Darn, missed. Should have hit.
Xindyra steps sideways into a flank position, then jabs at the suit again.
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"I am NOT a thief!", Edwin protested indignantly. "I'm here at the request of one of your wizards!" He emphasized his point by slashing at the automaton with his empowered black blade.
Zendara casts Gravity Bow, realizing that she needs to be able to do more damage to this thing.
Edwin, what happens if you just put the book back?
Having a safer distance between her and the mobile armor Yukarii called up another beam of heat to fire a tteh thing.
Edwin roared his defiance and as tendrils of darkness writhed down the length of his blade he thrust it into the joint between the torso and pauldrons resulting in spectacular arcing from inside the automaton!
Zendara whispers the words to a spell which enhanced the power of her bow and asked Edwin a question.
Xindrya's raper found another point of weakness and it skid past the automaton's left fore arm armour to damage the cables inside.
Yukarii's beam caused a section down the damaged arm to briefly glow cherry red damaging more of the innards as smoke gushed out.
Despite ruinous damage and a crackling electrical fire in it's core, the automaton wasn't quite done yet. It lashed out once more with its crackling spear at Edwin, but the Magus parried this easily.
<--- MISS
Xindyra
Yukarii
Animated suit of armor
Edwin <----- WE ARE HERE
Zendara
Spoiler:Xindyra
Yukarii
Animated suit of armor Gravity bow
Edwin Legacy weapon
Zendara
Xindyra
Yukarii
Animated suit of armor Gravity bow
Edwin Legacy weapon
Zendara
Edwin, Zendara, Xindyra and Yukarii are up.
Edwin slashed again at the guardian and replied to Zendara, "I'm afraid it'll skewer me if I lower my guard!"
"Exactly so. Destroy this thing first, book experimentation later."
Xindyra strikes out again with her rapier.
As bad as the machine was starting to look Yukarii didn't want to waste her better spells on it if she could avoid it. Instead she focused and thoughts of cold and the numbness of freezing. A beam of blue light shot out at the construct when she released her spell leaving a faint trail of cold as it went.
Now that her bow damage is enhanced a bit, Zendara shoots again, sticking with blunt arrows.
(point blank, bullseye shot)
(point blank, focused shot)
Zendara grumbles
Experimentation? I was hoping it would stop the attack, which is the entire point, isn't it?
With a titanic crash, Edwin's blade scythes off an arm leaving a gaping hole out of which spews smoke and sparks. Zendara's shot goes wide but Xindara's rapier plunges into the hole skewering something vital inside, and the suite of armour topples over emitting thick black smoke.
The room to the west contains a small library and several once comfortable looking arm chairs which like many things in town appear to have aged poorly (they crumble to dust at the touch). The stout looking door to the west of this room is locked.
The books are largely mundane all bound in blue leather and curiously they all seem to come from the Library of Aspen, wherever that is. The subjects range from Auroch farming to medicine and astrophysics.
Edwin stopped to catch his breath and then fixed his clothing as best he good under the circumstances. That confounded construct had put a small tear in his vest! He told the others, "I could do with a spot of healing, if you don't mind."
He looked through the book that he'd been looking at, "This volumes worth taking with us: Fyodrah's A survey of the Geography of five Spheres."
He looked through a few more tomes and reported, "Here's a good medical reference."
After looking over the books, he turned his attention to the door to the west, and checked it for traps.
It's just as well Edwin did check because he found the door to be trapped, if picked carelessly a trap pin would cause a large quantity of noxious fluid, probably acid, to spray into the room out of the walls. This is a purely mechanical trap the construction of which is quite remarkable.
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The concept of challenge itching in the back of Xindyra's mind, she taps Edwin on his shoulder.
"I'm feeling lucky. I'll have a go at that lock. Just take some safe distance, probably."
*pulls out thieves' tools*
Edwin retreated to just beyond the next door telling Xindyra, "Be careful, it looks nasty!"
Yukarii was glad the machine thing had fallen and while Edwin worked on the trap Yukarii made sure she was well clear of any fallout if he messed it up. She cast a spell to heal herself and one to reapply her added protection before looking to the others and asking, does anyone else need healed?"[/b]
Zendara steps back while Xindyra works, but is impressed at her skill.
When Yukarii speaks up, she says
No, think I'm okay for now. Thanks for the offer though.
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"Yes, healing please!" Edwin replied to Yukarii. "That construct stabbed me; and look what it did to my vest!"
When Edwin piped up and asked for healing Yukarii nodded and focused her mind on thoughts of healing and the emotion of comfort and relief from pain. Her hands began to glow and she reached out and touched Edwin's most serious injury.
"That was the last healing that I could provide Whiskers-san." She looked to the hole in his vest and Yukarii considered for a moment or two and then said, "I can repair it for you Whiskers-san but it will take ten minutes to do so."
Forgot about the trap.
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The luck of St Christopher was clearly with Xindrya as she had a sudden insight into how the trap operated. It was purely mechanical, an unwary lockpicker might try to set pin number 3 which if pushed above the shear line would activate a slender push rod built into the door which activated a tiny switch in the door frame that would lead to an deluge of acid.
She slid a metal shim between the top of the door and the frame in just the right place. Then she started to pick the lock by inserting one of her favourite tensioning bars and giving it stout top of the keyway tension. Then with one of her standard hooks she started probing for the pins. There! First pin set easily, second pin gave a bit of counter rotation and the first pin dropped out. She set it again and checked the second, still set. Carefully passing over the third pin she pressed the fourth pin but it felt funny, like it had a spool or some other security pin. She went back to the previous pins, they where still set and she tried the fifth and got a satisfying click.
