After Calin's positive channel only one zombie remains. The skeletons all burst as the other zombie succumbs as well.
Those in melee move in and cut apart the last zombie with ease.
I see that the threat has been neutralized and begin to pick up my arrows. First the blunt arrows and then the slashing arrows.
Lectrum stands close to Calin, letting his aura of regeneration do its work. "We have to find the necromancer or this will keep happening."
As the last undead crumbles, Calin breathes heavily and leans against the wall. "Thank Iomedae that our blades and spells hit true." Calin sighs with weariness from expending much of his strength. "Lectrum, I am thankful for your help in healing these wounds. I've used most of my powers dealing with these undead. I need to remember to not be overzealous."
Rai nods to Calin. "Stay strong!"
Invoking the wand again, he sends positive energy to heal Calin once more.
Valiard stayed quiet as the sounds of combat drifted off. Moving swiftly he checked the entrance to both the north, west and south tunnels, looking for traps and magical effects.
Something around here moved me to the surface last time I was down here...don't want that happening again.
"Checking this gloomy passage." Visayn grunts as he quietly slips into southern corridor
Ragnar grabs his weapons
I got a fair bit of rage left in me. He announces with a shrug
How are you wounds Callin?
Calin still leans against the wall. "Thank you, Rai. I'm starting to feel a bit better." Calin sheathes his sword and solemnly speaks to the group. "Is all of the prison like this?"
"Ragnar, my wounds are better than they were. I'm not in fighting shape yet."
perception N, traps: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
perception N, listening for baddies: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
You wearily look at the passage and don't see any trap. You don't step down the path knowing something is there. You hear muttering and shuffling but don't see any threats in the hallway.
perception W, traps: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29
perception W, listening for baddies: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
You find the magical outline of runes on the floor. You likely outline it in chalk for people to avoid and if needed jump over.
You can hear chains clinking and moans of pain. Nothing in sight.
perception S, traps: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30
perception S, listening for baddies: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25
You find the same trap. You hear or see nothing! It is even more eerie than the other tunnels.
Visayn slips towards the southern tunnel finding Valiard.
He walks over to the group around Calin and states, "I can channel to heal the group, did anyone else get hurt?"
Once everyone is within range he channels three times,
Seeing Calin's wounds still a bit raw he channels once more before casting a cantrip which quickly begins to mend clothing or anything torn on him.
He pops his head up from Lectrum's sack and states, "You didn't need my help, I will help when you give me a treat or when it's a big baddie. Or if you get bloodied."
"Thank you, Drake. I can move forward now. Which way do we proceed?"
"Visayn is heading south. I think we should stay with him." He says and then will follow and stand behind Visayn. He then looks around to see if there are any hidden dangers in the hallway beyond Visayn.
Calin did not notice Visayn leading the way and quickly follows Imrik, signaling to the rest of the group to form up.
"This prison is proving to be quite dangerous. We need to stay together."
Lectrum starts to argue with Sly, but then gives up. "Hey! Necromancers are dangerous!"
He then follows Calin's lead. Wow, that guy has some Charisma.
Rai takes time to reset the wand inside the spring loaded wrist sheath, and stow his tetsubo, before hurrying to catch up with Calin and the others.
Valiard quietly motioned to Visayn as he moved into the passageway, urging him to move out back into the main room to join the group. As he stepped out of the gloom of the passageway, Valiard stood up and returned to his normal, casual gait, walking over to the rest of the party.
"I marked the traps I found in the entry to the south and west passages. The north and west passages also have more activity coming from them...the south...it feels off somehow." he said, quietly. "If I was going to guess, there are more active undead with bodies moving around in the north and west. It sounded like clanking chains and moaning."
"If I was going to follow my gut, I would head south. Could be something, could be nothing. But at least its not likely to be zombies...I hate zombies...and ghouls for that matter." he said, revulsion plain in his voice.
"I hate skeletons!" Lectrum offers unhelpfully.
"Heading south sounds good to me. Any objections to Valiard's recommendation?"
"I think that is as good as any direction. Let's move out." Imrik says, "But we should watch our backs. The hungry dead might move about this place and come at us from the rear."
Adding his own opinion to the conversation, "I hate all undead, such a unnatural state." He idly twirls one of his arrows.
In dry humor he offers, "Don't make this old elf ranger take point! We will need to scour this place until we find the prime instigators. I have our flank covered."
He follows the group keeping a keen watch.
Visayn complies with Valiard's suggestion "Yeah, whatever we will find, I agree going south is good idea. Let's keep moving."
Valiard nodded in agreement as the decision was made, then moving quietly and swiftly he motioned to Visayn and entered the southern corridor ahead of the party, watching for traps or tricks.
[ooc]Planning to move into the corridor stealthily as a team with Visayn, watching for traps Trap-spotter 10'[./ooc]
The two sneak forward, the group likely notices them sneak forward. Ten feet past the chalk they seem to dissappear into the darkness.
The rest of the group inch forward around the chalked spots.
Ragnar is 30ish feet behind the sneaking pair. His half fiend nature easy enables him to see well.
I shall charge at the sound of battle. Does either of you have a message cantrip for more precise coordination between the scout team and the heavy metal?
Calin notices that Rai's eyes don't immediately adjust to the lack of light. "Rai, do you need light to see? You and I can hang a bit further back. I believe you have access to the Light spell."
"Right. Yes, good idea, will stay back so the others can advance without the light interfering too much."
Rai casts light on his holy symbol.
Even those with darkvision cannot see through this darkness.
