Bob leaps from the lower branches of the tree 15' up and 10' away. He comes crashing through the foliage.
His death from above attack hits the skeleton and comes down on top of its head, crushing it as the entire thing falls to the ground in a heap of bones.
Despite Bob's successful smashing of the skeleton, he also falls as he lands landing prone next to the heap of bones he just created.
Akoril's attack comes up just short as the skeleton side steps. Unfortunately it side steps right into Erlic's club which crushes its spine as bones fly everywhere.
The final skeleton drops dead. Barely half a minute has passed since the group stepped into the clearing. Severn and Riggar still do not feel very well, but it will pass in a few minutes. Most of you are wounded, but the undead that were here when you arrived are defeated.
Hank continues stomping the last skeleton he felled.
Severn steps up to the profane altar and attempts to kick it over, hoping to desecrate it enough to cause the foul energy that attracted the small congregation of undead in the first place to dissipate. Although he is untrained in the specific details or dogma of his religion, the carefully arranged heap of bones and rocks makes his skin crawl.
Perception Roll for Hank: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7
Perception Roll for Akoril: 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (5) - 3 = 2
Perception Roll for Bob: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24
Perception Roll for Severn: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (18) + 0 = 18
Perception Roll for Riggar: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
Perception Roll for Erlic: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
Bob, you notice off to the northeast corner of the clearing a hole in the brush, it looks as though something burrowed out of the ground.
Severn and Riggar, both of you note that the skeletons' gear is nonexistent or worthless, however the undead ghoul leader has a fairly nice pair of bracers as you glance at its blackened body.
Bob gets to his feet and wipes off some dirt off his clothes.
"Hmph. We actually managed to stay alive."
He looks around and notices the strange hole, and moves closer to inspect.
The hole in the ground appears similar to this: LINK
Something appears to have dug its way out of an old barrow. You suspect possible the foul leader. If the stories you heard were true, these undead were the long buried dead from an ancient battle, revived by the curse.
You try to peer in but its very dark and impossible to see in as a human with no light source. The sun coming through the treetops doesn't aid you in seeing into the hole very far.
Wearily and in some pain, Elric will pick up his crossbow. He then pulls a large sack out of his pack and starts gathering up the broken swords. When finished he kicks all the bone pieces he can find, into a pile around the leaders body. Being sure to take the bracers and anything else of value off of the leader, he pours oil on the pile and lights it.
" Yep. Its a smelly dark hole..."
You peer into the dark hole. You don't notice anything particularly interesting, your head is still ringing a little from the fight and its hard to concentrate. You do notice that it doesn't seem to go in very far, probably just leads to a small dug out area within.
Bob looks towards the hole, then the group.
"Well then ladies, who will be the bold explorer?"
Riggar looks into the hole, to see if he can notice anything or make out anything useful
Hmph, I will go in first then With those words, he takes a step into the hole, looking around as he goes.
"Isn't that what we brought the Dwarves along for?" Severn kids with Bob.
Riggar you notice nothing particularly interesting about the hole. It appears to very ancient, and merely constructed with natural stone and no mortar, probably very hastily and crudely. Even still, such a grave in a time of a post battle burial of thousands, was probably a significant undertaking and honor, given that most men were given a shallow grave, perhaps even a mass grave.
You would guess its depth only goes far enough to afford the recipient a small burial chamber, enough for the body itself and little more. It may be a tight squeeze.
"What'chu all lookin' at?" Hank drawls.
He stumbles over to the group, muttering, "We kilt it. We can go back to th' bar no ri--" He's cut off, however as he slips into the hole.
"Hey, I found a hole..."
The hole is fairly narrow, some stones prop up the earth where it the ghoul burrowed out. You manage to feel around ahead of you before your darkvision kicks in. You make out that the tunnel goes maybe another eight feet or so and just ends. At the bottom is a small burial cavity. You notice a variety of trinkets, jewelry and other valuables scattered about in the upchurned earth. The air is rank down here, and the earth has not only the smell of the grave but some other strange smell. Perhaps it had some preservative effect on the corpse preventing it from skeletonizing completely.
