Freezing in place, Ting turns his beak and looks over his shoulder at the others, "Oh! I's 'ear's somet'in' breathin' in 'ear, wroight."
no sign of movement.....
Lefty listens, also.
Getting nervous about someone he can't see breathing in the tunnel with him ting asks nervously, "Any o' you's blokes got's a way o' seein' somet'in' invisible?"
Not today.
Ting, you're pretty certain you still hear the faint sound of breathing.
"Sorry, No. But if you're hearing breathing that's not likely undead.... Unless it's the priest that's controlling them."
"Where is the sound right now? Ahead? Off to either side? Can you guess distance? Everybody quiet now!"
Wyran mutters the words to his Detect Magic cantrip again and studies the area where he hears breathing. "Illusion possibly? Skeletons don't breath...."
He points to the area so the rest will at least have that information. "Unless there's a survivor under them?"
Not entirely sure what Wyran is thinking, when Ting hears the shaman ask if there might be survivors, he answers, "We's'l see wroight." Moving towards the moss-covered skeletons intent on nudging them with his void-glass falchion.
Ting's footsteps stir up a thin cloud of milky white mold spores, causing him to feel an urgent need to sneeze.
Skeletons seem to be real dead people.
It seems as if the sound of breathing emanates from one of them.
His eyes watering from the mold in the air, Ting, telling the others, "Tha breathin' is commin' from 'is 'ear skelyton wroight." Using the tip of the falchion he attempts to turn the skeleton over to see what is beneath.
Lothorian readies an action if anything attacks Ting.
Wyran stands ready and watching. "Or invisible. Or covered by an illusion. I don't believe the skeleton is breathing."
Ting turns over the skeleton, finding nothing underneath.
The skeleton itself seems to be faintly breathing.
This is strange and curious magic.
Lefty tries to identify the type of magic going on here.
I thought it might be an illusion, but it's some sort of necromancy. I don't get why a skeleton would breathe at all. What's the point? It just doesn't add up.
Well, it's not doing anything and it's not the girl. Let's keep looking.
Furrowing his brow, Ting taps the skeleton again with his weapon, "Oh is you's alives er is you's dead?" Shrugging his shoulder in a very human fashion, Ting nods his beak in agreement with 'Lefty' and heads down the tunnel towards the no-longer-secret door. Pausing at the door he carefully inspects it for traps and locks, after dealing with whatever he finds he attempts to open the door.
"Necromancy to make a breathing skeleton? Sounds like someone is trying to figure out how to make undead seem more alive. Possibly to disguise them? Doesn't make any sense to me! It doesn't look animated anymore. Maybe it was cast out as a failure...."
The secret door at the end of the hallway is easy to open from this side.
Ting opens it a crack and peeks in. Beyond he sees a dark, cluttered storeroom. This tables, benches, and chests within all look to be covered in a layer of thick dust.
Lefty summons Dancing Lights again, guiding it into the room for proper illumination before we go in.
As the door cracks open ting peeks inside. Seeing untouched goodies, he cracks the door wider so 'Lefty' can move his dancing lights into the room. Unable to resist the draw of potential shiny objects, ting toddles into the room keeping a keen eye out for anything problematic.
Wyran follows. "The layer of dust indicates that they don't come in here much. Might be some loot but aren't we looking for prisoners to rescue?"
".... But if we happen to find something useful or a bit of coin. OK!"
Shrugging as he continued into the room, ting asks, "So's 'air's also the possibalies we's'l finds an ancient map as ta where's tha hidden prisoners is held, wroight?"
As Ting enters the room he notices that 3 ancient sarcophagi rest against the far wall.
After he takes a few steps, the lid of the middle of these three crashes to the floor and a terrifying mummy steps forward from his.
A moan issues from deep in his chest and he drags a longsword alongside as he steps forward.
Everyone needs to make a DC16 Will save versus despair or be paralyzed!
Then Ting, Wyran, and Malinor can act.
Lefty is about to agree with Ting, when a sudden touch of evil washes over him.
Blinking, ting feels something cold wash over him. Blinking, he shifts his voidglass falchion to a two handed grip, "Oy, Maybe' 'ease blokes 'er breathin' too!"
Wyran moves toward the undead trying to remember anything about the thing.
He attacks focusing on stopping the thing in place.
Lefty assists Wyran.
Smoking holes appear in the mummy's chest, as Mallinor's bullet's blow through the undead and out it's back.
Seeing the mummy, dragging a longsword as it shuffles along, Ting blinks, then quickly moves forward. "'At's no way's ta treat a bloody sword, wroight." Studying the mummy as he moves forward, Ting lifts his void-glass falchion overhead and chops at the mummy.
Recognizing the monster Wyran stops. He certainly doesn't want to hit it with his hands and possibly get the disease that way. "Mummy! Destroy it before it gets a chance to infect anyone!"
He's out of spells, but he has a cantrip. Lefty fires a Ray of Frost, converting it to Fire.
Ting's overhand slash at the mummy is deflected at the last moment by its longsword.
It lets out a dreadful wail as it makes two-handed slice at the slayer with the sword.
It follows up with a second slice in the opposite direction.
The mummy's strikes are particularly nasty, with the second slashing deeply into Ting's neck and putting the slayer down!
It groans out an additional challenge at the rest of the party as it surveys the damage it has done to the bird-man.
Lefty makes a quick incantation and directs a shaft of burning light at the undead.
To his surprise, the ray reflects back from the mummy and strikes him in the chest!
Shocked by the power of the undead monster Wyran's chant is automated. Regardless, a starknife appears by the mummy and slashes at it.
Wyran's glowing starknife slashes past the mummy, but fails to connect.
Finish him! says the elf, as he steps back, useless.
Malinor's bullets blow two more big holes in the mummy and it drops shakily to the flow.
It lets out another wailing moan and seems to deflate in on itself.
Everywhere you turn in the room, there are shelves of dusty glass implements, ceramic containers, boxes, dried homunculi, mummy wrappings, spices and so forth. There are also great trunks full of crumbling garments, heavy laboratory equipment, ruined components and bottles of barely potent acid.
There is also a recently deceased Tengu with a fancy glass sword laying next to the fallen mummy.
Poor Ting. I guess he's beyond saving now. We'll give him a decent burial after we find the girl. I'm beginning to think she's not here, though, given what we've found in here.
Wyran looks around the room at the various supplies, then at the deflated mummy. He quickly realizes that he doesn't know what he is looking at and casts detect magic to scan for that.
"Doesn't look like much of value here unless you plan to make mummies. Might be a good idea to haul it out and burn it...."
Sheathing Ting's sword he shakes his head slowly. "I'm beginning to doubt that the girl is here, and this place is getting really dangerous. I think we should get him out of here. Certainly wouldn't want to face him if whatever is in power here used the body! Let's take him, see if we can recover the treasure in that pool and get out of this hole!"
Lefty uses his wand of Infernal Healing to heal up 10 hp on himself and Wyran.
He then looks for suitable gear to use to get Ting out.