The Varisian's head snaps towards Wyndel. "THAT's impressive. Seriously impressive."
Azorious blinks.
"Or that will work too... I'll keep that in mind for future." The elven wizard moves a few steps down and casts shield on himself, hoping to ward off the touch of the undead.
Kesni’s mouth drops open at the show of divine power. She quickly composed herself and mumbles to herself. ”Nevermind Zanthus. We might be okay...”
Kesni is very unnerved by these unnatural creatures and is weary of getting too close. She remains by the exit and sends another arrow into the tomb, knowing it to be mostly ineffective but not knowing another way to contribute for now.
Rogar, old and implacable doesn't show any surprise at Wyndel's impressive feat. With a grim nod at Wyndel, the dwarf moves down the stairs behind Rast and casts a spell.
With his rapier still in hand, 'Dada moves to the opposite end of the group and readies an attack should one of the skeletons get that close . . ..
Wyndel is recovering from expending energy and his shock at the holy destruction.
Kesni fires an arrow, only to have it sail through the rib cage of an enemy, in any other creature that would have been a fleshy hit. Against the skeletons it fails to connect.
The remainder of the Skeletons seem to take no notice that their comrades have fallen. They continue onward towards the party. They draw nearer to the group.
Rast, prepared and waiting, unleashes a radiant blast of energy. In his mind, he can clearly see a night sky with stars that flutter around as if they had butterfly wings attached to them. The moon seems to have a face of an Elven woman in it smiling down at him.
The energy radiates out, and the Skeletons burst into clouds of ash.
The Cadaver gets up and moves to engage the group, slowly it shambles up the stairs towards a waiting Gudada and prepared Rast. Gudada strikes the creature with precision as the rapier connects. The creature cries out in pain.
Gudada tumbles around the cadaver, taking up a flanking position with Rast before attempting to continue the fight.
But he fails to connect after creating the advantage.
Azorious moves down the steps carefully trying to strike at the undead monstrosity.
Wendyl moves to the right of Rast and strike with his club.
Gudada deftly dodges behind the cadaver however misses his strike.
Rast, Azorius and Wyndel rush the Cadaver. Each strike hits the lifeless corpse as whatever energy was sustaining it appears to drain from it.
The corpse lay there at their feet.
The silence becomes deafening as the only thing left to be heard it the pounding of your heart from the adrenaline.
The crypt is 'lifeless' once again. The sensation that Wyndel and Rast were feeling, the unearthly energy, is gone.
Azorious moves forward after putting his blade aside and drawing his bow, staying just a few steps behind Rast. "I'm not ashamed to admit it, I was quite worried at the start."
As you kneel down and place your hands over and around the fallen corpse, you get the sense something has been disturbed. There are remnants of a great evil. However it is too fleeting to connect with. What you do feel is chaotic.
The old dwarf nods stoically and pats both Wyndel and Rast on the back firmly. "Ya did good." Maybe gods were involved. Rogar doesn't really know. All he sees are a pair of guys who shined a bunch of skeletons to death. Now that's a good trick.
After another moment spent surveying the corpses, bulls-eye lantern moving to and fro, the dwarf adds aloud, "eh... should we put 'em back?"
Kesni stands at the exit with an arrow ready to let fly. Being so far away from the main group, she doesn’t realize the battle is over for a moment and when she does she exhales loudly. She lowers her bow and calls to the others, ”Great job with...that. If our business is done, let’s get out of here. If not, I will guard our exit until we’re ready to leave.”
Anyone who pays her any sort of attention is easily able to notice she is still quite frightened, a strange look for such a tough half-orc woman.
"It might be best to leave Father Zanthus reconsecrate this place so they can rest more easily. He might know what might be missing." Azorious moves outside to speak with Father Zanthus.
"I'm afraid to say it looks like it was a trap, some dark force reanimated the remains, most were skeletons but one was different, I'm not sure if it was someone from the tomb. We've dealt with the undead but Rast says he thinks the area is disturbed, you might know if something is missing?"
Father Zanthus looks at the elf somewhat troubled "This is unheard of, it's been years since there's been disturbances like this. One was different? What do you mean different?"
"Come see for yourself, most were skeletons but this one still had flesh, darkened to grey. Perhaps it was the light but it seemed to me as if the darkness around it's eyes were far deeper than it should be because I could not see them."
"C'mon in and look around. See it for yourself." He looks around in the tomb, not disturbing or taking anything, but marveling at the effort. Mourning's got to be over for all of these. Why waste all of this on the shells?
When the old dwarf exits the tomb, he takes a purposefully deep breath and sighs, releasing some, but not all of the tension in his shoulders. As he follows along wordlessly, his eyes are somewhat watery, his stoicism mostly gone.
Oh Halda... Ye should be with me.
Father Zanthus enters into the crypt. He looks around, piles of dust everywhere from the turned Skeletons among the one remaining corpse. He kneels at the corpse and says a small prayer "Father Tobyn...what happened to you."
He gets back up, addressing the group. "Thank you for helping Goblinslayers....I can clean up the crypt. I would mention to you that there was an amulet buried here that belonged to the former Temple high priest. It has gone missing."
"Can you describe the amulet? Do you know why someone might take it... it's likely that the goblins were involved or someone took advantage of the confussion to try and get the amulet. A hidden cultist using the chaos to steal it and desecrate the tomb would make sense." Azorious looks over the debris of the battle while proposing his theory.
Kesni will exit the tomb as they go to retrieve Zanthus and stay outside with Rogar.
"Wyndel. Rast. Thank you for your faith and this display of it. This could have been much, much worse. We all owe our current health to your displays."
