Coldwater's Abomination Vaults

Game Master Quentin Coldwater

Kvit hides his smirk as Lough reprimands and Kka half-apologizes. In a half-playful tone he say, "Apology accepted Kka!"

She purses her beak, but says nothing in reply. "Yeaaah, whatEVER! Don't get used to it bub."

Kka looks a little bored as Giyozara rambles on about the magical light using big words that mean nothing to the rogue. "Sooooo, what you're saying is that we're definitely not turning this thing off anytime soon." "... which is exactly what I just said, but with far fewer syllables."

Kka sighs. "If there's nothing more we caan do up here, why don't we check out the rest of the complex and then head home? Who knows; we might find the light switch somewhere."

Kvit the Ruin Delver wrote:

Kvit hides his smirk as Lough reprimands and Kka half-apologizes. In a half-playful tone he say, "Apology accepted Kka!"

She purses her beak, but says nothing in reply. "Yeaaah, whatEVER! Don't get used to it bub."

Kka looks a little bored as Giyozara rambles on about the magical light using big words that mean nothing to the rogue. "Sooooo, what you're saying is that we're definitely not turning this thing off anytime soon." "... which is exactly what I just said, but with a far fewer syllables."

Kka sighs. "If there's nothing more we caan do up here, why don't we check out the rest of the complex and then head home? Who knows; we might find the light switch somewhere."

”No, what I’m saying is that we don’t have the magic to FORCE it off. Some spellcaster’s include a sort of switch to turn the things off and on, like . . “ Giyozara searches for an adequate metaphor. ”Like a magical version of a hooded lantern. Pull a lever and the light shines; pull the lever the other way and the light stops shining. We need to look to see if whoever made this included one of these. . . ‘Magical levers.’

Just as Giyozara finishes his sentence, Gauntlight shudders and its light suddenly blazes with a sickly, pale‑blue illumination. The beam pierces through the thick fog and arcs south, falling not directly on Otari, but onto the sprawling graveyard located at Otari’s western edge.

”Okay, necromantic energy is increasing, I suggest we retreat! Like now!”

If someone could move me back downstairs.

As the Gauntlight shudders, Kvit hits the deck. He looks up from the floor as the beam arcs outward. Looking out the window he sees it focused just outside Otari.

"Ah, well, I think we might have figured out what this thing is for. We need to get down there right away. I'm sure others in town may have seen it but we should alert Wyrnn on the way."

He heads down the ladder, hoping the others follow quickly.

No sooner does the Gauntlight shudder than Kka hits the deck and crawls up against the wall. "Whaat in all the hells... Did we do that?" When it finally blasts out its beam in the direction of Otari, Kka lifts her head and turns to look through the window at where it is aimed. "Uh oh! Looks like your necromantic energy is being focused on the graveyaard, Giyozara. That caan't be good."

Kka doesn't have to be told her welcome is over. She dives across the floor, slides over to the trapdoor and drops through after Kvit and Giyozara. "Come on Lough. No dilly-dallying." She takes the steps two at a time on the way down and exits the tower to rejoin Cherry and Sam in the courtyard. "Maan! Thaat was intense. You guys missed out on a really cool light show."

Kka and Giyozara's tokens moved downstairs.

Once everyone is downtairs, Kka says, "Let's pick up all these leftover mitflit weapons and get our butts baack to Otari to waarn them. I get the funny feeling thaat some long forgotten relatives are going to be paaying the town a visit soon." Kka then runs around and picks up the 5 shortswords and 2 daggers they'd left behind. "Forget the darts; they're not worth the effort."

She then heads to the exit, calling back over her shoulder as she leaves. "Time to go guys! Last one home is mitflit lover."

"Zoiks!"

"Not going into that Graveyard! Nope!! No way!!!"

Lough dilly-dallies and dithers and dawdles, not daring to deliver himself dumfounded into the deathly dirt of the demarcated doomtrap, deliriously diaphoretic, doing his darndest to delay the direction of the downyonder development of his daredevil daytripmates!

Cherry quickly turns to head down the stairs.

