"I can not say for sure, but if you're really insisting we go around, than I would take the path by that small dried up creek/river-bed, and then continue slowly somewhere between North and sunset, for a couple of hours, depending on the terrain. Then, I would turn, so the sun is between my shoulder and eyes, and continue marching. In such a way, I am fairly confident we could reach our destination going around - if we do not encounter some monsters, impassable terrain or something else. As I said, I would use the road and head straight, but should you want me, I think I could lead you around. What say you?"
Nilan indicates he will follow whomever leads him towards the crypt.
Iliya, with his trailblazing expertise, offers a chance for an alternate route which the party quickly accepts. He pulls on the reigns and guides the horse off the road following his instincts. You are shortly able to see Cadaverwood creeping over the horizon. As you approach, the trees seem as though they are stretching tall and foreboding and swaying rigidly as with rigor mortis. No animal sounds emanate from the forest, which in these lands is not so unusual, but rather a constant moan of no living creature makes itself heard. Getting closer, the sickly trees seem to be tainted a putrid purple, their bark rotting as if affected by arboreal mange. By now, the road and main entrance are out of sight, and the Kellid leads you confidently around the forest's edge. Finally, he comes to a halt. He points out a distinct clearing of trees and underbrush that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. There are a few remaining tracks left by humanoids that have avoided the muddying effect of rain. If you try and pull the horses in, they rear up and bellow with fear pulling hard against the reigns in an attempt to get free. They are familiar with these lands, and if you choose to let them go, they should find their way back.
The dark depths of Cadaverwood are more frightening than you thought possible. The trees seem to conciously loom over anything that passes under. The ground and roots feel as though they are shifting in an attempt to trip you and send you off course. Again, you hear nothing but the moan of creaking wood. After walking for what seems like forty-five minutes, you finally start to notice a strange clearing. From a distance, you make out deliberate masonry that sinks into the ground. It is elaborate if not ruinous. But something else catches your eye, something closer. The sound of a howling breeze passing through a hollow tunnel catches your attention and directs your gaze to a distinct cave where the ground has collapsed into some subterranean chamber.
Which would like to investigate? The cave-in, the building or both (split the party)?
We should check the old building first methinks, before heading down.
"I agree, shall we check out the old building first?"
If we approach the building, I will be taking point so I can look out for traps/pitfalls/weak floors/etc.
Nilan nods in agreement with Stephan and Mathus and murmurs a prayer to Pharasma. Divine Lady watch over us
Pyotr joins the party in examining the building.
The clearing opens up upon upon a small basin and the old ruins of a long abandoned crypt. A stone staircase overgrown with moss and bramble lead down nearly 20 feet to the basin floor. From there you see the full face of the ruins. The masterful stonework has given way to the effects of time. Much of the columns have collapsed and formed a field of debris around the outer perimeter. Moss and ivy has begun to claim the ruins as their own. The main doors are still standing, but they are no longer sealed shut. As if a blast from the inside blew open a hole in the center of the doors, stones and rubble are strewn about the steps and basin emanating from the door. All of you would have no trouble slipping through hole. The portion of the door that still remains bears the spiral of Pharasma carved into it, marked further by additional symbols within. Obvious tracks mar the front entrance, but it is difficult to discern their producer.
It appears as if the tracks were made by several creatures, at least six of them, and each seemed to be heavily weighed down. One of the trails bears semblance to humanoid movement, but the other five are shuffled and uncoordinated.
Inscribed within the spiraled carving are the symbols that priests of Pharasma use to imbue a graves, crypts and urns with the protective magic of Pharasma as they make their journey into the afterlife. Typically, it acts a seal, preventing the housing unit to be impenetrable from outside or within. The fact that the doors have burst from the inside out overwhelms you with a sense of foreboding.
The tiefling stands, spear at the ready, waiting for the go-ahead.
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Iliya's knowledge of the forest surpasses his own, and Henry finds it pleasant to be continuously proved wrong about his initial assumption of the man. After abandoning their horses, he keeps up the rear, making sure they aren't being followed.
Once they reach the building, he surveys the area under the glimmer of moonlight.
(+2 if undead)
Henry dips low, touching the ground and smelling the dirt on his fingers. "Six creatures. Heavily burdened by something. One is human. The other are something else-- lazy, clumsy. The living damned."
(+2 if undead)
Pointing to the door, he nods. "Those doors are magically enchanted by Pharasmins, the wards meant to protect graves and mausoleums from robbers. Normally impenetrable."
Henry pauses, and then draws his bastard sword with one long, languid motion. The metal glints off of the moonlight.
"It's safe to say that whatever lies within is within the grip of damnation itself. Prepare yourselves, and stay quiet. Beyond that door, we're in their world."
