You have come to the fabled city of Kaer Maga. Your reasons for coming are your own, but one thing is for certain, you are looking for work, and the church of Pharasma is hiring!
You hear from various places that the Godsmouth Cathedral is currently having a problem. Bodies have gone missing!
You meet up at the Cathedral at midnight and meet with Valanthe Nerissia, a priestess of Pharasma. "Welcome friends! I hear your the ones brave enough to adventure into the Ossuary and investigate our little problem. As you have heard, bodies have gone missing and we would like to put a stop to it. The church will offer you 500gp for bringing the culprit to justice. We will offer you an additional 250gp if you clear the Ossuary of all threats. Also, any valuables you find down in the crypts if yours, barring anything that is sacred to Pharasma."
She clears her throat from speaking before continuing, "I can take you now to the entrance or you can come back if you still need to get supplies for the journey"
I think I have every thing I need. Are the rest of you ready to go?
Un-slings his crossbow and lays it across his shoulder, "I am in no need of any supplies. Let us find these desacraters."
Natty places his backpack on the ground and rumbles around inside, "I hope that's everything, I got good ready OK. Now go, yep ... on. After you friend."
Cilda looks around at the four others who she will apparently be working with. She kept a safe distance from the dwarven wizard, "Let's just get this done fast. I'm ready to go."
Natty licks his lips, "So we have a pretty here, what you do? What I call you?" he says to the human female. He nervously fingers his mace, he has a way of upsetting strangers.
"Welcome Friends. In the name of the Cathedral I shall accompany you." a young Chellaxian man says as he steps forward. He wears the robes of Pharasma over what sounds to be chain underneath. In addition to the daggers on his hips he also has an abnormally large collection up suspender like sheathes on his chest. a large shield bearing the symbol of Pharasma is slung on his back and a wooden holy symbol hangs at his neck. He looks at no one more than a few seconds and seems to flinch just a bit when you make eye-to-eye contact and then drops his gaze. He pulls his hood up after his introduction.
"Shall we enter then?"
The priestess nods to each of you and grabs out a small case, she openes it and hands you each two vials of liquid. "One is holy water, blessed by our esteemed priest. The second is a cure light potion. Use them well, as once I lead you to the Ossuary and seal you in, I will not be able to let you out until the job is done..."
She puts the case away, "Come, I will show you to the entrance of the Ossuary" She leads you out of the room and down a long corridor of the temple, taking a few turns along the way, you come before two large double doors, two priests are waiting outside. Valanthe picks up a long thin tube from one of the priests and hands it to you "That is a bell of opening. It will allow you to get past the various seals of Pharasma. It has five uses left, and remember to save the last one as these doors here will not open unless you ring the bell. Good luck to you all"
The doors open and you are ushered in, the doors make a loud grinding noise as the close in behind you. A stairway leads down into the Ossuary and you begin to decend down into it.
Natty looks down the stairs, mumbling to himself, "Don't trust nuffing, watch yer step. See if any stone is outta place."
"I am afraid I'm not much use on a front line my friends" offers the young priest. If possible the 4th position would be optimal...
Fixed
Muttering loudly to himself, "All good, nah holy ones, never much for blood and entrails. Be good to him, remember that, him has power to heal." He tries to cajole Cilda in front "After you pretty one."
Cilda barely restrains the urge to smack the half-orc for his teasing remark. "My name is Cilda. And you will call me that if you don't want me to hurt you."
Nevertheless, she is the first to head down the stairs, weapon at the ready.
Taking up a position in the middle of the group, the dwarf says, "This is where I stand, for it is the best tactical position."
Looks around at the stonework of the Ossuary.
Natty chuckles at the woman's words, "After you then Cilda." he makes a small bow as she goes down the stairs, "Call me Natty." he follows on. Turning round to those behind, "Well follow on shorty, stop admiring the walls and you, come on." he laughs. His footfalls make less and less sound as he descends the stairs, despite his size, he seems nimble on his feet.
Maus Holds the sunrod high and takes his shield into the ready. He follows as directed and looks at no one directly.
As you make your way down into the dark of the Ossuary, you can see a small amount of light from below. As you decend further, everything goes dark.