"So did start something, or did it point out something that was already happening?

Just checking, is everyone okay with returning to Otari? And do you want to head straight for the graveyard, or do you want to make a stop elsewhere first?

I'm okay with heading back to Otari. It seems like we would try and find Wrynn as fast as possible and report in since she's most likely to know what's going on and how concerned we should be about the graveyard.

I'm okay with heading back to Otari. It seems like we would try and find Wrynn as fast as possible and report in since she's most likely to know what's going on and how concerned we should be about the graveyard.

Agreed

Lough the unabashed "mitflit lover" nevertheless skedaddles back into the safety of his home town running unashamed as like a dog with it's tail between it's legs.

I'm ok with heading back to Otari. If anything else, I'm going to need more arrows

As you head back to Otari, you reflect on what you've experienced so far: a weird tribe of mitflits, several insects of varying sizes, body-possessing skulls, and a surprisingly flammable killer mist. You've been in Belcorra's sanctum for nearly two hours now, and there's still so much more to discover. The mystery of the Gauntlight, who those "mushroom-eyed people" are, and of course whether Belcorra herself is responsible for all this or not. Nevertheless, though you may have spent relatively little time here, you came out relatively unscathed, and you feel stronger for it...

You're officially level 2! As said before, you get all the benefits of your level 2 upgrade, but spent spell slots are still spent.

Back in Otari, you knock on Wrynn's door. She opens the door, does a quick head count, and screams in delight as you are all present. She hugs every one of you (though Lough a bit shorter, due to the "pixie mud" still caking his armour), then ushers you inside. "I'm so glad you're all still safe! Tell me friends, what did you find? I hope I sent you on a fool's errand, but the bandages you wear tell me you encountered some trouble."

Without standing still for a moment, she goes into the kitchen and puts a kettle on the fire for tea, then starts preparing some food for you.

"There were some creatures that were displaced-no, that's not important. The Gauntlight is glowing with huge amounts of magic energy. Evocation, Divination, and a heckovalotta necromatic energy. And then it shown directly on the graveyard. We couldn't find a way to shut it off and there's no way we have the magic power to brute force it closed."

Giyozara will try to explain as best he can the magical basics of what he saw with detect magic.

Kka nods along as Giyozara gives her update. "Yep. We cleared out some real bad guys from the complex; mitflits, giant maggots, giant flies, scorpions, a weird kobold haunt, some reanimated dwarf corpses, and finally an evil blood mist thingy at the base of the lighthouse. Quite a day's work. There's still plenty of other stuff to check out, but when the Gauntlight shot out that spooky beam at the graveyard, we figured it was time to get our butts back home and make sure everything's okay here."

She takes a deep breath. "I think we should check out the graveyard ASAP and make sure everyone's still resting comfortably there. Ark ark."

"Not clear out..." Lough clarifies "But befriend..." in reference to the mitflits, defensive in his kinship with them.

Used to being somewhat of a pariah, our paranoid hero's body freezes taut with non-reciprocation when Wrynn goes in for a hug, most probably eliciting in her the typical response of aborting the embrace with much greater haste than she perhaps intended - and that even if her intentions in the first place were stymied by the smell of pixie mud stewed in nervous perspiration - indeed, for a thinnest instant, the two of them perhaps an awkwardly confusing jumble of bungled social graces.

Undaunted, Lough continues "My uncle's brother is buried in there - I have no wish to set flowers on his grave. Anywhere but that graveyard" knowing he will be outvoted, he does his best to at least have his grievance aired before it is profaned.

Then an idea "Do you know anyone buried there?" he sniffs the tea, then sets it down.

Kvit nods along with everyone's assessments so far.

"Also note, we didn't have anything to do with the Gauntlight doing that. We didn't touch anything."

Sneakers pipes up "Yeah, it was just a total coincidence that it went off while we were up there looking at it."

Kka snaps her beak closed. "<Click> Yeah, that was a bit strange how it lit up like that when we happened to be there. Maybe we triggered it by killing the blood mist doorthingy or something. If we tripped any switches along the way, I would have seen them." "...maybe"

Kvit nods along with everyone's assessments so far.

