The Gaming Den

Xaxus looses a resigned sigh and relinquishes control of the last skeleton to to party. "The old bones have saved us three times; it would be foolish of me to hold fast to this, my most prised possession , when it can save us more."

*Greatest god of death, murder, and murder-death, thank you for one day granting me the power to raise my enemies and allies as mindless undead slaves to do my bidding, so I may replace all who fall before me as undead mockeries of life, as is our will. Amen.*

Have the skeleton, rather than myself, pry open and investigate the casket

The remaining skeleton strides forwards, boney heels clicking on the floor, and begins prying at the crack in the cube, undead limbs exerting an inexorable, tireless force...and after several minutes you are rewarded with the front face giving way entirely, or at least enough to expose the contents of the box.

A corpse lies within the box, curled up with its knees to its chest, the box just large enough to contain it. It seems dressed in a sort of shroud like women wore for mourning in ancient days, and sewn into the shroud are gold gems, so that the whole thing looks almost like mail - or the scales of a fish. Then with a terrible crack as ancient, dry joints shriek at sudden movement, the figure stands up - the terrible grin of the skull hidden behind a coin-shrouded veil, but those awful empty sockets stare at you with an inexplicable expression.

"Meat shield's first"
Atani strides forward to meet the creature. He does not draw one of the swords from his primary sheathes, instead he pulls Sir Spastis' blade from it's oily bath and passes it by the nearest torch or lantern while moving to meet the creature in melee.

"Ah, at last some action! I was getting bored! Let's re-kill this ugly bastard."

Dorgan moves towards the skeleton, twirling his twin morningstars.

"Priest, can you work your magic on this one as well?"

He will wait for a response / command attempt from Xaxus before joining melee . If there is none, he will assist Atani, flanking the skeleton.

Flintbeard greets the woman, and throws the duckbunny bag in front of the party, between them and the undead woman. If she's one of those "automatically attack the living" undead, it might attack the duckbunny immediately, but if it doesn't that may mean she can be talked to.

Gilles laughs. "Well, Xaxus, it looks like your prayers have been answered! Another undead has appeared to us; can you use your powers on it?"

Gilles will make a Religion check to see if he knows anything about the burial tradition/shroud. He doesn't make any hostile moves, but he will reach for his magic shortsword if things get ugly with the creature.

Xaxus will attempt to Command Undead, "Unliving thing, obey the servant who's master is death, obey my word: IN THE NAME OF THE REAPER, STAND DOWN! THE POWER OF DEATH COMPELS YOU!"

Gilles racks his memory as Xaxus issues his imperative...something about the whole thing seems incredibly familiar...and then it strikes him!

"I know what it is!" Gilles says as the shrouded undead raises its arms, and various hands go to various weapons, the duckbunny struggling mightily against it's bonds. "It's a Crypt..."

There is a flash of green light, and your ears pop. The smell of brine is strong in your nostrils, and your boots are immediately swamped - you appear to be standing in ankle-deep water. The straight lines and plaster and stone of the hallways have been replaced by a large, empty chamber of grey limestone.

"...Thing." Gilles finishes.

The duckbunny, free of its bonds, swims about in confusion - as at home in water as on land.

Are there any noteworthy features of the room? Is it just a uniform grey box or are there any doors or grates anywhere along it

The room looks unworked - carved by time and water, with evidence that the room floods periodically. Small white cave fish flit about at your feet. There is a single entrance/exit to the room, a narrow gap in the stone about four feet high and three feet wide, though it is where the water is deeper, so only about a foot of the tunnel is dry. Light spills out from the tunnel.

Atani looks about in confusion, white knuckles releasing the hilt of his swords. "Alright then. Well....If anyone wants to check for hidden doors I'll look down this way."

Atani will duck under the passageway and move down the gap to see if there's anything he can learn about what's that way.

"Damnit, too late," Gilles curses, unable to hide his disappointment. He pauses for a moment. "But at least," he adds, returning to his usual cheerful tone, "if we come across the Crypt Thing again, we'll be ready for it."

