It buuuurns!
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BOLD IS UP!:
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➤ Chimwemwe
➤ Soomdevi
⠀⠀➤ Blinks
Akoril
Splinters
Alrinkiri
➤ Wisps
DC 34 (crit success), second success by another PC, or DC 26 as second check after first success:
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"Good job, Akoril!" Chimwemwe moves back toward the golem and scoops the shadowhound into his arm before continuing through the door. "We might be safer restricting its view through the doorway."
Wisps enters the room.
The golem moves forward to volley, trying to decimate everyone in the room!
One of the splinters catches Akoril near the eye!
Alrinkiri and Wisps get hit; Alrinkiri uses their arcane shield to block most of the damage.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Chimwemwe
➤ Soomdevi
⠀⠀➤ Blinks
➤ Akoril
Splinters
➤ Alrinkiri
➤ Wisps
DC 34 (crit success), second success by another PC, or DC 26 as second check after first success:
Akoril attacks with more fire!
Akoril then protects themself with a shield spell before shouting back "That's not a bad idea!"
And then wondering how bad an idea it would be to open the nearby door and use that for cover.
"Don't worry, a few splinters won't stop us!"
"Maybe I can slow this thing down" Alrinkiri says, spewing a shower of rocks over the creature before dashing out of the room.
"Ah! No. Behind me, Wisps," Chimwemwe laments as he traces the invisible shape on the inside of his arm. This time, his eyes and tattoos flare with pale violet light and his armor crackles with tiny arcs of violet electricity.
He raises his shield and tries to interpose himself between Curling-Wisps-of-Smoke and the inevitable rain of splinters.
Akoril's arrow burns more wood. Wisp's own projectile misses, and more trash smolders.
Pebbles glance off the golem, sticking in its wooden gears and slowing it!
Chim's armor powers up!
Once again the creature flings splinters at its enemies in the room.
Chim blocks the worst of it, and Wisps manages to jeep standing, but Akoril's body cannot take the punishment. The gnoll falls.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Chimwemwe
➤ Soomdevi
⠀⠀➤ Blinks
➤ Akoril
Splinters
➤ Alrinkiri
➤ Wisps
"Akoril, come back to us."
Wisps sends a healing spell at Akoril, then darts back to the first room.
Rumors of his demise being overdone Akoril throws one more ball of fire before ducking out of the room.
As Wisps opens the door, illusionary snakes spill out from the trapped door in a 30-foot spread, hissing venomous curses! It seems you missed a trapped door when you searched very first room.
Akoril, thrown off by the nasty surprise, sends his arrow wide.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Chimwemwe
➤ Soomdevi
⠀⠀➤ Blinks
Akoril
Splinters
➤ Alrinkiri
Wisps
Chimwemwe grunts in pain as another wooden spike drives through his shield and cuts his arm. He is caught off guard by the sudden flood of hissing snakes. His eyes widen as the malign magic takes hold of him.
He lowers the mangled shield and steps closer. Reaching out, he tries to catch the statue by its leg. The golem proves too strong and pulls him off balance. The Lirgeni tumbles to the floor intelligently. He scrambles back through the doorway.
Alrinkiri breathes out a cone of flame to cover Chimwemwe's retreat, then closes the door behind him.
The creature avoids the worst of the fire.
Chim trips himself and crawls intelligently through the door. It's a good plan!
The golem, still slowed, moves up to the only creature still in the room — wisps — and slams her! She drops.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Chimwemwe
➤ Soomdevi
⠀⠀➤ Blinks
➤ Akoril
➤ Wisps
Splinters
➤ Alrinkiri
Akoril ignores the curse for now, grabbing Wisps and dragging them out of the room before shutting the door.
"Let's join up with the others," Chimwemwe says as he pushes himself to his feet. He heads back to the secret door. When he sees Curling-Wisps-of-Smoke unconscious on the ground, he hurries toward her.
With the doors closed and no one inside its room, the golem doesn't give chase.
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RESOLVE WILL SAVES:
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──────────
Status:
──────────
Chimwemwe
Soomdevi
⠀⠀Blinks
Akoril
Wisps
Alrinkiri
Chimwemwe finishes hurrying toward Curling-Wisps-of-Smoke and kneels down. He places a hand upon her as the tattoos on his palm turn into the sparkling depths of the night sky.
Once the anadi is awake, he suggests, "We should destroy that construct now that we know how to deal with it so nobody else stumbles upon it. Maybe we can confuse it by switching doors at random."
Wisps winces at her injuries. "It is interesting that it did not attack anyone outside of the room. Perhaps it is only instructed to protect that room?"
”Maybe. But that seemed like serpentfolk magic on the door,” Chimwemwe muses. ”Why trap it if what was inside was not part of their scheme?”
"Thinking about it a little more, I think Wisps may be right that it was not put there by the serpentfolk. This is two constructs that have attacked us now in or around this building. Perhaps there is something to the history of this place?"