"Also note, we didn't have anything to do with the Gauntlight doing that. We didn't touch anything."

Sneakers pipes up "Yeah, it was just a total coincidence that it went off while we were up there looking at it."

”As far as we know,” Giyozara corrects. ”I saw some divination magic in there so I suppose it could have been set to go off when a certain number of people got there, or if someone analyzed its magic, but that seems . . . Unlikely. But yes, Kvit is mostly right, we did my touch anything that could have triggered it to our knowledge.”

Cherry nods at Kvit. "Basically what he said, though maybe not that in tone. We also haven't been able to determine if the beacon is a symptom or a cause--yet."

Deep in his paranoid mind, Lough feels as though he somehow caused the Light to Gaunt, hiding himself from the discussion for fear of being found out. And the second thing he withholds from his friends is the fact that he recalls swallowing a spider in his sleep the night before, and had a strange dream.

Sorry for the lack of response, it's been a weird few days.

Wrin's tail swishes around in surprise as she heard that Gauntlight has set its light on the graveyard. "Uh, that can't be good. I'm glad you've encountered nothing you couldn't handle in the swamps, but could you do me another favour and check out what's happening in the graveyard? Maybe you can figure out there what the Gauntlight's powers are, and why it is targeting the graveyard."

She looks at you with pleading eyes. It's a little unnerving, since she doesn't have any pupils.

Then an idea "Do you know anyone buried there?" he sniffs the tea, then sets it down.

"My entire family's still back in Kyonin, as far as I know. Though I'm an elf, I thankfully haven't outlived my friends yet, something I pray will never happen." She smiles as she looks at you, glad to have such capable friends at her side.

Lough wrote:

Then an idea "Do you know anyone buried there?" he sniffs the tea, then sets it down.

"My entire family's still back in Kyonin, as far as I know. Though I'm an elf, I thankfully haven't outlived my friends yet, something I pray will never happen." She smiles as she looks at you, glad to have such capable friends at her side.

Lough's morbidity gets the better of him - his dark humor spoken with such light-heartedness a product of the underlying feeling that sheer luck, or another foul power, continues to cheat death on his behalf - he retorts almost casually "Well. Perhaps I will be your first friend" the playful tone masking the seriousness of his prediction; totally downplayed!

Having "strange" eyes himself, nothing about Wrynn - except her attempted hug, perhaps - makes Lough uncomfortable.

Kvit squints his already beady eyes as he twitches his whiskers. He'd had some second thoughts during the rush to get back here. "Why are we the ones doing this? We're not getting paid and we're not even equipped to handle... whatever is going on." Sneakers doesn't say anything currently, for once a little afraid to speak up.

Sounding a little angry or frustrated or some combination, Kvit speaks "We've already done the original favor for you. I know we're close aquaintances but whatever is going on here is more powerful than we are equipped to deal with. We couldn't put a scratch in that Gauntlight if we tried. We already know what we're going to see in that graveyard and it won't be just flowers on graves. I'm out."

He hesitates and doesn't leave right away but is clearly making the final decision in his mind. These strangers have already made an impression on him and for once didn't like the idea of abandoning them, but this all sounded like crazy talk to him.

Giyozara turns to Kvit. "Kvit, stop and think about this. We LIVE here. If what's going on in the graveyard is going to affect the town . . . I mean, that's bad. If we don't stop it at the graveyard, and it goes to the town it'll destroy my house, yours, Wrin's place here. Do YOU have enough money to rent out a whole new apartment in Absolom? I know I don't have that kind of money on me. This isn't just us sticking our necks out for no one, this is basically self defense at this point."

In-character diplomacy check with a +8 bonus

At all the talk of family members buried in the graveyard, Kka falls uncharacteristically quiet and her head sags a little. "I don't remember much about the ship that brought me here; I waas just a kid. But I've been told that the other paassengers and crew who died in the wreck were buried in the graaveyard." She falls silent a moment, then adds quietly, "Including my paarents."

