Coldwater's Abomination Vaults

Game Master Quentin Coldwater

Cherry Berry moves forward and taps Lough. "Smash that statue big guy."

◆Stride
◆Guidance on Lough
◆Shield

Also, Giyozara seems to literally have been wiped off the map. I fixed that.

Nah, he's still back in the Restricted Collection between the fallen shelf and the green trail. I also moved Cherry next to Lough to match their turn description.

Unsurprised this time, Kka says ironically, "Oh, how shocking! The statue lives. Anyone know what this thing is?" She then springs into action. She closes the distance to the statue and slashes at it twice with her sword.

Action 1 (◆): Stride (35 feet)

Action 2 (◆): Strike (+1 Shortsword) with Thief Racket and Surprise/Sneak Attack vs Flat-Footed Belcorra.

Shortsword Attack: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 9 + 1 = 20 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6 slashing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3 precision slashing damage

Action 3 (◆): Strike (+1 Shortsword) with Thief Racket, Surprise/Sneak Attack, and MAP1 vs Flat-Footed Belcorra.

Shortsword Attack: 1d20 + 9 + 1 - 4 ⇒ (15) + 9 + 1 - 4 = 21 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6 slashing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5 precision slashing damage

OK, Lough. She's all set up to be flanked.

"Oh, shoot, magical constructs, I forgot how those work . . ."
<>
arcane check to identify? If arcane doesn't work, use my die roll and apply it to the appropriate skill if I have it.: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

Lough's Telekinetic Projectile plucks a book from a shelf and hurls it towards the construct. Sadly, the book misses and clatters to the ground next to it.

Cherry Berry walks in, taps Lough on the shoulder and bolsters him with divine power. Then they raise a shield for protection.

Kka's first attack misses, but the second attack connects, shaving off a good slice of wood. Sadly, the wood is tough to penetrate, resisting a significant amount of damage. Guess you know its AC now. :)

The statue retaliates by smashing a fist into Kka.
Attack vs Kka: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (14) + 17 = 31
The attack connects with Kka's stomach, but she manages to twist away at the right time to prevent a crippling blow. Nimble Dodge saves you from a crit.
Bludgeoning: 2d8 + 8 ⇒ (7, 6) + 8 = 21

It then raises its other arm straight ahead, and three fingers come flying off, heading straight towards Kka, Lough, and Cherry Berry.

Finger vs Kka: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (11) + 11 = 22
Piercing damage: 2d4 + 8 ⇒ (4, 1) + 8 = 13

Finger vs Lough: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30
Piercing damage: 2d4 + 8 ⇒ (1, 2) + 8 = 11

Finger vs Cherry Berry: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15

Two of the three projectiles hit, and the fingers regrow on the statue.

Cherry Berry
Lough, -11, minus Shield Block
Kka, prone, dying 1
Belcorra -6
Giyozara, two actions left
Kvit

Giyozara pales as he recalls what these things are. Wood Golems are hard bruisers that can dish out damage quickly. They have three main ways of dealing damage:
- Their fists hit hard. As in, really really hard.
- They can fire splinters from their body as a ranged attack, and can also fire them at multiple people at once (up to four targets).
- When you hit them, a splinter flies off and lodges into an adjacent creature. Still need an attack roll, it's not automatic. This damage can't be defended against. It specifically says no reactions are triggered, so no Shield Block or the like.

On top of that, they resist physical harm. They have a decent amount of damage resistance. On the other hand, they burn really well. Any amount of fire damage gets converted into 4d8 fire damage.
As a golem, they're immune to most magical effects, except for some:
- As stated, they take a lot of fire damage.
- Any kind of plant spell heals them.
- Earth spells slows them.
- Shape Wood deals damage to them, with a Fortitude save to resist.

Furthermore, since they're constructs, they're immune to a lot of things that require someone to be alive: mental/mind-affecting effects, poison, and so on.

Everyone may act!

This thing hits harder than I thought. Jeez. Sorry! :(

At Cherry's Guidance, seeing Kka go down, Lough claws into the wooden giant, grasping for it's burls, and gripping tight!

