Roushe lights up one end of his staff, as the group organizes themselves in an orderly line and begins exploring …
Hullric leads the party down the narrow tunnel, and pushes the door open fully. It takes the war priest a little more effort than typically required, but the motion is remarkably smooth for a stone door.
Carved pillars in the corners of this chamber hold aloft a double-vaulted ceiling of cracked frescos. On either side of the chamber, a single step leads up into a deeply recessed area that forms an arched room of its own.
Near the center of the room there is a hulking creature shuffling about. This walking corpse wears only a few soiled rags, its fur & flesh rotting off its bones as it stumbles around.
The creature raises a spiked morning star, as its tiny, milk-white eyes turn in the party's direction. Black ichor pours forth from its toothy maw while it hisses a congested syllable, "Brrrraaaiiinnnsssss."
In life it was a bugbear.
Jinath
Raskorro
Roushe
The Black Crow
Hullric
Carl
---
Black Water Walker
Pathfinders go first!
|
"It'ss a szombie bugbear!" Raskorro shouts to the group."They are usually mindless and slow, and this one doesn't seem any different, at least for the moment." he then tells the others what he knows about their resistances before surging to the other side of the undead, hoping it will stay focused on either him or Hullric and not go after the others.
Raskorro lets the others know slashing weapons are the most effective way of dealing with zombie Floaters.
The Ectofractmatist staggers in to flank, trying out a new role as a professional decoy.
Hullric charges in and slashes open the monstrosity’s belly, discharging liquefied innards and black sludge over his boots.
The zombie responds with an open-mouthed in Rask’s face. The accompanying stench will remain seared in his memory, long after he has burnt his black-water stained clothes.
Jinath
Raskorro
Roushe
The Black Crow
Hullric
Carl
---
Black Water Walker
Jinath, Roushe, The Black Crow & Carl may go!
-9 hp
Deris shades his eyes and peers over Carl from the rear. “Looks like its mother was a hamster.”
With his staff held defensively before his face, Roushe advances cautiously and strikes the 'Pig Dog.'
Unfortunately the blunt blow does less damage than the flamboyant Galtan had estimated.
Jinath
Raskorro
Roushe
The Black Crow
Hullric
Carl
---
Black Water Walker
Jinath, The Black Crow & Carl are up!
-11 hp
Both Carl and Jinath move into the room.
Jinath grows claws in anticipation of some slick slasher action.
Jinath
Raskorro
Roushe
The Black Crow
Hullric
Carl
---
Black Water Walker
The Black Crow!
-11 hp
The Black Crow finds something that reminds him of an old Curtain Raiser, he fired for being more of a Hell Raiser.
Unfortunately, Scarlet fails to move the Walker, which remains part of the show.
The mindless undead takes a wild swing at Raskorro with its morning star.
Jinath
Raskorro
Roushe
The Black Crow
Hullric
Carl
---
Black Water Walker
Party up!
-11 hp
Scarlet seems to be an unlucky groupie –– striking out twice with the Walker.
Carl mind-prints a duplicate of Raskorro, who together with his twin, whips off the top of the zombie’s skull, like a baby bloat-mage slicing open a soft-boiled egg.
The undead instantly goes limp, black-matter oozing from its brain cavity as it hits the stone floor.
With the threat removed, the party can get a better view of the room.
On the floor of the eastern recess, the perfectly preserved body of a young boy lies in a dark puddle, staring silently upward.
The boy is dressed in a blue military-school style uniform trimmed in gold. He doesn't look alive, but he doesn't look decomposed either.
He is as well preserved as the severed arm that gripped the handle above. You are able to determine that his soul has been ripped from his body.
A single exit leads south, terminating in a door in the western wall.
|
Hullric moves over to the boy's body and examines him but comes away with nothing. Shaking his head, "Can't figure out how long he has been dead. But lets check this way."
Suspecting magic is involved, Hullric cast Detect Magic and re-examines the body again but this time for magical traces while searching the physical body for anything of potential value/clues.
|
Roushe kneels down by the body to inspect it. "Zis boy.. His very soul was taken away from him. He is... Rather well preserved all zings considered." He then stands back up, looking a bit shaken. "As preserved as ze arm above was." He looks to the rest of his party. "I am no Arcanologist, but I am not exactly comfortable lifting his body. Whatever has the power to rip away souls possibly awaits us further ahead." His fingers grip his staff a bit tighter.
When you roll the boy over, you find a well-preserved diary in his back pocket.
Inside it are blatant remarks about the ongoings of many Andoran families of import living in Absalom: illegitimate relations, experiments with witchcraft, thefts and even a murder disguised as an accidental drowning.
As Hullric and Raskorro sweep the room with detect magic, the Lantern King’sman discovers a ring amongst some rubble.
It is made of tiny copper feathers laced together.
It is a ring of feather falling.
The exit door to the south and west awaits …
|
|
Roushe utilizes his own Detect Magic.
However he cannot get a clear reading, being too shaken up by the soul-ripped body. He takes out a handkerchief and wipes the sweat from his brow.
"I must confess, I do not like zis one bit. We should be on our guard." And then he looks to his allies, as if searching for any second opinions. "Shall we proceed?"
|
|
Hullric takes a book from the dead boy's body and puts it under neath his shirt for safe keeping.
He then puts his attention on the ring that they find, examining it.
Shaking his head at the others, "Can't figure out what the ring does. So lets move on."
Hullric heads through the southern opening and then opens the western door.
