Jenise grimaces at the narrow walkway, clearly designed for much smaller people than humans. She can probably make it if she's careful, though. The sorceress gingerly picks her way across after Zuriel.
"Nighttail, think you can talk to those slingers over there and reassure them that we don't want to hurt them? We're just here for the chief."
"Ah think it's better to climb than a rope with no knots..." August answers Zuriel. But then he looks down the hole, and swallows hard. It's not going to be easy, anyway.
But first to worry about the kobolds. The paladin waits if Nighttail would clam down the slingers, before taking any action himself.
"I'll try and scout ahead and see if I can tell what's down there." Zuriel says as he gets a good hand hold of the knotted rope. Moments after his statement, he begins quietly moving down the rope.
August stands by the edge of the hole, peering down and hollers: "Do you see anything down there, Zuriel?"
Nightail speaks for a moment in draconic the slingers still seem afraid but look on with a bit more curiosity than before. A couple chirp back in an excited manner. “I told them! A couple don’t like the chief either so we should be ok! They might just be scared to see people here.”
The hole looks easily 10 feet deep, and it’s easily negotiated by Zuriel. Sneaking down he looks through the dim light, seeing crude idol stands in the middle of the cave, decorated with grisly strips of dried viscera. He sees next to it are two skeletons that look to be kneeling before it and a kobold speaking softly to himself as he stands before it.
As Zuriel reaches the bottom and starts to look around the kobold hears August’s shout and looks up. It growls and starts to make some kind of incantation, as the bones draw up to form two human skeletons. Though none of them look at you Zuriel all looking up at the hole and towards August.
"That was brilliant." Zuriel says to himself as he scurries back up the rope.
"Thanks for alerting whoever that is down there of my presence." He states after climbing out of the hole. "Good luck, let me know how it goes." After taking a moment to consider the situation, he moves away from the hole and looks for a place to hide.
"You're welcome, Zuriel." August replies, honest as ever.
"So what did you see there?" he still stands by the hole, trying to see what is going on downstairs.
"Some pissed off guy. He looked unhappy about you yelling down the hole. You should go down there and explain why you disturbed his undead summoning. Zuriel waves a hand in a fanning motion. Now, piss-off. You're giving away my hiding spot."
"Oh, and for future reference. The hell-with scouting ahead if you're going to do asinine things like yell at me when I'm trying to be sneaky."
Jenise scowls. "Ugh, undead." Stupid things are immune to her favorite spell. "You don't get to stay up here and claim a full share of the gold, Zuriel. If I have to fight undead, so do you."
"Oh, well. Maybe it's best if Ah go down first, then." August says, after a moment of silence. He takes off his shield, and ties it into his backpack. Sword sheathed, he grabs the rope with two hands, and starts to descend.
Jenise scowls. "Ugh, undead." Stupid things are immune to her favorite spell. "You don't get to stay up here and claim a full share of the gold, Zuriel. If I have to fight undead, so do you."
Zuriel starts to stand up from his hiding spot, but then hesitates and slouches back down. (That stooped undead summoner probably has magic-crap. Perhaps I should let August take a couple knocks on the head before heading down. It could knock some since into him.) "I'll go, even after August attempted to get me killed, IF I get first pick of the loot."
"Uh, no. We share equally, as originally agreed. That said, I doubt August or I will be able to use weapons and armor that would be useful to you." Desna, grant her patience. Why did Faust have to leave them? Jenise could really use another voice of reason right about now. It's like herding cats. One of whom was dropped on his head as a kitten, and the other alternates between being scared of everything and getting into everything.
Well. If Zuriel is too much of a coward to fight undead, Jenise certainly is not! She stomps over to the hole, slings her crossbow over her shoulder by its carrying strap, and climbs down after August. "You going to let a couple of humans show you up, elf boy?"
"That agreement was before dipody-do decided to feed me to the undead guy in the hole."
After a moment of pause, Zuriel steps out of his hiding spot and moves over to the hole where he continues to voice his opinion. "This deal is quickly becoming not worth it. That said, I'll continue, but I won't scout anymore unless wibble-wobble agrees to not shout at me when I'm trying to be sneaky."
After finishing his statement, he climbs down the rope.
As you all converse Nighttail looks down the hole and looks at Hak, “Maybe you should stay here. Undead aren’t nice at all.” with that she follows you all down
second move action to try after a second she is able to get down albeit a little behind you all.
As you come down you can hear the sounds of incantation, and as you get to the bottom you hear in a draconic voice “I do not like being interrupted during my meditation. I will add you to the others!”
