HP:8/8 AC:18 all attacks for round.
Conditions:
Level 1 Spells 1/2 left.
Bardic Performance:6/7
Sighing again, too numb to the too many sights for him truely feel, Joras pulls back and tries to understand what they are seeing.
All about you Zombies, you!
Joras knows nothing.
Inspire Courage:+1 morale bonus against charm/fear +1 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls.
HP:8/8 AC:18 all attacks for round.
Conditions:
Level 1 Spells 1/2 left.
Bardic Performance:5/7
Moving up between his companions, Perri prepares to work against the new targets.
Well now, keep your grabby hands to yourself
Brandark brings his Urgosh around in an attempt to disembowel the dead man in front of him.
BAB, STR, Inspire
2 H Weapon, Inspire
Arm against his nose to try and wave off the stench, Miron hurries in behind Perri, recoiling slightly at the sight of the bloated corpses
"Here, let me touch your weapon quick," he says, voice slightly muffled. He grabs the end and forces some of the magic into it, causing the metal blade to gain a shimmer of ice.
Inspired with courage, Brandark moves his Urgosh into position and attempt to gut the creature. It looks as if it is bearly hanging on. Conrad’s attack swings wide. Perri double moves in and Miron follows behind him casting a spell that causes his blade to coat in ice.
This creature is a plague zombie. They are tough like regular zombies, but their slam attacks transmit a disease called Zombie Rot that will not only drain you of your Constitution but anyone who would pass being infected with the disease would raise as a plague zombie themselves within hours.
Initiative: Round 1
All of you
Zombies
Roya steps up towards Brandark, gently touching his shoulder:"You can overcome this vile creature. I believe in you."
Okay, I guess I try from here, then . . .. Why does everyone want to be up front, anyway? Perri grumbles in his head before trying to strike the dead thing in reach . . ..
Roya uses Touch of Good on Brandark as she studies the creature before her.
“OOC” the disease is nasty. You need to make a fortitude save to fight it off, but once you become infected you need 2 consecutive saves to cure it. It manifests itself anywhere between 1-4 days, and for each failed save results in Constitution damage which makes fighting off the disease more difficult.
Each of the zombies on Brandark and Conrad attack at them. Both with mighty slams, only the one on Conrad lands its attack. The zombie’s fist lands square in the side of Conrad’s head leaving his mind spinning. There is a ringing in his left ear from the force this creature hit him.
You hear shambling further within this chamber.
Initiative: Round 2
All of you
Zombies
.
Shaking his head, Brandark uses the shaft of his Urgosh to push the attack over his shoulder. He then brings his blade end up in another attempt to strike the zombie.
BAB, STR, Inspire, Touch of Good
Base, Inspire
HP:8/8 AC:18 all attacks for round.
Conditions:
Level 1 Spells 1/2 left.
Bardic Performance:5/7
Wincing at the brutal blow Conrad's head takes, Joras continues with his song but in a breath between he silently prays for Shelyn's aid. Shelyn, I pray for any aid you can bestow.
The song plays on as a stirring defiant piece about enduring against impossible odds. Maybe not the best choice as victory in that song is purchased with all the heroes lives.
Inspire Courage:+1 morale bonus against charm/fear +1 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls.
HP:8/8 AC:18 all attacks for round.
Conditions:
Level 1 Spells 1/2 left.
Bardic Performance:4/7
With a quick parry, Brandark brings his Urgosh up and through the zombie. The undead falls off the blade and crumples to the floor lifelessly. Brandark then notices that the body begins to shake, and the hemorrhaging pus-filled pockets of flesh explodes in a burst of rotting festering flesh. Flesh and liquid cover the walls besides the undead and covers Brandark. His nose wrinkles as the group discovers the source of the putrid odor.
Joras continues to inspire the group as they continue to battle these undead foes.
Reaching over Conrad, who looks on the verge of collapsing, Perri’s bill slices into the chest of the undead. Wounding it significantly.
Initiative: Round 2
All of you
Zombies
Miron ducks around the corner as the zombie explodes. Turning to check on the combat behind him, he looks in concern at Conrad. Pulling out the wand again, he sends a ball of force whizzing past the two warriors and into the zombie.
