Feres steps carefully through the debris covering the floor of the antechamber, making his way over to the collapsed skeletons. The stout priest bends down and studies the bones. "I wonder if there's any way to determine if these are the remains of the Land family?" he asks.
"I was wondering the same thing. Maybe we should gather them up just in case?
"Well, there's another way to find out." Valgrim takes one of the vials and has a swig, hoping it will cure his wounds.
Valgrim's guess is indeed correct and he feels refreshed as he quaffs the potion, healing 6 points of damage.
The skeletons are two adults and a young adult.
Heal 15 or Knowledge (nature) 15:
Except for the heavy crossbows (and three more of them lying next to the skeletons, also tipped with some greasy poison), there is nothing valuable in the room.
The door is warped and slightly stuck but not locked.
"Thank you Torag, for keeping your humble servant safe. The vials are healing potions, comrades." Valgrim takes another of the vials and puts it in his belt pouch in case he needs it. "We can take treasures later, right now, we need to get to Filge!"
"Two of the skeletons - this adult one and the young one here - show the type of deformities that indicate that they died from the plague," Feres says as he studies the bones.
"Do we know if the Lands died of the plague? Package their bones separately, just in case, and let's keep moving."
The door opens into a hall of sorts. A number of doors opposite lead into small living quarters that look like they haven't been used for many years. On the left there is a warped and stuck door and ahead lies an open door, from which comes a stench of carrion.
We follow the carrion smell.
"Do we know if the Lands died of the plague? Package their bones separately, just in case, and let's keep moving."
"You're right, Valgrim. Probably best to take any skeletal remains we find, just to play it safe," Feres agrees with the dwarven ranger.
There is also a four-petaled flower symbol on three of the tombstones, of Bermissa, Coldaran and Gertia, who all died in the same year (about 15 years ago). Alastor has no death-date assigned and Anders, the father, died some 30 years ago.
Heal 10 or Knowledge (history) or (local) 10:
There is also a four-petaled flower symbol on three of the tombstones, of Bermissa, Coldaran and Gertia, who all died in the same year (about 15 years ago). Alastor has no death-date assigned and Anders, the father, died some 30 years ago.
Heal 10 or Knowledge (history) or (local) 10:
The revolting stench of rotting flesh roils from the open door. In the room beyond, ten chairs surround an oblong dining table situated parallel to the door. Along the north wall, a wide staircase leads to an upper floor. A wooden door below the stairs presumably leads to a slim chamber. Two doors line the south wall. A sagging antique wooden shelf dominates the west wall, looking like it might collapse at any moment.
Three tall candles on the dining table illuminate a sight of terror. With the exception of the place at the western end, each of the chairs surrounding the table holds an awkwardly seated humanoid figure. The nine bodies are in various stages of decomposition. Some sit with splendid posture, paused as if midway through a sumptuous feast. Others slump treacherously close to the floor.
Heaping plates of apparently fresh food sit before each of the diners, but the empty place setting features a clean plate and set of utensils. Several bottles of red wine rest upon the table, and each of the corpses sits before a half-finished glass. A fly passes nearby, its there-not-there buzz breaking the eerie silence.
"An undead dinner party, with a seat for the necromancer?! This Filge is one sick bastard!"
"Sick and crazy".
If no magic is detected, Valgrim moves to the stairs and goes up.
There is also a four-petaled flower symbol on three of the tombstones, of Bermissa, Coldaran and Gertia, who all died in the same year (about 15 years ago). Alastor has no death-date assigned and Anders, the father, died some 30 years ago.
Heal 10 or Knowledge (history) or (local) 10:
The revolting stench of rotting flesh roils from the open door. In the room beyond, ten chairs surround an oblong dining table situated parallel to the door...Three tall candles on the dining table illuminate a sight of terror. With the exception of the place at the western end, each of the chairs surrounding the table holds an awkwardly seated humanoid figure. The nine bodies are in various stages of decomposition. Some sit with splendid posture, paused as if midway through a sumptuous feast. Others slump treacherously close to the floor.
Heaping plates of apparently fresh food sit before each of the diners, but the empty place setting features a clean plate and set of utensils. Several bottles of red wine rest upon the table, and each of the corpses sits before a half-finished glass. A fly passes nearby, its there-not-there buzz breaking the eerie silence.
Feres' jaw drops as he observes the grotesque scene. "This just isn't right!" he exclaims in a hushed voice. "Everlight's Mercy! This Filge must be stopped!"
As Bubba casts a spell to detect magical auras, Feres shares a horrifying thought with his companions. "These bodies...do any of you recognize anyone missing from town?"
[ooc]The corpses all exude an aura of moderate necromancy.[/ooc
You don't recognize any of them. By their clothing it looks as if they are from the City State in the south. They are all dressed as wizards or aristocrats, in fine if rotted and tattered clothing.
Valgrim heads up the stairs, looking for the flickering lights he saw through the observatory's windows on the 2nd and 3rd floors when we first arrived, assuming Filge will be where the lights are.
Bubba heads up as well, keeping a close eye on the corpses.
"Those are magically preserved and might be animate." he warns.
The stairs lead to a massive bedchamber that fills an entire floor of the observatory tower. Light filtering in from the tall windows ringing the chamber catches motes of dust in the calm air. A fine bed with plump red linen sheets squats upon a dais along the southeast cradle of the tower’s arc. A nightstand next to the bed holds a wax-choked candlestick and a black book bound with brown and red leather.
