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Message: <blockquote data-quote="VicsHacienda" data-source="post: 9864214" data-attributes="member: 6965574"><h3>We Have Always Lived in the Castle</h3>After moving single-file through the narrow hallway, we enter a high, wide chamber, its ceiling lost in soot-dark ribs of stone. The air is thick, pressing faintly against the lungs. The mosaic floor is slick with dust and powdered mortar.As our eyes adjust, the shapes on the floor resolve. An army. Ragesian soldiers march in spirals beneath banners carved as living flame. Their stone faces are serene in victory. At the center stands Coaltongue, blade lifted in triumph, carved larger than any mortal should be.Beside his image is Leska with charcoal hands outstretched, black fire spilling from them. The sculptor etched the flames deeper than the rest, so they seem to drink the light. Even cracked and scorched, her eyes appear almost wet. That's nice. The artist wanted to make sure the evil killer sorcerer lady has a special focus. Didn't Coaltongue realize she was a fiend?Half-buried beneath imperial glory, we glimpse something older: a sunburst sigil fractured and chiseled through. The stone is scarred where someone once tried to erase it. Something devoted to the castle before Coaltongue's death?Along the walls, tall alcoves gape like empty eye sockets. Broken armor slumps within them. Splintered spears lie tangled in ribs of rust. A skeletal hand still grips a shield as if waiting for an order that never came.The chamber feels… aware. But no. That's stupid. Isn't it? I keep an eye on the dead armor in the alcoves. We've had plenty of encounters where things that should not be alive, suddenly are.Smells linger. Old smoke. Wet stone. A faint metallic tang that doesn’t belong to rust. Somewhere deeper in the castle, a slow grinding echoes. Stone against stone. Not loud, but steady. Deliberate.Four sets of double doors exit this hall: one to the left with a military standard, one right with a standard of rearing horses, one straight ahead beneath a golden arch, and another thirty feet above on a balcony, marked with holy symbols. A pair of staircases lead up to the balcony.For a moment, just long enough to make me doubt my own sanity, the carved flames in Leska's hands seem to flicker. Even when she isn't around, she's intent on feckin' with us.We move to the stairway leading up to the balcony with the holy symbols. We notice tracks leading up the stairs. Dozens of creatures have passed through this door, some clawed, some monstrous. The holy symbols are devoted to Lugh, god of truth and law, but they cover other symbols. We examine the elaborate door and determine it is barred from the other side. We decide to hammer out the hinges, hiding our activity with the aid of a silence spell from Fafnir.Viggo chisels away the holy symbols to see what's underneath and sees symbols of Nuada. "Does Nuada have a presence here?" he asks telepathically."He has presence where all victories and battles exist!" Fafnir mentally snorts. He keeps hammering out the hinges.[The adventure has creatures coming to the barracks to organize a search for the party but I couldn't see how they would get to the barracks, so I didn't include them]Holding the door, I notice the northern doors open. Dark pyre skeletons emerge with shortbows aiming up at us. I wave at my companions and step in front of Viggo, though he is better armored than I am.[ATTACH=full]430153[/ATTACH]One of those spellcasting skeletons steps forth, gazing hollowly up at us, and casts a wall of fire across the entire balcony, enveloping us in heat. Viggo, acting quickly, counterspells it, and the wall vanishes. I send two shafts at the skeleton, both sinking deeply into its rib cage, and it staggers but is not fallen.Crossbow bolts fly past us. Trevor brandishes his magic bird claw and leaps silently over the balcony rail to the floor below.Fafnir, without a claw to aid in falling damage, hurls himself over and crunches to the ground. He is still silent but I can feel the impact. He charges forward toward the enemy. A guiding bolt in the shape of a bull's head sears the air and slams into the spellcaster. "Begone from Nuada's Temple of War!" The spellcaster collapses. I grin.Osnald runs past me to the stairway. He viciously mocks the skeleton warriors. Viggo casts mind sliver.[ATTACH=full]430154[/ATTACH]Not wishing to waste arrows, I shoulder the bow and run down into melee with scimitar and shortsword flashing. The dead warriors swing their two-handed blades, slamming into me much harder than expected. Necrotic energy swirls into me.Trevor joins me with more efficiency, slicing the Living Blade through the first skeleton and following up on the one behind me. He whips a skeleton moving toward Osnald. Fafnir joins us and hands out free booming blades and divine strikes, though one enemy blade gets past his armor and dispels the silence spell. Osnald's dagger zips between two skeletons and returns.Maybe I should name my scimitar and shortsword, that's the issue. I should think on it.I take down one with the soon-to-be-named shortsword and duck a return swing from another skeleton. Trevor moves in a blur next to me, steel and wood and leather whirring. Spines snap, skulls crack. Fafnir hammers away, using his mental ability to shove enemies away in thunderous booms. The last skeleton, wrapped in thunder energy, shivers apart.<h3>Where the Skeletons Are</h3>Since the doors were opened, we look through the massive barracks. The northwestern corner has collapsed. Two doors lead out, one west, one east. We quickly go through the footlockers and beds for treasures and find some oddities.[For some reason, the armory is in the ceiling behind a trapped trap door? This struck me as odd, so I left it out.]Behind the western door is a pile of rubble, as if earth had filled the passage beyond in an attempt to seal it. The eastern door is locked and Osnald goes to work on it, opening it with a quiet click. Beyond is a short stair leading down into darkness. A chamber of cells lies beyond.</blockquote>

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