"I agree. We should check within...cautiously."
Jaazkara begins moving slowly, taking care to step quietly and stay aware as she approaches the recently-visited ruined building.
Though powerful, Jaazkara isn't made for finesse, and her attempts to move silently fall flat... Luckily for her, there doesn't seem to be anyone in her surroundings... Or at least not anyone she can see.
Approaching the structure makes Jaazkara feel uncomfortable... The air is stagnant, but cold... She notices many different pieces of weapons and armor, all broken and corroded. She approaches the least ruined building, one noticeably tilted, apparently due to having one side sink faster than the other into the ground.
The doorway to the building is very large, almost 20 ft tall. The chamber to where it leads is equally oversized. It'd be possible to fit quite a few members of Strom's clan in this place.
Webs, vines and moss cover every wall and what few objects you can see... All of which are in pieces and stacked on top of each other where the wall meets the floor, due to the building's inclination. You see the remains of what one day were very large vases and statues, most of which depict humanoid creatures in alien-looking steel armor. Brother Cyrus does his best to recall any religion or cult with similar iconography, but the symbols on the broken pieces of art are completely unknown to the young priest.
Other than the front doorway, there are three other doors, one of them takes you back to the outside, it must have led to a different room at some point in time, but that room is long gone. The second one is on the lower point of the room, and whatever is behind it has long been buried and devoured by the swamp...
That leaves the one path that can actually take you somewhere... A spiral staircase leading you to the underground... Where the air gets even colder. Jaazkara notices burn marks on the wall next to the first step of the spiral staircaise... As if small jets of flames had been shot there.
"How peculiar." Cyrus says as he studies the iconography.
"Nowhere to go but down it seems."
Frederick descends.
Frederick steps on the first step of the spiral staircase... And is quickly showered by flame jets from tubes cleverly concealed between the wall's bricks and cracks... A 6th tube only shoots a puff of dust and smoke...
The trap itself is barely functional... Damaged by years of neglect and corrosion, it's a surprise it still works at all. It shows no sign of magic, though.
The staircase is full of moss, vines, dust and darkness... Frederick's half-orc eyes have no problem seeing through the shadows, but Brother Cyrus, Eitylen and Jaazkara can see barely anything beyond the first few steps.
The air is stagnant, cold and damp... Frederick and Jaazkara can smell death and decay. They can also hear dripping water and the sound of something heavy being dragged on the stone floor somewhere downstairs...
"Shine." And light pours forth from his walking spear.
Jaazkara stops to light a torch before moving on, eyeing the priest's glowing magical alternative with suspicion for a moment. She rests the long shaft of her weapon over one shoulder, the weight of her arm keeping it steady. With her other hand she holds her light aloft, sacrificing the fauchard's readiness for her own light source.
Frederick moves carefully... The spiral stairways are twice as wide as he would expect from an this relatively small structure... And ten times as annoying to walk on... The building's inclination makes it really difficult to move. The loose tiles, dirt, vines and moss don't help either.
A couple minutes staggering your way downstairs, you find the underground corridor to where it leads. It's completely dark but for Brother Cyrus' light spell... Frederick can see four rooms, two of which are completely blocked by earth. At the end of the corridor, another set of stairs goes even deeper into the earth.
You can see your breath condensing in front of your mouths, you can't hear anything but yourselves and the increasingly louder sound of a heavy object being dragged upstairs...
Jaazkara tosses her torch further in, then finds a low place to hide among the vine-covered floor and mossy debris.
Frederick shrugs and tries to hide as well. Nothing bad ever came from the element of surprise.
Brother Cyrus follows suit and attempts to make himself look smaller.
The sounds of a dragging object gets louder and louder as steps are heard moving toward you... Then, all sound disappears.
A dry voice speaks in an unintelligible language... When there is no answer, you hear the sound of weapons being unsheathed... The voice speaks again, though... And the sound of footsteps permeate the atmosphere... Some of them quite loud...
From the spiral stairs ahead of you, you see three walking skeletons come forth... Two of which are the usual low-level undead... A creepy sight, but not particularly threatening... The third one, however, is big enough to tower over the trolls you defeated earlier and has bones as black as coal. They wall have surprisingly well-made armor and weapons.
Behind them, a cloaked orc with a powerful build stares coldly at you. He whispers a couple words and his skeletal allies raise their weapons.
[dice=Skeletal "Titan"]1d20+4[/dice]
Jaazkara
Frederick
Brother Cyrus
Eitylen
Cloaked Orc
Skeleton 2
Skeletal Titan
Skeleton 1
Jaazkara waits a moment to see how the rest of her companions act before deciding how best to deal with these new foes.
Jaazkara awaits a moment longer, then surges into action. She moves over to the skeleton on her left and strikes at it with her enchanted fauchard!
Jaazkara attacks fiercely, but the skeleton blocks her sear with a surprisingly dexterous swing!
"Not... Fast enough." the creature wjispers with an unholy dry voice.
"Good gods a necromancer! Steel yourselves for we fight the anathema of life itself!" Cyrus calls out and his words uplift his comrades.
"Just another foe to fell."
Frederick moves in and sets to destroy.
Frederick strike is a close one, but the skeleton manages to raise his shield at just the right moment, blocking the half-orc's armored fist...
"Weak," says the ghostly voice.
Frederick gets the impression the skeleton is trying to smile... But it has to be his imagination... Right?
