Melech pushes his way past Ulysses and takes advantage of the jump they have on the statue to put his sword in a key joint.
Even after the onslaught of attacks, the graven guardian's wounds begin to slowly seal up. The statue raises its staff, and arcane energy ripples down its body. Suddenly, it moves rapid-pace, hard to keep your eye on.
The statue has used a spell-like ability to enact haste on itself.
As if that wasn't enough, the ground behind Sigrun suddenly rises up into a painfully familiar, vaguely humanoid shape and slashes at her with huge, stony claws. The ankhat has returned! It tears into Sigrun's unarmored flesh with ease.
[color=green]
Ulysses (32/32 hp)
Sigrun (23/34 hp)
Melech (49/49 hp)
Graven Guardian (33 dmg)
Ankhat (0 dmg)
[/color]
Ulysses hears Sigrun suddenly getting torn up. He turns to see the ankhat and remembers Sigrun's warning. Gotta find that keystone.
Knowning that Sigrun is more vulnerable without her magical items than Melech, he turns to assist the bard. He preps a bomb and tosses it, aiming the throw so the splash doesn't affect Sigrun.
Melech takes a moment to study the statue's odd anatomy, then swings hard again.
Sigrun yelps and turns around to face the ankhat. "Gods, how many times do we gotta kill this thing?" she grumbles, before launching into a powerful battle chant.
Ulysses lobs his bomb right over Sigrun's left shoulder and makes a direct hit, blasting chunks of stone off of the ankhat's makeshift body.
Melech strikes the statue, but it's a bad angle, and he doesn't even scuff the surface.
The graven guardian's previous wound knits a little more. In retaliation, it takes one--two--three swings at Melech with its staff in a blur of movement almost too fast to follow, battering him bloody. The slayer is standing, but looks like he has severe internal bleeding.
The ankhat raises two of its shapeless fists and slams them down on the near-helpless bard, who suffers several broken ribs and probably some internal bleeding of her own. Sigrun looks ready to fall.
Things have suddenly taken a much, much worse turn for the party.
[color=green]
Ulysses (32/32 hp)
Sigrun (7/34 hp)
Melech (23/49 hp)
Graven Guardian (11 dmg)
Ankhat (16 dmg)
[/color]
Sigrun wobbles, but she doesn't cease her singing. She glances meaningfully at the gnome, trying hard to get her message across: I'll get the ankhat. Melech can't take another barrage like that. Kill the statue.
Wondering how many other adventurers have fallen to sudden violent architecture, she swings both her handaxe and dagger at the ankhat.
Melech reels, surprised by the onslaught. He takes a short step to the side to give Ulysses a clearer shot on the statue, then attacks with his falchion again.
Ulysses is reluctant to tap into his final few bombs, but both of his warrior type friends just got wrecked. He wouldn't last a second with either of these creatures up close, so ending this fight quickly just became priority, especially since Melech has forgotten how to swing a sword. He tosses a bomb at the statue.
Sigrun manages to bury her handaxe in the ankhat's "face" for significant damage, but it bats away her dagger with ease. Melech once again strikes at an odd angle, unable to bite into the statue as he had in the first round. Ulysses fares significantly better, blasting a huge chunk out of the creature with his bomb.
With two brutal swings, the ankhat pounds the bard to the ground, leaving her insensate and coughing up blood on the floor, her body a mangled mess and her breath coming with a dangerous-sounding wet wheeze.
Melech fares little better. He takes two more brutal strikes to the face and chest from the graven guardian as more of its wounds seal up, leaving more broken slayer ribs and leaving one of his teeth dangling from its socket inside of his mouth, which is now filling with the nauseating taste of copper. Thankfully he manages to bat away the third attack, but the damage is done.
The ankhat vanishes into the floor, likely to make its way toward one of the other two opponents, but is currently out of sight.
[color=green]
Ulysses (32/32 hp)
Sigrun (-9/34 hp, unconscious and dying)
Melech (1/49 hp)
Graven Guardian (28 dmg)
Ankhat (16 dmg)
[/color]
Ulysses hears Sigrun's body hit the ground and sees Melech barely standing. All he can do now is hope he and Melech can kill the statue together before Melech goes down and Sigrun bleeds out.
And the ankhat is still around, somewhere.
This is not good.
------
Ulysses strikes the graven guardian with another bomb, and the blast creates a dangerously large crack along its midsection. Finally, Melech sees his opening and just barely manages to strike the guardian right on the newly-formed crack. He strikes with enough enough force to split the statue in half. The magic escapes it in a ripple nearly unseen by the naked eye, leaving nothing but a shattered mundane statue in its wake.