At least you might recover some loot, as the ghastly monster won't need it anymore. If you scooped it all up and cleaned it off some, you could probably get about 400 gp for it all. There is nothing else in the tiny barrow.
Hank quickly scrambles back out of the barrow, trinkets in hand. "Well, that was gross... Who wants a drink?"
Unless someone steps in, he's heading back to town.
Riggar will do his best to "cleanse" the alter and the burial grave in the tiny hole. He wi use all 3 vials of holy water if need be. He will get Severn's help too if the extra help is needed.
Is there anything left of the girl, or any trinket or ring we can bring back to the dad?
And where do you think your going boy? We ain't dun here yet, what 'bout the missin girl, her da wants answers and he gonna get them, as he out a hand on Hanks shoulder as he tries to leave.
"Oh yeah... Right." He tosses the trinkets in his sack and moves to the bodies of the fallen. He is surprisingly more cautious and aware than he's behaved thus far as he gently scoops up one of the villagers.
"Lets get these kids home..." He says in a clearer voice.
Riggar you pile the skeletons in a heap, some of them were destroyed by holy power, but it might be a good idea to dowse the remains in holy water as well just to make sure the ones you beat down don't come back. You perform several rituals to cleanse the altar. The desecration will fade in time, and without a focus or the undead leader, the clearing will return to a regular forest glade in a short time.
The grisly mutilated half eaten remains of the children and the Burgher's daughter you respectfully gather, wrapping them in blankets for proper burial at the town cemetary. You have cleansed the glade with your battle prowess, but dealing with the personal tragedy will be difficult for the townsfolk. You head back to town for your reward and to share the news, good and bad.
....
As expected it is a mixed bag of emotions when you return. Obviously the townsfolk are thankful and grateful that the undead are destroyed, but the death of the children has put a dark air over the town. The celebration is cancelled and replaced by several funeral services. Burgher Fitzsimmons is wracked with grief, but is true to his word and hands each group member a small but very heavy strongbox full of gold and silver coins and gems. Each person's share comes out to 1666gp, plus a nice stout strongbox (lockable, but no lock comes with it). Half the value is in gems (800gp or so), the remaining half is about 70% gold coins (600gp) and 30% (2660sp) silver coins, and the box itself is pretty heavy. Each strongbox weighs about 90lbs with the loot inside.
You are able to pawn the grave trinkets either in town (maybe poor taste), or the next town over for the 400gp, for a share of 66gp each. The broken weapons you recovered can be repaired as per the rules (spending raw materials, making rolls) and sold for 70% book price. You guys can determine who/how. There were I think two short swords, a mace, a handaxe, and a scimitar. The rest were worthless clubs.
The bracers worn by the ghast leader are actually magical Bracers of Armor +1. It would be easy enough to determine with a detect magic, however I don't know who in the party would qualify to identify them, perhaps you visit some hedge mage would looks them over and charges 20gp or something.
After you finish your business you move on....
When all is said and done, Hank goes looking for solace at the bottom of his mug in the next town over. The sadness of their loss his close to home for Hank, who has buried his share and more of children.
Thanks for the scenario cave toad. I must admit I was a little concerned at first. Thankfully Riggar and the others got more love out of the dice me LOL
That got a lil hairy towards the middle. Good thing the dice rolled okay for me :)
As far as the BoA go, who can actually use them? Do we sell them for the 500gp than divide for each party member? Or do we let someone use them if they can? Or do we all roll d100 and highest wins? The bracers are "basic" and not game shattering so I am good either way.
I don't think anyone can use the bracers so we should sell them and split the proceeds IMHO.
Was fun, tho Bob was kinda useless. Luckily we had some channel powers :D
