"Yoooou will diiiie....
"Doesn't everyone at some point? In fact from the look of things, you are yourself a bit overdue to meet Pharasma."
Caiten watches as the damage the creature has sustained begin closing back up. "I don't like that they are regenerating."
Or the fact that they don't even have an HP bar at all.
Oren runs into the room, taking up a position on the other side of the undead monster Dario is fighting.
Joran moves in and sees there's little room to maneuver. So with the situation being what it is, Joran doesn't hesitate to hop on the nearest coffin and make his way next to Yasamina. "You guys always wanting to hog all the fun. What's up with that? Freaking freakish undead freaks! I freaking hate 'em! Why won't you freaks die already!" The barbarian lets his fury take over and gives a big overhand swing towards the skull of the abomination...
...before coming back with a backswing that misses wide.
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Oren takes one swing at the undead creature!
And absolutely clobbers it as Foehammer lives up to its' name!
Caiten takes a close look at how the enemies are handling the fantastically aimed attacks of his allies. He can't really tell if the wounds are permanent or not.
Caiten also casts Stoke the Heart on Joran and pulls out a scroll just to be safe.
True to form, Joran and Oren crash onto the scene with devastating effect. Oren's new maul feels like it was made for his hand, perfectly balanced, an extension of his will. And his will was for the creature before him to return to its immortal rest. With a sickening crunch, he caved in half the creature's torso, its armor buckling inwards and arm hanging at an impossible angle. And yet, it remained standing.
Joran, likewise, is tired of the freaking undead in this freaking tomb. His flail catches around the neck of his foe, snapping it cleanly, the skull hanging on by a bit of flesh and nothing more. And still, it stood.
"I don't know what type of undead these are. They talk somewhat, so perhaps they aren't completely mindless. I wouldn't recommend gambling your life on it though."
Lisitsei, noting the undead are rather doughty, tries a different spell. Rocks fall from nowhere and pummel the creature between Yasami and Dario, and the area in front of it as well.
His eyes glow with a dull red shine as he casts.
"You unliving malingerers should really be more careful with your borrowed time," he snaps.
Yasamina winces with pain as the claws strike her, tearing through her defenses.
"Okay, sir... madam... whatever. The point is, I could threaten to kill you for what you just did, but - it seems someone beat me to it. I don't want to ruin your already pitiful existence any further."
She assumes a more defensive posture, and attempts two more strikes.
As she pulls her blade free, it turns to face her -- though not out of any fascination with her performance.
The rocks pounded down upon Lisi's target, which seemed to sway unnaturally and avoid the brunt of the damage.
Yasami, too, was unable to land a meaningful strike, the creature batting her blade aside, oblivious to any pain from doing so.
A cold, numbing sensation spread over the pain along his ribs, making the gunslinger stagger but not quite fall over yet. With a reloaded pistol, he turns his ire on the undead behind him trapped between himself and the big man known as Oren. Dodging another swipe, he ducks low and aims his barrel high.
"Couldn't just crawled into the grave and waited, could you?" Dario asks moments before his pistol fires off again.
The loading chamber pops open as Dario follows up with a cut to the legs, hoping to chop down the monstrosity and make it easier picking for his companions to take care of.
And with the pistol reloaded, he gives a silent prayer and aims once more to hopefully put the beast down for good.
Dario's shot blew the thing's face off, and his melee strike was enough, thanks to Oren's mighty blow, to finish the thing off.
But the abomination was not done.
It took one last, dying strike against the gunslinger, attempting to take him to the grave alongside itself.
Dario easily dodged aside. He watched the glowing light fade from the monster's eyes, and was facing the right direction to see one of the green runes on the eastern wall blink out of existence at the same time. Where there were twelve, eleven now remained.
It was very literally time for Cenendyll to step-up. He moved through the room, gliding past Joran to square off with the crypt creature, igniting his hands with positive energy before placing them directly on its chest.
Lay on Hands (Undead)
He then lite up one of his daggers from Kyonin, plunging it into the chest in front of him.
Blade Ally (Disrupting)
Cevendyll shows the undead what his goddess thinks of such monstrosities, and holy light fills the creature, tearing it apart at the seams. It swipes at him in vengeance with its dying motion.
The undead's claws dug into Cevendyll's leaving its last mark upon the world of the living.
With that, a second green run blinks out. This chamber, at least, seems to now be quiet.
With the destruction of the current enemies, Caiten relaxes slightly. He does watch the remaining closed coffins carefully for several seconds. When none of them start opening on their own, he puts away his scroll and looks around the room a bit better.
"Sulee, you should come in here too. The danger appears to have been dealt with."
