Photinè lifts the scrolls out of the box and begins to leaf through them.
Photinè is certain that the scrolls within the box contain spells scribed upon them, but in these somewhat hurried circumstances she is unable to yet decipher them.
Olivia focuses on the last door of this hall, waiting ahead, but the stone is too thick, and she cannot sense anything through this barrier.
"Let's get this over with," Malphene snorts derisively, clearly overeager to find a way out. She marches forward and pushes the door open. She keeps her borrowed sword ready, but no trap or new horrors leap out to attack the impatient debutante.
As Gulbend creeps forward, keeping just behind the party, the light from the lantern reveals the large room beyond. Pristine glass display cases stand along the walls and in the center of this immense rectangular display room. The area is more than sixty feet wide and forty feet long, with the outer walls covered in glass displays, save near the two northern doors and along the southern wall.
Two rusted and decayed but complete suits of armor stand separate, protected in glass cases set on daises to the east and west. Tarnished and discolored weaponry and armor pieces fills the cases in the center of the room. One particularly large display seems to contain an entire alchemist's lab, replete with several thick glass bottles containing dully colored liquids.
Circles of various sizes have been scratched into the glass and drawn on the walls with chalk and paint. These are similar to the ones previously found in the common room, right down to their seeming inanity.
As you enter this next forgotten repository of Taldan history, you notice that the door you are passing through would otherwise blend invisibly with the wooden paneling of this southern wall. Two far more obvious doors offer exit from this room, set in the opposite wall.
Chana keeps a wary stance as she advances forwards, clearly expecting more after the dangers the group has faced so far. When the following room appears to be little more than a disused gallery, she relaxes.
While the rest of the team spreads out, she points to a series of tracks through the dusty floor. "See those? They lead through this old room and through the trick door into the rooms we just came from. Either someone else already escaped this way, or someone who knows about this place's been wanderin' around."
"Maybe whoever's been drawin' the circles." Chana steps over to inspect some of the circles scattered across the glass. "A lot of work to do this..." then she snaps out of her confusion and looks towards Olivia.
"Only one way out. Keep going?"
Greenly examines the alchemist lab and beckons Amandine over. "You said old s&*# is usually expensive, yeah? This looks weird and, like, valuable." With no further discussion, she smashes the glass casing with the hilt of her sword.
Amandine winces at the noise and mess of the breaking glass. She sighs, there's probably a door on the case, but goes to see what Greenly has found. She looks the lab equipment over and tells Greenly "it might well be, but equipment of this kind rarely shows its age clearly so it could be hard to prove to a buyer. It would also only be attractive to buyers with particular interests, and no small task to carry around."
"These vials on the other hand are something we should show to Lady Photine. I really will have to work on learning to recognize magical auras."
Amandine takes the bottles still containing liquid. She also asks Greenly to check for weapons in good condition. "We probably are still underarmed. Even our baggage" she remarks, referring to the new aristocrats in tow, "could fight if their lives depended on it."
For her own use Amandine looks around for a dagger to replace the one she handed off to Olivia, and a serviceable buckler.
Greenly does as Amandine suggests, smashing much of the glass thoughtlessly.
Photinè pays little attention to the floor; instead, she searches the room for magical auras. "If any of this could be useful we might as well take it. We've been attacked once already; who knows what we'll face beyond this room?"
You soon trace the origin: the two armor stands on opposing sides of the room. Some manner of malevolence possesses them. Unfortunately, as Greenly begins smashing the glass display cases, you can feel the evil within those armors begin to stir.
Additionally, the two suits of armor standing to either side of the museum also glow faintly with a weakened magic, leaving you uncertain of their condition.
Amandine steps up to the newly "opened" case displaying the alchemy apparatus as Greenly moves on to her next glass victim. The surviving brass plaque describes this as the alchemical lab of famed natural philosopher Dumos Fatomax. Although much of the equipment is bulky and not meant to travel, several key components are removable and could be claimed. The accompanying flasks are not mere display pieces and their labels, thankfully still legible, describe their contents.
