It wasn't the voice in her ear that made Liliane jump, it was the question. This... what sort of fairy went around asking questions like that!? They weren't supposed to be interested in that sort of thing! Even if it was the sort of tactless question you would expect of them but... "No! That wasn't why!"

The warrior's hands hadn't gone to try and swat the fairy, though one hand was wrapped around a dagger and ready to draw. She was also quite aware that now people were staring, even Corinne--herself previously cringing at the thought of fighting undead--cocking her head curiously to wonder what it was that had gotten her so immediately agitated.

@Pyromania99

Looks like I'm in, Léon thought as he was released from Nuri's hug. That should make six of them- three Swords, two Coins, and himself as a Cup. Wait, no, we also have her, so that makes seven, he thought as he watched Corrine, a novice Wand, get "volunteered" by her wife. With the addition of Corrine, they had all four classes of adventurer for this task, which Léon thought was reasonable precaution to take when dealing with a quest like this one, where the dangers were not known. Additionally, more hands would mean an easier time lugging the artifacts back to Estival.

"Don't worry, Dolivodro, Nuri and myself ought to be able to handle any undead," Léon reassured the big Ingvarr. He might not have the training and fire magic that the Reonite paladin had, but his hammer ought to suffice for normal mindless undead, and if they ran into one that couldn't be brought down by breaking every bone in its body, he knew how to summon a lamplighter, a divine psychopomp servant of the dual goddesses renowned for their anti-undead powers as well as their very short attention spans.

While the fairy was busy irritating Liliane, Léon decided that now was a good time to officially sign up for the mission. He approached the receptionist and spoke.

"I will be joining the quest as well." He wasn't entirely sure whether or not the church would expect him to accept payment for doing a job for them, but he could worry about that later. Besides, he wasn't doing this for the reward, he was doing this because he wanted to be one of the first people to visit the lost ruin, and because it was his duty to recover whatever lost relics that lie within.

@Darner@VitaVitaAR

"Six? Quite a crowd, then, I'm sure the clergy would be pleased," Diane commented as she stamped the guild seal on the sheet. With that, the job had been officially accepted.

All that was left now was to finish preparations.

---

A sheer rock wall was the sight that greeted the collected adventurers when they arrived at the rough location of the ruins. It would take a few moments before it became possible to locate the entrance to the buried monastery, moments that would likely be accompanied by considerable confusion over exactly how an entire building became buried like this. Regardless, speculation would do little good.

The entrance was a cavern, a gap in the stony wall leading the monastery itself. Or at least that was what could be discerned from outside, past a certain point it was simply too dark to see just how one could enter the ancient structure. Given the knowledge of the location provided, there had to be some way in.

Which meant the cavern was the best way forward for the moment.

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@Darner@Crimson Paladin@Zoey Boey@Pyromania99

Was this stone wall always here and someone had built a monastery underground or had the entire construction been sealed in stone at some point? Well... Liliane couldn't say that it mattered too much, it wasn't likely whoever or whatever could bring that much rock to bear was going to do so again whilst they were exploring the place. Both gods and ancient archmages had better things to do with their time.

Corinne, for her part, was determined to prove that she would be useful and already chanting a surprisingly complicated spell, which first let up the gems on her staff but then migrated the pair of lights to above her, casting a warm, pleasing glow close to, but not quite, unlike sunlight. Something definitely better for seeing what they were doing than firelight, that was for sure.

@Rune_Alchemist@Darner@Crimson Paladin@Zoey Boey@Pyromania99

---

Perhaps it was because Nem built their temples underground, Neffy herself found nothing out of the ordinary about the structure being potentially built as such. The thought did cross her mind that the Juyuem don't normally build things like this, but her thoughts soon turned to undead and the potential bad things that might be living in some abandoned, underground temple. And of course, this made the Nem stick to the back of the group initially.

"...dark..."

Neffy inhaled slightly. Well, Corrine set about creating some sort of mage light but Neffy couldn't help but to want the darkness. Better cover, less chance of being seen. She could see more or less...well enough. All she had to do was listen and make certain she wasn't going to bump into anything.

"...should I scout ahead for anything?" Neffy questioned the group quietly.

