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Merephel is startled by the appearance of the skeletons, and in her surprise, she trips over a rock. She manages to catch herself, but by the time she does, battle is already joined!
Calden smiles his warmest smile at Merephel. Something about her tiredness worries him. "It is. Thank you, for being here with us, and for bringing with you the energy of all that is beautiful and worthy, to this forsaken place."
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Calden doesnt waste time when he spots the skeletons, and charges at the closest one. He pushes off with the help of his quarterstaff, spins in the air, and uses that momentum to swing the end of the weapon at the skeletons ribcage with full force. "You're right, Shirzon. These must have been the original inhabitants of the city. Imagine how long they've been here!"
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Shirzon charges the golden skeleton and manage to destroy it completely with a single strike of her magic mace. The skeleton, like those you’ve encountered before, explodes in a burst of flames as soon as the force animating it is dissipated.
In the meantime, Korech fires an arrow at another skeleton. Although the skeletons are resistant to piercing damage, the half-orc shoots his bow with such a strength that the violence of the impact between the arrow and the golden bones of skeleton causes it to collapse and explode in another burst of flames. Since no one is near the explosion, it does not affect anyone in the party.
Right after, bolstered by the success met by his companions, Calden charges too, managing to destroy another golden skeleton with a single, powerful swing of his quarterstaff. This skeleton too explodes in a burst of flame as soon as his golden bones turns to dust.
The last skeleton charges Merephel, managing to catch her unaware and unprepared to the sudden attack. The girl gets hit by the skeleton’s rusty scimitar as the flames enveloping the weapon cause her additional damage and a burning wound to her chest.
« | | | | »
The party has quickly turned the tide of battle in its favor. Three of the four skeletons have been dealt with already, and only one, currently threatening Merephel, remains.
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Seeing that his arrow was strong enough to destroy a skeleton, Korech fires two more!
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Shirzon follows through on her attack, reducing the skeleton to a much looser collection of bones. Pivoting, she rolls back the way she came as the creature explodes, evading its fury retribution. In one fluid motion she heads back toward the center of the intersection and the last skeleton.
"Merephel! Get me in there!" she calls out as she rushes over, eager to put down more bones. She tucks one mace under her other arm and offers a hand to Merephel, in order to pull her back and take her place at the front of the battle.
Once in position, Shirzon nods to Calden, waiting for him to get in position so she can smack the skeleton in flanking.
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Merephel, as Shirzon helps her switch places, channels her blessing through Shirzon's hand.
"Get this guy!"
Calden has remembered that the golden skeletons had a tendency to explode. As soon as his feet his the ground and he feels the skeleton's spine give way, he sets off again and jumps away from the skeleton. He's clear in time to avoid the effects of the explosion.
Turning around to look at the last skeleton, he keeps his distance and watches whether Shirzon and Korech manage to deal with it before. He's poised to charge again, if their attacks prove insufficient to strike the skeleton down.
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Shirzon switches positions with Merephel, but before she can even attack, Korech fires two deadly arrows at the golden skeleton, destroying it and causing it to explode in a burst of flames. Fortunately, the friendly switch has allowed Merephel to avoid being caught in the area of the explosion, putting at risk the much nimbler Shirzon instead.
---
Now that the golden skeletons have been dealt with, the party resumes its exploration of Xin-Grafar.
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Merephel falls to the ground after jumping out of the way, and promptly tripping. She sighs, but this time she gets up with her trademark grin, and dusts herself off.
"This place is certainly aptly named. Everything golden is potential death, to be true. Are you all okay?"
She does a mental checklist of her spells, and nods.
"I think we are all getting pretty good at this adventuring thing, eh?"
Shirzon is prepared to hit the skeleton when Korech's arrow knocks it to pieces, which then explode. Using the momentum from switching with Merephel, she tumbles forward out of the way, uncharred but sweaty. She turns around, and seeing the danger has passed, allows herself a deep breath and sits down. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she smirks at Merephel. "That went a lot smoother than the last one, that's for sure. " She grins and stands up, brushing off some debris. "That switch was pretty fun, Meph. We should do more of those! Fun is hard to come by when everything is trying to kill us."
