"Good idea, let's go and find out!"
While moving across the bridge and if the range on detect magic allows for it, Trexy would like to scan the area below if she feels any magic radiating from any of the statues.
Horatio moves across the bridge, taking in the surroundings. As he approaches the door, he will inspect it for traps, and assuming he finds nothing, will push or pull the door open.
Crossing the bridge, your footsteps generate small clouds of dust...the gentle noise of your movement and your whispered talk echoes around the cathedral like chamber...from the accumulated detritus of the years, it is possible that you are the first visitors to this room for many centuries.
Reaching the other side of the bridge with nothing untoward occurring (and no sign of a safe way down to the statues becoming apparent), Horatio's check of the doors detects nothing unusual; and so, with Yggdra and Efka lagging behind, the monk pushes the heavy double doors open.
A featureless corridor stretches out before you for around thirty feet before reaching a 'Tee' junction that heads to the East and to the West.
Efka follows in line as normal waiting for potential enemies who may be lurking around.
Kane peers down both hallways, trying to see if there are any obvious differences that might give clues about where they go.
To the West, the corridor continues for approximately fifty feet before disappearing into the gloom...at the periphery of where the corridor becomes too dim for you to see, there are two doors facing each other across the corridor...one to the North and one to the South.
To the East, the corridor continues for some forty feet before ending at a heavy wooden door. From your position at the Tee Junction, it appears that the corridor to the East also veers off to the South next to this wooden door.
As you peer into the darkness to the East, you are greeted with a bizarre sight....a disembodied head held aloft with bat-like wings is repeatedly crashing into the heavy wooden door...it continues to do this for mere seconds before it becomes aware of your presence...and turns, hissing with malevolence...
"Keep back, let it come to me." Sir Kane says calmly.
for
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Efka gets behind Sir Kane Ravencourt and readies to heal him with her cure light wounds spell when and if he takes a good amount of damage.
Trexy moves behind Horatio peeking from behind his back and she readies her short bow to shoot as soon as the creature approaches within 20 ft of the party.
Standing behind the heavily armoured paladin, Trexy Vextrotter and Horatio ready themselves as the winged creature flies, at some speed, towards the group. As the creature Standing behind the heavily armoured paladin, Trexy Vextrotter and Horatio ready themselves as the winged creature flies, at some speed, towards the group. As the creature halves the distance between them, a flurry of shuriken and arrows flies towards it…several of the attacks hit spraying black ichor across the floor yet the creature maintains it's charge.
The disembodied head is some ten feet from the party when Sir Kane Ravencourt deals it a glancing blow with his polearm. Undettered by the attack, the creature flies, in a collision course, at the Paladin.
The creature bounces clumsily against the paladin's armour causing no damage and then, in a performance of martial expertise, Sir Kane Ravencourt takes a step back from the dazed creature and skewers it on his polearm...killing it instantly.
An examination of the dead creature reveals that it was undead (the absence of fresh blood, the putrefaction of the flesh and the overpowering smell of decay confirm it beyond any doubt), however what the creature was in life is a mystery.
A sound like a cross between a couger's growl and a snake's hiss comes from beneath Sir Kane's cowl. It is distinctly inhuman and aimed at the fallen undead.
"This... thing, it should not be here."
Out of his pack he pulls a large jug. He twists and yanks the sturdy stopper free and pours a splash of oil onto the desecrated head.
"Shall we go investigate where that flying abomination came from? Perhaps there's more of them."
Borrowing a torch from Trexy, Kane took a minute to light it and then applied it to the corpse of the undead creature. He spoke an old prayer of cleansing as it burned.
"Many creatures find refuge and even sustenance in burial places. Those creatures in the stairwell are forgivable, and even sometimes helpful in protecting the places where the dead rest. This, though. This is a sickness that cannot be tolerated. If there are more they must be found and destroyed."
His odd, inhuman voice was cold with anger and resolve. Letting the undead burn behind them, he led the way in the direction it had come from.
Leaving the smouldering remains of the undead beast behind you, you walk the forty feet or so to the heavy wooden door to the East. As you move to the eastern end of the corridor you see that the corridor does indeed turn to the right at the door (heading in a southerly direction). This southern spur of the corridor widens (from ten feet to fifteen feet) and proceeds for around forty feet where it terminates. The chamber is decorated with large carvings of religious ceremonies and priests handing down judgements to the common people. Stone benches are lined up before a single podium at the southern end of the room.
Yggdra adopts his normal position at the door, scratching at it, smelling and listening intently for any signs of danger.
Grimacing as he shuffles off to one side, "Nothing...I can hear NOTHING, the scratching claws of the void...hmmmm?"; pausing to take another of the spider legs from within his robes, he snaps it in two with his beak and sucks the inner contents out like a straw. His mood then lightens, "I have no idea why that creature was so intent to smash through this door...it seems that there is nothing on the other side"
Kane nods and moves forward to open the door.
Although the ironwrought handle of the heavy door turns, pushing against the door does not open it....almost as if there was something inside blocking the door.
"Interesting. Perhaps there's treasure hidden behind that door. Must be something hidden there well worth the effort trying break down such a massive door."
Her eyes sparkle when mentioning 'treasure'.
Kane braced against the door and gave it a good shove, trying not to make too much noise while he gauged how stuck it was.
The door shakes as Sir Kane shoves against it, with a little more effort, it appears that you would be able to force it open.
Horatio helps the Stryx open the door (as if he needed any assistance).
With a fearsome roar, Sir Kane Ravencourt runs at the blocked door with his Polearm braced in a charging position…the blade of the weapon strikes the door at a weak point and, with wooden splinters and door fragments exploding inwards, the weapon drives completely through the door…fractions of a second later, the Paladin's shoulder heaves into the door with his full force. This time, the door opens inwardly by a foot or so…you can also quite clearly hear objects falling and crashing to the floor behind the door, almost as if a barricade had been knocked over…
Kane pushes what's left of the barricade out of the way with the busness end of his polearm and lets the light from his holy symbol wash over the room.
Pushing the smashed door fully open with a crash, Sir Kane Ravencourt strides purposefully into the room beyond. The light from his holy symbol seems somehow less potent as it struggles to sparkle in the pressing gloom.
The hooded knight didn't move from the doorway. Nevermind stood as though waiting fir something.
Sir Kane gestures to east door. "Ware the door. Something vile waits on the other side. I will guard it. The rest of you check this room." he says quietly.
Trexy has a good look around in the room.
The gloom persists, undeterred by the light from Sir Kane's wayfinder, yet Trexy still identifies a number of items of note dotted around the room.
An unusually marked cloak hangs within a cabinet of mundane priestly vestments. Maybe it is worth further examination?
A pair of scrolls are curiously stored in a box of religious texts. Maybe they are worth something? Or possibly arcane?
The rest of the religious accoutrements in this room are unexceptional...you do note that they are certainly Pharasmin in nature...and old....but otherwise of no apparent interest.
Let's have a look shall we!, Trexy says as she casts detect magic.
She also has a closer look at the religious texts, examining if they are worth something.