I really should remember to ask more questions about a job before accepting, because I did not anticipate this, Léon thought as he gazed through his helmet at the rock wall before him.

From the job description, Léon had assumed that it meant they'd be be excavating around old stonework jutting out of the ground deep in the woods. As he looked at the cliff face, it dawned upon him just how inaccurate his impression of this job had been. Instead, the monastery had somehow ended up completely underground, something quite bewildering to Léon. He didn't think that the church would build a holy place underground where it'd be cut off from the sun and moon, so how did something like this end up down there? Perhaps a sinking foundation and centuries upon centuries worth of built-up forest detritus could push the ruin underground, but would it really sink so far as to be accessed by a hole in a rock wall? If this was from Orodrunn's time, it may very well have been magic that buried this place.

If the entire monastery was buried in a cavern, this meant it and the relics with could be much more well-preserved than if it had been half-buried on the surface, but it also meant a lot more dangers. Aside from the risk of cave-ins, there was always a chance that some left-over vestige of Orodrunn's evil could have survived within. Léon couldn't help but feel reluctant to enter the cave.

"If you want to lead the way, I'm fine with that," he replied to Neffy, "But it might be best if you don't get too far from the rest of the group, we don't know what's in there and we certainly don't want anyone to get separated in there." As a healer, Léon believed that prevention was the best medicine, but as a rather cautious adventurer, however, he was appreciative that someone else was willing to go first into that ominous cave.

"Now, I don't know how much all of you know about the background history of this place," he spoke to the rest of the group, "So for those of you who don't know, here's some background about this place. Long, long ago, Orodrunn was a divine servant of the Dark Lord Hidroroth. When his master was slain, Orodrunn took up the mantle of Dark Lord, rallied the remnants of Hidroroth's forces, and began his own dark crusade sought to subjugate the world and all who lived within it. Nations stood united against him, but his divine power was far too great to be stopped by mere mortal armies. When all seemed lost, the twin goddesses intervened, empowering their champion, the knight now known as Saint Lilianna, with the strength to shatter Orodrunn's black sword and strike him down. It was some time during this conflict that this monastery was lost. If it's been underground all this time, that'd explain why it took so long for it to be rediscovered."

"As for what's inside, I can't be sure," he continued. "It might be empty, inhabited by nothing more than spiders and bats, but I suppose there's always some possibility that some remnant of Orodrunn's evil from that time might survived within. I'd humbly suggest that we tread with care."

@Rune_Alchemist@Raineh Daze@Darner@Pyromania99@Zoey Boey

"That's right," Nuri had said alongside Leon, to assuade the fears of her companions. "Undead are no issue. I eat zombies for breakfast."

"I'll go retrieve my armor and get suited. Let's get this show on the road."

---

Nuri was fully decked out in her Paladin armor. Red fabric and grey steel, a crimson plume trailing behind her helm. She had pulled up the visor of her helm, so her face was fully visible. At her side was a sheathed long sword. As the group approached the sunken cathedral she had gotten ontop of it, climbed all around, kicking at loose rocks.

"Looks like we're going underground." Nuri said with a shrug. She squinted up at the sky. Distantly, an eagle circled. That was Talun, following, for now. He came and went as he pleased.

Nuri approached the entrance of the cavern as Leon told his story about the lore of this place. She glanced over at Neffy and smiled. "That's very brave. But I think it's best we stick together, for now. Come- I'll lead the way." The Reonite indicated for Corinne to stay in the middle of the pack where she'd be safest, and everyone could make use of her light. In her mind, there was no reason to be sneaky, here. They were heading into an abandoned church. Looters would be scared off, zombies could be destroyed, and beasts would probably already have smelled them coming. Sending in a couple of tiny little fairies alone, in the dark, only seemed like a bad idea.

For Nuri's part, she unsheathed her elegant, lethal longsword. She ran a hand along it, like it was tinder and her palm was flint. With a quick sparking motion, the sword began to emit a warm glow. With that the Paladin began to head inside the dark cave.

For the most part since they left, Trina was a rare sight when she wasn't out and about pestering people. Instead, she took naps in various locations in and on Neffy's outfit. Sometimes, it was her pocket, other times it was inside her hood. This time in particular, it was the former. The fairy's messy head peaked out from inside Neffy's pocket about the time Leon started to explain the background of the place. Her little face looked absolutely tired still as if she overslept by an hour or two.

