The clockwork's halberd almost takes Cathyriel's head off, and the return stroke nearly finishes the job.
Bleeding badly, the flame-haired half-elf steps out of the fight to heal up.
The spiritual ally continues to attack, moving to flank with Terana.
Wincing as Cathyriel is almost laid low Terana strikes twice, hoping to finish the fight quickly.
Between the spiritual ally and Terana's glaive strikes, you finish off the clockwork soldier. It clatters to the floor, releasing its grip on its halberd.
Terana stows her glaive and tries the halberd.
"A good weapon, not quite what I'm used to though."
Gideon breathes a sigh of relief as the thing falls, glad that it didn't have the chance to lay Cathyriel low before they were able to finish it off. After a moment, he looks at the other three, mix of hurt, regret, and vexation in his voice and his eyes. "Geez, fine, what do you guys want from me?! Wanna rush headlong through every enemy between us and Onthooth, not bothering to try and find stuff that might make that fight easier for us? Peek in a room and if there's nothin' in there breathing and attacking us as soon as it sees us, move on, screw any chance to learn or find something helpful? Y'think I wanna get people stabbed or bludgeoned or cut up?" Gideon says, clearly frustrated with what he perceives as a personal attack and a ganging up.
He stops, taking a deep and shaky breath, trying to regain control. When he speaks again, there is still clear frustration in his voice, though it's more measured. "I told all of you what my intent was, that I was tryin' to make sure the clockworks were disconnected from the charging station. Any one of you coulda told me not to, none of ya did. I don't think any of us would've thought any of these things coulda still been ready to fight after being dormant for probably thousands of years. We've all been together a long time now and there's been plenty of times when my wanting to explore has helped us find stuff that ended up being useful, too, whether it be gear for us or those ore deposits and materials we found to help build the colony up. Nobody complained about me wanting to look around then. But, fine. If I need express permission to investigate somethin' in every new place we come to, fine. Have it your way."
With her hands newly emptied Terana raises them, palms forwards to show her surrender against Gideon's tirade.
"You're right Gideon, looking around has been plenty helpful before. My concern is that in places like this, and back at the witches tower, that looking around and sating curiosity is giving our enemies more time to prepare. If we're lucky then they won't take it, but I feel like that's a big risk. I'm not an expert though - I never even notice most of the stuff you look for, I'm all about threats and stopping them."
She gives a lop-sided half smile. "You have to admit, poking around has caused a huge number of unexpected fights for us... We do get good weapons out of it every so often though!"
After another deep breath, Gideon quirks a slight smile. "I'm not gonna deny that my curiosity has gotten us in trouble before...like back at that observatory. It's not my intention to cause problems though...I'm really not tryin' to get anybody hurt. As for givin' the bad guys more time to prep, I'll give you that. It's definitely a delicate balance...moving quickly gives them less time to get ready, but it does the same for us, and gives us less time to make sure we aren't gonna get ambushed from behind."
He turns his attention to Cathyriel and bows his head. "My apologies to you, Cathyriel. Seems like lately you've been taking the brunt of the blows my curiosity can bring. My intention has never been, and never will be, to get you hurt. I was really just tryin' to disconnect them so that something like that wouldn't happen."
Cathyriel shrugs, and quirks a half-smile at the apologetic archaeologist. "I appreciate that, but I'm a soldier. Harm's way is where I belong."
She spends a moment in prayer, and her wounds close over. "There. Not so bad."
"Don't burn through all your magic Cathyriel." Terana says, stepping forwards. "I can help out too and save your abilities for other situations."
With a nod and the return of his usual smile, Gideon looks toward the exit. "Well, now that I've pitched my fit for the day...shall we continue on?"
Assuming everyone is alright with it, Gideon advances to the open corridor in front of them, slowly peeking around it to make sure there's nothing there waiting on them before he investigates the double-doors across from it.
