Nasar hears the rattling of bones and boots stepping around on the other side of this door.
Nasar frantically shakes his head at Chak and grabs him and Marissa by the wrist to make their way quickly to the room with the stairs so they can go upstairs before the skeletons find them.
As the team hightails it up the stairs they are met with yet another door. An insignia shaped like a spider is hung on the door and cobwebs lie on the roof.
"I don't like the signs of what is going to be past this door..." Nasar waits for Bean, Marissa and Chak to be ready before he opens the door.
The team readies themselves. As Nasar enters the room Vespur sits in a chair by a small candle reading a book. The tone is a large black leatherbound book with all sorts of etches of symbols from what he can see. Vespur not turning around yells out in the most childish and school girl like fashion, "I told you to KNOCK WHEN YOU WANNA COME IN! GET OUT AND DON'T BOTHER ASKING ME ANYTHING UNTIL I COME DOWN!"
She dosen't seem to realize whos actually at the door.
Nasar's eyes go wide and he gets up against the wall and hope she thinks that the group has gone away...and that the group wises up and does the same so he can close the door.
Chak walks in super slowly. Marissa however looks at Nasar and shakes her head 'no' before closing the door on the two.
Vespur flips another page of her book mumbling curses.
Nasar looks at Chak and without talking, using only his hands, points at chak and points for him to go to one side of the room and he points at himself and motions that he will go to the opposite side. His goal is to position them at Vespur's sides so they can establish a flank in surprise. Nasar moves, but doesn't move all the way up to be at a 180 degree angle with Vespur as to stay out of her peripheral vision.
Chak-Chak walks around the other side as instructed. Quietly they approach behind her and attempt to flank her.
Vespur sighs before slamming closed the book. She reaches for the inkwell and she turns to Chak as he nears her. She drapes her 4 right arms over the chair liesurly and chuckles before she speaks. "You really thought you could sneak up on me crow boy?"
Chak-Chak freezes and his eyes open wide. "Uh..."
ITS OKAY CHAK JUST GO WITH IT THE FLOW DAMnit
Nasar stands motionless like a statue and waits out the interaction, ready for combat so he can get the jump on her.
She laughs before standing up and poking her rear towards the ceiling. As Chak glances up at the ceiling he sees a multitude of large and small spiders clambering over eachother on the ceiling. His plumage begins to fall of out of worry. "Uh..." he says while still staring upward and more speechless than usual.
Nasar looks it and feels ready to just die before making his way BACK TO THE DOOR and frantically waves Chak to run like the wind.
Ok this is stupid, who put all these spiders here. Let's get out fast and i can just...break the damn door's mechanism and lock her here.
Vespur shoots a giant web-like rope out of her raised posterior. She hoists herself up before laughing maniacaly and crawling into the spiders. "Well see ya soon boys! Good luck getting home from here! I'll be tailing you when you leave here. IF YOU DO AHAHAHAAA!"
She dissapears into the mass of spiders as they rush to the door.
"Ok that was awful but at least she doesn't seem to have the intent of following us right now... let's just get the hell out of here. Even if that means we have to go through a couple skeletons to do so."
Nasar starts making his way down the steps to go through the middle door
The middle pathway has a few doors with bones hanging from each. Each door they pass has 1 more bone attached than the last. Once they reach the end of the hall about 7 doors down they come to an opening, the opening however seems to stretch into a cavern of some sort.
Marissa scratches her head in wonder, "Wait... aren't we forgetting something? We can't just leave without our stuff, my sheild with my family crest is somewhere in here! Thats a priceless heirloom!"
"I don't want to leave my stuff behind either, we need to start looking through these rooms if we want to find it." Nasar waits on the group before they start kicking down doors in search of their gear.
As Nasar and company go back to the door with 7 bones on it he looks at the knob and realizes there is no lock on it.
Nasar speaks in a quiet manner, not particularly trusting of this unlocked door. "Please have nothing on the other side aND have our gear...makes live so easy after such a bad day."
Nasar hears nothing beyond the door. As if either the room is vacant, or something very quiet is there. Chak-Chak opens the door while Nasar presses his ear in and walks in confident thay he could take down whatever lied behind the door.
The room however is vacant. A single bed and a table sit in the corner of the room. A small closed jar sits on the table next to a note pad though it is too far to see at the moment.
Nasar glares at chak chak as he makes his way in to look at this notepad...and around the room in general after the whole spider roof incident.
The notepad contains a single note on the front page.
To practice your alchemy. NOT TO EAT!