Moving on from that display, Amandine soon finds a dagger and buckler not given over to rust.
"I say, are those the tools of the great duelist Fenazir?" Lord Botoles muses, leaning over to squint at the faded plaque accompanying the items taken by Amandine. "I do hope so, but they are probably just replicas. I used to read silver-dreadful tales of Fenazir's adventures when I was a lad. It was such a guilty pleasure. My father mightily disapproved of such rubbish."
Although much of the armor and weaponry here suffer from long neglect, showing signs of age, they remain largely serviceable.
"If they really cared about these rusted antiques, they would not have forgotten them," Malphene speaks caustically, unfazed by her bodyguard's vandalism. "If we hope to survive to see the next dawn, I suggest we take what we need."
Although Zubari winces with each crash of broken glass, the other accompanying nobles nod their assent.
Photinè, intending to follow in Greenly's wake and retrieve the magic items, stops mid-step at Olivia's warning and looks suspiciously at the suits of armor. "I knew there was something odd about them. How unpleasant."
Greenly stares blankly at Olivia. "Possessed? You mean, like, somebody owns them? Why should I care?"
As if to demonstrate that lack of concern, she moves to push one over.
"You want to stay around here while the Princess might be getting hunted down out there?" Chana looks between Photine and Greenly, and then at the rest, as they start smashing and grabbing. She shrugs, and moves towards the northern exit.
'Yea, it wouldn' 'urt ta take some a this stuff. So it ain't collectin dust. But this'...'
Her consternation fades when Olivia responds. "Something dark?" and then "The... armors?"
She looks from one armor to the other, scimitar in hand, expecting them to lunge for one of her thieving allies (probably Greenly).
"Really?" Amandine leans in to peer at the plaque along with Lord Botoles.
"Well, for old time's sake then." She hands the dagger to him handle first. With a wry smiles she adds "And let's hope we don't have to prove we're worthy inheritors of his tools, right?"
Lady Olivia's warning breaks the moment. Amandine looks toward the closer of the two sets of armor to see what she's talking about.
With Olivia's warning, the group turns its attention to the armor stands.
Soft creaks and whines grow into harsh metallic grinding and clanking as the armor within the raised cases begin to stir. Although the empty armors are pitted and rusted, they move as though worn by phantom soldiers.
They smash through their glass prisons and, with disjointed movements, hop down from their daises to confront the perceived intruders.
Greenly looks back at Olivia in shock, and says "Oh s*%!, is that what animated means?? My apologies."
She draws her weapon and takes a step back.
Amandine shifts until she has clear line of sight on one of the suits of armor, drawing her rapier. Once there are no obstacles between her and the armor she looks around to sight a small weapon like a dagger or hand axe. She concentrates on it, imagining it flying through the air. She then switches her gaze to the armor and sends the weapon flying through the air toward it.
As it sails by well clear of her target Amandine sighs. Practice, practice. I'm very rusty.
Photinè hurries over to the display case containing the light crossbow and lifts it out. Holding it a little clumsily, she points it in the direction of the suits of armor.
Chana readies herself. For some reason her new allies wanted to fight these suits of armor, and she wasn't about to abandon them. Even if it did seem they would be easy to outrun.
However, owing to the poor, neglected condition of the host armor, you suspect that these undead guardians are much weaker than normal.
Amandine's telekinetically flung dagger clatters against another display case, scratching the glass. As one of the armors marches up to a stunned Tanglefoot, Chana hustles up behind the foe - but her swing just misses the moving suit of armor.
Photinè snatches up the darkwood crossbow and some worn bolts kept with it. She prepares the old weapon and begins to take aim.
The one guardian shoves its gauntlet fists into Tanglefoot, and the other strides up to Greenly and brings its metal arms down heavily upon her.
Like Olivia, Greenly also stands strong to protect her friends. "Hey rude!" she calls out as it batters her with its arms. She delivers a powerful swing, but one that falls short of any target.
