Growling as she feels the unnatural darkness try to feed on her, Lyraesel follows her nose, moving an to land a fierce strike on the concealed enemy.
Adrian clutches his chest as a sickening pain develops inside. Amazingly, he believes it could have been even worse.
"We could really use some cues right now!" His best bet right now is that someone who does get a good read on the caster can hit them.
Byron charges up the stairs and stabs the darkness. (low is a miss)
Zaraleva continues readying unless Adrian is dying.
With Lyraesel’s swipe you hear a croaking sound followed by a thud. There is a tense moment as suddenly the sound of the enemy stops. Taking a moment to make sure the enemy is truly dead you are able to catch your breath just as the darkness fades away.
Wounded but victorious you are in the ballroom the master of the castle is still out there and you are still trying to understand what exactly is causing Amieko to be catatonic.
Byron searches the bodies for feathers loot while Zaraleva gathers everyone together to channel and check for diseases/curses/poisons.
Looking over the bodies; Byron finds the corby that was up top to be the only one with anything on it. She carried on her a longsword of masterwork quality, scrolls that are easily identified as two of cure moderate wounds, a scroll of dispel magic, a wand that looks to be of inflict moderate wounds with 12 charges, some studded leathers covered in feathers and blood, and a unholy symbol with wings on it made of silver worth about 100 gold.
Everyone appears to be fine with nobody sick or cursed or poisoned. The wounds look to be all physical for the most part.
So there were a few items that could be useful. There was no way he could identify that symbol though. Probably some messed up deity. Adrian stretched himself out now that his wounds have completely healed.
"We better get moving. The sooner we figure out what's happening to Ameiko the better."
Nodding, Lyraesel looks to what direction they hadn't already explored.
Working her way through the areas they'd already cleared, Lyraesel leads the party to the still unexplored regions, aware for the castle's other denizens.
Byron follows along behind Lyraesel and tries to watch for anyone who might be hiding.
Adrian cautiously follows the druid towards the next room, anxious for answers.
Heading out onto the road all way you find a damaged Solarium with the doors shut, moving past it you head towards the wall but unlike the map there is no door. Taking some time you’re able to find it, opening the door takes some time as there is no discernible switch out here. But it eventually pops open to reveal an exit tunnel from deep within the castle.
Heading in you find an office; the officer’s desk and the chairs that once decorated this room lie in shambles on the floor. The flight of stairs you just used lead up to the southeast behind you. The battered door to this room hangs askew, revealing a short hallway beyond.
You find amongst the shambles of the desk among newt the partially written notes a letter, left unfinished. It mentions the attack on Brinewall, with the letter describing the attack as a night assault by men dressed in dark robes.
Z thinks it's just trash, apparently.
Aiko moves quickly and quietly back down the staircase but almost seems to vibrate with excitement as the group proceeds.
Once the team enters the office she posts her naginata and ransacks the place.
Holding a note in her hand that she rescued from the desk, she says, "A picture is coming together... one of the bird-folk led a group of them against Brinewall and the castle fell to a surprise attack by them. I can understand how that would've happened, considering how dangerous they've proven to be, if the soldiers weren't prepared for the invasion."
"Still not entirely clear what this has to do with Ameiko."
"There has to be something in this castle that connects everything together. I just know it." The monk taps his foot on the ground while Aiko read the note out loud.
"Whatever is going on, there has to be somewhere else we haven't explored yet."
"There is that creature we had to run from. It seems far more powerful then these bird men. But did it lead them or just come on its own and they decided to let it be?" Byron says.
"We need to search more of the castle, find more clues," suggests Aiko. "And maybe, if we're lucky, find some better weapons with which to fight it."
Lyraesel nods, leading on to the next unexplored area.
Moving towards the door, you push on the door. You’re quickly greeted with dust and the smell of decay and death. What follows is a low growl, and a course ragged voice. “You will not take this place again. Die.”