Korech drops his bow, silently thankful that he's not in the front lines as much any more. He shows a craggy grin to everyone.
"The cultists lose many. We start with less, and lose nobody."
He looks around the area, marveling at the bizarre, gold-covered ruins; taking in the sights for the first time.
"Hard to think that we are here. So much gold, so much fire and death. We come here to change things, just because something go wrong in the crypt."
Calden nods that he's ok, but he seems absent. He's already scanning the environment for more dangers.
He stays jumpy as they explore the city, often dithering between the quarterstaff and the temple sword. He approaches each junction carefully, expecting another fire elemental to appear.
--
As it becomes time to eat lunch, Calden thumbs through the copy of the Pathfinder Chronicle. "It makes you wonder about all these Pathfinders, and other adventurers," He says absently. "My brother went off to find himself an adventure. And we were just caught up in this, as Korech said. How many of these people from history never intended to heroes, but were just caught up in events? Will it be finished for us, when we deal with the Razmirans here? Can we go home, or will something else, equally important, pull us away again? How long has it been, since we left Kassen?"
-Posted with Wayfinder
After a short pause during which you had the opportunity to eat and rest for a few hours, you’re ready to resume your exploration of the City of Golden Death. You’ve almost completely explored the First Ring, but you haven’t been able to find a place where to access the second ring yet. With the cultists’ tracks erased and impossible to follow, your best bet is to push forward and delve deeper into the city if you wish to find Iramine and her underlings.
As you explore the city, you pass near to another bridge spanning over a river of molten gold. Unlike before, there’s no sign of any guardian here, neither dead nor alive. Mustering your courage, you decide to cross the bridge.
« | | | | »
Unfortunately, although you keep your eyes open in search of any possible danger as you cross the bridge, something has been lurking, waiting for you to come closer before revealing itself and attack you. As soon as you reach the far end of the bridge, an emaciated figure that looks like a horned human skeleton smothered within a bone-tight hide of slimy leather jumps on you while you’re still unaware of his presence. The creature attacks Korech with a longspear before he can even realize he’s under siege. The longspear delves deep in Korech’s back, almost to the point of impaling him.
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The fiend in front of Korech is quicker than you, and he manages to attack again before you can even react, targeting Korech with a series of consecutive attacks while the half-orc is still flat-footed. Korech can’t stand a chance against the incredibly fast and strong fiend. The creature injures Korech with a claw attack, then misses him with his other claws, but quickly attacks again using his bite and plunging his razor-sharp teeth in Korech’s neck. Korech can’t resist anymore, and he falls down to the ground, unconscious and badly bleeding.
But the fiend isn’t done yet. With a quick move, he darts to his left and attacks Shirzon with his longspear twice. Fortunately, Shirzon’s reflexes are good enough to avoid the first thrust, but the half-orc cannot do anything to avoid the second one.
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"Right Shirzon, we should really work on that. It can come quite in handy, I bet!"
--
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Merephel gasps as the creature tears into Korech, and draws her holy symbol. She moves to Korech's side, and casts a healing spell directly onto the wound on his back.
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"Korech!" Shirzon barely has time to register her friend falling before she's pierced by the creature's spear as well. She gasps, tears welling up in her eyes before spilling over her lid, falling to mix with the dust and blood on the bridge. Snarling, Shirzon steps past the spear's reach and unleashes a furious whirlwind of attacks on the fiend. "You'll pay for that!"
Calden gasps at seeing the fiendish creature appear and stab Korech repeatedly before they can react. The shock at seeing such a creature from the nether planes in the City makes his trained reflexes kick in, and he's moving closer to the creature before he's even aware of it, quarterstaff already spinning. "Meph, what kind of horror is this? Anyone any idea how to fight it?" Not waiting for an answer, he slams one end of the quarterstaff at the fiend before following up with a kick at its neck.
