As the door to the east is opened, you see that lines of shelves run from north to south in this square room. Glass windows, some with handles and others bearing locks, cover the front of the shelves. Dozens of objects line the shelves, resting on satin pillows behind the protective glass covers. A door exits from each of the four walls.
This chamber houses numerous antiquities, most claimed from lands conquered or visited by the Armies of Exploration... orc scarificators, Kellid war drums, a ceremonial Brevan scabbard... all broken and faded from time. The items stored include dwarven mining equipment, a stone-and-gem chunk from an elven aiudara gateway, the bone totem of an Isgeri shaman, and even an inert technological gadget from distant Numeria, all of this with almost too faded labels to be read. You imagine a couple of these cultural trophies might be worth something.
Meanwhile, in the previous room, Lillian and Victor take the time to look for valuables among the wax figurines. They collect various bits of jewelry and smaller clothing articles worth 450 gp in total. Your followers stand by the door, equal parts frightened and marveled by the wax figures.
Sif ignores the mini-museum for now, and goes to open the door on the eastern wall of the antiquities chamber.
The first thing Sif notices as she opens the door is a fearsome winged beast posing ferociously in the southeastern corner of this square room, which Sif believes to be a griffon. Two wolves stand in similar poses in the northern corners, while an immense coiled serpent poises itself in the southwestern corner, ready to strike. A small elephant stands in the center of the room, its head drooping far too low, and the top of its neck torn open. Thick cords of rope hoist avian creatures of every size along the ceiling, with an impressive eagle taking up the most space above. Another door exit to the north.
This hall holds several taxidermy animals for display, along with hunting trophies donated by status-seekers.
Sif casts detect magic again, and scans the room. Wonder if any of these taxidermies will animate like that armor did...
While Sif moves ahead to the next door Septis takes a moment to scan the trophy room for any magical auras as he notes to the others "There are likely some items of value here. Before we leave this place we should take some with us."
Victor keeps his weapon and shield up. The previous magical items attacking them has him being cautious. But as they enter the hall, he cannot help but appreciate the collection of hunting trophies present here.
As Sif concentrates, she detects magic in the room... than discovers there are three distinct auras in the room, the most powerful one of moderate strength... and finally notices that both the two wolves and the griffins have a magic aura of moderate strength .
Meanwhile, Septis also detects magic in the trophy room, narrowing it to a single aura of moderate power. Further concentration reveals a silvery raven figurine of a quite ferocious appearance .
Septis isn't quiet sure of the aura's but as he gets closer and looks at the item directly he knows what the figurine is. He notes to the others "When we come back for this stuff, this figurine would fetch a pretty copper."
For now though he goes on to the next room with Sif. Assuming she points out the aura's Sepis will try to get a better feel for them.
He's not sure about these aura's either but he notes to the others "So, either the two wolves and the griffin have some sort of magic item in or on them which could be useful or they are magical themselves."
He looks to Lil as he notes "Why don't you go take a look for us dear?"
Lil rolls her eyes and lets out a deep sigh as she moves toward the wolves first to take a look.
Liloria enters the room and inspects the creatures and at first nothing happens. Suddenly, the wolves animate... they rise on clicking mechanisms, their bodies straining to stand on two legs. During this movement, however, one of the wolves' hind legs collapses, while the fur on the other wolf's back splits open, rendering both inert.
Following this horrific display, the griffon's wings begin to beat, only for one wing to tear off entirely. Moments later, it rips off the front foot attaching it to its display and moves to attack Liloria as a spark of insight pushes it to inflict pain on others!
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Round 1 Liloria > Lillian > Victor > Griffon > Sif > Septis
Hearing the sound of trouble in the next chamber, Victor rushes forward. ”Move!” he says as he shoulders roughly past Septis, then lunges at the animated horror with his falcata.
Would it be so bad if she was cut up a little bit first?
Lillian reluctantly moves in before Victor and slashes at the creature with her blade.
Lil strikes out at the creature as it moves to life and looks about ready to attack, taking advantage of her position with Victor now in the room fighting as well.
Liloria, Lillian, and Victor all surround the animated griffon and cut it in several places, revealing some pulleys and ropes inside it... However not enough damage is done to fully dismantle it.
Stepping away from its original platform, the griffon locks its eyes on Liloria and with no emotion bites and slashes her with its talon .
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Round 1 Liloria > Lillian > Victor > Griffon > Sif > Septis
Round 2 Liloria > Lillian > Victor > Griffon > Sif > Septis
Sif runs into the room and stabs at the animated griffon with her longspear!
She misses completely.
Seeing the thing rip into Lil Septis moves into the room, sticking close to the wall, and casts a spell touching his companion on the back as her wounds begin to heal.
Lil gives Septis a wink when he comes up behind her and heals some of her recent wounds then glares at the oversized bird before lashing out at it once again.
HP: 7/11
Victor slashes at the strange thing as well, but seeing it’s insides are made up of rope and metal unsettled him...
Lillian continues to cut away at the creature, or at least she tries to, flanking it with Lil.
An unlikely effective pair, Liloria and Lillian slash the creature, working together to almost bring it down, even managing to rip its remaining wing off!
The almost destroyed griffon now turns his attention to Victor and manages to break his guard and harms his shoulder with its beak. It then tries to rip him to pieces with its talon but he manages to duck just in time.
