"Uhh.... maybe left was the correct answer?"
What you character would remember about the statue is:
Above you looms a weathered statue. Overgrown with creeper vines it depicts a crowned and bearded man who is regally dressed and points his drawn sword to the east.
This looks more like the man who was killed holding the red-haired woman who was lying down dead...
Sitting on the throne is a handsome, clean-shaven man who has a powerful build, his raven locks spilling from beneath a golden crown onto the pauldrons of his fine plate armor and violet cloak. Sheathed blades lean on either side of his fine chair. As you look on, he opens his dark eyes and frowns.
“Who would disturb the rest of the king?” he asks in a deep voice.
"Hello! My name is Lanliss Endarro! And this is..." Lanliss cheerfully introduces everyone in turn.
Bozvrig thinks for a moment about the sequence of murals they’ve recently encountered and what the waterfall dude said. He leans into Lanliss’s ear, “Psst... I dink dis is de ‘Betrayer’.”
Del stands back still unsure of himself while the others lead the way. He sneaks a sip from his skin of whisky every now and then. He nods at the figure speaking to them when his name is called.
I wonder what he eats down here? Seems to be healthy enough.
Lanliss nods to acknowledge that he heard Bozvrig.
Scarlet bows to the 'king'. "Sorry for disturbing you. But we have been chasing some raiders. Would they have perhaps passed this way?"
The man gives a slight nod in respect to Lanliss introducing the party. “Welcome to my home, what brings you here without requesting and audience first?” He sees Bozvrig whisper something to Lanliss.
The mans eyes narrow studying the two of you. “If you are before me you will speak openly, no secrets. Is there something you’d like to say... Bozvrig?”
Scarlet brings up the tomb raiders and the man begins to look around the room but as if he is deep in thought. “Raiders? If they would come here they would die. No one will take what is rightfully mine! I earned it, no one will take it. It will be their death.” pausing for a moment he looks up towards the party. “Is it you who are the raiders... How did you make it this far?” The man has a firm grip on the arm of his chair.
"Hello, mighty king, you know our names but what is yours?
And we made it this far by chasing evil raiders that wish only to desecrate your tomb. We are here to try and stop it."
Lanliss nods at Dalron's words and elaborates:
"We made our way after much hardship. The raiders that were killing the townsfolk on the surface frequently ambushed us, and many aggressive subterranean creatures live down here.
"...This room is very far underground, and we did not know it was your kingdom. How far does your rule reach?"
You know that this guy is not on the up and up. Something seems very off about him. When Scarlet said something about the robbers there was a flash of anger that skirts awfully close to the line of madness. Something changed in his eyes for a split second that most would have taken as his eyes blinking or a twitch, but you see something more.
Something that does come to mind is the last painting. The raven-haired knight was holding up the kings crown up in victory as the King and, what you could assume, Queen were dead/dying on the field surrounded by bestial humanoids.
You believe that he is buying time for something... you aren’t exactly sure what.
A look of worry comes to the mans face as Lanliss talks about the townsfolk. “They are killing my people? Please, go and gather my champions so that along side you they can vanquish those threatening the kingdom.”
Bozvrig stands up straight, “Uh... no m’lord, I’m just lettin’ me friend know he’s got some spider guts on his boot.”
“So who’re dese champions and where do we find ‘em, uh, m’lord?”
Del is in the room, but standing near the back not eager to speak with the obvious royalty.
Scarlet lets the others do the talking as he looks around to see if the 'king' is possibly alone.
Scarlet takes a look around from where he is standing and notices two things that he didn’t see from when he first entered the room. To the left of the throne are two passages. One with stairs that descends, and one that looks to be a hall way.
Leaping to his feet, the man on the throne draws his blades and descends from the dais. As he does, the bejeweled throne fades into a plain stone seat. The man’s hair withdraws under the crown, and his skin grays and runs, revealing bone and muscle beneath. His armor sags and corrodes, seemingly grafting to his distended flesh along with the crown, which has lost all luster. Lidless, his eyes burn with madness
“How dare you come here and try to make a mockery of me by lying to my face!!!” he howls. “Now you shall share my pain. Knights, to arms!”
The statue of the mounted figure in the corner changes to reveal a lance-bearing skeletal warrior astop a skeletal horse. A clatter from the passage to the west suggest more trouble.
Initiative
Lanliss
Barnabus
Del
Bozvrig
X
Dalron
Scarlet
Lanliss casts spiritual weapon, and a glowing, spinning starknife appears next to the "king" a split second before it lashes out at him.
Lanliss then readies his bow.
"We would've left you in peace down here to rot away if you had just let us be." Barnabus says conversationally.
Barnabus casts Flaming Sphere, centered on the angry man.
(Reflex DC16)
The Spiritual Weapon that forms into a Starknife flies through the air and attacks out as the man. The attack lands and appears to be fully effective.
“Oops.”
Bozvrig gives Lanliss an encouraging slap on the back, then summons a beastlike strength in himself.
Seeing the others concentrating on the King, Del sucks it up, and turns to charge the warrior on the horse, concentrating on attacking the horse, switching to his warhammer to crush bone.
(Raging, Charging, Shaken) Warhammer attack
(Raging, Shaken) Bone crushing.
