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While Father Kerndrew continues to strengthen some loose boards on the old bridge Shalissa and Davor discuss how to proceed with the deed. The old man is pleased when they decide to gift everything back to Arytha, but before they turn backwards he reminds them, that Arytha mentioned she would meet them on the other side of the mountain.
So you decide to proceed forward and make sure you reach the other side as fast as possible.
You have crossed another of this rickety bridges when you start to hear a loud banging noises rolling through the cave. Unfortunately the sound breaking on the walls makes it hard to hear where exactly it is coming from.
The sounds come from the ceiling and when you look up you spot a pair of rotting corpses bagiing loose sone large pieces of rocks.
Father Kerndrew readies his sword, looking up and down the tunnels trying to pinpoint where the sound is coming from.
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"Did you hear that? Mmmm... probably just my imagination..." Shalissa's elven ears tickle without her being able to locate the source of the noise.
"Let's keep going. I do not want to remain in here more than the minimum necessary. It makes me chill" the elf pushes forward renewing the light on Father Kerndrew's sword unless something else happens first.
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"Stop! Enemy above. They are on the ceiling. Maybe trying to bring it down on us! Back and be ready!"
** spoiler omitted **
Shalissa tries to identify the creatures when Davor points them out.
Guessing they are at least undead, she brings her free hand to her holy symbol and utters a few words "Gozreh, smite these creatures that defy the order of nature by remaining not dead!"
A trident of force materializes as she completes the casting of spiritual weapon that attacks at the first of them in the ceiling!
The creatures are some uncommon form of wight, a low to mid level undead who turns its victims into creatures like himself.
Davor stays back, dagger ready for if/when the creatures dropped. "Look like zombies, but some sort of climbing undead. And not so stupid...."
Thats correct, I just keep forgetting it.
Father Kerndrew takes a step back to avoid as much of the falling rocks a possible while still giving protection to Shalissa.
Enzi is cowering behind Gregor, afraid of the undead horros which approach. The big ranger is stepping of the ledge to give a broader front and takes out on of his throwing axes firing at the red wight.
Seeing the party retreating the wights start to come after you. The Wight with the red Bandana quickly climbs down and attack Father Kerndrew but can't punch through the armor of the Paladin. The other one, just drops down to the ground, landing with a sickening crunch as its ancient Bones buckle.
The spiritual trident keeps attacking the red salt wight.
Meanwhile, Shalissa aims to the one that just landed and is still disengaged in combat to shot a ray of electricity at him "These are rare wights, undead creatures who turn their victims into creatures like them! Be extra careful!"
Davor takes a curved path to keep his distance until he is ready to step in and stab the wight. Had he heard of these monsters? No. But he trusted Shalissa that they were dangerous undead things that needed to be destroyed. He led his step in with his magical dagger.
Father Kerndrew, waiting for the wight to come into reach, delivers a shaky swing as his target finally comes into reach.
Remembering Atyras dark stories aand hearing Shalissas dire warnings Father Kerndrew and Davor try to keep their distance from the sharp claws. Their feeble attempts are easily avoided by the nimble creatures.
Shalissa in the meantime is relatively secure behind the others lashes out with her trident and lightning bolt and tries to keep the wights at bay.
Gregor swings his battleaxe with a mightyswing, catching the wight in the chest with a crashing blow and throwing him back into the wall.
The second salt wight in the meantime tries attack the nearest target, but but ist still to confused from his fall to hit anything.
While this happens in front of you Enzis yelping behind you is turning even more desperate and before she can react Shalissa feels the slam of a wight claw hitting her in her back. Horrified she feels the salty crust on the claws of the minster starting to draw the water out of her skin.
If failed take 1d3 CON damage
Davor grins when he sees Gregor slam one of the undead things into the wall. He steps forward to target the remaining one.
"Uff" Shalissa is totally surprised by the hidden wight while she is controlling her spell to switch targets.
Raising her trident to defend herself, she steps forward to leave room for the real warriors "Gregor, they are attacking our back!"
