Gordon's arrow flies true, and spreads deep cracks across his target!
Layali maintains her witch's bolt on statue #2.
Nathadriel continues his attack on the first statue.
,
Leifa will continue to attack the same statue, hoping to land a hit
,
,
Layali's lightning continues to weaken the second statue! Nathadriel misses, but Leifa manages a hit on the first statue and it breaks apart!
The last remaining statue attacks Nathadriel!
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It comes close, but the cleric manages to get his shield in front of it just in time!
The party focus-fires the last statue, breaking it to pieces!
"What was that about? Where did those things come from?"
Gordon searches the area for the gargoyles' tracks.
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Gordon finds no recent tracks from the statues; he'd guess that this was the first time they moved in a good while.
Layali tries to examine the remains to see if there is anything more she can learn about these stony foes.
Nathadriel examines what remains of the statues, pointing out traces of blood in the rubble.
"Hmm...I'd thought they were some kind of guardian of whatever used to be here, but these seem to be living creatures. They bleed, look. Perhaps they've just moved in to prey on travellers.
Let's rest a while before pressing on to the next building. I'd rather conserve our magical healing given the dangers we've already found here."
"Good eyes Nathadriel!" Layali says as she examines the remains after they are pointed out. "Fascinating."
"They were living? That's unsettling. I wish we had known that before we attacked." "I wonder how long they've been here and if the hilvans put them there?"
"I'm up for a short rest before moving on."
You all sit down on the hilltop for a while, recouperating from your battle. While resting, Nathadriel and Layali examine the statues' remains, discovering blood but otherwise noticing very little of interest; they're made of solid stone, save for the little bit of blood in the places where they broke. That fact itself is perhaps slightly odd; earth elementals aren't usually shaped like men-at-arms, and golems generally have clear joints and such. You're not sure what's really going on with these things.
Continuing onward, you reach the staircase that descends behind your destination. The pit-like terrain in which the structure is centered is about 60 feet across in any given direction, and the ground is muddy, marsh-like and buzzing with flies due to the inability of rainwater to drain away quickly.
The building itself is a single-story, flat-topped building. It's roughly square-shaped (35ft across) with pairs of decorative columns at each corner. Descending the stairs and trudging through the smelly mud around to the front of the building, you see that another pair of columns flanks an open, doorless entryway. From your vantage point outside the building, you can see that there are some bags and boxes inside.
The outer walls of the building are carved in motifs of open skies, sunshine, and wind. The tops of the aforementioned decorative columns are all capped with carvings of puffy clouds.
Gordon steps cautiously inside.
Moving inside, Gordon finds the building thankfully vacant of any apparent creatures. In the dim light available from what sunlight makes it in through the doorway, you can see that someone has converted this into a residence or hideout: half a dozen cheap sleeping mats lie in a row along one side of the room, a few tin plates and bowls lie here and there with cheap silverware and smelly leftovers in them, and plenty of dirty boot-prints litter the floor.
A few boxes and bags sit against one wall. One open-topped box is filled with weapons of various types and quality, another with foodstuffs that seem to be going bad. An open bag appears to contain fabric, perhaps spare clothing? Another large bag is closed, and looks to be full of bulk. A final box is steel-edged and closed, with a padlock lying on top of it.
The walls look to have markings of some sort, but you'll need more light (or darkvision) to make them out.
Nathadriel will join Gordon, once more casting light on his shield to illuminate the room. Unwilling to intrude on another's home, he lingers in the doorway rather than entering.
Gordon searches the weapon box, looking for any that match the style of the dagger they found.
Layali joins Gordon to see if the wall markings have any meaning to her.
Leifa will investigate around the building, including climbing up to the roof if possible. She will look for anything hidden or suspicion or curious.
Nathadriel lights up the room while the others do their searching and investigating.
Leifa investigates the exterior, and notices that, oddly, there are places on the walls (mostly areas that would have been sheltered from the elements a bit by the overhang of the roof) where the surface of the wall's stone features looks like it was carved to resemble wood. Additionally, each wall except the front contains a faintly-visible square area, about the size of a window, where the stone looks natural and uncut rather than carved.
Meanwhile, Gordon investigates the box of weapons, but finds that its contents are entirely modern, and of varied styles and makes. This fact, combined with some of the scabbards having traces of dried bloodstains on them, leads Gordon to the conclusion that this box holds a collection of weapons taken by force from their likely-dead former owners.
