Nicoleta turns and snaps out a kick at the rising skeleton.
She then continues her flurry against it.
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More flashing blades, little accomplished.
Aurelia hits the fungal creature with her crossbow bolt, then Nicoleta dispatches it with a series of kicks and punches before turning her attention back to the other laughing monster. Vox manages to score one more hit, but it's still not quite enough to finish off the tough monster.
Roz steps in to try to take the monster down with a bad touch but it dodges away from her outstretched hand.
The laughing guardian continues to do so while the others attack Vox again, slicing up the unfortunate elf!
Not wanting to waste another spell on this, she reloads and fires her crossbow again.
Nicoleta takes a step closer to the drow to help take some heat off of her.
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Finding her groove at last, Vox tears into the guardians with her blade. Assisted by Nicoleta and Aurelia, the trio make quick work of the creatures, reducing them to piles of bones and mold.
Roz uses her bad touch to heal Nicoleta.
Below you, the rope bridges descend to a platform that Glorio indicated hides the secret entrance to the Vivified Labyrinth. But two platforms lower down have doors leading into other rooms, and at the bottom of the cavern is a dock. You could do some snooping around before entering the Labyrinth.
"I say we take his stuff before playing his game." Vox offers, still pissed about how much damage she's taken. "And someone watch out for those damned invisible things!"
"Take his stuff?" Nicoleta responds in mock offense. "Only thieves would do something like that." She grins widely and rubs her hands together. "Let's start at the next level down."
The simple chamber contains a bed and a number of shelves carved into the stone walls. All manner of animal figurines, some crude and carved of wood, others exquisite and sculpted from stone or even metal, decorate these shelves. A heap of raw materials for crafting more of the animals lies against the western wall.
Several of the sculptures are skillfully made. The most valuable are a 1-foot-long blue-coral gecko worth 300 gp, an exquisitely crafted firepelt cougar carved from redwood worth 200 gp, and a gold flame drake with tiny pearls for eyes worth 1,200 gp.
Bypassing the secret door to the Labyrinth, you descend to the ground floor of the sea cave. Vox quietly cracks the double doors here to peek inside. Four lit braziers illuminate this vast chamber, a cathedral-like space made all the more immense by its lack of benches or other concessions to comfort. The floor is polished tan marble, with the walls rising up to form a domed ceiling sixty feet above. Alcoves line these walls, six in all, inside of which stand human-sized statues of a tiger-headed man. To the south, a few steps lead up to a pulpit-like area with three more statues of the same figure—the central one being twice as tall and holding out before him two lances from which hang flags. The left is the flag of Korvosa, while the right bears the Arkona coat of arms.
A tiger-headed man is in this room, along with two enormous, 18-foot-long green cobras. One of the cobras has just finished shedding, and the tiger-man is sharing the shed skin as a meal with his two pets. They haven’t noticed Vox yet.
Vox retreats quietly and reports in to the others what's going on.
"Not worth the bother I'd say." She offers.
"But hot," Nicoleta says, looking past the drow to where the tiger-headed man is reputed to be entertaining his pets. "Maybe well come back and say 'Hi' later." She grins and licks her lips.
She shrugs. "On to the next hottie ... er ... challenge," she says, wagging her eyebrows.
"All yours if you want it." Vox replies, voice laden with sarcasm.
At the bottom of the vast cavern, a wooden pier extends out into a gently sloshing pool of blue seawater. A shallow-draft barge is docked at the pier, an unlit lantern hanging from its bow. Supporting timbers and brickwork line parts of the lower edge of the immense cavern to both the west and south, showing where the original sea cave has been artificially expanded. To the north, a twenty-five-foot-wide waterway provides an aquatic exit from the cavern—the distant, muted sounds of the surf and sloshing water echo down from that direction.
That’s all that’s in this area. You could head to the Vivified Labyrinth, or you could possibly sneak back up into the Arkonas’ manor if you wanted to try to snoop around some more...
