"Aw well if I have the all clear then waste not."
Unless someone points out a trap or something else of interest he goes through the door to the inner sanctum.
Selena hears no new sounds through the door before Nigrum enters.
A new courtyard opens up before you. Unlike the basic entry courtyard, this is obviously a place of worship. The centre is dominated by a large stone dais with an altar in the centre, on which a massive, six foot longbow rests comfortably. Even from here you can see it is a powerful weapon, the work of a master, bound in electrum wire and gleaming like the sun even in this low light.
Arranged in circles around it are simple stone benches, each covered in thick cushions that form a ring around the central altar. Three more doors offer three more choices, each facing east, west and north much like the others.
Notable here are the walls. The courtyard's walls are whitewashed, and covered there height in scenes from the Holy Works of Sarenrae, most notably the Book of Light and Truth.
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Ayreth follows Nigrum into the room, making a note of the bow. Walking up to one of the walls, she traces a nail along one of the passages painted on the wall. After a few moments, she laughs melodiously as she looks over her shoulder at the bow. "Not exactly subtle, are they?"
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Selena stares at the bow, blinks, and then sighs.
"Really? No one with a bit of common sense would get near something like that. Be it bows, holy relics or pole dancers, you aren't supposed to touch something on top of a dais or something like that." the half-succubus says as she shakes her head.
"Let's go. At least this time it's clear what we should do not to trigger any trap." Selena adds, moving to the northern door while staying as far from the bow as possible.
"Unless it's a unique sword to add to my collection. I am not even tempted."
Nigrum waits for someone to check the next door into the inner sanctum, once given the clear goes forward yet again.
Azri jumped guiltily away from the dais at Selena's words. You'd think she would have learned her lesson by now - touching something she shouldn't have was what had caused her current state to begin with. On the other hand, she wasn't an archer - and more importantly, she said to the little voice in her head that urged her to grab and sell it, they were busy reclaiming this temple for someone else, and that someone probably did care about what happened to the bow. She really didn't need the trouble of pissing off a powerful priest, so with just a bit of regret, she left it alone.
Mihara remains silent for a moment and chuckles.
"Do you mind if I take a second? The bow's obviously a trap, but I'm curious to see what it's been trapped with. It will likely provide insight into the rest of the temple's workings, and it'll be quite useful to have some more inspiration for protecting the shrines at home."
Unless anyone raises an objection, Mihara carefully pads ahead, careful not to trigger anything dangerous, and steering clear of the bow itself.
Aibek followed the group quietly, pausing for a moment in the corridor before joining them in the 'far too bright for this time for the shadow creature room'. Blinking sharply for a moment, Aibek walked around the towards where others were gather at the front door, watching Mihara study the contraption.
As they paused a moment, Aibek quietly thought out loud the observations the witchwolf had noted so far, "Most of these areas seem built to be interconnected and designed to flow foot traffic towards the centre, likely most doors will get us there with the connected paths, and any path could have what...or some of the who we're looking for...and the light levels are... unpredictable beyond each area" . Naturally wary and keenly aware of limitations, Aibek found the observations had various pros and cons for the witchwolf and other members of the group...
There is no obvious relationship between the bow and the writings on the walls, other than the not too subtle hint not to steal what is on the dais. It offers no clues as to what the bow is.
Mihara's search of the surroundings does not turn up any obvious traps or tricks. If there is a trap here, it's more subtle than it originally appears.
"If there's any traps at work here, they're definitely well hidden. I think it would be best to leave the bow undisturbed."
"Well, the priest said these open courtyards alternated with closed rooms, so I guess we won't be in the open of we keep moving forward." Selena says to the witchwolf, while her other companions examine the bow.
When everyone is done inspecting the area, Selena opens the northern doors.
To no one's surprise the doors open into another internal corridor. Two further doors flank the corridors, but the door at the far end is unlike any other you've seen yet - huge, bound in brass and copper, forming the symbol of Sarenrae against a huge sunburst.
