Archie's Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Hugh continues hacking at the same skeleton.

Attack: 8 + 1 (Bless) Damage: 8

There is a long pause after the illusory dwarven wizard appears and speaks his commands telepathically. Every eye in the room (and in the skeleton's case, eye sockets) turn to to the image of Sanbalet. The skeletons seem to look at each other in confusion, then after a moment return to battle, unable to reach the illusory dwarf behind those in the room, and seeming not to care about his commands.

Tul Bless- 1

With the holy blessing from Dimma coursing through her body, Tul swings her nunchuka fluidly, striking the weapon in the the side of the skull of hte skeleton she had hit previously. There is an explosion of bone fragments as she creates a large crater in the skull and the skeleton collapses in a heap onto the floor. Moving like rippling water she kicks out with a foot towards the femur of the skeleton facing off against Hugh. Her blow hits and cracks the bone at an odd angle, causing the creature to stumble forward and unfortunately out of the way of Hugh's heavy axe swing.

Meanwhile, Arvastan twirls the trident above his head and strikes out with it at the nearest skeleton, jamming it into the undead being's ribcage and shattering some rib bones. Much like the skeletons that Tul hit though, the major effect of his blow seems to be jarring loose some compound that was holding the skeleton's form together.

Skeletons Turn -- 1 skeleton is down, 2 are hurt, 2 are unhurt.

Skeleton # 1 - dead

Skeleton #2  straightens itself up after taking the heavy kick to its femur and in a strange, haunting herky-jerk motion, swings its club in a wide arc at Hugh.

Attack: 1 Damage: 3

Skeleton #3 looks down at Arvastan's triden jangling in its rib cage and stares at the sea elf, its jaw clicking open and making a horrible gasping sound. It will take a swing at Arvastan's chest.

Attack: 17 Damage: 4

Skeleton #4, seeing one of its number fall in battle shambles away from the wall where it was pressing certain stones and moves towards Tul, swinging swinging its club back and forth.

Attack: 2 Damage: 4

None of them find purchase -- Arvastan easily uses his trident to push away one skeleton's club, Tul manages to catch the club in her hand pushing the skeleton off, and Hugh barely even notices the blow he took, glancing off of his armor harmlessly.

Skeleton #5 will continue to press certain stones in the wall and as it does this, the strange laughing voice gets louder, and the blue light emitting from behind the wall intensifies.

(Dimma is up!)

Dimma will raise her shield again, the etching on it flows white hot as a sacred flame shoots out towards the skeleton pressing buttons.

Skeleton DEX Save: 21 or take 2 Radiant Damage

The skeleton who is manipulating the wall in some manner is engulfed in the holy fire that Dimma summons forth. It looks hurt, but not as hurt as it might. However, on this skeleton too, it seems as though the damage you inflict has weakened the binding agent holding the undead creature's form together.

Top of the Order -- 3 of the 4 remaining skeletons are moderately hurt. The blue light is continuing to glow with greater and greater intensity.

Tul engages the skeleton that has moved in to attack her, hoping Dimma will be able to stop the one manipulating the wall. They need to finish off these skeletons before whatever is behind that door comes through.

She swings her nunchuka again aiming for the head of the skeleton (#4), following through with an open hand to the skull.

(Action: To Hit: 15 + Bless of 2  = 21 Damage: 9 

Bonus Action: To Hit: 21 + Bless of 2  = 13 Damage: 6  )

Tul seems to have adapted to the close quarters fight against the skeletons and as she moves, the rest of you can see the sparks of divine energy guiding her form. She swings her nunchuka with a few flourishes, then sends one of the bars flying at the head of the skeleton. It hits the being square the jaw jerking the whole thing backwards just as Tul's hand hits the same spot, spinning the jawbone completely off the creature and making it collapse to the floor, apparently returned to its undead state.

Two skeletons down, three remain.

"This is really not lookin' great," Arvastan mutters, though he only continues to stab at the same skeleton with his trident, too aware that they need to finish this as quickly as possible. 

Attack: 16 Damage: 5

Bless - 3

Hugh continues his assault against skeleton #3, spittle flying from his mouth as he attempts to bash the skeletons skull in.