In the loud crash of the statue, Ulysses very nearly misses the sound of the ground rumbling quietly behind him as it forms into the ankhat, but his heightened reflexes kick in and he ducks under its clumsy swing.
Thankfully, nearby, the internal bleeding seems to have abated and she appears stable.
[color=green]
Ulysses (32/32 hp)
Sigrun (-9/34 hp, unconscious and stable)
Melech (1/49 hp)
Graven Guardian (60 dmg, dead)
Ankhat (16 dmg)
[/color]
Ulysses remembers how much hurt they had to put on the ankhat upstairs before it went down. With one companion already out of the fight, he can't afford to pull any punches. He steps back, pulling his last bomb from his belt, and throws it.
The bomb strikes the ankhat and it erupts in a cloud of flame and stone debris, leaving a small, shallow crater in the floor. In 30 seconds, the party's fortunes turned horribly awry and nearly killed 2 of 3, but you have somehow survived.
COMBAT OVER!
Melech points weakly beyond the gate and whispers "Help... her" just as he slumps to the ground, unable to bear even his own body weight anymore.
Ulysses nods and moves into the other room, only to realize there is one minor problem. He peeks his head back around the corner at Melech. "Um... I can't see."
Melech doesn't even turn to acknowledge the gnome -- he just tosses his falchion at the sound of Ulysses's voice. It leaves him in darkness but he is past caring.
Ulysses snatches the poorly thrown sword out of the air, silently thanking his mutagen for the improved reflexes, then hurries to Sigrun's side, flicking the wand into his wrist as he moves. He kneels next to her and taps her several times.
Melech fumbles in the darkness for his healing potion and downs it.
Maybe it is simply because he is so hurt, but this felt like a particularly potent potion. He thinks he may have the strength to at least stand. He crawls in the direction of the light shining in from the other room, finds a wall, and uses it to pull himself up. After a brief bout of lightheadedness (surely from the multiple pints of blood he left on the floor), he feels steady enough to walk over to Ulysses.
"Is she alive?"
Ulysses looks up, silently relieved to see the big man back on his feet, and nods. He looks back down at Sigrun. "How are you feeling?"
Sigrun wobbles to her feet, covered head to toe in her own blood and several bruises that have suddenly gone from dark purple to sickly yellow, and hobbles up the stairs, somehow managing to make the feeble movement seem forceful and determined. At the top of the steps, she kicks open the chest with her boot and starts wordlessly strapping on her armor, then sheathes her magical battleaxe in its belt loop.
Finally she says with a scowl, "I don't give a s#%& if I get cursed. I'm not going into battle without my armor again."
She then slaps herself and Melech with another pair of healing spells and strides irritably back down the stairs.
Melech nods his thanks to Sigrun, then looks at the others. "What now? Do we go on?"
Ulysses shrugs. "I am not hurt, but I am out of bombs. I have some other tricks up my sleeve, but I think that statue would have killed us all if I didn't have bombs."
Melech nods, then considers a moment. "I don't know why, but my gut tells me we can't let Velriana get her hands on whatever she is after. Plus, Filibus is still here somewhere. I don't think we have a choice. We have to risk it." He glances at Sigrun donning her armor. "But I think she is right; we can't do this without our magic." He heads upstairs to grab their remaining things out of the chest, then returns and hands Ulysses what is his.
Ulysses sighs. "Filibus, of course! Where has that boy gone?" He does a quick inventory. "Two alchemist's fires, two bone burns, one grenade, and one tangleburn bag. And my crossbow." He holds up the tiny thing, which would barely be a hand crossbow in Melech's hands, with a what're-ya-gonna-do look. "I told you. I don't have much."
He thinks for a moment, then pulls a vial of viscous yellow liquid from his bandolier and considers it. "Perhaps we could be a bit more cautious, though. Melech, hand me that darkvision potion." Melech digs it out of the pack and hands it to him. "With this extract, I can drink the potion without consuming it. Then I can sneak ahead without light to see what we're getting ourselves into."
Melech looks at Ulysses for a few moments, until he seems to decide that the gnome is being serious. "I don't like it, but it does make sense. Sigrun, thoughts?"
Sigrun grunts. "I think I have a headache. But as far as the plan, it sounds good to me. Ulysses can hide with magic and take a look around. It seems we have two ways out of here, east or west. Based on where the staircase was, I'd say there's probably more of this floor to the east than to the west, but it can't hurt to check out both."
You see foot traffic heading toward the east doors, though it's impossible to make out how many sets of prints.
Ulysses takes a deep breath. "We at least need to get you two healed up."
