The dice playing skeletons are back to playing dice and having no skin or innards.  The skeletal prisoner is nowhere to be seen but at least he's not screaming bloody murder?  Most of the party is huddled, more or less, around the northern door preparing to... Do something.

     Raevyn though is busy looking for a little zombie girl's lost kitten Mittens.  Before having gotten too far down the hallway Raevyn had paused to light a torch and was able to see her way back to the original room.  Once there she realizes all the cat bones are gone but she can still see the ones trapped below.  Zombie Girl, however, cannot.  Positioning the girl a bit away from the hole in the floor and instructing her not to move, Raevyn allows the girl to hold the light while she carefully starts crawling down the hole and one the giant hand statue.  Zombie girl gasps and whispers "Magic!" upon seeing Raevyn start disappearing into the floor.  She takes a half step forward, but then a half step back, unsure if she is more interested or scared.

     While Raevyn is still dangling, just starting to get her feet secured on the outstretched fingers of the hand, the cats pounce!

     But it is eagerness and not viciousness with which they pounce.  Cats being cats, they see Raevyn as little more as a means to an ends and use her as a ramp up onto the floor they want to be on.  Undead cat after undead cat launches and lands on Raevyn before using her as a ramp up to Zombie Girl's squeals of joy and (figurative?) rib cracking hugs!

     Once the cats are all rescued and swirling around the little girl, Raevyn climbs back up with some grunts and colorful mutterings.  "Sorry I could not bring them all back," Raevyn begins but before she even knows what else she is going to say the Zombie Girl chimes in brightly.

     "That's ok!  More will come.  There's always more to come..." the girl says with a smile as she is juggling her pack of kittens.  "They get to move on after a while since they never did anything wrong, they're just cat's, you know?" The girl looks up from her playing for a moment but only for a moment.  She is soon lost in her world of kittens and games that only they understand...

((Raevyn, if you wish to have a longer conversation with the girl you may but for expediency's sake we could do that on Discord if you choose...))

     It is not too long before Raevyn returns to the rest of the group.  If any had gone after her they meet up with her that much sooner but now you are all outside the northern door.  

Satisfied that the group was back together and ready to head North, Nefire returns to the door and opens it fully to allow for them to walk through and she starts heading in, gripping her axe tightly, ready for any of those suits of armor to attack.

Krumar follows Nefire but not before pushing Dabbert through first "Age before beauty"

Jaylan follow the other with a chuckle at Krumar’s comment

     The room to the north has a curved far wall and a straight wall heading west from the door you look through (or enter through if you choose.)  Both walls are made out of the same solid, heavy stone that makes up everything at this level of the tower so far.  The room itself is dim.  Not in the sense of unintelligent but rather just faintly lit.  No light source is visible, no windows present, but it is as if twilight was near but not quite here yet.  Though that makes no sense indoors it is indeed the case.  (To be fair, the Twilight books made no sense either and those got turned into movie.  Sometimes life makes no sense at all.)

     At regular intervals along the curving wall there is a guard.  You presume.  At any rate there is a full suit of plate mail, face covering helmet included, that is positioned identically to one another in a kind of resting formal pose with a long sword point down to the floor and their hands resting upon the pommel.  There are eight of these armors in all running from directly across from the door between rooms and down to the far end of the northern room.  You sense, but don't actually see, the faintest turn of the far helmets so as to get eyes upon you.  Along the straight wall there are three doors.  (Though Picard may insist there are FOUR doors...  But pay no attention to that, a broken reference to a totally unconnected fandom.). There is the door you are now using and then two more at the far end of the wall.  Otherwise this room appears empty.

(If Dabbert wishes to contest the shove then I'll need an Athletics roll from Krumar and an opposing Athletics or Acrobatics roll... lol)

     Jaylan is not the only one who chuckles.  There is another chuckle behind the party, further back into the room.  Any who look back see the Hanging Skeleton, it's skull thrown back and jaw open as if laughing... And indeed you can hear it's chuckle change into a boisterous laugh.  It is in the process of climbing it's way back into it's shackles and turning it's head from the party to the entrance you first used to enter this room and then back and forth again, as if it is waiting for something to come.

