The sandstorm may have left no shortage of sand covering the floor, but it also annihilated all tracks almost instantly. Tiny dunes of perfectly smooth sand lie piled up against the columns.
While no tracks survived the sandstorm, it appears to be localized to this room. Footprints of tracked sand lead off to the west for a short distance before vanishing.
Melech starts, unable to believe that he momementarily forgot Filibus.
"Here! He went this way!" He hurries to the west, not waiting to see if the others are following.
Ulysses quickly stows the wand and follows.
You hustle to the west. There are two openings; the one to the north looks like it enters into a small library. The southern opening, a pair of open double doors, are where the tracks go before quickly disappearing. You step into this short hallways, which connects a shallow, empty pool to the west to two curtained cubicles to the east . A wooden bench is bolted to the floor in a small alcove across from the pool. A set of stone doors marked with hieroglyphs stands to the north.
Down the short hallway to the south, you can just make out bloody drag marks leading down a narrower hallway leading southwest.
Melech whispers, "Follow me. Be ready, keep quiet." Falchion at the ready, he slowly follows the drag marks.
Ulysses downs his heightened awareness extract, then follows closely behind Melech.
Creeping stealthily down the southward hall, you find a zombie.
A series of cubicles encircle an open central space here, each separated from the common area by a curtain hanging from a rod over the doorway. The curtains all reach the floor, making it impossible to see beyond them.
In the nearby corner, a crumpled zombie lies in a bloody heap, scorched in several places with a long, vicious gash across its belly, spilling its desiccated guts. The cubicle next to Sigrun also has bloodstains all over it, and when she very cautiously uses her handaxe to pull aside the curtain, you find another dead zombie in there, as well.
In yet another cubicle, you find the shattered bones of a skeleton, struck with blunt force trauma and scorched with more fire. A broken scimitar lies nearby.
The corpses in the cubicles seem as if they were shoved out of the way deliberately, so they'd be out of sight. The corpse in the hallway looks like it may be more recent--within the last few minutes or so.
There is nothing else of value in this area, and no other signs of Filibus or whoever killed these creatures.
"Nothing here."
Melech leads everyone to the northwest double door, checks them for traps, and listens for activity on the other side.
These double doors do not appear to be trapped, but they are locked. Ancient Osirani hieroglyphs above the door read: "High Priest Only -- All Others Forbidden."
This lock was recently picked, then locked back up again shortly after.
"Someone besides me picked this lock recently. Be ready."
He tries to open the door quietly.
You swing the door open and step into the next room. It is sparsely furnished, and contains a bed frame bolted to the floor in the southwest corner next to a lacquered end table. On the opposite side of the room, a wooden desk has partially collapsed against the wall. Doors exit the room to the north and east.
The eastern door probably opens into the library-esque room you saw off the central nave, north of the hallway you ended up going down. (In other words, it will take you back to the central nave.)
"That leads back where we came from. This way." He moves to the northern door and checks it.
Once again, the door is locked but not trapped. It shows the same telltale signs of being recently picked as the last one.
Ulysses opens the door quietly.
The door unlocks with a soft click, opening into a short, unremarkable stone corridor. Another door waits on the other side.
Ulysses checks the door.
For all his vigilance against traps on these doors, Ulysses neglected to check the floor. He knows the moment he screwed up when his small foot slides down further than it should, about halfway down the hall. He has just enough time to think Oh, sh before a slit in the walls opens up and a scythe barrels down on the gnome. He manages to keep from getting split in half, but only barely. A huge chunk of his calf gets taken off by the swinging blade.
After a moment, the scythe lifts up into the opposite wall in a series of short, jerky, clicking motions as the mechanical trap resets itself.
You can now see on the floor (helpfully outlined by Ulysses' blood splatters) which tile is the trigger and can hop over it without setting it off again, if you wish.
The door on the other side is unlocked and untrapped.
Sigrun runs over to the gnome and puts a hand on him.
"Are you okay? Gods, that was a lot of blood!"
