Othniel's Tyrant's Grasp I

[Othniel]

All is darkness and cold stone. Although you dimly recall going to sleep last night in the small community of Roslar’s Coffer, you awaken in a dark, stone box only a few inches larger than you in each direction. The cool scent of earth surrounds you.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta wasn't the sort of woman to really expect much out of life.

From the moment of her birth (which, rather than the typical mammalian birth, had consisted of her suddenly appearing in a graveyard dressed in a white robe with absolutely no idea where she was - duskwalker births were weird like that), she had struggled. Shunned by the very first people she had seen due to her ominous appearance and behaviors, she'd had to survive on her own. For even the average adult, this would been a process fraught with mishaps, and it had been moreso for a mere child. She'd been constantly beset by the elements, wild animals, near starvation, and sickness, with no-one to rely on save herself (on the rare occasions she had thereafter seen any other living beings, many of them had fled in the other direction, yelling something about a 'wild child'). And while she'd managed to survive, the toll that these events had taken on her was undeniable. She had been hardened, worn down, and conditioned to expect the worst. And she'd seldom been disappointed. The only thing good that she could ever remember happening to her had come about a year ago, while she was busy scavenging in the woods for food. A human woman dressed in blue and gold had spotted her, and unlike most people, had carefully approached her, calling out to her gently. Initially, Henrietta had retreated, hissing at the woman, but upon smelling the scent of food coming from her, had been unable to resist (it had been early winter at the time, and there had been precious little in the way of success with hunting or fishing). The woman had turned out to be a cleric of Shelyn named Maria, and she had been the first to treat Henrietta with any sort of kindness. She had fed her, given her proper clothes, and, for the first time, given her answers as to what she was and why people ran from her.

Henrietta had followed her for a while, receiving instruction in the way of polearm fighting, as well as education on the nature of the goddess of beauty, love, and luck. She had been dismissive, at first; in her old life, she had seen precious little of any of those things, and even after a year's training had yet to hear the goddess' voice, as Maria claimed to hear. Still, under her tutelage, she had been gradually coming around to the possibility. Life, had for once, been good to her.

Then, less than a month and a half before, Maria had caught pneumonia and passed away.

Henrietta had been devastated. She had been robbed of her only friend, her only piece of good fortune, and the only one who had been willing to instruct her in communing with the divine. Unable to make contact on her own, the duskwalker had set out for Roslar's Coffer, a village near to the graveyard where she had first awakened. She had hoped, somehow, that laying Maria's ashes to rest there, as well as spending some time among the people of civilization and the place where she had been 'born' would help to break her mental block.

And now, here she was, trapped in a box, with the unmistakable scent of dirt around her, and the words 'buried alive' all but written in the air in front of her in great big neon letters.

"You know, I expected something bad to happen. But I figured it would be something like of being run out of town by a mob. This... this really takes the cake." Henrietta laughed, but it was a dry and humorless one. "I don't know if I should be laughing or crying."

For a few minutes, she lay there. Then, feeling something pressing against her chest, she reached down and grabbed it. It was a wooden carving of a songbird - Shelyn's symbol, and one of the last gifts Maria had given her.

Find beauty in the everyday. Love in the darkest night. Luck in the greatest misfortunes. An irrepressible spirit is a strong spirit.

Henrietta sighed.

"I miss you, Mar."

She tried to stretch, but the confines of the box would not let her. After a moment, she cracked her knuckles.

"Well, no sense just rolling over and letting myself die. If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna at least die on my feet. Though with my luck it might just be there's no way out anyway. Or what's out of the box might be worse."

She then began scanning what she could see, trying to see if there was any conceivable way to get out. If there was one good thing about being a duskwalker, it was that her eyes were perfectly adapted to the dark, so the lack of light wasn't much of a problem.

Henrietta will make a Perception check to see if there is any seam or trapdoor that could be forced open. If there is, she will take 20 on Strength for a 22​ to try and get it to budge.

[Nefarion Xid]

"Not again," whispered the man in formal motley. He pressed his palm flat to the stone above his face. This had the makings of an academy prank, but he was far too old for such things now and never been enrolled at university.

He reached into his breast pocket to produce the three of pentacles and cast a Light spell upon it to confirm his suspicions of being entombed.

[Jade_Tarem]

The thing about having the blood of an Outsider was that you were never completely in the dark. Kali's vision revealed the confines of the box to her quite well, and she spent the first minute or so in stunned disbelief, waiting to wake up or for someone to pop the lid and explain that she'd been pranked. The next two minutes were spent in a claustrophobic panic, banging on the lid and shouting, then screaming in the hope that someone outside would hear her. Eventually she forced herself to calm down and examine her options.

Her first instinct when in trouble was to summon Percival, but there was barely enough room for her in here, let alone her bulky protector. Still, she had a few remaining options. She liked to think of herself as a knight, but at the end of the day, Kali was recognized as a summoner, and she could call forth more than just Percival. A brief examination of her options revealed the first and only thing she could think of small enough to squeeze in here with here and strong enough to help her lift the lid, with a hidden benefit, at that.

So, the emberkin scrunched over to one side of the box as best she could and summoned that most iconic of heroic creatures, the... giant fire beetle?

It was a tight fit, to be sure, but she was looking forward to the company. The fire beetle was bioluminescent, and she could use the glow to see if anything had been written on the inside of the coffin, morbid as that seemed. And if that didn't work, it could help her push. "Hello there, little one. Let's see what we've got..."

Kali is doing what I just described, in order. She's going to take 20 to escape, giving her a strength check of 20. Then she'll use Summon Monster I to call up a Fire Beetle and look around, then try to escape with a second take 20 for 22 with the fire beetle assisting her. If it actually requires taking 20, then that will consume two Summons. If the lid isn't budging at all for the first minute of that, she won't summon the second beetle.

[zabbarot]

Gilbert

Gilbert awoke with his arms straight at his sides and stared at the darkness. His room wasn't usually this dark, but maybe the sun wasn't up yet. He sat up and immediately banged his head on the lid of the box before laying back down. His bed wasn't usually this close to the ceiling... Or this hard for that matter. He reached out and found the edges of the box then just lied still for a moment.

"Uncle Blackwell? Is this another joke? Uncle?" He yelled, but otherwise stayed surprisingly calm. He waited a little longer to give his uncle a chance to enjoy the ruse then pushed as hard as he could against the lid of what he guessed was a box.

Also taking 20 on a strength check: 24

[CockroachTeaParty]

A humanoid who awoke to be entombed alive would likely react with voluntary and involuntary processes. Their pulse would quicken, their hands might reflexively test the strength of the stone walls or lid, they might break out in a cold sweat, pupils dilating, teeth clenching in terror.

Anatomically, the only thing Cotyledon truly had out of the above list were hands, or at least roots and vines shaped like them. But Cotyledon lay perfectly still. There was no fear; there would be time enough for that, if the situation warranted.

Ghorans did not sleep, but they did 'die' when they were growing into a new body. Coty did not remember planting her ghorus seed recently, and if she had she expected to enter her 64th iteration exposed to sunlight and fresh air. Sometimes she entered solipsistic reveries, and briefly wondered if she were remembering being buried alive at some point in her long, long life.

The bitter soil of the Mana Wastes was tainted by centuries of arcane warfare. The hatred seeped into the very ground itself, leaving a sour taste at the edge of Cotyledon's feet. She huddled in a spell-blasted ditch, unable to tell if it were day or night. The magi-hunters from Nex knew their prey depended on sunlight, and weaved powerful magic to obscure the sky and its life-giving rays. Coty and all of her friends were weakened, three days' sun-starved. Heartwood dared to make a break for it, leaving his ditch for a copse of thorny bushes, but the humans were waiting for him. A blast of arcane fire slew him on the spot, searing his rind to 'seal the juices in.' She wanted to scream, Heartwood, dear Heartwood, her noble shield against the callous appetites, gone forever...

Heartwood was centuries dead. And yet, in a way, he lived on through the spirits. Shrine would be fine, sealed in this box; he would simply enter a torpor. Once Cotyledon might have died from lack of sunlight, but she had learned to create her own inner light, overcoming a weakness thousands of years in the making. She would be fine without proper food or water for several days; she could beseech the spirits for water in at most 24 hours, and while it was a bit gauche, she could eat the small berries that grew on her body for recycled nourishment. The only concern was airflow, but her vegetable body's requirements for nitrogen were far different from a fast-burning mammalian metabolism's need for oxygen.

Of course, how she had got here, and why, was an interesting question. But she appeared uninjured, and the fact that she had not been stripped of her equipment suggested she had not been taken prisoner. Cotyledon had been in far worse situations before. This was fine. Perhaps the spirits could offer some aid in due time.

She lay perfectly still. She was over four thousand years old. Even if her body withered and rotted, her seed would sit nascent in this stone coffin, waiting for the centuries to erode the stone capsule and release her to grow anew. With the patience of a plant she waited in the dark, meandering through more pleasant memories.

[PepperP.]

Bellas

The elf's eyes snapped open. A sense of general wrongness had seeped into her dreams and she could only recall fragments from them, dim and distorted by her subconscious. She frowned in the darkness, the darkness itself being the first wrong to be identified by her sleep-groggy brain. It shouldn't be this dark in her bed, situated to the right of her bedroom window in her modest residence. Even if she awoke in the middle of the night, her keen eyes could see much in the dim moonlight. She took a deep breath and a second wrong became known to her. The damp smell of soil filled her nostrils instead of the familiar homey smells she was used to. Warm bread and the scent of her favorite perfume. She shifted uncomfortably in the confined space. The hard stone against her back was yet a third wrongness, Bellas was a side sleeper. She let her fingers slide along the dimensions of her stone coffin, her heart racing and the resulting adrenaline serving to awaken her brain to full attention at last.

"Hello?" Her whispered salutation sounded frightened in her ears. Suddenly angered by her fear and fearful circumstance, Bellas gave the stone above her an exploratory shove.

"Hello?" She grunted with effort even as she attempted to be heard.

I guess I'll join the take 20 on strength team for a total of 20.

[Othniel]

Darkness and Cold Stone

There is indeed a seam where the lid of your box meets the base. You strain against it for several minutes before it finally gives way, breaking the grave-like silence with the loud rumble of stone upon stone until the lid is pushed far enough to one side that it tips and falls to the ground with an echoing smash. Looking around, you see that you are lying in the right-most of a row of stone sarcophagi. Your trusty glaive appears to be lying upon the ground next to yours. Several moments later, another sarcophagus lid is thrust to the side, revealing a dark-haired woman. This is followed by another from which emerges a funny-looking fellow who blinks at the darkness.

After this, you think you hear the sound of someone banging on the lid of a matching sarcaphagus. Then it, too, is thrust to the side to reveal a human with a potato-shaped head. Moments later a third sarcophagus opens, revealing a female elf.

Immediately upon the casting of your spell, you see that you are in what, for all intents and purposes, appears to be a stone sarcophagus. Why anyone would put you in such alive is a mystery. After a short amount of time you hear the grating rumble of stone upon stone, followed by a crash. And then another. And another.

Your darkvision does indeed reveal your confines: a stone sarcophagus. You can clearly see the seem between lid and base. There is no writing. About this time you hear the same grating rumble as Vesper, followed by the crash. You struggle against the lid and are able finally to produce similar results, freeing yourself. Looking around you see a row of six sarcophagi. Sitting upright in one is a grey-skinned woman with shoulder-length dark hair. You hear muffled yelling from another sarcophagus before that, like yours, reveals a person: a stocky fellow with a potato-shaped head and a face to match.

Nothing but silence answers you until you for several minutes until you hear the sounds of what are likely two similar containers being opened. Thrusting against the lid of the container frees you. You cannot see anything, however, as it is pitch black wherever you are.

For some time you hear nothing, and then perhaps muffled shouting? Then the peaceful silence is broken by the sound of stone upon stone followed by a crash. And then the same once more.

No one answers you back, but you do hear an awful amount of noise rend the peaceful silence. One after another in a succession of three instances, you hear the grating of stone upon stone followed by a tremendous crash. And then you struggle against the lid of your own sarcophagus. It takes one minute, and then another, but you finally succeed in sliding the lid of your prison to the side and off. Sitting up, you look around and see...nothing. It is pitch black. But you can hear breathing.

Those of you who can see spot a cloth-covered cube in the southeastern corner of the room. To the north you see relief carvings upon the north wall depicting six heroic-looking figures. The words, "Red Shrikes - Noble Companions in the War Against Evil. Rest Well, My Friends," are inscribed above the carvings. A single stone door leads west.

[Jade_Tarem]

"Kaaaah." Kali took several deep breaths as she sat upright in her sarcophagus. "I always wanted a hero's burial but not, y'know, before I died." Taking stock of her surroundings, she saw a few quasi-familiar face - the creepy gravekeeper. "Sir, if you put me in here, I have a complaint to make about your quality control."

[Nefarion Xid]

Hearing friendly voices, Vesper politely knocked on the lid of his coffin for assistance.

[zabbarot]

Gilbert blinked into the dark. "N...No. At least, probably not. Uncle doesn't let me bury anyone on my own after what happened last time. 'I don't care if the mayor asked you to,' he said. Really though, if you can't trust the mayor...?" He shrugged in to the darkness then fumbled for his lamp. After managing to get it lit he looked around.

"Oh! Definitely wasn't me. I've never seen this place before. Not bad at all though, I don't think I'd mind being entombed here. Do you hear knocking?"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

With a mighty strain, Henrietta managed to pry open the lid of her coffin, then instinctively gritted her teeth and shielded her ears as it fell to the ground with a resounding smash. Looking around, she tried to take in the sights as best she could.

Well, at least we weren't actually buried. Looks like we are underground, though. And there's my glaive, thank Shelyn. Mar would have rubbed that little bit of good luck in my face.

Taking a step out, she looked around, her eyes flitting first to the cube and then to the relief.

