Kai angles his flight to be level with the higher of the two ship decks . From here, he can see some of the higher deck as well-- to the east, it drops down to another sub-level, but he notices two small odd crystal-and-steel structures, each about three feet high, jutting from near the stairwells that lead down to that other deck. Each of these miniature spires is haloed in a blazing red light; even as he got into position, he saw one of them shoot a lightning-quick blast of crimson at one of the guards over there, who immediately collapsed to the deck with a burst of flame.
One of the guards-- bravely or foolishly, who knows-- steps forward and stabs with a spear at the crystal creature's body. His spear strikes- but snaps against the white surface like a toothpick. Another guard levels a crossbow at the construct from a higher deck, but has no better luck. The woman who was preparing to help tie you off looks back with horror at the scene behind her, and decides the better part of valor is to get off the damned ship. She jumps overboard, swimming out of the way.
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Lucija is about as mystified as anyone by these...things. Nevertheless, if there's one mortal failing of which Lucija is innocent, it is fear of the unknown. Naghamadi carries her at his somewhat languid pace toward the ship, and she commands the spirits of air and fire to empower her allies with celerity.
The boat drifts in, bumping against the crystal hull. Fortunately the harbor sloop has thick bundles of rags tied along her bow for such frequent collisions; the shock is minimal, and not enough to disrupt anyone's concentration. As Deaglan continues to chant, Darro helps boost his wolf up the ladder to the deck-- you all notice there are no railings, as would be normal on a sailing ship, just a sharp, angular drop-- and then Darro follows quickly with his wolf up the stairs.
A few seconds later, Deaglan swells to twice his size, towering over the others (and making the sloop sag a little in the bow at the suddenly-quadrupled cargo).
The golem half-turns your direction, and you all see something strange about it-- its backside is one cleanly-sheared flat plane, rather than the curves of even constructed flesh. Those of you on deck-- or in the air-- can see that beneath where the golem stands, there is the concave outline of a roughly man-like form, right in the middle of the white deck.
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Kai surveys the carnage on the ship with an opened jaw, before spotting that the rest of his gang have connected with the strange ship. Feeling the haste magic course through his veins he smiles as if he were enjoying himself before shouting down.
"Hey Fellas, there are some fire cannons down there, tough as old boots and weak to cold, you keep the Golem busy and ill have a go at them!"
Chanting in the elven tongue and touching his drawn blade, the adamantine blade crackles with energy. He speeds down the bow of the ship, stopping directly infront of the nearest 'cannon' and swipes out with Maiden's kiss.
+ electricity
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Valais scurries up the side of the ship, hastened by Lucija's spell. She squints her eyes at the devices on the deck.
No memories come to her, but another more terrifying one strikes her, taking her thoughts briefly away from the current battle. Her eyes widen in fright for a moment at the sight of the giant dwarf before a deep rage throws such small emotions aside. She quickly turns to the training she has received from the Koradan monks, channeling that violent demonic energy towards something more useful.
She runs up and slams a clawed fist into the creature.
The flying Kris swoops down on one of the fire cannons and manages a perfectly placed strike. His scimitar jams into a crack between white crystal and burnished steel, and discharges a powerful burst of electricity that seems to destroy the innards of the first fire cannon. The other cannon pulses rapidly...
From his new position, Kris can see that on the deck below him, a stairwell leads down into, presumably, the hold. Several guardsman have taken shelter down in there, since it seems to be out of range of the fiery beams.
Daeglan, now grown in size to equal the white golem, clambers easily onto the deck and takes a powerful swing at the golem with a tool perfect for the job... however, he is not able to connect.
The hulking white construct does react to Valais's approach. An enormous crystalline fist swings down towards her.
But apparently, she is in JUST the creature's blind spot, for the blow misses. Her own attack is like punching a wall-- fortunately the demons suffusing her form are made of sturdy flesh, and can execute such blows regardless. A network of spiderweb cracks appear on the torso where her blow hit, but she definitely did not do her full damage to the hulk.
Kleetus murmurs another prayer and hurriedly joins the others on deck.
