"A sense for responsibilities and some empathy for these sick creatures?" Tauriell asks jokingly.
"Ehr... no." Niamh says but then she finds her excited mood again and continues. "We found some columns that are alive. You know, the one resistent against almost every kind of magic... They're guarding a shaft."
"No I don't know. But if you speak in complete sentences with some more words to describe it I may be able to follow your train of thoughts." Tauriell replies.
Niamh rolls her eyes "Elves. Now I know why they have to live that long." She starts with the description: "We followed the tunnel and went into the one that leads straight ahead." The halfling pauses to make sure Tauriell can follow her. "We came to a cave with horrible statues. They all looked like created by someone without any liking." Niamh shakes herself at the thought of the statues. "We went to the shaft and I sent a light into it." She looks at Tauriell and adds "To see something because a shaft is dark... I saw nothing. However, I noticed some coloumns that were alive. I knew and know what they are and told Abomentolor to run. But they were faster than we were and one hit Abomentolor with her sword. As we were back in the tunnel they stopped following us. Now you know what we found." Niamh closes with a proud smile.
"You found some columns that attacked you with swords and Abomentolor got hit..."
"I'm pretty sure there is some valuable information between these two ears. They just have not found the way out yet. Try describing one thing at a time. These columns what did they look like?" Tauriell tries it with a more specific question.
"We found a shaft that is guarded. So there has to be something SOMEONE is looking for..." Niamh says cocking her head looking at Tauriell with a smirk. "What are we looking for? The statues would fit to the next shard."
"That was much more congruent. But your thought train got derailed again. You seem to know what these statues are. But you still have not told it." Tauriell replies.
"There are four Caryatid Columns. They look like statues but they are constructs that are immune to magic. If you hit them they reduce wepon damage and they tend to ruin the weapons used to kill them." Niamh tells Tauriell everything she knows about them.
"That is a straight information that is really useful." Tauriell cheers. But after a moment she frowns "We're f+*%ed."
"Why? We know it now. We could just sneak past them invisible..." Niamh interrups herself. "Or some of us could do it invisible. And then take your cave fisher rope for roping. Or at least we could try that. The stealthy abseiling could be a bit difficult..." Niamh muses.
"I'm no big fan of having such enemies at my back or in the way of the retreat route." Tauriell replies. "Maybe Jimmy could do something about that if we find enough big hammers to smash them."
Niamh shrugs. "I'm tired. But I'm sure you'll have a solution until tomorrow for that hammer problem. Good night." She furls herself into her sleeping back and starts sleeping immediately.
"I'm not going to solve that problem this time. Immune to magic!" Abomentolor spits on the ground.
_________________________________
End of meanwhile.
Niamh wakes up. "Do you have any idea were to find the hammers?" she asks Tauriell. "Another try would be to clad yourself like the rune lady. But I won't clad or unclad myself."
Tauriell yawns and stretches herself. "No. I was busy taking care of these troglodytes here. But let's go find Jimmy."
Find as in go over to. As it's a straight line to the exit of the cave system where Jimmy and Gwenhwyfar sit.
"Good morning. Are you well rested?" Tauriell asks the two.
"Good morning. I got my eight hours of sleep I'm fine thank you." Gwenhwyfar replies with a smile.
"Abomentolor and I found the entrance to the shard yesterday. Oh. And good morning from me too." Niamh starts a conversation looking for any reaction.
"How do you know that?" Jimmy asks skeptically
Niamh smiles. "I don't know for sure. But there's a guarded shaft and in the same 'room' statues of the runelord woman."
"And before she forgets to mention it: The entrance is guarded by some constructs that are immune to magic, hard to damage and ruin your weapons." Tauriell adds.
"Well that sounds like fun." Jimmy says sarcastically
"Yeah, do you have a good idea for a fitting encouraging song?" Niamh asks jokingly.
"Yes it does. I'm not going to ruin my blade at some stone." Tauriell comments.
"Well if they shatter weapons we are going to need some way to fight them without our actual weapons, as I like my ranseur the way it is." Jimmy says thinking, "Do they have any physical weaknesses?" Jimmy asks
"But first we have to take care of what you reminded us earlier. We have to get rid of the dead bodies." Gwenhwyfar interrupts the planning.
