Gabriella smiles slightly at her sister's touch, but the smile turns to anger when she hears her twin talking to Ellie.
"Let it go, Allie," she growls. "There's nothing to talk about. We've got more important things to do."
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Elká's skin crawls when the bloodsucker sisters and the ditzy blond can't help but project their emotional needs over the grimdark canvas of their reality. Did she in fact die and get thrown into hell? As if things aren't bad enough already as is, no, let's dress up the rotten carcass that's our existence in a jacket of emotional pretense.
"Exactly. Things like, you know, stopping these genocidal cultists from doing whatever they did to Roslar's Coffer to the surrounding towns and, sure why not - the entire world. That's, after all, what makes their unholy bones throb."
Elká's skin crawls when the bloodsucker sisters and the ditzy blond can't help but project their emotional needs over the grimdark canvas of their reality. Did she in fact die and get thrown into hell? As if things aren't bad enough already as is, no, let's dress up the rotten carcass that's our existence in a jacket of emotional pretense.
Ellie is not, in fact, stupid: she isn't as clever as Ulrich, but she's not far behind. She can identify most monsters by sight (if a little tactlessly at times), she knows at least the basic principles of magical theory and she's a whiz at advanced mathematics.
Unfortunately, when it comes to people, she is - in layman's terms - as dumb as a box of rocks: she doesn't even know what she doesn't know.
She gives Alessandra a concerned look. "Are you - are you ok, Allie? I know this place is creepy but we can't start freaking out and jumping at shadows. Honestly, everything's fine - Gabbi said I didn't even need to apologise, which was really nice of her because I think you're right. I did hurt her feelings. But things are fine now, honestly." She pats Allie's cheek. "You worry too much, it's nice that you care - I like it. It's nice to be cared for. But Elka is right. We've got a lot to do here and we need to focus on what's really happening, you know?"
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Allie just sighs, a very tired sound as her attempts to mediate are met by hostility and sheer incomprehension. "I really do like you Ellie." She says, pressing a cool kiss to the woman's cheek and giving her a gentle push down the corridor. Once she's gone Allie waits where she is until everyone but Cuddles has gone past, then puts her face in her companions fur and screams.
"You're the smartest person here Cuddles. You really are."
The tiger licks her in response, nabbing all the blood that remains on the dhampir's face and hands. That at least gets a laugh.
A rectangular room lies at the bottom of the staircase, at the end of a hallway that leads northwest. The south wall hosts the remnants of an elaborate carving, much of which has been chipped away. The only parts still discernable are an arm holding a thin sword, and a metal boot. In addition, a few words above the image read, “... the Red Crusader,” but what comes before is unreadable. You remember the Red Crusader as a title belonging to Aroden's former herald, Arazni.
A small alcove interrupts the hallway halfway down its length. Several stone shelves line the walls of the nook, holding moldering sacks and boxes. Only a strange, lingering odor of cleaning supplies hints at the alcove’s former contents.
Eventually, the hall opens into a marble-walled chamber. A colorful image of Ervin Roslar riding a horse into battle against a throng of undead creatures is carved into the eastern wall. Time has not affected this bas-relief, which looks as vibrant as the day it was made. A massive pile of rubble blocks off the remainder of the chamber to the west. Another hall exits the room to the north.
Ellie reddens slightly at Allie's unexpected show of affection. "Aw, I like you too." She gives the dhampir an exuberant, bone-crunching hug, before marching jauntily away. Things are good. Everything is sorted. Today is going to be a good day!
She looks around the marble chamber, noting the pile of rubble. "Hm. I guess the Boneyard doesnt get rockfalls or earthquakes or whatever caused that. Oh well. Makes it easy to decide where to go next."
She points at the northern hallway. "Shall we?"
"No, the Boneyard doesn't get earthquakes," Gabbi answers back, her eyes looking over the rubble. Seeing no potential for further collapse , she walks over to the unaffected art. "In a moment," she says, examining the bas-relief.
"Why hasn't this aged?" she asks.
As Gabby approaches the carving, askeletal carcass pulls itself from the rubble, its body formed as much from earth and soil as from bones and rotting flesh. It raises its hands, and the stone floor beneath the feet of the rest of the party turns to mud! The ground around the monster ripples and shifts unnaturally.
Guecubus resist piercing and slashing weapons, as well as cold. They are immune to electricity. Their attacks curse victims with misfortune.
On the plus side, Ellie recognises the creature: "Guecubu! That's bad... You need to smash the bones, bludgeon them. Electricity won't work, and they have a misfortune curse."
On the downside - "Gah!" She swiftly sinks up to her hips in mud. "It'll take me a while to get out of this."
