Daxniss lets out a growl and suppresses the urge to shout I told you so, moving forward she draws her quarterstaff and smacks the skull.
damage
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Ssilax suppresses his urge to run, while he covers his ears.
Wrathe kicks at the skull and connects. The screaming continues, and he feels panic setting in and the urge to get away from this place as fast as Xthianly possible. Daxniss and Dorian do the same, or their own equivalents, and the same horrendous notions fill their heads. The skull is broken into pieces, but screaming still fills the air.
(Wrathe, Daxniss, and Dorian: please make a Will save vs. Fear, DC 14, or be panicked)
Argon watches the others kicking at the skull or attacking it, but can't get in there to do the same. So he takes up his staff and tries to break the spine of the reclining skeleton.
Will save, +2 vs. fear:
Wrathe, ever a cool customer, throws off the effects of the skull's horrors, a slight sneer playing across his face as he considers the skull remnants.
Prodding the small pile of cloth and who-knows-what with the staff of illumination, he considers what is going on and delves into his mind for insight into this situation.
At the sight of the skull being shattered and body being destroyed under his companions, with no effect, the young Theurge hisses in irritation. Ssilax leans in close to push the dusty remains out of the way.
"It must be some type of ward or a trap of some type," the dragonkin hisses in Undercommon. His sapphire orbs sought out any evidence of a ward. "Wrathe, can you see any traces of a ward or any other magics? We need to stop that noise before everything in this buried library knows where it's dinner is located at."
Daxniss shakes her head at the skull, feeling the urge to run welling up from memories as the thoughts of the Stalker bring itself rushing from the mind.
The old memories had brought a fresh flush of fear along with the defiance that Daxniss had managed to wrap herself up in. Never again, as much as she could help it, she would never again be that helpless again.
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Wrathe ponders what is going on here, and is unsure. But he has heard of places where people have died and not been properly put to rest. Sometimes those souls rise as undead, while other times they haunt their locale in other ways.
(Anybody else, Knowledge Religion check if you like).
Wrathe has noticed no magical auras here, save for the items from Dainoth.
Ssilax looks around for any sign of a trap or ward, but nothing physical is seen.
If it is a ward, it must be invisible both to eyes and to magical detection.
Not finding any sign of a ward, a frown tugs at Ssilax's snout. He looks over at the remains once more. The dragonkin thinks about how they found the corpse. Ssilax begins to wonder if the individual was lost, trapped and ended up starving to death. Perhaps after the earthquake that caused the cave-in.
Argon sees everyone resisting the urge to run. He scoops up the money from the pile, and digs through it with his dagger. He takes the book cover and opens it up, keeping away from the screaming skeleton.
He hopes there is no more fear effects on the group, for he imagines himself or one of the others scrambling along the tunnel and falling down that hole. It's a long way down.
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Argon notices some writing in the book cover. Faded ink in a script he doesn't recognize. He gathers up 10 pieces of silver and 2 of gold, stashing it away.
Wrathe notices it is in the script of the Gnomes, though it is styled very differently from what he's used to, and there are few words written to get a bearing on. First he sees a name, "Morgil" or "Morgin", and then some handwritten notes. There seems to be two subjects: "Mapping the [something] sector," and simply, "Notes".
Unfortunately there are no pages remaining. (Linguistics check for more info)
Shortly, the screaming stops.
Wrathe relays what he had gleaned, that of places where people have died and not been properly put to rest. Sometimes those souls rise as undead, while other times they haunt their locale in other ways.
He also states that the book appears to be in the gnomish tongue.
Once it was brought to his attention, Ssilax glances at the scraps of surviving paper.
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Those who regularly take the undercity routes and frequent certain venues there hear a myriad of rumors about the denizens of this place and their history. One such rumor, heard by Sssilax and Wrathe a few times over the past eight years, regards a cult of secretive, evil Gnomes living far down underground, under everything and everyone else.
Ssilax notices the writing as Gnomish, and also that certain distinctive characters in the script look familiar - he has seen them in the writings of the Svirfneblin, the Deep Gnomes. He is not sure if the Gnome cultists of rumor were Svirfneblin or not.
There are no papers to look at. The book cover is of old, hard leather.
(no, nothing additional from the Religion check)
" Well well, so we have no obvious way out of here, I'll go through this area and see if there any hidden passages. However if not, we shall have tie a rope around me and I'll have to start looking at how deep it might go. " Letting out a disgusted sigh, waiting for the ringing in her ears to fade.
Relaying what he had gleaned from the ancient leather, Ssilax looks over at the smashed remains of the skeleton.
"I'm positive it's the Svirfneblin dialect. The Deep Gnomes use slightly different characters in their script...," Ssilax's voice trails off as he glances back at the bones and rags.
While Daxniss searches, the dragonkin gathers up the skeletal remains, making sure Dog doesn't snatch one up a chew bone. Remains gathered up into a small, carefully placed pile, Ssilax quietly preforms a short burial service for the unknown explorer.
