As Nicat points out the door, the sound of rushing wind fills the room, and the air gets colder.
But you've only just arrived... *intruders*. An ethereal, hateful voice says as the shadows on the right side of the room deepen.
Creatures formed of shadow begin to crawl from behind the sarcophagi, moving through stone and air with equal ease. Stay awhile... and suffer.
"Ohnoohnoohno," Nicat exclaims in one alarmed stream of sound, "those are shadows! They're nasty undead that drain your strength and our weapons will go right through 'em unless they're magic - and we can't run away because they can float through walls!" Making a visible effort to calm himself, he continues, "But we were born lucky, we can take 'em!"
He takes a step towards the door while dropping a stone into his sling, calling out, "Evelyn, see if your healing power can hurt them! And Conner, whack 'em as hard as you can!"
Conner quickly readies his sword, maybe these things will recognize it. But if they can go through walls, no point in weighing himself down. With a loud clunk, the tower shield hits the floor, and Conner's left hand moves to the grip of his sword. He steps closer to the door as well, putting him closer to the northern shadow. "Come on then. I killed demons today, let's see if I can kill the dead." Stepping forward, he makes a hard overhand swing at the monster closest to the door, slashing his new blade through it's body.
The northernmost shadow *hisses* as Conner's enchanted blade rips away some of its unholy form. Yesssss... struggle if you must. We do not *mind* earning our meals.
As the battle is joined, Eostre seems to snap out of her despondent slump, she illuminates her tattoos and takes a deep breath, before appearing to scream at the shadow Conner had just struck, while the abomination hears the shriek of the damned rippling through its form.
"Why are the shadows moving?!" Evelyn exclaims, not recognizing what the enemies are.
Luckily Nicat's able to give her some direction, and Evelyn moves into the room so she can use one of her channels to hurt all of the undead.
Ekan tries to identify the shadows...
He has a bad feeling about this, and he tries to move so he only has to fight one shadow at a time...
Evelyn's channeled power floods the room and causes the shadows to scream in surprise. Their incorporeal forms distort and warp for a moment, and when Evelyn stops channeling, pieces of their bodies appear to have been burned away.
Ekan's kama strikes true, but the unenchanted weapon passes through the shadow without even making it flinch.
The shadows start swarming the party, with the most heavily wounded one leaping at Evelyn with unholy tendrils outstretched!
Its wild, desperate flailing is easily dodged.
The other two shadows fall upon Conner like a shroud...
...ripping and tearing at his body, reaching through his many layers of armour and draining his limbs of strength. Yesssss... it won't be long now. One of us. One of us!
"My Kama does nothing?" Ekan says startled
Eostre thinks quickly about what she knows about shadows.
Eostre conjures a telekinetic fist and launches it at the shadow that attacked Evelyn.
The punch flies past the shadow and crashes into the wall behind it.
Eostre curses in Dwarven. Loudly.
Conner almost drops to one knee, his armor suddenly feeling ten times heavier. Just what had these things done? He struggle to lift his sword again, and attacks the shadow-thing.
Conner's wild swing is weighed down by his suddenly heavy armour, but even with its encumbrance he narrowly misses the shadow before him.
"យើងនឹងវាយសម្លាប់អាក្រក់នេះ!" Evelyn yells boldly, another wave of light and positive energy bursting out from her whole body.
The shadows seem more prepared for Evelyn's channeling this time. They manage to hold onto their forms, but the one facing Evelyn looks like it's on the verge of dissipating entirely.
Nicat lets his sling stone fly at the nearest shadow, continuing to cheer his friends on! He draws the magical blade they got from Koruvus and holds it out to Ekan, saying, "Want to try this!"
Nicat's sling bullet passes right through the shadow facing Evelyn. It looks over at the halfling incredulously before it begins to break apart, dissolving into nothingness.
And as it turns out, Conner's strike hit the shadow before him harder than he believed. It looks down at itself in disbelief as pieces of its unholy form drift away. ...well. How about that.
Conner coughs and spits at the remaining shadows. "Turns out, I can kill the dead. So come on, I got enough left in me for the both of you."
Ekan puts his Kama away, and taking a breath, shouts a sharp exhale, his bare hand striking at the nearest shadow.
Ekan's fist succeeds where his kama failed. The ki stored in his fist seems to explode inside the shadow's body, blasting it out of existence with a keening wail of suffering.
