The gas, as a matter of fact, has a very minor necromantic aura. if Dena can tell anything more, she'll likely note that this is not enough to be anything but uncomfortable to the living, but would make the cave a nice place to unlive in.
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'Dena's magic' is really just magic she stolen or bought from other people. That's what adventurers do after all.
"Looks like the gas is necrotic in nature, that means undead. But I think we all suspected that was coming. Can't have a key of death without undead right?" She tells then while pulling off the goggles and places it in her hood once again. "It doesn't look like it's harmful though, but you never know."
"Undead? Wonderful. Well, aint no party like a shambler party..." Jack slips his mask on with a practiced motion that avoids clipping his ears, which have wilted slightly at the mention of undead.
"How about I go first, and if my limbs start flying off you'll know somethings up, alright?" The rabbit-eared man takes a step towards the cave-mouth, hesitantly. Here goes nothing...
He'll begin to head inside, looking down at the mist around his feet for signs of trouble.
Copi takes the gas mask. She has determined that she doesn't need to breathe air, but has also determined that she does use breathing for something. The gas/magic might not affect her at all, since she isn't really a living organism... but since she does have some kind of energy intake, it might affect her anyway. Would it be less effective? Or maybe the lack of...
She puts on the gas mask and gets in line to enter the cave. She waits a minute, for Jack to get a bit in.
Jack won't immediately see anything in there, but as he gets closer to the inside, He'll hear something "I'm telling you, I heard something from the entrance."
"Pfah. That entrance has been blocked off for at least a hundred years. Nothing's getting in here."
"Fine, but I'm still going to check."
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Dena slips on her mask as well but like Copi she waits for Jack to enter first, keeping herself in the background. You never knew what kind of monsters and traps that lurked in there, better let someone else check them if they were so willing.
Jack holds up his hand as he hears the noise, hopefully discouraging Jamie from following him any further in. Damnit, that's a confirmation then. There are no real good places around the cave to hide, and even if they did whatever undead are inside are going to know something is up by the open door. At least he assumes they're undead, based on that mention of a hundred years.
Rather than talk, he turns back to his team (funny how a bit of potential danger has him thinking of them as his team already) and points to his ears urgently. Then he holds up two fingers, and sweeps his hand towards the cave. Finally, he points outside, and begins walking back towards Jamie and the others. Whatever is in there, facing it out in the open and in broad daylight is preferable to facing them in the dark cave, with this undead-bolstering fog. Whether it's for parlay or combat. If they happen to be vampires, it may come to pass they won't have to fight them at all.
Once Jack is back outside, he whispers just loud enough to be heard through his mask, "Two voices in the cave, obviously old dwellers, could be undead, but they're smart. Get ready for anything."
Two possible targets. Tactics: They might come out of the cave. Potential to cut them off from resources and retreat option.
Copi does not move her arms for her legs, but a her mind works. It reacts with The Master's Tools implanted in her back when the body was constructed, and four translucent dark green tentacle-like limbs ending in claws come out of her back. It's easy enough for her to use these to haul herself up the mountain, positioning herself above the cave entrance.
Dena glances at Copi, so that's what 'skilled at mechanics' meant huh? Or was that 'physic potential'? In either case, neither seemed like what she had pictured it as. Hopefully she knew what she was doing, intelligence didn't automatically translate to combat experience after all.
If the undead were truly smart they wouldn't explore a newly opened passage without some backup. But if any of that damnable curiosity the living had remained in them they might just fall for it.
As Jack goes out of the cave she nods and hides, pressed against the wall of the cave entrance and takes up a very specifically designed bomb. When you dealt with the undead as much as her you picked up a thing or two designed to counter them.
She listens carefully for any approaching dead people with her keen elven senses.
As the group makes their preparations, those able to see into the cave will see a long figure, a man wearing nothing but a pair of pants. He looks fit and alive despite mentioning the "Century" thing. He looks towards the sunlit outdoors, but doesn't get anywhere near the entrance of the cave, "Thomas, you should see this!"
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Jack motions to Jamie to hide herself with the other two. He'd really prefer it if he was the only one in sight whenever this guy started to look around. Best to have a few people in reserve, just in case things went foul.
Assuming Jamie goes and gets hidden, Jack will stand in full view of the possible vampire, studying him a bit before the guy's day vision kicks back in.
His ears twitch nervously, but he doesn't say much of anything yet.