Photinè puts her back to the wall and fires off a bolt, aiming for the suit of armor attacking Greenly. Unfortunately, between her lack of experience with combat and trying to avoid hitting her allies, she misses quite handily.
Chana spins around and delivers another slash, aimed just a hair more accurately.
"Phan'om? Whadda ya mean Phan'om, Oliv?" -ahem- "They're suits of armor, aren't they? Do we need some kinda trick to fight 'em?"
Now there's a crowd gathering around the haunted armor she'd tried to hit, Amandine doesn't dare try the same trick again. Instead she hustles around through the cases and comes up behind the one making trouble for Greenly.
As she comes within reach she tries to drive her rapier blade through a weak spot in the cuirass.
The party's barrage of attacks, at best, clatter off the battered armor, but Malphene strides past Greenly and Photinè, and she plunges her borrowed sword through the undead's abdomen. The creature wobbles, the spirit's hold on the armor clearly failing.
On the other side of the room, Tanglefoot leads into another rousing oratory that actually sounds a lot like a poetic call for help. However, the phantom armor bearing down upon him draws blood with another swing of his gauntlets, bruising Tanglefoot's cheek and nose.
Seeing Malphene's skillful strike, Greenly shouts encouragement to her. "That's the way, miss! Yeah!" Her pride is so much that it even garners the support and affection of her ancestors, who wrap around Greenly's sword in the form of glowing green wisps, and though she fails to strike, they batter the armor until it falls .
With a mighty swing of her halberd, Olivia fells the phantom armor on the western side of the room. Meanwhile, the emerald wisps of Greenly's totem break the last of the other spirit's bonds to the physical plane.
Both suits of haunted armor collapse in a cacophony of clattering metal. The echoes of the commotion quickly die upon the stone walls and glass panels, soon leaving this old museum again as quiet and still as a tomb.
"Great job, Malphene!" Greenly cheers, smiling broadly. "All those sword lessons paid off, eh?"
The battle done, she spits on the fallen armor and returns to rummaging through the place for valuables.
Chana springs away from the fallen armors, not really understanding how they started moving in the first place, nor why hitting them lightly a couple of times caused them to collapse. It not only wasn't natural, but it didn't make sense. Were these some magical guards? If so, why were they so easy to dispatch?
She felt her eye itching, like it often did when something was about to turn unpleasant.
"Grab what you want, but we should move quick. I've got a feeling that staying around here'll be bad for our health."
While the rest of the team picks up loot, Chana looks over the northern door in case there are any traps or anything unusual about it.
"Yes, let's get moving."
Amandine walks toward the door.
The northern wall hosts two doors - one to the left, and one to the right.
Chana takes the time to investigate both doors, and she finds nothing irregular or dangerous about them.
This rectangular room appears to host a celebration frozen in time. Gaudy nobles crowd the corners of this room, all of which are dressed in ostentatious and pretentious fashions. Tremendous wigs soar toward the ceiling, each covered in thick layers of dust.
A larger gaggle of noble wax figures fills the center of the chamber, each aristocrat presenting a jovial or mocking leer as it stares out blankly. One of the figures is sprawled on the floor; overlapping circles are cut into its waxen chest and face.
A door exits from each of the four walls.
Lines of shelves run from north to south in this square room. Glass windows - some with handles and others bearing locks - cover the front of the shelves. Dozens of objects line the shelves, resting on satin pillows behind the protective glass covers.
A door exits from each of the four walls.
You can just barely read the name written on the plaque - "Dignity's Barb."
Chana heads through the left door first, entering the hall of Ripley's Believe It Or Not wax statues. She freezes as she takes the whole group of them in, half expecting them to jump up and attack like the armors from the previous room.
She weaves her way through the display, looking at the faces, but not doing a whole lot of recognizing. She stops at the statue sprawled on the floor. "More of those circles. Since we left that first room, we've been finding these everywhere..."
Uneasy, Chana clicks her tongue rhythmically for a moment to cast Detect Magic, and then use it to sweep across the wax-statue room.
Greenly stands beside Chana, sword still in hand as though she had forgotten it was there at all.
