Zacharia shakes his head.
"The metal is a complete unknown to me as well, and Esoteric Metallurgy was one of my electives last year. That likely means it is quite valuable, and at least exceedingly rare."
"Well, I believe we have learned what we can from this. Shall we continue?"
"Indeed, yes. Any objections to me keeping this skull? I'd like to examine it further."
Zacharia wanders off to the door.
Gharol follows Zach, taking point in case of another attack.
With the light shed by Gharol's torch in Dimitri's hands, the three of you make your way around to the doorway to the north, revealing a room with long, pitted stone slabs along the walls like shelves. Several bones litter the floor, along with scraps of cloth.
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Zacharia does a quick scan of the room for valuable or useful items, and then suggests the group heads toward the rightmost door.
"I don't relish going deeper than we must. Maybe this door will lead us closer to an exit."
"I would recommend that we not go through a second door without checking behind all of the first doors first."
The difference with this room is that the walls are carved to seem like hanging draperies framing a large dais. On the dais is a large sarcophagus, with what appears to be a sleeping knight carved on the lid. There is the scent of meat long rotted and decaying in the air. Whatever it is, it is almost nauseating.
Dymitri inhales, his breath sharp and unexpected. He was in a coffin. That was normal. He was in a coffin. Wait, he was in a coffin?
With what strength he has, Dymitri pushes the lid off and pulls himself out, landing on unsteady legs.
”H...Hello?”
"Did you hear something?" Dimitri asked then strained to try and hear it again.
"It could be some kind of trick, but if it is actually somebody else..."
Zacharia sighs and cautiously heads back toward where they started.
"Stay close. Whatever happened to Gharol and Lelache could happen to us if we're not careful."
Dymitri gets himself out of the room, calling out again, "Anyone?"
"Might as well go and see what is going on." says Dimitri as he moves towards the noise.
Atsuko's eyes open, but still weary from her slumber.
What happened? Where am I? It's dark, no light. Fortunate I have my angelic blood to see. Am I in a box. There are seems.
She braces her hands best she can an pushes against the lid. Yet she is too weak to move the lid off. She instead starts banging and screaming for help best she can.
Morcrug tossed in his sleep, and hit his head on something cold and hard. "Gagh. What is this?" Noticing the seams and outline of what he was in Morcrug pushed hard against the lid of the coffin he now found himself inside of.
"Graaaaaagh!" Morcrug pushes the lid up and over, breathing fresher air, he then takes stock of his surroundings. More coffins. One's open... is that He notices Atsuko's voice coming from one of the coffins and pushes the lid aside.
"Looks like we were both declared dead before our time."
With that Morcrug smirks and offers her a hand up.
"Thank you Morcrug. I lacked the strength to move the lid. Where are we do either of you remember anything."
She nods toward Dymitri.
”No. There was the wizard in the stone circle and then...nothing.”
He calls again, ”Hey, there’s others here!”
"Others?" Atsuko assumes her stance with her hand moving to the her sheathed blade.
"Yes I went unconscious as i moved into the swarm."
She approaches Dymitri.
"Ready yourselves if we are lucky it will be friends. With us awakening in coffins I fear it could be undead."
"No, we've already dealt with the undead that are here." said the frail-looking Human male as he approached the new group, torch in hand.
"None of you are undead, either; I would know if you are."
"Name's Morcrug. Where are we?" Morcrug readies himself and his over-sized weapon.
Morcurg shuts his eyes momentarily as he inhales and reopens them as he exhales, calming his body as he does so.
"Some kind of crypt." Zacharia answers the Half-Orc warily.
"There is clearly some magic afoot. We all awoke in these coffins as well, but I'm sure we would have noticed if more than one of us were crammed into them with you."
The implications of this are grim. What if we escape only to be transported back here?"
”I am Dymitri. Apothecary by trade.”
"You seem confused. I am Dimitri, although some also call me The Wise."
”If you are from Ustalav, it does not surprise me. Do you imply some lack of wisdom on my part though?”
"No, no implications. I was just introducing myself." said Dimitri.
Morcrug grumbles and fishes a whetstone out of his pocket, then sits on a coffin and begins sharpening his weapon. His demeanor calms with each stroke.
Now that he's seen all of them Dimitri turns back the way he came. As he hears no one following him, he stops and says "Coming?"
Morcrug shrugs then puts his whetstone back into his pocket, and looks to Dymitri and Atsuko then follows Dimitri.
"Are any of you injured? If so, I can patch you up quickly enough. I'm afraid I'm little good in a fight, however. Zacharia, by the by. I caught Morcrug's name, as well as our second Dymitri, but what about you?" he addresses Atsuko as they walk.
Atsuko
"I am Atsuko", came the response to the question of the other that came with the second Dymitri. "Apologies for my lapse of manners. If this is a crypt, where are the dead?"
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"This is all so strange. I think I just killed two undead and was dealing with a wizard when we awoke here. So we need to find a way out then? Let us not waste any more time with introductions then."
Atusuko takes the lead and heads to the southwest opening beginning to look for a way out.
Zacharia follows, for lack of any better ideas.
This wide room has a hallway leading south out of the central area. An elaborately lifelike image carved into the south wall depicts a mustachioed knight kneeling before a slender woman with feathery wings. The woman holds a rapier above her head with one hand while the other is extended to the knight, who is kissing it. Lettering above the image reads, “Faithfulness Always to the Red Crusader.” Illumination seems to be coming from the far wall.
Dimitri gestured, and another skeleton rose from his sack, then moved towards the light.
Zacharia cautiously follows.
"Red Crusader? Than mean anything to anyone? Could hint at why we are all here?"
As all of you watch the Skeleton walk forward into the room, there are small sounds that can be heard, but nothing in particular occurs. Looking down into the room, all of you can see the skeleton standing in the middle of the room awaiting orders, the light that it is giving off helping to raise the level of light in the room so that everything is visible. Several small-sized glowing insects are able to be seen clinging to the far wall.
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"Ah, I see....I see." Turning back to the others, Dimitri says "This tomb is old. The dedications are to Arazni before she was killed and corrupted by Geb. I wonder what sort of place exists outside of here."
Dimitri moved to join his skeleton, hoping to get a better look at the insects.
Atuko nods as she still doesn't understand but is happy someone has an idea of what this place may be. She then follows behind Dimitri to help protect him.
"Interesting. All these dedications to people who fell during the Shining Crusades...and yet there are still undead present in the tomb. It stands to reason this would be one of the most consecrated tombs in Ustalav, but that is obviously not the case. What has happened?"
"That is an interesting question I hope we get to learn the answer to."
The conversation continuing as Dimitri and Atsuko enter the room, there is the sound of chitin on stone as the beetles react! Two fly at the Skeleton, while the other two of the four attack Dimitri, landing and biting!
____________________________
@ Skeleton
---
,
@ Dimitri
,
,
Round 1
Atsuko's hand moves to her hilt and as the beetles bite at Dimitri she draws and cuts in a motion the wave of energy cuts into both creatures.
Against both.