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Belmiir moves up to see Sir Durant plunge his sword into the splayed derro, pinning it to the ground. Cyclic heals her wolf while the rest of the attacks go errant. In the end it doesn't matter as the derro lashes out wildly one final time before passing out under Durant's grinding blade.
Yellow Mite -11 damage <unconscious>
Red Derro - 21 damage <unconscious>
Belmiir - 2 damage
Sir Durant - 6 damage
Cyclic - 8 damage
Mange - 18 damage
Orange Mite -7 damage <unconscious>
Altorin - 5 damage <shroud>
Qiroyo - 2 damage
Eka (1 point non-lethal damage) - 8 damage
------------------------
After healing, the group analyzes the situation.
The Cassomirites immediately try to head to the stairs and make for the surface.
One slows as she leaves and turns to say, "Thank you for freeing us, we've thought for a week that we would be dead. Or worse. The creature kept telling us that someone named Dalirio was going to turn us into skeletons and curse our eternities with undeath."
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Eka digs around in her pack until she finds the potion of Cure Moderate Wounds that she obtained earlier in this adventure and chugs it, tossing the empty bottle against the wall.
"Look at that - it looks like there's some symbols from the paintings by the fountain. Let's try selecting the symbols that got us in here in the first place."
"You don't ssay? Well, then..." Eka cracks her knuckles and takes up a position beside the closest tumbler . "Let'ss do thiss!" She heaves on the tumbler, scaly muscles bulging as she attempts to turn it.
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With some help, Eka is able to turn all of the tumblers to their proper positions. With a final audible click they lock into place. Suddenly, the fountain begins to rotate and its stale waters drain rapidly. The grinding of the gears echoes off the stone walls, causing the ground to shake. As the fountain rotates, a spiral staircase appears where the fountain’s solid basin once sat. A slick staircase slopes down into Cassomir’s bowels, twisting its way down and around a deep cistern.
Belmiir - 2 damage
Sir Durant - 6 damage
Cyclic
Mange
Altorin - 5 damage
Qiroyo - 2 damage
Eka
Moving down the stairs carefully, the drips from the emptied water still echoing around you, the group eventually reaches a solid stone door that does not appear to be locked.
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The door opens slowly. An enormous room lies ahead of you, filled with dozens of family crypts decorated with family names, heraldic crests, and a variety of death-themed statuary. The walls, floor, and ceiling are made of smooth, polished stone, and the crypts are made of thick, square blocks of granite. A handful of statues stand throughout the room, though they don’t seem to be placed with any plan—some face the wall, some lie on their sides, and others are damaged beyond repair.
The northwest quarter of the room is dominated almost entirely by a single large crypt. The name is displayed across the front of the crypt.
A group of skeletons scramble toward you from a nearby pile of rubble.
Altorin - 5 damage
Yellow skeleton
Belmiir- 2 damage
Cyclic
Mange
Orange skeleton
Qiroyo - 2 damage
Eka
Red skeleton
Sir Durant - 6 damage
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Altorin coats the rubble causing one of the skeletons to slide down on his coccyx. The lagging skeleton tries to navigate the slick but suffers the same fate and struggles to regain its footing.
Altorin - 5 damage
Yellow skeleton
Belmiir - 2 damage
Cyclic
Mange
Orange skeleton
Qiroyo - 2 damage
Eka
Red skeleton <prone>
Sir Durant - 6 damage
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Belmiir jaunts forward and collapses the nearest skull with a blunt arrow. The group is blessed once again and Mange tries to scrape at the fallen skeleton but it arches out of the way of the wolf's bite.
The other skeleton waddles forward and sweeps out at Cyclic with an unbalanced scimitar.
Altorin - 5 damage
Yellow skeleton <destroyed>
Belmiir - 2 damage
Cyclic
Mange
Orange skeleton
Qiroyo - 2 damage
Eka
Red skeleton <prone>
Sir Durant
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Qiroyo's ray flies harmlessly into the wall with a flash of green. The sprawled skeleton is crushed by Eka's overhead chop, but no sooner has she vanquished it then the door to the Ismacco crypt bursts open and a trio of cultists step through with murderous intent.
Altorin - 5 damage
Belmiir - 2 damage
Cyclic
Mange
Orange skeleton
Qiroyo - 2 damage
Eka
Orange Human
Yellow Human
Red Human
Sir Durant
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Mange snaps at the skeleton and, after he attacks, Cyclic directs him towards the humans.
