cracking another rib.
The skeleton crumbles to dust from the impact.
Harrash takes a step back and begins to fire acid at the remaining skeleton.
Arrenopos moves up in a flanking position to the remaining skeleton and strikes.
Harrash's acid burns the skeleton where the healing touch had injured it previously and the skeleton falls apart as the necromantic energy is burned away.
You stand amidst the underground desert. The dark, still terrain lays dormant again after the defeat of the undead. While the combat had obscured part of the trail of footprints, they are easy enough to find again. The path continues straight ahead to the shadow of a rock outcropping.
"Whoo! Everyone okay?"
Skivven examines the skeletons to see if there is anything interesting about them.
Are these remains human and simply have extra arms grafted on? Or are they some unheard of species? Are they normal undead, or were they animated with technology?
These skeletons are not humans. They are from some unknown species. They were not animated with technology.
Harrash ignores Skivven's question, focusing on the slain undead.
"Someone must have seen these creatures before us, because we saw a painting of a four-armed creature at the beginning of the cave, with the picture of the robot," Harrash notes.
"Was the picture that of a skeleton, or a living being?"
"So where to now? This is a really big room. Why don't we go along the wall so we can figure out how big it is?"
Harrash follows Skivven across the wall and looks for pathways and anything unusual along the way.
Arrenopos looks around the area and moves a little closer to the outcropping that the trail leads to trying to discern if there is an exit there.
"Was the picture that of a skeleton, or a living being?"
"I was... um... I was wondering the same thing. This... This place is so big. It would, um, takes days to search it." Look over to the trail of footprint, Trem points in the direction they are going. "The... The trail goes that way. Shouldn't we, you know, follow it?"