Ralthak Rinson is suddenly attacked from above by an unknown assailant. Ralthak is surrounded by what feels like cords that try to wrap around him.
The tenticles wrap around Ralthak tightly
Perception
Maus will Drop sunrod as free and draw a dagger in the surprise round.
Like these: Throwing Daggers
SOO... given your ruling I will throw one this round...
Dagger throw: +4 to hit but -4 for throwing into combat
Miss chance
Damage
Well I would have beat the miss chance of 50% but bad roll :(
The jarring sound of a dagger clinking off stone is followed by the sound of the same dagger, clanking and pinging off stairs as it bounces down. A low curse comes from the priest of Pharasma.
Looking on ahead into the darkness, Natty is surprise by the sounds of metal objects hitting the walls behind him.
I think you might also hear the sounds of Ralthak getting squeezed, and, if I know half-orcs, cursing...
even with your poor perception roll :)
Hearing the thing move behind him, Choztu turns around and fires a bolt.
And hears the distinct sound of the bolt bouncing off the stone wall.
Perception
Ralthak notices something in the dark just before tenticle snake around and grab him.
AoO
His clumsy punch missing, Ralthak releases a stream of curses and tries to pry the thing off.
Grapple check
I think its a dark mantle. Kill it.
Are we on to the regular attack round then? or are we waiting on Cilda?
If we can accept that, then...
Cilda turns around quickly, hearing the sounds from behind her. She tries to rush forward and attempts to use her weapon's long reach to attack the creature.
Maus slides another dagger from his chest sheathes and quickly flicks it at where he believes the creature is.
+4 to hit -4 into melee
But the darkness may cause his aim to be off...
50% miss chance
but the dagger strikes true and causes light damage to the darkmantle:
with a solid thunk.
"Praise to the goddess for my true Aim"
Cilda enters into a rage at the Darkmantle that has surprised the group. "Damn pest!" she yells as she swings her weapon at it.
Please kill it, it is invading my personal space
CMC to break graple
However, her attack unfortunately misses the target, which easily dodges the hasty swing of her weapon.
Cursing, in dwarven, under his breath, Choztu reloads his crossbow with amazing quickness and fires.
Once again, the clear sound of the bolt hitting the resonates in his ears.
Turning Natty draws his crossbow and lets off a bolt in the direcction of the fight.
Several crossbow bolts and knives hit the Darkmantle, which screams in furious fustration. However Cilda ends its life with a loud crack that resonates throughout the staircase. The darkness that had enveloped you has quickly disappated and you see as the darkmantle falls from the ceiling and splats on the stair beside you.
After defeating the Darkmantle, you continue down the spiral staircase, finally coming to a large chamber. Three doors lead off in all directions, North, East and West.
Old carvings cover the walls of this square chamber, thick with dust and cobwebs. Three sets of stone double doors stand in the three facing walls. Heavy bronze seals emblazoned with the symbol of Pharasma secure the doors against whatever lies beyond.
Maus collects his daggers from stairs and body and cleans them fastidiously before re-sheathing. He also reclaims his sunrod.
He lays hands on the creature that has been defeated and leans more about it (considered a natural 20 on knowledge check with a touch) and provides that knowledge to anyone who cares to know.
"Were you injured brother?" Asks the quiet priest to Ralthak.
Cilda gets out of her rage mode, starts cleaning her weapon, and studies her surroundings. "He'll be fine," she tells the priest. "That thing barely had enough time to give anyone a scratch, let alone something serious."
She spends some time looking around the large room they find themselves in. "So...which door should we go through first?"
Maus glances at Cilda when she speaks and visibly flinches as he watches her get crushed by a falling stone slab. A second later reality comes back as he looks away.
"We should NOT go to the East." Maus mutters.
"Natty, please be sure to check for traps as we go?"he says somewhat louder.
Perception:
"What's this?" Maus says absently as he ambles over to the North wall...
he points out some newer writing on the north wall, written in common. It reads as "My heart beats on the wrong side of my chest, or is it right? Is left right, or is it wrong? I don’t know what it means, or why"