Aurelia rolls her eyes at the comment from Nicoleta "Really?" is all she says, shaking her head. "Let's move along, ladies."
After they finish checking out the other area, she asks "Time to go say hi to your friend, Peaches?"
"I don't know," Nicoleta responds, reaching out and putting an arm around Aurelia's shoulder. "That depends. Are you ready to party with the big girls?" She leans in closer to whisper in the woman's ear.
"I don't know if partying with Tony the Tiger in there is a good idea," Roz says. "He's a fiend known as a rakshasa. A rakshasa is an evil spirit that cloaks itself in the guise of a humanoid creature that it might walk unseen among its prey. They embody what is taboo among most societies, and they gorge themselves on these hideous acts. These things are shapeshifters. If there's one of 'em, there's likely more. Maybe the whole Arkona family are secretly monsters."
Nicoleta does a little shimmy with her shoulders. "All about taboos, eh? If you're trying to talk me down from him, you're not doing a very good job," she says as her grin widens. "If they're all about taboos, I wonder if the whole family ...?"
She shakes her head. "But that's just grist for the fantasy mill later on. Let's go kick his arse and take his stuff."
"That might prove difficult," Roz says. "Rakshasas are highly resistant to magic and almost impossible to hurt with weapons. The legends say only holy crossbow bolts can kill them. You sure this is a fight you wanna pick?"
"Uh, I thought I did," the dhampir responds, looking around at the others for confirmation. "But the way you're saying that makes me think that maybe I should say ... 'No'?"
"Well, we could try to stwal that boat, slip out into the city, find some holy pokey things, then sneak back in better prepared. "
"A rakshasa. That's awfully spicy name."
Aurelia checks her bag at the various bolts she has and says "Welp, no holy. Vox, you have anything holy in your pack? I sure as hell know you aren't holy."
She laughs at her own joke.
Nicoleta's only response to Aurelia's whispered question is a bawdy wink.
"I guess if we don't have the resources or the time to handle the raka... the rakarsh..." she waves her hand dismissively, "the studly tiger guy, then let's tackle the maze. Someone here's got to be good with mazes, right?"
Aurelia scoffs [b]"I'm sure I'll be able handle it without a problem. Let's go ladies."[b/]
The secret door on the second platform leads to a tunnel that descends slightly as it goes. After 100 feet, the tunnel curves sharply to the north here, ending at a set of large bronze doors, each carved with images of tigers chasing other tigers in four adjacent circles. At the center of each circle of tigers, a snarling tiger head looks out.
"I'm noticing a theme here," Nicoleta says with a smirk. She joins Vox in looking over the door for any traps before opening it.
Aurelia checks her bag at the various bolts she has and says "Welp, no holy. Vox, you have anything holy in your pack? I sure as hell know you aren't holy."
"I could help you to be." Vox offers, and she doesn't laugh.
-----------------
Seeing nothing wrong with the door Vox waves Nicoleta forward and falls back into the shadows.
The doors do not appear trapped. They swing open silently at a touch. Two statues, each depicting a tiger-headed man, stand in alcoves to either side of the doors. Their arms are wide, as if to usher visitors forward into the room beyond. Nicoleta notices a gap in the floor, walls, and ceiling between this room and the next.
Two alcoves open on either side of this otherwise empty room. In one alcove, a long lever with an ebony handle protrudes from the wall.
"Definitely a theme," Nicoleta says, eyeing the statues. She looks them over for traps before moving to the lever.
"I get the feeling that this is going to take us somewhere," she says, placing her hand on the lever and grinning. Once everyone has moved into the section defined by the gaps, she pulls the lever.
Pulling the lever causes the room to begin to rotate with a loud, grinding noise. Similar noises echo from somewhere deeper inside the complex. The room rotates 90 degrees clockwise, and the walls behind you rotate in the opposite direction. After a few seconds, it comes to rest facing a two-pronged corridor. The right prong ends at an alcove with another lever, while a door is at the end of the left prong.
"More levers. Someone is keeping track of which way we came into this place, right?"
