---
Nicolette notices that, where she had completed her obedience to Erastil, a small tangle of berries has inexplicably grown up from the ashes. Maybe Erastil is watching after all.
As Bohrs finishes his prayers to Cayden Cailean, he feels a small surge of energy in his arm, recognizing a spell within him.
As the group begins discussing which path to take next, Calaithes gets a feeling. He can't quite describe it, or its origin, but it's more like an instinct. Those berries that Nicolette points out, and the dagger that Calaithes has retrieved the night before...he thinks that they might be magical.
"Shall we see what's at the bottom of the stair, Friends?" Bohrs says, rising from his knees and making sure his armor, pack, and weapons are securely in place.
"Keg-tapper,eh?" Bohrs chuckles as Kayle's suggestion. "I'll keep it in mind!"
He whispers a prayer to the Drunken Hero, and takes a drink from his tankard. A moment later, the silver cup flares into magical illumination.
As they get ready to move Calaithes feels a strange sensation, or is it more a knowledge? He pulls his new dagger and studies it for a moment. "Guys? Can anyone sense magic? I'm getting a.... suspicion I guess, that this blade, and Nicolette's berries there are magical. Don't ask me how. I've never sensed anything like this before. I liked this blade but just though it was exceptional craftsmanship. I mean, not even slightly discolored by sitting in that fire? Anyway...."
He holds the blade out looking at Bohrs and Kayle.
"Cayden can grant me the ability to sense magical auras, but I did not pray for such ability this morning. I can certainly include that request in my prayers tomorrow morning, though I realize it doesn't help much with your understanding of the blade or the berries at the moment. I will add that sensing magical auras and making sense of those auras are not the same thing. There is a degree of study and training that goes into the reading of magical auras that I, uh, well, haven't really done before. So, while I could tell you for certain if the dagger and berries are magical in nature, I'd have no way of telling you exactly what the magic is doing." He shrugs, his shoulders in a half-apologetic-half-it-is-what-it-is sort of expression.
Nicolette gasps to herself as the plant grows. She obviously gives thanks to Erastil, but is mostly stunned for a long period of time just looking at the plant now in the center of the room. Almost hesitantly, she plucks the berries and wraps them in a cloth. She will ask Kayle if he had anything to do with this, but she is almost certain it was not him.
"I think we need to clear the area around Roldare and make sure he's safe. We may find his sister as well."
Bohrs would now see the plant there, grown over some of the wet ash. It was certainly not there last night.
After Kayle casts his spell on Nicolette, she certainly feels the change. She has to fight hard to not smile. His motions and words obviously cast the spell, but she still acts as though nothing happened.
"Hmm...nope. Still nothing."
"If you're done holding hands then, you can maybe tell me what these are? Did you make these berries?" she asks, producing them and revealing them.
With Cal and Bohrs answering that they are magical, she considers and waits for Kayle to answer.
Bohrs grins and stifles a chuckle by taking a drink from his tankard. As he does so, he catches Nicolette's eye, and winks.
"If ye think we should clear the rooms up here, first, that's fine with me. As long as we've got somewhere to go." Bohrs replies, clearly not married to his earlier suggestion to head downstairs.
Bohrs places his hand on the door, and whispers a prayer to Cayden Cailean.
Winding their way back around past Roldare's closed-and-barricaded door, and the door that they had come in through in the first place, the group traipses down a short, narrow hallway where they find another door. The door is quite stubborn, though, and seems not to want to give way despite any amount of normal effort.
Bohrs places his hand on the door and calls on Cayden to grant him sight to the other side. He sees a wide, domed chamber with a single pillar in the center of the room. The pillar is surrounded by a pit, but a stone bridge crosses the pit on the south side. Dozens of arrows jut from holes in the pillar, facing every direction that Bohrs can see from his vantage point.
Calaithes finds the door leading back to the maze of pits locked.
Calaithes shrugs after everything is tried on the door. "Maybe there's a lock on the other side? But, there were other ways to go back at the entrance. Let's head back."
Kayle waves off the idea of being able to identify the dagger. "I'm hopeless at such things. he reasons, "But if I put my mind to it I might be able to identify it in the future. Bohrs is the more likely to receive inspiration on such a thing."
Kayle was initially embarrassed by Nicolette's teasing, but he quickly read through the bluff and couldn't help the thin smile that came across his features. "It didn't?" he asks wryly, "Oh right, must have forgotten a component." He brings his other hand to her wrist, then smoothes two fingers and his thumb up her bare forearm. Then, he pinched her right behind the elbow.
