"Well look at the lot of you! Not completely as incompetent as you let on. Good job!"
She follows the others down the steps into the alcove. "Peciliar statues. Perhaps guards of whatever was buried in that sarcophagus."
Penny reaches out, casting detect magic on the statues closes to them, concentrating if she detects any auras.
Penny detects a transmutation aura coming from four statues nearest the chamber's entrance.
"Statues with magic you say? Great."
Yngvilda loads an acid into her breakaway shield boss and draws her handaxe, then carefully ventures forward.
"If any of them animate and try to kill me, I'll let you know by screaming"
She moves toward the sarcophagus very slowly, eyes flicking between the statues for signs of them animating. If she makes it to the sarcophagus she'll check it over for traps and wait for Cwm to do the same.
I wonder what they look for when they look for traps?
Cwm watches Yngvilda clomp around the room and tries to show her some tricks.
Four statues steps forward to stop Yngvilda from entering. As they step forward, they transform into brass-skinned humanoids heat rippling from their bodies. Their head and shoulders blaze with a mane of fire. Gripping warhammers in their hands, they do not attack but look like they will attack if you proceed forward.
Yngvilda stops and looks to her more magically inclined allies to help.
"We are here to claim Tula Belhaim's legacy, to protect the town from the hated dragon. Let us pass!"
The four creatures hear Yngvilda and even make a motion of looking at each of you, but they retake their defense posture to prevent you from passing.
"What are you searching for, friends?" Tykent asks with a friendly smile, opening his arms wide. "Some token to prove that the townsfolk of Belhaim asked us to come here and retrieve the artifacts used by Tula to defeat the draconic menace once more?" He frowns, glancing at Yngvilda. "Did they even give us such a thing? I'll admit my memory's a bit hazy sometimes..."
Cwm takes a slow step back, "uhh maybe we should come back here ..." He's ready in case they attack, but hopes they haven't triggered some trap.
Yngvilda will suggest holding the shield that they found aloft, and try waving her flaming sword around for good measure, but failing that will back off and lead them down the stairs to the next level.
"Perhaps we need only find some other trinket here to gain access? Though I suppose it wouldn't be much of a security system if they left the key nearby!"
She shrugs her shoulders.
"Well we can always smash them I suppose, but it seems a bit of a shame. Let's keep looking"
Then she sets off down the stairs, re-equipping her usual armament of shield and handaxe.
"Fair enough." Tykent waves farewell at the ex-statues and follows after Yngvilda.
Cwm keeps backing up, "let's come back to revisit this room. It appears they're just guarding it and not actively trying to harm us."
Continuing down the steps, you descend down into a layer of brackish water covers the floor of this chamber, filling the air with the scent of minerals. The steps end here and only continue back up the way you came. The water is a foot deep and the door out of here is locked, but you find Bassy's key does the trick and opens it up.
Moving on, you find nearly freezing water floods the floor of this long, oval chamber to a depth of one foot. A single stone sarcophagus, its lid carved to resemble a handsome human aristocrat, sits at the western end of the room. Four circular alcoves open into the room at the western end as well, each of which contains a less ornate stone sarcophagus.
Only a few seconds after you enter the room, sarcophagus in one of the four alcoves slowly grinds open as its inhabitant clambers up and out into the water. The flesh of this walking corpse is rotting and putrid, its body skeletal in places and its eye sockets glowing with red light.
Tykent places a hand on Yngvilda's shoulder before she can move too far away. "Be careful," he advises, his face serious and his usual jolly smile nowhere to be seen. "If it is what I think it is, I pray the spirits do not let it strike you." As he speaks, the warrior's skin grows thicker like the bark of an oak tree.
Tykent's fears are confirmed as he studies and then identifies this creature as a wight. Wights are humanoids who rise as undead due to necromancy, a violent death, or an extremely malevolent personality. In some cases, a wight arises when an evil undead spirit permanently bonds with a corpse, often the corpse of a slain warrior. They are barely recognizable to those who knew them in life; their flesh is twisted by evil and undeath, the eyes burn with hatred, and the teeth become beast-like. In some ways, a wight bridges the gap between a ghoul and a spectre—a warped animated corpse whose touch steals living energy.
