The illusion activates again the moment Ama touches the door, her keeping opening and closing the door does not reset it or reveal more images. It does however keep the image going. As if the past is now the people 'present' keep walking about but ignore you.
Ama throws open the double doors and sees a double dais before her. On the lower tier are musicians playing music and on the top tier are two throne like seats. The hall seems more quiet except for the music. No one seems to be running about on servants duties. Before the image stops Ama feels something icy cold cut her. The image stutters and reveals a dusty hallway with two armed skeletons in it. The first right in front of Ama.
Combat round 5:
- Ama 25/31 hp
- Axe (DR)
- Fish
- Idris
- Nagbur
- Almalik
- Skeletons
In bold may act!
"It's a bone man!"
Ama quickly draws her nodachi and tries to damage the skeleton in front of her. A task that's probably not very easy for a weapon that's designed to slash or pierce.
"There they are! Good job Ama!
Idris rushed into the room, ignoring Ama's target to go after the one to the north, intent on keeping the doorway clear for the others. He reached out and with a practiced move, tried to rip the weapon from that skeleton's hand.
Axe moves up, axe in hand!
Almalik seems fascinated by the fact the illusion seems to be progressing, but he quickly shakes his head as he notices the two skeletons moving up. Seeing only two of them, he zaps out a little ray of frost.
Sensing Ama's sudden injury, Nagbur moves towards her and takes on some of her pain.
Ama tries to cut up the skeleton, though the sword ignores hardness it does seem to struggle with bones. Idris grabs the sword of the skeleton and throws it back into the hallway behind him, nearly hitting Almalik with it. Almalik fires a ray of frost but misses horribly.
Combat round 5:
- Ama 29/31 hp
- Axe (DR)
- Fish
- Idris
- Nagbur
- Almalik
- Skeletons -6hp
In bold may act!
Hearing Ama's cry of "bone man," Fish rushes into the room and gets behind the skeleton attacking the strange elf woman. Fish swings his sword at the skeleton, hoping to end this fight quickly.
Attack
Fish rushes through the hall and attacks the skeleton, hitting him and damaging one of the bones.
Defense
The skeleton in front of Idris looks at its empty hands and starts hitting him with them. One of the bony hands hits him in the stomach and the other connects with his ribs.
Ama in the meanwhile tries to dodge the sword but gets a nasty looking cut from it.
The music softly start playing again and begins to get louder. The band which vanished moments before appears again in front of you. The hall and stage change appearance again and look nice and well cared for. With the illusion coming into place again the skeletons vanish from sight.
Combat round 2:
- Ama 20/31 hp
- Axe (DR)
- Fish
- Idris 28/40 hp
- Nagbur
- Almalik
- Skeletons
Idris grunted as the skeleton lashed him with its hard bony hands. The damage was a little more severe than he had been expecting. Still, it wasn't as if he was unused to this. He struck out with a pair of blows, one intended as a feint, and the other with a bit more intention.
Axe swings in a wide arc, hoping to clip the skeleton.
Not wanting to waste his more powerful dweomers on the door guards, Almalik fires off another ray of frost.
Nagbur frowns as Ama is struck again. Rather than immediately healing her, he instead reaches out mentally and toughens his collective.
Idris attacks the skeleton back and and does some fair damage to it, breaking some bones. Axe swings his sword and hits the skeleton, cutting it in half. The bones of the skeleton form a random heap combined with its armor. Almalik fires his ray of frost, the ray hits but seems to do nothing at all to the skeleton.
Combat round 2:
- Ama (DR) 20/31 hp
- Axe (DR)
- Fish (DR)
- Idris 28/40 hp
- Nagbur
- Almalik (DR)
- Skeletons
In bold may act!
"Where they go?" Fish asks as he looks around for one of the skeletons.
"Nagbur no can tell!" the vitalist answers Fish, looking around nervously. "Listen muchly good!"
Ama has no idea where her opponent went, but swings her nodachi in the direction where it once stood.
Attacking
Fish looks around anxiously to try and locate the skeletons. Ama in the meanwhile swings but nearly hits Axe in the process.
Defending
Idris is distracted by the changing scene and gets another punch in the stomach.
The music slowly begins to fade again and the skeletons stand in the same spots as before. One of the skeletons is in a heap on the ground, the other is still fighting Idris in a hand to hand combat.
Combat round 2:
- Ama (DR) 20/31 hp
- Axe (DR)
- Fish (DR)
- Idris 19/40 hp
- Nagbur (DR)
- Almalik (DR)
- Skeletons
In bold may act!
Almalik rushes into the room after having marvelled at the effect of the music on the area.
He quickly zaps the skeleton, yet again missing badly.
Idris clenched his stomach muscles against the hit, then danced sideways, trying to put the remaining skeleton between himself and the others. As soon as he got in position, he dropped a low punch, followed by a kick to the skeleton's ribs.
Nagbur pulls a wand from his pocket and taps Ama with it.
Almalik's frost ray flies off in a different direction again, whilst he is fumbling with his magic Axe and Idris finish off the last skeleton.
