Valda continues to shoot, still hoping for a lucky shot.
"It is really hard to find a good place to stab." the hafling fighter punctuated each few words with either a roll or a stab.
How much more can this thing take?, Larachelle wonders silently as the enemy recovers from her spell and proceeds to land a serious blow on Arabella. She reels from the sight of the attack, but is comforted by the sight of Orchid already there to help bring the Chelaxian back to her feet. With that, Larachelle casts another fire spell before retreating away from the undead's reach.
,
Orchid channels her goddesses magic once again, willing Arabella back to her feet.
"Sarenra, Shelyn, please. It is not her day to die."
Arabella's eyes blink open, as she seems to be trying to make sense of what had happened. Her hands grasp on the rent the foe's halberd had made into a joint of her cuirass, and finds the bleeding there much reduced. She reaches for the handle of her mace, and staggers to her feet, before wincing as she still sees their skeletal foe still standing. Too weary for words, she takes another swing at it with her mace.
+ Weakness 2
Amidst a flurry of blows Arabella finally lands a final blow, smashing the skeleton's skull and sending the rest of its bones clattering to the floor, finally at rest.
Investigating the open chamber off the main room reveals an ossuary. Narrow stone walls filled with coffin-sized compartments stretch from the floor to the ceiling in the dark, claustrophobic chamber. Most of the compartments are occupied with shroud-covered bodies, though some of them are conspicuously empty.
After that there is only one more door to explore, at the far end of the crypt. Rows of large, metal-and-stone lockboxes line the winding walls of this storeroom, as do occasional shelves and what look like filing cabinets intended for the storage of documents. The lockboxes hang ajar, having been opened and emptied long ago. A pile of ashes and a few melted candle stubs lie atop a low table in the center of the room where a tall man with short-cropped hair and dark skin, clad in hellknight armour is searching under the table and cursing softly.
As the door opens he stands and frowns. "Impressive, you fought your way through the guards. What is your purpose? More thieves to ransack my order's remains?"
"No" Bunnit bristles a little, though he had to admit, most adventurers were a bit on the looty side. "There are creatures here that should be, that are threatening the people who live here and the town near. And who Are you, by the way?"
Valda's keen eyes easily find the hidden treasures in the room. She hands the wand of heal to Orchid, along with the other valuables for future distribution.
The halfling's hackles raise as she sees the Hellknight, memories of her life before in Cheliax bubbling to the surface. It's an effort not to train her bow on the man, but she forces herself to take deep breaths as her husband challenges him.
Orchid nods her thanks to Valda and then lugs the wand over to Arabella and taps her on the ankle with it - it is a remarkably magical tap which closes a number of the warrior woman's wounds.
--------------------
The Hellknight is unexpected but Bunnit is asking all the right questions so Orchid stays quiet and lets him do the talking - at least for now.
“Armiger Alak Stagram of the Order of the Nail. Formerly of Citadel Altaerein, currently of Citadel Vraid in Varisia.” He gives a formal bow and offers a rather wry smile. “How nice to meet you in this beautiful and well-kept estate."[/b]
Sarcasm appears to sit easily on his tongue.
"Before you continue your interrogation," He continues. "I will admit that I am here on a leave of absence. Family business. I had hoped to find an heirloom of my family here but as you can see..." He waves his hand around the ruined room. "The staff have been very lax in their duties recently."
"Well, let's see what we can find," Valda says, offering to help in the search. Unfortunately, the halfling cannot find anything of value.
It might be her diminutive height that helps since Orchid eventually points out a storage box near the back wall.
"That one is deeper than all the others." She informs Alak. "You should take a look young man. There might be something in there."
Arabella returns the bow respectfully, as she latches her unusual mace more securely about her waist to free her hands to search. "Arabella, lately of Cheliax."
She offers to help bring out the storage box with Alak so that it could properly be inspected.
Bunnit knew enough about his wife's past, the parts she could bring herself to repeat, that he instantly disliked this man. So while others helped, he kept watch.
Alak steps over to Orchid and reaches into the drawer she indicated, casting a curious glance at the tiny tony as he does so. The drawer has a false bottom and he pulls a key from his belt, unlocks the box, and finds his family’s signet ring placed carefully there on a bed of crushed velvet. The armiger slips the ring on a finger and is quiet for several moments, before smiling with wistful charm.
“I remember sitting on my father’s lap and turning this ring on his finger when I was but a boy,” The maralictor says, his voice solemn, rich, and deep. “Thank you for reuniting me with those memories, my
friends. You have the Order of the Nail’s gratitude - and mine. I found this earlier. The order kept it to use in the chambers below - some sort of old defenses which can be bypassed with it.”
He leans down and hands Orchid a silver holy symbol.
