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With one quick draw, Ridley whips out his crossbow and fires a bolt at the banner, tearing another nasty hole in it. Xantanax continues moving forward around the banner, encircling it with his teammates. Volyana pulls out a shuriken and throws it at the banner, but with the small hill is in the way, and the shuriken bounces harmlessly off its surface. Ree, with great agility, tumbles past the banner. The animated cloth fails to react in time to take advantage of that opening. However, Ree loses her balance somewhat when landing, and her rapier just misses her target. Both Angela and Salarian moves forward, positioning themselves to best support the rest of the party.
The animated banner, starting to come apart in shreds, doggedly whips out a furl at Ree. This time, it slams across her stomach. Although made of cloth, the blow still bruises. Almost immediately, that furl coils and folds around Ree, binding her tightly!
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As you destroy the banner, effectively dispersing whatever foul will was animating it, you look around and notice that the other Pathfinders have similarly put down the other animates and some modicum of peace has settled in the room. Just bordering this chamber to the left, however, you hear the growling and snarling of animals. After a short breather, your party, together with other teams of Pathfinders, gathers and turns towards the entrance of this adjoining chamber.
Long shadows cast by ruined displays and broken furniture litter the floor. A humanoid-shaped figure made of shattered clockwork lies slumped over a bench. Above, an elaborately painted sign reads “Crusader’s Chronicles.” A number of animals, both mundane and seemingly magical, glare at the Pathfinders that enter this room. Four dogs, one larger than the rest, growl ferociously at your party, threatening to charge you!
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Ree giggles at Salarian's pun but would want to make sure he can hit her with the wand of Cure Light Wounds she gave him before they moved on to fight other things... "I like cheesy puns. Oh yea, that reminds me!"
She reaches into a pouch and finds that most of the reefclaw hors doeuvres she had brought with her got smashed to bits by the animated banner. "sigh...looks like I'll be singing for my supper a different way." as she tosses the smashed cheesy seafood mess in a trashcan before the dogs start barking and attacking!
"Ah ha that's my cue! Here I come Angela!"
Ree rushes forward and does a diving roll over the halfling's head landing on her feet and stabbing at the Red dog!
(not sure how that works?)
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Xantanax moves closer, positioning himself for whatever the dogs might do. The rest of the party does not hesitate, however. Volyana reaches one of the dogs, smashing down with her nine-section whip, crushing its skull knocking it unconscious with one blow. Ree also moves up and, with Angela's assistance, stabs her rapier into the bigger dog, just at the same time as a nearby Pathfinder strikes at the same time, gravely injuring the animal.
The dog closest to Xantanax charges at him, but its teeth clangs harmlessly against his shin plate.
The other two dogs, led by their instincts, move to flank Ree and leaps at her almost in unison. Ree, however, seems preternaturally aware and neatly dodges both their clumsy attacks.
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As the larger dog attacked, Ree deftly tweaks its with her rapier, causing it to withdraw. Almost immediately, she follows through and stabs the dog through its shoulders. The alpha dog already badly wounded, collapses unconscious.
Xantanax swings down mightily at the dog he is facing, biting deep into its chest with his greatsword and the dog collapses unconscious, its life blood flowing away. Salarian moves forward to surround the remaining dog. Ridley fires his crossbow at it, but with so many parties engaged with it in melee, he is unable to get a clear shot and the bolt misses. Angela distracts the remaining door with her longspear, giving Ree the opening to plunge her rapier through its chest. The last dog gurgles as its lung is punctured and it, too, falls.
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You notice that most of the other Pathfinders have similarly neutralised the threats of the guard animals, some managing to calm them down, while others were forced to simply put them down like you.
While you hear strange noises and explosions from the garden outside, you also hear raging sounds of battles and objects being broken upstairs. Deciding to leave the outside for those more arcane-talented, your party races upstairs to assist the other Pathfinders.
Gears, glass, and chunks of wax litter the polished wood floor under a sign that proclaims “Scars of the Lich.” The corpse of a Kellid warrior lies in a pool of blood, her furs soaked through. A constant ticking and whirring sound echoes in this area. Hordes of mechanical clockwork devices and statues run amok in this exhibit area. A wax statue of a proud crusader rushes towards you. Thankfully, it does not appear armed, but its flailing arms look threatening nonetheless. It roars at you, ”I am Farlorn the Crusader. I may be weaponless, for some reason, but I will repel you invaders nonetheless!”
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Xantanax moves forward and chops down with a mighty force on the humanoid. His blade cuts in deep, but when he withdraws, he finds no blood or bones. In fact, his blade is coated by wax. Then it hits him - this is a wax statue that has become animated by some wild magic.
Ree charges straight for the animated statue, plunging her rapier deep into its body. Volyana circles around the target, adopting the stance of a crane. She then moves in, flanking the creature with Xantanax and with Angela distracting the creature with her longspear, strikes across its side with her tian weapon.
The creature that thinks its Farlorn roars out in anger. "What foul attacks are these? The Tar-Baphon cultists must have trapped me in some living nightmare! Take that!" At that, he swings his waxy fist at the monk, slamming into her side. It then takes a step away from the attackers.