"The ground here looks stable, and I see no evidence of any hidden surprises."
Indeed Henry, these wards held power...and now they are defeated. We must make haste.
While Stephan goes around finding the appropriate sized rock, the impatient barbarian listens to Henry and Nilan. He nods at their explanation, sniffs the air once or twice, and casts a long inquisitive glance inside.
Not noticing anything special, and trusting Stephan's judgement that there are no hidden surprises, Iliya steps forward slowly, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness around him. Not succeding, he stops after a few steps, gripping his axe even harder while he waits for the catfolk who can see in the dark. While waiting, he fishes out one of the torches from his backpack, and casts an inquisive look towards the others. I'm guessing we have no other choice than to light it...
Seeing Iliya's hesitation Nilan casts a minor cantrip designed to bring light upon his cane. He raises it a bit over his head and says Lead on.
With light finally available, Iliya nods with satisfaction to Nilan, returns the torch to his backpack and continues to walk forward into the darkness.
Past the demolished doorway, a stone staircase leads down into the dark for about 50 feet, descending 25 feet underground. The place smells of must and disuse mixed with the odor of decay from the outside air. As Nilan's golden light floods the room, it illuminates the illustrious artwork that covers the walls. A bas relief stretches across the walls from door to door, depicting the rise of the Cult of Shadows on the left wall, and the ensuing battles between Caliphas and the Cult on the right. Deusten is depicted as hooded man draped in scraps of cloth with shadowy tendrils billowing out of the garments. Ahead of you are massive stone double doors. They reach a few heads taller than Iliya and Henry and almost fill the back wall of the small antechamber. There are no visible handles or knobs for an easy opening. There is a slim crack between the doors just wide enough to let out the stagnant air within. Above the door is an inscription that reads: "Here lye the souls of those who have defied death. May their undying souls be put to rest once and for all."
Hidden well within the bas relief is a nob that can be pressed in disguised a Pharasmin spiral hanging from a clerics neck.
The room you are in echos with the outside wind and moaning trees making hard to hear, but as you focus intently on your senses, there isn't a sound to be heard.
You are only able to make out a few details, determining that the next room is large chamber with a high ceiling, the ground appears to sink in the middle of the room. You cannot notice much else.
You are only able to make out a few details, determining that the next room is large chamber with a high ceiling, the ground appears to sink in the middle of the room. A narrow hall at the end of the chamber seems to be emanating a flickering, golden light.
You are only able to make out a few details, determining that the next room is large chamber with a high ceiling, the ground appears to sink in the middle of the room. You cannot notice much else.A narrow hall at the end of the chamber seems to be emanating a flickering, golden light. At the end of the pit in the center of the room, you spot the tops of two sarcophagi. There are a human bones around the room.
Nilan makes a sign of Pharasma but stays silent, trusting his allies to find safe passage.
The Doktor checks the surrounds for traps or triggers.
Perception
Ahhh! What have we here?, He points to a feature hidden well within the bas relief - a knob that can be pressed in disguised a Pharasmin spiral hanging from a clerics neck.
He presses the knob.
As you depress the button into the wall, a hiss of dusty air blows out of the hole as gears and levers can be heard grinding behind the stone wall. The massive doors jerk open shaking loose dirt and dust caked onto the stone slabs. The doors sway outward into the other room, grinding against the hard floor. When the doors are open, light from Nilan's staff pours into the dim room. It is a large chamber with an arched roof nearly twenty feet carved of smooth, grey stone. The center of the room is fit with a large pit and and filled with four sarcophagi, one of which is open. There is a pile of bones to the left of the stair case, smashed and broken to pieces and fine dust and another down by the open casket much more in tact and a rusty sword nearby. The end of the room is an open hall from which flickering light from a few braziers illuminates the end of the room. The air is dry and stagnant. As the door slams open, the bones next to the open crypt begin to rise of the ground, swirling and settling in place to form a human skeleton. The eyes burst with light as a gentle blue flame ignites in the sockets. It reaches down and picks up the sword. At the same time, the heavy stone lids of the remaining sarcophagi burst open and crashed to the ground three skeletons rising up out of their respected resting place. They do not appear pleased to see you...
Initative Rolls
Order: Henry, Mathus, Pyotr, Iliya, Stephan, Nilan
You hear the sounds of rattling bones echo from the room at the bottom left of the main chamber.
Malthus gives an unmanly squeal and turns white as a sheet. His eyes are round and his expression one of sheer terror.
He stays where he is and fumbles around in his UndeadHunter(tm) kit for a vial of Holy Water.
Knowledge Religion
Stephan enters the room and moves to the right to get out of the way of the others at the door. He then uses the 1 pound rock and his Throw Anything Feat to aim at the skeleton that has the rusty sword.
