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Sindarin moves up so that he can get a better view. The caveman is still in shadow, but he can just make out the bat. He takes a moment to focus on the creature and get a better feel for it. There is not much space in the cavern so he drops his sword and draws his bow instead.
Brook silently dashes past Sindarin and the others and attacks the bat.
Dorgen believes that this skeleton will explode when destroyed and is vulnerable to slashing weapons.
Libitina moves towards the bat, as she passes by undead he strikes at her.
The sword strikes her, but Mandoo's magic keeps her safe. But he feels pain in his side like someone would punch him with great strength.
Libitina strikes at the bat, hitting them. . But as a result of that bat trashes their wings and strikes Libitina and Imelia
Libitina dodges the attack but Imelia is surprised by it.
Granitt moves closer and tries to intimidate the bat who returns him the look of his big and ugly face.
Granitt recognizes the creature as a giant bat, a natural creature that can be found in large caves or tunnels. You know that they can attack with jaws and wings, their echolocation does not replace their eyes so they can use one or the other.
Sindarin moves closer and takes out his bow. He orders his pet to attack the bat. His jaws sink into the flesh leaving massive wounds.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Aleksandr
➤ Mrs Perkins
Mandoo
Caveman undead yellow
Cave batman blue
Granitt
Sindarin
Dorgen
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Aleksadr decides that the bat is a significant threat and channels a powerful magic into her.
"Dearest Imelia, let them hear your voice!"
◆◆ Act Together
Aleksandr ◆◆ -- Cast a Spell (Thundering Dominance)
Imelia ◆ -- Strike vs skeleton
"LOUDER!"
◆ Imelia -- Thundering Roar
Aleksandr casts a spell, Imelia look even more disturbing then before. She attacks the skeleton and hits
Then she roars, interesting non of you are impacted, only the bat and skeleton
The bat falls to the ground motionless, but the skeleton withstands the worst part of the damage.
Mrs. Perkins moves forwards and sends a healing spell towards Libitina, trying to recall knowledge about the undead.
Mrs. Perkins believes that there is something unique in this one, that is why she can't really recognize this creature.
You can clearly see that the skeleton is barely standing but he still swings at the roaring creature
The first strike hits Imelia but the other misses. Then the undead raises their shield.
Just when you though that this fight would be over, you hear wings, tens or even hundreds. A swarm of bats with red eyes fly towards you and hovers over Libitina, Imelia, Granitt and Brook. They begin to bite them.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Aleksandr
➤ Mrs Perkins
➤ Mandoo
Caveman undead yellow
Red vampire bat swarm
➤ Granitt
➤ Sindarin
➤ Dorgen
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"Uh, you fight skeletons with slashing weapons! Best way to break bones is to cut them," Dorgen says before the skeleton is almost cut to shreds already. "But it looks like its necromantic energies are unstable! It might explode if it's damaged enough. You don't want to stay too close!"
Suddenly, he's standing face to face with thousands of tiny little bats. He decides to help disperse them. He casts a spell and a nearby loose rock hurls itself through the mass of bats.
◆◆ Telekinetic Projectile
◆ Then, he runs back to the relative safety of the back line.
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Mandoo staggers a little as he absorbs the giant bat's blow against Libitina.
[Uf!]
[Ha ha. I'm not that easy to get rid of my love]
[I love you too. Now finish off that abomination]
Then the screeching of the bats is heard and Libitina is attacked by the nasty little creatures...
... but she's not fast enough. One of her wings is sliced and a thick dark liquid not unlike molasses starts oozing from the wound.
[I see you haven't lost your sense of humor]
Seeing that the skeleton is on its last legs, and knowing that it is somewhat proof against her scythe, Libitina brings her wings into play and uses them to beat it into submission.
While Libitina steps out of the swarm, Mandoo once again concentrates to keep his protection of Libitina active. "ହାଡକୁ ହାର୍ଡେନ କରନ୍ତୁ."
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"Imelia, come to my side."
As she steps away, Aleksandr casts a spell.