Wrathe turns his head and pinches off a smile as Ssilax begins the process of sanctifying the remains. It was his intent to attend to the corpse as well, so it was nice that they were on the same page, though his method would have been to destroy it with fire.
He agrees that they will likely be forced to backtrack and suggests that the torch that Dorian holds be tossed down the 50' into the hole before anyone descends, so they could possibly discern the truth of the movement that monk perceived earlier.
Wrathe walks over to Dorian, nodding to the monk as he retrieves his torch, then politely asks Ssilax to step aside from his reverence of the fallen so he can drop the flames on the desiccated remains.
He considers the diminutive size of the skeletons that had attacked earlier, and this creature before him, wondering if both were of a size that would match what he knew of Svirfneblin.
" Lets stop touching the bones for the moment, if the fire isn't going to do anything I'd rather stop fooling around. " Daxniss says in over her shoulder, feeling a shadow of a headache from the screaming that had started again.
Focusing back on her task of searching the room, delaying the need to go back into the tunnel, along with possibly being dangled by a rope to scout the hole in tunnel.
The moment the bones start up their shrieking, Ssilax scoops everything into a pile. It's quite possible the fastest burial service in modern times. Finished in less then a minute, he adds a liberal sprinkling of holy water to the small blaze.
Putting away his empty vial, the young Theurge joins his friends by the tunnel.
"Sheesh, try to do a soul a favor and put it to rest, and look what thanks I get. Hearing loss." Ssilax says to the others, quietly speaking Undercommon. The dragonkin has a half grin twisting the the right side of his snout.
Rubbing his earslits, Ssilax glances at Dog, who has returned to chewing on his scavenged bone.
Wrathe seeks out a means of tying off, or wedging the rope, for their 50' descent. Each person could be supported by the person before, and he would like to be able to return this way if they were descending into a dead end.
Argon sees what Wrathe is trying to do, and says, "I have a grapnel; maybe we can secure it. How about I go first, and Dorian goes last?"
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Ssilax's efforts surely must have helped to put the unfortunate Svirfneblin to rest, but there is nothing to indicate the truth of that. Such is the way of faith, sometimes. He has done the right thing, and what he could do, and perhaps the members of the group feel a little better as they exit the small and now smoky chamber.
The group crawls back to the only known exit, the hole in the floor of the passage. After a moment, the screaming stops. Looking down at the chamber or cavern below, you see kind of a strange sight -- two humanoid skeletons are walking around, roughly below the hole and all around. You try to determine what they are doing, but it appears they are milling about randomly. Once you see their paths cross, and they avoid bumping into each other just as two clumsy humans might.
Argon notices something else (DC 25 Perception check made), and points it out to the rest. Pointing to the west, if you put your head down the hole and look up that way, you can see a burning torch. It is well over a hundred feet away, and lights up the wall it is attached to. The wall faces you, that is, east, and goes up from the torch about 20 feet until the ceiling is reached; and down 40 feet where you can barely make out the floor. The wall stretches north and south until the light diminishes to nothing. The wall itself is too far and dimly lit to see well, but it appears to be fairly flat - you are not sure if it is natural or carved out of the stone that way.
Just right of the torch, from your view, is a platform about 10 feet wide and only five feet deep, and a set of large double doors, closed. You see no stairs, or evidence of a method of getting from the doors to the bottom of the cavern, or anywhere else for that matter. The torch is placed such that someone on the platform could easily reach up and take it.
"Pitons!" says Argon, almost loudly though trying to keep his voice down, as he sees what's in Dorian's climber's kit. "Hang on..."
He attempts to hammer in a piton.
"I guess we should keep the rope here, in case we need to get back up. Maybe I should tie knots in it..."
He takes out his silk rope and starts tying knots every two feet.
After tying his knotted rope to the piton, then double and triple checking to ensure it's secure, Argon then waits for the milling-about skeletons to go away, and lowers the rope by hand, but quickly. He has obviously been trained to do such things, and he's been climbing up and down things for as long as he can remember.
The rope is a hundred feet, nominally, but all the knots in half of it have shortened it to about ninety - fifty with knots, and forty without. The forty extra feet lie on the ground.
"Come down quickly. I may need help. Those staying up here warn us down there if you see any danger."
With that he checks that the skeletons are still not near, and starts climbing down.
5 x ten feet (move rate/4):
Bugbear Wrathe considers too late suggesting that they snipe the skeletons from afar, rather than potentially having a few of their members be caught while the rest are taking part in their descent.
He does suggests that a strong climber come last and tie a rope around the weaker climbers before them, so if they fall they will not join Lilith in the afterlife.
Moving forth to his usual position of relative safety in the middle of the pack he shows surprising adroitness in his descent, if one ignores his foot slipping off and nearly plunging to his death.