"Alak, do Hellknights typically keep undead creatures as guards? Or would this have been something added since your order left?"
"Hey. I don't want to be a bearer of bad news but...those green glyphs? When they died, only one went out. There are still quite a few glowing."
Dario says, leaning against the wall to shift the leather armor he wore aside. The scratches down his sides weren't that bad but there was a black, veiny outline from them that still felt strangely cold. Grimacing a little, he muttered.
"Ladies dig scars. Too bad I'm looking like I'll be chewed up leather by the time I'm done..."
Looking curiously upon the gunslinger, "Green glyphs? Where?" he asks, looking around a moment before noticing them. Walking over to them, he counts those that are still lit. "There's ten left. Which tells us that there are ten more of these undead things left. What do you say we open up these coffins and deal with what's there? Maybe if we kill the dead guys inside - yeah I know, that statement makes absolutely no sense but just roll with it - we can knock out another glyph. Key word there is 'Maybe'. I have a bad feeling it's not going to be that simple; but if it is, that would awesome."
Yasamina looks at her wounds.
"Awww... it ruined my best dress.", she jokes around, but is obviously hurting.
She starts unpacking her medical supplies again. "Damn. I swear the stuff just keeps restocking when I put it away. Funny."
She shrugs, and looks at the team. "Okay, guys... First of all - THAT WAS AWESOME. First we made a nice little conga line, then we were all like...", she starts waving her arms erratically to imitate the chaos of battle - Bam! Slam! Slash! Magic ceiling collapse! Ow- My ribs..."
She stops, and gets a little more serious. "No, really. Good job. However - people are injured, and I don't like the look of those.", she points to the glyph wall. "I'm not really good when it comes to these things. Can we try to figure out what they mean while I look at the bleeders?"
Caiten hears word about the runes and goes to take a look. "I suspect that these are summoning runes. The summoning is partially complete and held in abeyance by the continued existence of the powered runes. Once They are all extinguished it will summon an additional guardian to protect the citadel."
"Necromancy is absolutely not favored within my order," Alak said, his voice thoughtful as he took a closer look at the runes. "I have heard of older practices, though, that believed in fighting fire with fire. They'd ward their crypts against necromancy, and anyone attempting such rituals upon our dead would find we had some fight left."
He looked around the group. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but non of you were raising armies of undead while we slept, were you?"
As Joran looks over the coffins, considering the prospect of making sure the other four are dead and not simply undead, he notes that weapons lie in the two open ones -- a halberd in each one, beautifully made. The four closed lids all are decorated with likenesses of those interred there, and the weapons lying across their chests are etched into the stone as well -- another halberd, one with a great sword, one with a morningstar... and one with a war flail.
Sulee walks into the room and answers Alak's question. "It certainly wasn't us. I refuse to even learn spells that would do that. Though I am not against spells that heal powerfully enough to revive those who have recently died."
"Cevendyll, with all the changes in your deity granted abilities, are you still able to check for unknown magic in the area? If not, we will have to trust that our manual searching ability is sufficient."
"Necromancy is absolutely not favored within my order," Alak said, his voice thoughtful as he took a closer look at the runes. "I have heard of older practices, though, that believed in fighting fire with fire. They'd ward their crypts against necromancy, and anyone attempting such rituals upon our dead would find we had some fight left."
He looked around the group. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but non of you were raising armies of undead while we slept, were you?"
As Joran looks over the coffins, considering the prospect of making sure the other four are dead and not simply undead, he notes that weapons lie in the two open ones -- a halberd in each one, beautifully made. The four closed lids all are decorated with likenesses of those interred there, and the weapons lying across their chests are etched into the stone as well -- another halberd, one with a great sword, one with a morningstar... and one with a war flail.
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"Cevendyll, with all the changes in your deity granted abilities, are you still able to check for unknown magic in the area? If not, we will have to trust that our manual searching ability is sufficient."
"Friend, rest assured, I did NOT pray to be less Elven, nor did my goddess take that from ne; she is, after all, the goddess of Eveln magic and second only the Nethys in all the pantheons when it comes to the arcane. I will take a look at whatever we need insight into."
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"Joran, I'll leave the coffins to you. If you want to make sure the dead in there are still dead that might not be a bad idea."
Nodding at the android, "Sounds good. I've already found a couple of halberds in the open ones. Good thing they didn't use those... might've hurt more." He takes them out and places them on the ground. "And if I'm understanding these pictures right...," he states, grinning confidently as he moves to the coffin with the etched war flail upon it and proceeds to remove the lid, looking within...
"Ah, Joran, we should heal up Yasami and her dress before we do that..."