If this skeleton dies, then Stephan will hold action until next round, hoping to move in to sneak attack position.
Letting the more martial members of the team advance on the skeletons, Pyotr looks at one, extends his left palm, says "কঙ্কাল" and a beam launches from his palm to reach out to ensnare one...
but misses.
Seeing the skeletal forms appear almost out of nowhere, cold fear grips young barbarians heart. He responds in the only way he knows - by focusing his destructive hatred towards them: "Nature's abominations! You shall be destroyed!"
Just a moment before he is about to charge the monstrosities, Iliya notices a hint of a smile on Henry's lips, and his actions. This brings to his mind wisdom of their tribal shaman - , and Iliya does the same as the ranger. He drops his trusty great axe, and while charging the nearest creature he draws a huge cudgel (obviously once a trunk of a big tree), barely to be wielded by two hands. He swings at it with all his might, his inner hatred channeled into a deadly fury...
Nilan moves to the square directly below Iliya and raising his cane and holy symbol high he calls upon Pharasma to destroy the undead creatures.
Will DC 13
Seeing the undead rise and with unholy energy, Mathus prepares himself for the ensuing battle, stowing his blade and grabbing hold of his hammer. Upon seeing the frightening display of unholy magic before him, Mathus is filled with fear. His turn is spent shuffling around his pack looking for the right weapon and waiting for the right moment to use it.Pyotr steps forward to get within range of the skeleton and unleashes an bright ray from his hand, the skeleton easily sidesteps it and avoids it all together. Iliya bolsters himself for the frightening monsters and fills his thoughts with rage, charging forward at the closest skeleton and unleashing his strenth. The attack crushes the creature, sending bones flying others crumbling into a powder, one down. Seeing this, Stephan holds his throw and prepares to engage from behind. Finally, Nilan moves in behind Iliya and with a quick prayer explodes with a wave of light. It envelopes the creatures in the room, two of the creatures manage to resist the full force of your attack, while the other disintegrates into dust.
With only two more skeletons remaining in the room, they begin to close in on the heroes. The closest skeletons turns his attention towards the origin of the searing light, shambling towards Nilan and swiping hard, the attack makes impact and inflicts little damage. The farthest skeleton turns to attack whatever it can, in this case Iliya is the closest. It charges forward kicking the remnant of the shattered skeleton out of the way and swinging its arms without direction, forcing the barbarian to block, parry and dodge the onslaught. From the bottom left corner of the room, those of you that heard it before now see the origin of the rattling noises as two more skeletons reveal themselves, swords in hand and draped in years old chainmail. You are all aware of their presence now.
Mathus, still shaking like a leaf moves up and takes cover at the side of one of the doors. Spying the new arrivals he gives a warbling scream that COULD be, if one wanted to be charitable, described as a shout.
He hurls his holy water at the one closest to his new ally.
Holy water
Damage
Gaaaaahhhh.... eeet back to hell!
Seeing how destructive his first strike was, Iliya manages to give a very wicked smile. He barely felt the skeletal arms clawing at him, although he could feel his own blood slowly trickling down his left arm and he knew that will leave scars. Scars are decoration of a real warrior
With renewed vigor, Iliya continues the onslaught by letting a loud battle-cry of his own tribe, before trying to slam the skeleton in front of him:
Nilan sidesteps left and raises his symbol and cane again I said begone foul things! Will DC 13
Seeing the new combatants enter the room, Pyotr snarls and clutches his throat menacingly. He emits a guttural, deep, chasm-like rattle from his throat, and vomits forth a foul, black expectorate. It hurtles across the room to land with a sickening squish on the floor in front of the skeletons. The ichor spreads of its own volition to cover a wide section of the floor. It bubbles and hisses, already beginning to dissipate, its volatile state already beginning to cause it to vaporize in sooty tendrils of smoke.
Fury clear in his eyes and flared, snorting nostrils, Pyotr closes with the skeletons, his hands sprouting hard, black talons.
Stephan, realizing that the terrors here are almost as bad as home was, moves forward to throw the 1 pound rock. Seeing that Iliya is as strong as he looks, Stephan moves to assist Pyotr. Fearing that he will hit his newfound companion, he aims at the skeleton farthest from Pyotr.
Stephan smiles, happy that a mere rock has come in useful already.
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Henry enters the room, warhammer gripped tightly, and takes stock of his surroundings. Seeing the skeletons enter to his left, he quickly moves to intercept them.
He grips his weapon hard and swings to smash the creature in front of him, balancing his expertise at fighting the undead with reckless fury.