"Fascinating! I've never seen anything like this. This is such fascinating architecture!" Mihara exclaims, all but pushing Nigrum and Selena aside to approach the door.
She approaches carefully, wary of triggering anything dangerous, and takes in every detail of the unique door.
Azri followed along behind Yao, keeping watch and checking for both magic and traps as she moved.
"People are often willing to work especially hard for the gods." the lich observed. "The possibility of greater rewards to come can be a powerful motivator, no?"
"True, which is a plus along with unlikely not hitting a dead end, con being unsure if anything can slip past Aibek said while catching up to Selena, glancing over one shoulder while the others examined the door.
"Is it clear, I think I am becoming an expert at opening doors you know. At this rate I will be known across the land as master of the open doors."
Nigrum is clearly getting restless, used to breaking down doors or just doggedly fighting everything until he has reached his target. The only good sign was he retained his humor.
Once he is given the clear he opens the next door towards the inner sanctum.
With no sign of traps on the doors you once again advance. The great doors groan open to reveal a large, open spaced area dominated by a huge statue of the Everlight. Artfully arranged and concealed mirrors reflect even the dying sun's light, making the statue gleam even in the low light. Prayer mats are arranged around the statue, many with a copy of the Book of Light and Truth next to them.
Three more sets of doors lead out of this room, to the North, East and West.
A small alcove by the North doors holds a set of brass machines and controls, artfully arranged into the Sunburst symbol seen throughout the temple.
Otherwise, the area is strangely quiet, with no obvious signs of occupation.
Nigrum looks around at yet another empty room but spots the controls.
"Well I think we finally found the cooling system controls. Anyone with know how on that stuff want to give it a try?"
He stays alert for any enemies that may show up or less conventional dangers.
"I'll take a look and see what I can figure out." Mihara steps up.
"Nice!" Selena whistles at the statue and the arranged mirrors. Noticing the mechanism, hoping to understand the mechanism. "So, uh, let's see, there's this lever here that's connected to that tube there...no wait, to the one up there! And, and..." the half-succubus furrows her brow, trying to concentrate. "If I remember my physics lessons, didn't tubes had to do with Area multiplied with Pi...no wait, maybe square root of the second exponentiation of b minus four times the other two..." Selena mumbles to herself, holding her head.
"Other two WHAT? I give up, call me when you figured it out."
Azri began to pace around the area, using Detect Magic to slowly sweep the place and look for anything that seemed to be out of order, just plain wrong, or cunningly concealed. Honestly, there were rather fewer people in here than she'd been expecting, and she was a bit worried about that... not for her own safety, of course, but for those who didn't have as many chances as she did.
The cooling system seems to be operate by a relatively simple system of valves, controlling the flow of water to each section of the temple. Each area can, therefore, be controlled separately.
However, the valve that controls the flow to the entire temple has been locked off, and then removed. While it might well be possible to find a replacement or bodge an alternative way to control the water, it will likely take time.
"If my instincts are correct, there's more to this that meets the eye. It seems that putting these in the right positions might unlock something... Do you think we should try to open it? I don't want to give the interlopers access to something even more important than this temple, but on the other hand, it could be something that would help us. What do you think?"
"If the valve isn't there, it probably is with the guy we're looking for. If the whole point of starting up again the cooling system was to lure him here, then we're better off finding this combination and hopefully obtain something useful. I mean, you are better off finding the combination: that thing already gave me an headache." Selena says, still visibly shaken by the unusual amount of grey matter she tried to use.
"I'll just stay on guard and hope that someone dumb enough to attack us shows up. One that hopefully has limbs, this time".
Beside that it's no fun if we fight against torches, I bet we could 'persuade' someone a little more normal.
"The way they want to be 'persuaded' is only up to them..." she mumbles to herself, grinning, while watching out for eventual attackers.