◆◆ Act Together
-- Imelia ◆ Step
-- Aleksandr ◆◆ Cast a Spell (Haunting Hymn)
The bats take 4 sonic damage (DC 19 basic Fortitude, deafened 1 minute on a critical failure.)
Imelia then adds her own voice the chorus.
◆ Imelia -- Strike
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When the skeleton steps and smacks Imelia, the dwarf quickly reacts, stepping forward (5ft) and swinging his battle axe at the bag of bones.
Then as the area is filled with a cloud of bats, he attempts to beat away the tiny biting creatures. Despite some of the bats, causing scratches to his face, none manage to cut deeply.
The dwarf swings his axe at the nearest foe
But hears Alexandr's request to move so scatters out of the strange man's way.
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The wolf easily hears the bats coming before they arrive, so she is prepared for their attack and leaps out of the way. Concerned for her safety despite her clear ability to fight, Sindarin calls Brook back to him.
He then takes a slow, deep breath, before going very still and loosing an arrow in the skeleton's direction.
It all finishes in the matter of seconds. Dorgen stone flies through number of bats, which is followed by Aleksandr spell, Haunting Hymn and Imelia's Wail and the remains are smacked with Mrs. Perkins spiritual weapon.
The undead is sent to oblivion by Granitt's dwarven ax, Libitina wing strike. Sindarin sends an arrow that might have hit skelly if he was up.
The cavern is still, bats are no more, and the geode shines with bright light.
You look around and you spot that there are more bodies on the floor, small skeletons wearing armor. The skeletons are the size of Granitt or Dorgen.
When you look at the fallen bats they seem somehow changed.
You think those skeletons belong to duergars. You believe that the duergars rose as undead due to some sort of malicious necromancy, and the bats became corrupted when drinking the duergars’ blood.
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When the fighting has stopped, Dorgen goes back to the front lines. "Everyone all right? That went better than expected, I think."
Then his eyes fall on the skeletons. "Do you think those are dwarves or more duergar, Granitt? They seem to have our, ahem, particular physique. I'm curious how, and why, they died out here. Were they ambushed by the bats, like us?"
Dorgen makes a few quick sketches and notes of the armour, then hurries towards the big glowing geode.
"The mushrooms seem to have dug their way through the crystal, and absorbed some of its properties. I'll take some home with me for later study."
He digs out a small patch of mushrooms with his clan dagger and carefully places it in his backpack. Then he cleans the dagger and sheathes it again.
As an afterthought, he looks at the fallen enemies.
"Ah, fascinating! Those are indeed duergar, and the bats seem somehow corrupted by drinking their blood. I've never read anything like this before! This re-classifies duergar completely! I'll have to write Ardelenn about this, his taxonomy of humanoids makes no sense anymore..."
He prattles on for a bit about taxonomy, mostly to himself.
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Once the last of their opponents goes down, Mandoo runs up to Libitina and examines her wounds.
[Looks like you'll pull through. The wound is closing on its own]
[I believe we have Mrs. Perkins to thank for that]
[Nice work on the skeleton by the way. I expect that'll earn you a brownie point or two]
[I guess that means you won't be leaving me just yet]
Mandoo turns to Mrs Perkins and gives her a short bow. "I can't thank you enough for looking out for my Tina, Mrs. Perkins. I hope to repay the favor when I next have the chance."
He and Libitina then examine the skeleton and the bats.
When Dorgen states his opinion, Mandoo nods. "I concur with your opinion Dorgen. These skeletons definitely belong to duergars. Some sort of malicious necromancy must have revived them. We must track down this foul corruption and expunge it from the world."
Mandoo then kicks at the remains to see if there is anything of interest before he and Libitina head over to the geode for a closer look.
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Granitt listens to the pale faced man's request to heal the pallid ghost that went forth and attacked the undead and bats. With a quick prayer to Torag, Granitt lets Torag make the decision to heal or harm Imelia when he lays his healing hands on her arm.
Then joining Dorgen he starts to grumble "They be duegar, if they was dwarves, they wouldn't attack a follower of Torag." the dour dwarf says with great conviction, but no evidence.