She hardly remembered her parents; only flashes of memory; a face; a laugh. Still, she knew that they'd loved her and the thought of them being pulled from their graves and sent stumbling around the countryside was not a pleasant one. She shudders at the thought. "I think we better go see if anything baad is happening at the graaveyard. The last thing I need right now is a faamily reunion."

"...I'm out."

"If he's out, I'm out" a reflex in Lough snaps into place. How could exploring a magical lighthouse be possible without a magical friend?

Giyozara turns to Kvit. "Kvit, stop and think about this. We LIVE here. If what's going on in the graveyard is going to affect the town . . . I mean, that's bad. If we don't stop it at the graveyard, and it goes to the town it'll destroy my house, yours, Wrin's place here. Do YOU have enough money to rent out a whole new apartment in Absolom? I know I don't have that kind of money on me. This isn't just us sticking our necks out for no one, this is basically self defense at this point."

Between the appeal to emotion and the coinsack, Lough decides that he doesn't want the town destroyed, and, that he doesn't want to become a refugee. Inspired by Giyozara, he changes his mind.

"If he's in, I'm in"

Kka listens as Kvit threatens to back out and Lough vacillates. "You guys figure out whaat you want to do, but I'm going to the graaveyard to see what's going on out there. Otari maay only be my adopted home, but it is my home, and I waant to make sure it stays safe."

Giyozara does a double take as Kka seems to be displaying duty and honor for the first time since the two met. But quickly shakes his head and gets back to focusing on the task at hand.

”Agreed, let’s get going.”

Ooh, intra-party conflict! :D

Lough's morbidity gets the better of him - his dark humor spoken with such light-heartedness a product of the underlying feeling that sheer luck, or another foul power, continues to cheat death on his behalf - he retorts almost casually "Well. Perhaps I will be your first friend" the playful tone masking the seriousness of his prediction; totally downplayed!

Wrin's face contorts into a wry smile. "I dearly hope not, but in all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Fate has not been kind to you, I'm afraid. Please try your best to not make that happen."

As Kvit finishes speaking, her shoulders sag.

"That's fair. You have your own lives to think of. I'm grateful you already went out into the swamps for me. This is more a task for the town guard, I guess. I'll ask the town council if they can send someone who will investigate this further."

"I know the town guard" Lough tries to be helpful "You don't want them going in" still wavering whether to take the plunge, perhaps waiting to be someone else's plus one...

Kka scoffs. "The town guard? Laardus Longsaddle couldn't find his baackside with a map and compass, and you expect him to deal with whaatever's going on at the graaveyard? Thaat's a joke."

She crosses her arms and pouts. Finally, she can't hold it in any more. "Fine! Giyozara and I will take caare of it on our own. We don't need any of you. Especially not you, Kvit. You go ahead and get nice and comfy in your burrow munching on your cheese while a teenaged girl and a librarian go risk their lives to keep you saafe. I don't know how you'll be able to live with yourself if something haappens to us, but I don't suppose thaat's a problem for someone with a stone for a heart." Kka gives Kvit a nasty stare to punctuate her verbal explosion and slumps back into her chair.

"Did I lay it on too thick? Maybe. But if the guilt trip works, then it'll all be worth it. Things will go a lot easier at the graveyard if the group sticks together."

"While most followers of Erastil would say that adventurer's are fools, we didn't start whatever is happening at the Gauntlight. And while I hope there is nothing happening at the graveyard, we cannot leave it to hope that the town is not being threatened."

Cherry shrugs. "A this point we should at least check it out. If it turns out to be too much for us, we can call in the town guard to help at least. More hands help lighten the work after all."

Being a man of lacking conviction, Lough finds himself consecutively swayed each time another teammate chimes in - as if somehow trying to agree with everyone at once.

Further confounded by the back and forth, Lough remembers who "started" the whole debate, and circles back with "What do you think Kvit? Are you In or are you Out!?"

He truly wants to know!

Kvit crosses his arms at the back of the group as everyone takes their tuns guilting him or trying to convince him. To Giyozara, "I don't live here. I just stay here. A lot. For work. I can just go back the warren near Absalom."