Ulysses groans with the pain and nods that he is okay to Sigrun. Fully expecting anyone on the other side of the door to have heard the trap, he still opens the door as quietly as he can.
Ulysses quietly slides the door open into an octagonal chamber. It is empty save for a large metal chest against the eastern wall. A series of hieroglyphs are inscribed on the wall above it. Stone doors are set in the northern wall, mirroring this one.
A chest sits against the eastern wall, below the Ancient Osiriani hieroglyphs. It is unlocked, open, and empty. The script reads: "The righteous and the holy have no need of staff, rod, or ring. Place your faith in the Good Magister and walk without fear."
The "Good Magister" refers to the sanctum's high priest, and refers to that person's control of magic, not his or her righteousness. The chest implies those who go into the sanctum beyond should have no need for magic items or trinkets of defense, as the high priest of the temple's duty is to protect its flock in that sacred space.
"I think... I think this means we need to leave our magical items in this chest."
Melech nods hesitantly. "I agree." He plucks the ioun stone that is orbiting his head from the air. "This is my only magical item." He thinks for a moment. "No, wait." He goes into his pack and pulls out the any-tool. "This too. I suppose I can live without both. This place has been terrible enough; I hate to see it when it's mad." He puts the items in the chest.
Ulysses pulls off his goggles and blinks a few times. "I hate taking these off. It's like turning off the world." He shrugs and places them in the chest.
Melech looks at the chest again. "It says 'staff, rod, or ring'. Do we think the wand is included in that? It's probably safest if we leave everything we have that is magical. Sigrun, what do you think?"
Ulysses flicks his wrist and looks at the wand. "Dammit." He approaches Melech. "If we can't take it, we should probably get as healthy as we can."
Then he sighs and puts it in the chest, along with his healing potion.
Melech groans. "Ugh, potions too?" He puts his healing potion and silversheen in the chest.
"Sigrun. Can you see any more magic on us? Are we interpreting this correctly?"
Sigrun looks deeply uncomfortable. "I don't sense any magic on any of you. I also don't sense any magic on this box. I really don't feel comfortable taking on the Scorched Hand and gods know what else with no armor and a hatchet."
She stares at her studded leather armor and rune-carved battleaxe before finally dropping the weapon in the box looking sick. "Help me out of this."
Once her armor is off, she's left with significantly less clothing--wrappings across her chest, shoulder, and upper arms stand in for a blouse, tight brown leggings cinched with a tattered silk cord the color of hoarfrost, and her blood-splattered boots are all that remains, covered by a light silk cloak of oddly bright greens and yellows to keep the heat off. It looks like it was purchased within the last few days, but those few days have been deeply unkind to it: the hem is frayed and ragged, it's covered in dark streaks that can only be old blood, and--is that an acid burn?
Sigrun pulls out a plain dagger from her belt and, hatchet and dagger in hand and feeling incredibly vulnerable, she shrugs. "Let's get this over with."
"I don't like it either. Let's go." He checks the door.
As you approach the door, you notice a single bloody footprint on the floor. It is a medium humanoid, and they were not wearing any shoes or boots. There is a second faint set of shoeless prints coming back, and are roughly the same shape as the bloody print, though this time the print does not have any blood on it.
You also note the tracks of four booted individuals heading north through the door. Perhaps the Scorched Hand? But then, who is the shoeless person who seems to have come and gone?
You find no traps or locks on the door. It swings open into a smooth sandstone stairwell leading into further darkness.
You reach the bottom of the stairs to another door. It's devoid of traps or locks, and you open it into a small octagonal chamber. A stone bench sits against the eastern wall, and black tiles line the floor, walls, and ceiling, reflecting the light of Sigrun's light spell in strange, eerie ways. A short passage to the south ends in a gate of bronze bars.
Just as you reach the bottom of the stairs and swing the door open, Melech's armor ceases to glow with a light spell. That was the light spell Filibus placed on him...
Melech looks worriedly at the others. Why did that happen? Filibus probably just cast light again, right?
