Goggeck calls upon Trudd to strengthen his form and speed his hammer in the battle to come, as he moves into position.
The huecuva rattle their chains as they lurch toward the invaders. But, the chains hold fast, these undead priests aren’t meant to go anywhere.
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Brunhild took careful aim, smiling at their predicament. ”Easy as shooting grindylows in a barrel.”
Goggeck glares at one unliving priest then swings his longhammer at that one in particular!
Goggeck's military training gives him an edge over his enemies. As a Move Action, Goggeck can make a Profession (Soldier) check to study a single enemy combatant for weaknesses. The DC of this check is 15 + the creature's CR. Whatever amount he beats the DC by (minimum 1) he can add as an Insight Bonus to his next Attack Roll against that creature. Goggeck can use this ability a number times a day equal to his Wisdom Modifier. (4)
Hateful Retort (Ex): Once per day, as an immediate action after you have been hit with a melee attack, you can make a melee attack against the creature that hit you. This melee attack is at your highest attack bonus, even if you’ve already attacked in the round.
Warning: When a preacher’s ally within line of sight would be hit by a melee or ranged attack, she may call out a warning to that ally, and the attacker must reroll the attack and use the results of the second roll. The ally must be able to hear the preacher and must not be helpless for this ability to have any effect.
The round before the door opens Glor creates cover in front of him and begins to gather power. When the doors are fully open he fling energized earth at blue.
Adu fires her crossbow at a chained target. This almost feels unfair...but they can't be allowed to keep chanting.
Hezekh hesitates, having seen his fill of undead lately. Then he loads his crossbow and fires.
The bolt goes well wide, glancing off the ceiling of the chamber.
Brunhild makes it look easy. Her silver bolt flies straight through one of the near huecuva, right between the eyes. The undead priest falls with a thud.
Goggeck swings his long hammer and hits another huecuva in the chest, collapsing the rotted rib cage. It resists some of the damage, and so Glor finishes it off.
Adu’s bolt glances off the huecuva’s toughened jerky flesh, while Hezekh’s errantly glances off the far wall.
Two of the undead priests still stand on the far side of the fountain, chanting an abyssal refrain. Toulbe, Urist, and Helga are left to act.
”So..” She let another arrow fly. ”Is it normal for your enemies to be chained like this?”
"Not at all.", replies Goggeck as he hoists the head of his longhammer from the ruin of the undead ribcage.
"That does bother me. This seems too straightforward. But let us finish slaying these things."
As each of the two fore huecuva fall, the tumultuous crystal mass darkens to a deeper shade of green light.
Toulbe wonders if necromantic crystals make for good eating and quickly decides against it. Instead, he recites the recipe for llama sweetbread biscuits, a favorite back home.
Urist gives Helga a touch of Guidance as she moves around the fountain and slams into a huecuva.
The huecuva strikes back.
The other huecuva is stuck in place.
The strange crystal fountain suddenly heaves and pulses with negative energy.
Everyone gets a taste of what this fountain can do, Helga more than anyone.
Brunhild helps Helga out and casually drops another undead priest as she sparks up conversation with Goggeck.
Adu looks around the room fearfully as the necromantic energy washes over them. "Does anyone else have the sinking feeling that killing the priests isn't going to be enough?"
Still, she doesn't know what else to do. She continues firing at the chained huecuva. Hopefully once they stop chanting the fountain will stop pulsing. Hopefully.
Barely acknowledging the lash of foul necromancy, Goggeck charges around the fountain to strike down the next chanting priest!
Ptwang! Adu's crossbow misfires and her errant bolt bounces off the domed ceiling.
Goggeck swings around the crystal fountain and smashes a huecuva. The undead priest should fall to such a strike, but seems resilient to the attack.
Hezekh reloads and fires his crossbow.
Another bolt glances off the wall instead of an undead.
Glor tries a second strike.
Hezekh isn’t having a good day. Good thing Glor is there to back him up. His blast rips through Helga’s opponent, nearly crippling it. Maybe Helga can finish it off.
Helga’s phantasmal axes cleave through rotted flesh, hacking off an arm, and then a lower jaw. The huecuva collapses into dust.
Urist takes aim at the remaining huecuva.
He plunks one into an eye socket. Urist scores his first kill.
As the last two huecuva fall, the crystal fountain darkens into a deep green and then into black. The crystalline structure becomes more and more erratic until it collapses into an undulating mass of black goo.
”Kols’ beard! What is that?!” Brunhild exclaimed.
In your experiences so far with all things horrid, you’ve faced enough oozes and undead to recognize both immediately. Here before you is an Undead Ooze; you’ve only heard stories. You’ve heard they can spit out skeletal hordes, although, this one isn’t as big as the stories tell.
She didn’t know what it was, but she did know enough to shoot it. And to her surprise, the runes on her bow reacted to it as if though it were undead. A welcome development to an unwelcome problem.
"At this rate, Ah'll be out o' bloody bolts before I hit one o' these bloody things." Hezekh grumbles as he reloads.
"What the hell is that?!"
Adu has not been having the best day. Sure, shooting chained up undead priests wasn't as scary as shooting undead priests that weren't chained up, but it was still unnerving. And now there was this undulating...thing...slowly moving towards them.
