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Wymarc gauges the distance and then pulls his 50’ rope out of his backpack; using his knowledge of knots, he fashions a lasso...
...and then, getting about 25’ from the body, he targets a limb or protrusion on the body, and deftly tosses the lasso at the body...
If he’s successful at hooking a body part, he’ll pull the rope taut and then drag the body towards him...
Wymarc thinks fast. He takes out a rope and lassos the body. He can easily drag it through the runes. The corpse wears an amulet that looks like a rat curled into a circle.
[dice=DC 20 Appraise] It is probably worth about 90 gp[/spoiler]
[dice=DC 15 Heal] The corpse's neck is snapped because something nearly succeeded in tearing his head from his body. [/spoiler]
Another *beep* as the rune seems to deactivate. Only one more rune and one more item (a goat amulet).
Cassiopia holds up the goat amulet and hears an audible *beep*. The last rune is deactivated! The group heads down the stairs into the next room.
The air in this chamber is strangely humid, and a thin layer of fog clings all across the floor. A staircase descends from the east and another staircase to the west is fully obstructed by rubble. Several statues with serpent motifs stand in the area. To the north, a large, green stained-glass window looms behind a twisted statue of three serpentine men conjoined at the hip. Vines snake across the floor from a central pool filled with luminescent green liquid. In several places, faintly glowing arcane script inscribed on the floor tiles shines through the mist.
The faintly glowing runes provide dim illumination throughout the room. The ceilings of the chamber rises to a height of 40 ft. The vines that snake their way throughout the shrine are considered difficult terrain. The green pool is 5 ft deep and full of mundane water. The stained glass window is opaque, but can be broken.
Wymarc realizes the statues are alive! And they now realize you realize.
The two statues in the south - one in the southwest and one in the southeast - activate!
Only Cassiopia reacts in time!
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[u]Round 1[/u]
Cassiopeia
Blue
Yellow
Wymarc
Bahram
Amiri
Bahram immediately recognizes these as a type of constructs. They have a particularly hard body (DR 2/-), immunity to fire, construct traits, and some resistances to magic (SR 8). Due to the snake effigies covering their body, they are able to reach far away targets (reach 15 ft.).
Cassiopia shakes her head while she draws a wand.
The blue statue moves off of its pedestal and walks forward. It's spots Bahram and Cassiopia up front! One of the snake effigies slithers forth and bites Bahram right on the ankle.
And that must've hurt! The other statue stays still, but it's eyes turn red. Suddenly, a burst of crackling hellfire shoots from its eyes and targets Bahram!
Luckily for Bahram, the statue is old - it's targeting system seems to be off... for now.
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[u]Round 1[/u]
Cassiopeia
Blue
Yellow
Wymarc
Bahram (-9 hp)
Amiri
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"Amiri, Wymarc! Let's surround this stoney snake and take it out!"
Bahram darts around to the other side of the statue while it seems to have slowed for a moment, allowing his companions to flank it. Knowing he can't take too many more hits, he casts mirror image on himself rather than taking a free swing.
Amiri dashes forward and grunts. "Easy target.". As she runs, pulls out her bastard sword, enters a rage, and swings at the snake effigy.
Wymarc shoots some adamantine arrows at the constructs. Only one of them hits, but it's a solid hit! Chunks of the construct fly off. The arrow isn't as effective as he would've thought though.
Amiri dashes in after and chops off a huge portion of the construct. It's nearly destroyed, but it still seems mostly functional... that is until Cassiopia disables it for a few seconds. The construct is frozen in place! And the ivory baton in Cassiopia's possession crumbles to dust.
Then Bahram multiplies into several copies of himself as he runs in, as if one half-orc archeologist isn't enough.
The statue on the far side of the room unleashes another blast of hellfire at Wymarc.
And the blast disintegrates one of the figments!
Shortly after, the blue statue starts to regain some of it's facilities.
