Darla quietly tells the others her guess as to the nature of the magic ring and seconds Gethric's suggestion about getting back to the original plan of exploration.
"I'd say go down. The vaults are where we expect to find his ring; not in a random box of stones. It's also where we expect to find the Cinderclaws and learn more about what they're doing."
Gethric nods "Seems and sounds fair... lets be about it"
When the group informs Warbal they intend to descend to the lower levels of the citadel, she sucks her fingers nervously. "I don't know how you'll get there. That's where the naughty dragons came up, and all the stairs fell in."
Indeed, the edges of a few of the steps up toward the courtyard are visible under the rubble in the ruined stairwell, but the downward stairs are completely choked with the stones from the crumbled wall at ground level. The party knows that somewhere in that pile is the corpse of a grauladon that was buried in the collapse. It seems clear that clearing the stairwell and accessing the lower level this way will require heavy excavation equipment from Breachill.
Stymied by the cave-in, the party turns its attention to the three doors at the eastern end of the vaultway.
Aronida eyes the doors warily, knowing that there are supposedly monsters behind them. "Should we just...pick one? I think working our way from outside in makes the most sense."
Opening the door allows Darla's arcane light to shine into what was once a sort of grand entry hall or lobby still decorated with the dusty and broken remnants of the Order of the Nail's most storied deeds. Tall oil paintings, most damaged but still recognizable, depict Hellknights gaining the upper hand in clashes with bandits, opposing armies, and terrible monsters.
A door in the northeastern wall and another in the eastern wall offer egress.
Darla peeks into the hall but doesn't enter it. "Maybe we should open each of the doors here first; that way, we should be able to avoid having enemies sneaking up behind us."
Nodding and swallowing by way of trying to ameliorate a dry mouth Gethric agrees "Sounds good... we don't want any of the nasty things we've seen in here so far up our backsides..." pausing and cocking his head before shaking away the double entendre. Instead he pads towards the indicated portal with forked fork in grip... eyes narrowed and inquisitive.
Shifting slightly to the north, the group opens the middle door. At the end of a short narrow entryway, two boggards lie dead; past the dead Cinderclaws, the room opens up quickly. A splintered table can be seen directly ahead, and broken chairs, moldy books, and general detritus litter the floor.
With the portal opened, Gethric's squinted gaze scans through the room...
Gethric's initial scan of the room fails to reveal anything that could have killed the boggards.
...Seeing nothing that causes alarm, Gethric moves cautiously into the chamber - aiming to draw nearer the boggard bodies and spy what caused their demise.
The halfling cautiously approaches the dead boggards, but he doesn't see a wound on them.
Alek calls out from back in the vaultway: "There! Under the table! Some sort of tiny ... man?"
Darla moves up behind Gethric and tries to spot Alek's 'little man.' "Who are you and what brings you to this place?"
Darla enters the narrow entryway to the room and peers under the table to address whatever Alek has seen.
Gellius adopts a wary mien as he squeezes past his companions to stand astride the fallen boggard, his blade before him. He nobly scans the room as he turns his second blade in hand to a defensive posture.
Gellius moves up to the front of the group to protect the others. Unsure where the danger may be coming from, he holds his main-gauche ready defensively.
The oversized toy soldier under the table raises a stiff wooden arm to point at Gellius. "Portami con voi!" it shrieks in a high-pitched voice as a dark, crackling ray shoots from its hand, just past Gellius's blade, to impact him with a shuddering thud. He immediately turns pale, almost blue, and visibly sags, trembling. At the same time, Darla's conjured light on his blade abruptly goes dark. In the newly-shadowy room, the tiny mannikin rushes from beneath the table to Gellius's feet. Despite the magical attack that has left him weak and shivering, the warrior has the presence of mind to stab downward with his rapier, gouging a splintering scar into the wooden creature.
Round 2:
Wincing as Gellius is put near to death, Gethric stammers "Get past it and we can take it down" pausing in his own actions until Gellius can stumble forward past the corpse and press the creature from both sides...
...weaving a complex interplay of flashing steel that hopefully splinters the soldier.
Alek's face twists in bewilderment. "It said," he calls out, "'Take me with you.'" He moves toward the fray but, unable to reach the enemy, points to Gellius saying, "Sii guarito."
Bolstered by the healing, Gellius steps to the other side of the toy soldier and stabs at its back, but his blades rebound off the wooden shape.
Gethric's fork flashes out in a series of quick stabs, but only the first penetrates the hard surface of the enemy.
Darla raises an eyebrow when she hears Alek's translation of the toy soldier's request/demand, but it's obvious she doesn't like the thought of the little murder-monster traveling with the party. The bard sings another one of her inspirational battle chants before working another spell into the music and lightly touching Gethric on the shoulder.
Aronida is stuck outside the room, but she can just barely see the...mannequin? "If you want us to take you with us, stop attacking!"
Not expecting the creature to actually respond, she quickly begins firing arrows in its general direction.
Darla begins a battle chant and enhances Gethric's fork.
Aronida takes a bead on the deadly toy. She has to fire carefully due to Darla's and Gethric's positions between her and the enemy, but her second arrow thwocks deeply into the wood where it is already scored by Gellius' and Gethric's attacks, splitting the torso open. The doll topples over, as lifeless as a wooden toy should be.
