Your path decided, Garret summons a trio of celestial rats who promptly take point, briefly. They make it only a few steps beyond the antechamber before a nauseating pulse of purple light washes over them--the unfortunate rats perish almost instantly as they seem to age and decay decades in but a flash--all that remains is three dessicated bodies before they too vanish in a flash of white light.
Ketra returns to the group, examining the area around the dead rat(s). "If it ages them, maybe we can check or trigger it with something else that would visibly wither... a spring of some plant or something." She's not exactly eager to test if the trap is properly gone gone, rather than just temporarily faded.
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As the first and second rats perish from the purple energy visible to his arcane sight, Garret waits half a minute before sending his final summon through the first hallway. It sprints down the narrow hall and around the corner--Garret feels the spell end and detects a faint flash of white light off the wall as it vanishes.
As you wait, studying the hall, another half minute passes before the braids of purple energy reform, lining the walls and ceiling with eldritch death.
"One minute, just abouts? That's enough time to get through, but we'll need to have a plan on how to safely trigger them on the way back out. Do you have another group of rats Garret? We can push through on their heels." Ketra places a hand on her hip, pondering if a branch or other living matter would do the trick.
If she has time, she'll run out, grab a branch or vine from a nearby tree, and return to test her theory that any living thing will trigger the trap, by tossing it in.
”I can summon more dire rats at need…it just uses up some of my arcane potential,” responds Garret. He prepares to cast the spell again once they have a plan for rushing through afterwards to get past the trap.
You catch a muffle of...voices, in the room ahead beyond the trapped hallway. At first they're distant and indistinct but one becomes clearer as you strain your ears to hear.
"--telling you there was a light, a white light but it's gone now... Oh bloody Hells, which of you left the gods-damned door open?! Do you want those horrible little maggots to get in?!"
”Creatures approach, drawn by the light flash from the trap triggering. They speak of approaching to close the door,” whispers Garretas he moves out of line of sight of the inside of the tomb.
Ketra whispers in response "Then we ambush them? Right outside until they get close to the door? I wonder if they'll reveal a way past the trap..." as she repositions to the exterior of the door and out of direct line of sight.
Silvia frowns. "What if they're survivors, hiding in here?"
Silvia frowns. "What if they're survivors, hiding in here?"
Sanduro looks doubtful. “They might be survivors, but given the kind of power they’re drawing on for their traps, I don’t think they’re going to be friendly.”
"You think maybe the trap isn't theirs, and they bypassed it just like us? Somehow I doubt it." Ketra whispers back to Silvia. Still, she tries to catch the voices to see if she recognizes them.
To Ketra's ear the voice is feminine but slightly hollow, echoing as though the speaker were at the bottom of a well. The distortion makes it too difficult to identify.
A second voice, deeper and raspy, joins the first. "Awrigh' awrigh', foin! Ah'm gonna go close t'bleedin' door! Ya ent gots ta look at me like tha' ya harpy/" The sounds of hobnailed boots on stone starts to grow louder.
Silvia hangs back, rifle ready in case the situation calls for its use.
Sanduro returns Zsofia to her corporeal form and nocks an arrow on his bowstring.
The hobnailed boots grow louder as you make your hurried preparations, until a short broad-shouldered figure lurches around the corner--a dwarf, clearly long-dead and wearing a funereal shroud loosely belted at the waist like a robe. His eyes go wide and the rotting jaw falls open as he sees you. "Ah shi--" he starts, but cuts off with a grunt as Jando's arrow punches into his chest.
It takes you a moment to recognize the dwarf as Trondus--a resident of Roslar's Coffer who perished during the orc raid years back. He was buried in town's cemetery once the rebuilding began, but it seems he has returned...or at least his body has.
+SURPRISE ROUND+
????
Zombie Dwarf (-7dmg)
Jando
Ketra
Garret
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
????
Garret reacts quickly sending a thin ray of holy energy at the creature.
Sanduro steps out of Silvia's line of fire and Zsofia's charging lane before firing his own arrow at the zombie dwarf.
Using his mental link with Zsofia, he says, Let it come in a little further. If you rush it while it's still in the corridor, you'll block our shots.
You're right, I wouldn't want to get in the way of Jando's arrows or Silvia's bullets. Or Garret's spells! Hells, Ketra might throw a dagger. Is there anything I'm forgetting?
She moves across the room, then makes a rude gesture at the dwarf to draw its attention and waits to punch it if it comes in reach.
"Oh, now that's just cruel." Ketra steps up, but seeing Zsofia not engaging she keeps away from engaging into melee. She draws her second blade and readies to receive the dwarf.
Recognizing the undead nature of the creature passing around the corner, Silvia's hesitation vanishes instantly, replaced instead by the opening shot of her fusillade.
Sanduro recognizes the dwarf as a 'zombie lord'--unlike the most common shamblers they retain their memories and skill from life. The dwarf rocks back again as Silvia's shot punches wetly through his torso. Rather than charging in, though, the undead dwarf turns and flees back down the narrow hall. "Got a loive one!" he rasps. "Well, ackshully eht's mebbe six loive ones. Possibly foive akshully and one thet's mebbe also ded. Oh, and they ent friendly!"
