Grelthe closes her eyes and swings with all her might. She just chips the wall. But Aatish destroys the orange skeleton! Only one left.
The last skeleton slashes out at Grelthe with its sword but just bounces off her armor. Another slash out at its claws, but the heavily armored paladin reflects all of its attacks!
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[u]Round 2/3[/u]
Blue
Roomba
Aatish (7/11 hp)
Rachel
Grelthe
Orange
Red
Purple (-3 hp)
Tavon
Andros
The last skeleton is destroyed by Aatish's blade!
Now you can explore this dusty chamber. Various sets of footprints dot this chamber, leading north to south. In the southern part of the room, a macabre gate made of bleached bones blocks the tunnel. The gate has no obvious handles or hinges.
The Pathfinders decide to forgo the bone gate and instead investigate the wooden bridge in the other room. Approaching this 'bridge', it looks shoddily put together. In fact, it looks like it's just planks of wood. The planks can easily move but it looks safe to cross.
After crossing the bridge, the Pathfinder can look into the room at the end. The large chamber has a vaulted ceiling, and unlike the rest of the ossuary, bears a distinct impression of habitation rather than abandonment. Lit candelabras reveal old tapestries hanging from the walls to ward off the subterranean chill, and a threadbare carpet covers the floor. Shabby furniture - a few chairs and tables, an armoire, and a dresser - flanks large canopied bed in the center of the room, topped with satin sheets and a heap of lumpy pillows.
Sitting in the bed is a woman. With a glance, she may have once been beautiful. But her skin is now rotting and putrid, and her once-lustrous blond hair rank and lifeless. Her face is covered heavily in makeup and in cloying perfumes. Her clothing and jewelry are formal dresses and accoutrements that look mismashed, outdated or garish.
Behind the bed are two clacking, mindless skeletons. Neither of the skeletons move. But the woman does. She gracefully gets out of bed and stands up. "Well, hello there." She says, not approaching any further. "I see we have visitors. Lulu. Fiona. Bring our guests some tea."
The two skeletons listen to her and go back to the room and start preparing some tea for you. "I heard you fight my husband back there. Did you kill him?" She says with a frown. She doesn't seem hostile - at least not at the moment.
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Grelthe does a double-take at the woman. Undead, but not evil? That's new. "As lovely as a cup of tea sounds right now, I'm sorry to inform you that yes, we killed your husband. So you might change your mind about tea. He was attacking us and raising undead in an ossuary devoted to the Lady of Graves. We were sent to discover why bodies were missing and clear out any threats." Grelthe intentionally keeps the second part to herself, until she can see if these undead will be hostile or not.
The undead stares at Grelthe for a moment. "Do you want to know how my now dead husband and I met? I was cursed with a wasting disease that rotted my flesh and gave me the appearance of a decomposing corpse. Yet I was still alive. No one was able to cure me of the disease and they gave me a year to live."
She starts pacing back and forth, but does not approach. "I ran away to Kaer Maga, in hopes the necromancers here could save me. But alas, I neither had the time to study for myself nor the money to find a cure or solution."
By now, the two skeletons bring tea over. They don't seem hostile, perhaps they are under her control. "It was only fate that I met Svilennius. He found in me a muse and a project. He was unable to find a cure and I believed I was doomed to die. But he insisted he had a way he could alchemically reanimate me with my intelligence and personality intact. With no other choice, I agreed.". She sips her tea.
"He slit my throat and infused concoctions and elixirs into my blood. For days, I sat dead. He grew frustrated I was not reanimating and destroyed his notes. After three days later, I rose. My memory is mostly intact, but I do not feel different."
"As of late, my husband was ignoring me trying to recreate his success, to not much success. Only rarely would he come and seek comfort, me being no more than an occasional pillow for him.". She finishes her tea in one gulp. "All I wanted was to live. But this is the next best thing."
She stands in silence, looking at the Pathfinders. She's obviously not friendly towards you, but she's not outright hostile.
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Grelthe knows most people expect half-orcs to be hotheads and every to fighting rather than talking their way through it, and she is doubly aware of how she's coming across with Roomba watching (recording?) her, so she pushes down any revulsion she has in the smell coming from the undead, and smiles charmingly.
Grelthe has the grace to look embarassed. "Ah. I see. Well, *ahem* I suppose then it is fortunate he was able to, uh, revive you. It had never occurred to me to preserve someone's personality through undeath. I wonder what happens to your immortal soul when you... die, again? Regardless, it is a fascinating philosophical question. Unlike Pharasma, my God has no particular dislike for undead that I know of. Now that you are revived, and Svilennius is *ahem* dead, what would you like to do?"
Irritable Diplomat (Racial; half-orc) Most people expect half-orcs to be savage and violent, and you’re used to working a little harder to overcome their assumptions. Unfortunately, you’re still working on keeping patient when they ignore your efforts. Once per day, you may choose to gain a +5 trait bonus on any Diplomacy check, but if it fails, you take a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks for the next 10 minutes.
