"આરજે! ના ના ના...!" Marigold wails with fear and dismay as Ryan takes a nasty wound and drops to the ground, bleeding heavily. But she can't move to help him, it's just her and Maxim facing off against the other creature now even though she can see Kikinnin appear in the tunnel from behind...
But then her dismay turns to hope as JJ delivers a powerful blow that finally brings down the stalker-creature. "અમે આ કરી શકો છો! આરજે પર અટકી!" she cries as she takes another, true swing at the remaining creature.
"Ryan! No, no, no...!"
"We can do this! Hang on Ryan!"
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Maxim eyes the wooden barricade with interest…
:
… and is able to discern the nature of its craftsmanship;
”Huh. New wood and new work… someone’s been a might busy… an’ I’ll wager it ain’t the gnomiz”
The gun-mage looks over the scales and quill, opting to take the latter.
”Always handy having an extra quill. Having letters is a might useful, having the means to write ‘em down even more so.”
Grim faced Maxim brings his pick to bear on the remaining creature;
Guess sometimes you have to red handed...
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The dwarf spins, bringing his bloodied pick wide in an arcing reverse stroke, bellowing in Dwarven as he does;
"Scum af den dybe. Du håner dem, der engang gik her!"
Scum of the deep. You mock those who once walked here!
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Marigold bravely attacks the small creature but it dodges her attack. Anyway she causes a distraction good enough for Maxim to strike at the creature's forearm with his pick. From below the rags you hear a scream of terrible pain.
In a desperate move the creature starts using a spell pointing its dagger, in a similar way as when his pair created a bubble of darkness before. Determined, the blonde dwarf profits the lowering in its defences to splash the creature's head with his heavy pick cracking down the skull and leaving it unconscious into the floor while quickly dying.
With the calmer situation, it calls your attention the translucent stalker has something hanging from his neck. When taking out of his clothing, you see it is another rod, this one with a "D" glyph written in gnome.
leather armor
short swords [x2]
javelins [x4]
potion of cure light wounds
potion of remove paralysis
rod with a "D" glyph in gnome
dagger
30 gp
15 sp
+1 the other one looted by Kikinnin
Maxim pushes the creatures corpse with his boot with distaste, nodding toward Kikinnin;
"Trade ye brother. Let me have a look at that vial you recovered an' you can send these foul creatures back to the Hel they scuttled from..."
The gun-mage unstoppers the vial and takes a sniff, mulling the acrid aroma;
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Maxim grimaces and spits;
"Feh. Not my chosen tipple... Its poison fer sure but its exact vintage eludes me... Anyone else got a better nose for it?"
The dwarf offers someone else the chance to discern its nature
Ruben cleans his blade on the corpse of the stalker whilst calling over his shoulder:
Hey Doc, he going to be ok?
"Get back, get back. He'll drag you to hell with him..." calls out the superstitious JJ who has perhaps listened to one or two too many bards in his time.
He tries to drag Ryan away from the stalker before his soul can be claimed.
"સ્ટોકર પહેલાં ત્યાં બહાર ઝડપી મેરીગોલ્ડ નરકમાં તમે નહીં"
Quick Marigold out of there before the stalker drags you to hell
The immediate threat over, Marigold feels her heart rate slow once more and her vocal cords become cooperate again. "W-what? JJ, n-no one's getting dragged to hell!" she manages to spit out, surprised to find herself the one comforting someone else. "It's okay, they're all d-dead...I think?"
Shaking her head, she turns her attention back to Ryan. "H-he's not b-bleeding anymore so I think so," she calls in response to Ruben. Drawing the wand out of her pouch once more, she sets about mending the cleric's wounds.
She frowns as the curative magic doesn't seem to be as effective as normal.
Even though the cleric's wounds finally mend enough to bring him around, he still looks rather injured.
"W-welcome back," she whispers. "T-this thing was a g-good investment; hopefully we'll b-be able to repay you for it." She turns back to JJ. "H-here, you're still h-hurt too. Hold still..."
Kikinnin heartens to hear his native tongue calling out. Maxim still stands, at least...
He stands, mostly quiet, as the others collect themselves from their larger skirmish with two of the darkling creatures.
"Trade ye brother. Let me have a look at that vial you recovered an' you can send these foul creatures back to the Hel they scuttled from..."
Kikinnin gladly turns over the foul-smelling brew to the blond. "Sounds like you're having a hard time deciding on its use. Considering it comes from White-Snout, I'd assume the worst."
