Arbaro helps the prioress up and does what he can to help her.
"Whine-stain, make yourself useful and find us a map of the crypts or someone who knows them well."
To the boys:
"Lem, stand guard while we make this woman comfortable. She has done her part, now it is time for us to do ours. We're going in as soon as we have a little more information from that boot-licking fop."
When Wynnstan gets back, we will take the map or guide and then put him in charge of looking after the woman until our return. We'll help him bar the passage just in case any make it around us during our purge.
Brag lays a hand on the prioress and grants her a mercy of removing her fatigue. He quickly leaves without a word to join Lem.
If the stairs to the crypt are not well lit, Brag finds a torch to help light the passage. He will stand guard with Lem. His is ready to channel positive energy should more s-k-e-l-e-t-o-n-s appear. While the others question the parson.
Brag wonders what Roccavisk will do, but suspects that she'll join Thurl and Arbaro.
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Lem stands guard watching toward the … area where it seems like skeletons might come from?
When Brag joins, "so, if she was with Abaddar prior, who is she with now? and Wynnstan, of course he is a person... this place doesn't make as much sense as the Iomedae stuff you've talked about."
"It sounds like whatever happened to Slymer and Theseus may also be the cause of this strangeness. Yes, Pastor Wynnston is the odd one. Probably just trying to protect his status in this place. The Prioress seems more honest to me."
Brag detects evil down the stair well at any- and every-thing he can see.
The prioress looks revived with Brag's lay on hands and says to Thurl, "From Irrisen. Came here work for mission. Climate good for health, so stay. As for parson, chelovek, he always been, how you say, miser. Love money. But parson run temple well, is kind-hearted when pressed. This fear to speak on Kamalani and the ship is new."
The parson scuttles off and comes back with a pile of old parchment and large, leather-bound tomes. "The architecture of the catacombs is not extensively known, though there were some preliminary designs.... ah, here," he says and pulls out a large blue map with measurements and numbers scribbled all over.
"This was used by the dwarves who carved the crypt years ago. Things should not have changed significantly in the passing years, except for the addition of undead."
"And it's Parson whine-stain... I mean Wynnstan."
The stairs funnel into the crypt below, where shelves of tombs line the walls, stacked on top of each other in alcoves. Their tops are opened and wisps of cobwebs, the smell of stale air, and the feel of cold stone permeates the crypt.
Roccavisk is bemused at the Prioress's struggles. "Magic circles are how the weak fight Evil. Why not rush head on? But for the sake of this temple's clergy there should be some protection."
"Fear not, Brag. This temple shall remain free of undead menace as long as this merfolk stands tall."
"No one was down in the crypt when the dead started to come up? They just started to come out all of a sudden?"
Thurl pulls out his wand of mage armor and the others see a slight shimmer as armor made out of force settles onto Thurl. He then focuses his Ki and his skin thickens and toughens like bark . Thurl then pulls out 2 other wands and says, "Ok, lets go." and begins to move down the stairs.
In addition to he detection of evil, Brad checks a few other things as he peers down the stairs.
Brag commands his Bracers of Falcon's aim into action.
"Let me go down first. I will be as quiet as a halfling. Wait... I am a halfling. Sometimes I forget."
Brag pulls up the hood of his newly tailored elven stealth cloak and practically disappears from sight.
"Did he get a cloak of invisibility when he turned into a hobbit? He's gone!"
Knowing Brag is up there somewhere, Arbaro follows at a decent distance with his bow at the ready. But not close enough to disturb Brag's stealth.
Lem shrugs and follows just ahead of Abraro.
The parson nods to Thurl, "We were preparing for services one holy day and a worshiper screamed during chants. A skeleton had shambled out of the crypt. The villagers staved off the lone skeleton clambering up and we set up a watch system for a few weeks before the esteemed prioress could come. The strength of this horde has only grown as time has passed. One a week, one a day, now one an hour."
Brag creeps down, undetected, and sees a macabre array of humanoid skeletons arranged architecturally along the walls, floors, and ceilings. Their skulls are stacked, hips bones displayed in a spread like a flower, and tibia and fibias making up the structural integrity of the columns. Many of the bones have come off from their place on the walls, likely to form the dead skeletons that have been attacking the temple for the past year, but many more still remain.
Thurl follows Brag into the crypt at a slight distance, letting him go ahead and scout but not wanting him to be too far from assistance.
Brag backs slowly back to the others. He bumps awkwardly into Arabaro and drags him back to the entrance. He explains what he has detected (4 skeletons and 2 stronger skeletons) and their locations.
In a whisper, "How shall we disburse these skeletons before they can attack?"
Roccavisk points her sword and says, "Channel Iomedae's divinity! If fear grips your heart, another can charge in and assault the very walls themselves. My blade has no qualms against striking such defenseless objects."
