Ema's eyes lit up as she recognized two of the garments they'd found and said, "This robe is useful for those who use lightning attacks called a shocking robe. While I don't have any electricity spells prepared I do have a few in my spell books. As for this one," she gestured to the Unfettered Shirt, "is called an unfettered shirt and allows you once per day to be affected with the spell freedom of movement."
When they moved on to the next storage room Ema looked at it nervously for a few moments before she said, "I don't think that floor can take more than four hundred pounds or so before it will give out."
Victrix eyes the shirt the others found.
"Don't reckon I'll need it much. One of you can have it." She points at Calamity and Ema.
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Back at the room with the vials, Simon looks at the floor nervously when Ema makes her statement.
"I'll take off my haversack and go in there carefully, if you think there is anything valuable, but those vials don't seem worth it to me. Maybe there is more on the shelves that we can't see.
Do you seen any magic auras?"
Calamity consults her cards on the identities of the items.
However, as the cards are wont to be, her answers are only vague and confusing.
"Er, I'll go ahead. I'm light on my feet and I can detect magic. I only weigh, uh, 20, 30 some pounds."
Calamity detects three magic auras in the vast chamber. The first is an electrum scroll case adorned with glowing blue runes. The second is a book decorated with the holy symbol of Amaznen. Between this book's pages is a brass ring.
The case currently stores a scroll of resist energy (electricity), a scroll of water breathing, and a page of spell knowledge containing dispel magic.
The shelves practically light up to Calamity's enhanced sight, as many of the vials here radiate magic. All told, the halfling can collect the following:
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).
The doors on the far side of the library open onto another hallway. The steep stairs in this wide hallway connect the upper temple to the lower temple 30 feet below. The stairs descend beneath the surface of murky salt water.
Back through the library and on the the first set of doors in the southern hallway.
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.
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Fascinated, Simon gazes at all of the various pieces of constructs. No touching... no touching... no touching...
Before his curiosity can get the better of him, he closes the door again. "Later. We will fix and reprogram clockwork constructs later..."
Next, Simon quietly approaches the fountain and peers around the corner.
Victrix feels a wave of discomfort when Simon opens the door to the clockwork workshop, but feels relieved when he decides against touching anything and continuing the investigation.
The western passage opens up onto a wide corridor. Sturdy, ornate columns line this corridor, but cracks mar their surface and a few of them have fallen into pieces on the once fine marble floor of the cathedral. At the south end of the corridor, water spurts out of a broken fountain.
Four faceless stalkers stand guard here, along with an even stranger aberration! The hunched, reptilian beast lopes on two clawed feet, its eyeless head dominated by a huge circular maw filled with jagged teeth.
Unfortunately, Simon is less than stealthy, accidentally kicking a loose stone across the hall. The creatures turn to confront you!
Both Ema and Simon know that destrachans can blast their victims with cones of destructive sonic energy. It can alter the frequency to either rend flesh or cause intense pain that can stun those caught in the blast.
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"Watch out! The thing about to attack us can blast us with sound energy. I can protect myself. Let it blast me before you let it know you are here."
Simon grabs his Resist Energy extract, makes the subtle modifications needed to align it with Sonic energy, and then runs across the hallway to draw the thing's attention.
Calamity edges around nervously, trying to remain sound unheard, as it were.
Ema didn't like the sound of what was ahead of them and so began to cast a spell. It was a shame the archon had already returned home but he would only stay for so long at a time before returning to his duties. Rather than summon something new Ema cast her spell and released it onto her friends. It seemed that time slowed down relative to them as their reaction time and speed went up.
Calamity keeps her head down as Ema hastes the group. Simon drinks an resistance elixir and rushes across the hall to distract the destrachan. It seems to work, as the creature bellows and scrambles atop a fallen pillar to get closer to the half-orc. It shrieks, attempting to overwhelm Simon's senses! The faceless stalker scramble to engage you, two of them moving in on Simon. The other two spy the trio of women still in the hall and divert to get within reach of them!
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Having expected the creature to attempt brute force damage first, Simon is unprepared for the pain inflicting version of the sonic attack. His muscles lock up as he attempts to shake off the effects.
As his longsword clatters to the ground, he looks on with fear at the oncoming enemies. I should have insisted on taking the unfettered shirt
When Simon takes the full brunt of the destrachan's stunning screaming, Victrix starts to step forward to help him--only to be cut off by a pair of ugothols.
Her vision immediately turns red. "OI! OUTTA MY WAY!"
Her rage engulfing her, Victrix starts swinging as fast as she can, focusing more on getting at least one out of the way...
Calamity steps back, wishing she was better rested. She throws a card into the neck of a Stalker and gulps.
Ema took a step back and began to tear open a portal.
Four portals opened up and from each came a man made of ice. One appeared before her, two more appeared behind the faceless stalkers coming for her, and the third appeared near the destrachan and slithered forward five feet. Almost in unison the elementals struck their chosen targets, though the one opposite Victrix waited until she attacked.
Calamity hurls a card into one of the faceless stalkers, then Victrix steps up and begins laying about with her axe. She takes down the ugothol Calamity struck and wounds the other before her shirt glows and she surges forward to protect Simon. Ema conjures a quartet of ice elementals. Two of them land blows on the nearby ugothol, while another batters the destrachan. Neither one is staggered.
The ugothol in the hall turns to attack an elemental, while the other two try to take advantage of the stunned Simon. One slices into the half-orc in a critical hit!
The destrachan hops back a few feet before unleashing a blast of destructive harmonics that washes over three elementals, Victrix, and Simon!
Victrix vibrates in pain before stepping before the ugothols and starting to hack them up!
KILL THEM FIRST KILL THEM FIRST KILL THEM FIRST KILL THEM FIRST KILL THEM FIRST KILL THEM FIRST
As Simon protects himself with displacement, Victrix angrily hacks down another faceless stalker!
Calamity panics at the sight of things going so wrong and squeaks out a request for retreat. "Run, run!" she says, nervously throwing a card into a stalker's face before bolting.
Ema called out to the elementals in their language to block the path of their enemies and moved accordingly. The first one moved to get between Calamity and the stalker approaching them before lashing out with it's icy body while the remaining one moved back from the destrachaun to partially block the hall. Ema, meanwhile, began to move back up the hall before casting a spell and sending a flurry of magical projectiles at the stalker in the hall, her eyes flashing as she did, and all slammed in with unerring accuracy.
Calamity hurls a card, but she makes the mistake at aiming for a face when the stalker has none. The creature dodges her strike. Ema's elemental misses the foe as well, but Ema herself takes it down with a barrage of magic missiles!
The last ugothol attacks Victrix, but the barbarian barely manages to parry both of its blows. The destrachan unleashes another destructive sonic blast that washes over Simon, Victrix, and one ice elemental!
This time, Victrix is ready for the incoming sonic boom. She barely manages to evade the worst of it before rapidly reassessing her priorites.
GRAB SIMON AND RUN GRAB SIMON AND RUN
She grabs Simon, seeing as he's dragging his feet, and throws him over her shoulder in one smooth motion. She then runs pell-mell down the hallway, the haste spell causing her to move faster than she's ever run before!
Calamity runs as fast as her little hasted feet will carry her, throwing another card blindly behind her as she goes, should they be followed.