Melech grits his teeth as wounds and bones that would take months to heal naturally do so in just 30 seconds. Afterwards, he stands hunched over, hands on his knees, breathing deeply and trying not to vomit. "Thanks, Ulysses. You'd think healing would be more pleasant."
Melech holds his sword low to the ground and searches the floor (away from where he and the statue fought). He heads to the eastern door. "Looks like multiple people have come this way. Ulysses, are you sure you want to go alone?"
Ulysses certainly doesn't feel sure, but he nods anyway. He digs the darkvision potion out of the pack, then takes the alchemical allocation extract out of his bandolier again. "Bottoms up!" He drinks the extract, wincing at the taste and the thickness of it, then immediately pours the potion into his mouth. He swishes it around a few times for good measure, then spits it back into the bottle and hands it to Melech to replace in the pack. Melech and Sigrun can see Ulysses's pupils dilate until there is almost no visible iris. "Whoa. Trippy."
He pulls out his crossbow and loads it, then turns to the others. "You need to get your light out of sight. Go back into the previous room. I will open the door and make sure no one is there, then come and get you. If I run into trouble, I'll yell 'kumquat'."
While the others do as he says, he checks the door for locks and traps, then listens for activity on the other side.
Sigrun squirms under the barrage of magic, instinctively flexing all her muscles with every jolting surge of healing. "Ugh. No kidding. Everything itches when it goes through me. Why does it have to itch?"
She scratches at her chest a couple times, where the internal bleeding was previously, but quickly gives it up as a loss; it's impossible to scratch an itch under the skin without undoing all the healing she just received.
She then pats the gnome on the shoulder and says "Good luck," before moving back to the stairwell and out of sight.
The double doors are, to Ulysses' knowledge, neither trapped nor locked. Indeed, when he quietly turns the knob and pulls, the door neither resists, nor stabs him with anything pointy and envenomed or swings a giant g*#!*~n scythe at him. Surprisingly, the door makes no semblance of noise whatsoever when he opens it; one would think a building so old would at least have creaky doors, but apparently the ankhat is very good at its job. Ulysses creeps into the corridor beyond.
The hallway is ten feet wide and of the same sandstone construction as the rest of the temple, with graven images all along the walls depicting acts of magic, as well as a pharaoh battling an enormous monster.
Tales tell of the First Pharaoh of Osirion battling one of the ancient and horrifying engines of rapine destruction known as the Spawn of Rovagug. Ulunat, Unholy First of Rovagug, wreaked untold havoc during the Age of Anguish before being defeated by Azghaad, who go on to found Osirion shortly after. It is said that he was able to defeat Ulunat only because Nethys Himself aided in battle (or, more likely, His herald). Though the founding is mostly considered a legend at this point, in fact the beast's massive black carapace still stands in the capital city of Sothis. The carapace is remarkably intact, showing no signs of being involved in a titanic battle, and has not weathered at all in the eighty-five centuries it has lain in the sun. There is a folktale in Sothis that states that the beast is not dead: its conquerors only managed to put it into a deep sleep. One day it will awaken, and the 100,000 citizens of Sothis will be the world's first line of defense.
Somewhere down the way, you can hear muffled voices. You can't make out what they're saying, but from their tones, it seems they're arguing. It's also impossible to say where the voices are coming from; it sounds like they're coming from both the east and the south corridors.
Ulysses moves slowly down the eastern corridor, listening to determine if the voices get louder or softer.
+2 traps
In fact, the voices do get louder. As you creep forward, you can hear a conversation taking place between two voices. They are low and furtive, but they're clearly coming from around the right-hand bend in front of you.
"... not what we agreed, Mister Johnson." The voice is unfamiliar, but haughty and feminine, and clearly foreign. Velriana, perhaps?
"What we agreed was for you to take this site and kill the BBC," a second voice says sternly, "leaving only the gnome alive. I didn't say I'd help." This voice sounds familiar, but you can't place where. It's deep and masculine, with a slight reedy thread through it. They also sound foreign.
"You said you would lend us your aid in the battle!" the woman says heatedly.
The second voice hisses once to quiet her. "And did I not give you your lovely new wand to play with? No clumsy aiming like with your scorching ray. Just point and shoot. That didn't come cheap; my employers expect results."
"A stupid wand does not constitute aid in battle! You'll bring your skills to bear on them alongside us, or--"
"Or what?" asks the second voice. They are deadly quiet now; you can practically feel the tension in their words. "You won't let them pilfer your precious temple, Hypaxes, so stop pretending like you have a choice in the matter. The vein bulging in your forehead does your complexion no credit."
"We could let the denizens of the temple kill them, gnome and all. Then what will you do, Dakota? Drag a carcass back to your employers?"
