This time the golem's stony fists bounce harmlessly off its opponent's furry hide prompting a roar of challenge from were-Njord. The hulking ursine shape drops the sword he'd been holding, balls his huge clawed fists together, and smashes into the golem with a two-fisted hammerblow.
Were-Njord's blow connects with a resounding *crunch* shattering a big chunk off of the golem's torso. Unimpeded by the damage, it rears back to continue its assault.
The heavily damaged alchemical golem lurches forward and claws at Xiddik.
It brutally bludgeons the kobold. In the process she's splattered with a freezing fluid and rapidly hardening alchemical goop.
Prickles lets out a muted growl and continues peeggedly trying to trip the thing, as his mistress frowns and flings a suddenly-conjured ice ball at the alchemical golem.
Xiddik stares at the part of her side that has been ripped away by the golem's claws and brittle cold. Once, she might have been able to dodge the worst of it, but something's slowing her down. Perhaps it's just fate catching up to her at last. "funny, i always thought it'd be a drow."
The kobold guide collapses in a hardening pool of alchemical goop.
Asht'el tries once again to blind the massive creatures fighting them.
Firiel is quick to avenge the fallen kobold as her conjured snowball slams into something vital within the construct, simultaneously freezing it and smashing it to bits. With a crash, it falls to the ground.
The stone golem continues to be impervious to Asht's glittering dust.
Jametor flings an orb of acid at the stone golem.
Were-Njord staggers as he's brutally pummeled by the golem's stoney fists but it fails to bring the mighty ursine down. He repeats his attack, balling up his huge fists into one and smashing into the golem with titanic force.
This time the impact smashes the surviving golem to bits, spraying the party with dust and stone fragments.
Fíriel hurries over to Randall and taps him with the healing wand, then moves to Xiddik and does the same.
She then taps herself once as well. "Is everyone alright? We need to hurry, but I think it might be best if we find somewhere to hole up for a little bit... you two are in no shape for running through the streets." And it'd give me the opportunity I need to go retrieve Ruxi...
Asht'el quickly rummages through the drow's garments, saying as he does so, "I think the important thing is to get out of this tower, since it's kind of the focus of a lot of attention right now. Not sure where else we can try to hide."
The huge ursine shape digs a few tiny vials out of Njord’s things and quaffs their contents.
Xiddik's eyes shoot open. Immediately the kobold is on her feet, clutching the hole in her side. "We still have ability to be invisible? We need to find somewhere to hide. We mend and find the portal. Can't wait here any longer. Can't stay here or we die."
Although the kobold speaks quickly and smoothly, she sounds extremely shaken.
Were-Njord huffs and digs in his pack again. He retrieves a medicinal-smelling salve and roughly shoves it in Xiddik’s direction.
"I can give 2 people 10 mins of invisibility. I think Ash said he could do 5 more. That's 7. Wish we had a way to make a timed bomb to leave a distraction."
Xiddik looks at the proffered extract suspiciously. The others recall that they've almost never seen her eat much of anything that she didn't bring with her.
Her extreme pain proves an apt motivator, though. She drinks up.
After roughly a minute, the muttering voices of panicked mages fade away and the lower levels of the tower are quiet. The magical alarm continues to blare.
"Agreed. We need to be gone or look like we belong or look like we aren't here at all. Standing in the hallway with them," pointing at the ruined golems, "isn't going to help us."
He starts moving down the stairs carefully, keeping to whatever cover and shadow there might be available.
Keeping her distance from Randall, Xiddik pulls up her hood and follows.
Moving like little shadows, Firiel, Randall, and Xiddik advances down the next set of stairs.
Signs of the mage’s quick escape is obvious as papers and other debris is littered across the floor. There’s two doors that lead to unknown chambers and another set of stairs leading to the next floor (the second floor). The room is otherwise unoccupied.
Whispering to Xiddik and Firiel, "Any guards are going to come from that direction, but I doubt much hide in is found in the other rooms. Maybe magic to help us, but...?"
Asht'el takes a few steps down the stairs and calls out in a loud whisper, "Is the coast clear? Or should we turn invisible before we come down?" Turning to Njord, he says, "You want me turn you invisible, or shall we just go down and see what's happening?"
Were-Njord growls at Asht but otherwise ignores him as he picks through the smashed golem's remains.
"I don't see as well in the dark as I used to, but I understand Undercommon well enough."
"Let's continue down," whispers Fíriel, sending Mister Hedgepeeg ahead to check the corridors.
Opening the first door, the party finds an abandoned private laboratory. Various delicate and exotic implements lay scattered across the room's central work bench.
Spending some time searching the lab, the party uncovers a number of valuable items.
Having grown bored with the inert golem's shattered remains, were-Njord lumbers down the stairs into the lab with the others.
Fíriel sneaks back to the others and reports. "I'm going to go on down another level. Asht'el, Jametor... keep Njord safe, okay? I don't want him charging out of here or something. Prickles seems to think the next floor down is safe, so I'll go check it out and then come back and let you all know."
After checking the door, Firiel determines it’s safe. Poking her head inside she discovers that both doors lead to a small but very well-stocked library.
Once he's confident the level below is clear, Asht'el descends the stairs and joins his companions.
Firiel spots what looks like a magical trap within the door’s threshold!