As the others start looking about the room, Aralah starts moving to the open door ways around the room and checks them out as quietly as she can.
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Rose thinks out loud, trying to puzzle out what's going on, "As Sarela commented before, 'Why would a celedon devoted to Pharasma be watching over what is clearly Roslar's tomb? And how did it come to be so defaced?' Why indeed."
Alivia remarks dryly, "Apropos to the current situation, shouldn't you be more worried about what killed it? And how long ago it happened?"
Rose continues, "What was powerful enough to defeat the Celedon? Certainly not the bugs, if we could defeat them, then no immortal guardian placed by a god to guard it's tombs would be phased by them. The remains are twisted with acid, but did the bugs do that or something worse?"
The invisible voice points out, "Why is there treasure laying about this tomb?"
"With the treasure about, whatever came in here came in here for something other than grave goods. And did they leave the demon bugs or did those just wander in of their own accord?" elaborates Rose.
The spirit muses, "What happened to the bodies buried where you woke up?"
The elf taps her chin and comments, "Perhaps whatever came here and defeated the Caledon was after whatever was in our 'tombs' before us. I certainly did not wake up next to whatever it's previous occupant was. Did it want bodies and not the treasure?"
Rose's spirit asks, "You have a number of gods and faiths all mixed up in this Iomedae, Pharasma, Aroden..."
"As for the symbol of Aroden, Roslar was enamored of Aroden's herald, but were any of his companions worshippers of Aroden? That occurs to me, the mace and holy symbol on the skeleton, was there a living cleric that was killed in here by whatever killed the Caledon? Or was that from before or after?" wonders Rose.
"Furthermore, wasn't the tomb securely barred? I didn't think it could be easily opened. Certainly no one in recent memory opened it."
Alivia asks, "Who are these people with you? Why are they here?"
Rose looks around at the assembled people, her eyes narrow a bit in concentration, "Why are we here, not the cause or the reason, I want to know those too. But why are we six individuals here, why not different people? What common thread binds us, those who are natives and those who are outsiders?"
Finally, addressing everyone, Rose asks, "I know I was thinking out loud, but if anyone has any knowledge about these mysteries, I'd love to learn more."
Mithralline stops and thinks about Rose's questions, though most of her are beyond her knowledge.
"What could it do with the bodies? Resurrect them, turn them into undead ... Anything else? Perhaps the thief had some deal with some Infernal power and needed to "replace" the bodies with fresh ones. That would have been us. If the originals were buried in full regalia, that might explain why we were as well."
Her voice grows deeper as she gets irritated with her next thought: "And it could mean we were simply chosen at random, selected for their ability to grab us. I spend enough time alone that I could be overwhelmed by enough numbers. Why we don't remember though ... ?"
She stomps her foot in frustration.
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Rose confers with Sarela on the capabilities and known tendencies of ostovites. There is no further damage like dents, cuts or gashes that would indicate blunt trauma from a weapon, but there are hundreds of tiny bite marks and acid splashed areas on the creature. They come to the conclusions that based upon the state of the celedon and the known acid producing capabilities of the ostovite, it seems highly probably several combined ostovites are responsible for the destruction of the celedon.
They don't know how long it normally takes or the origins, but it is common for ostovites to feast upon corpses once they are made aware of their presence. Ostovites do not act quickly in preparing their bone chariot. They begin by using their acid to soften the creature’s bones, drawing them out and reconstructing them into a twisted parody of their original configuration, with the ostovite resting in a nest-like structure in the sculpture’s center. This process can take days or weeks given the size of the skeletal structure that is being recreated.
Aralah moves into the southwestern corridor and observes a small alcove on the east wall of this hallway that contains stone shelves with some boxes and bags. On the floor are several shiny plates of insectile exoskeleton that glimmer with a faint red glow. The hallway continues into the southwest into a larger room.
Mithralline hoists her hooked lance again as Aralah points out the red glow, ready to charge to the group's defense if needed.
Sarela nods in agreement with Rose’s questions, then points to the arch that says ‘Abdell’. ”Abdell was Roslar’s horse. I guess he wanted his horse to be buried with him as well.”
Aralah moves into the southwestern corridor and observes a small alcove on the east wall of this hallway that contains stone shelves with some boxes and bags. On the floor are several shiny plates of insectile exoskeleton that glimmer with a faint red glow. The hallway continues into the southwest into a larger room.
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Rose apparently is quite the historian on Roslar.
A valiant paladin, Roslar (and his companions) were all fiercely devoted to Arazni, a divine warrior serving as the herald of Aroden.
