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The group head slowly down the steps, two by two and leaving Harius behind them. As they approach the bottom of the steps, they pass a small alcove in the right hand wall. Examining it reveals nothing but a simple landing area where people might pause on the stairs. Certainly a quick search of the walls/floor reveals nothing. (OOC: In other words - don't worry about it). A few yards beyond the bottom, old wooden doors can be seen, one on each side of the corridor. They are very slightly ajar, their locks splintered long ago and showing signs of having been forced. A short way further, there is a T-junction - matching the map that Harius had given the party - with another door opposite. This one looks more firmly closed.

The floor at the junction shows scuff marks in the dust - some more recent than others. Luc calls a halt, and listens carefully, but he hears nothing and neither does anyone else - especially those with earplugs already fitted.

Lucretia peeps through the first door on his left, pushing it open slightly to look inside - holding his enchanted "light" coin between his teeth. The room is dusty and unused, with just a few broken crates and barrels lying scattered around. An ancient weapon rack leans against the far wall, but it is empty. The withered remains of what looks like a goblin corpse lies crumpled a few paces inside, its bones peeking out from old rotted goblin made leather armour.

On the other side of the corridor, Dorn similarly pushes the ajar door slightly and peers into the western room. Like everywhere down here, the room is dusty and covered with cobwebs. There is little in this room either, though there are several large metal rings set into the far wall.

Behind them, Milo suddenly stiffens, the magic of his detection spell revealing to his mind's eye the presense of undead nearby... in TWO locations!

Those who don't have earplugs in their ears, start to hear eerie noises - odd disturbing noises and whisperings at the edge of their hearing - like the whimpering of the dead crying out in pain.

His courage bolstered by Larz's magic, Lucretia edges forward to the corner, only too aware from the disturbing noises that undead were nearby - regardless of Milo's detection spell. Peeking around the corner, he can see an empty dusty corridor - empty that is apart from a discarded dwarven helmet, lying in a corner. At the end, the corridor appears to turn to the right, with a door dimly seen at the edge of the light.

"THERE IT IS! East, moving this way, and I think he'll know we are here." Milo doesn't know how loud he shouts, but he shouts to get everyones attention. He then steps to the northwest to get against the wall and just concentrates on the powerful undead, taking his holy symbol in hand he prepares himself.

"It is at max range, so say 60 yards feet and closing in on us. Four other undead still away from us." He adds, "One NE, is closest. Get that Silence spell going I'd suggest!" Although he isn't panicing as such, Milo can feel the adrenalin kick in as he senses the approach of their enemy. He has no idea if getting into this room would be the best plan for the group, as then they would have fewer walls to have it ambush them out of. All he is really intersted in is keeping up the running commentary as he tracks the targets in the east.

Even as Milo manages to detect the presense of the more powerful undead and yell a warning, he senses it approaching rapidly. It doesn't come directly towards him however, moving to his left, passing on the other side of the wall south of him. Even as everyone tenses, starting to prepare spells and other actions, Dorn is the first to see the undead horror as it floats down the corridor, before it stops opposite Lucretia (E9).

It is a horrifying sight, a ghostly apparition floating in mid air, its upper body wrapped in rags, the tendrils streaming out behind it as if blowing in a gale, its lower body fading into invisibility. Its skeltal face, despite being just a skull, is somehow twisted in horrible pain as it seems to drawing in a deep breath to scream...

Standing nearer the back, but luckily still a few steps up, Ceely manages to nock her bow and get a shot at the undead creature over the heads of her companions. The shock of seeing it must have made her hands shake a little however, as both of her arrows shatter against the wall behind the semi-incorpreal figure.

Herod stutters as he blurts out a spell to bless the party.

Although the sight of the creature horrifies Milo, he manages to steel himself and pushes past the paralysed Dorn and Lucretia to stand in front of them. Now in the corridor, he can see two other skeletal figures approaching from his left (at H8 & K8) - though these look more solid than the horrific vision in front of him does...

Vaslin quickly overcomes her own fear and manages to cast her own spell, bolstering the party spirit.

Cleo follows Milo, pushing between the frozen Lucretia and Dorn to stand at his side. She too spots the two skeletal warriors approaching from the other side of the Painbearer.

Deafened already by her earplugs, she doesn't hear the trembling voice of Yvandel as he speaks the arcane spell of silence, though she does notice a sparkling that seems to appear in the eyes of the undead at the same moment that all external sound disappears completely.