Opening the stone door, a narrow staircase leading up is laid before the party. The tunnel is a tight fit, but the party is able to make their way up to the landing. Water drips from the double-vaulted ceiling and trickles down the walls to pool on the floor. Bone shards of a hundred skulls litter the room like shattered seashells. Wide stairs climb to the west. Narrow stairs dive to the north. On the south wall, an open doorway gapes, a carved relief depicting a massive battle filling the archway over the door.
The relief on the south wall depicts the Taldan House Kastner’s initial defeat by rebel Chelish cousins of the same House.
The rest of the walls are filled floor to ceiling with nooks that house ancient, but drenched, skeletal remains. In the center of the room, twelve wispy, translucent school children sit in a circle on the floor. One child seems to be silently telling a story, her arms moving rapidly as she makes scary faces.
Deris pushes his way to the front, wide-eyed and holding a hand over his mouth.
Finally, he proclaims with an emotional sob, "See! Alive! I knew it!"
Tears start to stream down the old man's cheek as he kneels down beside the girl with long braids telling the fanciful story. He reacts at all the appropriate parts of her pantomimed story and smiles while "patting" the ghostly image's head. "Oh, Cassiel! I've missed you, so, so much."
The Black Crow, Carl and Raskorro hear the skittering of bipedal forms hurrying up the northern staircase towards you.
The Pathfinders estimate whatever is making that noise will arrive in less than half a minute.
|
|
His weapon still out, Raskorro casts shield on himself...
followed by protection from evil upon himself as he moves into the room, hopeful he can intercept whatever is comming...
and finally casting bless on the group.
"Whatever iss coming, hold fasst friendss."
He nods grimly to Hulric. "I'll flank what we can."
|
|
"What is going on? Why are you all- Oh. OH!" Roushe set his staff aside and draws a wand of Infernal Healing.
Roushe uses the wand of Infernal Healing on himself. "I only use zis for emergencies, do not worry!"
Roushe sheathes the wand of Infernal Healing then re-equips his staff, then enhances it with Arcane Power.
While the Pathfinders heal up and prepare themselves for battle, The Black Crow senses the spirits of the children playing with Deris are of a similar ilk to Mrs Heracks and her class, and present no direct threat to the living. However …
Deris is now completely engrossed with his daughter. A look of sadness comes across his face followed by deep-felt sobs.
"No darling, I would never do that. I tried, I tried for days, weeks . . . years."
Suddenly, a cold wind pushes through the halls followed by echoing voices.
"You left us. You left us here forever."
Everyone
"You let us drown. You left us to float."
MUST
From the shadows of the passages, nail and bone can be heard scratching across the stone floor. Ambling across the ground with a jerky, grotesque gait are creatures with long white stringy hair covering their faces.
They have long, sharp teeth that shine through the damp and pallid flesh stretched tightly over their starved adolescent frames. They are dressed in torn, weather-stained school uniforms.
Three ghouls!
Jinath
Carl
---
Green Bully
Orange Bully
---
Hullric
---
Red Bully
---
Black Crow
Raskorro
Roushe
lead us off!
Carl moves as fast as he can towards the action.
Jinath rushes out of hiding to rake the face of the ghoul in green rags.
It screams in the voice of a teen girl, before stepping up 5’ and attempting to return the favor.
Orange-eyes follows 5’ in its pack-mate’s footsteps and takes on Hullric and his twin.
Orange-eye’s bite shatters Hullric’s single mirror image, but the ghoul is unable to lay a claw on the war priest.
Jinath
Carl
---
Green ghoul
Orange ghoul
---
Hullric divine favor
---
Red ghoul
---
Black Crow
Raskorro
Roushe
Green
Orange
Red
With some regret, Hullric plunges his dagger into the neck of ghoul clad in green rags.
The creature hisses in the war priest’s face as it staggers under the near-mortal wound, its elongated tongue reaching out for the war priest’s masked nose.
The third ghoul, sporting a faded red ribbon steps forward reaching around the chamber corner for Raskorro.
Green ghoul
Orange ghoul
---
Hullric divine favor
---
Red ghoul
---
The Black Crow
Raskorro
Roushe
Jinath paralyzed
Carl
may post in any order!
Raskorro coils his lash around orange-scarf’s neck. His follow-up wrenches tendon and bone as the ectofractmatist twists the undead’s head around 180°, to stare at its pack-mate standing directly behind it.
Though clearly suffering, the ghoul remains on its feet.
Carl lets another acid ball fly, but unfortunately it strikes the ceiling harmlessly above Green.
The Black Crow moves into melee, but Scarlet fails to connect with any underage party-crashers.
Green ghoul
Orange ghoul
---
Hullric divine favor
---
Red ghoul
---
The Black Crow
Raskorro
Roushe
Jinath paralyzed
Carl
|
|
The shifter will return a slash at the green ghoul
if that is enough to kill it he will attack the orange one, if not he will try to finish off green
orange
he then take a 5' step
[ooc] For some reason I cant get it to not give me a 54 after playing with things so it looks like the roll was an 18+6 if against the green
Jinath slashes the soft tissue at green-rags’ throat. Its chin hits the stone floor first as it falls, causing its head to flop UP as neck vertebrae CRACK, causing its pallid face to stare up at the party.
The shifter then steps 5’ towards orange and jams two claws through the back of orange-scarf’s rotated head. Black ichor spurts from the jagged holes as Jinath extracts his digits, like a Varisian boy pulling his fingers from a dam holding back Storval Deeps.
Roushe then takes the fight to the surviving ghoul, scoring a solid hit, though Red-ribbon remains standing.
Hullric divine favor
---
Red ghoul
---
The Black Crow
Raskorro
Roushe
Jinath
Carl
Red -8