Having interacted with the dwarf illusion, she should get a save...
+2
Karti only now gets to climb down and join the spectacle. Seeing what's what, he's still left clueless as to what exactly transpired. "Is everyone ok? What in the bloody nine hells happened?"
”There was a goblin spellcaster and an army of orcs!”
”Hmmmm, I didn’t see anything of the sort Torvi” - Razaniel commented - ”Could there be magic afoot? And where is Atash?”
Razaniel was unable to spot Atash.
”Probably the spellcaster has hidden the army with his witchcraft!”
Torvi recovers her bow and begins scanning the area for evil.
”Probably the spellcaster has hidden the army with his witchcraft!”
"Let us proceed with extra caution then" - Razaniel nodded - "But what of Atash?"
The notion of there being an army of orcs, here, causes Karti to scratch his beard. "You sure you aren't seeing things? It looks to me this place could never host a large group of orcs, let alone a whole army of orcs. Maybe we ought to take a breather and reset our minds."
Torvi shakes her head, "no. An army of orcs there," she points, "and goblins there, and there."
Razaniel looks from Torvi to Karti, to Torvi - "Karti has a point... How hard did you hit your head on that fall Torvi?" - he adds with concern, and approaches to observe his companion's head.
There were likely old captains and heroes from the many wars the dwarves of Pyrsa had fought buried in the cemetery behind the temple to Magrim. Perhaps in making a deal to turn themselves into an undead garrison, the dwarves of Pyrsa had also awaken some old spirits here.
Torvi ponders and offers to her companions, "I suspect that as dwarves, Karti and I will have a natural affinity to our ancestral land, and the spirits of our people who came before us. Likewise, the dwarves of Pyrsa, who took upon themselves the well intentioned, but horribly implemented, transformation to protect the realm, were also attuned to our forebears and the lands. It may be, that in conducting their horrific rituals, they awakened some old spirits, and there are fragments of their memories, or other such spirits still in residence." She looks to the others, and seeing their expectant and rapt faces, she continues, "now, I know not if these spiritual forces have any motivations at all, whether they be full ghosts, or simply dimensionless thoughts from the past, but oftentimes such can be laid to rest, by satisfying some underlying problem that the unrestful were not able to accomplish in life, or undeath?" She points, "the temple and graveyard are too close for this to be simple coincidence. Perhaps there are matters here which need to be set aright, before we should proceed? I offer that this is absolutely NOT a side task, but rather, it is part of our core mission in coming here."
Karti couldn't agree more with Torvi. "So the big question is, what now? I'm still very much unaware of what's causing whatever it is you experienced, and because I don't know, I can't say what we ought to do next."
"Perhaps if we were to mollify the spirits of dwarfdom past in the cemetery?"
"You speak eloquently, and thus I am convinced" - Razaniel nodded at Torvi and Karti - "We should find a way to offer peace to the restless souls" - he added - "We start by investigating the temple and graveyard" - he suggested, with a sidelong glance at the tree.
"We may need to mollify that tree first though"
As the others reach solid ground and Torvi's verbal acknowledgement is seeing them as they truly are, Atash lets the spell drop; it had done it's job.
Atash slowly comes out of his hiding spot. He does not intentionally make his presence known, but stops hiding, waiting to see how Torvi reacts when she sees him. He fears she is still tricked by some beguilement or illusion.
"There you are!" - Razaniel smiled at Atash.
”I’m glad you are unharmed my friend!”
The graveyard was behind the temple, and could be accessed by climbing the stone steps cut into the cliff face. You had just traversed the cliff to the platform at the bottom of these stairs, and could just see the edge of the graveyard when you looked up. The tree, which you had previously identified as highly dangerous, was on the far side of the temple to Magrim, which was itself on the far side of the graveyard you could just see.
From on top of the cliff, you had seen that the graveyard had a stone wall around it, set with gates of wrought iron. By climbing the stairs from your current position, these could easily be bypassed.
Torvi takes a deep breath and heads up the steps, towards the temple.
Razaniel followed, attentive to their surroundings.
"Torvi...you attacked me." Atash says quietly. "Who do...you think summoned an illusion...to distract you?"
You climbed the steps set into the cliff wall. They were a deep grey, almost black, and slick with a faint spray from the river below. As you reached the top, the whole yard came into view. It was small, perhaps forty feet square, with stone walls set with wrought iron gates on either side. A door in the back wall of the temple led inside. The wall around it had been hideously scratched. A statue of Magrim stood near the center of this wall, his Warhammer broken, his face mutilated by the weather.
