Time for a One Shot…

Time for a One Shot

S3 was approached by the Halfling Church. They had a job and needed some able bodied adventurers to tackle the problem immediately. Rafier looked around the holding room and found 8 members ready and able and thus they were assigned. He told them to head over to the church, ask for Horan and take on the job. Off the group went with no real leader decided, but they would handle it. They were greeted at the entrance by a young acolyte who, once he knew why they were there, ushered them directly to the plush, well appointed, lavish quarters of Lord Master Horan.

Horan filed them in. There was a group of parishioners, 5 women, 5 children and two men as their guides. They had gone on a retreat up in to the mountains. They should have been back 2 days ago and he was now concerned for their well being. He was able to provide a map to where the camp site was and it would only take about 2 or 3 hours walk to get there. After promising a healthy payday for their effort the team took the job and headed out stocked with provisions from the church. They made good time and found the path up in to the mountains with incident. Up the craggy path, it was not long before they came upon the camp site.

They stopped at the entrance to the now empty site as the mountain path opened up. Hachi went in to investigate the area and look for any signs of what had happened. She found a few places where blood had been splattered and pooled on the ground. One of the sleeping bags was disturbed in a way that suggested someone left in a hurry. Vallon searched the tent and found a pouch containing some money that he pocketed. There was no other sign of the events until she spotted an odd footprint. Closer examination revealed it was only a partial print. More like just the bones of one. And then it occurred to them that skeletons were involved. More tracks were found leading away from the camp out the opposite end and the tracks indicated they were running.

This path was thinner and wide enough for only single file travel. They followed the path until Hachi spotted signs of some blood leading off and up a side path that could barely be considered a path. It had to be climbed to be used. As they climbed a few team members could hear a clattering from the opening above. Erik and Hachi coordinated their movement in the tight quarters and sprang up together seeing 4 skeletons guarding a cave entrance. Immediately they were attacked. Vallon was next up the slope, pulling his sword he attempted to attack but the weapon fell from his hands and clattered away down the path. But luck was with him as his skeleton attacker also dropped his short sword.

The first trouble hit when Hachi was struck in the leg by her attacker rendering the leg incapacitated. Erik responded by shattering 2 skeletons with successive blows of his hammer. Helena snuck up behind coming to the aid of Hachi, casting a Cure to heal her critical injury. Vallon followed one skeleton to the cave mouth to see what was there as it went in. The last skeleton was destroyed leaving the clearing open. Vallon then hear a small voice calling for help from inside the cave. As his eyes adjusted he was able to peer in and spotted some halfling prisoners and a bunch of armored skeletons milling about.

The group crested the path and gathered themselves to rush the cave. They reorganized their ranks and charged in. The melee ensued but few hits were scored. The skeletons blocked the cave entrance preventing the party from reaching the captive halflings. Hachi traded bow shots with a skeleton archer across the cave from her. But what the skeleton did not know is that she could catch and use the arrows fired at her. And she did. Bad news came as Gil was struck hard by a skeleton sword but had some luck as another attacking him dropped its sword. Theo finally got in to the battle scoring a hit and Erik wielded his hammer to a strike but the hammer veered away at the last moment, affected by some outside force he could not identify. His next swing did find its mark destroying the first one in the blocking line. Gil hit another with his two handed sword destroying the second. Hachi’s bow ended the third.

Gil found himself in a strange situation. The skeleton in front of him that had dropped his sword now had a mystical hammer appear in his hand and it attacked. Vallon dropped another as Gil, Hachi and Erik shrugged off some spell effect. The caster stepped out from behind a boulder to reveal himself. He spoke softly but with evil intent. “Leave now or I’ll have the skeletons kill them.” With room now open to rush him they charged. As expected, the evil priest ordered the skeletons to kill the captives.

Erik continued to clear out the blockade line, Hachi fired at the priest but no one could get to the skeleton moving in on the halfling woman. But the skeleton dropped the sword again. With room to move in now, Erik charged in and tackled the skeleton to prevent it from trying again. With one swing of his fist he shattered the creature. The priest took the chance to cast a Cause Wounds on Gil. A wound that Helena quickly stepped in and healed. And she would have to do it yet again after the priest repeated his action. But they lost track of the skeleton archer who fired an arrow in to the woman from point blank range, killing her.

Luther finally finished off the last of the skeletons blocking the entrance nad moved on to engage the priest as Gil suffered yet another Cause Wounds as Helena raced to save the halfling. She performed first aid to stabilize her and then cast a Heal to successfully revive her. Luther scored a hit on the priest and Hachi finished him off with one last bow shot. Erik moved around the boulders with some directional help from Vallon and tackled the skeleton archer, striking and destroying it, the last one.

They cut loose the halfling prisoners, finding all the women and children. Sadly, the men had been killed the first night. Vallon asked the women if the pouch he had taken looked familiar. One of the stepped forward to say it belonged to her and he returned the valuable to her. They women said the priest was trying to perform some odd ritual and wanted live people for it. They found an unholy symbol on his body that Horan was able to identify as a symbol for Hecate. They brought the survivors back and were paid handsomely by Horan for their work.

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