Matthias calls out to his friends "St... st... st.. step back! They might fall on the grease!" Lacking better options, Matthias uses whatever he can think of to help his friends. He calls forth a ghostly grey hand and lifts some of the loose materials in the tomb behind the skeletons, rattling them to make a noisy distraction.
Gritz looked down at his feet and nodded, before leaping back to stand beside Hollie and pointing his glaive at the monsters, Gubby following suit. Drax seemed willing to tackle them head on... that was cool! Better the dragon than him, at least! He was braced for them to come close to him and Hollie... but if they did, he'd get them first!
Shae makes her way by, managing to keep her feet on the slippery floor but the focus it takes leaves her open to an attack by one of the skeletons.
It's rushed attack is easily avoided however.
As the dragon takes a pair of nasty wounds, Hollie herself winces in pain, and grasps at similar locations on her body as to where her dragon was injured. The pain seems to draw her out from her melancholy, and she quickly stands and takes a shot at one of the skeletons, but the bolt passes right through it's ribcage!
Seeing Hollie take damage for him, Draxtherian scowls and roars as he begins trying to tear through the skeletons, starting with the left most one and working his way across as fast as he can drop them!
Draxtharian rages at the skeletons before him but claws and teeth so effective at tearing flesh find little purchase on bone.
The first of the skeletons returns the attack, an glint of fell light in it's eyes.
The second attack cuts a furrow across his draconic maw, nearly taking an eye.
Jes takes a moment to analyze the situation, seeing Drax continue to be hit she shouts to the others "Move back and setup a defensive position. Let Matthias spell work to our advantage. Draw the undead out into the grease where we have a better chance to deal with them."
Jes steps back a bit to give the others room to move back as well.
The small ratfolk hurriedly opens his spellbook and begins poring over it muttering to himself. "Give me a second! I'll be able to help more soon..."
Jess falls back a bit as the remaining skeletons attack.
The first claws at Shae but can't catch the nimble rogue. Meanwhile Drax's scales manage to deflect the attacks of the last skeleton.
Mattius begins flipping through pages in his spellbook.
The Sheriff and Father Zanthus, still not clear on the situation, reach the back of the group.
Hollie fires another bolt at the skeleton, calling out "Drax! Fall back!"
The dragon lets loose an onslaught once more at the skeletons before slowly walking back towards the door, taking care on the slippery surface.
__________
Shaedeen belatedly realizes she's apparently gone off plan. Rather than admit that, the girl gives a loud "Ha!", swings her sap in a savage uppercut at the neck of the nearest skeleton, and then tries to slide across the greased area back to the others.
for
Gritz stood his ground as the others got into position. Ready to strike at any moment, and Gubby ready to bite should anything come his way.
Drax catches one of the skeletons with a glancing blow before falling back. Nearby Shae misses her attack before twisting her body with the grace of a dancer to avoid any return strike. Continuing the movement she flips, barely touching the greased ground with one hand, before landing back among her allies.
The first of the skeletons steps up and continues to assault the dragon. Gritz attempts to aid his new friend but has trouble finding the angle with Draxtherian between them.
Again it's the second attack that lands, this time tearing at the beleaguered creatures throat.
The skeletons slashing strike finishes it's arc, sending a spray of blood against the crypt wall. Draxtherian rears back from it with a cry somewhere between defiance and pain. His form begins to lose corporeality and as the last echos of his roar fall to silence he dissipates into countless motes of silvery-white light that wink out almost as fast as they appeared.
Seemingly uncaring for the fantastic display that just occurred before them, the remaining skeletons advance.
The first moves to Gritz and attacks as Grubby bites into it's leg seeming to cause no damage but throwing off it's attack.
The second moves to Hollie.
It's vicious bony claws dig into exposed skin and muscle.
"Skeletons! What has happened here! Father Zanthus calls out. Seeing the injuries among the party he closes his eyes briefly before lifting his holy symbol. A wave of energy passes through you all stitching wounds and leaving a warm feeling behind.