"If they be corrupted," he says as he tugs on his red beard, "We gotta get to the bottom it. Destroy it or stop it at the very least." He leans on his axe, with a sigh as he waits for the clever ones to determine the corruption, though when he hears Mandoo talk about necromancy he looks over at Alexandr and Imelia "Hmmm, necromanny you say, that's bad magic!"
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Suddenly everything becomes quiet. The skeleton falls before Sindarin's arrow even reaches it. He vaguely registers that it does not explode. Sindarin glances around at the others. No one seems in danger of dying. Not that he could do much of anything about it anyway. That was never his strength.
He kneels down and pets Brook, carefully checking her for injuries. "Good girl. You did so well. Good girl." She licks his face. He picks up his dropped sword, and stands up again. "Is duergar blood typically...poisonous? That can't be normal. I agree something does not seem right here."
Sindarin checks the area for his arrow and returns it to his quiver if it is still useable. He then approaches the geode, and walks from one end of it to the other. He studies it carefully, but stays several feet away. "What is this? Why is it suddenly glowing so brightly?" Brook follows him to the arrow, but keeps well away from the geode, watching it with suspicion.
Dorgen collects some of the mushrooms, he also spots few crystals within the geode that could be valuable, so he collects them as well.
When you observe the bodies of duergars they seem to have died there, there are no marks of bodies being dragged or anything. It could be that the bats killed them, or some other predator. Anyways their bone structure seems mostly intact.
At last, the natural tunnel joins a hallway of worked stone, bringing you back into the ruins of what you believe is still Kazhlik. The walls, ceilings, and floors of this corridor are worked stone.
Where the hallway comes to an intersection, a vestibule to the east contains a statue of a male dwarf. Strangely, the statue is defaced with dried blood, and heaps of bones are piled nearby—those of small animals and humanoid creatures alike. Under the statue is a nameplate.
"Kols, the Oathkeeper" is a dwarven demigog of duty.
You know that duergards despise Kols, as dwarves often refer to his teachings against “oath breakers” to justify their animosity with duergars.
You look at the bones and realize the bones and blood around the statue range from extremely recent to many decades old, suggesting the recent raiding party wasn’t responsible.
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Mandoo nods in agreement. Kneeling down, he points to the blood. "You have a good eye Mrs. Perkins. Yes indeed, these spots of blood here still haven't desiccated entirely and must therefore be of quite recent vintage; while those almost black powdery remains indicate that the blood is many years old. The bones show a similar range in age. Whoever or whatever is the cause of these deaths has been at it for decades."
He then stands and turns East. "I wonder what's in here." As he starts in that direction, Libitina puts her hand on his shoulder.
[Ah, yes. I forgot where I was for a moment]
[I am not completely useless in a fight. Why in my youth I had quite the reputation for fisticuffs]
[No need for sarcasm dear. It doesn't become you]
Libitina steps through the doorway with Mandoo not far behind. They pause at the entrance to examine the room.
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Granitt kneels before the statue for a brief pray, "Join me in prayer to Kols. Though I have made no oaths myself, other than to follow the tenants of Torag, Kols protects those who keep their oaths. Granitt waits amoment before he starts to speak in dwarfen, his voice lowered in both duty and reverence.
Once the prayer is ended, the dwarf starts to clean the dried blood from the statue and made good and repair what he can. As he does you hear him grumble, "Duegars have no honour, they break their oaths and thus despise Kols and the good he brings. Damn those dark dwarves, they take to breaking their promise, their regard even to Torag and follow paths of evil gods. My axe waits for your blood, to revenge the disrespect shown to Kols."
Once Granitt is satisfied that he has made as good the statue as his skills will allow, he looks over the bones, after his companions have told him their opinion of what happened here.
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Sindarin looks around the worked stone hallway. "So this used to be Raseri Kanton, then? No more dwarves here now... Anyway, something has been through here recently."
He does a quick check of the floor for any signs of recent travel, though he's not very confident of finding information of use, given the hardness of the floor.
When Granitt calls for them to join him in prayer, Sindarin pauses and stands respectively in silence until Granitt finishes his work.
You comment on your findings. Granitt prays at the bottom of the statue of Kols and then spent some time preserving it.
