Grave Mistakes INC

[Croverus]

The group is on the road, having left the metropolis of Adamar two days prior. You are less than 10 minutes from the town of Derrag. Reports say that a number of assualts by the undead have hit the city but they were able to hold the monsters off. You were asked to report to the city guard to reinforce their defences and seek a way to stop these attacks.

The city is surrounded by the Forgotten Forest and from where you are it is obscured by the tall trees. However, you can see smoke rising from the tree line in the direction of the town. The smoke is black, and too thick to be a simple fire. Something is wrong.

[Elfin]

"That does not bode well."
Arzimon loosens his sword in its sheath and fingers the hilt nervously.
"We should be on our guard; we do not know what horrors may await us."

[Parlity]

Bree looks at the smoke, then at Arzimon. "Aye, lets get moving. Mayhap they need our help now." She utters garbled words and waves her hands briefly in the air, throwing a pinch of dirt on herself.

(Casting longstrider, +10' speed lasts 1 hour, brings my speed up to 30'.)

[Elfin]

"If you do not mind, I shall take the lead."
Arzimon will make his way to the front of the party and draw his great blade.

[Angry Rogue]

"I'll be somewhere in the middle of the pack, and it would be best to have our two most powerful warriors on either end."
Ivellios steps in the middle of the group, his watchful eyes scanning the horizon.

[MOLOKH]

"You might want to quicken your pace if we are to even get there before those abominations scour whatever is left of the town. Onward, gentlemen." Airlyn marches alongside whoever is at the front of the group, keeping her eyes on the road ahead.

[Parlity]

Bree falls in beside Ivellios.

(retro: Bree grasps her holy symbol of a humanoid walking under a sun, while she casts her spell.)

[Croverus]

After some marching you can see the front gates to the town just ahead through the trees. They are thrown open wide, one of the wooden doors is splintered along its hinges, twisted at an angle. There are footprints and a pool of blood, with trials leading into the gates and the bushes.

Everyone role spot and listen checks.

[MOLOKH]

DM
spot [roll0]
listen [roll1]

[Elfin]

"Let us keep alert. We may be attacked at any moment."

Spot and Listen checks:
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Parlity]

Spot:[roll0]
Listen:[roll1]

[Angry Rogue]

Spot 1d20+6[roll] Listen [roll]1d20+6

Arg, made a mistake, gonna have to double post

[Angry Rogue]

Spot [roll]1d20+6[roll] Listen [roll0]

[Angry Rogue]

Spot [roll0] Listen [roll1]

ARRRG!!! really sorry for triple posting....

EDIT: why is the world so cruel.....Im posting rolls in ooc.

[Lerky]

Erark remains dead silent, back straight, and looking all ordely and dignififed

[Croverus]

MOLOKH and Parlity
You spot figures moving out of the corners of your eye, they don't seem to be approaching though, just circling.

All of you hear rustling coming from the bushes around you but nothing appears from the bushes. There is also a bit of rattling, like bones grinding against eachother.

[Lerky]

Erark readies his two hammers and gets in a battle ready postion

[Elfin]

"Do you see anything?"
Arzimon nervously fingers the hilt of his sword.

[Lerky]

Nay...but I 'ear tah bones a crackin' like Dwarven wah drums...
Erark makes sure to keep his voice down

[Parlity]

In a low voice, Bree says, "There be figures circling us and not approaching. We can call out to them, but I fear they be the undead and the town has fallen."

[MOLOKH]

"Let me just confirm that for you before whatever is hiding there gets a chance to fully encircle and ambush us."

Airlyn casts Detect Undead in the direction of the nearest bushes. If there is indeed an undead aura she will study it for the appropriate duration (3 rounds). After that, or if there is no undead aura, she will continue to slowly turn the cone-shaped detection area around the party and examine anything else she notices until she has checked out everything in her surrounding or the spell ends (duration - 1 min.; range - 60ft.).

[Elfin]

"Let us prepare a defensive formation. I shall take the front; the other warriors should guard the flanks. Any who are not suited to melee combat should stay in the middle.
Agreed?"

