Sophie murmurs a prayer, summoning an ethereal nodachi of force that she directs against the creatures.
Moving into the room Tara looks at the strange creatures with a curious expression. "How odd, what are they doing Mr. Womarsh?" Tara asks, holding her holy symbol aloft and allowing her goddesses blessing to wash over everyone.
"It doesn't look like they're ... " Silas begins to respond. It's then that he notices the condition of his shield. "Seven Hells! They've rusted my shield! What are these things?!"
Vivian moves in the room, trying not to get hit, and places herself right behind a creature to strike.
Unfortunatly, her blade doesn't find any weak spot
Stefan? Could you help us with your magic please?
for
At the sound of alarm, Stefan moves into the room and sees the three strange monsters fighting his friends. Stepping forward, he casts a spell from outstretched fingers, and many jets of flame erupt from each of his fingertips, engulfing all three monsters in a magical confligration.
Sophie and Silas each make a solid hit, and Stefan's flames see to be doing the trick. Two of the rust monsters continue to plague Silas and his precious weapons. Vivian's blade also takes a hit from the purple creature's antennae.
Bless is in effect.
The warrior notes the rust creeping across his armor.
"I'm going to be weaponless and naked if this keeps up. Isn't there something one of you magic types can do?"
"I'm trying, Silas! Those beasts are tougher than they would appear!
Stefan backas away from the beasts, takes out his wand of acid arrow, points it at the armored beast before him, and speaks a word of power. A magical dart fires from the wand...
Upon impact, the dart melts into a greenish liquid that sizzles on the monster's carapice.
Uho.
Vivian is completely take off guard by the monster, and let it touch her sword. She nearly even drop it on the ground, which is quite surprising for such a nimble and dexterous girl
Tara watches as the creatures eat through her friends weapons and armor. Taking a step up to be shoulder-to-shoulder with Silas, Tara lashes out at the creature, striking at it with her claws. "Shoo! Shoo!" she shouts, scraping against the carapace of the creature in front of her.
for
Vivian, Tara and Sophie all manage to miss hitting the creatures, but Stephan's acid blast is enough to drop one of the beasts, and Silas destroys another. Only one remains.
Sensing it's inevitable demise, it turns tail and withdraws to the corner of the room.
Silas ignores the fleeing creature, intent on determining the extent of the damage to his gear.
The more time the large man spends looking over his armor and shield the more aggravated he becomes. Moving around with a lot of squeaking and grinding he finally looks to the others.
"Please tell me that one of you has magic that can fix this?" he pleads.
Pursing her lips Tara contemplates finishing the creature, before turning to Silas. "Ah, I'm sorry Mr. Womarsh, I am currently unable to do any repairs. Tomorrow I can prepare a spell to help you, but I never expected to cross creatures that ate armor!" Rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly, Tara contemplates their next move.
Sophie eyes the damage skeptically. "I may be able to help a little, child."
Stefan shakes his head sadly at Silas' predicament.
"I believe that I know a similar spell to the one Madam Kundegard is referring to. However, I have not prepared it today... and I don't think it would be powerful enough to repair a shield or suit of armor. And, while I know of a more powerful version of that spell, I have not thus far taken it upon myself to learn it."
Seeing the dismay on Silas's face, Sophie nods to herself. "Come child, we will go back and let Tara commune with the mistress of death to repair your armor."
My sword could need some repair too.. but it's better to repair Silas stuff first.
Beyond the scaffolding, a slender rope bridge swings out toward a two-story building with a tower across the gorge.
Silas puts his hand on Vivian's shoulder. To an outside observer, it would appear that he's reassuring her. Only she can feel the trembling in the large hand and see the fear ringing his eyes as he looks out over an even shakier bridge over a large drop.
The doctor tries to assist Vivian as she searches the room...
*THUD* "Oops! Drat! Sorry about that!"
...but only manages to get in her way.
...After another long rest...
The doctor also surveys the rope bridge.
"Hmmm.... That looks... precarious."
Sophie eyes the bridge and the far side, measuring, weighing...
Silas takes a deep breath.
"Well there's nothing to do for it but to do it." He swallows heavily. "This side is safe, so let me go first and I can protect the other side if there's anything hostile over there."
His eyes travel the length of the bridge and then dip down to the drop below.
"Assuming I make it."
Wait! What if the bridge is trapped or an illusion? I should go first! Beside, I got a rope I could tie around my waist-nothing kinky here, mister Silas- I'm lighter than you, and you're stronger than me.
Vivian ties a rope around her waist and hands it to Silas. She careful starts across, casting detect magic and looking for traps. Just before the halfway point, she finds both - a magical trap!
Continuing across will trigger and alarm spell, and who knows what else.
Silas stands there keeping a strong grip on the rope. He makes a concerted effort to not look down.
When she stops, he looks around nervously. "Why'd she stop?" he asks the others. "Why'd you stop?!" he calls out.
"cause there's a trap right here! And you would have walked on it. I would had too, if I hadn't be cautious, in fact.