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Conrad's head ris spinning and his vision nearly whites out from the pain. The zombie hit him almost exactly where the wooden statue's shield did not even a full day ago.
While struggling to stay conscious, he is flooded with a flurry of emotions - shame that his body looks ready to betray him, anger that this thing of evil might outlive him, fear that it might attack his friends. He holds on his will to fight and win until it feels like he is gripping them tighter than any blade.
He can feel the pain recede. The thing in front of him remains indistinct - but he doesn't need much more than the greyish colour of its putrid flesh guide his arm, and, with a war cry, he strikes.
Perri will also simply try to bring this last THING down, ineffectively.
Miron uses his wand to fire off a Magic Missile to the zombie. Striking true, it does not cause the undead to fall. Conrad goes into a rage which clears his mind and gives him a renewed vigor. With that Conrad sends his flail through the creatures head.
The undead body falls to the ground. It starts to convulse and explode. Sinding its filth across the walls and Conrad.
Initiative: Round 2
All of you
Zombies
Sorry.
Roya moves back around towards the start of this chamber. Drawing near to Perri & Conrad she Channels Energy to help her companions wounds.
The shuffling sound deeper within this chamber makes itself known as two more zombies appear and stagger up to Brandark & Conrad.
Initiative: Round 3
All of you
Zombies
Covered head to toe in noxious goo, Brandark looks at the incoming zombie, and meets it with an edge of steel.
BAB, STR, Inspire.
S
Base, Inspire
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HP:8/8 AC:16
Conditions:
Level 1 Spells 1/2 left.
Bardic Performance:4/7
At the terrible sight of the exploding zombies, at first oddly feels imspired to hope. This is quickly dashed as even more of the horrors enter the room. Joras wonders if there is any chance for them to survive this endless onslaught of the evil that fills this formerly holy place.
Bereft of ideas, Joras continues playing but the mood of his piece changes a bit while continuing its theme of defiance against great odds, but with the notion that a courageous retreat is not dishonorable.
HP:8/8 AC:16
Conditions:
Level 1 Spells 1/2 left.
Bardic Performance:3/7
Joras continues with his music to Inspire the groups abilities in combat.
Brandark uses his dwarven urgosh with intent of finishing off the undead in one swipe, but the attack was not as critical of a hit. But the creature looks like it could drop any moment.
Conrad takes his flail and, in his rage, crushes the zombie’s skull before him. Just like the previous two this one also explodes covering the walls and Conrad himself in this chamber.
Initiative: Round 2
All of you
Zombies
Roya retrieves her Wand of CLW, then uses a charge of it on Conrad - the rage seemed to blind him to his wounds, but the amount of blood was scary.
Miron fires off a missile at the remaining zombie, then shelters from any explosion behind the corner of the column of crypts.
Retrieving her wand, Roya moves and heals Conrad with another charge
With a firing off of another Magic Missile from his wand. Miron finishes off the final zombie. Who quickly explodes with rotten flesh and pus covering Miron and Brandark.
Looking over what is left of the remains of these undead you come to the decision that they are probably only a few months old and their tattered clothing is similar to that worn by the body found near the Gray Lake.
From where Brandark is standing, he can see a backpack in the northwestern corner of the room that is sitting in a pool of blood.
You find rotten rations, a crudely drawn map detailing this area and pointing out the entrance to the crypt. A Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds, a coin pouch with 13 GP within and a small handbill (the kind typically found posted in taverns) that reads as a notice of employment, telling all those interested to meet at “The Ranger’s Lament.” The handbill does not mention a time, date, or who the employer might be.
You aren’t sure how you know this, but the Ranger’s Lament is a popular bar in Tamran, the capital of Nimathas.
You also see a door to the south side of this chamber that is slightly off-kilter and slightly open.
By the gods, is everything going to explode when we touch it. Can anyone create water right now. I don't feel like walking with zombie goo all over me.
As he walks towards the pack.
Hello there, what do we have here.
He bends down to do a quick look through it.
After emptying the backpack, he walks towards the off kilter door.
The song dies out as Joras, seeing the last of the horrid creatures fall, stop playing. Heaving a shaky deep breath, he calls out, "Is everyone uh, not too bad off?" When no one keels over, he continues, "This is getting crazier by the hour, what could be ahead?" Looking at Brandark he asks, "Anything interesting in the pack, Brandark?"
