Ketra will be trying to stay out of sight of the room to the south, cautiously avoiding exposing herself to too much danger in one dose.
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Ketra takes a look around the second room with the smaller sarcophagi. This part is definitely new, at least as far as her muddled memory is concerned. She inspects the room carefully for hazards before entering and rapping the new sarcophagi. It takes a lot of effort to not ask "Hello, anyone in there?"
"Probably not..." Ketra is pressed by that same sense of irrational duty to push the lids aside and just, you know, double check that there isn't anyone currently suffocating within. Assuming that reveals nothing exceptionally interesting or hazardous, she leaves the sarcophagi behind and sneaks her way to the southern breach in the wall to take a peek at what lies that way.
"Good times... heh." Ketra winces as she heads over to inspect the two remaining sarcophagi. For better or worse, she feels obligated to check if there isn't someone else trapped inside, as illogical as that instinct might be...
"Don't worry about it, just a bit of an in-joke. We'll explain the whole story later."
Ketra nods to Garret, but turns her attention to the room with the row of sarcophagi ahead. "All good. But it would be appropriately creepy if we found another set of us in those sarcophagi." Her voice is a little strained - it was decidedly strange to be retracing the group's steps in a way back to where they'd all "undied". She looks out for any traps or hazards, and then if things seem safe she advances forward to get a better look at the sarcophagi.
"Fewer of them, aren't there..."
"I doubt the lar was lying. Can beings like that even lie at all?" Ketra shrugs "Still, we've got to believe this tunnel exists. If it doesn't, we're walking through the necromantic barrier fog instead... and I'm not excited to give that a try."
When the creature doesn't surface, Ketra cautiously says "Dead then." then squares her jaw as if to dare the thing to prove her wrong. She turns to the others "You two could use some healing - Garret especially. Do we have anything left in the wand? I'll keep lookout up ahead." before trotting over to the north to listen and watch for incoming dangers.
"The monster? Goo-a-cubu, I think. Never thought I'd see one in person, ever." Ketra lowers her knives after a few wary moments watching the ground. "It didn't seem to hit you and Zsofia too hard, but that draining it was doing... Sanduro, don't tell me we needed to keep it alive to squeeze the life energy back out of it or something. I was hoping it'd snap right back into place when it died." She eyes the ground "It did die, right?"
With the creature seemingly unstoppable despite the absolute torrent of attacks, Ketra hesitates for a moment. However, when it bites into Garret, she realizes she has no choice but to keep up the assault and hope that it flees. She swirls through a flurry of strikes, relying on one of her memorized routines as her mind tries to keep from panicking.
With heart hammering in her chest, Ketra dodges the guecubu's attack. Seeing what it just did to Zsofia leaves her more determined than ever to finish it quickly, before it can drain anyone else. She lowers her stance, takes a breath, and then sweeps into a practiced flurry of stabs and feints.
Ketra whirls around when she hears the rattle of bones, ready to fight more skeletal undead. When it turns out to be some sort of half-elemental, she pauses for a moment to regard it.
Then, wary of the sudden surge of razor sharp rocks around her, Ketra leaps forward 10 feet from a standing position to close into melee with the foe.
Ketra shrugs "Vandalized by those undead maybe? Or by someone even longer ago? Who knows..." When Garret and Sanduro don't find anything in the storage closet, Ketra sneaks forward to get a look into the next room.
"Oh wow. The Red Crusader? I remember hearing that story. That's an old title for Arazni, a herald of Aroden in olden times, right? I think she's long since been turned into an undead monster, half-way across the world." She ponders for a moment and then adds "Back in the other tomb, I remember there were those murals of Roslar being into Arazni - when she was still a human, I guess. We haven't seen anything like that here yet, but maybe the idea's still the same. In which case someone must have broken the statue." Ketra keeps watch while Garret rummages through the supply room. She hopes there aren't any more of those ostovites here.
I'll be traveling for work until Wednesday next week. I may be able to get a couple posts in, but I suspect it'll be pretty slim.
"I guess so. Doesn't look like any other way forwards. Unless we're all getting sick of monsters lying in wait - in which case I guess our only alternative is picking up some shovels and starting to dig." Ketra gives a weak smile as she starts down the steps. As she goes, she listens out to try to determine if the room downstairs is occupied before the group reaches it.
"Looks safe, if anyone wants to take a look at these pedestals." Ketra eyes the stairs going down. "Didn't the other version of the tomb have some weird thing where we placed plates and symbols in a particular pattern? Somehow, this is a little familiar, but also totally not familiar at all..."
