"Faidh! Do ye see that light over yonder...?" - Akkramar started, but then his companion just dissapeared - "Ok then..."
Akkramar is standing looking down towards Faidh who was engaged with six dwarven skeletons.
Behind you and on your left flank is the dwarven dam, which spans the river, about 300 feet across.
Along the bank of the river is a donkey path, used to pull boats upstream.
Ahead of you the hill slopes down to the east towards the bridge and the timbered, unwalled settlement at it's feet. There is a troupe of a couple dozen skeletons making their way toward the settlement. The six which had engaged with Faidh had fallen back behind the troupe. Their general has also fallen back but not as much.
The level of the river is low on the side of the dam closer to the bridge and the town. You can see the banks have the kind of plant growth that reveals they are ordinarily submerged under usual circumstances.
Ahead at the bridge you can see that some work was in progress, but the job site is empty now, as the work day is over. The dam is probably being used to keep the river level low in order for this construction project to go on.
The spot where Faidh skirmished with the skeletons before vanishing, is only about 30' away from you, but you are looking down from an elevated ridge. There is a steep bank down to there, but it's am mix of loose gravel with some grass. It looks like you could easily dig your heals in and skid down without much trouble.
Because you are elevated, the skeletons have not observed you.
The distance behind you back to the Dam is about 50'. There is a smaller squad of skeletons on the dam, engaged in smashing out large gems which project beacons of light. There are three such turrets on the dam, interspersed with two stations with large wheels like you find at the helm of a ship.
The first light turret has been extinguished and on the surface of the river you can see diaphanous, flickering shadows in the shape of humanoids, moving with a ghostlike flight and rising out of the water. They only rise up in the area of the rivers surface which is not being swept by the remaining two beams of light. The light seems to suppress them.
There is a possibility of passing the skeleton army.
There is a ridge that runs along the side of the route they are taking. They are hugging a little closer to the river, in fact they are even closer to the riverbank than the donkey path is. They are treading on the damp vegetation on the part of the bank which is normally submerged when the dam is not operational. The donkey path is a little bit more removed from the water, up on the dry bank. A little further still there is a raised ridge, which is essentially connected to the raised ground where you are standing.
This offers some measure of obscurement and it might be possible to pass the skeleton troops without being detected, if you traversed this ridge. However, at the moment, the general has directed the six troops to turn their attention there in search of Faidh who has vanished.
Apart from that, they do have quite a head-start on you, and as a dwarf you are not naturally inclined to move rapidly on foot. However, it is possible and can be attempted.
You would have to roll athletics and stealth, and make one con save vs exhaustion before reaching the town.
Regarding the light, the sun is indeed setting in the west, which is behind you. This has the effect of giving the bridge and settlement an ominous feel as the sun is behind you and the way ahead looks sunked in shadow. Although the town has some warm lamps glowing, the darkness is beginning to encroach. Not to speak of the undead force marching it's way there.
In the same direction as the setting sun, but much closer, there is a warm glowing orb making it's way toward you. It is about the size of a bird, like a duck or a gull, but it moves in a lilting fashion like a butterfly, drifting slightly side to side.
It has a warm golden glow with summery comforting hues like gold and even green appearing where it sheds it's light.
As for the size of the troupe smashing the gems, they are three in number, armed with shields and axes. They look the same as the others, basic animated dwarven remains, awkward and gangly in their movements. They don't look highly skilled, but they have a bit of unnatural strength. You know that any dwarf of your clan might be a match for one or two of these foes, but with three of them you would surely be in danger to face them alone.
"Well, you only live once I guess...." - Akkramar grunts heads toward the skeletons trying to smash the gems.
As Akkramar steps onto the bridge, the dwarf skeletons turn and stop what they are doing to face him. Two of them had set down their axes and commenced laboring to tip the broken gem over the edge of the dam into the water below. The third is leaning on his axe like a worker on a union break observing the other two at work. As Akkramar approaches, they all take arms and turn to meet him. The one who still had his weapon in hand is the first to be ready, while the other two spend a moment gathering their weapons.
The armed skeleton raises his axe and swings in a wide horizontal arc aimed for the neck as if to behead Akkramar.
The skirmish goes unnoticed by the general below, who is beginning to give up on finding the vanished Faidh. Leaving the six behind to examine the ridge, the general turns and follows the larger troupe toward the town at the foot of the bridge.
