Seren follows Luc, and stabs the remaining wolf her rapier…but her wounds and growing fatigue leave her listless and her stabs are poorly made.
◆ Stride ◆ Strike ◆ Strike
Now that the fight is over Kelri rushes over to her friend Marietta, exclaims "Are you alright?" and attempts to help Marietta stand, though her size and strength limit her assistance.
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Luc cleans the wolf's blood off his blade on its mane. "That's all of them. You may call me Luc Wolf-Killer, if you wish." He laughs at his own joke. While the party heals, Luc grabs a torch, sheaths his sword, and drags the wolves' bodies a decent distance from their camp to avoid attracting more predators. Then he returns to the camp and goes back to sleep.
Kamau is bloodied, but when he checks himself it turns out that none of the attacks actually struck true. He cleans the blood off as best he can, then dons his armor. He spends some time sitting in isolation in the darkness, in communion with the Black Butterfly, and comes back to the campfire area with renewed focus. He puts his hearing aids back in and helps keep watch for the remainder of the night.
While taking watch, Kamau also checks the corpses of the wolves for signs of starvation or disease. Their aggressiveness seems perhaps out of character.
While taking watch, Kamau also checks the corpses of the wolves for signs of starvation or disease. Their aggressiveness seems perhaps out of character.
** spoiler omitted **
The rest of the night passes uneventfully. In the morning, you don your armor, have breakfast, and head west. After about 4 hours of travel, you reach a valley, wherein lies the Crypt that you are looking for, according to the map provided. A cold rain starts to fall, making the ground slick and treacherous. However, taking your time and using rope to tie yourselves together, you eventually make your way down the hillside into the valley. After another hour of marching, you reach your destination.
An archway of stone is set into the side of a small hill at the bottom of the valley. Moss has overgrown many of the details, but one is still quite clear. The keystone of the arch is carved with a flame symbol with a stylized rune in the middle. Beyond the archway is a darkened tunnel that leads to a pair of massive wooden doors, one of which is slightly ajar. A pair of horses and a trio of ponies lie slaughtered next to the archway, each corpse still tied to a post set into the ground nearby. A swarm of flies hangs lazily in the air above them.
”Oh look, dead things on our path again.” Seren mutters. ”Looks like perhaps…related to the dead man we found?”
Luc approaches the scene, longsword and dagger out. He's trying to see what else he can discern.
Kamau frowns at the sight before the group. He investigates the horses to see if they have saddles, saddlebags, or any other signs. He looks up the hillside, then down, wondering how the horses could have navigated into this valley. He walks up and stands near the door, glancing within to perhaps see something with his darkvision. He has his shield and starknife ready for action.
Kelri let's out a sigh as she gets a clear look at the crypt entrance and mutters "There have been far too many corpses on this journey." Hanging back for a moment as the others check for any immediate danger Kelri takes a keen look at the few visible carvings on the stone arch.
With the group ready for a fight Kelri feels that's she's safe enough and approaches the entrance to begin examining the corpses of the horses and ponies for clues as to what happened.
Seren moves up beside Kamau, peering at/in the doorway…
You observe the scene and the party learns the following information:
The rune above the crypt is not a symbol of any god - just the letter "K", most likely in honor of its inhabitant - Lord Kassen.
Through her Medicine check, Kelri determines that the animals outside were slain 2 days ago with crude blades or perhaps claws.
Luc uncovers the scattered bones of a human underneath one of the horses. When he moves the beast’s carcass, he finds a humanoid-sized skeleton wearing no garments was pinned underneath. The bones are clearly very old.
Seren also finds that a backpack filled with the following supplies:
2 days’ worth of rations, a pair of large, comfortable pillows, a healer's kit, and 2 pints of lamp oil.
Besides this, the party discerns no other useful information. The doors to the crypt appear not to be trapped but are heavy. Two characters can easily push them open without a Strength check.
Seren’s eyes open wide.
”Pillows!” she smiles.
”Just kidding. A healer’s kit! I could use that!”
Kamau stands in front of the doors, glancing around to make sure everyone else has done all preparations and ready. Once he's confirmed this, he kicks at one of the heavy doors, to knock it open. As he does so, he brings up his shield to be ready for an attack.
Luc smirks as the dwarf kicks the door, "Subtle." He then looks at the rest of the party. "We should establish a marching order. I can go first or second, depending on Seren's preference, but since I usually have my hands occupied with weapons, I cannot carry a torch. I would appreciate if someone could cast some magic on me that provides illumination in order to see in the dark creepy crypt that we're about to enter..." He looks hopeful at Kelri and Marietta.
Seren stares into the darkness.
”Happy to take point.” she says matter of factly.
Kelri shares what she learned from the bodies and, if there's no objections, will take the lamp oil since she's carrying a lantern.
"I'd like to be in the back, or maybe the middle in case someone follows us in." Kelri says nervously. "I can cast light Luc, maybe on your weapon since you'll have it out." and reaches out to touch Luc's item placing a symbol of a blazing sun on it that glows with white light.
"Thank you, Kelri. On my dagger please." Then we move into the crypt.
You enter the crypt in the order designated.
As the heavy doors swing open, the faint light from outside reveals a long chamber with risen platforms on either side. A faded painting of Lord Kassen is on the far wall. The room appears to be the site of a gruesome battle, with two bodies piled in the center and a number of skeletons scattered around. An echoing wail can be heard somewhere in the distance, beyond this foul chamber.
Before you can move forward and investigate the bodies, the skeletons on the floor animate!
