Will Save
Affected (after Spasi calms down after screaming about bugs) or not, Spasi will have a good long think about how to bypass the trap/not-trap.
Clement stands, mouth ajar as he witnesses Bibic attempt to flee but only end up swept up by Rhesus and carried ahead.
"I... uh..."
He turns to share a quip with Spasi, but finding the arcanist's backside facing him, reaches out and awkwardly grabs his collar and less gracefully reproduces the same heroics as his own personal hero.
"Reese! You forgot one! I... *ughhh* got him. Of course you grabbed the elf... hrnnnmmmhhh... you bastard..."
Bypassing the trapped room, you find yourselves in a long corridor. Two doors stand opposite from each other on the north and south walls and further up, the corridor curves out of your line of vision. The muted sound of weeping can heard from beyond the northern door.
Bibic walks quietly up toward the doors. He points to the north door and shrugs his shoulders, Here?
He takes up a position near the two doors, and takes out his bow. He knocks an arrow and waits.
Spasi hearing the weeping and knowing the sound, takes up a position not far from Bibic.
"Good thing I thought of that clever trick to bypass the trap of extreme evil, huh? Good ol' closing the eyes trick! It's a good one with some of the cheaper Calistrians, too," Spasi whispers to Bibic as they await Rhesus' touch on the door.
Rhesus moves to the door with the crying.
"Reckon they must know Spasi is on the way. Alright, let's disappoint the ladies."
He rears back his foot, but pauses mid kick.
"Hey, you reckon they trapped this door too?"
He shrugs and kicks it anyway.
Clement holds up his shield, midway between himself and Rhesus as he prepares for whatever magical trappings are unleashed on them next.
A kick from Rhesus' mighty boot sends the door swinging into the room where it crashes into the wall with an echoing boom. Inside, dusty decomposing red drapes hand from the ceiling and tall iron candle holders stand in each of the chamber's corners. Inlaid into the floor in wide, iridescent lines is a circle of runes, its center filled by a seven-pointed star. Above the center of this circle floats the disembodied head of a large serpent, the source of the weeping.
Spasi looks at the head, trying to figure out what it might belong to.
Knowledge (+20 Arcana/Religion,+12 Dungeoneering,+17 Local,+19 Nature/Planes)
"Crying? CRYING? There is no crying in rune small!"
Bibic also gives it the eye.
(+12 local/arcana, +10 nature, +5 all others)
Bibic keeps his bow trained on it, but waits to see what it says to Spasi.
Clement holds a hand up in front of Rhesus's eyes.
"Don't look at it... it's probably a trick and aims to possess your mind and make you do something... bad."
Bibic lowers his bow a little and steps into the room, just to where he can see the snake's face.
"Uh, hey there, uh, snake. What's the matter?" he asks in common and Thasellonian.
Rhesus dutifully closes his eyes, but also peeks around Clem's fingers.
"It's got no body, you'd be sad too."
"It's got no body, you'd be sad too."
Spasi seems annoyed by that.
"I ain't got nobody either, but you don't see me cryin' about it. Unlike you and Clem, or Bibic and his bow, I only got what I pay for with Calistrians. That's what I got and I don't cry about it. Well...I cry afterwards, but that's different."
Spasi looks to see if the snake is going to respond.
There creatures weeping ceases and it seems to take notice of you for the first time. An anguished, silabent voice begins speaking directly into your minds, "Oh stay away friends, for if you enter this chamber I will be forced to slay you. Torment me not with your freedom and leave me to my imprisonment."
"But maybe we can help you. Surely there's some way to release you from your imprisonment? You must guard something truly great to be trapped here so."
I wonder what it is? What loot do you have in your missing talons?
Spasi gets out of sight (back to a wall maybe) and continues the conversation.
"Yeah, we can totally help you. We're Pathfinders or something. Totally," Spasi says. "We come to ruins like this to help things like you, not to totally steal all the cool magics...yeah, we're Pathfinders."
Bluff
"So, like...what's wrong? We can do some pretty cool magics, after all. Maybe we can fix it? Also, did you see another team of jerks pass by here a while back? If they are what is making you cry, we can get them outta here, if you want."
"Pathfinders? I know not that name. None have open this door for ten millennia, yet I am bound to guard this room. Do not tempt me with the hope of freedom. I was bound by a runelord and only one to match his power, or one wielding a mighty artifact of fell Thassilon can break the magic that binds me."
"My dear, uh, snake, is it a shard like this that will free you? Perhaps you can tell us where it is, and we'll get you out of here quick. How does that sound? We don't want to fight you. Promise."
He holds up his shard, suspecting it's not enough to free the snake, but it should be enough of a reference to find the 'local' one.
