Gared puffed and huffed indignantly. "Girl, I've been exercisin' since a'fore you were born." Gared set his pack down and fished his many tool out of it, shaping the device into a crow bar and setting it to the door. "Now, let's be trying this again, on my count..."
Observing Gared's efforts briefly, Fancy nods once, as if in some private conversation before grasping the edge of the door & focusing her own strength in assistance of his exertion.
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Gared's expertise in stonework serves him well as he is able to use his crowbar effectively to loosen the door just enough to wrench it open.
The door opens to what appears to be a storeroom. This room is piled high with crumbling remnants of crates, barrels, urns, and casks of all sizes and descriptions.
After stowing his crowbar, Gared muttered a praise to his god before stepping into the room.
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Gared searches the room for anything of interest and his search does yield some results. Amid the refuse is two objects of interest. The first is a brass crank with a pearl-inlaid handle, worth some value. The second is a set of masterwork smith’s tools made of mithral worth at least several hundred gold pieces.
Also of interest is a strange contraption that resembles a three-legged, four-armed humanoid made of iron and brass, stowed away in one corner of the storeroom.
"It's a construct!" Yamyra blurts excitedly. "A combination of gears & magic. I told you there were some down here!" She growls as she momentarily glares at Ganer. "We should examine it, they normally have a means of winding them up, probably with that." She points to the crank handle Gared found.
"What happens if we wind it up? Does it become an ally or a foe?"
"I suppose you did," Ganer said, looking over the strange. . .object? creation? What was the proper word for describing such a thing? "Though this looks very different from the statue you mistook for one earlier. I would not activate it, unless we have the means to command it." He added, watching Yamyra, apparenlty waiting for her to argue.
For a few moments Yamyra's expression dances between the obviously warring drives of proving her own conclusions correct & Ganer and Gared's reasonable caution. Finally, caution & camaraderie win out. "Yi-eeesss...
that's, reasonable." She grudgingly agrees, adding. ", by that same reasoning, we should determine exactly how it is activated, if we can, so that we can prevent others from using it against us."
Gared examined the thing with a hugely curious expression, trying to see if there was a place he could affix the brass crank he had found earlier...
The dwarf looks crestfallen for a moment as he stows the crank. The dwarf compares the keyhole to green crystal key he'd found earlier with a hopeful expression on his face.
"By Erastil's bow, this works!"The dwarf looked so uncharacteristically enthusiastic that it was likely disturbing to onlookers. Gared suddenly seemed to remember himself just as he seemed about to wind up the construct, sighing and putting the key back in his pack carefully with a sheepish expression on his face. "I'd really love to be seein' how this works, but we ought to be prepared for any danger it poses us before we do."
"As would I, but Ganer is correct. We don't really have a means of being certain we can contain it if activating it turns into a repeat of the library incident."
"Once we have thoroughly documented the interior of the Crow I will have time to do the necessary research." Yamyra adds, placatingly. Examining the walls of the chamber visually for any possible cultural significance, she then makes her way back out the door and further down the hallway, Fancy preceding.
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After a quick examination of the storeroom reveals nothing further of interest, Yamyra and the others proceed down the corridor heading eastward.
The corridor goes about 60 feet or so before descending to what must have been a great hall of some kind, extending far beyond your vision. A line of pillars runs down the center of this 30' wide hall, between which lie the ruined remains of what was once an immense magical laboratory. Crumbled tables, broken stone urns, rusted cauldrons, and ancient fragments of broken glass lie scattered throughout. The northern wall depicts a vast mural of armies of deformed monsters and demons gathering on the shores of a mountainous island. Above, a woman’s face has been carved into the mountaintop, and an immense bridge arches out from just below this woman’s face. Below the mountain, at the end of a side view of a tangled network of caverns, lies a vast underground vault in which an immense monstrosity of tentacles surrounds a central fanged mouth; within the mouth glares an angry red eye.
This hall appears unoccupied, and two exits from the hall are readily apparent: A stone door in the south wall adjacent to the west wall, and a passage exiting the hall in the north wall adjacent to the east wall opposite the door. The passage immediately turns east as it exits the hall.
At the sight of the murals, Yamyra all but leaps forward. Only just restraining herself by obvious force of will as she turns back with questioning brows to look at Horven.
Less constrained than her anchor, Fancy proceeds into the chamber, cautiously examining her surroundings as she does so.
At Horven's indication, Yamyra literally rushes forward, her torch illuminating the mural as she examines it minutely. "That is probably Alaznist...
At least, we have yet to encounter another woman represented so prominently in this complex." She declares as she hands the torch to Fancy so she can begin furiously scribbling notes. "Not certain what that is intended to represent however..." She adds, pointing to the tentacled monstrosity depicted in the subterranean depths.
"Hmmm, I think I remember some story about this carving from my youth...
Ganer inspected the image of the strange creature closely. It had a certain familiarity to it that he couldn't quite place. Perhaps he'd seen similar images in his studies, or maybe it was just that after a certain point, one eldritch abomination blurred together with the next. . . Still, the fact that it was on a mural with an army of demons and what seemed to be their thralls, so perhaps that might provide some insight.
After quite some time writing down notes & sketches, Yamyra packs away her notebook reservedly. "Well, as I said before, we will just have to come back later, once I've had a chance to look through the library. I'll show Sh-
Venture-Captain Heidmarch the sketch & see if she has any idea..."
