Marya sees her chance to destroy the last bug, and she takes it. She steps up next to Vlad and takes her swing at the injured vermin.
Marya finishes what she started, killing the last beetle and putting an end to the excitement of battle.
To Rajuna's east a set of stairs leads to an upper level of darkness in the tomb.
Raj is relieved and he doesn't bother to hide it.
Marya sheathes her sword and takes up position near the middle of the group until she gets her and Raj back up to full.
Marya draws her sword once more and kneels down, hanging her head. ”I told you I would take responsibility if anything happens. I’m sorry everyone. I shouldn’t have run off forward like that. It was irresponsible and there’s no excuse. I won’t let it happen again.” She thought about mentioning her history and how the coffin had given her a breakdown that she was still coming back from, but she knew a good apology has no room for excuses. She stands up and walks over to Raj, placing her hand on his shoulder. ”I’m sorry you were injured due to my impulsivity.”
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At Marya's apology Rajuna cocks his head in puzzlement, like a dog that doesn't quite understand what it is seeing. He grins, as much as his scarred face allows. "I dunno. Looks to me like I got me in that tight spot. I didn't need to go leapin' a'fore you, but I did it anyways. Can't blame you for my dumb choices. 'Sides, we're alive and you fixed up whatever hurt was done. Call it even." He starts heading for the stairs then thinks better of it and turns around. "When we've got a drink in our hands, I got a story for you about a real impulsive girl and how she got me hurt. You be the judge if this little dust-up even counts." He eyes the stairs questioningly. "Ready to see what this place 's got ready for us next?"
Moving up the steps to the next level, Rajuna steps out into another floor of the tomb. This new room contains a row of four marble busts with a strong family resemblance. Each bust rests atop a narrow stone pillar. The bust farthest to the north—of a proud man with a wide mustache—wears an elegant wig of actual hair. An archway opens into another room to the north, while a set of stairs descends to the west.
Not sensing any trouble, he waves the rest of the group up the steps. As they move into the room however, six small blue creatures lean out from behind the statues and corners of the room and shoot darts in rapid succession at the group. Two darts hit Rajuna (1 damage + 1 NL) and one pierces Vlad's skin (1 damage).
Descended from even smaller fey, the mites are among the most pitiful and craven dwellers of the dark. Hideously ugly, even goblins have been known to mock mites for their homely appearances, mockery most mites take to heart and nurture for weeks, months, or even years in their tiny homes, until their distress and anger finally overcome their natural cowardice and impel them forth on short-lived bouts of bloody vengeance from the doubtful safety of a spider’s back.
Raj pulls the dart loose, irked. "Ya blue bastard." He advances on the creature by the north-most statue, wary of a trap but seeing no option other than confronting them. He slashes at the creature twice, testing its speed and agility.
MODS: None
Rajuna's first attack misses, but he times his second one perfectly. As his blade flashes and cuts the small blue creature, he finds it odd that their skin is so thick that his dagger doesn't penetrate it.
Varryk and Feena are both overcome by the sudden explosion of darts from all around the room that neither of them are sure how to proceed, delaying for the moment.
The six small blue creatures all spring into action, dropping their darts and drawing daggers as they collapse on the party. Three quickly surround Rajuna and flank him as they take swipes at him.
The rogue is quick and manages to avoid the firs two strikes, but the third slashes across the back of his left calf muscle.
Vlad finds himself flanked and caught between two small blue creatures who swipe at his thighs, one of the small daggers barely scraping the surface .
The sixth blue creatue leaps forward at Marya and hits her shin with the hilt of its dagger, bruising her bone .
Marya weighs her various options as she glances about the room, taking in the situation. Seeing Raj's dagger be ineffective gives her idea, though. Thrune loved to throw all manner of creatures with hides protected from various weapons at them. There's a reason she never carries anything made of plain steel.
She slashes out at the blue creature with her longsword.
Marya's new sword is much more effective than the plain weapon that Rajuna is using. Her blade slices clean through small blue creatures arm, lopping it off at the elbow and dropping it to the floor. The creature screams in pain and nearly passes out, teetering on its feet.
This place was a veritable hive of activity! Damian loses precious seconds pondering whether these creatures have always been living here, or if their presence is a more recent occurence. He wonders if it is the nature of places abandoned by humans to be claimed by critters - after all, it is what happened to his monastery. Sending a brief prayer to the Dawnflower that they won't have to fight something on the scale of a red reaver before escaping the tomb, he takes stock of the situation before him. The cramped quarters don't fill him with confidence that he could send an arrow at the ones harassing Rajuna, but this one right close...
As Damian draws his arrow back in his bow he opens himself up to an attack from the small blue creature in front of him. The dagger swipes in front of the paladin's chest, but doesn't come close to striking him.
Sarenrae guides Damian's arrow into and through the small creature, bursting out the other side and stealing the life of the creature with it.
Marya lets out an "AHA!" as the creature responds to her sword. "I think they are weak to cold iron! I have cold iron morningstar and dagger on my belt, take them if you need it!"