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[u]Round 2/3[/u]
Cassiopeia
Blue (-33 hp)
Yellow
Wymarc
Bahram (-9 hp, 4 copies)
Amiri
Amiri takes one swing at the construct and it crumbles to dust! It is destroyed!
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Even though he is seriously injured, Bahram feels a bit more brave now that there are five of him. Hefting their greataxes, they all lower their left shoulder and charges over the the remaining construct, bringing their magical greataxe to bear along the way.
Nearly tripping over something along the way (are those vines?) Bahram catches himself and uses the fall to bring the axe down with even more momentum than intended. Let's call it, "Archaeologist's luck"! Now the only question is; did he smash the effigy or the floor?
Bahram dashes over to the other construct and attempts to slice at it with his greataxe. But he trips over the vines and loses his footing. Cassiopia stands back while Wymarc unleashes a volley of arrows.
Seeing how close Bahram has come, the construct changes tactics. It'll use it's serpents to bite at him.
The serpents lash out at Barham. One of the figments is destroyed directly! And then another is destroyed by a near miss.
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[u]Round 3/4[/u]
Cassiopeia
Yellow (-13 hp)
Wymarc
Bahram (-9 hp, 2 copies)
Amiri
Cassiopia knows these are constructs. They're tough (DR 2/-) but fairly easy to hit (AC 14, hp 36). Fire wont work (immunity to fire and construct traits), and have some resistance to spells (SR 8).
Bahram moves up and slashes at the construct. A huge chuck flies off of it. Wymarc lobs two arrows and smaller chunks fly away. Amiri speeds up towards it ()
It turns to the barbarian. Both snakes bite at her!
But it's slowly disintegrating so it's aim isn't all that great.
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[u]Round 4/5[/u]
Cassiopeia
Yellow (-28 hp)
Wymarc
Bahram (-9 hp, 2 copies)
Amiri
And the construct shatters! Dust splatters both Amiri and Bahram as it explodes. All is quiet in the room as Amiri lays down for a moment.
Cassiopia walks up to one of the remaining statues and stares at it. It's old and worn. Touching it would probably making it crumble to dust.
Wymarc, who usually has a keen eye, doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. But Cassiopia notices something - a secret door! In the northeast section of the room, hidden by some vines, she spots something.
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Dusting the serpent debri off of their shoulders, the Bahram's let out a sigh as he pulls out a wand and points it at his ankle.
He then shakes the wand, tip down in order to get all of the magic to the tip, and activates it again.
Putting that away, he activates his detect magic, sweeping it over everything in the room, before heading to the stained glass window.
"Secret door? Nice Cass! Let's search this room first though. Be careful with those runes, they're probably also trapped."
Bahram knows that reading any of the runes throughout the room will likely fascinate the reader for a few seconds as infernal heresies take hold of their mind. As the heresies fade from memory (after 6-24 seconds), the reader is left with only an oily sensation of infernal taint.
Wymarc checks for traps and finds none. Creaking open the door, he finds eerie green lights that burn all along the walls of this laboratory. A staircase ascends to the east, and a collapsed one lies to the west. A stained glass window looms over an operating slab where the remains of a humanoid creature lie chained to the stone. Several tablets and other strange items lie atop the various tables. The humanoid creature is too long gone to determine what creature it once was.
Atop one of the tables, you find two scrolls of fly, one potion of protection from fire and a Large +1 planar bastard sword.
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Pointing at the statue, "Yup. That's Gary. The ruler of stinky Stygia."
Looking around, Bahram gets the shivers. "Dark. And I don't mean the lighting." He says as he looks at the humanoid remains. "I recognize the scrolls as fly, and that is a potion of protection from fire. That's a handy thing when it comes to hellish creatures." Looking from the sword to Amiri, Bahram winks. "I think that this one is talking to you, Desert Bloom. I can't make heads or tails of these tablets. Anyone?" If not, Bahram suggests that we take them back with us.