As Kka tries to berate him, Sneakers laughs from Kvit's shoulder. "Ha! Can you imagine the town guard hunting down skeletons, Kvit? It'd be hilarious!" Kvit scoffs, "Pfft, the town guard is even more inept the the lot of you. We basically bullied a bunch of little pixies and now you all think you're heros.

He falls silent for a moment, frowning, "You guys are going to get yourselves killed." He rolls his eyes at Cherry, "No one puts that much effort into a magical beacon of necromantic energy for it to just be a light show. But maybe you're right," He pauses before he tentatively says "we" "we could just scout things out and see what's up. I mean, well, yes, fine I'll go with you fools."

Sneakers looks surprised, "What?! You can't be serious boss! That place is probably literally crawling with undead! Ohh mannn..." He buried his head in his paws.

"We may not have dented the Gauntlight much, but Giyozara is right. We LIVE here. I may not have contributed much so far, but we HAVE to try. I built my life around Otari and I don't want to have to start over."

Turning to the group, Sam firmly says "I'm in. Besides, you're all going to need healing when the fighting starts."

"Ha! It worked. I knew it would."

Kka perks up when it looks like they'll all be sticking together for the jaunt to the graveyard. She clicks her beak in contentment. "<click!, click!> Yaay! You won't regret it, Kvit. Who knows, we might well come across some long-forgotten ruins at the graaveyard for you to dig around in. From whaat I hear, Otari is riddled with underground caave systems full of straange and wonderous things." "...and nasty dangerous creatures, if what Mary told me is anything to go by."

Mary is the Merisiel clone that I took through the Pathfinder Beginner Box. I figured both being rogues from Otari, that they would probably know each other and be members of the Osprey Club.

Eager to get going, Kka springs up from her chair before anyone changes their minds. "Okaay then. No time like the present. Let's go!"

"Thank you Kvit," Wrin says, "This isn't your job, but I'm grateful you'll do it anyway. I'll make sure you all will be recompensed for this effort. You're brave people, all of you."

You say goodbye to Wrin and head to the graveyard.

You can do your shopping now, if you want. Depends on how much of a hurry you're in. Shopping will take about 30 minutes, total.

As you head into the graveyard, you notice several people are crying for help, others are running away, and you hear the sound of fighting coming from deeper within the graveyard, where Gauntlight's pale beam is focused. As you head in that direction, you see multiple disturbed graves, and bloody tracks heading towards the fighting. You find freshly-slain bodies of your fellow Otarians, as well as bones and rotten remains of long-deceased bodies strewn all over the place. It looks like dozens of corpses have come to life and mindlessly started to attack anyone in the vicinity.

As you near the centre of the graveyard, the road get progressively bloodier and more filled with corpses, both of civilians and of undead. Looks like the town guard is putting up a fight, but there's a lot of town guard uniforms among the bodies on the ground...
Sounds like the fighting is just a few more minutes away.

Kvit nods towards Sam. "Where this seems headed, yeah we'll definitely need someone to help with wounds and probably zombie bites."

As Kka talks about not regretting it, he thinks to himself "Oh, I'll definitely regret this later." "Alright then, let's go, anyone need anything important before we go? A crowbar perhaps?"

Kvit will skip his shopping, he doesn't need the formula book urgently until we rest.

At the first sign of blood and disturbed graves Kvit curses in Ysoki. His and Sneakers' whiskers twitch at the scent of earth mixed with fresh blood. While not surprised at the clear signs of undead, he is surprised at how much activity and how intense the fighting seems to be as they get closer. He knew in his mind this wasn't going to be good, but it's much worse than he imagined. He sets sneakers down on the ground as they get closer. "Look up ahead, but be careful. As tiny as your brain is, they still might try to take it." Sneakers was too disturbed by what was going on to retort enthusiastically, but just went with a weak, "Yeah whatever boss" He scurries off ahead, slinking through gravestones.