"What's that, like, chitterin you're doing, Miss Chiara? You grinding your teeth? The doctor said that's not good for me, so now I sleep with a mouthguard in."
Her attempts to be friendly are awkward and meandering, much like the rest of her.
Greenly narrows her eyes briefly, sure she'd caught on to something, but quickly gets distracted and starts lifting up the mannequin's skirts, waving about their wax nethers and hooting with laughter.
Chana opens her mouth to respond to Greenly's question, but when Olivia intervenes to cover her, she halts. While Greenly gets immediately distracted, she steps over to the paladin and murmurs "Ah, thanks. And the clicking? It's just something I do to focus. Not that this whole damn party wasn't stressful..." A wry grin crosses her lop-sided face, hidden by her veil.
Strangely enough, the only bit of magical radiance you can perceive seems to emanate from one of the more reasonably sized wigs sitting atop the head of one of the waxen noblewomen.
"Wot we got 'ere..."
Chana weaves her way around the wax statues to get to the one with the giant wig. She focuses, trying to pinpoint where the magic is coming from (is it the wig or an object in the wig) and then retrieves the source of the magic for a more thorough look.
"There's some magic coming from this... I can smell it." She blinks, and looks at the rest of the party. "I mean, I can uh, see the aura."
Quick to change the subject she adds "And on that note, anyone else notice that the jewelry on many of these statues is real? No one is going to notice if it disappears, I'd guess, based on how dusty this place is."
----
Once she sorts out what the magic aura might be, she continues on through the eastern door and into the adjacent chamber. She spends a few moments warily eyeing the cabinets in case there's something hiding in there.
"Four doors, any of which could take us out of here. I'm thinking..." She raises her head and audibly sniffs "This one." She points east.
Chana recognizes that the wig is, in fact, simply the current form of a magic item known as a hat of disguise. Recognizing the usefulness of such an enchanted trinket, the veiled woman reaches down to retrieve it.
As she stretches out her hand to collect the wig, several darker strands of hair lash out like a squid's tentacles and latch onto Chana's wrist.
She jumps back from the wax figure in surprise. The strange, hair-like creature that has woven itself into the wig, as though it were a nest, clutches tightly upon Chana's forearm. However, just as the party begins readying weapons, she manages to tear the creature from her arm.
Incensed by the attack, she seizes the wig in one hand, the creature in another, and rips it asunder from its enchanted nest. Chana hurls the mass of moving hair, the size of a toy dog, across the room, and the strange, ooze-like thing slithers away to hide in some forgotten corner of the room.
...
Just as she manages to calm her breathing, and quell her dialect-heavy mutterings beneath her veil, Chana discovers and alerts her companions to a new danger in the adjoining room.
The glass cases in this room, unlike the previous arsenal, are rigged with a magical trap to protect against theft and vandalism. Any attempt to open the cases will result in a powerful charge of electricity being released through the floor.
A peek over Olivia's shoulder into the room with the wax figures tells Amandine everything she needs to know about it. "This is maybe the creepiest thing I've ever seen."
She doesn't enter the room while the others look around inside it. Instead she hoovers around outside near the door and mentions at least once "We really need to keep moving."
When Chana mentions the trap set in the adjoining room, Amandine chides herself for not using her time waiting to better effect and takes a look to see if it can be disabled.
Not having a bag of her own, Greenly loops the jewelry around the neck of the ever-so-eager halfling.
"And stay away!" Chana shouts at the crawling black hairy mass, before dusting off the remaining portion of the wig against her leg. Once its clear the creature isn't returning, she says "Looks like it was using this Wig of Disguise as a house. Can't really blame it, it does look like a cozy place for a creature of that size."
She stows the wig away for now, but makes a mental note to consider using it instead of her veil when it might be beneficial to.
In the adjacent room, she quickly announces "The glass cases are trapped, all set up to shock the person that tries to steal from them. Check the floor." She points it out to Amandine.
While the half-elf tackles the trap, she carefully examines the eastern door for any other dangers.