ROUND TWO

In front of her, the undead seems to shudder, then opens its jaws wide as it screams. Despite the silence, the sound seems to vibrate directly into Cleo's skull, making her ears ache in pain. By her side, Milo also grimaces as he too suffers from the silent scream, a trickle of blood forming in his ears. Further back, both Lucretia and Dorn, paralysed, suffer the supernatural scream, as does Yvandel a short way behind.

Further back, Ceely simply grits her teeth and takes aim again with her bow, unleashing another couple of arrows. [Private to Ceely: OOC: Debs - it would help me a lot if you rolled your own attack and damage rolls as I suggested
23:30, Today: The DM, on behalf of Ceely, rolled 27,8,9,6 using 1d20+10,1d8,1d20+5,1d8. Full Attack (2 arrows). ]

The first seems to strike true, smashing between Cleo and Milo into the chest of the deathshrieker, but it simply passes straight through, shattering on the wall behind. The second arrow goes wide, barely missing Milo. [Private to Ceely: OOC: Note - although you have the Precise Shot feat, there always exists the small chance that you might strike one of your companions - there are no rules that state under what conditions you might strike your allies instead of your target - so I'm going to rule that it will only be on a critical failure - i.e. rolling a 1. THUS, whenever you fire an arrow with your allies in the way, there is a 1 in 20 chance of hitting them... bear this in mind for role playing purposes!]

"Don't!" urges Herod from behind her, his voice barely audible over her earplugs - as the noise of all in front of them had been cut off. He puts a hand on her shoulder momentarily and shakes his head when she glances at him. "Your arrows can't harm it!" he says, though with her ears plugged with wax, she can barely hear him. Frowning with concentration, he starts to cast a spell and a shimmering battle-axe appears in mid-air next to the incorpreal creature and strikes at it.

At Milo's side, the skeletal warrior silently approaches, and swings its battle axe. Even as the Painbearer tries to raise his shield to block, noting that the skeletons were once dwarves, the second one also steps up and hacks at him. Milo takes two nasty injuries as the rusty axe blades cut at him. (OOC: 13 hp damage in total).

Milo's mouth moves as he attempts to turn the undead, but in the silence of Yvandel's spell, no sound can be heard. The message of his god is clear however, and his holy symbol glows with power. The two skeletons raise up their hands as if to cover their faces, stagger back a couple of steps, and then suddenly collapse soundlessly to the floor to become nothing more than a pile of bones and armour.

The deathshrieker however seems unphased by the Milo's actions, and seems if anything to lean closer towards him, focusing the red sparks deep within its dark eyesockets on just him. All the while, its mouth remains open in the ear aching scream that seems to bypass the silenced air and strike right into the brain.

Vaslin raises her own holy symbol, silently calling upon Tymora to turn the undead abomination in front of Milo. The creature's connection to the negative plane is too strong however, and it simply ignores her.

Cleo hacks at the beast, slashing her enchanted broad sword at the creature's insubstantial form, but she finds it like trying to hit a floating butterfly - it easily dodges her blows.

Lucretia, taking care to also dodge Cleo's thrusts and slashes, dodges between Milo and the barbarian lass, giving out what would have been a giant yell but for the silence (and letting his light coin tumble from his teeth to the floor). He isn't quick enough to avoid the touch of the shrieking beast, as it lashes out a clawed hand that seems to pass through the warrior's shoulder, pulling out part of his vitatility as it does so. (OOC: Lucretia takes 3 points of Charisma damage).

Gritting his teeth, Lucretia ignores the pain of the undead's touch, and hammers his own blow at it. His enchanted shortsword manages to spear right in its centre, darkness streaming away from the blade (OOC: Critical hit confirmed - 23hp damage - I re-rolled because I mis-read the rolls you'd done!). The skeletal figure shudders at the pain, but doesn't interrupt its scream. Lucretia thrusts his second shortsword at it - the unenchanted one - but the deathshrieker manages to dodge aside from it as well as a follow up thrust from his right hand.