"That aught to do it." he teased before becoming more contrite, "...and yes, I suppose I am done holding hands. For now." He tried his best to extricate his hand from hers, but honestly she had a better grip than the druid did.
Seeing the berries he gives her a queer look and shakes his head. [b]"Not me."[b] he says, [b]"Must have been old deadeye.
Kayle then takes point with Calaithes as he proposed earlier, with Owens right behind.
Nicolette snickers as she gets pinched for her cunning lies. When he rejects that there was involvement on his part, she considers.
"Here, each of you take one of these. I believe they are a blessing from Erastil. I was praying to him and planted a seed. He then grew a plant from it and these sprouted. I would not want to upset him after giving such a wonderful gift. I'll try it first."
She will eat her berry.
Assuming she doesn't die, she will head off after the others and will consider the door.
"I mean, I could always break through it if you want. I am not one for ruining crypts, but this is a matter of finding a taken girl. It's more important. If you would rather explore the other areas first, that's fine."
If they wish to carry on and be more silent, and to find another way around, she has no problem with that. If they want to break through, she will facilitate.
Bohrs accepts one of the berries, and places it in his pouch. ”I, too, received a boon from my god. Although I did not request it, Cayden granted me the ability to magically unlock a single door. It seems too convenient to be coincidental that this gift was given the very same day we found this door. Shall I?” he offers.
If the others agree, he touches the door and says, ”May the locks and pins relent to the Will of the Drunken God.”
As she eats the berry, Nicolette feels completely sated, even more than she did after eating part of a ration, receiving nourishment as if it were a normal meal.
Bohrs tries to enact the spell boon he received, but finds that the magic does not work. There is a feeling that the spell is not meant to unlock doors, but to free someone from chains.
Considering whether to smash the door down, Nicolette gets the suspicion that this is a one-way door meant to be opened from the other side.
Calaithes accepts the berry from Nicolette. He watches as she eats hers, considering eating the berry she gave him. "Good? Should we all eat then?"
"There's other options before we start breaking down metal doors or walls. Remember that the other people haven't torn the place apart ahead of us, so it must not be required...."
Nicolette will nod at the question of whether the berry is good. She also seems satiated.
"Good. Very good. And filling. In fact, I think it healed me."
She will untuck her undershirt, unbuckle her front plate of her armor and will lift her shirt to see her bruises gone.
"See?"
After reequipping, she will head out. When they come to the door, it seems the others want to go the route of the stairs first. Not wanting to wreck the tomb, she decides it's best and follows them to the stairway.
Abandoning the one-way and locked doors, the group instead takes the shallow stairs into a narrow western passage a little over 30 feet long. It emerges, with some stairs back up, into a lofty chamber with a lowered floor. There are descending stairs on either side of the lowered floor. Two doors exit the chamber, one to the north, and one to the south. Standing next to the southern door is a tall wooden statue of Kassen grasping a gigantic wooden shield in each hand. One of the shields is inscribed with the word "home," while the other reads "family."
"Hold on...." she stops them upon seeing the statue. "Roldare said they came and were 'checking the shields'. Something about these shields is important to the traps, I guarantee it," she deftly points out. Her eyes settle on the words. Despite how hard she thinks, she can't think of a way to deactivate a trap.
”What should we be looking for?” Bohrs wonders.
Neither Nicolette nor Bohrs see anything obviously out of the ordinary.
Kayle will move up, keeping point as he seemed determined to do. His faithful pooch right behind him. He looked the statue over, considering the odds it had some secret as much the rest of the tomb did so far.
With the others checking the statue Calaithes moves across the room to check the north door.
Moving into the room and checking the northern door, he finds it both unlocked and untrapped. Bohrs and Nicolette post a watch at the top of the stairs while Kayle and Owens descend.
As Kayle reaches the bottom of the eastern stairs, the statue that resembles Ekat Kassen creaks and steps forward. As Nicolette suspected, the statue had been standing on top of a pressure plate! As the statue steps into the lowest portion of the room, the steps all individually rotate 45 degrees, turning the stairways into two long slides.
Owens slides down after his master and has a hard time keeping his footing at the bottom.
The statue raises its shields and turns to face Kayle. Right before the statue activated, Kayle saw something interesting: a small keyhole on the back its neck.
Kayle & Owens
Calaithes
Nicolette
Statue
Bohrs
Map
"There's a keyhole on the back of it's neck!" Kayle shouts to the others.
"Desna save me, why did I go first?" he thinks to himself. Looking to see his side where Owens was also prone and an easy target for the statue Kayle winced and stood up, likely taking the first attack from the statue.
Hearing the situation falling apart Calaithes leaves the door and steps toward the lower area in the center of the room. Reaching the edge he sees the moving statue. Unsure what he even can do he raises his crossbow and tries shooting the statue.
