Dart sneaks back to the bug room and tells the others what he saw.
Torian almost jumps when Dart returns. "Laddy, sneaken' up on a dwarf naugh be a good idea, 'specially 'hen surrounded by enemies 'nd such."
That said, he listens to the description.
"Well, sounds li'e more o' th' normal traps' 'n' puzzles li'e tha' room with th' lever'en. Shall we investiga'e 'er?"
”Yes, let’s check it out.” Isabella takes up her usual position in the middle of the group.
Galin jumps at the same time as Torian is startled, but just looks out wide eyed trying to be more alert.
"I'm ready to go if you are," said while taking up the rear guard.
just keepin' ya on your toes friend. Dart says with a grin.
The 4 of you make the short trek up the stairs and then down into the next room. The statue looms tall, even several feet lower in the southern portion of the room. The door to the north is closed and as you enter the room, another door to the sound is illuminated on the far side of the statue. With the addition of light, you can make out the writing on the large shields held by the statue, even from across the room. One reads “Family”, and the other “Home” .
Torian takes his time examining the ground as they approach the statues, then the statues themselves, seeing if anything strikes him as being odd or out of place.
"Family 'nd Home, eh? Tha's th' kind o' thin' ye woul' want t' see abou' now."
Torian walks over the floor carefully, eyes pealed for anything out of the ordinary. His slow, methodical approach probably begins to grate on the others as he looks over every square inch of the room. It’s a bare room, with the same large stones worked to create the walls and floors and arched ceilings. The stones show their age to Torian but despite their quality, they are not of dwarven make. The way they fit together shows him that. Torian looks up at the looming statue as he starts down the east stairs but as he puts his heavy bootdown, he realizes there is a slight wobble in the second step that doesn’t make sense.
Galin looks around as well in awe of the statues.
Galin inspects for any religious significance to the statue
"Find anything interesting Torian?"
Seeing nothing else of interest in the room, Isabella approaches the statue. Torian is inspecting the eastern stairs, so she takes the western and illuminates the southwest corner of the room with her light.
"Naugh sure, laddy. Somethin' abou' this ste'," he points to and taps the offending step, "jus' do naugh seem right. Ever'thin' else be perfectly fitted, crafted with th' kind o' care m' people migh, though the angles 'nd fit o' the stones be m're human make. Bu' this step be wobblen'... i' do naugh ma'e sense." He kicks the step in frustration at it being the one thing seemingly off.
Torian’s foot clangs on the stone and the sound rings out in the large space and echoes a couple times and you all hunch where you are as the sound dissipates but as you stay still, nothing untoward happens and Isabella and Galin carry on down the stairs toward the statue to investigate the statue as Torian continues his investigation. As Galin’s foot hits the floor of the bottom level, the statue’s head turns to look at Galin and all of its joints begin to creak, like a wooden floor. The giant statue shifts in place and hoists its twin shields in an aggressive stance.
Dart glances down at the crossbow in his hands, back at the statue, and shrugs before letting loose a bolt at the... moving rock.
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The bolt thunks into the statue, embedding itself a few inches but seems to do less damage than Dart might have hoped. The Statue does not seem to be seriously effected. . Strangely, the statue does not seem to be using the shields defensively, it seems to be carrying them as weapons.
Isabella yelps as the statue starts moving. "What the hell is that thing?"
Well, whatever it is it doesn't look happy. She drops the broom again and quickly grabs her acid flask from her belt pouch. However...
It's made of wood. And no one else is next to it right now.
She mutters an incantation and fire spreads from her hands.
The blast of flames from Isabella’s hands engulfs the statue and begin to eat away at its edges and as the fireball dissipates, you can see that it’s arms have caught fire. It gives howl as the fire works away at it.
Torian is wary of the now animated statue, especially now that it is on fire. Still, he closes the distance and attempts to attack the distracted burning golem.
As he closes with the giant wooden statue, it takes a swing with its shield at the charging dwarf.
Torian takes the hit and swings his axe, chopping into the statue’s leg nearly severing it.
With that last hit, the statue is starting to look rough, but still up and able to do damage to its assailants. It takes a swing with its shields at both Torian and Galin, it’s closest targets.
The shield swung at Torian slams into his helm but Torian is tough and the hit doesn’t hurt him to bad. Galin sees the slow moving strike coming and easily dodged out of the way. Isabella’s Fire burns away at the statue’s arms.
Torian takes the hit, grunting. Not wanting to be in the way of additional fire spells from the sorceress, he attempts to slash it again as he walks back out of range.
"Eye'm naugh sure iffen this'un be par' o' th' trial 'r naugh, bu' it be ah tough'en rega'dless."
The creature burned as well as she hoped, and Torian's mighty blow did even more damage. "Great job Torian!"
Unfortunately with a limited amount of spells available, she didn't want to use all of them on this one monster. Instead she throws an orb of acid...which falls short of its mark. Oops.
Seeing Torian get hit, Galin moves toward him and places a hand on his shoulder, "this should help a little. Keep up the good work!"
PS. I can't do anything to harm or hinder this guy I don't think. my max melee damage is 5 and no slashing, I think he would probably use the mace next time though if he doesn't think the spear will be effective.
The creature reels from the fierce dwarf’s blows but clings to its artificial life as the glob of acid goes wide of the large creature. It’s swings clumsily at Galin again as he moves toward Torian but misses the nimble little gnome.
"Guys, there is something on his back, sort of a glint. See if you can get behind him for a better look maybe.