He looks on as Marigold brings Ryan back to consciousness. Something in the back of his mind witnesses something fleeting, but it doesn't stay long enough for the dwarf to understand it. Maybe next time...
When they're ready to proceed, Kikinnin looks for direction. "Where we heading, now? Ruben, what did you see back your way? I found another rabbit run to the west. We have choices it seems."
When the others are ready, Kikinnin moves west.
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After waiting for a good minute for the dark creeper to leap back to its feet and try and drag someone off to hell with him, JJ cautiously approaches the thing.
Leaning down he picks up the two swords.
"Interesting fighting style that. Difficult. "
He has a bit of a swing with the sword in his left hand and looks...uncoordinated.
"I may hold on to his, but I think I'll need a bit of practice before I try it for real."
At the words of Kikinnin he suggest "Back to that barricade? Or did you say you found something odd further north Ryan?"
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"W-wait, we still need to d-do something about them," Marigold points at the fallen enemies. "These two here l-look like their b-bleeding has stopped b-but they're still alive." She nervously inches closer to the tall stalker-creature. "I t-think this one h-has a name...those other t-things kept calling out 'Yuathyb'."
Not overly worried about any creature for the moment that came close to sending him to his judgement Ryan ignores Marigold's last comments, choosing to answer JJ after thanking her for her healing.
Shaking his head a bit and feeling where Marigold had healed him the cleric looks up to her, "Thank you, this was repayment enough. I came closer that I wanted to meeting my maker today, for we still have work to do here now." turning to JJ "Haven't moved north of these two rooms here yet but the creatures became very agitated when we attempted to move the desk here and see what lies behind it." Turning towards the desk that initiated the last round of fighting he moves to pull it away from the wall and investigate behind it.
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There's a secret door back there too. Corridor beyond it and who knows what else. Ruben says.
So far we're wandering about this huge place with no idea where we are going and these things are just going to pick us apart. So any of you book-smarts or Sunday-schoolers know what these rods are? Seem like keys to me, but which doors?
"They are keys for the doors. I wonder if the runes have to match. My guess is they spell out the name of the town. We have had a J and and Z and something else too."
He looks at the table.
"LEts see what they didn't want us to find. It may be the children."
The rod Ruben has found in the forge has a glyph that depicts the gnome "I" character.
Ryan moves the heavy desk to one side and inspects the wall finding a secret door. Pushing one of the stones makes the wall to spin.
At the other side you find a chamber completely free of dust and cobwebs.
Green marble tiles cover the floor, and the walls are painted with bright murals depicting a forest of enormous fungi. A gnome-sized suit of full-plate armor, complete with visor and helm, stands in the middle of the room. Next to it sits a two-foot-tall clay urn filled with treasure.
The clay urn, with handles that allow it to be carried easily, contains a considerable treasure that seem to have been gathered from the city above. In total it holds 622 cp, 958 sp, 75 gp, three silver rings worth 5 gp each, a tiny silver locket worth 10 gp containing ashes (a pinch of someone's cremated remains), two plain gold rings worth 25 gp each, a platinum bracelet worth 175 gp engraved with the following words in Dwarven: "To Sondor, my deepest love. Lorthan," a set of masterwork thieves' tools, a potion and a wand.
Delay poison
Sleep (8 charges)
When you give a closer look to the suit of armor, it falls apart, causing a huge amount of coins to spill onto the floor. A total of 4,500 sp, to be exact. The armor is an ordinary gnome-sized full plate.
The fungi mural does not fit with the current decoration of the whole Jzadirune. It seems strangely placed, like if hiding something.
At some point Kikinnin heads towards the west through the tunnels followed by part of the party. There, chunks of broken stone and smaller debris fill the room. A wooden lever juts from an iron plate set into the west wall. The geared door here wears a glyph in gnome similar to the others.
The letter in the door depicts a U in the gnome alphabet.
Searching through the rubble you find some smashed furniture and, a five-inch-long metal rod with a rune engraved on one end and notches carved into the other. The glyph is again in gnome.
"Wow" says JJ as he looks at the coins.
"We'll never have to work again."
He spends some time looking around this room, as it looks like there may be things worth finding in it.
"Come on you lot, help out."
"The r-rod that Ruben found has an 'I' on it," Marigold volunteers. "M-maybe JJ is right, m-maybe they're supposed to sp-spell 'Jzadirune' or the name of a p-person, like a leader."
