Gravus backs away from the blocked attack, and takes advantage of the momentary respite to crouch down and check on the nasty head-wound that felled Bjarturius.
Valka continues and tries to FINISH OFF that same one she almost got!!!
Cassia travels the vaulted chamber in a wide arc, passes between the broad pillars, her long whip trailing at her side, maneuvering to get the right angle on the Undead. She spins the whip’s tail once above her head and lashes out at the creature’s feet. Her aim is dead on, the whip coiling around both ankles. Cassia yanks hard and brings the Skeletal Warrior down.
Valka, sensing victory, interrupts her dance of avoidance and rushes the damaged Skeletal Warrior, going body to body, bashing him in the torso with her scutum. Her shield smashes through the ribcage. An upward jerk of the shield destroys the already damaged skull. One down.
Gravus sees an opening, steps in and tends to the critically wounded Bjarturius. Impossible to tell at this point if the big man will live or not.
The remaining Skeletal Warrior frees his feet from the whip and stands up.
Valka cannot react in time to take advantage of the opportunity. But Gallus doesn't miss: the morning star crashes through ribs and cervical bone, badly damaging the Skeleton as he gets up.
The Skeletal Warrior counters, splitting his attacks between Valka and Gallus. Gallus defends well and blocks both blows with his scutum. Valka also parries the attacks aimed at her. Could Victory finally be near?
Gallus swings again, hoping this is near the end of this deadly combat. As soon as he can, he goes to the injured Bjarturius and tries to help him in any way he can.
Seeing the skeleton finally being ground down, Cassia moves around the pillar (to 14-11) so stand over Bjarturius. She looks down on his dying form and recalls that she gave her word to assist him, however poorly he has held to his side of the agreement.
"Get up Coruskian! I have not come this far to watch you bleed out in the tomb of your better."
She did...something...just now which restored the Tribune and she searches inside herself for a key. She recalls what her father said about the Coruskians, that they were like children, but that they would fight on as long as there was a cause to fight for.
"Then he prayed to the healer god, Pelor. 'Listen to me, Lord, look at the grievous wound I have. I cannot hold my spear steady nor go out and fight the foe. Lord Pelor, I ask to heal this cruel wound and lull the pain, giving me strength to rally my companions and to fight over the body of our dead King myself.' Pelor heard his prayer and at once relieved his pain, dried up the dark blood and filled his heart with strength."
Cassia reaches down and touches the brow of the priest of Kord, hoping, fearing that there will be an effect
Gallus and Valka, sensing final victory, both go on the offensive. Gallus lands a blow that crushes a hand and disarms one blade. Valka slams the full length of her scutum on the creature, staggering it back. She pivots the shield parallel to the floor, whirls in place like a discus thrower, smashing cleanly with her shield's edge the spine of the Skeletal warrior. The shattered top half collapses to the floor, shattering in bones. This fight is over.
Gravus watches Cassia's efforts carefully, perhaps a hint of superstitious mistrust in his eyes, but he resigns himself to the fact there is nothing more he can do for the priest immediately. All the same, he hoists himself up from his crouch, and finds space enough to remedy that problem by procuring his trusty mortar and pestle along with an assortment of ingredients.
Cassia's well recited words echo through the now quiet great vaulted chamber. The charismatic voice of the patrician lady draws everyone into the mystery she has evoked. If they were meant to have an effect however, none are witnessed.
Gravus notices Bjarturius has a healer's kit on him. Using this equipment, he bandages the fallen priest as best he can. But it remains impossible to tell at this point whether the big Coruskian will live or not. Gallus, when he joins the efforts tending to the priest, is also at a loss.
There are some signs of life, the chest erratically rises and falls indicating difficult breathing, the heart beats but barely, but they are the signs of one who may very likely die before sunrise.
While the others try to do something for Bjarturius, Valka will go check the door going to where the Ghouls come from. If we need light Valka will throw the torch that's at the door deeper in that room to really see what's there.
If there is really no more danger, Valka will go to Veleda see if she is ok. If she is I'll take her inside the room close to her brother not far from the central statues.
After Valka will take one of the torch she throw in the room to check out the tomb that's at the back. Valka will go up to the stairs but that's it for now (the idea is to light the back to see everything well).
Cassia retreats backwards into the alcove behind her and curls up in the shadows, sobbing quietly.
