The orders, wherever you received them, were clear and simple. Report to the Nexus House in Quantium by noon, Moonday the 8th of Rova. Accomidations will be provided there.
As you all gather in front of the large building that stands near the center of town, the hustle and bustle of the large metropolis throngs around you, people of all walks of life buying, selling and chattering, while more than a few golems lumber around on some errand or other. In the distance, the forms of two different golems circle the city, a tiny reverberation shuddering through the ground with each step.
Stepping in from the bright streets and heat, the interior of the building proves to be a few degrees cooler and a much more bearable few shades darker. The large hallway extends a good thirty feet across with elegant archways leading further in carved along each side. Large stained glass windows on the upper levels cast elegant shades of color across the room, all seeming to point to a pair of waterfalls flowing in reverse from the floor to the ceiling and framing a marble statue
of a bookish middle-aged Taldan man tenderly holding the hand of a smirking Vudrani woman with a long, thick braid of hair.
A small cough brings your attention down to a diminutive figure standing in the center of the arcane opulence. Her bronze-hued skin and dark hair all the more striking given her sky-blue tunic and green leggings, the bright streaks of gold through her hair, and a prodigious collection of bangles along each forearm. She throws up her arms in welcome with a metallic jangle. “Pathfinders! Welcome to Nexus House! I’m Sebnet, one of the Vash-Vatom — Sebnet Sanserkoht, I mean, introductions and all.”
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Without waiting for a response, she gestures and leads the way through one of the stone archways into a wide hallway, waiting a second for you all to follow, before turning around and proceeding right back through the same archway into a comfortable sitting room, speaking all the while. “Thank you for coming to help — of course you’re here to help, right? Of course you are, you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t."
"Do you know who the Arclords of Nex are? One of them helps us access all kinds of delightful artifacts and relics, or at least did, until he turned up stomped flat on the bottom of one of the Quantium golems’ feet the other day."
She flicks her hand in the direction of some comfortable looking chairs and they slide up behind everyone present and then shudders slightly as she sits down. "Can you imagine? The poor fellow is still there. We might have to go get him, see, because he’s been murdered, and we’ve been commissioned to handle the preliminary investigation. We don’t know who’s responsible, but we know that the Arclord — his name is Kefanes Ahmakt — just got his shiny hands on a new book. Well a really old book, actually, it’s one written by Nex himself, and so it’s both quite valuable and also something that a lot of other people might want. Especially other Arclords."
She gestures at a nearby wet bar and a drink starts making itself before heading over to the gnome. She glances at everyone for a second before getting back to the story. "You want anything to drink, just need to ask... So anywaysthe Nexian guard brought it here for safekeeping.” She points at an ancient, tattered folio in a glass case on a table to one side of the room, barely pausing for breath.
“So! The obvious places to start looking are Kefanes’s workshop, which is being watched by the Nexian guard, but they’ll let you in if you tell them you’re working for the Society. And then you’ll probably want to examine Kefanes himself, so you’ll have to find the golem who’s giving him a ride around the city and perform some kind of extraction."
She sets down her drink, completely untouched and apparently forgotten, her wrists jingling in excitement. "Oh, that sounds like so much fun! I wish I could come with you! Anyway, while you’re doing that, and anything else that seems reasonable based on what you find out there, I’ll be here going through that old book to see if I can find something to tell us who might have wanted it so much. Come back here once you’ve checked things out, and we’ll have dinner and compare notes. Is everyone fine with salamander eggs? Oh, of course you are, everyone is. All right? Did I forget anything? Do you have any questions? Ha, what am I saying, you're Pathfinders, of course you have questions!”
Earavel follows the gnome, while observing the monumental character of the Nexus House. The elven noble moves through in delicate linen and dresses a silver headband with rubies and aquamarines. His movements are graceful and he almost seems to float through the stony ground, barely setting his charcoal wooden staff on the floor as he advances.
