The golem makes several tik and klick noises, and then it's blue eyes whirl red. "Tik Klik klik Kit Klik Kilk Kill Tlik Kill Tik Kit Tlik!" He says in a long buzzing, and faintly irate tirade at Sykes.
Then it's eyes whirl back down to a cold green this time and it moves around the crate, keeping Sykes at least 15 feet away, and watching him at all times.
"Tik'Klik."
The golem stares at the tengu as it mimics his sounds, and then begins klicking back. "Klik'Tik ik ik Lik Klik Tik Kit Ik Ik Tik Klik Kik ik kik!"
When the tengu points to the walnuts, the golem makes no moves to stop him. After the tengu bows to him, the golem's head bends forward, it's neck bending oddly to let it's head move, so it can look at the floor where the Tengu is looking when it bows. "Tik'Klik ik klik?"
The golem's eyes whirl several times when asked if it will go with them, and then they turn blue. "Tik'Klik Tik Ik Ik Klik Lik Ik, Tik Tik Klik." The golem moves and puts the tengu between it and Sykes, giving Sykes a glance, it's eyes whirling red. "TIK'KLIK KLIK KLIK TIK IK IK IK IT KIT IL LIK KLIK!" It says loudly at Sykes, then turns away from him and walks toward the stairs.
Aston says to Graham, his voice hush-hushed: "Between this creature and the tengu, I'm starting to wonder if I understand anything in this world at all. Poor thing's owner's been dead for millenia. I don't imagine it has much of a purpose now, but I get the impression that it is self-aware and capable of combat. So long as it is not offended, it could prove a useful ally."
Afterwards, seeing Tik'Klik move toward the stairs, he nods and again addresses the golem. "Well, you do seem to have some initiative of your own," he says. "That makes you a little different from any golem I've heard of. In any case, good Tik'Klik, do you wish to lead the way into the catacombs? If that is where your path leads, then perhaps we shall walk alongside one another for now, at least so long as it is convenient for us all."
"Tik'Klik."
The golem's head rotates 180 degrees on it's neck, looking painful to organics, then the golem's hand begins to spin rapidly as small clicking noises come from it. The golem's eyes whirl purple, and the head begins to slowly spin around and around.
The golem's head stops as the eyes align with the door. "Tik'Klik Klik Kik Ik Ik Klik. Klik Klik Ik Klik!"
Then the head continues to rotate, pausing for a few seconds when the eyes point to whoever is carrying the bell. "Klik Tik."
Then it continues around until the entire room is stared at.
The golem then starts forward, walking slowly and deliberately down the stairs, eyes still glowing purple.
"Tik'Klik"
The golem turns it's head completely around again, to look at the Tengu. When the Tengu shows him how to nod, the golem's head nods. When he shows him how to shake his head, the golem's head first nods up and down, and then spins back and forth rapidly in a way that would snap the Tengu's like a twig.
Then the purple eyed golem continues down the stairs, making a tik sound every now and then.
Graham looks at the sudden red-eyed display with little interest. For certain, he had very little interest in the creature's livelihood, simply because he'd always been taught that the life of a living creature was far more valuable than something created. Granted Klik would eventually grow on him given the chance, he didn't think he'd ever be willing to sacrifice himself for the construct's well-being, though one could never be too sure.
"Right, well, if that's the case, then I shall remain in the front, though I do it mostly under the premise that I hit things far harder than the rest of you." he says with a shrug. "Right. Where do we go?" he asks.
With the only clear route into the crypts being the staircase, the group commence their descent further into the Ossuary. The vertical shaft of the staircase is cramped, this coupled with the narrowness of the steps, forces the party to negotiate the stairs carefully and in single file. The light from Graham's hammer providing the only illumination within the confines of the staircase.
Small clouds puff up from the steps as your feet disturb years of accumulated dust; your footsteps echoing along the staircase are the only noises punctuating the deathly silence.
After approximately 30 feet of descent, the spread of cobwebs and depth of settled dust seems to be a lot less severe, indicating that maybe someone or something has travelled along the staircase within recent times. Similar to the room from which you have descended, there are few features of note along the staircase. The walls are generally smooth, carved from the rock whilst the steps are blockwork construction and are heavily worn.