Down at the aft end of the ship, the second fire projector assesses Kris as the largest threat. A beam of red energy spikes towards him.
Fortunately, he is too nimble for it to hit, and twists sideways in the air, though he can smell the acrid stench of white hot metal as the blast shoots past him.
The golem's head turns towards the only creature so far to threaten its structural integrity. A shudder ripples through the white body, and when its attacks come, they come at blinding speed.
The guard that broke his spear on the crystal golem is relieved others are here to be brave. He withdraws from the combat, running for the side of the ship to take his chances in the water rather than deck with this monstrosity. From a safer distance, some guards continue to fire crossbows, but clearly this fight is out of their league and their bolts plink off the golem without visible effect.
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Taking advantage of the opening that Valais has bought, Naghamadi strikes! His bite finds a vulnerable spot, leaving a small, smoldering hole, though the "flesh" of the golem is quite hard and not all of the serpent's damage goes through.
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The muscles on Valais' red, wiry arms tense up as she falls back into her training. She hears the voice of Blue demanding retribution and violence and the voice of Red laughing as he thinks of the sounds the construct will make as she cracks open all of its joints. She has learned to take what she needs from them: the will to fight, and the knowledge of how to use her new body's untold strength.
She begins a flurry of punches.
Valais launches into a terrifying display of martial prowess, fueled with the hellish transformation her body has undergone. Every one of her blows hit, with a building concussive force that sends further cracks splintering the white golem -- until, with her final blow, it collapses in a spray of white shards, bursting over the far side of the deck.
Darro's single arrow hits, leaving a substantial nick on the cannon's housing.
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One cannon demolished in a charge of electricity, Kris takes a moment to survey the scene around him, seeing the Golem shatter to the deck, he tips the frightened guards a wink and a smile. As Darro's arrow flies past and imbeds in the remaining defence system, Kai darts over, not bothering to charge his sword he strikes out.
In his haste to get into range, Kleetus's bullet misses...
The small tower pulses and twitches, and another burst of fire lets loose at Kris, from point-blank adjacent. He has a moment to strike the tower before the pulse discharges.
Unfortunately, his blow glances off the steel plate and doesn't quite connect.
Perhaps more unfortunately, the fire blast catches him dead on, this time, as he's too close to dodge with full grace.
FWOOSH! It's a flying flambé. The guards below wince, but crowd further downstairs for safety. Better him than them....
Alas, Lucija's little jolt of acid does not impact the small tower.
The guards have mostly pulled out of your way to let the obviously-more-experienced Pathfinders handle this. A few of them land ragged cheers everytime a blow is landed. Others try to tend their fallen, but the downed guards look... pretty downed.
Kai's blaze of attacks tear into the cannon, three strikes hitting and reducing it to a pile of smoking rubble.
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As the crystal golem shattered around her, Valais roared a deep fiendish bellow before suddenly collapsing into murderous giggling, then finally confused, wide-eyed fear. As she rapdily scans the now quiet scene, clutching her claws to her chest, she calms.
"Oh...it's gone? Did I do alright?"
She feels something wet on her chest; not the tingling burn of a babau's moist skin, but that of blood. Bits of crystal have lodged themselves about the wound.
"I've been hurt...are the rest of you alright."
She digs out a wand from her pack. She smiles with a child's pride as she shows it off.
"I'm a good Pathfinder. I have my cure light wounds wand! I can use it, too!"
Valais is eager to show her good Pathfindering, and touches the wand to her injuries. To her dismay, the first attempt... doesn't seem to work. The wand activates, pulsing with a soft blue light, but when touched to her bruised, bleeding flesh... nothing happens. The healing energy fizzles with a soft sighing sound.
The guards who haven't already thrown themselves into the greater safety of the water collect themselves, gingerly crawling out of the areas they'd sheltered in for cover, and one of two of them tentatively clapping some of you on the back in a 'good job' fashion.
All the same, five guards lost their lives before you were able to get the situation under control-- a distraught young lieutenant shakes his head as he inspects the badly charred body of one dwarf.