Few plants had grown on the bare rock between the gatehouse and the temple, but here the dark soil was choked with weeds and scrubby bushes. Among them were perhaps twenty gravestones. In the dwarven tradition, they did not have writing on them, but instead were covered with carvings on both sides that depicted deeds the deceased had done during their lives. Beside two were open graves. One had unnaturally clean edges, as though it had been cut just this morning. The earth around the other was disturbed, though it was hard to get a good look at from your current position.
You notice a slight shimmer above the open grave with the disturbed soil, and now and then the grass around it seems to move against the wind. The other open grave appears to be normal.
+2 vs unusual stonework
Torvi points at the open graves, ”Stand back, there is something unnatural there. Please look for magic.”
Torvi looks for EVIL!
Razaniel invokes a magical detection dweomer!
Atash also scans for magic while keeping a respectable distance from Torvi who had completely ignored his concerns.
Torvi and Razaniel both detected something, concentrating for several moments in order to figure out exactly what.
Razaniel detected a moderate magical aura. Torvi detected a moderate evil aura.
Razaniel detected a strong magical aura. Torvi detected a moderate evil aura.
”There is evil in both of those graves.”
Torvi grips her weapon, and readies to get attacked.
Nothing appeared to be attacking you at the moment.
Karti sees Torvi bracing herself for combat so he too readies his weapon. However, nothing seems to happen. "T'gives me the impression that whoever was supposed to be buried here, never got the burial they deserved. Naturally created undead, if such a thing is even real, tend to be a reflection of the agony they endured in life ... surely were we to disturb the deceased in some manner, like, by approaching the grave, they might rise and strike."
The dwarf starts digging through the library of his mind whether they can come up with a make-shift symbol of Magrim to protect them while approaching the grave. Then again, this is a sacred place of Magrim ...
Still, there's power in wielding a symbol. A symbol fallen by the wayside is just that, left behind and perhaps forgotten. Maybe these souls need to be reminded of who is boss, and what's right.
As an aside, Torvi does have a holy symbol of Angradd, but as a Paladin, she is not devoted to any one god, rather, she is devoted to NG, LG, LN end of the Dwarven Pantheon, which includes Magrim.
”Could it be an invisible foe?” - Razaniel asked his companions, drawing his scimitar.
"Torvi moves forward to peer inside the graves."
Razaniel stands close to his trusted dwarven companion.
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Razaniel stands close to his trusted dwarven companion.
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After some deliberation, you moved forward, checking on the graves more closely.
The neatly cut grave was on the right. As you approached, you could see the gravestone carvings in greater detail. The back half was one huge scene, showing an army of dwarves marching down into the valley in the background. In the foreground, a single dwarf watched on from atop Bald Man's Crown. The detail was immaculate, so that you could see the anguish in his face. He wore armor and carried a sword, clearly ready for battle, though he was not taking part in the march.
Before Torvi and Razaniel could circle round to get a look at the other side of the gravestone, you heard a faint rattling sound coming from the other grave. Wheeling around, you saw a skeletal figure lunge towards you, its clawlike hands reaching for your ankles. All across the graveyard, you saw small skeletal hands reaching up from the ground, scrabbling and clawing at whatever was within reach.
You recognized this as a haunt, an undead manifestation, perhaps created by the ritual which transformed the garrison of Pyrsa into undead. It could most likely be harmed only by positive energy.
Torvi moves forward and attacks the main portion of the skeleton…
Bludgeon
We need positive energy to harm it Torvi!" - Razaniel warned his companion, then moved away out of the graveyard - "Come!"
”I shall get right to that!”
Torvi's weapon passed right through the figure. For a moment, it vanished completely.
Then it reappeared right next to Razaniel, reaching for his ankles! The warpriest quickly dodged away, retreating behind Karti and Atash.
Atash moves into full retreat. He had no positive energy to impact a haunt with.
The skeletal figure retreated to its open grave, the hands that had been reaching from the ground a moment ago were gone. The figure hung at the edge of the grave for a moment, watching Razaniel with cold dead eyes. And then it too vanished.
Torvi was left alone in the graveyard, as yet unharmed.
Razaniel returned the stare with a scowl - "So they only allow dwarves to pass?" - he pondered aloud, looking for a way around the graveyard.
"Shall Karti and I move forward then and look about?"
The wind howled, setting the bushes in the graveyard to swaying. The iron gates to either side groaned on hinges rusted by the spray of the river below.