Father Kerndrew spins and immediately darts over to Shalissa's aid, striking at the new wight with all of his strength.
Davor strikes the second wight with his rapier, but without knowing the vulnerable spots, the blade fails to hurt seriously.
Gregor steps up next to Davor and hits the Wight once more with his axe.
In the meantime Shalissa and Kerndrew turn towards the last attacker, but fail to hit the undead.
But the attacks also prevent the wights from getting near enough themselves.
Seeing Kerndrew to come on her aid, Shalissa steps to the side to give him a flank "Here, now Father! Strike!"
Meanwhile the spiritual trident performs its last attack before disappearing out of existence.
Davor looks for some way to step around the monster, then sees Shalissa's trident disappear. He steps to where it was, still not flanking, and slashes again with his dagger.
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While Davor is keeping the the wight occupied by waving around, Shalissas is getting the handling her spiritual trident and manages to stick it in the back ofthe wight, providing the final straw. The wight drops to the ground with a crunchy sound.
Father Kerndrew continues his assault, trying to use Shalissa's positioning to his advantage.
Father Kerdrews attacks continue to lack any conviction, petrified as he is by this salt encrusted decaying figures.
Gregor comes to his aid and his axe hits the salt wight in the shoulder sending salt crystal flying everywhere, but failing to ake a deeper cut.
Fortuately the Wights are pretty slow and easy to avoid, so Kerndrew is not hit himself.
Annoyed with himself Davor is slightly surprised when it falls from Shalissa's magical trident. The weapon expires and disappears and he turns and moves to the final battle. The men had left him an easy approach and he takes advantage of it.
"Oh c'mon! You just have to stab it with the pointy end!" desperate Shalissa shows of with her thin limited muscles.
"Like this!"
Frustrated with the timid attacks of her friends Shalissa finally steps up and uses the reach of her trident to stick it into the Wights flank. Unfortunately her mssing strength doesn't allow her to push through and so the damage is only minor.
But her example is sure to give Father Kerndrew renewed faith.
"That's true of a trident, sure!" Father Kerndrew agrees. "But rarely true of a longsword; we try to use the length of the blade in a wide slash like this!"
Remembering his time spend with his mentor teaching him swordplay Kerndrew executes a flawless Sweeping Blow that connects with a satisfyfing crunch.
Enraged by Shalissas poke in the back, the wight turns towards her once more and her salt encrusted fist into her face.
Davor growls as his attack misses and he hears Shalissa's.... taunt? "They're fleshy undead, like zombies! I slash them with my blade to try and really hurt them. I don't 'stick' them!" He nods at Father Kerndrew's slash and follows with his own.
Surprisingly, Shalissa manages to endure the touch. This also makes her remember she is there for a distraction to the wight as her soft strikes are not likely to fell the undead. She puts more attention to not be down, fighting more defensively "You clearly know better than me. I just wish this one falls before I collapse extenuated"
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Following Shalissas expert tutoring and Kerndrews example,Davor executes a perfect feint and slashes his dagger at the wight cutting of his arm and dropping the creature to the ground.
Now that your attackers are dead, you have time to look in more detail finding dry, shriveled, emaciated undead encrusted with salt crystals.
Shalissa gasps recovering air, before standing up fully with the help of her trident "Well, you certainly know how to strike hard when you are focused" she smiles and noticing she is the only one injured, uses a spell on herself.
After they search what little remains, she points to the way forward north "We must be careful, we know we are not alone anymore, but we need to keep advancing. At least we know we can defeat them and cleanse this place of their undead."
Davor rinses his blade of any blood or ichor from the wight, then looks around after the last creature falls. "Those creatures seemed more intelligent than zombies. Would they have a lair where they might take spoils from previous victims? No point ignoring a chance at treasure while we get rid of the undead and their traps...."
For now you seem to have gotten rid of all the wights in your immediate vincinity.
Crossing the area where the wights tried to drop the stones on you the hero reach a small junction.
A strange metal and wooden device occupies the center of the left passage. It consists of a central shaft running from floor to ceiling, surrounded by poles that form a large cage around the device, attached to a trough or basin perforated with tiny holes. Ropes run from the basin up through blocks mounted to the tops of the poles.