"A pleasure to meet you Sebnet Sanserkoht the Vash-Vatom" the elf places a small reverence before presenting himself "I am Earevel of Iadara, Student of the Arcana and Envoy of the Viridian Crown to the Pathfinder Society"
"An Arclord? Well, yes I know, but you surely want to illustrate my companions" Earavel avoids showing he has no clue about this point.
Requesting some mead for drink he studies the case "So why do you think it was a murder? Could it not be the golem just accidentally stumbled upon him? If it was on purpose why not to took the book with themselves?"
Seo-yeon follows the woman quickly, seeing that she appears to be in some sort of hurry - or so she'd thought. She respectfully removes her hat as they step indoors, revealing the carefully braided bun it usually hides. She's completely befuddled when, after following Sebnet past the stone archway, the bronze-skinned woman pivots and walks right back through to a completely different room. She wants to ask about it, but the city itself was full of wonders. Perhaps the casual use of such magic was normal here? The golems had been an awe-inspiring sight of their own, a powerful contrast to the peaceful image the statues in the front had conveyed.
Humming quietly to herself as she settled for the briefing, she wonders about what really happened. Perhaps she would take some time to look into the stories here, after they were done with their work. The woman that had led them here, the statues, the golems - it was obvious that there was much of interest here.
When Sebnet finally stops to breathe, Seo-yeon takes the opportunity to get in some questions of her own, her curiosity powerful. "I remember hearing some odd stories here and there about Nex and his Arclords, but I'm definitely rusty on the details - do you mind giving me a refresher? What about these Quantium golems you mentioned? Where can we find them? What are things you think we should know about interacting with the people and environment here?"
And finally, "Tell us about the book and Kefanes? If this really was a murder, there might be some hints in who he knew or what was in the text." One couldn't have murder with a motive, after all! All of the best stories held some sort of jealousy, a touch of passion, twists and turns...
Karvek follows the gorup as well. He's a burly half-elf (probably a bit less than half-elf to be honest), and carries a pair of mismatched picks strapped to his back. Karvek tries to follow all the talk of arclords and books, but it's a little out of the comfort zone for the rustic farm-boy turned adventurer.
"Will this purely be information-gathering, or should we seek to mete out some justice if we can find the murderer?"
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As the glass of mead floats over to Earevel, Sebnet gives everyone else an incredulous look for a second before seeming to remember that you’re new to town. Waving away the sentiment, her bracelets jangling, she spouts off, “The ArcLords are sort of a wizard’s society for the most part. Really good wizards, and a few sorcerers, I suppose, but they have really big heads. I mean egos, not their actual heads. They like to claim every connection they can to Nex, and they think they know what he’d want for the nation, so they try to tell everyone what to do.”
The gnome gives the elf a quizzical look. " Didn’t I make myself clear? The Nexian guards already know Kefanes was murdered in his workshop and the body was only dumped in the path of the golem. We're here more to handle actually fingering the murderer. Though why they didn't take the book, your guess is as good as mine."
In response to Seo-Yeon’s first question she comments “I’ve already explained the ArcLords, but Nex was the archmage who founded this nation. Really incredible guy, immortal, big into conjuration and interdimensional portals and demiplanes, kind of a world power in his time. Waged war with Geb, the lich on the other side of the Mana Wastes, until he disappeared about 4,000 years ago.” She shrugs. “No one’s seen him since.”
”As for the golems, there are two Quantium golems, and they’re huge! You can’t miss them. You might have even seem them wandering around outside. They’ve been walking around the city since Nex told them to, and since he hasn’t told them otherwise, they’re still walking. You’ll see them if you go wander around, or you can just ask someone and they’ll point you in the right direction.”
