Chakos looks to Astra and hisses and spits a bit.
Argug, now flanking the alien with Sneek, delivers a series of rapid palm strikes to the creature's neck region.
Snort sniggle
Argug's larger, meatier palm smacks into the undead kasatha. You hear a crack as bone is broken in its face and neck, but the head remains attached if loose.
The Kasatha moves his blade in a dervish of bronzed steel, cutting at Argug and Chakos. For good measure, he throws his fists at the ratfolk behind him.
Argug gets hit for 10. Sneek gets hit for 5.
After having given Argug a spot of healing, Astra then turns her attention to her own condition. She starts to pull the javelin through her torso gradually, little by little, in the same direction as it entered of course to avoid pulling the blade a second time through her. At the same time, she whispers words of magic, summoning her last Cure Light Wounds spell for the day to staunch bleeding and disinfect the wound as it is exposed. Once the javelin is clear through, she lets it fall to the floor with a clank, and she sags against a wall for support, gasping deeply as she finishes the spell, organs and flesh knitting themselves back together.
Chakos will 5' step away and CLW on himself.
The Kasatha's chest rises and falls, as though breathing. Looking at its condition, you feel that no air enters this creature.
Can I discern what manner of undead this equates to in humanoids?
Nose bleeding from the undead fist to his face Sneek again tries use his rapier to pierce a vital part of the creature. Make this one count, we might not get another chance.
Liz is worried, her spells are depleted except for a minor lightning spell. Glancing at her ring, Liz draws on it's power and covers one of the Kasatha's weapons with grease.
Sneek's rapier cuts into the alien creature, but its decayed flesh and undead nature cause little pain.
The undead creature drops one of its blades as Liz's magic coats it with slippery liquid. It clatters to the metal floor. The kasatha's eyes glow green for a moment as it glares at Liz.
"Jar galla et ju ga!" the Kasatha roars.
Anyway, you have heard that blessings for certain evil gods, like Zyphus, can resurrect the creature every 24 hours, unless some ritual happens to undo it. You can also ask 2 questions.
Argug opens his arms wide and attempts to box the creature's ears with two meaty fists a-la-Bearhugger from Punchout.
...and apparently, his hands clap together as this thing somehow ducks under both his attacks again!
The undead kasatha ducks beneath Argug's clap, then spins and slashes at the orc. He throws his three other fists at Chakos and Sneek.
He makes a diagonal cut across Argug's chest and slams his fist into Chakos' right cheek but a golden illumination flashes briefly across the half elf's face deflecting the blow. His other hands miss as they push through empty air.
Those attacks miss Chakos due to the smite.
He will again swing at the creature.
This will overcome all DR.
Chakos' greataxe swings towards the creature's midsection but misses as the undead kasatha leans back almost impossibly for any normal living creature.
HP 15/16
AC 15/15/14
Effects: Mage Armor(2 hours)
Hand of Apprentice:5/7
Ah..Err...I am out of magic!
Liz sends another jolt at the thing
"Hetuath jai er su ka Zyphus! The undead kasatha dips his body to dodge Liz's electric magic.
Astra passes her turn.
Invigorated by Chakos his healing Sneek stabs at the creature again, trying to help bring it down.
How do you kill something that has no life?
If only we had a holy priest who would be able to use their abilities to strike down the unliving!
Argug, staggered from the sheer amount of damage he's received, starts to cough up blood. He looks at Chakos. "Can use a lil' help here, bud..."
Argug! Potion for you! Withdraw! I take place!
Argug moves back, takes the potion from Liz and drinks it. Elizabeth takes the orc's place in the front lines and defends as best as a wizard can.
The undead kasatha swings his blade at Chakos, then strikes his fists at Sneek and Elizabeth. His tattered red cloak swirls around him as he moves.
The zombie strikes against Chakos armor and is deflected. His punches miss the nimble Sneek. His last fist catches Liz in the stomach, knocking the air from her.
I'll 5' move to flank with someone if possible.
Smite damage, so no DR.
Chakos' greataxe glows with light as it cracks the bones of the undead kasatha. The head severs completely, as the corpse falls to the hard metal floor.
Again you see...
A large metal table is surrounded by odd-looking chairs in this room. To the west, what appears to be a transparent wall looks out over a strange desert valley. Four pillars support the fifteen foot-high ceiling, while dozens of crude images of a pickaxe made of a skull and bones have been painted onto the walls with some sort of ivory pigment along with several phrases in an unrecognizable language.
