Delia and Anophth both struggle to get the goblin up the rope. Dramm and Tabog both damage the chain bound, causing more walking dead to tumble out of its body, but Imedren's fire blast incinerates most of the lesser corpses! The bloated monster somehow avoids the worst of the blast.
It lashes out with its chains again, and this time lands a powerful blow on Uruuna, lacerating her skin! The three remaining corpses push through the water past their hulking ally and charge up the stairs, but they are only wide enough for two to attack, and Uruuna blocks their strikes with her shield!
Uruuna's battered state forces Dramm to approach faster than he'd like. He quickly erects a magical barrier before moving down the stairs.
"Trade with me. We will cover you."
Catching his breath, Imedren seemed to recover quickly.
He looked down at Uruuna. "Go, catch your breath. We've got this." he said with a grin.
Nodding as Dramm took Uruuna's place, Imedren focused, calling the fire magic back in a rush of power.
Anophth scrambles up to the top. Whew! Skinny buggers, ain't they?
Anyone got a giant boulder we could roll down the stairs?
Anophth will spend the round looking for something suitable.
Feeling empowered by his repeated successes with his new found weapon, the arrows continue to fly! There is concern on his face, though.
"How.. They just keep coming?"
Tabog shoots the chainbound again, causing two more corpses to spill out. Uruuna catches her breath just in time, as another lashing chain leaves her badly wounded! She blocks the corpses fists with her shield.
Dramm moves to take Uruuna's place, while Anophth leads Delia and Joy to a large chunk of stone outside!
The fey-touched place feels...resonant to Joy. She cannot help but feel fascinated at her surroundings, even when the monsters arise from the water.
During the battle, Joy tries to reach out with her practiced magic, to see if she can find a source for the animation driving the dead.
She summons magic into a quintet of acorns she picked up earlier, getting them ready.
And when Anophth requires help, she rushes back with him.
Watch out, everyone! Stone coming through! Anophth yells out.
Dramm is overwhelmed by the horrific smell that washes over him like a foul tide as chains whip past him and tear at Uruuna.
"Get her back! Hurk!" He chokes down his gag reflex, "Imedren, lets kill that f~$&ing... ughhkk... thing!"
He is already carving the familiar burning effigy into the air, energy grating at his barrier.
The magic is slipping, flashes of the Bloody Bones tearing Imedren to pieces pour into Dramm's mind. He realizes he cannot banish the image of Uruuna and the others being flayed by this foul creature from his thoughts.
"No, we can't die here." He forces out through gritted teeth. "Not until the score is settled!" Sheer will forces the wavering energies into focus!
Anophth's yell pierces Dramm's focus. He looks up the stairs and his eyes go wide.
"ROCK!"
Imedren gritted his teeth and managed to resist the horrid stench.
"Burn you damn monsters!"
Reaching forward he blasted the undead creatures with another rush of flames.
Tabog shoots the giant monster twice more, and another corpse spills out from its pierced body. Dramm's spell rips it open, and as it wavers, Imedren incinerates it with a blast of flame! Three of the animated corpses burn as well, but four more remain.
They rush up the stairs to attack him and Dramm, but neither hits!
Anophth, Delia, and Joy roll the stone down the stairs. It crushes the remaining corpses and bowls them into the water, where they float unmoving. Hopefully Imedren and Dramm don't get crushed, too!
Dramm jumps off the stairs into the water and re-emerges with a sputter! He slowly drags himself onto the stairs and begins to climb them to rejoin the group.
Imedren was too focused on trying to remove the horrifying creatures in front of him to notice the tumbling stone coming down behind him until it was too late.
"Wait, what's tha- Gaaaagh!!!"
He was crushed, the stone bowled him over as it rolled down the stairs. Worse was when his face smashed into the bottom area a few steps down. He heard some cracks and was sure something must have broken too.
Although dazed and in incredible amounts of pain when he regained his wits about him, he was glad to see that he was not immediately set upon by the monstrosities that had been there.
Uruuna sits heavily on the stairs, bloodied and battered. "Ugh, that monster hit like a double shot of dwarven whiskey! I could use some healing before we go any further."
Dramm climbs as quickly as he can and helps Imedren the rest of the way. He checks for any fatal injuries and begins to knit muscle and bone.