Yvandel pushes his way back past Ceely and Merrell, exiting the area of silence. Once there, he turns and thrusts out his arm towards the deathshrieker, palm forward with his fingers splayed. Blurting an arcane word he casts a spell, then scowls as it appears to have no effect. [Private to Yvandel: (OOC: I had Yvandel cast Whelm - but the deathshrieker made its save)]

ROUND THREE

Continuing to howl, despite the zone of silence surrounding it, the deathshriker lashes out at Lucretia, perhaps because the warrior had struck him. Its semi-corporeal clawed hand snaps through the warrior's defences to slash through his gut, again dragging some of his zest for life with it. (OOC: Another 4 points of Charisma damage - Lucretia now on 3/10 charisma... Note - death can occur at zero!)

The howl, felt more than heard, continues to grate on the nerves of all in the corridor, the force of it stunning everyone apart from Larz and Herod, who manage to overcome its effect. (OOC: Note, although I forgot to add the +4 bonus from the Silence spell into the dice roller, I did it afterwards and it made no difference.)

Several weapons fall from numb fingers and those not paralysed, stagger on the spot, unable to act.

Herod is made of sterner stuff however, being no longer paralysed and resisting the stunning effects. He pushes his way forward, brandishing his own holy symbol even as the spiritual hammer he had summoned earlier attempts and fails to bash at the incorporeal creature.

Calling upon Tempus to protect him, something which only Yvandel, Merrell and Ceely get to hear, Herod hurries forward, pausing just behind Milo as he readies himself.

ROUND FOUR

The deathshrieker's scream intensifies, by-passing the ears to drill maddeningly into the brain direct, even through the magical silence. Several of the party lose their wits, confused over what is happening.

The deathshrieker lashes out at Cleo this time with its claw, jerking out some of her life force even as it finishes its scream, its jaw finally closing. (OOC: 4 points of Charisma damage, now on 9/13)

Herod, gritting his teeth, steps past Milo, ducking the flailing arm of the deathshriker to stand over the fallen skeletal warrior, and then hammers his enchanted weapon into the undead, the mace appearing to evaporate part of its essence as it slams into it. From above its head, the spiritual hammer that Herod had summoned earlier also hammers into it, damaging it.

Confused, Vaslin turns tail and flees, pushing past her companions to run up the stairs at full speed...

Having also lost her mind, Cleo turns and attacks Dorn with her empty hands having dropped her weapons moments before when the deathshrieker's scream stunned her. Somehow, in her confused state, she manages to land a punch right on his jaw. (OOC: Critical hit! 5 points of non-lethal damage).

Meanwhile, Larz, the sturdy dwarf's mind also broken by the power of the undead's scream, screams silently and somewhat incoherently as he charges forward to attack the undead, (OOC: Moving to F9) somehow managing to avoid being struck by his target as he moves to a position where he can stand to strike. Swinging his hammer of Clangeddin, he smashes it into the undead, some of its substance boiling away from the head of the mace.

Further up the stairs, Vaslin comes to her senses. As she does so, she gets a momentary feeling that she is not alone in the stairwell. Spinning on her heel, she turns and starts to run back down the stairwell, intending to rejoin her friends.

ROUND FIVE

Angered by the damage that the two priests had done to it, the deathshrieker, no longer screaming, lashes out at Larz and Herod. Larz just manages to avoid the blow, but Herod fails to duck in time, and a claw passes through his chest, weakening his spirit. (OOC: 4 points of Charisma damage - now on 7/11)

Leaving her bow lying behind her, Ceely draws her short sword as she moves to a position behind Milo.

Herod again batters at the undead with the goblin's bane mace, but misses wildly. His summoned spiritual hammer also misses.

Behind her, Merrell casts a spell of strength upon himself, deciding (perhaps unwisely) to attempt a direct assault on the undead. (OOC: I've not moved him on the map yet, since if he wants to cast another spell he might prefer to be outside the zone of silence.)

Cleo, also coming to her senses, bends to retrieve her sword. Taking advantage, the undead lashes out with its clawed hand, snagging through Cleo's head. She shudders, but manages to resist its draining as she straightens, weapon in hand. With a silent yell, she hammers her attack at the beast, her broadsword cutting through its side, its tip trailing blackness as it dissipates some of the undead's connection to the negative plain.

Lucretia, overcome with insane rage, also grabs at his sword. Again, with inhuman relexes, the deathshrieker's hand snags out towards the warrior as he grabs at his enchanted sword. Lucretia shudders, but manages to shrug off its attack, and takes his own chance to strike back, slashing his sword at the creature but missing as it dodges back.

Larz, blinking comes to his senses. Retreating, he backs away down the corridor, stopping near the edge of the light (and now outside the radius of the silence) to cast a spell. He begins to glow with a bright radiance.