Three of the small creatures point to Marya's cold iron blade with wide eyes, exclaiming in a strange tongue. Kujdes! Njeriu zotëron hekurin e tmerrshëm!!!!!"
Feena followed the group as they headed to the next level and was as completely caught off guard by the attacks from the mites as most of the others were. She badly wanted to do something to help but found there was little she could do at the moment given the way they were all stacked up. She decided that her best course of action for now was to try and attack one of the creatures. She chanted and gestured causing a tiny jolt of electricity to leap from her finger at the nearest of their attackers.
Raj nods at Marya's idea then tries to cartwheel out of dagger range from the wretched blue creatures before they can strike. He tumbles to a stop near the cleric and attempts to pluck the dagger from her belt.
Vlad's heavy flail continues to land everywhere but on its intended target.
Feena's electrical blast shocks one of the blue creatures, apparently having no problem bypassing their thick skin as the creature shakes in response before collapsing to the ground.
Rajuna swipes Marya's dagger with expertise, preparing to be better armed for the next round of combat.
The four remaining creatures collapse around Vlad, focusing their attacks on him. Four daggers swipe at him and only one manages to strike him. The dagger is so poorly swung that the flat of blade strikes him and stings him rather than cut him .
”Right behind you, Vlad!”
Marya swings an overhead chop at the little blue creature on Vlad’s left flank.
"I'm firing another arrow!" Damian warns everyone as he nocks and draws, doing his best to avoid elbowing Feena behind him. Once he sees a clear path, he fires.
Feena's confidence was buoyed by the success of her spell in slaying the little creature. Granted she did feel bad about it, to a point, but they did attack first. Feena didn't see any more of the enemies but could tell there was still something up there. Rather than take a risk and move up she instead waited and watched for an opportune time to cast at another of their opponents.
The scarred rogue decides to use the mites' tactics against them. He vaults over his shorter opponent and tumbles to a spot across from Vlad, giving the creature two enemies to worry about.
Varryk steps up and swipes at the blue critter in front of him, but his heavy blade takes too long to come around and he telegraphs his swing too much.
Damian's arrow explodes through the chest of a small blue creature, causing it to twirl and collapse in a bloody mess.
Vlad pounds the floor again, managing to chip away at the stone and breaking pieces of rubble off in the process.
Rajuna gets into a groove as he quickly strikes down yet another blue creature.
Feena holds her magical attack, waiting to see if an opportunity arises.
Marya grins as she sees her companions downing the enemies one after the other. The sight of comrades-in-arms working together brought back some of her best memories.
She raises her sword. ”We’re almost there! Onwards!”. She once more calls upon the inspiring sword dance.
Feena, seeing that her companions had moved up into the room further, took the chance this meant it was safe for her to move in behind them. Seeing the state of the fight she chanted and gestured once more and felt divine guidance help her aim as she sent yet another jolt of electricity out at the most injured looking of the standing creatures.
Satisfied with their success so far, Damian takes another step into the room, searching for his next target. The shower of sparks from Varryk's sword as it strikes the stone floor draws his attention and he nocks another arrow.
"Varryk, move left," he warns as he takes his shot.
Raj move to flank and strikes with both blades.
Varryk moves left, but not in time as Damian hesitates a fraction of a second too long to avoid hitting him as his arrow sails high.
Feena electrocutes one of the beetles and Vlad finally connects with something, landing a blow powerful enough to squash the head of the last blue creature in the room.
Searching the blue creatures, you find each of them has a dagger and five darts.
With the threats finally dispatched, you can look at the room in greater detail. This room contains a row of four marble busts with a strong family resemblance. Each bust rests atop a narrow stone pillar. The bust farthest to the north—of a proud man with a wide mustache—wears an elegant wig of actual hair. Small plaques beneath them read, from west to east, “Fallist Roslar, Father,” “Emmillisa Roslar, Mother,” “Annilisa Roslar, Sister,” and “Ervin Roslar, Hero.”
Raj cleans the blades. He spins the cold iron dagger on his palm, stopping its rotation with a deft stab of his thumb. He offers the handle-end to Marya. "That's a nice blade. Thanks for the lend."
Ignoring the statues for the moment, Raj scans the walls looking for an obvious exit.
Marya holds up her hand and shakes her head. ”You hold onto it. There may be more of those things about. Hells, keep it if you want. Was only 2 gold.”
Marya sheathes her sword and draws her morningstar, turning it so the handle is toward Vlad. ”This seems like it would suit you in case we run into more.”
She will try to gather everyone where her channel won’t touch the unconscious creatures and unleashes another channel.
Rajuna says hesitantly, "A'right. I'll keep a hold of it for now, thanks. Hopefully, I won't need it again before we get out of here. I figure - what with those Roslars statues - this is the main bit of the crypt." The rogue sheathes all the daggers as he examines the door.
Channels...