"," She adds, "South or East?"
Carmina fishes a silver coin from her pocket. "Well, that's easy. Heads, we go South, tails, we go East," she says before flipping the coin, catching it, and examining it closely... Very closely. "Uh... Which one this was again? You know, the side with the face?"
Eyebrow arched acerbically, Yamyra gently grasps & pulls Carmina's hand down to just below her own eye level. "Since the other side is an image of the Arvensoar, you should know good & well it wouldn't be called 'Heads'..."
"East it is then."The dwarf set out in that direction.
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Decision made, you all exit through the east passage. Th passage heads east for about 30 feet before turning north. About 30 feet further along the passage opens to a chamber. This chamber is bare save for a statue depicting a regal-looking woman, by now identifiable as Alaznist, wielding a ranseur—she stands in a battle-ready pose, with the tip of the ranseur aimed at the northern entrance to the room.
The statue's aggressive pose looks threathening enough that Carmina decides to cast Detect Magic on it to see if it's just a normal statue or something more...
Gared dashed in front of Carmina and simultaneously tried to push her back toward the hall way and shield her from possible harm...
Ganer moved to assist his dwarven friend, mostly by putting himself in between Gared and the snake. He kept his shield raised and struck at it if it approached, more to keep it away than to do any harm.
"Hey, come on Gared," Carmina says when the dwarf begins pushing her back. "That smoke is probably only mildly poisonous."
As the Statue begins it's display, Yamyra quickly backs up until she is once more pas the turn of the hall. "We don't know what the smoke is. Best to let Fancy find out for us."
'I am sorry love. Have a care.'
Fancy quickly strides forward, interposing herself between the statue & her companions.
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Gared grabs Carmina and pulls the tiefling girl behind him trying to shield her from the statue, while Ganer stands close by ready to assist. Yamyra backs out of the way allowing Fancy to enter the room approaching the statue.
The statue continues to sputter for a few seconds before suddenly a bright flash of light, coupled with a wave of super-hot air, that emanates from the tip of the ransuer! The resulting fireball engulfs Fancy, Ganer, Gared, and Carmina though she finds the dwarf's body helps shield her from the blast.
Yamyra and Horven forunately are out of the blast radius.
Despite Gared shielding her and her own fiendish heritage mitigating the damage, Carmina doesn't fare well against the blast of burning air. She isn't able to react before the blast hits her with full force, and she falls to the ground, unconcious and unmoving.
Caught full-force by the blast, Fancy staggers & falls
Gared barely manages to twist himself away from the brunt of the blast, grunting in pain as the fire washes over him but manages to keep his footing.
Ganer was caught completely off guard by the blast, though he did have a chance to dodge the worst of it. His first response was to retrieve his rod of healing and begin to tend to the wounded, starting with Carmina.
Regaining his footing, Gared half carried and half dragged Carmina to saftey with Yamyra, looking back over his shoulder worriedly, scanning the statue for any signs of a second blast.
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Gared drags the unconscious forms of both Carmina and Fancy out of the room and the blast radius of the fireball. Fortunately the statue does not appear to immediately activate again.
Horven steps forward, "I might be able to disable the trap, given what I have seen though it would be risky, since the trap could be resetting any moment. We could backtrack here or take a chance on running through the room. I think we can make it before it triggers again."
Fetal & clutching her head from the shock of sharing Fancy's senses just as the explosion went off, Yamyra nonetheless managed a reply. "Vergeet niet, het beeld begon te sputteren en rook net voordat het afging."
Following with forcing herself over to Fancy's supine form, she begins the words & motions of a less-commonly used spell within her repertoire.
"Aye, let's trigger it, run out of the way, and then horven and I can try and dismantle the thing."
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Horven nods, "Okay, let me trigger it first...I can easily dodge out of the way." He steps forward before he pulls up for a moment. "If the statue is triggered by seeing someone, then perhaps I can make myself unseen."
He nods almost to himself before pulling a potion out of his pouch. "I have just the thing." Drinking it quickly, he then vanishes from sight! Soon you hear the halfling's voice ahead, "Wait here."
You then wait patiently for Horven to give the all clear...
The statue does not react for a minute or so, before all of a sudden the statue starts smoking as before. You then hear an expletive yelled in Halfling before the statue emits another fireball! Fortunately, there was no cry of pain you heard.
Not long afterwards, Horven appears in front of you, none the worse for wear. He shakes his head, "I was able to find the runes to trigger it, but bypassing it, I just could...not DO it!" He finishes with a note of frustration.
Gared pondered aloud for a moment."Hmmmm... If we're careful, we ought to be able to trigger the thing at the end of it's rope with enough time to step away from harm, move quickly through the room, and do the same on our return...." The dwarf had returned to his taciturn self after being assured of everyone's health.
Carmina: 25hp healed, 5 charges.
Gared: 13hp healed, 3 charges.
Ganer: 15hp healed, 3 charges.
Can I heal Fancy? I think I saw something about only the summoner could heal an Eidolon, but I don't know.
Ganer healed Carmina, Gared, and then himself before returning to Carmina to offer her help getting to her feet. He did not like the optons presented. If Horven and Gared were unable to disabe the trap in time to keep it from going off again, then they might be unable to get out of it's radius before it went off a second time. On the other hand, he wasn't sure he would be able to make it through in the time it would take to rearm and activate.