Still in bat form, DarkDealer drops a well placed fog on the battlefield, obscuring the skeletons from view but hopefully obscuring their view of you as well!
@Erin the Cursed, you're up!
Effects of the Obscuring Mist spell for those like me who had to look it up to remember:
"A misty vapor arises around you. It is stationary. The vapor obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature 5 feet away has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker cannot use sight to locate the target).
A moderate wind (11+ mph), such as from a gust of wind spell, disperses the fog in 4 rounds. A strong wind (21+ mph) disperses the fog in 1 round. A fireball, flame strike, or similar spell burns away the fog in the explosive or fiery spell's area. A wall of fire burns away the fog in the area into which it deals damage"
[dice=Extra Init Roll]1d20
Seeing her party members are still relatively intact. She decides it's best for her to keep herself safe in till she has to mend their injuries and wounds
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Erin takes a defensive stance, wary to wade into the battleground before her allies.
The skeletons, for their part, don't seem to do much of anything. DarkDealer looks down in his bat form at the few skeletons outside the mist only to see that the corpses are taking no action at all, not even moving to a defensive stance. They just sort of...sway in place, seemingly because they have no identified enemy to target.
Rafe Darr is next up, followed by Hacker.
Rafe, what would you like to do?
Rafe looks at the rest Perhaps we can take shots from this safe location? Else a coordinated assault seems best to resolve this standoff.
Next up in initiative is Hacker, followed by BigHat.
"Maybe they react only defensively. Or only if someone actually enters the graveyard. I'm going to be fairly useless until the fog goes away. I'd say Rafe, Reiko and Hacker move in and take them down one at a time in the mist. Oh and avoid the bombs Hacker. Pretty sure this spell and fire don't mix well."
Rafe moves in as quietly as he can over the difficult terrain.
Darkdealer flies back to the wall where he has a good view of the rearmost skeleton and can hide in the tree. He then telekinetically grabs a small stone lying near the skeleton, wrapping it in bands of aether that give only the faintest shimmer, until the stone flies up from the ground to drive itself up toward its head, attempting to shatter the skull.
Rafe stealths into the graveyard, sight unseen from the undead skeletons.
Meanwhile, DarkDealer blasts a small rock at the rearmost skeleton, immediately shattering it on impact. It crumbles as it falls, and the remaining bone pieces turn to dust moments later.
Erin may go before the skeletons begin their turn, unless she wishes to delay.
Not a problem!
You don't see or hear anything come from the fog. The only movement from the skeletons at all is when one almost lazily walks around the fog, and behind a tree.
Rafe Darr and Hacker are up.
-
Rafe moves around to get closer to one of the skeletons in the back.
Alright!
Using the thick fog to his advantage, Rafe move swiftly and carefully over the rocky and uncertain ground before settling in front of one of the skeletal archers barely obscured in the magical mist.
Flying quietly to avoid drawing the attention of the skeletons in the mist, Darkdealer flies over to perch atop the building, near the only skeleton not currently inside the mist, and attempts to put another rock through its skull.
Attempting to coordinate with DarkDealer Rafe hits out at the skeleton next to him.
DarkDealer flies inconspicuously over to the only skeleton not shrouded in mist, blasting it to smithereens with another small but fierce projectile.
The skeletons though, on their turn, show no signs of movement except for the one that Rafe just moved next to. Upon seeing the combatant move suddenly into melee range, the creature withdraws as a full round action, but not before it makes a strange creaking noise with its jaw-
"ssssccCCCREEEEEEEEK"
as it flees out of sight. Now it's back to you Rafe and hacker, what would you like to do?
Rafe stops confused, then retreats to the rest of the group. The adversary refused to engage. I do not believe this is regular behaviour for video game skeletons? It seemed... almost like.. the one that was next to me was attempting to communicate.
Rafe calls out to the group still at the graveyard's entrance, explaining the strange behavior of what was suspected to be a mindless entity. What's everyone doing? Are there any changes to anyone's actions? Darkdealer, are you going to fly into the mist?
Darkdealer flies into the mist along the path I marked with an arrow, just above the level of the skeletons' heads, using the mist to provide cover. As he goes, he looks down to try to spot any of the skeletons. If he does, he stops to kinetic blast them.
You fly into the mist in bat form, intending to blast the first skeleton you see. You don't have to travel far before finding one and promptly blasting it.
You hear more creaking sounds as the skeletons apparently continue to move somewhere within the mist.
Excuse me Dark Dealer. Rafe calls out. The skeletons do not seem to be fighing back.
If everyone else is continuing to hold and the skeletons are not drawn by Rafe's voice, Darkdealer will fly in the direction it came from, land, wait a round to make sure that the skeletons aren't advancing on them, then shift from bat form to his bestial form so that he can communicate. What do you think is going on? he asks in a whisper, then adds, I've already taken out three of them.
You wait around, and, perceiving no indication that the skeletons are chasing or advancing on you, proceed to speak to Rafe.
Every now and then you hear the sound of squeaking coming from within the mists, but otherwise the skeletons don't make any attempts to leave.
I do not know Rafe responds not bothering to whisper I do not think these skeletons can communicate with speech. Perhaps some other way can be found?
...so, should I drop the mist?
I believe that would be wise. They do not seem to be much of a threat to our capabilities if three of them have been destroyed already without us even being attacked
Logan watches but can't really tell what is going on. It seems to be going well. Really well. Almost..."4500 gold to kill skeletons that don't seem to want to fight? Forty five hundred to shoot fish in a barrel? Anyone else think this is too good to be true? Like did we hit some sort of easy-mode-lottery and get almost free money?"
There are probably multiple waves of monsters to fight.
"I am ready" she confirms from her position
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Transforming back into a bat, Darkdealer flies out and again takes cover in a tree at the back of the graveyard, hiding himself where he is ready to strike, then dismisses the mist.
When the mists are dropped Rafe waves at the skeletons if he can see them. Hello. Are you hostile? If no then please wave back.
After some confused whispers among yourselves, Darkdealer flies into the tree as before and dismisses the mist.
Immediately you all have view of the skeletal archers once more, this time all four of the remaining ones have congregated towards the middle of the graveyard.
The two in the back have arrows drawn and ready, but the two nearest to you all have their arms held in front, as if they were holding their companions back.
When Rafe calls out, the four figures share a few glances and gestures before the two in the back un-knock their arrows, and the skeleton nearest to you makes a nervous wave. It then gestures towards the mausoleum on the east side of the graveyard widely, pointing and flailing its arms comically.
Ah Rafe nods You can understand us, this is good. Perhaps you can make markings on the ground if you know how to write. Wave once if yes, twice if no, please. Also apologies for harming the others with you.
The skeleton gesturing tilts his head before waving at you a single time.
It then walks towards you carefully, making almost a zig-zag path through the graveyard as it steps over the many broken gravestones, its hands held up in a "Don't shoot" gesture.
It kneels down in front of you, Rafe, its finger in the dirt, apparently willing to converse with you.
Rafe looks at the others Is this an acceptable way to proceed?