Cloudrunner growls and swipes his claws at the Katra-statue, then planting his feet, he rams into her/it with his shield trying to knock it back.
"Somebody take the scepter!"
Pisco, of course, Help action could give Cloud advantage on that check. Or maybe you could dex sleight of hand the scepter while hes distracted now in combat (it'll contest an active perception) to swipe the scepter for yourself.
Round 1:
Katra-statue
Cloud, Pisco, Lidras
Cloud's claws tear easily through her feathered tunic, before bashing it across the room away from the real Katra.
Sneaking up to the struggle over the scepter, Pisco attempts to swipe it using his ability of legerdemain.
Slight of hand:
With Lidras' assault combined with Cloud's harrying defensive posture, Pisco easily paws away the curious scepter in an opportunistic moment. The Katra-statue startles and screams "No! I'll not go back that wasteland without gods...Im sorry Pisco but that must return to the old Katra!"
Her oddly large dwarven fists pummel Pisco, not for the first time of course...
...Cloud deflects the first strike, but the second furious fist manages to knock the wind out. Meanwhile the previous Katra incarnation is slowly returning from stone to flesh.
Round 1:
Katra-statue
Cloud, Pisco, Lidras <--UP
Lidras terminates the odd Katra hybrid with a few hard knocks, and the truth is revealed: the image of Katra melts into the pruned demonic flesh of a shapechanger. With its death, Katra's visions cease and she finds herself able to move once again.
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”And with that, our comrade is returned to us. Well done one and all. Though Katra, that scepter does suit you.” The winged elf gave her a friendly wink. ”Now let us push forward. Because soon we will return, as rich as royalty and twice as wise. For unlike kings and queens, we shall have truly earned all we have.”
From here, you can get back into the hallway and see the hatch on the ceiling Katra 2.0 mentioned. Beyond that the hallway snakes around to the right. Putting an ear to the hatch, you hear the sound of wind.
The hatch bursts open in Lidras' hands, releasing a magical whirlwind! His wings catch the brunt of the aerodynamic forces but the strength is too much even for his flight experience, and it sends him crashing into the walls of the small chamber.
and prone
The whirlwind shows no sign of abating, making this chamber extremely difficult to cross.
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Second Attempt
Lidras immediately regretted his eagerness as he was slammed into the wall. Luckily, his magical ward protected him. He attempted to make his way across, but was buffeted into the wall once more. Such a situation might have been fatal if he had to deal with pain and blood loss. As it was, he managed to get across merely with a severely diminished magical ward.
Katra blinked and looked around as she returned to flesh, saying "What'd I miss?" Taking stock of the situation, Katra sighed, handed Cloud one end of a rope, and then made her way through the wind tunnel.
As a creature of the Earth, clearly the wind had little hold on her, however. She made her way across the room stopping only briefly to toss Lidras a quick glance to make sure he wasn't too injured.
Tucking the scepter into his pack, Pisco digs his claws into the ground as he crawls through the whirlwind to the exit.
Past the whirlwind, before you is a foyer, ten feet wide and twenty feet long. A narrow hall connects with this area on the south side, and on the north end a five-foot-wide staircase leads up. At the top of the staircase, Pisco spots a hidden door, however there is no obvious mechanism that opens it.
Back in the main foyer, a wheel is set horizontally half into the wall in the southwest corner. This wheel appears to be a crank. Above the wheel, a bronze lever is set in the wall, angled downward.
Cloud sees them pass safely through, chuckling a bit at Pisco crawling past. He slaps his arms, beefing himself up, and steps confidently out into the whirlwind to power through and... starts to get knocked over before grabbing onto Katra’s rope and barely making it through.
His eyes are wide and his fur is puffed up and blown every which way. ”Heh... that was... uh... caught me of guard. Thanks.”
Cloud looks over the crank. ”I’m sure nothing bad will happen if we turn that. It’ll be fine.” His shoulders slump with a sigh. ”Yeah... fine.” He grips his sword tighter and prepares himself for the next terrible thing. ”So who wants to try this one?”
Pisco gets up and walks over to the mechanism. He gives it a good examination before he lets Cloud try to use it.
Perception:
Pisco, judging from the auditory stimuli of your paw steps, the flooring seems a bit hollow in the foyer. However, you find a solid section near the wheel just wide enough to stand on. Finally, your pupils dilate slightly as you detect horse tracks in a thin line going directly down the center towards the stairs.
"Ok this is weird, but I think there are some pit traps there...there and there! You should be ok to turn the wheel if you stand right here. Finally, I think we might still have one of these centaurs kicking around...looks like hoof marks going down the centre of the stairs."
Cloud does his best to pay attention to what Pisco points out, and if everyone looks ready, he flips the lever upward - ready to flip it back down if Very Bad Things happen.
