"Neat trick," Aramis says appreciatively, raising her eyebrows as Amos and his companion transition effortlessly from land to water. Rotgut loudly echoes the sentiment, causing her to hiss angrily at the bird. "Ye'll 'ave ta take me fer a ride sometime."
Stepping out of the boat onto land, she checks her musket, keeping it loaded. Hopefully the damned thing would work better now, after its thorough cleaning... She takes her place near the front of the group, not entirely optimal, but no sense in leading from the back.
Amos smiles at the compliment. It certainly comes in handy.
Maera smiles privately to herself, and resists the urge, however hard it may be, to turn something said into an innuendo. It'd only spoil the mood. Instead, she responds to Cassius and Indrana. "I wish I could say the same... I've had enough practice now that it don't bother me too much, but there's always some part of me that's tuggin' away, tellin' me to come away to the water."
Between the trees, Maera is able to find a path in the woods. It is nearly twenty feet wide of broken cobblestones that are heavily covered with growth.
Following along that path, the group comes to a cliff side and behind the heavy growth of flora hides a set of double doors that stands nearly fifteen feet tall.
The doors open up with a lot of scrapping and reveal a dark tunnel leading down into the mountain.
Diabolito steps forward, cracks his neck and casts a quick spell on himself to have his god guide his muscles in this.
Then he shoves at the door.
Amos taps Bullet with his heels and brings him right up to the door behind Diaboloito. He then prods the house into rearing up and planting his hooves on the door.
The doors open slowly, a heavy creak that leaves a musky smell wafting towards the group. The smell is that of stagnant air and death and it is very hard to tell when last the place was touched by living flesh. The high ceilings are indicative of the supposed former residents. Darkness fills the hall before the group.
Maera coughs slightly, and waves her hand about to try and disperse some of the smell of dust. "Well, I suppose those torches won't go to waste." Despite not needing one due to her darkvision, Maera will carry a torch regardless... she'll only need one hand to cast spells if things get rough.
Aramis draws and loads her musket, checking her supply of ammunition by Maera's torch-light. "Damnable darkness," she mutters. "Don' like me chances a' hittin' a t'ing in 'ere."
Amos draws and loads as well. Bullet is nervous entering such a dark, smelly place, but he is well trained and plods forward with a reluctant whinney.
Indrana seems somewhat confused when she hears the others complaining about the lack of light, "Dark? Who said it was dark in....oh yeah, I forgot, you don't see the same way I do. I'm afraid I can't help you with the light situation, I never learned any spells to make it since I don't really need them."
"Findin' traps doesn't tend to be the problem. It's tryin' to manage 'em that seems to end with me half-dead, and black and blue," she grumbles at the memory of the Grindylow's lair. "Well, blue-er, anyway," she corrects, keeping a sharp eye about.
As the group now begins to be able to see some of the details around them, there are mosaics of cyclopean warriors in various states of combat, defeating other giants, destroying much smaller cities, and smashing ships against the shores. Most of the mosaics are rather worn, but with the lack of any intruders in centuries, there is still enough to get an idea of the images rather well.
With a bend approaching there is the first sign of anything...a large, skeleton laying on the ground, a large weapon at it's side.
"Watch yerself, furball," Aramis mutters at Indrana's flippant dismissal of human eyes. "Yer treadin' dangerous ground there."
As the group progresses, she glances at the mosaics with passing curiosity, showing a little more interest when they reach the skeleton. "A'right," she mutters. "Let's see 'bout disturbin' tha dead." With that, she approaches it, nudging the pile of bones with her musket barrel.
Rotgut, meanwhile, perches atop Bullet's head, bending down to stare the horse in the eyes curiously.
The pile of bones is simply that. A pile of bones, though there is an ancient sword at it's side. A large greatsword of fine quality.
Not entirely trusting the pile of bones, Indrana casts a quick spell, her eyes becoming luminescent, and examines the skeleton and sword for auras.
Maera dusts off the greatsword. "This could be a collector's piece to the right party... Let's see what else this place holds for us."
When the party is finished with the greatsword, Maera will lead the light further down the chamber.
The dwarf peers around, keeping his eyes open, almost on a secondary lookout capacity, able to see beyond the light source in comparison to the majority of his fellows.
Aramis heads down , a little behind Maera's light, hoping it will illuminate anything she has to shoot.
Nothing appears to be out of the ordinary, but it looks like Diabolito can see a chamber up ahead. There seem to be alcoves throughout the chamber itself. The room's markings clearly label it as a ceremonial chamber.
