...you notice you have a habit of doing that.
Tilting his head, Khalaban pointed the statue. "There is something...alive...about that things eyes. Is it magic of some kind?"
Adriana will cast detect magic...
Bertrand considers the shields. "Home and family. Another puzzle, perhaps? Or just a very conceptually on-the-nose work of art?"
”O-on the nose? D... d-do we have t-to put the shields on M-Mister Kassen’s nose, d-do you think?”
"It is definitely magical of some sort...I admitted my knowledge is very limited when it comes to magic in general though."
Max squints really hard to see if they can figure anything out about the magic.
Vixie considers for a moment, then flips her bill around and pokes the shields with the butt of it. If nothing happens, she tries poking around the statue itself.
Adriana gives a bored sigh and walks up to the statue...
Vixie approaches the large wooden statue and pokes one of the large tower shields with the butt of her bill.
No sooner does her weapon connect with the shield than the sound of creaking wood fills the air. The large statue's limbs twitch and begin to move with purpose--its arms pull back, raising the tower shields into the air...
...and its head turns to look at Vixie before it angles the shields to strike the halfling.
Vixie gives a yelp, falling back a few feet. Her bill isn’t facing the right way—but that doesn’t mean she can’t protect herself with it! Her muscles tense, and she prepares herself to flail strategically.
Maxilla sighs, gets out his sling and loads it.
The wooden statue of Kassen takes aim at Vixie before trying to strike her with its shields...
...and were it not for her nimble dodging, they surely would have struck her. She dances between the shields as they come down.
Adriana activates Elemental Assault:Fire and attacks the statue.
Bertrand loads and fires his crossbow.
Adriana flails wildly with her blade, perhaps taking some inspiration from Vixie.
Bertrand's shot flies straight and true, hitting the wooden statue in its chestpiece. The bolt, however, doesn't go as deeply in as he hoped.
Unable to charge across the lowered floor, Khalaban lumbered up on the far flank of the creature, giving it both another target and an advantage to those fighting it.
The statue notices Khalaban as he approaches and swings the "FAMILY" shield at him...
...and the shield smashes into the man's ribs.
As the statue turns to focus its attention on Khalaban, Vixie lunges forward with her bill, trying to wedge it between the statue's fingers and its shield-- and hoping, if she twists her wrist just right, she can pry it loose, rather than just giving the giant something new to hold on to.
Vixie tries to yank one of the shields out of the statue's grip, but her bill fails to find purchase.
The kobold scampers to the edge of the raised floor and whips his sling at the statue!
The rock strikes the statue square, but bounces off without hurting it.
The statue turns on Vixie & Adriana after her wild flailing, swinging one shield towards each of them...
Vixie dodges the shield marked "FAMILY", but Adriana gets clipped by the shield marked "HOME".
Bertrand takes aim at the statue.
Khalaban grunted as he took the blow, and then formed and swung his own weapon.
Bertrand's bolt sticks in the statue, and Khalaban's weapon strikes it square. In both cases, neither attack appears to have hampered the statue much.
Vixie wails as Adriana is struck, and swings her bill in a quick motion while the statue is pulling its shields back, moving back into doing her best to defend herself as soon as she can.
Vixie's strike barely glances off one of the shields as it pulls back.
Maxilla, disheartened by the lack of impact his sling bullet has, opts to try a different approach.
His prayer is answered as a surge of healing energy bursts forth from him...
...fixing Adriana's & Khalaban's wounds somewhat.
The statue swings at Vixie twice, seeing as how she came so close to striking it...
...and she deftly dodges both shields.
"Thank you, Maxilla!" Khalaban called out, switching his blade to a Slashing form and trying again.
Khalaban's swing goes wide.
Adriana's blade bites into the statue's wooden arm, leaving a vicious cut!
Bolts won’t do much...and I’m down to a single spell. Bertrand takes a moment to consider the statue. Could there be some puzzle here, something related to the words on the shields?
The shields appear to be mounted on the statue's hands, but not too securely--it's entirely possible to get them off. Could this have been another test? Could getting those shields off the statue stop it from attacking?
Either way, those tower shields could've been quite useful back in the arrow pillar room.
“The shields! Remove them!”
Vixie nods at Bertrand, then turns her attention back and gives it another go, trying to pry the shield from the statue’s fingers.
The statue notices what Vixie is trying to do, and swings a shield at her to stop her--only for the bill to catch the "FAMILY" shield's top edge. With a mighty yank, Vixie rips it from the statue's hands--and takes one of its hands with it. Apparently, one of her swings actually hit beforehand.
Maxilla grins and gets behind Khalaban. "That's one! Try to get the other!" He offers as encouragement.
Unfortunately, it appears encouragement is all he can offer.
The statue swipes at Vixie with its other shield!
And she nimbly dances aside!
Adriana will take a swing at the wooden thing to distract it from Khalaban attempt...
Bertrand moves up and slaps the statue indignantly with his gauntlet.
Khalaban lashed out, hoping to take advantage of the flanking and Bertrand's potential interference. He reached out to grab the shield
Khalaban tries to grab the shield with his hand, but it gets pulled out of his reach.
Vixie's face screws up in determination as she lunges forward again, trying to pop it loose like she had its twin.
The statue swings its remaining shield at Vixie--and her bill catches it mid-swing.
With a quick tug, she yanks it out of its hands, causing it to land on the floor with a *CLANG!*. The statue abruptly stops moving.
Vixie pants and takes some time to wipe the sweat off her face-- and replenish herself with a few swigs from her waterskin. "I-is everyone okay?"
Khalaban straightened up and winced. "I fear I am going to need a new brain before this place is done with us, and perhaps new kidneys as well. It caught me rather well."
Vixie smiles. ”M-Mama Kasumi makes a g-good kidney pie! ...W-we don’t have any b-brain recipes, though...”
"Shall we head to the south, then? I think it's best we keep those shields in front of us as we proceed."