Suddenly for no obvious reason, the illumination along the staircase reduces…
Almost immediately, there is a flurry of motion from between the staircase and the shaft directly above the Pharasmin at the front of the group. Through the dimness, you can see a dark shape start to drop towards Graham Sykes…
"Tik'Klik! Klik Kik Tik!"
The golem's arm, still with the hand folded back into a cuff, comes up. The cuff begins to spin and rotate around the opening, and a humm is followed by a 'FOOMP' sound as a ball of arcane energy fires out of the golem's hollow arm at the falling object.
The bolt of energy fizzes past the dropping creature...it doesn't hit but it does cause the creature to manoeuvre out of the way - attempting to change direction, the strange octopoid shape misses Graham Sykes instead slapping moistly against the wall of the staircase.
and drops again until its prey is vanquished or the darkmantle is grievously injured (in which case the creature flutters back up to the roof to hide and hope its “prey” leaves it alone). The darkmantle's inborn ability to cloak the area around it in magical darkness gives it an additional advantage over foes that rely upon light to see.
"Egads!" Aston cries, immediately hating his choice of exclamation. "Graham, Taicho, there's a thing!"
He has no idea what the strange creature is, but he does know one thing- that it is better off dead. Certainly better that than chewing on Graham's head.
"Tik'Klik!"
The golem's arm cuff spins and rotates in a complex manner around the opening of his arm, and the steady humm is accompanied by another 'FOOMP' sound as another ball of arcane energy fires out of the golem's hollow arm at the creature.
Aston's reactions are lightning fast and, in an instant, he has his crossbow trained upon the creature. At close range, his bolt is devastatingly accurate - it pierces the creature's gut, passing the whole way through and making a snapping sound as it strikes the wall beyond...
Taicho and Tik'klik fare less successfully though, the confines of the stairs proving difficult to work within...
"I can't see very well, mind you, that doesn't mean I'm not accustomed to such things-" is all the man says before he brings his lucerne curtly down upon the strange creature, rather thankful that it missed.
The man's face doesn't change as he swings it, despite the fact that he drops his hammer with a ferocious amount of strength that one wouldn't expect to come from the frail-looking pale man. A resounding thud (likely) resounds throughout the hall.
Graham drops his hammer hard against the floor - there is a resounding crack as the weapon strikes the stone staircase yet, when he raises the weapon, there is no sign of blood upon it - in his eagerness, the warrior had swung at shadows...
The strange beast flies up again at Graham Sykes - trying to envelope the man in its leathery folds - but Graham is able to swat the small creature away rather easily
"Tik'Klik!"
The golem's arm cuff continues to spin and rotate in a complex manner around the opening of his arm, and the steady humm is accompanied by another 'FOOMP' sound as another ball of arcane energy fires out of the golem's hollow arm at the creature.
Aston curses under his breath and swiftly reloads his crossbow, then looses another bolt at the strange creature.
Hearing the weapon thud strongly against the ground, Graham tilts his head and contorts his body only slightly to avoid the attack of the strange, spear-headed creature. "Unfortunate. I do wish I could see properly... But, I don't intend to miss twice, strange creature." he says as he lines up the piercing end of his lucerne on his forearm with the strange thing.
Unfortunately, the strange method of striking with the weapon seems inaccurate.
The strange little golem's bolt of energy fizzes against the creature - the smell of singed flesh fills the stairs and although Aston and Graham somehow miss the flapping beast as it readies another attack, Taicho is there to bring an end to the beast's suffering.
There is a final hiss from the creature that had fallen upon the party as it succumbs to the continued ferocity of the Tengu’s attack. Within seconds the dimness that had fallen within the staircase lifts and you are able to examine the small creature that had attacked you - limply lying on the stairs, it resembles something akin to a dark brown colored squid, roughly 4 feet long, with webs of membrane between the tentacles...
"Tik'Klik!"
