The air around Ira became like water, making it hard to move through as the golem's aura slowed time around it. This caught her off-guard for the first blow, which bruised a rib or two. She managed to vault over the second blow, however, just as a massive metal sword the size of a building came down on her attacker. She stepped aside, allowing the crazed Tiefling to crush the golem wantonly. The ringing in her ears still prevented her from calling on her own magic so she continued to defend herself from the golem's attacks.
Gommie wasn't so lucky. His movements grew sluggish. He still managed to bite at the golem again...
Tsakua feels his wounds and bruises heal, an shouts his thanks to Bree. "M' thanks, li'l lass," echoes throughout the battle, as he moves himself between his friend and the golem.
The remaining Golem weathered the furry of blows that came, the hound tearing chucks of stone from its limbs though they seemed miniscule to the savage blows that were Jietin. Him hammering a sword down into its body, leaving large swaths of stone ripped and chipped away. The arcane symbols faltered before flashing a brilliant yellow, its behavior suddenly changing as a pulse of power emitted from the construct. It's movements became much quicker then what seemed possible.
With its renewed speed it continued it's assault on the kitsune, bringing its club like arms from the right, smashing into her before bringing them around again, making another solid contact, before bringing them down from above, pummeling the kitsune systematically.
Octavian narrowed his eyes as the golems' movements began to blur after the flash of yellow light and chewed his lip for a moment. He had a good idea what kind of magic was empowering the golem and sighed as he readied one of the most powerful spells he knew. He began to chant and angry red lightning crackled around his hands, snapping and growling like a furious beast. When he imbued it with an extra spark of power the supercharged spell began to hum loudly between the crackles and brightened to almost blinding intensity. When the spell was complete he cast it at the golem with a contemptuous wave.
The energy lanced out and wrapped around the creature, eating away at the energy empowering it.
Toyer yells again, "Stop hitting her!"
Still, despite his please, the Golem keeps hitting his companion.
Shaking with anger, Pazeek stares at the golem beating relentlessly on Iraldia, it's limbs a blur of motion to his impaired senses. Drawing his weapon back--ever so slowly--to attack, he pauses for a moment, wishing he could hurt the unfeeling monstrosity just a fraction as badly as Pazeek himself has been hurt. This desire, powered by a searing hatred that Pazeek has never felt before for any opponent, has a strange effect. From somewhere deep with himself, the tengu feels as though something responds to his desire, sending a washing of power through him. For just a moment, his body responds as it should, overcoming the unnatural slowness afflicting it, and Pazeek doesn't hesitate.
While the nodachi's strike, bolstered by the strange energy coursing through Pazeek's body, is successful, the blade does little damage. This is likely a consequence of the tengu's incandescent rage, which unlike Jietin's, is not an asset to his combat skills. Still, it is obvious that the golem feels this strike's effect, unlike the one he delivered earlier to its fellow. As then rush of strange energy fades, his body no longer moving the way it should, Pazeek decides to dart back away from the golem; having seen Jietin's attacks strike the creature, and what happens when it succumbs to the damage inflicted upon it, Pazeek has no desire to be near the construct.
Taking shameless advantage of the creature's focus on Iraldia, Pazeek slips out of its reach, his body fighting his efforts with every step. He doesn't stop until he is but short step from one of the two barriers trapping the party on the span, his exhausted body slumped against the low wall that makes up the bridge's sides.
Breewyn saw the golem begin clobbering the ever living snot out of the kitsune huntress and she called upon her gifts once more, though she couldn't save sharpfeather she would intervene for Iraldia's sake.
Breewyn concentrated on the rush of energy she received and focused forth upon Iraldia, reinvigorating her and mending her injuries. She was beginning to worry about what would happen if this creature exploded like the last one... would there be anything left of her friends?
She shook her head of the thought, determined to try and help them as best as she could. She was also somewhat paranoid about what might happen after this one is also destroyed, thinking about the bright light fields that showed up on the ends of the bridge they were on.
After feeling the heat of the explosion and hearing Pazeek's mournful cry over the loss of his friend, Tsakua decides he doesn't want this golem to stay around his family that long. Winding back, he kicks the offending golem with the top of his foot, hoping to send it off the edge of the bridge.