Faidh finds that her natural speed exceeds that of the marching skeletons enough for her to easily make her way past them toward the town, without straining herself much. Behind her and out on the water she sees shadows rising up from the waves where the light beacon had been extinguished. The way they move suggests that they may be swift enough to reach the town before her, but at the moment they are gathering their numbers of their ghostly ranks and not advancing any further than the marching skeletons.
It is about a quarter mile trek down to the settlement, so Faidh is still too far to make out who she will be meeting at the towns edge. All she can see is some warm lamps to let her know the settlement is indeed inhabited.
Akkramar can take his turn
"Not bad for a stupid skeleton" - Akkramar snarled, swinging his warhammer - "I be wonderin' if ye can take as hard as ye can dish"
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range/Area: Self
Components: V
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Attack/Save: CON 12
Source:PHB, pg. 274
Skeletons
Akkramar's hammer and holy fire come down on the undead foe. The hammer itself proves to be a weapon well suited to smashing bone. The creature falls into a pile of bones, smoldering in divine embers.
The other two creatures step over the remains to cut the dwarf down.
Akkramar go
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Bez saunters up towards the vineyards surrounding the Mansion. "Perhaps we could just take some wine...no, that's a terrible idea. Probably cursed. Say, Melira, d'you think that fellow's logic goes in reverse? Could all demons be beautiful women?" Bez twirls around and strikes a contrapposto pose, eyes twinkling.
"I think I'd look ravishing in a gown. Extra long train, of course, for the tail. And I've always wanted to try back scabbards for my lovelies. Heck of a thing, though, so impractical and slow and you'll wind up cutting off an ear besides, pulling out a blade, let alone two."
He taps his long devilish ear thoughtfully. "I'd just have to use my feminine wiles to defeat my enemy, ah," he concludes, tossing out an imaginary handkerchief.
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Melira laughs freely at the performance. "I think purple and green would go well on you, maybe a topaz trinket to match the mischief in your eyes." He's not a bad man at heart, not really. "But then you'd have to deal with all the suitors."
She runs her fingers delicately along a vine as they move closer to the mansion, looking for a grape to pluck. "Hmm. Withered." Her hand finds the hilt of her sword and stays there. "Part of me thinks we should just walk up to the front door and ask pol-, ahem, politely to come in." She shakes her head quickly, frowning.
"You keep an eye out while I get a spell together, and then we'll make a quick circuit around the structure before entering. Sound good?"
"That's it, come ta me" - Akkramar grunts - "Leave the gem alone, and wait until the pretty light gets here ye dummies"
Skeletons turn
The two other skeletons maneuver clumsily through the burning pile of bones, but manage to not set themselves on fire. The first swings reasonably well, but again Akkramar's sturdy dwarven armament proves unyielding against their rusted waterlogged weapons. The next skeleton though, seems to adjust well to Akkramar's battle stance. Akk feels the rusty chipped blade bite flesh and he begins to swoon.
Suddenly Akkramar feels like the two skeletons are looking past him, over his shoulder. They shift their body language, squaring up their hips in a different direction. Their hollow eye sockets seem to glare past him.
Akk feels a bit of that gold glow behind him, that warm comforting feeling he felt when he observed the orb.
the light from the west
Suddenly Akk hears a sound like a zip or a pop. Followed by anxious panting. Risking taking his eyes off his foes, he ventures a quick side glance to see what they are looking at behind him.
There he sees a hound, with slightly elongated fey like ears. It is wearing a kind of simple harness and the patterns embroidered on it immediately recall to Akkramar's mind some of the details on his strange fey companion's accessories. The whole feeling about this creature reminds Akkramar of the fey knight he has been traveling with.
The hound is pacing anxiously, taking a few leaps in the direction where Faidh had disapeared, then circling back as if unable to ignore the unnatural creatures on the dam and the sight of a dwarf in peril.
The hound sniffs the ground, and when it detects the splatter of blood from Akkramar, it pounces. It leaps over and past Akkramar to his left, so close that the dwarf has to lean to the side and crouch a little to avoid a collision.
For the dwarf skeleton however there is no way to adjust out of the path
as 50 kilos of fey hound collides comes barreling down on it full force.
On her way to the sleepy town, Faidh feels a warm glow wash over her, and the voice of her fey matron glows forth from inside her heart. "The sun sets, but it will always rise again. The water washes away all impurities."
Taking a nasty hit, Akkrammar has not time to even wonder where this large hound could come from - "Good doggie!" - he urges his newest, temporary ally onward, and swings again at the same skeleton he hit before.
"I've had enough of ye!"
Faidh was running hard and heavy towards the town.
Bez surveils.