You see inside trophy displays for armor and weapons, along with a large bed, an ornate writing desk, and a leather chair, lie in shambles in this chamber, smashed to ruins. A thick layer of dust clings to everything in the room. A sword lies on the floor next to a walking corpse that turns towards you a helm topped with a magnificent golden dragon and red eyes glare at you.
Init Order Lyraesal, Zaraleva, Winsome, Adrian, Andril, Byron, Aiko, Kelda
This calls for a crossbow!
"No, you die (again!?)"
She then takes a step back so the frontliners can bust some golden head.
Lyraesel dashes forward slashing low with her weapon to catch the inside of the opponent's knee, hoping t take the walking dead to the ground and set up her allies to destroy it.
When you attempt to perform a combat maneuver, make an attack roll and add your CMB in place of your normal attack bonus. Add any bonuses you currently have on attack rolls due to spells, feats, and other effects. These bonuses must be applicable to the weapon or attack used to perform the maneuver. (Core Rulebook 199)
"Curious helm. What do you mean, take this place again? We are not with the invaders."
Winsome yelps, and quickly chants a magical incantation over another gold coin, which he hurls at the undead creature.
The bolt connects with the creature sinking into its undead flesh. Quickly followed by a magical coin that sears the flesh of it creating a sickly smell. Lyraesel Slips in and trips the creature which falls into a heap.
Init Order left this round. Adrian, Andril, Byron, Aiko, Kelda
"Hey... if you think we're the guys with the corbies... we're not. I think you need to be put back to rest." With the creature on the ground, Adrian gives out a couple of stomps to keep it on the ground.
With a series of kicks and stomps Adrian crushes the creatures head. There’s a quiet hiss as the the undead creature no longer moves. The room itself has very little of notice though looking trough it you notice the sword is magical and a Morningstar hung on display looks to be specially made with cold iron and is of excellent make.
The items weren't of much interest for him (as it's often the case for him). But those words did sting him. "This place... Kelda did you notice something like this when your family stayed here?"
She shakes her head, “My crew, my family is North but I never saw much of this place. The undeath here is something I expected with places like this but have not experienced, till now”
Byron enters and searches around the room and the corpse for any clues as to what it was doing or why it was here.
With that confirmation, he looked down at the fallen skeleton. "Which brings me to how these two came to be. They had to have been around for years."
She shrugs “This place is full of strangeness, I do not understand much of what happened here. But it’s likely he’s been here since it fell.”
Searching the room Byron you do not find any thing of note besides the helmet, and two weapons.
"Are the weapons or helmet magical?" Byron asks those with more knowledge of the arcane then he would ever possess.
Aiko crouches to examine the design of the dragon helm.
"It is certainly... artistic."
The helmet despite the decay and obvious battering is extremely well made and the golden dragon on top is of a style that matches the throne. Those of you familiar would recognize it as Tien Xa imagery.
The design was interesting... yet oddly familiar. Not quite for him... but it's definitely familiar. Enough for his eyes to widen at the realization. "This is from the Tien continent!" Adrian gasped. "Do you guys think... they built this castle?"
Aiko stands slowly, picking up the helmet with her as she does so. She turns it over in her hands carefully.
"More to the point... was he?," she says, nudging the skeletal remains with her foot.
"If so... this could connect with Ameiko's heritage—and mine."
Timidly, when no one else speaks up, Winsome stutters "int-t-tellego v-vim," and examines the helmet through the lens of a magical cantrip.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"If so... this could connect with Ameiko's heritage—and mine."
Zaraleva smirks at Aiko and throws an elbow at her, missing as usual. "So it's all about you, then?"
She starts to mention detecting magic, but is curious to see Winsome's effort.
" Dead Tien warrior, in old Tien castle, overrun by Tien enemies and demons. Not an accident." Lyraesel mutters.
"Well, yes. This is all tying back to Tien somehow, which ties to the history that Ameiko and I have with our family lines," says Aiko seriously as she turns the dragon helm over in her hands a few times.
"Was this guard one of our ancestors? A friend of our family? Could he have told us more about what happened here?"