As the dispel magic enveloped the golem and began eating away at the eldritch power that was automating the construct, the colors shifted to a red immediately as it began flashing in an emergency destruction as Octavians dispel seemed to be working, but it resulted in triggering a fail safe on the construct. With Tsakua's quick thinking, and using his large size to his benefit, he successfully kicked the construct off the bridge, sailing the ticking time bomb down into the canal. The golem only made it about 30 feet down before exploding in a shower of shrapnel like the other. Luckily everyone was more then far enough away to be safe from the explosion, including with the bridge protecting those upon it. The red barriers still held for a moment before they began to flicker, the power seemingly having been linked to the active golems. With that gone the barriers ceased to exist, flickering into non-existence.
What was left was the aftermath of the battle, unfortunately with the loss of Sharpfeather. Its grisly demise was at least cleaned up from the spell from Breewyn, preventing a traumatic aftermath.
The world was still for a moment.
As the last creature is sent flying away, Jietin feels the world return to normal as he bites down his rage and leans on his greatsword. He looks at the carnage that happened in the violently short fight, and sees the fallen companion of their new bird-ally. At least it wasn't me this time...
Toyer finally looking around and seeing that MANY things had gone on where he wasn't looking. He sees Sharpfeather, frowns, and walks up to Pazeek gently patting him on the lower back consolingly seeing as he couldn't reach much higher.
Breewyn let out a sigh of relief as she looked around at the others. She approached Pazeek, knowing he must be grieving some for the loss of his valuable companion. "I am truly sorry about Sharpfeather, I hope his spirit is at peace." She looks uncharacteristically somber, no traces of her usual jovial smile. Her sleepless eyes, only added to have grave her countenance looked as she tried to comfort him.
After a minute or so, she would go over to Octavian and stand, with her hands on her hips and a stern look that was almost comical on the gnome. "Ok what in world was that?" She asked, hoping that he might have some answers to take her troubled mind off of recent occurances.
Once hearing his answer she asked around to the others, if there was any that still needed some injuries that were severe enough to warrant immediate attention.
"That." Octavian said as he knelt down to pick up a few shards of the first stone golem. "Was a trap. I think. Or maybe not a trap but a failsafe, a defensive system created to protect the city. Then again..." the wizard seemed genuinely puzzled as he looked back and forth to either end of the bridge. "Even for a failsafe that was poorly designed."
"Wasn't t'stop us," Tsakua rumbles. "It's th' type o' defense y' use if y'still need time t' get the rest of her forces ready.". Pointing to their destination, he continues. "Th' 'larm letsem know we're here, the 'splosions letem know we're either dead, 'r still comin' through."
Shaking his head, the green half-orc looks at thee wizard. "Can't say I'm too 'xcited fer whatever's t'be waitin' fer us."
Toyer starts fiddling with the pieces of the golem still on the bridge. It might be that he's still deafened and can't hear the speculations of the group, but it's just as likely he has no concept of a conversation going on.
"Alive and then not. How odd!" He turns a piece of stone over that had a rune on it looking for something that would make sense as to how stone can move. He sticks his tongue out and licks it. He smells it a couple of times, and on the last sniff he inhales some dust and immediately sneezes it back out. He shakes his head quickly a couple of times surprised at the explosion that just came from his face. As his vision re-focuses after the sneeze he happens to be looking across the bridge in the direction the group was heading before the attack. He drops the stone in a manner that seems he's already forgotten the object that so encapsulated his attention a moment ago. He starts slowly walking in that direction, but not with any serious intent, just a slow amble.
Ira made to avoid the golem's attacks once more, but much to her surprise, its swings got faster. This threw off her timing and the first blow connected hard. The kitsune found the world spinning as she spun to the side only to collide with the golem's second blow. The third sent her sprawling. There were definitely broken bones and internal bleeding. She swayed on her feet, watching as the golem's fist rose to drop the final blow... It was then that a healing wind engulfed her. The gnome's powerful magic coursed through her body and healed most of the major damage. The blow was still coming and she braced until she saw the big green foot smash into the golem's head. It toppled end over and end and she watched it soar over the side. She collapsed to her knees, taking a few relieved breaths...
Ira heard the muffled cry and turned to see the poor crushed body that was Sharpbeak. A chill of sorrow shot through her as she saw Pazeek standing over his fallen companion. Tears welled in her eyes and she shuffled forward. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder though said nothing because she knew there was nothing she could say. After a moment of silence for the lost soul, the kitsune carefully reached out and reverently plucked a few of the feathers. She placed several into Pazeek's hands as a memorial token. One of the larger feathers was braided into her hair in remembrance. In one paw she held out several smaller feathers that she carried to the bridge side. Holding it out, she offered it up to the wind to carry away.