Slag Claw (Cold Iron, Slashing) w/ Guidance (+1) vs Woody: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 12 + 1 = 281d6 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

↺) Shield Block (-11 becomes -6 and both Lough / shield take -5)
+
◆) Raise Shield (to AC 23; hard 5, HP 15/20)
◆) Step
◆) Snagging Strike
+
↺) Shield Block (if incoming damage is less than 20)
↺) Attack of Opportunity (Slag Claw (Cold Iron, Slashing) +12 @ 1d6+4)

Woody takes some damage, but its body is harder than Lough's nails, and only a small scratch is visible on Belcorra's body.

On the other hand, splinters jump everywhere as Lough makes gouges in the wood, and they go straight for Lough's eyes!

Splinter vs Lough: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (16) + 16 = 32
Crit! This damage is not blockable.
Piercing damage: 2d4 + 8 ⇒ (2, 1) + 8 = 11

Cherry Berry
Lough, -27
Kka, prone, dying 1
Belcorra -8
Giyozara, two actions left
Kvit

Everyone except Lough may act!

Unable to see, Lough wrenches down hard, exposing the creature's neck (trunk?)!

Woody is Flat-footed to everyone!

Whoops, sorry. Thanks for correcting me.

Cherry Berry
Lough, -16
Kka, prone, dying 1
Belcorra -8
Giyozara, two actions left
Kvit

Everyone except Lough may act!

Kvit hears the commotion and runs into the room. He sees a giant wooden statue, Kka unconscious on the floor again and Lough going toe to toe with the thing.

"Yeesh, you guys need to wait longer! Remember last time we found a room with dioramas. Belcorra was serious about protecting them for some reason."

"Right, so wood? Let's try some flame." He extends a hand and casts Produce Flame at the animated statue.

Produce Flame: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27Fire Damage: 4d8 ⇒ (5, 4, 5, 1) = 15

◆Stride ◆◆Produce Flame

"Right, so wood? Let's try some flame." He extends a hand and casts Produce Flame at the animated statue.

Hearing, but not seeing his ysoki friend, Lough tears at a chunk of bark in her armor, aiming blindly to expose her lower layer to the incoming flame projectile!

She is flat-footed and it may be a critical hit!

Not a crit, just a solid hit!
Also, Lough, you're not really blind, I just flavoured the attack a little. >_>

Cherry Berry
Lough, -16
Kka, prone, dying 1
Belcorra -23
Giyozara, two actions left
Kvit

"IT'S IMMUNE TO ALL MAGIC EXCEPT FIRE STUFF. HIT IT WITH FIRE"

Then Giyozara will cast infectious enthusiasm, targeting attack rolls, in the hopes that others will see him and be inspired.

Whoops. I missed Lough's post. He ninja'd me at the same time a Cherry, but as post 1750, he ended up at the bottom of the previous page. I hate it when that happens.

Kka is surprised that her first slash bounces off the statue and is happier to see her second (and only slightly better) attack hit home.

AC: 23. Gulp!

Her happiness is cut short as the statue's wooden fist smashes into her stomach, and is extinguished altogether when a flying finger plunges into her heart.

Melee: Fist +17, Damage 2d8 +8 bludgeoning
Ranged ↺: Splinter/Finger +16 Damage 2d4 +8 piercing
Double Gulp! We're in some serious trouble here. That'll teach Kka to go charging into danger.

Kka once again finds herself at peace floating in a sea of darkness without a worry in the world.

[<Groan!> Not again.]

She senses the presence of the tall dark figure beside her.

{Yes. Again. I was beginning to hope that you had learned your lesson by now, but apparently not.}
[Libitina? Is that you?]
{Mm-hmm.}
[It's not my fault! How was I to know that a frigging wooden statue could hit so hard?]
{Perhaps charging in and attacking it like that was not the best approach for a fragile creature like yourself.}
[I tried the hit-and-run approach earlier, but that's like super tiring and took too long.]
{If your situation does not improve soon, you will have all the time in the world.}
[<Shrug!> Meh. Would that be such a bad thing?]
{Perhaps. Perhaps not. It is out of your hands now.}
[While we wait, tell me about your last adventure with Mandoo.]

