Omen looks up from the unfurled scroll and the knowledge of these so-called 'ahkhats' and regards Brennan silently for a moment before nodding. "Very well." He brings the scroll, in addition to the magical one he recovered, with him and stows it in a vellum tube as he readies his crossbow once more.
Yodi looks up from where he has been reading over Omen's shoulder. "Interesting." He pushes his magic scroll through his belt, intending to store it more carefully later and scopps up his spear before following the rogue to the offending door.
Ciyradyl, distracted by her surroundings, looks at Yodi, "What's interesting?" Then she turns to Brennan and quickly agrees, "We should try to catch up to them. Lead the way," she does a quick hand motion, signaling that she will follow.
"I believe he was referring to a type of creature called an 'ahkhat', Ciyradyl. I have never heard of the like before and it may point to the nature of this whole hollow temple."
With but a simple wave of his hand and minor words of arcana, Omen easily deciphers the contents of the two scrolls to be the spells detect secret doors and remove paralysis respectively.
As the group all soon gathers to Brennan's discovery, he finagles with the lock on the door. After a few unsuccessful attempts, the lock finally clicks open to reveal nothing but a short simple hallway ahead, ending in another door.
Yodi looks into the corridor, then steps to the right to look into the library again before returning.
"There's a shoulder's width between this hall and the scroll room. Plenty of space for some kind of trap."
Omen silently notes the nature of the scrolls, deciding to use one of the scrolls back in the high priest's chambers once they've finished with the chamber beyond this short hall.
As Brennan moves forward to inspect the next door, he nods at Yodi's assessment. "Take care, Brennan." Omen waits at the back of the group, his crossbow tensioned and ready, and watches Brennan work.
Ciyradyl gives a big sigh, "Well traps are easily seen once they are sprung. I guess we will find out soon enough," She walks behind Yodi.
Frowning at the others right behind him, Brennan muttered something about not having room to scratch, and peered into the hallway, carefully checking for traps before he moved forward.
Yodi's architectural acumen was rather on point, though Brennan would likely claim the information obvious, as there was indeed a trap residing within the eastern wall. Brennan is able to discern that a large scything blade is set to come down the middle of the corridor where a pressure plate sits. Worse, it was built to retract and reset. Brennan spotted an odd keyhole on the far side, leading him to finding the matching one on this side of the hallway. With a little finagling, he just manages to not only disrupt the trap, but in essence, turn it off.
Moving up past the now disabled dangers, Brennan looks over the next door, and finds it neither trapped nor locked. The inhabitants may have likely considered all the previous locks and obstacles to be enough to protect the next door. Opening it, he notices that this octagonal chamber is empty save for a large metal chest against the eastern wall. A series of hieroglyphs are inscribed on the wall above it. Another stone door is set in the northern wall.
"One of these days I'm going to have to figure out what these picture words mean. Anyone have a clue? If not, I'm going to assume it's something along the lines either of "Abandon hope all ye who enter" or "I prepared exploding runes today". Omen, which is it?"
Brennan did not enter the room yet, waiting on the word from his annoyance, and looking around for signs of more traps.
Omen regards the writing upon the wall silently for a long minute, considering its meaning and implications. "Hmmm. Neither." He turns to Brennan and explains, "The script says, 'The righteous and the holy have no need of staff, rod, or ring. Place your faith in the Good Magister and walk without fear.' Whatever lays beyond, it is a place only the temple's high priest and those he trusted or summoned were permitted to walk."
"Or the Good Magister could be Nethys himself," Yodi muses. "In any case we're not invited. Once I thought I was one of his favored, but no longer. He's let my life be ruined, but the gods haven't been able to kill me yet. I will hazard the door and dare him to end me."
Ciyradyl ponders a moment as she reads, "The Gods and Goddesses decide when we are in their good favor. We have made it this far, we should continue. Besides, no one is completely righteous. Everyone makes mistakes, even the Gods."
She pauses yet again and inhales deeply, attempting to smell anyone or anything that could be lurking near.
Omen nods at Ciyradyl's wisdom, the silent gesture expressing both respect and agreement. He then turns his gaze back to Yodi and adds, "Nethys is no longer here for anyone to challenge, Yodi. The ahkhat may likely be the only living reminder left in this hollow shell. We will likely need to test ourselves against that before we claim that which we've come for."
As everyone has a look at the room, Brennan notices a single set of bloody footprints actually heading south, the way you are coming in. Ciyradyl sees them as well, but points out that there are signs of multiple people heading north toward the opposite door.
"Comers and goers. Interesting." Omen regards the tracks that the pair point out and shakes his head, unable to glean anything from the scrapes and scuffs upon the floor. "Are either of you able to tell how old these tracks are? Did the tracks north precede those heading south? I wonder if this is evidence of numerous people breaching the good magister's inner sanctum and only one limping away to tell the tale."
"Let us be better than they; let us be equal to the challenge."
Yodi shoulders his spear and marches forward to throw the door open.
Ciyradyl can't get a good enough read on the prints to tell the age of any one set over another, but can tell that they are fairly new. Both sets well within a twenty-four hour period. Throwing caution to the wind, Yodi walks up and throws open the next door. Beyond them lie a set of stairs descending into darkness, and ending at a door.
"Yodi, I'm not used to you being so impatient," She pokes his side in a teasing manner. She peers into the stairwell, "Where there lies one trap, another will be my dear friends. Let's take a peak."
"Downwards it is, I suppose." Brennan checked the stairs for traps first, then the door at the bottom before motioning for Yodi to open it.
