Fire does not seem ta hurt them! Glor says as he moves back, gathers and fires earth again, this time at gold. Its a near perfect show and Glor takes pleasure in striking a blow against these restless dead.
Toulbe takes a swing at the golden skeleton with his trusty frying pan as its fiery aura singes his flesh a tad.
He hits it with a mighty WHACK! which seems to crack through the gold plating on it’s bones and break the hipbone. Toulbe then steps back with his frying pan out of the fire.
Goggeck’s opponent keeps swinging at him.
It keeps missing, too.
Boomer’s skelly picks a new target.
It swings at Goggeck.
And adds to the sum total of ineffectualness.
"Well s*$&," Boomer muttered around his cigar. He didn't have a lot of options against enemies that couldn't be burned and didn't care about arrows.
He hefted his shield, stepped back into the breach, and made to bash it against some burning bones.
After a swing and a miss at the golden skeleton, Hezekh steps back away from the blazing heat.
Goggeck punches back - and hard!
Uriat surveys the battlefield, looking satisfied with the carnage so far. "Bah, damn shame ah din' pack a mace. Ah well, got tha next best thing!"
With a gein on his face, Urist takes a gold of his shovel, slides up to the enemy, and takes a swing with the flat head of his clumsy weapon.
Gunnar lays into the green skeleton with his warhammer.
Urist valiantly swings and misses while Glor fires at the golden skeleton. His earthen blast hits but doesn’t seem to have enough force behind it to get through the gold plating on the breastplate and the very bones themselves. Gunnar joins in the missing game while Goggeck strikes true, obliterating his opponent. Boomer tries to slam into the golden skeleton with his shield, putting himself in harms way of the golden skeleton’s flaming aura. He doesn’t seem to connect. Hezekh wisely steps away from the heat.
With Boomer as its closest target, the golden skeleton attacks.
Boomer deftly dodges the burning blades.
Trouble holds his frying pan defensively. He cant believe he actually hit it with his frying pan. He teetered a bit for a moment before he started stammering out a dwarven epic he had picked up in a bar one evening.
The remaining, non-golden, skeletal warrior strikes at Goggeck again.
This time, it connects, finding its way past the inquisitor's chainmail and cutting into his forearm.
Goggeck responds with a blow of his own.
Confirm?
"I've 'ad abou' enough o' you lot."Hezekh says, the pain of his burn causing him to slur his words as he steps forward for another swing at the golden skeleton.
Glor blasts again but somehow is even less accurate.
"Bah, just gotta put me back into it!"
Gunnar steps past the broken remains of a skeletal warrior and weaves in for a blow against the offending pile of bones.
Urist swings his shovel, yet the skeleton somehow manages to twist away enough to make it a glancing blow. Glor’s earthen blast goes astray, as does Gunnar’s warhammer. Even Goggeck can’t seem to connect just right.
Finally, Hezekh steps up, focuses, and clocks the golden skeleton straight in the nose-hole. Golden skull and jeweled helm sail through the air, landing with a clatter further down the corridor. What remains collapses in a heap at Hezekh’s feet. But then, the aura of golden fire surrounding it flares up and out in a sudden release of energy, burning those standing nearby.
Bother Hezekh and Boomer jump back in time, mitigating the damage.
The remaining mindless undead doesn’t know how to quit.
Toulbe continues belting out his poem as he manages to work his spell into the mix.
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Boomer didn't know how to quit either.
He probably should have though. He clearly wasn't helping.
Redux: The last skeleton misses. Party free for all.
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Urist moves towards the nearest skeleton, ready to dispense some improvised justice.
Glor takes out the last skeleton. The sounds of steel on steel on flesh and bone cease for now, and you are left to lick your wounds and pick through the collapsed skeletons. The doors to the Vault are open, the guardians of the threshold defeated. Hezekh feels the air in the space begin to move and deems it safe enough to go ahead and burn the goblin/rat pyre, significantly reducing the risk of vermin attacks on your camp. Other than that, there's an unsealed dwarven monastery to be delved and cleared.
Goggeck looks at the debris with grim satisfaction.
"Victory! Let us seize the hour and press in steadily!"
Toulbe ran up and fwapped the nearest skeleton with his frying pan just to be certain.
He looked around and sighed. "Skeletons...I hadn't expected to start fighting your ancestors." he said as he began looking around in earnest now.
He spotted Boomer having a nasty gash and walked up to him providing a bit of healing.
Despite he minor lingering burns, Hezekh is eager to press on. "A little singed, maybe, but I've 'ad worse. Let's see what we've found, lads."
Glor moves to collect the golden armor. This aught to be worth somethin to someone. he notes. And it might be magic!
