Siolad and his elemental punish the rival elemental with spell and stony fist.
Krojun continues to inspire and moves to attack the other elemental!
Ensu moves with his companions to the last elemental and then taps himself with a wand.
The surviving guardian continues slamming into the summoned elemental.
Siolad's elemental finally gets shattered into dust.
Standard Action: Telekinetic Fist!
The elven mage throws another telekinetic punch at it...
AC 28, touch 19, flat-footed 28
Fort +6, Ref +13 (+3 vs. traps), Will +5
CMD 20
HP 91/93
Touch of good: 2/5; Hunter's Howl: 0/3
Effects: blessing of fervor (+2 to hit, +2 AC), inspired (+2)
Jessamy steps closer and resumes her chopping away at the stone.
Ensu taps himself with the wand again.
Jessamy's flashing blades and Siolad's blast of force finish off the second guardian elemental.
The steep stairs end at the edge of a gaping chasm of darkness. Huge icicles hang from the ceiling and coils of mist rise up from below.
Jessamy looks around, for any other threats or possible ways across.
Jessamy spots no signs of traps or hidden dangers. The pit is very deep, deep enough that those with darkvision cannot see the bottom. The edges of the pit look rough enough to climb but it wouldn't be easy.
"Does anyone have a way to get us across?" Jessamy asks. "Climbing down and then back up the far side could be difficult."
Krojun ties his rope of climbing to his normal rope, keeping the rope of climbing on top. Once it's secured, he begins to climb down slowly until he reaches the end of the 100' of rope or can see the bottom.
Krojun descends to the full length of his rope(s) but still does not see the bottom of the pit. From his new vantage point, he does spot a well concealed ramp that seems to spiral around the edge of the pit providing easier and safer passage than climbing alone.
Krojun climbs back up the rope and points out the well-concealed ramp to the others while untying and stowing his ropes. "Over the edge there, there's a ramp, looks a bit concealed. But it seems solid enough and it will get us down. Hole's deep, far too deep for ropes."
"Hah good spot Krojun!" Ensu says thankfully, happy to not have to climb a long rope into a dark hole.
"Ooh, I didn't see that," Jessamy says. "Let's make sure it's safe..."
She descends quickly and looks around.
"Looks safe enough," she calls back.
Siolad wordlessly follows Jessamy's lead.
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Jessamy confirms the ramp is safe and the party makes their way down. Hundreds of feet later, the ramp leads the party into an enormous cavern.
The walls of this cavern glitter and sparkle with sheets of ice. Seven twenty-foot-tall pillars, their sides encrusted with ice and engraved with ancient glyphs and runes, surround an eighth pillar twice the size. Tunnels exit the central cavern, winding deeper into the mountain. Yet perhaps the most notable feature is the sparkling mound of coins, works of art, gemstones, jewelry, weapons, armor, and other things poking up from the pile that occupies the northwestern section of the cavern.
Krojun lets out a low whistle. "This is... impressive. Was this the foul wyrm's hoard?"
Ensu gasps. "And if it was, who owns it now?"
Krojun smiles. "I believe, to the victor go the spoils, is that not the saying?"
"If we are indeed the victor, but killing a dragon wasn't our mission, per se. We need to investigate the...the..Runelord?" he asks.
Jessamy's eyes widen as a grin crosses her face.
"You guys, we have a dragon's hoard! We should see if any of it's magic," she says excitedly.
Amid the small mountain of coins and gems, there are several enchanted items including four greater dragon slaying arrows, an ivory set of lesser bracers of archery, a +3 darkwood buckler carved with the symbol of Kyonin on its face, 6 vials of frozen holy water, a pearl of power (1st-level spell), 17 potions of cure light wounds, 6 potions of cure moderate wounds, 3 potions of cure serious wounds, 2 potions of resist energy 20(cold), a scroll of globe of invulnerability, a scroll of heal, a scroll of remove blindness/deafness, a wand of bear’s endurance(38 charges), a wand of cure light wounds(46 charges), a wand of magic missile(CL 5th, 8 charges), and a +1 adamantine warhammer.
Jessamy whistles at the hoard of good.
"There's so many potions, you're never going to have to heal us again!" Jessamy exclaims as Ensu and Siolad explain everything.
Once it's sorted, she goes and looks more closely at the pillars, starting with the outside one before getting ready to check out the eighth.
"Is there any magic on these things?" she asks.
Ensu nods at Jessamy as he marks each vial as it's identified, setting them in groups.
Looking over the pillars, Jessamy spots a small hidden keyhole in each.
"It looks like there's some sort of keyhole. It probably wants those keys from outside. Maybe we should see if there's any magic there first, though?"
The young Varisian looks closely to see if she can see any sign of traps.
Siolad finally shakes himself out of his reverie (blame the dragon's hoard) and starts looking where Jessamy is searching.
Jessamy detects no signs of traps or other hidden dangers.
A sweep with detect magic reveals a powerful aura of conjuration over the entire area to Siolad.
"So, I guess we should put the keys in and see what happens? Could be bad, so maybe we should have some spells ready and whatnot?"
"This place seems to be absolutely suffused with conjuration magic. Give me a moment to determine what sort of conjuration magic it is first, please."
With a bit more studty Siolad determines that the pillars are part of a key that opens a portal.
"It looks like the pillars are part of a key that opens a portal. Go ahead--try plugging the keys you have in, Jessamy."
Ensu stammers a bit. "Dragons, now portals. I have one piece of advice. Do not get hurt, my spells are lower than I would prefer, but these wands and potions will help."
Pirknok frowns thoughtfully. "We don't know where this goes, or who's waitin' on the other side. Maybe... maybe we should get some rest, and try it out in the morning?"
"Yeah, maybe that's a good idea," Jessamy agrees with a nod.
"We can sleep in all the gold!"
"I don't know--sleeping in gold doesn't sound very comfortable. I mean, it must play havoc with your posture and back..." Siolad scratches his head.
The dwarf shudders and selects a spot across the cave, well away from the treasure hoard. As he kneels to roll out his blanket, he shakes his head. "That gold's probly cursed. Probly don't want to sleep too close to it."
Jessamy frowns, considering Pikrnok's words and looking back and forth from the dwarf and the gold.
Finally she shrugs and makes to bed down in a pile of the filthy lucre, figuring it's as comfortable as the hard ground.
The gold's not terribly comfortable but the party makes it through the night without incident.
Pirknok rises early, pouring water from his waterskin onto his cloak to wash his face, then checking over his weapons and armor carefully. No peacocks or bears in here... he muses, rubbing a scuff on his breastplate and glancing around. It's been a while... maybe they're waiting for me to learn something on my own. I wonder what the 'agreement' they were talking about last time was... maybe that's why I haven't seen the Peacock since. I'm lucky to be alive.
Slowly the scuff disappears beneath the thoughtful dwarf's hands. And yet... if Nanuk had wanted to kill me, he could have. Does he just enjoy inflicting pain? Does the Peacock owe him something, and I'm... or I was... the payment? What could spirits owe each other for?
He shakes his head, barely seeing the armor in his hands. "There's too much we don't know about 'em," he mutters, unaware that he's speaking aloud.
Ensu spends his first hour in prayer and meditation like every day for as long as he can remember. He prays for guidance in choosing the right spells to receive from his deity, but like most times, Nethys is silent in his guidance and Ensu chooses the spells he think he needs.