Seeing his chance to get to the creature, Dorn picks up his dropped battleaxe and hurls it between Cleo and the still stunned Milo at the deathshrieker. The axe has barely time to turn once before it passes through the undead to crash against the wall behind it. The undead seems to stagger back a second from the force of the blow, taking a moment to reform.

ROUND SIX

The undead hisses in annoyance at Dorn, but has closer enemies to go for, and lashes out with both arms at Herod. The Battleguard gasps as handfuls of his life force are pulled out from him and he staggers...

Ceely hesitates behind Milo, waiting for an opportunity to step forward and have a go at the undead. (OOC: Delayed action rather than readied action)

Herod, his lips moving in a silent prayer to Tempus, staggers back, away from the undead, moving out of its reach until he is at Larz's side. As he suddenly hears his own voice, he blurts out a spell, calling upon Tempus to aid the party. (OOC: Casts Aid (Mass)).

Seeing the opening, Ceely dodges around the corner past Milo to take up Herod's position. The deathshrieker lashes out at her and she feels its claw pass through her right shoulder, snagging at her life force and dragging some of it out. (OOC: 1 point of Charisma loss, now on 14/15)

Milo, thankful that he'd got his mace on a loop around his wrist, avoids any attacks from the deathshrieker as he gathers it back into his hand and swings it at the undead beast. The abomination simply sways away from Milo's blow however, and he gets only air. (OOC: Excellent breakdown Milo of your dice roll! :-))

Meanwhile, Vaslin, having just about reached Merrell and Yvandel, suddenly becomes overcome with fear again, and skids to a halt, running off back up the stairs.

Merrell, realising that his options are somewhat limited, moves into the silence, ducks through the nearest doorway, takes a few steps in and spins around as he hears himself exit the radius of the silence spell. His fingers moving rapidly, he intones one of his most powerful spells, praying that his friends would forgive him. A pea sized ball of fire zips out of his outstretched hands and passes close over Dorn's head, behind Cleo's back and detonates near the corner of the corridor. The ball of fire expands rapidly, spreading up and over the masonry walls, right up to the vaulted ceiling above. It also comes sideways, engulfing the dwarf Dorn, Merrell's own love Cleo, the warrior Lucretia, the Painbearer Milo, and his real target, the cursed deathshrieker.

OOC: I rolled saves - Lucretia saves (as does the Deathshrieker) for half damage. Cleo, Dorn and Milo all take full damage. I then rolled damage. It was a pathetic 12 (very low for 6d6) So I rolled again, with the option of re-rolling 1s - this time it came to 30... Which suddenly seemed very high to those people who failed their saves! So I think I'll stick with the original roll!

As the fire ball dissipates, Cleo, with broadsword in hand, attacks the nearest person (OOC: Rolled 72 for insanity). Luckily for Dorn, Lucretia and Milo, it is the deathshrieker she vents her madness on, though it sways aside from her blows with ease.

Lucretia, although hurting from the fire, suddenly stands still, mumbling to himself incoherently in the silence. [Private to Lucretia: OOC: You forgot your insanity roll - sorry you didn't get to attack after all.]

At the opposite end of the corridor, Larz manages to retain hold of his own sanity again. The glow surrounding him fades as two rays of light flash out from him towards the undead. The first strikes dead on, the second missing and going wide. The deathshrieker shudders at the holy light striking it, and seems to fade significantly.

Dorn, wincing from the pain of the flames, pulls back his arm as his axe reappears in it, then launches it forward again at the undead creature. Again, the axe tears through the incorpreal being to crack into the wall behind, again the magic of the axe disrupting the deathshrieker's connection to the negative plain.

ROUND SEVEN

The deathshrieker suddenly moves backwards, simply passing through the wall behind it and out of sight for a moment. After a moment, Dorn, Cleo, Lucretia and then Milo are able to hear again. It then reappears, returning through the wall directly infront of Larz and Herod, only to attack the dwarven priest - the source of the ray of holy light that had hit it moments before. Despite being struck, Larz seems to ignore the blow. Ceely remains in the zone of silence (i.e. within 20 feet/4 squares of it).

Herod, mentally instructing his spiritual weapon to follow and keep attacking the undead, hammers Goblin Bane at the undead again in a desperate attack but misses, as does his summoned weapon.

