She examines her work with a critical eye. "I've done better. There's still going to be a scar for you to show the barmaids, so that's not all bad, I suppose." She winks at him and hands over the gemstones.
"My thanks. Its true every scar has a tale, but only if you live long enough to tell it."
Tatsuo is pleasantly surprised when they open the tube and it fails to explode or shower them all in acid or anything similar. He frowns as he looks at its contents though. "Huh, is this supposed to be the map we were searching for? Looks more like a magic scroll." He mutters a few words under his breath before drawing some arcane symbols in the air.
He frowns as his spell fails to tell him anything about the meaning of the parchment. "Hmmm, oddly my spell isn't giving me anything about what the writing means. It does seem to be divine magic, which admittedly isn't my specialty, but if it were a normal spell, I still should have been able to read it. Perhaps it is guarded by one of the spells of obfuscation?"
There's no map here from what I can tell. Unless there's some hidden door that we're missing this is a dead end
Wait a minute... weren't we supposed to exhume this Dairoo character?
to move along a bit.
there are no secret doors in here.
"Dairoo... we're not in the right place, are we? This could get us in trouble with the locals."
Well we don't have to tell them and anyway destroying some evil undead is practically a community service. Let's get out of here and look at some of the other tombs
"I do have that spell, Conner, but we've searched the place and there's nothing here to reveal."
He nods his head in agreement with Felix. "A service, yes, and Im sure there are plenty of interesting things to discover but maybe we do our extra exploring after we have what we came for? The map is the real prize."
Tatsuo raises an eyebrow as he looks over the scroll, eyes glowing faintly blue as he reads. "Huh, it looks like it's a scroll to form a magic circle against evil. Kind of an odd thing to find in a tomb full of undead that seem to be bound to the place. Unless it was dropped by someone else hoping to clense the place? Although the scroll should have been plenty of protection since it's powerful enough."
He carefully rolls the scroll back up, placing it in its case. "But yes, we may as well head out if this isn't the place. Does anyone remember seeing another place likely to be Dairoo's crypt?"
Looking over the graveyard, Miyaro suggests, "If we divide up into two groups, we could search adjacent areas, move faster, and still be able to assist if we find anything else that not enjoying it's long rest."
The party splits up for a bit but it isn't very long before Del and Felix spot the most likeliest candidate. Over here I think. As fun as tomb raiding is I think this is the one we were looking for.
Felix takes 20 on this new place with Guidance still up for 30.
After some searching you eventually find This grave in a remote corner of the Cemetery.
The grave look like it has been neglected for a long time.
there is no grand mausoleum nor fancy crypt, just a simple gravestone marker and a place to dig.
"The mage mentioned it. The eldest son of each generation would die on the same date at the same age of a withering disease, I believe. If Dairoo had no son, the superstitious must feel that he did not pass it on. I wonder what the date was. I would suppose it would have been significant - this doesn't sound like an accident, but the work of something more than mortal, don't you think?"
Felix takes another swig. Anybody got a shovel? Let's start robbing the grave.
Delkaneth looks at the musket wielder with a look of horror. "What? 'Robbing'? We do no such thing....we're exploring and uncovering mysteries. We'll be nothing but respectful, of course!"
His tone is light so its hard to determine whether the young man is being sincere or sarcastic in his concern for the dearly departed. While he is talking he reaches into his pack, pulling out a foot long bar of metal which he begins twisting and bending. Soon it begins to take on the form of a simple shovel.
"Robbing he says........."
Tatsuo grimaced at the thought of digging up a dead man. There was something that was just really unclean about the whole idea. The fact that not all of them could dig simultaneously and as one of the more physically frail members of the party he probably wouldn't have much to contribute gave him little comfort. With a sigh, he waved a finger to summon an invisible hand to at least somewhat help with the task.
Sensing her friend's unease, Sora gently headbutts him in the side, almost toppling him with her comparatively larger strength. He grins and rubs her nose. "Keep a look out for us, will ya girl?" With a soft trill, Sora nods and begins scanning the area around them for movement.
You dig at the grave where you believe Walker Dairoo is buried.
You barely go 3 or 4 feet down when you find a coffin wrapped in chains.
the coffin itself is made of metal. it will take some strength to remove to whole thing. But you can probably uncover enough to open it in the hole.
the chain is secured with an old padlock (DC 20 disable device to open)
you find in the dirt an old rusty key that was probably tossed into the grave before filling the hole.
Conner does detect evil from inside the coffin but the metal of the coffin masks much of the magic. there is magic from inside the coffin as well, but not enough of a visible aura to identify it.
This is not good. Whatever is in there should be killed!
"I wonder if it is related to the curse."
"So, who wants to bet on what kind of undead creature is trapped inside? I can think of no other reason why the coffin would be chained up. After all, if they wished to keep people out of the coffin, they probably should have buried it in a more secure location. Or at least an unmarked one." Tatsuo pulls out one of his vials of holy water, making sure the rest of his undead fighting gear is easily accessible. He also moves slightly away from the metal casing, motioning for Sora to do the same, though she still remains within biting distance.
"I hope it's not one of the smelly undead. Perhaps we should have looked more closely at that tomb earlier to see if it was only those specific skeletons that were bound to the location or if it'd work for whatever's in here. At the very least, if we opened it in there, we'd have it trapped in a small location where it couldn't get away."
That's a good idea. We drag the coffin in there before we open it. We can position ourselves to contain it and attack it from all angles Felix agrees with Tatsuo.
"It looks heavy. My magic could help someone's ability to carry it."
Felix will help with moving the coffin into the recently cleared tomb.
The coffin will take the effort of the entire party to move.
you can see Veoden wandering around looking for something. he seems to be heading in your direction.
"There's Veoden. He seems to be searching for something. Maybe he knows more about this before we try to move it."
Tatuso nods to Miyaro. "Cast your spell on Sora. She's as strong as most humans, and while it might be awkward for her to try lifting the coffin, she can almost certainly drag it wherever it needs to go." As he speaks, he pulls out some rope, looking for handles of some sort to tie it to to make it easier to drag. "Or perhaps just cast it on Conner and see if his superior maneuverability with her strength can get it to the tomb."
He glances up only briefly from attempting to make a harness at the mention of Veoden. He frowns slightly, but continues his work. "Isn't he supposed to stay outside?" Slight suspicion edges the words.
"He was. Very strange."
Delkaneth watches the man for a moment trying to determine what he is doing. The group is not exactly being stealthy so Veoden should be able to find them without much trouble. If they are what he is searching for, that is.
"Maybe Miya's right and he knows more than he told us. Let's get his reaction to seeing the coffin before dragging it out."
Well let's call him over then