Svartokshe nods and sends out Hevn to take an aerial view while he keeps his eyes on the mausoleum-like houses around you. The fountain itself is magical, a transmutation aura coming off it.
As you approach this fountain, a roar erupts from the church and another gnarled giant rushes forth from the front doors. His expression is one of desperate hunger and madness, and he screams one phrase over and over as he charges: "SO HUNGRY!"
Gramaton runs up the side of one of the nearby buildings before hopping off to land behind the giant. As he does his voidglass dagger darts out towards the back of the giants thigh... if he is lucky slashing into the giant's femoral artery.
Tetro grins.
"To arms!"
He manoeuvres Aghi and himself 10 feet from he hungry giant, opposite Gramaton.
Svartokshe darts underneath Aghi to flank with Gramaton and strikes at the feral giant.
Taking the strikes against him Hingarl roars and bull rushes into Gramaton and attempts to grapple him.
Succeeding, he picks up Gramaton's slight form and barrels into the fountain's water. As they enter the water, the giant opens his mouth and attempts to bite his prey's shoulder.
However, Gramaton is able to wriggle out of the way of the insane giant's mouth.
Celestia commands her Flaming Giant forward, all the while drawing her hands through the motions, her words filled with the strength of divine magic. She calls all her divine will into her wrath and a bolt of black and red energy blasts from her inti the giant
Her flaming Giant advances and swings it's axe.
+
Celestia growls words of hate. May your soul perish in darkness!
Gramaton seems to almost effortlessly slide out of the giant's grasp...
...and starts stabbing with both his blades at the giant before it can unleash it's furry in another way.
* 30ft aura adding +2 resistance bonus on saves against mind-effects
* 30 ft aura of +2 morale bonus on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, and saving throws against fear and charm effects
* 60ft aura of +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear and +3 morale bonus on attack rolls made as part of a charge
His banner flowing with every spear strike, Tetro seeks to slay the giant!
Gramaton slides from the giant's arms and despite the freezing cold of the water slices deep into the giant's torso. Celestia's giant and malicious magic tear into the submerged giant as well, and after several stabs from the flying Tetro the giant's crimson blood discolors the previously crystal waters of the fountain and his body bobs limply.
"Mind the chill, Gramaton! And is there any good loot on the giant? You have a knack for finding it."
Gramaton doesn't stay in the icy water for long. Diving onto the floating giants body he begins to loop some rope around a piece of sturdy clothing on the giant's body like a belt. "I'll toss this to ye in a moment, try to haul him in. He might just have something of value or use on him."
Celestia (who would have frozen days ago with her lack of clothes if it wheren't for her magic) scoffs "Giants..." she looks around the fountan, Scanning it for anything of note
She then searches her mind if prepared spells.
"I must may payer soon to restore my magics..." she says. "A few more fights like that and I'll have to start digging my more powerful spells out... Or I'll have to resort to standing back and letting you all work without me... she scoffs "I'll grant help where i can, but I'll feel useless"
Gramaton avoids the brunt of the freezing cold due to his skill, and shakes off the excess water as he throws the rope to Svartokshe, who pulls them in as Gramaton searches the dead weight.
There is no coin on the giant, but his breastplate is magical and his battleaxe (a greataxe to your size) flickers with burning arcane power. Appropriate checks/spells can identify these items.
As for Celestia, she sees pews and various iconography in the shadows of the church within, but from here cannot make them out.
"Assess it, bag it, and let us press on., says Tetro, his own portable hole ready to be opened if needed.
"Profitable enough. People are always surprised if you can wriggle out of a grip like that. I'm all in favour for presding on."
Celestia turns to the others, "I'd like to get a better look at the inside of the church... Something about the Symbols there look important.... And in sure whatever gif Baba yaga worshiped would have clues as to the wareabouts of the artifact."
Tetro nods.
"That makes sense, Celestia. Let us have a look."