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"We need to fight this with fire! It's made of wax, so normal weapons won't do anything, except maybe dismember it into smaller pieces.
Xantanax will attack again, this time trying to hack off the golem's right arm since that should be closest to him. He steps forward and swings away with his greatsword.
"The only thing I have on me for fire are torches. If someone has any, light one and pass it to me to use if there is nothing else! Either that, or step up so I can get one out and light it!"
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Ahahaha! So nice of you to step away from my companions! Companions, This is a wax golem! It has ...
"... immunity against cold and magic. However, it is especially vulnerable to fire!"
Ridley lobs the bomb over the heads of companions and the clumsy wax golem walks right into it! The vial smashes in a fiery explosion, burning the wax golem badly. He screams out in imaginary pain. "Ahh! Why am I melting..."
Xantanax approaches the badly deformed wax statue who is still flailing away, and hacks the right arm of the creature right off! The punishment is too much for it to take and topples over, completely lifeless once again.
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With that final blow, the wax crusader crumples and collapses onto the floor. The sight of the life-like body lying motionless is somewhat unsettling, and you also can’t help but feel sorry for the creature that had thought it really was Farlorn the Crusader.
Celebrating among yourselves at the 3 quick victories the party has had, a quick look out the window however reveals that one final threat still remains. Collecting yourselves, you troop back downstairs and move out into the garden.
Thousands of glowing glyphs form a protective shell around the outside of the museum, casting a sparkling aura of light that bounces off the fountain’s waters. A group of the swarming glyphs tear itself away and fly unerringly towards you!
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"All right, this is out of my skill level, gang. I have no idea what to do here other than to make a Perception check and cross my fingers. That looks like something very swarm like and I have nothing whatsoever to affect swarms. I'll play the role of decoy if you need me to do it, but this is where the casters can shine!"
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Angela takes a moment to analyze the swarming glyphs as she gives a shudder. Why do all of my assignments include swarms? Ugh
After a moment, her face lights up as she realizes what they are. "They looked so similar to insects that I didn't recognize them immediately but these are living runes."
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[ooc]Here's hoping I can actually roll a good identifying knowledge check!
Yay! I'd like info on special attacks and abilities, if any
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Salarian charges at the wax crusader, his scimitar high above his head.
"Oh, it's dead already ... again ... how disappointing ... I mean wonderful!"
Moving on to the swarm, Salarian scans the scene to see if he notices anything special, but fails to spot anything significant.
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Determined to at least make his mark on this fight, he prepares himself to move into action as soon as he sees an opening...
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"Well uhm that was quick...poor um waxy guy?" Ree takes extra care to clean her blade after that last fight as Volyana gets healed up.
Once they're outside Ree is clearly out of her element. "Uh anyone know if fire works on these things? 'Cause other than my blade that's all I got...and I can only do that little trick once a day!" She'll hold her free hand up towards the swarm palm out as if warning them to stay back.
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Angela has come across tomes that describes such creations. Other than the usual distraction caused by swarms, such living runes are often attuned to particular magical traps, which they can move within 20ft of them, and trigger them. She also recall that as the primary goal of such living runes are to capture intruders, they deal nonlethal damage with their swarm attack and if unconscious creatures take no damage at all.
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Xantanax restrains himself from rushing to the attack. He delays his action so that the casters in the group can use their magic, but he resolves to step in front of the party to protect them if the swarm moves within range.
"Ree! Use your magic if they come near. If they draw too close, I will move in front of you to attack them and protect you!
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Xantanax readies to move forward to strike and Ree readies to blast the swarm with her fire should the swarm approaches. The mass of flying runes indeed do approach but only slightly. Instead, much as you can read the intentions of a swarm of flying glyphs, its attention seems to be on something else.
Suddenly, the whirl of runes swirl into greater animation, as arcane writing appear, glow and disappear.
At the crescendo of the maelstrom, suddenly black eldritch goo burst forth from the ground in long strands, binding Ree tightly!
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The mass of living runes have no special defences beyond that of typical swarms or constructs. However, Ridley heard from a scholar once that such living runes, even if destroyed via damaging them, will rejuvenate after 1 minute unless other means are used to deactivate them. Those trained in Disable Device, Knowledge (arcana), Linguistics, Spellcraft, or Use Magic Device, or spells like dispel magic or erase, with sufficient work, can disable them permanently.
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The mass of living runes have no special defences beyond that of typical swarms or constructs. However, Ridley heard from a scholar once that such living runes, even if destroyed via damaging them, will rejuvenate after 1 minute unless other means are used to deactivate them. Those trained in Disable Device, Knowledge (arcana), Linguistics, Spellcraft, or Use Magic Device, or spells like dispel magic or erase, with sufficient work, can disable them permanently.
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Angela yells out, "Ree, be careful there's a rune right below," but is cut short when the trap she was warning about springs anyways. Angela gives sigh over her inability and drops her pack. She hefts the longspear she's been unwilling to part with since entering this crazy disorganized mess and surges forward. She lashes out with her spear, hoping to clear enough of the bug like creatures away so she can safely move closer.
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