"That was Captain Krall," the lieutenant says with a head shake. "I was with him down in the compartment below-- he tried to take his axe to the portal we've found down there... that's when all hell broke loose. He ran back up to the deck.... got hit by those damned fire beams! That's a terrible way to die," she says with a shudder.
The axe in question is still on the crystal deck next to the unfortunate captain's body-- it's an obviously well-made weapon, dwarven handiwork, and the bladed head is made of a flawless and bright silver metal.
Darro's quick search of the rest of the ship reveals no more hiding foes: the odd concavity where the golem arose from appears to be the only such place, and no more fire cannons sprout from the deck either. At the aft end of the ship, there is a stairwell leading down, into a chamber about 30 feet wide, and 40 long, with angular, geometric walls. The walls are marked with long racks of the white crystal, seamlessly protruding from the hull, with holes to suggest they might once have held weapons or tools, but there is no sign of such things now. Other sections are blank and smooth as a mirror. The main feature of this room is the clear arch of a large doorway, ten feet high and five wide, that is wholly blocked with another sheet of the opaque white crystal.
The lieutenant you were talking to says that is the door that the captain attempted to chop through with his axe. One tiny chip shows where he struck his blow.
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After the first charge sizzles, Valais's skeletal jaw drops. She rushes to tap it again and yet again.
"W-w-what...did I do something wrong? It's never done this before...CURSED BROKEN TRINKET"
As Blue's booming voice takes over, she places her other claw on the wand and begins slowly applying pressure. She suddenly softens, slapping her own claw for its disobedience.
"Bad Blue!"
She looks to the others.
"Can any of you guys heal me?"
Indeed, Valais finds to her horror that her 'trinket' continues to not do what it's always done before.
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"Gather around me, I will ask Trudd for his aid in healing everyone"
Deaglan grasps his holy symbol, concentrates for a second and a holy light quickly radiates outward to an area of 30 ft radius.
If that works Deaglan will channel again
He then lightly touches Kris on his shoulder "May Trudd's healing wash over you"
and does the same with Valais
Deaglan then goes down and readies himself for the door
"Shall I bash it down? Or do we think there might be another way to open it?"
Deaglan calls down healing in a burst over any injured guards, and his friends. It heals Kris without problems... but Valais's injuries do not close, at his first channel.
Deaglan is not fully certain, but he does notice that small granules of crystalline white seem to have been ground into her flesh from the impact of the golem's enormous fists. It's possible that whatever energies animated the creature might be interfering with Trudd's divine power. As for how to fix it, he's not exactly sure, other than it may just require a powerful enough faith.
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Fight ovrr in a blurring movement, Kris' chest heaves from the effort, he tries to avoid being clapped on the back, indicating his injuries are troubling him if questioned why. He nods sadly at the report of the five deaths.
"Always a shame when a comrade falls, near happened to me once too at the museum. You guys get back to shore alright? Take your friends with you for proper burial and we will investigate the ships mysteries."
He nods in grayitude to his enlarged dearven companion for the healing, unable to avoid the healing touch from his cleric friend, he twitches slightly.
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Many thanks Deaglan for healing the others. Hmmm...it seems Valais has not healed as the others did. This looks beyond my healing skills. Does anyone know why?" Darro says after coming back from inspecting the main decks. "Also if those defenses were from the ship then we must take care as we will surly find other defenses and traps to our presence here. Makes sense." he adds.
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After the channel, Kris will flick his wrist and grasp an onyx wand that slides forth, with a trigger word bordering on unholy he touches it to his chest and his wounds slowly knit together.
"Cheers for the boost mate, ill be fine in a moment. Must be some effect of the golem thing, the Azlanti had terrible tricks, no ideas what though, sorry"
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Valais cradles herself as she hunches forward, her legs shuffling back-and-forth as the others converse.
"There's something wrong with me? OR WRONG WITH THE HEALER."
She bites what little lips she has left.
"Maybe...we should go back to the temple in the city since we saved all these chaps."
Her voice cracks and her claws clench, pressing against her demonic scales.
"If they can't fix me, you can leave me there. I shan't want to be any trouble."