Unwilling to leave his bone behind, Mange drags the thing along beside him as he races to the other side of the room at Cyclic's behest. Feeling pretty smug at the moment Cyclic threatens the lead human.
"Mange here is just getting started. Who's next? You?"
The effect is ruined by the fact that Mange looks like he is more interested in playing with his bone and Cyclic is hardly threatening in himself.
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Sir Durant's holy hand sears into the skull of the remaining skeleton, distracting it enough for Mange to tear through its center, exploding its animated form. Against the cultists, Altorin slicks the path, splitting the two men as one falls, clearly shaken by Cyclic's threat. Belmiir steps over and takes a well-placed shot at the one who remained upright.
Sir Durant
---------
Altorin - 5 damage
Belmiir - 2 damage
Cyclic
Mange
Qiroyo - 2 damage
Eka
Orange Human
Yellow Human - 4 damage
Red Human <shaken, prone>
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Her stride emanating a menacing confidence in her group's soon-to-be victory, Eka roguishly grins as she climbs on top of the granite block before her. She hops down on the other side of it, slowly guiding the tip of her bardiche back and forth between the two closes foes, tempting them to make a move so she can cut them down.
If these checks are needed, she will clearly fail the first one, and just go around past Belmiir and Cyclic and end up in the same spot.
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Qiroyo's shot navigates the battlefield to strike the foe in the doorway. Eka skirts about to position against the new threats but they reach her first, lashing out wildly with their gnarled clubs. The remaining cultist circles around the back of the statue, waiting for an opening.
Sir Durant
---------
Altorin - 5 damage
Belmiir - 2 damage
Cyclic
Mange
Qiroyo - 2 damage
Eka
Orange Human - 4 damage
Yellow Human - 4 damage
Red Human
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Eka's bardiche was swinging over to the yellow guy at the wrong time. By the time she swung it back over to the red guy, he was up and ready for the swooping weapon, ducking out of the way. Dang it!
As the cultists close in on her, Eka takes a careful step back and strikes again at the red guy.
That yellow guy is too close for her comfort, though, and is enough of a distraction that she clonks her elbow on the side of the crypt behind her, right on the funny bone. The ensuing sensation is enough to cause her strike to miss by a mile.
"AARGH!" @#$#%@@#%@$%$#%$@#
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The undead collapses and Sir Durant turns to see his allies engaged with more foes further on in the hidden graveyard. With a clear path into the fray available to him, he sends up a quick prayer of thanks to Iomedae for the chance to spread her divine judgment, then shouts out her name in a holy battlecry!
"IOMEDAAAAAAEEEE!!!"
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Sir Durant's path is clear and his sword is true, but the cultist still stands after the assault. His partner falls under his weight as the ground freezes. Belmiir's shot find its target , but Mange's bite and Qiroyo's arrow do not. Eka cannot find the proper angle to attack or defend but none of the cultists can land a solid blow on our heroes. The strain of the battle is far too much for one of them, and he collapses to the ground as his club swing misses its mark.
Sir Durant
---------
Altorin - 5 damage
Belmiir - 2 damage
Cyclic
Mange
Qiroyo - 2 damage
Eka
Orange Human - 4 damage
Yellow Human - 4 damage <prone>
Red Human - 11 damage <unconscious>
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Nearly in unison, the group easily finishes off the last two cultists.
Sir Durant
---------
Altorin - 5 damage
Belmiir - 2 damage
Cyclic
Mange
Qiroyo - 2 damage
Eka
Armed only with ragged chain shirts and gnarled clubs, the cultists provide no recompense, nor do the crumpled skeletons in the courtyard.
The grand Ismacco crypt stretches toward this room’s ceiling and two large, copper braziers flank its impressive floor-to-ceiling doors and light the entire chamber. Three stairs ascend to the crypt’s entrance. At the building’s base, a faceless statue holds a gibbous moon aloft.
Ornate carvings decorate the walls inside the Ismacco crypt, creating several stylized burial niches. Tall, marbled pillars stretch to the 20-foot-high ceiling, creating three alcoves that hold massive oak sarcophagi. At the rear of the chamber, stairs ascend into a basilica-like dome. A musty smell permeates the chamber, and several dozen torches burn brightly in wall sconces throughout the crypt provided a dancing light to your exploration.
Curiously, the bones inside each sarcophagi are arranged as if to hasten their renewal and they have been dressed in piecemeal armor. A single rusted scimitar has been placed next to their sides. Although... in one of the sarcophagi you find a nicely preserved scimitar bearing the inscription Rashim’s Caress.