Really, she didn't know at all what he said other than that it was dangerous, or maybe not so much. Really, she didn't pay much to the stories from these types of people. Was it good for her? Probably not. But it sure was easier in the short term rather than listening to the long and boring story. Still, Cups were to be respected for the most part so she wouldn't say anything aloud. Well, about him to him. Rather, she looked to Nuri as she said she'd lead the way. "Yes, she's right Neffy. Let the person wearing the suit of armor go ahead of us so she can take the first shot for us. With any luck, it'll just bounce right off."

After that though, she looked at the other party members. She looked the big guy over and he seemed to be... Dependable. Probably good at fighting right? That was the hope at least. Then, there was the two lovers. Corinne and Liliane. Well, she looked at both of them from Neffy's pocket but it was pretty obviously she was studying one more than the other. If Corinne happened to look at her, the little fairy would give her a happy smile and a thumbs up. What the thumbs up meant though... Well, Liliane would be able to figure it out pretty quick.

As they arrived the ingvarr's face had grown more and more stout and determined from its calm aloof smile before. Along with that he had changed into his set of platemail. "So, this is the ruins huh?" Low tone as he waltzed towards the entrance at the front along with Nuri. At the least he seemed confident the entrance would be somewhat safe if they lead, with weapons at the ready.

"If i lead the way whatever is down here will naturally focus on me, so should i stay a couple paces ahead?" Calm question as he raised the buckler on his right arm with a glance back to the rest of the party. "I've also brought rope and other essentials for traversal in my pack if we might need use of them. Don't be afraid to ask."

With Corrine's light, the path into the cavern was illuminated. It was narrow, but not so narrow that even the largest of the adventurers would be unable to fit, with unlit torches haphazardly fixed to the right wall. It was likely the people who found the location in the first place had left the torches there but not yet replenished them. The cavern also went fairly deep, enough so that even with the bright illumination cast by the hundi mage it was only possible to make the faint outline of a hole in what was presumably the wall of the monastery.

The path, at least so far, appeared to be mostly clear. It wasn't a surprise there didn't appear to be any traps.

Thus it seemed safe to proceed inwards...

Until there was a strange creaking sound, and, faintly illuminated, the shape of a skeletal figure peaked out of the hole. A body devoid of flesh, with red pinpoints of light in its eyesockets, it was soon joined by eight more of its kind, some retaining dry and dessicated flesh on their ancient bones and others carrying rusted swords and shields.

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@Darner@Crimson Paladin@Zoey Boey@Pyromania99

---

Neffy was...honestly a little bewildered they didn't want her to scout ahead. That's what she was good at. Besides, how exactly was she supposed to effectively do things otherwise? Sure...the guy in armor could protect them, but at the same time, wasn't it her job to make it easier on them by giving them both intel and taking out anything she could, quietly? Or was...that just something she thought she was doing to help. Or were they just wanting her not to get hurt? Tch, she could handle herself. She had no issues with defending herself and doing things quietly, out of sight.

Neffy pulled her hood over her head a bit tighter. Whatever the case was, it made her slightly irritated to not be able to use her skills effectively like this.

A creaking sound puled her attention to a hole in the wall of a monastery.

"...undead!"

Neffy shouted from her position near the rear. Tch, see, if she had been let to scout ahead a bit, she could have effectively taken our or reduced their number, or helped set up more of an ambush! Well, whatever. She wasn't going to focus on that. She was going to focus on the creatures in front of her. There didn't seem to be an easy way to flank them, and now that they had already been seen sneaking in seemed out of the question.

Neffy would brandish her blade, the sparkling ornamental object light in her hands. Silently, she'd bring the blade to bear, running a hand over its length as she felt magical energy run through its blade. A simple, but at least hopefully practical and effective spell as water in the shape of a blade would launch itself towards one of the skeletons.

So. It was option B. Time to smash some undead. Nuri pulled down the face plate of her helmet, concealing her facial expressions entirely. Now she was a weapon of the Goddess. The warm glow of her longsword spread to the plume of her helmet. "Let us grant them the final mercy."