She walks with the group to the door first, leaving the lever for later. "After you." she says, to Nicoleta and Vox, sweeping her hand in a grand gesture.
"How gallant of you," Nicoleta says with a grin. "I notice that you don't me do everything first."
The door opens onto a short hall with another door at the end. Unfortunately, Vox fails to find the trap here. A glowing symbol appears on the floor, wracking you with intense pain!
The dhampir cringes as the pain courses through her body. This is like the healing magic, but so much worse.
Vox grits her teeth against the pain, digging nails so hard into her palms that the blood wells across her dark skin.
"Shit" She hisses eloquently.
Roz resists the deleterious effects of the symbol. "Vox! You alright?" she asks, coming to the drow's side. She examines both Vox and Nicoleta. "Some sort of pain magic. It'll probably wear off in a while. How you wanna proceed?"
"No!" The drow snaps. "Stay here until it stops!"
Some time later, once the pain has worn off some, she sits down next to Roz looking contrite - an unusual expression for the drow.
"Sorry about snapping at you earlier." She murmurs.
Roz winces and steps back from Vox. She is surly until the drow apologizes. "Thought you were a tough broad who could handle pain."
"I'm sorry." The drow repeats, her dark skin is showing considerable bruises, the relics of their earlier confrontation. She seems... tired almost, lacking in her usual spunk. "Pain is fine. That was... worse. Much worse. I'm not as tough as you. Neither of us are."
With that she turns to put her back to the wall and stares off into the distance.
Roz frowns and reaches up to touch Vox's cheek. "Hey, it's okay. You're stronger than me in lots of ways. We each complement one another. And together, we're strong enough to overcome anything." She gives the elf a gentle kiss.
Of course, the tender moment is ruined by the fart noises the faeries are making.
Taking advantage of the quiet moment, Roz heals up her teammates.
The dhampir spends the hour sitting in a corner with her fists clinched. She avoids the others, worried that she'll lash out and hurt someone.
Once the pain has finally passed, she approaches the door the magic was protecting. "So were they actually hiding something or was this just a ruse?" she asks. She checks the door for any other surprises before opening it.
Aurelia isn't as strong either. She falls to her knees screaming, "It hurts! Make it stop!"
She also sits in the corner curled up next to Nicoleta, making sure to let her know how terrible she feels for the next fifty-nine minutes.
When the dhampir goes to check the door, the mesmerist makes sure to stay far away from it. "I'll watch your rear." she says with a smirk.
After an hour, the pain blessedly goes away. You move on through the door at the end of the hall.
Three large wooden chests, their lids decorated with carvings of cavorting tigers, sit against one wall of this room. Some sort of message seems to be carved on each lid, but they are all written in Vudrani. Colorful frescoes on the wall opposite the chests depict hundreds of tigers marching in widening circles around a single green gem the size of a fist, set in the wall and carved to resemble a tiger’s head.
There are no other exits from this chamber.
Nicoleta takes a long look around at both the frescoes and the art on the chests. "Wow," she says after a moment. "Tigers clearly get someone all wet and gushy." She shakes her head before focusing on the chests, checking them for traps.
Nicoleta noticed the left chest is coated with contact poison. The right chest is airtight, but the way it is sealed seems to hint that it contains some sort of airborne toxin. The center chest seems safe to open.
The dhampir relays her findings. "Do you think they actually have anything worth the trouble of disarming the traps in the other two?" she asks.
"Probably only good chests will be trapped." Vox replies. "Untrapped chest will be different trap." However getting rid of a contact poison at least is fairly easy.
Vox is able to disable the traps on both chests. However, opening each one reveals that they are both empty!
Aurelia laughs when they open the chests and they are both empty. "You know Vox, I love it when you are wrong. It makes me all warm inside."
The dhampir pokes Aurelia with an elbow. "That's enough from you," she says with a smirk before leaning in closer to whisper in her ear.
"So what's in the center chest?" she asks before reaching out and flipping the lid open.