As Gravus works on the large coruskian Gallus helps. When Gravus rests from his efforts, so does Gallus. At that point, Gallus finds Cassia Aquila and squats down beside her. Lady, are you wounded?
When Valka spots Cassia all curled up and sobbing, she cant help have a big lump in her throat. Her eyes that was hard just before turn soft. Valka looks at her for a good while. Its hard to get what Valka is thinking when she does. She goes to Gravus and says:
"Watch over Bjarturius and Veleda. Take care of both the best you can."
After that she takes 2 steps in Cassia's direction but no more. With Gallus there at her side already its almost like she don't want to intrude or something. Valka speaks to her from a distance. The words probably dont come off nice and easy like cassia when she recites! Probably FAR from that:
"Cassia Aquila, of all of us you are the smartest and the one with the most education. You are the one that saw the curse of the lead tablets in Eburacum. You are the one that came up with the plan to outsmart Nikanor so he would pay. You are the one that solved the riddle of the letters on the floor in this place, probably saving us. We need you now."
After a short time Cassia emerges from the alcove, the pale skin of her face almost shining in the torch light.
"Just Cassia," she says, without warmth.
She walks slowly around the now apparently safe room, glancing into the chamber from which the ghouls came but studying the four sets of carvings before cautiously and respectfully approaching the tomb to stand at the bottom of the steps of the dais before it.
RIsing from Cassia Aquila's side, Gallus walks the edge of the room, seeing if any detail was missed. When he comes to the ghoul room he stops and peers inside to see what Valka Spartaca's torch has revealed.
The Ghoul's side chamber is a simple low ceiling crypt, dark and foreboding, with four stone coffins as the room's only ornaments, one of which has been smashed and vandalized. The other three have open caskets from which the three Ghouls have emerged. Tattered black robe remains with graying white skull designs indicate to Cassia they must have been Priests or Acolytes of Hextor (or should she say 'Hextaur'?).
The dais at the back of the great vaulted chamber, when lit by Valka's torch, reveals a finely carved stone coffin with a relief depicting a richly robed Priest. Twin sacrificial altar stones flank the coffin, and before it lies an engraved flooring whose designs echo the ones seen at the central statue's feet. Two more stone Goblin warrior statues frame the portrait and stand as eternal guardians to the Priest's coffin, their weapons raised menacingly.
Examining the floor designs, Cassia can make out "offering" and "spirit".
"Your faith in me is touching, Valka Spartaca. But I fear there is too much unknown here for me to suddenly reach a solution. It may be that Valeda's only hope is for us to seek aid directly from he whose tomb this is. I doubt that such aid would come without sacrifice."
Grabbing up a torch, Lucius Gallus proceeds into the ghoul room and begins a thorough examination of it.
Having settled Bjarturius and Veleda near the entrance, the dwarf makes his way to the others. "If the secret of the cure is te be found here, it would be best te find it quickly... I'm nae sure how much longer the lass can hold out, and even if the knowledge is contained in this place, there is no guarantee that the necessary ingredients are here with it."
"Might the priest have been interred along with some tome?" he asks, looking over the finely carved coffin, and the watchful eyes of the goblinoid statues... as he meets their stony gaze, he squints and lets out a thoughtful, yet frustrated, grunt as though something is nagging at the back of his mind which he can't quite place.
Valka considers the words of Cassia on one side and Gravus on the other side.
"So if I get what you're both saying our choices are ..."
Looking at Cassia:
"... asking for help from Manricus but that would need a sacrifice? ..."
Looking at Gravus:
"... or opening his tomb and see if something that can help us was buried with him?"
Is this really Manricus's tomb? How do you ask for help from someone that's dead? Valka barely starts to think about what all this means and puts it out of her mind fast.
She throws the torch she's holding at the foot of the stone tomb, ideally on the design drawings. After that she draw her gladius.
"Its true we are out of time if we want to save Veleda. So one last chance for advice or one last chance to run. Take your pick quick. I didn't wait when it was time to save Cassia and I wont wait now!"
"I do not advise robbing the tomb of a warrior priest of Hextor, least of all where there is good reason to believe he may be Animus. Perhaps your dwarf's lust for gold is influencing his advice. And even so, do you believe that there is a chance there will be a recipe for an antidote along with the right ingredients, preserved these five hundred years?"
Cassia looks unhappily at the torch burning in the center of the carving.