Gabbi feels a slight tug as though her sister has just grabbed her by the hand, but the feeling is momentary and looking back shows Allie safe from the magic as her, now muddy, slippers glow with a soft light. Cuddles meanwhile has his large front paws out of the mud but is scrabbling for back paw purchase.
"Ellie!" The oracle snaps. "I need your flail!"
"I know what it is," Gabbi snaps back. She approaches the horror, pulling her morningstar out as she goes. She offers the weapon up as dedicated to Pharasma as swings at the creature.
"I'm going to need some help here!" she calls out over her shoulder.
Gabby swings her morningstar, but the guecubu easily dodges the swing. It retaliates, biting the inquisitor and smashing her with its powerful fists, leaving her crippled and barely conscious!
Life throws Elká into the deep end of things and forces her to observe how a monstrosity mutilates her friend Gabriella. Enraged and frothing at the mouth, the changeling pushes on forward slowly.
Ellie passes her flail to Alessandra, and pushes forward through the mud.
Alessandra grabs the flail and her slippers glow with a faint white light. Aided by their magic she charges the creature!
Despite the weight of the flail and her own particular curse Allie still manages to smack the creature across the face with the mighty weapon.
"Hey sis!" She says, all nonchalance. "I got this one."
Ulrich falls into the mud and curses. At least it wasn't stone to flesh.
"This is going to be tricky, but I might be able to do it!" He says as he holds out his right arm and tries to grasp at the torso of the Guecubu.
------------------------------
Spells Prepared
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0th (at will) Daze, Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead, Read Magic
1st chill touch,
2nd blindness/deafness, blood transcription, boneshaker,
3rd dispel magic, haste, hold person, speak with dead
Allie feels a countering pull from her sister as Gabbi manages to avoid the misfortune dripping from the loathsome undead. "It's all yours," Gabbi responds as she falls back and readies her bow.
The guecubu resists Ulrich's attempt to command it. Allie scores a solid blow, though not quite a critical strike. The creature snakes and attacks the oracle, biting her and slamming her once!
Elká wades through the mud and somehow manages to fetch a javelin from the bag hanging on her back. She lines up the toss, but the mud hinders her effort.
Stick to your strengths, Gabriella.
The inquisitor calls her patroness' ire down upon her bow this time and fires at the abomination.
Ellie slogs her way through the mud and into combat, wielding her family scarf, the kapenia, rather than her beloved flail. Still, it works on similar principles.
Allie smashes the creature with the flail once more before sidestepping around it and offering the weapon back to Ellie as Cuddles pulls himself from the mud and takes her place.
Ulrich lashes out again to control the Guecubu.
Both Gabby and Ellie land solid hits on the guecubu, sending bone fragments and clods of dirt flying through the air. Elka and Allie miss, though, and the thing resists Ulrich's attempts to control it.
The monster turns to confront Ellie, smashing her twice with its heavy fists!
With the benefit of a good tactical position, Ellie fights through the pain, trying to end this thing.
Ellie's scarf slices through the guecubu's resilience, tearing apart the skeletal monster. It collapses into a pile of moldy soil and bones!
Alessandra applauds politely, before turning to her tiger and doing her best to brush the mud out of his fur.
"I like the flail. The broken bits really dig into my hands though." She comments lightly. "Are we going to press on?"
Gabriella and Ellie are both injured." Ulrich replies as he moves through the sludge towards to Guecubu corpse. "I suspect you have some sort of curse, Alessandra. Whatever you touch seems to break apart, thankfully temporarily."
He goes over to the corpse, picks up the skull, and uses a spell to siphon some of its latent magic from its eye sockets into Ulrich's mouth.
The guecubu's corpse contains knowledge of earth-related magic.
Gabbi takes a moment to tend to her and her sister's wounds before resuming her examination of the bas-relief.
"Be aware," she says as she looks over the carvings. "I have no more healing left."
The bas-relief radiates a faint aura of transmutation magic. It appears that preservative magic was used to spare it from the ravages of time. Other than that, though, it is unremarkable.
"Why didn't they use this magic on the other displays?" the dhampir questions to herself before rejoining the others.
"Yes, let's move on," she says agreeing with her sister. She continues to avoid Ellie.
Broken stone shelves and half-open cabinets line the walls of a small alcove in the western wall just down the corridor. Though most of the cabinets are empty, one holds a shiny golden candle and a small rectangular block of incense that smells of jasmine. Both are magical.
Niches line the northern and eastern walls of the chamber at the end of the hall, empty save for a few ancient rags and a discarded boot. Another hallway exits to the west.
The boot appears to be dozens of years old and is sized for a child or a small humanoid. Stuffed down in the toe is a dark blue gem with a tiny letter "W" carved on it.