[Parlity]

"Agreed." Bree steps between Erark and Arzimon. She grasps her holy symbol in her right hand and her morningstar in her left.

[Lerky]

Erark joins the formation, giving a grumbled agreement

[Croverus]

"Let me just confirm that for you before whatever is hiding there gets a chance to fully encircle and ambush us."

Airlyn casts Detect Undead in the direction of the nearest bushes. If there is indeed an undead aura she will study it for the appropriate duration (3 rounds). After that, or if there is no undead aura, she will continue to slowly turn the cone-shaped detection area around the party and examine anything else she notices until she has checked out everything in her surrounding or the spell ends (duration - 1 min.; range - 60ft.).

Airlyn Only
Your detect undead reports there are undead in the bushes. After studying them there are three auras, two on the left side of the path and one on the right, all three auras are faint.

The sound of bones continue but nothing jumps out of the bushes at you.

[Elfin]

Arzimon glances around nervously, then breathes deeply.
"Come, let us proceed."

[Croverus]

An arrow flies out from the bushes at Arzomin and goes past, missing him.

[MOLOKH]

"Not so fast, Longblade. Let me finish - those are definitely undead in there. Three of them. You guys take care of the two on the left. I'm going for the one on the right."

Airlyn points to the location of the two undead auras, then casts Mage Armor on herself and proceeds towards the single aura.

[Parlity]

Bree lets her holy symbol fall to her chest and raises her wooden shield higher. She says, "There be two blood trails here, one into the bushes and one into town. Let's be saving as many townsfolk as we can."

[Lerky]

should we split up? One group the head to the town and one group to finish these undead?

[Elfin]

"Nay; we will be stronger as a group- we should first deal with this threat, and then move on to the town. Let us give these horrors a taste of cold steel!"

[Parlity]

"Very well." Bree follows Arzimon, clutching her shield and morningstar.

[Croverus]

As Airlyn approaches the lone source, there is a clattering of bones and a skeleton jumps out from the bushes, wielding a shortsword and buckler. Its rags hint that it might have been a member of the town militia. It's about 10 ft from Airlyn, and appears ready to charge at her.

Meanwhile a second skeleton similar to the first exits the bushes to face the res tof the group, a third skeleton stepping into view, notching another arrow in its bow.

[Elfin]

Arzimon turns to Bree and grimaces, then with a battle-cry charges straight at the skeleton before the cleric. His greatsword glimmers in the dying sunlight as the blade falls upon the undead horror.

Making a charge attack against the skeleton, PAing for 1 point.
Attack:
[roll0]
Damage:
[roll1]

[Croverus]

((Oh snap, I forgot to say: Everyone roll for initiative!))

Skeletons
Melee Skellies[roll0]
Archer Skellie[roll1]

[MOLOKH]

initiative [roll0]

[Elfin]

Oops, sorry.
Initiative:
[roll0]

[Parlity]

initiative: [roll0]

[Parlity]

Bree follows Arzimon into battle.

Runs to the left of Arzimon and attacks the melee skeleton if it survives Arzimon's attack.

Otherwise runs to the archer skeleton. Beats down the bushes to remove cover and clear the way if it has cover left by her turn. Will attack if she has actions left.

Attack roll: [roll0]
Damage roll: [roll1]

[Croverus]

Skeleton attacking Arzimmon
Hit [roll0]
Damage [roll1]

Skeleton attacking Airlyn
Hit [roll2]
Damage [roll3]


As the skeletons attack they both miss their targets. The one facing Arzimmon raises its buckler to try and defend itself, but his sword smashes through it, destroying it completely.

[Croverus]

Archer Skellie
Attack [roll0]
Damage [roll1]


The archer skellington notches a second arrow, aiming at the cleric now and firing off a strong shot, hitting the cleric for 6 damage. It reaches into its quiver for its next arrow.

[Parlity]

"Aaaa!" Bree screams in pain as the arrow strikes her. She cowers under her shield and pokes at the archer with her morningstar.

fighting defensively +2 ac -4 attack AC 18/16 hp 2/8
Attack [roll0]
Damage [roll1]

[Parlity]

(retro) Bree cowers under her shield as she stands next to the archer skeleton.