Matthias closes his book with a snap and moves nervously over. "I think I know a trick that might help... but I've never tried this before..."
He mumbles some unintelligible words very quickly then points at the skeleton in front of Hollie.
A tiny beam of light poinks out of his finger and strikes the skeleton. He smiles nervously "Well that seemed to work a little..."
A beam of golden light lances out from Matthias's finger, finding it's way past his friends and striking the skeleton near Hollie. A chunk of the skeletons shoulder disintegrates into dust beneath it's radiance. The undead turns it's skull towards the young ratfolk, darkly shadowed eye sockets with a pin prick of malevolent light glaring at him.
”Drax!” Hollie cries out against the pain as tears begin to well around her eyes. She glares at the skeletons before taking a step back and reflexively working some magic, a portal opening where she previously stood and the space being filled with a silvery eagle with feathers accented with gold! It screeches and lashes out at the nearest skeleton.
Gritz growls angrily as the skeletons advance on them, his glaive spinning in his hands as he began to slash and swing it as if in an elegant dance (read as: flailing wildly), aiming to bring the blade into contact with as many bones as he possibly could. Gubby just did what he does best and bite at the skeleton threatening his master.
"NO!!" Shaedeen cries out as Drax is slain before her eyes. Her eyes narrow in vengeance, and she moves next to Hollie's summoned eagle before again taking a savage swing for the skeleton's spine. Letting out a shrill shriek of frustration, the teen asks the sheriff and Father Zantus if they've got a bludgeoning weapon she might borrow.
for
Hollie's eagle streaks down from nothingness to assault the skeleton that had been threatening her. It's talons strike with a flash of the same light as Matthias's spell, ripping not just at the creatures physical form but at the dark magics that animate it. Like a puppet with it's strings cut the skeleton falls to the ground.
Nearby Gritz steps back to make some room before skillfully, or perhaps luckily, striking a second skeleton right in it's spine. Though it remains on it's feet it's torso teeters precariously as it moves.
Jes stands behind the others as they continue to deal with the undead. She thinks of anything else she can do to help, and realizes she has one more trick up her sleeve. She moves up closer to the action and pulls out different kind of vile with some foul looking green liquid in it, ready to attack.
The remaining skeletons continue the attack. The first turns to the closest living creature, the strange rat dog that had been accompanying Gritz.
One attack lands and draws blood.
The second skeleton turns towards Shae with grim intent but it's first step fails to find purchase in the grease. It tries frantically to catch it's balance but to no avail as it falls to the ground.
The eagle continues to harass the skeleton, while Holly fires another bolt that fails to hit anything but the far wall of the tomb.
Matthias steps next to Jess and fires his new spell at the skeleton attacking Gubby.
"H... H... Hey! Leave my new friend's pet... rat? Leave it alone!!"
Gritz couldn't help the smile on his face at Matt's words. He was a friend! With a non-goblin! "Gritz has friend! Gritz not scared of bones!" he shouted proudly, before raising his glaive back and swiping hard at the skeleton! Meanwhile, Gubby, angry at the boney man for hurting him, retaliated by biting at the leg and trying to yank at it!
Shaedeen waits a moment to see if the sheriff or Father Zantus hands her a club or a mace; when neither does, she grits her teeth and takes another savage swing with her sap, aiming for the fallen skeleton's skull.
for
Seeing the others have mainly dealt with the threat, Jes carefully places the vile she retrieved back in her pouch knowing it has the potential to do more harm than good. Instead she cheers Shae on "Get 'em Shae!"
Matthias's spell strikes the skeleton near to where Gritz had cloven into it's spine and shatters what energies still held it together. With them removed the bones clatter to the ground.
Meanwhile Shae steps bravely forward and brings her sap down on the final skeletons skull. A loud crack issues forth as it slams back into the ground and lies still.
As quickly at the battle started it comes to a close. The Sheriff and Father Zanthus finish catching up and move to the entrance to the tomb.
"What..what has happened here?" Zanthus asks
The Sheriff looks past the party but holds back, observing the party.
