Eustoma studies the other items. "I can try sneaking down the hallway."
Eustoma hands the wands over to Karla. "I think these are best for you."
Wulfram replied to Eustoma, "Sure, why don't you check it out?" He couldn't see a compelling reason to pick one route over the other.
Eustoma sneaks down the hallway looking around the corner carefully.
This long, bare hall extends to the northeast, where it joins another hall leading east. Near this intersection, two large iron sconces jut from the walls up near the ceiling, one on each side of the passage. The sconces are carved to resemble taut longbows arrayed with dozens of arrows pointing at the space between them. A fire in each sconce burns merrily.
Eustoma creeps down the hallway, but she only gets halfway down its length before she feels a pressure plate sink down beneath her foot. Several hidden hatches at the end of the hall open up, launching a fusillade of arrows at the halfling!
Only a few seconds later, a creature emerges from around the corner of the hallway. This human-sized automaton resembles a crude humanoid figure made of cast-off pieces of wood. One arm ends in an oversized longbow, and as it sees Eustoma, it pulls a long splinter from its own body to use as an arrow!
Rogar kicks into action immediately, using his elemental powers to scale the wall around his allies and hangs off the stone walls by Eustoma as he slams his fist into the wall, blasting a stone at the golem.
"Ouch!!. It's not like I wanted to steal stuff. We're gust trying to figure out what happened."
She fires two arrows back at the golem. "Sia get in here!
Sia comes around the corner at a run, and gets up close an personal with the tree person. He can't decide if he wants to bite it or pee on it. Bite it is.
Eustoma fires two arrows into the golem, the second one driving deep into the creature's forehead. Though it doesn't flinch, chunks of wood fall from its body, indicating significant damage.
Sia runs up and bites the golem, though her teeth don't seem to do much harm and the construct remains on its feet.
Karla conjures a cloud of glitterdust that clings to the golem's eyes, blinding it.
Rogar blasts the construct with stone, battering it but not pushing it back.
The construct swings blindly, trying to smash Sia with its bow. It lands a lucky critical hit, bloodying the wolf! Then it unleashes a barrage of splinters from its body, striking Sia and Eustoma!
Wulfram hurried up, after the construct released it's spray of splinters, and healed Sia's wounds.
"We're here on behalf of the Chernasardo Rangers!", he shouted to the animated wooden creature, although he didn't expect it would do any good.
Both Sia and Eustoma manage to dodge the worse part of the blast.
Eustoma returns fire at the golem.
Sia bites again.
Rogar grabs a stone out of the wall, and sends a chain of smaller rocks peppering the golem.
Wulfram moves in to heal Sia's wounds. The wound snaps at the golem but fails to hit. Eustoma lands another pair of good shots that don't seem to damage the construct very much. Karla casts haste on the group. Rogar fires another blast, pummeling the golem and pushing it back a few feet.
The golem steps back up and tries to slam Sia again, landing another lucky hit! Down the hallway, Wulfram can see a second golem coming around the corner. This one has been carved so that its hands end in a pair of oversized battleaxes! It moves up the corridor, ending alongside the other golem and threatening Sia.
Wulram dropped his spear and pulled out his mace, moving up beside Sia. He struck at the damaged golem, trying to disable it.
Rogar sends more shards of stone flying at the first golem, trying to finish it off before they have to deal with the second.
Eustoma drops her bow and pulls out her hafling sling staff. "I hope bludgeoning works."
Sia again bites at the golem.
Wulfram bashes the damaged golem with his mace, and Eustoma batters it with sling bullets. It falls to the floor, unmoving. Sia snaps at the other one, lightly damaging it.
Karla delays until Rogar attacks, but his blast sails past the agile golem. The sorceress then conjures grease beneath it, though it remains on its feet.
The golem attacks Wulfram with its axes, then unleashes a burst of splinters around it!
"These shards are getting annoying."
She throws two more bullets at the creature. Then she moves out of the way.
Sia avoids the damage again, and bites.
Wulfram turned his face away to avoid the full force of the splinters, as the remaining golem's axes clanged off his armor. Holding his mace in two hands, he launched repeated blows at the guardian. As he did so, he started to step around the construct so he wouldn't block the others' missile fire.
Rogar drops off the wall, landing on the floor and sending a block of stone hurtling at the golem, but it easily avoids the rock, and it shatters against the wall behind it.
Eustoma fires one bullet from her staff that misses the golem, then retreats down the hallway.