Dying recovery check in case Kka isn't healed this round.

Dying Recovery Check vs DC 10+dying = 11: 1d20 ⇒ 20

She stabilized. Now just at 0 HP, Wounded 1, Unconscious and Prone.

Cherry Berry's on holiday, so I'm botting them.

Cherry Berry walks up to Kka and tries to revive her with Medicine. Considering they're in the room anyway and I don't want to burn through their Heal spells without their permission.

Medicine, DC 15: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (20) + 11 = 31
Healing: 4d8 ⇒ (1, 2, 5, 1) = 9

They then quickly vacate the room as to not be a target for the golem's ranged attacks.

Kvit throws fire at the golem, and it spreads really well.
Giyozara casts a spell that pumps himself up for the fight.

Cherry Berry
Lough, -16
Kka, wounded 1, -24, prone
Belcorra -23
Giyozara
Kvit

Kka may act! Since you're now awake, I'll allow you to use that nice nat 20 for something else. :)

I'm baaack!

Kka may act! Since you're now awake, I'll allow you to use that nice nat 20 for something else. :)

Deal!

Kka's eyes pop open and she sees Cherry momentarily before they scamper away. Her eyes then refocus onto the now very mobile wooden statue of Belcorra looming over her. "Uh, Good idea there, Cherry. I'm right behind you. Let me pick up my things first." She grabs her fallen weapons and jumps to her feet.

Action 1 (◆): Stand

Before turning and following Cherry, she notices a crack in the statue that is just too tempting. She takes her shortsword, jams it in and twists. "<Creeeeak!>"

Belcorra's already used her reaction this turn, right? And she's still Flat-Footed from Lough's Snagging Strike, right?

Action 2 (◆): Strike (+1 Shortsword) with Thief Racket and Sneak Attack vs Flat-Footed Belcorra.

Shortsword Attack: 20 + 9 + 1 = 30 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 piercing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5 precision piercing damage

Yanking her sword free, she runs after Cherry. As she reaches the door, she stops and calls out to the Ysoki beside her, "We're barely scraatching her with our weapons. It'll be up to you to taake her down with fire, otherwise we're done for. We'll try to keep her off your baack until then."

Action 3 (◆): Stride (35 feet)

If this creature is like the others we've run into, they tend not to like leaving their rooms. If so, and things go south, retreating to lick our wounds before heading back in might be the best approach.

Kka scrambles up, jams her blade in one of the joints of the wood golem, then skedaddles. Golem does not appreciate it, but can't react. It does seem to resist some of the damage, though.

Belcorra does not appreciate all the attention she's getting, so another fist goes to Lough's face.
Fist vs Lough: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (8) + 17 = 25
Bludgeoning: 2d8 + 8 ⇒ (4, 8) + 8 = 20

Then, she raises her other arm again, and four splinters shoot out at Lough, Kka, Kvit, and Cherry Berry

Splinter vs Lough: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13

Splinter vs Kka: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25
Piercing: 2d4 + 8 ⇒ (2, 4) + 8 = 14

Splinter vs Kvit: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13

Splinter vs Cherry Berry: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17
Piercing: 2d4 + 8 ⇒ (3, 2) + 8 = 13

Kka goes down again.

Cherry Berry, -13
Lough, -16
Kka, wounded 1, dying 2, prone
Belcorra -38
Giyozara
Kvit

Everyone may act!
Should I play the golem dumber and waste all three actions on smashing Lough? I feel like this is more interesting, but maybe a bit too optimal.

If it's mindless or has a super low INT, then yeah, I'd assume it attacks whatever is closest 'til it stops moving. Unless it has any pre-commanded orders? But an attack and a spray of splinters doesn't seem like much of a stretch if any.

