The secret door slides into the wall with a good push, revealing a dark passageway carved into the rock of Thistletop. The passageway branches off into two corridors--one in the middle of the passage's northern wall, and one at the end of the secret corridor itself. Both hallways lead to archways at the end of their respective paths--and both archways lead to the same room.
The sound of sloshing water fills this room, which has almost entirely collapsed into a large tide pool. What few walls do remain intact here bear detailed and impressive carvings of incredible treasuries filled to overflowing with coins, gems, jewelry, and other items of value. To the east, the walls depict a carving of a towering mountain, its peak carved in the shape of a stern face just above a great palace. Below, the side of the mountain's valley cradles an immense city of spires.
Countless explorers have sought this place, and many have either died or vanished in the attempt. None have ever found it. To this day, scholars debate whether the city existed at all, or if it was a myth invented by the ancients.
"Mmph, speaking of materialism," he says unable to fathom the images beyond their crass depiction of wealth.
Conner glances over the wall, but his interest is mainly on the pool. He remembers that fish-cat thing they'd killed on the way here.
Eostre gapes at the carvings.
"Torag's teeth! It'll take weeks, maybe even months to get this site mapped and sketched! It's amazing! I haven't seen stonework like this since I took a trip to Janderhoff with my father when I was a little girl of 20 years!"
She wades into the water to get a closer look.
"No idea where that palace is, but it looks like those people sure have a lot of money!"
From where she stands at the edge of the pool Evelyn tries to see if there's anything of interest in the water, simply because she has a feeling there might be.
Nicat watches Eostre wade into the water and casts a skeptical glance at Conner. "We scared off that sharky-seal thing, whatever Eostre called it, but we didn't kill it, right? It swam away. I wonder if the sheark can swim into the pool that Eostre's taking a dip in?"
She wades into the water to get a closer look.
As she walks past, Conner hooks an arms around her shoulder and turns her back out of the water. "Noooooo."
"What are you doing?! Gettoff me!"
No sooner does Eostre step into the water that a giant golden helmet in the treasure pile suddenly lurches upward. It then slowly rotates to face the dwarf as Conner moves to grab her shoulder.
Eostre gapes at the helmet facing her as her mind races to figure out just what she's awakened.
Eostre raises her hands and steps back from the helmet.
"Um ... Салом! Хизмат ба шумо иродаи Karzoug?" she ventures, hoping this thing understands Thassilonian.
The helmet offers no response, but it stops its advance when Eostre backs away from it.
"Okay, non-responsive. Not enough material to be a golem. Probably just animated the helmet," she mutters to herself.
"This thing was probably placed here as a guardian of some sort," she explains to Conner and the others.
"...And that would be why. That, and water beasties. How about we just back away and see what it does."
"Already doing that, ya dunce!" Eostre snaps, backing up further to prove her point.
"But what is it guarding?" Ekan is OUTSIDE the pool. Thank you very much as he watches.
Evelyn holds her breath when the helmet animates. Her eyes dart between the helmet and her comrades, her heart unsure if she should do something or wait and see what happens.
The helmet causes the water to slosh about as it starts moving towards the shallow end of the pool where the party is standing. As the helmet moves, the glint of coins, gems and other treasures can be seen in the pool behind it.
Eostre sighs a bit.
"Looks like this thing is adamant about protecting that treasure. All in favor of turning this overgrown bucket into scrap?"
Though everyone's words slowly started blurring into each other after the helmet's animation, Evelyn can currently make out just enough to respond to Eostre.
"Y-yes," Evelyn stammers, forcing the Common word out of her mouth with some difficulty.
Nicat drops a stone into his sling and says, "Sure, sis, let's wreck it!"
"But not too much! I wanna study it when its animating magic is dispelled," she replies. She then repeats the sentiment in Aklo for Evelyn's benefit.
She lights her runic tattoo once more and summons her shimmering protective spell.
"I'm not sure we need to have this fight, so I'd vote nay, but I think even if connor joins me in that the yays would have it so..." He sighs
"We just killed a bunch of shadow monsters, how dangerous can this thing be?" That being said, he does set his shield for full cover facing the helmet.
"We just killed a bunch of shadow monsters, how dangerous can this thing be?"
As if on cue, the helmet approaches the edge of the pool more swiftly than before.
Upon closer inspection, the party notices a set of... crab's legs carrying the helmet. A pair of vicious pincers emerge from under the helmet, and the body of the beast comes into view. It clicks its pincers and prepares to attack!
"Ha! It's just a crab, lucky us!" Nicat cries out. He raises a hand and tosses a small, golden pellet, which explodes in a shower of golden dust as it hits the crab!
The crab stiffens in surprise and starts flailing its arms about without even the slightest hint of precision.
Eostre facepalms.
"I just tried to talk to a damned crab! And I mistook it for an animated guardian when it's just a squatter defending its hoard of shinies. That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life. Fortunately, I at least have a way of expressing my irritation."
She chants her spell, then takes a deep breath and appears to scream at the crab at the top of her voice, though no sound emerges. The crab, on the other hand, hears what sounds like the shriek of the damned, even though it has no understanding of damnation.
The crab flinches, but it doesn't appear to be stunned.
Conner stifles a laugh and smacks his sword against the crab, not having any luck with it's armor.
Conner's sword bounces off the crab's hard shell without hurting it.
"How does a crab even GET this big!?" Eostre wonders aloud.
Ekan, being a good boy, has never dealt with a crab problem before!
But that doesn't stop him
But no, he's still not sure how to deal with crabs!
Evelyn gives Conner a touch of guidance.
"កំទេចវា!" she exclaims.
"សូមមានការប្រុងប្រយ័ត្នមិនឱ្យខូចមួកសុវត្ថិភាពនោះទេ!" Eostre cries.
Ekan's hand crashes against the helmet, but all he accomplishes is hurting his hand.
The crab blindly flails its claws about, snapping at Conner!
The first claw bounces off the wall, but the second manages to catch Conner and starts squeezing!
Eostre begins to cast the same spell she previously did, unleashing another silent scream at the crab.
This time, Eostre's scream hits the crab where it really hurts. The crab flinches and starts wobbling about.
"Desna smiles on us again!" Nicat shouts. "The thing can't see or move! Conner, stop messing about and get loose!"
Conner grunts and tries to force the claw off himself.
Conner's struggling yields no results.
"ទៅសម្រាប់ភ្នែក!" Eostre shouts.
Conner's wound heals partially while blood starts to well up in Evelyn's mouth.
Evelyn swallows the blood and casts another guidance spell on Conner, hopefully enabling him to break free from the crab's grasp.
Ekan tries a flurry of blows on the crab
Ekan's fists crash against the crab, cracking its shell in several places!
The glittering dust is still coating the crab, and shining brightly enough to blind it.
It reflexively crushes Conner in its claw.