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Unfortunately, no one has any idea about how to fight a fiend you’re not even able to identify―clearly, Father Prasst wasn’t expecting that his students could face a fiend in their entire lives, and as a consequence never told you anything about them.
It is often said that knowledge is power. In this case, lack of knowledge seems to translate into lack of power, since Calden fails to hit the fiend twice. Fortunately, Shirzon is luckier and hits the creature at least once: as she does so, however, the layer of acidic slime covering the fiend’s skin puts her weapon in danger.
With unspeakable horror, Shirzon realizes that her weapon has failed to damage the creature although she hit the fiend.
« | | | | »
The fiend retaliates instantly, but this time he cannot catch you unaware, and this seems to weaken him significantly. It seems like he’s particularly skilled at taking advantage of his enemies’ unawareness much as a trained rogue. Anyway, the fiend focuses on Shirzon now, because she was the only one who actually managed to hit him until now. With a series of four consecutive attacks, the fiend manages to hit Shirzon four consecutive times. The half-orc resists as long as she can, but she can’t avoid any of the creature’s incredibly fast attacks.
With Shirzon collapsing senseless to the ground, the fiend turns his attentions on Calden, but the Kassenite guy is ready enough to dodge just in time this last attack.
It is pretty clear that you don’t stand a chance against this fiendish monster. He’s too strong, too fast, too tactically wise for you to defeat him. Still, he does not appear to be willing to let you go, unless you find some way to convince him to leave you alone.
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Shirzon gasps with surprise at the speed of the fiend's attacks. Covered in her own blood, her hot wounds burning exposed in the air, she feels a hot, primal rage bubble up from inside her. It fills her, pushing the pain down until it feels more like a memory.
Snarling at the fiend, but barely able to move her limbs, she can feel that her body is at its limit. She wants to attack, to pulverize this creature with her mace, with her fists, to tear its flesh. But she knows it would be foolish and deadly. She puts her energy into retreating, stepping back toward Merephel and reaching out a bloody hand for support. It falls limp, though, as she collapses to the ground.
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Seeing the second of his companions skewered and tosses to the ground like a ragdoll take the fight out of Calden, trained reflexes or not. He crouches into a defensive posture and steadies his weapon. Doesn't the proverb say something about dealing with the devils?
"You're not with these Razmiran frauds, are you?" he asks tentatively. "Or have you lived in this city since its fall? We're only here to stop those thugs. Could we barter for safe passage?"
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Merephel gasps as Shirzon stumbles. She backs up a few steps, and bends down to heal her.
"Shirzon, don't you die on me! You come back to me damnit!"
She kneels down, tears blurring her vision. Holy light emanated from her hands, and she screams with frustration and concern.
"Please just let us go! We mean you no harm!"
The fiend laughs cruelly in response your attempt to reason with him.
As soon as he launches himself at Shirzon to finish her, though, something inside everyone's pouch, except for Calden's one, starts shining brightly. Suddenly, something breaks through your pouches as three shards, similar to the scales of an armor, lodges into the creature's heart.
With an horrific scream, the fiend tries to fight against the shards delving deeper in his chest, but eventually an orb of pure light envelopes him. The light is so bright that you cannot even stare at it, and you're forced to close your eyes.
---
When you open your eyes again, there's no sign of the fiend. The city is unusually silent around you.
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Merephel fusses over everyone's wounds, and begins using her healing magics. She never mentions the shards that saved them, far too concerned with everyone's well being.
Shirzon wakes up slowly, holding her eyes tightly shut. She lies still, mind blank except for a dull consciousness of her body: stiff, painful, breathing. There is also a warmth tingling around the edge of her senses. Definitely Merephel. She cracks an eye open, her view filled with the bridge ceiling, glints of gold in her peripheral. She sees the others, but no fiend anymore. Opening her other eye, she grimaces as a slight movement sends another shock of pain through her wounds, but it seems that they're safe for now. "Ow.