Octavian nodded at Tsakua's reasoning in agreement and stepped over to the side of the bridge. He knelt and ran his hand along the arcane glyphs there, trying to get a sense of not only the spells involved in the construction of the bridge but also the subtle clues hidden deep within the style of magic that would give him insight into the culture of people who used to live here.
He muttered a quick cantrip that allowed him see magical constructs and carefully studied the bridge.
Pazeek sniffles faintly as he approaches his fallen companion after Toyer's consoling pat. He doesn't say anything, even when the effects of the alarm and the golem's odd spell finally wear off. Instead, he sighs and, after accepting the feathers that Iraldia offers him, begins to remove his companion's remains from the bridge. Though he'd like to honor Sharpfeather properly, they have neither the time, the tools, nor the safety to do so, so he ensures that at the very least Sharpfeather's loss will still provide value by nourishing the local scavengers that will inevitably be drawn to the area.
Pazeek then returns to the bridge and the others and listens carefully to their speculating, while idly working a whetstone over the edge of the nodachi's blade. When the edge is to his satisfaction, he gives the weapon a few short swings to ensure that his body is once more responding as it should, before turning his attention to the far side of the canal. Finally, he offers an idea of his own regarding the bridge and its guardians, his voice devoid of its usual cheer. "Not quite a defense or a trap, but a bit of both in the form of an ambush. If it was purely defensive, there would have been a token warning of the danger, at least some skulls on sticks that even primitives understand the meaning of." He then waves his free hand at Tsakua and Toyer as he continues. "But a pure trap would have been sprung, or possibly even found, while they examined the bridge earlier to check its safety. No, this was an ambush, because those barriers popped up right after the last of us was fully on the bridge," Pazeek says flatly, his voice accompanied by a faint grinding noise, which turns out to be his short talons scraping angrily against the surface of the bridge.
"It was done with intent, and that means there is someone in those ruins watching us. Someone I can hurt."
Upon closer inspection of the bridge and its markings, you cannot grasp at the construction for the bridge itself, but something immediately stood out to you. The magical constructs that were inscribed into the bridge were definitely old, but they were not built within the same time of the bridge. The eldritch magic still had a freshness to it. By all means it was still old magic, but it was not the same that was at the garrison. It was as if someone came here after, and carved the the magic into the bridge.
The language of the magics were foreign and of an old dialect, but it seemed muddled. It was immediate that this was done with some sort of haste, and without immaculate skill such as most of the ancient ruins held. Things didn't line up correctly...
The arcane symbols had a mixing of ancient lines and energy, but they felt shoehorned in, they were not their by design as the manner of magic seemed to cross quite the array of years. As you recall from your studies in New Alexandria you determine it was someone who either set the contraption up with knowledge of the ancient eldritch magics, or more doubtfully, a previous contraption that had been modified by someone. The contraption was hard to decipher, even with the aid of your mythical powers, but you managed to also gleam, that this contraption wasn't setup to automatically trigger. It was to be set off remotely.
Trying to piece it together with the history of the place, things were not lining up, and it seemed as if things were set apart. Looking at the known facts of this ancient civilization showed they had ancient and advanced magics along with engineering genius, but the magical construct did not match these findings. It definitely appeared to be set up much later, after, the city was abandoned otherwise this magic could've sprung on anything, even the wildlife in the surrounding area. It was apparent many woodland creatures used this bridge as a means of crossing the canal.
Anyone watching Toyer sees him shiver for a second as he stares off into the distance. "Oooo, tingly!"
He doesn't take his eyes off of that direction, but does begin to hum to himself with a haunting sound, much like a battle hymn you might hear from an army facing a much larger foe. Occasionally some sing-songy words make it through the hums.
"...lying in wait..." more humming, "...sleeping, hiding..."
Despite the fact that the tune he was humming had a dark vibe to the sounds, he turns to the group with a chipper tone and simply says, "All gone, they're all gone. Let's go play with it!" as he skips in circles around the golem remnants.
The wizard frowned deeply as he continued to study the spell constructs woven into the bridge, gleaning several unpleasant facts. After a few minutes he stood back up and moved to Jietin, carefully turning his back on the other side of the bridge and speaking softly, only loud enough so that those within 15 feet could hear him.
"Be on your guard. This magic was not a trap, it was an ambush. Someone had to activate it from a distance which means they are watching us." he turned his head just enough that he could look over his shoulder at the city beyond the bridge with narrowed eyes. "We are not alone."
Listening to Octavian as he reveals his findings, Pazeek nods in grim satisfaction as his guess gets confirmation. A little spark of hate flickers to life deep inside him, as he momentarily contemplates the things he's going to do to express his... displeasure... with those responsible for this ambush.