Breathing heavy and looking worriedly at Gellius, Gethric intones "That... is not a toy that people should be playing with..."
"Definitely not." Aronida cautiously approaches, then, (if it still doesn't move), picks up the mannequin and studies it. "Strange. Who would enchant something like this? And why was it asking to come with us?" It almost makes her feel guilty for killing the thing.
She looks around the room a bit, then shrugs. "Last door?"
Now that it's not an immediate threat, the party takes the time to examine the thing that attacked them. No longer animate, it appears to be a mere two-foot-tall figure of carved wood in the shape of a soldier in fantastically-spiked armor.
Gellius speaks up. "It looks like Hellknight. Am I correct?" he asks with a glance at Alek. "I believe it may be a soulbound doll, a sort of construct. If it is, there ought to be a gem somewhere inside it that contains the animating soul...."
Gethric notices something glinting among the dust and debris on the floor and picks it up: a tiny obsidian figure in armor about the size of a chess piece.
Alek recognizes it. "This must have been the war room, where battles and assaults were gamed out here on this table. There would have been a whole set of those pieces: Hellknights, signifers, blank figures to stand in for the enemy."
The figure is of good craftmanship; a collection of such figures could be worth something back in Breachill.
Gethric shudders as the implications of Gellius' words, complexion paling as the words of the construct are repeated through his mind. Brow furrowed and hesitatingly spoken he adds "Um... I think we should dig out that gem Gellius' said should be in there... I mean... I think... maybe the soul bound to the soldier didn't want to... you know... I just think we need to take it with us..."
Following his own words Gethric kneels by the fallen soldier and begins to examine it's body - trying to garner where such a gem might have been installed.
As an aside as he works "We should gather up the chess pieces if we can while we're here too..."
Gethric gingerly splits the wood open further, feeling more like he's cracking a rib cage than woodworking. Buried in the heart of the soldier's wooden torso, something sparkles -- a small gem. He works it loose.
Darla recasts her light cantrip that had gone out when the toy soldier attacked Gellius, and the two of them, along with Alek, pick through the dust and debris to find the rest of the set of polished obsidian figurines, some in spiky armor like the mannikin, some in robes, and some rudimentary humanoid shapes with disturbingly blank faces.
Darla examines Gellius's latest wounds before pursing her lips and deciding it's better to be safe than sorry. She casts a soothe spell on the brave but fragile warrior.
Cradling the soul-gem gently in his hands Gethric asks "Umm... Darla... are you able to do the thing with your eyes and looking for magicky stuff?" proffering the gemstone as the target of the inquiry.
Darla nods to Gethric and casts detect magic to see if any of the new loot is magical.
Seeing that they're staying in the room in a bit longer, Aronida adds her eyes to the search for the chess pieces. As she looks, she muses, "Do you think the soul is still trapped within that gem? Maybe a wizard could free it somehow." She feels distinctly sorry for the poor soul that had been bound to the doll, (even if the doll itself had been trying to kill them).
Despite helping collect the pieces, she isn't comfortable handling them for long and gladly passes them over to someone else for safe keeping.
Darla does not detect any unfamiliar magic in the room.
Gethric frowns slightly as Darla doesn't detect any magical residue, but his interpretation remains unshaken. He whispers to the soul gem "Don't worry... we'll find a way to get you out of there" before carefully wrapping the gem in a handkerchief and stowing it safely within his pocket.
With the rest of the chamber searched, he then proposes "Onward and ringward?"
The party moves back to the vaultway to open the third door. The room beyond seems to be another lobby like the one on the south, but this one is bare of paintings, rugs, or tapestries; there are only loose stones and some bits of metal and wire on the floor.
The door at the far end of the room has been shattered; what's left of it stands open.
"Guess we might as well go inside and see what's through there." Aronida sticks towards the front of the group, looking for any signs that someone or something might be nearby.
Darla moves cautiously into the next chamber, searching along the wall on the left for anything unusual.
Wary of what horrors yet await them and confident of his companion's ability to weather at least the first wave of conflict, Gethric seeks to avoid notice such that any foes would not see him coming until the pointed backwash.
The party advances cautiously toward and then through the remains of the shattered door. The room beyond looks to have been some sort of armory. Toppled armor racks are scattered throughout, as well as anvils, hammers, and other metal tools that were once used to repair the Hellknights' iconic armor.
"What the heck is that?!" Darla yips suddenly, pointing to the southeast. "There's something transparent--and big--over there!"
Feeling that the thing is likely to be unfriendly, the bard starts up one of her war chants to inspire her friends in combat.
Curious about the contents of the latest room, Gethric approaches the armor racks and looks them over.
"What the heck is what?!" Aronida grabs her bow, aiming in the general direction Darla points. Her eyes narrow as she tries to make out what she's talking about.
Gethric inspects the nearest armor racks. They are toppled onto the stone floor, but there is not a speck of dust visible on them.
Darla alerts the party to something she sees at the far end of the room. Trying to figure out what it is, she begins a battle chant.
Aronida looks where Darla is pointing but doesn't see anything.
"It's a gelatinous cube! It can engulf you whole, so be careful!" Darla calls out to the others. More to herself she mutters, "I can't believe they're real; I thought I was being teased or pranked."