Gittik races over to the fallen staff and scoops it up.
Gittik races over to the fallen staff and scoops it up.
Harvak, you can go on and do something.
Becton, dmpc'd, will try to turn after your go,...then the ogres (possibly) and it'll be on to round two.Stiggy does a little better damage to his foe this time. five ribs that were attached to the sternum are now virtually floating ribs now, and the 5th thoracic vertebrae is crushed. The ogre's upper body bends 45 degrees to the left like a half felled tree; it's still in fighting condition, but a little more oomph and it'll be laying in two strewn halves on the rocky floor.
Gittik races over to the fallen staff and scoops it up.
One action to pick up, and 15 feet of movement can have you at the door. Wanna run in any more?
I don't understand why you wouldn't want to be in the room. (teehee)
InitAttacking the one at A8&9
1d20+5=12
1d10+6=12
Harvak hews down the burned, acid splashed skeleton.
Becton moves to c7, next to Harvak. Presenting his holy symbol mightily towards the two remaining skeletons, "In the name of Pelor, and all that is holy, I rebuke you, thou wretched wrong things, for it is nothing but wrong in the eyes of creation and the creator that you should perform any action save you rest in the firmament. By Pelor, be thou still!!!"
The one in the far corner cowers, (#4 on the map) as the splashed holy water sizzles on its bones, smoke wafting up.
The other one(#2 on the map) bellows, and brings its club down on Stiggy from a side-cocked high guard slam. Stiggy brings his shield to a 60 degree angle and rolls slightly to his right in that swiftfooted dwarven way, letting the club slide harmlessly down the shield's front instead of bracing up against it. The blow would have dashed the brains out of a human, or crushed his arm under shield, but Stigwold is of a kith that knows the most cunning of giantfighting ways.
Round 2!!! One left fighting in gh12, one cowers in gh78.
Altai shoots the non-cowering skeleton with his crossbow.
"Death to the dead things!"
"GAAAAH!"
Riese can't get the thought of that cat-dog creature's fur in his hand......
Under Stiggy's axe, the ogre's right ilium explodes in a frenzy of bone shards. It's standing cockeyed still on the left leg, barely animate. one more good smack oughtta...The crossbow bolt bounces off of one elephantine humerus. Nice shot; barely nicks the bone.
Elgan, Harvak, Beldan, Becton still left in round two. The thing cocks a socket at the helpless-seeming halfling grounded at his feet...
(edit) can't say male rooster? ZOUNDS!
Elgan, having been watching the hasty bone-splitting action of Harvak and Stiggy, can wait no longer. The drool has puddled at his feet.
With a cross between a bark and a roar the small wolf hurls itself at the non-cowered skeleton, chomping at it's huge tibia. The scene looks disturbingly like a rabid terrier attacking a normal-sized skeleton.
Elgan to hit/dmg on BIG skellie: (1d20 3=19, 1d6 3=8)
;P
The skeleton is almost dead. A twist, and a patella above pops Stiggy in the nards like a champagne bottle cork. The thing swings one monstrous hand out to brace on the wall, pirouetting on one half-good leg like some spasming ballerina in a Bonecracker Suite.
Harvak! Beldan! Becton! It....lives...stiiiiill!!!
The thing comes crashing down in a heap; Elgan comes up with a tibia for a prize.
End of Combat. 300 xp each.
Becton stands at least 10 feet back, and the cowering one goes down under multiple blows.
"Bloody hell", Altai mutters as he wipes bone dust off his face. "Undead giants this close to Saltmarsh! Who woulda thought? We did good, though."
Harvak picks up Gittik. "You alright".
Gittik emerges from under a pile of ogre bones. "Thanks, Big-Ugly, me OK now." He dusts himself off, then chucks the staff back down in disgust.
"Poonhole ogre skellies!"
"The ogres that destroyed my home in the Dreadwood had a evil shaman of great power and his dead warriors did rise again to fight. This power of the one they call Orcus". Harvak then spits in disgust upon the bones.
Contuning on from there...are there any exits out of this room?
Also, I'm sorry to ask, but back in the bunk room - how many entry/exits were there?
"Bloody hell", Altai mutters as he wipes bone dust off his face. "Undead giants this close to Saltmarsh! Who woulda thought? We did good, though."
Betcon performs a quick consecration with spritz of holy water, in hopes these abomination won't rise again.
"These are mere skeletons, Altai..despite their fearsome prescence...they would rarely rise on their own. The real concern here...is there a necromancer residing amongst whoever sleeps in that bunk room?"
"First a skeletal creature is involved with Swertlowe and his band of misfits. Now a secret lair with monstrous undead near Saltmarsh...someone or some group may be trying to take advantage of Keoland's recent troubles."
"That's right, Scooby, what we have here is a real mystery on our hands!"
Can I get a "Zoinks!?"
Contuning on from there...are there any exits out of this room?
Also, I'm sorry to ask, but back in the bunk room - how many entry/exits were there?
Out of this room, there's a door at the top of the east wall, and a door in the west wall you guys came into.