With that, she flipped her longsword upside down. Now, she was holding it entirely by the blade. Her grip on it's edge was sturdy in her gauntlets. The guard and handle of the longsword had been fashioned into a piercing bludgeon, perfect for cracking open skulls. In her experience, slashing attacks like the one Neffy was sending their way weren't very effective. There was no blood to draw, no tendons to slice. Only pure bodily harm to bones could put skeletons down. But this sword technique was called the Murder Stroke, and it would do these skeletons in nicely.

"Stick together! Watch your backs!" With that she jogged forward, taking the lead. She approached the first shield skeleton and swung her blunt weapon at its head several times, pushing past its defences to crush its skull. "Hah!" Now she was in the thick of it, ready to fight.

Corinne, of course, did the only appropriate thing when confronted by a mass of skeletons for the first time and you were particularly scared of them: let out a high-pitched shriek and try to get as many people between her and them as possible. Not that the second was entirely a bad idea for a mage, but Liliane seemed altogether unimpressed with it, looking between her daggers and the other Hundi before giving her a poke on the cheek.

Whether she had any options for dealing with skeletons or not, it was obviously an excessive use of resources when someone better at it was right there, and after the prompting (and with the generous assistance of closing her eyes to not need to look at the things yet), the sound of probably-Elven chanting started.

At least the growing fireball atop the staff showed exactly what Corinne was planning.

The sight of the skeletons was quite alarming to Léon. He didn't scream and flee like the Hundi mage did, but he still found it deeply unnerving to see those rattling crimes against nature emerging from the darkness. As a cleric, he had been trained to fight undead, and knew more than one way to bring them down, but this was the first time the young Mayonite had actually run into hostile undead. It was fortunate that his helmet concealed the worry on his face, for he did not want the others to realize how unnerved he was.

Unsurprisingly, Nuri was the first one into the fray. For a Reonite paladin like herself, killing undead was probably a regular part of her job, Leon thought. Even so, and despite his apprehension, Léon knew he couldn't let her handle this alone. It was his duty as a Mayonite, and as a cleric, to aid her and protect his companions. He was tempted to use his magic but even as unnerving they were, he knew that basic skeletons were fairly weak and that he ought to conserve his mana for more dire situations, so for now, his hammer would suffice. With his resolve steeled, Léon gripped his hammer and rushed forward.

Léon swung his polehammer down on one of the skeletons with all of his might. After the blow connected, he thrust his hammer forward at the next-nearest skeleton, striking with enough force to push it away from him, but not enough to break its ribcage. It was his first fight against undead, and he wanted to be cautious, not just to avoid getting hurt, but also to avoid accidentally striking the wall, ceiling, or a companion with his polearm.

For the most part, Trina stayed in Neffy's pocket. Against these types of undead, no, rather, undead in general... She was kind of useless. Well. She was somewhat terrible for combat. There was some things she was really useful for but that was mostly traversing places and finding things. She peaked her little head out from her partner's pocket and was more than willing to hide during a fight. Who knows, maybe she would be able to point something out for the people that were actually fighting! For now, she had a show to watch! She reached down into the place she made into a small home and found a small, fairy sized pouch. Cautiously, she reached into the bag and pulled out what seemed to be some fairy size dried snacks or something of the sort.

As she brought the snack to her lips, she cheered her partner on. "Yea, get these undead shits, Neffy!" Then she popped the snack in her mouth and started to munch on it. If she were much bigger if would have been an obnoxious sound that tended to get on the nerves of others. "Show them the damn good power of Coins!" She added, somewhat muffled from the food she had in her mouth.

Among the frontliners was the Ingvarr. Undead, just what he had worried about. His grip on his spear tightened with one hand, but he knew all too well it wasn't too useful against these hallowed creatures of what was once flesh. Instead opting to raise his buckler shield more. Blunt objects would be better. A deep breathe in as he steeled his nerves. The calm and quiet aura he had exuded before switching. His stance shifted as well, the hand tightened around the spear.. throwing it down and raising up a gauntleted fist. Sure enough he started to engage with one of the sword wielding skeletons. Using the shield to block its blows as his steel covered fist harried it with crushing strikes. Each one cracking more and more of his enemies structure, starting from the skeletons shoulder.

