EBERRON
10/15/05
SEGMENT 132
“The Worshipping Undead Wight Monk”
Once more the group of adventurers are forced to rest within the believed security and safety of the mysterious hallways that connect the rooms. Spells need to be relearned and wounds dealt with and healed. No one speaks about the events with the Paladin. Some think about it however. Was he a possible guide? Could he have helped? Was it wrong to kill him? Was he really a paladin? Is a ham sandwich better on rye or wheat?
Feeling rested and fully healed, the group gathers up their goods and wait at the door. “What are we about to face?” asks Sharshek.
“We left in a hurry. I’m not sure. After here I should be able to figure it out.” Answers Taskerdoo.
The rogue peeks through the door. “Pyramid.”
He opens the door fully and indeed the stone stairs of the pyramid appear before them. It is dark still as the only light is cast from glowing moss and lichen. Soft chanting can be heard from somewhere inside.
“What is that?”
“I’m not sure says Taskerdoo. Chanting of some sort. I can’t make out the language, much less the words.”
“Com’on!” yells the halfling rogue as he hops up the first set of stairs.
“Follow the runt.” Says Black sands as he watches him go higher up the pyramid.
Taskerdoo and Logan go to the right to look around. Sharshek goes after Cedious. Black sands takes to the stairs and the cleric stops at the doorway. “undead” he says to himself.
The chanting becomes louder and wilder. Then the chanting becomes clear- “We hear We come We protect” it is repeated over and over. Even as Cedious begins the top set of stairs the sounds of scrapping stones can be heard. Taskerdoo watches as skeletal hands push up and away stone covers all around the pyramid.
“Skeletons are coming out of the woodwork!” he yells. The cleric already has his holy symbol readied and moves towards the nearest undead climbing out.
At the top of the stairs, Cedious looks at a pale skinned gaunt humanoid wearing robes. Its eyes glow red when they open. Suddenly everything goes black even as Sharshek catches up with him. “Dammit!” he yells.
The top half of the pyramid appears to have been covered in a darkness spell even as Cedious and Sharshek reached the top. A dozen heavily armored skeletons advance on the rest of the party.
“The purity of my soul, imagination and prayer wills you away! Go back- Back BACK!” yells the cleric as a handful of skeletons begin to surge forward. They stop, hesitate then walk away to the backside of the pyramid. That was five of six. The other gets in his face.
Cedious, unable to see swings blindly at where he saw the figure. He misses. Sharshek does this also and hits. The creature swats him several times doing minor damage. However, he feels tired or fatigued from the hits (he passed by role-play it as tiring effect).
Black sands find a grouping of four armored skeletons and goes at them. He destroys one but not the next. “These are not your average skeletons!” he yells.
Logan paws at one. “Yeah- they are heavily armored.” Yells Taskerdoo the druid / mage halfling.
“Ugh.” He grunts when hit, “No- they are resistant to damage.” The ½ giant barbarian says with a smile on his face.
The cleric is not smiling. The skeleton on him has struck him once and keeps after him. The cleric is unable to mutter up much of an offence (AC 22 total).
Cedious has no idea what he is facing. It has yet to even occur to him that it is an undead. He just knows it has yet to hit him and he can’t seem to hit it and it is magically dark here. Then when hit, he feels the attempted draining of his life and knows it is undead. He steps back to locate his holy water and throws that in the general direction of the creature. It hisses as it steps into the fluid.
Black sands destroys more skeletons and Logan destroys the two he was attacking. He can see the cleric is in trouble. He goes there next.
Sharshek misses then hits. He is slapped around again, once very hard. His voice calls out through the darkness- “This thing is pissing me off!” and with that he misses again. Their wild swinging is keeping the creature wary but it still ducks in and strikes between blows. Cedious tries his decanter again but finds it is not working so well this time.
Finally they hear a satisfying thud as the creature goes down from a solid blow from Sharshek. Cedious feels around in the magical dark. He finds the body (ugh!) and a small pebble. He picks it up. As his fingers wrap around the pebble the darkness disappears.
OOC: Clinton- “I have a new toy!” DM- “uh-oh”
Black sands and Logan destroy the remaining skeletons including the ones cowered by the cleric's power. Taskerdoo goes to Cedious. “What do you have?”
He pulls it out of his pocket and opens and closes his hand to show how it works. “It will wear off and become a regular stone soon enough.”
“But the creature didn’t caste a spell on it. I think it had it on him and dropped it to use it.”
“As in a PERMANENT darkness spell?!?”
OOC: Clinton has been talking about a few classes to use next- Shadow Dancer or Warlock. He now knows. As a Warlock, he can see in a darkness spell. With his attacks and Rogue abilities he just may have powered up to be a problem. I, as DM- We will need to roll play that in some how to become a warlock (hoping to deter him from it Bill- “a Warlock gets his powers through infernal blood- just look at how the F***** rolls. He already has it!” wonderful.
There is nothing of additional use on the wight or the skeletons so the group begins to look for doorways. It is easy enough to find. Cedious is hesitant to enter. He remembers the Trapper all too well. The lowest chamber is forced open and Taskerdoo enters. The first room is empty so he continues in. There are four stone coffins just like before. He looks back once to see if anyone is following. Cedious is at the doorway watching for trouble (trappers) while the others are finishing their searches of the skeletons for anything of use.
Logan pushes up and forces the lid high. It is heavy then suddenly shows resistance. He pushes again and suddenly it pops free. What he missed was the chain that connected the lid to something inside. The second push has popped a stopper off and something murky rises out. Cedious hurries over to help. The smoky creature surrounds Logan and Taskerdoo.
Fearing it is a vampire, Cedious uses another vial of holy water and throws that at the smoke. It shatters on the stone and splashes through the smoke onto the Dire Wolverine. Nothing. He sighs and pulls out his rapier.
Together they defeat the creature (Belker) and begin to search the rest of the stones. Cedious finds one filled with clear fluid. Three glass bottles with glass stoppers are at the bottom of it. There is two scrolls and a ring within. He takes in a deep breath and reaches in. The acid bubbles and scalds him (ring of acid resistance aids him greatly) and he pulls out the three bottles. The ring has an etched feather on it and he correctly guesses it to be a ring of Feather Fall. The scrolls are- Acid Resistance and Cure Moderate Wounds.
The other two are empty and they step out to enter the smaller room above.