Ellie admires the sword: "Nice. Really nice, but not actually my sort of weapon." She offers it to Elká. "You might want this - in case we, uh, encounter anything that your claws can't get through?"
Once the room is searched and she has retrieved and cleaned her dagger, she takes point once more, ready to continue.
"Shiny!" Alessandra says admiringly as she helps Ellie yank the blade free. "Now we've all got something to hit people with, even you doc!" She points at his staff with a grin.
"We must be getting near the exit now, right?" She asks from behind Ellie as they approach the exit. "Surely a tomb won't go on forever!"
Ulrich stows his crossbow with a bit of a sigh and returns to using his quarterstaff as a walking stick. He shows no limp or signs of being haggard.
"One can only hope so. I for one would still like to know where we are. Despite the Ostrovites, I doubt we are in the Abyss, and did Roslar's Coffer really have a tomb built to this incredible size and sophistication?"
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Ellie shrugs at Alessandra's question. "This is my first tomb. Uh, I mean, I've read about tomb explorations, but most of what I know comes from books on expeditions to Osirion - and they have more traps and secret doors than we've found. Less in the way of ostrovites and mites, though." She tries to recall the exact phrase she read from an after-action report: "One particular tomb was described as 'chock full of horrific traps; built by people who really didn't want anybody taking their stuff.' This place doesn't seem to be on those lines."
She shakes her head. "I'm really not sure what to expect. Sorry."
Dr Kurbanov's question puzzles her and she does her best to remember what she knows about Roslar's tomb.
Ellie's previous knowledge about Roslar's tomb had already been far eclipsed by what she has learned being inside of it so far today. She knew that it was vast and well-known throughout the region, but there are no new insights for her to contribute.
When you are ready, you move through the door. The walls of this wide room are covered with murals depicting a man performing a variety of heroic tasks: driving a sword into a fearsome metallic bull, defending a village from a scowling spectre, delivering an impassioned speech to several knights, and so on. The man has a large mustache and flowing hair, and wears a breastplate adorned with the symbol of a winged rapier. The western end of this room contains an enormous statue of the man atop a rearing horse, carrying a lance in one hand and a shield in the other. Hallways exit this room to the north and south; both immediately bend to the east. Doors stand in the north and south walls.
"So this is all about Roslar then?" Alessandra opinions, looking at the walls. "These are his triumphs right? Hang on, is that the spectre thing we found?"
She heads up to the relief of the spectre, curious to see if its the same face as the one in the crystal.
"Erm... yes, Gab-Alessandra. Everything we've passed by is devoted to him and his history..."
He was about to go on, but Alessandra's already left his vision.
As Alessandra approaches the statue, Roslar dips his lance and raises his shield, while his mount Abdell gives a faint, ghostly whinny. Nothing else happens, though. It seems to be just a minor magical enhancement to the display.
The face of the spectre is indeed the same one the dhampir glimpsed in the crystal. A simple bowl for offerings here still contains a few gifts: 87 gp (mostly in silver and copper coins), two scrolls of lesser restoration, and an ancient jar of gooseberry preserves that now functions as 3 doses of belladonna.
Gabriella glances at the relief of the spectre as well, although she's pretty sure it'll be the same face she saw.
"We haven't really found anything in the way of traps," the inquisitor says suspiciously. She glances at Eldarel. "Maybe you were reading about the wrong kinds of tombs," she says with a smirk at the Lore Warden.
"If there's another staircase going up, it'll probably be behind the door across the way," she says pointing at the southern door. "Let's try there first."
A small, dry font juts from the south wall of this room, in the center of a mural depicting the interior of a chapel. On the west wall hangs a large square mirror with an ornate gold frame.
"I thought for sure there would be another staircase here," she says with a frown.
The inquisitor shows no interest in carrying around a large mirror. She uses her detection cantrip and if it doesn't indicate anything of note, she directs everyone's attention to the eastern hallways.
"Let's try the southern one first," she says, pointing with her crossbow.
Both passages connect in the same room. A grand metallic double door stands in the east wall of this chamber, while hallways exit to the north and south. A statue of a proud knight with flowing hair and a large mustache stands in an alcove in the west wall, atop a short pillar bearing a metal plaque: "Ervin Roslar: Paladin, Hero, Martyr."