Realizing that the doughty youth won't hesitate, Lisi shrugs and prepares for the unexpected, just in case, while Guba busily grows some berries.
Joran shoves the heavy coffin lid aside, revealing a desiccated female corpse inside. Her arms are crossed over her chest, the war flail cradled across her. It is every bit as magnificent as Oren's mace. Thankfully, its owner does not seem inclined to rise up and use it.
Alak winces a bit at the minor desecration of exhuming a former leader of his order but gives a shrug. "Think you'll put it to worthy use. I'm sure she'd have wanted you to have it."
Lifting the flail up and out, he eyeballs it a moment before comparing it to the size of his own flail.
Caiten watches warily as Joran opens the coffin. When no undead creature climbs out he relaxes visibly. He glances at the weapon in the coffin. "Not sure if it is the same size as your flail. If it has magical runes on it I might be able to transfer them over to your regular weapon. It will take about a day to do though."
"Umm..", Yasamina reaches for a weapon as Joran slides off the stone slab.
She looks at the glyps on the wall. "So these are former hellknights entombed in here? Cursed, perhaps? And Caiten, did toy get any read on what the ACTUAL guardian might me? The summoned one. Is thia a countdown thing? If it is, I better get to work."
She starts with the bandaging. She occasionally looks at the runes to see whether anything has changed.
"Thank you Yasami, you've gotten faster at that." Dario says as he readjusts his armor again after she binds the wounds and presses mulched herbs into the wound. It burns like fire but slowly, warmth starts to return back to the scratches he had been struck by. Warmth and pain. There was still a somewhat sickly pallor to the gunslinger as he checked his blade and gun for a moment.
"Seems like that general store doesn't sell cheap goods at least. Caiten, look! Blade is still sharp." Dario murmurs, showing the short sword's blade to the android. After letting him look over the weapon and the others research the glyphs and weapons therein, he looks to the others.
"So, shall we take on the other doors? The day is still young and while I feel a little pale, I should be fine. Just no more gentle touches from the undead, I think."
"So these are former hellknights entombed in here?
"Not just any knights, these were Lictors. The heads of the order," Alak said. "The three most recent ones, you can still read their nameplates, and the titles are there. Lictor Serafina DiViri, Lictor Rexinald Harvenskein, and Lictor Yorick Mellano."
"You are most welcome, friend. And yeah, comes with experience I guess. It seems people in the heroes business get injured often. As one would expect. Haha-ow.", she reaches for her ribs again.
"Other rooms - I am a bit concerned about these glyphs on the wall. We still don't know how they work, I guess. Maybe try smashing one?” She looks towards Oren and lears her throat. "With a maul, or something..."
"Caiten, can we assume magical devices function similarly to mechanical ones? Do hammers work? Or should there be a ritual involved to shut them down?"
She looks at Alak. "What's a Lictor in this case? What kind of rank is it?"
"There are many orders of Hellknights. But a Lictor heads their entire order. Those of the Nail, the order I have trained to become a part of, used to headquarter here, but moved to Varisia some time ago. These people once led us in the fight against savagery."
"So- ummm...", Yasamina looks at the ash and bone dust now spread across the room and her shoes. "This guy that we put down. The bony fellow. Was -HE- one of your Lictors? The magically enhanced undead, that was supposed to be the highest rank in the order...”
She scratches her head. "I wouldn't say he was exactly a pushover, but... Well let's just say I would expect more of a fight. Unless the promotions in the organisation are based on nepotism, instead of merit. So what's up with that?"
"You seem like you can handle a blade. Why not find a mercenary guild or something instead?"
"Well, Yasami, I can't say for certain. But given what we saw in the room upstairs, I would guess that it would be some form of Devil." He looks at the runes a bit more. "I don't think it would simply be time based. That would cause the summoning to happen at inappropriate times. I would expect that it would be tied to the life force of certain living warriors so that when those warriors die protecting the citadel then the summoning takes place. Perhaps it is instead tied to the unlife force animating these corpses? That matches with what Dario saw happen. But I don't see ten more undead creatures here."
"At least we aren't seeing more beings coming from this gate, although, Alak, I have to say, a lot of strange things have taken up residence in your former Citadel."
Lisi does his best to understand the crypt's purpose. Were the undead connected in any way?
Alak chuckles at Yasami's commentary on the martial prowess of his order's elite. "Hey now, let's see how well you fight when you're a few centuries old, eh? I suspect they were a bit more imposing when they weren't...decomposing." He smirked at the purposely cheesy rhyme.