Eventually, Shirzon manages to sit up, but holds off on doing much else until Korech's wand closes more of her wounds. "Thanks," she croaks out, eventually standing up and stretching out. Some pain lingers, but she's honestly glad just to be alive. "What happened? Where's that thing?"
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Calden stands stunned for a while, after the fiend has disappeared. He's quivering from the shock, thoughts racing through his mind.
We would have died if it weren't for the shards! And I would have been ready to bargain with it. Fool chance, anyway, with how it reacted. So, in the end, Kassen's descendent or not, I was useless. It was his blessing that saved the day here. And even there I couldn't contribute: I gave my shard to Dimi, to remember me by. What if the banishment would have required all four of the shards? Then my love would have been the bane of us all?
Only half aware he stumbles to Shirzon, who thankfully did not die. "It was the scales," he mumbles. "Kassen's blessing helped us out, when we faltered. They attacked the fiend, and banished it. I'm sorry, guys. I gave mine away. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if the magic had failed to work, because of that..." His trembling knees finally buckle, and he sags to the ground.
-Posted with Wayfinder
With the fiend banished, most likely to his original plane, the party takes some time to recover from both the shock and the wounds caused by the hellish beast. Eventually, it seems like your protector, Ekat Kassen, has been at least partially to contribute to your success by allowing you to survive yet another day. But this city can be deadly, as you just witnessed, and like never before you're now well aware that your heroism could truly cost your life. But there's something strange that happens in the mind of heroes when they decide to risk it all to preserve the world: a mix of folly and boldness which gives them the strenght to carry on.
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After a few minutes of rest and healing, you resume your exploration of the first ring. Thankfully, you're still alive, and you can't let Kassen's help be in vain.
You push forward resolutely, gaining new courage from the help you received from your protector: at least, you had a proof that you're not alone in this. Shelyn is watching over you and acting through Merephel; Erastil is guiding Korech's arrow, Irori inspiring Calden's actions, Shirzon acting on the basis of what she had been thought by Jimes. And Ekat Kassen is watching over you. But even though you're not alone, this doesn't mean that someone else will do this on your behalf. It's still upon your shoulders that weighs the responsibility to stop Iramine and her foolish cultists and save the world.
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The cultists' tracks were lost many hours ago, but you have still not completed your walk around the first ring.
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After a few hours of exploration, you're now close to completing your walk around the first ring of the fabled Xin-Grafar. You didn't find an entrance to the second ring yet.
You're now in front of another intersection: wary and suspicious for the previous experience, Shirzon takes all of the time she needs to scan the area in search for traps, and she actually finds one. This trap is much similar to the one you encountered before, and if triggered it would summon a fire elemental. That combat was tough, and everyone in the party would prefer not to go over it again. But since you can't pass through this area without crossing the intersection, you cannot just circumvent this dangerous area.
Knowing that she's the only one able to disarm the trap in order not to trigger it as soon as she steps on it, Shirzon pulls her thieves' tools out of her pouch and starts to tinker with the trap, hoping that her skill will allow her to disarm it without triggering it in the process.
Even though the trap is magic in nature, and as such very difficult to disarm, Shirzon concentrates on the task, focusing her mind on Jimes' tips and...she succeeds! The trap has been successfully disarmed and it wasn't triggered in the process! You cannot hold back a shriek of rejoicing.
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After the trap disarming, you keep pushing forward. After one hour of march, you finally see the gate leading to the second ring! Standing before the gates to the city’s Second Ring are two hulking skeletons in shining golden breastplates, their thick bones plated with gold. Their huge, gold-plated halberds are crossed in front of the gate, barring the way forward. If Iramine and her cultists managed to reach the second ring, somehow they managed to get past these guardians without harming them. But maybe, since she held the three keys to the city, the guardians have allowed her and the Razmir’s faithful to enter without blocking them. Unfortunately, you don’t own those keys, so you’ll be likely forced to fight these hulking skeletons if you want to access the second ring. And indeed, as soon as you move closer, the halberds-wielding skeletons move too, positioning before the gate to the second ring, clearly determined not to let you pass.