Sindarin looks for signs, he does not find any, but he does see that parts of the corridors were cleaned here, someone was passing and doing some work recently in these parts of the underground settlement.
You take a turn into a large room, a pile of tools and excavation equipment lies abandoned. You quickly search through them and beside malets and picks, you also find a leather-bound expedition journal that contains maps and notes about the surrounding tunnels.
Granitt, Dorgen, Mrs Potiper and Sindarin try to understand the maps. Aleksandr joins as well but very quickly he gets bored and derailed by other things. Different ancestries have other ways of describing the tunnels and chambers. However, Granitt is able to make some sense of it.
The path of the duergars’ excavation becomes clear, culminating in a large room marked on the maps as dangerous. According to a note in the margins, the duergars planned to sneak into the area through a small, hidden passageway to protect themselves The passageway is to the west of the duergar camp. Another path, heading north next the camp , leads to the same large room, but it contains an additional trap.
You realize that despite being in the underground dungeons as before this place is not as incredibly hot as the previous ruins.
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Mandoo examines the map with the others. "Yes. We should definitely find and disable that trap, but on the way, we should search the rest of these rooms to make sure they do not contain anything equally dangerous. The journal could be quite old and the situation down here may well have changed significantly since it was written."
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"Right then off we go, we need the best trap spotter at the front if we are going trap hunting." the dwarf says without any conviction that he sees trap hunting as anything but very dangerous. "I goes with them, try and keep them alive if something other than a trap tries to bite us." he shrugs and smiles weakly at Mrs Perkins.
He turns round and with an arm round Dorgen's shoulders he says "You pretty good at finding stuff, you come with me at the front? We dwarves should stick together."
An array of smaller rooms to the west, contains some of the duergars’ discarded personal belongings. There are more than a dozen bedrolls between the three largest rooms; the smallest of them lacks any creature comforts but for a few rags on the floor. A fine layer of dust covers everything in the area.
The belongings look abandoned, there are no bodies, signs of blood nor weapons. Searching through the items you find a couple of scrolls:
scroll of disrupting weapons and a scroll of heal [1st] and a scroll of heal [2nd]. Besides that, you find a notebook written in mix of common, dwarven and undercommon.
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Mandoo looks at the scrolls and his face lights up with recognition. "Oh! How convenient." He snags the scrolls and puts them where he can get to them easily. "There's no such thing as too much healing in my book. Ha ha."
He glances at the notebook in Granitt's hands, but it's all gobbledygook to him and he loses interest.
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Dorgen pats his pockets and smacks his forehead. "I'm a bloody fool! I've left my trap tools at the Lodge! I can probably find the trap if necessary, but we'll have to get creative if we want to disable it. I say we look for it on our way back and clearly mark it for future expeditions, but let's avoid it if we can for now."
Dorgen steps through the bedrooms. "Seems like they either expected to come back but didn't, or had to flee the place in a hurry. You don't just leave your gear behind like this. Also seems like a lot of people were gathered here. I wonder what their purpose was?"
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Granitt looks over Dorgen's shoulder as he appears to be able to read all the funny scribble on the funny little book they found. He turns and shrugs his shoulders as a slight smile crosses his lips, And those surface dwellers just cos we came from the underground cities, our brains are underground too. That Dorgen is some clever. he thinks.
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"Mrs. Perkins, you found a diary? Interesting, this could give us some insight into their final days..."
Dorgen lays some bedrolls against a wall and uses them as improvised pillows as he sits down and reads through the journal.
I'll Hero Point that. 1 HP left.
If it's a Secret check, I don't think I can reroll those. If that's the case, I'm stuck with the 16 and I get my Hero Point back.
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"Reading that anyway." says Sindarin as he peers over Dorgen's shoulder. "Plenty in there that I can't make any sense of. I agree - something must have disturbed them - or killed them."
Sindarin shudders a little bit. "This place makes me awfully uncomfortable." He glances over at Brook, but she seems unconcerned as she snuffles around the abandoned gear.
