Seeing Gad hold his ground and not charge ahead not only surprised Qina, but it gave her an idea. She reached into her spell pouch and grabbed a small slab of butter as she focused her attention on the ground in front of Gad. And then she waited...
The guardian lumbers forward, building up speed and raising its arms to smash down on Gad'larr. Qina calls out some arcane words, the butter in her hands disappearing and becoming a large grease puddle in front of the construct.
It crashes to the ground and skids before Gad, coming to a stop well within striking range. Something crunched within it and it is slow to get up. The heat it exudes is just as powerful as that coming from the canal below, and in fact the shimmer from the haze is making its form indistinct and blurry.
Bel, feeling the heat sharply on his pale skin, evokes Pharasma's protection and moves amongst the party bestowing the blessing on each of them.
Brezik runs up past the Strange statue, trying to jump over its flailing and arms, he stops and turns around. Waiting for one of his allies to distract the creature from him he holds his axe up in the air weighing his options on where to hit the thing.
Gad steps to flank the golden creature with Brezik and flurry strikes with his sword, hesitant to touch the creature directly.
"NOW! HIT IT NOW!"
+flurry!
+flurry!(Costs 1 ki point)
Crit Confirm?
Despite the heat shimmer of the construct Gad'larr and Brezik are able to hit it multiple times, piercing its thick armored hide, though not as effectively as you might hope. Gad'larr does manage to get his sword into its joints and do some more effective damage, but it continues to move to stand. Allister and Gad's final attack are stopped by the monster's armor.
Vivian moves in, but does not have the leverage to adequately hit the construct with all of the moving bodies and the puddle of grease.
Standing behind the others, Qina decided to wait and see what happened. She wasn't sure how effective the rest of her magic would be and with the thing surrounded and laying on the ground, she just waited gripping her spear with both hands.
The construct shakily gets to its feet, taking care not to slip any more while glaring at Gad'larr with its face-plate.
"This guy's too hot! Hit him with something COLD!"
BRGGGGHHH!!!!!
Belathorian, Gad'larr, Allister, and Brezik all descend on the construct with enormous weapons. Vivian can't quite tell where it is from all of the heat shimmer coming off of it, but attempts to hit it anyways.
Despite the thickness of its armor everyone's concerted attack brings it down. Strangely it glows brighter, and brighter before exploding outwards 10 feet in molten gold.
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Vivian tries to dive out of the way as the golden construct shutters and explodes.
As the gold sears into everyone's skin, Vivian's mind goes first to her armor. It appears ok.. poor metal, these golden speckles must have hurt huh?'
"Gather around." Once everyone is ready, she'll channel positive energy on the group.
As the statue seems to stop moving Brezik notices that it is starting to glow. Curious at what is happening he leans in for a better look. He looks up at Vivians warning, but it is too late...
"Good wor...AGGHHHGGHHhhh!"
Gad collapses somewhat under the unexpected weight of the molten gold, despite the spell of protection and his fast reflexes.
Once you are on the bridge itself you notice it is slightly cooler here than you would expect, and noticeably not covered in gold.
After the explosion Brezik just looks up his face covered in a thin layer of spattered molten gold. He reaches up and grabs ahold of a piece and yanks it off with a loud yelp. The spot where it comes off leaves a red angry burnt spot. He looks down at the piece of gold in his hand a piece of skin still attached.
Guys. I don't feel so good.
Getting up, Gad tries to ignore the searing pain of the gold plastered to his skin.
"They were here...fought another 'gold man.' They must replace themselves. Look around. There may be a way to shut off this creation. They must come from the channel under the bridge."
Bel turns his head to Viv just as the construct detonates, molten gold spatters across one side of his white face.
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Vivian makes sure Gad, Brezik, and Bel are close. "We'll have to look out for that kind of stuff in here I guess, everything seems to be associated with gold somehow. Good news is gold is a metal," she then gets a grin, " so it can't be all that bad for you. Plus we might have a small fortune just in our skin once we're out of this place. Focus on accepting the metal into your being..." She bows her head again and the pain of the party's wounds fade away in a series of pulses.
...
Brezik absentmindedly scratches at the psyche of new skin where a moment ago had been a horrible looking burn.
And if we stick around here talking too long we'll have more gold than we'll know what to do with. Hehe!!! We could all be Gold Statues.
Brezik laughs like he's told a particularly funny joke. After a moment he quiets down.
Back to work I suppose.
The dwarf looks at Gad an nods as he drops into a low stance to take up his scouting position.
Nodding at Brezik, Gad moves to keep up.
"Everybody stay here for now. We'll check the far end of the bridge. We will see if there are any other obstacles or traps. Maybe there is a way to prevent more Gold Guys from popping up later as well."
Following the trail of the Razmirans you follow the road another hundred feet north and find yourselves at the first intersection from the map. Walking into the intersection you feel a change in the air around you before a large column of flame bursts from the center. It burbles in a sound like firey magma and moves to attack!
Qina did not like fire. She knew Brezik did, had seen him wield it like a weapon against metal while working at the forge, but she had seen what it could do to flesh.
She hurried forward to stand with her friends...well, slightly behind her friends. She wasn't quite as brave as they were, but it was her job to protect them. She reached out to touch Brezik, quickly drawing a little flame on his rear end while calling out to the frost to protect him.
The fire spews more magma speech and charges Brezik!
Because of Qina's spell Brezik avoids getting burned by the creature's attacks, and his natural skill avoids him getting caught on fire, but the force is still behind the blow and injures him just the same.
Something in what the elemental said brought bile to Belathorian's mouth, with a curse he moves to flank the creature, calling on Pharasma's blessing. As he does so cold mist begins to coruscate and fall from the blade of his scythe, frost crystallizes up the handle.
Hearing the language of fire, Gad's eyes widen in understanding as he slips into Dragon Style!
Taking a 5 foot step to get inside the reach of the elemental that just charged, Gad then flurries with his sword hoping he can hurt the thing!
+Flurry
Brezik casts a glance at Qina then back up at Allister and Vivian. The dwarf takes a deep breath and steps forward trying to work his way into a flanking direction opposite Beltharion.
KEEP YOUR EYES ON ME YOU OVER GROWN CAMP FIRE!!!!
More focused on trying to distract the creature from other targets his swing comes no where near the monstrous elemental before him.
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Allister's eyes go wide. He suddenly remembers the burning church, his arm blistered black and weeping. When his friends charge headlong at the creature, their courage strengthens him in turn.
He steps past Qina towards the fiery being, then swings his blade like he always does.
"You are only fire - we are Fleepers of the Kame!" Allister bellows, hoping to intimidate the elemental.
Qina stepped forward and repeated her spell of energy resistance, this time on Allister. Drawing the same little flame on Allister's back, Qina once again summoned the power of the frost.
The fires that make up the elemental glow brighter than they were with Vivian's words as scorching laughter fills the air, the merry crackling and popping of a hundred campfires at once. Gad'larr and Allister both hit the living flame, though it moves around their weapons without being much affected by the looks of them.
It continues its assault on Brezik, ignoring the rest in favor of its initial target.
Fire engulfs Brezik and nearly sets the dwarf's beard on fire, though Qina's protections hold strong and stop him from being burned.
Taking another step within the creature's reach, Gad keeps his sword swinging!
+Flurry!