[ooc]There is nothing else in the whole complex, but feel free to roll the checks and continue roleplaying if you want. [ooc]
The Pathfinders return back to Corentyn aboard another Chelish frigate in the evening, their time at the 'archeology' site done.
Heading back to the museum to meet with Zefiro, the museum appears to be dark and empty except for several muffled voices audible in the building's east wing.
Double doors open into a hall filled with bookshelves, display cases, and two large tables piled with manuscripts. Several oil lamps keep the darkness at bay even at night. A rolling ladder stands at the east end of the library. Two staircases near the doors rise to the balconies on both sides of the hall. The railed balconies run across the length of the hall with a third one rising even higher to the east. There, a pair of doors leads into a second-story office.
A woman with dark, flowing hair speaks from the highest balcony. "How nice of you to deliver yourselves to me. I was just about to come find you! I strongly advise that you turn yourself in for questioning - though I must admit that part of me hopes you won't, since our friends to the east are sure to hammer the truth out of the traitor Zefiro anyway."
She is wearing a traditional Signifer outfit. Two Hellknight Armigers stand in the room - one in the center and one up on the balconies. No one is attacking... yet. The woman is waiting for your surrender.
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====================
Wymarc points out the flying creature to his friends. ”A bad omen...it flies in the same direction we’re heading the museum...be wary, not sure what we’ll find awaiting us...”
Expecting trouble, he has his bow in hand once he leaves the ship...
======================
Wymarc smirks as he says, ”I’d hate to disappoint you, m’Lady...I grant your wish,” and he fires a cold iron arrow at the arrogant woman...
Wymarc recognizes the bird: the same raven that followed them with Mirielle (). And the raven is sitting right there, next to the Hellknight Signifer.
He pulls out his bow, quickly nocks and arrow, and lets it fly. It hits her, but she just laughs. "Hahahaha. I was hoping you'd do that. You see, if you surrender, there's a lot of paperwork we need to do. But if we kill you, there's none."
"ATTACK!"
The raven caws ().
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[u]Round 1[/u]
Bahram (27/27 hp)
Wymarc (31/31 hp)
Amiri (45/45 hp)
Cassiopeia (20/20 hp)
Hellknight (blue)
Iluvia
Inverness (raven)
Hellknight (red)
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"Bird?" Bahram squints his eyes, but the glare from the endless expanse of these waters is all but blinding! "Same bird that's been following us for this whole mission? That can't be good. Someone knows we're coming, and it's probably not the good guys. We better be ready for a surprise visit from the bad guys when we get to town."
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"Well, no ambush yet. It must be happening here. Be ready."
Before entering the museum, Bahram will cast Heroism on himself. (+2 morale bonus to attack rolls, saves, and skill checks for 40 minutes.)
======================================================================
Bahram, with great axe in hand, listens to the quick banter, but does not get to take part as he is putting the pieces of everything that has happened the past few days together.
"Missed another great moment for banter there. Get it together Bahram..." He mutters to himself as he casts Mirror Image on himself, calls on 'Archaeologist's luck (+2 luck bonus to attack, saves, skills, and damage as a swift action) and moves into position.
EDIT: Wymarc actually slays the Hellknight Signifer. ().
And Bahram spits into multiple copies of himself!
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[u]Round 1[/u]
Bahram (27/27 hp)
Wymarc (31/31 hp)
Amiri (45/45 hp)
Cassiopeia (20/20 hp)
Hellknight (blue)
Iluvia
Inverness (raven)
Hellknight (red)
Amiri charges up to the blue Hellknight, entering a rage, and drawing her sword. She slashes at the Hellknight.
The blue Hellknight goes down to Amiri. Only one Hellknight left - the red one up on the balcony.
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"Woohoo!" Six great axes pump into the air as Iluvia falls to Wymarc's arrows.
All six Bahram's left eyebrow shoots up in response to the blood splatter caused by Amiri's gruesome slaughter.
They then look to the remaining(?) Hellknight and shrug their shoulders, as if to say, 'What'cha going to do'?