Detect Magic and spellcraft on the cloak.
"We need to heal up, but let's do it through me if possible."
I'll take 5 DMG from Astra and 10 from Argug, and hit myself with a CLW.
Where do we stand now including the CLW potion Argug drank?
I've got only 5hp.
"Hah! I knew it!" Astra cries out in delight as she cautiously, peeking carefully around the doorframe, looks into the cleared room. When she sees no more threats there, at least obvious ones, she steps through the door more fully into the room. "The 'Observatory' *was* to observe the desert habitat!" she says victoriously as she moves over to the odd transparent wall. Curiously, she runs her fingers over the material and tries to identify what the window substance is. She'll also try to connect the desert they passed through earlier with the view visible on the transparent wall, and will try to figure out if they are one and the same. As in, is she seeing through the wall into the habitat, or is this a magical display of some other faraway place?
After spending some time on the window, she will move over to the crude wall drawings and writings. "Ooh! Ooh! Look at these! So interesting! So many pickaxes! I wonder if their culture is somehow based on mining. It would make sense since they are here, underground. Perhaps they're some sort of Darklands species heretofore unknown...and they have dwelled under Torch all this time, to think! And the skulls and bones -- could they have been death worshippers of some kind? What a sinister thought! Or perhaps a form of ancestor worship --" she goes on giddily, almost jumping up and down in excitement as she moves from one crude drawing to another to another, the javelin through her chest and any lingering pain all but forgotten. "Oh, look at this! This is writing of some kind, to be sure! Can you imagine, a language never before encountered?", she breathes almost reverently, eyes wide. "I would be willing to bet that the writing in these artworks would correlate with the language the zombie was trying to speak. It mentioned the god Zyphus...is that why so many skulls and bones? That would support my first theory of death worshippers --"
8/16 HP
Liz coughs up some blood.Oohhhh...That is for bravery I guess.
Is the writing Androffian? Liz gathers together the sword, cloak and silverdisks
Astra shakes her head slowly. "I don't think so...", although she seems a bit more unsure than usual. "At least, not any script I'm familiar with..." A lightbulb comes on over her head, and she glances from the drawings back to the window. "An observatory implies at least two parties. The ones doing the observing...who would likely have been the ones motivated and skilled enough to build the observatory and the habitat...and the ones they are observing. Who would have been the parties involved here, I wonder. So far we've met three distinct forms of life in these metal tunnels -- the mechanical sphere, the four-armed living dead, and the tentacley creature..." She strokes her chin thoughtfully. "I suspect that the level of manual dexterity involved in the construction of all this would have been beyond the tentacle creature -- I expect it would have been a zoo creature, then. A lower form of life, by the standards of the builders. But who are the builders? The mechanical orb, or the four-armed? I could see both of them having the technical skill to build something like this, but who is the master and who is the slave...?"
The four armed undead as past builders who died here and perhaps the metal sphere a tool like a golem. The tentacle monster could have been something they studied.
Astra nods thoughtfully. "That would make sense", she agrees, "although I would not entirely rule out the possibility of reverse roles between the metal creature and the four-armed. It is also noteworthy that they speak different languages. I could understand the metal creature, but not the four-armed. Allies often share a language...could they have been enemies instead? Perhaps the metal creatures invaded, and that is why the four-armed are dead?"
"Hmm, yes, an undiscovered language, great stuff. Any signs of the missing people we're here for?"
So I think that brings:
Argug to 14/25
Liz to 8/16
Astra to 13/18
Sneek to 16/20
Chakos to 5/15
Ok, I'll use my last CLW.
I'm at 12/15
So what's the plan? I recommend resting, we're incredibly beat up.
We are rather wounded. I have no more magic except for minor cantrips so pushing on further into this strange building would be unwise. Liz looks around the room. This does seem to be a good defensible position for resting.
"We'd probably do better to withdraw back to Torch for resting, else the water breathing spell on us will expire and we'll have a harder time making our way back through the waters of the Weeping Pond."
This cloak is enchanted to help resist the effects of spells, poisons and so on.
Argug nods at Chakos in thanks of his spells, and Liz for her potion. "I definitely agree with going back to Torch. The cloak would be beneficial for any of us equally, so why don't we cast lots for it?"