[MOLOKH]

Airlyn easily dodges the skeleton's blow and looks at it in annoyance.

"So this is the way you are going to be, is it?"

She shoots her arm at the skeleton's skull in an atempt to grab it's head.

grapple start
touch attack: [roll0]

[MOLOKH]

OOC
I'll just assume an 18 hits it's touch AC and play on.

Grabbing the skeleton's swordarm with one hand and plunging her other hand's fingers into it's eyesockets, Airlyn starts to violently shake and pull it's head.

grapple check [roll0]
dmg [roll1]

[Elfin]

"Make haste! Let us send these foul abominations back to the abyss, that we might all the swifter discover the source of this taint upon the lands of Light!"

[Croverus]

The skeleton struggles, trying to break free of Airlyn's grasp.


[roll0]

[Elfin]

Lifting his mighty greatsword above his head, Arzimon charges at the skeleton archer.

Charging, 1Pt PA.
Attack:
[roll0]
Damage:
[roll1]

[Croverus]

The archer skeleton feebly raises its bow to try and defend itself but you shatter it to pieces just as thoroughly as the other skeleton. The only remaining skeleton is the one grappling with Airlyn.

[Parlity]

Bree grasps her holy symbol and prays.
Casting Cure light wounds spontaneously on self. [roll0]

[MOLOKH]

"Quit squirming, you!"

Airlyn continues to tug the skeleton's head.

She moves into the skeleton's space to maintain the grapple and tries to rip it's head off, God-of-War-style.

grapple
dmg [roll1d3+2

[Croverus]

Its body pulls violently and its head rips off. For a moment the head appears to try to scream silently and the body reaches for the head then falls into a heap. Everything grow quite as the bones settle on the ground.

[Elfin]

"Whew. That was quite something."
Arzimon wipes sweat from his brow and strides back to the front of the group.

[Croverus]

With no sign of any more enemies, the group can safely move on if they wish.

[MOLOKH]

Airlyn eyes the skull in her hand and then the bushes where the skeleton appeared from. "Hm." She walks into the bushes, pushing them aside and looks around.
Spot [roll0] for anything that might give hints about the skeleton's creation, purpose ot anything related to it in general.

[Parlity]

"It was, ye and Airlyn are great at fighting these creatures." Bree looks at the archer skelly. "I wonder what poor soul became this terrible creature."

"If this blood trail be fresh, mayhap we should follow it. Survivors may've fled".

Rolling Spot check for clues. [roll0]

[Croverus]

OOC: Just so you know, Spot checks indicate you only lok for something, actually searching (moving stuff, feeling around, etc) is Search checks.

[MOLOKH]

I decided Spot was more appropriate because she's just looking around rather then crouching and searching, but as you wish: Search [roll0]

[Croverus]

OOC: Makes sense, well maybe both checks can be done, first just to look around, then to get a closer look.

Airlyn

You glance through the bushes and spot some footprints from the skeleton leading back towards a tree. After searching around a bit, moving bushes aside, you find a tree with a large slash in the trunk about stomach level and a blood spatter, witha small pool of blood leading around tot eh other side of the tree. A broken pitchfork lies a few feet to the side.

Parlity

The blood trail is too scattered, probably by the skeletons, but you find a pile of... it looks like dead skin and hair, you can almost make out what might have one been someone's face.

[Parlity]

"This ... this be the most gruesome thing I've ever seen. Arzimon and Airlyn, look at this! It be like the skeleton crawled out o the skin!"

"I don't be thinking there's any survivors out here. We can give these skeletons a proper last rites after we check for survivors. Let's go inside town," Bree says grimly.

[MOLOKH]

Is there something on the other side of the tree? If not...

Grimacing, Airlyn walks out of the bushes and heads for the party still with the skeleton's head in hand.

What? Are you done over there? If everyone else is ready as well, we should head out."

[Elfin]

"Repulsive indeed. Whatever has done this shall pay, you can be sure of it."
Arzimon turns back toward the rest of the party.
"Are you ready to proceed?"

[Parlity]

"Ready," Bree says.