"Anyone want to toss a bone or two through that doorway?" asks Forte.
Xania nods, picking up a bone from the ground and tossing it through...
Dakath turns to Forte "And where did you learn this trick? To what end?"
But Forte is too distracted by their impending doom to even hear the question, much less answer it.
"Let's approach is with cause first, before we start 'feeding' it. You never know what you can awake at the other side of the door," replies Ullar, looking a tiny bit uneasy at the door and the remains on the battlefield.
Dakath hisses a warning "No, Xania don't!" as he watches the bone roll into the room.
Unfortunately, his advice falls on deaf ears, as Xania has already propelled one of the bones from the exterior chamber in through the broken door. And the action has ramifications, as the group hears a soft rustling sound. Suddenly two figures come floating out of the smashed doorway, several inches above the ground. Each wears chainmail and a helmet on their heads with a large gem in the center of it's front. Both also wear belts with jeweled long swords at their waists. However, neither appears to be using the swords, as they carry small glowing spheres in each hand. Rhune is very disturbed to see that these are elves! However, they look to have been dead for some time. As the group looks on in amazement, the things rear back with the spheres in their hands, preparing to throw them at the group!
"Argggh! I really didn't think that would happen," yells Xania, backing up behind Forte, waiting to see what Dakath et alia will do.
At the sight of the ghostly elves Rhune cries out in elvish, "No! Don't! We are not the enemy!" moving off to the side slightly away from the party as she does so. She is prepared to attack if necessary and to defend Asif at all costs.
Ullar, not hesitating for a moment, charges with his greatsword drawn. Seeing that it is no use to hack them currently he merely tries to use the blade of his sword as some bashing weapon, which he aims to impact at the gem.
Rhune sighs as she's Ullar charge the two ghostly elves. She just hopes that the elves will hear her anyway and stop what they seem about to do before anyone gets hurt....Oh well....if not she is prepared, as she already had her longsword drawn.
Asif looks upon the figures with great alarm, and his mind erupts into instant action to counter-act the thrown spheres. Remembering some of the great tales of the great hero Sinbad he dives to the left and in one motion tears of his cloak, and as if he is casting a fishing net swirls it over the flying spheres as they fly towards the party.
"Oh no!!" Dakath manages to say.
As soon as Dakath sees them raising their sphere's he dashes forward and dives to the left, hoping that his maneuver places him at their flank or better still slightly behind them. Once there he switches weapons to his dagger.
Ullar takes the right one, as he is right-handed. He is trying to use his sword as a baseball bat to hit the gem.
Forte moves to the side, attempting to draw his bow while putting his sword away. "Spread out!" he warns in a loud voice, though not screaming, as he moves away from the others.
Xania moves back out of the way, trying to follow Forte's advice and doubting that her spells will work on things such as this.
"Ahh, we have descended to hell indeed my friends," Tag takes Forte's advice and dives for cover, hoping to avoid the magical attack before launching into the fray.
Scared, but fascinated nonetheless, Amibar stays close to Xania. He takes his sling from his belt, and a few bullets from a small pouch, ready to launch them at the floating figures.
Xania draws her dagger.
The beings casually fire the small glowing spheres at the group. Ignoring the front-line warriors, they hurl the balls of red light toward the rear of the group, where the people are closer together. Asif tosses his cloak up as an obfuscation for them, but he is too late to stop the first volley. One ball flies over Tag's head and hits the wall, exploding on impact, but leaving him unharmed. The other Rhune is not able to dodge, and when it hits her in the chest, it sends her reeling back with the force of the explosion, this time quite a bit larger than the one that hit the wall. Indeed, you are quite amazed to see Rhune recover from the explosion at all. She must be made of some hardy stuff.
About to shout out something to the elves, Rhune is distracted long enough that she does not dodge in time. Feeling the globe hit her square in the chest and the subsequent explosion, she reels back gasping for air and shaking her head.
Ullar rushes forward to the figure on the right as it fires a second missile at the main group. Ullar is quite disturbed to see that even as it is doing this, another such sphere is appearing in it's opposite hand. Nonetheless, Ullar reaches high and smashes the sphere with his sword, which explodes upon impact, sending a shiver up Ullar's arm, but not harming him.
The other figure attempts to lob his missile as well, but Asif's cloak seems to interfere with it's aim, as it hits the cloak and explodes, harming no one but the poor cloak, which is blasted into pieces.
Advancing with astonishing quickness on the left figure, Asif brings both his flashing blades forward upon it before it can react. Both are well-aimed, and as traditionally deadly as Asif's attacks usually are. However, the creature ignores them totally, even though they impact it with force. Stepping back, Asif sees that no apparent damage was done, though he knows the blows were struck excellently.
Unable to use his bow, Forte rushes into the melee. He joins the closest combat, aiming at the foul creature with his sword, while trying desperately to avoid his comrades.
