It's been three days since your party left civilization behind. You've been headed north across the plains and rolling hills, following directions given by locals, and just last night, you reached what you're sure is the entrance to the Valley of Shrines. It's a narrow dirt path, weaving through the hills, its beginning marked by a pair of white marble obelisks, cracked and weathered with age.
Even derelict and long forgotten, the obelisks seemed to excude an aura of peace, and you decided to make camp beside them.
The next morning, you follow the trail into the hills.
It takes the better part of the day, but you eventually make it to the end of the trail. The valley floor opens up around you, stretching for miles ahead. To the north, you spot a lake, with a pair of white marble temples sitting on your side of the shore.
Much, much further to the northwest, you can just glimpse what has to be a fairly large forest.
All around, the hills rise above you, eventually giving way to the Stoneheart Mountains proper.
Rhiannon stretched slightly as she looked towards the temples. "Well, looks like we're almost there." she said cheerfully, glancing back at the rest of the group that had decided to come along. She absolutely adored crafting and working with stone, but sometimes a girl just wanted to get out of the city for awhile and have some fun... and this had seemed like a prime chance to check out some old architecture and prepare for jobs on the temples now that the Old Temple district was showing some renewal back in Bard's Gate.
She'd stayed around the middle of the group as they'd traveled, occasionally gathering the power of the earth to launch a long-range boulder on anything that got too close. Those had been warning shots, mostly, to scare off dangerous wildlife and ensure the group wasn't molested too badly as they journeyed. She had, however, needed to remember that other people tended to need more sleep than she did, and that a mid-day nap wasn't as helpful for them as it was for her. Alas, slowing down for others was how her life often went, but it was what it was.
Arianna's ears droop, almost disappearing into her hair. She'd seen her sister disappear into one of those temples, and she's seen nothing of Shadowwind since then. Part of her clings to the hope that Brianna is still alive, but another part of her is certain that she'll find her beloved twin as a corpse, or worse.
"Yes, we are," she replies to Rhiannon's statement before returning to her duties, which included cooking supper for the others.
Saying a quick prayer over her food, Lorien smiles at Arianna and gives her thanks. Tasting the bland food she still smiles, as the hot food filles her belly. "Almost. Does anyone know more about this area? That lake with the Temple looks very serene!"
"The land is cursed and the dead walk it," Arianna states rather bluntly, "other than that, I do not know anything."
She eats another bite and tries not to look disappointed.
They must think I'm the worst cook ever!
The burial halls themselves are supposed to lie in the heart of the forest.
Gren sits down heavily, apparently oblivious to the conversation and removes his right boot.
Its not that I mind hiking but three days!...I need better boots.
He lets out a heavy sigh as he rubs the back of his foot. He smiles and looks up at Arianna.
"What's for dinner? I find cooking an underappreciated art. It is an art mind you. I've known cooks from back home who could be given a sack of totally random ingredients and turn it into a meal fit for nobility."
Taking some feed to her mule, Lorien carefully checks that the pack animal is still fit and looks to the others. "If we want to reach the temple today, we shouldn´t waste daytime!"
Keshokkar gives the rest of the group a skeptical once-over. The mercenary has been pretty quiet the last few days, but as the Valley of Shrines comes into view he starts muttering imprecations, sprinkled with irregular accusative looks at the sky. "Why are we stopping," the wyvaran complains, the first words he's spoken louder than a mutter in over two days. "We've still got daylight left, and there's nothing defensible about this spot."
Gren fishes around in his pack for a second before pulling out a bundle of books.
"I know I read about this area the other day...what did it say?..."
As he pulls out a book and begins to read he vacantly puts his boot back on and stands up, ready to go.
Hearing Kesh complain, Lorien soothingly replies."We had hunger. You know some sliced ham and bread for the way after some hours of dedicated marching. It is just a sandwich!"
Smiling to the Ifrit woman Lorien nods. "Well then not dillidalli. Gren get your boot on, otherwise your swollen foot won´t fit inside!"
Rhiannon arched an eyebrow as the others talked, more amused than anything else. "I can forage for myself if we take it slow... but we probably should try to make the best time we can." she noted. As she spoke, she got her glowing lamp out of her backpack. It was a well-crafted thing, imparted with a Continual Flame spell that made it so it could shed light for as long as she needed it to. It had cost her a pretty penny - several jobs worth of work, in fact - but for someone without the ability to see in the dark and who went underground a lot, it was quite helpful.