"Thank you Tykent, I'll keep my shield up!"
Yngvilda splish-sploshes forward through the water, but rather than bound right up to it, she stops about half-way and stands waiting for it to see if it will come within striking distance.
Pushing through the waste high water Eldon moves forward to get a better line of sight on the creature.
TL/DR; Delay until after the wight goes.
The wight sloshes through the water straight towards Yngvilda, closing the distance and preparing to strike her. As it swings it's arm back, she slams her shield into it and splatters it with acid after the smash. Additionally, the Ulfen warrior deflects the wight's attack with her shield as she returns back to form.
From the outcove to the southt a grinding south is accompanied by the lid stone sliding off into the water. Glancing in that direction, Yngvilda sees another wight moving north to join them. It closes the distance but isn't able to attack her yet.
Seeing the second wight approach from the south Penny shouts to her team "There is another! I will try to keep it at bay as long as I can. This will be exhausting"
She reaches her hand out in an attempt to take control of the undead creature. She then moves herself into the northern corner of the room.
An undead creature takes no damage. Instead, you manipulate the undead, forcing it to take an immediate action to either move up to its speed (provoking attacks of opportunity as normal) or make a single attack against a creature of your choice in its reach. Either of these is the most basic version of the action the creature can take (it doesn’t activate any special abilities that it could apply to the movement or attack, such as grab). A successful saving throw negates this effect. A mindless undead creature doesn’t receive a save against this effect.
If its not mindless, the DC is 16 fort. If its mindless no save.
if successful, penny will force it to move up to its speed back the way it came.
"Ha ha! You'll have to do better than that, foul monster!"
Unable to maneuver easily in the water, Yngvilda hopes that Penny has got the other one and goes full bore at the one she's already hit, aiming to follow up after knocking it off balance with some more attacks.
She almost loses her grip on the slick handle of her handaxe, but just manages not to drop it in the water.
Cwm slips through the water to try and get behind the white wight, she waves to get Yng's attention, motioning her to move down to flank.
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Taking careful aim, Eldon raises his arm and points at the undead creature that Yngvilda smashed with her shield.
Ranged Touch: BaB (+3), Dex (+3), Point Blank Shot (+1).
Electricity Damage: Base (1d6), Caster Level Adjustment (+2), Point Blank Shot (+1).
But the creatures clumsy counter attack causes Eldon's shot to go wide.
Tykent likewise sloshes through the water to stand a bit closer to Yngvilda. ”Do not give up hope,” he extols, ”for Hope has not given up on you!” The dinosaur on his shoulder trills in agreement, casting out rays of golden light as she spreads her wings.
The Ulfen fighter's first attack cuts into the walking corpse and her taunt proves successful as it once again is unable to do better than last time and misses her.
Penny's spell is successful and wight between Cwm and Yngvilda turns and retreats back into the alcove it came from.
From the north the sounds of stone sliding on stone followed by a splash of water are now familiar to you. Another wight crawls out of a sarcophagus and makes its way down to your group.
Tykent focuses on the newcomer, his eyes turning pitch-black for a moment as he searches for the strings of fate surrounding it. "Begone!" he commands, striking his walking stick to the ground.
After Tykent's warning Yngvilda is doing her best to stay well behind her shield, and is taken slightly by surprise as Penny's spell moves the other wight, but she attempts to spin and slam her shield into it as it moves anyway.
Not wanting to give the wight she is locked in combat an opening though, she maintains her attacks.
In between grunts and practiced strikes she finds time to respond to Cwm's request.
"Just need to finish this one; the water makes it too hard to move"
Cwm whiffs as the wight movess. She curses and moves across the room to the newcomer.
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Looking over the battle field, Penny focuses to quickly attempt to give her allies the upper hand. She stomps her foot in the ground, making an obvious splash in the water. In doing so a tremble rushes through the water out towards the wight.