The creaking noises only grew louder as the skeletons advanced!

Neffy's blade of water whipped through the air, the compressed and high-speed liquid working something like a saw as it hit bone, parting ribs and ultimately a spinal column as the skeleton collapsed into two halves. For a moment, at least. Its lower jaw hanging open, the upper half of the skeletal undead immediately began dragging itself forward, the lower half twitching slightly.

The skeleton attacked by Nuri raised its shield ineffectively before having its skull caved in by the hilt of her sword. It stumbled and fell backwards, dropping its weapons. Though it had not stopped moving, it at the very least seemed disabled as it simply twitched on the ground.

The first skeleton Léon struck swung its rusted sword at nearly the same time he attacked, his polehammer completely snapping its lower arm in two and crushing its ribcage, causing it to stumbled backwards and fall. It wasn't completely disabled yet, but it was down for a moment. The second he struck, however, was able to block with its rusty old shield. It stumbled back regardless, but moments later it rushed the cleric, shield up and aged mace raised over its head!

The party's ingvarr fared quite well against his skeletal opponent. As it attempted to strike him, the sword it wielded bounced off of the shield repeatedly, creaking noises echoing from its bony limbs. His fist broke through desiccated flesh a cracked bone, before finally crushing its shoulder blade and causing its right arm to detach entirely. It wasn't down, but it had become far less of a threat in that instant.

The other four skeletons, however, remained a threat. One, which had the most flesh on its body out of any of them, rushed forward with a strange gutteral noise from its perpetually-hanging jaw, a two-handed sword above its head as the other three followed!

@Rune_Alchemist@Zoey Boey@Raineh Daze@Crimson Paladin@Darner

Nuri grinned 'neath her helmet as her swing struck true, the undead's skull being inverted by her overhead. As it fell, she took a moment to observe the situation around her. Leon was dealing with two. As the second skeleton charged her fellow worshipper, Nuri intervened. Skeletons didn't weigh that much, even magically enchanted they were still just bones an armor.

As such, the paladin leaned down, wrapped her hand around the ankle of the twitching skeleton she had just defeated, and whipped it at the skeleton Leon was fighting. There was a brief gout of flame as her armor supported her horizontal throw, sending the skeleton into it's fellow's legs. That ought to knock it off course.

"Hahaha!" Nuri laughed. The ingvarr pummeled one with his fist, and Neffy cut one in half. "Keep up the good work!"

As the second wave approached approached, Nuri pushed on. She met the two-handed sword wielding skeleton with her own two-handed sword, now held in the conventional way by the handle. Expecting to parry the incredibly telegraphed overhead strike by the leading skeleton, she would parry the oncoming blade off to the side, letting the skeleton's blade slide off hers. Her blade angled downward she countered, by jamming the pommel of her sword directly into the skeleton's nose cavity. Then she took a step back and swiped a fearsome fiery swing at all four skeletons, right at shoulder level. "Hrrrah!"

In this situation that Léon found himself in, a more skilled, more experienced Shrine Keeper would've drawn their scepter and handily parried the foe's mace, or struck it down with holy magic. But Léon was not such a veteran warrior, thus he fumbled to draw the scepter from his belt and was unable to counter or defend in time. He was a split second away from freezing in panic when the skeleton suddenly lost its footing as something from Nuri's direction struck it, which gave him enough breathing room step back and gain enough room to use his hammer.

I'll have to tell her how grateful I am for that, she might've just saved my life.

Grateful to both Nuri and the goddesses for this brief reprieve, Léon raised his massive warhammer and swung it down at the skeleton's skull. He wasn't going to let this undead abomination get another chance.

With the others doing an excellent job of holding the line, Liliane barely had to do anything--in this confined space, there was just no chance for the skeletons to advance and threaten the mage. One who was approaching the end of her chant, eyes opening and then, with a gesture, flinging the condensed fireball down the corridor.

Where it promptly expanded into a brief, blindingly bright blaze--definitely an oversight to not warn anyone else to close their eyes, but between the fireball from behind and the sword from the front, there was nothing the remaining three skeletons could do except die. Again.

"Are zey dead now?" Corinne asked, hopefully.