Two skeletal celedons stand vigil here. They seem surprised to see people coming from deeper inside the tomb. "Interlopers! Explain yourselves!"
"Give us three minutes and we won't be interlopers anymore," Gabriella snarks back.
"Either you were asleep on the job or someone transported us deep within the tomb against our will via magic," she continues in a more serious tone. "Right now we'd just like to leave and try to find out why someone would do that."
"We've also eliminated quite a few pests that were roaming around inside, unhindered. You're welcome."
"We haven't really found anything in the way of traps," the inquisitor says suspiciously. She glances at Eldarel. "Maybe you were reading about the wrong kinds of tombs," she says with a smirk at the Lore Warden.
Ellie shrugs in reply. "Not necessarily wrong - just, uh, different. A bit like your taste for blood, maybe?"
She gives the dhampir a disarming smile.
Ellie steps forward as the celedons approach. "Wait, wait wait! Like she said, we're here by accident, and we're leaving. We met your colleague Number Three and explained everything to him. Oh, and did you know that the tombs are all empty?"
Assuming diplomacy fails, she'll swing at the nearest automaton with her flail.
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"We haven't really found anything in the way of traps," the inquisitor says suspiciously. She glances at Eldarel. "Maybe you were reading about the wrong kinds of tombs," she says with a smirk at the Lore Warden.Ellie shrugs in reply. "Not necessarily wrong - just, uh, different. A bit like your taste for blood, maybe?"
She gives the dhampir a disarming smile.
Gabriella responds with a cold stare and then turns away, but not before the Lore Warden catches the glimmer of a smile.
The celedons' response is to advance menacingly with short swords drawn.
"You have failed in your assigned task to protect this tomb," Gabriella declares in a voice filled with authority. "It has been overrun with vermin and looters on your watch. The weight of this failure rests solely on you!"
She aims and fires her crossbow at the nearest foe.
Gabby's bolt chips away at one of the celedons. The constructs step up and stab at Elly, but her armor protects her.
Elly delivers a solid blow with her flail, shattering metal!
Gabriella's face could be carved from stone for all the expression she now shows. In a rhythm demonstrating that she's done it hundreds of times, the dhampir cocks, reloads and fires her weapon again.
Her stoney facade cracks a little as a flicker of irritation sneaks through.
"Watch out for their touch! It can stun you!" Yells Ulrich as he fires a shot from his crossbow.
Alessandra skirts rapidly around the edge of the room, eventually ending up behind one of the celadons, where she lashes out with a heavy mace blow!
While Gabby and Ulrich's and shots go askew, the rest of you strike true. Elka shreds the damaged celedon with her claw, sending it crashing to the floor. Alessandra circles around to flank the next one, scoring a solid hit with her mace.
Outnumbered, the remaining construct nevertheless remains determined to go down fighting. It jabs at Elly ineffectually before stepping back.
Ellie scowls with frustration. "Just give up already, will you? We don't need to do this! We're not interested in the tomb, we just want to get home. Who'll tend the place once you're gone?!"
If it doesn't surrender, she will sigh and bash it once again.
Alessandra goes low as Ellie goes high, smashing into the creatures leg joint as she bludgeons the torso.
The construct shows no signs of surrendering. Alessandra smashes, Eldarel bashes, and Elka slashes! The second celedon goes down hard and doesn't get back up.
The tomb falls silent once more. The grand double door beckons...
"Well that was annoying. Come on, let's get out of here and go home."
Ellie marches over to the doors and throws them open.
Grim moonlight pours into the tomb as Ellie throws the doors wide. The landscape outside is ominous. Dead trees adorn pale, rolling hills, each of which is covered with gravestones that march away to the dark horizon. The moon above is impossibly large and looks down upon you as a glowering skull.
One thing is certain: you're not in Roslar's Coffer any more.
Alessandra scoops the weapons up and offers one to her sister. "This seems like your speed sis!" She sheathes the other on her own belt unless someone else speaks up for one.
"Shall we?" She asks, heading to the doors behind Ellie.
Ellie's jaw drops as she stares out across the dead landscape (deadscape? Deathscape?) of what is obviously the Boneyard.
