Bob sighs heavily, not eager to meet the mayor but seeing the logic. "First, sell and reequip, then rest. We'll go see the mayor in the morning, or explore the rest of the zombie lair."
There will be some drinking in there somewhere...
His words are more a statement and less a question. Trakas smiles slightly and prepares to pay the tab.
"Well, I agree with whatever you decide, my friends. Charm the undead, cut up the mayor, or the opposite. Trakas, let me pour you another one. Or two. Brightberry? Redleaf? Some tasty not-water to wet the roots?"
Brightberry holds up a hand like appendage, seemingly lost in thought.
Redleaf, on the other hand, sidles up with two arms extended. A smile and twinkle in his eye.
With nothing to do once their loot is taken care of, Immana turns in early to rest and heal up. Her wounds, though they may have looked bad the previous day, are entirely closed up with not even a scar left in the morning.
You all after an hour or two of selling your loot, you all come back to the tavern after bidding Cornelius goodbye. You come back and over a few tankards of ale you relax for the night getting some much needed rest after a hard day of fighting. During the evening you see a couple different characters come in; a goblin who gives the barkeep a bundle of herbs, a man who comes and drinks some wine in a corner, and a half Orc who orders a dinner and sits by the fire eating.
Brightberry will leave the drinking establishment and walk toward the manor on top of the ruins. Looking for, either a guard station, or a 'watering hole' where people gather to talk, he will find a nicely hidden area working earshot. He will then transform himself into a Vine and hear what he can hear of the goings-on in town.
Redleaf, on the other hand will continue drinking with his new friends. Upon seeing the goblin drop off the herbs, he becomes curious and approaches the goblin. "Hi! Do you grow those or find them? I know allot about plants! Teehee.". It seems the red had gone to his roots.
You go up to the keep and as you approach you see several guards talking behind an old wooden portcullis. You hear about a group on the outskirts of town that had attacked a caravan on the road and how there is talk that they will be going out to stop them, since if it gets too bad someone will come her to make sure they get dealt with.
The goblin wearing what appears to be woven grass smiles and says in a pretty decent common, “I pick them, they grow near the bramble. He uses them to brew, I get silvers for what I can find. Do you know how to find these hops?”
Brightberry will rest the remainder of the evening in peace.
Readleaf will continue to banter with the goblin until the goblin leaves, and then he too will rest until morning. They are both ready to continue their grand adventure when the sun rises.
You all wake up the next morning stiff but much less hurt. Some with hangovers that’s slow the mind. But you all gather in the common room early the next morning with the sun just barely up.
"To the structure!"
You all Walk back to the ruins and ready your weapons as you enter. You walk in again amid the dusty and drab ruins. You are just at the entrance.
"Well, new day, new creepy things throwing themselves at us!" Atar cracks his neck and, barring any objections, takes the lead in going back to the room where they had met the Lordling.
"I wonder if the guy's going to be moving around again…perhaps we should have cut its head? Or thrown him into the pit?"
"That might have been a good idea. That guy down in the pit certainly didn't come back to life."
Bob leads the way back past the fountain and the statue going carefully, with bow drawn, looking and listening for any new occupants.
Brightberry looks longingly at the gems in the statue again as he asks, "Why are we not taking them?"
But none no one hears him.
Redleaf hiccups.
You head back and the the bodies of the goblins seem to have been shifted their weapons no longer there, though nothing else is different. And as you make your way to the room where the lordling was you find the dead bodies still on the floor and don’t move as you approach.
After kicking the corpses hard enough to get bits of rotten flesh on his toe, Bob very carefully approaches the tomb, looking for traps or anything else that might be dangerous.
Brightberry will find a friendly looking Vine.
(plant speech)"Have any big things been moving down here? Anything other than the green ones like these."
Brightberry points at the goblins.
You find no traps on the large sarcophagus, and no plant matter has managed to work its way yet, the stone remaining largely uncracked by roots.
