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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2200342" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred FifteenthIn which: the party plays d20 frogger.“There are no other bridges, at all?  Anywhere?”Kiara shakes her head.  “There’s a spot not far from here where the river gets narrow though.  You can swim across there.”Lira and Eva exchange skeptical glances.  “Swim?”###The party arrives at the banks of the river, and discovers that Kiara is obviously using “narrow” as a relative term.  The river is at least fifteen feet wide, with a quick current flowing quickly between steep banks.Lira shakes her head.  “No.”Thatch, down the bank and testing the water with one leg, calls back up.  “It’s okay.  You can make it.”“I really can’t.”“Why not?”“I can’t swim.”“You can’t swim?”Lira shakes her head.  “I don’t need to.”“But,” the young fighter is understandably a bit confused, “you travel on boats, what if you fell off?”“Someone would jump in and get me.”“What if they didn’t?”“Are you saying you wouldn’t?”“Umm…”“See?”As it happens, Lira is not the only non-swimmer among the party.  In fact, with the exception of Thatch, and Reyu, no one in the party has any swimming skills to speak of.  There is a brief discussion of rope bridges, or jumping, or the carrying capacity of a fully-laden swallow, but eventually the party is forced to admit that with all of them, plus their armor and equipment, they are going to have to find a more substantial bridge than anything they can construct.  And that means going through the skeleton-filled town.###The party’s plan is relatively simple.  Although the skeletons have never shows signs of hostility (except when under threat of imminent turning or other attack), the party would rather not take chances while passing through a walled city filled with undead.  Anvil and Lira each prepare as many hide from undead spells as they can, although as Lira’s will only cover one person for ten minutes and Anvil’s will cover up to five for fifty, Lira is standing by largely for emergency measures.Since there are eight members of the party, Anvil casts on the party in two groups, knowing that if any party member so much as brushes one of the skeletons on their trip through the town, the spell will fail for everyone else covered under the same casting.  This way, if that happens, half of the party should remain invisible to the town’s residents.“Remember,” Anvil tells the others, “to the skeletons we will be completely invisible.  That means that they won’t be able to see to get our of our way.”“But, we’ll still be able to see each other, right?” Eva asks.“Unless you are secretly undead, yes.”The rest of the party members stoop and stare at him.“Umm… right.”###The other choice to be made concerns the party’s travel route.  The most direct path through the town and across the river also takes the party through the town’s the most densely populated areas, increasing the party’s risk of coming into contact with one of the skeletons, which would cause their hide from undead spell to fail.  However, if the party sticks to the perimeter of the town where fewer skeletons seem to travel, the spell’s duration will almost certainly expire before they can safely reach the exit on the far side of the walls—negating the advantage of the longer route.Also, Eva points out that the faster they try to move through any given section of the city, the more likely they are to bump into someone and lose their spell.  Although hurrying along a longer path is probably a bit less risky than moving carefully through a densely populated area, it’s by no means risk-free.  No one in the party is in a particular hurry to find out what a town full of skeletons will do when a group of living travelers suddenly appears in their midst.In the end, the party elects to split the difference.  They go a bit out of their way in order to skirt the main marketplace, but do decide to risk traveling through the thick of one of the residential areas, hoping that the time saved will not be negated by losing their spell prematurely. ###The party approaches along the main road into town.  About five minutes before they reach the gates, Anvil stops to cast hide from undead.The party members walk down the center of the road, single-file.  Kiara sticks to Annika’s side like glue, clearly not pleased with their travel plans.  Lira takes the opportunity to cast cat’s grace on some of the less… reflexively skilled party members.Eva realizes she is holding her breath as they approach the main entrance to the town.  She is good at sneaking, at getting into places she shouldn’t be.  It runs contrary to every stealthy instinct she has to sneak into a town by walking in through the main gate in the middle of the day.The party passes between the two skeletons dressed in Sovereign style armor standing watch on either side of the road.  The guards don’t move.Well, Eva thinks, that’s two down.The party quickly sees that they have arrived in one of the more affluent areas of the town.  The skeletons walking here wear tattered clothing—as have all the others—but it is clear that these clothes were once of good quality.What’s strangest is how normal everything is… except for the fact that the town is populated entirely by animated skeletons.  Lira is forced to make a quick stop as a small child’s skeleton dashes across the street.  It stops a few feet past her, and turns to look back at where a mother skeleton is standing on her front stoop, holding a yellow scarf.  She clacks her teeth rapidly, and the child reluctantly returns, allowing its neck to be wrapped in the bright—albeit dingy—cloth, and the mother skeleton sends the child off on its way again with an affectionate pat on the back.Quickly, the party has reached the edge of the city’s main square.  The market-place bustles with activity, all overseen by samurai skeletons standing guard around the perimeter.On the near side of the market the party watches as a skeleton merchant stands behind a display of battered, oblong pieces of leather.  A customer examines the “merchandise” for sale, and after some good natured teeth-clacking, selects two pieces sitting side-by-side.“What are those… things?”  Reyu asks.Eva shrugs.  “Shoes?  They’re almost the right shape, and he’s selling them in pairs.”The customer pulls a few coins from a misshapen belt-pouch and drops them into the waiting palm of the merchant.  The coins ring briefly against the bleached bones of the merchant’s hand before slipping through, and joining the carpet of coins that covers the entire area.The merchant takes no notice of the loss and merely proceeds to tuck his hand into his own purse, as though depositing the coins there.As the party stands watching the market transaction, Anvil does not notice the skeleton heading right for him until it brushes his shoulder.  The skeleton stops, as though startled not to have noticed Anvil, Benedic, Kiara, and Annika standing there earlier.  Then, he tips his hat to Anvil, and clacks his teeth briefly.Anvil blinks.  “May Kettenek’s Justice be upon you,” he replies.The skeleton clacks his teeth again, and goes on about his business.“Did you understand him?” Kiara demands.Anvil shakes his head.  “No.”Anvil quickly re-casts hide from undead on the four visible party members.  The skeletons pay little attention.“We’ve got to be careful,” Lira points out.  “There’s a lot of the city to get through yet.”“The problem with being hidden,” Eva remarks, “is that the skeletons can’t see to avoid us.”  Kiara giggles.Thatch points in the direction of the town’s temple.  “There seem to be fewer of them over there.”  It’s true.  The skeletons do seem to be steering clear of the city’s temple, which is odd given that they are Sovereigns and in all other respects appear to be going about their daily business.The temple spire dominates this side of the city, and as the party draws closer to the building, they see that in contrast to the rest of the town which has merely fallen into disrepair, the temple has been deliberately vandalized.  Windows have been smashed and then boarded up, and Lira notices that all Kettenite symbols on the exterior have been scratched out.“It’s more than vandalism,” she tells the group, “This building has been defiled.”“Why?”  Kiara asks.Lira just shrugs.  “Maybe—”But whatever it might be is abruptly interrupted by the clatter of a swarm of skeleton children running straight for the party.</blockquote>

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