Knowing that she's less than useless when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, Lollia chooses a different tactic and pulls her dulcimer from her back and begins a rousing tune.
Despite Lollia's encouragement both the Shield Maiden and Shula's blows clang harmlessly from the suit of armor in front of them. It swings wildly in return and Hilde is able to deflect a blow that would have struck the mighty Shield Maiden!
The other suit comes shambling over and attacks Lucretia who is the closest target! Despite the illusionary duplicate that springs into being she takes a hard blow.
Lucretia curses, as the suit of armour attacks her rather than her decoy.
In quick response, she lashes out with her dagger, that she has been gripping tightly in her hand ever since the mystery attackers from the wall but misses terribly, not used to defending herself physically.
"Get behind it!" shouts the Shield Maiden. Once Shula is flanking the armor, she slices again!
Shula doesn't hesitate to do as the Shield Maiden directs. Stepping behind the armor, she tries to slash at where its joints would be. "We'll be there as soon as we can!"
"No! The weak spots, Cousin!" Lollia calls out to Lucretia as she continues her accompanying music.
Even with Lollia's aid Lucretia cannot land a blow. The Shield Maiden has a similar problem, but Shula is able to strike at a critical point, causing some damage to the suit of armor. Jabir meanwhile pushes up to Lucretia and swings his scimitar in a two-handed blow.
He cuts deeply into the thing's armor with a grunt as Robert and Prince Ali shield the royal niece from danger as the animated armors strike back with some force. Jabir is hit in the chest but it seems to barely phase the muscled man, Shula however takes a cut through her fancy armor.
Skald curses fill the air as the Shield Maiden fails to hit again.
Shula yelps as the armor scores a blow against her ribs. Thinking fast, she slashes both kukris across the same weak spot she'd hit before. Gotta kill this thing quick if we're gonna help out the others.
Shula's blows slice through the space beneath the rim of the helmet and the animated armor collapses with a mighty crash!
"Shulamit!" Lollia calls out, her voice filled with desperation. "No, dammit! Hit it there, Lucretia!"
Robert's healing energy washes through the room and Calistria's touch removes the last remnants of spiritual energy, sending the second suit of armor clattering to the ground completely inanimate.
Now that you can peruse the collection at your leisure there are a number of items that may serve to help you escape. These include a +1 heavy steel shield, a +1 sword cane made of ebony and ivory, three potions of cure light wounds and a potion of bulls strength that smells like it has a lot of whisky in it. The greatest treasure though is the original Dignity's Barb, still sitting in its case with a neat placard next to it.
Pressing onwards you are confronted by two doors at the far side of the room...
With the combat over, Lollia is again right at Shulamit's heels, following along behind her. She clutches the borrowed coat close to her to keep the chill of the stone corridors away.
"If that will get us out of here then, yes, to the left," she says.
"Everyone all right?" With Robert's channel taking away the worst of the sting from her own injuries, Shula's primary concern is for the companions associates non-fighters that ended up facing the other suit of armor. Once reassured that no one is badly hurt, she does send a small smirk towards the Shield Maiden while casually flipping and catching one of her kukris. Who's the protector now?
As the second wave of healing energy washes over them, Shula smiles widely. "Lady got us good," she drawls, then flushes. "I mean, praise be to the Lady in the Room." Eager to change the subject, she starts looking over the various items on display. "Robert, you should probably take this. Copernia mentioned that they'd lost the original Dignity's Barb, it was apparently a famous weapon from the time of the Seventh Army of Exploration. Had some magical properties they couldn't replicate. You seem to like the darts we found, but this is even better." She doesn't care about most of the other items beyond how much they might sell for, although she does give the sword cane an experimental twirl. Not as quick as the kukris, but definitely more flashy.
Shaken away from her assessment of the (very shiny) items in the museum by the discussion of where to go, she nods distractedly. "Left sounds good." She gives Lollia a questioning glance when the other woman follows close behind, then understanding seems to hit.
Namely: Gods have mercy on anyone who f~!+s with me or mine, because I won't.
The Shield Maiden’s scowl deepens at Shula’s smirk, but she says nothing to the redhead. She does switch out her shield for the enchanted one, which somehow glows as her Ulfen insignia magically inscribes itself on its surface.
”Take more care as you tread these halls,” she says to Jabir. ”We would not want your clumsiness to spell our downfall.”