Sebnet gives a flicker of an uncomfortable look, as Seo-Yeon starts asking about the victim. “Kefanes wasn’t necessarily... nice,” she admits, “He wasn’t a popular guy. Shabti, gold skin and all, came down from Osirion. Good at what he did, and smart, and made good deals, like the deal he made with us to study one another’s findings. But, to be square, he made a lot of enemies, too, some of them other Arclords. Spent most of his time in a little workshop over in the north side of town.” Sebnet then speaks a few words into one of her bracelets and taps the thing twice. With a small flourish she then hands the group a piece of paper with the address for the shop written on it.
She then points at the book, laughing. “Right, I almost forgot about that! It’s called the Collected Directives, a collection of angry letters from Nex to the overseer of one of his golem factories, demanding to know why they weren’t running on schedule and ordering the production of this, that, and the other.” She shrugs. “Hardly worth a fight, right?”
She finally turns to Karvek, and gives a small, ‘who knows’ gesture. “We’re nominally here to find the murderer, may or may not actually make the arrest. However, if the running theory that another ArcLord killed him proves true, then the guard will probably ask us to catch them. They’re a bit… hesitant when it comes to the ArcLords. People very rarely want to cross a high level wizard after all.”
She then sits back and rediscovers her drink, taking a sip, before setting it aside again. “Anything else you wanted to know?”
Earavel listens carefully to all the responses. At some point he arches an eyebrow "You say Kefanes wasn't necessarily... nice? What do you mean? Also... did he have any apprentice or helper? Or he instead worked completely on himself?"
Giving a look at the Collected Directives Earavel adds "Yes, I would love to give it a look myself"
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A rather comical-looking Goblin, dressed in a mixture of cast-off rags, patchwork armor, and festooned with small vials, ducks out from the under the buffet table where he has been experimenting with all of the different beverages available (although not necessarily drinking them).
"You know, you have the makings of several rather nice explosives, and more than a couple of poisons, there - I'd be willing to show you the specifics, if you are interested..."
He then seems to focus, and smiles toothily.
"Oh! But that isn't why we are here. There is a murderer to catch, and a golem to inspect, yes? Do you want them alive, or should we introduce them to the golem? To get the body, do we need to catch the golem, or will we be going golem riding? Is riding golems a hobby in Nex? I wonder how much they would charge for it..."
Sebnet scowls for just a second at Earvel's follow-up. "I meant what I said, he wasn't neccesarily a nice person. He traded information with us, allowed us to examine his artifacts and books, and was easy to work with. However, he was also an ArcLord, and few people amass that much arcane power while caring about what other people think. He was hard headed, though his head wasn't actually that hard, and didn't care if he offended people. He was stright forward and very good at making and following contracts though, so that made him more appealing than most ArcLords!"
"As for an appritice or helper, he never mentioned one before. He might have had one on the side or recently taken one on, but that tends to be rare."
She laughs for a second before shooing Earevel away from the book, claiming, "Oi, let a Vash-Vatom have some fun with this. I can't really go with you, so I'll get my kicks with examining this. If you want to read it, after you examine things is fine!"
She does give a start as the goblin appears from under the table and she starts reaching for a wand in her belt before realizing that he has the glyph of the open road on his patchwork armor. "Oh you gave me a startle there! Didn't see you come in. You were hiding behind the burly half-elf weren't you? Of course you were, he could hide a group of us small folk behind him, right? But anyways might want to get away from over there. I'm not sure how the magic operating that table will react to you being there. Really don't want to start offering goblin blood as a drink option."
"If you do happen to find the murderer, or even compatriots, we'd want him or her or them alive! Dead men don't tell tales, or at least not with out some expensive magics. Also, if you can actually stop one of the Quantium Golems, you'd be the first person in almost 4,000 years. I'd definitely reccomend the riding. It is a rite of passage, riding really, for many young people to ride a golem. They tend to do it at night only, but I'm sure a young person or two could explain it to you if you want."
Impressed by this information, Seo-yeon nods in understanding. As Sebnet answers the next round of questions, something she says sticks out in Seo-yeon's mind. "What's a Vash-Vatom?" she asks, curiously. "I think that's the second time you've said it..." Reminded of another foreign word, she adds. "And you called the Arclord a... Shabti?"