What is that? A crate of some sort? And those carvings on the relief... six coffins, six 'Red Shrikes'. This somebody's idea of some sort of sick ritual? A joke?

Her thoughts in this regard were interrupted as one, then two, then three figures also emerged from the coffins beside her. Those of them who could see in the dark would have seen a tall, lanky woman with shoulder-length black hair and skin and eyes the color of ash. A chain shirt rested under a black jacket, and a blue half-skirt with an embroidered silver songbird - the only piece of color on her outfit - rested on the right hip of a pair of black trousers.

Her attention moved to the first of the women and the potato-headed man as they spoke.


"Kaaaah... Sir, if you put me in here, I have a complaint to make about your quality control."

"N...No. At least, probably not. Uncle doesn't let me bury anyone on my own after what happened last time. 'I don't care if the mayor asked you to,' he said. Really though, if you can't trust the mayor...?"

"Oh! Definitely wasn't me. I've never seen this place before. Not bad at all though, I don't think I'd mind being entombed here. Do you hear knocking?"
A gravekeeper, then? Would explain the fascination with his own burial. Not that I've room to talk, I've thought about it enough times.

Maybe I should give Pharasma a prayer or two when I get out of here.

She then nodded at the gravekeeper's question. "I do. And based on the pattern thus far, I'm guessing we have two more companions in coffinhood." Stretching her arms, she sauntered over to the one the most recent knocking had come from and strained at the lid. "Help out if you'd like. Or don't. I'm not fussed either way."

Henrietta will go to each of the lids in turn, starting from Vesper's, and then Take 20 on Strength for 22 to get them off.

[Nefarion Xid]

Shoving aside the sarcophagus lid revealed a man dressed in purple motley. His pants were all one color, but he wore a crisscross of sashes in garish patterns over a cheap bit of leather armor that covered little. He wore a fine linen shirt with an array of purple diamonds across the chest and the top two buttons undone. A mismatched gentleman's coat, black and trimmed in gold fringe completed the ensemble, in a manner of speaking. His ears were pierced, but currently missing his favorite set of pearl earrings. He could have been a handsome forty or perhaps a very weathered twenty five with salt-and-pepper hair.

He held aloft a playing card, glowing with the light of a torch as if he might defend himself with it. It set off his devlishly violet eyes and he smiled dumbly.

"You're not the hookers I called for."

[Jade_Tarem]

"Who could get it off in a place like this?" Kali wondered aloud. "Probably whoever... I'm going to say 'drugged me' and stuffed me in a coffin? Creeps. Look, just open the last sarcophagus while I summon my knight." She extended a hand and a circle of runes in celestial appeared on the ground nearby. "I can talk while I do this, but nothing else... so, does anyone have any idea why we're down here?"

[Nefarion Xid]

"You mean this isn't some prank to run me out of town?" Vesper sat up and held the card-torch aloft to examine the room more clearly, then casts Detect Magic.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta shook her head as she moved over to the last sarcophagus lid and pushed it off. "Last thing I remember was going to bed back at the inn in Roslar's Coffin. If this was a prank to run me out of town, I wouldn't be surprised."​

As she pushed off the lid of the final coffin, the duskwalker took a closer look at the relief on the northern wall - and frowned.

"Say, has anyone else taken a look at that mural over there? I don't know about you guys, but that figure there," she pointed, "Looks creepily like me."

[Jade_Tarem]

"If they were willing to go this far for a prank, I can't imagine they'd have left your pants on." The runes at the edge of the circle began to spin, accelerating as they did. Phantasmal gears flickered in and out of existence at the edges. "I'm... not loving the creepy relief of us on the ceiling. Does anyone else remember what they were doing before they woke up down here? I'm pretty fuzzy on it, myself."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Rising from the final opened coffin was something that appeared at first glance to be human. Scale mail armor and a heavy pack of traveling equipment clinked and clattered as they got to their feet. But in the flickering lamplight, the face of the figure appeared quite alien; perhaps even somewhat frightening in the gloom.

A bloom of flower petals served as the 'face' of the figure, with empty holes where two eyes and a mouth would be. The figure's armor covered much of their 'skin,' but what could be seen was a leathery dark-green rind. In place of hair, a cascade of moss and vines hung down to the creature's waist, decorated with small berries, twigs, and blooms. A scent of ripe apricots and plums mixed with the smell of grave dirt.

There was talk of a strange plant-being that had recently arrived in town. This must be it. Or her? The creature had a vaguely feminine appearance.

"Thank you for releasing me," she said, her voice feminine-sounding, but weirdly hollow, the consonants punctuated by the rustling of soft flower petal lips, "...So nobody is trying to eat me?"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta stood rather surprised at the figure that emerged from the final coffin - a feminine-sounding humanoid made entirely of what appeared to be plant matter. Having grown up in the wilds, she had still been adjusting to the many races of Avistan, but this... woman? here was completely unlike anything she had seen. Furiously thinking, she was trying to recall if Maria had told her about anything even remotely similar to this when she realized that she had asked a question.

"Eat you? No, definitely no. Long far cry from being that desperate. Hope I never am."

With everyone now free, Henrietta went back over to the coffin where she'd emerged from and grabbed her glaive, hefting it in her hands. Satisfied it hadn't been damaged, she then walked over to the cloth-covered cube, squatting down and examining it carefully. After a second, a thought occurred to her and she turned back to the plant-woman.

"You're a... Ghoran, right? Never seen one of you before."

Now that everyone is up and about, Henrietta will continue to examine the room, taking 20 on Perception to check to see if the cloth-covered cube has anything suspicious on it. If not, she will gingerly remove the cloth.

[CockroachTeaParty]

"Yes," the ghoran replied as she sat on the lip of her coffin. "We are not numerous, and most of us live far to the south of here in the Mana Wastes. I am called Cotyledon. Coty, for short."

Cotyledon scanned the dark tomb of a room, her featureless eyes pits of shadow. "This is certainly an unusual situation. You were all entombed so? It is fortunate some of us were able to force our way out."

She stared for a moment at the strange bas-relief and inscription.
"...Was I ever a Red Shrike?" she muttered to herself.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Drawn by her curiousity to the cube in the corner, Henrietta checked for anything suspicious. It was benign, though it did hold a small assortment of long-forgotten supplies.

The crate contains a variety of dried-out and useless paints, a crowbar, flint and steel, three common lamps, two hammers, one hooded lantern, eight pints of oil, and a dented pewter mug.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta


"Yes. We are not numerous, and most of us live far to the south of here in the Mana Wastes. I am called Cotyledon. Coty, for short."
Henrietta gave a small grunt of satisfaction that she'd managed to guess correctly as she pulled away the cloth. After a second, she recalled that she should probably say her name as well.

Mar was always better at this social stuff.

"Name's Henrietta."


"This is certainly an unusual situation. You were all entombed so? It is fortunate some of us were able to force our way out."
"Yeah, we all woke up like this. I don't remember how I got here, though, and neither does she." Henrietta gestured toward Kali. "Didn't sound like any of the rest of them remember either..."


"...Was I ever a Red Shrike?"
Henrietta, who had been rummaging through the contents of the crate, furrowed her brow at this.

"So all six of us are down here, in coffins, no idea how we're here, and all of us look like these Red Shrike things. This is just going to turn into an absolute mess, I can sense it. What even were they?.."

She said this more to herself than anyone else.

Henrietta would like to make a roll on History (+1) to see if she can remember hearing anything ever about these Red Shrikes.
After a moment, Henrietta recalled something that Maria had once told her.

"Right, I remember now... the companions of that Roslar person from the Shining Crusade. And that answers... not much."

Grabbing the crowbar from the crate, she stood up and faced the rest of the party.

"Looks like there's a crowbar, some flint, a lantern, and some oil. I'll leave the oil and lantern; I don't need them since I can see in the dark." She turned to the potato-headed man. "You might want the oil for your lantern, I guess, as well. You look pretty strong, so you might want the crowbar, too, but I'll take if you don't want it."

[Jade_Tarem]

The presence of a Ghoran was interesting, but Kali was giving the final few seconds of the ritual her full attention. The spin of the circle reached a crescendo, and with a flash and plume of ethereal vapor, a large knight that seemed to be partially made of clockwork stood before her. His glowing blue eyes scanned the room, and while the armored visage could not frown, it nonetheless had a distinct consternation-like quality to it. "Greetings and well met, my lady."

"Not that well met. Someone stuck me in a sarcophagus."

One azure eye-light twisted in a way that gave the impression of a raised eyebrow. "You died?"

"No, dumbass. I got buried alive!" Kali planted her face in one hand. "Sometimes I worry about you."

"There is no need for concern, Lady Kali, for now I am here!" There was a pause between them. "...where is here?"

"I'm more concerned with 'when.' Do you remember how long it's been since I last summoned you?"

"You last summoned me yesterday, of course."

"Hm... well, it hasn't been that long, then. Alright, time for introductions." Kali finally directed her attention to the rest of the room. "Sorry about ignoring the rest of you. I'm Kali, devotee of the Inheritor, and this here is Sir Percival, my very own knight in shining armor. Together we spread the good word of Iomedae. We can both see in the dark, so the lantern should probably go to someone who can't."

[PepperP.]

Bellas

The surprise of her success of moving the heavy stone lid was shortly eclipsed by finding herself accompanied within her tomb by five strangers. She remained quiet as she climbed out of the sarcophagus and studied the others as well as she could in the dim light. She recognized the one holding the lantern as a local though she hadn't previously had occasion to speak with him in-depth. The other source of light came from a gentleman of indeterminate age who held a glowing... playing card?

"That's different." The words sprang from her lips before she could stop them. She turned her attention to what the others had stumbled on, the carvings and inscription.

"That looks nothing like me. Just because we both have pointy ears..." She crossed her arms and scowled at the offensive and clearly rushed piece.

[zabbarot]

Gilbert

"Huh... Maybe it's just mistaken identity? Sometimes you lose the body of someone real important and you just have to find a look-a-like for the funeral so nobody asks too many questions. I mean I haven't actually done it, but my uncle said it happens all the time." Gilbert, who was still sitting comfortably in his coffin, continued holding the lamp high for everyone for a bit longer then hopped down with out a word and walked out the door.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Watching as Gilbert left, Henrietta put the crowbar in her own pack, then turned to the others. "Well, if there's nothing left for us here, no point sticking around. May as well find out where the heck we are." She then went through the door, glaive at the ready.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

When Gilbert opened the stone door, he noticed how well-made and maintained it seemed. There was hardly any dust at all in the room the six had awoken in, and the door swung open almost silently. Not silently enough, however, that the creature in the next room did not notice.

Standing a few feet in was a walking skeleton. Behind and lit dimly by Gilbert's lamp, the gravedigger could see that the room contained several low shelves covered with rags and loose bones. A hallway extended to the southeast.

Vesper, Bellas, and Gilbert win initiative.


No map really necessary here. Anyone can reach the skeleton in a single move action or target it with a ranged attack from their position in the sarcophagus chamber easy enough.

[Nefarion Xid]

"Audible gasp!" Vesper blurted out his stage directions and snapped the two cards off the top of his deck. Which he was carrying in his left hand. For reasons?

[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]

[roll4]
[roll5]

[zabbarot]

Gilbert

Gilbert hefted his hammer as he approached the skeleton and swung it hard at the creature.

Walk/draw, attack
to-hit: [roll0]
damage: [roll1]

The skeleton explodes into a shower of bone fragments, and what appeared to be a knot of bone in the skeleton's chest drops to the floor and uncurls to reveal a tiny creature that appears to be an insect made of fish bones. Its head is full of glowing red eyes.

[PepperP.]

Bellas

Bellas raised an eyebrow at the flamboyant man's baffling actions and followed the gravekeeper just in time to see him smash a skeleton into a pile of bones. Her body had relaxed fractionally before she saw the ostovite fall from pile of bones and uncurl itself.

"Ugh, ostovite, look out!" Her lip curled in a grimace of disgust, the elf sliced at it with her long curved blade.

Attack ostovite
[roll0]
damage
[roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

In quick succession the skeleton and its passenger, an abyssal magical beast called an ostovite, are reduced to smithereens. Sorting through the remains of the remains in the room reveals a few treasures. Looking south, you see another short hallway, into which a niche is cut. This holds still more treasures. The hallway continues south.

You find a Mwk Heavy Mace, and three pearls (each worth 20gp).

In the niche you find a dozen candles, a silver holy symbol of Aroden, a wand of create water (28 charges), five potions of cure light wounds, and a healer's kit.

[Jade_Tarem]

"At least the place is well stocked." Kali was a little upset at being late to the fight, but not that much. "Oi, Percival, they're going to leave us behind if we don't keep up."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon gingerly entered the room where the brief scuffle had occurred. Her empty eyes gazed for a moment at the man in purple motley. She picked up the playing cards he had thrown into the room for some reason, dusting them off with her vine-like hands and offering them to the man awkwardly.
"Sir... I do not think that is how you play Belkzen Hold'em. I do not believe ostovites are card sharps, for that matter."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"To arm-"

Hoisting her glaive, Henrietta never got the chance to swing it, as the gravedigger utterly pulverized the skeleton and the elf skewered the... thing that came out of it. Henrietta stood and blinked dumbly for a second.

"Well, that was quick."

Walking over to the niche, she looked over what Gilbert and Bellas had found. "I'll take one of those potions. I work best on the front line and I'd like a way to patch myself when another one of those manages to nick me."

[Nefarion Xid]

"I missed!" the man sulked, but continued to cut the deck of playing cards with rapid, single-handed flourishes. "I know it's unusual, but I'm actually deadly with these. I'm also a competent pugilist and a novice wizard."

[zabbarot]

Gilbert nods and mumbles approval at Bellas as she kills the strange bug. He does his best to ignore the others happily looting the tomb, but maybe it's their tomb. That makes it their stuff? He wasn't sure and opted to continue down the hallway with the lantern held high.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

The marble walls of this large hall are carved with several images of battle, each featuring a knight astride a lean horse. The knight wears no helmet and has long hair and a wide mustache. In each of the images, the knight is charging at undead horrors with a rapier in hand.

