After the night's rest, Maelchar notices Pakak is wounded and, his spells restored after his morning prayers, he casts a cure spell for Pakak's benefit, touching the dwarf briefly with a golden glowing hand.
Pakak nods gratefully , the color returning to his features, at least some of it. "My thanks, Maelchar."
"Here, let me help you, Garith," Maelchar says as his hand begins to glow golden and he intones ancient words to cast a cure spell.
"The creature tore into me severely and I require aid" Garith says observing the fetted wound with a sigh."
"Oh, bich, bich, bich," Ryu says glancing over at Garith.
"Hell, son, I just cleaned up in here, all that belly-aching's bound to muss the place with them tears," he adds while rolling his eyes, and smirking a bit at Garith.
"Do any posess further healing magics or medical gear?"
Ryu turns a stunned look toward the knight, then.
"Wha - medical gear? Oh hell, chief, why don't you just slap on a little testosterone! I reckon that'd take care you of you right proper - if you had any, that is," he says grinning widely at the knight.
Clearly Ryu is attempting some form of primitive male "bonding" ritual, wherein the first party voices a complaint, and the second parties attempt to distract the first party's source of pain (as well as force the first party to reexamine the situation in another light) by using off-color jests and comments as well as persistent banter. In this way, the second party is ale to not only distract the first party from the primary complaint, but also force him to think about things other than what is currently causing him stress.
To the untutored eye, this banter may seem "rude" or "mean" - but to any who possesses even a rudimentary knowledge of the male psyche - such techniques (often referred to by laymen as "busting your balls") are not truly malicious, but playful back-and-forth between old friends.
So'rien rolls his eyes at Ryu's antics, casting a fond smile at him as he does so. So'rien will move out when everyone else does, letting Mr. Shin lead and keeping the peace between the various egos.
As Ryu collapses easily on the heavy stone floor, he stretches out his legs and gives a sigh of contentment.
Seeing Mister Shin, he promptly begins to have a spirited (if not somewhat one-sided) poetry contest with the rabbit in the Minkai tongue.
Unless one can speak the Minkai language, it is likely that such masterpieces will merely fall on deaf ears. But one thing seems clear (and perhaps unusual) - whenever Ryu addresses Mister Shin he keeps using "master" instead. Though it may seem as this was a mistake in his ability to pronounce the word, what is clear is that in the Minkai tongue he is using the word sensai, not san with Mister Shin.
This seems to suggest two possible conclusions - the first is that despite Ryu's eagerness to slaughter his enemies and talk like a halfing buccaneer who lost her fiddle, Ryu seems to have a somewhat tenderhearted side when it comes to animals and pets (as evidenced by his similar treatment of Shieldback) - the other possibility is that his barbaric mind sees the rabbit as some sort of god!
But it seems very likely that the first hypothesis is the most probable.
Ryu’s eyes snap open precisely when it is time for him to wake.
Years of learning to survive in deadly areas has at least trained to wake whenever he needs to with ease.
Rolling himself to his feet, he stretches a moment then begins a few kata’s with his weapons. When that is done, he eats. When he has finished he looks at his companions and waits for them to wake up.
At this point he is ready to move forward.
"Well, looks like it's time to hit the dusty trail..."
"Who's on point?" he calls out.
The dwarf feels better. He hadn't used any spells so there wasn't much need to memorize any. He once more assumes his position in standing by their charges
Ryu tosses a glance at Pakak and pats him on his shoulder.
"Morning, sunshine - you ready to head out?" he says to the dwarf cheerfully.
Pakak nods, "Yes."
As was her usual routine, Oriana had woken early and found a corner of the temple (at a respectful distance from the shrine but not too far away from her companions) and undertook her morning sword practice. With each swing of the long sword, Oriana uttered a silent prayer to Iomedae, allowing the movement and weight of the sword to sluice through the air with practised ease. In another corner, Ryu was working on his own practice, but they ignored each other out of dedication to their individual tasks.
After Oriana was done, she took a sip of water and a bite of the trail rations and then moved to the Lady Anevia and the two noblemen and offered them each a little food and water, attempting to conserve their limited food supplies as best as possible.
When Mister Shin was ready to scout ahead and all were ready to move again, Oriana moved into formation -- this time, in front of her twin, So'rien.
With everyone ready and aligned to a perfect and concise marching order, Ryu suddenly charges past the entire group and rushes off down the hallway after Mister Shin with a wave and a backwards glance at the rest of the group.
’Come on gang, isogu! We got a long way to go until we get the hell out of here, neh?” he calls out merrily as he charges off after Mister Shin down the tunnel, eager to see what there is to come.
Ryu slows down a bit and tuns a quick glance to Sir Mordrand.
"Oye, Garith my main man - isn't today your birthday? Hells bells, yūjin, I guess I'll be the first to say Happy Birthday, brother!" he hollers out behind him, suddenly realizing the date, then hurries up after the rabbit.
The passageway leading south from the shrine extends for about 3,000 feet (at a speed of 15 feet, this takes about 40 minutes to navigate) before ending here after a gradual rise in elevation of 30 feet.
Stone figures are carved into the walls of this cavern. Each depicts a different crusader clad in armor and wielding weapons, but their carved stone features contain expressions of sadness.
The soldiers depicted are from the First Crusade.
