"What...why are the dead walking. And who are these people? Did they disturb those laid to rest here? What do we do now?", Roya asks, happy to follow someone elses lead if it meant she wouldn't have to make a call about a situation that, honestly, was a bit overwhelming to her.
Well i wonder what those two had
Brandrk hobbles over to the makeshift camp and opens up the packs.
The flail did a treat, so i think these arrows should go to Roya
He transfers the food to his pack.
We got smokesticks here. anyone
Once we get this sorted, he stands up and reshoulders his pack.
Now lets carefully go about checking out that screaming
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"What...why are the dead walking. And who are these people? Did they disturb those laid to rest here? What do we do now?"
"I don't know what's going on," Conrad answers, still very pale. "Maybe it's an illusion too?"
Uneasy and startling at the slightest sound, he shifts from foot to foot, waiting for the group to be ready to leave. Not really knowing how to use the smokesticks, he passes his turn.
"Let's go," he finally blurts out, when Brandark declares himself ready to go check on the wailing.
Joras stops his performance and looks around at everyone who seems just as unsettled by the situation as himself.
At Roya's remarks, Joras says, "Not sure about this only that I can't see this as anything Father Prasst would allow, if he thought there was undead here he stop it somehow-" Joras stops as thought strike him, "If the undead couldn't be destroyed then it would have to be sealed, lots of eerie songs about that sort of thing. Roya can you tell if there were - I don't know, spells, items, runes, whatever, that uh protected graves or stop the dead from walking?"
He looks over the unfortunate men seeing what he can learn.
Look over the men * As near as I can tell this is meant to bypass the DC 10 limit but not all agree. Haven't found a dev post clarifying this. Not that it matters, sigh.
Joras passes on any info he obtains.
He shrugs at Conrad's suggestion, "Even as an illusion I doubt Father Prasst would be okay with that, and it seems disrespectful to Kassen's memory."
Joras picks up another rock, lights it up causing his other to wink out and tosses it down the route we don't take as a quick check. If nothing is seen then or charges out of there he follows Brandark down the path towards the wailing.
"If they expected us to face undead, they would have prepared us with a better way to defend ourselves against them. These blunt arrows are curious, though. There were more in the packs outside. Think they are for the skeletons? That would mean the people who beat us here expected to run into skeletons, right? The combination is confusing."
Miron breathes a sigh of relief as the skeletons fall. As they all go through the backpacks, he picks up the smokesticks and places them in his pack.
As the talk turns to illusions, he mutters a spell and his eyes briefly shimmer as he stares at the bodies and bones.
"It's not the same as the orcs." he says after a few seconds. "It's real as far as I can tell. But maybe it was still supposed to be a test? Blunt arrows would only bruise us, right? They might be here to shoot at us, but got surprised by the skeletons." he wonders.
"Blunt arrows can knock something out, yes. But it's difficult to use them that way - if you don't aim just right, they are just as deadly as regular ones...", Roya comments when the talk turns to arrows.
She draws another blunt one from the quiver, and renews her light spell on that one.
"As for the skeletons - they crumbled to dust, rather than vanish...so I doubt they were just illusions. All of this makes so little sense. But yeah, Father Prasst wouldn't like undead in the tomb, and we still have a task.", she glances at the Eternal Lantern, then follows the others towards the wailing.
Maybe it’s an illusion too? hangs in the groups mind for only a second as you each remember that once the orcs were defeated the disappeared into nothing. The remains of these skeletons are still here. And the wounds on the two men in the chamber look to be very real too. They look to be killed by the same thing that killed the horses.
As Brandark and Conrad lead most everyone to the east where the wailing is coming from, Joras’ curiosity gets the best of him.
Joras climbs the western stairs with his light and moves to the opening. Looking in, he sees that in the center of this room is a large pool of water that sounds like something is being poured into it. From where Joras stands, he cannot tell more than that.
Conrad and Brandark can see the eastern path opens into a chamber that contains a maze of pillars that obscure the far side of the room. You see three brooms propped up in the walk way leading there.
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As Joras looks out into the western room, he hears the others tramp up the east stairs. Knowing that in all the stories of adventures the one that goes off on his own is the first to die, he drops the light and scurries back to the others. "Wait for me guys, just a room with a pool of water here."
Joras uses both standard and move actions to move for a total of 40 feet or 8 squares ending up just behind Perri.
