"I am in here, I will come back once the loud banging stops" Aliva says with terror in her voice. "You come in here and we will investigate this villa"
Aliva then gets up and looks around the room.
"I am inside and have choosen a poor hiding spot, I am going to need help now there are some skeletons looking at me and I don't like the way they are doing it."
Aliva Stands up, lowering her shield to guard her body and raising her Morning Star to smash the first skeleton to come close to her.
Just like Aliva, Ai'sha runs into the double doors, letting out a high-pitched scream.
"S-skeletons!"
Ai'sha makes a dancing flourish and chants what are half arcane words, half a pray to Sarenrae, making the ground below the skeletons become slippery.
Irakelesh hears Aliva's call from inside. "There are skeletons in there! And they're looking at you?" He bounds up the steps quickly. With his morningstar in his hand he bursts through the doorway and looks around.
"Ooh! Skeletons?! I've never seen a skeleton before!" Fitliss hurriedly hobbles in after the others. "And they're alive!" he beams, upon realizing that his friends weren't just getting worked up over a few long dead corpses.
Avila's spell creates an area of grease in the northwest corner. As the skeletons begin moving forward, the one in the greased area slips and falls to the ground.
Irakelesh and Fitless arrive just as the skeletons are raising their swords preparing to attack.
Aliva will smash again at the closest skeleton without stepping in the grease.
"Milani will protect us here!"
Fitliss eyes the fleshless bones, and then his longspear dubiously. "This is going to be just like the metal snake, isn't it?" he asks no one in particular, still managing to sound cheerful despite the glum prediction. The vibrant gnome shrugs, and breaks into a rather comical hobbling charge at the nearest one.
Ai'sha will walk up to the closest skeleton without stepping into the grease and swing her scimitar.
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G'nock is confused; Aliva had seemed so steady, but for a moment she acted almost helpless with fear. Something about skeletons? She seemed to have recovered herself, though, and he chalks it up to surprise.
He enters the villa, joining his party. Though perhaps not the ideal weapon for this ... airy ... an enemy, he's eager to give his new bow a try. Finding a clear shot at the nearest of the skeletons, he looses his first arrow at the monster.
G'nock grins, exposing teeth that might cause concern among things more alive than these foes. The bow feels good in his hands, and the arrow seemed to fly true.
Irakelesh spots the closest skeleton and steps up to it. He swings the morningstar at the walking pile of bones.
Aliva smashes her morningstar into a skeleton, shattering its ribs and causing it to stumble!
Fitliss moves forward quickly and jabs his spear at the skeleton Aliva hit. His spear strikes the monster, but he the undead's resilient bones are little more then scratched by the weapon .
Ai'sha swings her scimitar, but the monster steps to the side and avoids her blade.
G'nock shoots at the skeleton facing Aliva and Fitless. His arrow slams into the monster and shatters its skull. The skeleton falls to the floor, now truly dead.
Irakelesh joins Ai'sha and swings his morningstar, but the creature manages to block the strike with its khopesh.
The skeleton in the grease attempts to stand up but cannot gain its footing .
The skeleton facing Ai'sha and Irakelesh swings one of its khopesh swords, but it only succeeds in cutting through the air a foot over Irakelesh's head.
The final skeleton moves up and swings a sword at Avila, but the weapon shatters as it strikes her!
Fitliss grins. "Yup, just like the snake!" he declares chipperly. "Well..." Fitliss shuffles closer to the skeleton and punches it.
"The Defense of Milani perserves me, your weapons shatter upon my armor." Aliva says with the slightest of winces.
Aliva swings her Morning Star at the Skeleton that she started hitting
Irakelesh squares off with the skeleton facing Ai'sha and swings his morningstar at it again.
"Oh I'm not losing to a pile of bones, out of the way!", Ai'sha delivers another cut.
Fitless sees an opening and strikes at the skeleton with his fist, but his aim is off and he hits the undead monster with a glancing strike.
Avila steps up and catches the skeleton in the shoulder, causing a small explosion of bone fragments as the creature's upper torso is crushed by her attack.
Irakelesh swings his morningstar in a shallow arc, hitting the skeleton on the top of its skull and driving its head down through its body to shatter on the stone floor. The body remains standing for a moment, then it crumples to the ground.
Ai'sha and G'nock both turn toward the skeleton in the grease and attack while remaining outside the spell's area of effect. Neither is able to get a solid attack while the skeleton scrambles around attempting to regain its footing.
"Oh this is becoming annoying."
Ai'sha tries once again.
Fitliss glances at the others converging on the downed skeleton and shrugs. That seems well in hand, he thinks, his thoughts leaving the fight as it winds down. I wonder what is through there? the gnome muses, wandering off through the nearby doorway to look around in the atrium.