"Not as robust as your wife. It'll take more."
Seeing Imedren crushed, the his wife rushes to his side! "Im! Come on, get up! I told you, you're not allowed to die on me!"
She offers him her healing potion, then looks to the rest of you. "Both of us are still badly hurt. Do you have more of those berries, Joy? They will help. Otherwise, we might need to rest again to get our strength back."
Delia puts a hand on Tabog's arm. "That was some pretty fancy shooting! You wield that bow like a natural," she says with a smile.
Imedren shook his head as Uruuna helped him up.
"It's alright Uruuna. I'll be fine. I'll be fine, see?" As Dramm came over and began to heal them some, he nodded to the man in thanks.
"Who, me? Not so much, Uruuna's always been the fighter of us. I was keeping an eye on the monsters in front of us, not the dangers from behind. I'll have to be more careful of that from now on."
He looked down at the destroyed monstrosity from before. "Never heard of anything like that before. Delia, you do this for a living? I thought our line of work was dangerous but this is extreme... I'm impressed."
Delia grimaces. "I've only been doing this a little while. Fought a few animated skeletons, some beastmen, nothing like.... that." She shudders.
Imedren nods solemnly. Then he thinks for a moment. "Did your leader give you more details on what you were looking for here?"
Delia shakes her head. "Lara just told us she'd found a map to an old Elvish shrine rumored to hold some valuable treasure."
"Well we better get some lights set up in here. Or else we won't be able to see if anything was here after all." He then begins to rummage through his pack for a torch and his tinderbox.
"Delia, while the other are resting and Imedren gathers lights; if you'd like I can lead the way for us to scout a little further. I have very good vision in the dark," Tabog says.
Delia nods. "Okay, let's do it."
Imedren says, "Be careful, you two. If you see anymore trouble, don't try to deal with it yourselves. "
Tabog grins. "You know me, I make you guys do the heavy lifting. If you see bubbles, that's me rushing back in terror!" He laughs and clasps Imedren's shoulder, making sure not to hit a sore spot and nods at him.
Tabog begins to remove his leather armor and shirt. "The water, it will ruin that armor. The leather is treated with wax but the wear of combat yours has seen? You might lose it." Tabog has a sorrowful look on his face. The armor is a great boon.
Delia considers Tabog's words, then nods. "Yeah, you're right." She starts to remove her own armor.
"Would you like some help? I can get the buckles in the back!"
Delia nods, accepting Tabog's help. Once her armor is off, she strips off her shirt and breeches as well. The muscular woman stands there in her smallclothes, giving Tabog a stern look. "This is all you get for free. You want to see more, you have to buy me dinner first," she quips.
"Consider it done!" He winks as he falls backwards off the the ledge and into the water, making sure he was far enough toward the deeper end not to hurt himself.
Delia chuckles and dives in after him, in a more traditional fashion.
The water is dark, murky, and filled with the remains of the animated corpses. Tabog can spy a corroded grate in one wall of the pit, partially open.
Tabog grasps her by the hand and leads the way. When he sees the gate he surfaces to inform and asks if she wants to proceed. Delia nods. "Let's see what's on the other side at least, but not go too far."
"Stay close... Closer then that if you want."
Beyond the grate, a 2-yard-diameter tunnel eventually opens up into a dark antechamber. Striking a torch in this room, you can see that water covers most of the floor to a depth of 3 yards. To the south, a shelf of rock rises just above the water, and is covered with bones and rubble. The ceiling is a dome 6 yards overhead, painted with images displaying humans suffering horrific torture at the hands of faerie folk. A round stone door is set in the south wall, sporting a bronze ring in its center.
Delia points out an opening in the east wall beneath the water.
***
Imedren looks amused by the exchange. He leans over to Uruuna and says. "Well they're hitting it off well, aren't they?"
Uruuna lets out a high-pitched giggle. "I'd say! At this rate, we'll be hosting their wedding by the time we finish exploring the shrine."
Imedren turns to Dramm. "What do you think, Dramm,? Do we try to track down the Bloody Bones that escaped and try to find her last companion?"
