Session 0031 - Up and Onwards to the Tomb

Roster

List of characters who's player was in attendance

Player characters who's player is attending the game start with 1 Hero Point, and can get more during the session.

Absent

List of characters who's player was absent

Player characters for missing players do not start the session with a hero point, and can not get any more during the session.

Session Log

After the fight with the mutated orc with the tentacles, the party decide to spend the rest of the day resting in the cave where they fought the creature.
Harbek and Leodegar believe it should not take long to reach the exit of the caves to head up the mountain to the tomb. It is early afternoon, so if they rest up and get an early start they will have all day to reach the site.
Eriana is cured by Alicia and the party passes the rest of the day in the cave uneventfully.
In the morning the group prepare to continue their exploration (after the long rest Alicia, Eriana, Ferdinand and Sarroxtíoð all advance to level 3).
The last unexplored passage leading north goes a short distance before turning east. Right after the bend, they enter a large lofty cave. Opposite the party is an irregular alcove raised upon a ledge reached by a rocky ramp. A narrow passage continues eastward to the right of the alcove.
Everyone heads up the ledge to search the cave. There is a distinct aroma here, and the signs of a fire pit that has a few burning embers that remain. It is clear someone was here quite recently. Leodegar is intrigued by the strange scents in the cave. It reminds him of rare regents used in alchemy, but not the same - perhaps some odd herbs nobody recognizes were burned here?
In one corner they also find what looks like animal feces. There is nothing else in the cave. It appears that whoever, or whatever occupied this place has fled.
Following the other passage, they find it goes a short distance before leading outside. They emerge into a snow-covered woodland with a trail leading to the north-east.
The trail towards the tomb turns out to be easy to find despite the snow on the ground. There is a set of animal tracks that follow along it that seem quite recent. Harbek is convinced there are two sets of animal tracks travelling together, one large and one smaller four-legged animal. They are several hours ahead of the party.
The dwarf is the slowest member of the group, and he reckons the trip to the tomb will take the greater part of the day.
By dusk they arrive at what must be the tomb. There is a winding passage up the side of a mountain and two sets of large stone doors are visible.
Winding up the trail, the group approach the doors from the north. They spot an opening with one stone door barely hanging on its hinges and the other missing. The snow has long since made its way inside through the damaged stone doors into what appears to be a tomb. Cracked sarcophagi standing against the north walls are covered with a thick layer of snow, and the barely visible skeletons within them seem to gaze longingly at the world outside. The sarcophagi on the opposite side look intact.
The party enter the tomb and begin a thorough search. Ferdinand moves straight to the unopened sarcophagi and pries them open with a crowbar. In all of the sarcophagi they find silver burial jewellery that look reasonably valuable. Nobody in the party has qualms about taking it, so they loot all of the bodies.
During the search of the chamber Eriana took a close look at what appeared to be a partially collapsed wall to the east that reveals a hidden door. She gets a shovel and quickly moves and digs away the debris to get at the door.
When they are ready Sarroxtíoð opens it to reveal a passage that goes about 30 feet before opening into another chamber. There is light up ahead and the entire group approach cautiously.
They find a chamber 20 feet across and 30 feet wide with no visible exits. Five sarcophagi, covered in dust, stand scattered in this small burial chamber. Ancient skulls are placed on small, stone shelves around the room, looking ominous in the flickering light of the everlight brazier.
Once again, Ferdinand moves to a sarcophagus ready to pry it open while Sarroxtíoð takes a look at the skulls on the northern shelf. He notices one of them appears to have markings carved in it, but most look like well cleaned skulls that were placed here a long time ago and have since accumulated a fair bit of dust.
At the moment Ferdinand touches the crowbar to the sarcophagus and starts to try and pry it open, four skulls fly off the shelves and begin to burn with green flame!
The ceiling arches to the middle at a height of 20 feet, and the skulls fly up along the ceiling near the four corners of the room.

The first skull to rise up spits green fire at Ferdinand hitting him twice with the burning fire.
Another skull rises up and spits green fire at Sarroxtíoð and hits him twice with burning fire as well.
In response, Eriana jumps on a sarcophagus and manages to reach another rising skull and she hits it critically with her enchanted kukri. It clearly damages the skull, with the sounds of breaking bone clearly heard, but the undead is not destroyed. In a similar fashion, Ferdinand jumps up on a sarcophagus with his crowbar in hand and smashes the one that spit fire at him with a minor hit.
The damaged skull Eriana hits responds by fling higher near the center of the ceiling where it spits fire at her and hits with a couple of fire blasts.
Alarmed at the damage being dealt out by the creatures, Alicia attempts to shoot the skull attacking Ferdinand, but she misses.
Harbek casts a Divine Lance spell at the last skull before it fully rises, and does some damage to it. Leodegar attempts to help with his hand crossbow, but misses.
Sarroxtíoð is the last to react, using his Vitality Lash cantrip to good effect on the skull attacking him.
In the next round of combat the skull fighting Ferdinand rams into him, head-butting the swashbuckler with a critical hit that leaves his ears ringing in pain and causing him to catch fire. As a result, he is badly injured, reeling and deafened by the hit. Alicia is nearby and distracts the skull which helps mitigate some of the damage, but it is clear he is suffering. Ferdinand retaliates and hits the skull again, but it remains functioning.
The skull attacking Eriana is the first skull to be destroyed by ranged attacks as it hovers near the ceiling. It explodes when it dies, sending fragments of flaming bone raining down into the room. Nobody was close enough to the explosion to be damaged by it.
Harbek and Leodegar continue to exchange blows with one of the skulls as it manages to burn Harbek badly, but the dwarf fights on.
Sarroxtíoð attempts to use a Frostbite cantrip on the skull but it seems no more effective than his Vitality Lash spell.
Alicia is able to get to Ferdinand and cure him with her Lay-on-Hands ability, offsetting the damage he is taking from being on fire.
The skull fighting him is the next to be destroyed, thanks to help from Eriana joining Ferdinand against it in melee. This skull also explodes, causing slight injury to those two. Alicia was also nearby, but she manages to duck out of the way and avoid the explosion entirely.
As the combat comes to order, Alicia manages to hit the skull on Sarroxtíoð with her +1 Striking Vitalizing Arbelist. Her ability to imbue the weapon with a divine spirit helps to leave persistent divine damage on the skull over the next couple of rounds.
Eriana used her considerable agility to bound from the top of the sarcophagi to get within melee range to the skull, barely able to reach it with her enchanted kukri. It attempts to head-but her as it did Ferdinand, but misses.
That skull is the next to be destroyed, exploding as before and causing damage to Sarroxtíoð and Eriana.
During the combat, Ferdinand rolls on the ground to put out the fire on himself and succeeds. Alicia once again helps to cure him with her magic.
Not long after that, the final skull attacking Harbek is destroyed, too high up to cause any significant damage to anyone when it explodes.
The dwarf uses his divine powers to heal himself afterwards.
The room falls silent after the intense combat. Only Leodegar and Alicia remain uninjured from the combat with the skulls.