As they conversed, she drew some of the key pieces of her writing set from her delicately embroidered bag and began to take notes, not wanting to forget something vital later on. Besides, if all went well, she might well be able to spin a tale of the whole situation later... or perhaps a song?
Once she was sufficiently caught up, she added, "And what's the best time and place to catch one of these young people? I imagine if they're riding the golem as an act of mischief, they'd best be found for this kind of thing at night, but one can never be sure, right?" She held the inkpen in between her teeth for a moment as she carefully waved the sheet of paper dry.
The Goblin nods vigorously.
"Yes, the table was a lot of fun; it kept trying to prod and poke me, so I prodded and poked it back, until it left me a lone. Riding golems sounds like a lot of fun; has anyone tried racing them? How do you think they would feel about having racing stripes painted on? I think red would look good. What do you think?"
Earevel coldly looks back at the gnome when she does not allow him to read the treaties "I do understand"
Turning to the others he faces the doors leading outside "Well, it seems we will need to start by checking that workshop in Quantium North"
Sebnet's attention mves back to Seo-Yeon as she asks about her title. She gives a small smile at the woman's interest, before responding. “It’s an old title for the venture-captains of Nexus House, I think one of the founders borrowed the phrase from something Nex wrote so we’d sound more official in the city, and I’m not even sure ‘venture-captain’ was a title yet then. There are three of us, but Uoyaius is meeting with the council today, and Kargus is a little shy around new agents.”
"As for a shabti, not everybody’s confident about how the afterlife will play out, so the really rich ones sometimes build golden humanoids called shabti to serve out any karmic punishment for them. Some of those shabti break free and live normal lives, at least until they’re dead — case in point, Kefanes."
She does get excited as the bard gets out the writing set, going as far as spelling ou some of the more unusual words. "...S-a-n-s-e-r-k-o-h-t... hmm night time might be a good time to find some of those youths, but you could probably find a few hanging about, or ferrying things around the city. It's pretty common to hire a young person if you can't afford a golem or need a message to get there fast."
Her face screws up in a look of worry and apprehension at the goblin in the room again. Glancing at the bar again. "Nethys help you if you broke anything. Uoyaius would have me hanging by the ears, quite literally, if she had to fix it. And I'm sure someone somewhere has tried to race golems, though if you put red on one of the Quantium Golems, the city'd probably have you hanging by the ears!"
"Well, that should be enough for you to get started! Now on you go, I've got an old book to bore my self with. She then shoos you from the room, bangles jangling, before double checking you got the address for the workshop. "...and make sure you're back before sunset for dinner!"
"Of course, if you prefer to visit some other place before I will not oppose" adds Earevel "I feel more comfortable walking within the protection of the group" and looking at the goblin from the distance of his height "You will not close too much eh? How do you said you were called again?"
"I say let's track down one of these kids and see if they have any ideas on how to un-stick the old wizard and give our friend here a lesson in golem riding."
"Thank you, Vash-Vatom," Seo-yeon says slowly, feeling the word take meaning as it leaves her mouth now that she understands what it means. It's a bit strange to her that the murdered individual they were investigating wasn't a true person to begin with, but rather grew into being one.... But perhaps that could be said of all people. She doesn't miss the strange way the prettily dressed elf speaks, but doesn't comment on it. Perhaps he'd been having a bad time of it - she certainly couldn't be the judge of that. Rather, she hoped he brightened up a bit as they went along.
She does smile, though, at Sebnet's obvious and helpful enthusiasm. The spellings were very helpful - she didn't think she'd have been able to guess at them without wasting some of her paper. "That's really great to know!" she says gratefully as she finishes writing. As she puts away the unused paper and caps the pen before sliding it back into place. Once the paper is dry, she folds it up carefully and sets it into an easily accessible pocket. As they exit - this time through the hallway as it seems the giant archways aren't interested in helping - she nods, agreeing with Karvek. "I agree - it seems that will be our best bet for sorting out the issue with the golems, at least. We might be able to find some clues. I don't think we should leave it be for too long if the golems are always moving - any evidence left behind may deteriorate if we dally overlong."