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The skeletal guardians are the first to react. They move closer to one another and prepare their halberds to swing them at the first one who will come into their range.
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Shirzon places a comforting hand on Calden's shoulder (although her grip is unsure; it's clear she's not very experienced in this arena of care). "Hey, it's okay. I'm glad we've got Kassen helping us out, but we couldn't have made it this far without having you around, scale or not... You gave yours away?"
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Tired from the fighting, but feeling optimistic, the trek through the first ring goes well, Shirzon thinks. Warm, and the gold starts to seem garish, but better than the swamp outside. At the next summoning trap, Shirzon sucks in her breath and gets to work. Finding the right place to interrupt the summoning circle, she disrupts it successfully, and spends some time celebrating, pumping her fists in the air.
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Shirzon grips her weapons tightly, maces held out cautiously. "They look like they want us to run into their weapons. Think we can get around them? They're big, but a couple of hits in the right spot will bring 'em down."
Shirzon shuffles carefully toward the wall on her left, moving forward but not getting in the range of the huge halberds.
"Those skeletons, we will need our bludgeoning weapons for them. Breaking the bones always seems to work! And since we can't go around them, I can try to make them flee by the power of Shelyn, and maybe we can just run past them?"
She raises her holy symbol, but waits for a response.
Calden melts under Shirzon's touch on his shoulder and he sighs heavily. "I gave it to Dimi," he confesses. "On the morning that we went to Tamran, I left it for her. You know, I wanted to give her something of mine, to let her know I'd come back." His eyes gloss over, and for a moment he doesn't see the golden city around him at all.
--
Feeling better thanks to their earlier conversation, Calden walks through Xin-Grafar as if seeing it for the first time. Despite the golden coating of the buildings, he can imagine how it would looked like at its peak of civilization.
With bated breath he waits as Shirzon works on the trap at the intersection, sword in hand and dividing his attention between the junction and their rear. He wipes some sweat from his brow when Shirzon succeeds. He rushes over to her and clasps her on the shoulder. "Fantastic, Shirzon!"
--
As it seems inevitable that they will have to fight the hulking skeletons in order to reach the Second Ring, Calden rushes forward along with Shirzon. He nods at her suggestion. "Let's make them come to us. We'd better focus our attention on one of them at first, though, if they'll let us."
He hesitates a moment, thinking about Merephel's suggested tactic. "I don't think we can bypass them that easily. They could just come after us. And we don't know how long Shirzon would have to work to get that gate open. Maybe you can get them to flee once we've engaged, giving us a chance to strike them in the back?" Calden stands at the right-hand side of the bridge, ready to receive the first attack of the creature.
"Okay, we can try that! You guys get ready, and we'll have Korech shoot at them to get them to come to us. Those halberds look intimidating; we don't want to fight them on their terms."
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As Shirzon and Calden move forward, Korech follows Calden and fires an arrow at the closest golden guardian with his magic bow. Although he knows that the ogre skeleton won’t suffer all the damage from his arrow, he tries nonetheless and his efforts have some effects: although only partially, he manages to damage the golden ogre skeleton.
« | | | | »
The two gold-clad ogre skeletons move forward. One of them attacks Shirzon, trying to trip her: Shirzon is not ready enough to avoid the halberd and falls prone to the ground.
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Calden shakes his head, annoyed that the large skeletal warrior didn't to choose to engage him. Now, the chance that Shirzon might be overwhelmed by both of them forces him into action. He hustles forward, launching himself in a roll once he gets in reach of the halberd. Once he's close enough to the guard, Calden rights himself and swings his quarterstaff at the skeleton. As he's in position, he whistles to draw Shirzon's attention. Go for it.
