The Beetle's attack bounces off the invisible barrier of Sa'sori's slowly fading spell {probabaly the last two or three rounds of it remaining}
Sa'sori adjusts, as needed, to maintain.. and take advantage of the flank provided by Moria.. and swings her elven curve blade again!
Vera holds position defiantly.
"I don't suppose after that truly stunning series of misses that I could convince any of you to just leave it alone for now?"
"I've already given my reason for not letting it spawn its brood here. Were we in the wilds outside of a manmade structure I'd be willing to let it stay in peace... but this place belongs to the people of this town.. IT does not belong here..."
Moria compensates for the new blade quickly, slicing down with impressive strength for such a small lass. The blade cuts through the beetles shell and finishes the beast off.
Moira cleans the blade and puts it back in the sheath then goes to pick up her dropped bow and torch. "Look, there is a monster in here and a missing person. We don't have time to find a way around every fight in here. These bugs shouldn't be here anyway. They feed on dead bodies. No one should have died this night and all the crypts should be sealed up tight. It would have died anyway. Next you'll be telling me we should let the necromancer live cause it has undead children to look after." Moira shakes her head and heads in the direction Cotton went, taking the lead again, on the watch for traps and *gulp* undead.
"We can talk about it all after we've cleared this place, alright?" Cotton says as she skips along behind Moira. "C'mon! Evil is afoot, so let's go kick it in the shins!"
Vera sighs and follows along.
With the beetle defeated the room is now still. A quick search finds nothing of value in its nest nor on the corpse it was dragging. There is a stairway to the west and a doorway to the south.
Dyrm nods at Cotton's words. Our squabbling will get nothing done. Though I may have to meditate long and hard on this.
Where to next, door or stairs?
"I would think the stairs are the path we want to take from here."
The stairway descends 15 feet before leveling off for 15 feet, then a second set of stairs ascends into the next room. Half of this lofty chamber has a lowered floor, with stairs on each side of the room to reach the bottom. Standing at the center of the lower level is a tall wooden statue of Kassen grasping a gigantic wooden shield in each hand. One of the shields is inscribed with the word "home" while the other reads "family." There are doorways to the north and south of this room.
"Home and Family...good causes, but there's more to it than that I would guess," The dwarf scratches his beard curiously, looking the statue over.
"Barring the statue revealing something, our choices are North and South. I would think North."
Cotton mutters a quick cantrip and scans the room and its contents...
"North would probably bring us back to the main room but that wouldn't be a bad thing. Then we'd have two explored exits." Moira walks to the edge of the raised platform, looking around for danger but eventually settles on the statue. Did Kassen fight with two shields? That seems odd. The word shield rings a bell though. "Hey. Didn't that man say we would need the shields and the keys?" She then hops down to the lower part and walks over to the statue and inspects it to see if the shields come off and if they are trapped.
" I remember him saying something about us needing the shields AND keys... though he claimed his own memory wasn't good at the time and mine could be shoddy."
Cotton you do detect the presence of magic in the direction of the statues and shields. Moria as you decend the stairs to the lower level, the wooden statue seems to be holding the shields. You also notice what appears to be a keyhole in the statue's back. When you reach the lower lever, the statue begins to animate.
"There's magic afoot, as if it weren't obvious," Cotton says. "Think we might need that key to shut this badboy down?"
damn.
"Right, you," Cotton says as she eyes the statue and backs up. "You're not playing punt-a-Gnome today!"
The little Gnome pulls her flask of oil from her pack -- and lobs it at the statue's feet, to hopefully have it slip and trip if it tries to come down off of its pedestal!
Vera is going to head down the stairs Moira is on to try and draw any attacks away from Moira.
Sa'sori grimaces... not sure what to make of it all.. her spell resources are being sorely taxed when she can't get scrolls to bolster her limited magic available...
She incants and lets fly with a cantrip...
Cast at the animated Wooden statue
Cotton moves in first tossing a vial of oil that breaks at the Golem's feet. Sa'sori moves in next, casting her bolt of acid at the statue. The acid strikes and burns the vissage of Kassen. Vera moves up to engage the creature. Kassem's Golem stands up straight adjusting the two shields in its hands before turning to engage the half-orc. It then slams Vera with one of the shields knocking the half-orc unconscious.
Initiative continues, Moira, Dyrm, Cotton, Sa'sori, Vera, Golem.
Dyrm moves forward and flings a bolt of flame at the statue.
"Vera!" Moira cries in alarm. Thinking quickly she moves around the side to draw its attention and takes a defensive stance. "Get Vera out of here. I think there is a trick here. We need not fight it."
"Hey, over here, over here!" Cotton yells at the statue, and she dashes into the room, stopping at the top of the other stairway. Once she has skidded to a halt, she points her hand at the clomping statue and incants a cantrip: "Stilla acida!"
"Dyrm! Wait until they've got Vera clear, then light up the oil!"
Moria moves over taking a defensive posture. Dyrm steps forward launching a bolt of flame that deals massive damage to the wooden golem. Cotton rushes over and fires another bold of acid at the Golem. This time missing the creature in her haste. Sa'sori produces a potion from her wrist sheath and speaks a few words. She guides the potion downwards with a Mage hand focusing intently as the spell carefully administers down Vera's unconscious throat.
"C'mon, over here, over here!" Cotton yells at the tromping statue, and she flicks another splash of acid at its face.
Vera warily(and wearily) climbs to her feet. "Thanks."
Vera rises to her feat defends herself from the golem's next assault.
The golem turns to face the once fallen cleric and swings its shields down at her. One after another. Vera avoids and deflects the two attacks.
Round 3
"I keep telling you!" Cotton yells while flicking more acid at the golem. "Look! At! Mw!"
Sa'sori backs away now that Vera is up and ready to defend herself replying with a smile, "No problem sweety... watch your back!"
The sultry half-elven sorceress begins casting again... out of reach of the threatening construct...
Dyrm fires another flamebolt, hoping to take it down.
"Go down, already, blasted construct!"
meh
Vera is going to give this another go and take a swing.
Round 3 recap
Moria steps forward swinging both short-swords at the guardian. The blades have trouble piercing the thick wood but do manage to nick the golem. As hard and sturdy as this wood is it seems the only good way to do damage is to slash through it. Dyrm lobs another bolt of fire at the wooden monster but manages to miss the thing. Cotton and Sa'sori both splash the thing with acid burning away at its wooden shell. Vera takes a tired swing at the golem but it deflects her attack with its shield. The golem then slams its shield into Moria but the nimble girl barely manages to avoid its blow.
"Stupid lump of wood! Go down already!" Cotton curses as she flicks more acid at the stomping, romping golem.
The numbness from the hit wears off and Vera realizes she's hurting more than she realized. She takes a 5 foot step and casts cure light wounds.
Seeing as her flimsy blades are doing little more than annoying the giant construct, Moira inches around the thing in a defensive stance hoping to draw off attacks.