She sighs. "All I ever wanted to do was live. This... curse... stopped that from happening.". She paces back and forth. "I was young, I had goals, friends, family. But that life is dead now."
"I can tell you everything I know about my husband's research, if that will help you in your endeavors." She tries to change the subject, but she comes back to the topic at hand. "But now that he's no longer with us, I just want to ... live I guess. I am contrite about my actions and now want to leave this chapter behind me. Perhaps I will go back to Ankar-Te and study with the necromancers there, especially now that I have time. Or perhaps I will travel Golarion in hopes to find a cure for whatever happened to me."
She stares at Grelthe, "That is if you let me leave. I know what most people will think. That I'm an abomination. That I'm pure evil.
Perhaps you can help me start a new life? Just don't return me to those Pharasmans. They will destroy me. And that's a fate I don't want."
The undead woman sits down on her bed and starts crying. "My name is Esme, by the way."
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Wait a moment...I'll be right back.. Andros says as he heads back to the lab and gets a pen, ink and paper. I wanted to make sure that there is a written record of our conversation. For further study by those with far more capability than I have. Please, Esme...continue when you are up to it... he says softly.
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Grelthe's face stoically doesn't change
(it's totally obvious folks)
...as the intelligent undead responds, but inside: Holy sh*t, that worked? Once Esme starts crying, she melts Grelthe's soft heart and she moves over to the bed to put her arm around her, holding her breath as much as possible to keep the undead stink from making her sick.
She throws up a lil in her mouth, but swallows it.
Grelthe tries to remember her training - what was Kurgess' view on the undead?
"You did the best you could in a horrible situation. I think anyone most people would understand that, Pharasmans excluded."
She looks around at her companions' expressions to confirm their opinions.
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Roomba listens to all, then speaks.
"Our mandate is to clear these halls, one way or another. Since you have free will, you can go anywhere you want. We will give you two hours to gather your belonging and leave. There is a goblin snake on this level which can show you an exit. We will return in two hours time and show you where to find the goblin snake."
Roomba bows respectfully and leaves the room, heading back to the lab south of here.
"Thank you, thank you.". She looks at her two skeleton companions behind her. "Lulu, Fiona." She hesitates. "I can take them with me. I can command them to my will, though I can part with them if you think it would be best."
Esme starts gathering up her things, though she doesn't have much. "The stairs just south of here () head upstairs to the upper portions of the Ossuary - the active levels. Svilennius would use them to gather bodies. I don't think the priests know about it. Perhaps you can use it or tell the Pharasmins about it - whatever you think is best. I'm hesitant to exit through there, so this goblin snake sounds like a better plan."
She then starts counting on her fingers. "I believe my husband had ten or so of these creations around. Lulu, Fiona, Mr. Marrow..." she continues naming them in her head. "Have you destroyed them all?"
She also hands over two scrolls. "Here, take these. They may help you in this place. If you don't use them, please return them to me."
"I haven't been in that room that you talk of. Spent most of my time here while my husband slaved away."
The Pathfinders spend there time walking back to the bridge over the Cathedral. They first have to walk up north, past the strange obelisk, around the deep hole, past the weird mirror rooms, and over the bridge.
Entering the room, you see bodies wrapped in age-yellowed linens that lie in the alcoves lining both sides of the wide corridor. Thick cobwebs hang from the ceiling and drape the walls of the crypt; everything is coated in a deep layer of dust.
DC 15 Knowledge (religion)
The symbols Andros notices are Pharasman in nature, but are strangely and subtly different from those used today.
As the Pathfinders walk deeper into the room to investigate, Andros hears some rattling as he inspects the symbols... coming from the skulls of the deceased!
Four spider-like creatures skitter out of the skulls! These spiders appear to have the body of a skull. And each rush out of the skull to come attack!
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[u]Round 1[/u]
Roomba
Tavon
Yellow
Red
Rachel
Andros
Blue
Aatish
Grelthe
Green
On her turn, Rachel tries to attack blue.
Tavon quickly splats the red skull spider but Roomba has trouble stabbing hers.
The yellow skull spider skitters across the floor and jumps onto Andros. . It luckily nicks one of Andros's veins in his neck and bits deep.
Rachel then aims her bow and splatters the blue spider!
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[u]Round 1[/u]
Roomba
Tavon
Yellow
Red
Rachel
Andros (Poisoned?)
Blue
Aatish
Grelthe
Green
These tiny vermin are known as skull spiders ... due to their skull shaped bodies and eight legs. They are hard to hit, but weak (high-ish AC but low hp). Their bites can't deal any damage (1d2-4 damage), but can inflict poison when it hits.
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Grelthe leaves the close one attached to Andros more someone more dextrous to remove, and moves past her allies to aim her javelin at the far skull-spider in the west nook:
"If you can hit them, they are easy to kill. Beware of their poisonous bite!" she calls out before beginning humming her battlesong to herself.