As Elleross utilises the scroll their assailants are suddenly revealed to him and he recognises them instantly, he also recognises the reason for the gem.
Rushing forward as best he can he throws himself onto the gem,dampening its light with his body.
these creatures are fey! The light hides them. he cries out as he smothers the light
watch their blades, they carry a nasty poison
As soon as the fey are revealed Corum let's his rage take over. He swings the warhammer with both hands and smashes it into the get that just stabbed him.
Pa rage
Dam
Attack 2
Dam
With Elleros stradling the gem, the four creatures are revealed. They are small, almost translucent figures with a vaguely humanoid shape They look suddenly panicked at the prospect of being visible and even more so as Corum's axe almost cleaves one in twain.
Lips set in a wolfish smile as the enemy is revealed, Sapphire wades in and attacks.
"I can help the fey play in the light!" Lucrezzia begins a short chant and dazzling motes of light spring forth onto the nearest of the Lurkers.
Grayston rubs at his eye's resisting whatever the fey were trying. Now finally able to see them he takes out another bomb but his time aims at the closest one.
Fail
Hit
Hit
Fail
Success
Miss
The small fey shriek in horror as Elleros covers up the source of their invisibility and two of them round on him immediately, stabbing with quick thrusts of their tiny daggers. Even the old man does not find the attacks particularly painful in and of themselves, certainly he had endured far worse in prison, but he feels a sudden terrible weakness and leadening in his limbs.
Another slashes at Sapphire but he armour deflects the attack and the last simply stands and stares into space.
Del fires off a pair of cold iron bolts once Elleross declares their attackers to be fey, but the half-orc still struggles to blink the stars away from the initial blinding flash. "Is that one of them?! No? Where are they?! I can't tell these little devil from the spots I'm still seeing!"
HP: 48/48
AC: 19 (15 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 21
F/R/W: +8/+10/+6
Grit remaining: 0/2
Healing Amulet charges remaining: 3/3
Regular bolts remaining: 40/80
Cold Iron bolts: 34/40
tangle bolts: 3
tracer bolts: 3
Ongoing Effects
Vigilant Loading
Gunslinger Initiative
Favored Terrain (cold): +2 bonus on initiative, Knowledge (geo), Perception, Stealth, & Survival
Dazzled (4/10 rds): -1 to hit, -1 to perception
With the light source covered Elleross knows he will become the focus of their attacks and sure enough they fling themselves at him, intent on killing him for revealing them.
As they hurtle toward him he completes a swift spell, barking out the words of power.
tempus, vi-arma! with a word he is suddenly surrounded by an invisible sphere of pure force that turns aside their attacks
Corum smashes his warhammer again and again down onto the fey.
Pa rage
Dam
Attack 2
Dam
Grayston continues to shake up his bombs and lob them as fast as he can to end the fight. "Someone cover Elleross!" He shouts desperately.
The enemy now clearly visible, Sapphire whirls on the one who attacked her, cutting high and low.
Corum finishes the one attacking him and between them, Greyston and Sapphire despatch another, going down in flames from the bomb and then slashes by Sapphire's black blade.
Success
"You've got 'em!
Spinning in place, raising her blade from one guard position to another as she constantly turns, it is nearly a minute before Sapphire relaxes.
I'm not going to say it, how things keep getting stranger, it'll only tempt the gods to put further strangeness in our path...
She starts hunting around the walls to see if anything is stashed.
"Well." Del smiles brightly before Elleross moves and the crystal he's covering blinds them all again. His tone, though, is plainly facetious. "That was fun."
Besides their tiny daggers, the fey had nothing of value. However, now that they are slain, the gem dims so that it is no more bright than a candle.
Grayston continues to shake up his bombs and lob them as fast as he can to end the fight. "Someone cover Elleross!" He shouts desperately.
[dice=Attack]1d20+9
[dice=Damage]4d6+7
Elleross watches the fight rage all around him, secure behind his cage of force he calls out to Greyston and the others
don't worry about me! I am quite safe here, they cannot breach the barrier I have conjoured. he shouts, re assuring the others as they continue to fight.
Grayston moves into the room as fight is over. "Elleross, I still worry about you. That was fast thinking with the light." He smiles at the old elf. "What were they protecting here?" He looks to the gem.
Del glances between the two exists from the room as Elleross and Greyston examine the gem, its brightness now thankfully muted. "Perhaps that gem? Maybe nothing? Who can know when it comes to crazy, murderous fey?" Shrugging, he turns his attention back to the exits. "If experience has taught us anything about these halls yet, it's that each of these doorways likely has something or someone rather unpleasant on the other side." He pulls a coin from an inner pocket of his jacket and flips it into the air.
He nods to the northern exit. "How about that way?"
Picking up the gem and dropping it in to the party's loot bag, Sapphire nods at Del.
As long as we're making progress any way is as good as any other where we have no guidance.Let's go!
The group heads north out of the gem room through a narrow corridor.
Tiny pieces of quartz form an inlay of a crescent moon in the floor of this passage, surrounded by a ring of runes. A few yards beyond the inlaid symbol, a small round table stands in the middle of the tunnel.
A wooden bowl filled with fresh wildflowers sits in the center of the table.
A series of runes are inlaid around the moon written in Iobarian.