Sia lands a good bite, but her teeth just don't seem to be tough enough to do much damage.
Wulfram bashes the golem twice, two solid strikes that crack pieces of wood from its body. He steps out of the way, giving Rogar a clear line of fire. Since the golem is trying to balance on the grease, the dwarf manages to hit with his blast! The golem falls to the ground, dozens of stone shards stuck into its body.
Now that the golems were destroyed, Wulfram stopped to catch his breath. He healed Eustoma's wounds, and drank a healing potion. "Well, now we know to look for traps!", he said.
"So much for stealth. Thank you for the healing. May I have a potion of cure light please?"
"Certainly, Wulfram replied, handing Eustoma two potions. "Have a spare in case of emergencies. Does Sia need one as well?"
"Sia can use one as well."
Wulfram moved forward cautiously, looking for more traps. He looked around the corner into the alcove up ahead.
Once you are ready to move on, you can see the hallway splits to the north up ahead. A large bronze key hangs from an iron hook in the center of this hallway's northern end.
Wulfram was suspicious about the prominently displayed key. He cast Detect Magic, and scanned the area. Then, he moved closer, looking for traps. "It seems safe enough," he said to the others.
There are no magic auras in the area.
"I'm going to hold off on touching the key, until we find a place to use it," Wulfram declared. He moved forward to the bend in the corridor, checking for traps as he went.
The corridor passes by a nondescript alcove that contains only a small dais and long-neglected woodworking tools. Tracks in the dust seem to indicate that this is where one of the golems came from.
The corridor continues until it reaches a junction. A narrow passage leads west, while a wider corridor goes to the southwest. To the east, the passage ends at a wall-to-wall iron door with no handle or hinges. The stone wall to the north of the door is inset with a pair of large keyholes. Numerous warnings and curses are etched into the door, promising only misery and death beyond the portal or terrible fates that will haunt any who enter.
Wulfram doesn't find any traps in this chamber.
"There must be another key in the southwest passage," Wulfram said, looking at the two keyholes. "This door must lead to the weapons cache that Cirieo was talking about. We should expect another trap or guardian (or both)." He looked at the area in front of the keyholes and door for traps, before examining the door itself.
"I think we ought to explore the hall to the west, before we try to open the door. If there is a trap beyond this door, you would think there'd be a way for the Rangers to turn it off, when they needed to access the cache."
Eustoma agrees with Wulfram "Let's go take a look."
She moves down the hallway as quietly as possible. She looks for traps as she moves forward.
A low stone wall bisects half of this large chamber. To either side of the wall rests a stone sarcophagus. The southern sarcophagus is carved with the image of a stout male dwarf holding two crossed handaxes. The northern sarcophagus bears the image of a sharp-faced human woman holding a longbow. Near each sarcophagus, an iron lever juts from a panel in the wall.
The panel near the southern sarcophagus is labeled "Lunging Strikes" in the top position and "Advancing Lines" in the bottom position. The lever is currently in the center position.
The panel near the northern sarcophagus is labeled "A Hundred Arrows" in the top position and "Cornered Prey" in the bottom position. The lever is currently in the center position.
Eustoma doesn't find any traps in this chamber.
"Wulfram will you come here please. I need a strong back." She examines the levers wondering if it's a terrible idea to pull one.
Wulfram joined Eustoma and looked at the sarcophagi, and the levers. After considering for a minute, he said, "My guess would be that these levers have something to do with opening the iron door, disarming a trap beyond, or both. I suppose they could also have be related to opening the sarcophagi.
"Could the woman be Ekaterin Fletcher, the name on the plaque at the entrance to the underground area? I believe the quote there was 'Strike safely, strike quietly.' The dwarf could be Dargrit Foehewer, whose quote was 'A whirlwind of blows assures victory.' Perhaps those phrases give a clue as to which way to move the levers.
"'Lunging strikes' sounds more like 'a whirlwind of blows' to me. I'm not sure about the the woman's lever. Perhaps 'a hundred arrows' since she's an archer? I feel like I'm just guessing. Maybe there more information in the sarcophagi."
"I don't know what to do. Try to remove the covers or try the levers? I'm not really interested in desecrating someones burial place. Let's try the levers."
Wulfram decided to try moving the lever by the southern sarcophagus to the top position (labeled "Lunging Strikes"), and listened to see if anything happened.
The lever slides into place with a thunk, but Wulfram doesn't hear anything else. Nothing obvious has changed.