Rajuna sense no traps or problems with the door ahead. When the party is ready, he opens the door and moves north into a cavernous chamber that has two doors to the north and two to the south, including the one you just came through.
The west end of the room contains an altar with a symbol of a winged rapier burning with bright light. Several tiles on the floor in front of the altar bear large symbols. The east end of the room contains a large crack, defacing a mural of armored figures staring resolutely forward, with beams radiating behind them. Several corpses of small, bug-eyed blue creatures slump in three piles throughout this room.
Feena sends her lights into the room to illuminate it for Rajuna.
Feena was relieved to see that the fight was over with and the blue creatures had fallen. Feena moved closer to the doorway Arjuna had entered to direct her lights but otherwise stayed in the room they had just finished fighting in for the time being.
Marya follows and peeks out into the new room.
Marya is distracted though as she notices Feena again. She hadn’t spoken much to her yet and the girl looked like she wasn’t much used to combat. Marya takes a breath to gather herself enough to manage a smile. ”How you holding up, Feena? You’re doing good with the zapping.” She mimes shooting off electricity with her sword.
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Vlad declines taking Marya's morningstar. "I have a cold iron dagger if I need it," he says.
Once they enter the large chamber, Vlad notes the large crack on the eastern wall. "This could be another place these vile beasts are getting in," he says.
The scarred warrior enters the center of the room.
"What do these symbols mean?" he wonders.
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Feena looked at Marya inquisitvely when the woman spoke her name and cocked her head slightly to one side in an almost bird-like manner as she thought through her answer. After a moment she responded, "I'm doing as well as can be expected. Those little jolts I can keep up indefinitely but I can't use my more damaging spell because the quarters are too close for it and I can either heal or harm with it but not both at the same time."
Feena looked around at the tomb as she said, "It's a little scary down here, and the things we're running into are more than a little disturbing, but what we are learning about the inside of the tomb is fascinating. So it's not all bad."
Feena looked away, worry crossing her face, as she said, "Still, I'm scared about what might have happened to the village, I have this awful feeling that something terrible has happened." Feena looked back at Marya and there was evident fear in her eyes, "If something happened to Gregory I don't know what I'll do anymore." It was obvious to anyone that this may well be her biggest fear and she sounded almost like a lost child at the thought of something happening to Father Gregory.
Damian watches Feena with a look of concentration on his face as he realizes that she is discussing important matters, as well as expressing her concerns and fears. He gives the young woman a sympathetic smile as he tries to reassure her.
"I understand your fears very well. We are doing everything that we can to return to the town swiftly, and once there we can assess the situation and see how we can best help, if help is needed. Come, let's look together at this place and see if there isn't any information that we can discover to help us understand what is happening."
Marya is happy as Damian chimes in as it gives her a chance to try to think of something positive to say.
"I'm sorry. I know this is all hard. You're holding up great so far, so...hang in there. I'm glad to hear someone else is enjoying the knowledge in here, too. My..." What was she supposed to call Hilde now? "Girlfiend" is too casual. "Lover" is something a Calistrian calls her conquests. "Love of my life" is melodramatic. They had planned to propose to each other at the same time, but that never happened before she died, and "Future Fiancee" just sounds sad and deluded. "Hilde was obsessed with Arazni and uncovering her history. She would have loved all of this." Marya suddenly wishes she had a journal and something to write with. Write all this down so that someday, maybe, if she sees Hilde again she can show her.
Giving one last smile, Marya then follows the others into the room to get a closer look at the altar and iconography.
Cold iron blade in hand, Rajuna stalks quietly along the walls, puzzling over the piles of corpses. Who piled them? I can't imagine it was a set of traps that conveniently killed them all in the same spots.
He hisses quietly, "Keep an eye on the bodies. They make no sense like that."
The group studies the murals on the walls and ascertain that this depicts several Knights of Ozem who were friends of Roslar during his life; one of them is a bearded man with a remarkable broken nose. On the western side, the altar appears to honor Arazni, the Red Crusader.
The groups further studies are interrupted when, as Rajuna remarks, those bodies moving don't make any sense. Unfortunately however, the chatter from the party alerts the enemies hidden inside the bodies of the blue creatures that others have arrived. Five dog-sized cockroach skitter forth, greedily clicking its filthslicked mandibles in your directions.
In two quick steps, the Varisian closes with the nearest roach and tests the strength of its carapace with a sharp thrust.
Varryk wastes no time, moving to a clear vantage point and opening fire on the same insect that Rajuna has engaged.
Rajuna stabs the giant bug with his dagger, followed immiedately by Varryk's attack. The 1-2 combo is effective, but the bug still stands on its feet. It lunges forward to attack Rajuna, but the rogue is too quick and backs out of the way.
Two more close in on Marya, but they are too slow and she dodges their blows. Not as lucky however is Feena, one of the big roaches bites her in her right thigh. A second bug crawls towards her and tries to bite her, but she luckily manages to avoid that one .
With her companions spread out and able to fight without constraint, Marya adjust to a more central position. She then begins her sword dance.