Eddred kneels next to Henry and places his hand over the largest wound. "All things become dust in the end, and the dust at last becomes the Void. But the Void insists on the proper order of our coming and our going. Your time is not yet, Henry Shepard. Rise, and cast off the shackles of entropy."
Henry gasped and coughed as he jolted up. A quick look at the battlefield saw that they had won against the Morlocks, and he wheezed a breath of relief. "Thanks, guys." He said slowly, grunting as he stood back up. "These guys are really dangerous, huh?"
He checked his wounds, now partially stitched together, before picking up his morningstar.
"Watch the doors. I'll need to spend some time to patch you up, Edward." The dwarf gets to work again.
There are two obvious exits if you want to press on: the barricaded door to the north and the normal door to the east.
Tindertwig is seem poking an open wound on Henry.
Dis not bees lookings toos guud.
Dirtbag is seen nodding in agreement.
"We should consider how long we wish to explore before retiring," says Eddred. "Or our time may come sooner than we think."
"I believe we should retire for the night and return in the morning."
"Ow, please don't do that," Henry said as he leaned away from Tindertwig.
"We could check these last two doors. Might be some pieces of scrap worth something in this... I guess it's a workshop. Ain't very organized, though."
"They seem to be more enthusiastic and lucky than competent...at least so far." Hilde gathers up her medical supplies and searches the room thoroughly and methodically before examining the doors.
There is a lot of junk in the room but nothing of use or value, except presumably to a morlock. They did carry a functioning warhammer each, though, but the once-crossbows are useless to any normal person.
There is nothing particular about the doors. The one to the east is wet and swollen like most doors here, and there is a few timbers propped up against the north one to keep it shut, but nothing you can't fix in a few rounds' work.
Hilde pats one of the timbers. "I wonder what they were guarding against, and I'm not sure that this is a good time to find out."
Wees shoulds not opens da blocked doors yets.
The goblin then points at the other door.
Eddred shrugs. If the team wants to hasten their own personal eschaton, he is not inclined to stop them.
"What's to be lost, if we retreat now and take some time to recover fully?"
The dwarf starts, looking intently at the barricaded door. "Did anyone else hear that?"
Henry zeroed in on the door. "Yes, that sounded like Common." Immediately, he started trying to remove the barricade.
With Henry's newfound energy, the timber comes down in less than a minute. Behind the door (already duly checked by Hilde).
Behind the door is a large room. Alcoves along the walls might once have been storerooms, but the stone shelves are all empty. The room smells foul and there are no visible exits.
Three dirty and emaciated men dressed in rags stagger towards you. "Are you here to rescue us?" the bravest of them asks. You notice that they all have a bird tattoo on their right shoulder, just like the dead body you found in the morlock shrine.
Hilde frowns at the sight of the tattoos. "The Osprey Club. Of course. You've been using the Light for your own purposes, and were probably surprised to find the morlocks here. Right?"
Hearing Hilde mention the Osprey Club, Eddred puts two and two together.
"We are not here to rescue you or anyone else," says Eddred calmly. "But that is no reason for you to die here. Confess to your deeds and agree to turn away from outlawry and we can become your rescuers. Otherwise, you can appeal to morlock justice."
Tindertwig--and Dirtbag grin. They both start rubbing their hands (?) together in anticipation of this next part.
They both walk up slowly with big grins on their faces.
Youses bees prisoners! Wees bees not cares if'n youses stays dat ways! Youses gots two choices! Stays da stupids prisoners ov da stupids morlocks!
The goblin nods to Eddred.
Or youeses stupids bees doings wat da fancy fella just saids!
Dirtbag moves a bit closer and grins hungerly at them.
Intimidation to Coerce Will DC ?
Both goblin and Dirtbag apparently look like they do not know what the f#!* they are doing!
The men give the goblin a puzzled look. Their spokesman turns to Eddred. The words come gushing out of him in his eagerness to please. "We haven't done anything unlawful. These ruins have been here forever and we just thought we'd see if we would explore a little bit. We came here looking for treasure, same as you. We haven't even been inside. We were going to but there was a lot of gremlins flinging poo or whatever at us, so we decided to explore the outside. We saw the drake and figured that it might have some treasure, so we waited until it left and took a boat into its cavern. But then we ran into those bug-eyed monsters. They took Kenny... and I suppose they ate him. He breaks down and sobs. "Please, you can do whatever you wish with us, but just don't leave us here. We don't want to be morlock chow."
The dwarf looks skeptical, but relents. "Let's get you out of here before they come back, then. I think your boat is still there, but your lunch has probably gone off."
"Luckily, the way up isn't too far away." Henry said as he took the lead and headed towards the stairs on the other side of the hallway.
Eddred lingers, neatening the abandoned space as much as he can in a short period of time. Clutter and chaos offend him. Dirt and muck weren't the problem, but clutter was just so...pointless.
A few moments later, he follows the team back to Otari. He doesn't speak to the Ospreys as he isn't interested in proselytizing. He prefers quiet in any case.
Tindertwig and Dirt watch the bad man all the way back to town. They are step with step with them. If they doddle, they both begin sharpening dogslicer and teeth.
Your journey back to Otari is unhindered by any unpleasantness, but the poor explorers slow you down somewhat, since they are still exhausted from their ordeal.
As you reach Otari you are able to deliver them to Crook's Nook and Yinyasmera looks genuinely relieved and happy to see her friends back. Her smile actually reaches her eyes. She insists on giving you the reward that she posted for news about them (50 gp) and invites you to poor Kenny's wake in the evening.
Wrin is happy to see you safe and sound, too, but she is not her usual bubbly self. She is very quiet and complains of a splitting headache. She is able to heal you all for 16 points, though.