The echoing feminine voice lets out an exasperated sound. "And which of you louts tipped them off, mmmm?! Roslans never come here, never!" The sound of her spellcasting follows.
Jando nocks another arrow, expressionless. "Do we follow them in?"
+ROUND TWO+
????
Zombie Dwarf (-18dmg)
Jando (delayed)
Ketra
Garret
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
????
Garret says, "The trap is down, let's go!" and rushes down the hall after the zombie.
Moving 30' ahead, Garret releases a fireball into the room assuming the dwarf zombie is in there. He positions it to try and incinerate any other foes he sees there, but not affect himself as he peeks around the corner into the room.
fire damage in a 40 foot diameter spread
Seeing the undead dwarf seems mostly unphased by Silvia's and Zsofia's attacks, she surmises that it'll take something a little different to hack through that undead flesh. She moves forward to cover Garret from any retaliation, stows her mithril knife and quick sheathes out a magical dagger.
Her limited view into the main room as the flames clear doesn't fill her with confidence.
Zsofia hurries after Ketra and Garret, stopping abruptly behind them in the narrow, trapped hallway. "Hey, in front, is there anything left after Garret's big boom?"
Sanduro follows behind the phantom, slinging his bow over his shoulder and drawing his scythe.
Garret sends a bead of fire zipping into the room. Ketra watches Trondus leap and twist to avoid the flames--but he definitely zigged when he should have zagged and catches the blast full-on. The smell of charred flesh joins those of dust and decay in the enclosed space--but the zombie staggers on, his burial shroud now mere blackened scraps.
From her place in the doorway, only Ketra can see the ghostly woman lurking by the wall and only barely outside the fireball's range. She is half-elven, middle-aged, and Ketra recognizes her. Cythariel, former schoolmarm to the village prior to the orc attack all those years ago. What's more--she seems to recognize Ketra as well, though her expression is one of incredulous, horrified outrage. "You!" the spectral woman hisses, pointing an accusing finger at the dancer.
+ROUND TWO+
Cythariel the Specral Schoolmarm
Trondus the Zombie Dwarf (-47dmg)
Jando (delayed)
Ketra
Garret
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
?????
Ketra looks over her shoulder for a moment before looking back at the spectral woman. "Me?"
Silvia gives Jando a nod to indicate the south hallway--the north path was currently full but enemies might be able to approach from there. The ranger grunts acknowledgement and the pair of them train their weapons on the opening.
Their caution proves prescient as the dwarf comes barreling around the corner, chortling as the trap washes waves of negative energy over him, partially offsetting the terrible burns inflicted by Garret. His amusement lasts only as long as it takes Jando and Silvia to place their respective shots through his chest--the zombie is left nearly as ragged as he'd been after Garret's assault.
Meanwhile in the next room, a rattle of bone and metal presages the appearance of a skeletal figure, clad in loose-fitting armor and treadbare tunic and holding a bow with arrow nocked. Sidling forward for an angle, the skeleton takes aim at the only figure visible--Ketra. Luckily she is able to press herself against the all and the arrow whizzes past harmlessly.
Cythariel's face twists into rage at Ketra's response. "You little b&%~%," she hisses, flinching back even as spectral, black tendrils lash from her outflung hands. "You were supposed to die! We would have gotten away if you had! Just! Died!"
As the tendrils lash in Ketra, they don't break skin, instead sinking into the dancer. For a split second everything goes black and Ketra
Is alive again, skin scratched from branches as you flee through the woods, trying to hurry the children along. You can hear the orcs' whoops and cries growing closer, and you know you're never going to outrun them. Glancing over you shoulder, you see the grey freak, that uncanny girl limping along...and a desperate plan forms. Urging the children to keep going you hold little Ketra back. Yes we'll just hide you here, in these bushes. No no, you mustn't cry, we can't all hide in one place you see? Yes darling, of course I'll come back for you.
With any luck, when they find her they'll take their time while the rest of us escape. What's one little freak, anyway?
This vision--of Cythariel, who should have been your protector, attempting instead to throw you to the wolves--is agonizing.
+ROUND THREE+
Cythariel the Specral Schoolmarm
Trondus the Zombie Dwarf (-45dmg)
Jando
Ketra (-11hp, -6Cha dmg)
Garret
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Skeletal Archer
Garret ducks his head around the corner and sees two enemies, so he tosses a new fireball in the same spot as before, hoping to fry them both. He then ducks back around the corner.
Ketra clutches her forehead and staggers back as the powerful memory rakes at her mind. As the pain ebbs, she murmurs, slurring her words "But it... didn't go that way... the way you wanted. I made it out...". She takes a step forwards, but then realizes that she's in no shape to fight without the right tools. She focuses on her weapons and taps into her natural bond to the afterlife. The two blades begin to glow with a pale moonlight.
Sanduro hears the schoolmarm yelling and Ketra’s response without understanding any of it. “Who’s in there? Zsofia, go help Ketra!” Shutting out the sounds of the fight both in front of him and behind, he focuses his attention on the phantom and changes her back into incorporeal form.
