(trapspotter)
Ignatius, Roland, and Niko are on guard and hear the hisses and shrieks piercing the air just before a group of black lizard-like humanoids burst from the nearby trees, waving morningstars and javelins!
Roland puts an arrow in the chief!
As Ignatius moves forward the lizardfolk grab their morningstars and descend on the party!
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Eadie drops her Lucerne hammer in fright. “Oh no! Lizardfolk!”
It’s like déjà vu … all over again!
The young warrior pulls herself together long enough to draw her enchanted falchion and attack the lizard-dude(tte).
Eadie then takes a 5' step to the south-east, calling "Hey, chiefy! I'm your huckleberry."
Argust August misses but Eadie takes down the yellow lizardfolkesse. Roland puts a pair of shots in the chief and Niko misses. Ignatius harms one of the lizardfolk but Lore's channel does not seem to have an effect on them.
The lizardfolk retaliate after a quick word from their chieftain!
The chief, wielding a morningstar in each hand, goes after August!
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Niko steps northwest, opening a firing lane for Roland, then stabs at the lizardman to his east, while kicking at the cheiftan!
The party easily mops up the remaining lizardfolk!
Dusan slowly rises from the bush he was hiding behind. "Good. . . good. . . " he mumbles before startling himself with his own shadow and then spending a few minutes looking about wide-eyed as if expecting more lizardfolk any second.
"We should find a place to rest. More miles to go but the dark is coming."
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“OK, Dusan. But let’s see if we can put some distance between this place and our campsite.”
When the party makes camp, Eadie will offer up her plundered ship’s stores to help make a meal. She helps Lore do any food preparation and with her mouth hanging open, takes note of the gnome chef’s culinary tricks and tips.
Eadie finds time to strip her plate mail and clean it along with her weapons. She will unwind by running a dagger along a whetstone in a steady rhythm as she chats to her companions.
“So are you ready to swap that longsword for a falchion yet, Iggy?” She smiles. “Abadar might be prepared to lower his standards and accept you into the First Vault.”
“Varisians and Chelaxians fighting together, Roland. Who would have thought? There’ll be dogs and cats living together next!”
“Lore, do you remember my tengu 'fiancé' I mentioned when we were in Razmir? In the Shackles I adventured with a tengu slayer that looked exactly like him! When I mentioned it, he looked a bit put out, like maybe I thought all tengu look the same or something … Ooh, wouldn’t a cup of Lhug’s coffee go down well? I can almost taste it.”
“Bags I first watch!” Eadie will stand watch in her armor, but will sleep in her lamellar leather suit.
“So three watches, people? I’d suggest Iggy and I, August and Niko, and Lore and Roland. This matches up good with poor perceptiveness pretty well, puts our low-light experts later in the watch when it’s darkest and allows our priestess of Sarenrae to greet the dawn.”
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Again, Lore does not disappoint with the evening meal. Watching Eadie clean her armor, she sighs as she walks over and casts prestidigitation to make all the swampy mud gone and make the armor gleaming clean and shiny, probably to Dusan's distress. It's so shiny it might attract attention!
"Third watch is fine with me.. I can start breakfast at the end of the watch, and get in my morning prayers too."
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“That’s a neat trick, Lore.”
It takes a moment but Eadie eventually realizes what she’s just said. “Ooh, I said a neat trick.”
“Do you get it? It could mean ‘neat’ like ‘cool’ BUT it could also mean ‘neat’ like ‘tidy’ ‘cos it made all my stuff clean. Clever eh, August?”
♞♞♞♞
At meal time Eadie will hold up her empty plate with a hopeful expression. “Can I have fourths please, Lore? It’s just sooooo yummy.”
Dusan doesn't seem to sleep much and when he does he is restless, speaking in his sleep and tossing and turning.
The next morning you wake and after all necessary preparations (and some breakfast, of course), Dusan leads you the last few miles to your destination.
The entrance to Xin-Grafar stands ahead—two enormous stone doors, each thirty feet high and fifteen feet wide, covered in carved, vertical wavy lines. The left-hand door stands open, a complex internal mechanism of worked stone and metal clockwork gears visible along the door’s side about halfway up. The doors are recessed about ten feet into the side of a large, grass-covered hill and tilt slightly inward. A firepit smolders beside the right-hand door, tiny tendrils of smoke still curling skyward from its coals.
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What's clever? It's looks clean ta me.
“August, have you ever played the game ‘papyrus, rock, dagger’? I was taught it on a date with a Sylph druid in Varisia.”
Eadie hold up a clenched fist. “This is rock – it beats dagger.” She holds out her index finger to demonstrate. “Which beats papyrus, represented by a flat palm, ya ken?”
“If you want a game you just shake your fist and count …
Eadie examines the still smouldering fire pit. “I recommend we watch out for thunder storms. This fire has been started by a recent lightning strike.”
She also has a look around the entranceway for traps or threats.
