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Corliss begins a spell and Kaul keeps hacking at the statue.
Lopper bites deeper but it's slow going. The metal sihedron turns its focus on the nearest foe, Jim. The freezing ray hits Jim pointblank counteracting the haste spell. .
Dingus sends more electrical snake tongues at the head enemy.
Lightning Bolt Reflex (DC17) for half damage
Flicks of the charged tongue.
Then tries to find a good place to hide moving as necessary.
Jim stabs at the construct twice, hitting it a glancing blow and missing with the followup attack.
Dingus darts to take cover behind a pillar while releasing a second electrical bolt at the iron guardian. The bolt arcs unnervingly close to Jim and the target manages to sway to the side and avoid the brunt of the damage but still shoots sparks as it is seriously damaged by the shock. Jim follows with a strike that topples the tottering sihedron from its perch. It clatters to the ground and moves no more.
"Nicely done, mate!" Jim checks the area where it was for anything interesting and/or valuable before climbing carefully down.
Jim reckons that the Pathfinders would pay something for the iron Sihedron automaton though it is a bit bulky being three feet in diameter and weighs about 75 pounds. There doesn't appear to be anything else of value here.
The tracks from the two-toed raiders lead to the back right corner of the temple nearby where a smashed doorway leads into a small, irregularly shaped room contains little more than debris from the smashed door, ages-old dust, and a shaft descending into the darkness.
"Kaul, can you see anything down there?"
Kaul can see that there are rungs attached to one of the walls of the shaft leading down to a chamber about 30 feet below.
"Corliss, I took a couple of shots from that thing. Could you patch me up? Dingus, if you'd magic up a little light we can head down there."
Once everyone is set Jim will climb down.
"Right on it," Corliss replies.
"Aye Captain! How much you need"?
Dingus holds up the mangy monkey claw before grinning and casting light on a nearby piece of debris and handing it to the captain. He then retrieves his anchoring rod, and using it to follow as the others descend.
He wriggles in delight at the healing from Corliss.
Corliss relays some healing and Dingus lights up a bit of rubble. Jim takes the lead and descends. The chamber below is an empty 20x25 foot room with a ten-foot high ceiling. Its walls are covered with fading frescoes depicting a parade of cultists engaged in grisly acts of self-mutilation involving knives, scourges, and more bizarre implements. Dried blood dots the ceiling, floor, and walls. To the east, debris from a smashed wall is scattered, spilling into the room.
Kaul's beady eyes fix upon the wall and brow furrows;
"Looks like summit let in an 'urry or busted in... Could be a nest or suchlike too..."
Either way he clacks his fell claw and readies Lopper...
Based on the two-toed tracks and lay of the rubble, Kaul thinks that the raiders originally came from farther in. He doesn't hear or smell anything nearby. Beyond the busted wall, a 10-foot wide corridor leads about ten feet to the left before turning left again and runs right to the limits of his darkvision.
Kaul conveys his findings;
"Want Ol' Kauly to pop ahead or we takin' this step-by-step lads?"
"Turned out rather disastrous last time went sent Kaul ahead on his lonesome," Corliss points out quietly. "Then again, iff'n we're all to head right in, we'd be needin' light...which'd give us away in an instant."
"I don't think we'll be sneaking up on anything after the fight upstairs...indoor lightning is hard to miss, hey? Let's just go in and be ready for anything."
His mates take Kaul's recent brush with death a bit more seriously than the bloodthirsty brute and follow him out of the room. The ten-foot wide hall beyond leads north and south.
To the north, the 10-wide passage immediately turns west and Dingus' light reveals that the hall opens into another chamber about 40 feet beyond. On the north side of this hall, on a raised platform, stand leathery brown statues of withered and emaciated humans poised as though attentively observing passersby. The statues have a grim, realistic appearance, and each one is flayed and modified in a unique way.
To the south, the hall extends 60 feet and also turns west just at the light's limits.
Kaul surveys the grim archetecture with mako grin;
"Hur. Ain't too keen on the decor lads... Hur-hur... Bit artsy fir Ol' Kauly. We prefers 'em lopped rather than flayed... Hur."
He edges around the hall, letting his slippers do the warning...
Kaul's shoes pinch a little as angry light sparks in the eye pits of the four flayed forms. Two attempt to lurch forward off their bases but disintegrate as the ancient joints give way and collapse into a jumble of dried muscle and yellow bone revealing that the decorations once were living people. Two remain intact and lumber to life with furious purpose.
Madman Jim-
Dingus-
Corliss-
flayed foe-
As his feet pinch, his scarred face twitches into a leering grin;
"Right ye are Lopps! Time we reeee-intro-duce ye like!"