The cultists had set up a guard post near a shattered burial niche in the northeast corner of the room that hides a set of rough-hewn stairs descending into darkness. In the northwest-most alcove, two Cassomirite slaves are bound inside a small cage and now beg for their freedom.
A grand altar rests in the open basilica in the northernmost portion of the room; stairs nearby lead up to a second level of burial niches similar in form and function to those on this level . An impressive two-story wall mural in the basilica depicts a stern figure glaring down on the sepulcher.
----------------------------
Carefully descending the stairs to the lower level of the crypt you find several more ornate burial niches that adorn the passage walls, each with an identical skeletal denizen, waiting to be awoken from their eternal slumber. In the passage’s southwest corner, shattered niches reveal a massive set of iron double doors. An image carved on the doors depicts a dispassionate figure holding a gibbous moon.
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"I've never seen a crypt as ornate and magnificent as this one. Truly a fine tribute to death. I particularly like that mural, though the figure does seem a bit miffed. Anyone know who the mural is of?"
Cyclic listens politely but disinterestedly to the prattling of the freedmen while she takes in the sights until the the older one tries to warn them off.
"Your warning, sir, only serves to goad us on. Those who trifle with the laws of nature and turn good bodies and souls into undead mockeries and monstrosities have to be dealt with. We are up to the task, but just in case we are not we will wait until you have had a chance to make your exit before we dig the villain out of his lair."
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Peeking into the crypts, Eka sees the skeletons prepped for raising. Her eyes narrow, then she begins removing both the upper arm bones of each one. She makes a pile of them in the best hiding spot she can find. If anyone asks her what she's doing, she replies: "They'll be easier to fight without arms." Once finished, she retrieves her bardiche and is ready to go.
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"It's no surprise that the statue appears so dour, Cyclic. That is Groetus himself." Sir Durant looks gravely up at the statue for a moment, then turns away and continues into the crypt.
As the knight ventures into the mausoleum, he joins Eka in removing bits from the skeletons, though he focuses on taking away their femurs. "It might also help our cause if they cannot walk either," he explains.
Before the group comes too near the large iron doors that Durant assumes to be the lair of the villain behind all of this sacrilege, he offers his healing wand to his companions once again. "We will all need to be in top form for the battle to come," he says, "Let's make sure we are ready."
After healing his allies, Sir Durant pours out a vial of oil on his blade, and the cold iron takes on a subtle radiance that seems to bring hope and light to even this dismal place . He also pops open a potion vial and downs their contents .
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Sir Durant struggles with the door for a moment but it eventually gives way, revealing the long room ahead. A purple glow washes over this cold chamber, creating an otherworldly sheen. A formidable desk adorns the far wall; behind its oaken bulk hangs a large map of Cassomir, stained with blood. Straw-lined cages line the chamber’s east and west walls. In the center of the room, resting on a small pedestal, a black rock absorbs the chamber’s bright torch light.
A man you have faced before sits at the desk and carefully lays a wand on its surface and slowly rises. Something about him does not look right. He speaks with a guttural and halting cadence. "You have made another dread mistake, fools. Prepare to meet the Harbinger of Last Days!"
Two skeletons rise from their flanking repose as if drawn up by invisible strings and drag out their cracked scimitars with a shrill whine. One is quick enough to scramble in front of the black rock pedestal as if to guard it.
Pink Skeleton
Altorin - 2 damage
Belmiir
Cyclic
Mange
Eka
Blue Skeleton
Qiroyo
Sir Durant
Purple "Man" (Dalirio Teppish)
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Cyclic does a face palm when Sir Durant identifies the deity.
"Should have known that. I'm a big fan of Pharasma after all."
Cyclic is not the least bit surprised when the skeletons come to life and she and her faithful companion spring into action. she does what she always does and casts bless from her wand. An increasingly drained wand. Mange sees the opportunity to collect another bone and, with a little prodding, bolts forward to do battle.
Speaking of femurs, guess what Mange has sunk his teeth into!
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The blessings of Pharasma momentarily dim the dark purple illumination within the room. The skeleton collapses from the slippery change of terrain and his skull is then easily crushed by Mange's bite. Belmiir and Eka plod forward to face the ghoulish man, with Eka even making a valiant leap forward to avoid the icy ground.
Pink Skeleton <destroyed>
Altorin - 2 damage
Belmiir
Cyclic
Mange
Eka
Blue Skeleton
Qiroyo
Sir Durant
Purple "Man" (Dalario Teppish)