"Is everyone ok?"
Hollie slumps back to the ground. Her raven hair hanging around her face as fresh tears begin to fall.
”Please...don’t let them have done that to him...please not him...” she mutters.
"Scary bones! Evil spooky bones come out and attack! Gritz must stop them!" Gritz said, stamping his glaive resolutely into the floor, before nodding at Shae, Matt, and Jes. "Help Pretty Dragon Lady... Gritz look!" Gritz turned towards the inside of the tomb, his bulbous yellow eyes glowing with soft blue energy as he looked around, Gubby sniffing at his feet and growling on occasion.
Matthias nods. "Yes... we were attacked by these skeletons. Holly was hurt several times. It was strange, it was as if when they attacked her dragon, they were attacking her. Holly, are you ok?"
Shaedeen kneels near Hollie, taking her new friend's hand. "Hollie! Hollie! Can you hear me? Are you alright?"
When Matthias mentions his theory about Hollie being hurt when her dragon took wounds, Shae looks at him in disbelief. "Is that possible?" Was...was Drax like a familiar to her?"
”I’m...I’m fine,” she says, wiping her eyes on the back of her arm. ”Draxtherian isn’t a f-familiar. We sh-share a sort of bond. If he gets t-too hurt, I can take some of his injuries to keep him around. It usually w-works. B-but this is the second time he’s been sent b-back since he h-hatched...” she stammers through her emotions.
She looks bleary-eyed to her new friends, ”Was...was he one of them? Did they turn his body into one of those th-things?”
Jes just stands there and shakes her head at the whole situation, trying to process what in the world is going on. She thinks First a goblin attack, now undead and in the previous Fathers crypt... She snaps out of her own thoughts when she hears Hollie's inquiry and goes into the crypt to examine things "Hollie, which one was his tomb?"
She spends some time examining the area to try and figure out which of the tombs the skeletons came from or see if there is any evidence to what happened here.
”I don’t know,” she says, hanging her head. ”I haven’t ever been inside...”
Jes quirks a brow at Hollie's response but seeing her head hang decides not to press it. After looking around, she will ask Father Zanthus to confirm which crypt was Father Tobyn's to see if one of the undead were in fact the deceased Father.
As some of the party console Hollie, Gritz and Jess begin searching around. The ground outside the tomb shows signs of footprints that lead off towards one of the cemetery walls.
Within the crypt itself it is obvious that the sarcophagus has been opened. Moving to it you find that the remains are no longer within. Nearby a black robe is crumpled on the ground. Beyond that various religious symbols and decorations are placed around the periphery.
In answer to Jess's question Father Zanthus replies, "The sarcophagus is his. He was the only one interred here."
Matthias takes a look at the tracks. "Hmmm... Curious..."
As you consider the goblin tracks your eye catches another set. Largely trampled by the goblin footprints but occasionally overlapping them you find a set of boot prints that move along with the goblins. The prints are sized for a human or an elf...perhaps even a half orc...but beyond that it's impossible to say more.
Both sets of tracks make their way from the wall to the tomb and then return to the wall.
Jes shrugs in response to Father Zanthus "So there is really no way to know for sure if one of these undead were Father Tobyn. Although, from what I remember he was killed in the fire that claimed the previous church, right? So, I would imagine if one of these were Father Tobyn there should be signs of the fire." Jes takes a moment to look the various skeletal remains over to see if any show signs of being in a fire.
"In any case, what's the deal with this robe and the various symbols? Does anyone know what all these symbols are?" She will move to pick up the robe and see how big it is, trying to guess whether a small sized creature like a goblin would have left it or something larger.
Gritz followed the various tracks around the cemetary, trying to get a sense of where they went when, letting Gubby lead the way as it snorted the ground around him. He was curious about the sarcophagus itself... why take a bunch of old bones? He wracked his brain for a bit, thinking on why they would want them... and after a moment of being stumped, a thought occurred to him. "Goblins not want old bones... 'leaders' want. Goblins only want bones for two things: food or weapons to get food. Old bones not have meat, and bones easy to get from animals and junk. If goblins not want bones... 'leaders' do." It seemed reasonable! If he could think of a reason to take the remains, why would other goblins need it? Unless... whoever took it wasn't a goblin!