“From one stage unto the next, let my light always guide your path.”
With a gesture Elleross dismisses the sphere of force that surrounds him and with a grunt he somewhat awkwardly clambour a back onto his feet.
the gem is a gem of brightness, it may prove useful should we find ourselves without a light source. It can also be used to blind ones enemies. he says as he dusts himself off.
Following the others they soon come to yet another strange area and he moves forward to get a better look at the table.
another cryptic message it would seem, this says " from one stage unto the next, let my light always guide your path.” he says as he deciphers the runes
"The gem? Should we try and use the gem here? It all seems to fit in place or am i thinking to literal here?" He looks to the others.
When Elleros examines the contents of the bowl he finds four tiny wooden figurines about 6 inches tall hiding within the flowers. Each figurine depicts a nude maiden performing a different task. One is standing, holding a bouquet of wildflowers. Another is kneeling, and seems to be washing her hair. The third one holds a triangular knot in her hands, and the last figurine is sitting with her head gazing upward.
Something about these figurines looks familiar...
The figurines look very similar to the carvings on the walls in area C1. The description of that area is as follows:
Hewn from the surrounding basalt, the walls of this large chamber
have been chiseled into an incredibly intricate display of thousands
of wildflowers. In the middle of each of the carvings, a wreath of
pinecones encircles a life-sized carving of a young nude woman. On the north wall, the figure washes her hair. On the east wall, the
figure sits staring upward at a crescent moon. On the south wall, the figure picks a bouquet of flowers, while to the west, the figure points to a triangular, knot-shaped symbol. To the north, a curving stone staircase climbs up and disappears into the western wall, while an open archway beckons in the southwest corner.
Del shrugs his shoulder with a shake of his head, "How bright does the gem shine, Greyston? If it's at all like it was before, I'd bet that would be a bit too bright given all the moon motifs in here."
As he looks through the bowl of wild flowers Elleross finds the small carved figurines and he is immediately reminded of the carvings in the first area they explored.
The walls were adorned with these same images.
there are several small figurines hidden amongst the wild flowers, they represent the same images we saw in one of the first area we explored. he says as he draws out each figurine and sets it down on the table.
Picking up the figure of the woman gazing upwards he says this is the figure we saw gazing up at a crescent moon in the carvings, I am not sure what we do with it. Perhaps if I set it on the moon symbol ... he says and taking the figure he places it on the symbol of the moon on the floor.
Nothing happens when the figurine is set on the moon symbol.
Shrugging Elleross bends down and plucks the figure off the floor and moving back to the table he sets it beside the others
obviously it does nothing he says with a touch of frustration in his voice as he looks around the room
Lucrezzia steps up next to Elleross and examines the artifacts. She shakes her head, "Is no answer apparent to my eyes."
Corum waits patiently while the others try to figure out the riddle of the statuettes. When nothing happens he says "Try again with the light from the gem at the same time. If it doesn't work we try another way."
Brandishing the gem, even when glowing at it's brightest, seems to have no discernable effect.
Gathering up the figurines, Elleross drops them into his pack and motions for the others to move on ahead.
we take them with us, maybe we will find a use for them later.
For now it looks like we continue onwards he says gesturing toward the dark corridor to the north.
Grayston looks on stumped at more puzzles and cryptic clues are presented to them. "Good idea Elleross, we can't get bogged down in this. There is much more to explore." He agrees with the old wizard and moves on.
The group trudge northwards and at first they see nothing untoward, just more of the worked stone of the giant statues of Artrosa.
But, some twenty feet from the moon motif, Elleros' pack suddenly rips open, spilling it's contents all over the floor. The tiny figurines triple, quadruple in size and continue growing until they stand some 5 feet tall, like wooden women with flat, featureless faces.
They then lunge toward the unsuspecting party.
12
Del's eyes widen in alarm as the carvings loom ever larger and seem ready to carve up him and his allies. "Well, that was unexpected!" Diving away from the wooden women, but slowed and tripped up by the press of bodies, he eventually pushes his way to a spot out of reach before bringing Ruby up to his shoulder only to have the bolt crack in half before it even clears the cradle.
HP: 48/48
AC: 19 (15 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 21
F/R/W: +8/+10/+6
Grit remaining: 0/2
Healing Amulet charges remaining: 3/3
Regular bolts remaining: 39/80
Cold Iron bolts: 34/40
tangle bolts: 3
tracer bolts: 3
Ongoing Effects
Vigilant Loading
Gunslinger Initiative
Favored Terrain (cold): +2 bonus on initiative, Knowledge (geo), Perception, Stealth, & Survival
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Why is it wherever we go Del, you're falling at the feet of strange women!?
Sapphire darts forward, blade flashing at the closest of the animated wooden statues.
Corum shouts a battle cry and smashes into the figures in a frenzy of muscle, hair and steel.
Pa rage
Dam
Attack 2
Dam
"Everything wants to kill us!" He shouts out in frustration grasping at this bag pulling out a alchemist's fire and lobbing it at the closest creature.
Elleross suddenly stumbles forward as the pack on his back bulges and tears open, spilling his meagre belongings into the ground along with the rapidly growing figurines.
Backing away from them he raises his hands and weaves a spell about himself.
Imago , speculo, reflexionum! he barks the words of power and suddenly his form splits into multiple targets.