Cloud, you flip the lever up and....nothing happens. However, the wheel seems a lot looser and could be turned now. Perhaps the lever is a lock like some sort of primitive winch.
Cloud turns the wheel and the floor in foyer falls away on hinges, revealing a long pit full of bones. Across the pit is a 6 inch marble beam that leads to the stairs. Finally, you hear a door creak open from at the top of the stairs, and fresh air and the sounds of jungle at night reach you...
"You first" gestures Katra to the others.
Lidras, peeking out the door you might experience a certain moral quandary.
You have reached the top of what was apparently a large temple of some sort. Once a major building, all that remains are the back wall and enough of the roof to shelter the altar. All else seems closed off by fallen debris. Several pillars have fallen and they litter the floor. Moonlight filters through holes in the roof, thirty-five feet overhead, which is a maze of chips and cracks. The back wall you emerge from is covered by a bas-relief of a giant bat-thing, nine feet tall, with a wingspan of twenty feet. In front of this wall is an altar stone, carved to represent a mass of squirming rats, weasels, and worms. On the front of the altar is the head of a screaming bat. Jutting above the altar on either side are a pair of sharp-edged, metal bat-wings, eight feet long. The floor in front of the altar is worn smooth.
The squirming rat altar has been rotated slightly ajar revealing perhaps 20,000 gold pieces and other various bits of priceless treasure and at least 200 giant emeralds filling a deep pit.
Acrobatics:
Pisco easily walks across the beam.
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Katra's adamantine armor makes periodic squeaks as she masterfully traverses the perilous beam in the manner of her ancestors. The marble is easily scratched and the uncanny maneuver leaves a permanent mark. It doesn't take long to climb the old stairs before emerging next to Lidras above.
Pisco also nimbly traverses the walkway as if it weren't even there, leaving only the proud Cloudrunner alone in this lost temple of Tamoachan...
Cloud alternates chuckling at Katra scooting and wincing at the scraping noise. He places one foot on the beam, ready to cross and then pauses...
"You know, it would be just like this place if I fell and died here. *sigh* But a jaguar warrior knows no fear!" and then he tries tip toeing across shrugging his shoulders and face up in fear.
Looking at the mound of treasure, Cloud says, "That is so definitely a trap. Probably each coin is the soul of someone who passed through here or some sort of awful thing like that."
As Cloud slips and falls, you hear an exasperated sigh drop away, "Of course...."
Cloud, as soon as everyone is through you take your hands off the wheel to cross yourself. A portcullis slams shut at the other end of the foyer, blocking your path to the stairs. However, you are able to traverse the beam and are strong enough to lift the portcullis, quickly joining the others outside.
Lidras, there is a very strong necromantic and conjuration aura swirling about the altar. The treasure itself is quite real it seems.
"Well we have come this far...might as well gain some glory and treasure for ourselves! When you are all ready I can scoot in and snatch a few gems and see if that summons the beast-from-beyond to attack us...unless Lindras has a way to get around this magical trap! Oh, Hi Cloud!"
Lidras, you might be able to suppress the effects for a while. Note that being an altar, you could be competing against the will of a god.
Lidras senses the necromantic aura collapse under the abjurative negation he interjects from the Feywild, impressed with his own progress he makes another attempt at unraveling the conjurative aura as well...
...it too seems to collapse under his will, like the solving of a puzzle box.
Cloud looks pensive, "Um... I don't know. That seems like, you know, desecration or something. This was someone's deep religious - " Then he bursts out laughing.
"I'm joking! I'll gladly beat the spirits out of whatever god they worshiped in this accursed place!" He then will try to smash the thing to oblivion with the feroicty of a tiger-man need serious therapeutic smashing.
Cloud's enchanted obsidian quickly notches out chunk after chunk of the alter, in the form a few carved stone rats. No divine retribution comes from above, but the party seems to have attracted the attention of a certain someone from the shadows...
Stepping just on the edge of the moonlight is a woman dressed in the royal garb of the Payit, her eyes a deep red...not a lively flame red but a cold, dead ruby red. Her skin looks nearly white and she speaks "You plunder my temple and now deface our altar. Bow down and rejoice at my mercy, for you will be forgiven when your faces are ours...mhmm...welcome." she smiles a toothy grin, and you note the elongated canines of a night hunter...a vampyre.
Katra watched Cloud's blade crashed repeatedly into the altar and was about to offer him her hammer when the abomination made it's appearance.
"Foolish undead. First off, I'm a Dwarf, and everyone knows Dwarves are far to tough to become Pansy vampires. Secondly, and this is more important: I wield the power of the forge god himself. Time to die!" Katra bellows and then launches an attack at the Vampire, which resolves into the form of a pillar of holy light.