Anophth watches the scene in awe. ,
Did he just walk off with a complete stranger, unarmed and unprotected, out of sight of his trusted friends, into a crypt full of walking dead?
One who claims that her party was killed, and the only one alive we've seen was unable to speak and we killed all the creatures who could have told us what happened?
He looks to the rest of them. Yeah, I'm sure he'll be fine. Come on, let's leave this crypt entirely find that last Bloody Bones, well out of earshot in case anything untoward happens!
With that, Anophth steps down the stairs and slips into the water to follow them.
"I didn't mean leave right now, but after..."
Imedren looks at Anophth with sudden dawning horror as he'd done just what the goblin had described.
"Oh heavens, what if he's right?!" Imedren said, as Anophth slipped under the water.
Uruuna sighs. "We'd better go after them. Somebody's got to save their skins if they get into trouble."
The halfling finishes binding her wounds and moves to follow Anophth.
"AHHH! Divine shit Anophth! You scared the hell out of me... Sneaking around a zombie infested shrine by yourself? You could get killed!"
Tabog puts on a mostly fake smile, a little disappointed but makes things more convenient for his next line.
"I'm glad your here though! There's a small side passage on that wall there. It looks a little more your size, want to give it a gander? I'll be right behind you."
Bog gives an exaggerated thumbs up sign to his friend then turns to Delia and winks at her.
"What do you make of this place? That door with the bronze circlet is pretty odd to me. Some kind of lock and key?"
"Looks like a knocker. Maybe we should give it a rap and see what happens?" Delia says, studying the door.
"Ah, yeah, I do see that now. Water in my eyes still, very dirty water."
Tabog takes on the slightly embarrassed status!
Anophth sneaks through the underwater opening. He narrowly avoids knocking loose some rubble on the other side that might have caused a loud splash--some of Uruuna's luck rubbing off on him.
The passage on the other side climbs up out of the water and proceeds for a few yards before opening into a circular chamber. An enormous cube of bloody meat occupies the room's center. Two bloody bones are here, tearing chunks from the meat with their jagged teeth. One wears the tattered skin of a human woman plastered to its body, rents in the flesh exposing raw muscles and bare bones beneath. Fortunately, the creatures haven't noticed Anophth yet...
Once the rock is loosed, Joy gets ready to jog after it, sling out.
And sees quickly that it won't be more stones they need right now.
"One moment!", she calls out, as she pulls berries out of a pouch.
In the palm of her hand, she can easily move energies into them.
"Get them while they're good!", she says, with more cheer than one might expect of a youth in such a place.
She will look to the others as Delia, Tabog and Anophth move towards the water.
"All of us down there? Well, if we must...", she says with hesitation barely held in check, as she approaches, not yet getting in with an air of uncertainty about her.
Anophth backs up back into the water to report what he found.
"A passage to another chamber? And the bloody bones." Dramm starts to think. "Don't like coming up from the water. Hard to fight in it. Don't have claws. Did you see any other ways in?"
When Joy offered the berries, Imedren happily takes one but insists that Uruuna takes more.
"Thank you for this Joy. Your magics are extremely helpful here. You're a friend of Nutmeg's and you've known TaBog for a while yes?" At his own mention of his friend, the words that Anophth said, surged to his mind.
"Actually this is perhaps a conversation for later. Let's go check on"
As Imedren swam through to the other side, he looked at TaBog and then Delia with just a hint of a suspicious gaze, as though expecting to find them in a very different scene. The tension in his jaw relaxed when he saw that there was no blood. Then he seemed uncomfortable.
"Uh... Finished dealing with our wounds. Didn't really see anything else out there. Guess we could have waited but... we didn't. So what are we looking at here?"
After Anophth gave his report.
"Two of them... Right well, there's no telling how those things are going to handle underwater. So maybe we just open this other door. Might just lead to them. But a cube of bloody meat?" he shuddered at the thought.
Anophth only noticed the one way in and out.
Dramm grimaces at the report.
"Not much choice then. We should be ready for the disadvantage. Hit them too hard to react." With a slow, deep inhale the air around Dramm becomes slightly charged. He draws the magical energy around him, reinforcing the spells in his mind.
"I'll go first. My protection is still active. I can distract them so you can strike from behind. Be careful, Uruuna."