"I would suggest that we offer the armour of Bjarturius Rasmus as one sacrifice, it is a thing of value, appropriate to the god of war and it is he who needs the intercession of Manricus."
She stares into the darkness.
"And...and I have a sacrifice."
Valka gives Cassia a wide eye look when she mentions having a sacrifice.
"What ... SACRIFICE ... do you have to give?" I ask Cassia.
This is NOT making Valka at ease. She points Bjarturius's breastplate with her gladius and says to Gravus:
"Take this off quick!"
Cassia looks back at Valka Spartaca. She's crying.
"That which I value most."
Valka is now VERY WORRIED.
"What do you MEAN ... what you value most??!!!??"
When (if?) Gravus is done removing the breastplate Valka will sheath her gladius, take the armor by the collar and bring it to the steps and stay CLOSE to Cassia checking really well what she is doing!
The dwarf grimaces at the mention of further walking dead, before shortly nodding and setting to work removing the breastplate from the large Coruskian priest.
"Lucius Gallus? Do you accept this course?"
Cassia prepares by removing her armour and weapons, except for the dagger she took from the monstrosity outside which she slides into the scabbard of her own pugio and remains belted at her waist. She runs her fingers over her stola and other belongings and the travel stains are wiped away, as if by magic. She combs the tangles out of her hair and lets it hang loose.
After his search of the ghoul room Gallus joins the others to discuss the next course of action. Gallus approaches them staying behind Cassia Aquila and exchanges a worried look with Valka Spartaca.
Mayhaps one of these servitors would make a suitable offering, or at least should capture the attention of this priest, if any such thing is possible.
Fearing to know exactly what she means, but with horror etched on his face, Lucius Gallus answers Cassia Aquila No, I do not approve this course. I do not even know what it is, and am certain that blood for blood is no deal we can win in this place!
Cassia looks genuinely startled.
"Blood?" She looks from Valka to Lucius. "You think..."
Cassia shakes her head and almost smiles for the first time in days.
"It's only a sacrifice if it has value."
She returns to her preparations then shrugs and turns back towards the others.
"While Hextaur the Destroyer would undoubtedly accept the sacrifice of a ram on one of his altars I didn't bring one and I don't see one among your belongings Lucius Gallus. I have something more personal in mind. Manricus was a great man, if he yet dwells here, and if he will, he can aid us. If not," she shrugs, "Valeda will die. Bjarturius Rasmus will probably die. We will need to make our way back through these hills infested with goblins whose blood is up and we will also probably die. My life may have no value, but it's mine and if there may be a purpose for it yet I have no wish to surrender it."
Her rationale explained, Cassia puts on some simple, though tasteful, jewellery and stares at the tomb thinking who knows what behind her inscrutable gaze.
Relaxing slightly, but still concerned, Lucius Gallus moves closer, to Cassia Aquila. Are these preperations that I can help with Cassia?
"No."
Cassia moves the light sources around so that the light is balanced and behind her and she gestures her companions to stay back. She respectfully climbs the steps to place Bjarturius’ armour on the left hand altar, then backs down to walk around to the right hand altar on which she places something small and silver.
She stands at the bottom of the steps, level with the sarcophagus, the light sources behind her casting her shadows onto the ancient stone.
”I am Cassia, once of the Cassii Aquilii, and I come before the tomb of Tertius Sepurcius Tiberillus Hicesio, called Manricus, as a supplicant.”
She climbs up two steps to stand just below the dias.
”I give sacrifice to Hextaur. The armour of Bjarturius Rasmus Torsteno, son of Adalius Torsteno, from the blood of Thorsten. Bjarturius Rasmus is chosen of Kord and lies gravely injured from wounds taken in his front.”
Her clear voice chokes as she looks to the altar to her right.
”I give sacrifice to Hextaur. The signet of Tribune Laticlavius Lucius Cassius Aquilius, and with it my right to the name of Cassia Aquila Tercia.”
Cassia’s back straightens and she looks across at the relief she believes to be of Manricus, then steps onto the carving before the tomb.
”I pledge the sacrifice to Hextaur of a fine ram and I request that the High Priest General Manricus come forth and give aid in undoing the injury done to Valeda Rasmus who has taken six paces towards the grave and stands now on the edge.”
Cassia kneels down before the tomb, bowing her head and waits to see if her earnest prayer is answered.