Roslar was to be buried in his tomb along with his close companions, the Red Shrikes and his loyal horse Abdell as well as nearly two dozen of his loyal retainers, squires and servants.
Roslar’s adoration of Arazni was his undoing, he accidentally revealed important information about the Knights of Ozem as he fantasized about meeting Arazni to express his adoration. Roslar was horrified to discover later that his unknown benefactor was an agent of the Whispering Way, and that the information he revealed ultimately helped pave the way for Arazni’s death. He threw himself into the fiercest of the fighting and died, to all appearances, a hero. An extensive tomb was constructed to honor him and his associates, near the town that would later bear his name. Before Roslar’s body was placed in his tomb, rumors of his involvement in Arazni’s death surfaced. The Knights of Ozem, reluctant to call shame upon one of their own, conducted a lackluster and inconclusive investigation. Roslar’s legacy was shrouded in scandal; his body was instead buried elsewhere, and his tomb neglected.
Roslar's tomb has long been neglected in town. It's been centuries since it's been kept up with and the town more or less ignores it. The entrance is grown over and no one actually enters it. If you had visited the tomb in town you would have found debris, defacement and looting all having had previously taken place. There was some controversy surrounding Roslar's death centuries ago and since then people just pretend it doesn't even exist.
Rose has never seen the tomb layout, but knows a little about it. She recalls it was a three-level tomb with all of the sarcophagi on the lower most level. Various murals, statues and other recollections of Roslar's valiant efforts can be found throughout several other rooms in the first two levels.
Rose is unaware if the tomb was sealed magically or not.
Rose asks one question to the rest of the group after telling them all about Roslar, his history, and the tomb, "One thing I do not know about is the association with Pharasma, anyone know more about that?"
She calls over to Aralah, "You may need to be careful, the pieces of this bug over here are not of an ostovite, but something larger.
"So, they thought they were doing right according to their god but it was all a trick." It's like a manifestation of my own fears. Is faith actually the thing that guides us through the dark, or is it just cowardice to let somebody else choose a path for you? Laurel shakes his head, putting the thoughts aside. What he knows for now is that they need to get out of here alive. He isn't sure of much, but he is sure that he wants to escape this tomb.
Sarela frowns. "So if the entrance to the tomb is grown over, and the area scattered with debris, vandalism, and signs of looting, how did we get in here? I can't think of why the Pharasmin celedon would be here, either. If Roslar wasn't buried here, nor were any of his companions, that would explain why we didn't displace any bodies. But why were we put in those sarcophagi? And how did the ostovites make their way into Roslar's tomb?"
She looks at the other three archways. "Should we ignore the red glow for now and investigate Abdell's tomb, Roslar's tomb, and the other one?"
Sam shakes her head at Mithralline "Ok but if starts hurting too much, you let me know, ok?" She elbows the tall woman playfully in the knee. "I won't be having your 'injury is good for me' routine."
When she hears Rose's thoughts about the celedon, she whistles "Wow... A lot of those took the thing down? There must be more down here then..."
When Sarela mentions investigating the tombs, she nods slowly "I guess that's a good idea. But we should be careful. Those ostovite things are even more likely to be where the bodies are..." Her brow furrows in thought for a moment. "Wait... so who was buried in Roslar's tomb then? One of his knights?"
Aralah nods to Sarela's suggestion and she moves to check the others rooms for any immediate threats. Assuming she doesn't find something she will move to the next room and look inside until she has checked all three or found something that looked like a threat.
The party moves to the southeastern doorway behind Aralah. Peering in she sees that the stone walls of this room are carved to resemble an airy stable with a large stone box at the southern end. The lid of the box is cracked and corroded, as though from powerful acid. An illustration of a lean, regal stallion and the words “No Greater Friend Hath a Man Than His Loyal Steed” are chiseled into the stone above the box.
Aralah also notes that the bottom of the southeastern wall is crumbled and appears to leads to a small tunnel about 1 foot wide, coincidentally just large enough an osotovite to fit through.
Leaning against western wall of this chamber are the skeletal remains of a large horse but something is off about it. Its skull sits too close it its torso and one leg looks like it has been attached at the wrong spot. Worse yet, Aralah spots an ostovite attached to the creature in between its rib cage. On the positive side however, Aralah has managed to stay hidden as she peers into the room and the ostovite hasn't noticed her yet.
Aralah moves back to the others ”Another bug thing inside the skeletal remains of a horse. Appears we will have another fight on our hands.”
Sam looks concerned "So you don't think we could just move past it?"