Dramm begins to carve a new sign into the air. This one is light and flowing. The energies stretch from the knife point and form tiny gossamer strands that settle around him. Dramm then slides into the water as quietly as possible.
As he emerges, Dramm will not exit the pool onto dry land. Instead, he will slowly climb the wall from the pool, ascending to the top of the cavern.
Dramm keeps calm as he climbs the walls. The gossamer strands around him stick and cling to make the ascent easy. If all goes well, he crosses the roof of the cavern to put the creatures between him and the entrance. A magic dart will get their attention.
Dramm's attempt at stealth is unsuccessful. As he clambers along the ceiling, the noise of his passage attracts the bloody bones's attention. They gurgle and screech in anger!
"Dammit..." Dramm quickly begins to walk along the wall away from the entrance, drawing the bones' attention. "Come on then, filth."
A dart flies out to the nearest one!
"We've got to hurry!" Imedren said as he took a deep breath and dove into the water.
Anophth follows suit, heading back into the filthy waters, and then out the other side. He rushes in to attack.
Dramm? You ok? Anophth calls out, not seeing the human anywhere.
After hearing Anophth's description of the next room he shivers slightly, remembering the last encounter with the skeletons.
"Shit.. Just what we need right now... Look I need my gear, last time things almost went south. I'm not going in there half naked with rusty blade, I'll be just a moment. I can grab your stuff as well Delia?"
Tabog dashes back into the water and outside to grab his things. He tries his best to keep things dry but there's only so much one can do.
Tabog follows a few yards behind Anophth, attempting to use his presence as a cover for his own. He tries to remain hidden and enters the room just enough to be able to see Dramm and the bloody bones... and the flesh cube.
Upon seeing the unnaturally shaped managery of flesh, fat and muscle; Tabog had to concentrate really hard to not ditribute the contents of his stomach across the floor.
Steeling her mind as she emerges from the submerged tunnel, Uruuna hurls a dagger at the bloody bones, but fails to hit.
Delia's eyes widen in horror as she sees the gory sight, especially Lara's skin stetecthed across the body of a bloody bones. Her fear throws off her aim as she moves into melee alongside Anophth.
Between Tabog's two arrows, Dramm's darts, and Imedren's destructive magic, the first bloody bones falls! The one wearing Lara's skin dodges the rest of your attacks before lashing out at Anophth and Delia! It rips open the goblin's chest, sending him sprawling, and badly wounds Delia!
"No! Delia! Anophth! Fallback! I'll cover you!"
Tobag lets off two more arrows, hitting the disturbing bone corpse in the chest and narrowly missing it with the his second loose.
"Anophth, no! F##+ing monster!" The furious shout is followed by a rush of destructive magic!
Dramm's fury throws off his aim. The magic goes wild and the gouge marks are carved into the sides of the cavern wall.
In response to Imedren, Joy nods.
"Yes, Mister Imedren, that's right. I've been helping at mister Anophth's shop too when I have the time off from the gardens. And we can talk later, certainly."
************************
Joy gets over her hesitation and swims. No armour to weigh her down, at least.
And then she sees *it*. And begins wailing in sheer terror, her arms flailing. Even Uruuna's presence cannot help.
She flings a stone at *it*, trying desperately to keep *it* away from her! But then she sees poor mister Anophth fall, and she doesn't think twice about running to him, berry slipping into her hand.
**********
Anophth ducks into battle, swinging his gem-topped cane at the bloody Bones, darting in and around. He doesn't see it coming when it lashes him, sprawling the goblin to the ground.
Get up, you pathetic creature. Your time is not done. the voice whispers to him.
Joy runs to him, feeding him a magical berry and reviving him to consciousness.
What...
No time! Move!
Anophth rolls, barely dodging a foot to his skull as the bloody Bones tries to stomp his life out.
Now stand!
Anophth gets up.
Now fight!
Anophth's muscles surge as the demonic magic surges through him.
Anophth wavers as the power washes over him, barely keeping him conscious.
Gritting his teeth against the pain he felt from his body, Imedren
could not resist the sudden surge of power that rushed through him and pushed him forward to strike at the distracted monstrosity covered in another persons skin.
"You won't get any more bodies today, not the skin of my friends!"