In the silence Haliday whispers.  "Ive got a bad feeling about this"

     “Next you’ll be telling us the odds,” Dr. Buddie responds with a bit of a grouse. 
     “Here now, let’s look around and see if we can’t figure out a way to reopen that, eh?” Dr. Buddie continues, trying to set people into action.  He’ll first try replacing the circlet back where Shelley had taken it from.  Assuming that doesn’t work he’ll po let it once more and then go to the wall and investigate for any kind of hidden levers or triggers or such…

21 Investigation

15 if he gets advantage from someone helping?

Haliday will assist

Aftari walks over to the orb and after a moment's hesitation will pick it up. If nothing happens she will say "I'm guessing there's only one way out of here, and not back the way we came." She looks over to Haliday. "I believe you're right about your feeling, I'll go tell the others." With that she will take the orb and exit the room, saying "Looks like we are being forced through those big doors, we should prepare for anything once we open them. Who's ready?"

"I suppose imas ready as im gunna be"  Haliday follows Aftari

You're all apprehensive about the situation, which feels increasingly like you've been set up by your client. Taking the dark orb doesn't seem to have any negative effects though, and returning with it to the mural, you quickly slot the two orbs into place, the dark orb above the leader of the vampire and his ghoulish forces, and the orb of golden light above the necromancer and his hordes of undead.

As you insert the orbs, they click into place, twist slightly, and seem to set a bit deeper into the mural, before you hear a low thud and the doors slowly swing open.

You emerge into a vast underground cavern. It must be miles long, and you stand at its far end. A faint golden glow fills the space, emanating from a grand stone façade on its far side. The cavern evokes a palace carved into the side of a mountain—the same palace carved into the stone door so many flights of stairs above you. Suddenly, you are beset—the ring of steel as swords leave scabbards, a flash of silver at the corner of your vision, and intense heat as if standing beneath the blazing sun. Two skeletal warriors with bones coated in gleaming silver appear behind you. Appearing just as suddenly before you stands a tall, slender figure in robes of pure white. Necrotic flesh clings to the figure’s skeletal visage. He chuckles resonantly as he laces his bony fingers, causing the golden pinpricks of light in his empty sockets to bounce with eerie mirth. “My bone masons have you. Tell me—is it beautiful? My citadel, that is. You are the first living beings to set eyes on it in a long time.”

Having studied the mural, you recognise this to be what remains of the necromancer on the mural.

"Now, why are you scurrying here, little mice? Tell me- how's a king of the dead supposed to deal with graverobbers?"

Haliday.spins back to Aftari pistol trained on the skeletons behind

A bit startled by the sudden appearance of foes both in front and behind, Ekaterina braces herself for what will almost surely be a fight. She speaks faltering at first and then with a bit more confidence… “Graverobbers? What? Us? No, of course not. We are uh, archeologists setting out to find lost treasures and bring them to museums for everyone to enjoy and appreciate.” She gives Buddie a look that is attempting to implore him to continue the conversation. 

     “Grave robbers?” Dr. Buddie says with offense in his voice.  “Hardly!  On technicalities alone, we have not left so we have not robbed.  At most we’re…  grave rearrangers. But in truth, we are explorers!  Seekers or truth and insight.  We come not to plunder your glory but rather to spread word of it to the greater world above!”

     “You ask if your citadel is beautiful?  My apologies, good sir, but it’s a bit of a shambles.  A citadel of dust and unuse.  It needs, it deserves a good airing out.  To be returned to its true glory.  Just as you do yourself… We ‘little mice’ cane to see if there was indeed glory left here, and are pleased that you are…  for you may be just what the world needs!”

     Doctor Buddie is mostly talking out of his ass hoping to, at best, charm the necromancers…  At worst perhaps delay it so the others can act.

((Cross posts work quite well together it seems…))

(I love when that happens!!)

The parchment-like skin on the necromancer's face stretches into a thin smile: "Not even you believe those words. But amusing that you tried. Now, the rest of you- what do you have to say for yourselves, little mice?"

Haliday, you realise that the skeletons behind you are very large four-armed skeletons whose bones have been coated in an alchemical metal, seemingly serving to reinforce them to  withstand physical damage, but the necromancer's magic has likely done more than simply animate these creatures. The ribcage of each bone mason contains glass canopic jars holding the preserved heart, brain, and liver of what looks to be a particularly large humanoid. They seem to follow every command of the necromancer and wield large cleavers to do more brutish work with than to simply stop you from advancing.

Keeping his pistol trained on the skeletons his right hand shaking slightly pulls out his flask.   Taking a pull he puts it back.  Over his shoulder. "This seems to be a bit of a pickle."

Slightly lower voice. "Di nos adiuvant"

     “I believe… some of my words,” Dr. Buddie insists.  “And the rest can become the truth…  Is your goal to rest down here for eternity?  Even if you kill is you’ll be disrupted time and again by intruders.  But if you let us live, we could be your agents and do the tasks too small for your bother…  Like drag the one that hired us back here to you?”

"My goal is as it's ever been, to protect my city and my people against the vile scum running around on the surface- why I even bound the sun to my cause! Your problem is that you don't think in the long term. As little mortals, you are but mice, running around in their little maze. You're of as much use to me dead as you are alive, but I don't need to rely on your word  or honour in the first case." The lich’s smile never falters as he speaks. “For all your bravado, little mortals, I am afraid that your time on this earth has come to an end. It pains me to send brave explorers to their doom in my little afterlife. But, such is the way of the world. To think that once, you would have gone to Aurelia’s side in the heavens, and yet my Unseen Sun will draw your souls to its side instead.” He chuckles to himself, as if perverting the natural order of life and death is a casual diversion for him. “It truly is a rarity to come face-to-face with the living, these days. I think, to commemorate the specialness of your collective demise, I will feed your souls to my phylactery personally, as well. I have so many souls in stasis, ready to be fed to my own soul, yet—yes, you deserve a special end. Do you have any last squeaking words, my little mice?”

     Dr. Buddie’s last words (or hopefully not) are those which allows him to cast Chill Touch at the lich…

Chill Touch Attack: 17 Damage: 8

     Shelley, the owl, will use their flyby feature to try to distract the lich and Help anyone else who may attack it?

Hearing Doc cast his spell Haliday mutters "well hell here we go" and fires at the chest of one of the skeletons

Attack: 20 Damage: 5

Buddie, you see the lich sidestep your skeletal hand, but as Haliday's shot rings out, you see that he has managed to pierce the shoulderblade of one o the large hulking four armed skeletons.

The Lich's smile has turned cruel: “That was charming. I’m truly touched. Well, I suppose we have nothing more to say to each other. Farewell, little mice.”

With that, you see a blinding light erupt  from within the lich and rapidly filling the entire room.

Aftari and Haliday, please give me a constitution saving throw!

con save:  12

Con Save: 13