Throughout the room, strange markings are all about, a few circles of runes are about. Though no signs of life mark this chamber, another skeleton of a cyclops lies in the corner, though this one bears no weapon, he does have a very nice necklace around his neck. There is another pair of these necklaces on a large dais.
"Well, let's see what we have here." Aramis heads for the skeleton - and the necklace.
Indrana finds herself distracted by the various runes and large skeletons, nervously looking around to quickly to notice anything of interest.
Maera will be carefully examining all of the room with Detect Magic running, especially concerning the gem on the dais.
Amos trots up to the dias on Bullet, not up to the necklaces, but to a small stone off to the side. He takes his pistol and taps it sharply. It pops loose and falls into his hand! He hold up the stone and grins.
Aramis raises her eyebrows at Amos. "Well-spotted, lad," she nods. Still perched atop Bullet's head, Rotgut squawks in agreement, his screech echoing off the cavern walls; he ducks his head under one wing momentarily before realizing it's only him, then caws a few more times to make sure.
Each of the three circles glows lightly with magic, as does the oddly out of place stone, and the necklaces each shine with a touch of magic.
"Think somethin' more excitin' would happen if you put three of us in one of those circles each?" Maera muttered to herself as she began the process of trying to identify the magic she saw. "They're glowin' like anythin'."
Casting a quick spell and looking at the circles Indrana says, "Now how did I miss that?" She takes the time to examine the various auras to try and figure out what they are.
"Three circles, three necklaces, an' a gem," Aramis mutters, looking around the room. "Looks like soma kinda puzzle. Guessin' we 'ave ta match everythin' up."
As the two spellcasters examine the medallions, it is clear that they are meant for summoning and as both Aramis and Cassius are in the process of pointing out...they might seem to match up.
But as magic washes over the items, the three amulets begin to glow and then begin channeling their light into the circles, one for each circle. Clearly indicating which one belongs to which, but there is little time to deal with that.
Each of the circles pulses seemingly with life. The only life that has been here in ages...other than the crew.
After a moment, three creatures stand in the portals, each one looking otherworldly in some one. One creature seems to be a man of flames, one a small winged creature with skin the color of the ocean and a glint in it's eyes, and the final looks to be a creature drawn directly from the earth and given form.
Round 1, Crew!
"Well, ain't that a surprise," Aramis mutters darkly, rummaging in her ammo pouch for the strange, engraved bullet. Who knew, maybe it would have some kind of banishment powers. She'd always been better at shooting stuff than all that fancy magic business, anyway. Loading the strange bullet, she takes aim at the creature in the blue circle, and fires.
"Well that can't be good," Indrana says when the creatures appear. She chants and gestures, conjuring up an arrow of acid and sends it flying into the man of flame.
Amos doesn't even flinch. He's seen weirder. Out comes the gun. In goes the powder and bullet. Out comes death.
The gun fires and the bullet finds it's mark. Tearing into the winged creature, who lets out a roar of pain, the damage doesn't seem to be as good as Aramis felt like it should have been, though the creature does look intense over the pain.
Cassius's blade finds it hard to find purchase in the creature of flames, but his skill outweighs his finesse and he strikes home regardless...does his precision even matter against this thing?
Indrana's acid strikes home and hisses against the flames, a splotch among the flames.
Maera will begin her bard song while she takes stock of the summoned creatures, and evaluates them for any useful weaknesses.
Amos's bullet tears through the creature, seeming to do some real damage.
With little to go on, morningstar in hand, Diabolito charges the one that isn't already engaged.
The creature takes a seemingly vicious attack, though it still fails to do as much to the creature as on would expect.
Then the creatures from the portals take solace in the fact that there are things for them to hit.
The creatures that are engaged seemed to be focused on the battle at hand. The creature in the back stays in it's circle and slowly...begins to grow.
But fails to come close to it's target.
The smaller creature with wings takes a step back from Diabolito and waves with a big grin. And it is gone.
With her target gone, Aramis tears open a paper cartridge with her teeth and focuses on the next. The creature in the green circle was as yet unchallenged, but it was growing. "Good," she grins, taking aim at it as she steps in closer, unafraid. "That'll make ye an easier target!"
*click*
"Oh, ye've got ta be f**$in' wit' me..."
Amos urges Bullet up in front of his captain to protect her while she reloads and clears the malfunction. He levels his pistol at the growing one and...
Apparently the gods do not smile on Aramis this day, however, they smile on her defender and his bullet rips into the large creature.