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Roland nods in agreement with Eadie's plan for the night. He enjoys the breakfast.
"Zhis certainly beats zhe field rations most common on zhe trips like zhis. Very much appreciate zhe meals . "
Bending to inspect the ground and fire pit
"Zhere seem to be about zhe dozen here...from zhe tracks and other signs. "
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I thinks that druid ya dated was nuts.
Eadie pushes the palm of her left hand into her check as she considers the dwarf’s words. “'Nuts' is probably a bit strong – but he was definitely different.”
“I did learn two things from that experience though …”
“One, if your date has brought along his Animal Companion – And second, go on a blind date organized by a cleric of Calistria.”
What's a 'doshen'?
Eadie begins counting on the fingers of her gauntlets, while mouthing the words ...
One, two, three, four, five, six … uh … lots!
“I’m pretty sure it’s a number, August. But I’d have to take off my slippers to work out exactly which one.”
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Ignatius scoffs at Eadie's suggestion of trading in his longsword for a falchion, "The longsword is the divine weapon of Iomedae. I shall not part with it." He then grows a little bashful, "Actually, I just don't have the necessary training to use one of those with any kind of accuracy."
He praises Lorelendral for the good grub.
As the party approaches the doors, Ignatius will cast light on his shield and helps Lorelendral by detecting magic as well.
Niko finds no traps outside or on the door and Lore does not detect any magic other than the general necromantic aura of the whole tainted island. The party cautiously enters the gate. . . .
The long, sloped tunnel leading down to the city suddenly opens into a large rectangular room. The floor here is sand and shows signs of recent foot traffic. The walls are all painted in enormous murals that depict a city in its prime. The south wall shows hundreds of men and women in a marketplace, trading everything from fruit and livestock to construction materials such as brick and wood. The north wall depicts row upon row of unarmed, uniformed men standing large in the foreground and growing smaller as their ranks disappear over the horizon toward the far right of the painting—a horizon over which an enormous golden sun rises. The east wall is a huge map that portrays a city constructed of three concentric circles and divided by canals of pure, crystal-clear water that flows from the city’s innermost ring. Below this map someone has scrawled numerous notes and mathematical calculations in charcoal. Finally, the west wall depicts a leader of some sort, crowned by a golden sun and speaking before a huge crowd of people wearing white shawls and golden togas.
The notes beneath the map are scrawled in Common, and seem at first to be gibberish, with several phrases referring to the “Jewel of Everlasting Gold” and multiple descriptions of fire, floods, and molten gold.
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Niko kneels down on the balls of his feet, studying the notes on the map. "Simply remarkable! There are mathmatical calculations here describing the volume of molten gold it would take to flood the city! Not only that, but there are also calculations for how long someting like taht would take, about 72 hours after a gate was opened and it would fill the city to a height of forty feet. I twould take twenty four hours for the gold to drain, where to, I cannot fathom, but once the cuty started flooding, it could not be stopped."
Standing back up, he looks over the map and lets out a low whistle. "Forty feet of gold....the sheer weight would sink the local area by quite a bit, I should think....how would it stay molten for so long....where does one store such vast amounts of gold....is it solid, then melted, or already molten....." He mutters to himself, lost in thought.
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Ignatius points down to the ground following Nikomedes' explanation of the calculations etched in the walls. "Look at the tracks! The cultists didn't even bother to look at the murals at all. So... if this jewel thing can really cause an unstoppable flood of molten gold - then the Razmiris have no idea what they're dealing with."
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Lore admires the depictions of the sun for a moment, then turns her attention to Niko and Iggy as they speak. "I think that means we'd better hurry while we are here. The big gate is open and we have limited time to get in and get out ourselves... In case we don't make it, can everyone fly by some means? I have a potion... but only one."
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Eadie *blinks* a few times at Niko’s report, while she considers the implications of that amount of gold.
You could fund the resources to conquer, re-build and rule whole continents … maybe the whole planet! Why I could be a queen. No! An empress. No! A godde…
Eadie stops. Lowers her head and shakes it briskly from side-to-side. “Greed and death … That’s all this place is good for. I agree with Lore, let’s push on.”
She smiles at the Empiricist. “You can tell your story walking, Niko.”
A large doorway passes from the room of murals into the city proper. A lightly glowing green fluorescence emanates from the cavern roof above, illuminating a once-great city now reduced to ash and rubble—but whose ruins are coated entirely in gold. A large, covered bridge across a canal glows white-hot and emits a searing, golden light. In the center of the bridge stands a man-shaped statue covered in fine gold plating, its carved face eerily human-like.
(trapspotter)
Everyone but Roland and Niko note that although the statue is covered in gold, the floor around it is not, as if the thin gold plating has been scuffed off by movement; furthermore, there are two heaps of melted gold and other metals. All of this points to the statue likely still being mobile and you prepare yourselves for battle with the golden guardian!
The golden guardian, however, acts more quickly and charges down from bridge at August!