Aralah shrugs "I'd rather not leave a potential threat at our backs. It wouldn't be great if we were in the midst of dealing with some other threat and that came up behind us."
Rose adds, ”We should try to plug that hole at least temporarily as well to prevent more bugs from swarming behind us.”
"I'll take care of the bug," Mithralline says happily. "Aralah's right. We definitely shouldn't leave it behind us. We have a long way to go to figure out how to get out of here, and it may not happen in one day ... or night or whatever time it is.
"Let me know when you're ready!"
Laurel quickly taps everybody with guidance in anticipation of the fight. Sarenrae, see us through this.
Aralah moves to the side so that Mithralline can charge into the southern chamber with her lance. Once she's clear she gives a nod of her head to the charger to begin when she's ready.
After Mithralline charges toward the skeleton, Aralah takes out another blunt arrow and takes aim with her bow.
HP 10/13
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16, CMD 16 (+1 dodge bonus against Large creatures; +2 vs. Huge or bigger creatures)
Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +0
Challenge: 0/1; Tactician (4 rounds): 0/1
Effects:
Mithralline charges into the room with her hooked lance, catching the unaware bug.
She jabs it again before dropping the lance and pulling her trident to finish it off.
Before the fight begins, Sarela prepares herself to try and shoot the ostovite - hopefully without it being on someone's leg this time.
Sam looks a little saddened at Aralah's reply but accepts what she has to say. Seeing her new allies rush in to attack the strange creature, she prepares to help them the best she can.
Mithralline charges into the room with her hooked lance and plants it in an excellent location in the large skeletal horse that should have taken it down. Though she inflicts moderate amounts of damage, only a fraction of what would injure a normal creature appears to have transferred to this animated horse. In fact, her first strike appears to not have damaged the creature at all while her second attempt only causes minor scratches.
Aralah's shot with a blunt arrow however, deals full damage as it rattles the rib cage that the ostovite is residing in. A dozen bones fall off the large creature while it just barely manages to stay upright on its three remaining legs.
The horse throws a hoof towards Mithralline, but she easily knocks it away with her lance.
”Are you ready to charge into combat against a skeleton horse controlled by a demon bug?” the invisible voice whispered into Rose’s ear.
Taking a deep breath and saying to herself, ”Okay Rose, you can do this. Nothing to worry about.” Rose runs in to the room to hit the skeleton horse with her new found heavy mace.
Rose jokes, ”Next time I wake up in a demon bug infested tomb animating skeletons I’m going to make certain I have blunt arrows like Aralah’s so I don’t have to get this up close to these things.”
Rose takes after Mithralline and rushes into combat, moving ahead of everyone as she closes within melee range. As she swings her mace the hoof from the horse flashes forward with tremendous impact and catches her square in her chest.
Rose is still able to finish her swing and brings the mace down upon the large creature and quickly notices it is equally effective as Aralah's arrow, dealing full damage to the animated horse skeleton that is being ridden as a chariot by the ostovite. Her blow is so excellently placed that is shatters the remaining skeleton into two dozen pieces, finishing the horse and sending the ostovite down to the ground near her feet.
Sam rushes forward, trying to keep the ostovite from hurting any of her friends. She tries to draw its attention to her but really doesn't know how to. Nervously, she stammers out the first thing that comes to mind while hopping around to attract its attention.
"So... uh... what you doing in a place like this? You must be a Lostovite."
Sarela takes a deep breath, focuses on the ostovite, and looses a bolt.
While Sam's joke is funny, unfortunately it isn't in Abyssal and is the comedic timing is lostovite on it.
Sarela's bolt flashes past her companions and finds its way into the tiny creature at Rose's feet, dealing a small amount of damage.
Scurrying from Sarela's strike, the ostovite quickly makes its way underneath of Rose and up her left leg where it bites her calf muscle. The bite hurts, but the acid burn hurts even more.
Laurel was slow on the uptake, but moved in and brings his scimitar to bear again. Although his cuts lacked weight they are well aimed.
Rose looks really pleased as she sees the horse shatter, but her pleasure and celebration immediately fade as she realizes that the demon bug is crawling out of the bones and on to her. "Get off me!" she yells as she flails at it trying to get it off of her leg. Avoiding her futile blows the bug bites her and dribbles acid into the wound.
"You know that was really stupid," says the voice very dryly as Rose screams in pain and collapses to the floor.
Aralah takes aim at the little demonic bug thing, pulling out a normal arrow this time and letting it fly.
