Tyrus hesitated between the item and downed Dante.
Hesitated long enough For Timm to run to the rescue. "Up and at 'em" growled the rough Drecnan, his hand glowing with magic.
Seeing young Dante being administered to, Tyrus quickly started to dress.
Timm bestows healing magic on the ravaged Dante - and as before, his spell calls violence from the Temple's defending wards.
The drecnan had anticipated the attack, and deftly twists aside. His taunting curse to the temples long-dead keepers accompanies the fading dust-form of the attacker.
Only wizards are smart enough to traverse the planes and figure out the mysteries of the universe but still be too stupid to leave the room before casting another spell. Kien bites his tongue, then makes sure the creature in front of them is dead.
"Stop...casting spells," Dante says. His head was starting to feel better and the world was coming back to focus. This place was a caster's nightmare. But at least only 1st order and above spells activated the traps. Cantrips used too little magic. He stands shakily and shakes the cobwebs from his thoughts. "Let's just get the...thing and move on." Perfect. Now he, Tyrus and Luca would be a liability every time they tried to help.
Notably, Luca's summoning power hadn't seemed to trigger anything... apparently it wasn't spell-like enough to trigger the defenses here? Worth keeping in mind... especially because without that, she wasn't much more than an easily-slain little girl.
Fortunately, courtesy of the Vilstraks' delivery service, they did have the thing.
Dante shakes his head once more and takes a look at the circlet and what was left of the robe. The spell used to see beyond the physical shouldn't bother the dust guardians. And having something to focus on was bringing his thoughts back into alignment after the head wound. Healing magic was something else but he left him a little drained.
Tyrus winced in anticipation as he put the circlet on his head.
As Dante worked to examine the items, Luca scooted up next to him, somewhat desperate to prove that she was still useful and not somebody who should be left behind. "Um, I think it works like..."
Dante examine the garments and finds that both are surrounded by a faint aura of divine magic. It appears that at some point in the past these garments were consecrated, though as with the other enchantments in the temple that magic is fading now.
"Well, it's got some divine magic. I can tell that much. It's fading like the rest of this temple but it's still there. If this doesn't get us past the trap in the last room then I think we'll have to brave it," he says tiredly. Despite healing the damage, he was still feeling sluggish.
As she noticed the aura of divine magic, Luca flinched slightly and scooted a little away from them, apparently a little nervous about their presence... or worse, attention from whatever deity they'd been made in support of.
The Vilstraks, on the other hand, seemed entirely unperturbed... and certainly could be used as dressing models.
"Perhaps." acknowledges Tyrus "It's the obvious key for a lethal trap; no-one would to get killed because they forgot to keep some trinket with them. In that situation though, why is it in here??"
"Um... the inner area of the temple was more sacred, so they had to come somewhere else first...?" As a guess, it was about all that she could come up with - she wasn't at all familiar with the way modern religions tended to arrange things, much less ancient places whose faiths she'd never even heard of.
"I suppose." Tyrus sounds both relieved and a little let down "I had thought it might be something a little more... well, anyway." He coughs "Yes - I suppose it would make sense to try it on something more disposable, but given my life-wards only work on me, I am prepared to be the one to test whether this is the key. If it does work, then we'll have a safe place to camp."
"Let's take this to the door. Dante, my aura will obscure my view, I will need you to take very careful note of what these items do as we get closer." Tyrus announces "If we don't see any effect, or at least astral echoes, I'm not risking it."
"Hmm. Hope this hasn't degraded to far to be effective." Dante gave the regalia another suspicious glance but held some hope. Nothing else seemed to fit the bill so...
"Right, let's get this over with."
The Vilstraks only hung around for a few minutes at most - which was actually enough time to get quite a lot done as long as you didn't lollygaggle about the place. For her part, Luca followed behind the others (with her Eidolon taking up the rear), trying to remain both out of the way and in a good position to help if need be.
The group returns to the entrance room, noticing as you do that the initial drops of rain are beginning to pour from the sky. Safe and dry inside the temple, you experiment with moving the regalia close to the door.
Dante notices no discernible change in the magical auras of the door.
You realize that throughout the temple, a recurring image motif has been found - the Priest-King are always depicted with two things - his regalia, and a many-thonged lash. It stands to reason that if the regalia are not the key, perhaps the lash is. But where to find it?
"Hmm. Think the lash is a key. Any idea where we might find it?"
"The lash?" Tyrus asks.
Kien gestures vaguely. "The priest-king guy that keeps showing up, he's always showing up with his regalia and some kind of many-thonged lash. If one of them is a key I bet it's that." He shrugs. "Just a hunch."