Eitylen rushes forward to aid his friends. The elf gets just close enough to strike the skeleton engaged in melee with Frederick. He considered going farther, but decided getting into flank position wasn't worth risking a sudden strike from an walking skeleton and his oversized cousin.
With unparalleled grace, Eitylen dashes under the skeleton and buries his dagger deep into the creature's empty eye socket! A small flash of ghostly blue light sparks when he does, but the monster still stands... And strikes back!
Its blade misses the target, but it was closer than Eitylen would have liked...
The cloaked orc grumbles something in the same disturbing language you heard before... And you notice both him and his minions start moving faster...
The oversized jet-black skeleton makes an downward motion with its serrated ax.
It strikes first at Eitylen, then goes for a sweeping motion, hoping to catch both Frederick and Jaazkara.
...Its strike are terrifyingly accurate. And both warriors are hurt by its blade!
Lastly, the other human-sized skeleton strikes at Jaazkara, as the lizardfolk warrior is the one closest to it.
Jaazkara is caught off-guard by the first blow, but raises her blade quickly enough to deflect the follow-up strike!
Brother Cyrus raises the chain wrapped around his hand and it emits a pulse of positive energy.
"Foul Undead, BEGONE!"
Brother Cyrus fills the area with positive energy, greatly harming the human-sized skeletons, even destroying one of them... But their giant ally and the cloaked orc seem unaffected.
The orc mumbles something to himself... And glares at the young priest with cold, sadistic eyes. Red lights flare on the giant skeleton's eyes as it turns its face just enough to get a better look at Brother Cyrus.
Brother Cyrus recognizes the creature as one of the undead warriors known as "Skeletal Champions". However, he can't identify what type of creature was used to create this one. Still, the priest knows that pitch-black bones such as the ones this exemplar has are often caused by mixing necromancy and fire magic. This, in addition to its undead nature, makes the creature very tough against most elemental spells.
While it's common for Skeletal Champions to be particularly resistant to positive energy, Brother Cyrus can't figure out how the creature remained completely untouched by his channeling.
Skeletal Champions are clever and often retain abilities, skills and memories from their previous life. Controlling one through sheer will is difficult, but not impossible.
Frederick stops being a doofus and swings his Falcata.
Jaazkara reaches over the skeleton before her to attack the larger one behind it, using her silversheen fauchard's reach to swing down at it's skull.
And attempts to strike the smaller one using the haft of the weapon on its downswing, then takes a step back.
All the while she bleeds profusely.
Frederick's falcata shatters some bones on the oversized skeleton's body, despite its unusual hardness. Jaazkara deals a similarly effective strike and not only damages the large creature, but also destroys its smaller ally.
- - -
- - -
Eitylen tries to stab the creature, but his dagger bounces off ineffectively on the creature's hide.
The cloaked orc speaks something with an annoyed tone and expression... You hear a "thud" and see a third skeleton coming by his side from the stairs behind him.
After this is done, the cloaked orc touches the giant monster in front of him and whispers unholy words... Unholy energy flows through his hands and into the monster's bones, and the creature's wounds seem to diminish considerably.
The giant skeleton, in turn, strike back at Jaazkara.
Its first blow is wasted, so it insists and attacks again! This time the creature's ax is heavy enough to bypass Jaazkara's defenses... But she at least slows it down enough to stop it from slicing Frederick as well.
Brother Cyrus clicks his longspear against the floor and gestures with a sweeping hand motion outwards as a wave of positive energy emanates from him.
"Stand firm friends!"
You feel your pain and fatigue diminishing as positive energy flows around you.
Jaazkara finds new strength and fights on!
Then, in an uncharacteristic display of dexterity, she leaps forward and dives between the skeletons wide-spaced bony legs, rolling and coming up to her feet just inside her polearm's reach of the sinister orc.
Frederick moves up to flank with his lizard pal and taps into his mental reserves to speed up his moves.
The late coming skeleton blocks Jaazkara's path to the cloaked orc and strikes the reptilian warrior.
The skeleton displays unnatural grace, and not only approaches without lowering its defenses, but also manages to harm Jaazkara.
Meanwhile, Eitylen takes advantage of the distraction provided by the lizardfolk warrior and viciously stabs the oversized skeleton! The elf's dagger dig deep into the creature's spine and, with a twist, unmakes it.
The cloaked orc grunts in disappointment and anger... And with a few more words, steps into the darkness behind him. Another "thud" is heard, followed by the sound of something heavy slowly slipping downstairs... And then, yet another skeleton shows up.
Brother Cyrus ends his inspiring words but raises his holy symbol once more intending to wipe out the undead
"Slay the necromancer before he calls more minions!"
Brother Cyrus' blessing visibly affects one of the skeletons more than the other...
Jaazkara steps to the side and swings her weapon in a great arc, attempting to strike both skeletons at once.
Jaazkara's strikes are incredibly powerful and almost completely shatter the two skeletons... They still stand, though... sustained by a meager fraction of the unholy energy that animated them.
Frederick smacks one, trying to work his way through to the orc.
Frederick's falcata gets stuck on an skeleton's ribs, but is released without doing any damage.
Both skeletons go after Jaazkara, but only one of them succeeds at dealing any damage to her.
Eitylen sneaks behind the newly-arrived skeleton and stabs it...
...But his dagger is stopped by the creature's armor.
Jaazkara takes a step back, then swings her fauchard once more, trying to strike both skeletons as she twirls the long-hafted weapon about her. She strikes first at the less graceful skeleton, then the other.
She then says to the half-orc,"I will take these bones; you and the others should stop that dark wizard quickly!"