Zsofia glides past Garret and Ketra and plants herself in front of Cythariel. She looks the ghostly half-elf up and down, smirking. “What in the Hells are you supposed to be, some kind of loony librarian? Actually, never mind. Don’t care.” She rears back and head-butts Cythariel in the face.
As Ketra readies herself to battle incorporeal foes, Garret pitches another fireball into the room, engulfing both visible foes. As Zsofia drifts in and taunts Cythariel she's greeted by a stream of curses and a vicious but ill-aimed attempt to claw at the phantom's eyes. Laughing scornfully, Zsofia sidesteps the strike and counters with a haymaker that would have broken the half-elf's jaw if she still had a body.
"Forget the girl," hisses the skeleton is a hollow rasp. "Kill that damnable mage!" He raises his bow and fires two quick shots at Garret as the halfling leans around the corner to cast. It's aim is true as two arrows punch through the halfling's arm.
Silvia gives ground to the undead dwarf, putting multiple shots into him point-blank. Blasted back agains the wall, the dwarf crumples to the ground and doesn't rise again. Without hesitation Jando plunges past the vanquished zombie into the hall, coming around the corner near the skeletal archer.
Wides wide with surprise at the phantom's strike--you get the sense she hadn't been punched much even when alive, and expected it even less in her new form. The skeleton's admonition seems to catch her attention, and she drifts out of Zsofia's reach before plunging into the stone wall and vanishing--though Silvia sees her emerge on the other side, in the antechamber.
+ROUND FOUR+
Cythariel (-28hp)
Trondus the Zombie Dwarf
Jando
Ketra (-11hp, -6Cha dmg)
Garret (-17hp)
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Skeletal Archer (-14hp)
Recoiling in pain, Garret casts another spell on the skeletal figure before ducking back fully behind the wall.
sonic damage and dazed, DC 18 Fortitude Save for half damage and not dazed
With Silvia's warning of the ghost making it to the other side of the wall, Ketra reverses direction back up the hallway. She reaches the malevolent schoolmistress and swings out with her dagger.
Silvia works the bolt on her rifle frantically, pouring bullets into the specter as it passes through the wall.
Sanduro squeezes past Garret and stands in the entrance to the chamber with the skeleton.
"You're right to worry about the mage, but you're going to be too busy to do anything about him."
With a short prayer to Pharasma for her aid in putting down this undead abomination, he casts heat metal on the skeleton warrior's armor.
Zsofia follows Cythariel through the wall. "I never went to school, as far as I can remember, but you must have been the worst teacher ever!"
"She was pretty mean. I guess, even meaner than I remembered." Ketra answers Zsofia, then raises her smoky knife to try to block the ghost's next attack.
Reversing back down the hall, Ketra intercepts Cythariel and delivers a slash that fully harms the spirit, to her furious shock--and growing fear. Silvia and Zsofia get in on the action, though caution about the paladin's fusillade of bullets mades the phantom more cautious than she might've been otherwise and her attack doesn't land. The assault is too much for Cythariel and with a shriek of impotent rage the spectre unravels into nothingness.
Meanwhile, Garret and Sanduro hurl spells at the skeletal archer. The psychic shriek proves potent, cracking bone and leaving the foe dazed and rattled. While Sanduro's own spell unfortunately finds no purchase on the old but well-maintained chain shirt, Jando's arrows punch through it at point-blank range--though the lack of flesh or organs limit their effectiveness. "Anyone got a hammer?" Jando calls in annoyance.
+ROUND FIVE+
Cythariel
Trondus
Jando
Ketra (-11hp, -6Cha dmg)
Garret (-17hp)
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Skeletal Archer (-29hp)
Garret stays in the hallway, looking left and right for the archer. Heavily wounded by the arrows, he prepares a spell to cast at the archer if it approaches close enough for him to see it.
With the dissipation of the malign school spirit, Zsofia disappears back through the wall and glides to a stop next to the skeletal warrior.
"Did somebody ask for a hammer? Come on, kid, do your thing."
Sanduro sighs and takes a step back to gain a little potential cover from the skeleton's arrows before returning Zsofia to ectoplasmic form.
Ketra, after confirming the ghost has dissipated, hears that the action isn't over in the other room. She rushes back through the hallway and around to flank the skeleton archer. She drops her dagger to free up a hand for punching those bones!
Silvia hustles through the narrow corridor, grumbling about not being able to pass through walls like "some people," and just makes it into the next room, rifle ready its next target.
As the party closes in, the skeleton hisses in grim resignation. "So be it," as Ketra attempts to pincer it the archer dives forward--though not far enough to fully evade Zsofia. Nocking another arrow, it takes aim at Sanduro and looses twice, wounding the druid.
+ROUND FIVE+
Cythariel
Trondus
Jando
Ketra (-11hp, -6Cha dmg)
Garret (-17hp)
Sanduro (-15hp)
Zsofia
Silvia
Skeletal Archer (-29hp)
Ketra won't stand for this assault on Sanduro. With a sudden burst of practiced precision, she dashes to interpose herself and delivers a whirling haymaker.