Lola approaches the halfling and whispers to her, saying sadly ”it was a longshot anyway, I am in a prison of my own creation, young one. I did not remember the circumstances until recently - but there is little you could have done anyway. I had hoped for something of a reprieve but...” She smiles bitterly, ”such a thing was not meant to be.” She shakes her head as if clearing mental cobwebs. She reaches to embrace Coral, ”do not let it trouble you further.” The bitterness vanishes, and she seems masked both figuratively and literally.
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Lola looks confused as to Vlad’s invective, as she’s sitting quietly in the corner of the livery. She says, quietly, ”lo siento, Vlad. I haven’t spoken in a few hours, and I don’t think we have much to say to each other. I have little to owe to you, and you to me - let us keep it this way.” She doesn’t respond to further statements or inquiries from Vlad in the indefinite future, seemingly ignoring him.
"Does anyone know anything about those plants? I will climb if I have to but it looks like we could just walk through the garden."
When Feena realized where they were she couldn't believe it. How could this be Rossler's Coffer? Surely they weren't gone that long!? She looked at the others and asked, "How did it get like this? It looks like it's been left to rot for years not just a couple of days!" She was rather oblivious about the plants outside and wasn't doing much to keep her voice down as she freaked out just a bit over the stat the town was now in.
Lola finally chimes in, when the others seem to be trying to figure out what’s been happening, she says quietly as she files her nails, seated on a stump near the back ”Feena, it’s possible that time moves differently across planes - or worse, the thing which killed all of us has infected the entire town and caused it to rot quickly, si?” She kips up, ”powerful necromancy - a blight or disease. No matter.”
She gestures towards the plants, almost bored, ”those are weedwhips, plant creatures. Each has three large, lashing vines, each as long as a whip, with blade-like thorns. The whips are known to secrete an irritating toxin. When the weedwhip is blooming, the bulb is crowned with a large flower and its scent is especially strong, often attracting pollinating flies. They will likely try to devour us should we depart there.” She points at the broken passage, ”some of us will be hurt climbing there. I am not certain which is better.” She returns to filing her nails, and waits for the others to come to a decision.
Damian can see that Lola is speaking, but with her mask on he cannot discern her words.
Coral turns to face Damian.
"Lola says those plants are Wheedwhips. They can strike us with venomous vines if we try to go out through the garden."
Coral thinks a moment.
"Perhaps as plants they are not very mobile and we can destroy them from a distance. I can be in front blocking and dodging to buy you some time."
Feena considered the problem of the plants as her focus was redirected to the imminent threat. "You might be right Lola," she said, "I hope it's a side effect of what happened but the presence of these plants...how would they have gotten here so fast?" She looked in the direction of the things as they considered how to get past them and asked, "Can they move? If not I might be able to take them down from in here with magic if they won't reach us quickly."
"Thank you for your knowledge, Lola. I have never heard of these plants before, but their presence is concerning. Perhaps we should destroy them before they spread."
Saying that, he readies his bow.
Lola nods at Feena, ”yes, I believe, but like many plant creature they move on roots. I don’t know how quickly they can move like that.” She gestures towards the entrance, ”I doubt a bottleneck would be bad. Their vines have reach but those in the back would be somewhat protected at least by the doorway.”
When everybody is ready to open fire, Coral will move to the doorway and use Total Defense (AC 27) to block the Whipweeds from getting to her companions.
Coral opens the door and despite her best defenses, the weedwhip digs its tentacle into her +
The Whipwheed stings, but Coral resists the toxin and keeps trying to dodge.
"You should save that line for when I cast 'Shield of Faith' on you, Vlad."
Instead, Marya goes to her usual go-to strategy of strengthening her allies.
Lola keeps her spear out and trots over with a slow pasodoble, next to Coral and Vlad, her face unreadable. She stares past them, and appears to be getting ready to attack the enemies when she can.
Once he has a clear line of sight, Damian looses an arrow at the plant Vlad is hammering on, careful not to hit the man.
Feena looked for the best shot she could get as she began to cast and when she had it lined up a beam o searing hot energy lanced out at the weedwhip she targeted.