I guess you might want to do some shopping and repairing, moving of runes and so on while you are in town.
Henry makes sure that the Osprey Club members make it back to the Crook's Nook and shows his usual politeness to Yinyasmera. Humbly, he does except the gold and even shows up to Kenny's wake later that evening.
"What happened, Ms. Wrin?" He would ask once they returned to Wrin's Wonders. "Would you like me to get anything for you, for your head?"
Eddred finds a peaceful spot away from the others and contemplates the transience of existence. He does visit the wake, but is mostly quiet, hoisting a single drink in the fallen man's honor.
Tindertwig and Dirtbag eat and eat and eat while in town.
Wrin is not very talkative today. She just brushes off Henry's inquiries and smiles wanly. "It's nothing. I get these from time to time. Bad weather among the stars, I suppose. Congratulations, by the way. I hear that you are local heroes now."
So you are, it appears. The wake is a rowdy affair and most of Otari is there. Even the mayor and Captain Longsaddle make a point of showing up. The only notable person missing is Wrin, who is still ill. Ca.rman Rajani sips blackberry ale in a corner and shoots a dark glance in your direction from time to time. There is much dancing and carousing.Yinyasmera makes a great show of presenting your reward and offering you a lifetime of free lodgings at Crook's Nook. The three hapless explorers seem to have recovered and you are subjected to a number of drunken hugs as well as a lot of more or less incoherent stories of poor Kenny's past exploits.
As the night wears on, you are starting to think about how to extricate yourselves without being too rude (except for Tindertwig, who is busy stuffing himself). Then suddenly you hear a scream from outside. It is Wrin who has appeared, looking all dishevelled. She points in the direction of the ruins and screams: "It is happening! Look!"
As you mill outside and look, you see the familiar eerie blue light from the lighthouse, this time magnified many times. It sweeps over you, bathing you all in the sickly blue light, but mercifully it passes you by. Instead it falls upon the sprawling graveyard located at Otari’s western edge. The soil of Otari’s graveyard roils and churns in the eerie blue light. Dozens of skeletons and shambling corpses haul themselves free from the ground and rush to the south. Without any hesitation, the walking dead plummet over the cliff’s edge to rain down upon the domes of the Dawnflower Library below.
The mayor turns to you with a wild look in his eyes. "Please do something. You are supposed to be the heroes here."
So this is why I've been summoned here, thinks Eddred. The dead should rest, their time past. To all things there is an order, and here we see chaos. I must find the source of this light.
"Let us find a way into that tower tomorrow," he says to his companions. "And let us get a good night's rest now so that we will be fresh to the fight."
At the beginning of the night, Henry seems embarrassed to be called a hero of the town. His naturally humble disposition not lending itself well to the praise. As the wake goes on and more people begin to crowd him, he finds himself standing a little straighter, taller. While the wake is meant to mourn poor Kenny's passing, the town is alive and three of its citizens were returned, leaving a mixed atmosphere that Henry is not sure how to take.
Once the horrible sight of the bodies tumbling to the ground begins, Henry listens to and then looks at Eddred, disbelieving. "Good night's rest? We gotta do something about that, mister, Eddred! I'm going to go get my gear, then I'm going to go try to fight off whatever's shown up up there!"
Addressing the mayor, Henry gives the man a respectful nod. "I'll be up there just as soon as I can, sir."
And then Henry has gone home to gather his gear in order to help his hometown.
"Henry, I have no spells with which to support you. I will be no more than an archer, and a fatigued one at that."
Tindertwig (still chewing on a kabob) and Dirtbag (still chewing on two kabobs) glance up from their position under the buffet table as the spooky blue light overshadows even the crispy bacon wrapped chicken. They both frown.
The goblin shouts (a bit muffled from still chewing),
Dis bees un intrusions ons dis fines celebrations ov uses beings da heroes!
Dirtbag growls an agreement (a bit muffled from still chewing).
When Henry begins shouting about going to the cliffs to see the show, both goblin and crocodile burp in reply.
Agrees dat did bees un guud show ta watches. But wees bees tireds!
Dirtbag growls.
Yes! Pluses day bees deads already!
"....It turns out I'm ready," says Eddred, as if listening to a voice no one else can hear. "Let's go."
Hilde shakes her head grimly. "We need to examine the graveyard and the bodies before we go back. There may be clues we can find." I need a drink. Several of them. Business first, though.
As you cautiously approach the graveyard, you are relieved to note that most of the dead have gone over the edge, but there is still movement here and there as the long dead claw their way up through the soil. It is hard to tell how many there are.
Do you have any particular strategy for how you want to approach this?
"Best we approach from the direction they're not moving towards. Eddred, can you look for magical auras?"
"I can. I'll do that now."
Eddred casts and sustains Detect Magic while the team moves forward.
Tindertwig watches out for a skeletal claws that attempt to get too handsy....
Dirtbag just shakes his head.
Henry will move behind any cover near the rising undead and look for the best way to approach them. If he thinks he can make it to them before they raise completely, he'll try to attack them while they're still vulnerable.
Henry steps over the low stone wall that encloses the cemetary. He manages to crush the skull of an emerging skeleton, but then another that has managed to crawl out lurches towards him. You can see more undead in the distance, although only a few seem to be left.
The skeleton and its peers go on 6, so if you beat that, go ahead and take your action. You can see three more skeletons approaching from different directions. They are all about 30 feet away at the moment.
Remembering that her usual weapons and techniques didn't work well against the skeletons the party encountered in Gauntlight, Hilde moves to flank one with Henry before stabbing at it with her rapier.