Two halls lead out of the western portion of this room, one to the north and one to the south. Three large archways lead out of the room to the east. The archway to the northeast is carved with the words “At My Right Hand, Peace for Years of Righteous Labors”; the archway to the east is carved with the words, “Roslar: Hero and Paladin at His Well-Earned Rest;” and the archway to the southeast reads, “Loyal Abdell, Support Thy Master Always.” Sprawled in the center of this room is a human-sized metal figure that resembles a skeleton wrapped in robes. The limbs of the figure are askew and melted, as though with acid.

There is a map! (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rPwafqPFOe2WgARrDEuqj3C0hh1sDkeSNg7rZsgfPVU/edit#gid=1400405328)

You know that Roslar was enamored with Arazni, the angelic Red Crusader, herald of Aroden and patron saint of the Knights of Ozem. You also recall that a cloud of scandal hung over Roslar after his heroic death. Furthermore, you recall that Abdell was Roslar’s favorite horse.
Upon examining the carvings closely, you can see that in addition to mortal companions, a slender, winged woman with a heart-shaped face and long hair, is depicted looking down benevolently on Roslar. This image represents Arazni. You recall how, late in the Shining Crusade, the Whispering Tyrant captured and killed Arazni, and that she was later animated as a lich bride by the evil ghost wizard Geb during the failed Second Crusade.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"So... judging by the pattern so far, I'd guess we're inside Roslar's Tomb. Guess this means we weren't taken far... although with my luck we'll probably be mobbed when we get out for ruining one of the local attractions."

Henrietta's gaze turned to the melted metal figure and shuddered.

"Also, that's not creepy at all."

She gazed long and carefully at the figure, as if daring it to come to life and attack.

Take 20 on Perception for 27 to see if there's anything suspicious about the figure.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

As Henrietta and Gilbert approach the mangled remains, Gilbert is able to identify the creature as a Celedon. As he stares at the construct, the parts shift and a second ostovite wriggles free, hissing at him.

Bellas, Henrietta, Vesper, Gilbert, and Coty all win initiative.

Celedons are constructs forged of extraplanar metals for the purpose of serving a single deity. Most spend their entire existence tending to a single holy place, repeating rituals, perfecting services, or creating new works to laud their particular deity. Gilbert would know that they are sometimes also placed in tombs as well, which might account for the general cleanliness of the place.

[zabbarot]

Gilbert frowned hard at the bug as it emerged from the dead celedon. Celedons were pretty high on Gilbert's list of fancy tomb features he really wanted to see. This was just upsetting. He readied his hammer and swung with a bit of extra frustration.

get hammer, swing.
To-hit [roll0]
Damages [roll1]

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon gazed at the various writings and embellishments of this nexus of the tomb, and seemed poised to speak, when the ostovite attacked.

The ghoran's face petals shifted into a frown as she spoke a word of power, trying to render the creature dumbstruck.


Coty will cast Daze on the thing. DC 13 Will save or it's dazed for 1 round, assuming it has 4 HD or less and is subject to mind-affecting. Lemme know if SR is required.

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper rounds the corner with wordless protest and flings a card towards the abyssal creature.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Freaking called it."

Hoisting her glaive, and stopping to gaze for a moment at Vesper's continued use of cards as a weapon, she rushed forward and brought her polearm down in an arc, intent on slicing the creature in half.

Attack the Ostovite!

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

The ostovite is quickly dispatched, and to the victor goes the spoils. Poking through the remains of the celadon, the tomb-dwellers discover a masterwork short sword decorated with a spiraling comet, the symbol of Pharasma.

Mwk Short Sword.

Which direction do you go?

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper said nothing, but emphatically gestured to the Queen of Hearts, wedged an inch deep in the creature's carapace.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon walked the perimeter of the room, her hand on the wall, looking over the inscriptions of the archways.

"...This way likely leads to Roslar's personal tomb, while the other leads to the grave of his steed, Abdell. I do not know who the laborers at the paladin's right hand were. Perhaps it leads back to the Red Shrikes' tomb?"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Watching as the ostovite was cleaved completely in half by her blade, Henrietta took a couple of deep breaths before lifting her glaive out of the ground and wiping it off.

"Not going to lie, that was very therapeutic."

At Coty's musings, she added some of her own.

"Which means the unmarked entryway is probably the most direct way out. Then again, when are things that easy?"

Henrietta's face was scrunched up, lost in thought. "The one with 'laborers' could be the tomb of the real Red Shrikes, or it could be some other people he felt deserved to rest along with him. Of course, the real question is, how curious are we to find out? All a matter of picking our poison, I guess."

She then turned to Vesper. "Speaking of curious... Obviously there's no denying at this point that works." She gestured to the Queen of Hearts embedded in what was left of their foe. "My question is 'why and how'?"

[Nefarion Xid]

"Because no one ever says, 'Oi mate, you can't have weapons in here. You have to leave your cards at the door!'" Vesper imitated a loutish doorman.

"And if you insist you can cut an apple in half with a playing card at thirty paces, lots people will call you a liar and wager coin that you can't."

He picked his lit card and flung it into the north-eastern passage. "Something magic is that way. I can feel it."

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Nothing seemed to respond to the thrown card. Vesper could see into the chamber now. What appeared to be stone bunks were stacked against the perimeter, though no corpses were present, having long since fallen victim to the ostovites. A faint magical aura came from the northeastern section.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Using a simple divination, Coty spied some manner of magical aura in the northeastern room where the glowing card had been thrown.

"Something magical awaits within... not just the spell on that card, mind you. Might Percival take point? He has less to risk than the rest of us."

Coty followed the more combat capable individuals into the room when they were ready.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Sir Percival marches into the room and surveys his surroundings. Directed toward the source of magical energy, he finds the source just out of his reach, despite his 6'4" height. He will have to climb the stone shelves/slabs.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Satisfied that nothing was going to jump out at or stab them - at least not immediately - Henrietta followed behind Percival and followed the inevitable's gaze.

"Looks like whatever it is is up there... I don't suppose anyone's willing to climb up and check it out? Not me, though. If it's a trap I'd be able to do nothing."

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

As Percival begins to climb with Henrietta's help, the stone suddenly gives way. It falls toward the pair in rather large chunks, but Henrietta manages to dodge. Percival is not so lucky.

However, they have their prize (prizes, rather): Digging in the rubble, Henrietta finds a single Bead of Blessing and an ancient wedding ring with the inscription, "For Aloisius; my love, my heart, my morning dove.” The ring is worth 85gp.

Percival takes 11 damage. The stones miss Henrietta.
Loot:
Wedding Ring worth 85gp
Bead of Blessing (from a Strand of Lesser Prayer Beads (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/a-b/beads-prayer-strand))

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

As the shelf began to collapse, Henrietta noticed the slabs beginning to cave. With years of practiced instinct, she leapt backwards, landing on her rear and blinking at the sight. After a couple moments, she chuckled lightly.

"Crushed by a shelf... what an obituary that would have been."

After a moment, she realized that she was not, in fact, alone, and had the decency to look somewhat abashed as she looked toward Kali. "Erm. Apologies about your, erm, companion. Will you be able to resummon him?"

[Jade_Tarem]

"I can, but..." An armored fist thrust itself skyward from the rubble. "I'm not dead yet!"

"Not for lack of trying, mind you." Kali helped him out of the pile of debris. "Be more careful out there. Just because you come back doesn't mean I like seeing you get hurt."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Coty stared at the prayer bead, clutched daintily in her vine-fingers.
"This bead contains a simple blessing. A modest boon, but one I can utilize. It ought to give us all a small boost in morale."

The ghoran shifted her oddly disconcerting stare to Percival and Kali.
"I am sorry I asked your eidolon to take the brunt of the risk. It was not my place to dictate the deployment of a shard of your own soul with callous disregard. But it seems our situation is far from safe, and your eidolon is... more expendable than the rest of us. I possess healing magic myself, but my current seed is young and lacking in strength."
Coty pauses, trying to think of a better turn of phrase.
"That is... I do not have... a great deal of restorative magic. Not yet. My selfish impulse is to save it lest our situation grow more dire. I understand eidolons cannot be truly slain whilst their summoner lives. I do not wish to seem... cold."

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Vesper approaches the unmarked southwestern arch and flings a lit card through. He can see that the hallway broadens to match the alcove opposite to the north and spies what appears to be the remains of a large beetle on the floor.

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper flicks cards at the beetle's corpse until he's satisfied that it won't attack anyone.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

The card nudges the beetle and a pair of angry ostovites crawl out. He can see a very faint glow coming from within each of the abyssal magical beasts.

Bellas and Henrietta win initiative.

[PepperP.]

Bellas watched Vesper flick cards at the corpse with some amusement until more ostovites made themselves known.

"This place is infested. I think you've made them angry."


Attack
[roll0]
Damage
[roll1]

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Of course, the real kicker will be when we see nothing but these things until the very last second when something extra spooky and angry jumps out at us."

Rushing forward, Henrietta joined Bellas on the front lines and swung her glaive downward, intent on dispatching the second ostovite.

Move up and attack!

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]
Unfortunately, the ostovite proved to be more agile than its compatriot, and her blade came down where it had been half a second earlier, completely missing the creature.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

The remaining ostovite leaps into Henrietta's square, deftly avoiding her glaive, and futilely attempts to bite her.

PCs are up.

[Jade_Tarem]

Coty stared at the prayer bead, clutched daintily in her vine-fingers.
"This bead contains a simple blessing. A modest boon, but one I can utilize. It ought to give us all a small boost in morale."

The ghoran shifted her oddly disconcerting stare to Percival and Kali.
"I am sorry I asked your eidolon to take the brunt of the risk. It was not my place to dictate the deployment of a shard of your own soul with callous disregard. But it seems our situation is far from safe, and your eidolon is... more expendable than the rest of us. I possess healing magic myself, but my current seed is young and lacking in strength."
Coty pauses, trying to think of a better turn of phrase.
"That is... I do not have... a great deal of restorative magic. Not yet. My selfish impulse is to save it lest our situation grow more dire. I understand eidolons cannot be truly slain whilst their summoner lives. I do not wish to seem... cold."

"Think nothing of it!" Percival responded on his own, and Kali nodded, smiling brightly. "Being a shield for others is kind of the point. Like I said, we're servants of the Inheritor. We knew the risks."

When the time came to fight the Ostovites once again, she and the knight both charged in, fists at the ready.

Percival Slam: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

And Welcome to the Jam (Kali Cestus Attack): [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

[zabbarot]

Gilbert similarly moved in to help with the bug, brandishing his hammer with little apparent concern for Henrietta's safety.


Hammer man
Hammer man
Swingin' that hammer like a potato can

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

The second ostovite is quickly dispatched by Gilbert's hammer. To the southwest, Kali catches sight of a reddish glow lighting the room beyond. Peering around the corner, she can see a trio of housecat-sized beetles scuttling around. The creatures are dull brown in color with a pair of glowing green-yellow spots upon their carapaces.

[PepperP.]

Bellas

Bellas frowned at the increasing amount of evil bug guts clinging to her long blade and peered around the corner after Kali.

"Those aren't ostovites. Do you know what they are? I don't suppose they're harmless." She whispered pessimistically to the other red-head as she eyed the beetles warily.

[CockroachTeaParty]

"It is fortunate I fell in with a group of dangerous individuals," said Coty. It seemed more than one member of the party was capable in a fight.

"...Does anybody else find it odd that there is an infestation of ostovites here? I am not certain they are native to the material plane."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta had a smile (however small) at being called dangerious, but shook her head at Coty's question.

"Pretty sure these aren't local. Couldn't tell you much more than that, though. Most of what I know about animals relates to whether they're good for eating."

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper waved everyone into position, then started assaulting the beetles with magic (the gathering) cards.

[roll0] cover, point blank
[roll1]

if win initiative, do this

[roll2] cover, point blank
[roll3]

[roll4] cover, point blank
[roll5]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

This wide room has a hallway leading out of the north wall and a set of stairs leading up to the east. An elaborately lifelike image carved into the south wall depicts a mustachioed knight kneeling before a slender woman with feathery wings. The woman holds a rapier above her head with one hand while the other is extended to the knight, who is kissing it. Lettering above the image reads, “Faithfulness Always to the Red Crusader.” In the room were a trio of cat-sized beetles.

The beetles, which had hitherto been minding their own business, were taken completely by surprise as Vesper quickly threw two cards and sent a matching number to their little beetle afterlives.

The rest of you are up.

[PepperP.]

"Was that really necessary or were you just trying to prove a point?" Bellas cast a pointed glance at the man's cards again before slicing the last beetle through.

attack last beetle
[roll0]
damage
[roll1]

[Nefarion Xid]

"I was trying to get to that passageway without having my shins set on fire by tiny monsters." Vesper lit a card and pitched it down the way to illuminate the next area.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Bellas dispatched the final beetle, noticing as she entered the room that there was a second passage leading out...and up. As Vesper stepped in and lit the way up the stairs with another card, he could see what appeared to be a few busts standing in a row.

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper goes to examine the busts and hurls his considerably intellect at them until they spill out their busty secrets.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Pleasantly surprised that the beetles had not turned out to breath fire (or something along those lines), Henrietta joined Vesper in examining the busts, looking over them for anything unusual.

Take 20 on Perception.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

This room contains a row of four marble busts with a strong family resemblance. Each bust rests atop a narrow stone pillar. The bust farthest to the north—of a proud man with a wide mustache—wears an elegant wig of actual hair. Small plaques beneath them read, from south to north, “Fallist Roslar, Father,” “Emmillisa Roslar, Mother,” “Annilisa Roslar, Sister,” and “Ervin Roslar, Hero.” An archway opens into another room to the north, while a set of stairs descends to the west (the way you came).