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Round 2 Liloria > Lillian > Victor > Griffon > Sif > Septis
Round 3 Liloria > Lillian > Victor > Griffon > Sif > Septis
Sif moves around behind her companions and stabs at the griffon again.
With Bella moving to a position where she is flanking with Lil, the demon woman lashes out at the bird-lion.
Septis watches Lil's brutal attacks with a grin as he casts a spell and lobs some acid at the thing, trying to help out.
Sif misses once more and Septis melts of portion of the griffon's fur with acid. Liloria, with a powerful swing of her claw, removes the construct's head, causing many wires and ropes to twitch loosely and soon the entire creature colapses on the ground.
Lil smirks as she kicks the now un-moving thing and remarks "And that is how you do it!"
Victor kneels down beside the thing, using the tip of his falcata to lift a bit of the rope innards of the thing up and out to look at, somehow finding it more disgusting than if they had been actual organs. "What sort of thing is made of ropes and metal...this is so bizarre..."
"It must be magic. It probably wasn't really alive to begin with. I've heard about animated objects and constructs in stories."
Lillian shakes her head, "Peculiar indeed." she says staring down at the pile of inanimate parts.
Looking around she says "Search the room for useful things and then let's be on our way. We shan't dally too long down here, we need to get out of here." she says defiantly.
Sif nods and opens the door, trusting Septis and Victor to grab any loot behind her.
With the aura's of magic ending up being the animated creatures Septis doesn't bother looking for any other loot and follows behind Sif more concerned in finding an exit for now and then coming to get any loot once they have a clear path out.
Sif opens the north door and finds a hallway of at least 200-foot-long. Several doors line the south wall, while to the north there is a single door. It also appears that at both ends the hallway turns and continues south.
Septis motions for Lil to step into the hall and if nothing immediatly happens he follows right behind looking both directions, only being able to see as far as his magical light shines. As Lil explains what she sees in the darkness Septis nods "Maybe since we are already on this side of the hall, we check this way?" He motions to his left where the hall turns to the south.
Unless someone recommends otherwise he will nudge Lil forward to lead the group down the hall.
While the others stay behind, Septis and Liloria move east to find another door on the south wall, just a couple feet from the main corridor. Upon opening the door, they see thick wooden bookshelves jutting out from the eastern and western walls. Bundles of paper, scroll tubes, and thick tomes cram these shelves nearly to bursting. Layers of dust coat some areas of the chamber, but others remain suspiciously clean. Books and papers crowd one of the worktables in the corners, smeared with ink. Two doors exit to the south, while one door leads north.
Septis calls back to the others "Looks like a library of sorts, seems someone or something has been keeping it up, more doors to the south. Let's give it a look."
He waits for the others before nodding for Lil to start exploring the room. As she does he will scan the room looking for any magic.
After Septis concludes his search of the library, Sif goes to one of the far doors and readies to open it.
Victor moves along as well, after checking on the other lords and ladies following behind them. Once he catches up with the others, he takes a position directly in front of the next door in preparation to defend should further threats lurk beyond.
Lillian looks around for signs of danger or traps, but mostly she is just preoccupied with getting back to the others that she is distracted.
While Septis looks around for some magical auras, Sif moves to the door after Lillian gestures it is clear, having finding no traps.
Septis notices four different magical auras emanating from inside a scroll case, all faint.
Liloria, inspecting the southwest table, discovers most of the books opened there are about mathematics and geometry... at least she thinks they are about that, since she had never been good with numbers.
Both doors to the south open into a massive library. Towering rows of bookshelves fill the center of this chamber, separated only by a low shelf and countertop running the room’s length. A door exits to the south.
As the others mill about, Victor moves on to the southern door, it being the only other point of entry he sees at the moment. He waits and keeps watch vigilantly.
"Man, how big is this place? Feels like we're never going to get out of here."
Sif ignores the bookshelves and goes to open the next door to the south.
Lillian stops Sif and checks the door for traps before she opens it.
As Victor and Sif move towards the south door, four bizarre beings jump from the bookshelves! A set of insectile legs emerges from this book, sharp teeth ring the tome’s edges, and a ribbon bookmark protrudes menacingly from its open pages.
Meanwhile, you all hear screams of pain from the direction you believe the survivors are, even if they become silent a moment later...
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Seeing the monster books Lil looks back to Septis who nods her on to attack and she rushes into the room to fight the closest book.
Septis moves into the room and begins casting a spell, like he had before, taking a few seconds to complete.
Sif suddenly regrets her impatience. She turns back and stabs the book between her and Lil, intent on retreating to the relative safety of the back lines.
Lillian curses when the survivors screams, her mind shouting I knew they should have stayed back! but the words not escaping her mouth. She charges in and moves opposite of Victor, slashing at one of the things.
The combined effort of Liloria and Sif, and Lillian and Victor are enough to kill two of the bug-books in no time.
The other creatures approach and apparently try to enwrap Sif and Victor with their ribbon-tongue, but both of them are able to dodge the clumsy attacks. Albeit certainly weird, you feel these creatures are really weak beings.
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Speaking of really weak beings, Lillian moves up and tries to slash at one with her dagger but misses, badly.