Cordwin will try to launch a bolt at the foe.
Tylur continues trying to attack the hound.
"Awww, man, you got ridda one. What's takin' the other so long?"
Growling in a way that is similar to the beast she had called from the ether, "You could try stabbing it."
Cordwin will try and shoot the creature again.
The beast bites at Skarn again.
Skarn swipes at green again...
x4
Crit confirm
x4
"Heh heh, naw, my main man Tylur'll get'im! 'Attaboy!" René pats Tylur heartily on the shoulder.
Tylur feels his hand guided by something otherworldly as he stabs with his spiked chain.
Tapping Skarn on the shoulder with the wand and groaning when the last of the magic fizzles out.
Cordwin will continue to try and shoot the creature again.
He mutters a dwarven curse as his shot goes really wide!
Cordwin's shot goes wide, but it is not a concern because Tylur and Skarn hit the monster with such force that it too pops into a puff of smoke.
Stone fonts containing frothy dark water sit to the north and south of the eastern entrance to the room, and twin banks of stone pillars run the length of the long chamber. At the western end, shallow stairs rise to a platform about two feet off the ground. The walls surrounding this platform are lit by hanging braziers that emit glowing red smoke, living the place an unnerving crimson lighting that throws the bas-relief carvings of countless monsters feasting on fleeing humans into lurid display. A black marble altar stone, its surface heaped with ashes and bone fragments, squats before a ten-foot-tall statue. The sculpture depicts a very pregnant but otherwise shapely naked woman who wields a kukri in each taloned hand and has a long reptilian tail, birdlike taloned feet, and the snarling head of a three-eyed jackal with a forked tongue. The left kukri flickers with fiery orange light while the right one glows with a cold blue radiance.
"How long y'reckon that there ash has been there? Now, I know there ain't 'xactly a breeze ta go'n disturb it, but I can't help but think it might be new, what with Tsuto's shenanagans 'n that other girl tryin' ta get Lamashtu ta turn'er inta a succubus-like. Now, I'm thinkin' iff'n we somehow manage ta git outta here alive, we better be sending a priest back here to go'n bless all this here stuff. There's some bad stuff'd happened here givin' the place some bad juju; only thing I can think of ta make the fightin' take so long when we got strappin' fellas like Tylur and Skarn here with us."
Biting the inside of her cheek to avoid speaking, for the moment. Moving close to the strange alter. Shaking her head, "No clue but having this place cleansed would be a good idea." So now you care? No jokes?
”I see aught what I can handle with my unique brewing and drinking skills here, so mebbe we should keep looking. Something is sure to jump out and try to kill us, or to be kilt by us.”
Tylur looks at the statue and feels sickened. Balling one hand into a fist he pounds it into the palm of his other hand. He nods at Réne and Aurora's suggestion.
[b]"We should come back with the priest and remove this mockery. That...thing...it serves no good to keep it intact. Let's find the priest's daughter there can be no redemption for her." he looks one more time at the statue and let's the anger set in before heading off to the stairway.
This place reeks of Lamashtu. We are on the right track and yes, having a priest come back to consecrate this place would be a very good idea!
Cordwin says as he recoils at the evil this temple projects.
A stone door just around the corner from the steps hangs slightly ajar, the detailed carvings that once covered its surface defaced by chisel marks and hammer blows to the extent that only a few remnants of images (mostly of gemstones and crowns) remain. The floor here is slanted downward toward the west.
E2: Two pillars support the ceiling in here. In many places the stone walls, floor, and ceiling are caked with ancient grime and soot. Alcoves in the north and south walls contain partially damaged statues of a man in robes clutching a book and a glaive. The entire room is canted toward the west, and whatever ancient upheaval caused the complex to tilt knocked the statues from their bases so that now they lean against the western walls of their alcoves.
Skarn will heal himself...
Skarn will fall in where the group wishes.
"We should come back with the priest and remove this mockery. That...thing...it serves no good to keep it intact. Let's find the priest's daughter there can be no redemption for her." he looks one more time at the statue and let's the anger set in before heading off to the stairway.
As Tylur marches onwards, René softly mutters under his breath. "Well, dunno I'd say we halfa come back with the priest ta do it..."