It's several seconds before she remembers to breathe.
It's several seconds more before she registers the fact that she's breathing.
"But... I'm not dead! I mean, am I? Are we...?"
She falls silent as she continues to stare blankly out at the impossible sight.
What do we do NOW?!
"No." Alessandra sounds puzzled. "Gabbi and I are most of the way there but still... not this far. What are we doing in the Boneyard? And still in our bodies at that?"
As you struggle to get your bearings, two creatures approach. One is a looming skeletal humanoid with large wings and a metallic jackal mask for a head. The second rides on the first one's shoulder, appearing to be a black raven wearing a porcelain mask.
"Oh, isn't this a meeting of obvious fortuitousness!" the bird says excitedly. "Here you are, and here we are. My name is Umble, and my silent companion here is named Thoot." The skeletal humanoid inclines its masked head. "We mean you no harm, despite the strange harmaments you seem to have already suffered. Yes, yes, this is the land of the dead, and no, you aren't dead yourselves. You seem to be something of a special case—you seem a touch too vitalitinous for this place."
The bird peers closely, cocking her head to one side. "Ah, there is a wonderment! Your hearts have something lodged inside them. Something that's brought you here, but kept you from doing so in the orthodoxiumous fashion. I cannot help but ruminate: what has caused your strange condition?"
"We don't know." Alessandra responds. "We woke up like this, body and all. The last I remember..." She pauses, worried that she hasn't thought about this before.
Gabriella looks down at the short sword that her sister attempts to hand her.
"I know you're the pretty one. You need to remember that I'm the smart, funny one. Leave the jokes to me. Yes, I'm quite aware that they gave up trying to teach me blades - you don't need to rub it in." She shakes her head.
Her annoyance with her sister seems to grow when Allie figures out where they're at before Gabbi.
"Yes, we're in the Boneyard," she confirms, with a slight flush coming over her face. "But why? We're not dead. We shouldn't be judged - net yet."
"So the Lady didn't bring us here?" Gabriella seems relieved. "How can we get back the material plane?"
Umble flutters her wings. "Your arrival here is as much a mysteriosity to us as it is to you, I assure you. The customary route is one of considerably more post-mortality than you seem to have. You may speak to the Lady of Graves herself, with all certaintuity, and ask if she brought you here! The wait for her magisterial presence is normally any number of centuries, but given the atypicallity of your arrival, I expect she will see you in just a scant tens of years!"
The skeletal creature points to you and makes a broad, sweeping gesture. "Yes, of course. Thoot would like to ask from whence on the Material Plane do you hail?"
Gabriella grimaces at how long they may have to spend here before returning to their home plane. She steps closer to her sister, looking for her familiar closeness to offset the sense of loneliness the Boneyard engenders.
She glances at Allie before answering. "Before we appeared here, we were in Rosler's Coffer." She looks around to the others to see if their answers might differ.
Alessandra's hand finds its way into Gabbi's and holds it comfortingly as she nods in agreement to her sisters statement.
The bird peers closely, cocking her head to one side. "Ah, there is a wonderment! Your hearts have something lodged inside them. Something that's brought you here, but kept you from doing so in the orthodoxiumous fashion. I cannot help but ruminate: what has caused your strange condition?"
Ellie reflexively looks down before mentally kicking herself. Well of COURSE you can't see your heart, dummy! The problem would be if you COULD.
The question is how this creature can. "Uh, what's... what's wrong with my - our - hearts? And how can you tell?"
She shivers in the cold, eerie light of the unfamiliar moon. Everything about this place is wrong.
"Uh, yes - I was in Roslar's Coffer as well." She's been trying ever since she woke up to remember what she can about what happened before she went to sleep.
"Uh, what's... what's wrong with my - our - hearts? And how can you tell?"
"Well, it’s right there for the seeing, if you can see into your own hearts. A longitudinousness of your makeup. It’s ah... a bit of a tweak, you see."
The tall creature with the wings and jackal-skull head softly raps Umble's head, then points to the entrance to a nearby valley. "Ah, Thoot, now that is a brilliant idea!" exclaims the gregarious bird. "You are from Roslar's Coffer, and they are from Roslar's Coffer. Perhaps you can help us? If so, we can provide you with some very helpful information about wending you in a homewardly direction.
