Vixie squeals as the statue's head begins to move; she ducks behind her shield, peeking just barely over the top.
Her fingers grip her bill more tightly; last time she faced one of these, she had to pry things out of its hands.
She squints; is this one holding anything...?
The statue doesn't appear to be holding anything, but judging from the amount of heat radiating from it, it may not need to wield anything to cause harm.
"Does anyone know the tongue the people spoke in this place?" Khalaban asked, hoping to avoid fighting a super-heated statue of gold, rolling his shoulders in preparation. Perhaps they could talk it down. Surely they would not leave a killing machine with no off switch on a major thoroughfare, or else they kept there children strictly leashed.
Adriana will study the statue looking for s off switch...
Against his usual inclination, Khalaban looked for the off switch.
Both Adriana and Khalaban look the statue over, but Khalaban is the first to notice what looks like a stone button on the creature's back.
Maxilla is at a bit of a loss as the trueblood looks up at the big statue, and then the two piles of gold.
"Could those be from people trying to leave with gold, and the heat incinerated them?" comes the wary inquiry. There's not a lot of time to be dilly-dallying here, but... this is screaming *trap* to all of the senses...
"It could be so," Khalaban agreed. "There is a button on the statue. Perhaps pushing it will turn it off. However, it is on the creatures back. If one of us were to move behind it, I presume it would turn to face the threat and another could move to push said button."
Kitterix swallows nervously. "Looks pretty tough to reach... well, for me at least."
"So it's like the statue in the Crypt, then, with the added bonus of potentially being lofted into a river of boiling gold?" Maxilla offers, pull out their shield and affixing it to their left arm.
"There is that bonus, yes," Khalaban agreed with a smile under his helmet.
As the party starts to approach the statue to turn it off, its limbs shift with a grinding noise and it lurches to life!
Maxilla backpedals a bit to try and guesstimate not being in the reach of a big constructy thing and places a hand on their breastplate, lovingly tracing the symbol while bellowing out something meaningful in Draconic.
Apsu's divine blessing radiates outward from Maxilla, imbuing everyone.
Its primary forms of attack are its two arms, using them to slam into people with great enough force to break bones, but with the additional effect of burning them from its core's sheer heat. Prolonged contact with the Guardian's body will cause additional harm, resulting in injuries as severe as third-degree burns. The intense heat it radiates causes a natural shimmer similar in nature to a desert mirage, making it harder to strike.
A quirk in the imbuing process for its molten core renders the Guardian highly receptive to electrical attacks--such attacks will cause the construct's frame to suddenly accelerate for up to 24 seconds at a time without harming it. However, because of this conductivity, the Guardian's core is highly unstable--if it sustains enough damage to render it nonfunctional, the core will superheat and instantly melt the golem. Considering the golem's size and the quantity of gold used in its creation, you estimate that minimum safe distance for such an event is eleven feet.
Shyla takes a deep breath and a sigh as she examines it.
"I've heard about these," she says. "It's a Golden Guardian. Don't use fire or lightning against it, try to use adamantine if you've got it, and whatever you do, don't stand next to it when we destroy it because it will melt and ruin your day."
"It can resist spells, too, so try to cast forcefully if y'all're going to!"
She frowns. She doesn't actually have much in the way of getting around this-- nothing convenient, anyway.
"I don't know anything about the button on the back, though-- far as I know, that's not a default thing!"
She circles around with her quarter staff in-hand, and tries to shove one end into the button.
Unfortunately for Shyla, the guardian's start-up sequence completes just as she reaches its back, and as it rises up to its full height her quarterstaff strikes one of its armoured portions.
It doesn't seem to have noticed Shyla, at least--its attention is focused on the more-imposing Khalaban. It lumbers forward and swings at him with its fist!
Fortunately, it appears that not all of its rust has been shaken off--the incoming blow is easily dodged!
Vixie's patented Battle Squealing begins in earnest; she raises her shield and takes a deep breath, then lashes out!
"H-hup!!"
Vixie's shield impacts on the golem's knee with a loud CLANG!
It doesn't seem to have noticed.
Khalaban grunted, sliding the blow off his shield - he couldn't take too many shots like that even in full armour. "Melts, you say? Then perhaps I shall coat my shield in it as a memento of this battle, if it wishes to fight to its end. Allow me to play the decoy, since it has chosen me for the role." Khalaban summoned his weapon - more full formed than the previous earth club, more refined - and swung as the dust in the air stopped moving around him.
Khalaban's earthen club crashes against the golem, but it doesn't seem to have done any harm--the club impacted on its armoured pauldron.
Remembering what Khalaban said about the golem having a button on it, Adriana circles around the back and attempts to push it with her curve blade...
...but as she tries, the golem's arm swings back! It's thanks to Vixie's intervention that it doesn't find its mark!
The blade strikes the button dead centre, and it makes a *CLICK* in response.
The guardian's golden glow abruptly fades and its body slouches forward, its head drooping and going still.
Shyla grins as Vixie keeps Adriana un-smacked enough to hit the button, and quickly plants a hand on each of their heads, scritching pleasantly.