As you guys leave the lodge, taking the long way out of the building, you hear Sebnet’s voice echo out of an archway near the entrance, stating matter-of-factly “You just need to think of where you’d like to go before passing through an archway! Why go all the way down a hallway when there’s a perfectly good doorway here?”
You really do know about the ArcLords of Nex! You remember reading a passage in a book that read, The Arclords of Nex are a loose political association of spellcasters who trace their origins to the household servants of the archmage Nex. They seek out and hoard any scrap of knowledge of and writings by the archmage, seeking to carry out his intentions since his disappearance. The master of the Arclords of Nex is Agrellus Kisk, who has held a position of substantial power in Nex’s Council of Three and Nine for over a century. Other Arclords are often too busy with their own infighting to challenge him.
Not only that but you read a much more in depth book on them as well that could best be summarized as: “The Arclords are responsible for numerous magical contributions, especially in the areas of constructs, conjuration, and education. This plays into the organization’s ambitions of making themselves and their magic an indispensable and irreplaceable foundation of communities and societies across the face of Golarion, thereby gaining substantial influence and power on a global scale. A typical Arclord can open an arcane third eye on their forehead, granting supernatural sight of magical auras, the ability to see through darkness, and an intuitive awareness of invisible creatures.”
You remember hearing a story or two about the Giant Golems of Quantium. There has always been, at least as far as anyone can remember, two golems, generously massive constructs, patrolling the edge of the city always opposite one another. There is one with a giant sword, died a rusty crimson due to all the blood that has soaked it and one a greenish hue, from all the algae that grew on it from before it came from beneath the sea.
The group decides to head after the golems first and rescue the body from further mangling. Karvek and Seo-yeon both have a bit of trouble tracking down a young person, the few they do find either are too busy to even stop and chat or even worse, actively avoid them, finding their actions suspicious.
After a couple of hours, Seo-Yeon, however, is able to get directions to a dispatch center, where a few young adults are lounging about. Walking up to the group, they eye her for a second, before one of them pipes up, ”I’d be willin’ ta tell ya what ya wanta know, if ya willin’ to promise me a few silver for my info.”
He waves goodbye to the rest of his friends and leads the group through the city to the outskirts of town, where one of the golems is treading around, apparently on patrol. “Ya’ll after the body in the foot, eh? Good somewan needed ta clean that thin’ up, it’s been leaving blood all ovar, and it’sa miracle it ain’t sta’ted stinkin’ yet! But yaw a wonderin’ how ta go about ridin’ wan wan’tcha? Ya gotta group so that’ll make it easi’r!”
“Farst, the golems always keep movin’, ya goin’ ta haf’ta keep up with ‘em. Next, they don’ take kind to people bein’ around the’r feet so you got be real smooth. Unless ya get someone to distract em! That works too! If ya near enough, a good hop might get ya on the foot, aft’r that ya just gotta hold on… oh and pull the body loose in ya case!”
He rushes you along, and gets you in front of the red golem, and a cursory glance is enough to show something gold and shiny wedged in the golem’s foot. The 15-16 year old stands off to one side and gives a very meaningful cough, holding his hand out expectantly.
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"So my training entertaining the nobles of the Viridian Court might be of use after all..." Earevel starts performing magical lighting tricks to try call the attention of the golem.
"Quick, get into it!"
Karvek's armor is too heavy and his assurance feats too useless to manage to ride the golem, so he tries to yell at it instead to give the others a chance. "Stop stomping around and slow down a second!"
The Goblin hustles forward as fast as his little legs can take him, overtaking the Golems slightly.