Yet, he keeps his distance, knowing that such conversations can derail quickly into combat.
"Yeah, tell us and maybe we can help. We have tons of fell Thassilonian artifacts, we even drape them around our necks. Maybe some of the ones we sold or gave away could help," Spasi adds to Bibic's words.
"But I know magic, too. Trust me, I'm a *Pathfinder*."
Clement arches an eyebrow as Spasi lays it on thick, but nonetheless nods in confirmation as he produces his own Thassilonian artifact.
"Yep! Here's my Thassilonian artifact. We picked this one up a week ago."
Clement shoulders Rhesus to ensure he's nodding.
"Usually a guardian like you has a condition set, like 'guard this room until something tries to get in and then stop it'. So, in that case it's been worded so that if you stop someone from entering once, you're done..."
Clement decides to add a little more for good measure.
"And Runelords, if I recall, were pretty bad guys, with slaves and sins. Most of us are fairly good folks."
Rhesus nods along.
"Uh, yeah. And Spasi here is almost as powerful as a Runelord. What was that Runelord you said you were most like Spasi? Sloth and Gluttony or something? Anyway, I bet we would totally free you. You guarding anything good in there?"
I am bound to destroy any who enter this chamber, until released. I don't know what object you have there, but if it is a true artifact, all that needs be done is to press it to the floor in the center of this chamber and speak the words (Thassilonian) 'By the power of Thassilon, I release you.' Do this and I will be bound no longer. Unfortunately, I will still be compelled to destroy you, if you do try to free me."
Spasi looks at Bibic.
"Does that make sense to you? It's bound to fight us whether we try to free it or not? Why would we want to free it then? Might be we fight it while it's bound up, huh?"
Spasi, still in hiding, yells back a few questions.
"If you are released, where will you go? And what will you do? And what are you, anyway?"
Rhesus nods.
"Let's just shoot it from the doorway. Hey, can you attack us if we're not in the room?"
"If you attack me I will defend myself. If you enter the room, I am compelled to attack you until my binding is broken. As for who I am, I am Tsikinal, a couatl in the service of Desna. If freed, I will return to my place in the heavens."
"From the heavens? Really? You work at the Calistria's Heavens over in Magnimar?! Down by the docks?! That's place!? I don't recall seeing you there...?" Spasi asks, thinking of the only heavens he knows, but then remembers another.
Know (Planes)
Clement's eyes widen as he barely remembers a few details about couatls, mostly that the word either begins with a "C" or possibly a "K". He does recognize Desna's name.
"Whoa! Desna! We're not interested in fighting a servant of Desna. If you were Groetus or Norgorber, maybe we could go with the violent approach."
Clement looks back to the others while he continues to think.
"I'm confused how a servant of Desna was forced to protect a big, evil Runelord's stuff. Can't we just use our magic to directly break whatever holds you here without stepping in the room? That's be okay, right Sick'nal?"
"Spasi pays people to do stuff they don't want to all the time, this ain't no different. Maybe we can distract it while one of us runs in there and spouts off that gobbly g&&~ and frees it? Him? Her? It."
Bibic waits to hear what the creature can do. He then, probably, suggests, "I'll do it. I'll run in there and free it. But you guys cover me - right? You know, come in with me and stuff."
Taking a shard in hand, Bibic takes a couple of deep breaths and then bolts into the room. As soon as he crosses the threshold, there is a flash of light the serpent head is disembodied no more. Before you is a mighty serpent with rainbow coloured, feathered wings. Focused on the task at hand, Bibic dives to the center of the pattern in the floor and speaks the words that supposedly break the ritual.
The instant he does, at cry of exultation fills your ears and the sound of celestial trumpets surrounds you. The creature seems to explode into butterflies of exquisite beauty, which flutter around in ecstasy, before fading into nothingness. In a heartbeat all that remains are multicolored plumes from the serpent on the floor.
Bibic takes deep, heaving breaths. "OK then. Not everyday you banish a Couatl back to its home huh?" he laughs and tries to control his breathing.
Once he catches his breath, he searches the room for whatever the Couatl must have been guarding.
Spasi bobs his head as Bibic risks his life to free the couatl, while leaving Spasi out of danger...just the way he liked it.
"Ah, Bibic you have a knack for that it seems. Sending people home, that is," Spasi says, finally entering to examine and pick up the feathers.
"There is this one lass down in Magnimar...at the Heavens, don't you know, that uses feathers like these in her work. Only had her time once, and it wasn't for me. Not sure how she gets the feathers clean afterwards, either...strange time was had, I'll tell you that. I'll explain it later..."