Drawing closer to the eastern entrance to the tomb room, Bob looks down the hallway.
Immana keeps close to Bob, readying to fire off a blast should anything hostile come barreling down the hallway.
Trakas remains quiet as he keeps his eyes floating around him.
Bob peers down the hallway half expecting more undead but sees only darkness at the end of a hallway awaiting him.
"It's clear. I'll keep an eye open. Someone take a look at that tomb."
"Righty-o, Bob!" Says Atar, who takes a last good look at the sarcophagus before propping it open. "Rise and shine, dead person who is hopefully decked in treasure!"
Gripping his sword, Trakas waits to see what happens.
Redleaf and brightberry stand a few get back from the stone compost box as Atar peers in.
You pop it open using the small opening left there from a previous person's attempt. The massive lid with a grinding of the stone slides off and you see inside a skeleton in cob web robes that have fallen apart over time into simple strands.
After nothing bad happens, brightberry Will pull himself up to the coffin so that he can peek in and cast detect magic.
Trakas lets out a sigh of relief as the sense of immediate danger is over. At least for now...
Atar sighs in disappointment. "This is really underwhelming. Brightberry, do you see anything going on there? Plant things? Magic things?" He helps the leshy up on the coffin with one hand and pokes the coffin with his rapier, looking for traps and hidden mechanisms.
You poke the coffin and move the bones but see no hidden traps or mechanisms, there doesn’t seem to be anything in the coffin to suggest a hidden compartment or trap.
Brightberry you detect magic, after a moment of concentrating you get a feeling that it’s very strong necromancy magic that’s has left a strong aura in the area.
"Nothing there? That's disappointing, though more disappointing for the lordling than for us. At least we didn't give our lives to figure out that the tomb had nothing in it.
Let's close it up and keep moving."
Bob quietly moves down the hallway toward the next room.
"There is evil magic here. Not a magic item, but an evil aura. It doesn't feel good."
The plants will wait at the corner of this room, ready to heal or assist in any way.
Atar helps Brightberry off the coffin and then puts the lid back on it. "Sorry for the trouble, we'll let you sleep now," he tells the bones.
Rapier unsheathed, he follows Bob, repressing a terrible urge to whistle.
You look in and the room covered in black coated walls has a sheen to them. Other than the room and the exit across you don’t see anything else.
"This is... odd." Using his bow, Bob carefully prods at the floor.
If nothing strange happens, he will take a careful step into the room, expecting to jump back quickly.
Trakas draws his weapon and keeps watch as the others inspect the room. He looks from his black blade to the walls. Wondering what the material was.
"Hmm. Odd indeed." Walking up behind Bob, Immana pools a ball of water in her hands, then sends it flying at the center of the black room to see what will happen.
You tap the black material nothing happens, and the water that splashes on the ground does nothing. The room seems safe though a little menacing in its color.
"Aroden, guide my steps"
As quick as he can, Bob darts across the room to the opposite entrance.
You dart through and the momentary energy and adrenaline are rewarded with nothing as you get across and see the hallway continue the stone walls leading to a door up ahead.
Brightberry will look to Redleaf and give a shrug. They both move through the room more slowly, looking at the strange material.
Calling back, Bob motions forward. "Seems safe enough. I guess it is just some odd kind of decoration. There's another door up here."
As the others move through/examine the room, Bob will check out the door.
"Okay, this is pretty neat, isn't it?" Atar pokes one of the walls, shrugs, and joins Bob, looking over the man's and trying to point out anything that seems off.
As you all begin to move forward the darkness of the walls begins to coalesce behind Immana and a creature seemingly made of the stuff stands behind her as she makes her way through the middle of the room.
You all may act before the shadow.
Sensing danger behind him, Trakas turns and adjust his step in one quick motion.
Behind us!
His blade comes out of the sheaf and immediately is engulfed in a light blue aura as he moves to the side of Immana.
Duck!