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"There's just pillars here," Conrad keeps his flail in one hand and his torch in the other, hesitating. He can't see much at all, and it is bothering him.
He peers at the brooms. They seem suspicious. He vaguely remembers stories from his childhood, some of which still being told to Lilia or Farrad when they didn't behave, mentioning witches with brooms that could fly through the air.
That's how you could tell they were witches, the lot of them. Most sensible people owned brooms, of course, but few ever left the ground. "Are those magical too?"
If the brooms stay non-threatening, Conrad takes a cautious step within the room, then two, looking out for traps or signs of undead... things.
As the talk turns to illusions, he mutters a spell and his eyes briefly shimmer as he stares at the bodies and bones.
Brandark hobbles along leaning on his urgosh while looking around.
Wonder what else is going to jump at us next
"Brooms? Roya wonders "Maybe these are bandits or something, and tried to make a hideout of the tomb? Clean it up, settle here, with the pillows outside and blunt arrows...I could see how that could disturb those resting here...I mean, not all bandits are unwashed, unshaven idiots that would never use a broom, right?"
Miron peers into the room and checks the brooms for magic, just in case.
"Kassen's important, maybe someone comes and tidies up occasionally?" he suggests.
"But if we're going to be here anyway, wouldn't they just have given the task to us? With some brooms, and animals?"
Roya attempts to recall what she knows about Skeletons.
Pharasma was not a big fan - that much she was certain about.
The young man just looks at the others talking about someone tidying up the tomb. The one no one has been to for several years. He doesn't say anything, but, somehow (if you notice him watching), you feel judged . . ..
The group appears to be on edge, questioning what is real and what isn’t. The brooms are… just brooms. But they look familiar, they look to be brooms that you would see people using in Kassen. Something that you could purchase at Renet’s or Braggar’s shops.
You know that skeletons are undead. Something evil has brought them back from the dead. The souls of those who originally inhabited their bodies are no longer there. Undead go against the natural order of nature and anything that is good and holy.
You know that blunt weapons work well against skeletons, you know that the healing powers that you can channel from Erastil is a powerful weapon against skeletons and their undead kind.
As Conrad, and those that follow, move forward you see this chamber is quite larger than you originally saw. Because of how the pillars are laid out, it really seems to be a maze. If one of you suffer from it, you could really start to feel claustrophobic within this chamber.
Conrad, and those that follow, do not see any signs of more undead. The only thing you can tell is that the wailing continues from the southeast
Hobbling along, Brandark comments to Conrad
Watch your footing, we dont need more with turned ankles.
he takes a moment and pokes at the ground to the side as they are walking along.
Joras says from the back, "We just don't know, maybe the town does upkeep on the tomb or not, could go either way I suppose. Obviously there is an agreement not to tell the kids anything beforehand so we won't learn anything unless we find a survivor or when we return home." Joras sounds confident of a return home but there might be a touch of if there.
Joras follows along since there appears little else to do, but keep his eyes and ears open.
"I doubt what we're seeing is normal. There are people back home who seem to have never used a weapon, and couldn't name a spell, let alone cast one. They've all been here, right? Couldn't have been this dangerous, then. Something's up."
Miron shivers as he creeps through the chamber with the others. "I'd rather be attacked by pillows than skeletons." he says, as he peers through the pillars.
Joras agrees with Perri, "We do seems more talented then average, three of us work magic alone, and I've seen at drills how hard our warrior work, so yes this can't be what most go through. So are these walking bones from here? That seems the most likely but then who or what raised them, and why? And what do we do about it? Leave now, mission unfinished and tell the Mayor and all about what's going on? That might be the wisest course but I don't think that's what we're going to do, yet. Try to figure out what's happening and why? It's what were doing now but can we? We can check this tomb out but we have no idea how big it is, it's already a lot larger than I thought it was." Joras finishes with "We see what we can and hope for the best. Be prepared for anything but don't be too foolhardy."
Joras just keeps following wherever the warriors lead.
Ha, return job unfinished. What would my uncle be thinking of that. I shudder to think.
Yes, we will need to let the mayor know, but I think we should still finish what we came here to do.
Brandark continues to stump along.