Attack: 18 + (Bless) 4 Damage: 25

(That doesn’t look right. Idk what happened or how to tell what happened, but will re roll damage below)

Damage: 17

Gibson rolls his eyes and drops the illusory Sanbalet. Then his eyes snap back up and focus on the skeleton in the back. "Hey Rattles," he yells as he points an imperious finger. "What are you doing back there? Get over here. I've got a bone to pick with you!" And yet another pulsating blast of arcane force streaks from his finger toward the skeleton.

Eldritch blast Attack: 18 Damage: 2

Arvastan too, is able to now easily dispatch the skeleton he is engaged with. Now with whatever it was keeping the skeleton together jarred off its bones, the thing looks a lot more fragile and with his next stab, Arvastan separates the skull of the creature from its neck  and it too, collapses into a heap of bones wordlessly upon the floor.

Gibson, this time as you actually mean to shoot the blast of arcane energy, your aim is that much more true and the force of the blast of white energy that emits from you pushes the skeleton into the far wall, pulverizing its bones and sending bits of the skeleton scattering throughout the room.

One skeleton left -- the one engaged with Hugh. As there is no longer a skeleton operating something at the wall, the glow starts to fade ever so slightly and the harsh, raspy cackling sound starts to die down. You all realize there there is something -- likely another room, beyond this one.

Hugh is up!

(Sorry, didn't see Hugh's post earlier).

Hugh's anger and frustration, building more and more with each missed swing ends with the barbarian lifting up his axe and using every inch of his considerable strength to bring his axe down upon the skeleton. With a sharp, sickening crack, the axeblade drives through the top of the skeleton's skull and throw the undead's entire body, totally robbing the skeleton of its form.

You are all now alone, in a room full of bones that are scattered in piles throughout the room.

The blue glow under the wall to the east slowly fades and the sinister laughter you hear fades. Darkness returns to the room. Once more, it seems, you are alone.

What do you do?

Tul pushes some of the bones away with her foot and looks around the room to see if the skeletons were guarding anything other than the hidden door.

(Perception: 14  )

One rib bone on each of the skeletons seems to be made of or at least dipped in gold (5 gp each for a total of 25 gp), but nothing else really stands out in the room other than the hidden door.

"First of all," Gibson sets in wagging a finger at everyone, "I saw all those rolled eyes when I tried the wizard thing. May I just remind each of you that I didn't want to open the door that said 'DANGER' in big letters. Not all problems can be solved by putting a foot through them. In fact, some problems are caused by putting feet through things, as we've seen today." He gives Tul a sidelong glance and a smirk as she starts looking around the room. "Some situations require nuance and ingenuity... and that's where I come in!" Pausing to look down at the scattered bones, he continues, "I mean, occasionally situations do, in fact, require a big ol' foot to be utilized, but we didn't know that until we tried! I'm just saying that we shouldn't discount tactics that involve things other than blunt force trauma or slicing and dicing!"

With that, Gibson turns on his heel and walks back to pick up his bag of wine. "Are we good here? Can we go collect our gold now?"

"I just mean we really should present a united front in front of the kids or they're likely to get confused and upset..."

Tul tries to focus on the room and not Gib's rambling lecture but she has to stop at the last statement, a look of confusion on her face. She takes a deep breath, marshaling a sense of calm before addressing him.

"Gibson," Tul begins. "I fear I do not know what you're talking about. What kids will be confused and upset? I will admit confusion at this point. Does that make me one of the children?"

She then turns to the others and gestures at the wall where the blue light came from.

"Do we leave whatever menace is behind that wall alone and reseal this room? Or do we continue clearing potential dangers?"

"The proverbial kids," Gibson replies to the back of Tul's head, returning to the room, clanking wine bottles in tow. "If the bad guys see that we're scattered and second-guessing each other's moves, they'll have opportunities to exploit us. I just mean that I didn't feel supported in the moment and it hurt. That's all," he says with the faintest hint of a grin that probably nobody saw because I imagine they're conspicuously ignoring him by this point.

He sighs and sets the bag down in the corner and starts pressing the stones the skeleton was manipulating, trying to recall the pattern like a deadly game of Simon.

Gib -- roll an Arcana check.

Arcana: 16