The jar itself has a small label on it.
calcium dust
There are no spiders lurking around this room. 2 gold coins sit under the notepad as Nasar picks it up to read.
"Waste of time. I can start picking open the other doors, just be ready for whatever is on the other side of them everybody." Nasar takes out the make shift tools from the kitchen and gets ready to start popping locks.
As Nasar walks up to each door he finds that... there all the same as the first? Each knob is a simple twist to release a block to pull open the door.
Nasar throws his hands in the air in a sign of disgust that these doors are not up to regulation as designated by the Magnimar Royal Weather Service and Disaster Prevention Institute.
"Screw it just...look I guess. Carefully though"
Nasar gives his door a quick listen before opening his door.
The door with six bones sounds off a small "Nyeh" and as Nasar looks down at the knob he sees this one is held shut with an additional flip latch. A simple filp and slide unlatches the outer lock allowing the door to be swung inward.
Nasar undoes the latch and gives the door a careful open just in case something else is on the other side.
Nasar spies through the crack a skeleton reading a book laying on a bed similar to the one in the previous room. He hears the door creak however and sits up to investigate the sound. "Nyeh, is anyone there?"
Nasar quickly goes up against the wall and waits to see if the skeleton closes the door, ready to crack it in the face with his club if he comes out instead.
Nasar notices as the skeleton walks over that it moves in a much more casual manner than the other skeletons. And this one is a much paler white compared to the greyish counterparts met earlier.
The skeleton walks over to the door and clonks his skill to the slightly ajar door. "V-Vespur? Am I allowed out now?"
If I just stand here...maybe he'll go back inside
Nasar keeps his bonking tool at the ready to clonk this boney boy in the noggin
The skeleton opens the door wide. "Nyeh finally I have some outside time. Time to go get some calcium." And he looks at Nasar and smiles."Hail and well met my brother in bones."
Chak-Chak looks as confused as ever.
Nasar cocks his head like a golden retriever being shown a toy for the first time. He then sticks his head out for a shake.
”Nice to see another quality person in search for calcium! Would you like to come with us as I’m sure we shall be in the presence of plenty of calcium in the near future?”
The skeleton grabs Nasar's hand and gives a firm shake. Chak-Chaks jaw practically drops before the skeleton replies "Well nyah, I'm not sure how Vespur will take me leaving. She put allot of work in getting this ring but it doesn't seem to work on me. Probably because of my loyalty to the Bone Brothers!" he slams his fist against his chest. "My loyalty to my brothers whom I have been totn away from will never fade. I'd be happy to join you if that means reuniting with my brothers once more. And he pulls the Onyx ring off of his finger and places it on his bedside table.
Nasar smiles as this is a nice change of pace. "Huzzah! A calcium seeker of quality! It has been far too long since my last encounter with the Bone Brothers and I would be honored to return you back to their side. I have longed to hear their wonderful music for some time and I'm sure the welcoming back of you will bring many doots."
The Bone Brother glances into the hallway, "I believe the exit is through that cave. Not a far walk nor any dangers." he then looks at Nasar and his lack of equipment, "You seem... Under equipped for the journey though, might we consider stopping by the armory before we depart? It's just past the meeting place for the other skeletons downstairs from the maidens quarters. I doubt Seven will let us just take anything easily he is quiet the hoarder of whatever goes in there. " he seems to be reffering to the room left unsearched before heading to Vespur's room.
Marissa squeals with glee and does a little clap, " That must be where our stuff is! "
”Quite right, let’s grab our stuff and get the heck out of here.” Nasar makes his way to this last room, ready for a fight if the need arises.
As the crew passes through the place where the other skeletons were fought the Brother eyes turn to sadness. "Oh my poor lost brothers... I shall put you back together and calcify you yet." He takes a brown sack off a nearby table and begins packing up the broken bone piles into his new bag.
As Nasar nears the door for a second time he hears what sound like thumping bone steps just like last time. But they seem to trail around towards the door and away like a patrolman.
Marissa hands the Brother a few bones to toss in his sack and she asks, "Uh Mr. Bone, I find it odd I don't see any evil in your being. How is that possible for a skeleton, something artificially created by necromatic evil energy?"
