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.

Spoiler: Actions

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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..."

Spoiler: OOC

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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.

Spoiler: Actions/OOC

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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.

Spoiler: ooc

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

[Othniel]

Darkness and Cold Stone

Spoiler: Henrietta

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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.

Spoiler: Vesper

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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.

Spoiler: Kali

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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.

Spoiler: Gilbert

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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.

Spoiler: Cotyledon

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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.

Spoiler: Bellas

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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."

Spoiler: Actions

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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."

Spoiler: Actions

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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.

Spoiler: Loot!

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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.

Spoiler: Actions

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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.

Spoiler: OOC

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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?

Spoiler: Rapid Shot!

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(1d20+2)[7]
(1d4+1)[4]

(1d20+2)[5]
(1d4+1)[4]

Spoiler: If nat 20, see me

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(1d20+2)[6]
(1d4+1)[5]

[zabbarot]

Gilbert

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

Spoiler: Actions

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Walk/draw, attack
to-hit: (1d20+7)[21]
damage: (3d6+6)[16]

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.

Spoiler: ooc

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Attack ostovite
(1d20+6)[16]
damage
(1d10+5)[6]