He gestures to Sigrun, pointing to her light source, then pointing to his sword. Once she transfers the light spell, he moves forward as quietly as he can and inspects everything around him, particularly the floor and the bench.
Ulysses helps Melech look around. He waves Sigrun toward him, then whispers directly in her ear, "Is anything in here magical?"
Sigrun looks a little resentful at Melech's wordless order, but does as he asks. She simply shakes her head at Ulysses' question, but then swings her gaze southward and stops. She points at the statue just visible through the gate in the southward room. "That."
Neither Melech nor Ulysses find anything useful or trapped in the room. The gate is locked tight.
There are a few faint bloody footprints leading from the stairs and through the gate. You also note several bootprints partially obscuring them.
That statue is no statue. It's a graven guardian, a type of construct used to guard sacred sites of deities. Each one has DR 5/adamantine and a pair of abilities based on which two domains it was crafted with. They also always have a magic weapon as part of their construction; melee weapons are keen, thrown weapons are returning, and ranged weapons such as bows or crossbows are seeking. These properties only persist while used by the graven guardian, and become mundane weapons in anyone else's hands.
On top of their other defenses and powers, graven guardians are also highly resistant to magic.
Of curious note, while graven guardians obey only their creators, they are nonetheless all programmed to ignore members of the faith unless directly attacked . They also have no exceptional ability to detect enemies greater than normal eyes (though they do have darkvision). It doesn't appear to have noticed you yet; perhaps you could sneak past it?
+1 track
Melech waves everyone back up the stairs where they can talk a little more safely.
"There are several sets of footprints going through here. Do either of you know what that magical statue is?"
"It's not a statue. It's a construct, and it's going to be hard to kill. We could try to sneak past it; honestly, I'm surprised it hasn't already noticed our light." He takes a moment to inventory his remaining supplies. "I could also hit it with a tangleburn bag and hold it in place while we soften it up out of its range."
Something occurs to him. "Or. Or, maybe it only attacks people that didn't leave their magical stuff in that chest?"
"Maybe. A tangleburn might not be a bad idea, but if it is going to be hard to damage, I'd just as soon use my sword. Arrows aren't going to do much. Sigrun, do you want my flail? Probably hits a little harder than your weapons. That dagger will be useless."
Sigrun sighs. "I don't even know how to use it. The only thing I'm likely to hit with it is myself. Best I can probably do is sing at it and take a few hits for you."
Melech nods. "Fair enough. So, we're trying to sneak by it, hoping it will leave us alone since we have no magical items, right?"
Ulysses nods, then moves to the gate to unlock and open it.
Melech stands behind Ulysses, watching the statue closely for any movement or signs of aggression has an itch under his armor and it's distracting the hell out of him.
Sigrun temporarily douses her light spell on Melech and does her best to keep up with the others, not being terribly stealthy herself.
Silent as a mouse, Ulysses unlocks the gate and pulls it open; shockingly, despite its clear age, it doesn't creak as he does. However, it does cause a small puff of dust to drop down on Sigrun and Melech. As if doing a Vaudeville routine, Sigrun and Melech get into a sneezing contest for about twenty seconds. The statue in the corner steps off its pedestal and rears its magical quarterstaff at you; unfortunately, since Sigrun turned off her spell to be stealthy, for the moment only Ulysses sees this.
[color=green]
Ulysses (32/32 hp)
Sigrun (32/34 hp)
Melech (49/49 hp)
Graven Guardian (0 dmg)
[/color]
Based on the iconography of this guardian, you would guess it was constructed using the Protection and Rune domains. The runes inscribed over it appear to be used for the purpose of redirecting elemental energy that strikes it, allowing it to channel that energy into its quarterstaff for a short time. The Protection sigils on it increase its resistance to a plethora of effects.
Sigrun yelps as she hears the statue move toward them in the darkness and immediately casts light on Melech again. "So much for that plan!"
"Crap."
Ulysses quickly assembles a bomb and tosses it center mass of the guardian.