"Something worse than those awf'ly polite assassins? I can think of a lot that fits that bill." Chana comments with a snort as she follows back into the hallway.
She leans over the corpse, sniffing, then listening in to Olivia's analysis.
"Something not human? I doubt we're going to find some kind of wild animal down here. More likely..." She pauses as she recollects some of the more brutal killings she's stumbled across before. There's a way that otherwise ordinary people can summon up an urge to rip and tear like an animal, when it comes to it. But this looked even more primal. "Undead then? Why would there be undead in a noble's hideout?"
She lets the question hang in the air as she stows away her parasol and instead breaks the peace-binding on her scimitar. "Might as well be prepared."
----
Once the rest of the group has taken a look at the corpse (or chosen not to), she starts heading towards the doors on this side with her scimitar out. She keeps her ears open, and nose sniffing for any scent of undead flesh.
Greenly ignores Amandine's scolding, viewing herself as decidedly above the woman. After all, she was going to be an Ulfen Guard.
All the talk of undead spooks her and she draws her weapon, beckoning for Malphene to stay close by. "Amandy," she starts, "do you still have your, like, old sword? I'm sure Miss Malphene would appreciate it- not that she'll need to swing it, but being armed is, like, super great for your confidence."
From the other room, Photinè recognizes the name that Olivia mentions. She had found the man rather dull, but still, his fate is a shame.
She steps out of the room, gesturing for Malphene and Zubari to join her.
"You can hardly stay by yourselves in here," she says, looking around the dusty hall in obvious distaste. "You'll have to come with us if you want to have any chance of making our rendezvous in Aroden's Hill. You wouldn't stand a lady up, would you?"
Her tone is amiable, and she smiles at Malphene.
Malphene remains in the hall with the party. She seems to find comfort in her bodyguard's presence - and renewed confidence in a budding, perhaps amicable rivalry with Photinè. Zubari also accompanies the group, subtly shamed into eschewing his safe room.
As Chana and Olivia raise suspicions of the undead, this casts their thoughts back to the presentation by the tour guide in the archives. He spoke of workers, in the bygone eras of the empire, who were sealed up within the walls of the old senate construction.
These warnings, and the accompanying creeping fear, keep everyone on edge. This wariness is rewarded, for Amandine is not caught unawares as a jagged claw emerges from the wall behind her, reaching for her neck. She leaps back from the wall and the body of Lord Manshum as a humanoid torso emerges from the wall, seemingly made of the same old stone.
Chana hesitates. What the heck kind of creature was this!? Like no undead thing she's ever heard of. But its evil intentions are obvious enough from the way its trying to grab at Amandine.
She drops into a wary crouch, scimitar held up with both hands, before springing forwards the slash at the living wall!
As her weapon strikes off the stone wall, an audible snarl escapes the protection of her veil.
Amandine jerks back from the grasping clawed hands and almost instinctively jabs back at them with her rapier.
"What the...! Beware the walls!"
The air around Photinè seems to shimmer briefly as she takes a defensive position.
Greenly's body is taut and ready, prepared for anything. She stays by her ward, sword out to strike at any threat.
However, you recognize this particular creature as an obscure type of undead known as a Walcofinde. These sinister creatures arise from those who were intentionally walled up and left to die.
Their true undead body is likely in repose somewhere within these walls, while what you see here is a simply a manifestation of the real creature created by merging part of itself with the surrounding stone. Nevertheless, due to the bond between the body and manifestation, harm done to the manifestation is also suffered by the creature itself.
Lastly, despite the apparent stony texture of the manifestation, it is no more tough or resilient than the normal decayed flesh of its physical body.
...
Photinè protects herself with magic, just as Greenly stands firm to protect Malphene.
Tanglefoot trots forward, offering a stirring call to courage just as he did on the senate floor above.
Zubari shuffles forward and reaches for his holy symbol, but in his nervous fear he drops it and gropes about the floor to reclaim it.
The undead emerging from the wall stretches its arms out unnaturally far and swipes for Amandine, but she evades the strikes.
Malphene pushes her way past Photinè, Tanglefoot, and Zubari to get a look at this new enemy, with her bodyguard following close behind.
Amandine's rapier leaves a sliver-sized gash upon the foe, while Chana's broader slash goes wide.
Amandine hugs the opposite wall across from the apparition in the wall, continuing to poke at it's clawing limbs.
"Don't worry? Are you even seeing what I'm seeing?"
Lunging low, Chana slashes upwards at the creature as it extends its ugly face out of the wall.
"I 'ere ya Oliv, it cuts open righ' easy!" Chana practically spits out her words, and what she does say is almost unintelligible to those not versed in the typical cant of the Narrows.