Spasi pockets any feathers that others don't want (but Clem should want them).
There is an elaborate runic pattern etched into the floor of the room.
After exploring the room, you investigate the chamber across the hall. This room contains several grooved stone tables of various sizes, and the floor slopes gradually towards several large drains. The ceiling is obscured by what appears to be a woven mesh of spiked metal chain suspended eight feet overhead, while a few gray robes and cloaks still hang on the wall to the east of the door.
Lounging around the room are three voluptuous, blue skinned women. Clothed in chains that do little but accentuate their nakedness, they leer at you. "New playthings? Come in, come in. We've been so lonely. Come play with us."
Bibic will certainly examine the pattern, taking his time to try and determine what powers it may have...
He translates what the ladies have to say, though he suspects it's clear enough from their attire and attitude.
"I don't know what those are Spasi, but that ceiling looks awfully painful."
Know (Planes)
Spasi whistles as he gets a good gander at the girls.
"Uh. Oh. Uh, we don't want to play with them. They *won't* play nicely with us. We, uh...wow...look at those bodies though...but yeah, they are not so good...except for the bodies, of course."
Expecting pain, Spasi per-emptively casts Haste.
Clement moves from Rhesus's shoulder to Spasi's, reflexively readying himself to hold Spasi back from diving headfirst into blue-skinned heaven, breathing a sigh of relief as Spasi's experience results in discretion instead of headlong self-satisfaction.
Rhesus looks at the chains with distaste.
"Should we free them?"
Upon learning what they are.
"Oooooooh."
He waits for the wave of spells to finish before he rages.
Clement stands ready for some cleavage in case things turn hostile, but looks to Spasi to make sense of the strange words the women are speaking.
Bibic has a hard time working up any enthusiasm for the fight ahead.
"Let's leave 'em be Spasi. We can always come back if we discover they're guarding the shard or a prisoner. They're stuck here. Let them stay stuck."
As if to punctuate the point he counts his arrows not seeming interested in spending any on their flesh.
Spasi rubs his chin, considering.
"You may be right, Bibs. You just might be right."
Clement shifts anxiously, feeling comforted with the grip of his shield in one hand, and Rhesus's shoulder in the other.
He looks to Spasi.
"Hey, look. There's loot.. I think, of some sort. I forget... what's the Pathfinder motto when we see loot? Something something report... I'm sure that something something was important, but it keeps escaping me."
Clement thinks back to when the giant monster engulfed him at the skyward manor and shudders. He then looks down to his boots and smiles.
"We Pathfinders have mottos? Really? Because we're totally pathfinders we should know the motto, huh?" Spasi says, looking at Bibic to see if he knows the motto.
"Well, looks like these here are penned in by..." Spasi looks around the room. "..by magic, of course. I knew that."
Spasi shrugs, canceling the spell he was going to cast.
"I don't think we need to tangle with them yet. Yet."
"Rest, Report, Recuperate... I'm pretty sure it's something like that. But yeah, you're right Clement, Report is in there. But yeah, rest - it's why Pathfinders always look so fresh."
He looks around, and nods in agreement with Spasi, "We can overcome this hurdle when we come back through. I say we let it lie for now."
He marches along down the hall when the others are ready. Bow out, he'll open the door for Rhesus.
"Sounds good. We should focus on that Rest and Recuperate part, I guess."
Clement kind of nods and waves, hoping that's sufficient to secure safe passage.
Rhesus sighs, quickened reflexes from the spell draining away.
"Alright, fine. Hey, you in there! Could ya pile your loot in the middle of the room for us? When we come back through we may be in a hurry and it'll be easier for all of us if we can just kill you and take it instead of having to search the room. Thanks!"
With that he heads to the next door and waits for Bibic to declare it clear.
"So, we going to talk to whatever is on the other side or hit it?"
Knowing there isn't an answer coming any time soon he opens the door and looks inside. Having learned his lesson from the last two rooms he doesn't cross the threshold until he knows what's there.
Ignoring the room, you continue down the hall, the frustrated wails of the Kytons echoing behind you. Around the bend, you see several more doors branching off of the hallway and Rhesus opens the first one.
Almost evert angle in this roughly circular chaber is smooth and curved. Though its walls and high ceiling are flat, the flat planes all curl to meet each other. Even the dors are curved, making a total lack of hard edges or corners, save for two broken sections on the western and eastern walls where long cracks have marred the perfect surface.
In the center of the room rests an elaborate clockwork construct of spheres. At its heart is a barrel-sized representation of the sun, while around it, metal struts suspend much smaller metal balls. Just north of it, a smooth four-foot tall podium rises like a stalagmite, its top bearing a small brass wheel and a lever.