Svartokshe sends his hawk off again before taking a defensive stance at the entrance. "I will keep a look out here. I will alert you if anything else is discovered out here."
Entering the church, you see pews of solid ice facing an array of iconography of what could only be a dozen or so religions, but none are known to the Inner Sea region. Perhaps they originate from Baba Yaga's homeworld?
One depicts an emancipated man wearing a crown of thorns hanging from a cross - this icon is turned upside down. Another is a three-faced woman standing at a crossroads with two dogs at her side, a crescent moon above her head, and various witchcraft tools in her hands. A third shows a muscular man with the head of an ibis in profile. A fourth is a tall, bearded man with an eyepatch carrying a spear and accompanied by two ravens and a wolf. Such images and symbols go on.
Just beyond the altar a stout staircase leads to the second floor, from which a faint tick-tock sound could be heard.
Tetro gazes over the icons, then shrugs.
"I do not know any of these. So long as we do not manage to irritate any of them overmuch, we should be fine surely. Let us investigate that sound."
She examines the symbols... Sliding a finger down the symbol kf the cross. a man hung in such a way... I imagine they are a deity of vengeance.. this one is Thoth, However the rest are alien... And I should know... I am a Scolar of religion she stands and looks to Tetro. I do not believe someone would worship so many different Gods, this one is peculiar she says pointing to the symbol of the man with Raven and wolf. "like I've seen then somewhere before... But it slips my mind... Hmm. In either case I don't believe they have much hold here. I still wouldn't destroy such artifacts. Knowledge is sacred.
She continues to admire the works, making note of every symbol she sees. A religion... Alien to galorian yet still reminiscent of humans. I must catalog these and bring it to my homeland. Knowledge like this might be able to explain what history was before it was witten she pulls out a book and begins to write until somone stops her.
Tetro keeps an eye out for danger.
"Will you need long to write there, Celestia? This is no library and there are pressing matters for us to attend to."
"Could be some forgotten Patheon with only a few of the deities known to modern theologians?"
Celestia nods, Closing her book, "It is possible, That one there is Thoth, An ancient Orision god. It only makes sense these other symbols are other lost deities. Anyways, Let is get going- Tetro is right... It isn't exactly safe enough to sit around for too long"
Don't know much about gods much. Pharasma yes, but that is just my line of work
"Lost knowledge? Would it be valuable to priests and scholars? Regardless, let us move on."
Moving up the stairs, you come to the second floor. It is bare save for a grandiose cuckoo clock as big as a cottage. Several tracks lead from side doors around in four rings around the face of the clock, on which several white statues of crones wielding scythes stand. The only sounds to be heard is the tick-tock of this strange clock.
The face of the clock has four hands - one long, one short, one forked, and one wavy. All but the wavy one move at different speeds, the wavy one stuck at the "9" spot. The "9" symbol is in a unique font from the others, but you must approach to see it more clearly.
Tetro glances at the ceiling, reading off something.
"A Stitch in Time."
"A warning, perhaps."
Celestia snorts, "A stitch can also mean fix... Perhaps... Its implyig time is fabric, and this clock is a stitch?" she sighs,"Its amazing how much we don't know... Even..." she closes her eyes, Pondering something... "I think the giant demon might be pushing us twards something alot deeper than we first thought" she says, Looking back to her flaming minion. "Stay close, Watch our backs"
Gramaton carefully checks the area for tell tale signs of traps. "Perhaps some kind of temporal anomaly or stasis trap?"
Celestia sighs, "I have yet to study time based magic, but it's some of the most powerful stuff around... If it is a trap or anomaly its best we avoid it... Although such magic might also explain how Baba yaga can come back after centuries of being gone..."
As Gramaton approaches the first ring of statues, the two on that ring make a cracking sound and slide quite swiftly on their tracks towards him, swinging their scythes.
The two then retreat through the doors on the other end of the ring, and the tolling of a dozen small bells sounds as two more take their place a round later.
Gramaton learns proximity of five feet radius of the tracks triggers this effect.