Olivia's second halberd swing proves her words correct, deftly wounding the not-so-stony creature.
Chana's scimitar proves to be the walcofinde's undoing.
Thanks to Tanglefoot's encouragement - or perhaps just to finish the battle and quiet the fool - Chana lops the undead's head off.
The victory is short lived, as a second walcofinde emerges from a different section of the wall - this one reaching out for Photinè.
Greenly steps forward, gladly interspersing herself between Photiné and the wall thing.
"Don't fret, Miss Mitchell," she says with a tightly controlled hack, "I'm here."
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Photinè shrieks at the sudden appearance of the walcofinde, but gathers her wits and steps forward to meet it. She hitches up her skirts, exposing sheer, black stockings held fast by complicated-looking garters, and, with a moan of disgust, kicks at the creature with the heel of her elegant shoe.
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Greenly's blade chops off one of the walcofinde's limbs, making it all the easier for Photinè to step forward and, with a high kick, bury the sharp heel of her boot into the undead creature's hollow eye and into its skull.
The manifestation goes limp and fades away as the undead creature, sealed somewhere within these walls, returns to true death.
No more stony figures emerge from the walls, and the dusty hall remains quiet for a time. However, a wooden creaking draws your attention to the northwestern door. The door is open a crack, and a nervous man peers out, presumably seeing if the way is safe now.
"The fusking 'ell were those fings?" Chana swears under her breath as she nervously looks around at each of the walls nearby for other protruding arms. When none emerge, she lowers her scimitar but doesn't stow it.
She flicks its tip in the direction of the nervous man and draws herself up to shout something uncouth at him. But just as she's about to call him out, she realizes she's let her noble act fall by the wayside. She pauses to gather herself, then says "Uh, you there? Come on out. They're dead. Or at least gone."
Greenly puts her sword away and nods at Photinè. "Well fought, Miss. 'Preciate the help."
In the lantern light, she catches the eye of the nervous man, standing up on her tip toes to offer a red stained smile and a wave. With a tilt of the head, she spits on the ground and clears her throat.
"Ugh," Photinè turns her foot left and right, examining her shoes. Satisfied that no harm has come to them, she returns her attention to the matter at hand, and takes a few cautious steps toward the figure in the doorway. She holds the lantern high, shedding light on herself and the others.
Amandine watches the walls until she's satisfied enough there will be no more graspers bulging out of them. Then, deciding dress-up time is well and truly over, she prepares for ease of of movement.
She gathers the skirt of her dress together at the front and tucks it between her legs and out the back. Taking the opposite ends of the skirt in each hand, she pulls them around her waist to the front. Finally she ties the two ends together. The end result makes Amandine look as if she is wearing short baggy pantaloons coming to just above her knees, with a voluminous sash tied around her waist.
It is a trick she has used for many years to keep her dress dry and clean while mopping or scrubbing floors, but now the reason is to free her legs for footwork.
Amandine then loosens the drawstring on her handbag and lays out all its contents. When it is empty, she turns the clothe bag completely inside out and repacks it. She puts her arms through the pair of leather straps sewn to its (previous) interior and wears it like a small backpack.
She asks Lady Vernisant "do you want this dagger now?" while holding up the family heirloom lifted earlier. If Olivia doesn't, she tucks it into the her dress where it's tied around her waist.
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"Ah, yes please." Replies Olivia with a bit of a smirk on her face.
After securing the dagger , Olivia walks to Chiara's side. "The light of the Inheritor shines upon you, sir. I am Lady Olivia Vernisant. Come with us and we will keep you safe."
Despite this, Olivia is keeping an eye on him for the moment. She's looking for signs of aggression, reaching for weapons, etc. This will activate her Detect Evil ability.
With assurances of safety, two men and a woman emerge from the candlelit safe room. They introduce themselves as Lord Wilfen Botoles, Sir Gryphus Plastion, and Lady Gael Urbaen.
You sense no malice among the three nobles. It is clear that they are very skittish even with the promise of safety, and you suspect that none of them have ever been in genuine danger before.
"Thank you so much for slaying those terrible creatures," Lord Botoles babbles, the light from Photinè's lantern revealing much easing fright written upon his wrinkled, sagging face. "When we were first teleported to safety down here, we tried to gain our bearings, but then those beasts practically tore Lord Manshum apart. Oh! It was so horrible how he screamed!" he moans despondently.
Of the three, only Sir Gryphus possesses a weapon: a very slim, likely ceremonial longsword still peacebonded at his hip.
"Do you know of a way out?" Lady Urbaen asks the party, her hawkish face frantically sweeping from side to side, as though a door to the surface would just present itself.