There was no real need for it out here - yet - but she didn't want to have to worry about it once they entered the nearby temples. And with that, she set off towards them.
You spend the next ten minutes walking over to the temple in the distance. As you come closer, it becomes clear that the lake is everything but clear. Reeds cluster the shore, and the waters themselves are brown and brackish.
The tributary river coming in from the northeast seems much clearer.
The corruption of the waters is nothing against that of the temples however. The twin shrines face towards the shore, away from you, and while they're made from white marble, the interior wall surrounded by mighty pillars, both of them have clearly been scorched by fire, the stone of the pillars cracked and often broken, and both rooftops seem to have largely collapsed in on themselves.
Beyond the devestation of flame, the shrines have also been desecrated by smears of foul substances in various hues of brown, black and red. The designs seem largely random, although there's more than a few scribbles of runes and text.
In the background, you hear the humming of all sorts of insects over the lake.
The air seems colder here, although the sun still sits in the evening sky.
"Oh, that's just wrong." Rhiannon said, scowling. She knew how much work went into creating the stonework for temples, and how much care and attention they received afterwards. Abusing all of that like this was just... ugh. Sighing slightly, she eyeballed the place from a decent distance to try and see if anything nasty had moved in. Ruined places did tend to attract unsavory residents, after all, and there was no harm in being prudent.
Rhiannon thinks she hears a click click sound from inside the northwesternmost temple. Perhaps the sound of claws on marble.
Still, it's quiet, and intermittent at best. Migth have been the wind.
The only openings in the temple seems to be the roof, and presumably a doorway oriented towards the shore. You can't look inside from here.
Arianna cautiously creeps towards the door with her bow out and an arrow nocked, hoping that the people she'd found on the road to Bard's Gate would come to her aid if needed.
I hope I don't have to find out.
Arianna sneaks ahead, stepping onto the stone foundation of the temple, and moving between the pillars. Just as she's about to turn the corner, and get near the doorway, one of the many scribbles on the wall flares red, just above her head, and explodes in a gout of flame, the fire washing over her.
The sounds of claws on stone from inside the temple picks up, as whatever lurks inside comes out to investigate the source of the explosion.
Interactive Map, you can (and should) move your tokens with the movement you intend to take.
Skeletons come spilling out of the half-darkened interior of the shrine. They're rust-brown, as if someone had the bones peeled clean, and then meticulously dipped every bit of them in blood, and let it dry. The small shields and longswords they hold carry the same coating.
Three of them gather around Arianna, swinging at her with their swords, while the rest surge around her, making for the rest of the party.
As the skeletons came into view, Rhiannon stepped back slightly before pointing at the sixth target. Her method of combat wasn't as fancy as the swordplay that some people used, but it did have the advantage of being brutally straightforward. As she drew her hand back, rocks and stone collected into a sphere somewhat larger than her head. She could have shaped it into a long spear to pierce foes, or a long edge to slice through them... but this wasn't the first time she'd encountered the walking dead, and quite frankly, going right to bashing them was quite sufficient. That, and it was more fun.
As soon as her weapon was complete - which had only taken a second or two to begin with - she flicked her hand and sent it shooting across the space between her and her target.
for
Arianna lets out a yelp of pain as the sword opens a wound on her arm. She drops her bow, and focuses on thinning the ranks before her as she retreats towards the others. Seeing that she wouldn't have enough time to ready her quarterstaff, she instead balls her hands into fists and begins using the iron plates attached to the leather wraps covering her knuckles to crush unholy bones.
"Next time...extracts and then fight..."
Gren draws his rapier and moves in.
"...also note to self, it is difficult to fence with a skeleton."
The adrenaline coursing through him forces his next comment to come out both higher pitched and louder than he intends.
"Somebody help out Arianna!"
Lorien walks carefully closer and brandishes her holy symbol. "In faith we destroy the undead in Sarenrae´s light!"
She then casts Bless.
"Gren take my silver weapon! Skeleton´s need blunt weapons!"
"Well that didn't take long," the wyvaran mutters, immediately taking to the air. With a growl the winged mercenary lunges forward, sweeping past one of the lead piles of bones and shattering it with one devastating strike with his glaive.