Don'tcarewhatitisjustshootthedamnthing!
Goggeck immediately turns and charges at the gloop, yelling:
"An undead ooze! It can spew skeletons but let us not give it the chance!"
His hammer slams down at the creature!
Hezekh will be happy to find out this sludgy blob is rather easy to hit. His bolt sinks into the oily goop with a slurp, as does Adu’s, followed by Brunhild’s arrow. Finally, Goggeck’s slams his hammer into the pool of undead ooze, splattering it across the room. Frigid drips of ooze coat the walls and cover the party.
Brunhild made a face filled with disgust, as she prestidigitated the mess off of her. ”So that thing could summon skeletons? We are fortunate to have stopped it when we did. The enchantment on my bow wouldn’t have lasted much longer.”
Once clean, she will search for any traps or signs of danger left in the room.
Googeck glowers at the remants of the vile ooze.
"It is felled. Let us remain wary though."
He moves to assist Brunhild with seeking dangers.
There are no more dangers left in the room. Any use of Detect Magic will confirm that the source of the necromantic energy powering the obelisk and saturating the Theocrats’ Vault has been neutralized.
The ooze leaves nothing of value behind. The undead priests each wear several ornamental pieces of gold and silver jewelry. One in particular sports a lavish violet garnet ring. They also each offer up a coin purse full of platinum. Altogether, the final count is platinum pieces.
Also, each wears an onyx unholy symbol of their demonic lord of the undead. They might be valuable to the right buyer, but are probably best destroyed.
Other than that, another pair of solid iron doors decorated with the common themes of Droskar lie waiting at the far end of the chamber.
Goggeck moves to each now truly dead priest and uses his cestus to remove each unholy symbol and toss it into a little heap. He then readies his longhammer, walks over to the heap, and readies a swing to obliterate all four symbols.
Brunhild nodded approvingly, as she thoroughly checked the door for any sign of traps.
Toulbe wipes a bit of sweat from his forehead and just shudders after the fight is done "All I can say...is ew. EW EW EW EW." he said as he stood around letting the dwarves do what they would. After all, this was their city not his own. He walked up to the solid iron doors while he waited and began looking it over with curiosity.
The doors are mundane. The imagery is the same seen throughout the complex. The motif of a flame above an anvil dominates the composition, the recognizable symbol of Droskar. In an arch above the motif, in Dwarven runes, is written:
Adu lowers her crossbow, although she doesn't put it away. "Do you think the undead priests were containing that thing? Maybe we shouldn't have killed them. But whatever they were doing was bad, so it's a good thing we stopped them, even though it meant killing them when they were helpless..." She babbles on in this vein for a few minutes before a thought occurs to her.
"Oh! We should go back and check the obelisk, see if it's still channeling necromantic energy!" She quickly heads back into the previous room and does just that.
The runes on the obelisk no longer glow. Adu watches as all traces of necromantic aura begin to fade from both the fountain and the edifice.
Hezekh looks at the inscription above the door and says "More o' Droskar's rubbish. Toil, work, toil, work. All work and no play makes Jack a dull dwarf. Want to open it up?"
”Many a good dwarf was lured in. These were our darkest days, and Droskar always comes when there is naught but despair. I pity the majority, just as I hate those who led them into this darkness.”
"By strength of words or strength of arms, they can be freed from Droskar's domination.", Goggeck intones.
"Let us breach these doors and face whatever evil lies within."
Yep, lets get the door open. Best not to put off somethin that needs doing. Glor says as the dirt and grit around him swirls and gathers.
Opening the doors reveals a mausoleum chamber, nearly square at 35x40'. In the center of the chamber is a stepped dais. Sitting on top the dais is a white marble sarcophagus, inlaid with black onyx and bands of gold. The sides of the sarcophagus are decorated with images of dwarves in chains laboring in bas relief, towering flames looming in the background. The lid of the sarcophagus bears the image of the legendary Axe of the Dwarvish Lords.
Carved into the floor before the dais in low relief is a large scarab beetle.
Placed around the walls of the chamber are several clay pots and stone coffers.
Best ta check into the pots and such afore we go opening that big box. Glor recommends. He waits for other opinions before proceeding.
”Agreed. Slow and steady, we rush nothing. I’ll look for magical traces as I go through the room. Assume anything here can and will blow up in our face. We’ve got the time. No rush.”
"I can help scan for magic too," Adu offers. "I'll let you know if I see anything." She starts scanning the room with Detect Magic, although she's careful to stay away from anything magical until she knows what it is.
"Careful...but ready to strike.", says Goggeck as he assists in the search.
None of the coffers and urns seem magical.
The coffers are filled with various treasures and items. One holds two highly ornate ceremonial daggers, one in silver and one in cold iron. Another coffer holds a highly ornate silver light mace. One is filled with gold, 333 gold pieces, to be exact. Another is filled with gemstones, some deep blue spinels, moonstones, onyx, and opals. One holds iron ingots, another gold. The last one contains 3 luxurious spidersilk robes.
The clay pots are different. Each seems to be designated to hold a single dried and preserved internal organ. A heart, lungs, stomach, colon, spleen, liver, kidneys, testicles. The robustness of the liver hints at Dwarven origin.
The only magical aura in the room is the moderate one emanating from the large carving of the beetle in the floor.