"On our best behavior, your Ladyship, I promise!"
Nayala throws Lavinia a wink and heads on in with the rest of the crew.
The party proceeds into the main entry, the guards nodding to Lavinia as you pass by. Inside of the main gate, several paths lead to various parts of the castle. Each path leads to a smaller gate labeled after its function, military, taxes, and so on. Lavinia heads to the one called "Vaults".
You pass into a large stone hall, with stairways leading up and down. The hall has a variety of clerks sitting at desks with guards stationed at entrances to the vaults. Lavinia heads to one of the vaults and says to the clerk "I am Lavinia Vanderboren, and my party and I would like to see the Vanderboren family vault.." The clerk nods, searches through some papers in a drawer in his desk, and leads the group down the spiral staircase to the vaults.
The staircase eventually ends into a large chamber with over a dozen five foot wide, ten feet long hallways with a stout iron door at the end. The clerk says "Your vault is at the end of the 9th hall, Lady Vanderboren. Please continue to enjoy your day." Lavinia walks towards the door of the vault, holding her signet ring before her.
The iron door ahead is blazed with the symbol of an eight pointed star. Below it, written in silver inlaid flowing text, lies the name Vanderboren. A single handle, with a depression underneath it for a signet ring, sits ready to be turned. Lavinia presses her ring into the depression. The door glows blue, and then you hear a whirring of a lock retracting from the other side. Lavinia grabs the handle and opens the door. "Well my friends, shall we see what awaits us inside?
"I can't wait to see what's inside. Very exciting!"
Apemantus Oldcastle positions himself, reach weapon in hand, second in line entering the vault — as he is unable to use his Dwarven Longaxe against adjacent foes but doesn’t want to be out of the action.
Lila positions herself by Lavinia's side as the group enters the vault. Uncertain if there's any lighting inside, she calls a brief halt long enough to cast a light spell upon her dagger. Then she peers around the chamber with her one good eye.
Richter looks around.
"Y'all expecting somebody to be hiding in the vault? I would have figured they'd run out of air by now."
"I'm more worried about traps," Lila answers Richter. "But I suppose a non-living, non-breathing guardian isn't entirely out of the question." Flashing a quick smile, the young bard concludes, "Better safe than sorry!"
Sebastian conjures a phantasmagorical throwing knife in his right hand, and uses his left one to put his long hair back so it doesn't interfere. "Well, I wish there's no one there, but it never hurst to be prevented, you know..."
"Traps and locks? Thats my specialty! Let's go find some treasure!"
Nayala leads the party in, cautious and looking for pressure plates, switches, or similar triggers.
The room opens into a domed chamber, forty feet wide and fifteen to two feet across. The floor is covered in polished green marble, Two fifteen foot wide alcoves have lower ceilings and feature marble pillars carved to resemble coiling snakes. In the center of the room, five more pillars, embedded in the walls, also coil in snakelike fashion to the dome thirty feet above. The dome bears a huge eight pointed star, very similar to the one on the door leading in. No further exit appears in the room other then the one you entered in.
"What's with that 8-pointed star?" Lila asks Lavinia. "Is it your family crest?"
The bard purses her lips in mild annoyance. "And where is the device or whatnot that our little riddle applies to?"
Sebastian is about to enter the room, but he finally lets the owner of the chamber to decide about it first.
"This whole thing is your family vault? Wow. I mean, its kinda empty, but there's a lot of room in here, you could have a whole residence inside."
Nayala is eager to get in and start searching, but defers to Lavinia for the time being.
Apemantus Oldcastle enters with everyone and looks again at the eight pointed star on the ceiling of the dome, repeated from the door, and considers the coiling serpent motif of the columns. He awaits Lady Vanderboren's answer to Lila's question, but also stretches his own memory for anything like this, either this particular style of an 8-point star, or one in conjunction with a coiling snake motif.
Lavinia says "No guardians that I know of, unliving or otherwise, but I've never been inside of the vault, nor has my brother to my knowledge since my parents had it open. If you would like to go ahead, please feel free, but be careful. As for the star, I'm not sure."
Nayala moves into the room and begins to look for hidden plates, catches, or the like.
, +1 vs traps.
Lils follows in Nayala's wake, her good eye scanning for anything the rogue might've missed.
Sebastian stands by the door, in any place where he can cover the most room with his eyes, ready to throw his ghostly dagger if something nasty appears.
As Nayala and Lila move into the room, something strikes out at Nayala!
A iron cobra darts out of the twisted columns of snakes to bite at Nayala, but its iron teeth clamp on fresh air as the airy rogue dodges out of the way.
Cobra viciously tries to bite Nayala once more!
Nayala is hit!
vs poison?
Feeling the sting of the metal snakes fangs, Nayala curses and hisses in pain.
"Gah! Metal snakes? Whats next from these rich families?"
She slashes out with a kukri, looking for someone to flank with her.
to hit, for damage
Lila's good eye widens in alarm as the steel serpentine guardian appears and sinks its fangs into Nayala! As she wracks her brain for information on how to deal with such a guardian, the young bard draws her falcata but then seems to reconsider engaging the snake. Instead, she sings some words in a voice that is pleasant, clear, confident, and strangely inspirational:
"Although we face a mighty foe/
As one we'll strike the final blow/
To kill yon scaly metal beast/
...or hack it into pieces at least!"
"A crypt guardian, afterall." Apemantus Oldcastle turns to Lady Vanderboren, a wry smile on his face. "I suppose this means you don't know the Command Word to turn it off and that's part of why we're here. Apologies in advance, Lady Vanderboren, for destroying your property." And Apemantus Oldcastle quickly sets to help destroy Lady Vanderboren's property!