Produce Flame: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27
Fire Damage: 4d8 ⇒ (5, 1, 7, 6) = 19

Seeing how effective the fire was and with Giyozara's shout, Kvit fires off another bolt of flame at the creature. After barely dodging the splinters being sent his way, he raises a shield of force in front of him.

"Alright Giyozara, you got anything fire related? We need to get Kka out of the room before she gets hit again. I'll keep hitting it as much as I can."

◆◆Produce Flame ◆Shield (+1 AC)
↺ Shield block 5 damage

With mania, Lough looks towards Giyozara, and laughs "Zoiks! Like what if we all Die!"

◆) Raise Shield (to AC 23)
◆) Concentrate on Infectious Enthusiasm
◆) Snagging Strike
+
↺) Shield Block (unless breaking shield won't stave felling blow!)
↺) Attack of Opportunity (Slag Claw (Cold Iron, Slashing) +13 w/ Infectious Enthusiasm @ 1d6+4)

Slag Claw (Cold Iron, Slashing) w/ Infectious Enthusiam (+1) vs Woody: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 12 + 1 = 261d6 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Lough, I forgot to note your damage. Did you Shield Block any of it? If not, you technically can Strike, as the Splinter attack is a ranged strike, which provokes. I recommend blocking it, otherwise you'd go down (see below).

Kvit throws more fire at it, which causes the golem to burn up quite nicely. A piece of the golem flies off towards Lough.

Splinter reaction: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (14) + 16 = 30
Piercing damage: 2d4 + 8 ⇒ (2, 3) + 8 = 13

Cherry Berry, -13
Lough, -49 (minus potential Shield Block)
Kka, wounded 1, dying 2, prone
Belcorra -57 (4 more if Lough is still standing)
Giyozara
Kvit

Cherry Berry, Kka, and Giyozara may act!

↺) Attack of Opportunity

Slag Claw (Cold Iron, Slashing) vs Woody: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 141d6 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Hero Point!
Slag Claw (Cold Iron, Slashing) vs Woody: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 161d6 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Scrambling with splinters in his eyes, ears, and all across his torso, the blood blocks his vision - his claw unable to strike true!

Laugh you fool! It may be your last!

"No, no fire, but I've got a really stupid idea!"
<>Use Focus point to grow claws
<>Move into room
<>Cast shield

(+1 Status bonus to AC from using Focus spell for 1 round)

Kka watches as the Belcorra statue lumbers back to life. The rogue cringes as Lough gets struck by a fist; she knows all too well how hard the creature can hit. When it then raises its hand and points at them, Kka blanches. "Uh oh!" Another finger flies in her direction and takes her in the eye.

I was afraid of that. I had the choice of Battle Medicine (on Kka or Lough) or critting the statue; I picked the latter; perhaps not the best choice in retrospect.

{That was quick.}
[Sigh! I was trying to be clever and didn't get far enough away.]
{Let's hope that wasn't your last mistake.}
[Why does this always happen to me? It's not like I have a big target painted on my back. Or do I?]
{I believe it has more to do with bad decision-making magnified by chance.}
[That's too bad. I guess it's only a matter of time before I take that last ride to The Boneyard then.]
{That is true of everyone. The only question is: How much time?}

Dying recovery check in case Kka isn't healed this round.

Dying Recovery Check vs DC 10+dying = 12: 1d20 ⇒ 17

Now at Dying 1, Unconscious and Prone.

Borbo, as Lough falls dying, activates the occult piston inside the silver appendage - a spasmatic haymaker shoots forth as our paranoid hero drops to the ground...

↺) Attack of Opportunity

Automatic Power Driver (Silver) w/ Infectious Enthusiasm (+1) vs Woody: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 12 + 1 = 281d6 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Lough lashes out a final time before going unconscious, but his silver arm doesn't seem able to make a dent in the golem's body. Hardness soaks the damage.

Botting Cherry Berry.
Cherry Berry sees their companions fall and raises their holy symbol of Erastil into the air, dispersing healing energy into the room.

Three-action Heal spell: 2d10 ⇒ (10, 10) = 20
Lough and Kka snap awake and are full of energy again.