Vlad blasts a weedwhip, but it still manages to stay up until Damian's arrow cuts into it and drops it down to the ground. Feena's scorching misses, blasting between two of the creatures.
One plant attacks Coral and the other two attack Vlad, but all three miss due to the defensive postures taken by the party.
Vlad's entry into the melee changes Coral's plans. She sighs, and goes on the attack.
Coral then takes a 5' step to better guard Vlad. It means leaving the doorway, but she trusts Lola to be able to finish off Red, especially without Coral in the way.
Lola tries to stab the whipweed flanking Coral.
Lola then moves up to at least give coral a bit of defensive assistance through their shared teamwork abilities.
If Feena cursed she would have when the spell missed her target. Still, she was undeterred, and cast the spell again.
With no one seriously injured as of yet, Marya continues inspiring her comrades.
Damian takes careful aim at one of the three plants that Lola is attacking, seeing the threat to Coral.
Marya inspires Vlad and Coral finish off the second weedwhip, leaving Lola and Damian combining to finish of the third while Feena scorches the ground in front of it. With the plants dealt with, you are finally able to exit into town.
What remains of Roslar’s Coffer lies before you, but familiar buildings lie in ruins and plants grow wild, as if hundreds of years have passed. Shapes flit by the windows of many homes, and a white glow emanates from the direction of the cemetery on the southeast edge of town. Stranger than all that, however, is the yellowish-green cloud that surrounds the entirety of Roslar’s Coffer, arching into the sky and making the sunlight feeble and dim. The withered corpses of several birds and rabbits are visible on the ground just within this greenish fog.
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Vlad views the scene before them darkly. Though he had only been visiting Roslar's Coffer, it still stung him more than any physical pain he might endure.
"This explains part of what has happened to us. I have suspected that something had happened here, but this only confirms it. Who, or what could have caused such devastation, only the gods know. Will only the town have suffered this fate, or the whole world?" he wonders.
Damian had been expecting things to be bad, but not this bad. Had time truly moved differently here, and dozens of years had passed for every day they had spent in the Boneyard? If so, everyone he had ever known was dead. His children... were dead.
He takes a hitching breath as he falls to one knee, hope almost dashed from his soul. Perhaps something else had happened, an effect of accelerated decay, something that would explain all of this. Otherwise, their struggle to return to the living world would have been in vain - what could they hope to find after so much time, how could they possibly right the wrong that had afflicted Rosslar's Coffer? If, indeed, it was only Rosslar's Coffer who had suffered such.
Alas, he is too overcome with emotion to think clearly.
"I don't know, Vlad. I think if the whole world had been affected, there would have been more of a commotion in the Boneyard. Not just Mictena concerned about us few, but Barzahk and even Pharasma herself addressing such a planet-wide catastrophe."
Coral looks around.
The shapes flitting by the windows catch her attention. "What was that? Did you see that?"
The white glow over by the graveyard is mysterious. "What could that be?"
And the greenish mist troubles her. "Should we go in? I think maybe first check the graveyard."
Lola says quietly, after noticing the shapes in the windows, "I had barely been here when this happened - I agree this is wholly unnatural. It seems your graveyard is the best place to head eventually, as Coral suggested, but perhaps there could be survivors in the homes." A grim look is on her face, what little is visible, and she adds "if there are no survivors, there may be inquietos pixano'ob which need to be attended to."
If there is any indication that Lola has now gotten even more mixed up linguistically, it isn't plain on her face. She finally says, "I am, as a point of fact, obliged to do so, should it be within my power." She looks apologetic, and then down, and then away from everyone, towards the house. "Béet" she whispers.
Lola concentrates, and her mind sharpens.
Marya shakes her head. ”It doesn’t even look real. I never saw anything like this in Cheliax. What could just obliterate a town and everyone in it so easily?“ She remembers her promise to her friends, to find out whoever did this and make them face justice. The weight of that promise hits her hard and heavy now. She is in for it. They all are. ”F+#!ing hells.“
With the plants dead Feena stepped out to look around Rossler's Coffer with the others and stared around her in horror. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, the place was wrong, like it had been hundreds of years since they were gone, and she felt sure that was not possible. Even worse was the strange yellowish-green cloud around the remnants of the town.