He's distracted by Melira's doings, though. "I thought you didn't know that spell," he chuckles. "Oh look. There are two wee little owls pecking at grapes over there. Goodness, that is charming."
The grounds of the Morrick property are easy to find after having asked around town. The grounds themselves are a sprawling affair, encompassing a light forest, large vineyards, and vast walled gardens. The masonry on the stonewalls is very high quality with all the stones fitting like a puzzle. The walls are higher than usual, giving the property a claustrophobic feeling at times. This feeling is exacerbated by the overgrowth encroaching on the main road, which was ones cobblestone fit for horses and carts, but now nearly intraversible with cracked stone and warped tree roots.
You have been told that the mansion itself lies at the center of the property at the top of a hill. You also can't count the number of times you have heard mention of the curse, how it killed all the attendees at the wedding, and how it isn't safe to go near the house. None of this prepared you for what you see as you travel inward, however, for the plantlife growing onto and over the road becomes more and more eerie and mutated as you proceed. A great deal of fanning oversized pink and burgundy blossoms appear like great nocturnal moths drooping down from thorny tentacle like creepers. You watch in disgust as a squirrel-like creature with gills and scales seems to suffocate to death splashing around in a dried up mud puddle. The fruits that you see growing are unidentifiable, shrivelled and bulbous gourds that resemble nothing more than the features of goblins and trolls.
Akkramar brings down his hammer for a second time, this time the skeleton raises it's shield to block the blow but upon impact of the hammer upon the shield, the dwarf skeletons arm and shoulder shatter under the impact leaving the creature in shambles with only one arm and it's head crookedly perched on a shattered collarbone. Nonetheless, full of unlife, it manages to take another swing at the dwarf.
The companion skeleton turns away from the dwarf to menace the fey hound, but no sooner has it raised it's axe and the dog is bearing down on it.
Akkramar go!
"Like hammerin' away at the forge I guess" - Akkrammar grunted with the effort of another swing - "One, and two, and THREE!"
With that the skeleton facing Akkramar is reduced to a pile of bones as the unholy force animating it yields to the unrelenting blows of the dwarf’s hammer.
The final remaining skeleton on the wrecking crew takes a chop at the fey hound.
And the fey hound responds in kind with a bite.
Akkramar has a clear shot at the last skeleton as it is occupied with the dog snapping at it’s flanks.
You want to finish him off Akk?
"..."
Bez is taken aback a bit.
"I don't suppose lavender-soaked kerchiefs will help, will they? Melira, this entire place looks like poison. Without a known reward, this smells like a lot of risk." He frowns.
"Two rooms. I suggest two rooms. And gloves. Let's not touch anything."
Akkramar keeps up the momentum - "Lemme help you dog"
As Akkramar’s hammer crumples the skeleton into a heap of bones, the Fey hound sniffs the ground and takes off in the direction where Faith had disappeared. Akkramar see’s the dam before him, cleared of combatants. There is no telling whether the general will notice that other two lights haven’t been knocked out, but below on the river’s surface a fair number of shadows are seething up from the water where the first light had been extinguished, and flowing on toward the town after the marching skeletons.
Melira checks herself. She has no gloves, but she can tie a shirt around her face to produce an improvised mask. It might help against poison spores. "I think we should be just as wary of the grounds themselves as the inside of the mansion." She swallows. "Let's go straight uphill, towards the mansion. No detours." She keeps moving, determination growing as they move closer and closer to their objective. She surveys the area with her detect magic spell. She will not stop to recast it until they are within sight of the mansion.
"Could all this really have been caused by one curse? If so, it's clearly still active."
"One Hells of a curse, cast by someone or some thing who didn't care about the consequences much. And is it spreading?"
Bez racks his brain for paladins he knows on a friendly basis and comes up with zero, shrugs, and follows Melira.
The cartway up toward the mansion cuts through the light woods, and you know from a view earlier in the journey from a hilltop that the vineyards are spread moreso to the sides and in the rear of the walled area of the mansion proper. As you cautiously advance along the cart throught the eerie woods, you come to a steep incline and you can make out the high wall of the mansion ahead up top of the hill.
Melira's detect magic is showing a faint, very faint aura from the edge of the spell's range, off the path a ways into the light wood to the right.
Faidh is still invisible and has passed the skeleton troupes and is coming into range of the town when she can start to make out people, who she could nearly shout to. The town isn't walled, and their are some men and women in slightly official looking dress standing near the town edge, but they don't look especially armed or interested in what they are doing.