The room beyond is narrow and filled with various storage racks. Some are empty, though others still contain dusty banners with the Order of the Nail’s sunburst insignia, stylized Asmodean paraphernalia, and other trappings clearly designed for formal funerals. Curiously, in the back of the room, a dirt-walled tunnel opens in the wall and stretches into the gloom; and a set of tracks leads from this tunnel to the door leading back into the vaults.
"Whoever came in must have fled once the defenses were activated." Alak says musingly. "Why were you down here anyway? There's a lot of creatures in the other wings - are you trying to clear the whole fortress for some reason?"
"There are families down in the town below. They need protecting." the halfling answers with annoyance in his voice.
Orchid examines the holy symbol without comment, although it seems like she's having trouble with the size of the object until she manages to tie it around her tiny waist like a large belt.
"We're helping the goblin tribe that lives here." She offers. "So yes, we need to clear all the basement levels. It will help keep the town safe too."
”Well, I hope it does what its supposed to and reduce the fighting we have to do.” Arabella says as she glances at the symbol hopefully, even as she gives an affirming nod for Orchid’s reasons. There might be other, more personal ones that intrigued her, but this fellow did not need to know that.
"I cannot say that the idea of goblins living in the citadel fills me with joy..." Alak murmurs, "But they will be better neighbours than some." He pauses for a minute, considering, and then nods. "Very well, I will help you. Now I'd suggest heading to the armories. There may still be weapons there we can use."
He leads the way down the main corridor and into a large room with several doors in different directions. A splintered table stretches across the center of the room, while broken chairs, moldy books, and general detritus
litter the floor. Two bodies that appear to be frog-like humanoids lie sprawled on the floor near the center of the room. Of the several doors that provide exits from this room, the ones to the west and southeast hang wide open. As the group enters a doll, sitting slumped against one of the corpses, picks itself up with jerky movements before fixating on Alak and screaming in Infernal.
Everyone can act!
"That does not look very friendly!" Valda shouts as she marks the doll and fires on it!
"Miss Orchid, you-" Bunnit starts to say, but the word die on his lips. He rushes in front of his wife, staring at the enemy with all the fire of a cornered bunny.
"What the..." Arabella starts, but decides to stop and focus when it looks like the creature is about to lunge, even as her mind tried to work out what this assailant was. She whirls the weapon she had been lugging along to her side, and hurls the head at it, once she was ready.
(If Fail vs Standard DC of creature's level, Ara still gets Personal Antethesis, which still gives target Weakness 3 vs her attacks. If Critical Fail, Ara becomes Flat-footed until next turn.)
Orchid starts at the sight of the doll and wracks her brain for what on earth could have made such a travesty.
Safe at the back of the group she tosses a bolt of light up towards the table although her heart isn't in it.
Larachelle conjures a ball of flame and hurls it towards the doll. Both her spell and Orchid's strike the construct cleanly. Valda also hits with an arrow, although Arabella's flickmace is dodged by the small construct.
The doll looks much the worse for wear and jumps towards Arabella, swinging its tiny fists and still screaming. It lands a nasty blow on the thaumaturge's knee, which bends unnaturally and causes a lot of pain.
Valda festoons the doll with arrows!
Valda, clearly done with this particular battle, perforates the doll with four perfectly placed arrows. With more pointy things in it than a pincushion the doll collapses with a final exhausted sigh.
The two bodies prove to be boggarts, clad in odd skins. Clearly they were not ready for their tiny, but powerful foe.
There is nothing of value here apart from numerous doors and a number of small obsidian figurines. They'd likely be worth a decent collection of coins.
Bunnit was about to charge the creature, when his wife peppers it with arrows, ending the threat. Turning instead he rubs his nose against hers. "That was amazing." he breathes into her.
Orchid approaches the doll, so like her and yet so unalike, and signs the Songbird over the body.
"I hope you find peace now." She whispers, before examining the other bodies, looking for clues.
"I don't think they are from around here." She reports after a close examination. "Their clothes seem all wrong. Too light. I think they must be from somewhere much warmer. Maybe even the jungles in the south. How did they get here?"
There aren't any answers to be found here though, so she follows Bunnit's lead towards the next door, after taking a minute to do what she can for Bella's knee.
Valda strokes Bunnit's cheek. "Easy there, Honey Bunny. Save some of that energy for when we get back home," she says in a sultry whisper.
She steps back with a smile. After restocking her quiver, she nods her readiness to proceed.
Arabella limps over to the table in pain, glad to Orchid quickly available to treat it, as her knee hurt rather too much for her to intelligibly contribute to the conversation right away.
When it was properly bound up and had a soothing ointment, she gingerly hops to her feet, then nods at Bunnit's suggestion. "Alright, ready for you to open it, I think."
Bunnit smiles back at his wife, with a little flush to his cheeks, then nods to Arabella, and moves over to the door.
He looks it over just in case, presses his ear to the wood to listen to the other side, and then if nothing dangerous is discovered, opens the West door.