Torian nods gratefully to the gnome as a bit of the damage caused by the shield blow heals.
"Wot ye be tal'ing about laddy? Wot kinda 'glint'?"
dart moves up a little closer to the golem, but doesn't try to move behind it yet. He then reloads the crossbow.
"I'm not sure I couldn't get a look at it very well, maybe a button, maybe an enchantment, or a vulnerability; it just looked different enough to feel like something significant."
The Golem takes a lumbering step towards Torian and as it's foot leaves contact with the short dais you all hear a click and the steps under Isabella and Torian individually rotate and the stairs flatten out into ramps.
Isabella manages to keep her feet under her as she slides down the ramp but Torian slips and falls to the bottom of the ramp.
The Golem takes a swing at Torian and Galin again with the large shields in its hands.
As the Golem attacks, it takes ongoing damage from the fire.
The Golem collapses and slides off its short dais slowly burning, but the flames are growing.
Setting the golem on fire had worked a little too well. It wasn't moving, but the fire was still spreading. Isabella rushes over, pulling out her waterskin and trying to douse the flames before they spread too far. "Galin, I think it's dead, can you help me put out the fire now?"
"Certainly!" and immediately walking over start creating water.
After the fire is out, Galin walks back to Torian, and puts a hand on his arm and focuses and says a brief prayer quietly, "Korada, please restore him."
Galin also attempts to ascertain what the glint was on the creature's back.
Torian is slow to get up after the construct gives him its final blow, the impact clearly severe.
"Remind me... t' gi'e than's... t' Torag... fer me armor'n stou' composi'ion... t'nigh'.... lads." The dwarf coughs violently, blood running down his beard as he does. The healing from Galin, however, seems to mostly steady him.
Standing straighter, he wipes the blood out of his beard and gives the gnome a nod of thanks.
"Ah shame th' thin' di' naugh seem to b' controllable... 'twoul'ah ma'e shor' work o' any skeletons."
Galin nods back, "agreed, a large sturdy ally could have come in handy here."
Fire out, Isabella looks over the golem to see if she can find whatever Galin was talking about earlier.
"I can maybe help some with the healing, especially if multiple people are a little low. That fire spell? If I concentrate, I can make it heal everyone it touches instead of burn them. It doesn't do much, but every little bit can help."
Now that the battle is over, and Galin points out what he noticed on the golem, you can tell that it is a key hole. The shields lay dropped at the golem's side. They appear to actually be fit for use by someone of human stature and are tower shields though of rough make. The painted letters on the shields reading "Family" and "Home" in the charcoal grey that was associated with Kassen.
There are two plain doors in the room. One leading to the south, and one leading to the north.
Torian shakes his head at Isabella. "Pro'ally 'est t' save tha' flame fer our foes. Eye'm naugh goin' t' lie, tha' firs' hit cracked a rib 'r two. Still, Eye'm good enough t' keep goin' onwar'."
The dwarf takes a moment to examine the shields that had recently been used to play him like some dwarf shaped drum.
"Las'wall colors tha' be. Kassen use t' be in their army, ye know, 'efore 'e was a settlin' yer town 'r seekin' a fortune. Still, so'e thin's stick I suppose."
"Well, I'm ready to go onward if you guys are."
Galin bounces a bit feeling limber from having missed getting hit twice by the golem.
Isabella looks around, trying to get her bearings. "Should we go north first? I think that will lead back to the entrance; it seems like a good idea to make sure there's nothing behind us before pressing on." She waits for the rest of the party's input before moving towards either door.
Torian nods. "Tha' prob'ly be ah good idea."
If that's what you want. Though it will take away time from finding those we need to find.
"All the more reason to check now. We don't know where Dimira was taken. By checking these few rooms we'll know for sure that neither Dimira nor any threats are still behind us." She smiles a little. "It shouldn't take long."
Torian walks up to the north door, and gingerly opens the door, ready for anything to jump at him, but an interesting sight meets his eyes. before him is a long hallway, lined with 4 pairs of statues. They appear to be identical stone statues of a human man holding a longsword in two hands raised above his head. The farther four statues' swords appear to be wrapped in something but it is hard to make out at this distance.
Torian immediately pauses at the sight of the statues.
"Grea'. Mo'e statu'ay t' play wi'h."
He cautiously examines the stonework on the floor and along the walls leading to the statues without approaching them yet.
"Dart me lad, be kind'n check fer tra's will ye?"
"Hopefully these don't come to life." Isabella considers, then grabs a nearby stone with Mage Hand and rolls it down the corridor. Unfortunately it's only about five pounds and can only make it past two statues before the spell reaches it's limit. "Not the most useful, but maybe it will show if these things are on a hair trigger."
The stone clacks against the floor as it rolls and bounces down the hall between the statues. The sounds seem to echo through the crypt, but no changes seem readily apparent.
Dart watches one eye cocked as the stone rolls along floor before letting out a sigh.
Well, not much point in trying to particularly move quietly still I suppose after the last room anyway.
Dart takes a look around and moves further in.
Dart scans the floor and the statues as he moves forward. The first thing he notices is that the arms all seem to have articulating joints but the triggering mechanism isn’t immediately apparent until he spots another discoloration on the floor between the second two sculptures. It appears to be a pressure plate designed to trigger the statues to hack down with their swords. Further, dart realizes is that the farther 2 pairs of statues’ swords have been padded with leather wrappings.