Roccavisk is ready to charge in and blindly attack the walls if no one else wants to.
Round Surprise? | HP 48/48 | Advice 18/18 | Awaken Divinity 7/7 | Ki Pool 8/10 | Bardic Performance 9/9
AC: 29 FF: 26 T: 27 CMD: 22 Shield, Barkskin, Mage Armor and Charge active
Thurl puts his hand on Roccavisk's arm and says, "Prepare your blade, strike when the targets are obvious. I will lure them out." Thurl uses his wands on himself and charges into the room, striking blindly with his foot at the wall that Bragoleb pointed too.
Arbaro readies his bow to take out any skeletons that come to life.
Round Surprise | HP 52/52 | AC 19 | Lay on Hands 6/7 | Smite Evil 3/3 | Blunt Arrows 3 | Spells: 1st - 1/1; 2nd - 1/1
Brag channels positive energy.
Surprise
Lem moves into the room and gets ready for the fight.
Roccavisk rushes in, waving madly, and four skeletons form out of the walls. They wear rusty breastplates and heavy steel shields, waving corroded longswords at the merfolk.
Further back, two skeletons clack together out of a bookshelf, moldy robes cloaking their bones as their fingers grip two separate spellbooks from the shelf.
Thurl crits the northern one, which is dispatched by one of Arbaro's arrows. The oread's second arrow hits the skeleton north between Brag and Roccavisk.
Brag channels energy, killing the skeleton Arbaro hit and injuring the other two warriors.
The mages are out of range.
Round 1
Round 1 | HP 48/48 | Advice 18/18 | Awaken Divinity 7/7 | Ki Pool 8/10 | Bardic Performance 9/9
AC: 31 FF: 28 T: 19 CMD: 24 Shield, Barkskin, Mage Armor active
Thurl whirls around and strikes the very injured skeleton behind him with a blow to the skull.
Round 1 | HP 52/52 | AC 19 | Lay on Hands 4/7 | Smite Evil 3/3 | Blunt Arrows 3 | Spells: 1st - 1/1; 2nd - 1/1
Brag moves forward behind Roccavisk and unleashes another round of positive energy.
Round 1 Cont'd
Thurl moves forward to join Lem in closing with the mages.
Round 1
oops, I'll need to update my header
rage -1
Lem enters a rage takes a 5 foot step and attacks the north mage at the end with all his might.
Thurl kills one; only one champion remains.
As Brag moves further in, he provokes from the remaining skeletal champion.
His channel energy almost kills one. The two mages take damage.
Lem skullcrushes the northern mage with two hits, and his third almost takes out the other mage.
Roccavisk moves to kill the last champion by the door.
And misses.
Round 1
The remaining mage 5' steps back and casts Ghoul Touch at Lem using his Spectral Hand ability.
Lem falls in a heap, paralyzed, and his flesh exudes a carrion stench that causes all living creatures within 10' of Lem to roll a Fort Save (DC 17) or become sickened.
Arbaro is up
Thurl manages to wrestle his stomach into submission at the stench from lem.
Round 1| HP: 71/71 | Judgements 2/2 | Spells 1: 6/6 2: 3/3 | Perfect Strike 4/4 | Gravity Bow Wand charges 21 | True Strike 1/1 | Blood Scarab 1/1
Arbaro nonchalantly fires his bow at the remaining caster.
"Nice work boys! As soon as Lem is back on his feet, we'll dive deeper into this tomb. Oooh, look the walls are decorated with bones!"
Arbaro is distracted and starts looking around the room and bodies.
Arbaro kills the last two skeletons and the first room is clear.
x4 heavy steel shield,
x4 masterwork longsword,
x2 masterwork dagger,
x2 cloak of resistance +1,
x2 ring of protection +1,
x2 skull,
x2 spell component pouch,
x2 spellbook,
x2 348 gp
The walls are engraved with the names of those interred here. Only a few are priests or priestesses, as Theseus has not been a demigod until recently. The rest are other holy people of other faiths or those who Theseus and his companions affected in meaningful ways.
Although the bones are quite macabre, there are no further signs that any of them will come to life any time soon.
Deeper into the boneroom there is an opening to a larger chamber, a red carpet laid out on the floor flanked by pillars (one fallen down from disrepair), and a shrine at the far end of the room.
Thurl grabs the items of value. Thurl pulls the 2 magical rings off of the skeletons and says, "Here Lem, this should offer you some more protection from physical attacks. Actually, maybe I should take one myself."
Arbaro none of the loot but looks over the names of the fallen to see if any jump out at him.
"Take what you need. Once we're all geared up, we should go deeper. This next room looks promising. Ready?"
Brag will heal Lem and himself with a wand.
Lem gets up and shakes off what he can or takes a moment to rest if able/beneficial.