Turn Order: Skellies, Zuriel, MK, Nightail, August, Jenise
The two skeletons now reconstituted start moving directly at you August being the first one off the rope.
as they unnaturally scrape at your armor the claws don’t seem to catch on anything. Sliding off the steel plates with sickly scratching noises.
Zuriel moves to flank the kobold who seems to be controlling the undead and brings his elven blade to bear.
Catching the kobold unready you slash at him and carve a deep gash. Nearly mocking him off his feet. He staggers and hisses at you in turn.
The kobold takes a step back, he looks at Zuriel and casts a spell.
Zuriel you feel your body lock up as suddenly your unable to move.
Nighttail goes to help Qigist and attacks one of the skeletons.
Unfortunately she misses stabbing through the skeletons bones.
Turn Order: Skellies, Zuriel, MK, Nightail, those that are peft August, Jenise
"Undead. Evil."
August draws his sword, and looks left and right. The paladin is unsure where to strike, as he sees evil everywhere. But while the skeletons are obviously evil, the kobold might be controlling them.
And he just did something to Zuriel!!!
August strides past the skeletons, and places himself between the supposed necromancer and the helpless elf, using his momentum to cut down the kobold.
"Don't worry, Zuriel. Ah'll save you!"
Walking toward the kobold, August is attacked by the skeltons.
But striding forward like the knight he is, the kobold
Is cut down. Zuriel remains frozen for the moment and skeletons are still fighting and standing.
Turn Order: Skellies, Zuriel, MK, Nightail, August, only the sorceror is left for this turn Jenise
Excellent, the enemy caster is down! Now for the skeletons. Jenise moves toward Zuriel, then chants a mystic phrase and points at the closest skeleton. A shower of white sparks rains down, scorching the bones where they land.
He may be irritating, but he doesn't deserve to die. Hopefully the skeletons will focus on me and August instead of Zuriel.
You scorch the second skeletons’ bones and it shutters, nearly falling apart.
The two skeletons attack one at August one at Zuriel acting without thought.
hit
miss, due to mage armor
August swirls around, swinging his sword as he turns. The blade meets the skeleton who was just clawing at the paladin.
(Sorry it would be 5 from the AoO and 3 from the last round.)
The skeleton August slashes at crumples in a pile of bones no longer animate.
Nighttail runs in and stabs at the burned skeleton.
She lands the tip of the spear on the skeltons back and it shatters into pieces.
The two skeletons attack one at August one at Zuriel acting without thought.
Over time, the cold endless stair that is transfixed on Zuriel's face begins to soften as his ridged combat posture slowly relaxes. "Man that sucked. All of a sudden I couldn't move."
After taking a moment to compose himself, he sets off to inspect the caster. "This stooped undead guy better have something good!" Moments after he begins, he glance over at August. "Thank you for saving me. It almost makes up for you outing me earlier.... Almost."
"Glad to see you're all right." Jenise follows Zuriel over to the necromancer's body. Maybe he'll have an arcane item or two she can use.
"You're welcome, Zuriel." August replies earnestly. "Just be careful with those necro-mancers. They're up to no good."
The paladin gives the skeletons' bones a few gently kicks to make sure they're not moving any more. The adrenaline fading out, he starts to feel some pain and remembers he got hit a few times.
"We bought the healing back in town, right? Can Ah see it?"
"Sorry... Ah forgot Ah had the wand all this time." August draws the wand of healing out from his backpack. He swings it back and forth a few times, figuring out how to work it. And them he starts applying the healing powers to his wounds.
And indeed it works fine, and all that remains of his wounds are some bloodstains on his armor and undershirt.
"Is everyone else all right?"
"I'm good here." Zuriel replies as he continues shifting through the necromancer's gear.
"I'm fine, thanks." Jenise focuses on the body and chants a short phrase, making a strange gesture toward her eyes.
With Zuriel no longer paralyzed and shifting through the gear he finds within what he would recognize as 3 potions of cure light wounds, a small set of chainmail, an engraved and well made quarterstaff, a nearly pristine and well made cloak, a spell component pouch, and a gold symbol likely of a religious nature worth probably 100 gp to the right person.
Jenise would detect magic in the potions and the cloak.
Zuriel gathers the items and arranges them on the floor next to the necromancer. "Hmm." He utters as his eyes glide along the area containing the items. "Seems like he had few things." Ater glancing back over at Janise, he asks "Is any of this magical?"