Tsakua had begun poking at the remains of the golem that had exploded on the bridge when Octavian's musings began. Picking up a piece of rock, he stuck a remnant of the golem in his pocket to examine at a later time.
"Whud'ya say? Waitin'?" An honestly confused look on his face, he asks, "Isn' that what I jus' said? 'N 'ere I though' y'could unnerstan' proper speakin' when y'were listenin' to it."
Coming back to the point of the matter, Tsakua adds "It might help if we could all move a little quieter, 'r at least send some o' them of us as can move quieter on ahead, t'watch fer further traps, or whoever's tossin'em at us."
"Before we set off, we should make certain everyone is actually capable of doing so," Pazeek interjects while pointing at Serin. "Some us took a fair bit of punishment from those damn stone bastards." There is barely a hitch in the tengu's voice as he mentions the damage inflicted by the golems, and he quickly suppresses even that bit of emotion by busying himself with a check of his weapons. After a moment's thought, he sheathes the nodachi in the scabbard slung across his back, opting to replace the larger blade with a pair of smaller ones that are clearly meant for simultaneous use.
Just as Tsakua finishes his sentence Toyer ceases his prattling, crouches lower, and begins moving toward the remaining ruins as silent as a cat.
The ruins seemed much quieter then before, the woods were darker almost despite most of the structures the group passed stood resolute, in a much better condition then the area of the city the camp was located. Despite its good quality, the buildings and roads were still overgrown with vegetation.
What an oddity that was most wildlife seemed to have disappeared, due to the battle at the bridge or other nefarious reason. This created an eerie calm, with only the sound of the leaves rustling in the occasional breeze. At random intervals sometimes those keeping a close eye on their surroundings could swear they saw movement out of the corner of their eyes, almost like shadows dancing in the crevices of the buildings. The feel of something watching never lifted.
Pazeek led the group through an obvious fairway road, it was about 30 feet wide with numerous grooves in the road from cartwheels, showing extensive use when they exhibited a life other then vegetation. Buildings lined the side of the road like empty crab shells, bursting at the seems with vines, trees and other bushes. One would think that a host of animals would call this home, but again, there was no sign of the creatures.
Eventually the road would come to a junction, where it split into two (almost opposite directions), slightly smaller, roads. This junction was large and looked especially worn, the buildings seemed cavernous enough to host quite an array of shop stalls, if this was some sort of market before. The sun was about in the noon position, with plenty of daylight ahead. The two roads seemed similar, except for one minor detail that Pazeek pointed out.
The vegetation on the right seemed slightly darker, one would almost say sicklier then the left. The left seemed to be bursting with vibrant green hues and even a speckling of spring flowers of yellow and blues, whereas the right lacked that vibrancy. Something was definitely off.
Pazeek would also note that animals tracks do exist upon the path, but none went in the direction of the sicklier looking plants, most of them seem to be heading away from the right.
Seeing Toyer and Pazeek disappear into the shadows, Tsakua decides to do the same, moving to flank the group as they move forward.
Ira takes the opposite flank, peeling out to the east of the group, bow in hand.
Breewyn let out a deep sigh, still saddened at Pazeek's loss. She picked herself up, finally relieved that the ringing and buzzing in her ears had finally stopped. She went to walk with Toyer finding the plucky little halfling to be oddly quirky and a welcome change from her internal turmoil.
She blinked, not seeing him anywhere. She let out a disappointed sigh and moved to walk with octavian, occasionally picking his brain for both explanations and idle banter if he would humor her. She was still somewhat reeling from the ambush and was looking for some form of comfort to occupy her thoughts.
Octavian stayed with Breewyn and the other's who were not quite as adept at sneaking 30 feet behind Pazeek, Jietin, Iraldia and Toyer. His eyes roved from one side of the street to the other, taking in the better condition of the buildings with narrowed eyes. When they came to the intersection the wizard frowned at the sick looking plants to the right and moved forward quickly to prevent anyone from touching the plants. "Don't. We don't know what's wrong with them and you could become tainted by whatever is affecting them."
He knelt down a couple of feet from the nearest sickly plant and began to study it closely, running through any scenario that would result in plants looking like this.
The plants look sickly, thats a fact, but physically they have no contaminants, nor outward afflictions that would give a hint to what disease they may contain. Which points to this sickness was not a natural cause.
You could feel the energy almost being sucked from the place, much like how that Treant from earlier was feeding off the magical energy, it was in full reverse here. You could even feel it try lightly tug at your own.