Ceely relaxes a little as the monster disappears through the wall, not noticing it re-appear further down the corridor to attack Larz. Stepping towards where the beast had been, she starts to look to see if any of her arrows had survived their impact with the wall - though not expecting to find much since the likelihood of their surviving their impact with the unforgiving solid stone was pretty slim. Sound is suddenly restored as she moves past Milo, and she glances around as she hears him call for Magic Missile spells and then starts to cast his own spell. Spinning around, she realises the beast is still there, floating in front of Larz, in the gloom further down the corridor.

As Milo completes his spell, a ray of light leaps out from his fingers just missing the deathshrieker.

Vaslin, having run way up the steps spins around, looking for someone to attack, overcome with madness. But there is no-one near her, and so she simply clenches her fist uselessly, muttering incomprehensibly.

Merrell, having cast his fireball, hears Milo's voice yelling for magic missiles and starting to cast a spell, so knows the undead is probably still alive, though suspects it must have moved since he can now hear the Painbearer's voice. He hesitates for a moment...

Cleo, uttering a cry of rage that is cut off as she enters the zone of silence, rushes towards the undead attacking Larz. As she leaps forward, avoiding any retaliatory attack, she slashes once with her sword, sadly catching only air, then leaps away again. [Private to Cleo: OOC: Note - you only get one attack, since a Spring Attack only allows you to do a Standard attack, rather than a Full attack.]

Lucretia on the other hand, is suddenly overcome with fear, and turns, spinning on his heel to turn and run away and around the corner. His light coin remains on the floor behind him, having fallen from his teeth earlier in the battle, and within a few yards, he finds himself running blindly into darkness, his free hand outstretched in front of him.

Merrell, spotting his muscled friend running off, breaks into his own run, dodging past Milo and Larz to follow.

Larz, his mind still cracked, also suddenly turns and flees, disappearing into the darkness down the corridor.

Dorn, his axe rematerialising in his hands, moves slightly closer to get a better angle and then hurls his axe at the undead again. It misses, clanging silently against the wall before disappearing into the darkness beyond.

ROUND EIGHT

The deathshrieker lashes out at Herod, the battleguard the only living creature next to it, its clawed incorporeal hand passing through the priests chest to pull at his life force. Herod gives an almighty gasp, then collapses, clutching at his chest before falling limply to the ground.

Moving rapidly, the deathshrieker zooms towards Cleo, dodging past her and Dorn to stop in front of Ceely and Milo. Dorn, weaponless can do nothing, but Cleo and Ceely both reflexively take the chance to attack it. Cleo's broadsword slashes through the undead's torso, streamers of black negative energy trailing out behind her successful strike. Ceely on the other hand just misses with her oiled short sword, but does not care, as Cleo's strike appears to have done the job. The bottom half of the undead evaporates rapidly, disappearing within seconds, the severed top half undead takes longer, the negative energy seeming to grow if anything in darkness as the torso evaporates upwards to wards the deathshrieker's head. The jaw of the undead opens wide, and seems to almost explode in a shriek that knocks everyone prone as the silence is dispelled at that same moment. Even those not immediately close to the undead - Lucretia and Larz running off in darkness, and Vaslin further up the stairs, are struck by the blast of almost invisible negative energy as it explodes out in all directions, ignoring all physical objects to slam into them, leaving them drained and weakened. Those struck insane seem to regain their senses.

"That was nasty" says Ceely as she climbs to her feet. She looks to Milo and Cleo to see what they want to do, but otherwise does nothing herself.

Rising to his feet, Milo moves to Herod, mentally preparing a spell of restoration, not hearing Ceely's comment due to the ear plugs he is still wearing.

Those not wearing earplugs can hear that normal sound has returned to the dungeon - though there are still the faint whispers on the edge of their hearing that hint of the dying crying out in pain. The creepy atmosphere is very much still in place.

Meanwhile, Vaslin also clambers painfully to her feet, having fallen on the stairs. Glad to be back to her senses, she runs back down the stairs to return towards the others and the lit area. Having her own earplugs in, she isn't one to hear the clash of weapons coming from further down the corridors which Larz had run down - but Cleo, Ceely and Dorn do.

Down the other corridor, Lucretia and Merrel - both still lying prone as they gather themselves, also hear a sound, but this one from the darkness near Lucretia. The sound of armoured footsteps moving closer. Before Lucretia has a chance to do much, he hears the whistle of a weapon being swung through the air, then feels a biting pain as some form of bladed weapon slams into him (OOC: 12hp damage, now on 37(42)/55(60) hp - note the brackets indicate hp before the level drain).