Irakelesh laughs at his companions' attempts to attack the one remaining skeleton. "Let me show you how this is done." He steps forward and swings his morningstar down in a fluid motion.
Avila moves around the downed skeleton, waits for an opening, then calmly smashes its skull to pieces with her morningstar.
Fitless looks around the atrium. A walkway leads around the outer edges of what was once a square garden leading to other exits. But what was once a thriving green space is now little more than sand and rock. An opening high overhead provides access to the sky above the manor. Several statues stand near the center of the garden area, encircling another statue. This human-sized female statue has delicate features, and her arms raised as if to welcome those entering from the south .
As the gnome takes in his surroundings, a slight grinding noise draws his attention as the female statue turns her head to regard him. A moment passes before she speaks in a gravelly baritone voice, Greetings, I be thee welcome. I am the spirit of this house, please enter as my guest. It has been so very long since I have welcomed visitors. What brings you here?
"We won the draw to come here and see what is held in this manor. How long has it been abandoned?" Aliva keeps her morning star at the ready.
"What's your name?" Fitliss immediately asks, staring at the statue with an excited grin. "And whose house was this?"
"I am not sure, honesty would be a good policy I assume." Aliva whispers back
The female statue slowly turns her head to regard the party. Looking at Avila, the statue speaks, "I understand time is important for the mortal kinds, but for me, it is something of an abstract concept. I can only say that it has been abandoned for as long as it has been."
Looking at Fitless, "I have no name, I am simply the spirit of this house. The hopes, dreams, despair, greed, and joy of those who lived here. All of their emotions, their words, their deeds... all those things formed me. As for the owners of the house, I can only recall the word Pentheru. Perhaps that may help?"
The statue raises her arms and gestures to the small statues surrounding her. "I would ask a favor of you. Would you mind moving these around the garden? They were placed here by a creature to annoy me, as I am bound within this form and cannot move them myself."
"I have never heard of a Spirit of the House, who placed you here? Aliva loves the statues over.
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G'nock notes Aliva is beginning to move the statues, and places a hand on her arm, A moment, with you, please, Aliva, outside the courtyard? I believe we've forgotten something very important outside..
Outside (assuming she follows), G'nock whispers "Aliva, I am concerned that the statues may be holding this spirit captive, perhaps with good reason ... if we must do this, perhaps it would be best on the way out, rather than in. And a promise to free this thing if we return would give it incentive to provide us with information we can use inside to stay alive ...
Irakelesh looks askance at the talking statue. Something isn't quite right with it. He looks at the small osiriani warriors and pulls on his goatee in thought. He addresses the statue, "You want us to what? To move these tiny soldiers around?"
"What kind of spirit are you?" Fitliss asks the being. "You seem like a weird undead, if that's what you are. Are you sure you even are a spirit? Maybe you're a... you're a... I don't know," he says innocently, obviously concerned with the statue's possible identity crisis.
"Who put these statues here?"
The statue responds slowly, "I am unsure how I came to be here, or what I truly am. One day, I was simply... here. It took me many years to learn how to communicate, and by then, the only visitors I got were animals or monsters from the dessert. Well, except for Imanish. He's not very good company, but at least he can talk."
"He is the one who put the statues around me. He said something about making it look good for his guests. I asked him not to do it, but he ignored me. I really don't like them though, they stare at met all day and I wish they were back in their assigned spots, not in my garden."
"Please, help me move them. I'll tell you how to avoid Imanish if you do!"
"I don't feel you are telling us the whole truth, we will leave the statues alone till you do." Aliva moves up to one of the statues and stares at the "house" spirit.
Fitliss blinks with child-like shock. "You think it is lying to us Aliva?!" he gasps, turning his incredulous gaze to the statue. "Why would you lie to us?!"
"Doesn't sound to me like she is lying.", Ai'sha shrugs.
The statue opens its mouth, then closes it. Then opens it again, and closes it. Finally, it speaks, "I do not think I am lying, I do not think I am capable of such an act. False words do not feel...right... to me. I...something is wrong here. It is not I who lie - it is YOU!"
The statue points an accusatory finger at Fitless, with an ear-piercing scream, it begins shaking. First its arm, then its torso, then its whole body - the statue throws back its head and shouts, "What's happening to me? What's happening?!?!"
With a whoosh, the statue collapses into a pile of brown sand.
Fail: Your eyelids become heavy, and sleep is upon you. You fall to the ground in a magically induced slumber (dropping anything in your hands).
Irakelesh's eyebrows raise in shock when the statue 'melts' into a pile of sand. "What!? That is, well. I've never seen that happen before." He takes a couple steps towards the pile of sand but then hesitates. "Maybe I should be cautious here... Can someone tell me if this is magical still?"