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Shirzon braces for an attack, but as the halberd catches her leg and flips her over, she lands on her back and the air rushes out of her lungs. It quickly returns, luckily, and she spends her breath on a string of filthy orcish curses. Even knowing it'll likely draw some retribution from the skeletal ogres, she stands up and shifts forward. She's not in position to do much (yet), but she still lashes out angrily at the creature that tripped her.
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Merephel moves to aid her allies. She casts Shield of Faith on herself as she closes the gap.
"Remember, use blunt weapons to break their bones! She calls as she hustles over. "I'll try to get one of them to run!"
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As Shirzon stands up, the skeletal ogre swing his halberd at her with silent fury, but the half-orc somehow manages to avoid being hit, stands up and retaliates, hitting the gold-clad ogre skeleton with her mace. That kind of weapons seems to be able to deal all of its normal amount of damage to the skeletal foe.
In the meantime, Calden tries to engage the gold-clad ogre skeleton and although his agility doesn’t prevent the ogre from attacking him, the Kassenite boy manages to avoid the halberd strike which could have flip him over. Despite this success, Calden doesn’t manage to hit the ogre, and his quarterstaff misses its target.
Right after, Merephel starts moving forward and casts a protective spell on herself, while Korech fires another powerful arrow at the ogre skeleton currently threatening Calden. The half-orc’s shot is accurate enough to deal damage to the skeletal guardian despite its natural resistance to piercing damage.
« | | | | »
The two gold-clad ogre skeletons step back at once, in order to keep Shirzon and Calden at bay, but as soon as they have reached their new position they swing their massive halberds at the Kassenites. While Calden is quick enough to dodge the large weapon, Shirzon isn’t so ready and she gets hit right in her stomach, her breath almost entirely stolen from her lungs by the strike’s violence.
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Relieved that he managed to avoid those enormous halbers so far, Calden cringes as he sees it slicing at Shirzon's midriff. He tries to make eye contact again, pointing at the skeleton in front of him while completing his circling move around the creature. "We can take it, together." He whirls his quarterstaff at the creature, striking first at its legs, then taking an awkward strike upwards to the skeleton's chin.
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"Next time I find bow that shoots maces!" growls Korech as he continues to fire arrows at the enormous skeletons.
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Shirzon wheezes, her gut stinging, but at least she's still on her feet. She scowls, but catches Calden's eye. She steps into position, craning her neck up at the gold-covered skeleton. "I think I see some openings!" Preparing for Calden's help, she turns toward her other companions. "If you can make 'em run, Meph, that'd make things a lot easier! Keep shooting, Korech!"
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Merephel advances on the combat, and channels her power in an attempt to make the skeletons flee. Despite herself, she can't help but laugh at Korech's imagery of a bow that shoots maces.
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Shirzon steps into position and swings her mace with power and accuracy: her blow is strong and violent, and almost cracks the gold-clad leg bones of the ogre. Although the gold covering the ogre’s bones makes it hard for her to strike a critical spot, Shirzon is able to find the right place where to hit.
Right after, Calden attacks with his quarterstaff and his first blow is enough to knock down the already damaged skeletal ogre. The creature goes down, turning into a pile of useless bones before crumbling into dust.
In the meantime, Korech fires two arrow at the other skeletal ogre: his aim is deadly as always, and the strength of his arms allows him to damage the creature despite arrows are not the best option to harm skeletons.
Right after, Merephel summons the favor of her goddess, trying to repel the last skeletal ogre.
« | | | | »
Unfortunately, the skeletal ogre resists Merephel’s attempt to cause him to flee, and vents his silent rage on Shirzon once again. This time, however, Shirzon is well aware of the danger, and ducks just at the right time, preventing the halberd from chop her head off.
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[b]
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Two more arrows fly for the skeletons, but these shots are shaky as Korech's arm tires from the endless archery and sweat causes him to slip.