”If you accompany us, we can find one together,” Photinè says to the nobles, looking them up and down. ”Perhaps you’d like to offer your sword to Dame Malphene, so we can better protect you.”
Greenly steps up and frowns dramatically. "Yeah," she says in support of Photinè's request.
"Oh, um..." Sir Gryphus stammers, flustered by Photinè's request. Whether an actual knight or simply an esquire, he betrays his lack of confidence and experience. "Certainly," he eventually, hastily acquiesces.
Sir Gryphus struggles to free his sword, fumbling awkwardly with the peacebonding. With a roll of her eyes, Malphene strides forward to seize the sword by the hilt, practically snapping it free with little effort.
"Hardly of the quality I'm used to," Malphene muses, testing the weight and swing of the sword, "Both in terms of form and function, but I suppose it will do."
As you resume scouting the hall, the three nobles each, in turn, promise to reward you handsomely for escorting them to safely. In addition to the doors along the outer perimeter, each likely leading to more of these smaller safe rooms, there are doors leading to a central chamber as well as one to the north - carefully fitted into the wall.
"Oh, thank the heavens," squeaks a new voice as you explore the hall. From the northeasternmost door emerges a halfling distinguished by his bushy sideburns, the same deep red as the slicked hair on his head. "I've been so confused and frightened ever since I was teleported away from my master's side and found myself in this dreadful place."
He shuffles over to the party and its noble wards, obsequiously kissing any unguarded hand he can get his hands on.
"My name is Gulbend. I have no money of my own, but I will give you my prized silk hankie as long as you do not leave me behind."
Greenly pulls her hand away from Gulbend as soon as he grabs it, uncomfortable with being seen as a superior. Everyone was her peer, as she saw it. "Uh, keep the hankie. 'M not, like, interested in other people's snot."
She opens the doors to the central chamber, yawing away on her wad of chew and spitting freely. If it lands on someone, she apologizes, but only if they first protest.
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Olivia smiles when the nobles join them. "Thank you my Lords and Lady. I won't speak for my companions, but I am happy to do this for free."
When she meets the Halfling, she lets him kiss her hand, though only once. She'll bend down slightly and say "Hello Gulbend. You can keep your hankie, but come with us. We'll keep you safe."
Greenly scowls. "This is my job, like, I do it for a living. We're getting out of here, and getting, like, paid to do it, or at least, I am." She turns to Photinè and smirks. "Dibs on Livy's share if she, like, abandons it."
Photinè politely extricates her hand from the halfling’s, and briefly displays her own handkerchief before tucking it back into her breast. ”I believe most of us prefer our own handkerchiefs, but you are welcome to join us, in any case.”
When Gulbend tries to take her hand to kiss Amandine instead grasps his and gives it a shake. She bends down onto one knee and leans in to tell him softly "Diejenigen, die es verdienen zu zahlen, werden die kosten derjenigen übernehmen, die das nicht tun. Mach dir keine sorgen freund", casting her eyes toward the three nobles so he knows exactly who she's speaking of. With a wink and a nod she stands back up.
"Are all the rooms checked now? Everyone gathered here?"
"Not this big room in the center," says Greenly, opening said door.
Positively repelled by these meek, cowardly nobles and their inability to do anything at all to save themselves, Chana ends up unintentionally giving them the cold shoulder. Rather than engage them in conversation, she watches them for any signs of suspicious behavior that would betray they're anything other than what they claim to be. After all, they just had the stone wall itself take on a human form and attack them.
As she struggles to analyze them, and struggles with her distaste for them in equal measure, the rest of the group wraps up their conversation with them and continue to the northern passageway.
She keeps back when the party encounters the halfling, still on edge and half expecting him to transform into a monster. When he doesn't, she offers her own question. "Mr. Gulbend, I don't need any hankies, but I would like to know who you are. And maybe your master is. They didn't follow you down here, right?"
As for Gulbend, he is a strange creature. This slip is very befuddled and appears just as dependent on the party's aid. In fact, outside of these old ruins you find yourselves lost in, if you met this small man on the streets you might even suspect that he'd been kicked in the head by a mule.
Greenly opens the door to the central common room to reveal a long table, its surface covered in dusty green felt, dominating the center of this rectangular chamber. Silver trays dot the surface, each hosting a set of crystal glassware and a tall decanter of wine.
A document box also sits, closed but not locked, on one side of the table.
Another door sits to the north of this common room, leading back out into the surrounding hall.
The other small safe rooms lining the outer perimeter of the hall contain no other survivors, teleported away from the senate floor massacre. They are not nearly as well stocked as the paranoid Senator Voritas' was, and do not offer any tools or palatable provisions.
