@Shasta: While the bodies have been alchemically preserved, it appears that they died from a large amount of blunt force trauma that covered their bodies.
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Wyeth tips the flask given to him from side to side, watching the contents flow. "I'll have to take your word for it, my alchemical studies haven't advanced that far yet. I suppose the odds of that woman getting stoned within the last hour are pretty slim."
He suddenly looks around nervously. "Or at least I hope they are..."
-Posted with Wayfinder
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"I'd hate to waste the stuff on an Aspis agent who probably got what she deserved, but she might have information we could use. Maybe we check for evidence of how long it's been there, as Hakime suggested or go back to the kobolds and see if they want to brag about how she got stoned. Might give us an idea of how long ago it was and whether she had any useful intelligence to share," Shasta muses. "But it's worth a try. I'll vote to try to revive her. Might come back to bite us, but opportunities to save lives should not be passed over lightly, even if the lives don't seem worth saving. Folklore is full of stories that have happy endings when people do good things for others, even if, sometimes especially if, they don't seem to deserve it."
Hakime goes to the statue and carefully wipes it, finding no trace of dust on the statue.
Marduk reluctantly spreads the crimson goop upon the statue. It takes a good minute, but afterwards the stone exterior softens and the now-animate, dark-skinned woman finishes as scream and a gasp of air as she nearly stumbles into Marduk. She looks at her hands, then looks at the party surrounding her. "That thing was chasing me and I remember turning to...", she pauses realizing what happened to her, then as she looks over the party, she spies the blade Shasta is carrying. "You're Pathfinders... and you saved me?", the woman totally perplexed at the situation.
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Hakime looks her over for wounds, then does a loh if she needs healing.
"How could we not, when we had the capability. It would have been quite wrong to leave you petrified as you were... Perhaps, now that you are... a bit softer and more pliable, you might regale us with your tale, and maybe answer a few of our questions. Would you do so please?"
"Th-th-thank you.", the woman still surprised by Hakime's words. "I am Vanei Thaskin; I was sent here to find out about any defenses. I got this far, but that... creature got me. I’ve had enough of this place and the Aspis Consortium!", she announces, going into her pocket and tossing a bronze badge to the ground.
"I would prefer to get out of here; the man who sent me will kill me on sight if he catches me with the lot of you. I appreciate your concern, though. I don't think the Consortium would have done as you have."
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"Since you are choosing not to come with us, you mentioned you were sent down here to scout for defenses? What other defenses were you able to locate besides the obvious basalisk?" Gob asks the former aspis agent. "Also who was the man that sent you down here? If you cannot speak his name perhaps he carried a unique item? Such as a staff with a snakes head?"
"I snuck past the traps near the entrance and gave the kobolds a distraction to slip by them. I didn't get much farther though after I released that... thing... and I started running.", Vanei sighing, perhaps still a bit shaken by the traumatic ordeal. "The one who sent me is Zaril Namoth, an aristocrat from Ustalav. He works for the Consortium. They say he used to hunt big game for pleasure, but a tribe of Bekyar captured him. He survived, but changed and now hunts people. He loves to impale his prey with his giant spear and take their heads with his kukri.", the former-Aspis member taking her finger across her neck. "Rumor has it that he learned these things and even some demonic magic from the Bekyar! I was the advance scout, but he is coming here, and soon, and his platoon will slaughter everyone here until they find what they want."
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"Would it be too much to ask what it is he actually wants from here? Obviously he's quite willing to risk the lives of those he sent as scouts, so it must be quite valuable, whatever it is. Are you sure you wouldn't stay with us until we leave this place, as going back alone you are at more risk than you are staying with us. We would of course welcome you to be our companion... perhaps you might even find the society an organization you can trust treat you better than the consortium ever did."
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"Well, you saved my life. Keep me safe through the rest of this place, and you can always count me as an ally."
Answering, Hakime's question, she answers as best she can. "A Pathfinder agent who knows something about a dwarven device that would be of great value to the Consortium. There are also rumors that there is a golden statue in these ruins, and they plan on melting it for profit."
An eerie feeling of something lurking nearby tingles up the spine of the party. Not within in eyesight, but something lurks in the halls.
Hakime can make out slow, plodding footsteps as something is moving lazily around, seemingly echoing from the west .
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Shasta drops her voice to a whisper and says, "Half of us should hide in the room while the rest of us lure it closer. Then we can ambush it and half of us can fight it from behind." She points to the room in which we found the basilisk scat and chew toy. "I could also cast unseen servant to carry the chew toy and perhaps lure the beastie into the ambush."