When Jess finds the robe, Gritz hustled over to check it out. Why leave this behind...? Gritz stamped his glaive again, his eyes glowing blue as he studied the item. Maybe it was magic? Had it been all used up... or just forgotten? ""
Matthias comes back to the group shaking his head. "Strange... It... It... It looks like six goblins and a human or someone similar in size and shape to a human came from the wall to the tomb and went back."
Seeing Jes investigating the robes and symbols, Matthias takes a look at them. "Interesting! I've always been intrigued by these things during my studies at the Abbey."
"But I'm really not an expert on these p... P... Particular symbols."
Jess inspects the remains of the skeletons closely for signs of burns but finds none.
Nearby Matthias takes a closer look at the symbols along the walls.
Grits returns from an inspection of the tracks and reenters the tomb. Seeing the cloak he mutters a few words of power that cause his eyes to blaze with light for a moment.
Following the tracks a bit you're able to confirm what Matthias said. There were certainly quite a few of your folk here. Enough for a small war party. Oddly you would also agree that a longshank was among them.
Looking at the cloak you see a dim magical aura emanating from it.
Father Zanthus moves to comfort Hollie. "Take heart child this could not of been him. Look, there are no signs of his burial clothes on them or in the tomb. I don't know where these creatures came from but they were not raised here."
Gritz jumped up and down, clearly excited that his vague theory was correct! "Gritz knew it! See big foots here? It belong to longshank! Which mean... 'leader' is longshank!" He paused in his celebration, tilting his head slowly to one side, utterly confused now. "...why?"
As he focused on the cloth, Gritz could see magic coming off of it... but he wasn't sure what the magic was. He'd never had any kind of training for it, so... he just didn't know. "It magic clothes!" he proclaimed, at least proud that he could say that much. "Little magic... but it magic! Maybe it why the scary bones were here?"
Hollie slowly composes herself and stands with some help. She then walks cautiously into the tomb, less afraid of danger than anxious over seeing what these monsters had done to her father’s remains.
She makes her way to his sarcophagus and looks it over.
Matthias pipes up "I think we should follow them over that wall. That's where they went." He bends over his book for a few seconds then looks up. "Ready whenever you are." Seeing Hollie looking around the tomb, he walks over to her and stands next to her, uncertain what else to say or do.
Jes crinkles her nose at the suggestion of following the tracks. "Erm, perhaps before we do that we can grab any gear we might need? Also, is anyone here really good at tracking to even try and follow the tracks?" She shakes her head and simply says as a matter of fact "I am not."
As Hollie enters the crypt and goes to look at the sarcophagus Jes tries to make her feel better by exclaiming "I'm fairly certain none of these undead were Father Tobyn. They don't have any indications of being in a fire. However, his remains are missing so... um... at least he isn't an undead?" She smiles sheepishly not sure whether that was really of any comfort or not.
Shaedeen says nothing, suddenly keenly aware that she's an outsider in this town. Keeping an eye on Hollie and staying near her for support, the teen nods at Jes's first suggestion and then shakes her head at the gnome's question about tracking.
"Gritz can follow... and Gubby good sniffer! He follow too!" Gritz exclaimed, pointing at Gubby, who yawned and laid down on the ground next to the goblin, clearly not too thrilled at the prospect.
However, Hollie's state seemed... unfit for travel at the moment. She was clearly in something of a stupor about this whole affair... goblins didn't know too much about teamwork, but the concept of a weak link was not lost on them. "But... erm... Gritz not think we should. Dragon Hollie not very good. Gritz think she need rest. If Gritz follow... Dragon Hollie not come." As Jess spoke, Gritz nodded. He wasn't in the best state to follow them himself... he'd used up a good deal of his magic from Shelyn... following would be reckless.