The brute moves to engage the nearest of the two foes and takes a swing;
Kaul swings hard but the windup takes a little bit too long as the withered husk steps inside the arc of his axe.
Jim takes a short step forward and strikes at the creature on Kaul.
The strangeness of the setting takes its toll on his accuracy, though. "Pretty nimble for their age, hey?"
Jim takes a short step forward and strikes at the creature on Kaul.
Jim pierces the one on Kaul, tearing at the petrified skin though the electrical charge does not seem to affect it. A bony claw tears Kaul's face as it turns its baneful gaze upon Jim.
The other creature lunges at Kaul and digs deeply into his arm with its hard withered fingers.
With new scars to add to the old, Kaul focusses and lays a chop at the one prodding his good arm;
Corliss scoots forward to join the fight, moving to a position just north of Jim and then stabbing out with his rapier.
for
"Hey! Mind your own busines"!
Dingus sends forth the gift of Vapor Vipers towards the creature attacking Kaul.
Force Damage
Kaul gets a good chop into the second creature assembled from a flayed corpse with ribs projecting out from its torso and teeth moved from its mouth to project from around its eyes in some sort of twisted artistic endeavor.
Corliss is off-balance as he steps onto the platform to get in range and misses. The arcane bolts that Dingus sends at the thing dissipate without effect hinting at an origin similar as the metal head above.
The Taldan shakes off the creeping paralysis from the creature's fell gaze. "That didn't work, beastie." Then he strikes at it again, his accuracy much improved.
With two brutally precise moves, Jim dismembers the thing made of dried muscle and old bone. The remaining flayed thing slashes Kaul with its good claw and turns its gaze to Jim.
Once again, Jim shakes off the effects of the creature's peculiar gaze.
Jim dodges around the remaining enemy to pin it between him and Kaul before striking.
Corliss steps up to (hopefully) help drop the remaining beastie. The Besmaran quirks one eyebrow as his form is unusually solid.
for
for
Scraped but still scrapping, Kaul adds his axe to the mix;
... but put off by the flashing blades he hits naught!
Jim and Corliss bump briefly as they both lunge forward to destroy the remaining flayed guardian. Jim is knocked slightly off balance but ends up nearly overrunning the desiccated thing as he slips past. It slashes at the sailor opening itself up for Corliss' poke. Kaul misses another swing due to the unorganized press. Jim takes advantage of his flanking spot and delivers another dire hack. The things droops under the continued damage but readies another attack.
"Do I have to do all the work. These aren't in endless supply you know".
Lightning Bolt Reflex (DC17) for half damage
Gentle caress of the flickering tongue.
Dingus yells at his mates to get out of the way so he can blow things up.
The sculpted corpse keeps attacking Kaul with a terrible claw implanted with shards of bone.
The bloody bosun holds his nerve and swings at the musty corpse;
Kaul scorns the raggedy thing's touch and splits it like old dried twigs with Lopper. The dried sinew and old bone crumble across the floor to join the rest of the ancient debris.
Kaul suffers from some deep slashes but can see a large chamber at the end of the hallway. He also detects the stench of rotting carrion from within it.
"Nicely done, mate. But you're not looking good...Corliss, can you patch him up 'fore we move on?"
Kaul grins at the wounds, his voice distant and gravelly;
"Hur. Can't patch what I 'ave Jimmer..."
He wrinkles his snout and nods his no-neck toward the chamber down the way;
"Hur... Awful smell o' offal comin' from down there... Hur. Hur-hur. Offal stink hur..."
The bloody bosun emits a hacksaw chuckle...
The chamber at the end of the hall has much the same feel of the temple above but at a smaller scale, it's about a third the size, with no pillars or basin. Instead, ancient blood stains the splatter the floor and walls in dusty flakes. A mosaic similar to the one in the temple above covers the floor, partially obscured by dozens of naked corpses scattered across the floor. Most are ancient and rotted to the texture of jerked meat like the meat puppets in the hall you just passed through, but a handful are much fresher and bear the marks or torture. Additionally, a five-foot diameter pit fills the center of the star mosaic .
Overlooking this all is an idol that is somewhat different from the one above. It is a female form again but in granite, standing only seven feet tall, and it retains a woman's head portrayed with wild hair painted crimson. Gold colored armor covers the robed form and it holds what looks to be an actual pole arm weapon.
"Well that's not what I expected to see. Never would have guessed".
Dingus casts "Detect Magic".
Beside the background of faint abjuration on the stones themselves to preserve them through the millennia, there is a moderate aura on the weapon in the statue's grasp and a faint aura on the pit.