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Robert can't help but smile at Shula's shout out to Calistria, then hal comparing her to the Shield Maiden. He thinks the goddess would find that amusing. It takes a while for Robert to take the crossbow, mainly because he didn't realize it was being offered to him. He is happy with it, not for being a weapon, but for being a relic.
The room beyond the left-hand door appears to host a celebration frozen in time. Gaudy nobles crowd the corners of this room, all of which are dressed in ostentatious and pretentious fashions. Tremendous wigs soar towards the ceiling, each covered in thick layers of dust. A larger gaggle fills the center of the chamber, each aristocrat presenting a jovial or mocking leer as it stares out blankly One of the figures is sprawled on the floor, overlapping circles cut into its waxen chest and face.
On the far side of the room is another door, identical to the one you entered by.
The Shield Maiden gets up in the face of each wax mannequin, as if daring them to try to attack her. Assuming none prove to be threats, she leaves the baubles to the others and checks the next door.
~~~~~
Shiny baubles are most certainly up the bard's alley and she wastes no time in collecting as many as she can. In her ignorance and haste, however, she leaves some of the more valuable ones behind.
"This hat is very useful. It can magically disguise you into the form you wish. I do not need it, but I recommend any of you to take it and use it for our coming challenges."
"But that hair-style is so out of date, Lollia says, looking it over in disgust. [b]"Why would anyone ...? Oh, yes. It's magic. I see that now."
Shula is happy to join Lollia in collecting the trinkets. Hopefully no one else minds the delay, because it would be a real shame to leave good jewelry just lying around.
She looks up from her 'work' when Robert mentions the hat, intrigued, but Lollia's closer to it and she doesn't want to start a fight. Instead she turns her attention back to the rather tricky clasp she's trying to undo. "They should make locks out of these things; much harder to get past than a standard padlock..."
Lollia shakes the dust off the wig and after looking it over for lice or such, attempts to fit it to her head. Once she's donned it, she closes her eyes. Just to test out the magic, she changes the appearance of her dress to hide the damage and stains.
"Much better," she says to herself as she opens her eyes and looks down at the effects.
Having extracted everything you think is worth the effort you leave the room and find yourselves in a long corridor - at least 200 feet long in fact! Numerous doors dot it, including one to your left and two to your right as well as one on the far side.
The far door is covered in chalk circles and mathematical notes.
"It appears there is somebody else down here beside the monsters we have faced," the Shield Maiden says, examining the chalk markings. "We must remain vigilant."
She leads the way to the first door on the left.
"I wonder just how big this place is?" Shula joins the Shield Maiden as she opens the left door. "'Cause this is a ridiculously long hallway. Hopefully one of these doors leads to an exit."
Her new 'hair' having transformed into a scarf wrapped around her head, Lollia adjusts the instrument on her back and stays close behind Shula.
What a b*#+$, swinging her arse around like that! The thought is fleeting, but Lollia can't help but grit her teeth a little as she watches Shula stride forward to join the Shield Maiden.
Opening the door to this next room reveals intricate banners hanging motionlessly against a wooden pillar in the center of the room. Wooden racks line the south and west walls each bearing a unique banner of its own. Two additional banner racks lie on the floor in the northeaster corner of the room, their flags pulled awat and inked with dozens of circles. A small door looks like it returns to the display room you were just in. Aside from the way you entered there is nothing else so note in the room, simply another display of Taldan arrogance patriotism.
"Best to check all the doors on this side first, to ensure no monsters sneak up on us from behind," the Shield Maiden says, leading the way to the next door.
"Someone really loves their circles." Mathematics more complicated than 'did this fence just cheat me' have not been high on Shula's priority list, so she can't make any further sense of the geometric patterns and consequently ignores them.
"On the bright side, I'm becoming more and more convinced we're still in the Senate building. This looks like an older version of the Arcade of Triumphs. Although why anyone would stop using perfectly good rooms is beyond me..."
She continues going along with whatever direction the Shield Maiden indicates, figuring it's as good as any other.
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As they walk to the next door, Robert has time to take a better look at the circles. He comments "Whoever did this is... or was... brilliant, but they lack the formal training of the mathematical theory, even the basic one."
Having said that, he continues grasping his crossbow, unsure if that was helpful or not.
Bypassing the museum room the Shield Maiden leads the way into the next room, which proves to be some sort of storage room. Lines of shelves run from north to south and glass windows, some with handles and some with locks, cover the front of the shelves. Dizens of objects line the shelves, resting on satin pillows behind the protective glass covers. Aside from your entrance door leading to the corridor there is a door opposite that presumably leads back to where you fought the armor, a door on the right leading to the waxworks and one more on the left hand wall which leads to a new room.