To the rest of the group Kvit warns, "This appears much worse than I imagine it'd be. Based on the number of bodies already, we need to stick together. And work together. We can't let ourselves get surrounded. Any ideas? I'm assuming they will be slow enough that I'll keep using Electric Arc as much as possible. If we can find a bottleneck, I can create the illusion of difficult terrain to slow them down even more. I've only got one more Magic Missile if there is anything particularly dangerous. Any other ideas?

Running back to his uncle's workshop, Lough sneaks into the workshop and assembles the various pieces of plates, scales, and leather joints, cobbling together some Split Mail from the various parts. Then - a few houses down - he sneaks into his uncle's partner's house and gathers a bunch of salves, bandages, and needles, cobbling together some Healer's Tools.

Stealing away back to the meeting spot, he hands over the Morningstar of Potency.

"Can't remember if we're gunna need this or not"

Wriggling around in his new armor, Lough notices that it is more difficult to move. +1 AC but -5 Speed

See discussion post on shopping.

Kka grins at the suggestion that they go shopping. "Good idea. If we don't get a crowbaar soon, Lough will end up dislocaating that shoulder of his and then we'll really be screwed."

They all run down to the market and after some haggling, they manage to convert their loot into more useful stuff. The only problem was that they wouldn't be able to transfer the runes to their new weapons in under a day.

Handing the Morningstar of Potency back to Lough, she says, "You can hold onto this for the time being Lough. Looks like your fancy haandwraps will have to wait until we get back from the graaveyard."

We ran into the zombie dwarves at the Gauntlight, so we know they had a weakness to slashing which is probably shared by the ones we're facing now, but what about the skeletons? I'll assume that Kka does not yet know about the need to bludgeon them into submission... at least not until someone tells her.

Kka is not pleased by the evidence of carnage she sees as they head into the graveyard. In a glum tone, she says, "looks like we're a bit laate to the paarty." When they come across the bodies of the fallen town guards, she revises her low opinion of them upwards a few notches. "Laardus's boys put up a good fight, braave souls. I hope Pharaasma takes good caare of them." Instead of frightening her off, these sights only serve to incense her further. "Come on," she urges, "we haave to stop this before it gets worse." She pulls out her rapier and shortsword and picks up her pace. "By the Savored Sting, I will avenge the deaths of these brave men and I will track down and destroy the one responsible for this travesty."

When they finally come across a large group of the ambulatory dead, Kka blanches slightly. "I have a baaad feeling about this." She scans her opponents and is relieved to find that none of them have beaks. "Thank the gods for small mercies." "The fresh ones look a bit like those dwaarves we ran into earlier. They'll need their heads sliced off. Don't know about the boneys though. Any of you smaart ones know the best way to deal with them?"

We ran into the zombie dwarves at the Gauntlight, so we know they had a weakness to slashing which is probably shared by the ones we're facing now, but what about the skeletons? I'll assume that Kka does not yet know about the need to bludgeon them into submission... at least not until someone tells her.

Kka is not pleased by the evidence of carnage she sees as they head into the graveyard. In a glum tone, she says, "looks like we're a bit laate to the paarty." When they come across the bodies of the fallen town guards, she revises her low opinion of them upwards a few notches. "Laardus's boys put up a good fight, braave souls. I hope Pharaasma takes good caare of them."

Looks like the town guard is putting up a fight, but there's a lot of town guard uniforms among the bodies on the ground...

Looks like some of the town guard are alive.

"We need to pull them off of the remaining town guard. Lough and Kka, hold fast. Everyone else: try to lure them in with ranged attacks. Make them come to us, gives us the most chance to shoot them, and our front line can ready for their charge."

Ready for combat whenever the GM declares it. Hopefully after people either agree with my idea or call it stupid.

It's Happening... run for your life!

Ignoring the voices in his head, Lough nods to Giyozara, and while the party gets set to draw the undead over with missile fire, he grabs for some Caltrops from among his effects, planning to drop them in their intended pathway!

You all run towards the centre of the graveyard, and as you turn a corner, you see four heavily injured town guards completely surrounded by the undead. The town guards spot you and yell, "Run away! This is no place for civilians! We've got this under control, don't worry! Save yourselves!"