Gideon can see another hallway extending to the west with a set of doors halfway down its length. It appears to open up into a larger hall further along featuring what appears to be a fountain, but more details are lost in shadows.
The double doors open onto a vast chamber. Three fifteen-foot-tall cylinders of polished bronze each stand on a dais in this long, curved room. The bronze shells look sturdy and heavy, and sizzling arcs of lightning can be seen and heard dancing along the surfaces of the containers. Silvery lines set into the floor connect these containers, and tiny embedded crystals pulsate with a dim light every few seconds. Each pulse of light stops at three levers installed on the wall.
As they enter the room, Gideon does his best to contain his awe at the grandeur of the chamber, though his widened eyes make his mental state fairly clear. Slowly taking it all in, he tries to discern all the details of the things around him; the arcs of electricity and silvery lines, the pulsing crystals...and finally, the three levers. Looking over the device, but deliberately not touching any part of it, Gideon reports to the others.
"I...I think this is some kind of generator that taps directly into the earth for energy. By which I mean, it uses the energy of the planet's rotation and the energy inside the Golarion itself as a power source. It doesn't seem to be functioning right now...some kind of massive power surge overloaded it."
"Just a guess, but it was probably Earthfall. We know the Azlanti knew it was coming from things we've already seen around Ancorato and that would definitely have been a strong enough seismic upheaval to overpower this generator."
He pauses a moment before continuing. "I'm fairly confident that either Tobar or I could jury-rig the device so it could be safely restarted if we spent a minimal amount of restoration time with it. My vote on that is fairly obvious, I'm sure, but as promised, I will respect the decision of the group."
"Presumably this would re-power all the machinery we've seen before," says Tobar. "Which could be good or bad. Maybe more constructs to fight - bad. Maybe access to areas that we otherwise wouldn't be able to get into - good."
"Well, remember I disconnected all the constructs in that room before. At the very least, the ones that are still there shouldn't attack us immediately...unless they can draw power remotely somehow. If we DO decide to power them back up, we could hook them up one at at a time and make sure they're not gonna attack outright."
"We could go check that forge we first were in, too. See if there's anything that can be done there if we decide to power things back up."
"Let's check first." Terana suggests. "Once we know what's likely to be powered up we can come back here and get it started. Charge things as we rest and then hopefully face Onthooth with allies or extra tricks..."
She hopes that compromise is one that everyone can fall in line on.
"Agreed. Finish lookin' around above the water first, take out any obvious threats, then turn the machine back on."
"So, where next?" Terana asks, scanning the room for other exits.
"Let's check down that hallway across from us." Gideon suggests. When they reach the double-doors midway down it, Gideon checks to make sure there aren't any voices inside before opening the door.
Two stone cabinets stand against the south wall of this chamber. A few ancient robes lie crumpled in the room amid fine, colored dust and other debris. One of the surviving robes is magical and sewn from blue silk. An eye-shaped symbol is embroidered on the vestment in silver thread. Decorated in the same way and constructed of wool dyed a similar hue of blue is a second magic robe with a lightning bolt motif and a third magic robe adorned with patches in orderly rows. On one of the shelves, an magic silk shirt is decorated with similar embroidery.
Double doors exit to the east.
"The blue robe with the lightning motif is a Shocking Robe. The third one is a Robe of Useful Items with some...kinda weird things in it. The scroll is nice, as is the potion. But a window? And a mule? Guess they might prove useful eventually, though..." he comments.
"The other two, I have no idea. We'll have to wait until we find someone with more knowledge of the craft than I have."
When the others are ready, Gideon moves to the adjoining double-doors to check them out.
The doors look safe. Gideon hears only silence on the other side.
Terana waits, glaive poised to enter the room first.
When everyone seems ready to go, Gideon opens the door, moving with it so that he can follow Terana and Cathyriel into the room and back them up, should combat ensue.
Stone shelves on the walls of this storage room are full of jars and vials of different sizes. A sweet but musty smell hangs heavy in the air.