As the others head into the secret chamber behind the shelf, Marigold looks down at their unconscious foes. Letting the second crony bleed out wasn't a problem, but what to do with the other two? The thought enters her mind that she really should just slit the throat of the other crony, but she can't bring herself to do it. Instead, she sets about tying them up until the others decide whether they want to execute them or try to question the bigger one.
They're pretty hurt, so even if we leave them here they won't be going anywhere without some sort of healing...
Her task complete, she hurries into the secret chamber after the others. Once she catches up, her jaw drops at the sheer amount of coinage present. "Is all this stuff that those things st-stole? T-that means that they've b-been up to this for ages!"
"H-hey...do you see that over there?" she points.
Maxim nods at the logic being mooted;
"Huh. Makes sense... The Gnomiz were always lovers of quirkiness... reckon keys that spell out the name o' their city fits their sense o' the bizarre."
The gun-mage trudges with the others to where they discover the trove...
"Quite the cache..."
The blond bearded dwarf sniffs the potion...
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... but can discern naught;
"Hmmm. Pungent but its nature eludes me..."
At the locket inscribed with dwarven lettering he shouts to Kikinnin;
"Brother! Recognise the kith names of Sondor or Lorthan mean naught to you?!"
He then assist loading their loot into packs, pouches and pockets afore lending his senses to the search around the room:
:
It is not difficult for Marigold to gather up the unconscious creatures. They all three seem stable at this point.
You remember from the Malachite Fortress, Sondor and Lorthan Ironfold were a family back there. Both over their twelve decade, their love was sounded because they were brother and sister and had to marry on secret. Nowadays it has been almost forgotten, but had to leave the forge and find his way as a poor cartwright afterwards.
JJ moves suspicious the tapestry and finds the stone wall behind, but then Marigold notices something, a strange cut on the stone perhaps. When she points it out, the young boy rechecks the wall and finds out it also spins.
At the other side you find the rancid smell, like rotten eggs, and the prevailing dust makes it clear this room has not received visits on decades.
Standing against the south wall there is a gnome-sized suit of banded mail clutching a finely forged gnome hooked hammer. At its feet rests an iron chest secured with an iron padlock. The chest seems securely locked and fixed to the floor.
Ruben: 11/11 hp
Ryan: 10/11 hp, light (10 min)
Should Ryan cast Detect Magic on the Wand and Potion; Maxim will attempt to assist in identifying the items;
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A low whistle is all that escapes Ryan as the light reveals the many items stored within the room... my my they have been rather busy down here, wonder if this has been ransacked from Jzadirune, above or a combination; but they've been at it awhile anyways.
Overhearing Rubens comment
So far we're wandering about this huge place with no idea where we are going and these things are just going to pick us apart. So any of you book-smarts or Sunday-schoolers know what these rods are? Seem like keys to me, but which doors?
"I believe I do know where we are Ruben, slightly different than where we are going but helpful nonetheless. The rods so far have matched up with doors bearing their markings so keeping the keys with us should allow us to proceed using the map Ghelve gave us more easily. At least where the keys we have fit the doors. Speaking of which, how many keys do we have and what are they? .... Hmmm it appears this room is not on Master Ghelve's map" While speaking while speaking Ryan will show Ruben on the map where he believes they are based on where they entered and then where they are now and the room descriptions/dimensions.
"What have you found JJ?"
"Brother! Recognise the kith names of Sondor or Lorthan mean naught to you?!"
Kikinnin stands over the fallen creatures, waiting for resolution on their fates. He hears Maxim call out, something familiar about the names. "Hazy memory, brother. Sounds like something I would have remembered from Malachite. Saying more, and I'd be taking chances."
"Are we burying these two, are does someone think they can bleed information from them instead?"
...
Getting to the west-most room, Kikinnin gives a look around.
He looks over the wooden lever, turning over his shoulder. "Don't suppose we should be playing with levers, don't know what they do, eh? From the map, we should be opening up into a much bigger room. Bigger rooms, more likely to come across bigger numbers of the creatures. We should wait until everyone's here, before this door gets opened."
"That is, unless we need another rod to pop it."
"Up t-to y-you," Marigold responds to Kikinnin's question. "If y-you think one of them m-might be willing to t-talk, then we c-can try it. Otherwise..." her voice trails off, the implication clear.
"Look in here!" says JJ, allowing the others to see the secret room.
"This must predate the city being evacuated.
He looks at the spell casters "Anything in there magical? Half this city seems to be."