It is clear they're outnumbered and outmatched.

Cherry Berry: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
Giyozara: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12
Kka: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23
Kvit: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
Lough: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25
Sam: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
Initiative zombies (+0): 3d20 ⇒ (12, 7, 18) = 37
Initiative skeletons (+2): 5d20 ⇒ (8, 2, 20, 8, 4) = 42
Guards: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

Lough
Sam
Kka
Skeleton Blue
Cherry Berry
Zombie Yellow
Kvit
Guards (Frightened 3)
Zombie Red
Gyozara
Skeleton White
Skeleton Light Blue
Zombie Green
Skeleton Pink
Skeleton Purple

I've updated your initiatives, but please check if I've got the right numbers. Kka, I presume you'll use Stealth for initiative.
I also presume you have your weapons of choice drawn at the moment.

Lough, Sam, and Kka may act!

"Zoiks!"

Dropping the caltrops for having insufficient time to set them, Lough strides boldly forward raising his shield "Your company is lost! - The Mitflit King, slayer of a Great Scorpion, is here with the Otari Lighthouse Militia - but we are outnumbered! - Run away with your lives!!"

Request (Diplomacy): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

◇) Release
◆) Stride
◆) Request
◆) Raise Shield
+
↺) Shield Block (Hardness 5, HP 20/20, BT 10)
↺) Attack of Opportunity (slag claw +10 @ 1d6+4 S cold iron)
~) Whichever reaction triggers first

Excellent! Kka goes first and catches the undead flat-footed.

When it's clear that the undead have noticed them, Kka says, "Uh oh! They know we're here. Time to do something." Before she's even finished talking, Kka takes off toward the nearest skeleton.

Action 1 (◆): Stride (30 feet) - 6 squares gets her to the square NW of Skeleton Blue.

She decides to forego the use of the rapier and instead slashes across the creature's body with her shortsword. "Let's see if this guy is as easy to slice up as those dwarves were."

Action 2 (◆): Strike (Shortsword) with Thief Racket and Surprise/Sneak Attack vs Skeleton Blue.

Shortsword Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 slashing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5 precision slashing damage

Talk about overachieving. Unless told otherwise, I'm going to assume that Kka notices the skeleton's usual resistance 5 to slashing damage.

Having taken her shot at the skeleton, Kka glances around and decides that her position is not tenable; if she stays where she is, she'll be overrun and killed. She retreats back to cover the softer members of the group but remain in position to attack again once the creatures advance on them. She informs Lough and the rest of what she's discovered. "Those skeletons are tough. My sword slaash had trouble getting through. And, uh, Lough? we're going to need those guards to hold baack the baad guys for a bit, so don't be so quick to send them off."

Action 3 (◆): Stride (30 feet)

Kka rushes forward and catches Blue off guard. Her short sword has trouble sawing through the bones, but she manages to sever Blue's spine and it collapses in a heap on the ground. Indeed resistance to slashing.

Lough encourages the guards to run away. They look grateful at the offer of saving their hides. "We'd love to, but we can't let you get in danger as well!"

They then see Kka saw one in half, and one whistles appreciatively. "O-Okay, maybe we can make a final stand, but we can't take much more of a beating!"

Lough
Sam
Kka
Cherry Berry
Zombie Yellow
Kvit
Guards (Frightened 3)
Zombie Red
Gyozara
Skeleton White
Skeleton Light Blue
Zombie Green
Skeleton Pink
Skeleton Purple

Sam and Cherry Berry may act!

Stepping forward, Cherry touches Sam and Kka briefly.

◆Stride 5ft

"Kka, Sam here's a boost. It should help with that whole slashing thing."

◆◆Disrupting Weapon on Sam's bow and Kka's Shortsword. You guys get +1d4 Positive Energy Damage vs Undead for the next 10 rounds.

Cherry casts their eye across the field, looking to see if there are any guards that need stabilizing. (I'll back with with a skill check if I need to next round.)