With Vesper and Henrietta in the lead, Gilbert follows behind, his lantern casting eerie shadows behind the busts. The other three bring up the rear and they can all see that the path leads north out of this room. Bellas, her eyes seemingly quicker than the rest, catches a slight movement behind one of the pillars, almost like a flash of blue.

[PepperP.]

Bellas

"I wouldn't get too close..." She warned as Vesper seemed determined to study the statuary's very molecules.

"I saw a flash of blue behind there."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Dropping into a combat stance, Henrietta called out.

"Show yourself."

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

A quite curse was quickly shushed by two or three other voices, and then a quartet of small, squat humanoids that seemed to be nearly all head jumped out from behind the pillars. Each held a dagger in one hand and a dart in the other. These they waved menacingly as they hissed at the intruders. "You! Give golds!" one urged in broken common. "Give golds or die!" The others nodded their agreement.

They're mites.

[Nefarion Xid]

"Oi! Listen you, I just woke up on a bloody sarcophagus surrounded by half a dozen misfits and I'm not about to be bullied by some gimpy blue fetus with a dagger into giving up the last of my coin. I don't even have gold; it's all silver you diminutive azure cretin! Now go away before I taunt you some more!"

Bluff [roll0] he distracts them with an 'intimidate' but then just murders the loudest one

[roll1] surprise round attack
[roll2]

[roll3] round 1 smacking
[roll4]

[roll5] round 1 smacking
[roll]1d4+2[/roll

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

The smurf-like creatures are caught off guard, but not so much that their leader does not dodge Vesper's attacks. "To arms!" he cries, and the four blue figures clutch their weapons tighter.

Bellas, Henrietta, and Vesper all win initiative, but Vesper has already acted.

[PepperP.]

Bellas

"We could get you a sword..." Bellas smirked as Vesper aggressively but ineffectually littered the ground around the diminutive blue men even as she sliced at the one wearing the magical hat with her blade.

Attack on leader
[roll0]
Damage
[roll1]

[Nefarion Xid]

"Are you offering yours?"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"...no."

Hoisting her glaive, Henrietta moved up and swung it into the middle of the pack.

Attacking L3.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

With a shrill cry of vengeance, the remaining three mites ineffectually threw themselves at their attackers, managing to miss with every attack.

You're all up now.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Dodging the attack sent her way, Henrietta thrust her glaive toward her would-be attacker before whirling around and swinging at another.

First, an AoO vs (I presume) M4.

Attack of Opportunity: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

Next, a regular attack vs M2.

Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

[Nefarion Xid]

Not to let the elf get the better of him, Vesper lodged some cards into the last mite's brain.

[roll0]
[roll1] damage

[roll2]
[roll3] damage

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

The fourth and final mite was dispatched, ending forever their dreams of a barbershop quartet (and sending the makeshift hat to the floor at Bellas' feet). All that remained were the four busts, one of which had a well-preserved wig of fine hair perched atop.

You find one half of a Pauldrons of the Serpent (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/m-p/pauldrons-of-the-serpent), save that instead of a device in the shape of a coiled snake, it is a heart.

You also have a well-preserved wig, should you choose to take it. It does not detect as magical.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Stopping to huff and puff for a moment after yet another quick burst of violence, Henrietta shook her blade clean.

"So, it's not that I particularly want to stay in this place longer, but... does anyone else feel like we should maybe check the other two archways back downstairs before we press on? Just in case it turns out there's something we need later?"

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon, who had been hanging back during the brief explosion of violence, gazed curiously at the felled mites before perking up at Henrietta's question.

"...I'd like to see if they entombed the horse," she said sheepishly.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

At Coty's urging, Percival led the way back downstairs in search of Roslar's horse. This they found leaning against the western wall in the chamber with the inscription for Abdell. The stone walls of the room were carved to resemble an airy stable with a large stone box at the southern end. The lid of the box was cracked and corroded, as though from powerful acid. An illustration of a lean, regal stallion and the words “No Greater Friend Hath a Man Than His Loyal Steed” were chiseled into the stone above the box. The skeleton seemed intact, but almost as if a child had taken it apart and attempted to put it back together. It was mostly all there. Just not as it should be. By now the six had learned to spot the telltale sign of an ostovite within a skeleton, though the bones surrounding the abyssal scavenger would prevent a direct attack until the skeleton itself were destroyed.

You got the drop on this one. Y'all are up. Map updated. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rPwafqPFOe2WgARrDEuqj3C0hh1sDkeSNg7rZsgfPVU/edit#gid=1400405328)

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Alright, you little bugger. Get outta there!"

Henrietta moved in and swung her glaive toward the skeleton, intent on forcing the ostovite out into the open.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

While Henrietta managed to land a direct, blow, there was not enough power behind the swing to penetrate the skeleton, and her glaive bounced off harmlessly.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Seeing the ostovite was piloting a more significant skeletal vessel, Cotyledon produced the prayer bead they had found. She turned it in her strange, green fingers, and eked the blessing within out into the world. Her companions felt their courage bolstered by the wave of divine magic.


Coty will activate the bead of blessing.

Everyone gets a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and saves vs. fear for 1 minute.

[zabbarot]

Potato Gilbert

Gilbert moved forward, readied his hammer, and swung at the malformed horse.

"If we were in the coffins where are all these bones coming from?"


[roll0]
[roll1]

[PepperP.]

Bellas pointed to the half-destroyed lid of what has formerly served as the skeleton's coffin.

"He came from his own coffin, those were our coffins. Though I have no idea why anyone would go to the trouble of making us a coffin when we clearly aren't dead." She punctuated her words with a slice at the parasitic pest.

attack on osto
[roll0]
Damage
[roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

The troupe made haste to the final chamber of the level they'd awoken on. This turned out to be the planned resting place of the famous Roslar. The room's stone walls were carved to resemble hanging draperies framing a large dais. Upon the dais stood a large sarcophagus, its lid carved to resemble a sleeping knight with long hair and a wide mustache. The room carried a faint nauseating odor, like putrefying meat. Gilbert could see that the lid of the sarcophagus was somewhat askew, as if it had been opened and mostly (but not quite completely) closed.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Blegh, that stench... why do I get the feeling those things probably ate whatever was in here? Although, better question, if everything else so far has been skeletal, what was fresh meat doing here?"

She then focused on the sacophagus. "Anyone else spot anything off about that thing? If something's gonna jump out at us my bet would be it's in there."

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper stood a way back from the sarcophagus and pitched a lit card into the gap.

[roll0]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

With a deft flick of his wrist, Vesper sent a card between lid and base of the sarcophagus. Moments later, a soft hiss could be heard, but not from within the sarcophagus. Instead, it came from the other end near the far wall.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Bellas stepped around to get a better look at where the hissing was coming from. Her new angle allowed her to see a skeletal snake. She seemed to catch the creature, if creature it could accurately be called, off guard for a moment.

Bellas, Gilbert, Kali, and Vesper win initiative.

[Jade_Tarem]

"Well, since we're just re-burying everything down here anyway... let's go, Percival!" With a heretofore-unseen reaction speed, the pair rushed the room and attacked the snake.

Percival Attack: [roll0]
Damage:[roll1]

Kali Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

[Nefarion Xid]

"This is actually a little sad. I sort of expect fiercer undead when I've been stuck in a crypt."


5' step, rapid shot, point blank
[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Vesper's cards hit the corner of the sarcophagus and miss the snake by inches, but Gilbert - leaping atop the slightly unstable lid of the sarcophagus - brings down his sledge in an overhead smash and crushes the bone serpent's head. He shifts the lid to expose the interior more and discovers the absence of its intended occupant. He does, however, notice an intricate carving on the interior of the lid of a slender angelic woman with a benevolent gaze surrounded by clouds, looking down as though from a great height. Words around the image read, “O Arazni, the Red Crusader, Watch Over My Eternal Rest.”

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon gently touched the inscription with her bark-covered fingers, her petaled face inscrutable.

"Arazni... It was so long ago... Perhaps it was a mercy Roslar never lived to see her defiled. She haunts Geb still, if I am not mistaken. So close to the cradle of my seed's first germination. The world is a small place."

The ghoran adjusted the straps on her overladen pack.
"Shall we head upwards again? It would be nice to feel the sun today."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Good idea to me. I believe we've cleared this first floor anyway."

Henrietta took the lead, along with Percival and Gilbert (assuming past patterns kept repeating themselves), and retraced their steps to the exit out of the bust room.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

This cavernous chamber has two doors to the north and two to the south (you entered through the southeast). The west end of the room contains an altar with a symbol of a winged rapier burning with the bright light of a continual flame spell. Several tiles on the floor in front of the altar bear large symbols. The east end of the room contains a large crack, defacing a mural of armored figures staring resolutely forward, with beams radiating behind them. Most are unremarkable save for one: a bearded man with what appears to be a broken nose. Several corpses of small, bug-eyed blue creatures (mites) slump in three piles throughout this room.

Before the altar is a section of stone tiles arranged into nine two-foot-square stones arranged in a 3x3 grid. The words "Follow Along Roslar's Devotion" are carved around the grid. The nine symbols are arranged as follows. Row 1 is the northernmost row; the tiles in each row are listed from east (closest to the mural) to west (closest to the altar).

Row 1: A mailed fist, a tree, and a tower.
Row 2: A heart, a rapier, and a skull.
Row 3: A horse’s head, a round helm, and a pair of feathery wings.


http://i63.tinypic.com/20hrono.png

It might be a trick of the light from the opposite end of the room, but it seems like the corpse piles are moving slightly as if something was underneath.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Looking at the tiles, Henrietta began to think, and to think hard.

"So, obviously, we're supposed to step on these tiles in the correct order. Based on what we've seen so far, my best guess would be 1) The horse's head first, since he had his horse entombed here as well, and then 2) the Rapier, and 3) the Feathery Wings, since there was that mural depicting the angel-type woman holding a rapier with Roslar. Although, there was that one ring that talked about a heart..."

"Also," she gestured with her glaive, "I'm pretty sure there's something alive and trying to hide under that corpse pile at the far end of the room."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon hesitated at the entrance to the strange puzzle-room.
"Perhaps we should make sure we're not about to get attacked before we fiddle with this strange puzzle mechanism?"

The ghoran made no motion to approach the perceived signs of life, leaving it up to the clearly more martial members of the group.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta nodded.

"Get ready, everyone."

Approaching the nearest corpse pile, she then thrust her glaive into the middle where she had seen the twitch coming from.

I'm assuming Bless is no longer in effect.

Total Concealment Hit Change (51-100 misses): [roll0]
Attack: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Henrietta's actions delivered a predictable result. Scuttling out from the piles of corpses, a half-dozen giant cockroaches appeared, hissing angrily.

You all beat the roaches' pathetic initiative. Map is updated. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rPwafqPFOe2WgARrDEuqj3C0hh1sDkeSNg7rZsgfPVU/edit#gid=1400405328)

I put Bellas, Gilbert, and Vesper close to the alter as they were inspecting that area. Coty and Kali/Percival can be wherever.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Well, you've shown yourselves... now to put you down for good."

Henrietta backed up and swung her glaive down again.

5-step and swing!

Attack vs R5: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper flicks two cards are nearest atomic roach(es) and retreats 5 feet towards the corridor.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]

[CockroachTeaParty]

In the first truly violent action the group has seen the ghoran take, Cotyledon produced a loaded crossbow and fired at one of the giant cockroaches. She missed horribly.


Shoosting R4.
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[PepperP.]

"Well at least you hit it this time." Bellas smirked at Vesper as she swiftly strode past and swiped at the roach Coty missed with her crossbow.

Attack on R4
[roll0]
Damage
[roll1]

[Jade_Tarem]

"I guess this is just how it is now. We'll stomp progressively more disgusting things until we find the exit." Kali followed Percival in. The eidolon, for his part, was having a blast.

Flanking and attacking R3. Oth said we could start 'wherever' but it would be a bit cheesy for this to happen without one of the pair provoking an AoO, so that will be Percival.

Percival Attack: [roll0]
Percival Damage: [roll1]

Kali Attack: [roll2]
Kali Damage: [roll3]

[zabbarot]

"This is the worst, but maybe best, time I've ever had in a tomb." Gilbert readied to drop the hammer again.


Attackin a roach
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

With two of their number dispatched like the vermin they were, the remaining roaches sought out their closest targets. Three completely missed their targets, and one even drew Henrietta's ire, but the fourth managed to find purchase in Bellas' leg.

R1 takes a bite out of Bellas' leg for 2 damage.

R2 provokes as it scuttles at Henrietta and attacks (it misses).

The others miss.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Spotting an opening as one of the roaches scurried toward her, Henrietta thrust forward...

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]
And missed it completely. Swearing, she shifted her grip up on her glaive before swinging down again.

Move action to shift glaive to allow me to attack a square immediately adjacent to me, as per the text of Bladed Brush.

For the rolls, see the OOC.

Attack: 24
Damage: 11

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper hurled two cards at the thing attempting to eat Bellas's ankle.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]

[PepperP.]

Bellas

"Ugh, stop eating me you disgusting vermin!" Bellas recoiled in disgust and reflexively swung her sword around again to target the roach directly in front of her.

Attack on R4
[roll0]
Damage
[roll1]

[Jade_Tarem]

"They really are hard to kill!" Percival boomed, stomping down again.

Kali continued to assist, pummeling the disgusting bug. "That is what they're known for."

"Yes, but the last roach I fought died in one strike."

"The last roach you fought was the size of my thumbnail."

Second verse, same as the first.

Percival Attack: [roll0]
Percival Damage: [roll1]

Kali Attack: [roll2]
Kali Damage: [roll3]

[CockroachTeaParty]

"This is just awful." said Cotyledon as she reloaded her crossbow, only to fire once more into the fracas.


Shoosting a roach. I think they're all in melee so I'll choke on that -4 penalty like a champ.
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[zabbarot]

"Do you think they ate the old guy?"