There is a sound like steel being drawn from a sheath, then a long pause. The silence is veritably pregnant. Finally: "Fine. I'll help. My employers can use his corpse, but they prefer him alive."
A snort. "That's what I thought. Get ready. Idorii heard combat moments ago. They could arrive at any time."
By the time you reach the corner to peer around, the conversation has gone silent.
'Leave the gnome alive?' Are they really talking about us? About me?
Ulysses creeps up to the corner, not trusting himself to get all the way back to the others. He does one last inventory of his suppli.... wait a minute. Another bomb! How did he miss this one?
It's provenance. F&*& it, let's go. He pulls a shield extract from his bandolier, downs it, then preps the bomb.
Ulysses puts the bomb in his bombchucker, leans out into the hallway, and throws it at Velriana.
Then he yells at the top of his lungs.
Ten seconds pass. Then twenty. Then thirty. Melech is impatiently shifting his weight from foot to foot, adjusting his grip on his sword. He is starting to think they should just go when he hears the gnome scream that odd word (must be some sort of alchemy thing). He looks at Sigrun with wide eyes and starts running, cursing his bulky armor.
Noting the bright light around the corner, Ulysses stops short of the lit hallway with obvious bad guys and peeks around to see an octagonal room with a vaulted ceiling, supported by two rows of columns. Inscribed hieroglyphs cover most of the room's walls, but the southern wall is rough and unfinished. Three passages, each with a bronze gate, encircle the room. The one to the north and east are closed, but you can just make out the west gate is slightly ajar.
Standing in the room are four familiar faces: Azaz Arafe, his lover Khelru, the half-elf bodyguard Idorii, and their leader Velriana Hypaxes.
They all look alert, with weapons or wands out, gazing around curiously. For a moment, Ulysses is certain Idorii's sharp eyes have spotted him: they linger on his location for a moment that feels excruciatingly long before finally sweeping away to her left.
You know you heard a voice that did not sound like Azaz or Khelru (you overheard their conversation at the Tooth and Hookah only a few days ago so you have a fair idea what they both sound like) but you do not see anyone else in the room. The hall with the open gate to the southwest looks like you may be able to sneak in that way and catch someone unawares with your last bomb.
You could also alert your comrades on your way around, but that comes with risks. Melech isn't likely to be as stealthy as you, and Sigrun definitely isn't. On the other hand, they would be closer when the violence starts...
Ulysses carefully heads back to his friends.
"There are four of them that I can see. I found one more bomb and I think I can hit a few of them before they see me. I think you two can wait by the east door with your sword sheathed; that way, you'll only be about fifty feet away. I'll throw the bomb and run back to you."
As Ulysses creeps toward the door, he hears something down the south hallway. Someone is coming up on his left side, and fast. He peers into the darkness. Even with darkvision, the strange black-and-white nature of the environs make it difficult to perceive anything clearly.
Just as he's about to start moving toward the doors and back to his friends, a shape looms out of the darkness and a khopesh drives itself at his head.
[color=green]
Ulysses (32/32 hp)
Idorii (0 dmg)
[/color]
Ulysses, not wanting to use his last bomb on a single target, trusts in his alchemically enhanced defenses to save him and turns and runs back into the statue room. He stage whispers "KUMQUAT!" once he is outside the doorway to the room that his companions are in.
Your sudden movement takes her by surprise and you slip past her to warn the others. She charges up angrily and swings at you with the butt of her khopesh, but it bounces harmlessly off a cascade of magical and physical defenses. She looks quizzically at you, then mutters a curse under her breath.
[color=green]
Ulysses (32/32 hp, +4 AC)
Sigrun (34/34 hp)
Melech (49/49 hp)
Idorii (0 dmg, -2 AC)
[/color]
Ulysses takes a step away from Idorii and fires his crossbow.
Melech rushes into the room and is delighted to see they are only facing one enemy. How stupid are these people? He brings his falchion down in a vicious two-handed overhead strike.
Sigrun hustles out, drawing both her weapons as she goes, and takes a single swing at Idorii.
Idorii bats aside the incoming bolt contemptuously, but can't overcome Melech's heavy-handed chop, taking a nasty slash to her shoulder and chest that bleeds profusely. Sudden fear in her eyes, she stumbles backwards in a fighting retreat, back into the hallway.
Something in her eye belies her, however. She's clearly faking her fear as she stumbles back into the hallway, though what purpose such a ruse could serve isn't entirely clear.
[color=green]
Ulysses (32/32 hp, +4 AC)
Sigrun (34/34 hp)
Melech (49/49 hp)
Idorii (16 dmg)
[/color]
Ulysses steps into the hallway and fires a bolt at the retreating woman, honor be damned.