Seo-yeon grinned at the youth's obvious behavior but obliges it all the same. It was good of him to show them this far and the initiative in asking for his payment would take him a long way in the world so long as he stayed lawful. Besides, such youthful behavior was still touching, in a way. It was still unimpeded by the jaded cynicism of those who had too often been cheated of their due. Certainly, she did not want to be the person that ruined that strange bit of purity. She slipped several silver coins into his palm and briefly tousled his hair before moving to catch up with the others.
Seeing them try to catch the golem's attention, she immediately understood the game they were playing. Seo-yeon immediately starts whistling a quick little tune before adding words and calling out a quick song to match the movements of the elf's magic tricks. She couldn't be sure that it would be helpful... But then again, she also couldn't be sure that it wouldn't.
From the look of it, though, she may have caught the oversized creature's attention. Holding the brim of her hat to keep it from flying away, she attempts to keep its attention on her to allow those with greater strength than she to try and bring the body free.
Also the fascinating performance would work here, you won't actually fascinate him (this thing is a construct after all), but it fits beautifully and has the same modifier as your bluff.
Earevel and Karvek both try to attract the attention of the golem, but fail to make enough of an impression to get it to even turn it's head.
Fumbus, enamoured with the idea of golem riding, decides to rush in and get close to the foot. But he fails to take precautions and move slowly, almost attracting the attention of the gargantuan construct, but luckily Seo-Yeon starts up a song just in time to rivet the thing's attention to the group standing in front of it.
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Crimson Golem
BOLD ARE UP
Unable to reach the golem this turn, Earevel just moves out of the way and waits for the golem to reach his position.
Fumbus tries to climb onto the foot...
....but just can't quite manage it.
Seo-yeon will continue working to keep the golem's attention, trying to keep pace with it and moving in its path. Busy singing and moving, she doesn't bother trying to gesture to the others to get a move on. If she'd marked them properly, they'd all been doing these kinds of crazy antics for quite some time.
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Watching the little goblin struggle, Karvek reconsiders his strategy and decides to give riding a shot. With the golem distracted, he strides to the foot (action 2) and attempts to grab on (action 3).
The Goblin claps his hands in delight when Karvek manages to clamber aboard the 'Golem Train'!
Fumbus, excited to be able to attempt to ride the foot, tries to scramble on to the extremity, but it proves to slick for him to get a good hold on and he soon slides back down onto his backside. It proves to be a blessing in disguise as the foot soon lifts over him and barely scrapes his head before coming down again 40 feet away.
Earevel, playing it smarter not harder, steps off to the side and waits for the foot to come to him, and the red appendage soon lifts off the ground and slides past the elf before settling down just a ways ahead of him, presenting an opportunity.
Karvek strides up to a foot and then defly hoists himself up onto it. A glance around though shows to his dismay that he'd climed the wrong foot, the shiny body the group were trying to dislodge was in the other foot. Before he can jump down though, the foot he's on lifts up and he has to scramble to keep ahold.
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"Not that left leg Karvek, the other left leg!" the elf while the leg passes by him. Earevel looks at Seon, and when the outstanding bard gets the attention of the golem, he attempts to climb the adjacent leg.
Failing to grasp it with one hand, he attempts with the other.
Although the elf fails to climb up, he does it good enough to avoid falling to the floor. Stubbornly, he attempts for a final time!
And if he succeeds he holds tight and uses his elven feet to maintain the balance on the leg!
Seo-yeon moves back, trying to stay ahead of the golem to keep from getting squashed as she sings.
She watches the others to see their progress as she sings, unwilling to get squashed because of some awkward, careless moment.
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Karvek carefully slides off to the north.
Karvek lands near the other foot and climbs that one.
Now on the correct foot, Karvek tries to reach under and pull the corpse free.
If that's not good enough, Karvek tries again.