On the lower level he rolls his eyes in exasperation as the skewed architecture serves at yet another thing conspiring against them. Of course it would skew to give us the lower ground. If we had any sort of advantage it would be to easy.
Unfortunately, the statue is too worn with age to recognize it as much more than a man.
Cordwin examines the door for traps and then proceeds carefully.
This short hallway rises in a slope to the east. Five feet from the western door, the floor is polished and shiny, unlike the dusty floor elsewhere. A pair of stone statues depicting stern men wielding glaives stand in alcoves north and south of this section of the hallway. At the eastern end stand two stone doors, their faces carved with strange runes. Just past the doors is a third alcove in which a partially collapsed statue sits. The top half of the statue is missing, leaving behind a ragged stump of a torso.
Cordwin then notices that the polished area can also drop away, revealing a pit.
Examining the area more closely, he also noticed that a recessed portcullis can drop from the ceiling on either side of the pit area. He feels like this is a trap, but just can't tell what the mechanisms are.
”Great job Cordwin! We ready to go?”
Hmm, interesting. My guess is the portcullis drops if you attempt to jump over it. But what kind of sensor would they have for that? My guess is something magical as a tripwire would likely not be able to reset itself and would therefore be a worse defense. Almost absently, René pulls out a marble and tosses it to the other side of the shiny tile, waiting to see if it crosses and successfully rolls back to him. He then takes a closer look at the glaive-wielding statues to see if he can find some kind of rune on them or an indication that they move.
Rene's marble does not seem to trigger anything, but it is a little noisy as it rolls back to him. No rune's are visible, and they don't look like they move, but you could be wrong.
Cordwin will cautiously go forward and be on the lookout for any triggers.
A little sad that Cordwin's disabling of the activation mechanism seems to have erased whatever rune was being used to trigger the trip, René retrieves his marble and sits back while he waits for someone to jump over the now clearly deactivated trap.
As Cordwin moves forward, he triggers the trap. Both portcullis drop into place, trapping him. As they fall, the two statues move into action, slashing down with their glaives!
Even though Cordwin knew something was going to happen, he was so distracted by the portcullis, he did not react fast enough to the glaives!
1 round later, both statues slash at the area with their glaives for 2 rounds;
Somehow, Cordwin avoids both attacks. Then the floor gives way underneath him.
The portcullis then raise up.
”A very dramatic ‘trap,’ I must say,” says Skarn, holding up finger quotes as he said trap. He pulls out some rope and lets an end down towards Cordwin. ”It is a good thing you disabled the nastier aspects of it.”
Cordwin climbs out rubbing his rump. My arse wishes I disabled all of it!
Of course, the noise it made was not insignificant....
René is shocked when the trap springs, both because he had been sure Cordwin had disabled it and because he himself had failed to find any triggering mechanisms or been able to see any signs that the statues could move. But then, I've never really been praised for my eye sight, I suppose... It was a good thing he had a general policy against going first into dark and dangerous dungeons, otherwise he would surely be lying in a pool of his own blood at the bottom of that pit.
"Some right amazing dodging ya did there, Cordwin. That's why we put ya in front," He cheers from his safe position at the rear of the group.
Tylur looks at the trap and the narrow escape made by Cordwin. 'This place just gets worse every step we take to find this demon..."
"Is it safe to move ahead?"
Cordwin scratches the side of his head. I believe so if you hurry. Oh! And don't step on that tile!
Skarn moves in, careful to miss the tile.
René, shining beacon of bravery that he is, waits to watch the others safely cross before attempting to do so himself.
Sucking in a breath when the trap is triggered, "Glad it wasn't too bad."
Shooting René an agitated look when she moves past him but keeping her thoughts to herself, for now.
Making sure the others have crossed Tylur watches where they all step and then follows suit. Once he has crossed he looks at Cordwin, "By the Dawnflower! How you escaped injury is truly an act of divine favour. Hopefully there are no more of these traps."
You find doors to the north and south.
+2 stonework, +1 vs giants
Scarn thinks he hears a voice coming from behind the north door... perhaps an incantation.
"Some spell casting inside says I. We oughts to move now before whatever evil is afoot gets completed."
Quite softly but not holding anything back Tylur retorts, "It might be the old priest's daughter. We should finish her before she completes whatever she is trying!"