Atua's blade slides off the hard metal for all but one attack. But that one hits hard and despite the reduced damage the not adamantine blade deals, it is enough to take the construct down.
Atua and Grergof play toss the Sihedron back and forth until they are both fully healed...
While Atua and Grergof are healing, Ardan spends his time looking about in the hallway, counting the archways and looking down them, to see what they lead to. He also examines the door that the clockwork dragon was guarding.
16 ranks +3 trained +9 wis + 5 eyes of the eagle+2 luck+10 tears to wine +10 Sarzari Shadow Memory
The main hall is 200 by 60 feet, with three arches with doors on the long side in the north, three in the south and large doors on the short sides to the east and west. There is noting special about the door behind the dragon.
Inassume there is no fancy way to see beyond the doors? We just have to pick on and open it?
"I can perceive some of what is beyond each door" volunteers Atua. She walks the hall, stopping just in front of each door, letting her tremorsense work...
"I do have Gloves of Reconnaissance, but they can only be used once per day, so I prefer to preserve them for important bits."
I can try to pick it if need be.
Atua notices nothing moving behind the western door . Same for the most west door in the south . Behind the next door something moves, but it is not steps. Next has three medium sized bipeds and something biped that is a lot more heavy . Nothing behind the eastern door . And on the north side back there is nothing moving behind.
Well do we just pick one at random?
"It is a pity this whole thing and its inhabitants aren't flammable."
Let us take the one behind the dragon.
Someone want to check it for traps?
The door is not trapped, as Spugnoir's investigation suggests and opening the door confirms. A red metal chair sits in the southern corner of this oddly shaped room. Sets of tiny glyphs shimmer in the air near the chair, while a slowly spinning rune-carved disk floats gently in the air before it. To the east, thick, jagged sheets of crystal cover a large archway like a malignant stone scab. A rune of complex design shifts and twitches along the stones of the arch itself.
That looks magical to me. Can any of you tell more?
And don’t open the arch without all of us agreeing first.
From the doorway Grergof opens his sight to see if he detects anything evil registers for him.
Cast Detect Magic, and attempt to assess what all the various things are...
16 ranks +3 trained +9 wis + 5 eyes of the eagle+2 luck+10 tears to wine +10 Sarzari Shadow Memory
16 ranks+3 trained+ 2 Int+2 luck+10 tears to wine
16 ranks+3 trained+ 2 Int+2 luck+10 tears to wine
A vision flashes the group.
“Leave us!” shouts Xin, pacing before seven exquisitely dressed court wizards and tables holding countless wealth, while an army of retainers and handmaidens exits behind them with great haste. “The Shoanti tribes refuse to break antiquated oaths. The Varisians refuse to share their ancestral lands. Can civilization not eclipse old ways? Why do they not heed their emperor?”
“Your grace’s wisdom is vast,” sneers wizard in fine robes, “but our emperor’s time is too precious for such trifles. Perhaps we...” With an eldritch flash, Xin vanishes and reappears before his apprentice, his aging hand arcing with arcane fire clutching the wizard’s throat. “And what would you do, Xanderghul? Rule in my stead?” A staggeringly beautiful woman lays a calming hand on Xin’s outstretched arm. “We mean only to administer your justice, your grace—to ease the heavy burden of your rule.” Xin releases the gasping savant.
“I have taught you well, Sorshen. Are you all not my devoted disciples?” The seven wizards prostrate themselves before him. “You have always served me faithfully. Perhaps it is time you served me further.” The scene fades as Xin turns his back on the wizards, who regain their composure with malevolent smiles.
Also the crystals at the door are infused with magic. A decayed protection against passing through.
"The spinning rune-carved disk is a spellwell - usable by prepared casters to prepare spells of the enchantment school. Undoubtedly very valuable. The crystals covering the far archway are magical protection to seal the archway. "
Ardan pauses to think and then offers a suggestion "Rather than press on immediately, through the archway, I would suggest that we check out the other doors on this hallway. I suspect that we will see more such time-lost visions which might offer us clues as to what we need to achieve..."
This is not the first vision we have seen...
We saw one that showed Xin making this palace, a second one with Xin trapping people in Crystals, and I think a third where Xin slowly goes mad from loneliness....
Very well, let us check the other doors.
Wait... those seven wizards.... Did we just seen the Runelords before they were Runelords? I remember something about them but not too much...
6 Ranks +3 Trained +2 Int+2 luck+10 tears to wine
This is not the first vision we have seen...