"Very well then," Mihara replies, turning back to the device. "Let us see what we can find."
As you spin the wheels of the machine, two things become obvious - there is definitely some kind of locking mechanism, and the missing valve is pat of the combination.
Nigrum turns and moves to place himself between whatever he heard coming behind them and the group. Drawing his great blade as he goes.
"I hear something behind us."
"All right, so we're trying to find this... um... part thing, right?" Azri said, energy crackling around her fist as she clenched it. She thought for a few moments. "You know, if I really didn't want to have the machine run, I'd probably keep the missing part myself... or destroy it. ...I don't suppose anyone could quickly make a replacement part?"
Selena nods at Nigrum "Yes, I've heard it too". Positioning herself near the door, she prepares for hostilities to break out.
"A makeshift replacement part would be possible, but it would take time and-"
Mihara interrupts herself as Nigrum and Selena warn of a coming foe. She draws her swords and turns around, preparing for battle.
Azri quietly stepped against a nearby wall to give herself some cover as she glanced backwards, not entirely surprised that something might have been coming their way. The only real question, though, was... what, exactly, was it? Well, they'd probably have the answer in a few moments...
Aibek, having been standing by the door, turned in the directions the others were looking. The witchwolf quietly walked a few steps into the corridor, eyes darting about, before blending into the shadows to watch what was coming...
Footsteps in the previous courtyard ring out, heavy sandals striking the stones with force. As you watch the doors to the courtyard with the longbow begin to swing shut. Hands can just be seen on the door, fingers poking around the edges.
Azri wasn't the most nimble person around - it was something you didn't really think about when even the total destruction of your body was a temporary inconvenience at worst.
Nigrum knew it was never good to have your exit cut off, much less by an unknown and likely hostile force.
His failure apparent he was not going to let it end there. Not by a long shot, he charged and barreled into the door with his shoulder. His muscles expanding there energy built upon endless battles.
Aibek raced towards the door, growling at whatever was behind the doors, though the witchwolf suspected the low sound was swallowed up by the cacophony of many running feet and the moving doors to have much an affect. Aibek tried to spot anyone in the room beyond while trying to grab the door with clawed hands...
Between several of you reaching the doors before they closed, and Nigrum forcing them back, the doors stop closing and slowly re-open. Within moments the resistance stops and they swing open to reveal the courtyard...and five people dressed in the clothes of the temple guards, scimitars in hand. The infamous Dervishes of Sarenrae.
Rather than trying to keep the doors closed the five have moved back to the dais and taken up position there, but are not moving to attack at the moment.
"What... has overtaken these men?" Mihara asks aloud. "Those are not the eyes of one who thinks clearly."
This must be what Kharl meant by enslaving the temple... Aibek stated, taken aback by the people's appearance for a moment. Tearing amber eyes away from the haunting sight, Aibek looked at each door in the room trying to figure out where they came in - and if there were more - while waiting to see what the enslaved Dervishes of Sarenrae would do.
Nigrum studies the nearest one, but does not attack just yet. He was not a mindless killer and taking on opponents who were being used as puppets was shameful. Still he was not the type to simply let himself be attacked and holding back was not a specialty of his. Those bounties he had collected on living targets were the result of the bounty head being smart enough to surrender before he cut them in half.
"Speak, surrender, or flee. Your choice."
Azri continued to hold back behind the others, her hexes at the ready - she wasn't entirely sure what was going on here, nor why their faces and expressions had gone that way... but it probably would be wrong to kill people based only on suspicion, right? Yeesh, morality was hard... she wouldn't show any mercy if they came to attack, though.
Like the others, Selena waits for the dervishes to answer Nigrum's question.
Let's see...I think I have rope enough to restrain them all. I'm not really in the mood to get blood on my clothes. That, and maybe smacking them on the head hard enough will make them go back to normal.
"Let's try to knock them out instead of killing them, okay?" Selena whispers to the others while waiting for an answer.