"Not much in here..." Terana comments, glancing around. "Who's going to wear those robes?" She asks, turning to the more interesting matter of the ancient magical items. "Tobar, could you use the robe of items?"
"Whoops!" Gideon exclaims, immediately stepping backward off of the plank his foot was on. "Careful. This floor feels very unstable. I wanna check those jars and vials, but not without a rope around my waist and someone holding fast the other end. I'll take my armor off, too...that'll help reduce the weight more. I'll check them by myself. No reason to risk more than one of us falling."
Even as he says it, he is removing his cloak and his mithral shirt. "Someone look in my haversack, I've got a 50-foot length of silk rope in it."
Terana extracts the rope and passes it around her waist, leaving a few feet behind before kneeling down and taking a firm grip.
"You won't move me." She says with a smile. "Off you go."
Braced with the rope, Gideon navigates the room without incident. The shelves contain a bottle of air, a block of incense of meditation, 2 oils of align weapon (law), 4 oils of magic weapon, 3 oils of protection from chaos, 3 oils of resist energy (electricity), 5 oils of shield of faith (CL 6th), 3 oils of touch of the sea, 3 oils of water breathing, and a platinum pitcher shaped like a giant bee (worth 2,500 gp).
Cathyriel's eyes widen as she takes in the trove of magic that Gideon has located. "Some of that is powerful indeed! I am sure it will come in handy."
"Agreed! It's quite the trove. The water breathing and touch of the sea oils in particular might be useful very shortly." Gideon affirms.
"Let's head down that corridor opposite the generator room we went by next. I want to make sure there's nothin' in there that can sneak up behind us." Assuming there are no objections, Gideon heads down that hallway to the doors midway down the length of it, listening for any noise inside.
Gideon hears no sounds and finds no traps before opening the doors.
The smell of oil and grease fills this room, where armor-plated statue heads, limbs, and torsos as well as gears of all sizes have been placed on stone shelves. Beautifully crafted plates of platinum and intricately gilded steel give them roughly human appearances and musculature, but their exposed backs reveal hundreds of fine gears of chrome and steel.
A nearly complete body consisting of similar gears and armor plates lies face down on a stone table with a large key embedded in a clockwork mechanism in its back. The body has a vaguely feminine appearance.
Gideon eyes the construct for a few seconds, then looks to the others. "So...how would you guys feel about winding her up? No obvious weapons nearby, missing a leg...even if she were to attack us, I seriously doubt she'd give any of us any more than a scratch before we brought her down. And if she doesn't attack there's a good possibility that we could learn something important." he asks the others.
"Maaaybe secure it first," suggests Tobar. "Can't be too careful."
"Well...I suppose we could use my rope to tie her wrists behind her back, but she might see that as a hostile action when we turn her back on; any chance at diplomacy would be lost. And since she's really not human, but a machine, there's no guarantee that she wouldn't be able to snap silk rope like twine, anyway."
"Risky though it may be, I can't see her doing too much damage as she is. Pussy-footing around isn't going to guarantee our safety. But as I said, if y'all want to secure her better, we can tie her up. Just not sure it's the best way to say hi."
"I'll stand behind it just in case." Terana offers, taking up position to strike the construct down if it proves hostile.
Cathyriel sighs wearily. "What could possibly go wrong? Just remember that I'm low on casting. There won't be another angel to save you this time."
Gideon nods to Cathyriel, thinking it over for a few more moments. "I know we're low on spell-power in general, but...I've just got a feelin' about it. I don't think she's a danger to us, and Terana's position will make it easy for us to get a first strike, should it prove necessary." he answers.
Unless anyone stops him from doing so, Gideon moves to wind up the clockwork key on the automaton's back, then steps backward away from it.
The clockwork woman animates and slowly sits up. After spending a few moments observing her surroundings, she tries to stand up, but then she looks down and realizes she's missing a leg. She looks back up at you. "Well met, visitors," she says in Azlanti, her tone flat. "I am Aoinse. What brings you here?"