[roll0][roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Heedless of the death of four of their number, the remaining pair of roaches attempted to make a meal out of their targets, but missed both attacks.

The roaches miss. You are up.

[Nefarion Xid]

Limp wristed card flicking.

[roll0]
[roll1] damage

[roll2]
[roll3] damage

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon was shocked that she managed to finish off one of the enormous insects; fighting was not her forte.

"Honestly I'm more concerned about what killed all of these mites," she said as she reloaded and fired once more.


Shoost a boog: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"I would have to agree with you on that front," said Henrietta to Coty as she sliced at the still-struggling roach in front of her.

Still choked up on the glaive, so no need to move.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]
With a resoundingly satisfying crunch, the roach finally gave up the ghost as her glaive bisected the oversized arthropod.

[PepperP.]

Bellas

Bellas kicked the ineffectual cards away from her as they fluttered near her feet with a sigh.

"I'm sure we'll find out what killed the mites soon enough." Her tone was pessimistic even as she sliced the remaining roach through.

Attack R1
[roll0]
Damage
[roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Gilbert shuffled forward and brought his hammer down, causing the roach's shell to crack. But it hung on and feebly tried to bite the undertaker who managed to dodge out of the way.

The rest of you are up again.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Circling around to the rear of the roach, Henrietta made an attempt to finish the job once and for all.

Move action to BX22. I am still choked up on the glaive, so I have to get close.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Henrietta's attack missed, but Kali and Percival managed to finish off the roach. With the final vermin dispatched, silence once again reigned in Roslar's Tomb.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta wiped her blade before stowing her glaive once more, then made her way over to the altar.

"Well, now we'll see if I was right, I suppose. No point delaying the inevitable."

Henrietta will first take 20 on perception for 27 to try and spot anything dangerous/hidden in the tiles. Then, she will step on the horse's head first, then the rapier, then the feathery wings.
Stepping onto the horse's head, a slight buzz reached Henrietta's ears a second too late, and she screamed as she fell back, electricity coursing through her body.

"Okay. So, not the horse's head first." She looked back at the others. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not try that again."

[Nefarion Xid]

"I feel like the mites tried to brute-force a solution and those corpses are the error part of their trial." The fancy man frowned, but as Henrietta was still living, he just shrugged and sat down on the stone.

"Puzzle's a bit rubbish, isn't it? It didn't even give us all the rules. Do you step on just three tiles to cross or do you have to step on every one that applies? Not really fair to give us a game and not explain the rules, love." He began laying out a Harrow spread from his good deck of cards. Fine, sturdy things with more ink and gilding than a wizard's spellbook. No explanation for who was his 'love'.

[PepperP.]

Bellas

Bellas winced as Henrietta was zapped.

"There's a mechanism beneath the altar. Perhaps it can be disabled? Why don't you ask your love about that."

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper put his cards away, flung the scarf at Bellas, and darted over to the tiles. Heart. Rapier. Wings. Bow.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Whether it was divine guidance from above, or a spark of insight, Vesper stepped on the correct tiles. There was a pause after his bow, and then the altar quietly slid back along with the panel beneath, revealing its treasure. There, untouched by dirt or time, was a sparkling mithral breastplate accompanied by a masterwork steel heavy shield. Both were emblazoned with a red-winged rapier, the symbol of Arazni.

You gain a Mithral Breastplate and a Mwk Steel Heavy Shield.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta groaned from where she was lying on the ground as she saw Vesper get the tile combination correct on his first try.

"'ve course it happened to me..."

As the altar slid back, she eased herself back up into a standing position, and couldn't help but give a quiet whistle in awe. She looked to the rest of the party.

"Anyone mind if I call dibs on the breastplate?"

[Nefarion Xid]

"Yeah, that's worth a lot of money and I'm taking that. I mean, the royal I? It's not grave robbing if you solve a puzzle first. Desna says it's okay."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta narrowed her eyes at Vesper.

"Perhaps you've forgotten, but currently everything else living we've seen so far has tried to kill us. Forget selling the thing, I need the armor for protection until we can get out of this mess. And given how everything's gone so far, we're bound to run into something much larger and meaner than the bugs we've been dealing with so far. If you're that torn over selling the damn thing, we can discuss that if we escape. If I'm going to be in the front keeping everything from biting us, I deserve some proper protection."

[Nefarion Xid]

"I don't care if you wear it now. I just want to get paid once we get out of here. I could nearly buy an inn with my share! Actually, there's this innkeeper in Belhaim and she has an enormous pair of... second floor suites. Maybe I'll just go marry her."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Oh."

Henrietta blinked.

"Well, I'm okay without money. You wanna sell it, I'm fine with that. I just want to wear it." She looked back to the party. "Anyone else actually interested in wearing it?"

[Nefarion Xid]

"Yeah, I don't really do armor. Gets in the way of the magic."

Vesper shuffled his cards in the air, then held out the deck. "Come on. All you melee folks have a draw. High card wears the fancy armor out of the store."

Roll 1d13 for rank and 1d4 for suit. Reroll if you got the same result as someone who's already drawn. A 1 is an ace, so that's actually the best draw. Suit is irrelevant.

[PepperP.]

Bellas

Bellas eyed Vesper suspiciously as though she couldn't decide whether he had deduced the puzzle solution through cleverness or luck.

"We could all do with a bit more protection, I think." Her response to Henrietta's query was resigned but she'd be rather foolish to not take the chance to upgrade her armor. She sauntered over to Vesper and waved his handkerchief back at him.

"You do magic? I hadn't noticed." The corner of her lips quirked into an amused grin as she plucked a card from the offered deck.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta looked at the cards.

"Fair a method as any, I guess."

Reaching forward, she drew...

Suit: [roll0]
Rank: [roll1]
...the Jack of Hearts.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon's flower petal face fluttered in a strange wave, as if a pebble had been dropped in a pool of still water.
"Most impressive. Very clever. It would have taken me... time... to solve that puzzle. Although I was concerned it was necessary to escape this place somehow, not merely a lock for more... loot. Well done... card... jester... guy? What is your name? Why haven't all of you shared your name yet? I did right away. I thought it was polite? Or did that go out of style at some point?"

The ghoran fidgeted with her crossbow before securing it once more to a loop on her belt.

[Nefarion Xid]

"Oh." The man frowned, then offered a wan, optimistic smile. "People call me Vesper. I mean, because I ask them to, obviously. I'm not famous. A little? Not a lot. Not around here anyway."

He was certainly dressed like a Varisian, maybe a performer too. He had a Harrow deck as well. His actual ethnicity was a mystery though. If forced to venture a guess, most people would say 'all of them?' and be half right.

"It is lovely to meet you all... in this tomb filled with abyssal vermin and horrible ugly little blue men and lightning traps."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon fixes her empty eye holes on Vesper, shifting her face petals into a facsimile of a smile.

"Vesper... the evening prayer. Oh! Henrietta, how badly were you hurt?"

She clasped her strange vine-like hands together, and a pulse of golden light washed over the gathered adventurers, soothing them with positive energy.


We've got two injured folks, plus an eidolomb, so let's get some channeling on.
[roll0]

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta bathed in thee warm light of Coty's channeling, then gave off something of a smile. "Well, whatever you just did took care of most of it, so that's something. Thanks."

[PepperP.]

Bellas

"Ohhh..." Bellas audibly sighed as Coty's healing energy suffused her injured leg and knit the wound back together. She lifted her foot onto the altar and inspected the leg the roach had bitten.

"Good as new, thanks for that." Her brief smile lit her face with a warmth that had previously been lacking despite the pleasant aesthetics of her features.

"I'm Bellas, Bellas Thorne of Rosler's Coffer."

[Jade_Tarem]

"I'm glad to meet all of you! I think I introduced myself already, but it's still nice to hear names." The aasimar paused. "And I don't need the armor. Too heavy for me and it will interrupt the link if Percy wears it."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Name's Henrietta, just in case any of you missed it the first time. I know you didn't at least." Henrietta looked to Coty.

With Kali's declination of the cards, Henrietta saw that Gilbert was also not opting to step forward. "Jack beats a 10, I believe, so that leaves it to me."

Unbuckling her cloak, Henrietta pulled her chain shirt over her head and tossed it to the floor before going about the task of buckling up the breastplate. As she cinched the final piece into place, she took a look back down to the discarded armor, then to the rest of the party.

"Don't suppose any of you want to borrow that or'd be willing to carry it, do you? It's a bit heavy for me to carry that while I'm wearing this thing, but it'd be a shame to ditch it."

Silence.

"Well, if no-one wants to borrow it..." Henrietta tossed it at Gilbert. "Hold onto that, would you? Thanks."

With the chain shirt taken care of, Henrietta made her way toward the door at the southern end of the room, listening carefully at it before attempting to open it.

Henrietta has moved on the map to the door she wants to open. She will take 20 on Perception to listen at it and check for traps before attempting to open it.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

After making sure it was clear of traps, Henrietta tried the door. Having no lock, it swung open, gliding nearly silently on hidden hinges. Within Henrietta could see that the walls of the room were carved with strange sigils in broad circles. In the center of the room stood a stone pillar with a large wedge of crystal atop it; the pillar and the floor around it covered with more of the strange glyphs. Curled up next to the pillar was the husk of a small blue humanoid (another seemingly dead mite). The only door in this room lead out to the north.

The crystal looks rather valuable. The mite's corpse has a bulging pouch upon its belt.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon took a few tentative steps into the strange room.

"These sigils... are wards. But it seems their magic has been expended. Perhaps they were protecting this... crystal. Or maybe they were defending the tomb itself? The danger... may have passed."

The ghoran kneeled next to the dead mite, examining the contents of the pouch at their belt.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Upon the body of the recently-dead mite, Coty found a masterwork dagger, six darts, and inside the pouch an ornately-carved jasper figurine of a frog.

1 x Mwk Dagger
6 x Darts
1 x Jasper Frog worth 25gp

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"All the same, I'm going to err on the side of caution and not touch the crystal," said Henrietta. "Odds are likely as not whatever was in the wards is in there. Unless it just escaped altogether, which is its own problem, but we'll get to that when we get to it."

Now satisfied that the room was clear, Henrietta moved to the north side of the room, checking the westernmost of the northern doors.

Same as before. Take 20 on perception to check the westernmost north door for traps and listen for anything on the other side, then open it up.

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper lingered a moment, padding around the sigil on the floor. Then he took a few paces back and made a running leap across the likely spent magical trap, snatching the crystal and saying, ""Desna smite me of this is grave robbing."

[roll0] acrobatics check?

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

The glyphs were indeed spent, but Vesper closed his hand around an even greater danger: the milky-white crystal at the center of the room. As he grasped the crystal, a vision flashed before him: A ghostly scowling face briefly filled the crystal, and a stab of pain shot up his arm toward his heart. And then a strange thing happened: Something within Vesper seemed to absorb most of the damage and the pain faded away into a dull ache before that too finally dissipated.

You take 1 point of negative energy damage as the whatever-it-is inside the crystal lashes out at you.

[Nefarion Xid]

"Cheeky. That doesn't count, though," he grunted, turning the crystal over to examine it better. He tapped it a few times, held it up to his ear, then licked it. "See, this is why no one likes paladins. They die and people piss away thousands of gold building them these big tombs that always ****ing get haunted! Every single time! You ever been in a nonhaunted paladin tomb? No! They don't exist. Now when normal people die, they just go in the ground and all of their possession go to their family to be enjoyed and pawned off! No one's leaving traps and spooky zapping crystals around my grave! I have specifically requested to be cremated anyway."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Can't say I've ever been in any sort of paladin tomb, haunted or non-haunted. People get freaked out when I go into graveyards. Or just when they see me in general, really."

Henrietta continued to examine the door.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Henrietta found the door to be unremarkable, though as with the rest of the tomb it did appear well made. She did not see a lock or trap of any kind. Opening the door, she found a room not unlike the one in the opposite corner of the current level, but instead of busts she found murals around the room depicting several weapons, including many different rapiers and several lances. Each weapon depicted had a plaque next to it. A door stood in the south wall (the one through which she entered), and stairs occupied an alcove to the west.

The room was not unoccupied, however, and Henrietta found herself face-to-face with a metallic sculpture of an idealized humanoid figure. Before her eyes it seemed to sparkle with divine energy. "Intruder!" it shouted at her, and switched the point of a short sword it was holding over toward her. "You dare defile this holy sanctum!"

Coty, Gilbert, Henrietta, and Vesper win initiative. Then the Celedon goes. Then Bellas and Kali/Percival.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"I'm not here by choice!"

Rushing forward, Henrietta swung her glaive toward the construct, intent on taking it down.

Move to BF18.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon could only wring her wrists in distress.
"Oh no! You're the first intelligent thing we've come across here! Please, we don't know how we all arrived here. Let's stop fighting!"


Coty will do her best to try and call for nonviolence.
Diplomacy? [roll0]

[zabbarot]

Surprisingly Gilbert followed the plant woman's lead, he lowered his hammer and fished a holy symbol of Pharasma out of his shirt to hold out towards the Celedon.

"I am a gravekeeper. Please, we awoke in tombs. We do not know how we got here."


Diplomacy? ha ... hahaha.

[roll0]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Taken aback by the ferocity of Henrietta's strike, the Celedon lowered its short sword. "I yield!" It swiveled its head to gaze upon Coty (passing by Gilbert without acknowledgement), its unblinking eyes trying to take the measure of her words. "It has been decreed that I and my brethren tend this tomb and keep intruders out. We have failed in our duty." If a construct could appear crestfallen, surely this example gave evidence to that. "What is it you seek here among the dead?"

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon stepped forward, making a placating gesture to the fierce Henrietta.

"You are to keep intruders out... yet we came from within. All of us awoke inside the tomb, on the level below. Literally entombed... in coffins of stone. Thankfully we were able to escape, and we have been wandering this place trying to find the exit ever since. We have no intention of defiling this place. You have not failed in your duty, at least... not where we are concerned.