"Some awful tragedy befell this Roslar's Coffer. Everyone there died quite suddenly overnight. Well, everyone but you, apparently, but in any case, the sum of the populatory has deposited here, dead or otherwise. Their souls are milling about in that valley over there. As happens on such calamitous occasions, the inhabitants aren't quite ready to admit that they've died. Despite their obvious amortality.
"Now, Thoot and I, we are not psychopomps in the greatest esteem. One might say we're on our last chances around here. But because these souls have arrived in our territory, it's our duty to make them accept their mortality and move them along in a soulwardly way. But they took one look at us, called us 'monsters,' and accosted us with homicidal intent. They wouldn't allow any discussionment. Now, eventually, more powerful psychopomps will be along to settle this all out, but Thoot and I will be in a terrible amount of trouble in light of this failing. Here is our propositionality: if you convince these souls they've expired—as, until the recent event of their passing that you somehow avoided, you were among their kind—we can tell you about the Dead Roads: the roads from the Boneyard to mortal worlds, that is. Have we a deal?"
"The Dead Roads?" Gabriella echoes back.
She turns to Alessandra. "It doesn't look like we have much choice, unless we want to stand in line for fifty or sixty years."
The inquisitor turns back to the psychopomp. "We'll try. I can promise they'll listen to ... " She glances back at her twin. "Us."
"You are from Roslar's Coffer, and they are from Roslar's Coffer. Perhaps you can help us? If so, we can provide you with some very helpful information about wending you in a homewardly direction.
"Some awful tragedy befell this Roslar's Coffer. Everyone there died quite suddenly overnight."
"Wait, WHAT?!?!?!"
Ellie mouths wordlessly for some moments as she tries to come to terms with how casually these two have dropped such an alchemist's flask.
"Uh... I... Uh... What? I mean, how, what HAPPENED?!?!? Hasn't my hometown suffered enough already?"
A mixture of helplessness and anger builds up inside, suffusing her cheeks with a red glow.
Gabriella recalls a few old wives' tales and children's songs about the reaper walking the dead roads to bring the dying home, but no other concrete details.
Umble bobs her head sorrowfully. "Apoplexigies. I know not what transpired on your world, only that your fellow townsfolkians have transitioned into this world now."
"We can convince them." Alessandra agrees. "And once we've done that you'll help us get back to Golarion still alive? What do we have to do?"
"Indeed! Simply convince them to accept their untimely demiserires, then we will guide you on your way home! But not until your task is complete!"
"Fine - where do we need to go then?" Allie asks, thoroughly creeped out by the revelation of where they are and very willing to get out as soon as possible!
"OK, we can do that." Ellie turns to the others. "You go ahead, I'll catch you up in a couple of minutes."
======
She gives the two psychopomps an anxious look: "This, uh, this isn't the first time Roslar's Coffer has had a lot of people die... Twelve years ago, some- something similar happened. Uh, were you here for that? Only, one of, one of them was, was my brother, Laz. Ladzlovar. He'd have been..."
Gods, he was younger than I am now
"Uh, he'd have been, uh, seventeen or so. In militia uniform. Same blonde hair as me. I don't, uh, I don't suppose you'd remember...?"
"OK, we can do that." Ellie turns to the others. "You go ahead, I'll catch you up in a couple of minutes."
Gabrielle looks between the psychopomps and the young Lore Warden. She fixes the girl with a suspicious gaze but then, at the tugging of her sister's hand, moves on with the rest of the group.
Tears stream down Ellie's face: it's one thing to be sure - it's another to have it confirmed. She nods as politely as she can to the psychopomps: "Oh. Th-thank you for telling me. I sh- I sh- I should g-go now."
She stumbles away, blindly, for perhaps a dozen steps before she sprawls to all fours, pounding on the dead earth with one hand as she weeps, the pain of grief in her heart too much to bear.
Pulling the corroded holy symbol from her belt she glares at it through red-rimmed eyes. Laz told her it would keep her safe, that it would - would bring them back together...
"Liar!"
She screams the word, over and over until her throat is raw, before gathering her strength and flinging the accursed thing as far from her as she can... and collapses, spent even beyond tears, onto the uncaring, unyielding ground.