Dakath rolls into the room against Asif's opponent, with just slightly less flair and speed, positioning himself behind it as it raises up it's glowing spheres to smash them into Asif. Asif's amazing speed, however, keeps the creature, who now once again has a sphere in each hand, from bringing them into contact with him, though he just narrowly avoids them.
The spirit aiming at Ullar does the same, the warrior attempting to use his buckler, called Bashing Buckler since the encounter in the first caves, to avoid being hit by the spheres. As an extra precaution measure he holds his breath, and thereby fails to launch a battle cry. However, Bashing Buckler does not help him, as the thing brings both spheres down simultaneously on Ullar's shoulders. He is able to smash one of them before impact with the small shield, but the other gets through his guard and explodes into him, sending him reeling back from the impact. He reorients himself, only to see the thing's weapons restoring themselves instantly. Tag launches himself at the creature with his rapier, but his blow is ill-timed, and fails to contact it.
Augustus begins the chant you heard before in the other tomb, his voice gaining some aspect of supernaturality. However, the creatures ignore this just as they have just about everything the party has done so far.
Rhune manages to regain some sense of the world after the nasty explosion, hers being quite a bit worse than the others that have happened so far. She looks to see how the rest of the group is. Asif has engaged his opponent even though it looks like he cannot do it harm with his weapons. Ullar and Taglio are standing slightly back from theirs with the same limitation, Ullar fighting almost entirely defensively. Forte stands back away from the fight, with Xania behind him, as does Brother Augustus. Dakath appears to have positioned himself well behind the creature on the left side, having the only verified magic weapon.
Asif recognizes that he will not be able to slay this monster with his weapons, so attempts to stay close enough that the creature will not throw it's missiles, but still dodging frantically to keep them from impacting him, again quite successfully. Dakath, meanwhile, with his traditional poor luck at combat, swipes at the things exposed back, missing it entirely as it swings at Asif.
Meanwhile Ullar tries to evade his as well, swinging his buckler about to keep the explosion damage minimal. He is able to impact one of the spheres, and narrowly dodges the other. The small explosion pains the arm holding the buckler, but little else. Nonetheless, Ullar recognizes that he is fighting a losing battle.
Shouting, Rhune tightens her hold on her sword and steps toward Asif's side, though not close enough to hamper him in battle. She is still a bit shaken from the blast but is definitely prepared to defend not only Asif but her other friends as well.
Ullar, unsure what to do now that his weapons fail to do any damage to their opponents, cautiously takes a few steps back, waiting to see if anyone comes up with suggestions or be ready to run for it when necessary.
Dakath curses his own bad luck. A quick assessment of the battle and it seems the party is at a disadvantage. He moves swiftly into the doorway the two elves came from and looks inside.
Tag thinks for a moment and backs away from his opponent, "They are elves then Rhune? Perhaps they will be moved by something from their past? Music can turn evil sometimes? Something elvish.......and old....."
Tag thinks a moment and then begins to hum. At first his voice is soft and you can see that the music is only partly remembered, for he mumbles over some passages. "An elven song of celebration and friendship, Si?"
"Perhaps, Taglio. It can't hurt. At least I don't think it could hurt," Rhune calls over her shoulder.
Though earnest, Tag's knowledge of elvish is very poor, he hums a few bars of a song which is in fact an elvish nursery rhyme poorly remembered, he looks at Rhune for help and tries to appeal to the spirits with it.
"Venez le jeu avec moi où le frolick de faeries, plus de par le vieil arbre de chêne, mmmm.....mmmm.. mmm quelque chose, quelque chose des jeux de joyeux.
"Si vous jouez mon jeu avec moi, je serai vous ami toujours, quelque chose, au sujet d'un rituel de lier," OH! I can't remember the rest...
Hum....hum....hum...."
Tranlation for Rhune only: (Come play with me where the faeries frolick, over by the old oak tree, mmmm.....mmmm.. mmm something , something games of merry.
If you play my game with me, I will be you friend always, something, about a ritual of binding, Oh! I can't remember the rest....
Hum....hum...hum).
The music halts the spirits for just a moment, then seems to enrage them further, as they begin wailing in a high pitch and continuing their attack with renewed fervor.
"Whoops!" Tag stops his tune and looks apologetically at his friends who are the victims of the creatures' now further enraged attack. Not knowing what to do, but not wanting to leave his friends in need, Tag crosses himself and joins in the general frenzy, trying to distract the creatures from the wielders of magical weapons.
"Go back to your twilight haunts, oh guardian spirits of nothingness! Or I will sing to you again! Il dio li protegge! (God protect us!)"
As Ullar backs off his opponent and Tag does the same to begin his song, Forte moves in to try his luck. His sweeping blow is high as the creature does not even have to duck, and in return the thing smashes one of the glowing red balls down on his shoulder. The stunning explosion looks a lot worse than it is for Forte, but the reason why becomes apparent quickly. His chain mail took the brunt of the blow, but did not survive intact. The main seam upon the shoulder ripped apart and now the flaps on both chest and back hang loosely, with much of the fine mesh melted or obliterated, leaving Forte rather vulnerable.