Joras will line up in march order with the others not quite sure where that would put him.
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Twice, Conrad's flail connects with something strange -something not unlike bringing an axe down on a log eaten away by dry rot. It offers no resistance, but rather crumbles and collapses onto itself like an empty, putrefied shell. But the smell, he realizes, is different.
As his trance-like frenzy recedes, the first thing he notices, confusedly, that his head doesn't hurt nearly as much as expected. His initial surprise is however quickly pushed away as good Gods, the smell is getting worse and worse -overpowering, really-, and he looks down at his armor...
Conrad gags.
He wants to clamp his mouth with one hand, but they are stained with gore, or pus, or whatever-the-hell-that-is. He can only close his eyes, grit his teeth, and get as far away from the corpses as possible to avoid retching. Taking deep breaths doesn't really help -and it's not like he can pull his undershirt over his nose.
His eyes water from the stench. Maybe he's actually failed at serving Shelyn today. Surely she would not want to have anything to do with this place. Or perhaps it's for the best he's down there getting covered in this in her stead. He's reluctant to imagine the goddess of beauty having to fight such disgusting horrors. It was, he felt, a job good enough for mortals -and one that guaranteed she could focus on other, bigger stuff.
"Is t-there a name on that b-backpack?" he forces the words out, trying not to breathe through his mouth as he's speaking.
Pulling the useful stuff out, brandark passes on what he found in the backpack.
He then pockets the useful stuff, gives the potion to conrad, and then makes his way towards the door.
Gawds, i could use a bath right now. that goo is horrible
Everyone takes a few moments to collect themselves and look at the bag. No name or initials is etched on it like the ones you discovered with your initials on it. The bag could have belonged to one of these… men.
Conrad takes the lead to the door that is slightly off hinge.
Listening to the door there are no sounds coming from within. From the slight opening, you know that it is pitch black within. Fortunately you are equipped with enough people who can cast the Light spell.
Pushing the door open with the butt end of his flail the light from your group pours into this room, revealing a long chamber that has a shallow reflecting pool dividing the chamber from one end to the other. You can see that there is some sort of art on the walls, but it is hard to make out from outside of the room. At the far end of this chamber you see what looks like an iron portcullis blocking the opposite entrance.
As you enter this chamber you now can see that the walls are covered in what must have once been marvelous murals. They are not scorched and ruined with slashes made from some kind of blade.
You look to the reflecting pool and see that the water looks cloudy and stagnant, and it does have an odor. As you see your reflection in this pool you see your reflection turn from the face you recognize into the version of you as the horrid creatures in the room before.
You blink quickly, and that image is gone. Was it your eyes playing a trick on you? Couldn’t have been real.
You see that image of yourself turn from looking back at you and begins to attack, murder and eat the flesh of the companions you started out this rite of passage with. The image causes you flee, screaming, from this room. You see the bodies on the floor in the previous chamber blocking your way and you find yourself huddled in the wall along the west wall of the previous chamber. Crying at the thought, the sight, of killing and eating your friends.
Joras lined up and marches up when asked to. He'll enter the chamber cautiously, but checks out the pool.
"What's in this pool?" Joras asks and wonders, thinking Is this a good idea? while craning his neck to see it.
He looks into the pool. Will save with fear bonus.
Joras sees his worn but healthy image in the water turn monsterous.
He starts and then the image is gone, thinking, Is my mind playing tricks now or something else? If any others flee in terror, Right, some illusion?
Perri glances at the water, as it is hard not to, before freezing and staring at the surface for a second, and then he breaks and runs for the last room.
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Conrad accepts the potion from Brandark. If no one shows any interest in the pieces of paper, he also pockets the map and the handbill, after having painfully deciphered a few words. It might help to identify whoever got lost in the crypt.
As Conrad steps closer to the water, he can see that his reflection seems a bit... Weird. Possibly because the water looks so unclean, he decides. He doesn't pay it much attention. Instead, his gaze is drawn to the faded paintings on the walls, and he wonders who might have disfigured the murals so and why-
Or at least he does, before Perri mysteriously legs it out of the room.
"P-Perri? P-Perri!" Conrad runs after the fighter, calling his name in a more and more alarmed way.