Ketra follows after Zsofia, ready to offer her second opinion of the room's safetitude. Since Zsofia seems to mostly be looking at the ceiling, Ketra focuses on listening for anything approaching.
If she doesn't notice anything, she looks over at the pedestals, inspecting the sole remaining bust to see if she recognizes it.
With the rest of the party patched up, Ketra sneaks toward the southern door and peeks into the next room, looking for any more ambushers lying in wait. She does a little too much splashing along the way. She whispers back to the party "Isn't it strange how many monsters have been lying in wait here? Assuming this really is going to connect to a tunnel heading out of that bubble, well, shouldn't it be less dangerous rather than more? Any monsters in here should be able to leave and get fresh prey in the outside world..."
"Phew..." Ketra cleans the bloody film off her knife, then takes a moment to look around the room more carefully.
"They were hiding a little too well. What were they hoping to catch here, that hadn't already turned undead? Seems almost like someone left them here on purpose to ambush living people trying to make their way through."
"Well, lets not let them then!" Ketra chirps back to Garret.
Ketra steps to the side and slashes twice at the green-ish red mist in hopes of finishing it off before it can suck any more blood. "These aren't going to regenerate, or anything, right Garret?"
Ketra twirls back, nimbly dodging the extended bloody tendril, and falls back into her careful stance. "Okay, I'm definitely sick of random horrors showing up. What did this tomb do to deserve all of this? Unless..." With a flashy twirl of blades, she attempts to strike fear into the red mists - assuming they have at least some basic degree of intelligence. She ends her twirl with a sudden thrust of her mithril knife at the mist next to her.
"Don't remind me Silvia..." Ketra winces "Somehow the tomb in the Boneyard was more friendly than this version too." She waits for Zsofia's signal that the coast is clear, then follows after the phantom.
Ketra eases the door the rest of the way open to get a better look into the room. "I don't see anything yet. I hope the ceiling isn't going to collapse on us, with all that dripping..." Ketra stays by the door as Zsofia swoops past, half expecting the pools of water to rise up into some kind of new watery horror.
When Garret explains the statuette, Ketra's eyes widen "A whole...griffon? Isn't that a legendary monster? And it'll just follow our commands?" She looks down at the statue "I guess we should keep it safe then." Once the griffon has been squirreled away in someone's pack, Ketra steps up to the southern door with the dripping sound. With knife in hand, she cracks the door open and tries to see if she can spot what's inside without exposing herself to too much harm.
With the fungi gone thanks to Garret's assault, Ketra steps forward and takes a look around the room's shelves and displays. She sneaks pasts the open doorway to the south and also peeks that way as she goes.
"Ugh." Ketra looks back at the rest of the party. "It doesn't look pretty. Plenty of spores and not a whole much else to offer. I think there's a way through to another room back there, but its hard to tell." She looks over at Zsofia and Sanduro "Zsofia, you want to take a peek? If there's nothing worthwhile that way, I'd rather not go through that spore soup."
With no other option than to press on along the only path going deeper, Ketra heads to the other end of the room and peers down the long tunnel, eyes open for more traps.
"That seems smart to me Garret. I just hope it isn't even worse going further in." Ketra gets her blades ready once more "And if we come across another one of those, it would be nice to have some wind to blow all the spores away before we can breathe them in... assuming we've got something like that." Assuming the rest of you don't have any instant wind in a spell at the ready, Ketra then shrugs "I guess we'll have to deal with it if we get to it. If the spores get any thicker though, we're getting out until we can plan a good way to get through them."
Ketra covers her mouth and nose with her elbow, turning away from the gurgling insect. "Ugh... one moment." She coughs roughly a few times, trying to expel whatever she managed to breathe in, then says "I had a feeling it didn't make sense for anyone good to be down here, but I couldn't have guessed it'd be, well, that!" She points at the xenopterid. "Thanks Silvia. You really saved us this time." "Sanduro, do you think we need to get rid of it somehow? Burn it? Or is that going to make the spore situation even worse?"
The sudden transformation of the the creature takes Ketra by surprise, but not more so than many other horrors the group has seen so far. Taking in the vestigial hands and face and other humanoid bits squirming around the surface of the creature's body on the other hand is just too much. She staggers back, too appalled to be able to hold her stance. She unsteadily draws a potion of cure moderate, then holds position, hoping to at least keep the creature off her more fragile teammates.