After a moment of silence outside the tomb, Kesni moves to Rogar and says shakily. ”Have you...ever seen anything like that before?”
Looking to Azorius "It's an [url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PMZxkK-C58CfHjlzOqOFM8ZEXdjjt00P]amulet[\url] with a seven pointed star on it. It was said to bring luck to the temple....perhaps that's not true given what had happened to it. You're likely right however.
Goblins tend not to be directed enough to want to steal something like that. They would've been more interested in the bones than the amulet."
He places a hand on Rast's shoulder "If you do, please do bring it back. I believe it to have been Arcane in nature"
Outside of the Tomb, the sun has fully risen and the bright light of the day is fully shining. A slight breeze is coming from the west. From the south of the graveyard a man in the distance is approaching.
After a moment of silence outside the tomb, Kesni moves to Rogar and says shakily. ”Have you...ever seen anything like that before?”
"Nae lass. But I've heard stories. We were lucky ta have Rast and Wyndel with us."
The old dwarf takes a moment to wipe the wetness in his eyes on his shirt and regards Kesni with a soft smile.
"We did good."
”You all did good. I cowered. Took all I had not to bolt. I’ve never seen anything so unnatural in my life. It felt wrong in my very core.”
She stares at the tomb entrance warily. ”That godly power was something else too though. Never seen it used to destroy like that. I think I have spent too long in my cabin. There’s much I haven’t seen...”
"Well unless we can find a goblin trail leading from here I'd be inclined to think our best bet was following up on Sheriff Hemlock's lead. I'm a little wary of assaulting a goblin lair but it's possible they might have taken it to someplace like that or given to a powerful ally"
"Don't focus on it, Kensi, or you will make it worse for next time. Every time you are forced into a combat, you are forced to risk the very things you refuse to give up. If that didn't cause you concern, THEN I would be afraid. Try to focus on keeping the guy next to you up and fighting, too instead. That's the one trick that got me through trying to defend the caravans from raiders."
He visibly shudders.
"There's nothing natural about using these kinds of weapons, and there was NOTHING natural about those opponents. That makes it even harder. It just does."
Azorius turns to Kesni "Many would have bolted but you held your ground. Necromancy has some beneficial abilities but animating undead is no small part of it. I've always found it unseemly. But we bested them together... though I'd give the Mountain Lion's share of the credit to Wyndel and Rast"
"You've come out the other end and seen them fall, it wont be as bad if you ever see a skeleton again."
|
"Kesni, I... well... I will admit I would rather have run away from the skeletons as well but I had faith. Father Gil had told me what to do so really, um, well I guess I had training."
He sighs.
"If the goblins somehow made this happen someone needs to deal with them. I... We... It shouldn't be that bad right?"
Father Zanthus walks with the group as they exit the Crypt. He listens to the conversation around him. He nods at Rast's comment to Kesni, remaining silent.
He recognizes Sheriff Hemlock approaching from the south.
As the Sheriff gets closer he waves in greeting the group.
”Thank you for the kind words” She speaks quietly and sounds a little embarrassed.
"Sheriff Hemlock we were just talking about you. I'm a little concerned to see you heading towards us already so soon. Someone stole an ancient relic and desecrated the tomb. We've dealt with the undead but suspect the goblins came here, possibly under someone's direction to steal the amulet."
Wyndel listened in grim silence and as the Sheriff approached he felt a little sick and expected more bad news.
Erastil guide me...Something is wrong...Goblin's don't plan like this...undead...
"What news do you have Sheriff?"
The old dwarf smiles gently at the camaraderie between his new friends and nods to himself. These are the kinds of folk that Halda would want him to be with.
With a deep breath, Rogar follows the others up to the Sheriff.
The Sheriff frowns a little at the news of undead and the Tomb. "I...see..." He slowly comes to a stop by the group. He hadn't expected to hear that there were undead involved.
"One of my Guardsmen has come back this morning, he's found a small group of Goblins North East of the town. We've got them tracked down. He's found a dozen."
"No small amount. I'd rather face them fresh and rested but they might no oblige my preference and stay out of trouble. If the majority decide we go I'll not hold back."
"Tha longer we wait, tha more trouble thar'll be. We have ta deal with 'em now."
The old dwarf takes a deep breath before drawing Aevi smoothly from her holster... again. He seemed to be drawing her more and more of late.
Gudada's brow furrows, all signs of the entertainer and that smile gone. "Chasing them down is a different kind of fight than what we've done so far. They pick the terrain. They define the advantages. You sure?"
”If there is a pack of rats in the barn, you can’t rush into the barn to kill them because they will just scatter, hide, and return. We need to track them and scout then plan.”
Hemlock nods as he's agreeing with both sides "Perhaps we have the Goblin hunter weigh in?" He looks to Kesni, knowing that both her and Shalelu have spent time hunting these vermin.
Kesni listens to the considerations. At Hemlock’s prodding, she nods towards Wyndel. ”I agree with Wyndel on this. Gobs are a chaotic bunch. Especially if we are going to be looking for something specific in their possession, we won’t want to risk scattering them. We need to see what we are working with and then plan a way to wrangle them accordingly.”
She then turns to Rast. ”Rast, the most dangerous thing about gobs is that chaos they embrace. Do not dismiss them so easily. All it takes is one gob a little smarter than usual to get the jump on you and it’s over for you. They are rare, but gobs have heroes among them, too.”
"Well no matter what you choose to do, I'm glad you're the ones who are taking care of this. As I've mentioned they were north east of the town. I have some business to attend to on the south end of Sandpoint in the mean time. If you need anything, don't hesitate. |" The Sheriff stands a moment seeing if there's any additional assistance he could provide.