Upon realizing that he cannot see past this darkness, Calin halts the party. "Something is amiss. The darkness up ahead is unnatural. Rai, can your magical light counteract it?"
Valiard stopped, realizing that he slightly ahead of him, he could no longer see the flagstones.
What is going on here...? he thought.
He raised and lowered his dark-vision spectacles without any noticeable change in the path ahead.
"Well that isn't going to work." he said, before backing away from the darkness stealthily and moving back to the group.
"What Calin said...any thoughts?" he seconded.
"Omrataji has not granted me any abilities that might pierce this darkness. It might be best to start with one of the other tunnels and return here when someone has prepared a way to breach the darkness." Imrik says as he looks into the darkness and tries to hear anything from the other side.
"All right, we should check the other two tunnels if they are passable. If not, then Iäm out of clue." Visayn says while backing out of darkness.
As you head East you see that there are two doors across each other about 60 feet into the tunnel so after stepping into the tunnel you can see the clear tunnel and the doors. The tunnel does continue forward.
This guard room is decorated similarly to the others, with a table, a few chairs, and a pair of cots. You don't notice any undead or haunts before stepping into the room. There is a winch affixed to the western wall. The winch here seems like it could be used to release a lock and to raise a
portcullis, door, or something.
This guardroom contains a single large table with two chairs astride it and a single sagging cot pushed up against the eastern wall. Several battered cabinets line the northern wall, with a few arrows and bits of chainmail lying scattered on the floor nearby, yet the most eerie sight are the three fractured skulls sitting on the table next to a heavy hammer. It looks as if someone has arranged the fragments of the skulls in some sort of pattern, as if an attempt had been made to construct a fourth skull from the broken fragments of the trio on the table. The leathery body of a long-dead dwarf, his wiry red hair and beard still strangely vibrant in death, lies slumped on the ground behind the table.
A few seconds after a living creature enters this room, the three shattered skulls rattle about, then rise up and reform into three solid skulls as they transform into severed heads with the screaming ability. The three undead
skulls immediately attack, fighting until destroyed and
pursuing foes throughout the dungeon level.
Screaming Severed Heads (3) CR 1/3
The Mosswater Marauder CR 3
XP 800
CE persistent haunt (area U6)
Caster Level 3rd
Notice Perception DC 15 (to feel a sudden splitting headache
while at the same time noticing the fragments of skull on
the table begin rattling and shaking)
hp 13; Trigger proximity; Reset 1 day
Effect When this haunt manifests, the Mosswater
Marauder’s spirit seems to rise up from his bones,
appearing as a sobbing dwarf wielding a ghostly hammer.
A ghostly skull (identifiable as the skull of a female dwarf
with a DC 20 Heal check) floats in the air nearby, its
cranium laced with cracks and missing a knife-shaped
shard of bone along the side. Every round on the haunt’s
turn, the sobbing dwarf swoops toward a randomly
determined target and attempts to strike that target on
the head with the hammer (+3 melee touch attack). If it
hits, the target suffers a horrific headache as if his skull
had been struck by a hammer—he takes 1d6 points of
damage and is staggered by the pain as what appears
to be a ghostly fragment of his own skull flies out of
his head, attempts to fit into the ghostly skull near the
marauder, then fades away into nothingness. Every round
thereafter, the victim may make a DC 13 Will save at the
start of his turn to recover from the staggered effect;
otherwise that effect persists for an additional round.
Weakness The Mosswater Marauder takes 1d6 points of
damage each time one of the screaming skulls is destroyed.
Destruction Once the Mosswater Marauder’s haunt has been
reduced to 0 hit points, Vesorianna’s ghost prevents this
haunt from manifesting again.
[spoiler=DC 20 Perception check]You find a well concealed door to the south. You do find a lock, a really nice lock.
[ooc]Disable Device DC 30: You unlock the lock and open the door finding a secret alcove.
"Good thinking, however unfortunately my light is only an orison, it might not be strong enough."
Rai replies to Calin.
He approaches the darkness with his magical light to see if it makes a difference, then follow the others to one of the other tunnels.
The darkness swallows up Rai's spell.
Hmm, someone could set me on fire, my hide would mostly ignore it.
The Bloodrager offers.
"I don't think normal fire would do much for magical darkness. We will just need to come back here. Let's check another hallway and we can return here once we have cleared what is behind us." Imrik suggests.
After the group decides to find a different path around this magical darkness, Calin walks up to the door on the party's right. "Let's clear one door at a time, yes?"
He listens closely and also uses Detect Evil to determine if there is beyond that door.
"Anything behind the door Calin?" Valiard whispers from beside Calin as he checks the door for traps.
Certain that he had dealt with anything deadly, Valiard stealthily opened the door to peer beyond.
Imrik will move forward and listen to the door as well.
Before going in 'U5. Western Guard Room' Calin detects magic.
Visayn also arrives to the door and listens.
Rai takes out his tetsubo in case of trouble.
No sign of trouble, you don't hear anything from beyond the door or beyond the other door.
Down the hallway you see a
A brass nameplate, its face caked with soot, hangs above a portcullis leading into a large cellblock. Many of the iron doors along the walls within the cellblock hang open, revealing empty cells within.
The portcullis into this area is lowered and locked in place. Beyond it you hear movement of chains and some low moans.
This guard room is decorated with a table, a few chairs, and a pair of cots. You don't notice any undead or haunts before stepping into the room. There is a winch affixed to the western wall. The winch here seems like it could be used to release a lock and to raise a
portcullis, door, or something.