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"A partially buried mausoleum and a gargoyle," Ernhild says through gritted teeth, perhaps more to herself than to someone in particular. "Talk about a needle in a haystack."
"Kroft did talk about the southern edge, but this is too large..."
She tries to recall the graveyard's layout to try to guess where an entrance might be.
"Any sign of recent tracks of a wheelbarrow near a mauseolum?"
The priests of Pharasma may know this area better. Maybe we can ask them, as I doubt they will object if we tell them a rogue wizard is buying bodies here, and we want to make sure he isn’t experimenting with necromancy and turning the bodies into undead.
Backtracking to the entrance, Ernhild finds two sets of wheelbarrow tracks. One that was followed by a group of people and one that only has one pair of footsteps on the same path.
Let’s follow the one with only one set of tracks.
These tracks lead into a mausoleum, where several smaller humanoid tracks clutter the site.
trap door in the floor that leads down into the dark.
4 rank +3 trained +2 wis+2 racial+4 alertness(familiar)
vs DC 10
4 ranks -2 int
4 rank +3 trained +4 int +2 aid another
Narciso studies the tracks: "I think the footprints are from Derro... Mad, twisted humanoids that live under large cities and kidnap surface dwellers for twisted experiments. I suppose our necromancer could have made some terrible friends, but generally Derro are no friends of any surface dweller... Perhaps we should check out the other set of tracks?
They could be doing grave robbing for necromancers. I'm up for checking the other tracks.
Well there is a trap door here. Tisha points to where the trap door is. Wait for a second.
She quickly does a sweep around the area outside the mausoleum trying to see if there is the statue near by that would make this as the right entrance.
Tisha finds the gargoyle head and in general it matches the description given. Ernhild after following the other set of tracks finds herself at Tisha's 'grave'.
Given the statue is there, I think this is the right place.
So this Lamm must have some nasty friends.
Tisha checks the trap door for traps or alarms (including magical ones) as she whispers: Anything else we should know about Derro if we are about to meet them underground?
Briggi scratches his chin and tries to think of anything Derro related.
Derro have a resistance to magic and don't like sunlight.
No traps on the trapdoor. Beneath the trap door is a long flight of stairs. These lead down to a large room that is supported by four wide pillars of stone. The room is dimly lit by patches of eerily glowing mold that fills the chambers here with a cold blue light. The air is musty and damp, with the stink of rotting flesh present in the background. The ceiling above arches in a dome nearly twenty feet high. The walls are lined with skeletons caked into the mud — adult human bones mostly, but here and there smaller bones might be from halflings or perhaps children. Fifteen-foot-square pits sit to the east and west, each filled with a large heap of hundreds of bones. To the south, a crude hole has been gouged out of the wall, providing access to a tunnel.
Briggi draws his hammer and shield and heads down the stairs firt.
Tisha follows Biggi with her Spear drawn and watching for any movement or alarms/traps set in their way.
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Ernhild scrunches her face in disgust. Whoever buried these people clearly did not care about them at all.
She has the fleeting thought that she might have ended up here, if she hadn't survive her overdose in the care of the priests of Abadar. It also serves to make her feel angrier.
She reaches for her warhammer and shield, and goes down the stairs after Narciso, closing the line.
Hold. she whispers.
Then she points with her spear at both bone pits.
Toss some fire into the pits?
Narciso takes a closer look at the bone pits, trying to spot what Tisha saw ...
4 rank +3 trained +2 wis+2 racial+4 alertness(familiar)
While most of the party looks clueless into the bones, the issue becomes obvious. From one pit rise four human skeletons and from the other a large skeleton.
vs DC 10
4 ranks -2 int
4 rank +3 trained +4 int+2 aid another
Narciso proposes a plan "Back up the stairs, let them come to us on a limited front. I can hammer them if they cluster up...". He steps back to make room for Tisha and Briggi to back up, and waits for the enemy to come to him...
I can just bash em with my hammer. They are just walking bones.
Yes... Movement Tisha whispers grimly as the skeletons rise up. She backs up to cover Narciso. Her spear ready to punish the first thing that comes in range.
Briggi will help guard the front and whack any skeleton that gets in range.
One skeleton comes at Briggi, the other one wanders through the columns before ending up in front of Tisha - as a pile of broken bones again after meeting the spear.
Briggi fails to hit the skeleton with his hammer.
Another skeleton approaches Briggi. Tisha waits for the large one to come and stabs it twice before it gets the chance to attack her, but the spear is not the best weapon to fight bones.
Watch out, I plan on stepping back if I can.
Narciso steps back and warns the others "Their will be a bright flash of light!", as he readies himself to cast, waiting for the last skeleton to join the mob...
Briggi 5' steps south and bashes at the skelli to his west
Ernhild slams her hammer into the wall. Another skeleton comes out of the pit and corners Briggi and one of the others claws at him.
Tisha stabs at the skeleton next to Biggi that Ernhild just missed.
Then Tisha Steps back to try to put a wall between her and the big skeleton.
Skeletons are hard to damage and the bone resists Tisha's attempt. She has more luck with the big one which crumbles on her attack that interrupts it following her.
Meanwhile Briggi is the living shield getting all the skeleton's attention.
Narciso warns "Ware your eyes!" and then conjures a flash of holy light, engulfing all the skeletons (and the rest of the party).
damage only applies if evil
also, save vs blindness, reflex DC 18, dazzled if made save...
The bones of the skeletons disconnect and clatter on the floor.
Tisha checks the bones to see if there is anything valuable or interesting before slipping into the shadows and looking through the hole checking for alarms or traps.
I’m guessing the Necromancer is this way. she whispers.
Briggi will follow after Tisha.
I wouldn’t mind as the bruise is tender, but I can wait if you want to save your blessings until Biggi gets hurt and you can heal us all at once. After all, we have no idea how deep these tunnels go. Tisha whispers back from where she is examining the hole.
The passage is rather narrow for a normal sized human. The glowing fungi light the space further into the cave too. but Tisha hasn't to go far to meet the next creature that is coming to check what the ruckus is about.
Tisha tries to stay hidden as she steps right back out and hides around the corner from the entrance.
One Derro? incoming she whispers to the others.
Then she readies to stab the thing in the back as soon as it steps out.
Narciso waits for Tish to explode into her lunge...
he screams silently...
also, Fort DC 17 or dazed for 1 round
Tisha retreats before the small creature can react. The small pale white haired man steps up and fires his crossbow at the first human that comes into sight while screaming something in a strange language.