Gods, he really does run fast, even with all his equipment on the back. Conrad has to speed to catch up with him.
Conrad finally catches the fighter by the forearm. "Where are you g-going? What's the matter?"
"I can make some water, but not enough to wash THIS off. You'd need fire to clean THAT...", Roya does her best to help the others clean off the mess the Zombies left, then follows into the next room.
Roya just wanted to use the reflection to see if she also had to clean off somewhere, not wanting to seem vain by asking one of the guys...but that image...it was only there for a moment, but frightening all the same.
She could only assume that it somehow got to Perri in a worse way, and follows him, as well.
They could not split up in such a dangerous place, so if he was running, it seemed clear to her that all would need to follow until such time as he came to his senses again.
Luckily he doesn't run far. As he catches his breath, Roya remembers what she wanted to tell the others before:"About those zombies. I don't mean to alarm you, but that goo, and their claws, they carry a very potent disease. We will have to keep an eye on anybody who got clawed or splattered, make sure nobody caught anything. Just to be save, I'd like to take a look at your wounds later, clean them properly and use some herbs on them. We...if someone is showing signs of illness, we'll have to hurry back to Kassen, I'm not sure they will make it otherwise. Just thought you should know...Sorry."
The judgmental fighter sits cowering in a corner, unwilling to interact with any of you, while he's curled into a ball.
Base, Steel Soul
Brandark feels a tug of compulsion as he glances into the water, but he lets is slide off him like water off a ducks back.
He glances up in time to see Perri run off.
Damn, what now.
He gets up and starts to make his way to catch up to Perri.
Miron follows the others into the room, trying to scrub the muck off himself. The reflecting pool catches his attention, and he shudders at the sight of himself at one of those.. things.
Following the others after Perri, he's a little shaken at Roya's news, and looks in dismay at his splattered coat.
"Perri, did.. did you see something in the pool too? I don't think it's real, it's just something trying to scare us." he says, trying to sound confident.
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With Perri sitting unresponsive on the ground, Conrad jumps on his feet to fetch Roya... And relaxes a little when he sees her hurrying their way.
He shakes his head with a mirthless chuckle as she tentatively explains that the zombies might have infected them with some deadly disease, checking his armor for any last bit of disgusting goo. Even after cleaning it as best as he could, the smell is only slightly more bearable."J-Just what we needed. I g-guess we b-better find Roldare's sister fast."
Joras breaks out of his musings and goes over to Perri. Once there he mentions as well, "It's just an illusion not real. Everyone's fine." He then sings a song about setting aside doubts and fear by looking to the good he can do to try to get Perri's mind off of the disturbing images.
Help Perri.
Nods to Conrad quietly saying, "Yes and the light the lantern, I wonder if that would help here? Anyway be careful, every room seems to have an evil within, and based on what was in that pack, maybe planned that way."
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The group regathers themselves. There is indeed evil within these walls as Joras mentioned. This is harder than you could have ever imagined, or than it was even intended to be. But there is a goal. Dimira, Roldare’s sister who could still be trapped in here by the voice of death. And getting the flame from Kassen’s final resting place… if that is even a priority.
Looking back into the room with the chamber long reflecting pool, your light source catches the bars of a heavy iron portcullis blocking the way. Not even the smallest among you would be able to squeeze through.
Looking into the chamber beyond the bars, the room is a catacomb similar to the one that you faced the zombies in previously.
You remember that in the first chamber of this floor that there was a pillar in the middle and spiraling from it, it said; [i]To the south you might take your ease, to rest and reflect on Kassen’s deeds. To the east lies the wheel, to open the gate. To the west is the resting place of Kassen, hero of the Fangwood.[i]
"Do we want to try to lift that sucker, or try the other ways first?
Depend on it to keep whatever is on the other side there for now."
"Do we want to try to lift that sucker, or try the other ways first?
Depend on it to keep whatever is on the other side there for now."
"Do we want to try to lift that sucker, or try the other ways first?
Depend on it to keep whatever is on the other side there for now."
Buck up Perri, there is no loss of face for having run in the face of magic.
He offers a waterskin for Perri to take a drink from, and then an arm for him to pull himself to his feet.
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"The writing in that first room said something about a wheel to open the gate. If this is the gate, we should find the wheel to open it." Miron offers.