Shalissa offers a reassuring smile back at Davor "That would be nice, but I fear undead are not know to hoard treasure in most cases."
As the group advances a little and two caverns are offered, the elf points to the left one "That one seems to end there. Let's explore this place fully. We do not want to leave behind any surprise for Captain Kassata and her people. And there is a machine there two, perhaps there is still something useful."
Shalissa will direct the group to the direction of the machine and examine the device to understand how it works, but she will advance after some of the more sturdy companions.
Davor moves in to the area around the strange thing. "Sounds good. Clear any dangers." He searches the area wondering what the machine is.
Shalissa investigates the machinery and realizes it was once used tosmash the chunks of ore and separate the salt from the rock.
While Shalissa tells you more or probably less interesting things abiout the machinery, you notice a small bag stuck below the central basin. When you ttake it out you find 5 uncut white stones
"Mmmm... I think this was once used to smash the chunks of ore and separate the salt from the rock." Shalissa determines after a short examination "Maybe it can even made to work again if there was someone really willing to do it" she shrugs.
"I guess, anyway, we are not going to become miners, so we better just keep moving to the east tunnel" the elf proposes, renewing the light spell on Kerndrew's longsword.
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Father Kerndrew joins the others in an investigation of this salt-mining machine.
While Shalissa tells Davor more or probably less interesting things about the machinery, the sailor notice a small bag stuck below the central basin. When you take it out you find 5 uncut white stones.
"That's interesting, can I have a look?" Shalissa examines the stones to see if they have any value asking her god for some help.
"Well, I guess that's all here, let's keep moving" with that the elf points the group towards the eastern gallery of the mines to follow their advance.
Davor considers the small sack and where the stones were. "If they are valuable I wonder if one of the workers hid them with the intent of stealing them? Maybe not everyone that died here was innocent?"
The stones are Diamonds and should bring a small fortune of 400 gp each.
You carefully make youtr way forward along the main path when you reach a larger cave. In the middle a small island is rising out of the brakish water. On the island you see a large blue sphere largely buried within the ground, but visibly cracked open at the top.
"Wow, these stones are diamonds, worth a small fortune. Perhaps we can use them to hire extra help in Kalabuto." with that Shalissa puts the stones well saved.
As the group walks forward, Shalissa points to the sphere in the small island "What might be that? Could we have a look?" as she is up to cross the bridge she looks up examining the shadows, remembering they are not in a safe place at all.
Before letting anyone cross, she examines the bridge for extra safety.
The bridge looks safe.
As for the sphere, next to it you notice pieces of rocks and a few blue shards. Looking more careful you also spot a set of mining tools lying between all this debris.
"This is definitely odd... Why would someone leave the job half done? I don't like this."Father Kerndrew joins Shalissa in her search, taking a look at the tools and debris, and then finally inspecting the sphere itself... especially the crack.
Davor moves to the lead for the group. "Maybe it held some poisonous gas or something dangerous, and when they cracked it they died. The bodies could have been taken away by the undead.... Or, whatever was inside created the undead?"
"Wights are humanoids who rise as undead due to necromancy, a violent death, or an extremely malevolent personality. And from what Athyra said it would seem the wights we have fought were probably her parents..." Shalissa looks at the tools and blue shards "So either they suffered a violent death or there is necromantic force involved. Either case, let's continue to be careful"
The elf uses detect magic to find auras in the island, and inspects the blue shards and rocks to see if they are also valuable.
If there are no strange auras, evil or magical, she makes sure they pick any valuable stone or tool before suggesting to move forward east.
Slowly you appraoch the island, feeling the sphere pulsing with evil necromantic energy. You have the feeling you have come to the Source of the mines curse.
As you step nearer Kerndrew spots movement within the sphere and he warns his friends behind him. So nobody is surprised when two more Wights rush out of the orb towards you once you approach.
The larger wight who is giving of an blue glow from his body is still wearing his Miners equipment including a large pickaxe he is swinging at you.