One of them destroyed, they nevertheless keep coming, swinging their rustbrown swords at you
Arianna and Gren are each beset by three of them, while the remaining one goes after Zatinya.
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Another boulder arced through the air-
-but this time it was rather less accurate than the previous one had been. Alas, unlike some kineticists, she often needed to do more than simply strike her foes in order to damage them... the one flaw in what was otherwise a fairly reliable way of smashing thing.
Seeing the ranger in dire straits, the wyvaran's wings bear him swiftly towards the knot of undead assailing her. "Hey rattlebones!" he shouts in an effort to distract the mindless creatures' attention from her. Swooping past, his glaive lashes out at the nearest undead's exposed spine.
Ironically it was the strength of the first blow that saves Gren. The skeleton's strike opens a nasty gash on Gren's forehead but pushes him below the swing of the second foe. Unfortunately the final skeleton swings lower cracking a rib on Gren's right side.
That will leave a mark
The investigator uses the momentum of the strike to spin away from the combat, moves behind his companions and begins to work at the straps on Lorien's backpack.
"Lorien, my dear I know you showed it to me the other day but where do you keep that thing?"
"Thanks Kesh," Arianna calls out before trying to punch out the skeleton before her and continuing her retreat.
Moving towards Gren and turning so that he can take the battle aspergillum hanging from her backpack Lorien Channels positive energy
DC 18 will
The light wash over the dead, to startlingly little effect.
The two groups of skeletons have now converged around Zatinya and Arianna, the two of them surrounded by swords and bones.
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Your pack animals you've brought along start backing up nervously, clearly uncomfortable with the fighting.
Gren drops his rapier and opens Lorien's pack. His eyes are immediately drawn to the reflective surface of her silver battle aspergillum. As quickly as he can, he grabs it and hears a soft sloshing sound coming from inside the weapon.
"Whoever made this did a fine job"
With that done, Gren looks back up trying to judge where best to re-enter the fray and help his beleaguered companions.
"Well done Zatinya, keep at them!"
Gren stands ready to meet the next threat.
Rhiannon was starting to feel awfully lonely - especially because she apparently hadn't quite managed to smash her target earlier. Unfortunately, flinging boulders was about all she was good for here-
-and her next attack was no better than the last, simply bouncing off of her target's armor. Frowning, she maneuvered over towards the others to close up their ranks a bit. If she could just hit something, she could probably damage it enough to let someone else finish it off...
Arianna continues to dodge the blows the skeletons send her way, sidestepping one, ducking another, then sending another high with a well timed block. The ranger has less luck with her counter attack, missing twice as her blows go wide of the most damaged skeleton. She continues to retreat, hoping the others are having better luck than she is.
++Round 3++
Growling in irritation when the skeleton he struck didn't fall to pieces like the last one, Kesh's wings beat powerfully, arresting his forward movement and turning him around. Screaming incoherently he tries to finish what he started.
Seeing Gren and Arianne wounded Lorien channels positive energy to heal them.
Keshokkar bashes the spine of the skeleton to pieces, and it falls apart.
The five remaining skeletons close in on Lorien and Arianna.
Arianna finally finds a rhythm and lands two bone-splintering blows on the skeleton before dancing back and to the side another step, angling to regroup with the others.
[ooc]Please tell me 16 points of damage is enough to kill these things.
For the moment, at least, the enemies weren't managing to do too much. More importantly, it looked like they were finally whittling down the enemies... but they didn't need to get caught in a pincer, and when foes were engaged in melee, her accuracy got worse. Instead, Rhiannon gestured, and a wall of rock shot up to Arianna's north to block passage by the skeleton that still seemed to be in there. It wouldn't hold a determined foe off for very long, but it would at least slow it down and let Arianna focus on a pincer of her own.
++Round 4++
Seeing Arianna's situation now much more equitable with two of the skeletons destroyed, Keshokkar lets his wings carry him forward into another strike against the undead pressing his other companions.
Finally finding an opening, Gren steps back into the fray and takes a swing at one of the skeletons menacing Zatinya.
Taking a step back and not to be daunted Lorien channels again, again to harm the unliving
You seem to be catching a break - the majority of the skeletons have fallen, things are looking up.
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