Layali takes a look around the inside walls, and sees motifs of open skies and fair weather, populated here and there with airborn winged humanoids. The center of the back wall includes a large pictogram of some kind of bird, beneath which is a small, wall-mounted stone shelf with indentations not unlike those in which one would burn incense, though at the moment the corners of said shelf seem to have been repurposed as hat hooks. Just above the shelf is an inscription in Hilvan, and the ceiling of this building includes an elaborate carving of a stylized sun, right in the center of the ceiling.
Layali sets to trying to translate the inscription.
"Maybe we, uh, should get going before whoever it is comes back."
Pointing at the state of the food-stuffs, "I don't think they are coming back. Whoever they were."
Struck by a sudden inspiration, Layali asks Nathadriel "Did you happen to notice much in the way of weathering or age on the statued remains of those things we fought? I wonder if we could tell how 'old' they were..."
"Or maybe it was old food to begin with, or they've been here a while without resupplying. There's not a market nearby, you know."
"Certainly possible..."
It takes Layali less than ten minutes to translate the inscription, which reads something like:
"House of prayer for the children of the phoenix"
It appears this building used to be some sort of shrine.
Meanwhile, Leifa makes a closer examination of the outer walls, and determines that it looks like the entire outer wall is a single piece of stone. No moving parts, not even any seams.
Leifa will come back around the building to the others. "Well, I didn't find anything interesting out here besides more curious stone architectural design. Should we move on to the next building?"
"Yes, let's."
"This place appears to have been undisturbed for a long time. Perhaps it would be a good, safe place to leave the horses and move on towards the Ziggurat?"
At Nathadriel's suggestion, you leave Gordon's pony here, trek back to where you left the three horses, and climb down to untie them.
It takes a while, but Nathadriel manages to get all three horses up without injuring them, and rides the last of them.
You take the winding path and stairs back to the shrine, deposit the horses, and begin trekking northeast on foot toward the ziggurat, keeping an eye out for other interesting buildings on the way.
After many minutes of walking, you're nearing the central area of the ruins, and see what looks like the back of a building, attached to a hillside nearby, situated a level below you.
"Shall we investigate as a group? Or two of us can run down and see if it's interesting or not. And signal back to the others if it's worth investigating further."
Layali says, "I can investigate. I'll send up a firebolt if you should join me, or I need help."
"I'll go with you. I think it's good to have two along, just in case something happens."
"We might as well investigate. But I'll look for a better path, in case we need to retreat quickly."
Layali and Leifa clamber down the hillside, while up above Nathadriel watches Gordon looking around and scratching his head.
Examining the walls that seem built into the side of the hill, the ladies see flat stone walls, decorative columns, and rectangular areas about the size of windows, but without any actual opening. It's much like the shrine you recently left, but without the sky-themed carvings across its surfaces.
Looking for any kind of door or inscription, you continue around the corner, out of sight of the menfolk.
Coming around the corner, you see a grizzly sight: several human corpses with obvious, bloody wounds lie haphazardly, almost piled, on the ground next to the hillside/building. No sooner do you come upon them than they stand up, moaning, with their eyes rolled back in their heads.
Nathadriel and Gordon hear movement and several moaning voices from around the corner, out of sight, where Layali and Leifa went.
Nathadriel heads after Leifa and Layali.
Gordon hurries after the ladies, in case they need his help.
Nathadriel and Gordon tumble recklessly down the hillside, getting facefuls of dirt and grass at the bottom. Gordon in particular lands hard on his face. They pick themselves up and move forward, not quite reaching a place from which to see their comrades.
Leifa strikes at the zombies!
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Leifa hits one of the zombies twice, but it still stands!
The zombies edge forward, arms extended, grasping at Leifa and Layali!
The sea of grasping arms surrounds them, with one zombie getting hold of Leifa and two on Layali!
Layali drops an acid splash on the two zombies holding her! "GET OFF ME!" she shouts!
,
,
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Layali flings acid desperately into the mass of bodies threatening to engulf her!
Not surprisingly, they fail to defend themselves and their flesh sizzles!
Meanwhile, Leifa tries furiously to beat back the zombie horde! She gives it a whack with her staff, misses with a knee, then lands her palm in its chest!
Large chunks of zombie go flying back from the force of Leifa's ki strike!
Damage Tally (A=on Leifa, B=on Layali)
B1: 5
B2: 5
Gordon rushes around the corner, and takes a shot at a zombie grabbing Layali.
Gordon puts an arrow in a zombie!
Damage Tally
B1: 10
B2: 5
Nathadriel casts bless, his prayer continuing as he readies his shield and moves forward towards Leifa and Layali.