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Earevel proves that playing it smart really does work well, letting the foot pass him by before strying to scramble up onto it. The first go proves to be... not the most successful. He tries again with a different hand but the results don't turn out any differently. Finally the elf is able to catch a good grip with both hands and leverage himself up onto the golem. He then wedges his feet in and grips the leg with all his might, sticking on so hard that a full-blown earthquake couldn't lose him.
Seo-Yeon, moving fast enough to leave an after image right in front of the golem, rushes 40 feet out. The golem swings down and whiffs right through the image, before glaring around and catching sight of the singing bard again. The sounds of a couple of gears wrenching loudly ring out from the scnstruct as it prepares to move after the bard.
Karvek gracefully slides off the wrong left foot as it moves, luckily landing right next to the right left foot and once again, smoothly hoists himself up onto the foot, achieving a good position to finally get at the body. He grips the a golden arm, but as the golem prepares to move again, it proves to be a bad position to be tugging from. Quickly changing grips, the fighter gets a hold of the remnants of the man's shirt and tries to haul the body out again, but the burning muscle fatigue from his first attempt, and the climbing as well, makes it too heavy to dislodge.
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Fumbus hustles forward again, gamely trying to launch himself onto the leg with the body attached to it...
...but lands flat on his face, instead.
Fumbus hustles right up to the base of the leg, playing catch up with the danged appendage, and launches himself through the air at the foot, He hits with a small splat on the back of the foot, and tries to scrabble for purchase. The surface proves to smooth to find any though and he slides back down with a flesh-on-metal screeching sound.
As he hits the ground, though, the foot starts moving away from him, sailing a good forty feet forward, and leaving hte goblin in the dust. Earevel's tight death like vicegrip and well wedged feet prove themselves to be more than a match for the rocking and swaying of the golem, keeping him solidly in place. Karvel, feels his stomach lurch as the things starts moving under him again.
The golem, blissfully unaware of the things on his feet, keeps moving forward readying a second warning 'nudge' for Seo-Yeon with it's massive hand.
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Fumbus, with terrier-like tenacity, hustles forward, diving for the foot...
...but slams into the back of the golem's ankle, bouncing off, and landing in the dust.
The elf grips himself tight to the moving foot while he lunges to reach the body at the very same moment the boot moves out of the floor and raises "Well, this should be not much different than making some steal games at the Court for the Viridian family"
If successful, Earevel just hops off and strides far from the golem, looking for the party to recover the body he just made off.
Fumbus scurries after the foot again, not willing to give up on the idea of riding the golem. He gets close enough to try latching on, but as he jumps after the golem his foot slips on a rock and he falls short landing on his face hard before rolling to a crouched position.
Having observed the motion of the foot a few times, Earevel times his attempt on the body precisely, reveling the head and a second arm, but sadly much of the body below the chest is still stuck in the foot.
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Earevel smiles as the body starts to free, but gets frustrated when one part will renounce to get free. Still riding the foot, he attempts once an again to set it free "I will need help here folks!"
Karvek tries to maintain his balance as the golem moves.
He holds on, and grabs at the body again, three times.
Then he tries to hold on as the Golem moves again.
Seo-yeon sees that her allies are making some progress - though perhaps not as much as she would like. She begins the next verse of the song she's making up as she goes, moving further down the lane now that they're working on dislodging the body.
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Frustrated his efforts weren't enough, Earevel tries to dislodge the body again. However his frustrations mess up his timing and the golem's ankle joint moves in just the wrong way to catch a belt buckle and keep the man firmly in place. After a second to breath and calm down, Earevel tries again, swiftly sling the body over and freeing a leg leaving only his right leg still lodged in the ankle.
Karvek, this time on the right foot, actually tries to stay in place, and achieves just that! He then grips onto the form of the golden man, trying to hoist the man out, but his first attempt doesn't work and soon the building lactic acid in his arms makes the going harder and harder.
Seo-yeon, again moves in a way that seems to leave her image behind, causing the golem to give another 'warning' swing down through her image.