Cleo stands, casting her eye about for Lucretia's second short sword, which she moves towards (cooincidentally reducing the light around Milo and Herod as she moves her lit sword away. [Private to Cleo: OOC: Two move actions - your move around the corner will have to wait till next round]

Meanwhile, Lucretia rolls to his feet, managing to draw his bastard sword at the same time. As he does so, he hears the whistle of a weapon passing close past his head as the unseen attacker tries to strike him again. (AoO).

Slashing his swords in large arcs, he uses all his sences to try to pin point the enemy, and his blades successfully strike something, clanging of something mostly metalic.

At that moment, Merrell, still lying prone, casts a cantrip, causing light to bloom around him. Lucretia can be seen at the end of the corridor, striking at something just around the corner - another of those armoured skeletons. Lucretia can see where his blades have cut into it and broken some of its bones beneath its armour.

In the meantime, Larz continues to battle with his own enemy in the darkness off to the right.

Yvandel, the young mage almost still in shock from the demise of the deathshrieker, slowly stands, shaking his head before pulling out some scrolls and looking through them.

Dorn, with a yell for his cousin, leaps to his feet and charges off towards Larz.

ROUND NINE

Ceely draws her bow again, and moves cautiously in Merrell's direction.

Milo bends over Herod, intending to cast a spell of restoration on him. [Private to Milo: 07:07, Today: The DM, on behalf of Milo, rolled 25 using 1d20+11. Heal Skill Check. ] Checking the battleguard, he suddenly realises that the man is already dead, and that it would take a greater spell than restoration to revive him. He allows the spell to die on his lips. [Private to Milo: OOC: Spell NOT lost since you succeeded your Heal skill check.]

Meanwhile, Vaslin continues to come down the stairs, rejoining the party. She stops and picks up Lucretia's light coin.

Back around the corner(s), the skeleton slashes its own weapon at Lucretia, a dusty looking battleaxe with cobwebs still adorning it in places. The heavy blade catches Lucretia a glancing blow, cutting him lightly.

Cleo, picking up Lucretia's sword, moves around the corner, passing Merrell and Ceely as she moves towards the combat.

Now able to see, Lucretia hammers his swords at the undead in an impressive show of swordsmanship. His first two blows strike home, both impressive if not critical strikes, both of which would have felled a normal man or dwarf. But the skeletal warrior he was battling - a long dead dwarf he could tell from its height - seemed to be less than phased by the attack - or at least the blows did a lot less damage than he expected them to.

Moving closer, the mage cast a spell to give Lucretia strength, stretching out and touching the fighter on his back whilst trying to keep clear of the swinging swords. [Private to Merrell: OOC: I assumed that was what you'd want to do if the undead wasn't dead - if I assumed wrong - speak up and we'll rewind this action.]

In the meantime, there is a distant yell of "By Clangeddin begone!" in dwarvish that just had to be Larz.

Meanwhile, Yvandel forgets looking at scrolls after all, and instead casts a spell, causing four torch-like lights to appear floating in mid-air. These lights zoom off down the corridor after Dorn, with Yvandel jogging behind... As Yvandel spots Herod's body, he stops, looking at Milo, distraught.

Dorn continues to run up the corridor, finally reaching Larz, where he finds the dwarven priest bearing a nasty looking wound and a pile of bones and armour on the floor in front of him.

ROUND TEN

Ceely pauses to get out her oil and starts to apply it to a bunch of arrows.

Around the other side, just still in sight of Ceely, Milo grabs out a potion and quaffs it down, feeling its healing magics working on him as his burns fade and the cuts from the skeletons start to knit together. After a moment he feel whole again - though still somewhat drained by the deathshrieker's death cry. (OOC: 17 points back, now on 24/32)

At the main junction, Vaslin, now with Lucretia's light coin in hand, follows Yvandel towards Milo, realising with a sinking feeling that she is too late to help Herod.

Back around the corner, the skeleton continues to attack Lucretia, even as a second appears from around the corner and launches its own attack. The warrior, bleeding already from a number of cuts, takes another two wounds from the two axe wielding armoured skeletal dwarves. (OOC: 6 and 9 hp respectively - now on 19/55) [Private to Lucretia: OOC: And I AM taking into account the regeneration from the broach.]

