Joanna stays next to Teldon, sword and shield ready. Halli stays beside her, ready to help if the need arises.
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"I am fine," Shadlah says in stiff response to Briana's query, inspecting two long, but shallow, scratches on one marble-skinned arm. "We can double back and check the other tunnels later. We should move."
As the group travels forward, her hands work almost unconsciously with a chunk of stone and a small rock-hammer, forming the likeness of one of the strange, blind fish that meander through the cave pools. As she coaxes the shapes and scales out of the stone, she whistles, an old, jaunty tune that echoes off the cavern walls and comes to a halting finish when the party reaches the open cavern.
The rock hammer falls from her hand, clanking to the ground, and her jaw hangs open as she stares at the marble walls. "It... it is beautiful," she sighs, staring at the walls and statues in open-mouthed wonder. She brushes a hand against the wall, allowing her fingers to melt into the marble. "I have not before seen stone so lovely."
Teldon's examinations of the columns, which are indeed elegantly sculpted, are abruptly ceased when the nearest of the feminine representations - shedding accumulated dust - moves!!! Bringing its guisarme to bear, the stone women fixes Teldon with an unseeing glare... its face locked forever into an alluring gaze... and advances upon him. As, at each corner of the chamber, the other three stone women also come to 'life'...
Caryatid columns have an innate immunity to magic with very few spells having the capacity to harm them... although some transmutation magic, specifically those transforming rock to other substances, does have some efficacy.
Further, striking a column with a weapon will result in physical damage to that weapon.
Zee shrieks in surprise as the statues move to attack!
"Living statues! They're made of stone, and will quickly dull a blade. Most magic won't affect them, either!"
"Don't attack yet," Teldon calls out to his female companions, "they may not attack any of you..."
"I should have known," Shadlah growls as the first statue begins its advance, already gathering stone and earth from the cavern. Just as she prepares to hurl it, Teldon's voice pierces the echoes off the walls, and she halts for an instant, the rubble already hovering around her hands. "I trust you, but if it takes one more step, I will strike!" she calls, her teeth gritted.
"So, if they blunt swords, what will they do to shields," Joanna asks a little nervously.
How can we fight them, Teldon?
"Probably dent them, Jo!"
Slashing its guisarme, an elegantly forged weapon, in a wide arc, the statue cuts a scarlet line across Teldon's chest...
The other statues, slow moving within the cavern approach the friends with their weapons brandished aggressively... their footsteps resonating with the force of stone upon stone, they form a line in front of the shaft leading downwards.
Teldon closely examines the movement of the statutes to deduce if they target the whole party or only him...
He steps back from his attacker, closes his eyes for a moment, then in one flourished motion rips off his clothes and 'mask' revealing a buxom woman bearing a strong resemblance to the Lady of Light, including the risqué garb but with the addition of an armored skirt and ranseur.
A fierce but feminine voice issues forth, "Δεν είμαστε εχθροί κηδεμόνες σας. Αποσύρομαι."
this had better work, I won't be able to withstand many of their attacks...
Manipulating the shard, Teldon miraculously transforms into a near perfect representation of the immense stone edifice that looms over the bay somewhere above them...
...and the statues, turning and fixating upon this 'Woman', immediately lower their weapons. Slowly retreating, they make their way back to their original position.
The scantily clad warrior-woman nods to her companions and gestures forward with her guisarme. "Let's continue," she says firmly.
That was bold, Teldon, and quick thinking.Bravo.
"So, who's first, 'milady,'" Joanna asks Teldon with a slight smirk and a twinkle in her eyes.
Halli, though, just looks confused.
He still smells the same, how can they not tell that?
Joanna finds a secure anchor and ties off the rope before sending the other end into the dark shaft. Once she's sure that it will hold, she turns to Halli.
"Don't worry, it'll only be for a little bit," she assures her friend before climbing down to secure the area below.
Zee half-mockingly curtsies before the "Runelord."
"Your power is magnificent, m'lady!" She then rises, whispering, "Seriously... that was impressive!'
Zee then walks over to the shaft and looks down at the descending Joanna. She attempts to estimate the depth of the pit from Brianna's light.
Joanna's descent into the shaft, with the rope well-secured, is a strange affair... the surfaces of the shaft itself are glass smooth and would surely be nigh-on impossible to get back out of without having the rope... or other means of defeating gravity's grasp. But it is the way in which the shaft appears to swallow her up which is remarkable... less than five feet into her descent, she is plunged into darkness - occasionally lifted as the dancing lights fly close to her - and the sounds from above her deaden to silence...