Cherry Berry
Lough, -21, wounded 1, prone
Kka, -11, wounded 2, prone
Belcorra -61
Giyozara
Kvit

Kka may act!

As Cherry's spell washes over her, the wooden splinters pop out of Kka's eye and chest. The wounds begin to heal, but not all the way. Her eyes open and she takes in a deep breath. "This is getting really old." She groans with deep weariness as she grabs at her weapons and gets back on her feet again.

Action 1 (◆): Stand

She glances towards the wooden creature and considers one more futile attack. It would probably be the last thing she ever did on this side of the veil and the call of oblivion was a strong one. She raises her sword a little and takes a half-step towards the statue. She stops. There was still a small part of her mind that recoiled at the thought of ending it all. Kka turns and heads out the door. "Come on everyone. Time to get out of here while we still caan."

Action 2 (◆): Stride (35 feet)

Once she clears the door and staggers past Cherry, she drops her sword, turns, and send one last arrow through the door at Belcorra's statue.

At Wounded 2, Kka cannot do anything that would risk her taking damage and Dying again!; she's effectively down to crit-hunting with arrows from range. The statue has no reaction left, so there's no downside to trying.

Action (◇): Release: +1 Shortsword.
Action 3 (◆): Strike (+1 Shortbow) vs Belcorra.

Shortbow Attack: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 9 + 1 = 29
Shortbow Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4 piercing damage

If a crit, double the previous damage and add

Shortbow Deadly 1d10: 1d10 ⇒ 9 piercing damage

Sooo close. Ah well, it was worth a try.

Kka runs out of the room and fires one last arrow at the statue. It hits her straight in the chest, but the arrowhead doesn't penetrate deep enough to do any permanent injury.

The golem ignores Lough, thinking he's still out cold, then walks over to Giyozara and Kvit. It raises both fists and tries to clock both mages once.

Fist vs Giyozara: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (12) + 17 = 29
Barely a crit. I presume you want to pop your shield?
Bludgeoning damage: 2d8 + 8 ⇒ (7, 4) + 8 = 19

Fist vs Kvit: 1d20 + 17 - 5 ⇒ (2) + 17 - 5 = 14

Cherry Berry
Lough, -21, wounded 1
Kka, -11, wounded 2
Belcorra -61
Giyozara -38, minus Shield That would knock you to 0 still, right?
Kvit

Everyone may act!

Kvit is getting mighty lucky so far. Hope it lasts...
Did we establish if we think this guy has an AoO? If not I'll blast him before I flee since I won't have line of sight from the hallway.

"We've got to get out of here. Back to the library!"

Kvit, fortunate enough to have avoided the golem's attacks so far, tries for a daring move before retreating. He tries to get in close to the golem and aims for his face with the next gout of flame.

Produce Flame: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11

That's lame! And will hero point it.

Produce Flame: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

... :/

At the last minute Kvit chickens out and the blast of fire goes wide as he scampers out into the hallway.

Cherry can be heard muttering, "Time for a big heal."

◆◆◆3 action heal, as long as those heals will reach Giyozara, Lough, and Kka. I personally don't care if it heals the construct too.

3 Action Heal, lvl 2: 2d10 ⇒ (4, 7) = 11

Quite confused, Lough looks at the Golem, then at Kvit, then at Cherry, then back at the Golem.

"Fly, you fool!"
"But no one else is leaving!"
"Besides the rat!"
"Besides the rat..."
"The rat is the key!
"The rat is the key..."
"So fly!"
"Wait - I still have to see!"

His confusion continues as our paranoid hero - having a good conversation with his other self (for a change) - waits to see what the rest of his party mates will do before attacking or fleeing!

"Lough! Hit him and leave! I'll follow you out!"

I'm sitting here to give lough flanking, I'll delay until he attacks, then I'll leave

Startled by the command, Lough's "fawn" relfex kicks in, and he obeys!