Meanwhile, Gulbend offers a dopey, bashful smile as Amandine speaks his people's tongue.
"I'm as useful in a fight as a toad, but I can help out in plenty of ways, ma'am," he babbles in Taldane. "No one can shine a shoe prettier in all of Oppara than me. Oh, and I can carry lamps, too!"
He shuffles over to Photinè and offers to carry the lantern for her, holding his hands out like an expectant child.
Photinè peers down at the man for a moment, then shrugs, passes the lamp to the halfling, and joins Greenly in the center room.
She walks slowly around the table, running a hand over the ancient crystal and silver, and delicately lifts the lid of the decanter; she flicks one of the glasses with a fingernail, causing it to ring out.
"Look," she says, pointing to the circles on the floor. "Remnants from some magic ritual, perhaps?"
Greenly doesn't give a s+#! about circles, and therefore doesn't notice them. However, when Photinè points them out, she chuckles and crouches down. "Hey Miss Mitchell," she says. "Watch this."
She spits into the dead center of one of the circles.
Amandine follows Photine and Greenly into the center room. She also spies the circles and replies to Photine with "Perhaps so."
She doesn't give the drawings a great deal of thought though, the particulars of arcane practice are not something she's schooled in. Instead she looks at the table settings, considering the value of packing them along.
She also checks the box to see if it is safe to open.
Chana spots the chalk circles as well, but rather than ascribing an arcane purpose to them, she inspects them more carefully for mundane hints. Particularly, she looks to see if much dust has accumulated over the chalk: basically, if the chalk was put in after these rooms fell into disuse.
She mulls over them for a moment and offers "Assuming they're not to do with magic, maybe they mark something else. Sign of some g-" She pauses, correcting herself. "-maybe a crude sign representing a noble house. A way of communicating or alerting someone."
As she thinks about it, Gulbend's strange obsequiousness draws her attention. The halfling seems more than a little addled. Some small amount wouldn't surprise her. A lifetime of service with the nobility HAD to leave some kind of mark on ya. But this one seemed far too eager to pick up new masters. It wasn't natural, not the right way for someone to behave.
She cautiously offers "Relax Gulbend. You don't have to go about serving Photine here to follow us out of here." and watches him to gauge his response.
Even a faint whiff tells you that the wine in the decanter has long since soured. However, the crystal glassware and accompanying silver dining sets are quite valuable. The entire set weighs about 5 pounds and would fetch 700gp.
Raising the lid, which offers a faint brassy creak, you find a collection of 6 scrolls stored within.
Thankfully, this sinister aura is only residual, growing fainter by the moment now that the undead creatures have been slain.
...
Gulbend offers a trio of apologetic bows in response to Chiara's gentle reprimand, his motion causing the light from the lantern to briefly dance wildly across the walls.
"But the fewer mundane tasks you are burdened with, the better able you are to protect the rest of us," the halfling insists.
When Greenly spits upon the chalk circles, although she is quite proud of her accuracy, Malphene and Sir Gryphus look away while Lady Urbaen wrinkles her nose in distaste. Lord Botoles takes no notice as he is busy peering out the door to the north.
"Since we've tried every other door, I suspect that must be the way out," the heavily jowled noble says, pointing out of the common room to the door set in the outer hall's northern face. "Or at least it will take us closer to the exit."
Chana leaves the now even more bizarrely artistic chalk circles alone, and nods to Olivia. "I don't think I can tell anything from these. I'd guess some crazy fella must've scribbled them here a long time ago. We might as well keep moving and get out of here with our... uh, caravan." She eyes the now half a dozen people they've picked up. "We're all eager to leave."
She winces at Gulbend's response (a reaction that's mostly hidden by her veil) but figures the fellow might just be a lost cause.
Once Photine and Amandine are done with their investigation, Chana heads north with Olivia and checks the northern door for any traps or hazards.
Then, if it seems safe, she'll open it up.
"Très bien," Photinè says, sarcastically, at Greenly's display.
In regard to the circles, she shakes her head. "I must agree with Miss Durante; they don't seem to have any significance."
Greenly imitates Photinè's appraisal of the crystal, flicking it with a fingernail as she saw the older woman do. "Do you think this is, like, worth anything? Old s@@* is usually expensive, right?"
Amandine brings Photine's attention to the box's contents. "Lady Photine, there are several scrolls in this box that may interest you."
She moves on to collecting the silver and crystal and packing it away in her handbag-now-backpack. "Most of the time, yes." she replies to Greenly.
Greenly laughs and helps stuff the table settings into Amandine's backpack.