Gideon releases a quiet sigh of relief. Didn't seem like there was going to be a fight after all.
"Er...well met, Aoinse. I am Gideon, and these are my companions Tobar, Cathyriel, and Terana. We are here because we are tracking a group of people who were kidnapped from our settlement on the nearby main island by a band of ugothols. As best we can tell, they were brought to somewhere in this cathedral."
"I see," Aoinse says, her tone unchanged. "I will assist you in any way that I can, but I am afraid I am unaware of recent events as I have been dormant for some time. Could you tell me how long it has been and what has transpired during that time?"
"Well...at this point that's kind of a difficult question to answer. When was the last time you were active?"
Aoinse pauses for a moment before speaking. "It was a tribe of great upheaval. I remember the cataclysm. It was late afternoon. The sky was on fire and rocks burned through the atmosphere on their way to the ground. There were earthquakes and forest fires. The Kelveth River that flowed between Shaval-Kehn and Kalas-Ti was choked with burning debris. It swelled beyond its banks and rushed back upstream. Ash and deadly gases filled the air, killing many of the priests. Some of them were able to leave the cathedral in time, but since they never returned, I can only assume they perished, too. I couldn't feel my connection to Amaznen—I still cannot—and I suspect it was the same for the other priests."
She looks back at Gideon. "Does that help narrow down the time frame?"
Gideon takes a long, slow breath, trying to formulate the words. "This...this is going to be a bit hard to swallow, and there's really no other way to say it than to just say it, so...here goes. The event you describe is one that we know as Earthfall. The calendar that we now use is based on the founding of a city called Absalom; a year we designate 1 AR. The present year is 4,719 AR. By our closest estimate, Earthfall occurred in -5,293 AR."
Aoinse pauses again, then says, "I see." Her tone remains neutral. "That is quite a long time. It is good that all of my components were built to last. Save for my leg, it would it seem. It must have been damaged when the cataclysm occurred. Apparently, someone brought me here; this is where the priests stored malfunctioning servants.
"I will help you find the people you were looking for if you first help me. I cannot move about effectively while missing a leg. If you know where to find another clockwork servant, it can repair me relatively quickly. Alternately, if you are skilled in clockwork repair, you can use the nearby forge to do the work yourself. It seems the power generators are offline as well. Restoring power to the ioun circuitry will render the cathedral's various systems functional again."
"We didn't want to do that in case of threats." Terana explains. "We have already been attacked by one clockwork soldier and we suspect that an aboleth is lurking in the temple. Can you tell us what else we might expect? Any more defences from your time?"
"I can tell you about some parts of the temple. You should know that there are secret areas within the cathedral. The priests were always so secretive about them that even I don't know where they are.
"The northeast wing contains the clockwork charging station, power generators, robing, and sacred oil storage. North of this room is the forge and the high priest's office. The northwest wing contains the sacristy and the library.
"The southeast wing contains the public worship spaces. The offering hall and the sanctuary are to the southwest. Many clockworks patrolled the temple before the cataclysm. I don't know how many may still be functional."
"We've been to several of those places already...there was a clockwork soldier in the charging station that was still active, but the other two weren't. There are still a number of places we have left to explore...we deliberately avoided turning on the power generators, as we were unsure of how that would affect our progress. Is there any danger in other clockworks that were inactive before becoming active if it is turned back on?"
"As for your repair, I don't personally have any knowledge of repairing clockworks, but there was a clockwork servant at the charging station. I would certainly be willing to turn the generator on and bring the servant to you to repair your leg. After we've rested a bit, though...we've had several encounters with individuals who were not quite so willing to talk as you." he offered, though he also looked to the others to see if that might be an agreeable plan.
Terana nods, this is all a bit out of her comfort zone but Aionse seems friendly enough.