Dorgen works on the diary. His experience and known languages make this task rather easy. He reads it out loud
Devotee's Journal
Day 97,
Progress has been slow with so few captives, but today we uncovered something new - an ancient burial chamber! It took all my magic just to unlock the first few vaults, and there were three tunnels lined with them! Two of the search parties we sent inside have returned with weapons forged of gold, fine gems, and magical trinkets. If we have to search for the third party tomorrow, they will regret it. I am glad of this new discovery, as the forge remains inaccessible.
Day 98,
All died. Charred to a crisp. Some believe a fireball was rigged to the valuables, but I question why it waited until it was outside the vault to explode. We assigned two prisoners to traverse the length of each tunnel tonight to search for other traps.
Day 99,
Only one prisoner survived, and he is incoherent and bleeding heavily. He spoke of encountering someone - another duergar! But who? We need answers he cannot give. Tomorrow we will send our best scouts to the tomb and dispatch a raiding party to replenish our workers’ numbers.
Day 100,
Everything we had gathered from the vaults disappeared overnight. Assuming the risk was in the tombs, we had not set a guard. Now we know it’s not just traps we have to worry about. Thankfully the scouts returned alive and unharmed. They believe they found a second entrance to the tombs - perhaps to an area not stalked by death. The strange objects we have found here disturb me. I’ve ordered the others not to touch them.
Day 101,
No word from the raiding party, and stillness overnight. I finally had enough time to examine the bodies of our deceased. We found traces of necromantic magic. Are they cursed? One of them yet bleeds, though he is surely dead. The scouts and their prisoners managed to clear the hidden passage, but it leads to a giant fissure with only the remnants of a bridge. Droskar, have you not tested us enough?
Day 104,
A scout caught a glimpse of this other duergar in the tomb. I believe her to be the exile, Hedga the Blessed, though surely she ought to have died long ago—in the Rending, or of old age. Perhaps she is a more capable necromancer than the legends told. But her strange creations, and these heretical baubles, leave no doubt in my mind. Rather than confronting this threat, my plan is to outwit her. I spent today constructing a trap. With any luck, we can destroy the necromancer’s guardians and apprehend her. Glory awaits us when we return with her head. All of us will leave camp tomorrow. Our lead scout suggested searching for the other side of the fissure-passage to find a means to repair the bridge. Now I pray we are not slain the moment we return to that cursed place.
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Mandoo reads over the transcribed journal as Libitina listens in on their telephathic link.
[Hmm, yes. She does sound like a piece of work]
[Indeed. An inauspicious last entry for a journal]
[Ah, true. They probably won't be in the mood to add any more entries to their journal though, eh? Ha ha]
Mandoo responds to Mrs. Potipher's comment. "Doubtless Droskar has much to answer for, but I will leave his fate to the other gods. We should concentrate on this Hedga woman and end her necromantic reign of terror down here."
Mandoo examines the map with their newfound knowledge. "I don't see anything on the map that looks like the remains of an ancient burial chamber with three tunnels lined with vaults. It's probably down one of these side tunnels." He points to the tunnels leading off to the East and West. "Shall we go and see which one it is?
With Libitina before him, the summoner and his eidolon poke their heads into the hallway to the south.
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Dorgen bounces with excitement as he reads the passage. "Old vaults, traps, necromantic magics, and a person who should've died long ago? This is an archaeologist's dream come true! Maybe she can tell us more about these vaults and the purpose of this area."
Dorgen gets up and starts catalogueing everything he finds.
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"It may be a dream for you, but it seems a nightmare for the Duegar, and they are not part of my dreams. This is evil begotting evil. A time for my axe and weapons to destroy the evil within. Not a time to look at it, draw pictures and ask questions of it, when it's intention is to steal your soul from Pharesma and make it dance to it's tune." the dwarf says with a deep seated growl, as he starts to sharpen his axe. "We may be brothers Dorgen, but brothers may be joined by blood, but not always actions."
"Let's prepare and face our truths." his stern voice echoes in the chamber.
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Dorgen shrinks back at Granitt's lecture. "Pardon my enthusiasm, that was merely professional curiosity. While I agree that their actions should be stopped, we should not neglect the value of historical accounts. Knowledge of the past, regardless of the source, may be used to guide our future."
He takes a few steps back and tries to contain his excitement.