The massive gust of wind from a hand the area of a large elephant flying through the air rocks everyone a little and rattles the walls f the buildings near by. The golem then immdiately starts searching out the bard again, finding her again but this time much furhter out.
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Seo-yeon grimaces at the blast of wind that comes off of the golem's hand. Though she's a ways off, she can definitely feel it. She can see that the others have made some good headway with the Shabti they were trying to retrieve. He, uh. He didn't look so great, but she supposed death had that kind of effect.
Still, she continued onwards -- just a little bit more!
Karvek continues trying to pry the flat man off the giant foot.
And tries to hold on again at the end.
Fumbus, determinedly, hustles forward and launches himself at the Golem again!
Unfortunately, although the spirit is definitely willing, his stubby form is just not up to the task.
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Seo-Yeon, either rattled due to the power of the golem or just too far far away for the golem to care anymore, fails to hold it's attention and the thing goes back to looking along it's path
The golem's wandering vision would definitely be liable to swing down and catch sight of everyone working on the body if not for Karvek finally let his arms rest long enough to tug the body out with full force. With a grating sound and a pop, the golden body comes loose from the golem's ankle joint. The leg moves a little as the joint settles back into place and a few runes start glowing as they repair the scratches and a broken binding. You get the dsitinct feel that if this was a body made of normal flesh it'd be paste by now.
Karvek then has enough time to safely drop off the foot and tun into a side alley with the body before the golem can react.
Detemined to ride the golem, though, Fumbus doesn't care that the thing they came for was already obtained, He's going to ride the foot! However this attempt turns out the same as all the attempts before, with his face hitting something hard and him not on the foot. He'd be at risk of getting smacked if it wasn't for Earevel jumping off the foot and hauling the goblin to safety.
After the golem moves on, the group can reconvine around the body. It's a bit pulverized, but still intact and even has most of it's clothes on still. It's obvious that there's more damage than just mashing from the golem, but th mashing does a great job of covering it up.
The body has a few places that have taken some very heavy blunt blows, warping the flesh of the man, and closer investigation shows that there are some scrapes taht could only be from a set of claws as well as some areas small bits of stone are embedded in the skin.
Examining the body produces a very crumpled piece of paper that turns out to be a scrap of a vaguely threatening letter.
You find a surpsrisingly intact ring that you can say is definitely magical! You'll have to spend some time with it, or have someone trained in magical studies before you can verify what it actually does.
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Fumbus wrinkles his nose.
"Ewww. That would be hard to eat!"
The Goblin briefly considers using the paper for kindling, before realising it is too caked in dust.
He then proceeds to poke the body, wondering whether he could shave some samples off it.
Karvek shrugs now that they have accomplished the physical task. "Any of you have an idea what this all means?"
Portals open. Portals close. Portals lead to strange places.
And for this human, the portal dumps her right behind a colossal golem and a pulverized corpse. "Not the most pleasant way to die, I might add."
She looks up at the group, and notices the glyph of the open road. She pulls out her wayfinder in response. "I am Annilda Soncir, at your service. I was told to come here, but the details were vague."
Besides her wayfinder, you may notice the symbol of Calistria on the buckle around her belt, and the whip coiled on the left hip. She isn't wearing any armor beyond a pair of fancy bracers and some wrapping around her forearms.
Assuming you tell her of the mission, she nods and takes a look at the body. "I'm not a medic, but I don't think you're supposed to eat it, Fumbus."
"Look here. Some of the scrapes on the body. Only claws could do this." Annilda points at a subset of the wounds. "There is also blunt trauma and small bits of stone embedded in its skin. I wonder if all of that came from the golem."
"Hmph. I could write a better threat right now." She grins, dismissing the letter without a thought.
"The ring. Look, it's magical." Annilda slips the ring right off of the corpse's hand without a second thought. "Can anyone analyze it quickly to determine its use?"