With my Reach Weapon I attack the Iron Cobra from five feet away, after a Move Action puts me in a Flanking position with Nayala (who has gone before me in Initiative). Likewise, I make sure I'm in a square where no one is between me and the construct so as to avoid swinging across partial cover. (40' Move should allow this easily, yes?)
.... DM to calculate Construct DR
Edit: Pretty sure an 11 misses -- shame on max damage with a miss. And Lila the Black knows more about these things than I.
"Careful with that thing. There's not much I can do to help out against it without getting in the way." Richter says, stepping out of the way of anyone whose path he might be blocking.
The iron cobra strikes and sinks its fangs into Nayala's ankle. A black ichor drips from the teeth, but it seems to have no effect on the rogue. Nayala's return stab hits the cobra, but fails to do any meaningful damage, while Apemanthus' dwarven longaxe fails to connect, but does leave an impressive crack on the stone tile. Lila's ditty inspires the group to greater heights.
Sebastian almost jumps out of the room at the sight of the dangerous snake! Somehow, though, he manages to stand his ground - specifically, he notices the cobra is not attacking him, which helps a lot keeping his morale. He bobs left and right trying to find a gap from where to shoot it, and throws his ghostly weapon at it...
Sebastian's psi dagger flies past the snake and lodges harmlessly in the floor. Lavinia, seeing the iron cobra, says I have no idea the family had any such defense. Should I try to command it to move back?
Round 2
The iron cobra snaps at Nayala once more!
The cobra's fangs strike with the speed of the snake, but th4 air proves faster and Nayala dodges out of the way.
The dagger Sebastian has just thrown vanishes, and a new one appears back in his hands. While he gets ready to throw it again, he turns his head to Lavinia.
"Would be worth the try, yes."
”Like Sebastian says, give it a try and if it succeeds you’ll have that much more as a resource. If it doesn’t work, well, we’re here for a reason.”
Edit: gotta love it when your X3 weapon Crits on a Construct, damnit.
Lila keeps singing to inspire her comrades:
"Cut it with a guisarm/
Bash it with a mace!/
Hack off its right arm/
Or smash it in the face!"
Screwing up her courage, the smallish girl closes on the iron cobra, her buckler up in a defensive position , and she stabs quickly at the guardian.
for
Dodging back from the metal serpents strike, Nayala unleashes her own slash, bringing her curved blade around in an attempt to decapitate it.
to hit, for damage and additional
Sebastian throws his newly formed dagger, this time inspired by Lila's words.
Apemanthus' and Sebastians' blows inflict some pounding on the cobra, but its iron hide seems to resist it. Unfortunately for Nayala and Lila, neither song, sword, stab, nor stealth seem to slash the sinuous serpent of solid steel's shell.
Lavinia screws up her courage and shouts at the snake in a loud, parade ground voice (apparently she's had voice training), "Back in the name of House Vanderboren". The snake, hissing, slinks back into the area of the pillars.
”Perfect! And now you have an Iron Cobra guardian. I recommend maybe seeing what various instructions you can command of it — and whether anyone who says ‘in the name of House Vanderboren’ can command it or just those with the proper blood in the veins. .... Anyone get hurt?”
Lavinia nods to Apemanthus. "Does anyone need healing? I can rearrange for a priest if needed?
"I'm okay, thank you" Sebastian answers. "More hurt in my feelings than any other, I felt totally useless against that creature." Thinking how cool would be to have one of those at home, Sebastian lets his ectoplasmic weapon vanish and carefully takes a look around, if Lavinia permits.
Nayala's delay in answering Apemantus's (and Lavinia's) question about who needs healing works to Lila's advantage. With Mokhai apparently out of the picture, the teen needs someone new to watch her back, and maybe that someone will be the daring young rogue. Time to earn some brownie points....
"No problem--I've got this!" she informs Apemantus and Lavinia. Stepping over to Nayala, the bard examines the wound left by the iron cobra, sings a little ditty, and reaches out to lightly touch the sylph's wound with one finger.
"Bardic magic is the best/
Soothes the soul as it mends the flesh!"
"Good as new?" she asks the rogue, looking rather doubtfully at the not-quite-healed wound.
"I... don't think that one quite rhymed, miss."
"Oh, uh, yeah, I guess I am feeling better. That metal snake had longer teeth than I thought. Thanks, Lila, healing magic is quite nice to have at hand in a group."
Nayala looks around for more hidden threats, or doors, chests, locks, or the like.
"So, what's next?"
(+1 vs traps)
Lila fixes Richter with an annoyed glare. "It's called a lazy rhyme. Better to use 'best' than use 'mesh' and have totally stupid lyrics, right?"
Under her breath the teen adds, "Everyone's a critic...."
Turning to Nayala, the bard flashes a beaming smile. "No problem; healing's a specialty of mine. Back when I worked in the theaters of...." The teen suddenly falls silent. It's obvious she wants to keep her past life to herself. She instead helps Nayala look around the rest of the vault.
Apemantus Oldcastle tries to silently swallow the involuntary retching that comes with such a couplet and, with all his willpower, conjures a smile on his facade, ”Cute.” This goodly moral compass may be harder to adopt than I had hoped. I pray the Bard doesn’t always sound like that; maybe Hell is preferable, afterall.
After much searching, the group is able to find a switch in the northernmost pillar. Pulling it open reveals an entrance into tj4 vault.
”Let us continue, Iron Cobra up front or in the back?”
"I'm pretty sure the cobra can't feel pain, so why don't we let it scout out first?"