I am Cotyledon, a newcomer in these lands. I would offer to heal your wounds... but you do not seem to be... flesh?"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Having been in the middle of another wind-up, Henrietta stopped cold when Coty stopped the fighting - and when the guardian of the tomb yielded. Slowly hoisting her glaive back onto her back, she stepped away and let the people who were actually trained at talking take care of things.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

"You may call me Number Three," the Celedon answered. "I admit my confusion, however. Nothing has passed the doors of this tomb in several years save myself and the other attendants. We have found several infestations of vermin and some small, strange humanoids. They are violent and destructive, but cowardly. I believe they entered through a crack in the Middle Hall, which we have tried to patch...yet you are too big to have fit. We were placed here to guard the resting place of the hero Roslar and his attendants."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Coty felt an odd pang of sympathy for the strange guardian, whose creators had barely even stopped to consider giving it a name.

"...If you could point us toward the exit... We would trouble you no more, and let you return to your duties. I am sorry you were damaged by our... actions. When you find yourself entombed, and then encounter nothing but hostile vermin, one has a tendency to get... jumpy?"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, some redness staining her grey cheeks.

This must be that 'remorse' Maria used to lecture about.

"Yeah... I'm sorry I damaged you," she said. "Like Coty said, you're the first thing we've seen that's tried to talk. Everything else has just tried to kill us." She then got a serious look on her face. "Has anything else besides the mites come through here? They're a bit small to have dragged us into the tomb and put us in coffins."

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

"They are called mites then? I shall remember this. Yes," the Celedon confirmed. "I was assaulted by a worm-like creature. I fought it off and it fled up those stairs," the Celedon added, gesturing to the stairs leading up out of the room. "I also fought these mites you speak of. Their leader is holed up in the chamber east of our current location. In my damaged condition, I am unlikely to prevail, but if you would honor the dead, I ask that you dispatch the foul creatures. I have no reward to offer you, but you may keep whatever treasures you find. We seek simply to repair the damage done to the tomb and preserve it for future use."

"If you seek the way out, you will need to go up these stairs, pass through the Grand Hall, and head east. There are two hallways leading north and south that bend in that direction. Either will lead you to the exit. You will likely meet with my brothers, Number One and Number Two. They will challenge you."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Thanks for the heads up," said Henrietta. "Hopefully meeting your brothers goes a bit more smoothly."

She then turned to the others. "I know we all want to get out of here, but... any objections to mopping up the mites and the worm?"

Normally I would, but it feels a bit dickish to just leave after damaging this... gal, I guess?

[PepperP.]

Bellas

"No hard feelings, I'd attack us too if I met us here." Bellas relaxed fractionally, mostly belied by a shift in the tense set of her shoulders.

"We should see about sealing up that crack in the Middle Hall while we're at it."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Seeing that no-one had objected, Henrietta headed in the direction in which the Celedon had indicated they could find the worm.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Henrietta wrenched the door open and stuck her head inside just fast enough to see a pair of the blue creatures they'd encountered minutes before scramble into (ineffectual) hiding spots among shelves lining the walls of the room. The shelves themselves were crammed with ornamental weapons, tapestries, and trophies. Most had been torn or broken, and several lay smashed on the floor.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"You can run, but you can't hide!"

Going to the center of the room, Henrietta thrust her glaive toward where the easternmost mite was hiding.

Going to assume the Mite has total concealment among the junk.

[roll0] 1-50 is a hit, 51-100 is a miss.

Attack: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Henrietta's strike goes wide and bisects a shelf instead of a mite. Too tricky!

Gilbert wins initiative. Only Gilbert. o.o

[zabbarot]

Gilbert looked at his hands, hammer in one, mithril chain in the other, then gave an audible, but muffled, sigh through a mouth full of lantern handle. Maybe he should have stopped to put the armor in his bag? Henrietta had told him to hold it though...

He swung at a mite with a handful of balled mithril.

Attack with a chainshirt! [roll0] Damage: [roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb


Out jumped a quartet of mites, grasping small weapons in their horrid little hands. One wore a crown seemingly crafted of insect shells. "Barple Stonebreaker demand tribute!" he shouted in broken Common. "Drop weapons! Give gold and food!" Without waiting to see if Henrietta and Gilbert would comply, Barple let fly a stone from his sling, aiming at Henrietta. The other three mites attacked their closest adversaries with daggers.


http://i66.tinypic.com/33p67ew.png

All four mites miss their attacks. You are all up. Barple is standing at the top of a 10'-tall shelf in the corner of the room, just out of Henrietta's reach...for the moment.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon, seeing the room brimming with multiple foes, began to make strange geometric gestures with her hands, while chanting in a droning voice.
"Yu-yu yu-yu yu-yu yu-yu..."


Coty will begin casting Sleep as a full round action.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"You are out of your league! If you have any sense, you'll surrender now!"

Henrietta then quickly dodged backwards before cutting down toward one of the two who'd tried to attack her with knives.

5 foot step, then attack M3.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[PepperP.]

Bellas

"I wouldn't count on appealing to their good sense." From her tone it was clear the elf believed they had none.

"Instead we must appeal to their sense of self-preservation. By showing them their alternative is but to die." Bellas advanced into the room and sought to make an example of the one cowering by the bookcase.

Bellas attacks M4
[roll0]
Damage
[roll1]

[Nefarion Xid]

"I just feel bad about this! It's like killing ugly evil puppies. They're just the pugs of monsters. It's not their fault they're wretched and stupid and evil and ugly and stupid!" Vesper stepped into the doorway and flicked a pair of aces towards the leader's head.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]

[Jade_Tarem]

"Moral debates can be saved for later!" Kali and Percival swiftly made to double-team their first target.

Percival Attack: [roll0]
Percival Damage: [roll1]

Kali Attack: [roll2]
Kali Damage: [roll3]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Percival's fist comes around in a sweep and squashes Barple Stonebreaker into the wall, while Gilbert edges forward and smears another mite on the floor. The remaining mite ineffectually thrusts its dagger at the gravekeeper.

Party is up.

[Nefarion Xid]

Card throwing!


[roll[1d4+2


[roll[1d4+2

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Vesper's card tricks cut down the final mite, and all that remained were the spoils of battle. Their leader's insect-shell crown remained intact, should anyone wish to claim the prize, but the real value came in what the mites had looted from the tomb.

Against one wall, you find a pile of gold and silver leaf as well as ivory seemingly scraped from the trophies and ornamental weapons in the room. It weighs 10 pounds and comes to a value of 260gp. You also find a high-quality leather bandolier worth 40gp rolled around six potions of cure moderate wounds.

On the body of Borple Stonebreaker, you find a small light wooden shield, small sickle, sling with 10 stones, sprig of holly, crown made of insect shells, eight white stones painted red on one side.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Looking over the loot, Henrietta immediately gravitated towards the most practical of the items, taking a single potion of cure moderate wounds and stuffing into her belt pouch before taking an even sixth of the gold leaf and Burple's crown.

Specifically, 43 gp worth.

"Alright. That's one thing down, and then just One, Two, and a worm between us and the exit. Unless something else happens. Which it probably will. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there, I guess."

Twirling the crown around her finger, Henrietta then lead the way back into the room with Number Three, tossing the crown in one hand.

"So, good news is, we just managed to take care of the leader of the mites. We'll go ahead and take care of the worm on our way out."

With this said, Henrietta then headed up the stairs.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Reaching the top of the stairs, Henrietta found a long room with a single bench against the eastern wall. Several pieces of gleaming metal hung from wires in the ceiling, like barding in the shape of a fearsome metal bull. The plates seemed twist like wind chimes, creating a dull clanking. A single door stood in the southern wall. A gleaming longsword protruded from the "side" of the bull.

You recognize the sculpture as depicting a Gorgon.
Based on the movement of the sculpture and what you can see, it looks like the "worm" in question is hiding within.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta's gaze wandered toward the plates, and catching some movement, she elbowed the person nearest her.

"Worm looks like it's hiding in there," she whispered, pointing toward it with her glaive. "Vesper, you maybe wanna chuck a card at it, flush it out?"

[Nefarion Xid]

"I don't know if I can hit it, but I'll piss it off." Vesper motions for the melee folks to stands in front of him while he pelts the monsters with flying playing cards.

[roll0] surprise round?
[roll1]


[roll2] full/rapid attack
[roll3]

[roll4]
[roll5]

[CockroachTeaParty]

Staying to the back of the group, Cotyledon tapped into some of her innate magic to see if there was anything poisonous in the vicinity; most importantly the 'worm.'


Coty will use her Detect Poison SLA!

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb, Level 1

Vesper's cards hit the metal bull with twin pings. The sculpture swayed with movement from within, and then a monstrous caterpillar fell to the ground with a sickening squelch.


https://static1.squarespace.com/static/535adf45e4b0cd207ffc69c5/5af379402b6a281dce50b2fc/5af379518a922d5bc0af1aee/1525969328864/Caterpillar-BrynnMEtheney.jpg?format=1500w

Gilbert, Henrietta, and Kali/Percival all win initiative.

The "worm," which you identify as a Horn Caterpillar, is definitely poisonous. The Horn Caterpillar is voracious. Rather than pupating into butterflies, they instead remain in their wormlike forms for their entire life cycle, growing between each molt until they eventually reach the size of large dogs. Horn caterpillars feed on the hooves and horns of dead ungulates, which they usually scavenge from corpses. Their sharp mandibles allow them to effortlessly shear through tendon and bone.

Their bite, while painful, is not poisonous. The poison instead is found in their bristles. They also possess the ability to spit a web-like substance which can be used to grapple prey.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Gritting her teeth, Henrietta brought her glaive down toward the caterpillar's body...

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[zabbarot]

Having now properly stowing the armor in his pack, Gilbert moves forward with his hammer properly ready.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb, Level One

With a sickening squelch, Gilbert smashed the horn caterpillar into goo. It was a quick manner of moments to wrest the longsword from the decorative carcass of the metal bull.

You gain a Mwk Steel Longsword.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Shaking the blood off of her glaive, Henrietta nodded approvingly to Gilbert.

"Let's get out of here."

She then proceeded to move on into the next room.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb, Level One

The walls of the wide room Henrietta led the others into were covered with murals depicting a man performing a variety of heroic tasks: driving a sword into a fearsome metallic bull, defending a village from a scowling spectre, delivering an impassioned speech to several knights, and so on. The man had a large mustache and flowing hair, and wore a breastplate adorned with the symbol of a winged rapier. The western end of the room contained an enormous statue of the man atop a rearing horse, carrying a lance in one hand and a shield in the other. Hallways exited this room to the north and south; both immediately bend to the east.A door stood across the hall to the south.

The statue detects faintly of magic. When you approach within 10 feet, the statue of Roslar dips his lance and raises his shield, while Abdell gives a faint, ghostly whinny.

A simple bowl for offerings still contains a few gifts: 87 gp (mostly in silver and copper coins), two scrolls of lesser restoration, and an ancient jar of gooseberry preserves that now functions as 3 doses of belladonna.

[PepperP.]

Bellas

The red-haired elf finally looked impressed as the statue of Roslar dipped his lance at her approach.

"Chivalrous even after death. Hmph." Her eyes roamed over the murals before she considered their next move.

"Southern door...?"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta had a feeling that it was far more likely that the hallways would lead to the exit.

But what if you miss something you need in there?

Sighing, she said, "Might as well," and ambled over to the door, listening at it before pushing it open.

Take 20 on Percep for 27, then open South.

[Nefarion Xid]

"Hey, I don't know what I'm supposed to do about it, but the angry specter on the mural is a convincing facsimile of the angry specter in my pants." Vesper thrust his hip pocket towards the party and pointed at the bulge.

"Um... knowing what I know about dungeons, I'm probably supposed to shove this into an appropriately sized slot to unlock... something?"

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb, Level One

Henrietta opened the door to find a small, dry font jutting from the south wall of the room in the center of a mural depicting the interior of a chapel. On the west wall hung a large square mirror with an ornate gold frame.

The mirror is worth 150gp...if you can carry it. It weighs 80 lbs.

The chapel depicted in the mural is familiar to you. Your memory dates back to a time when Aroden walked Golarion. This chapel, likely in Vigil from your memory, was dedicated to the Living God.

[Nefarion Xid]

Carefully extracting the crystal from his pocket with a silk scarf wrapped around his hand, Vesper held the captive demonspecterthing up to face the mirror and closed his eyes. "Um... demon be gone? Be purged by... holy light? You ugly?"

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb, Level One

The spectre inside the crystal made one brief, scowling appearance, but nothing else happened.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta


"Hey, I don't know what I'm supposed to do about it, but the angry specter on the mural is a convincing facsimile of the angry specter in my pants." Vesper thrust his hip pocket towards the party and pointed at the bulge.

"Um... knowing what I know about dungeons, I'm probably supposed to shove this into an appropriately sized slot to unlock... something?"
Henrietta frowned at the crystal.

"Knowing what I know about dungeons, we'll all be better off if you leave that thing behind. Carrying around a crystal with an angry ghost in it, one drawn in the murals, no less? Some things are better left forgotten."

She then turned back to the hallways.

"Anyway, I'm pretty sure none of us are strong or stupid enough to lug that mirror around. And that leaves only the hallways thataway, so... here's hoping the exit's finally ahead, knock on wood."

She then headed towards the hall at the end.

[Nefarion Xid]

"I mean, I licked it, so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have nightmares or I'm cursed now or a Runelord is going to turn me into a sock-puppet... point is, it can't get worse than it's already could get!"

Airtight logic.

"But if I'm lucky, and it's worth a lot of money or it's a actually some busty blue djinn call who wants to marry me. Or it gives me wishes! All of these scenarios are equally likely until I find evidence to contradict my hypotheses!"