All signs point towards necrotic leeching of the life within this section of the ruins... more specifically undead corruption.
The wizard stood up and moved away from the diseased plants with a disgusted look, motioning for everyone to move back up the street and away from the plants. When they moved about 100 feet back up the street he began to explain. "I was afraid of this. Often in ruins, especially in ruins as old is this, things creep in. If the ruins happened to be the site of a great evil or a great battle then the odds of undead cropping up are greatly increased."
He turned and pointed at the plants. "And for the corruption to be spread that far, a powerful undead presence. I think this is far as we go today. I suggest we go back to camp and better prepare ourselves for the morrow." He looked pointedly at Jietin, Serin and Pazeek. "I need to enhance your weapons with some of the alloys we've got. Adamantium, mithril and black iron should do the trick I think."
Hearing Octavian mention the likely presence of the undead in the vicinity, Pazeek perks up somewhat from his grim funk. "As it happens, I know quite a bit of lore regarding the undead myself, and have picked up methods for effectively fighting a considerable variety of unliving foes." Odd as it seems, but Pazeek seems rather cheered by the news of what is probably infesting the ruins. And, in truth, he is happy about it. Not so much about it involving undead, because that's never good news, but rather because it provides a welcome distraction from his thoughts.
Examining the area thoughtfully, Pazeek continues speaking. "If at all possible, we may wish to strengthen our weapons with magic, as there are a number of troublesome undead foes that can only be effectively struck by such. Also, holy water. Lots of that," he concludes with a soft chuckle. As soon as he finishes speaking, Pazeek starts to slowly and meticulously examine the area, looking for the slightest hint that the undead have been present.
As Octavian mentions undead, the group hears Toyer vomit in some nearby non-sickened foliage before revealing himself to the group. He steps out wiping his mouth, but his facial expression doesn't seem to have changed despite tossing his cookies. It's still the same half-dazed, pleasant smiling face.
Breewyn frowns visibly at the mention of undead. She had a vague understanding and no interaction with the creatures, but she also didn't have any motivation to become a quaint ed with them either.
She ranked some, keeping her distance from the sickly plants, as somewhere inside of her mind there was a ominous cackling and giggling.
While the group pondered their next move, Tsakua looks for any sign if a forge they can bring back to camp.
As you looked around you don't see anything that could be brought back that could be of use. It does not appear that any of the immediate buildings would've been once a blacksmith and if one was, it was more then likely stripped of parts from early scavengers.
"Not much work t'be done on any weapons withou' a proper forge," Tsakua comments. "Haven't seen one yet t' relocate t' camp, but we've still time t' look fer one," he sassasys, looking at the sky.
"Undead, y'say?" he asks Pazeek. "Fought a zombie once, bare knuckles brawl 'n such. Hit like a wet sledgehammer, but I won because he couldn' keep 'imself t'gether.". Tsakua pauses for a moment, waiting to see if anyone gets the joke.
Toyer has his face a few inches from one of the decaying plants and starts bursting into laughter. He certainly didn't look like he was paying attention to Tsakua, but did start laughing at the appropriate time to suggest it was in relation to the joke. After he's had a chance to collect himself he turns down the not-dying path and starts walking away from the group. He's not scampering off by any means, but he does have a direction he's heading before disappearing in the brush.
From the bushes a little further off down the path the group hears him call out, "See you soon!"
Perception: 24
Breewyn jerked hearing him call out but looking around she saw not a trace of him. She finally huffed in frustration and stood over closer to the more vibrant path, but refused to leave eyesight of the party. She didn't want a repeat of the tiger mauling again if she could help it.
Pazeek stares steadily at Tsakua for a few moments, then shakes his head as though deeply disappointed by something before getting back to examining the surronding area. "That joke was utterly horrible, and you should feel nothing but the deepest shame for having made it," Pazeek comments idly as he carefully checks the various buildings for the distinctive signs of a smithy. A crossroads in a proper market area, such as this appeared to have once been, wouldn't not have had some metalworkers close by to cater to those waiting on the wagons to clear the road. Though Pazeek doubts much in the way of tools will have survived the passing of time, the larger pieces might still be useful, if only long enough to use them to craft their replacements.
He ventures down the left-hand road a ways, then back toward the bridge, checking both sides of the street each time, but avoids taking the route that is filled with the unhealthy, tainted plants. As he searches, his attention fullly engaged by the task, he trusts the others to keep a wary eye out for trouble. This leaves Pazeek free to careful check the plant-choked ruins, one eye watching for the object of his search, and the other for anything bothersome that might be lurking in the brush he's probing.