Lem slips on the ring and feels a bit more resilient.
You move into the next room and see eight stone pillars holding up the 10' ceilings, though one on the north side has collapsed. The walls and floors are crisscrossed with mold and cobwebs, and the stones themselves are worn and off-center. A red threadbare carpet leads west and ends at an altar covered in dried wax. Most prominently are four statues behind the pillars, each depicting a humanoid in marble in various poses. The only sound is the hollow echo of your footsteps in this empty crypt.
"Looks like this crypt has seen better days. The floor is likely to get more uneven as we go farther in. Also, that pillar is not to much of a worry, but if any more of them are broken, this place is in danger of collapse."
Thurl moves to take a look at the 4 statues and determine what he can about them.
"Don't knock over any pillars, got it! Haha!"
Arbaro moves in to inspect the statues as well.
Lem chuckles at Arbaro...
"Or maybe knock them over in a pinch... Thurl, can you tell what would be above us?"
"Give a barbarian a hammer and everything looks like a head that needs to be squashed."
Slymr's memorial is written on the walls of this crypt somewhere. The parson would have told you that earlier.
The statues are unique and each depict a heroic figure. They are carved from marble but appear to have recently been defaced - charcoal and red ink cover the statues in swear words and fake mustaches, small chips have been chiseled out of the statues, and gory trinkets have been placed on their heads and in their hands.
Round Surprise
Arbaro is up.
Round Surprise!| HP: 71/71 | Judgements 2/2 | Spells 1: 6/6 2: 3/3 | Perfect Strike 3/4 | Gravity Bow Wand charges 21 | True Strike 1/1 | Blood Scarab 1/1
"Surprise! Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will shoot you full of arrows!"
Arbaro shoots his bow at the one to the south.
Perfect Strike
"Oh, hey, guys, I don't know if you can see them but there are some wraith things. One behind Hercules and one behind Big T."
Both of Arbaro's arrow hit (without the aid of magical perfect strike), though the arrows pull a few threads of the misty black form of the wraiths with as they pass through the undead creature.
Incorporeal stats. Not invisible, mind you.
Round 1; AC 18
The two wraiths, with their shadowy black bodies and glowing red eyes, pass through the statues and pillars of the crypt, striking at Thurl and Roccavisk.
"Leave this unholy place! Cleanse not our profane sanctity of Her Soullessness!"
The other wraith shakes his glowing eyes. "Such a stupid name. We're all soulless, what makes her so special?"
"Such words are heresy!"
They put aside their theological differences and attack with shadowy hands.
Thurl's Mage Armor flashes and sparks, deflecting the Wraith's attack, but the southern wraith sucks the lifeforce out of Roccavisk with ease.
Round 1, AC 18
Round 1 | HP 50/52 | AC 19 | Lay on Hands 2/7 | Smite Evil 3/3 | Arrows 40/40 | Spells: 1st - 1/1; 2nd - 1/1
Brag uses his last two LoH for a final channel positive energy attack.
Round 1 | HP 48/48 | Advice 17/18 | Awaken Divinity 7/7 | Ki Pool 8/10 | Bardic Performance 9/9
AC: 28 FF: 25 T: 20 CMD: 25 Mage Armor and Barkskin active
Thurl shouts to his friends, "Use magical weapons to harm them!"
Create Spawn (Su)
A humanoid slain by a wraith becomes a wraith in 1d4 rounds. These spawn are less powerful than typical wraiths, and suffer a –2 penalty on all d20 rolls and checks, receive –2 hp per HD, and only drain 1d2 points of Constitution on a touch. Spawn are under the command of the wraith that created them until its death, at which point they lose their spawn penalties and become free-willed wraiths. They do not possess any of the abilities they had in life.
Constitution Drain (Su)
Creatures hit by a wraith’s touch attack must succeed on a DC 17 Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of Constitution drain. On each successful attack, the wraith gains 5 temporary hit points. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Lifesense (Su)
A wraith notices and locates living creatures within 60 feet, just as if it possessed the blindsight ability.
Sunlight Powerlessness (Ex)
A wraith caught in sunlight cannot attack and is staggered.
Unnatural Aura (Su)
Animals do not willingly approach within 30 feet of a wraith, unless a master makes a DC 25 Handle Animal, Ride, or wild empathy check.
Round 2
The wraiths circle the paladin. "A divine presence dares to intercede?"
"The strength of this soul shall not hinder us."
Round 2
Round 2| HP: 71/71 | Judgements 2/2 | Spells 1: 6/6 2: 3/3 | Perfect Strike 4/4 | Gravity Bow Wand charges 21 | True Strike 1/1 | Blood Scarab 1/1
"Sorry guys, I'm not sure what happened there. I've never zoned out during battle before! I will make up for it if I can!"
Arbaro takes aim at the southern most wraith.