The door swung open with a soft metallic squeak to reveal what appears to be a forgotten prison cell. In one corner there's a rudimentary wooden bed and the floor is thick with the remains of fossilised straw. The room is dominated by a pair of stone pillars to which a Githyanki skeleton with grey metal spikes for eyes is manacled! The chains clank and the towering nine foot skeleton turns towards you and a disembodied voice says something in a strange lilting language.
Edwin moved into the prison room and looked at the skeleton; he whispered, "What is it saying?"
Xindyra was over exited at the fortune that was with her, as she removed the threat and lock both.
Putting her tools away, she pushed it open.
The skeleton was not unexpected, considering the time span, but it walking and speaking was most certainly.
Zendara tries to assist Xindyra in understanding the language.
The spikes in the skeleton's eyes radiate a powerful aura of necromancy but the spells involved are completely alien. You doubt they're beneficial however...
The chains seem to be preventing it from using magic, and the spikes radiate necromancy, but I have no idea what they actually do. Seems bad though.
Edwin remembered the magic ring that allowed one to understand other languages and put it on. "It initially thought we were it's master returning, but realizes its error."
He tried to address the skeleton in common, "We have answered the call of a wizard in this tower. Is that you?"
He cast a spell and scanned for magic auras, confirming Zendara's assessment.
So while Edwin can understand the undead githyanki, the githyanki can not understand Edwin.
The chains rattled as the skeletal undead turned sharply to look at Edwin, which was an unsettling experience especially since the twin spikes embedded in its skull where now pointed directly at him. Again an eerie disembodied lilting voice was head, emanating from within the gleaming skull.
Edwin retreated and told the others, "The skeleton doesn't seem to understand common. It was worth a shot.
"Do you want to continue upstairs?"
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Yukarii was surprised to see the skeletal creature, surprised and disturbed, but she tried not to let it show. She didn't recognize the language the thing spoke but she thought she might be able to speak to it in a different tongue.
Yukarii looked at the skeleton, meeting it's "eyes", and tried another language, "Јас сум Јукари и тука сме на покана од мајсторот на кулата. Дали имате каква било информација што може да ни помогне?"
I don't think that can be the wizard, can it? I thought... well, I'm not exactly sure, but I kind of thought liches had... skin, you know?
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Xindyra smiles.
"Well you're not wrong on that account.
Most liches are but mere skeletal figures, those that actually do retain their skin, have it in an obviously unusual way.
It could look dry with a sickly color, or dull and more tight over the bones. And if they had their eyes, their eyes have that dullness of death."
The chains rattled once more as the skeletal undead snapped round to regard Yukarii with its eerie spikes.
"Guests of the master? Oh we have not had any of those for a long time, I must polish the silverware and set the table."
He struggled briefly and peered at the chains before falling back in defeat, "Ah. I appear to be indisposed. The master has his moods you know. He always did but the transformation made it much worse, much much worse. I told him it was a bad idea, that it wasn't something to rush into. That we should have escaped on a flier, and made the best of it. He was having none of that, oh no no no, he insisted on witnessing the end of the Voor you see."
The skeletal githyanki's chains clanked as he added, "You know what my mistake was? Saying the transformation ritual might not work. That sent him into a fury and he said 'well then we'd better test it out on you first.' And, well he did... He wasn't always like this, something broke in him when they made him summon the darkness, there's always a price."
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Observing the sudden start of a conversation, after Yukarii spoke in some sinister tongue...
"What is it saying, Yukarii?"
Yukarii listened to what the undead githyanki said and translated for her comapnions so they could understand before responding to the being.
"Yes a price must always be paid for such terrible magics as what he did. Can you explain what this darkness he summoned was?"
Yukarii continued her translation and once the first question had been answered asked yet another.
"You said he practiced the transformation ritual on you first, do you mean he made you a lich as well?"
Zendara checks out the room on the other side of the skeleton to see if there is anything there worth examining. If there is, she approaches to see if the skeleton will be okay with it.
The chains rattled softly as the undead spoke:
And when Yukarii asked about the transformation he replied tersely and with finality.
The undead ignores Zendra's movements, she finds a good deal of debris. Things that might once have been this man's gear which have become damp and decayed to dust and slush.
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Yukarii continued her translation of everything and nodded in understanding. "So he used the weapon to destroy the Voor infestation and everyone else on the ship except for the two of you them?" A worrisome thought crossed Yukarii's mind and she added, "Is he sure that he got all of the Voor?"
"Why would he make you broken?" Yukarii asked, "Did he dislike you for some reason?"
The skeletal mage didn't answer at ones but after an uncomfortable silence it's disembodied voice replied
Seeing nothing of value, Zendara backs off again, wandering into the next room, but she remains in earshot, in case Yukarii needs to pass on any information or in case the skeleton attacks her.
Edwin poked around some more, waiting until the others were ready to move on.
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Yukarii pondered the undead's hesitation a moment. She noted Zelera moving off and Edwin wondering if there was anything left they needed from this creature. Yukarii thought of only one last thing to ask. She would do it whether he wanted it or not but she felt she should ask regardless. Her eyes lifting to meet where it's should be Yukarii asked in the same hideous tongue, "If we find you phylactery do you want us to end you?"
The skeleton's ribcage heaved rythmically, the chains clanked and after a moment you realized it was laughing.
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Edwin commented, "It seems to be implying that the metal spikes are its phylactery. Could that be possible? Ask it if it wants us to destroy the metal spikes."
Yukarii nodded and reached up to where the spikes in the undead's eyes once were and pulled them out. She looked to her companions and said, "We need to destroy this, quickly. It will put this poor being out of his suffering."