Knowledge (Arcana): 20 + 8 = 28
@Shasta: Safest way to fight a basilisk is blindfolded; while their bites are a strong as a blade strike, their gaze is truly the most dangerous thing. They are hardy, but slow moving and not agile. If you must see, using mirrored surfaces to not look direct at the creature helps
Oddly, you also think that given the chew toy and the room conditions, you may think you could try handling the basilisk as you would a pet to try and possible control the creature's behavior.
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"I've got an idea. You guys hide and stay out of sight of the beast. I'll lure it here with the chew toy and get it to go into its room and shut the door. If you have a mirror, use it to track it." She hands her potion of un-stoning to Vanei, saying, "Return the favor if this goes south."
Then she stands in the niche at the corner of the room, dangles the chew toy, and begins to call out to in in Draconic, "Hér drengur. Fáðu tyggja leikfang! Láttu ekki svona!"
With a happy, playful gait, Shasta sees a lizard the size of a small pony moving towards her; spying the chew toy, it immediately follows her around the morgue and towards its room...
Shasta's goggles and caution prevent her from locking eyes with the beast, who is more concerned with getting to his chew toy. Tossing it into its room pen, it happily chases after it, turning to look at Shasta with a smile as she closes the door.
"Whew!", Vanei wiping a few beads of sweat from her forehead. "You lot truly are resourceful. If other Pathfinders are like you, then I really should consider joining..."
Shasta spied another door far to the northwest as she was looking for the basilisk.
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"Finding things for yourself forces you to be more resourceful than waiting for someone else to find something and then taking it from them," Shasta muses, setting her smoked goggles on her forehead. "That was intense."
She does what she can to secure the double doors that lead back to the area where the kobolds are. She doesn't want them slipping in and letting Spot loose again.
"I suspect these other rooms are more utility spaces, living quarters, storage, etc. Might as well check them out first. I suspect the golden whatsis is further in," Shasta says, looking toward the north. Shasta suggests we look at the room to the west, where her figure is.
The first room Shasta goes to has a stone pillar bearing numerous lines of runic text that stands amid pieces of stone furniture and heaps of miscellaneous junk. Crude drawings of dragons decorate the stone surfaces.
This used to be a dwarven infirmary.
Each line on the pillar reads as such:
Korthak Helmsplitter - 8 13 3145
Ingris Deepwatcher - 7 15 3156
and so on, with a name and a date. Unfortunately, the date notation doesn't match that of Absalom Reckoning dates. Oddly, halfway through the list the gaps between date ranges shrink dramatically.
Looking through the room, nothing of valuable can be found.
The last chamber is that of a resident kobold, although luckily it is empty. Many bits and pieces of metal lie on stone shelves carved into the walls. Several ornaments made from animal bones hang from the ceiling. A crude, one-foot-tall statue of a horned and winged creature stands on a stone table set next to a wall.
The pieces of metal are parts that can be used to create traps.
The statue is a depiction of a gargoyle.
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In the first room, with the pillars and drawings of dragons:
Shasta looks around and eventually says, "I suspect in the original complex this was a dwarvish infirmary. I can't read these runes but they look Dwarvish."
Shasta looks through the other room and says, "These look like parts of a trap. This is apparently the resident trapsmith. Seems to have a thing for gargoyles," she adds, pointing to the statue.
Once the rooms have been sufficiently ransacked for goodies, Shasta looks at the double doors to the NW. As she looks it over for traps, she sings the opening lines of a song, "Overture / Turn on the Lights / This is it / We'll hit the heights."
She interupts her song to say, "I'll wager this is where we'll find the big sneeze. Ready to fight a dragon? Who's got the dingus?"
@Shasta: You find no traps on the door.
@Marduk:
The party ready, Shasta opens the door and braces herself.
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, which connects to the stone block’s surface. Six pillars lie around the edges of the room, each decorated with carved patterns of scales and dragon heads. Several large paintings of dragons adorn the floor.
The six pillars are badly corroded and a good push or some damage can cause them to topple for massive damage.
The party sees a group of kobolds 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 roaring in a voice resembling a metallic hunting horn.
Hearing the sound of the large stone doors opening, several of the kobolds turn to the party and shriek out in Common, "There they are!" The golden statue turns to the party and roars out in anger. "You have come here!" and it begins to walk menacingly towards the party.
This is a rare type of gargoyle, being exceptionally large and partially made of gold. Gargoyles are naturally resistant to critical or precision strikes, fire, and require magical weapons to fully damage them.
Init Order: Bold = up!
Marduk
Golden God
Aspex
Wyeth
Hakime
Gob
Shasta