◆◆) Snagging Strike x2
◆) Stride to leave

Slag Claw (Cold Iron) vs Monster (Flanked w/ Giyo): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 241d6 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
Slag Claw (Cold Iron) w/ MAP (-5) vs Monster (Flanked w/ Giyo: 1d20 + 12 - 5 ⇒ (18) + 12 - 5 = 251d6 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Kvit fires off a ball of fire, but it goes wide.
Cherry Berry pours more of Erastil's light into the room. Luckily, it bounces off the golem. Magic immunity also means it can't be healed. :)
Lough bashes the construct, but the first hit doesn't even leave a dent. The second attack hits, leaving only minor damage, and a chip of wood flies off in return.

Splinter versus Lough: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (17) + 14 = 31
That's a crit again, right Lough?
Damage: 2d4 + 8 ⇒ (3, 4) + 8 = 15
... I think that leaves you on 1 HP. Ouch.

Cherry Berry
Lough, -40, wounded 1
Kka, wounded 2
Belcorra -63
Giyozara -8
Kvit

Kka and Giyozara may act!

Giyozara will cast shield and gtfo, I’m on my phone, can someone double move me?

Nearly made it, but missed my Chicago connection. Now sitting in a hotel room waiting for my last flight tomorrow.

Looks like the golem lost its reaction with Lough's attack, so a quick hit-and-run should be pretty safe, right? Right? If Giyozara would delay on Kka's turn, then she'll pick up flanking as well, otherwise ignore the Sneak Attack damage.

Once Kka sees that everyone but Giyozara has left the room, she takes one more run at the statue before re-vacating the room herself. "Keep it busy, Giyozara; I'm coming in!"

Action 1 (◆): Stride (35 feet) - She should have enough range to reach the square to the SE of the statue, which should get her flanking from Giyozara if he is still in the square NW of the statue.

Action 2 (◆): Strike (+1 Shortsword) with Thief Racket and Sneak Attack vs Flat-Footed Belcorra.

Shortsword Attack: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 9 + 1 = 30 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10 slashing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1 precision slashing damage

Action 3 (◆): Stride (35 feet) - She runs back to the square she started from.

I've double moved Giyozara out into the main library and upended Lough's token since he's conscious again.

Seriously! Another nat-20 for Kka? This is getting embarrassing.

Kka sees her chance and does a quick hit and run. Her short sword manages to slice off a significant portion of the golem, but it's still standing. She dips back out of the room and into hiding. Giyozara follows suit.

I'm going to give some tactical advice here: if Lough and Kka go south to the main room, the golem can't see any aggressors.

The golem marches up to the door and scans the hallway. It can only see Cherry Berry, but since they haven't tried to harm it, it stomps back to its original position.

You've figured this combat out, I feel. Kvit can step into the hallway, fire off a Produce Flame, and Lough can pull him back into cover. Repeat until dead. Skipping all the needless rolling.

Gonna give the flavour text once more.

Shelves line the walls, while what appears to be a partially completed—or perhaps partially ruined—sculpture of a sprawling city sits atop a five‑foot‑diameter circular table.

It'd be a Society check to figure out the sculpture's purpose.

Kvit cautiously approaches the sculpture, knowing just how much Belcorra liked to protect her dioramas.

Society (T): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

Society (T): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

"How is everyone?" Cherry asks once all the Medicine checks are done. "Does anyone need anything else?"

Gyozara reads a book on dragon-style martial arts while Cherry tends to people’s wounds to get his focus point back.

[b]”I wouldn’t mind a rest, I am pretty low on spells myself.

Kvit and Cherry Berry investigate the sculpture. Kvit figures out that this depicts Absalom and the damage several siege attempts have done to it over the years, up to about 500 years ago. Cherry Berry thinks this is what Belcorra hopes the city will look like after she's done with it.

Looking around the room, you see a lot of historical texts, mainly about warfare and Absalom's sieges. This might've been a planning room of some sort. When investigating these books, they are all heavily annotated. Looks like someone was figuring out why the previous sieges all failed and tried to come up with a foolproof master plan for the ultimate siege.