"This is a candle of truth, which I think is pretty self explanatory. These here are incense of meditation. They're used by divine spellcasters to maximize their spells. Both are very expensive magical items, though the incense moreso. This stone is definitely some sort of ioun stone, but I'm unsure what it does."
Allie gives her sister a kiss in return for the healing, along with a generous infusion of magically charged blood. She then heads over to Ellie and does the same thing. She stays next to the Lore Warden as the group carries on and, as searches and discussion begins in the next interesting room, speaks quietly to her.
"Ellie. Sometimes people don't always say what they mean. In life there are certain phrases which usually mean the opposite of what they say. When you take a big hit but you want to look tough, you say 'Oh it doesn't hurt really' when what you mean is 'It really hurts, but I don't want to look weak. Yeah?" She pauses for a second to ensure that the blonde is paying full attention. "'Its fine' is one of those phrases. It means 'its not fine but it'll get better and I don't want to deal with it now'. So trust me - Gabbi isn't fine, that's why she's ignoring you. So you need to talk to her, ask her what's wrong and then apologise if you mean it. Seriously, don't do it unless you do mean it." She pauses, "I know you're a lovely person, but don't do it just because I'm telling you this. Only do it if how Gabbi sees you matters to you." She smiles gently, "Now I'm going to go and get chewed out by my sister for a bit."
On the way across the room she picks up the stone. "Might as well try it then Doc!" and merrily tosses it into the air around her head.
"Look Gabbi - we match!" She says, before noting the tightness at the corner of her sister's eyes. "Hey... I think I know what this does. Try it." With the stone transferred Allie switches to the twin's personal method of communication.
Ellie nods along to Alessandra's explanation, although - logician that she is - she is quick to spot the flaw in the dhampir girl's premise. "But I did apologise," she points out, with a smile. "And I meant it - I realised as soon as you talked to me that what I'd said was thoughtless, so I went and told Gabbi I was sorry. So..."
She looks at Allie thoughtfully: "... shouldn't you be talking to Gabbi, instead? I don't really see that this is something that involves me, anymore. If she doesn't want to accept my apology, I can't make her, and I don't see that offering it again will change things. I mean, either she's going to accept the original apology or she isn't, right? Either way, it's out of my hands."
She gives Alessandra a radiant smile (logic and reason FTW!), and another (non-healing, but still magical) kiss, before moving onward to see what this tomb has.
Gabbi initially looks annoyed as her sister approaches, but as the hints of communication take place, she sighs and wraps her arms around her.
With deft hand, she reaches up and snatches the stone from around her sister's head.
"Sweets for the sweet," she says with a grin as she tosses the magical token into the air over her head.
"C'mon, Ulrich," she says in a louder voice. "Let's keep moving."
Gabby feels more alert as the stone orbits her head, its magic honing her senses.
Half a dozen alcoves run along the northern wall of the next room; stone sarcophagi occupy the two furthest alcoves to the west. Faint carvings of humanoid figures can be seen within each alcove. Part of the southern wall has collapsed to reveal a passage to another chamber.
The carvings bear an eerie resemblance to your own features. This must be the tomb of Roslar's allies, the Red Shrikes. Indeed, the sarcophagi are the spitting image of the ones you woke up in just a handful of days earlier...
Gabbi approaches the one bearing either her or her sister's image, she's not exactly sure which. She puts her hand on the cold stone, but then pulls it back with a shake of her head.
She focuses her senses on the stone boxes, attempting to detect any auras of evil.
Gabby does not detect any evil auras.
The dhampir steps close again and shoves the lid off the sarcophagus.
The eastern sarcophagus contains a few old bones, tattered burial wraps, a rusty bastard sword, and a +1 bashing heavy steel shield.
When Gabby opens the western sarcophagus, it unleashes a burst of sonic energy that sounds like a blood-curdling scream! The sound batters the inquisitor!
The remains in the western sarcophagus are in slightly better condition. You find a fully charged staff of courage lying next to the mummified corpse of a human man.
"Now who's doing silly things!" Allie asks in frustration as she drips blood into both of her sisters ears. "You got the stone to make you more perceptive! Use it silly goose!"
With the magical bead discharged Allie looks around. "We can't go much further now. I can hurt things, but I've only got one spell left then I can't heal anything else until we rest again."
"Ulrich, what will the staff do?" She asks. "Do you want it? It fits your image..." She adds with a teasing smile. "I'll take it if you don't want it."
Gabbi stumbles back from the screaming trap into her sister's arms. She shakes her head to try to stop the ringing in her ears. "Sister Rhianna did always stress taking turns," she finally responds, perhaps a little louder than normal.