Vivian tries to identify the kind of magical spell used, before praying to Pharasma for some help to disarm the trap
please, I Don't want to die.. I know you've heard that prayer more than once, Pharasma, but I really mean it..And you probably heard that more than once too. Whatever. I'll do my best, and I hope my Fate will shine.
And it's quite hard to rig, so gimme some quiet time, mister Silas. Be ready to pull me back with all the strength you can muster.
The warrior looks nervously from Vivian to the others and then to the rope in his hands. He considers asking how he'll know when to pull the woman back, but seems unsure if that would disturb her 'quiet time'.
Finally he simply frowns, takes a firmer grip on the rope, and waits.
"Oh, dear..."
Vivian disables the trap, which appears to be some sort of summoning spell. The way is now clear.
After some effort and a lot of care, you all manage to make it across safely. You hope you won't have to beat a fast retreat, though. The remains of the bridge on this side are very secure.
One end of the demolished bridge clings to the cliff beneath a large building. A statue of a beautiful nymph stands next to a pair of double doors. Above the doors is a stained glass window depicting a unicorn.
Silas couldn't look any more uncomfortable as he crosses the bridge, his hands white as he grasps at the rope for the entire stretch.
Normally he would wait for someone to check the door, but he seems to need to get away from the long drop and attempts to open the door and step inside immediately.
Tara crosses the bridge with a steady footing and excitement. What a beautiful motif! I wonder how long it took the artisan to complete them?" Tracing the wings of the statue with her fingertips, Tara examines the statue with child-like wonder.
Vivian helps everyone to cross, walking along the bridge with grace.
Her face is still a little worried and tense after her work on the trap
Many thanks to you, Pharasma. I'm glad i'm still alive, and I have the intuition that, without your help, that trap could have gone for the worst.
She answers Tara
Probably quite some time. Months, maybe a year? But you're right, it's truly beautiful.
She shivers when Tara touches the statue, and sighs when nothing bad happens
That place is REALLY, really dangerous. I've never saw a trap like that, on the bridge, and I don't really understand how I managed to pass it. And we haven't truly entered the main castle yet! So please don't touch anything before I can check on it!
This room is crammed with cabinets full of weird, alchemically preserved creatures, including a pair of ice mephit wings, several large spiders, parts of a dissected giant slug, and the digestive tracts and proboscises of three stirges.
Vivian is still too nervous to get a good grasp of her surroundings
Silas looks around the room with an eye for threats, but doesn't see any. He shifts his shield on his back and checks the draw of his sword before he moves farther into the room. He indicates the door to the North.
"This way?" he asks the others before attempting to open it.
This room is filled with weird-looking preserved creatures. Two elaborately carved and painted sarcophagi stand against the east and west walls. A pile of chains lies in the center of the floor.
Glancing at the two sarcophagi, Tara narrows her eyes. "We are a long way from Osirion, I wonder how Count Caromarc managed to procure these items?" Casting detect magic before she enters the room, Tara steers wide of the chains and sarcophagi.
Silas shrugs at Tara's observation. "Money will get you anything," he says. Not seeing evidence that the Count is here, the man frowns. "We should check the rest of the ground-floor rooms here before leaving," he says, indicating the door in the north-west corner. "Let's go back and try one of the other doors."
Unless another option is presented, Silas will return to the entrance room and open the southern door.
The corner is a trapdoor in the floor, which leads to a hanging stairway down.
The redhead looks at the sarcophagy, for fear of traps. She even cast a spell to find if magic is at work, just to be a little more sure
Wincing at the mention of wealth Tara purses her lips. "I suppose that would do it." Following behind the fighter, Tara tries to see over his shoulder, but her slight frame is unable to make out anything.
Sophie walks up to Silas and gives him a pat on the shoulder
You detect a small bit of magic within the west sarcophagi.
Silas gets bored and checks the door to the south.
The skeleton of a sea cow dominates this room, hung from the ceiling on a set of iron rungs and held together by a steel frames. Numerous jars sit on shelves within the room, containing alchemically preserved octopuses, tubeworms, the head of a skum, a curiously repellent eel-like creature with fangs, and a strange, mermaidlike creature with the upper body of a monkey and the tail of a fish.
Silas frowns at the preserved samples stored around the room.
Seeing no other exits, he moves to the door leading west from the entrance and tries it.
Sophie eyes the room, then turns her attention to the sarcophagi. "What is it?"
Distracted by the skeleton, Vivian says
Oh, that? That's a Nyago. No, not Nyago: ningyo. I promise, I'm not making that up. Really rare creature. Lives in sea, I believe. Much easier for him than living in trees, even if it seems partially monkey like.
As Sophie is doing her best to determine the source of the magic, the sarcophagus bursts open, and an ancient mummy lurches forward!
Wrapped from head to toe in ancient strips of moldering linen, this humanoid moves with a shuffling gait.
Sophie noticed something just in time, and gets to act first.