Immediately past the stone figure, Bastion encounters an open door. Though he’s intent on proceeding down the hall, the intense reek of dung and sweat that permeates the small room brings him to a halt and he glances inside. From the doorway, he can see that heaped in a corner, there is a pile of cement pellets, and in another corner lies a grotesque, stuffed leather bag with two oval patches sewn on it.
Instrument does not detect any magic in the room, just a smell.
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"If we don't want to mess with the kobolds, antagonising their guardian seems like a bad idea. " Blayne says. let's move on expeditiously. "
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The room really does not smell good. Stepping further into the room, Bastion notices that the leather bag seems to have quite a few bite marks on it, as if something at least the size of a large dog has chewed on it.
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Blayne will stay in the hall keeping an listening intently on the chance that he will hear anything advance towards the group.
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Bastion leaves the foul-smelling room behind and the party advances down the hall.
Reaching the next passage and turning north, the Pathfinders arrive at a juncture of four corridors, two of them much wider than the narrow passages seen so far, with a large fountain at the center of the juncture. Within the fountain, a white marble statue of a dwarf in scholarly robes faces east in a defiant posture. In one hand, the dwarf holds a staff, and in the other an open book. While most of the statue’s elaborate details are still intact, its face has crumbled away, and water pours down from two holes where the statue’s eyes had once been.
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The Fox flips the blindfold up for a bit and looks at the statue Bastion points out, "Huh, I think we've found it. Dwarven language isn't my thing, but it says something about the clan being gone but they still endure. I think we're on to something here. "
He resists the urge to look around and goes back to following Bastion's directions.
Bypassing a pair of doors and a passage on the north side of the corridor, Bastion continues to lead the way towards where the temple should be, according to the kobold’s directions. As he reaches the ‘T’ intersection, however, something makes him…pause. And sloooowly turn his head to the left, where he sees a squat, even chubby, reptilian creature with eight legs, like a lizard put together by some lesser god with a shade too much enthusiasm for the task. The many-legged beast also boasts bony spurs jutting from its back, and eyes that glow with a pale emerald fire as it studies the hulking Pathfinder, a look of what can only be called…curiosity in its expression.
Bastion stands stock still, almost as if turned to stone, but a look of puzzlement slowly makes its way across his face as he notices that the monstrous, magical beast before him is wearing a collar. It makes no move other than to tip its head slightly sideways as it studies the armored figure before it.
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"Odd - why would he lie about something like that. One of us could get killed that way."
"Put on your blindfolds folks - Bastion's having a little joke on us."
Blayne will suit action to words and lower his blindfold before stepping out of cover.
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The Pathfinders follow along behind Bastion, with Torriki making a surprising amount of noise as he moves along the ceiling, despite his determination to be stealthy. As the party files by, Stinkeye lets out a , as though he might be feeling crowded or nervous, but doesn’t move any closer. In fact, as the party moves away, the plump basilisk seems to hop his front two pairs of legs up and down almost eagerly, and then lower the front half of his body to the ground while keeping his tail in the air, all the while eyeing the Instrument, as the only one who’s paying Stinkeye any attention.
As the party moves away, Stinkeye whines a little, then whimpers a bit before going quiet. The Instrument risks a glance over his shoulder and he sees the pudgy magical reptile turn in a circle a few times before settling down on the stone floor. The basilisk fidgets a little, sighs a long sigh, and curls up in a peaceful heap of clawed legs, sharp teeth, bony spurs and petrifying eyes.
Reaching the double doors at the end of the hall, Bastion and Instrument can see that the hall to the east is choked with rubble, though a small gap remains at the top. Based on the kobold’s directions, these must be the doors to the temple! Bastion pushes the door open to reveal an enormous, high-ceilinged room beyond.
A huge block of intricately sculpted stone dominates the center of this vast temple chamber. To the east, a flight of stairs leads up to a walkway with curiously rounded edges, which connects to the stone block’s surface. Six pillars stand around the edges of the room, each decorated with carved patterns of scales and dragon heads. Several large paintings of dragons adorn the floor.
A group of kobolds is frantically praying to a massive golden statue as if they wanted it to wake up. The winged statue is standing atop a fifteen-foot-tall block of stone, its back against a wall decorated with many gold-leaf murals depicting historical scenes. Suddenly, the statue starts moving, flexing its wings and raising its clawed hands threateningly!
The worshipping kobolds turn in alarm at the sound of the door, and one of them screams, “There they are!” The Golden Guardian’s massive head turns to regard the Pathfinders and, in an angry metallic voice, sounding like an enormous hunting horn, the guardian roars in anger, It takes a slow, menacing step toward the party, its wings spread wide, as the kobolds look on in awe, too overcome with wonder at the power of their god to move!
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The raven on the Taldan's shoulder caws urgently--and loudly--in his ear. He looks up at the massive 'god.' "Aroden sends to tell me this is merely a gargoyle! Not even a puny god! Say, let's use that thing the frogs gave us..."
"Concentrate on the Guardian!" he commands, rushing forward. "Aroden's power will handle these fools who worship false idols!" From his fingers, a magical burst streak toward the gathered kobolds and quickly sprouts into a thousand sticky strands, which anchor themselves to the columns, walkway, and walls.
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Blayne will pull off his goggles and get ready for a fight. Seeing the approaching guardian he will cast Bless on his companions. "Cayden's luck upon us all! "
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The kobolds are a nimble bunch, and all but the one furthest away seem to avoid becoming entangled in the sticky threads.
The Golden Guardian crouches and is about to leap into the air and rain destruction down on the unfortunate Pathfinders when Wayne cracks open the clay covering on the Gripplis’ artifact. Breaking open the talisman reveals a shimmering piece of metal with an ancient, dwarven symbol engraved on it. Upon seeing it, the Golden Guardian immediately calms down and says, in its ringing, metallic voice, ”Welcome, friends of Ashkurhall.” It stands upright once again and regards the new visitors with a mix of suspicion and curiosity.
The kobolds, surrounded by sticky magical webbing, react to this new development with dismay. The one standing closest to the guardian, speaking with a voice of some authority, cries out in halting Common, ”What is this? You put a curse on our Golden God with that trinket!” The others erupt in a chorus of indignant agreement with this accusation. None of the kobolds attack, though one manages to struggle through the webbing to pop out on the far side.
The same kobold asks loudly, “The idiot human who collapsed the corridor was a friend of yours, wasn’t he?” After more shouts from his followers, he flings another question, “You attacked kobolds a few weeks ago just outside these ruins, didn’t you?” followed by ”You’ve been stealing our stuff!” After a moment of thought, another question seems to occur to him, and he asks with some urgency, “How did you get past Stinkeye? Did you murder him?”
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"I'm not sure what's happened to your god but I promise you we put no curse on him. If anything, I believe we've earned his favor. He greeted us warmly didn't he?" Bastion reasons. "As for who attacked your kin outside these ruins, I promise you it was not us. We weren't even in this area weeks ago. We were running from dinosaurs and defending the Grippli from the Aspis. I suspect it was those same Aspis that attacked you."
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The Taldan's hand crackles with magical energy when the unexpected reversal happens. He frowns and the energy dissipates. "Well, now that you can't shoot at us like your friends, we can talk about your false religion," he mutters, more to himself than anyone else.
The indignation on his face grows with each accusatory question flung his way, and he puffs up his face for a haughty reply...
Though the kobold doesn’t look at the guardian as Bastion makes his point, or even seem to be looking at Bastion as he speaks, the dragonling does nod along, apparently mollified on the point about his god’s warm welcome of the Pathfinders.