He then looks around for what may be causing the bad smell.
"I hope there isn't a dead gnome inside of that armor"
He carefully approaches the chest, and sits down to examine it and the lock.
"Anyone notice something odd about that tall fellow. He seemed almost like one of the skulks. But different. You don't think the skulks are the spirits of gnomes who died in the vanishing do you? They look a bit like they vanished."
Maxim smiles wryly to himself at hearing JJ's assumptions on the nature of skulks and Creepers;
Folly of youth. That one's got it in spades...
He nods in agreement at his fellow dwarves words;
"Uh-huh. Makes sense... Reckon we need to be a mite more careful now... Could be there's traps and such set not just by the Creeps and Skulkers, but old ones from the Gnomiz..."
JJ advances careful inside the quiet room, his steps echoing in the solid walls. He observes careful at the armor as he approaches, nothing warning about an occupant but rather just more rancid air.
As the young man sits in front of the chest, he looks up once more at the armor suspiciously, then at the lock, and so examines carefully the chest exterior without finding any clue of a trap. Finally decided for a closer examination, JJ places his hand on the iron reinforcements as he looks back at the armor. It is then when he sees a couple of rounded, crimson and perturbing eyes to light up inside the empty helmet.
You have heard of armors and other lifeless creatures are sometimes given life back by wizards in order to protect their lairs and treasures. Those eternal warriors often end up protecting their object of focus time past the existence of their creators, and so keep in their eternal watch even centuries after their goals have been lost to the sands of time.
Those creatures are known as constructs and fueled only by magic, they have plenty of immunities that alive creatures are defenseless against.
This one is a rare construct type out of the bestiary, you could get more info past the type at DC 18 but there is really nothing more out of the basic construct traits.
"EEek!"
JJ springs back through the door like a scared cat.
"The armor... its alive!"
As fueled by an ethereal force, the armor moves one of its metallic legs after JJ, then another. With dreadful clinging its steps drive it out of the room just in front of Marigold. It's gnome hooked hammer raised menacingly in a clear combat ready stance.
Back off, metal-head. Ruben growls.
He rushes forward and bring his heavy blade down in an overhand cut that clangs loudly against the helmet of the animated armor.
This thing is fixing to fight guys, we better take it down or it's gonna do the same to us.
:
As the suit of armour begins to animate, Maxim curses under his breath;
"Jotunn's Balls!"
As he fishes for a bullet from his bandolier the gun-mage bellows a warning:
"Likely a guardian construct... Most likely one o' those created by the gnomiz that I just warned about regards traps an' such! Tough an' immune to plenty... If we fight - fight canny for forge's sake!"
JJs sudden retreat into the room has Ryan drawing a weapon however the action is rushed and the blow goes wide connecting with the tapestry only, expecting a much taller opponent.
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As the combat shouts sprawl through the chambers, Ruben enters like a hurricane into the room. With a slight gesture his longsword bursting into crackling energy that he crashes against the dreadful armor. The sword and magic cuts through the helmet causing major cracks.
Ryan tries to answer to the armor's entrance, but he is too surprised and his hit ends too high making the tapestry to fall over his own head. He fights for a second to remove it from the head in order to see again and stumbles with the urn filled with coins that spills out its content all over the ground. He is almost to fall to the ground when he finally succeeds to throw the tapestry to one side and looks to one side and another only getting relieved as he sees Ruben's strike hold the armor entertained.
As the others try to prepare, the armor throws itself against Ruben, attacking with both extremes of the gnome's hooked hammer.
Ruben is not used to this style of fighting and the small armor surprises him with a terrible strike of the hammer side into his head. The bones crack resounding at the whole chamber as Ruben nearly loses consciousness.
This particular type of construct is a dread guard. It can be made from an armor of any size, and has resistance 10 to cold and fire.
Round 2
Maxim watches the combat unfold with a grim set to his jaw. His hands move in well rehearsed movements; black powder charge poured and bullet rodded...
"... Dread Guard! That's what the hell this clanker is... Fire and Cold will do naught... Tough as old iron!"
As he shouts more combat lore on their foe, the gun-mage calmly primes his pistol and walks into the room's SW corner.
"I didn't mean..." stammers JJ as he hears the sounds of Ruben's bones cracking...
His sword lashes out.
"Die! If you can! How do you kill something that isn't even alive?"
His sword swings around quickly, trying to find a weak spot in the armor.