Might be smart to get these doors closed once we get inside. Things like those goblins, and likely worse would like inside too.
"Aye, the grounds are ours. We can move in at our leisure. 'Course, I really should report this to tha commander."
The dwarf sets his shovel aside and straights up, going through the ritualistic motions of cleaning his uniform in preparation for her arrival. And once again, upon completion, the red phantom slips into reality.
She gazes upon the carnage, and then upon the members of the caravan. Urist beams with pride as he goes into a dramatic (if somewhat abridged) retelling of the recent events.
In response, she regards the crew with a simple nod of approval.
"Our forebears had fallen to taint. Smashing them was the only way.", Goggeck replies to Toulbe.
The remains of the golden skeleton offer up a gold-plated breastplate, as well as a gold-plated battleaxe, both possibly worth a pretty penny. There's also a golden helm with a remarkable emerald gem embedded in its crown.
The armor and weapons of the other skeletal guardians are all broken and rusted from the years. Not worth much more than scrap.
There is no readily apparent mechanism for shutting the doors behind you, at least not here. It's likely in a more secure location deeper in the complex.
"A fine haul. But much more lies within surely. Along with the means to close these doors."
Then lets get to finding that mechanism. We are home brothers. I'd prefer not to leave the front door open.
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"Long as we can clear it for supply runs to the settlement, the haul's just gravy." Gunnar swats away something next to him. "AYE I said the HAUL, ye thrice stank gasbag! Not that it was yours to begin with!"
He then exhales, shaking his head. "Sorry. Nosy ghosts always coughin' up opinions..."
Moving along, at the end of the corridor is a statue much like the ones flanking the entrance doors.
The corridor splits to the north and south from here.
Goggeck puts an arm up to point at the second statue and calls:
"Halt! Look there, at the cavity in that stone shield! A gap that the emerald from the gold skeleton's helm could fill. We should try it, it may seal the doors behind us."
Hezekh shrugs. "Sure, it's worth a shot. Give it a go."
You finagle the emerald gem out of its setting in the golden helm, and fit it perfectly into the stone shield. The gem flashes brightly and then softly glows in its new setting, however the doors do not close behind you. In fact, nothing else of note happens at all.
Goggeck peers at the statue, trying to work out what has happened.
My hope is some option of protection has been armed. Glor muses as he too examines the statue.
No change is visible on the statue. Goggeck judges that the craftsmanship is on par with the quality, or lack thereof, associated with the age of Droskar's Theocracy. That is, it is mediocre with a lack of individuality in its make.
Glor makes a more thorough inspection, and happens to look around the statue as well. He notices barely perceptible gaps in the stonework behind and beneath the statue. He deduces the statue is possibly hiding a secret door.
Well, look at this. He notes. I think we can pivot or move part of the statue aside. It seems to hide a door. Perhaps it would not move if the gem were not in place? Lets move it regardless.
"Aye! Let us see what lies behind this *average* craftsdwarfship."
The masked commander follows the group, silent and simmering, However, the comment about ghosts shifts her attention over to Gunnar. Her expression is impossible to read, but her voice is relatively calm. "You. Ghost speaker. Shot in the dark, but..." she gestures towards Urist. "Have you ever seen one in a uniform like that?"
Meanwhile, back at the Urist, he seems all to happy to move forward. The stout soldier steps forward and embraces the statue, giving it several pulls, pushes, and sideways rocking motions in an attempt to find the best way to move it.
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Toulbe hearing the other mention moving a statue runs back outside and comes back quickly with the bison that pulls his cart and some rope. "We can get this done in quicker than the baked goods at a gnomish birthday." he says merrily.
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With some expert knot work, Toulbe is able to hitch up his bison to the large statue, and with some encouragement, the beast of burden pulls and pulls against the stone depiction of a dwarven warrior and shield. The statue barely budges, and the bison is giving it all its got, so, one by one, the team, including Helga, grabs the rope and pulls with all their might. Due to the combined effort of everyone, inch by inch, the statue is moved out of its alcove.
After a bit of a breather, you inspect the alcove which held the statue. True to Glor’s assessment earlier, a significant portion of the wall behind the statue and the slab of stone upon which the statue had rested are not mortared into place like the rest of the masonry construction. It seems that they can be moved, somehow, but initial inspections and efforts find that there is no immediate means to do so.
"I dinnae think that was the way we were s'posed tae do that, but it got the job done. Nice thinkin', cuz." Boomer said to Toulbe.
"So what now?"
Gunnar regards the commander with an appraising eye, scratching through his beard as he ponders the question. "Can't recall's I have, no..."