Shula notices something strange on the floor and soon realises what the small grooves are - a magical trap that seemingly encompasses the whole room. The trigger is, presumably, attempting to open the cases and would seem to cause a massive electric shock throughout the room...
Lucretia notices that there is a single magical item in this room, a golden statuette of an eagle with outspread wings.
Lucretia eyes the golden statuette, "Wondrous crafstmanship." She mumbles to herself, as she turns the statue over in her hands. Shoving it in her pocket, she notices Shula's eyes narrowing at the floor.
"What is is Shula?" Lucretia asks.
"Oh that's clever..." Shula kneels down to further examine the grooves. "Best not to open any cases just yet, unless you really want to experience being hit by lightning. The whole floor will shock anyone standing on it when a case is opened." Common sense tells her to just leave the room alone; it's not like she needs any of the objects within.
Shula is very good at ignoring her common sense.
"Everyone leave the room for a minute, will you? Just in case this goes wrong." Shula begins following the grooves to wherever the electricity would actually come from. "Also, if it goes wrong, I will probably need the Lady's blessings, so...be ready."
Unfortunately for Shula, she has never encountered a trap quite like this one. Common sense has approximately two seconds to get in an 'I told you so' before things do indeed go wrong.
Shula forgets the first rule of dealing with electricity, don't use the metal tools, and pays the price when lightning courses across the room and through her.
The pain makes her scream but doesn't seem to have done any lasting damage to either her skin or nerve endings. The best thing is, once she recovers her ability to move, Shula determines that the trap will take a few minutes to rebuild its charge, providing you with a small window to claim the figurine and another 500gp of assorted valuables that no-one is going to miss.
As you head to the next room you hear Martella's voice coming from your badges.
"Out of the senate. Stavian's soldiers still pursuing. Lion Blades and Eutropia's allies fighting back. Assassin's seem to be a collection of foreign agents."
The next room is, rather gruesomely, a display of taxidermy.As you enter a number of the displays start jerking in a false parody of life but then mostly snap or shatter as the strain proves too much for the rudimentary mechanics powering the contraptions. Only one creature survives long enough to be a threat, a taxidermied griffin. The fight is unpleasant since the creature proves immune to both Lollia and Lucretia's magic, but Shula and the Shield Maiden destroy it with some help from Jabir.
With all the rooms checked you return to the long hallway which seems to offer your only path onwards.
The Shield Maiden shakes the sawdust off her blade, nodding thanks to Robert as her claw wound heals up. ”Good thinking, Robert. This way!”
Lucretia nods her agreement and follows along behind the melee types, reimplanting her mirror as she goes.
Following the corridor around the corner reveals a door which opens onto a considerable library. Thick wooden bookshelves jut out from the eastern and western walls. Bundles of paper, scroll tubes and thick tomes cram these shelves nearly to bursting. Layers of dust coat some areas of the chamber but others remain suspiciously clean. Books and papers crowd one of the worktables in the corners, smeared with ink. Two doors lead further south.
Examining the notes on the table reveals a number of books on mathematics and geometry as well as a small book which turns out to be the autobiography of one Eros Glendower who appears to have been a noble and a wizard, although not apparently notable for either. Flicking through the book reveals that Glendower seems to have been obsessed with immortality and rituals.
The Shield Maiden has little interest in the books, but a fine scroll case on the shelves does catch her eye. "Something valuable here," she says as she retrieves the case.
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Robert approaches the books and after checking it for a while, comments "It seems this Glendower is... maybe the madman? A wizard, huh?" He has little idea what to do with this information. However, he does go through the books, looking for some information regarding this man. "I have a feeling we might end up having a ''talk'' with this person."
Shula is extremely embarrassed by her failure to disarm the trap. Need to practice more against magic stuff, maybe Atia knows someone? Fortunately no one else mentions it.
"You think this Glendower actually did it? Became immortal?" Much like the Shield Maiden Shula had been ignoring the books, but now she joins Robert in flipping through them. "I doubt we'll be talking to him either way though. If he succeeded, he's probably long gone. I know I wouldn't want to spend my immortal life down here in a bunch of dusty old rooms, fancy as most of them are. If he's dead, then he's, well, dead. Unless he's a ghost or something..."
Once they've gleaned whatever information they can, she heads for the southern doors.