Feena looked at her companions as they stared at the place with various expressions of grief and disbelief. For her part Feena felt sadness. It wasn't the first time she had lost a home but she made a silent vow to herself that it would be the last.
Feena cautiously began to cast a spell, augmenting her sight to see magical auras, and carefully began to concentrate on what was around her. She tried to determine what had happened, as best she could, or at least look for things she could recognize. As the others spoke of checking out the glowing cemetary Feena nodded and said, "Yes, that seems the best place to start."
"Let's first check the homes as Lola suggested, then make our way to the graveyard."
Coral does not expect to find any survivors, but something is here.
Restless spirits, perhaps.
She thinks of her friend Salcas, draws her sword, and approaches the nearest door.
Feena nodded as Coral changed her suggestion and said, "While I think the graveyard may hold answers, or at least clues, stopping at our homes may be a good idea. If nothing else we might find some badly needed supplies for when we leave the town. I don't know where we will go but we need to warn someone about what has happened here." She hesitated a moment before saying sadly, "Besides I am sure we all have things we want to take with us, mementos that are important, if they are still intact."
Lola studies the surroundings and determines that it seems like it is still the tail end of winter, almost to the start of spring. After conversing with the team, they come to the conclusion that while it looks like a lot of time has passed, not much time has passed at all.
Meanwhile, Feena approaches and studies the cloud with detect magic reveals it has a strong aura of conjuration magic.
As you make your way through the outskirts of Roslar's Coffer, you can see many buildings are destroyed or burned out, as if a massive fire has raged through the town. Many roofs bear gaping holes, while others have completely collapsed. Most structures look barely safe enough to enter, like a strong gust of wind might knock them over. Other areas are completely overgrown with ivy and weeds, and a few freestanding walls look like this overgrowth is the only thing keeping them from falling over. No signs of life remain in the town.
The silence is broken by the slow, dragging thud of hoofbeats from a nearby street. Four dead elk lumber into view, bones and muscles visible through gaps in their rotting flesh. They turn their milky eyes upon you and begin to advance! One of the elk has a elegantly decorated short sword lodged into its side, wedged between its rib bones.
Before you can react, the surprisingly swift zombies are upon you, goring with their antlers! Vlad and Damian both take a hit, Coral and Marya managing to dive out of the way in time and avoiding damage.
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Vlad had thanked Lola for her 'triple time.' Whatever she did, it certainly made him faster.
But there was little time for that as the undead creatures tore into the group, disrupting their formation.
Vlad sneers as one of the creatures tears a hole in his side. "Do your best--it will not be enough!" he exclaims, bringing his warhammer down upon its skull.
Coral draws her dagger and slashes at the zombie elk in front of her.
She steps to where she can defend Marya.
Lola does another pasodoble while moving next to Vlad, and keeping her longspear our.
Damian shifts closer to Lola, and calls upon the Dawnflower's fury against these perversions of nature.
Marya inspires everyone as best she can.
Feena saw the undead creatures attacking them and found there was no good place for her to target them with a spell. That in mind she stepped back, drew the dagger she was given to carry, and threw it at the elk straight ahead of her.
Vlad warhammer slams into the elk to his left, severely injuring it. In fact, it should have killed creature if it wasn't resistant to his weapon damage. It stays up, barely, and prepares to bite gore him.
The remainder of the party's attacks miss as the others help bolster their future attacks.
Marya, Coral, Vlad and Damian are all targeted by the elk horns and only Marya would have had been hit if it were not for Coral's assistance who help distract the zombie before it hit the cleric.
Coral slashes with her dagger at the elk threatening Marya.
Seeing Vlad slam his hammer into the same one she targeted Feena held her hand out for the dagger to return and then tried to throw it once more at the unread creature.
Damian withdraws from the menacing antlers of the undead elks, releasing an arrow at one of the creatures that had already been targeted by his companions.
Lola finishes her dance, and attacks Damian's enemy, keeping herself next to Vlad to support him.