Meanwhile, ahead of the four floating will-o-the-wisp like light sources conjured by Yvandel, two more skeletons appear from the side passage, one turning towards the two dwarves, the other towards Milo, moving quickly despite their heavy armour right up to the two groups.

Cleo steps around the corner, slashing at the first skeleton that Lucretia had already injured. Her heavy blade strikes twice, but she can tell that either its armour, or simply its undead resilience means that the actual damage dealt is minimal.

Lucretia, boosted by Merrell's spell of strength, also attacks. His first blow with his enchanted short sword, although striking well, doesn't seem to really harm it. His second with the bastard sword definitely cracks some bone as he sees the splinters fall from the armour. His last blow however catches nothing but air. [Private to Lucretia: OOC: Don't forget that the second attack with your right hand is at -5]

Merrell, seeing the second skeleton appearing, and how hard it seemed for Cleo and Lucretia to actually damage the damn things, quickly works his magic again, reaching out and touching Cleo's back to boost her strength too.

Back with the two dwarves, Larz turns around to see the other skeleton striding up towards him. "Begone yer undead bastard!" he growls in dwarvish, raising his holy symbol.

The skeleton raises its shield to shield its eyes from the dwarven priest, turning to flee.

Dorn, at Larz's side simply steps around Larz to stand at his side, his weapon readied for striking in case the turning failed.

Back with Milo and Vaslin, Yvandel squeaks as he sees the skeleton appear and stops, taking a step backwards even. He blurts a quick spell causing a spark of light to appear directly in front of the eyes of the skeleton, but it doesn't seem to be affected.

ROUND ELEVEN

Dropping the now empty oil vial, Ceely steps closer, nocking one of her newly enchanted arrows to her bow string. Taking careful aim, she aims at one of the skeletons and lets fly. The arrows zips past Cleo's ear and shatters on the wall behind the skeleton.

Milo raises his holy symbol at the skeletal warrior lifts its hands to shield its eyes, stumbling back from the priest and turning to flee into the darkness. Meanwhile, Vaslin also fumbles for her holy symbol, but otherwise does nothing.
[Private to Vaslin: OOC: There was no post from Vaslin this round!!]

From around the corner, another undead appears, running straight towards them - the one that Larz had turned. It rushes straight at them, ducking between them and heading for the corner.

Vaslin and Milo both attempt to strike at the armoured skeleton as it rushes past them, Milo landing a heavy blow but Vaslin missing.

From the direction of Larz and Dorn, there is another dwarven curse.

[Private to Ceely; Cleo; Lucretia: Check out http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialAttacks.htm for the "special attacks". In this particular case - I believe what you are attempting is a Bull Rush - i.e. to push an opponent back.]

Cleo shoves forward at the undead in front of her, pushin it back five feet before she leaps back. Although she manages to catch that skeleton by surprise, and get under its guard to prevent it striking her - the other skeleton standing in front of Lucretia gets an opportunity and slashes at her with its axe, opening up a nasty gash on her back before she gets away. (OOC: 11 hp damage, now on 22/45(50))

At her side, Lucretia simply goes defensive, as his plan differs from Cleo's.

Merrell behind, grimacing in anticipation, lets loose with another fireball. A pea sized ball of flame zips between Cleo, Lucretia and the two undead to explode behind them a short way out from the wall. The flame rushes out, engulfing the two skeletons and Lucretia and Merrell realises that had he positioned the spell to explode actually ON the wall, that he'd have missed Lucretia entirely and Cleo wouldn't have even needed to attempt that dangerous manouver and get herself hit!

The skeleton that had been previously damaged collapses to the ground, the ancient leather parts of its armour smouldering. The second skeleton also smoulders somewhat, but remains standing. Lucretia manages to dodge the most of it (aka made his reflex save, but is still badly burnt, his clothes all smouldering and charred in places. The magic of Torus's broach continues to slowly heal him (OOC: Lucretia takes 12, but gains 1, now on 8/55(60))

From around the corner where the two dwarves are, comes the sound of fighting.

Yvandel grimaces but does nothing, staring at the skeleton that had run past them.

ROUND TWELVE

Ceely takes aim and shoots her oiled arrow at the skeleton. It punches a hole through its breastplate, but apart from making it rock back a step, seems to do little else.

Milo hurries towards the sound of battle, glad of Yvandel's conjoured will-o-the-wisp-like orbs to light his way. As he rounds the corner, he sees the two dwarves battling with another of the armoured skeletons.