In the bunk room, there's the secret door from the rotgrub room, a door on the north wall 10 feet east of that secret door, the door on the east wall to the room you're currently in, and a murderholed ceiling door led up to by a stairway, over in the west side of the room.
I didn't know what happened, so I figured you'd turn some byoches.
heh heh...
“Wouldn’t it take a really powerful necromancer to animate such big skeletons?” asks Beldan, glancing nervously at the footlocker with the floral robes that he had been mucking about with, before shaking his head. Nah.
“Actually, I sort of got the sense that these things were here already, when whoever is camping out over there got here. They seemed somehow … ancient when they came to life like that. And then there’s “danger” scratched on the door…”
Beldan looks down at the now lifeless piles of bones and shudders. “Well … I guess we should see if they were guarding anything good …” He begins poking around the room, looking for hidden treasure, but he seems a little distracted by something.
From Beldan's search, there doesn't seem to be anything very interesting in this room.
The ogres' greatclubs are merely of dreadwood oak, and seem extremely old and dry. One good rap in the right place and they would splinter. The floor is littered with osseous debris from the recent grande melee, and naught else.
“Alright, where to next? East from here?” In anticipation, Beldan heads over to the east door (from the skelington room) and begins searching it for traps, trying to see if its unlocked. Doesn’t open it yet.
Beldan doesn't appreciate any traps on the door.
It's locked, but his spanking new thieve's tools bounce the tumblers right smartly.
“Wouldn’t it take a really powerful necromancer to animate such big skeletons?” asks Beldan, “Actually, I sort of got the sense that these things were here already, when whoever is camping out over there got here. They seemed somehow … ancient when they came to life like that."
"Hmmm...perhaps you're right...I may be pondering shadows where there are none."
“Alright, where to next? East from here?”
"Sounds reasonable...although do we plan on having a rear guard to keep an eye on the barracks? Or at least, close the door perhaps?"
"You mean the door that Harvak ripped off its hinges?" Beldan asks. "But yeah, shutting the secret door is probably a good idea. Alright, I think I got this one ... anyone wish to do the honours?"
Alright, Riese, focus....focus......fo......cuss........
"Yah," Elgan adds to Altai's and Beldan's observations.
"Ah gots da same impresshun dere. Like deys wuz jes' sitten dere, an' when dey wuz foun' dey jes' skritched 'Dangeh' on duh doh' ta remin' dem like."
He prowls around the rooms some more.
"Ah t'inks dat if'n whoevah we iz lookin' fer is usin' dem rooms as a base, den we should go dat way," He says, pointing at the door in the skelly room. "Cuz dey didn' use it, an' mebbe we kin use it ta sneak up on 'em!"
(edit) maybe 2 or 3 hours....
here we go....
This room is 40 feet north south by 30 feet eastwest. It is obviously the sanctum of one versed in the alchemical arts, but not the organizational ones.
The West, east, and North walls all are table lined; here and there are jars and vials of various powders and liquids, and glass tubing runs everywhere among the racks of dormant fluids. Insects of all sort are pinned to little cards. Broken glasss strews the floor. A stack of books here and there, and on the eastern table, an odd device that looks like a three foot long captain's spyglass, braced to a vice staring at the table, the eye lens about eye level for a human.
On the south wall is a desk, with a high-backed chair. A slumped, motionless figure can be seen in the chair from the right arm dangling out into space; no specific details can be made out from just peering in the door. There seem to be several books on the desk, and to the desks' left is a big blackboard striped with chalked mathematics and alchemical notations.
Peering into the room past Harvak's shoulder, Elgan bristles at seeing the form in the chair, and instantly shimmers into the black cat one more,...
Peering into the room past Harvak's shoulder, Elgan bristles at seeing the form in the chair, and instantly shimmers into the black cat one more,...
(saving a post from oblivion....)
Man, it's an ancient, chymically funk in here. You hate it the most.
"I'd guess that nobody's been in this room in ages and ages, as they could not get past the skeleton guards. Nasty smell in here, too - the dead guy probably poisoned himself by accident. Alchemy is not to be done in enclosed, airless rooms."
Metaphorically, you've graduated from high school trig, and the stuff on the chalkboard is astrophysics. It's real, but you'd have to really apply yourself to entirely understand it.
The gist of it is essentially combining formulae for size changing spellwork or potionwork of some kind, and a powerful string of enhancement and/or constituent constitution dwoemerwork.
Orange juice from concentrate....for potions(?) Feel free to speculate.
Theoretical transmutations--advanced stuff--th' guy was a real Poindexter.
"Iiiiinteresting. Look at that..." Altai wanders into the room, absorbed by the chalky scrawls. "This is complex stuff. No wonder this guy forgot to air out his lab."
"Iiiiinteresting. Look at that..." Altai wanders into the room, absorbed by the chalky scrawls. "This is complex stuff. No wonder this guy forgot to air out his lab."
Cue shocking Star Trek music:
"He's dead, Jim."He has been dead for years. There's an open book he was reading on the desk. Writing in as well.
Next to him is a saucer of bluish tinged clear liquid. A lone brave, brazen cockroach totally ignores you as it drinks from the saucer.