As Maxim enters the room preparing his gun, JJ stabs his shortsword inside the creature's helmet, the blade passing in between its eyes without finding resistance.
On a second attempt the young boy hits one of the arms, causing a considerable crack on the armor.
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F*cker! Ruben grumbles, head ringing unbearably.
He had taken his fair share of knocks in his life and he wasn't a stranger to a blade or a mace, even being on the receiving end. But the blow of the hooked hammer was strong enough to rattle his teeth in his head.
He takes a hasty and involuntary step back.
"Die! If you can! How do you kill something that isn't even alive?"
You smash the bastard to bits, kid - that's how!
As if programmed to fight against casters, the dread guard instantly follows Ruben, stepping up to his side, hammer at the ready to avoid him casting a spell.
The arcane duelist does not lower his defenses though as he merely starts singing an inspiring ode. A wave of courage strengthens everybody's nerves ready to smash the armor to the ground.
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So that's how it is eh? Ruben thinks as the suit of armor follows him.
He tightens the grip on his sword. In ordinary circumstances he would have no qualms about fighting dirty. He would not, for example, be above driving his boot so far into this thing's balls it would have blood in it's urine for a week. But the lack of necessary anatomy puts a crimp in an otherwise damned fine plan.
So he prepares to follow his own advice, and use his heavy blade like a bloody hammer.
Inspired by Ruben and with the creature hemmed in by the three of them Ryan remains in place, hoping to use his shield should Ruben be attacked again.
"Hold fast Ruben we shall beat this thing yet" inspiring word for Ruben
Marigold cringes as the armor strikes Ruben a mighty blow, nearly knocking him off his feet by the look of it. Unable to reach him with her magic, she instead shifts herself to better surround the armor and attempts to distract it by waving her morningstar about.
Ryan brings his mace over the dread guard but the heavy metallic head does not arrive with inercy enough and results deflected by the armor.
Marigold attempts to distract the construct from the back waving his weapon desperately, but the lifeless guard seems to have already fixed its target with emotionless determination and once again attacks Ruben.
The human dodges the first blow, but the construct does not let him to breath and scratches him stabbing the pointy extreme of its weapon on Ruben's right hand. The arcane duelist results staggered, hardly holding on feet.
Taking advantage of his position behind the armor, JJ swings his shortsword with all his might.
"Get off him you big lump of metal!"
"Ruben, withdraw now!"
Round 3:
As his comrades swarm round the construct, Maxim hesitates from pulling the trigger on his black-powder firearm - mindful that an errant shot could cause more harm than good;
"I have a shot once all are clear!"
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JJ and Ryan, bolstered by the inspiring song and the flanking companions, both strike back and side of the dread guard. Their weapons clang with ferocity over the metal getting a dent on it.
Meanwhile, Maxim looks to one side, then the other, finding difficulties for a clear shot, but readying his eye for the first opportunity.
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Screw you... metal.. <grnnnhh> trash..! Ruben mutters, his head swimming, his vision doubling.
He had always sought to avoid confrontation if he could help it, either by being smarter than the other guy or talking his way out of it. But when a fight came he had never backed down in his life and he wasn’t going to start with some two-bit rusted tin can.
Besides, ladies love a scar.
He raises his blade and with the last of his strength punches it through the narrow slit in the thing’s helmet, feeling a satisfying crunch even as he slips away and welcome blackness swims up to greet him.
HP=-1/11
Unconscious
With his last strengths Ruben places his blade on the construct's slit. His muscles tense then, his neck spitting a cry of terrible effort. The metal cracks while the armor catches Ruben by his neck in a one-to-one effort to finish one another. Ruben can find himself fainting when a last heroic impulse makes him push his weapon even deeper. The helmet cracks finally giving up to the enormous tension. The metallic head jumps out of place while the whole body falls like a stone over Ruben taking him to the floor where he loses his consciousness, still grasping strongly his blade.
mwk gnome hooked hammer
mwk small breastplate
As you inspect the old secret chamber, JJ takes the mwk thief tools and easily forces open the chest. At first sight it seems empty. But after a tactile inspection you discover it is just another of the gnome's tricky illusions.
As you start to remove things from the chest, they suddenly become visible.
three shrew statuettes carved from smoky quartz worth 75 gp each
a mother-of-pearl-inlaid board with matching wooden game pieces (gnome kings, queens, knights, and other figures) worth 250 gp for the set
a tiny silk pouch containing three white pearls worth 100 gp each
a fine book written in gnome