Ryu glances at the statues for a moment, his eyes narrowing as he examines their stony expressions.
"Well, now what?" he says turning back to look at the others.
"The first crusaders..." Pakak says in awe, "Those who came to save the world when the cry first came out."
"The first crusaders..." Pakak says in awe, "Those who came to save the world when the cry first came out."
Ryu nods.
"So we got a bunch of statues for the crusaders and we got a bunch of scales from good dragons... I'd say it's coincidence, or maybe karma," he mutters, shaking his head.
He glances at the others.
"Alright - point is; we took a long walk and found a bunch of statues here... "
He frowns a little, staring at the statues.
"So how come they look sad? Didn't our side win that fight? I mean, shouldn't they look - I dunno - happy or something? We won and the demon basterds lost big time..." he says staring at them oddly.
Then he shrugs.
"Okay, while we're here, why don't we try searching this joint - who knows, maybe we'll find some clues on what's up?" he says casually.
Ryu gives the statues only a cursory glance, but clearly he's distracted at the idea of why the statues are sad.
His search reveals nothing but a dream within a dream...
Oriana scans her golden eyes over the walls, the carvings of the first crusaders looking at her; their expressions of sadness intriguing. Her parents had been crusaders as well (albeit not in the First Crusade) and the stone scenes brought back memories of their own stories and exploits.
Concentrating, Oriana casts Detect Magic on the area.
Oriana, you see no magic in the as other than the small trinkets you carry and the scales.
Ryu, without moving further into the 100ft diameter cavern there is not much you can tell other than the statue is a stone statue about 10ft away from you.
Oriana, longsword readied before her, cautiously moves forward 20 ft (she does not want to move too far from the rest of the group) and takes a look, using her darkvision where the light of the torches does not reach.
Feeling a sense of boredom, Ryu yawns a bit loudly and decides to move to examine the next statue.
He glances at his companions for a moment and shakes his head.
Chatty little bunch of people here...
He looks at the next statue, trying to determine if there is anything unusual about it. As usual, his sword is held loosely in his hand.
Maelchar guides the rescued townspeople into the chamber, and describes what he sees to Aravashinal in detail. Since the fellow seems to have great knowledge of history, perhaps something here will trigger a memory.
stealth
Ryu
Maelchar
Pakak
So'rien
Oriana
Sir Garith
Oriana, you do not notice anything unusual in the cavern besides the statues. As for the statues themselves, Ryu, you can see that the craftsmanship was very fine and painstakingly done. It does seem that the years have been kind as not much erosion has taken place down here. Either that or these statues were finished but recently.
Maelchar, when you explain the detail involved to Aravashinal, he nods sagely, Again, another possible proof that molemen exist or at least existed. I wonder if they are true and what type of people they are now?
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As the others examine the statues, Garith remains between Orania and Ryu, Using his scrutinizing eye to examine the area, Looking first up, the forward, North then South, spending a few seconds on each direction to sense evil auras, weapon and shield at the ready, his divine senses scanning like a bullseye lantern
"Aye, if Master Aravashinal is correct about these underground dwellers, then they would have good reason to be sorrowful. In return for their service in the crusades, they suffered Demonic Taint and fled to the catacombs when their rightful place would have been among heroes on the surface," he sighs mourning the suffering of these ancient warriors. "Master Aravashinal, by your estimation, would these crusaders have fled in fear of the overly zealous and violent who would have been blinded to the light within their hearts by the demonic touch upon their bodies? Or do you believe that they may have suffered corruption of their sould and turned to the darkness themselves?"
"Their works speak of the Crusades and they had a shrine to Torag, but it had fallen into disrepair."
Sir Garith, you do not detect any evil in the area.
Suddenly out of the darkness from three of the surrounding statues a dark form comes flying at the group.
+5 each
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+4 to last three
Surprise round:
Two of the creatures manages to charge Oriana and Ryu but the one misses Ryu. The tentacles attempt to wrap around Oriana but fail to gain purchase.
Round 1:
The third creature joins the fray attacking Mr Shin. The others continue their assault on Oriana and Ryu. This time the creatures have better luck and manage to hit both Mr. Shin and Ryu. The tentacles still try to wrap around the heads of their foes and the one on Ryu does so successfully. The powerful tentacles squeeze on Ryu's head causing extreme damage.
Heroes are up with the creatures grappled.
So'rien summons up a celestial eage again to aid Mr. Shin.
The eagle rips into the creature with both beak and talons dealing 7 damage. Mr. Shin retreats behind the group after receiving the damage.
These creatures are darkmantles and known to inhabit caves system with plentiful prey.
Darkmantles capture their prey by descending on a creatures head and grappling them with their strong tentacles. Since they are only attacking a creatures head, they can grapple a creature of any size.
"What are these creatures?"
The charging creature had hit her hard and wounded her, but she was not down and now Oriana was coldly angry.
"May Iomedae guide my hand!"
Oriana swings her longsword and attempts to strike the closest creature (who attacked her).
Pakak moves closer towards Ryu and fires a ray of frost at the thing he's fighting.
Maelchar moves up to Ryu and as a swift action, creates a great sword, striking at the creature that has a hold of the barbarian. He expertly wields the large weapon in such a way as to strike the creature and miss Ryu's head.