Neither Brennan nor Ciyradyl notice anything potentially dangerous within the stairwell, or on the door at the bottom.
"I am sick of this place and the gods. I just want to be through with it."
Yodi swings open the lower doors.
Yodi throws open the door in frustration to find a stone bench sitting against the eastern wall of this octagonal chamber. Black tiles line the floor, walls, and ceiling. A short passage to the south ends at a gate of bronze bars. Beyond the bars he can see that there is a larger chamber wherein stands a statue, but in the dim lighting any details are hard to discern.
"This looks like a sanctum. Could be more traps."
Despite the cautious words, Yodi strides into the smaller chamber and looks around at the blank tile.
"What's behind the bars?"
"How large a space is it, Yodi? Take care not to overextend yourself. Brennan has demonstrable skill in finding any traps that may be ahead. Talented as he has proven himself to be, I suggest we let him do his work."
"I can't make out all of the next room, but there is a statue. Some more light would help."
Omen snatches the small stone orbiting lazily around his head from the air and hands it to Yodi. "Perhaps this will serve?"
"Thanks."
Yodi takes the stone, and holding it up, approaches the bars.
Brennan moves in with Yodi, carefully studying the tiles and surrounding area.
Ciyradyl waits to see if Brennan can spot any traps. She lazily scans the room and takes a deep breath.
Looking the place over, Brennan can see no signs of a trap anywhere, but he does easily see that the gate to the south is locked. There is no sign of any traps on it or the space beyond either.
Looking through the gate, Yodi and Brennan can see that, in addition to the bronze gate to the north, pairs of stone doors exit this empty room to the east and west, each emblazoned with black-and-white mask symbol of Nethys. The statue, shaped of rune-carved clay, appears as nothing more than just another statue of Nethys.
"Well, let's see if they jimmied this one."
Brennan fiddles with the lock on the gate, but it wasn't left open, and he has no success himself in getting the tumblers to turn.
Disgusted with the way the lock was being stubborn, Brennan grabbed a dropper of oil and added it to the lock, switched to a different rake and tried again.
When that didn't work, he added a bit of acid to the mix. One more try and then he was just going to have the others beat the gate down.
Omen crosses his arms, watching silently but with growing impatience.
Seeing Brennan having some trouble, Yodi lays a hand on his shoulder and offers encouragement.
While Brennan perseveres, Yodi examines the room beyond for magic.
Brennan spends a lot longer than his pride would care to trying to get the lock on the gate to open. After a few solid tries, he manages to finally get the thing to pop open. While he works on it, Yodi is able to determine that the statue up ahead in the room appears to be holding a magical quarterstaff.
"The statue's staff has creation or energy magic. It is not strong, but it is there. Let's see if we can claim our prize."
Yodi steps into the room while looking around for the nearly inevitable guardian or trap.
Yodi steps just inside the room, looking the place over. He doesn't get much of a look before the gate Brennan just opened abruptly swings shut. The click of it relocking can just be heard over the clang of the gate closing.
"That isn't good."
Brennan grabbed his lockpicks again and set to work on the gate lock once more, hoping to get the thing open before something bad happened to Yodi.
Yodi looks back at the gate, then, jerks his head in a quick survey of the room. The quick movement seems to overbalance him and he props himself up with his spear.
"Are you going to settle me now, Nethys?"
Having found the way to bypass the lock previously, Brennan is able to easily pop it back open, allowing the gate to open once more. There is no reaction to Yodi question, as all seems still except for Brennan and the reopened gate.
Brennan stood firmly against the gate, not allowing it to swing closed again.
Omen shakes his head at the staff, "No, if the magics are not strong, then I do not think that is the prize we seek. If you wish to claim it however, Yodi, be my guest." His tone shifts slightly, more ominous and low, "Be mindful of your surroundings though. We have already seen traps above and also have yet to encounter the ahkhat. Now is not the time for recklessness."
Yodi looks back at the others then shrugs. He strides forward, looking right, left, up, and down. He stops in front of the statue.
"I missed you for a long time. Even after you abandoned me and the breadth of your betrayal became clear."
He reaches out for the staff.
Holding the gate open, Brennan feels very little in the way of pressure, until after a few short seconds later. Suddenly the gate feels like it's pushing back at him, but not that hard. Something about the gates is causing them to try to close after sitting open for a little bit.
While Brennan holds the gates, Yodi decides to step forward and claim the prize from the statue of Nethys. As the pocked and emaciated man steps further into the room, the statue shifts smoothly to look at him, the mask or the fact it is a statue belies little in the way of how it feels about Yodi's presence in the chamber. Its stance shifting to hold the staff before it menacingly, however, speaks volumes. As it moves, the group easily decides it is another guardian of the premises, and spring adroitly into action.
Omen steps forward to hold the door and nods to Brennan, "Go. You and Ciyradyl will be move effective against this trial than bolts from my crossbow. Leave the door to me."
HP: 14/16
AC: 12 (11 T / 11 FF)
CMD: 10
F/R/W: +3/+2/+5 (+2 vs death effects)
Resist 7: acid, cold, fire, electricity
Omens used (swift demoralize): 0/1
Black Motes used: 7/8
Shield charges remaining: 14
Spell Slots Used
Level 1: 7/7
Ongoing Effects
As a native Osirian from a previous age, Omen recognizes the statue as a Graven Guardian. They are clay constructs animated to protect holy sites. Each one is known to have different enchantments on them based on the deity they represent, and that they are hardy warriors.
Yodi swings his spear up to knock the statue's staff aside and thrust at its body.
..