"Like to... hit people with...?" Luca asked, swallowing nervously. A religious punishing tool was badbadbadbadbadbad- er, not something she wanted to get hit by. Emphatically not.
"I sensed nothing as her summon approached. Not even a flicker in the magical aura around the door. Kien's right. There are motifs depicting the outfit. They accompanied by a lash. This isn't the key." He disrobes the rock man and puts the clothes away carefully. If nothing else, the magical item would fetch a good price and give their employer something faun over. "Unless we want to chance the trap then we have only one more route to take. Past where we found the regalia."
After the disrobing - though Vilstraks didn't wear anything to begin with - it wasn't long before the stone men crumbled back into the ground and vanished. On to the area past the Regalia, then, because it was better than trying to get through without the key.
"Well, back we go. No point in leaving it out here to get wet."
As always, Dante casts a minor cantrip to send several orbs of light ahead of Kien as they explore forward. Even though he is fairly certain the dust creature won't attack for such a small spell, he wearily watches his surrounding as he casts it.
You can't think of any way offhand to prevent the backlash effect. You imagine there might be a way to disable the enchantment if it is anchored to a particular focus in the temple (though there's no telling where that might be), or perhaps use a localized dispel effect to free certain areas of it for a time at least.
Dante's cantrip passes unpunished by the temple ward.
Returning to the large chamber, you investigate the corridor at the back. It leads to a small, steep spiral staircase that in turn leads to... another door, small but otherwise very similar to the large double doors that bar your way in from the entrance room. Quick examinations reveal that it seems to be identical enchantments (and, you presume, traps).
Luca took one look at the present traps and backed down several of the stairs, determined to stay well out of the way of any trouble. Other than that, though... they still needed to go get that lash, it seemed? Hm.
Tyrus stamps his foot "Damn!"
A moment later he sighs "Well, I suppose it is to be expected that they locked all their doors. Should we try to go through anyway, look for the key more out here, set up camp, or start working on translations."
Tyrus expressed much of what Dante was feeling at the moment too. Frustration. "There are other buildings we haven't tried. Let's make camp, study some writings and see how the weather is later. Near the entrance encase something happens. I hope this place doesn't spawn more of those raptor things."
Tyrus looked around the room. "This is reasonably defensible - perhaps we should camp. You're all injured. I'm not particularly happy that arcane spells backfire here, though. Dante - you're the most injured. Camp, or try for another building?"
Luca listened attentively. Nobody had asked for her opinion, though, and after a moment of hesitation she simply clammed up. Huffing slightly, her Eidolon simply lay down on the floor beside her.
As the hours pass by, the rain eventually flags and lets up in the night, only a couple hours short of dawn. By the time the sun's rays begin to brighten the inside of the temple once more, the sky above is cloudless.
Given her rather severe self-esteem problems, Luca spent her time more seen than heard, quick to jump up and do little jobs that needed doing and hesitant to offer her opinion or suggest things to someone else. She fell asleep fairly early, her Eidolon vanishing back to whence it came while her mind touched the land of dreams. Perhaps it went to guard her there... or to report back to whatever was behind her. Whatever the case, it wasn't explaining anything.
Luca woke bright and early, looking somewhat healthier after getting some rest... although she'd need another good night of sleep in order to really be back in good condition. Her Eidolon soon followed, yawning widely as it gazed around the entry hall.
Before the sleep Tyrus and Timm both see to the wounded.
"The rain has let up." Tyrus observed. "We should head out and check the other buildings."
Dante awakes and feels...tired. More than he should be after a night's sleep and with all his wounds magically mended. He is slow to get moving and dons his armor sluggishly. "What else was around?" he barely gets out around a massive yawn.
In a surfeit of caution, Tyrus enlists the other casters' help in examining the ground outside the temple for the existence of the defensive ward - and finds no trace of it. It seems to cover the interior of the temple, not the grounds outside it.
Well, that was good, at least. Luca wasn't entirely in control of her powers, and she'd been a bit worried about getting smacked up again right after Tyrus had gotten finished tending to her and the others... but with a new day, it was time to get moving again and see if they could solve this puzzle.
"Alright Luca. Why don't you pick a building for us to invesigate?" Tyrus asked, conscious the young woman had been dragged about like a servant lately.
If either looks at Dante for his input he merely shrugs. One building was as good as any other at this point.
"I follow the rule of left." Kien says with a shrug.
Luca twitched slightly. "Um... I don't think we've really explored the big apartments to the south." she noted. "I don't know how many keys the might have had there, unless they were backups, but better places are more likely to have useful things."