Dena stands completely motionless and waits for more voices to be heard, this should prove interesting. They might even learn something about the place they are trying to raid.
Patience. Lay low (or high) and wait for the man to kindly disclose any information he might disclose without the knowledge that anyone is listening. Let him call his friend, too... the chance that the two of them can take the heroes, 2 to 1, is worth the risk to keep them from getting word back to whatever kind of community they might have down there.
Copi does that, not moving any more than she has to
"Who's there?" the young man calls out to Jack, "Do you open this up? I can't see a damn thing!" Indeed, though it's not particularly evident in the dark, the young man before them is squinting to try and see Jack, rather unsuccessfully.
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Jack squares his jaw, standing a bit straighter and opening one hand before he answers.
"I opened it, yeah. There's an old man wanting something from in there, and he sent me to get it. Sorry for barging up to your doorstep like this, if I had've known the place was occupied, I would have brought a gift basket."
Jack actually manages to sonud sheepish at the end, despite not meaning a word of it. Disarm them with some funny, that's right...
That puts the man on edge, "Who the hell are you, and what do you want?! Who are you working for?!"
A second man approaches,, dressed much like the first save for the fact that he's wearing a dirty cotton shirt with a couple tears in it, "Jayven, what's going on?" given Jayven's response to Jack, this newcomer doesn't seem too friendly either.
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Jack puts a hand to his forehead, "Listen, I'm not here to cause trouble. There's an old man who says he wants to talk with his wife, and that there's an artifact in there that will help him do it. Think I can nip in there and borrow it real quickly, or is this going to get complicated?" This was already complicated, who was he kidding? He hated to pass on sensitive information to what could very well be an enemy, but if there was even a chance he could calm them, he would take it.
Jack sighs, clearly acting put upon by the vampires' behavior.
"If you insist, then I guess I've got no choice but to go back empty handed." The rabbit eared man effects a shrug, spreading his arms with his hands opened, as if to emphasize just how empty they are.
And then he focuses his will, and a massive mirror appears between his splayed fingers, angled to reflect the sunlight directly into the cave entrance. It's taller than he is, and roughly oval in shape, and even though he was braced for its weight keeping it upright nearly staggers him.
The sort of vampire that these ones are is an interesting breed. The more recently one has drunk blood, the more resistant they are to the harsh effects of the sun - one who has had blood within the last few hours can walk in the light unhindered.
These guys? They haven't had any blood in decades, at least. As the sunlight reflects off the mirror, it will sear into the body of whatever vampire it's aimed at, absolutely destroying everything it touches. regardless, it will kill the vampire with ease. if Jack leaves either alive, he'll start running, of course.
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Time to act. The rogue is quick to throw her little bomb in the direction of the vampires as they are distracted by the sun. As it hits the ground the shell cracks unleashing what basically is artificial radiant light. Radiant light is normally harmful to the undead (at least in Dena's world) but this is a fake version of it, basically dealing nonlethal damage in D&D terms (an version of it which works against undead). In other terms it's basically aimed to cause them to fall unconscious.
Jack says nothing as he sweeps the beam of light horizontally, trying to catch both in its glare at least briefly. He's not aiming to kill outright, and he can't see either of his foes through the heavy mirror, so the light won't be trained on either of them for very long.
Hopefully this will keep them from doing a runner, and summoning whatever else might be inside. If they can just keep drawing people out like this one by one, things will go a lot more smoothly than if the beasties all hunker down, arm their traps, and wait for them to dash themselves against the walls pointlessly.
The vampires will both be incinerated, as the light is stunningly effective against a vampire that hasn't had blood for so long. If the group enters the cave, they'll find the walls suddenly have a pair of black ashy stains on them, with empty charred clothing underneath. Dena's light bomb normally would have knocked them unconscious, but with a resistance so low it's pretty well a vulnerability, this plus the mirror outright destroys them.
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After a moment or so without anything happening Dena peers inside to see how well they did. Too well apparently. "Aw, damn. That sucks. I wanted to question them."
After another moment of making sure there aren't any more vampires or other threats hiding in the cave she carefully approaches the remains.
She then somehow fishes out a pair of leather gloves from her cloak and then proceeds to check through the charred clothing for anything useful. "So how are we going to split the loot anyway? Whoever needs it get's it?" She asks while careful not to get too much vampire ash on her clothes. Because ew.
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