     Then a roar is heard.  A loud, echoing, air shaking roar that you can feel as much as you hear.  It indeed comes from back the way you all came.  Upon hearing it the skeletons at the dice game quickly look up and towards that passage way, one elbowing the other in the ribs.  That one immediately jumps up and helps the Hanging Skeleton get secured back in place.  You hear a grinding noise that seems a ways of but perhaps growing closer.  Then a footstep.  Then more grinding.  Could be that whatever it is that is out there is having to pull itself forward?  Whatever it is, it sounds big...

“I do not  know what’s coming this way but they seem to be doing what they are supposed to do so… we better go?” 

"That's weird, isn'it?"  He shoots a look at the laughing skeleton as it struggles to get chained up again.  "I'm starting to think that one's oars aren't all rowing in the same direction."

Syl nods at Jaylan.  "Aye.  We may have pressed our luck long enough in this spot."  He walks into the room with the tin can soldiers, offering them a half-hearted salute.

Dabbert staggers forward as Krumar gives him a shove but doesn't pay him much attention beyond replying to his verbal jab.  

"Yeah, don't worry sweetie.  I'll protect you."  Dabbert says over his shoulder to Krumar.  "But I'll wait until you're screaming nice and loud before I do it."  

He's about to add some other comment when the roar comes chug-a-lugging down the hall.  He hears Jaylan and Syl make their comments upon hearing the laugh, and sees the skeletons as they stop screwing around.  He gives a gentle sigh.  

"Well uh...damn.  And here I thought the skeletons would be the fight.  Go ahead, Krumar.  Start bawling."  

Humming to herself upon her walk back to the group, Raevyn affectionately runs her fingers over the tears in her robes from the scrambling kitties. Practically seamless, the threads stitch themselves together from her passing touch. She returns to the group pretty much without evidence of a scratch.

Mending

Of course, Raevyn wasn't immune to the curious cackling from behind that was then followed by a tower rumbling roar. "Oh my," She coos post Dabbert's over the shoulder response to Krumar. Ears twitch. She wonders if she could identify what creature that roar could belong too.

Roll: 8 + Guidance: 3
(Mod: + 3 for int, + 5 investigation, + 5 nature)

Quote from ixi >>

She wonders if she could identify what creature that roar could belong too.

Roll: 7 + Guidance: 2
(Mod: + 3 for int, + 5 investigation, + 5 nature)

     Vaire is largely cut off from the rest of the world.  Vaire knows there is a rest of the world, however, because ships from "beyond the seventh wave" occasionally find it's shores bring strangers and outsiders, their goods, their stories and, on occasion, even their nightmares.  Often these are thought to be stories and make believe but some thing matches the oldest tomes and relics and are harder to just ignore.  That said, lions have been brought over on these lost ships before and the King of Persah bought them off the sailors and has five in his personal zoo.  (He bought three, two males and a female, and she has since bore two children.)  Raevyn may or may not have had reason to go through Persah in her life, to get near enough to the zoo to hear the roar of the lions...  But it is entirely possible she has hear tell of their mighty roar, the Witherwoods being not far from that land.

     If the thunderous, room shaking, air shivering roar she just heard is that of a lion then all the descriptions and tales she heard of such beasts failed to do it justice.  By magnitudes of unbelievability.

     Jaylan, on the other hand, likely has had a chance to be privileged enough to go on a tour through the Persah King's zoo and to see the lions and hear them roar.  It does not occur to Jaylan to compare this roar to a lion's and more than it would to compare a fleas roar to a lion's.

Reminder:

      Any who move into the Northern room see no real response from the 'guards' positions along the far wall.  The door does open out onto the Southern room.  You can pull it shut if you wish but the lock and hand were broken by Nefire so at this point it cannot really be secured...

(Ha, you're welcome)

Nefire pauses at the door and motions for the others to move through, waiting on Raevyn to make sure she gets to the North room since it appeared safer than whatever was following them.  Though, her curiosity was peaked and part of her wanted to fight this roaring thing.. but following what the rest wanted to do, she follows suit and shouts to whoever is in front, "Pick a door!  I can't secure this one, so let's keep moving!"

"Uhhh that doesn't sound too good....." Krumar backs up into the wall as he slowly moves away from the sound coming towards everyone. He hears Nef about not being able to secure the door and runs into the room pushing whoever is in his way out of his way...."You don't have to tell me twice!"  

As Krumar tries to push ahead, Dabbert uses his free hand to slap at the bard's hands.  

"Hey uh, you!  You said age before beauty or uh...whatever.  You wait your damn turn."  