The Brother opens the bag for her to toss them in. "It's quiet simple my lass, when skeletons are created they usual have a ruler or are under the control of their creator. When that phase of death passes such as the creator dying or being set free by an unseen force we go our own paths. Now usually we would retreat to a crypt or our proper resting place but by some unknown reason some of us are granted the gift of neutrality and are given the chance at everlasting life and are able to spend it with all of our brothers. Hence the Bone Brothers, a clan of skeletons of all types that chose to live out our neutral lives in each other's company playing our instruments in jubilee and practicing helping other skeletons into the enlightenment of neutrality! "
Chak crosses his arms, " So your undead doorknockers? "
The Brother retorts as he finishes his clean up, " Quiet the opposite my hollow-boned friend, we allow skeletons to seek us out and give them the option. Most find the simple life of neutrallity comforting if spent with others who are the same bone-ship."
Nasar waits for the patrol on the other side of the door to get further away before speaking. ”Sounds like someone/something is walking around on the other side of the door so be ready for a fight. Marissa, Chak Chak, Mr. Bones, and Bean, ready to get some gear back?”
They all let out a yes in unison and get behind Nasar as he prepares to open the door.
Nasar waits for the steps to start making their way away from the door, giving a countdown on his hands before they head into the next room. Nasar not even sure at this point if he needs to be ready for a fight on the off chance its another bone brother.
As they make their way into the door they walk into a small room dimly lit by the light from the previous rooms torches. This room has many different kinds of armor hanging on walls and a few swords and flails held up on a sword rack. Across the way a room that seems much more lit bears the shadow of what looks to be some kind of humanoid with 4 arms.
Around the piles of loose weapons and armor many mundane weapons can be found.
Marissa grabs a great sword from the rack and swings it. A few times to prepare to find her sword. She also grabs some heavy armor and slips into it with ease.
Chak-Chak picks up a club and puts it on his belt.
The Bone Brother picks up a club and slips some boots and hide armor on as well. "He's definitely not gonna give this up without a fight, he's probably in the next room he will be back soon."
Nasar quickly dons regular leather armour and picks up a rapier in disgust, ready for the fight.
The humanoid figure makes its way back over to the door. A tall four armed pitch black skeleton walks in. A buckler in one hand, a short sword in another, and Nasar's kukri in another. He sees the team and starts to rush in towards Chak-Chak screeching!
Order:
Seven
Nasar
Chak
Bean
Marissa
Seven slashes Chak-Chak with the keen kukri and the short sword trying to cut him down in one blow!
He manages to slash Chak-Chak with the short sword but misses with the kukri.
Nasar shifts 5 ft to set up a flank next turn. He then leads with a fake attack with the rapier while coming in with a wack-a-mole bonk with the femur.
The skeletons small red eye dots seem to follow the sword allowing Nasar to strike right in the head knocking the skeleton back reeling.
Chak-Chak and Marissa swarm the skeleton from all sides and begin losing punches kicks and sword slashes. Marissa yells out before her attack.,"May the divine favor of Ragathiel aid me in smiting you down!" And her sword begins to glow. Shr slashes downward and severs a few bones from the torso. They fall to the ground almost like they had been melted off!
Bean flies over to the weapon pile and rummaged for a weapon, he picks up a club with all 4 legs and begins flying.
The skeleton looks at Nasar and in a whirlwind fashion looses all its sword strikes.
But Nasar manages to slip right through the skeletons barrage!
The Bone brother finnaly springs into action!
He pulls out a pan pipe and starts blowing through it playing a peppy song!
Nasar, now with the support of his partners, reaffirms his grip on the rapier and tries to barrage his boney opponent.
Nasar bashes the skeleton battering away the buckler as Marisa slashes into the skeleton and Chak-Chak looses his fists. Bean glides above the fray and drops a club on the skeleton, bonking it on the drop as Bean goes to retrieve a new weapon.
The skeleton drops his two swords down to blitz the group and one sword flies towards Nasar.
He misses once again.
The Brother continues to play.
"YOU FOOL" Nasar takes round two of double attacks into the skeleton as it has no where to go.
The rapier manages to slash at a few bones though doesn't manage to deal as much damage as it could've to a solid body. The club however hits home and deals a nice chunk of damage to the skeletons body.
Chak-Chak and Marissa lay into the skeleton once again and Bean pulls out a flail from the pile of weapons.
The skeleton at this point is looking pretty wrecked as he attempts what might be his last attack before his fates sealed. His extra claw reaches into the robed ribcage and pulls out a red orb that he crushes in his hand. From his hand escapes an intense cold that seems to drain the fight out of Nasar for the moment.
Nasar shrugs it off and has a good feeling that was the last trick up this skeletons boney sleeve.
Nasar dusts himself off before starting to look through all the gear in the room looking for their stuff, specifically his. "While that was fun, let's see if we can fin our gear."