With attacks and spells coming from the party it, everything looks as if it was fully effective. The undead man before turns his lidless eyes towards Bozvrig. “Turn and kill for me, become my champion, slay the dwarf!” As he says this, Bozvrig feels a strong urge to turn and attack his ally Del. Visions of victory and glory and power floods his mind, but at the thought of Betraying his new friends he shakes his head and snaps out of it.
The madness in his eyes grow and he turns his attention and swings out at Del. Two wild swings come down upon Del, one with a Bastard Sword and one with a Short Sword. Because of the Rage that Del is in the Bastard Sword finds an opening in his armor.
The Mounted Skeleton comes alive behind the party and it walks up behind Barnabus and rams a Lance into his back dealing a massive amount of damage to the dwarf caster.
From the hallway to the left of the throne everyone can hear the sound of a horse approaching.
Initiative
Lanliss
Barnabus
Del
Bozvrig
X
Dalron
Scarlet
"Ouch...."
Hoping that taking down the fallen king will cause the skeletons to drop, Scarlet decides to focus his attacks on the undead king.
He points his finger at the king and shoots a ray of positive energy at it.
Dalron’s first arrow goes wide but his second arrow hits. Scarlet tries to Disrupt Undead but the attack is unsuccessful. The Betrayers eyes continue to grow into madness as your attacks land.
Initiative
Lanliss
Barnabus
Del
Bozvrig
X
Dalron
Scarlet
The spiritual starknife lashes out at The Betrayer again as Lanliss sights him down the shaft of his arrow before loosing.
Barnabus redirects the Flaming Sphere into the king guy.
(Reflex DC16)
Then he nimbly ducks under the skeleton's lance and focuses a jolt of electricity into the horseman.
"Maybe some help back here?" he asks his fellow adventurers.
Lanliss sends in the Star Knife again and lets loose an arrow. Both missing their mark. But, because the Betrayer was dodging arrows and the Star Knife he was not ready for the Flaming Sphere and takes full damage from it. Barnabus dodging the Lance form the mounted skeleton sends a Shocking Grasp that is fully effective.
"Go for the head!" Bozvrig roars as he charges the false king, Truffels huffing at his heels.
Bozvrig charges in with a cry “Go for the head!” and swings with his scimitar towards the Betrayer. The blade connects just above its armor to his exposed neck. The sound of steel going through bone and muscle echos through the room as the crowned head falls from the body. As soon as the head hits the floor it sends a pulse through the room.
The Betrayers body begins to turn to dust leaving behind only two blades. The mounted skeleton next to Barnabus also collapse as it turns to dust. Though something interesting happens. The dust begins to collect and move back towards the pedestal from where it originated. Where it had fallen it leaves behind a set of chain mail, a lance, a Longsword, and a military style saddle and bridle.
Nocking another arrow to his bowstring, Lanliss moves to the corner of the hall where they heard some clattering.
"Well done, Bozvrig! But we may not be done with this battle, yet."
|
Watching the dust move back to the pedestal Dalron calls out
"I am not sure of this, It could be reforming for another attack."
"Lets grab the gear and find a way out, we can check it later for magic."
"And what was the noise coming from down the hall?"
Dalron goes to see if his missed arrow is still good
and he finds the arrow still intact.
Bozvrig grins, “Hey, I like dis sword!” hefting up the scimitar. Seeing the dust begin to recollect, he quickly picks up the betrayer’s weapons and hands them to Scarlet.
Exploring where you heard the sound of the other horse you find a set of chainmail, a lance, longsword, and a military style saddle and bridle. Continuing down the hall you find a large open room with a statue of a knight on a horse similar to the one in the previous room.
The only other place in this area to explore would be the set of stairs that descends.
Barnabus casts Detect Magic and examines the swords dropped by the angry man and the undead horsemen.
"Hey guys, I have this big hole in my back where that dead guy on the horse stabbed me. Anything we can do about that before we find more trouble?"
Barnabus picks up and examines the Bastard Sword and the Short Sword that were left behind. Even before picking them up they stand out as extremely unique. They are made of bone... You remember as the Betrayer stood up and drew the blades that they were steel, but as he moved from the throne everything changed and decayed. Touching the edge of the blade you can see that they are indeed bone, but are as sharp as steel.
Casting Detect Magic on the blades reveal that they are indeed magical. Barnabus has been around magical items enough that he knows that they are a +1 Bone Bastard Sword and a +1 Bone Short Sword.
Looking around, Barnabus does not detect anything else as magical: Throne and Skeletal Horsemen included.
Scarlet goes about storing the equipment from the skeletal knights and their horses before returning to the group.
"Lets see. There is still a potion of moderate healing in the bag as well as three potions of light healing."
Upon hearing what the 'king' had, his ears perk up. "I could probably use that magical bone short sword if no one wants to use it."
"Hey guys, I have this big hole in my back where that dead guy on the horse stabbed me. Anything we can do about that before we find more trouble?"
"It does seem to be a recurring problem with us," Lanliss mentions as he places his hands over Barnabus' wounds and casts...
Upon hearing what the 'king' had, his ears perk up. "I could probably use that magical bone short sword if no one wants to use it."
"That makes sense. Please put the other sword in your magic bag and we discuss its fate later. Maybe we'll learn more about them and this Betrayer as we finish exploring."
Bow still readied, Lanliss heads off to the northwest passageway, hoping the others will back him up.