Gilles searches the room for traps, and then he will search for hidden doors. If he finds any items/shrines/etc. of note that do not appear trapped (and that he cannot recognize) he will make a Religion check to see if they serve any higher purpose, and/or what purpose that may be.

Flintbeard attempts to sense the depth of where he's been teleported to.

Flintbeard then makes a lasso to grab the duckbunny, tie it up, and stuff it back in the bag.

Gilles searches the room for traps, and then he will search for hidden doors. If he finds any items/shrines/etc. of note that do not appear trapped (and that he cannot recognize) he will make a Religion check to see if they serve any higher purpose, and/or what purpose that may be.

Gilles finds no traps, hidden doors, or shrines - indeed, no evidence that any intelligent species has ever been to this place.

Flintbeard attempts to sense the depth of where he's been teleported to.

Flintbeard's dwarf senses tell him he is about fifty feet below the surface.

Flintbeard then makes a lasso to grab the duckbunny, tie it up, and stuff it back in the bag.

The fuckbunny does its best to avoid Flintbeard. Lassoing it will not be easy.

Atani will duck under the passageway and move down the gap to see if there's anything he can learn about what's that way.

The passage follows a slight curve, and Atani cannot help but be soaked up to the shoulders in the narrow tunnel, but after about ten feet he sees that it opens up into a larger chamber, from which comes light and a kind of drone of many voices.

Returning back to the chamber Atani makes silencing motions then brings everyone into a tight huddle.
"There sounds like an assembly in the next room. I say we take this opportunity to be the ones with the element of surprise for once. We can enter into the room and launch arrows and slings at them and have the pure melee'ers form a front row. Once the melee is joined we'll enter into it but between my, Gilles, and Flintbears arrows and your slings we should be able to kill a few men before battle even starts."

If there are no objections we'll head into the chamber with a marching order of Skeleton, Dorgan (pure melee), Flintbeard, Atani, Gilles (Archers), Xaxus, Lucas, and Tim (sling men)

"Did you get a chance to count how many there are? What are they talking about?"

Also, if I got it right, the ranged attacks will come first, then Dorgan and the skeleton will rush the -hopefully confused- survivors, followed by Atani and Flintbeard? If so, I'm on board.

"I didn't set eyes on them, but I heard what I think is group chanting. I figure you and the skeleton go in first, we'll enter behind you and let loose a hail of fire and then we can charge in once they're softened up"

"But what if they don't want to fight us? They've been down here all this time, they might be friendly." Lucas says. "Wait, no. That sounded better in my head. Yeah, let's go."

"I still think we need a first strike to sow chaos among the enemy ranks.

My proposal is: Hide around the entrance, archers and sling men fire their missiles and then me and the skeleton lead the charge.

The skeleton will go in first to trigger any traps, and I'll be following in its footsteps, about 10 feet behind. The rest of you fan around to prevent (well, minimize the effect of) lightning bolt strikes or other area attacks from their part."

Atani agrees to Dorgans plan

Gilles nods to show his own agreement to the plan.

"Y'all know what you're doing. Just tell me where to go, and I'll follow." Lucas says.

Keeping your weapons and light-sources raised above the brackish waters so they do not get wet, you slowly creep through the narrow, half-flooded passageway...

...and emerge into a realm like a great, sunless lake. The caverns in every direction stretch out farther than the light from your torches can see, but the waters here seem fairly shallow - 2 to 3 feet deep - and the ceiling is as low as eight feet in places.

Not thirty feet distant, on an "island" of sorts where the briny waters do not reach rises out of the lake, bright with glowing mosses and toadstools, and in the shallows by the shore a half-dozen strange creatures toil - great thick-limbed things like men and mushrooms with frilled caps the color of liver, their bodies tattooed with green and blue phosphorescence in strange patterns; they seem to be fishing with crude pronged spears, and wear pants. The air is alive with their spores, and a great thrumming seems to emanate from farther inland, where you can make out the outlines of crude structures.

As his fellow party members stop to decide their next actions, Dorgan strips a piece of cloth, dips it in the water and ties it around his head to cover his nose and mouth.

"Whatever we do, I think these spores may be poisonous; let's not risk it."