Meanwhile, Asif's gods still appear to be with him, as the thing appears to be growing intensely frustrated by his incredible speed, always putting the globe down where the bearded man was just milliseconds earlier. Rhune joins in, but is unable to find a position in front, and must move around to the side. However, this serves to distract the creature, as the instant it sees her, it ignores Asif entirely and advances on her.
Leaving with the only real magic weapon in the party's possession as the others look on in shock, Dakath turns and heads back in the direction the two came from. Peering in, he sees a small chamber with two coffins inside. Both have had the lids removed, lying broken on the sides of the sarcophagi.
There is nothing of value or interest inside the coffins, and there doesn't appear to be anything of interest anywhere else in the room either. The screams of his battered teammates draws Dakath's total attention away from the chamber, however.
Dakath turns back to the battle at hand and shouts over the confusion, "I can't see anything of value beyond this room, perhaps we should get out of here."
Rhune looks at him, "I am all for it. But why would they still be here then?" she replies ready to head for the exit if everyone else does.
Not waiting for a reply (and almost certainly not able to hear Rhune's in any regard) Dakath attacks the nearest Elven apparition with his MAGIC DAGGER!!!
Dakath sees with amazement the dagger sink into the middle of the thing's back, a truly horrific injury. It also clearly affects the creature, as it howls in a high-pitched tone and turns it's back on the warriors in front of it, attacking Dakath madly.
The warriors in front of Dakath's opponent are uplifted to see his dagger take effect, and attempt as best they can to lend a hand. Forte strikes the creature a massive blow, attempting to regain it's attention, but it has as much effect as would the wind, not even moving the thing.
Seeing the bigger warriors fruitlessly hack at the apparitions with their great weapons, Amibar does not even swing his sling. He watches intently, hoping for something he could do to help these kind people.
Asif continues the dance of death even though the thing is no longer attacking him, but his lethal attacks do not even serve to distract it from it's goal, Rhune. She attempts to stab at it, but slips on one of the many bones lining the chamber floor and then falls upon it, the sharp edge ripping into her left leg, causing her a great deal of pain. Fortunately, it also puts her out of the range of the creature's spheres.
---Cursing her luck as she falls to the floor she is relieved that she is out of range even if it is for only a moment....She grimaces in pain as the bone rips into her leg, stifling another curse.
However, the spirit is innovative, and hurls one at her as she falls. It impacts some inches away from Rhune's chest quite without being touched. She only feels a bit of heat from the explosion, as her armor is still quite cool.
----Shielding her face with her hands as the sphere falls she is pleased it did not hit her this time.
The thing opposing Dakath does not seem happy to have had itself damaged, and repays him by smashing the globe in it's right hand into his stomach. He feels the explosion strongly and notes that his armor is steaming from the impact, which has burnt a small hole in it. He vainly smashes his dagger up toward the creature's face, and is once again repaid, as the thing reels backward, it's decrepit face now sporting a nasty hole.
With a moment to think, Dakath realizes that something very warm is pulsing against his back. It's certainly not one of the explosions. Rather it feels like something in his pack. Strange....
Dakath backpedals rapidly trying to gain some room to remove his pack, once he manages to get it off his shoulders he throws it to Forte, "Use the Mace to hit it," he shouts.
As Dakath steps back, the thing hurls both it's spheres at him in apparent anger. It's aim appears to have been somewhat affected by Dakath's facial adjustment, and misses with both. However, one impacts the wall very near to Dakath's head, and he becomes dizzy for just a moment.
Forte drops his sword and scrambles to get the mace out of the pack. Opening the pack and turning it upside down to empty it, he grabs the mace and swings at the un-injured creature.
Asif manages to interpose himself between the thing and Rhune, but pays the price, as it limits his mobility. The thing sweeps low in an effort to hit Rhune and Asif is forced to block it with his body, as the explosion impacts his leg. It is a minor wound, though, and gives Rhune time to rise up from her fall, as the thing's burning eyes follow her every move.
Rhune taking advantage of the distraction scrambles to her feet. "Asif! Look out," she cries as the sphere impacts with his leg. Turning to the apparition, her deep purple eyes glittering wildly, "It is me you want. Come and get me," she calls out in elvish as she begins to dance away from it, leading it away from Asif. She tries to lead it away, dancing and dodge away from it and attempting to slash at it.
Asif stumbles with the wound to his leg, but keeps upon his feet. "GET OUT RHUNE while you still can.....the living have no power of these foul creations of heka. I shall give you as much time as I can then I shall attempt to follow you out of this foul place."
Asif attempts to once again divert the attention of the creatures from Rhune. He scans the room for a possible weapon (length of wood) or something to use as a club. His intention being to try and smash one of the spheres while still in the hand of the creature. Hopefully causing the creature to take the effect of the blast from his own weapon.
There are some bones that might function in that capacity, but as Asif is no longer a target of choice, he isn't sure he'll get a chance to use it!