"Besides....those dead people we found. They were adults, too. It's not like they do better. As for the undead....those walking skeletons - you may have figured it out yourself, but if possible, use something blunt to strike them. They don't have proper joints or muscles, it's magic that keeps them going. Trying to knock bones out of the pattern strains the magic, or something. I didn't think I'd ever need this so I only kind of paid attention because there was this squirrel feeding it's young on the tree outside...and...", Roya falls silent, blushing.
When Conrad goes deeper into what seems like a maze, she turned to the others: "Does anybody have chalk or something? Or should we use something else to mark where we go?"
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Conrad stops dead in his tracks, confused. "I-I don't have any chalk. But..." Searching through his backpack, he takes out one of his trail rations- a simple, small loaf of bread with a bit of cheese. He hands the loaf over to Roya. "We could use the crumbs... Maybe? I-I think there's a story that goes that way," he pauses, a bit embarrassed at having stories for children for sole reference.
With his torch still firmly in his hand, he leads the way towards the wailing.
Brandark continues to stump along.
Do we have a piton, or a spike that we can use to chisel a mark into the wall ?
But I doubt that they made this confusing, as loosing people every couple of years in the tomb, word would have gotten around.
He glances down at the ground to determine how much dust is on the floor.
If the dirt be think enough, I might be able to lead us back the same way. No sense in loosing a good ration.
Joras replies, "I was thinking that some of the guard, lead by the Captain, fully prepared, maybe with militia; maybe twenty or thirty strong. Not just a few with little warning."
Joras thinks and says, "Didn't Miron take some pitons from the mysterious bag left after the illusions? That might work, but respectful though, this is a grave - in more ways than one."
"I seriously hope there's not undead in the tomb every couple years. I'm less worried about us getting lost in here. I'm worried about us not quickly finding the right way out if we have to leave in a hurry.", Roya answers Brandark, then takes the loaf from Conrad. "I think I heared that one - lets hope there are no small animals eating our crumbs..."
When Joras suggests the full guard, Roya shakes her head:"Too dangerous. It's several days. They would assume that maybe it's an diversion so that the bandits can attack Kassen and sack the town. If it is bandits...we wouldn't even know if those dead people are part of them, or just innocent people they used for this. For all we know, they may already move on Kassen in the hope that the militia is called elsewhere. Or, equally worse, we leave the tomb, someone else returns with reinforcements and retrieves their dead, then when the Captain comes here, the tomb is undisturbed again. They'll make a new rule that we'll never be considered adults because they'll think we just wasted their time or something. No, we need to find out what happened here.", she shakes her head, then adds :"But I would also rather leave. I don't like it here. But its simply not an option right now...we should at least get the fire and return with the lantern lit."
"I've got the irons, but we could use the brooms to point the way back to the entrance." Miron suggests. "But it doesn't look too hard to navigate, there's no dead ends, it's just hard to see the other side of the room."
"I think we should keep investigating, we were able to fight off the skeletons pretty easily. If there's anything tougher we can always run."
Roya, I am really not in the best shape for running right now. Yes, I can do it, but until my ankle heals, it is going to be painful
He pushes on still using the Urgosh to bear a lot of his weight.
Investigate, and return with the fire, yes. Anything else, and we will be considered failures, which would please my uncle to no end.
Conrad leads the way following the outside wall. Passing the door that everyone came through to enter this chamber and continuing around the south wall. Following it around he discovers a switch embedded into the alcove.
Conrad continues heading east towards where the wailing is coming from. *CLICK* Conrad looks down to see that he has stepped on a pressure plate that he had missed, and the floor drops out from underneath him. Arms flailing, he is unable to grip the sides before falling into a pit.
Conrad doesn’t land as hard as he might have expected the stone floor should be, when he looks he sees that he has fallen on a large pillow. Matching those found outside and in the first chamber of this tomb.
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" If there's anything tougher we can always run."
Conrad shakes his head vigorously.
"I won't run," he says through clenched teeth, in a tone suggesting it's not up for discussion. "Th-They've killed people already."
He doesn't elaborate, though it's pretty obvious that whatever keeps him going is only partly concern for other people's safety.
He stops at the sight of the switch and hesitates, afraid of what it might trigger. "Maybe it's another trap. I wouldn't flick it."
As if to close the debate about whether or not the group should leave, he walks even faster than before.
Had he not done so, perhaps he would have seen the trap before stepping on it.
He drops like a stone, thankfully feeling his back land on something soft. A pillow?
He gets up as quickly as possible to pick up his torch, afraid that it might set fire to the fabric.