A cold chill sweeps across the great vaulted chamber, making all mortals shiver in dread awe as the Ghost of Manricus rises slowly from the stone coffin.
The aged man is unimpressive in stature and looks. The ghostly form, however, does compensate for that fact. He speaks in old accented Suel:
"Who dares call upon the shade of Tertius Sepurcius Tiberillus Hicesio and demand aid without proper sacrifices in blood praising Almighty Hextaur?"
Though the words are menacing the tone is not.
Valka (who was really close) steps up next to Cassia, cuts her hand with her gladius to let some drops of her blood fall on the altar next to that small silver thing (Valka peeks to see what it is btw!).
Valka says in Suel, speaking slowly:
"If blood is proper, take mine in praise of Almighty Hextor!"
"I am Cassia..." There is a pause, perhaps an inner struggle, and Cassia raises her head to look at the shade.
"...and I would not think to make such a demand in your place of rest. I have made sacrifices in the hope that you would respond to hear my request and aid me if you choose."
Cassia looks over to the others and points to them.
"I have traveled here with Valka Spartaca a bloodthirsty Coruskian, Lucius Gallus who served in the legions and Bjarturius Rasmus, Priest of Kord. We have shed much goblin blood in order to stand before you and will dedicate more blood still to Almighty Hextaur if you will aid us."
When Cassia says what she says about us shedding much blood, something passes in Valka's head and she smiles, but its one of those smiles of irony.
"Ghost of Manricus: I would gladly give you the blood of the champions we have killed to get here but the ones here don't have any. And if the champions of the Goblins above, the ones with four arms, are champions of Hextor, I killed them all so easily their blood is not worthy to be sacrificed to Almighty Hextor God of War! So I give you MINE instead, since I killed and destroyed everything that stood in my way to get here! Mine is blood worthy of the God of War!"
Cassia, leave me free of your blood oaths. Lucius Gallus says softly but firmly.
Manricus's hollowed eyes burn with dark intensity when Gallus speaks, even though the young warrior was barely audible.
A moment of silence.
The Ghost looks impassively at the two women before him: "Your base supplications and meager offerings to War Divine are acceptable. They will quench my thirst to feed upon your animae and destroy you utterly for having disturbed my eternal rest."
A sudden stir of contempt: "But aid you? Why should I, Manricus of Hextaur, do such a thing?"
"Why does anyone do anything? Because you can. Because it amuses you? Because we living can act on your behalf? Because a beautiful woman asks you to? Because the knowledge you worked so hard to attain was gifted to a vain and spiteful hag who could not even direct her vengeance properly? Because the world outside has forgotten the great Manricus? Because a Milite of your old legion died a bloody death, still cursing his foe, in order that we should stand before you now? You could choose any one of a thousand reasons. I do not have the hubris to try to bargain with you or trick you. You will help me if you choose to, and not if you choose not, and you will demand of me what you will."
Manricus's lips contort into the semblance of a wry grin at Cassia's bold words.
“Fortune is a fickle Mistress that she should surprise me not once but twice.”
Raising his left hand slowly:
“Swear an Oath of servitude to me, one great quest to the Glory of Hextaur and the seventh pace will not be taken. Give yourself to my will, ‘In nomine Hextauris meus spiritus Manrico tradere’ . Close your eyes, repeat thrice and know those words to be true. Do it and she will not die.”
Did Manricus address Cassia, Valka, both or all in the chamber is anyone's guess .
"Lord General Manricus, I will surely pledge to you. But, forgive my insolence, I have studied and I know that many heroes have fallen because they did not listen to what they were swearing to. Do you intend that the girl be restored to health and life? I would not wish her to be sustained as she is now, or to live on as Animus."
"Insolence!"
Manricus barks in a loud echoing voice, his ghostly form darting forward with surprising speed at Cassia.
Manricus's left hand grabs Cassia's right. Though incorporeal, the old man's grip is like iron, and very, very cold. Cassia is wracked with intense pain as she witnesses in horror her hand wither with age in the blink of an eye.
Cassia is eerily held up by her withering right hand for a long, intensely painful moment. She cries out in vivid pain until she cries no more. Manricus releases her only then. She drops to the carved floor, limp and unmoving.
Valka, reacting with a mix of urgency and panic, drops to her knees in front of Manricus, eyes down, hoping to stop all this before it gets worse!
“I will take the Oath!”