Gremm and Nine Tail's blows land cleanly, with the big man's taking down his skeleton. The rest of the group's attacks fail to hit their mark. The remaining upright undead strikes Nine Tail with it's sword. The other two skeletons struggle to their feet, which causes them to be fully open to attacks by the whole squad.
Torque attacks skeleton 1. Since none of the undead are paying attention to him he's starting to get quite enthusiastic with his inexpert swings.
Attack:
Damage (bludgeoning):
He stumbles on the edges of the grease and the cheap mace misses by several feet
Holding his shield up against the skeleton that just hit him, Nine Tail lashes out with a quick backhand swing at skeleton 2.
Those of you who have so far attempted to strike the rising skeletons find that your blows fail to land.
I attack the skeleton I am flanking with Torque.
for
for
Taking a moment to reload, Jax lifts the crossbow to his shoulder again, sighting down the length of it, at the Skeleton in front of Tok.
Between Tok's blow and Jax's attack one skeleton falls, leaving two left.
I'm making a fool of myself with this ineffectual hammering
Torque clenches his healing gauntlet and with a rattle of cogs a white ball of light builds in it's grasp. He charges at the nearest skeleton and tries to grab the arm of one of the skeletons:
Tok takes a small step, cracks his knuckles and wails on the nearest skeleton.
for
for
Valen's hands flash in the same pattern as before and are surrounded by the sickly green glow again as he tosses another orb of acid at the same skeleton.
Reloading once more, jax raises his crossbow again, and lets loose a shot.
Nine Tail swings at the one Tok isn't, as he seems to be pummeling them quite effectively.
The other two skeletons fall, each leaving behind an onyx about the size of a halfling's fist.
Torque shouts at the mysterous mounted figure, or at the spot where he was if he's disappeared yet again
"Got anything more than vulture-leftovers and a taste for drama?"
Smack talk will have to do the work of skill for now. I need a weapon you don't have to aim. Time to explain arcane bio-filters to Valen...
Valen smiles and walks up beside Torque. "Drama? Please. I've seem more dramatic entrances from an angry father walking in on me and his daughter."
Perception:
[ooc]Perception -> [ooc]
As you the group gathers up the gems and if so desired the weapons, a few of you notice that there's something slightly off rock formation to the left of the road. Torque however, feels a light pull as if some force is drawing him to the rocks.
Moving between the bones, Jax begis to collect up the weapons, strapping them to his belt as he does. "We can sell these if we like, or just use them. Up to ya'll!"
"Hey, does anyone else reckon those rocks seem out of place? I wouldn't expect the landscape around here to lie that way. There could be something camoflaged in there. Think we should spare a minute to check them? Perhaps there's a reason the skeletons ambushed us at this spot"
Or perhaps this has something to do with that lesser starfall...
Torque, as you move over to investigate them, you can definitely tell that the rocks are false. Peering even closer, there appears to be what looks like buttons on the surface of one of the smaller stones.
Turning to Fury,"I think selling them would be the most lucrative option. Those of us that do use weapons have them already." Valen makes his way over to Torque. "What have you found here?"
"There are controls built into this one here. Too small and discrete to be mechanical - looks like a set of magical control studs. Hang on, I'll see if I can get these fake rocks to give up their secrets. Stand back everyone"
Torque looks over the buttons to see if they follow a logical structure, then gently presses each one until he finds one that has the slight resistance of a trigger
Jax nods softly and grins. "I agree with you there Mage. We sell them, see what we can get for em!" Walking over to the stones, Jax looks over Torques shoulder.
Torque, after your initial feeling out of the buttons, you realize its a sort of combination lock. It takes you a good five minutes of playing around with them, but you soon figure out the right sequence. You hear an audible click, and the largest rock opens just like a treasure chest. Peering inside, you find what looks like an injector device with some tubing and wires hanging off it, along with 5 vials, a battered book whose pages are thankfully mostly intact and a large ornate block somewhat bigger than the standard building brick.
Valen looks at the contents without touching them. "I'm not sure. Some sort of needle device, vials, a book of some sort, and block of some material. Here, let me see if any of the items are magical in nature." Valen begins gesturing and and whispering some arcane words and suddenly his eyes glow electric blue for a moment and then begins gazing at the contents of the rock chest.
Though he cannot detect magical auras, Torque inspects the injector device to determine how it is designed to be used - does the user inject himself, patients or does it look like a weapon?
:
After learning what he can he moves over to nine-tail
"Looks like they got past your guard mate. Hold still, I'll fix you up."
The then looks over Tok and Gremm
"Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit. I mean it."
Torque swiftly smears glowing gel over the wounds inflicted by the skeletons on Tok and Nine-tail. The glow fades quickly, and by the time it does their wounds are gone. When he tries to do the same to Gremm, however, the gel that emerges from the gauntlet is a dull pale grey color. It fades into the fighter's skin but does nothing for his wound. The white light in the gauntlet's resevoir has faded.
"Ah dang. I KNEW I shouldn't have tried to hit those undead with this thing. Ah well, looks like we'll try the old fashioned way when you've got a minute Gremm"
He gestures to the medical kit strapped to his back-pack
Torque, after examining the device you come to the conclusion that it can aid and augment your gauntlet, by allowing you to fill the vials with the glowing gel and storing them for later use. You also figure out that it will take some time to fill the vials and is a little risky, but would be well worth it if your successful.
Valen, none of the items radiate magic.
"And go through the trouble of building rocks with buttons."