"If we do want to destroy it, fire seemed effective. Perhaps if we open a door, Akoril can hurl some more fire, then quickly close the door, it won't have a chance to throw more splinters at us."
With a clever plan you can dispatch the golem.
Inside you find a magical key, two talismans, and a brooch carved from thick hide.
☀☀☀
Mtembe and Oyo tell you they enter and leave through the secret door. The golem never attacked them when they peeked into the room and they didn't even know it was there. Oyo is quite disturbed by this and fails to hide his trembling.
If one were so inclined, it would also be pretty easy to re-program it to kill whoever you wanted… for example, serpentfolk minions who fail their mission, become a liability or betray you. Oyo and Mtembe seem to be immersed in a culture of intrigue, double-crosses, and betrayal.
"This is a rhino hide brooch. It is quite useful; it gives you resistance against an attack."
"Hmmmm. Wood golems should be easy to program to do exactly what you want, like kill any non-serpentfolk or kill specific people."
While Curling-Wisps-of-Smoke investigates the rest of the magical items found within the storage room, Chimwemwe works on his shield. He then heals any remaining wounds, focusing in between administrations.
Akoril looks at the items but can't make heads nor tails of them. So he decides to ponder the golem instead.
Also puzzled Akoril looks to his companions "Glad these make sense to you, I might need to take another class in identifications..."
"Are you sure this thing is magical? Seems like a regular key to me."
Chim and Alrinkiri discover that the key is key of lock jamming.
You move to the next room. Oyo and Mtembe say they've never been in there… just their boss. You believe them.
In here dusty shelves full of what appear to be old reagents line the walls. In one corner is a large pile of broken crates and old hay, presumably for transporting the alchemical equipment here. Wisps and Akoril can see jars knocked over and pushed aside; the shelves in here have recently been searched.
S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S…
A pale, 12-foot-long snake uncoils from beneath a pile of debris near the door. It rises up and undulates, flicking its tongue out like it's waiting for something. It seems to have a hood, but it isn't flared at the moment.
s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s…
A seven-foot long snake with emerald scales and fangs as long as daggers slithers out from another pile. It stares at you.
Both snakes look a little put upon as if they were awoken from a lovely nap.
Second check / Critical Success:
Second check / Critical Success:
Snakes are also grumpy when woken from snake-naps, and will attack if not commanded or fed.
"If you shove the key in a lock and activate its magic, the, hmm, the, hmm, nothing short of magic can open the door," he asserts in regards to the key.
"This one is an emperor cobra! It can use its hood to frighten its prey. They...all seem trained. Do we have any food for them?"
Akoril responds unhelpfully "No meat in my rations..."
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Alrinkiri sizes up the snakes. "How big are these crickets?"
Wisps carefully approaches. "Good snakes! Gooood snakes. Eat these crickets."
plus whatever bonus for the crickets
The snakes snap at the crickets, enjoying their small snack. They curl up and go back to sleep when Wisps talks to them.
With the creatures calmed, you can try to salvage alchemical ingredients from this room with a crafting check.
Akoril whispers to Chimwemwe "Let me know if you want help."
"Those snakes are quite a bit larger than Ziwiri and Zitatu," Chimwemwe comments as he moves slowly into what appears to be an alchemical storage room. He nods to Akoril. "The faster we search the less likely we are to, hmm, to disturb the snakes. Will need to relocate them eventually."
You recover 150 gp of reagents from this room!
The snakes don't bother you and you feel its safe to move on to the next room for now.
After inspecting the door for traps and finding none, you open it. Inside is yet another cluttered room. Thankfully, nothing jumps out to try and kill you this time. While the shelves against the walls contain messy and disorganized jumbles, a table in the center of the room holds an orderly arrangement of vials, tools, and several jars of living flies and grasshoppers.
☀☀☀
Soomdevi detects magic, pinning it down to a ring set with a yellow-green topaz.
☀☀☀
Two glass vials hold a weak acid.
☀☀☀
A clay jug holds the remains of some solvent at the bottom:
☀☀☀
The tools on the table are all fine sculpting equipment, adamantine-tipped scrapers, and small drills.
"This is diluted formic acid. It's found in ants and bees. Koride talks about it in class."
Chimwemwe quickly assesses the magical ring. He frowns thoughtfully and nods before saying, "This is valuable magic. It provides resistance to acid like the electroplating on my armor."
He holds the pungent vial of solvent. "This could be used to dilute formic acid." Setting it back down, he looks at the tools. He holds one blade and looks at it for a longer time. He drives the point smoothly into the table. "These must have cost a lot. Some of these are adamantine tipped."
There is nothing else in the room. The building is fully explored.
There is certainly a mystery afoot.
With the information at hand, you should take a moment to think about what you could report to your teachers.