"That look religious.." August points at the golden symbol. "Could be a source of evil, used by a necro-mancer. Maybe we should destroy it, just in case."
Jenise would recognize the cloak as a cloak of resistance +1. The rest of area however has nothing of value besides bones and a small shrine.
"Hmm... ooh, nice. Those are potions of cure light wounds, and the cloak is a lesser cloak of resistance." Jenise looks up at Zuriel. "Want to flip a coin for the cloak? Actually, let's have August flip it for us." She doesn't trust the light-fingered elf not to cheat, and she doesn't expect him to trust her either. August, though? That man couldn't lie or cheat effectively to save his life.
Zuriel glares at August. "Thats not evil. It's likely valuable. We should sell it." Zuriel replies as he scoops the item up and slides it into his backpack before the paladin has a chance to smash it. "I think we each should take a potion." Moment after sharing that insight, he picks up one of the potions and slides that into a pouch.
'Resistance you say." Zuriel mumbles as he looks the cloak over. "That sounds valuable." Carefully he folds the cloak into a small square and then sets it on the ground. "I'll take heads.....no tales...crap, heads....." After taking a deep breath the young elf looks up at Jenise and then slides the cloak over to her. "I guess I'm ok with you having it, Jenise. I'm going to save my pick for something better."
With consideration of the walking stick and the small chain shirt, Zuriel slides the two items over to the paladin. August, could you carry these until we get back?"
"Oh, no coin, then?" August looks puzzled, his big, gauntleted hands deep in his purse. He leaves his coins be, and instead takes the items from Zuriel.
"Oh, ok. I can carry these." he says, starting to wonder how to attach a quarterstaff into a backpack.
"Yep, looks like we are ready to go. Just think August, how debonair you will look walking around with that fine looking walking stick. Heck, I might even try walking around with it myself. It surely is a work of art."
After dispersing the newly found items, Zuriel gets up and heads over to Augus. "Any idea which way we go from here?"
Jenise looks at Zuriel, surprised. "Really? Wow... thank you." She chants a quick spell to clean any blood and dirt off the cloak, then fastens it around her shoulders.
"I don't know, let's ask our expert." The sorceress turns to Nighttail. "Which way?"
"Debo-what?" August tries to crane his neck to see the staff in his back and imagine how's he look with it.
Zuriel chuckles a little when August struggles with the concept of debonair. "Think of it as presentable. People will like you more, and evil will fear you more, if you walk around with THAT walking stick."
"It looks like the cave heads right and left."
Nighttail looks and thinks for a moment before snapping her claws and smiling It’s been a while since I’ve been down here, but after this is the theater! It’s where we went for the old Jakkol’s sermons. Or when we had fights. But both the other lead there.
Zuriel looks back at the others. "That sounds like she isn't sure which way to go." Realizing the next choice is going to be somewhat random; he pulls out a coin and flips it into the air. Heads we head right. Tails we head left."
The coin makes multiple spins before striking the ground. On impact, it rings with small metallic chime as it topples and spines across the cave's stony floor. Finally, it comes to a rest next to a nearby ridge. Zuriel quickly walks over and scoops it up. "It's heads! Looks like fate is sending us to the right. You lead the way August and well follow."
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Zuriel gets an irritated look on his face and then points to the passage on the right. "That way."
Jenise turns her head to hide her smile, pretending to check the safety on her crossbow. "Right sounds as good as any other way." She casts a quick light spell on August's shield and follows behind him.
"Okay. Right path it is." the paladin agrees. He twiddles the fingers on both of his hands in turn, recalling which one was right. Then he secures his shield, grabs his sword, and starts marching into cave by his sword-hand.
Entering into the next room you see a small sloping downward cave, in the middle is a flat area made from what look to be rock. Oh he place is relatively plain except for the back wall which has a mural on it of several kobolds in a deep red color which can surmised to be blood of what it’s hard to tell. Between the rock on the wall a crag opens beckoning onward.
Nighttail smirks saying quietly “I told ya” as you reach the room.
"EmmHmm. August, let me know what you see in that crag."
Jenise gives the elf a skeptical look. "Are you really going to rely on him to spot traps? No offense, August, but I've got the impression that that kind of thing isn't your strength." Not waiting for an answer, the sorceress cautiously moves forward to take a look.
"This should be interesting."
"Okay. I will take a look." August leans closer to the crag, and peers inside.
"It's.... dark." he reports after a while.
"And Jenise is right, I don't know much about traps. What do they look like?"