As Krumar busts his way passed everyone, he feels Dabbert slap him across his delicate fingers "YOUCH!!! Do you have any idea what you could have done? These are one part of my money makers! I am not just a pretty face you nitwitted brute. Why I oughtta....." Krumar takes out his Lute and is about to go Honky Tonk Man all over Dabbert before he hears the giant thingy moving closer....He pushes Dabbert into the room and follows quickly. 

Sidestepping the slapfest and trying to get some space between himself and whatever would soon be coming through the door, Syl walks briskly past the suits of armor.  He drops his salute and says sharply, as he passes, "Look alive, marines.  Trouble is coming.  Nothing else gets through that door, understood?"

He doesn't wait for a reply from the probably inanimate armors and just keeps moving.

“It appears this tower has an affinity for both bone and p-“ Pausing her musings from the boys fussing, Raevyn looks up from her notes to see the group moving along. She was guilty of being curious about what actually was crashing through at their backs since she couldn’t confirm for sure if it was a big cat such as a lion, though it appeared they were eager to get going. Naturally, she’d calmly fall in line to keep things going. While not expected, the Doctor felt a weird sense of whimsical comfort from Syl’s commanding of the suits of armour as if they were soldiers under his command this whole time. Considering Raevyn had considered the possibility that they could animate at any time, maybe they’ll listen to his order.

"Oh uh, you're not?  Damn, you sure don't have much going for you then."  Dabbert snidely remarks before looking at Syl and wondering where he (Dab) went wrong in life to wind up in this mess.  He kept moving, keeping on the alert as they try to get away from the sound, and continuing to smack at Krumar's poor digits whenever he gets close.  

Jaylan doesn't stop to think about the mighty and beatiful lions at the Persah's zoo... he just head to the farthest door and checks if it opens. 

     Nefire waits at the door she broken open and waves everyone through before pulling it shut as best she can.  She looks at it for a moment and thinks that maybe if she shoved a dagger like so... Or with a little bit of...  But no!  No time for that.  And even if she did rig something it surely wouldn't hold something that roared like that.  Not for long.

     Dabbert and Krumar go to White Castle... Err, no.  That's an entirely different campaign.  Dabbert and Krumar have a bit of a slap fight and exchange words just as Raevyn approaches remarking something about bones and p... but perhaps that is best left unsaid.  Anywhoo, the three of them start skedaddling along the wall to the next door. 

     Syl, meanwhile, does his best to rally the troops!  After talking to the suits of armor and giving them instructions, he saunters over to the others.  Well, except for Jaylan who runs past the door the others are just now opening and instead if opting for what is behind door number three!

     Raevyn, Nefire, Syl, Krumar and Dabbert huddle around the second door.  There is scant argument about who tries to open it (I presume) and the brave and bold Krumar turns the door handle with a visible wince...  The knob turns smoothly and the door opens most invitingly.  Behind this door is none other than a hallway!  The hallway is about half the length of the room they are in, doubling back the way they just came from.  But from all vantage points, with stone walls between them and whatever made the roar.  The hallway is much like the rest of this level, made of heavy stone and oddly illumination.  Well, the illumination isn't odd.  Ok, it is.  But only in the sense that there is no obvious source of it.  But it's otherwise perfectly fine illumination... Plenty enough illumination of perfectly fine quality to reveal another door at the end of the hallway.

     A little further down, Jaylan finds his door is locked.  Perhaps he considers trying to pick the lock?  Perhaps he'd rather try brute force?  But whichever thought he has is interrupted by another ferocious roar and a definite thud from the far end of the room.

     The roar and thud grabs everyone's attention.  It is obviously from the first door you all just left and those who still have a view of it see that door tilt halfway back into this room as if it was knocked off of one of it's hinges.  The next thing they see if the armors have noticed the thud as well.  Perhaps it was Syl's rousing speech, his confident attitude or just wacky coincidence, by at the sound of that thud, in unison, the armors all snap to attention, turn to that first door and rush toward it with their shields in front of them and their swords ready.

What next, adventurers?

Realizing that he has no time to fight against a stubbron door, Jaylan rushes back to join the others that had been sucessful in finding a way out of there before whatever thing is behind the door enters it. 

He doesn't know either if the suits of armors are going to be able to stop that thing but he is grateful that they buy them sometime.