With everyone crowding around the tiny thing though, she has to pull her shot when someone crosses in her line of sight and the arrow clanks off one of the stone walls.
HP 10/13
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16, CMD 16 (+1 dodge bonus against Large creatures; +2 vs. Huge or bigger creatures)
Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +0
Challenge: 0/1; Tactician (4 rounds): 0/1
Effects:
"Rose!" Mithralline yells as she drops her trident, grabs the mace off the floor and slams it down.
Unfortunately, in her effort to make sure she didn't hit Rose, she instead hits nothing but the ground.
"Dammit!" she yells, getting ready to swing again.
Rose smacks the bug just before it climbs up her leg, dealing it a very brutal blow. Aralah and Mithralline both try to finish the ostovite, but it's Laurel who lands the killing blow and ends the battle by squashing this bug once and for all.
Aralah moves over to Rose as soon as the battle ends and tries to help stop the bleeding, while one of the many healers comes to tend to the injuries.
"Is she OK?" Mithralline asks with concern, hovering over Rose's limp form and those actually doing anything useful to try to help her.
Sarela rushes forward. "Oh no, Auntie Rose! Hold still!"
She kneels down and quickly checks for any broken bones.
Not finding any, she casts a spell to heal Rose's wounds.
Samalgee also rushes over to help. "Are you ok! What can I do?" She clings to a small wooden necklace and prays "Oh Dalenydra help us. It's strange and scary down here."
A wave of energy rushes out from Sam who looks around sheepishly. "Oh... oops. I didn't know that could happen..." Then she looks around in the tomb. "So is this Roslar's tomb? If he's not buried here, then who is?"
With the thing dead and the others tending to Rose Aralah moves into the room to look around as Sam asks about it she notes "I believe this was for his horse. Sarela mentioned the horses name was Abdell and that was what was inscribed over the door."
She will take a look at the box itself to make sure it isn't trapped before opening it and looking inside. Afterwards she checks the room just to make sure there isn't anything that might help them, including the little hole in the wall.
Once the room is clear and the others are ready, she will sneak up to the next room and peak inside to see if there are any further threats.
Rose groggily becomes conscious after being jolted to life by the healing magic. ”Thank you, that wasn’t the brightest thing for me to do,” moans Rose.
”You can say that again. You really worried me there,” says her invisible friend.
Rose slowly gets back to her feet groaning and clutching her chest where the horse hit her and rubbing her leg where the bug bit her. ”I while be much more careful in the future, I was worried it was going to hurt you all and felt it my responsibility to protect you. I think patience needs to trump fear.”
Aralah doesn't detect any traps and peers inside of the previous burial chamber for the horse. On the floor inside the box is a silver and jade adornments from the decayed bridle that might be worth a couple of coins.
Checking the hole in the corner, it looks like tiny sized creatures tunneled into this tomb from somewhere else. The hole is too small and too large for her to determine what lay beyond.
She moves out of this room and heads east towards a room with stone walls carved to resemble hanging draperies framing a large dais. Upon the dais stands a large sarcophagus, its lid carved to resemble a sleeping knight with long hair and a wide mustache. This room carries a faint nauseating odor, like putrefying meat.
Aralah waves the others over when she gets a whiff of the putrid smell and whispers to the others "Smells like something dead inside. Stands to reason it may be more undead."
She steps to the side to let Mithralline lead the way, as she has her bow at the ready.
Mithralline nods, wrinkling her nose, and moves in carefully toward the sarcophagus, trident securely stored on her back again, and hooked lance in hands.
Sam clambers up to get a look inside the box that held the horse's corpse. "Huh. That stuff looks sort of valuable but I really don't know. Should we leave it here to honor the horse? I suppose that would be grave-robbing, wouldn't it?"
Then she climbs back down and takes a look at the hole, trying to determine if the ostotivtes came in through here and if so, how many.
After examining the hole, she then looks around for anything that could help plug it up and does her best to block it up with debris, a barricade, whatever she can find.
That finished, she follows along with the others, smiling cheerfully. "I'm sorry that you guys are down here too but I'm glad I'm not alone! That would have been really tough!"
Sarela breathes in relief as Rose is healed, then quickly hugs her as she helps her up. "I was so worried about you when you went down. I'm glad you're okay now."
Sarela looks at the jewels.
"They likely are valuable, but you're right, that would be grave robbing. I don't know how we ended up in this tomb with all of our equipment, but if something is in an actual sarcophagus, we should leave it be. Other things look predominantly like storage."
At the word Aralah found something decaying, Sarela reached out and gave Mithralline guidance. She also did so for everyone else.