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb, Level One

Making her way through a narrow hall that curved around to the east, Henrietta soon found a grand metallic double door stood in the east wall of the new chamber, while hallways exited to the north and south. A statue of a proud knight with flowing hair and a large mustache stood in an alcove in the west wall, atop a short pillar bearing a metal plaque. Two more Celedons stood there guarding the great double door, and they each produced a short sword while one addressed Henrietta.

"Halt! You have violated the hallowed chambers of the dead! Further desecration will not be permitted."

[Nefarion Xid]

"Um... yeah, no it's a'right, mate. We're the cleaning staff. As y'were. We'll just be a tick." Vesper pops his head over Henrietta's shoulder and lies very convincingly.

[roll0] Bluff!

[CockroachTeaParty]

A green, rind-covered hand gently landed on Vesper's shoulder as Cotyledon stepped forward.
"Our fool jests, of course. We met Number Three further in the tomb. You are One and Two, I presume? With Three's blessing we cleared the tomb of the remaining... problems. The caterpillar and the remaining mites. Please... we only wish to see you return to your duties, undisturbed. Sir Roslar ought indeed continue his peaceful rest, and no sooner than it takes for us to leave this place."


DIPLOMANCEENS: [roll0]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb, Level One

Vesper couldn't be entirely certain, but he thought he saw the Celedon's expression harden even further - quite a feat given that the creature was made mostly of metal.

Just then Coty spoke up, and the tomb guardian swiveled to gaze upon her. "You have spoken with Number Three?" it asked, slight surprise evident in its vocalization. "It is some testament to your veracity that you know how we are named. I am Number Two and this," Number Two gestured to its compatriot, "is Number One. Our purpose is to guard this tomb in perpetuity. If, as you say, you have dispatched some of the threats herein and are intent upon leaving the tomb, we shall not stop you. We thank you for your assistance. Do not return."

Then, as Number Two finished speaking, it and Number One stepped away from the metallic double doors and waited for the party to leave.

[Nefarion Xid]

"Are you certain you're guarding this place? How did we get in then? Is there another way in or did someone teleport us to the bottom?"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta tensed up as Vesper initially spoke, then relaxed as Coty managed to defuse the situation. As the celedons stepped away from the door, she looked back to the others.

"And not a damned moment too soon. Let's get out of here."

Striding forward, she placed both hands against the door and began to push them open...

[Othniel]

???

Number Two paused to consider Vesper's question. "I...do not know. That is disconcerting."

And then Henrietta opened the doors. The landscape outside the tomb appeared bathed in grim moonlight. Dead trees adorned pale, rolling hills, each of which was covered with gravestones that marched away to the dark horizon. The moon above was impossibly large and looked down as a glowering skull.


http://i65.tinypic.com/15q93rn.png

This is the Boneyard, the plane where souls who have died go to be judged and receive their eternal rewards.

The Boneyard, sometimes referred to as Purgatory, is a neutral plane where the souls of dead mortals from the Material Plane are judged by the goddess Pharasma. It rests atop Pharasma's Spire, jutting out from Axis into the Astral Plane. Souls are brought to the Boneyard by the River of Souls, and after judgement, are sent to the appropriate plane or domain in the Outer Sphere. Some arrive at the Boneyard with their choices already made or pacts signed, but others are judged by a series of courts.

The Boneyard appears as a vast necropolis filled with countless courtyards, monuments, graves, and forums teeming with the souls of the dead awaiting judgement. Each of these courts is shaped and styled to correspond to one of the Outer Planes, and is overseen and guarded by representatives from each of the gods.

The souls of the neutral dead remain in the Boneyard and are transformed in the lands beyond Pharasma's palace and the necropolis into aeons. These strange creatures act as the goddess' advisors, caretakers, explorers, guardians, guides, and even soldiers in times of war. The souls of the neutral dead also form into psychopomps who serve as the bureaucracy of death. In the unclaimed wilderness of Boneyard wolf-like packs of esoboks patrol, protecting the restful dead from both mortal and outsider intruders who would disturb them.

Crypt dragons are born in the Boneyard, but often prefer to make their permanent lairs on the Material Plane and only return to the Boneyard to escort and represent especially favored souls.

The God of the End Times, Groetus, hangs eternally over the Boneyard like a twisted moon that edges closer with each orbit. It is whispered that when he reaches the Spire, all of creation will be wiped away in a great apocalypse.

You may all level your characters up to Level 2.

[PepperP.]

Bellas

The elf swore under her breath as she gazed upon the eerie landscape.

"The Boneyard. Fantastic. I have to say, I don't feel dead. I don't know about you all, but I am not going to sit around and await my judgement." She spat the last word as though she was using a particularly profane swear.

"If anyone has any bright ideas about how to get back to the Material Plane, now would be a great time to voice them..."

[Nefarion Xid]

"Yeeah, I'm a devout worshiper of Desna, so if I'm dead really should have been collected by now. I'm basically a cleric. I mean, I'm Chaotic Good! I've been tested!"

More put-out than terrified by his predicament, the garishly dressed man fell to his knees and again laid out his Harrow cards on a spread scarf. This time, he prayed aloud. "Desna? 'alo, love! Me again. Vesper. Um. Bit of a situation. Um. Sort of on the wrong plane? There's an angry looking moon and everything feels a bit like a Penny Dreadful. Not at all sure how I got here. Also there are other people and you should help them too. So just... I mean if you could just give us a ride, that'd be lovely. I'm sure you're busy with loads of stuff. But maybe just point me in a direction where I won't get eaten by sexy vampires. Uh. I guess if I have to get eaten, sexy vampires is a good way to go. But, I'd rather have a way home, thanks. Thank you. How... are you?"

[Othniel]

Boneyard

"Oh, you aren't dead. Not yet, at any rate. We may be able to help you rectify your present circumstances, actually," said a disembodied voice. "Oh, excuse me. We forgot to make ourselves visible before speaking. I do so apologize." Materializing out of thin air was a looming black skeleton wrapped in the wings of a giant black raven. A vulture-like mask of polished ceramic gazed balefully from where its skull should be. Without a gesture, a wickedly curved scythe appeared in its elongated fingers. Upon the shoulder of the skeleton sat a strange songbird wearing a plaster mask.

"Thoot, put that away. It won't be needed." The voice seemed to come from the raven.

In a blink, the scythe was gone.

"Oh, isn’t this a meeting of obvious fortuitousness! Here you are, and here we are. My name is Umble, and my silent companion here is named Thoot. We mean you no harm, despite the strange harmaments you seem to have already suffered. Yes, yes, this is the land of the dead, and no, you aren’t dead yourselves. You seem to be something of a special case—you seem a touch too vitalitinous for this place."

The bird peered closely at the party, cocking her head to one side. "Ah, there is a wonderment! Your hearts have something lodged inside them. Something that’s brought you here, but kept you from doing so in the orthodoxiumous fashion. I cannot help but ruminate: what has caused your strange condition?"


http://i64.tinypic.com/23jtl5.png

You identify the larger of the two figures as a Vanth Psychopomp. Stern, silent, and cloaked in ragged black wings, vanth psychopomps serve as stoic guardians of Purgatory and watchers along the routes of the dead. A vanth looks like a black skeleton with ravenlike wings and a mask resembling a vulture’s skull.

Also known as reapers, angels of death, or amzranei, vanths protect the departed from those wishing to eat or steal their mortal souls, recapture escaped souls trying to flee their assigned fates, and are death’s foot soldiers against whatever would disrupt the natural cycle of mortality. They may also guard the dead and death’s assets, such as forgotten cemeteries, unattended mausoleums, and sacred groves.

A vanth weighs 400 pounds and stands 8 feet tall, though its slumped posture means it can look most adult humanoids in the eye. Vanths are ancient creatures, perhaps predating the current gods of death, and are rumored to be ascended souls of a distant world of death-worshiping soldiers. They rarely speak or show emotion and their hollow voices carry unnaturally far. A vanth’s scythe is a badge of its station, reflecting its role as a harvester of souls. It features symbols in a language that was already lost when the death gods claimed Purgatory.

Most outsiders scorn vanths, as the psychopomps have no concern for law, rightfulness, or personal gain—only duty. Vanths view any outsider visiting Purgatory as a potential threat, and stalk angels and demons alike.

You know that vanths have several SLAs, such as at-will Greater Teleport and Invisibility, and possess a fear aura. They wield wicked adamantine scythes.
The smaller of the two you identify as a Nosoi Psychopomp. Nosois eagerly fill the roles of clerks, scribes, and messengers in the bureaucracy of the hereafter. They record the circumstances of each mortal’s death, any judgments for and against its soul, and its final destination along the Outer Planes. But unlike more tireless, mechanical outsiders, nosois are also prone to powerful whims, boasting contests, and petty theft.

Mortals recognize nosois in their roles as messengers, counselors of troubled or disbelieving dead, and guides along the River of Souls, and some ancient texts refer to them as scribe psychopomps, death’s messengers, and yanakeion.

Many large and well-tended graveyards or catacombs play host to a nosoi who tends to the newly passed and keeps a watchful eye out for the looming taint of undeath. Nosois’ bodies take the form of mortal songbirds—usually crows, sparrows, and especially whippoorwills—though like all other psychopomps they wear graceful, elegant funerary masks that accentuate their sharp beaks and empty eyes. Many also craft decorative artificial tails from small bric-a-brac that trail behind them as they soar through the Boneyard.

Nosois are typically measure about 1 foot in length, though their tails may double or triple that length. They are deceptively heavy, weighing between 10 and 15 pounds.

Nosois possess at-will invisibility and the ability to shapeshift into ravens or songbirds.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Upon opening the doors, Henrietta looked beyond, and was struck dumb.

The first thing she felt was an instinctual familiarity with the place, almost as if she had seen it in a dream. Then, as she took in the sights - the dead trees, the gravestone, the cathedral in the distance with that coiling spiral, that accursed grinning moon - she remembered the lessons of Maria, and it came to her.

The Boneyard. The place where the dead went to be judged.

Dropping to her knees, Henrietta began to laugh in a low and humorless tone, almost completely ignoring Vesper and Bellas.

"So... this is it. I have to say, at least the process of getting here was painless. Is this your way of telling me off for not paying you the proper dues, Pharasma? Couldn't stand one of your own going into Shelyn's service instead of yours? I mean, it's not like I was trying to forget you. How could I?"

Opening her hand, she found that Maria's holy symbol had somehow made its way into her palm, and she closed her fist around it again. Her eyes closed, and tears formed at the edges of her eyes.

"You know, it's funny... I shouldn't be so broken over this. And yet, I am. What do I do, Eternal Rose? How do I deal with being dead?"


"Oh, you aren't dead. Not yet, at any rate. We may be able to help you rectify your present circumstances, actually," said a disembodied voice. "Oh, excuse me. We forgot to make ourselves visible before speaking. I do so apologize." Materializing out of thin air was a looming black skeleton wrapped in the wings of a giant black raven. A vulture-like mask of polished ceramic gazed balefully from where its skull should be. Without a gesture, a wickedly curved scythe appeared in its elongated fingers. Upon the shoulder of the skeleton sat a strange songbird wearing a plaster mask.

"Thoot, put that away. It won't be needed." The voice seemed to come from the raven.

In a blink, the scythe was gone.

"Oh, isn’t this a meeting of obvious fortuitousness! Here you are, and here we are. My name is Umble, and my silent companion here is named Thoot. We mean you no harm, despite the strange harmaments you seem to have already suffered. Yes, yes, this is the land of the dead, and no, you aren’t dead yourselves. You seem to be something of a special case—you seem a touch too vitalitinous for this place."

The bird peered closely at the party, cocking her head to one side. "Ah, there is a wonderment! Your hearts have something lodged inside them. Something that’s brought you here, but kept you from doing so in the orthodoxiumous fashion. I cannot help but ruminate: what has caused your strange condition?"


http://i64.tinypic.com/23jtl5.png


Blinking, Henrietta looked up at the two beings - psychopomps of some kind, clearly, given where they were. Slipping the holy symbol back into her pocket, she stood up and addressed them.

"You tell us. We woke up not half an hour ago inside that tomb behind us, made our way out, and ran straight into you two. And... wait, we're still alive? How... And..." She stopped to think for a moment, considering the last thing they'd said. "There's something lodged in our hearts? Can you see what it is?" She looked back to the others, her gaze lingering on Coty and Vesper in particular. "Can you?"

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper squinted at the cards and frowned. "I died. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm fairly confident I died. It didn't exactly take. I'm not a disembodied soul. Clearly. Those two psychopomps aren't dragging me incorporeally kicking to my beatific reward. Pleased to make your acquaintance, by the way. I'm Vesper."

He was politer with the raven and skeleton than he had been with his companions. "And I'm no petitioner. My clothes are here. Everything I typically carried. The only thing missing would be my pearl earring which I... take off to sleep. But I wouldn't sleep in my coat and boots either. Bugger..."

Tutting to himself, he gathered up his cards once more. "As for what I feel in my heart? Um... lot of regrets. Lingering resentment for a particular druid. The smug satisfaction that when I solved the puzzle at the altar, Bellas smiled at me. Maybe the curry I had last night. Nothing particularly transcendent or illuminating apart from the mortal terror of having passed through the veil, but I've felt that way since I was 8. I think that's just anxiety."

[PepperP.]

Bellas blinked at Vesper's mention of her brief smile and the derision with which she had regarded the pair upon the ground dissolved even as she turned a wary eye to the pair of psychopomps.

"Please don't try and tell me what's lodged in my heart is "courage" or "goodness", I have had my fill of nonsense for the day."

I would like a sense motive on these two and also do I detect anything magical?

[Othniel]

Boneyard

“Well, it’s right there for the seeing, if you can see into your own hearts," Umble said, responding to Henrietta. "A longitudinousness of your makeup. It’s ah... a bit of a tweak, you see. Let's call it an...obol. Yes, that word should do wonderfully.”