...unable to see farther than her fingers gripping the rope above her - or her feet trying to gain purchase on the wall in front of her, Joanna quickly loses track of exactly how far she has descended...
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Joanna gently descends until she emerges from the darkness into a huge chamber...
The ceiling of this grand hall is made of polished gray marble... small flames flicker in glass spheres that hang from the ceiling, bathing the entire chamber (which curves around to the north east and the north west) in a warm light. Joanna, at the very end of her rope, is level with the ceiling of the chamber and some twenty-five feet above the granite paved floor. Columns supporting the ceiling line the chamber - ornately decorated, they have been carved to resemble a beautiful woman - the same woman depicted by the huge stone edifice that gazes out across the Lady's Cape.
Other than the columns, the only other feature of note - at least that Joanna can see from her vantage point - is a ten-foot-square platform sitting in a wide alcove on the north wall, atop which lies a white marble sarcophagus with a painted lid. All is quiet and still other than the sound of gently running water somewhere to the north... the first sound she has heard since lowering herself into the sound deadening shaft.
Zee looks down into the inky blackness that seems to swallow up Joanna... and Brianna's magical lights.
Looking up at her friends she says, "I have a bad feeling about this..."
It's strange that we can't see more, with Briana's light. And to know the place is called "Lady's light"... What would it be if its name was "Lady darkness"?
Arsith tries to bring some humor in the situation but feels nervous too
Joanna climbs back up, taking her time and being cautious as she can. When she reaches the top of the shaft, she begins to haul the rope up.
"Big chamber with what I hope are statues of whoever this place depicts. There's a stone sarcophagus on a raised section to one side and I can hear running water. We're also about thirty feet short. I think, after we can get to the bottom, we should send Halli and myself first I can hold her while we're lowered down, though I'll probably need to be in a harness or have the rope tied around me or my belt," Joanna says as she coils the rope at her feet. "After that, Shadlah then Arsith so we can make it safe for the rest of you."
Teldon continues concentrating on his fierce, feminine form. It's soft but stern voice says, "Jo, you still wear that magic ring; you could just jump down with Halli. Getting her back up will be the challenge."
With near a hundred feet of rope secured around the most secure looking rock formations in the chamber, Joanna - with a complaining Halli secured to her, is gently lowered back into the darkness and silence of the shaft. Between Arsith, Teldon and Shadlah, the paladin and her lupine companion are safely lowered all the way to the safety of the floot some eighty or so feet below...
Quickly detaching herself and Halli from the rope, Joanna draws her blade and looks for signs of movement... seeing nothing, she gives the rope an insistent tug to tell her friends that she has safely made it into the chamber. One by one, the rest of the group make their way down the rope... each experiencing the partial sensory deprivation of the ink-black shaft before emerging on the other side into the ancient Azlant ruins...
...the only person not to follow is Kandamerus, with a last moment case of the jitters he complains that his days of clambering into ancient tunnels are long passed and that he is worried the darkness will somehow sever the divine connection he has to Groetus. Further, he counters when it is suggested he really should come with the rest of the group for his own safety, someone should stay here and ensure that the rope - the only known way out of the Lady's Light after all - does not become detached. Despite any arguments that the friends may have, Kandamerus is not to be deterred in his decision... and so, as the friends head onwards, he remains in the cave... a most unlikely guardian.
Finally gathered in the huge hall, the group have plenty of time to explore their surroundings - and soon determine that this room is devoid of anything beyond the exquisitely decorated columns and the painted sarcophagus... both of which portray a beautiful dark-haired, lithe woman sleeping with arms crossed over her chest — a magnificently detailed depiction of the Runelord Sorshen.
Standing in the great hall, Zee looks about in wonder.
"This architecture is impressive!"
Taking a piece of chalk from her satchel, she walks over to one of the columns. She draws a stylized butterfly-shaped sigil on it. "And I get to claim the first found-mark!"
Looking around, she espies the sarcophagus. "I wonder who's buried in that? It must have been someone important."
Zee then casts a spell, raising one of her Harrow cards to her eye, seemingly looking through the card as if it were a lens.
Teldon lets his illusion dissipate as he passes through the darkness. He scowls a little as Zee defaces one of the columns.
you'd never get these columns out of here anyways... and if you did a little chalk wouldn't be that hard to remove...
As Zee scans for magic, he drinks an extract and cautiously makes his way towards the sarcophagus. He looks around for dangers or traps while he walks. "Jo," he calls back, "can you sense anything evil in here, like perhaps a mummy?"