"Good girls!" she purrs.
Adriana leans into the head scratches and says,
"We should set camp...I anlm suddenly...tire."
She than thinks
Wait I can't...I didn't see the rules with her
She steps away and says
"Wait, Nevermind we should keep moving."
She looks soo unsure of herself.
Shyla raises an amused eyebrow at Adriana, but decides not to ask any further questions, instead picking up her little samurai and kissing her on the--
Her lips hit armor rather than the back of Vixie's neck.
"...Well, looks like you are well-protected!" she chuckles.
Vixie giggles and wiggles; Shyla's got her under the armpits, so her ability to maneuver is pretty limited.
Whatever it is that Shyla whispers into her fuzzy ear, however, makes her stop rather suddenly and blush intensely.
Kitterix emerges from the back of the party.
"Is it dead?" He asks, his voice shaky.
"Disarmed for now, but not destroyed," Khalaban said as e rolled his shoulders. "But yes, alas, we should keep moving. Rivers of molten gold wait for no one."
With all things said and done, the party resumes their trek deeper into Xin-Grafar.
The sunken city surrounds the group on all sides, their crumbling, gilded facades looming over them in silent judgement of their presence. To walk the long-lost streets of this place is to walk within a grand tomb instead of a place of life, commerce and culture; as a sharp, hot breeze cuts past the party with an almost agonized moan, the silence that follows is deafening.
Though it may look otherwise, this is not a place of honour. A monument to greed, hubris and cruelty perhaps, but not honour.
The party cuts through side alleys and makes their way across broken masonry as they move deeper into the ringed city. Whatever cataclysm resulted in its burial also choked many of its main roads and intersections with impassable rubble. Flickerings of magic radiate from the fallen stonework, with sparks of smothered flame crawling out from beneath it.
After what feels like half an hour of traversing difficult terrain, the party comes across what appears to be the remnants of a smithy, its stone walls just as shattered as the rest of Xin-Grafar's. Its anvil is coated in a layer of gold, but the forge itself is, oddly, blazing as brightly as any modern-era smithy would.
"And to think, I was worried I left the cauldron on at home, and here I find the mess of someone who clearly didn't have that anxiety," sighs Shyla.
"Sustained my magic, or did the cult re-light it for some reason?" Khalaban wondered outloud as he looked around.
Maxilla examines the anvil thoughtfully and intently.
"That anvil is very powerful and can change the very shape and nature of things that are hammered on it."
"Skeletons of some sort!" the trueblood offers as they pull out their morningstar and prepare for potential combat, pointing towards the smithy.
In response to Max's callout, the rattling intensifies!
Emerging from the surrounding rubble of the smithy are seven skeletons, each of them coated in a layer of visibly molten gold. They hiss and rattle as they step forward, bearing gilded, flaming scimitars that are little more than scraps of sharp metal.
Adriana will unleash Fires of Belief on the closest skeleton...
Calistria's flames incinerate the gold-clad skeleton, causing it to melt into a puddle of rapidly-cooling metal.
The smoldragon cleric attempts to figure out a bit more about the skeletons to see if they'd be susceptible to the power of positive thinking....
With little knowledge or certainty, Maxilla entreats with someone unseen as they trace a hand against their breastplate.
In response to Maxilla's prayer, a burst of holy power erupts from his holy symbol. Two of the remaining skeletons rattle violently, but remain intact--the rest cannot be said of the other five. The gold on their bones loses its shine, flakes rapidly and disintegrates--along with the skeletons themselves.
The remaining two skeletons stagger forward, swinging their flaming scimitars!
One flaming scimitar connects squarely with Max's breastplate--and the blade, brittle from fire and age, snaps off at the hilt without harming the kobold. The one swinging at Adriana misses completely.
Shyla watches the blade go spinning off and skittering across the floor. She raises an eyebrow, then shrugs it off and steps forward!
Her style is a little more "baseball bat" than "skilled monk," but there's a fair chance it's effective anyway!
Moving to the other skeleton to give it a little crack upside the head. His magically created earthern weapon took on a distinctly blunt form as it was called.
Khalaban's strike goes wide, but Shyla's quarterstaff scatters one of the remaining skeleton's bones all over the place.
Vixie's shrieking settles to a delighted giggle as Shyla connects; she almost forgets that she's supposed to be helping!
She steps forward and bashy-bashes with her shield!
Vixie smashes the last skeleton standing apart with ease!
As the dust settles, the forge suddenly flares with a burst of magic. The anvil glows with a brilliant intensity, as if awaiting a new weapon to be placed upon its gilded surface.
Khalaban breathed out as the fight ended, and looked at the anvil warily as it sprang to life. "I fear my weapon would be incompatible, summoned as it is from the earth around me. Dare we risk one to see if it functions, and what function it has?"
Adriana will pull out her non-magical Elven curved blade. She says,
"This weapon has some sentimental value to me it is a spare. I don't mind taking a gamble with it unless somebody has less valued weapon?"
Without anybody speaking Adriana will put the Elven Curved Blade 9n the forge and wait...