Shipwrecked in Saltmarsh

Katernin attacks again.

Attack: 24 Damage: 10

Katernin engages Skeleton #6 again with her handaxe. With a perfectly timed blow, she splits the skeleton's skull clear through, dividing it neatly into two halves. The skeleton crumbles to the ground, inert.                                     

Kelnan fires another beam of white energy at Skeleton #5. The undead being nimbly sidesteps it.

Dain, still in a frothy frenzy, steps forward and swings his heavy maul again at the final skeleton:
Maul attack: 19. Damage: 10

 The dextrous skeleton again dances to the side.

Farley fires another bolt at it:
Heavy crossbow: 17. Piercing Damage: 7

 Ignoring its other attackers for now, the last skeleton continues its assault on Molo:
Short sword attack: 11  Piercing damage: 3 

Molo dodges the rusty blade.

Katernin, Molo, and Fianna may act next. Only one skeleton (#5) remains. 

Molo gives a shriek and tries to tackle the skeleton to the ground

Athletics 16 

((Wait I thought Katernin killed skeleton 6))

((Skeleton 5 is left, I assume it was a typo to say 6...))

     Fianna moves her [Tooltip Not Found] at it, hoping to avoid the grappling Molo...

Eldritch Blast: Attack: 18 Damage: 13 plus 4 Necrotic if I hit.

((With these rolls, Fianna is thinking about becoming a cobbler instead of a Warlock.))

Quote from BaconExpert982 >>

((Wait I thought Katernin killed skeleton 6))

 (Oops - you're correct. I edited the post.)

Katernin moves to the final skeleton and swings her handaxe at it.

Movement: to Skeleton #5

Action: Handaxe Attack
Attack: 12 Damage: 4

Molo pounces upon the skeleton and attempts to grapple it. Strength check: 14  (Reused roll above sans athletics bonus.)
Hexed skeleton's strength check: 2 

 Molo flattens it, easily managing to bring it to the ground. He finds himself sitting atop it as if it were some undead steed.

Simultaneously, Katernin swings her handaxe and decapitates the unholy thing, its skull rolling across the room until it strikes the far wall.

Combat is over.

Butter stumbles in and frowns at Seth's crushed body. "Guess I'm in charge o' this now," he mutters. He loses his balance and falls into a pile of bones.

Kelnan

As the last enemy crumbles, Kelnan scrambles forward to the fallen robed creature, goes through its possessions looking for anything interesting or indicative of what it was talking about, and looks toward the hidden room it came from.

Molo will try to squeeze into whatever little room it came from too

Katernin looks at Seth's body, fist clenched, "Two people now... two people I couldn't save..." she says, choaking back tears.

     Fianna quietly gives Katernin a hug, and worries that this woman will have a breakdown if she doesn't grow a bit more callous.

     Eventually Fianna breaks the silence.  "You can't save everyone.  And if you did, the world would get awfully crowded.  All life ends in death, from the lowliest blade of grass to the most giant dragon.  We can't change that.  At best we maybe influence it a little.  I think we're best off using our influence for those we care about the most..."

Kelnan searches the remains of the corpse in the pointy hat. It has a high-quality purse strapped around its waist, and a flat, gray-and-black river stone inscribed with an arcane symbol. It feels cool to the touch.

Molo, followed by Kelnan, enter the adjacent, blackened room to the east through the secret door. They initially see a clutter of broken glass and earthenware piled on the floor inside. Three small copper pots lie amid the debris.

Entering further, they spy a  bench running down the west wall of what seems to be a laboratory. On the bench are jars of powders and liquids and several pieces of chemical apparatus. There is a table against the south wall, forming an L-shape with the bench. A book is open on the table. Also on the table is a candlestick, with a tiny stump of unlit candle still in it, and a variety of other items that, even in the dim light, shine with the warmth of pure gold. One of these objects looks like a human skull.

Molo grabs the book and shoves it outside into the light before examining the jars of stuff to determine value or use.

arcana 8 

     After doing what she can to comfort and calm Katernin, Fianna will wander into the room and also look around.  "What were these crazies doing?" She asks nobody in particular...

Molo grabs the open book. It's title is "Ye Secret of Ye Philosopher’s Stone," no author acknowledged. It looks valuable, its content complex and arcane. The jars are full of colorful powders; the liquids have mostly dried to just residue.

Fianna looks around. Investigation: 13

 It's clearly the laboratory of an alchemist or chemist or arcane experimenter of some sort. From the layer of dust, it also appears that nobody has touched anything in here for decades.

     Fianna picks up the skull and blows the dust off of it.  "And what can you tell us, old boy?  Or could you tell us...?"

     "I know nothing!" Fianna says in an exaggerated accent, as if the skull was answering.  "Can't pick my brain no more! Mwuahahahhaha..."

     Ok, perhaps Fianna was overly tired.  *shrug*

(OOC: LOL!)

The golden skull makes no reply that you can discern. It's surprisingly heavy, though – it appears to made of pure gold.

     “Ooooooookay then.  We’ll talk later,” Fianna says, quietly, and tries to subtly put the skull in her bag with nobody seeing.

Sleight of hand 6

Katernin just nods, though its hard to tell if she took the words to heart. She clutches at the amulet around her neck and starts murmering a prayer.