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With one skeleton ogre down, Shirzon smirks as she ducks underneath the other's attack, rolling forward to get behind it. "Ha! Let's do it again!" She waits for Calden to follow up on her set up, then swings for the other ogre's legs when the monk moves up.
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Calden makes a triumphant fist pump at seeing the guardian downed under the combined weight of their attacks, but he knows they've only won half the battle so far.
Keeping low to the ground, Calden advances on the remaining skeletal guard. As soon as the halberd comes his way, he jumps over it and into contact with the creature, quarterstaff already coming forward in a mighty swing.
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As she rolls forward to get behind the skeletal ogre, the gold-clad guardian seizes its opportunity and tries to hit her with its halberd. Shirzon must have recognized a pattern in the ogre’s attacks, however, since she nimbly avoid the swings and maintains her position until Calden flanks the enemy. As soon as the Kassenite guy moves into position, she strike her mace with deadly accuracy, and once again she hits a critical spot. As soon as the central vertebra sustaining the ogre is hit, the undead falls to the ground, collapsing in a pile of bones that soon turns to dust. The Heroes of Kassen made it again!
With the gold-clad ogre skeletons down, there’s nothing preventing you from entering the Second Ring. The battles you had to face claimed many energies though, and your resources are starting to run low. It’s now time for you to decide whether you wish to keep pushing forward and start exploring the Second Ring immediately, or stop and sleep for a while in order to rest, heal your wounds and be ready to continue the exploration tomorrow.
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Shirzon stands, breathing heavily, and wipes the sweat from her brow. She lazily kicks away fragments of cracked bones and gold at her feet, looking toward the gate to the second ring. "Looks like we've made some good progress." She gives a weak smile, but winces at the wound on her abdomen. "Should we keep going? I'm up for another fight (once I get this closed up), but how do the rest of you feel? Think we have enough to take on something really scary with what we have left?"
Korech groans, leaning on his bow for a moment as the skeletons die down. He shoulders his bow and produces his wand before approaching his injured companions to heal them.
"Good flanking; we all fight good. I'm not hurt, so can go on if we need. But if you need rest, then we should rest. Many more hard guardians I think."
"I'm rather curious how none of these guardians attacked the Razmirans. Were they able to skirt every fight just by virtue of the little magic contained in the keys? We haven't seen a single body since we entered the city, have we? I don't want to fight them at half strength, but we can't let them get any further ahead! I think we should press on; we just need to be cautious."
She glances around nervously, as if the Razmirans are watching.
"You're right, we should press on. We can probably find a better place to settle down than this bridge anyway. Preferably somewhere not so open or close to a burning canal," Shirzon weighs in. "Uh, Korech, if you don't mind..."
Calden feels a rush of victory as the second guardian goes down, probably a reaction of his earlier disappointment at the fight with the fiend. He rushes over to Shirzon to clasp her hand. "Wow. We make a pretty good team, don't we?" Not wanting the others to feel left out, he calls out to them. "You too, Korech. Nice shooting. Must have been difficult, not to shoot past all those bones. And Meph too, of course."
When it becomes time to decide on the course of action, Calden sides with the women of the group. "I was feeling quite tired earlier, but I'm good to go. About the Razmiran's, Merephel. I think we saw traces of a fight earlier, with that statue we fought. There were already two pools of gold there. I think that must have been the Razmiran's handywork. These two obviously guarded the door; it might have been that that's why they let the bearers of the key pass."
You decide to push forward. Immediately ahead, the gold-plated road reaches a crossroads and disappears beneath a mound of partially melted treasure. Gold coins, weapons, armor, and glittering gems cover the entire intersection in a mountain of wealth that reaches ten feet high. The pile of treasure is 20 feet wide at its base, covering a huge portion of the intersection. What do you do?
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Calden holds up a hand to forestall any action by his companions. He points out what he saw, and whispers. "There, a skeleton. It's covered in gold, and wearing a Razmiri mask. Did one of them meet its end here? Regardless, it bodes ill for whatever comes close to that pile. I don't like it."