With Farrukh and Cuetzpalli on his flanks, Tanith roars and throws himself into the task.
Tanith roars and rams the heavy obstacle, hurting his shoulder but accomplishing his goal. With Farrukh's and Cuetzpalli's help, Tanith's strength is just enough to topple the boulder to the north, clearing the way into the passage beyond.
However, the moment the boulder leaves its place, there is a clunk and a hissing sound. A noxious green gas pours out from the mouths of the adoring bas-reliefs along the walls, quickly filling the room with a bitter smell.
A goofy grin spreads across the big man's face as the obstacle falls under the party's might. He pauses for a moment to pose heroically, only to be surprised by the ominous thunk.
"What's that?"
"Well that can't be good."
The adventurers are not initially affected.
Eager to get away from the potentially lethal gas, Tanith pushes forward.
Curious carvings that seem to represent a stirring tempest cover the walls of this ten-foot-wide passage. At ten-foot intervals, small alcoves flank the passage, and each alcove contains an androgynous humanoid figure with cupped hands. The figures stand roughly seven feet tall.
A faint wind seems to play within the passage, but it's difficult to tell where it's coming from.
"Everyone okay?" Tanith barks back toward the party as they escape the mysterious gas.
"I'm fine." Farrukh replies.
"What is this place?"
He looks around intently.
Farrukh doesn't notice anything untoward.
Spiny stops walking. He gives a low growl.
This is the only warning the adventurers get before the creatures strike.
Two ocher rays shoot out, each coming from behind an alcove. One of them goes wild, but the other hits Tanith.
The big brute blinks, struggling in vain against the magic before collapsing, sound asleep.
The adventurers see their attackers: horrid abominations that are little more than short strands of striated muscle connected to two floating eyeballs. They stretch and twist as they float through the air.
"Somebody wake him up! I've got this one!" Farukh shouts as he quicksteps in to engage the nearest creature.
Farrukh steps forward and lunges, but the tiny creature proves to be grotesquely nimble and dodges his attack with ease.
Between the noxious gas, the elevator, and now the eyeball creatures, Carina has had enough.
When Tanith gets hit with a sleep ray, she promptly races over and slaps Tanith in the face.
"WAKE UP DAMMIT!"
"Focus now."
Robin steps forward over Tanith's body both for his protection and a better view, raising his bow.
Unfortunately for Robin, the sight of the creature causes a surprise. "ARGH!"
Cuetzpalli charges one of the eye creatures, slashing at it with his terbutje and calling for Spiny. "Spiny, attack!" He slashes directly through the thing's dangling optic nerves with a powerful two-handed stroke. Spiny rushes forward and snaps at the flying bit of flesh with hungry, slavering jaws.
______________________________________
--------
Tanith eye's fly open at Carina's slap. He looks around in mild confusion and surprise - he seems to be at least a little accustomed to being woken in such a way.
The big man scrambles to his feet and grabs his weapon.
Cuetzpalli and Spiny attack viciously, but the creature dodges their attacks.
The one further west fires a beige eye ray at Spiny.
Spiny's eyes widen as the dinosaur is filled with unnatural terror, his training for the first time failing him.
The other creature lunges for Farrukh.
Farrukh jabs at the creature and manages to land a telling blow. The creature's transparent blood sizzles as it is exposed to the air, slowly turning red.
The aberration wraps itself around Farrukh's throat and tightens, brutally cutting off his air supply.
Carina's eyes widen in surprise as the eyeballs start strangling Farrukh. There's a sentence she never thought she'd hear.
"Get off him!" She says, running over with her dagger out and trying to pry the thing off his throat with her dagger.
She's more concerned with getting it off him than with hurting it right now.
Carina lends her assistance, giving Farrukh a bit of needed leverage.
Spiny bolts. Understanding that the previous chamber is still unsafe, he flees further down the hallway, turns left, and runs out of sight.
"Ach hawcg aaaaaakkkk" Farrukh says as he tries to pry the creature off.
Upon succeeding he takes a deep breath and glares death at the eyeball creature.
Gripping his heavy poleaxe in both hands, Tanith rushes past the Farrukh to hack at the creature's backside.
The creature seems unaffected by Tanith's new position, its floating eyes easily tracking his whereabouts without any loss of focus. Indeed, he's not sure it even has a 'backside'. It falls out of the way of his strike.
"Foul demon!" Cuetzpalli curses at the eye as it sends his companion fleeing down the corridor. He steps forward and swings at it with another two handed blow, but misses the tiny creature again.
__________________________________________
Robin fires again.
His arrow comes closer to hitting Farrukh than it does the nimble entity.
The strangler fighting Farrukh seems to glare at Carina before firing an ocher ray at her.
Noticing, Tanith spins and swings his bardiche, cutting the tentacle beast clean in two. Two eyestalks fall on the ground, twitching and sizzling.
The other eye creature, seeing Tanith distracted, fires at the big warpriest.
Cuetzpalli is unable to stop the creature as...
...the ray finds its mark.
This time, though, Tanith is prepared and easily able to fight off the spell.
Cuetzpalli swings at the creature again, roaring in frustration that it won't hold still.
Farrukh moves in after the second one, sliding in next to Cuetzpalli and slashing with his scimitar, hoping to hit the creature this time.
"Die, strange...eye thing!" he shouts, wittily.
Following the rush from slaying one of the monsters, Tanith rears back and slashes at the other. His blow is awkward as he swings over Cuetzpalli's shoulder.
Alas, Tanith's blow just barely grazes the creature's unnatural flesh, not quite finding its mark as the aberration jerks away at the last moment.
Emboldened from his first kill, Tanith hacks into the creature with the sort of wild abandon befitting a man of his faith. Two more pieces of sizzling monster meat join the first pair.
"Spiny!" Cuetzpalli shouts before running forward after his companion.
"Cuetzapalli! Don't just run forward like that! There could be more poisonous gas, or spider creatures, or a door that actually DOES eat people for all we know!" Farrukh yells after him, running a bit to catch up.
Cutepalli roars, completely ignoring Farrukh and continuing to run forward. He looks around frantically for his scaly friend.
"Dammit all." Farrukh sighs and jogs after him.
In for a copper, in for a platinum, I suppose.
Tanith bellows a victory roar as the second monster falls under his poleaxe. He's so caught up in his celebration that he doesn't even notice Cuetzpalli darting back past him.
Now that the fight is over, Cuetzpalli and Tanith both notice an odd chill which gets stronger the closer to the chamber they get.
A dull gray stone pillar reaches from floor to ceiling in the large chamber Cuetzpalli rushes into. Halls extend to the east and west, and he sees Spiny sitting in the eastern one. He notices a large quantity of strange-looking mold blocking the western side, and it's coldest when he comes near that.
Behind him, he notices a deep recession in the pillar's east side. It is currently almost completely blocked by a massive stone column. The floor around the column is cracked.
Spiny looks none the worse for wear, though a bit disoriented.
The room Spiny and Cuetzpalli are now in is a wide chamber that must once have been the living quarters of an important figure. A large stone slab that suggests the shape of a bed rests against the east wall, under a huge bas-relief of a robust, long-nosed bald humanoid figure with outstretched hands. The figure wears a lovingly sculpted wind-tossed robe that gives him the appearance of a triumphant god.
A glyph that looks like a stylized arrow marks an amulet worn around the figure's neck. Wardrobes and dressers seemingly carved from the stone walls look to have been ransacked a long time ago.