At the midpoint of the eastern wall a strange form stands rigid atop a short wooden stool, as tall as a halfling and clothed in a fine black suit and tophat. Clean cloth bandages wrap every inch of the sentry’s skin. A pair of ash-tinted spectacles rests upon a long skinny nose. The diminutive dandy holds a silver platter as if presenting a meal, and upon the tray rests the freshly preserved severed head of a middle-aged human woman. A platinum piece sits upon her outstretched, purple tongue.
A messy desk rests against the opposite wall, piled high with loose papers. An apparatus holding four long tubes filled with colored liquid peeks out from the clutter. Doors on the north and west walls appear
to lead to small closets. Wide stairs lead above and below. A massive white stone statue of a thin human man with outstretched angelic wings and a beatific look upon his idealized face looms large in the northwest arc of the tower wall. The angel holds a sword in one hand and
cradles a harp with the other. The presentation conjures thoughts of mausoleum peaks or the graves of important men. Tall letters etched upon the statue’s base spell out a single word: “Filge.”
There are no visible enemies in the room.
"My, this guy sure does have a grand opinion of himself!", whispers Valgrim, he stares at the angel. Valgrim tells everyone to be quiet and makes a Perception check to listen for any sounds from the room or above him.
You hear steps upstairs and even someone casting a spell.
Valgrim puts a finger to his lips, motions up with his finger twice, and leads the group up the stairs, twin axes in hand.
If Bubba can heat the spell he ties to determine what it is.
A single chamber dominates the observatory’s entire upper floor. Light filters through the wide slit in the roof, bathing the center of the room in illumination. Four large mirrors set along the outside wall reflect bright beams into the direct center of the room, a recessed operating theater accessible via two short sets of stairs. The beams specifically target a blue-skinned humanoid figure splayed out upon an operating table, its chest completely opened and pinned back against the table with long metal needles. Two long shelves cluttered with piles of papers, rotting organs, and instruments comprise the east and west extent of the operating theater, and are only a few inches lower than the chamber’s outer floor.
Four metal-and-glass tanks, each easily large enough to hold a human, flank the short stairs leading to the operating theater. Each tank is full of yellow liquid streaked with rust. Indistinct, vaguely human silhouettes bob silently in the soupy fluid.
In this ghastly place a man in robes goes pottering about, a disembodied hand following him around the room. As he stitches and saws, the sallowskinned necromancer sings a dreadful melody in the hoarse, hacking voice of an addict. When he sees you he lets out a whistle and attacks.
Roll for initiative. Map coming soon.
The guy is singing?!!! He must be put down!
Knowledge (arcana) 22:
Filge sneers. "You must have disabled my guardians. But fear not. You will soon join them. Arise, my beautiful monstrosities!" he calls out, gesturing towards the fluid tanks. Out of the tanks burst four towering creatures, one hairy brute to your left and three reptilian creatures, all with dead eyes and a lumbering gait.
Filge casts another spell and the ghostly hand flies towards Urg. Only the barbarian's lightning-quick reflexes enable him to evade it. Then he ducks behind the platform. Only now you notice that he is accompanied by a small (5 feet tall and slender) skeleton carrying a scimitar.
Map updated, with zombies and all.
You go before the zombies but after Filge. Anyone who likes can post for Vug and Chisora if you like. If not, I'll DMPC them tomorrow night. Your turn.
"No need to fight now, can't we be friends?"
Bubba casts a spell of his own.
Valgrim will take a 5' step to I5 towards the Zombie to his left, and yell "To the grave you undead abominations, to the grave I send ye!"
Then spinning both axes, he goes full attack on the creature!
Filge stops abruptly in his tracks as Bubba's spell takes effect and breaks out in an oily smile. "Oh, I see", he says motioning for the zombies to stop. "You must excuse me. One cannot be too careful these days. I assume that Balabar Smenk sent you? What is your business here?"
"Yeah, Balabar sent us, told us that your grave-robbin' and necromantic stuff has been drawin' too much attention to the operation so we've got to destroy your pets as a lesson to ye!"
"Mr. Filge, please call off you minions so my friends can stop defending themselves, then we can talk."
Filge does indeed call off his minions, but he looks a bit annoyed as Valgrim and Chisora took quite a chunk out of the hairy zombie. "What do you want?"
"We were not sent by Smenk, but we did talk to one of his former henchmen, a man named Kullen. He told us you hired him to recover the bones of the Land family. We are also interested in those bones, and we were hoping you could help us. Will you let us have the bones? Perhaps we can do a favor for you in return."
Filge laughs a dry, hacking laugh. "These old bones?" he asks, knocking on the head of the skeleton beside him. "You know, I don't really know what kind of bones those clods brought me, and I suspect you destroyed the guardians downstairs coming here. Tell you what, if you just bring me some replacement bones you can surely have these rickety old things, even if I can't for the life of me see of what use they would be to you."
Valgrim is gripping his axes so tightly his knuckes are white, just waiting for the cue from Bubba to attack the hairy zombie.
Valgrim looks at Bubba and says, "Now what we know where the bones are, can we finish what we started?"
"Be my guest." he says to Valgrim.
"Thank you Mr. Filge, but it appears my friends don't want to be yours as well."
A big smile appears on Valgrim's face, as he engages the same zombie in combat.
So... Urg, Feres and Vug Vang are up, then the zombies and Filge.
. She moves to H5 and lobs a bomb at Z3, saying "Embrace the flames, Mr. Zombie!"
Urg attacks the ghostly hand.
"Whoa, big zombies over here, Urg! Why are you attacking a hand?!"