On their bodies you find a +1 chain shirt, masterwork falchion, composite longbow (+2 Str) with a bunch of arrows.
Ama sheaths her nodachi and checks out the chain shirt. "Anyone minds if I take this?"
If no one minds, Ama puts her swaps her leather lamellar armor for the +1 chain shirt. She puts her old armor in her backpack.
Ama then inspects the room itself.
"Did you notice they made this room with stones?"
Embarrassed by his bad aim, Almalik quickly does his best to look smart by stating the obvious.
"The moment they mentioned skeletons I knew I should have recommended we bring some clubs. Now what's fascinating to me is that when the echoes of the past come to the present, the skeletons revert to corpses. This is actually against the legends I'm aware of, where the undead come with the echoes of the past, not in the absence."
He looks around.
"Right or left? In absence of a better idea, let's go right."
You slowly grab yourself together and head to the right. The central hall turns into a wide, beautifully decorated, hallway in the past and dusty in the present. At the end of the hallway you come across a door. Walking further through the hallway reveals another door and some stairs up.
Whilst you are walking the present and past keep switching back and forth, dizzying your senses. The present seems to be getting more dull whilst the past looks more vivid.
"One of you healing types think you can take care of this?" Idris raised his own chain shirt to show the bruised, bleeding wounds on his left side.
"Axe!"
"Right makes might, or something like that!"
Right makes might, or something like that!
Fish tilts his head to the side as he ponders Almalik's words. "Why we need clubs? he asks as he heads to the right.
"Maybe Nagbur can heal you?" Ama responds to Idris.
"Something tells me he wanted to do something with you not too long ago."
Idris raised an eyebrow at Ama's words, knowing that the somewhat unhinged woman could mean just about anything from a statement like that...and probably did.
"Me got this," says the vitalist as he turns the wand on the Suli man. "Idris. You do this muchly often? Nagbur thunk you be warrior but if job really be 'Target,' then me need link you somehow."
Nagbur heals Idris back up to almost full health. You find yourself in the empty hallway, no sound to be heard but you own voices. Alternated by the vivid past with its music and wall hangings.
"Axe, buddy, get that door will you?"
"Fish can open door." Fish says as he walks over and opens the door.
Fish moves to the door and tries to open it, the door doesn't budge however. The moment Fish touches the door an illusion starts. From behind the door soft whimpering can be heard.
"Why... Why did has this happened? What is going to happen?"
The voice stops and someone starts crying.
Fish tries again to open the door. "Fish just want you open door. Stop crying."
As the group walk to the next room and heal themselves, Almalik chats cheerfully.
"Blunt weapons and skeletons? Glad you asked, Fish. You see with no musculature to catch, a sword is not going to do as much damage as it would normally. It's quite hard to hack a bone in two with a sword. However, with a good mace you can certainly crack some ribs or worse."
He pauses as he listens at the door.
"Let's take a look in. Chances are whatever echoes of the past we are witnessing, they will continue irrespective of our presence."
"Let me, Fish. I have an idea," Ama says as she gently pushes Fish aside.
Ama then attacks the door with her nodachi, and starts yelling. "SHUT UUUP!"
"LET ME BACK IN!"
"I KNOW YOU SLEPT WITH MY BROTHER!"
Ama has a big, content smile on her face once the door lies at her feet, cut into very tiny pieces.
You recall Ama had borrowed some of Vaara's books while at the guild, and spent some time reading before you went on your new mission. You may even remember one of the books had the title "Betrayal at Sunset."
"I got book smarts!" Ama declares proudly.
Nagbur blinks and slowly backs away from Ama.
Almalik looks at Ama with an expression of awed fear. He says nothing, and simply peers past her into the room, deciding that when one finds a big kettle of crazy it is best to not stir it.
The door gives way after a few hits but Ama keeps going until it's nearly dust. The door still seems in place until the illusion fades and the inside of the room is shown.
The room is completely bare except for a couple of pots. There are bones of three people lying on the floor about the room.
The illusion jumps back into place and the past is revealed.The room is still bare except for the pots. The bones disappear and are replaced by their living counterparts. The one you heard earlier is huddled in the corner crying, the second one is trying to comfort her. The last one looks at the edge of death in the middle of the room. He softly murmurs some words.
"He trapped us to die... Such a nice person... Adviser to the king! They believed..."
"Someone's mumbling in there. Something about a trapped pie? And dessert icing? It doesn't make sense." Idris stepped through the door to perhaps hear what is going on a little better.
"Aaaaaxe. Axe."
"Spoooooooooky. They're talking about an advisor to the king trapped them to die."
Spoooooooooky. They're talking about an advisor to the king trapped them to die.
"Interesting. This could all be important; if the adviser to the King trapped several people to die, their angry spirits could be causing the unrest here. Resolving the source of their anger may end the haunt."
Almalik looks over the illusion carefully.
Fish will move over to the pots, giving them a cautious sniff before opening them. "Hopefully these not bathroom pots."