"Bugger. You still breathing, Gramaton? And can you shut them down?"
Gramaton having learned of the traps presence the hard way does his best to disable the traps.
Despite his skills and experience, Gramaton is unable to permanently disable this strange statues, but is able to halt them for minutes by jamming daggers into the tracks and fiddling around where the base interlocks with the tracks. This action causes the statues to seemingly exhale and "relax", as if they fell asleep.
This will give your party enough time to take a closer look at the face of the clock. The "9" symbol is in fact made up of tiny Skaldic runes forming a passage or poem of sorts, but it is difficult to make out.
But what loop will the witch queen heed?
In pointless slaughter The Old Crone’s daughter
A hapless mob did lead.
Now she sits in tomb that’s frozen,
The traitors’ blood all spilled
Upon the path that she had chosen,
Enthroned with collar gild.
Ringed in steel, three loops times nine
Prized from the luckless seat,
Supplicants kneel, of porcelain fine,
The banished queen to meet.
It matters not who’s dared to come
The demon’s soul to claim,
The weak shall die, the strongest live
And forever more remain.
But what loop will the witch queen heed?
In pointless slaughter The Old Crone’s daughter
A hapless mob did lead.
Now she sits in tomb that’s frozen,
The traitors’ blood all spilled
Upon the path that she had chosen,
Enthroned with collar gild.
Ringed in steel, three loops times nine
Prized from the luckless seat,
Supplicants kneel, of porcelain fine,
The banished queen to meet.
It matters not who’s dared to come
The demon’s soul to claim,
The weak shall die, the strongest live
And forever more remain.
As you retrieve any info, the statues begin to "awaken", but you'd have enough time to move out of the danger zone.
Tetro makes good use of the delayed statues to move past the danger. But he knows that he cannot work out the meaning of the runes.
Gramaton moves to safety as the statues awaken.
"A stitch in time saves nine,
But what loop will the witch queen heed?
In pointless slaughter The Old Crone’s daughter
A hapless mob did lead.
Now she sits in tomb that’s frozen,
The traitors’ blood all spilled
Upon the path that she had chosen,
Enthroned with collar gild.
Ringed in steel, three loops times nine
Prized from the luckless seat,
Supplicants kneel, of porcelain fine,
The banished queen to meet.
It matters not who’s dared to come
The demon’s soul to claim,
The weak shall die, the strongest live
And forever more remain."
"Some fancy poetry! But the lesson is the one we already know: the strongest will prevail and the rest will not get to leave here."
Having acquired the clue, you all move out of the way of the grim statues before they reawaken. You all hear them shriek in frustration, but as you know their trigger you avoid them moving to strike.
Regrouping, you hear Svartokshe call from below. "Everyone alright up there? I'm starting to hear a lot of noises out here and I'm a little concerned because I'm not seeing the sources."
"We live yet!", Tetro says cheerily.
In a much quieter voice, he says to the others:
"Any ideas for advancing past these riddles?"
"I might be able to bypass the trigger so we can move forward but it's going to be tricky." Gramaton moves forward slowly.
The clock is not blocking your path out of the chamber back downstairs, and there is nothing else up here. Regardless, you have now paused the statues for an additional two minutes.
Chill moves to keep up
Gramaton moves forward with Chill.
As you leave the second floor, Svartokshe greets you at the base of the stairs. "I've found something. Tracks lead from here to the mouth of this cavern. However, when Hevn investigated he was nearly knocked from the sky by shadowy arms. Hevn tried a few different angles and approaches, but whenever he was close to that lip the arms appeared. The tracks led there and seemed to have descended. I figure something was worth risking those specters to get somewhere below us."
"There's got to be a way to turn it off or bypass it." Gramaton does his best to find any traps in the area.
[sdice=Perception]1d20+28[/dice]
"Look about, everyone! Find the way forward!", Tetro states as he does so himself.
Chill carefully looks ahead
Hate traps.