= 43 damage
He doesn't call out the glory of his ancestors or his fallen parents, the many Pharasmin hunters he knew who have died, or the ghosts of fallen saints and angels. Covered in bone dust, Henry Blackburne's faint curve of the lip becomes a toothy, unsettling grin. "Next."
Order: Henry, Mathus, Pyotr, Iliya, Stephan, Nilan
With an appropriate weapon in hand, Henry steps forward into the room and turns to the meet the new threats, unleashing a devastating blow focused on damage over precision. As his weapon crashes down from overhead. The helpless skeleton can do nothing to avoid the fatal blow and the impact sends shockwaves through stone causing dirt and dust to fall from the ceiling.
Realizing that the new enemies are taken care of, Mathus directs his attack at the remaining two in the pit. Lobbing your flask, it explodes on the nearest skeleton with a painful hiss and sizzle. Odorless smoke rises from the affected area as the flames in its eyes quickly reduce to nothing. The lifeless form falls to the ground. Your skills with such weapons are precise enough to allow you to cast it in such a way that much of the excess water spills over onto the adjacent enemy, resulting in the same effect sending it back to the grave.
Pyotr maintains his vengeful countenance as he approaches the lone survivor, palm outstretch. When he is within a good range, he unleashes a beam of energy at his foe, burning the skeletons bones and draining it of its unholy life. The fire in its eyes dim slightly. As the spell finishes, Iliya ends calms himself, ending his rage. Preparing to charge the undead, he catches Stephan winding back his arm to hurl a heavy stone at the undead. Standing back, intrigued to see the outcome, he is surprised when the attack makes direct impact with the creature's skull, knocking it clear off its spine and shattering as it crashes to the ground. The remains of the skeleton immediately drop to the floor, tangled in rusty old chainmail.
Nilan surveys the destruction of the undead and says It is good that this was done. These things needed to be destroyed.
Nilan raises his symbol again and directs waves of positive energy into healing his allies.
Nilan will also touch Iliya on the shoulder and remove his fatigue. Regain your strength my Kellid friend, we have more to do.
Stephan, seeing that the battle is over, moves to pick up his rock. Eyeing Pyotr and the look on his face, he says with a smile "Looks like all that time learning to juggle paid off."
Stephan then moves to inspect the room looking for anything out of the ordinary.
well..., voice quavering before he catches himself, that wasn't such a chore now, was it?, his tone growing increasingly more confident with each word.
I am very good with holy water, as you can see, so if anyone has a spare? I won't waste it.
Nilan passes one of his vials over to the Doktor. I witnessed your efficacy with the vials. Pharasma has use for such talents.
After which he raises his cane a bit over his head and says We should continue, young lives who have not reached their destiny are at stake.
Pyotr mumbles a garbled prayer, as a shred of the light bursting from him earlier returns to his form.
"I'm with Nilan. We must make haste."
He pulls out a glass vial, sealed with wax stamped with the image of Sarenrae. He hands it to Mathus. "Please, you are welcome to it."
Loot: A quick search of the room reveals an old necklace in the bottom right most sarcophagus. It is a bit tarnished, but with some gentle cleaning could be valuable. The equipment used is all broken and rusted.
The room at the southwest is left open, the wooden door having rotted and fallen off its hinges. Peering inside, you find two more sarcophagi, side by side and their lids both blown off. A tattered rug of crimson red lies on the floor.
There is another weak wooden door at the southeast, left ajar.
There are two more wooden double doors that face each other from across the room in small alcoves on the east and west walls.
At the center of the northern wall is a short hallway connecting another large room. There are obvious fires lighting the chamber, and you can see you a faintly glowing magic symbol on the ground in the center of it all. At the end of the room is a raised platform with a strange altar at the head of the stairs. There are other objects lying about but it is hard to tell.
- Listening: You are able to hear pained and agonized wailing coming from beyond the doors in the northeastern end of the room. They do not sound adolescent.
- Listening: You are able to hear pained and agonized wailing coming from beyond the doors in the northeastern end of the room. They do not sound adolescent.
- Observing: The objects that lye around the body appear to be humanoid in shape.
We should not take items from the dead. Leave them or risk the wrath of the Lady.
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Henry brushes his cloak off, glancing around, and shrugs. "Onwards, then." It's just another day for the undead killer.
He doesn't share Nilan's idealistic viewpoint. The necklace doesn't lie on a body. It was placed there to help fund them in further ending the undead threat to Ustalav, in his view, but he doesn't say anything, waiting for the old priest to move on before seeing if anyone snatches it up, his face without judgment.
Henry keeps his warhammer drawn, trusting it more after his last swing. He keeps his eyes and ears open for anything. "Which way now, Stephan, Malthus? You two seem most at home here."
(+2 if undead)
(+2 if undead)