"I heard something that they can be effected by some stone to mud spell or was it stone to flesh? But I don't think we have access to that." Tauriell replies.
"Would you come and help me dispose of the bodies. My usual subcontractor doesn't work around here."
"Sure." Jimmy says standing, mind elsewhere as he follows Tauriell
"<How do you inter your dead>" Gwenhwyfar asks Azoresh.
"<We lay them on a elevated place in the bog to give the body back to nature.>" Azoresh replies.
"<Then please lead Tauriell and Jimmy to the place and take some more of your kin and get the bodies of Uggilo and the other one out of the caves. And remove the crocodile. But make sure no one with open wounds touches the dead.>" Gwenhwyfar asks Azoresh.
"She will lead you to their burial ground." Gwenhwyfar explains.
"Could you also ask them what they know about these statues? And what weapons they have spare."
Azoresh leads the two and two more of the troglodytes with the bodies to some sand bank in the small river a short walk away from the cave. The rites are rather short as some crocodiles slide into the water at the other riverside.
What Jimmy and Tauriell notice is that the cleric has a scoll on his body and his rather well made heavy mace lays on the ground besides the altar.
Jimmy puts anything of value to one side before moving the bodies
Gwenhwyfar asks some randim troglodyte what they know about the entrance to the Lady's light and what weapons they could give her. As Jimmy and Tauriell come back she shares what she found out.
"They know nothing about the tunnels besides that dangerous monsters live there and they had the fungi to prevent the monsters to come in and the fence to keep the fungi out. No one of them ever went there. As for weapons they could provide us with clubs and javelins. Everything rather simple."
"Hmmm." Jimmy muses, "What are the best magical weapons we have?"
Tauriell goes directly to the items Jimmy put aside to check what scroll that is. She casts detect magic on it.
Tauriell identifies it as a scroll of cure medium wounds. But also the heavy mace is magic.
Tauriell grabs the thing weighs it in her hand and walks over to Jimmy. "Here, that's for you. It's magic but it is to heavy for me."
"If you don't mind I'll keep the scroll of cure light wounds." she says to Gwenhwyfar.
"I have none." Gwenhwyfar replies.
"You still thinking about those statues? I could shoot them with my wand of acid arrows. It would take some time but finally they would rot away." Abomentolor adds to the ideas on the table.
Niamh sits down to have her breakfast letting everyone else thinking. "We have a rest of the apple pie. Does anyone want some?" she asks.
"Where is the closest collection of large trees?" Jimmy says out of nowhere
"Outside the cave? Thinking of something special?" Tauriell replies.
"Well we can't use our weapons to fight these things, so I suggest we make a dozen or so great clubs, and as they break we have the others pass them to us." Jimmy says to Tauriell
"That is a nice idea. I think I saw the right tree for that on our way to the sand bank." Together with Jimmy she walks the way again and climbs the tree
and cuts off large limbs of the tree. Back on the ground she cuts them to the right size and lets Jimmy remove the excess branches. Only two hours later the tree is little more than a trunk and a dozen great clubs are made.
"I wonder how the others are going to manage carrying these things." Jimmy chuckles
Making there way back to the others, they are laden in large chunks of tree.
"I will get in first as I can heal myself, and try draw their attention. At that point can you pick one and flank it? We just need to make sure we can keep the others safe enough to not get hit, but also hand us clubs. So depending on the terrain we may need to stay close to the door. Abomentolor and Niamh can hand the clubs, and Gwen can heal us as needed. How does that sound?" Jimmy plans as they walk
"Just don't give too many of them to Niamh and Abomentolor." Tauriell chuckles. She packs her tool away and puts up six of the clubs up in front of her, lowers herself a bit, embraces them and lifts them up. "That is going to be a long way back to the cave. I miss our donkey."
"I would prefer to have Gwenhwyfar hand the clubs and Abomentolor doing the distraction. He is the hardest to hit and sturdier than his size shows. And even if he gets hit it would be distributed on more people. Less hits on me is a good thing." she says with a smile.