The golem's arm continues to whirr, but the pattern changes subtly. Then there's a soft 'PFFT' and a glob of acid explodes against the tentacle thing.
'Pfft'
'Pfft'
'Pfft'
The small golem then nudges the sizzling corpse with a foot experimentally, before jumping back and pointing it's arm at the corpse again. 'Pfft'
As the corpse begins to dissolve into a gel from the acid, the golem makes a satisfied sounding "Tik!".
"Well then! First thing dead, then. No idea what this is, personally... I just sort of bludgeon the things that get hostile. It's reasonable enough, if you ask me." he says as he checks his Lucerne. Scratched only slightly from the hard attack, but, that's bound to happen. "Shall we continue?" he asks, stepping around the acidic pile of dead squid.
"Tik'Klik"
The golem's eyes begin to glow purple again as it looks down the stairs and begins moving down again slowly.
"What an introduction to these catacombs," Aston sighs as lowers his weapon. "Poor thing must have been starving. Hardly a pretty beast, but nonetheless I find myself feeling sorry for it. A bad habit I seem to be developing..."
He smiles and claps Graham on the shoulder. "Don't feel too bad, friend. The circumstances were rather against you in this scrap."
He watches with great interest and a bit of amusement as Tik'Klik disposes of the creature's body. "Well. How about that," he deadpans. Fascinating, and a little disturbing.
"Taicho is right. We are burning daylight, not that this makes much difference, underground as we are. Let's get down these stairs, at least. Picking up anything, Tik'Klik?" Although not entirely certain what the golem is up to, it is not too much a stretch to imagine he is looking for something.
"Tik'Klik?"
The golem stops, and it's head looks toward Aston, then up at the ceiling, then to Aston again, and back to the ceiling.
The golem then puts it's hand out to the wall, and a piece of chalk extends from it's finger. It draws a small sun on the wall, then a fire under the sun, then looks up at the ceiling, then back to Aston, and then puts a big X through the sun and fire. Then it draws what looks like stairs with stick figures on it, and points from them to the sun with the X in it.
Then it turns and begins moving down the steps again, eyes still whirling purple.
"Tik'Klik?" The golem stops again, turning it's head 360 degrees to Taicho. It puts moves it's hand to it's mouth, and the chalk slides into the mouth slit and vanishes. There's a slight 'tink tonk tonk' sound. Then a whirring sound. Then the chalk extends from it's finger again before retracting.
Then the golem turns it's head around and moves down the stairwell again, checking for traps.
Leaving the dissolving corpse behind you, you descend a further thirty feet along the staircase. You note a small opening, less than one foot wide, in the wall of the shaft not far from where you were attacked; there is a very gentle flow of fresh air into the staircase from the opening.
Reaching the foot of the stairs with no further difficulties, you negotiate a small pile of rubble and bones on the final steps and find yourselves in a large chamber. The chamber is square with a width of approximately 30 foot wide; the light from Graham's hammer fully illuminates the room.
The first thing that strikes you about this room are the carvings across the walls, the cobwebs and dust settled across all of the surfaces in the room somewhat obscures the artistry but, what can be seen, is clearly of a very high quality. The only other significant features within this room are the three sets of stone double doors in the three facing walls (North, East and West). Heavy bronze seals emblazoned with the symbol of Pharasma secure the doors against whatever lies beyond.
"Tik'Klik!"
The golem points to the wall, and traces out some writing on it with a finger tip, before looking around the room.
When reading the graffiti, are any of the doors to the right or left of the graffiti?
"Well," Aston offers after reading the graffiti, "How cryptic." He has no idea what it could mean, but files the words away in his mind for future use. He then waits and watches for the others to finish their examination of the room's contents.
There appears to be nothing terribly unusual about any of the doors; they are certainly very large and, dependent upon the thickness (which you are unable to determine), probably weigh more than could be manually opened. Looking at the floor around the doors, you can see curved grooves suggesting that the doors may open outwards towards you.
- Your examination of the seal reveals that it does indeed emanate a faint magical aura; an extended examination of the seal, taking the time to compare against the other seals across the doors, reveals that all of the seals are arcane in nature and are, specifically, of the Abjuration school.