For those unaware of Absalom lore, it has withstood several attacks. The Pathfinder wiki lists 14 known sieges, and they all failed for some reason or another.

”Hmmm, while she was foolish to try attack Absolom, she was at least trying to learn from he early mistakes. Look here.” he holds up a book that has several annotations in it. [b]”Looks like she gave up on a naval attack somewhat early in her planning process. Seems even back then the harbor was choked with ships. You couldn’t get a ship in or out without the cooperation of what she calls the ‘docking guild.’ Must have been their name back then.

Cherry frowns. "I wonder why people keep trying? Sure Absolom is the greatest city in the world; if you like your cities crowded, but it's Absolom, near-deities have failed to take it."

Kka's interest in the history of Absalom is rather limited, so she barely listens to the smart ones discussing the subject. She's far more interested in seeing if there is anything of value in the room, and is somewhat disappointed that it's only more old books.

Still recovering from her recent beating, Kka agrees with Giyozara. "Yep. Probaably a good idea to head baack to town for a short break. I could use a good night's rest." Looking at all the books, she adds, "We should taake as many of these books with us as we can caarry to see what Morlibint will paay us for them. If the deal is good enough, we can rent a caart and come back for the rest of them."

The Bulk rules say you can carry up to 10+Str bulk of items, though after 5+Str bulk you are Encumbered which basically just means it will take us longer to get back to town. Kka is currently carrying 4 bulk of stuff, so she can take 6 bulk of books with her.

Ignore: 8d20 ⇒ (8, 7, 3, 4, 5, 19, 20, 9) = 75

As Giyozara grabs what books he can carry he continues his conversation with Cherry.

"No idea what Belcora wants . . . wanted with Absolom. Seems like she wanted to destroy it. Mose people want to rule over it. See, it's not the size of the city that's tempting, it's the fact that it's smack dab in the center of the sea. Trade routes from Taldor, to Qudara to Chelliax to Rahadoom to Khatapesh . . . you can even sail to here from as far away as Alkenstar . . . or so I'm told. Basically, it is the central nexus of all trade routes on this half of the world. If you ruled those shipping lanes? I mean, you'd be super rich for one, but also, like, you could control the flow of goods and services. Promote commoners to kings and topple tirants just by determining who gets shipped what thing."

Kvit, still embarrassed by his recent lack of heroics, stays mostly quiet as he inspects the diorama. Though he does nod and agree with everyone's assessments. "Yes, definitely using this room as some sort of war room."

Miraculously unhurt from the fight with the golem, Kvit stays silent on the topic of taking a break back in town. Though he does work with the others to also carry a load of books and snags one or two he found interesting himself. Especially a primer on infernal language.

Kvit is at 3.5/4 bulk with the staff of necromancy. So could carry ~0.4 bulk of books unencumbered or 5.4 bulk of books encumbered.

"Huh, very interesting Giyozara."

Cherry picks up a few of the books.

"Are we going back to town soon? Other than heals, I am actually not too bad in spells, but I'll admit what I have left is very specialized."

Yeah, this seems like a good moment to turn back.
I believe you also still wanted to talk to Boss Skrawng (the mitflits), don't forget about that. Did you already relocate them? I forgot. >_>

Also, everyone who is at 1 or fewer Hero Points gets a Hero Point for that brutal fight. And Giyozara gets another one on top of that for being extra heroic and running in to take some hits.

"I will be happy to be outside again," Cherry says excitedly as the group starts climbing stairs.

"I was getting a little peckish. I don't know how the Fungus Leshy can stand being underground."

Kvit's own stomach rumbles as they head back. "Hhm, it's easy to forget to eat down there among all the undeath and gross meat statues."

Sneakers runs along near the group and jumps on Kvit's robes as they get to the stairs. Sneakers complains while hitching a ride, "You guys should get that teleport circle working. This is way too many stairs!"

"Before we go" Lough insists "We left our friends alone to themselves" he clears his throat "I'd like to hear from Boss Skrawng - make sure everything is okay "

He talks while he piles books into his backpack...