Drasven seeing the golem lunge for Karmid and only Karmid takes the chance to slam the back of the knee!. He feels soft flesh give in slightly. Very slightly.
I see wagon blocked me.
Ro draws another starknife and sends it along after the first.
"Hit it again. Release it from that flesh prison.", Lia suggests to Karmid, helpfully, before providing him with more luck.
Drasven whacks the golem as hard as he can but with little result. Ro's starknife buries itself in the creature's forehead. It shakes its head, sending the weapon flying off into the darkness.
"Time to Fall cow-man!"
Thunder and Fang(Large Size)!
+
+
Possible Crit?
Karmid strikes at the creature with several enormous blows from his earthbreaker and klar, finally nearly caving in its head. It drops like a stone and becomes inert.
Drasven picks up the scythe and discovers the cloak as well.
"Well well well. Someone's invested in quite a bit in this."
Shrinking back to normal size, Karmid drags the enormous scythe into the light to get a better look at it.
"This creature-thing was a magical construct? This city is famous for them, right? Maybe we could trace the creator. This is starting to look like a dead end otherwise...unless the person who sent us here is watching?"
Karmid looks up into the hollowness of the tower.
"Flutter? Think you could do a quick recon upstairs? See if we have a...bat in our belfry? Carefully. I will be right behind you following as best I can."
He looks meaningfully at the others and then starts for the stairs that go up hammer ready.
"Follow or not. If you stay, don't let anyone get past you regardless of what happens to me."
Ro finds the bag of valuables and adds it to their takings.
"Mmm, I think we're on the right track. Magnimar does have the Golemworks, famous for that, but I doubt constructs are so plentiful here some of them are living in abandoned buildings as hobos."
"I think it was set here as a guard, a weirdly well armed one too."
Ro goes to take a better look at heir route up the tower.
"If I had a guard down here to keep anyone from getting in, I'd also trap the stairs. They're narrow and the only way to go, perfect for that kind of nastiness."
Ro checks the stairs leading up from this level, but doesn't find any immediate threats.
The Butterfly acknowledges the request with a slight whirl, then starts moving upwards in a widening circle, trying to stick to the shadows.
His vision was not really good in the dark, and he could only move so far from his Mistress before the bond would weaken, but if there was a surprise waiting, he could maybe buy his allies a bit of time.
"Anything? " Drasven asks as his allies return from scouting.
Ro is looking glum as she replies to Drasven.
"It's exactly like that girl told me. The tower is a hollow shell with a staircase going up, and up. It's probably noisy and there's not a bit of cover, a total f@*+ing death trap all the way to the top. Once we're all the way up there we're stuck too, the stairs are the only way back down, very slow. We better be really sure we can handle what we find up there because changing our minds after we arrive won't be an option."
When Ro realizes Karmid isn't waiting for Lia's butterfly to report back, but following it straightaway, she curses him for being an idiot and hustles along to start up the steps behind Drasven.
Why can't he ever stop and think for a second?
"Sure let's all hurry along and blunder into things without a care in the world. What could possibly go wrong with that?" she stage-whispers fiercely.
The Dwarf grins as he leans back.
Don't Jinx it."
With Flutter flying ahead, the rest of the group begins to follow him up the staircase that traverses the inner wall of this vast space that is supported by an intricate network of wooden beams. Handrails seem to be lacking most of the way up, seemingly having fallen off or been repurposed to build supports for the stairs themselves. This is clearly a work in progress, however, as two of even three stairs at a time are partially or wholly missing in several places.
As Drasven makes the first turn on the stairwell, he catches up to Karmid, moving in close behind him. The staircase around the two immediately begins to creak and sway alarmingly, seemingly on the verge of breaking.
Whispering harshly, Karmid waves everyone backward with his Klar.
"Everyone stop! Back up slowly. Ro, do you think these stairs could hold a single person going up? Or does it look futile to you."
Karmid begins to look for away to get up, maybe by bypassing the stairs somehow.
Ro stage whispers pissed off.
"Well how the f@~$ can I really say from back here? Karmid go forward a couple of steps. Drasven, back up a couple of steps. We need to space ourselves out, not so much weight in one place."
Ro also takes a step or two back.
Lia, still near the beginning of the stairs shouts, as silent as possible:"Flutter, come back!"
Then she takes two quick steps towards the center and leaps towards the middle. She swiftly falls all of the distance and faceplants on the floor.
After a moment, her muffled voice can be heared:"I'm fine. I just forgot I can't fly. Was that just a dream?"
Flutter returns downwards as his Mistress calls for him. As he takes note of the lucky crash landing, a noise that could only be described as a "so done with this"-sigh emerges from what magical vocal cords allow him to project voice.
Staying in range, he resumes his reconaissance.
Drasven immediately backs up.
"Hmm Looks safe to me but this isn't dwarven worked stone so it doesn't sound right."
Lia stands up, dusts off her dress, then stares at the wall.
"Hi there!", she says to no one in particular, with only a flickering shadow moving on the stones.
"You know, even so, it's perfectly fine for us to chat. Because...", Lia waves with her hands in spooky circles in front of her and makes a fitting voice:"...I see things."
She then turns towards the staircase:"And that has nothing to do with the fact I just hit my head during the fall! You guys should wait for Izzy and Kenny. When were we supposed to meet?"
Ro looks back over her shoulder, thinking until just then Lia was right behind her. She growls as much as possible while whispering.
"Keep up Lia, and no chatter."
"Huh?" Drasven cranks his head backwards to look at Lia...
Did she snap?
"Hum. Nevermind, I guess.", Lia responds, then waves goodbye at the wall and goes back to the stairs, then jumps from step to step while silently humming a nursery rhyme.
Backing up and not crowding together seems to do the trick, as the decrepit stairs seem capable of carrying the weight of one of you at a time.
After readjusting the distances between you, the group begins to reascend the rickety wooden staircase the hugs the inside wall of the Shadow Clock Tower.
Flutter resumes his advance scouting.
Lia once more brings up the rear, after making her way back to the stairs.
While walking up, she counts the number of steps, murmuring the current count in a hushed voice.
Hammer and Klar leading the way, Karmid slowly rises through the tower trailing Flutter.
Ro proceeds upward while scanning up toward the top of the staircase for any movement or other signs of occupation. Her mouth is drawn into a thin, straight line of annoyance at Lia's counting.
Gingerly stepping on each step carefully, The old dwarf follows.
As you are climbing the stairs, you take care to jump over any missing steps and keep at least a person's length of distance so that you don't put too much pressure on the old wood. As you approach the halfway point, you hear the snapping of cords from somewhere above the top floor in the upper part of the tower and the incredibly loud clanging of several large bells, followed by the snapping of large wooden beams.
Deciding quickly what must be happening, Karmid realizes the only solution and gives the order...
"UP! Move up quickly! Don't stop! Our target must be above!"
Flutter moves on towards where the snapping sound comes from, trying to find if there is danger for the party.
Lia moves up further, still counting the steps. As she was last in the order, there was little use in trying to hurry. Even if Drasven was hustling up, she'd not fall far behind walking.