As Faidh wonders whether the skeletons or the people would hear her first if she were to shout, she suddenly hears a sound like a [b]popp![/i] and a burst of golden light to her flank draws her attention. Before her eyes, a fey hound appears, with elongated ears, and wearing a decorative harness adorned with symbols of her green faith.
The creature had evidently teleported a short distance, and as soon as it appears, it leaps up eagerly nearly bowling over the big knight in it's efforts to sniff and lick her face and hands.
The hound bounds away a short distance at a breakneck speed and circles back, moving towards and away from the town rapidly and panting, looking to Faidh as if eager to receive direction in this tense situation!
When they reach the edge of the wall, Melira stops short. She taps Bez on the shoulder and holds a finger to her face. Quiet. She carefully draws her sword and dagger, then moves off the path to the left. She puts a hand to Bez's ear, whispering quiet as she can. "There's a badger chewing something. It's busy, let's go around it."
The badger is just off the cartway, in the light forest a bit. By staying on the road and heading up the hill, you will not have a run-in with the badger.
The ping from detect magic is off in the light-forest a ways, and if you want to go in there you will need to make use of your stealth roll to go around the badger.
You can tell by testing a bit of the forest ground that your stealth roll was good and you are able to move quite quietly. However, there does appear to be a lot of mutated stuff in the light woods.
"I don't know much about badgers, but that thing is acting like a rabid dog. It would attack a horse or mule...good thing we don't have one," says Bez, equally quietly. He indicates with one gloved hand to stay on the path, shaking his head at the woods.
Bez is clearly a bit unnerved at all the unnatural things around him.
Akkramar takes a moment to heal his multiple wounds as the dog leaps away - "Thx fer tha help doggie!" - he manages to shout out.
Pondering the situation, he decides to stay watch over the crystals for a moment or two, and check if any other skeletons come to destroy them.
Faidh blinks at the dog and then she nods as she shifts to her Gao toothed half elf woman and begins to yell. " TO ARMS TO ARMS UNDEAD, TO ARMS TO ARMS!!!"
She then sees and the dog.
"Good thing we don't have any knights in shining armor, either." Whispers Melira. She nods as Bez indicates to stay on the path, then stops. "Wait here, I see something worth grabbing. Don't worry, I'll be right back." After a moment, she moves towards the aura, trusting that the badger won't hear her light feet over the sounds of its chewing. When she gets a little closer, she will stop to concentrate on the aura and see if that indicates it might be dangerous before closing the rest of the distance.
Faidh blinks at the dog and then she nods as she shifts to her Gao toothed half elf woman and begins to yell. " TO ARMS TO ARMS UNDEAD, TO ARMS TO ARMS!!!"
She then sees and the dog. ** spoiler omitted **
The reply comes back from the hound instantly with no delay. The bark rings out with a resounding pride and purposefulness, dutiful and serene. This dog is a stranger to you but instantly familiar, like a fragment of the divine energy you serve, the voice of truth within your heart.
The tongue lols out and pants, eyes fixed on Faith, and lips turned up gently in a definite smile of contentment and resolute courage.
"Good thing we don't have any knights in shining armor, either." Whispers Melira. She nods as Bez indicates to stay on the path, then stops. "Wait here, I see something worth grabbing. Don't worry, I'll be right back." After a moment, she moves towards the aura, trusting that the badger won't hear her light feet over the sounds of its chewing. When she gets a little closer, she will stop to concentrate on the aura and see if that indicates it might be dangerous before closing the rest of the distance.
As Melira probes the light forest carefully, she is able to avoid the badger lair without alerting it, although she gets the feeling that every step off the path comes with it’s own dangers and threats. The ground itself in places looks like it could be toxic to tread upon.
Carefully, she makes her way closer to the aura, until she can make out it’s school of magic. Abjuration. Magic of protection. A few steps closer and a low hanging tipped over tree trunk leans across her way, tipped from where it had split and shattered midway up it’s height. The root system are still intact but largely above ground, looking more like tentacles than wood or plant-life for that matter at this point. The bark has a scaly purple hue in places. Beyond the tipped over tree Melira can make out a leather boot. A smell of corruption wafts across her nostrils. Beyond the boot the view is obscured by underbrush, and a cloud of flies can be heard buzzing above the dark mass in the bushes, of which only glimpses can be caught of what looks like a rotten fabric covering, possibly a cloak or long coat.