The remaining shadow raises an unholy claw. I will either be freed, or in company. I care not.
It then strikes at the ravaged Conner!
And tears away another piece of his strength. The armoured man's knees buckle.
"ខ្ញុំនឹងប្រោសអ្នកបន្ទាប់ពីការប្រយុទ្ធ, Conner!"
Another shockwave of light and positive energy bursts out from Evelyn's body.
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"GET AWAY FROM MY FRIEND!" Eostre shouts as she hurls another telekinetic fist at the remaining shadow.
Eostre's telekinetic blast catches the shadow squarely in its centre, and tears away much of its eldritch form. It recoils in pain before it turns its red eyes on her...
...only for Evelyn's holy power to flood the room once again. It closes its eyes.
Freedom... at last... It whispers as positive energy tears it asunder, scattering its foul essence to the wind.
Conner makes a rude gesture at the spot the shadow used to be, then falls over with a loud clatter. "If someone has to drag me out of here, don't forget my shield please."
Eostre grabs Conner by the shoulder and tries to hoist him up.
"One of you give me a hand with him!"
Nicat hurries over to Conner, then lifts his massive shield off the floor. "Got it, Conner! Don't worry!" Waiting for Ekan to come help with moving Conner, Nicat shouts "Nice job, everybody! I thought we were dead for sure."
"I remember now, one of the teachings is that a reliance on material things is a trap within a trap within a gilded cage," He says as he gains enlightenment from this frightening encounter.
Eostre gives Ekan a mean look.
"Well, that's a very nice sentiment, now help me carry this a~%+$~!!"
"Seeds are thrown upon hard rock and rejected," He mutters a touch petulantly, but helps carry.
Conner grunts as he's lifted, but once his feet are under him he manages to stay upright. "Thanks. Let's get out of here quickly, I really don't like the idea if running into something else like this."
"Wait, standstill for a moment," Evelyn says and lays a hand on Conner's arm.
Within little over a minute Conner's strength is almost back to normal. "I think you'll be fine now, won't you Conner?"
Evelyn points at the secret door Nicat pointed out just before the fight with the shadows. "Shall we check out what's behind that door? We may want to delay fighting the big thingy till tomorrow, but I think we can go on exploring some of the other rooms with Conner's strength mostly restored."
Conner sighs as he feels this crippling weakness fade. When he can stand normally again, he pulls Evelyn into an earnest hug. "That was terrible, thank you."
Evelyn blinks when Conner suddenly hugs her. "You're, uhhh..."
Her face flushes red.
"...សមអី," she quietly says, her mind confused as she finishes her sentence.
Eostre shrugs Conner off her back as Evelyn casts her spell. She gives Ekan a thumbs-up and then turns to Evelyn.
"អេវលិនអ្នកគឺជាអ្នកអស្ចារ្យមួយ!"
Conner looks back and forth between Evelyn and Eostre, convinced they're talking about him, but says nothing.
It's a work in progress.
Eostre blinks in surprise and then gives an approving nod.
"A good start, Ekan. I'm surprised. Aklo's tricky to pick up if you don't have nine tongues!"
"I've had time between things to practice and learn a bit, but I'm still very rough." He admits, "And it does feel like I'm 8 tongues short."
Evelyn's flushed face gradually returns to normal.
"Thank you, Eostre," she says when she's refound her ability to speak and comprehend Common.
A smile cracks Evelyn's lips when Ekan comments in broken Aklo. Not a mocking smile, but a genuine and thankful smile for the effort he makes to communicate with her. "Thanks, Ekan! Pronunciation's the most difficult part of Aklo. My father learned Aklo when I was a kid so he could talk to me when I had my, uhm, moments. Even after many years he never got it quite right. You already sound better than he does."
Her eyes dart over to Conner for a moment, she shuffles a bit with her feet, then looks at the others. "So, uh... shall we?"
"How about we check out that hidden door?"
"Sounds good to me. Hopefully we won't find any more hostile shades."
She blinks and then puts her hand to her face.
"What did that shade say? Freedom at last? Could...could these spirits have been Thassilonian servants of Karzoug? Necromancy probably wasn't outside his skills."
Nicat grins happily as Conner gives Evelyn a big hug, then shakes his head in confusion as everyone begins speaking a mysterious tongue.
Turning his attention to the door, he agrees with the plan, "Sure, let's take a look!"