Ketra whispers "Uh, you trying to show our weird guy how to drink? Or something?" eyeing Zsofia with some concern. She answers Sanduro with "Well, to be fair, the guy had a bunch of angry undead in the room above this. So maybe he didn't have much of a choice. Than again, it doesn't explain how he got in here and why there are spores all over."
"Thirsty? Is that it?" Ketra rummages through her pack and pulls out a half-filled waterskin. Rather than getting close to this afflicted individual, she tosses the waterskin over. With all the spores in the air and the seemingly human figure having likely breathed a lot of them in, she hopes this might make a difference. At least to the point that they'll be able to talk. "Drink, please."
Unsure of exactly what might be going on with the figure, Ketra decides to probe its reactions a little and hopefully get it to move out of the way. She rummages through her pack for a moment and then draws out a single elaborately inscribed playing card - the two of clubs. She flicks the card across the room to strike fall against the far wall. A lanky kobold springs forth from the card. She mentally directs the kobold to dance around the figure and try to grab its attention.
Ketra stays with Garret. She whispers from behind her impromptu mask "I think they're blocking the only way further in. Unless someone's got a lasso, we're going to have a really hard time getting past without disturbing them."
Concerned about the spores, Ketra makes sure to affix a cloth over her mouth and nose to at least not be breathing them in directly. She follows the others down, relying on her darkvision until Garret creates the dancing lights. While Garret addresses the hunched figure, Ketra looks around the room for any other dangers that may be lying in wait. She strongly doubts that anyone found deep in this place has good intentions.
"Pollen? Definitely not from our side. You think they could have blown in from below somehow?" Ketra shakes her head "You don't think... somehow... this version of the tomb also has a hole leading to gremlin land? Probably not, right?" "You think the spores are anything to worry about?"
"So, ready to go then? There were some noises during the night, so maybe whatever is down there is going to be ready for us." Ketra draws her mithril knife and magical dagger.
The fog begins to clear a little for Ketra with the application of Silvia and Sanduro's magic. Still, by the time Ketra is running through her morning preparations, dancing through her Routines, she still feels a little like she's dreaming. Her thoughts keep going back to that vivid vision she'd seen. Looking down on a little girl who hadn't even realized the cruelty visited upon her. The feeling of cowardice, the thrill of a successful trick. Ketra can't help but shiver, shoving the unwelcome memory away, drowning it in the rhythms of her movements. Once she's done she returns to the group "I feel about as good as you'd expect. Let's keep going, and get ready to cut through whatever other undead horrors are waiting for us." Once the others are set, she helps move the pedestal back out of place.
Ketra looks around a bit while Zsofia is scouting. By the time the phantom returns, she's frowning. "You know, I thought I'd recognize this place better since we explored our way out of it back when we were in the Boneyard. But somehow it looks much less familiar than I expected... or maybe that's just the weird thing that ghost did to me talking." She makes her way over to the . "As much as I'd like to start napping right now, maybe we could move this pedestal over to block the door leading to the stairs going down? Not sure if I could sleep with the door to who knows what so close..."
Ketra closes her eyes "Well, I wouldn't say no to resting. I don't think any of these undead would have sent word on that we're here. Still, the tomb might not be that safe either. I guess." She sways a little and then leans against the wall. "I'd also be okay with pressing on for a bit longer before we rest more."
Ketra shakes her head "I don't think it's getting worse. Just like, I don't know, like I'm hung over or something." She gets up on one knee, pauses, then rises to her feet. "Or like I'm seeing the world through the bottom of one of Pa's big glasses. All, distorted like." She shakes her head. "I can keep going. Though we might want to heal up first."
Ketra shakes her head to Silvia "Not... sure really. Everything's sho... sad somehow..." She's clearly starting to slur her words. "The ghost's gone though? Gone gone? I think... she tried to get me killed. When I was little... not right now... but a long time ago probably."
Ketra clutches a hand to her forehead as the fight concludes, lowering herself to the ground. The impact of the ghost touching her still lingers, leaving her thoughts and feelings seem like they're coming to her from behind a thick bank of fog. "Uh... I think... I'm not doing well. Anyone know what's wrong?"
Ketra won't stand for this assault on Sanduro. With a sudden burst of practiced precision, she dashes to interpose herself and delivers a whirling haymaker.
Ketra, after confirming the ghost has dissipated, hears that the action isn't over in the other room. She rushes back through the hallway and around to flank the skeleton archer. She drops her dagger to free up a hand for punching those bones!
"She was pretty mean. I guess, even meaner than I remembered." Ketra answers Zsofia, then raises her smoky knife to try to block the ghost's next attack.
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