Ziomarra's inspection of the sarcophagus reveals very quickly that there is an overwhelmingly strong necromantic aura pouring from the centre of the stone structure... black tendrils swirling through the painted image of Sorshen. In between the tendrils, there is the less distinct hint of illusion magic at play here...
...and as Teldon finally lets his illusion slip, he cautiously examines the sarcophagus. Around each of the sides he searches for evidence of traps, noting the delicate carving along the edges before moving to a look at the painted lid, but ultimately he finds nothing to suggest that opening the sarcophagus will trigger any kind of trap... what he does realise though is that the lid is immensely heavy, likely some 600 pounds.
As Zee focuses her attention on the magical energies coming from the sarcophagus, she gasps audibly. "Prin harul Cântecului-Stele!"
She lowers the card she appears to be loooking through, then raises it to her eye again.
"I've never seen anything like that! The sarcophagus is radiating the strongest magical aura I've ever seen... it is the magic of death... necromancy... entwined with a far lesser presence of illusion..."
She then attempts to identify the nature of the spell effect.
"Teldon... be extremely careful!"
Ziomarra's examination of the aura reveals little, beyond the cloying taste of necromancy and the disorientating hints of illusion, of what the actual magicks here do...
"The sheer power of the aura is so overwhelming that I can't see the subtle patterns of what the actual magical effects might be!"
Joanna, happy to not be alone down in the large room, keeps a wary eye out while the others climb down. Once they are all united again, she and Halli relax a little and truly begin to look at the room and not just for threats. When Teldon asks her to see if anything is amiss with the sarcophagus, she takes a deep breath and touches her hand to the holy symbol around her neck. Her eyes glow in a faint silver light as she studies the worked stone of the one thing that had both Teldon and Zee interested.
"Halli, see if you smell anything strange," she says absently to the wolf at her side. Her companion, though unsure of what's going on, does as asked and begins sniff cautiously around the sarcophagus.
I'm happy for you, Miss Z. It's not everyday that a follower of Desna can put such a mark. It's surely quite an honor, let's hope it's a good omen too.
After a few seconds she adds
Wouldn't it be great too, Zee, if you stumble upon an ancient, nearly faded butterfly, from an explorator of a much younger world?
At Teldon's suggestion, Joanna reaches out with her instincts... feeling for any insidious touch of evil that may be here - but, in each and every direction - including concentrating upon the impressive sarcophagus, she finds nothing. Halli on the other hand, sniffing around the stone where Teldon examines it, paws repeatedly and insistently against the walls of the structure...
...whining and looking back at Joanna, the wolf appears to be communicating that she can smell something of interest here.
Naturally more cautious than her friends, Briana concentrates instead upon the sound of water that gently ripples through the hall... immediately certain that whatever water is flowing here is far larger and more powerful than the ever-replenishing fountain in the Crow, she looks down each of the corridors that lead away from the sarcophagus... to the north-east, the passageway ends at a huge metal door - and, even from seventy feet away, Briana can see that the door is intricately carved with various images. The size of the door, and the fact that it is metal, makes it unlikely that the sound of water originates from that direction so Briana - staying where her friends can still see her - looks along the north-western passage...
...at the end of that passage, some eighty feet or so away, the light from the illuminated spheres seems to shimmer against the surface of water. Even from this distance, Briana can see that it is quite a large body of moving water flowing from west to east...
"So...shall we try to open the sarcophagus, or shall we press on? I must admit...I am very curious to find what kind of magic is at play here. Yet...with that amount of power comes the possibility of great danger. If we are careful...it might be worth the risk!"
"There is no trap, mundane or magical..." Teldon answers hesitantly, "the necromantic aura troubles me, but if Jo doesn't sense any evil... although, it is possible that the illusion you detected masks the evil..."
"Let's give it a try!"
"If it is masking something, all the more reason to take a look. I'd rather not leave something dangerous at our backs if I can help it,"
The young paladin motions for Halli to get clear and gives the wolf a reassuring smile as she gets ready to move the lid.
Arsith helps Joanna, and pushes at the sarcophagus's lid easily, with a strength that bellies her small frame
Come on Jo, we can do it...
"I don't think this is the best approach," Teldon counsels, "the average person can lift about a hundred pounds, and by my estimation this lid looks to weigh about six-hundred pounds. So, if we position ourselves evenly around the lid we should simply be able to lift it if we coordinate. It might be prudent, though, to prepare first... if anyone has anything that might protect us from necromantic magic or undead?"