(no progress)
As soon as his feet touch the ground, after dropping the last 10', he shifts his form into that of a diminutive Svirfneblin, while probing the depths of his memory for details about their race, hoping to find something to avoid further combat.
Strange eyes scan about, seeking to track the undead's movements in both the black and white spectrum of darkvision, while also seeking out magical emanations.
Dropping the torch on one side of them, and bearing the illuminated staff on the other, Wrathe prepares for whatever is to come.
Letting out a sigh, Daxniss starts to climb done the knotted rope after the others made it down the rope. Of course, going down deeper into the earth.
Climb Check vs DC 5 knotted rope 8 ft
Climb check vs DC 5 knotted rope 15 ft
Climb check vs Dc 5 knotted rope 23 ft
climb check vs Dc 5 knotted rope 23 ft
Climb check vs Dc 5 knotted rope 30 ft
Climb check vs Dc knotted rope 38 ft
Daxniss lets out a breath as her hands start to slip off the rope at a critical moment as she starts to slip. Muttering a curse at herself she tightens her grip again feeling her hands sweat inside her gloves, glad that she had put them on.
Glancing as another of his friends begins their descent, Ssilax felt that they should have discussed destroying the skeletons. It would have been a simple matter for him to melt them with acid. 'Stop trying to show off, idiot.' Ssilax thinks to himself with a slight shake of his head.
Double checking to make sure all of his gear was secured, and Dog's harness was set, the young dragonkin looks at the knotted rope. "I really hate being underground." Ssilax mutters to himself. Kneeling down by Dog, he clears his mind. Sending his familiar a strong mental picture, Ssilax positions himself, holding on the rope.
Bracing his feet against the stone, Ssilax's clawed hands grip the rope tightly, braced by a knot. Giving the rope he had tied to both himself and Dog's harness a little slack, the young Theurge looks at his white furred familiar.
"Alright Dog, Jump. I've got you," Ssilax looks up at Dog and nods. The canine stares at the dragonkin like he is insane for several rather long moments. With a slightly concerned "Wuff," Dog jumps.
Grunting under the weight of Dog, his gear, and that damned silver statue, blood surges through the dragonkin's muscles. Carefully and deliberately, Ssilax makes his way down the knotted rope. He was suddenly very glad that nothing was chasing him.
Not that Ssilax wasn't done chiding himself for not preparing Featherfall for today.
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The intrepid individuals climb down one at a time, with a few close calls, but by going slow and steady seems to work.
Dorian is halfway down (feet are 20' above the floor) when the skeleton appears. It walks into your fields of vision and then starts moving quickly toward the group. It is carrying a large sword, and it's about fifty feet away when it is spotted.
Group has initiative.
Argon quickly pulls out his sling (quick draw, free action) and loads a stone into it (move action). Then he quickly winds up and lets it go toward the skeleton with the sword.
Wrathe retrieves his discarded torch, ready to set skeletons on fire should they get close enough to make it a useful weapon, and moves his tiny Svirfneblin form aside to let the jacked up melee combatants have sufficient room to be effective.
Daxniss mutters an oath that make a sailor blush, focusing on climbing as there was little that the rogue could do at the moment. If Daxniss had understood the others about skeletons and their resistance for slashing weapons.
Looking at the approaching skeleton, Ssilax glances behind him. The thought of the other one walking up one them occurs to the dragonkin. With his weighted spear tied down at the moment, the young Theurge makes a quick choice.
Gathering up his will, Ssilax waits until the battered skeleton was roughly 30 feet away. Once it gets close enough, the dragonkin forms his cantrip and speaks the twisting arcane words. A small orb of bright green sizzling acid forms just beyond his clawed fingertips. Speaking the final syllable, the orb rockets towards the skeleton.
After casting, Ssilax works to frees his spear from it's bindings. Dog stands ready next to Ssilax, one ear perked up, the other at half-mast like normal.
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As the skeleton moves forward (surprisingly quickly), Ssilax waits for it to get close enough (25 feet, actually - you round down) and then fires off a glob of acid at it. The acid darts out and hits it in its spine, and the spine dissolves enough that the skeleton's shoulders and head separate from the rest of it. It falls noisily to the ground, still. This skeleton is taller than the others you fought - a good six feet tall, perhaps, and human.
In the silence that follows, another sound is heard. From the direction of the torch on the wall, quiet sounds of motion are getting closer. They are not particularly noisy, but there seem to be quite a few of these noises.
Argon relaxes, but just slightly. "Everyone should have a sling. They don't take up space or weight, and they're good against skeletons."
Hearing the noises, he asks, "Any ideas? Up the rope? The door is our goal, but something's between it and us, and moving our way.
Daxniss let's out a snort, " Aye slings are good, I've got my quarterstaff. As for sling, not something that I have at the moment still we should be ready for more of them. "
Hefting her quarterdtaff she waits for Florian to inform her of another passaheway.