- the graffiti is daubed across the walls between the western and the northern door leading from the room.
There are no obvious openings for keys or other such devices within the seals or elsewhere on the door; Equally, there is no evidence of any traps so far as you are able to determine.
"Tik'Klik!"
The golem writes 'Left' next to the western door on the left of the graffiti, then 'Right' on the northern door to the right of the graffiti. Then put's a question mark above both words. Then writes 'Riddle?' above the graffiti.
Then when Taicho mentions the locks, the golem's eyes flash red and his head whirls around. He holds up his hand, and tools extend from his fingers. "Tik'Klik! Klik kik ik tik pick click tick ick ick pick pick klick pick..."
Graham stands, observing the situation unravel. While the rest of the group fared well when it came to skills of use, he had little. What knowledges he did have pertained to engineering and dungeoneering, and, frankly, he didn't believe either would assist them at the moment.
"I'll let you lot figure this out, but if worst comes to worst, and these are indeed doors, we could simply use that chime we used to open the front door, yes? How many more charges does it have left? That's the important question." he asks as he taps the solid gateways.
"Indeed we could," Aston says, examining the strange symbols on the door. "These symbols are Pharasmin, but quite antiquated. Seems they've been using these catacombs for the Ossuary for longer than we might have imagined. And look-" Aston holds up the chime, indicating the matching symbol there. "-Seems 'twas a clue that we might require the use of our charming chime here, though my curiosity is piqued as to whether Taicho or our new wooden friend are capable of opening these doors without expending one of the chime's uses. We only really have four, you see. That in mind, we should make a decision on which way to go and stick to it; we have so few uses of this thing that I would feel better if we did not use it recklessly."
"Ah, but see; that's just it, isn't it? The high lady made it seem as though without this bauble... this... grandiose door opener, that we wouldn't be able to escape the clutches of this damnable ossuary, yes?" he asks with a chuckle. "Religious she may be, but... I believe that suggestion was only there for us to actually be able to report to her. If we require this, then how did that squid creature, or the body thief escape? I assume there are other exits... I don't think we should be..." he paused for just a moment; "I don't think we should worry far too much about using up all of the remaining charges." he said as he looked at the two doors.
Examining the doors and the seals at length, Taicho determines that the locking mechanism is just beyond his capability - every time he moves a component that he believes is integral to the lock on the reverse of the seal, some unknown force returns it to it's original position and, worse still, the sound of internal gearing appears to suggest that the combination of tumblers and sockets within the lock is constantly in flux. Even the unspeaking assistance of Tik'klik is of little help...
"Well, that settles that," Aston says. "Question is, which door shall we open?" The dhampir has his own theory, of course, but remains curious as to the thoughts of the others.
"Personally, what with that rather cryptic message regarding rights and lefts, I would rather take the middle road," Aston remarks. "Taicho, by your logic, that would be a 'two'sie.'"
"Tik'Klik?"
The golem looks at the chimes, and seems to be figuring out how one blows a flute with chimes.
Facing the Northern door, Aston gently strikes the metal shaft of the instrument with the blade of his dagger.
A high pitched note emanates from the chime and, for a moment, the only noise in the room is the chime echoing around within the confines of the antechamber. Suddenly there is a cracking noise as the Pharasmin seal splits in two and, with a crash, falls to the floor; almost immediately there is a rumbling noise as some hidden mechanism drives the massive stone doors open...clouds of dust fall from the surfaces of the doors as they slowly move to a fully opened position.
When the doors come to a halt and the dust has settled, you can see that you are stood in front of a long, 10 foot wide corridor that trails off into the darkness (the far end of the corridor is beyond the visible range of everyone present, even those who have been gifted with the ability to see in subdued light conditions or the darkness). Almost immediately you cam see that this is more than just a corridor for, spaced every five feet along either side of the corridor, are small alcoves housing what appear to be bodies wrapped in age-yellowed linens. Thick cobwebs hang from the ceiling and drape the walls of the crypt; everything is coated in a deep layer of dust.