”Skeletons rising! Fall back! Fall back - outside!” Seren cries out.
”We can make the doorway a choke point…”
With that Seren moves back through the group…
Round 1: Skeletons!
The six (6) skeletons creepily animate, standing up, as their bones click and lock in place, the black glints of unlife in their eyes!.
Round 1: Luc
Cut from the two blows, Luc holds in the pain.
Kamau brings the shield up, as the arrow strikes through it, causing a crack down the middle of the metal. With a frown, he glances back expectantly at Marietta, hoping that she can handle the healing.
Returning his focus to the skeletons, he deftly swaps his starknife for his clan dagger. He swings the dagger sideways, aiming to smack the blunt edge of the weapon into the undead.
Luc's longsword misses but his dagger finds its mark. However, the skeletal warrior's bones block much of the slashing damage.
Both of Kamau's dagger attacks miss.
Kelri intones magic and casts Electric Arc, causing an arc of lightning to jump between the two front line skeletons. The second skeleton fails to evade and its bones crumble to the ground. She then backs away outside to avoid arrow fire.
The skeleton in front collapses.
Seren moves up behind Kamau and using her new prized possession gets to work bandaging him as best she can. Sadly, Seren’s efforts are in vain…
◆ Step ◆ Interact to retrieve healer’s kit ◆ Battle Medicine
”Hold still you fidgety dwarf!!!”
Round 2: Skeletons
The archers nock their bows and launch their arrows at the party's front line, but fail to hit.
The scimitar wielding skeletons move forward and attack, each drawing blood once!
Kamau attacks the nearest skeleton, swinging his clan dagger in an attempt knock them apart.
Kamau then holds the dagger defensively, ready to strike aside an attack coming his way if needed.
Round 2:
Luc grips his warhammer tight, "Time to end this threat."
With only one remaining enemy Kelri moves to gain a clear line of sight and with a blur of orange light launches a sling bullet from her pouch at the enemy.
Seren moves in at pace, and brandishing rapier and gauntlet attacks the final skeleton, her rapier blazing in a glistening arc to set up a wild punch…
◆ Stride ◆ ◆ Twin Feint, Rapier - Gauntlet
[Piercing]
[Bludgeoning]
Kelri's spell strike misses.
Seren's rapier strike misses but it confuses the skeleton and her gauntlet strike knocks its head off, destroying it.
On the destroyed skeletons, you find 2 broken scimitars, 2 shortbows, and 30 arrows.
Meanwhile, while the party is being healed, you can check the bodies in the middle of the room. The two bodies are badly mauled. They each have backpacks: one contains a large pillow and two quivers (each containing 10 blunted arrows). The other pack has 2 days’ worth of rations, a full waterskin, and a pair of smokesticks.
Kamau holds out his shattered shield toward Kelri, an eyebrow raised as he glances toward the repair kit hanging on her backpack.
Kamau looks around at the bodies, trying to see if he can recognize any of them from his lifetime in the nearby community.
Kamau holds out his shattered shield toward Kelri, an eyebrow raised as he glances toward the repair kit hanging on her backpack.
"Those skeletal folk pack a hard blow. Daggers do not work well against them, but my warhammer did, so that is good information to know. I think we should get fully healed before proceeding. If those were just the guards, we may face stronger enemies in this cursed tomb." Luc will pick up his longsword too.
When he has a chance to see the bodies, he says a prayer for them. "These dead people were not armed or wearing armor so that means they were not expecting trouble or the skeletons to rise. What the heck is going on here? This obtaining the flame is supposed to be ceremonial, not life-threatening work."
Serenllys carefully picks through the fallen equipment.
”What is with all the pillows? Should…we…be…carrying some? Is it the feathers?” she wonders aloud.
Finished looting, Seren nods to Luc.
”Well fought Luc, your hammer saved us.”
She sidles up to him, whispering. ”I was however suggesting we fall completely out of line of sight of the archers.”
Frowning, she nods again. ”Yes, I haven’t paid as much attention to this rite as perhaps I should, but these folk - are they trying for the same thing we are?”
Seren takes a closer look at the bodies with Kamau…
Kelri takes the shield from Kamau and has a look at it "Well, I think I can fix this up. It's a bad crack, but the rest of it is intact." she says while pulling out her tools and beginning work to repair the steel shield. Several minutes later she returns the patched shield to Kamau having closed the crack with a strip of metal.
Joining the group's discussion Kelri says in concern "You're right Luc, this isn't meant to be dangerous. I wonder what changed." and as the question occurs to her Kelri casts detect magic and scans the room.
"That wail we heard when we entered the room seemed to come from the east. Should we head towards it? There might be people in need of help." asks Kelri.
Kamau and Seren identify the remains of the male villagers as Gerol and Vark, both of whom are friends of the mayor. Luc correctly points out that the villagers are unarmed with no weapons, so it appears that they were no match for the skeletons that you just dispatched. Kelri also notices that the bones of the skeletal warriors are quite old.
After resting for 20 minutes, you have 2 exits from this room: there is an exit to the NW and an exit to the SE. The wailing appears to come from the east.
Having quite forgotten about the wailing, Seren thanks Kelri for the reminder, and, once again taking point heads toward the southeast opening.
Having quite forgotten about the wailing, Seren thanks Kelri for the reminder, and, once again taking point heads toward the southeast opening.
Seren leads the party south. The door opens to reveal:
This large chamber contains a maze of pillars that obscure the far side of the room. Next to the door is a pile of empty saddlebags and three brooms. There are some cobwebs in the room and some debris strewn about but nothing major.