"I'm alright!" he cries out.
He looks up the pit, wondering if he can climb back up on his own- or at least pass a rope and his torch to someone.
Joras startled when Conrad falls, moves up and picks up some bit of rubble and lights it up. "Dropping a pebble down to give you some light, are alright?" Frowning a bit at the unintended rhyme, notices the pillow. "Wait, that's a pillow? That only make sense if (pause) if this is just meant to be a prank on us kids. No real danger was intended. Than those unlucky fellows outside were the stage crew.
Joras follow up with, "Perri is right, something has gone wrong. Undead implies a someone or something causing this, something evil. And okay, we stay till we light the lantern and learn more, but let's not be too bold. Be careful, this may be nothing but that's no reason not be ready for anything."
Walking slightly behind Conrad, Brandark stumbles to a stop almost falling in as well.
What do you see down there. and I guess we will look into it later
He lies down on the floor and lowers his Urgosh down so that Conrad can put the end of the rope over the axe blade part so I can pull it up.
Toss me up the end of the rope. we will provide an anchor for you to climb out.
Pillows, I guess we need to look into why pillows down there later
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Conrad tosses his rope to Brandark. Since it'd be a struggle to pass the torch to someone else, he puts it out under his foot, and starts climbing.
He starts trying to climb up the pit, but he's obviously very much unused with that kind of exertion and keeps slipping down.
"Dammit!"
It takes a lot of re-adjusting to get out of this ridiculous pit, including emptying his backpack of some of its heaviest pieces of equipment, which he either tosses to his teammates or tie at the end of his rope to be pulled out of the pit.
It still takes a lot of tries before he is able to get out of that stupid trap.
"Stop struggling, Conrad. There's an easier way to handle this. Give me the rope."
Perri ties the rope to itself, creating a big loop, and TRYING to secure it so the rope won't slide and tighten the loop closed with weight in it. (Bowline is the intention, for those who know.)
"Now, we lower the rope down, he puts it across his chest and under his arms, with the part we have running up behind his head, or he steps into it and tries to hold on, while we work together to pull him up."
The around chest seems a better choice, drop the other end in, and he can tie it to his pack, and we can drag his pack out after he is out.
"Why would there be pillows?", Roya is confused by this new development, not quite convinced of Joras explanation...
"Well, the one man looked somewhat familiar, right? Maybe they were preparing the way, so we are less likely to get hurt, and whatever happened, happened? Certainly provides an excuse for all the pillows we've seen. But it means that not only do we need to worry about whatever it is that happened, but that traps which weren't supposed to hurt us, can."
"So you mean things are going to be doubly hard for us, as a result? Just shiny.", she sighs. She also wanted to help Conrad, but her strength was...lacking, so instead she kept her eyes open to make sure nothing would attack the group while they were busy rescuing one of their own.
Miron peers down into the pit.
"If we work together, we could pull him out. Or tie the rope to his pack, it should be easier to climb up the rope, then we can pull up the pack afterwards. Or we can use the pitons to secure the rope." bringing them out of his pack.
"How many pillows did we see? Unless they brought spares, that's how many other pits we have to watch out for."
Also, apart from Perri, aren't most party members at risk of toppling over with Conrad rather than successfully pulling him out?[/ooc]
If Conrad's 155, that's within Heavy Load for Perrin, Brandark and me. If we work together, shouldn't be too hard.
Perrin, you hold the rope here, I will hold the rope behind you. Miron, right we just need you to make sure no more of those things try to jump us, while we are busy
He indicates the piles of bones and dust that were the skeletons to emphasize the comment about getting jumped.
Conrad, tie the end of your pack to the rope, and we will let you know when you can climb out. once you are out, we will pull up the rope, which will bring up your pack
Joras pipes up, "Oh, I'll keep watch for anything that might jump us. There is nothing we can trust about this place for now, sadly."
Joras moves away from the trap carefully and keeps an eye out for trouble with Roya.
Conrad is able to use the rope that is being braced by the group and climb out of the hole . The group pulls him out on the west side where they were standing.
If this spot were trapped, pillows and all, it is safe to say that there are other traps throughout this tomb and this room. Roya keeps an eye out and finds a trap right next to the spot where they were working to get Conrad out of the pit.
Thinking that we try that switch. Cannot be any worse than walking around in circles for the next hour