"And mercenaries? They sell their services for coin to the highest bidder. I'm not interested in wealth. My father, his father, and his father before him were all of the Nail. We serve a nobler goal, of taming the elements that threaten civilization and order."
He listens to Caiten hypothesize. "With all respect, I'm not sure you're on the right track with this summoning theory. As I mentioned earlier, we view necromancy with disgust. It's not something that's done anymore, but I suspect those rune are a product of an older practice in which signifiers would ward the crypts against necromancy by, ironically, raising guardians to stop them. Our 'dragon' friends mentioned an elf woman came in here. Perhaps she meddled with something she ought not have."
Lisi's comment brings back his smile. "You're not wrong there, friend. The squatters upstairs made sense enough, having wandered into a ruined structure for shelter. But this level has gotten more interesting than I'd like."
He listens to Caiten hypothesize. "With all respect, I'm not sure you're on the right track with this summoning theory. As I mentioned earlier, we view necromancy with disgust. It's not something that's done anymore, but I suspect those rune are a product of an older practice in which signifiers would ward the crypts against necromancy by, ironically, raising guardians to stop them. Our 'dragon' friends mentioned an elf woman came in here. Perhaps she meddled with something she ought not have."
"Hmm... Yes, there do seem to be several inconsistencies in the line of reasoning." Caiten stands and ponders the glowing runes for a couple of minutes.
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"Other rooms - I am a bit concerned about these glyphs on the wall. We still don't know how they work, I guess. Maybe try smashing one?” She looks towards Oren and clears her throat. "With a maul, or something..."
"I suppose I could smash the glyphs. Or at least try to." Oren looks towards Caiten and Alak. "I don't know anything about magic, would it be dangerous if I smashed these glyphs with my hammer? Would it do anything at all?"
"I'm sure it will do something. It is a complex lattice of energy that has been woven together skillfully enough to last for decades. It is a work of art really. Would you really want to take something so lovely and just smash it with a hammer?"
"But in seriousness, if it is here as a protection, I would think that the runes themselves are guarded against such simple destruction too."
"Well, going with Alak's understanding of his order, it may be sufficient to simply leave it alone. As long as we don't try to raise undead creatures down here, the Lictors may stay where they are."
Caiten watches warily as Joran opens the coffin. When no undead creature climbs out he relaxes visibly. He glances at the weapon in the coffin. "Not sure if it is the same size as your flail. If it has magical runes on it I might be able to transfer them over to your regular weapon. It will take about a day to do though."
"No, it's not. But it sure is a good-looking weapon though. I sure hate to not use it. Could come in handy. So you can actually transfer the runes of this flail on to mine, huh? That's interesting. But we're gonna have to deal with that another time. We don't have a 'day' to spend on something like that right now but will keep it in mind. Right now, I'm gonna bust open these other coffins."
Joran then proceeds to do just that as he removes the lids off of each one, retrieving the weapon that resides within each one. Throwing the halberd on the ground with its ilk and the morningstar right along with it, he holds aloft the greatsword and grins. "Hey, Alak. This looks like something you could use, buddy. Here, check it out." He moves over to him and offers it over.
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"I suppose I could smash the glyphs. Or at least try to." Oren looks towards Caiten and Alak. "I don't know anything about magic, would it be dangerous if I smashed these glyphs with my hammer? Would it do anything at all?"
Shaking his head, "I don't think it matters, buddy. We could literally destroy that whole wall but it's not going to affect whatever undead are attached to it. If those two glyphs went out after these dead guys died again, then that means there's ten left and there will BE ten left whether we destroy the glyphs or not. Look at it this way, we KNOW how many we've got left to kill. All we need to do now is find 'em and kill 'em," he states simply. "And when we do encounter these dead guys and kill 'em again, then we can come back here and check the glyphs to see where we stand. These glyphs are actually quite useful if you think about it."
"So you can actually transfer the runes of this flail on to mine, huh? That's interesting. But we're gonna have to deal with that another time. We don't have a 'day' to spend on something like that right now but will keep it in mind."
"That seems reasonable. Once we do have a bit of time to spare, I will take care of that then."
"Shall we continue with the plan and head to those two other doors now?"
Caiten and Sulee follow. "Lisi, you were mentioning checking under the door disguised as a rat in order to see what is on the other side. Are you still interested in that?"
"Shall we continue with the plan and head to those two other doors now?"
"Yep. Absolutely. Let's go to the furthest one first." He then leads the way over and checks the door himself just to be safe.
"Seems okay. Let's see if it's locked." He then checks to see if the door opens.
Oren nods in response to Sulee, Caiten, and Joran. "All right, no smashing the glyphs. I'll save my energy for undead skulls."