We saw one that showed Xin making this palace, a second one with Xin trapping people in Crystals, and I think a third where Xin slowly goes mad from loneliness....
"You have had other visions through time, please, tell me more detail of what you have seen."
Very well, let us check the other doors.
"Perhaps starting with this one - I sense nothing moving on the floor behind it."
The door seems not trapped and so it is opened. Cone-shaped crystal horns descend from the ceiling above an assembly of automatons brandishing an array of outlandish instruments. The various harps, strange horns, unusual lutes, and percussive instruments are heavily corroded, as are the clockwork musicians that hold them.
As soon as the door is opened this orchestra starts playing. And it sounds horrible. Everything sounds discordant.
+21 will +1 morale (heroes feast)
"Noisy!"
+6 Cleric +4 Stargazer + 9 Wisdom +2 Luck+4 Resistance+1 Competence +1 morale (Heroes Feast)
Abomentolor dislikes the music. And kicks Spugnoir in the shin, as it is obviously his fault.
Hmm has music changed so much over time?
HP 116/116
AC 17/12/15 (25/18/23 with Mutagen and shield)
Saves F15/R15/W10 11 Fear Poison Immune (+11 Will save with hero's feast
Weapon in hand:
Special Effects: Heroes Feast (+11 HP +1 Attack/Will save, +4 vs. Poison/Fear) 23/23 bombsHeroism (+2 attack/saves/skills)
See Invisible
Countless Eyes(All around vision, can't be flanked)
Heighten Awareness (+2 Perception and Knowledge skills)Freedom of Movement, Communal Stone skin (10/Adamantine DR 148 points)
Spugnoir holds his hand against Abo'shead, keeping him at arm's length. Seems like another mental attack.
Ardan uses the face of his shield to try to push Abo away from the music's zone of influence:
vs Abo's CMD???
+12 bab
As he does so, he says "Atua, Brother Grergof, get in there and break the damned clanks; Spugnoir, close the door behind them for a breath or two."
Atua slips smoothly through the door and hurls a lava bolt a member of the orchestra...
+24 bridijiine +1 heroes feast
and a DC 26 fort save vs Entrap if it hits...
"You are very pushy lately." Abomentolor complains.
Atua fills the horns with lava, blocking the air flow, ending the performance.
"You are very pushy lately." Abomentolor complains.
"And you keep on biting Spugnoir and I on the ankles, what's your point?"
With that rejoinder, Ardan slips into the orchestra room, searching it with Detect Magic active...
16 ranks +3 trained +9 wis + 5 eyes of the eagle+2 luck+10 tears to wine +10 Sarzari Shadow Memory
Ardan looks at the damaged Horn of Blasting he found and says "Welp, this is probably repairable when we get some downtime , so let's put it in the pile... Shall we move on?"
yes, lets move on.
With the orchestra silenced, the group moves on to the next door. Behind it, brass gurneys lie in tattered disarray in this ancient laboratory. Crystal globes filled with bubbling liquids still bob against the ceiling, and the smears of broken runes drawn in phosphorescent inks flicker with a dying light on the chamber’s floor. Several lifelike statues, each dressed in intricate robes and wielding long-handled hooks, are scattered in pieces across the floor, their faces carved in horrific grimaces.
A vision shows Xin conjuring and then dissecting huge spiderlike outsiders, and fleeing servants being petrified and destroyed by the lone surviving summon.
16 ranks+3 trained+ 2 Int+2 luck+10 tears to wine
16 ranks+3 trained+ 2 Int+2 luck+10 tears to wine
Spugnoir is feeling over shadowed here..
I reckon so, seems Xin wasn't too concerned with things like ethics.
Hiding at the ceiling - tone in tone with the black crystal of the palace - is the retriever from the vision.
16 ranks+3 trained+ 2 Int+2 luck+10 tears to wine
16 ranks+3 trained+ 2 Int+2 luck+10 tears to wine
Abomentolor doesn't like spiders of any kind. Fire is a good solution for regular spiders, but in this case he fears that will not do.
Abomentolor shoots a hole into the abyssal construct where the whole party coud jump through at once, but the glow in the eyes of it isn't vanquished, nor does it fall from the ceiling.
Atua launches a lava bolt at the thing, and then moves to protect Abomentolor against a charge...
+24 bridijiine +1 heroes feast
and a DC 26 fort save vs Entrap if it hits...
Ardan points upwards and says "The damned retriever is still here!" Seeing the wrath being dispensed by Abo and Atua, he continues "All yours folks, all yours...