Behind him, Vaslin is still tracking the movement of the skeleton that had fled past them. She grabs at her holy symbol as if to turn it, but it is already fleeing (from Larz's turn earlier) and simply continues to hurry away around the corner. Instead, she hurries after Milo, Lucretia's light coin in her hand lighting up a side corridor as she passes.

Around that same corner the skeleton fled, Merrell, Cleo and Ceely glance around to see it bearing down on them. It looks like it wants to simply run past... The two step aside, allowing it to run past, though Cleo has a swipe with her broad sword, missing it. It dodges around the next corner, past a startled Lucretia, who hacks at it in passing, splintering a few bones with a successful crack of his short sword.

The other still smoking skeleton continues to hammer at Lucretia, but the injured warrior easily fends off its clumsy attack.

Back with the dwarves, Milo sees Larz successfully fending off an attack by the skeleton there.

Having let the skeleton past, Cleo steps after it. It has fled past its companion already however, so standing next to Lucretia, she hacks at the undead skeleton hard with her sword. Her sword cracks into into it in a blow that should have shattered bones, but it just seems to absorb the hit, doing nothing but marking its armour. She hacks again, but this time misses.

Lucretia hacks at the skeleton, stabbing forward with his short sword, the enchanted blade puncturing the armour and severing its backbone. The negative energy holding the thing together dissipates and it falls apart noisily into a pile of bones and armour.

Merrell steps between Lucretia and Cleo to the corner, the mouth of his lion face opening impossibly wide. The dungeon suddenly echoes to a massive roar. The fleeing skeleton stumbles as it is hit by the wall of sound, fragments of bone bursting from it.

Meanwhile, the two dwarves continue to battle their own skeleton. Larz smashes his hammer into the armoured skeleton, causing chips of bone to fly out of the gaps between its armour.

Dorn also smashes his battle axe into the undead in a mighty blow, cracking its breastplate and staggering it.

Behind Milo and Vaslin, Yvandel hurries to keep up, moving his enchanted lights ahead of him and past the two dwarves.

ROUND THIRTEEN!

Ceely, frustrated by her lack of success at hitting the skeletons, hurries after Merrell, dodging between Lucretia and Ceely as well to step in front of the wizard to slash ineffectually at the skeleton.

Meanwhile, Milo calmly calls upon Ilmater's power to destroy the skeleton. But his spirit is still weakened by the death shrieker's final scream, and all he can do is induce fear into the undead skeleton, which turns on its heel and flees.

Behind him, Vaslin waits, watching at the skeleton simply runs up the corrirdor and disappears around the corner.

Closer to Ceely, the skeleton flees into a corner and stops there, cowering.

Cleo hangs back, catching her breath, as the injured Lucretia joins Ceely in standing in front of Merrell, but also pauses to catch his breath, feeling the power of the broach embedded in the flesh of his chest pulsing as it slowly closes his wounds.

Merrell readies himself to cast another spell of strength on Ceely in case she decides to step forward to deal with the cowering skeleton in the corner.

Meanwhile, Larz and Dorn lower their weapons, the skeleton they'd been chasing having fled Milo's holy power. "Ack! What did yer have t' scare it off for!" grumbles Larz. "I'd got the right weapon fer the job!" he says, holding up his hammer of Clangeddin. He grins at his cousin who was looking less than satisfied. "Better than that edged weapon against these critters!" he grins.

Yvandel smiles nervously at Larz's humour, but otherwise stands quietly behind Milo and Vaslin, glancing all around nervously.

Dorn frowns. "SO where are the rest of you?" he asks. "I hope that was Merrell roaring moments ago and not some new beastie fer us t' kill..."

ROUND FOURTEEN

In short order, Ceely and Lucretia cut down the cowering skeleton.

The group re-unite and spend a moment healing (OOC: Please post whatever healing spells are cast/potions drunk etc) before moving around the corridors again, tracking down the remaining undead. Within minutes, the last two are discovered, turned again and then smashed to smithereens as they cower in a corner. Having walked all the corridors, the group find themselves back at the initial junction near the bottom of the stairs again with a fair confindence that all the undead in the corridors have been destroyed.

Each of the destroyed undead has ancient dwarven armour on that could possibly be salvaged and sold, as well as masterwork battleaxes. Beyond that - their belongings were worthless.