"You see, an obol absorbs negative energy and makes you resistant to necromancy spells. It also infuses you with the power to cause more hurt to undead opponents. I am curious to see what use you can put this to. Should you make it back to the Material Plane, of course. That will take some doing!"

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Vesper," Umble dipped her beak in approximation of a bow.

“As for how you got here? That is as much a mysteriosity to us as it is to you, I assure you. The customary route is one of considerably more post-mortality than you seem to have.”

An obol harmlessly absorbs an amount of negative energy equal to double the character’s number of Hit Dice from any given source or attack (or each round, for ongoing environmental effects).

An obol imparts spell resistance equal to 11 + the PC’s Hit Dice against all necromancy spells not cast by yourself. (This spell resistance cannot be voluntarily lowered, so the PCs may have a difficult time benefitting from spells such as false life.)

An obol causes the PC’s natural and melee weapon attacks to be treated as magic, cold iron, and silver for the purposes of overcoming the damage reduction of undead opponents.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon thanked the strange constructs one last time before finally leaving Roslar's tomb... only to discover the surreal landscape beyond.

The Boneyard? This was not a place meant for her. She supposed the truly dead ghorans of the past likely found their way here... Souls bound for judgement that would not have existed were it not for the hubris of a mortal druid four millennia dead. She didn't even have bones.

Coty had been dearly hoping for some sunlight; she could feel her chloroplasts' yearning. She had learned her lesson in past lives, however, and taken precautions for just such an event. Cotyledon began to glow, the holes in her flower petal face shining with a soft light. She had learned to redirect her body's innate magic into a form of light that would sustain her, yet another aspect of the odd self-sufficiency of her kind.

Coty regarded the strange masked creatures with curiosity. "Well met, Umble and Thoot. Can you help us? If we are truly wayward souls, is it not your duty to guide us to where we belong?


Coty will use her 1/day Daylight SLA from her Inner Light feat to keep herself from sun-starvation.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta continued from where Coty left off, if in a much more brusque manner.

"In all of the Boneyard, there's got to be at least one of Pharasma's own who can move between planes."

She then belatedly remembered the whole 'social graces' thing.

"Erm, also, name's Henrietta, by the way."

[zabbarot]

Gilbert looked on the landscape in awe. It was so much more beautiful than the old gravekeeper had described it to be. It was so serene in its finality.

"Do we have to leave?"

[Othniel]

Boneyard

"Ah, the Boneyard calls to you, young gravekeeper?" Umble said to Gilbert. "I do not believe it is your time, but...arrangements can be made if you do, in fact, wish to stay."

The tall creature with the wings and jackal-skull head softly rapped Umble’s head just then, and pointed to the entrance to a nearby valley. “Ah, Thoot, now that is a brilliant idea!” exclaimed the gregarious bird. “You are from Roslar’s Coffer, and they are from Roslar’s Coffer. Perhaps you can help us? If so, we can provide you with some very helpful information about wending you in a homewardly direction.

“Some awful tragedy befell this Roslar’s Coffer. Everyone there died quite suddenly overnight. Well, everyone but you, apparently, but in any case, the sum of the populatory has deposited here, dead or otherwise. Their souls are milling about in that valley over there. As happens on such calamitous occasions, the inhabitants aren’t quite ready to admit that they’ve died. Despite their obvious amortality.

“Now, Thoot and I, we are not psychopomps in the greatest esteem. One might say we’re on our last chances around here. But because these souls have arrived in our territory, it’s our duty to make them accept their mortality and move them along in a soulwardly way. But they took one look at us, called us ‘monsters,’ and accosted us with homicidal intent. They wouldn’t allow any discussionment. Now, eventually, more powerful psychopomps will be along to settle this all out, but Thoot and I will be in a terrible amount of trouble in light of this failing. Here is our propositionality: if you convince these souls they’ve expired—as, until the recent event of their passing that you somehow avoided, you were among their kind—we can tell you about the Dead Roads: the roads from the Boneyard to mortal worlds, that is. Have we a deal?”

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"We'd be fools if we said no."

Henrietta turned back to the others, and Coty in particular.

"That said, Coty should talk and I should stay in the back. I'm not... good at talking, and people kind of find me creepy."

[Jade_Tarem]

Tears, hot and angry, welled up from Kali's eyes. She had worked her whole life - and not a few hours at Roslar's Coffer - to keep people from coming here before their time. Her service was always temporary, her feats always washed away by time and a thousand causes of death, but to have the entire town snuffed out like a candle in a blizzard while she was still there stung nonetheless. And what could have caused such an extinction? All at once? Nothing good, that was for certain.

Then Percival's hand landed on her shoulder and squeezed, the Eidolon would not cry, and looking up at his blurry armored, visage, Kali wiped at her own eyes. A brief nod from Percival was enough to re-center her. They'd had worse.

Not much worse, mind.

"So we'll speak to the dead." She forced cheer into her voice, mentally cataloguing what the psychopomps had said about their obols for later, "wouldn't that technically be the definition of necromancy? It's a little outside of my field, but I can give it a try. I'm told I'm likable."

"You are?"

"Of course I am!"

[Nefarion Xid]

Aside to Kali, "Do... do you want a hug? Or does your emotional support eidolon have that covered?"

[Jade_Tarem]

Kali took a deep breath that turned into a sigh. "My entire protectorate just got killed. I won't turn down a hug."

"Though, to be clear," Percival stated, glowing blue eyes swiveling to the magus, "this will be a chaste hug. Wandering hands will be confiscated."

[Nefarion Xid]

"Honestly, what is it about my appearance that makes people assume I'm a lech? It's not as if I have a goatee." Vesper glanced to the elf, then gave Kali a long, completely chaste hug.

[Jade_Tarem]

"Oh, no, he does that for everyone." Kali returned the hug enthusiastically. "It's great for discouraging unwanted suitors, but I have to dismiss him before a real date."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon, for her part, was very still, her strange petal-face inscrutable. After a moment she nodded to Henrietta.
"I can try and speak with them. Although I was very new to the town; they will likely know some of you better. I am... sorry, for your loss."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Me... me as well."

Not knowing how to articulate herself better, Henrietta shared her sympathies as best she could.

[Othniel]

The Boneyard

"It isn't often such a large assemblage of mortals arrives en masse so," Umble observed. "Something extraditious must have happened upon the material plane to bring so many here at once."

[PepperP.]

Bellas didn't quite sway on her feet, though she grew silent as the graveyard they stood in and her fair face grew even more pale. Occupied with the enormous wave of sudden loss, the elf missed Vesper's accusatory glance.

"I must find my parents... maybe they'll know what happened to everybody." Her voice was hoarse and breathless, grief having already stolen the air from her lungs.

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper shuffled sideways, towing Kali with him as he approached Bellas from the corner of her vision with an arm out. "Come on. You too, lady. Everyone gets chaste friend hugs. It's one of like... three things I'm actually good at, so just, just... there."

He hadn't lost anyone. He hadn't even remembered the name of the town he'd stopped at until he'd been told just now. It was probably fair. No one was weeping for him either.

[PepperP.]

Bellas watched Vesper approach as though not quite believing he'd actually put his arms around her. When he did, she stiffened briefly but she was too overwhelmed with emotion to resist for long. She folded herself into the crook of his free arm and buried her face into his shoulder, idly noting his height. She didn't cry against him, nothing so intimate but she stood against him for a long while as her grief consumed her. After a few long moments, she turned her head so that she could speak into his ear though she was not trying to be particularly quiet.

"You know, if somebody had asked me to describe you, I might have recalled a goatee...."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon observed the others' flood of emotions, feeling relatively hollow herself. She had lost friends over the centuries, certainly. But the closest thing she had to family, her fellow ghorans back in the Mana Wastes, never truly died as long as there was a modicum of stability. The eternity of her plant-existence made the concept of bloodlines, direct ancestors, and sudden animal death more alien to her.

But while it might have taken Coty several days standing in contemplative sunlight to process the whole of such a situation, Vesper was quick to dispense physical comfort. She had dismissed him as something of a fool, but her opinion of the strange man improved on the spot.

She began to head in the direction the psychopomps had directed; the others would follow when they were ready. In the meantime, perhaps her own status as an outsider would help spearhead negotiations with the spirits of the recently deceased.

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

A small valley stretches out beyond the rocky pass. Winding stands of gray trees and tumbledown walls mirror the layout of Roslar’s Coffer, with simple trails in place of roads. Softly glowing figures—some of them with familiar faces—wander about, apparently practicing their daily routines. You can see a group of children playing not far off, running in and out of copses of dead trees. The mayor of Roslar's Coffer can be seen in the distance as well. The entire area seems laid out as if in mimicry of the real Roslar's Coffer, as if a ghost of the town was present as well.

You recall a few old wives’ tales and children’s songs about the reaper walking the dead roads to bring the dying home; the details of these extraplanar paths—especially teaching mortals how to find them—are something psychopomps are loath to divulge.
Those familiar with Roslar's coffer would know the mayor as Lady Mullana Grive, a practical and no-nonsense politician who has helped Roslar's Coffer survive hardship and rebuild by recognizing when she's in over her head and taking the sensible approach until the proper authorities stepped in.

[zabbarot]

Gilbert

A wide smile spread across Gilbert's crooked face. "Even the town came. Now I won't have to worry about getting homesick. Maybe my books are still in my room!"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Book retrieval later. Get these people moving on first." Henrietta pointed toward the mayor. "Probably best to start with her. Get the chieftess on board with the idea and the rest will follow. Unless they don't. With our luck it could go either way."

[Jade_Tarem]

Kali folded her hands behind her back, Percival following like an armored shadow. "It may not be that easy. Denial can be a powerful force."

[PepperP.]

Bellas

Bellas squinted at the figures in the distance, searching for her parents. Not immediately finding them, she turned her attention the woman Henrietta pointed out.

"She's a good place to start as any." She found her forward progress hampered by Vesper's arm that was still slung around her shoulders. She extricated her own arm from around his waist and strode purposefully towards the dead woman, her long legs quickly catching up to Kali and Percival.

"Lady Grive, hello! It's Bellas. Bellas Thorne?" Once begun, she was suddenly uncertain of what she wanted to say.

"Do you know what's um... happened? Here? To everyone?"

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

"Oh, hello sweetie!" Lady Grive greeted Bellas with a tired smile. She glanced behind Bellas at her companions and nodded. "That just about accounts for everyone then, I think." Lady Grive frowned sadly. "Plus a few strangers. I'm afraid we're dead, dear."


http://i68.tinypic.com/e5iqts.jpg

[PepperP.]

Bellas

Nonplussed by the mayor's matter-of-fact acceptance of her entire town's death, Bellas blinked at the woman for a few moments before she managed to get out the most pertinent question she could think of in her befuddled state.

"Oh I see... do you happen to know how? The deaths occurred, that is?"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Having been situated at the back of the party (and away from the more sensitive aspects of negotiating), Henrietta had been prepared to deal with a woman fully in denial and ready to throw any excuse at the wall to avoid admitting they were dead.

So it came as a surprise when the mayor fully admitted to Bellas that she knew they'd passed on. Henrietta blinked, nonplussed.

"Huh. This might be easier than I thought..." Then her eyes widened as she realized she'd just invited calamity on herself and she quickly hurried over to the nearest wooden object. "Knock on wood, knock on wood!"

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon made a 'throat clearing' sound, standing near Henrietta.
"I find that turn of phrase deeply offensive." she said, her empty eyes unblinking.

After a pause, her face-petals crinkled into an amused expression.
"I'm only kidding, dear. If you've nothing fitting to knock on, feel free to use me."
She playfully produced her wrist.
"Perhaps I should be flattered that wood is some manner of good luck charm?"

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

"I don't know. I wish I did. The entire town dead on my watch, too. I've tried explaining our situation to some of them, but the reactions...haven't been positive, as you might expect." Lady Grive gestured toward a group of children playing around a massive dead oak tree. The tree appeared tied with ribbons and surrounded by unusually vibrant flowers. "I haven't even attempted with the children yet, poor dears."

"Perhaps if we can convince the rest of the town council, we could call everyone together? They're off in that hedge thicket yonder," she explained, pointing some distance away and looking at Bellas hopefully. "Someone should try gently with the children as well. I've never been good around children."

The Mayor and the other formerly-living residents of Roslar's Coffer appear to be what you have heard or read about as Petitioners. A petitioner is the soul of a mortal being that has traveled to a plane of the Outer Sphere for its ultimate reward or punishment. They often retain limited memories of their former lives, although their shape is dependent upon the plane which they inhabit. A petitioner who returns to life retains no memory of its life as a petitioner, although those who please the powers of the outer realms—and are transformed into a different species of outsider, such as an archon, demon, or devil—have been known to have some remembrance of their former lives. Petitioners that do not make the transition to the afterlife sometimes return to the material plane as ghosts or restless undead.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon outstretched an arm, and from within the tangle of her hair-like vines a strange, bulbous creature waddled out onto her wrist. It had eight stumpy legs and a queer, segmented body; it also appeared ever-so-slightly luminous, like a bioluminescent mushroom at dusk.

"Perhaps the children would like to meet Shrine? I can speak with them. Just point me in the right direction, my good Mayor."

[zabbarot]

Gilbert

"Knocking on wood has something to do with asking dryads or other fae for good luck, or maybe just protection from badluck. I'm not sure it is effective..." He trailed off, and decided just to talk to the mayor instead of continuing that train of thought. "How did everyone die? I guess it was pretty sudden. Did the buildings 'die' too? Somekind of explosion, maybe?"

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

"Ah, perhaps. Children do like...things...like...that," the Mayor trailed off, taken aback by the sudden appearance of an overly-large creepy-crawly. "In any event, I do not know what happened, and that is a source of immense frustration. I went to bed early, as I usually do, and woke up here. I do not recall much else, to be honest."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"So, not that much different from what we all experienced. Interesting." Henrietta looked to the mayor. "Is there anyone else here who actually realizes you're dead? Maybe they'll remember."