You stomp your foot or strike your weapon against the ground or floor, creating a ripple of power that you can use to trip a creature. Attempt the combat maneuver check to trip the target, but instead of your base attack bonus you can use your caster level, and instead of your Strength modifier you can use your spellcasting ability score modifier (Intelligence for magi and wizards; Wisdom for druids and rangers; Charisma for bloodragers and sorcerers). This does not provoke an attack of opportunity. This spell has no effect if you cannot reach the ground or floor, or if your target is not in contact with the ground or floor.
Ranged Touch: BaB (+3), Dex (+3), Point Blank Shot (+1), Bless (+1).
Electricity Damage: Base (1d6), Caster Level Adjustment (+2), Point Blank Shot (+1), Bless (+1).
The undead creature resists Tykent's spell and steps on as Yngvilda's attack misses. She follows up with another strike from her shield that sends the undead creature collapsing into the waters at her feet. With one target down, Cwm cuts the northern wight with his dagger and Penny's spell sends it toppling to the ground, prone.
Eldon follows up a blast of electricity at the northern wight, injuring it further.
When the sound of stone sliding against stone followed by another splash comes from the fourth tomb, no one is really surprised and knows what to expect. A fourth wight climbs up and makes its way up to Yngvilda.
Cwm tries to drive both daggers into the undead creature's chest.
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Penny shouts "I cannot keep these foes at bay forever. You are going to have to do better than that!"
Penny reaches out towards the new arrival and attempts to send it back the way it came.
An undead creature takes no damage. Instead, you manipulate the undead, forcing it to take an immediate action to either move up to its speed (provoking attacks of opportunity as normal) or make a single attack against a creature of your choice in its reach. Either of these is the most basic version of the action the creature can take (it doesn’t activate any special abilities that it could apply to the movement or attack, such as grab). A successful saving throw negates this effect. A mindless undead creature doesn’t receive a save against this effect.
If its not mindless, the DC is 16 fort. If its mindless no save.
if successful, penny will force it to move up to its speed back the way it came.
With the opening provided, Yngvilda splashes around the prone Wight, giving it a wide berth but getting into a flank with Cwm.
Eldon moves to a more advantageous position and sends a couple of force missiles at the wight threatening Yngvilda.
Eldon blasts the one southwest of Yngvilda with a couple of missiles and Cwm's second strike critically injures the undead in front of him.
Penny's spell successfully takes control of the undead wight in front of Yngvilda, forcing it to turn around and go back to the crypt it crawled out of moments ago. As it steps away, Yngvilda slashes it badly in the back.
Tykent turns his attention to another of the wights. "Begone!" he intones, again striking the ground with his walking stick.
The only wight that still remains in Tykent's range is the one now flanked between Yngvilda and Cwm. It fails to resist his magic and succumbs to a bit of misfortune. It tries to slam its fist into Cwm, but thanks to the shaman he is not fortunate to do so.
The two other wights return from their chambers, approaching the party. One moves adjacent to Cwm and Yngvilda's south while the other moves up in front of Eldon.
Cwm glares down at the creature, "why won't you die?! Again!"
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Penny turns her attention to the Wight closing in on the squishy backline. "Watch Out Eldon!" she shouts, as she stomps her foot again in the water, causing a splash to rumble out towards the creature.
You stomp your foot or strike your weapon against the ground or floor, creating a ripple of power that you can use to trip a creature. Attempt the combat maneuver check to trip the target, but instead of your base attack bonus you can use your caster level, and instead of your Strength modifier you can use your spellcasting ability score modifier (Intelligence for magi and wizards; Wisdom for druids and rangers; Charisma for bloodragers and sorcerers). This does not provoke an attack of opportunity. This spell has no effect if you cannot reach the ground or floor, or if your target is not in contact with the ground or floor.
Yngvilda continues methodically pushing with her spiked shield followed by an overhand chop with her handaxe. Her form is much better now than the young fighter who first delved under the collapsed wizard's tower; she's keeping her shield up and her strikes are much more precise.
"Oh no, Eldon! Hold on!"
”Begone!” Tykent intones, ”and bother the living no more!”