Luka's eyes close and his breathing stops as he passes on to Pharasma's boneyard for judgment.
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Overwhelmed and desperate, Luka again attempts to combine sword & sorcery to take on two of the skeletons.
Luka grimaces at his own wounds before attacking with a renewed frenzy, targeting separate skeletons with sword and spell.
But his sword misses again and his spell fizzles.
"Dammit," Luka mutters as Aldous is brutally attacked. Still swinging his sword, he again speaks an arcane phrase and points his free hand at one of the skeletons attacking the wizard, the air rippling as a beam shoots toward his target. Spell Combat / Concentration Long sword Damage Disrupt Undead (ranged touch attack) Damage
"Get out of here, Aldous," Luka yells while again swinging his sword at another skeleton. Long sword Damage
With his right hand, Luka swings his sword in a wide flat arc while uttering an arcane phrase and pointing his left toward the skeleton nearest Aldous. Concentration Long sword Damage Disrupt Undead (ranged touch attack) Damage
Confirm crit (longsword) Damage
Peering over Trevor's shoulder as he wipes each plate in turn, Luka suddenly jumps to attention. "Skeletons!" he yells, taking a swing at the nearest one before it can get to its feet. Attack Damage Initiative
Luka peers through the partially blocked tunnel to the west. "This looks like the only way out from here," he says.
Luka is startled by the rising cacaphony, trying to peer into the hole to see what is going on, and is equally started at how quickly it stops. As soon as Arasmes is down, he follows as questions Trevor as to anything he might have seen. When the young warrior indicates there was nothing visible, he simply nods, and starts to look around for anything unusual. Perception
"Hold on, Trevor," Luka says, "I'll create some light for you. With that, Luka utters a phrase and touches his dagger, causing it to emit a bright light, which he then drops into the hole, being sure not to hit the young warrior. Once done, Luka follows Arasmes down the rope. climb
"Then let's just find the way downstairs," Luka says.
"I'm open to any suggestions, although the last one just seemed to have to run it's course, much to Trevor's misfortune. Anyway, do we really need to leave to obtain some holy water, and come back again? If we do that, we may as well return with a cleric. But we're here, now, and I suggest we press on as best we can."
"I say we look for the Warden's badge," Luka volunteers. "She may well be more effective against these spirits then we have proven to be, so far."
Luka's head nods back and forth before he steps forward and asks, "My Lady, we will do what we can to find your good husband's badge, but can you tell us more of those in the dark robes? Are they still here? Do you know more of what they are doing?"
Luka stands stunned as the apparition forms, and then speaks. After a moment, in a whisper, he says, "Talk to her Trevor. Tell her who we are."
Luka tries the door again.
"Trevor, you should have one of the others look at that burn," Luka says, as he lends his shoulder to the door.
"I think they're done," Luka says as he moves to Trevor, inspecting his arm. "Whatever malevolence animated them seems to have achieved its objective in branding you."
As the irons clatter to the ground, Luka's spell goes wide. Surprised, he looks at Trevor, and says, "Are you okay?" before walking over and prodding one with the toe of his boot.
Luka points at the irons and mutters an arcane phrase and a ray of glistening frost shoots from his fingertip.
"Ugh," Luka says, as he moves to look over the desk. "That's not good . . . seems harmless enough, though it sure does stink."
Luka moves along with the others, keeping an eye behind them. He shakes his head to try and rid it of the whispering voices, and regrips his sword, taking courage in the weight of the steel in his hand.
Luka tries to ignore the ghostly piping, and after a moments pause, falls in with the others again.
"Let's backtrack to the main entrance hall," Luka suggests.
Luka steps into the room, looking around. "We should probably decide how thoroughly we want to search everything, or whether we went to move quickly to find those involved in the Professor's death," he says. With that, he rummages through the desk, before moving over to inspect the safe.
"So far, so good." Luka says, patting Trevor on the back.
"Okay, Trevor, which door do you want to try next?"
Luka takes the lead, heading down the hall and and taking a wide angle as he looks around the corner.
"Sooner or later, we are going to have to face what we find," Luka says as he exits the small office and opens the next door, with sword in hand.
"Are such things susceptible to magic or enchanted weapons?" Luka ponders.
"Nothing interesting," Luka says. "Should we try door #2?" After a moments pause, he adds, "and what exactly is our plan, should we come across a ghost or haunt as we did before?"
"I'll give you a hand, so we can be quick about it," Luka says.
Peering over shoulders, Luka asks, "Do those papers look like anything interesting?"
Luka's eyes scan over the doorway and the broken, crumbling stones as he says, "Perhaps you're right. It doesn't look like we would find anything of value, and we best make use of the day light we have."
At the last moment, Luka holds back, waiting for Aldus to finish his sentence.
On the walk to Harrowstone, Luka offers his shortbow to Trevor, explaining that he has doesn't use it much anyway, preferring to rely on his magic. Once at the Wardens house, he notices the crumbling structure, and nods in affirmation at Arasmes' warning. Despite it, however, Luka shrugs and says, "it's lasted this long, shortly it can last another half hour or so," and he enters the house.
"We should best get on our way," Luka suggests as he picks his wide brimmed hat off the library table. "I suggest when we get there, we review the equipment we have, and maybe explore the Warden's house first."
Luka ponders the information the others have found. "Hmmmm," he says, "How does this information help us? How can we use it to our advantage? Any thoughts?"
"Ten gold," Luka grumbles. "I'm going to have to get back to you on that," he says, as he ponders selling his bow, which he lately finds he has little use for anyway. "Regardless, it's really not that big a deal."
"Hmmmm . . . checking the warden's home seems like the easiest option. If we find nothing there, I guess we'll just have to push our way through the old place and face what we find. I don' think we have time to go rummaging through the records at either capital."
"You're hospitality knows no limits, Kendra. Thank you," says Luka. "It means all the more, knowing that it was your fathers. Now then, everyone, what is our plan for the day? Have we decided? Arasmes, have you learned anything new? Personally, I think we would best be helped by finding a map of the prison, if one exists."
Luka looks up, and for the first time, notices the interaction between Aldous and Kendra. He takes it in, however, without comment, not wanting to step on anyones toes when it's clear there is a history there that precedes him. Before Aldous can leave, however, Luka pulls him aside and invites him to visit with Father Grimburrow first thing in the morning. "An hour or two of research before we return to the ruins of Harrowstone" is what he suggests.
Luka quietly eats his dinner, distracted from the conversation by thoughts of the days events and being chased out of Harrowstone so easily. "Perhaps we should return to the pharasmen," he mutters to no one in particular, interested in both research and any healing they could possibly give.
"Arasmes," Luka interrupts before his new colleague can cast his spell. "Tell me, can you use your magic to inflict wounds as well as cure them? Because of a . . . quIrk in my family history, such spells actually heal me, whereas healing spells cause me great pain."
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