Melria nearly stumbles backwards. Her only real life or death encounter has been with zombies. Flies, so it's not all rotten away yet. Fabric rotten, so it's not that new either. Maybe the badger is eating a piece of it? Her nerves steadied, Melira secures her face covering, glad to have the protection against the smell, and then draws her sword slowly and carefully. She pokes at the toe of the boot carefully, making sure the corpse is truly dead.
Assuming it is, she will circle around the tree and try to get a good look at the body.
When Melira pokes the boot, it feels like there’s a foot in it, and a leg attached, but it’s all pretty rotten. After making her way around the tree she can see from the other side that it would have been quite hazardous to have passed under it. The rot and corruption is more visible from the other side and from here Melira can see that it may have gone poorly had she gone straight under the collapsed part. Even the ground just beneath it kind of appears to have a crevice covered by a mass of mutated tendrils that don’t form any firm ground or footing , making the crevice similar to a gaping maw in the earth just big enough for one little bard.
From safely on the other side, Melira can see it is indeed a body and the upper torso is partly intact but partly devoured. On a gloved hand he aura is emitting from one finger , probably a ring beneath the glove.
Akkramar has quite a view from the dam. Behind him the waters are high. Before him the level is low, held back by the dam. The skeletal troupes march forth just at the waters edge, on the damp embankment where Akkramar can see by the wetness of the vegetation that the river ordinarily covers the ground if the dam were not engaged.
On the surface of the water itself, the beams from the beacons are sweeping back and forth. From the crevices where the light does not cover, flickering shadow entities are creeping forth to join the undead force.
The sight of the shadows suddenly triggers a feeling in Akkramar. A memory. Being in the dwarven halls, outside the temple of the forge and seeing his brothers in arms coming to the aid of dwarves of the cloth, joint them in battle and falling. He remembers that seething smoke, and how when it was breathed his comrades crumbled into black soot, arms and all.
This new black inky substance is different, more shadow than black smoke. But the way it moves, the way it recoils from light, it is all too familiar. It feels of the same nature as the demonic curse plaguing Akkramars country men.
Scanning the countryside, he can even see the dog, the Fey hound. The hound is protected from sight by the skeletal troops by a ridge in the earth, but from the elevation of the dam Akkramar can make out the brave hound who had come to his aid.
The dog is behaving strangely, as if interacting with something or someone, but Akkramar can’t see any other party beside the hound.
"Hmmm. Melira. Looks like it was tree versus would-be-hero, and neither won, except for the badger," says Melira behind her.
He pulls out some rope. "How about I lasso the deceased and pull it out of there. It may be...ah...liquescent...so it's not a perfect option, but I don't feel like going into the mutate-and-rot-everything shrubbery, do you?"
He chuckles. "I once told my brother we should just go into the appraiser business. So much less risky, and loads of gold comes your way. We liked excitement and change, though."
Bez is able to get a noose around the arm in question and drag the body out towards him. As he does, some of the tentacle like roots snap into action at the disturbance, gripping hold of the corpse as it moves. Several small flowers which had been folded up, u furl into toothy carnivorous pink blossoms each the size of a large cat. They snap at the dragged corpse, and the tentacle vines constrict near the waistline of the corpse. The rotten fabric and dissolved flesh beneath it give way, splitting into multiple parts, and Bez ends up dragging mostly just the gloved arm out of the pit, along with a shoulder bag made of canvas. Sticking out of the canvas bag is a simple leather parchment tube with no magical aura.
With the gloved hand now close at hand Melira can definitely make out the contour of a ring on the ring finger but worn under the glove.
The aura is abjuration.
The plant creature goes back to motionlessness, and the bigger portion of deceased traveler gets swallowed a partially in the earth.
"Damn it..." - Akkramar groaned - "What now...?" - he pondered if there was any chance he could also make his way to town, now that apparently the gems were safe on this side.
After making her aquaintances with the Fey hound, Faidh finds that someone at towns edge seems to be gesturing in the direction of the dog. Another sentry seems to be fumbling for a spyglass in an unhurried fashion.
"I can't imagine you working as an appraiser. Maybe if you just used it as a front to figure out who was rich enough to be worth robbing." Melira considers the gloved hand carefully. "Abjuration is protection magic. This is a ring. I wouldn't expect it to be dangerous for us to touch, even though we're not the original owner." Her sword low and long against the mutated undergrowth, Melira motions for Bez to move back a bit, increasing the pair's distance from the plant.
Only then does she reach for the glove, prizing it away one finger at a time. "The tube could have an old map," she says offhandedly, looking down at the dismembered limb in her hands with odd dispassion. Maybe he's getting to me already.