"Kayle! Get out of there! I don't think that thing can climb if you can!"
Nicolette will back up and pull the key out of her pocket . She will ready herself for a jump.
"We'll distract it while you use the key!" Bohrs says, unslinging his crossbow and firing a shot at the automaton.
Kayle will bring his shield up as much as he can, serving as the primary target for the statues. Rather than sincerly try to hit it, he swings his club at it from the same side as Owens. Breifly giving the dog a screen so he can stand up without hopefully getting hit.
Owens himself will try to get up and bite at the mean statue threatening him and his master.
Owens stands up from his slide down and tries to get into a position to bite the statue. Calaithes takes a pot shot from above and manages to catch the statue in one of its odd, articulating wooden joints. It doesn't look quite as effective as he expected, but something is better than nothing! Meanwhile, Nicolette looks like she is getting ready to plan something either bold and daring or foolish and deadly.
Before Bohrs can get his shot off, the shield guardian finishes turning, takes a step closer to the eastern stairs, and swings both of its shields: one at Kayle and one at Owens!
Kayle lifts his own comparatively tiny shield and intercepts the blow coming for him, splinters of wood showering around him. But the eager Owens has no shield and is unable to dodge out of the way of the massive block of wood that smashes into him.
As Bohrs tries to line up a shot, he tries carefully not to hit either Kayle or Owens while splinters begin to explode. Unfortunately, his care and lack of training with crossbows means that the bolt ricochets off of the statue's armor and smashes into the ground below.
Bohrs
Kayle & Owens
Calaithes
Nicolette
Statue
Map
Calaithes sees the big statue attacking Kayle and Owens. The strike on Owens looks really bad. Hardly thinking he drops the bow and runs down to try and help.
Reaching the statue he swings his hanbo at the creature's legs.
If your attack exceeds the target’s CMD, the target is knocked prone. If your attack fails by 10 or more, you are knocked prone instead.
Trip: You can use a trip weapon to make trip attacks. If you are tripped during your own trip attempt, you can drop the weapon to avoid being tripped. Source 1. Source 2.
You've learned to use your quickness in place of brute force when performing combat maneuvers.
Benefit: You add your Dexterity bonus to your base attack bonus and size bonus when determining your Combat Maneuver Bonus instead of your Strength bonus.
Normal: You add your Strength bonus to your base attack bonus and size bonus when determining your Combat Maneuver Bonus.
Special: With or without this feat, when you are using a finesse weapon, you may use your Dexterity bonus in place of your Strength bonus when attempting a disarm, sunder, or trip maneuver.
This feat allows you to add your Dexterity bonus in place of your Strength bonus when attempting a bull rush, grapple, hamstring, or overrun maneuver.
Although Calaithes is sufficiently deft to avoid falling at the bottom of the slide, and knows how to sweep his weapon out to avoid a counterattack, he does not account for the reach of the large statue. Fresh from pummeling Owens into the ground, the statue's other shield arm swings out viciously and rings the half-elf's bell.
Possibly seeing stars, the rogue tries to hook his hanbo around one of the animated statue's legs, but can't get a good angle. In a split second, he has to make a decision whether to let his momentum carry him to the ground or risk losing his grip on the staff.
Bohrs
Kayle & Owens
Calaithes
Nicolette
Statue
Map
With a swift run, she leaps in the air, using the strength in her legs to vault either over her target to the panel it came off of, or to a position where she can grapple its neck.
With a leap that would make Cayden Cailean jealous, Nicolette soars through the air and over the head of the statue that is pummeling her friends, key in hand. She lands deftly and whirls around to face the back of Ekat Kassen's animated avatar. As she lands on the pressure plate that the statue had stepped off of, it does not sink back in--she must not weigh enough.
Unfortunately, trying to get a hold of the creature doesn't quite seem to work. She steps in and has to duck out of the way of the blow that sends Calaithes careening.
Bohrs
Kayle & Owens
Calaithes
Nicolette
Statue
Map
Kayle will redouble his efforts to protect his lovable dog, especially after the statue crumpled his poor companion with such a heavy blows. "Con'sarnit." Kayle cursed in a low breath as he took another swipe, trying to block any avenue of attack the statue might have at Owens.
Kayle will also be ready to use stone shield at the last moment should he need it.
Owens is growling at the large statue, but as it rains a heavy blow on him he gives a plaintive yelp. Staggered but not down, the thickly muscles shoulder's tense to fight off being dropped to the floor. Then Owens is snapping at that arm.
Owens sinks his teeth into the statue's arm and wrenches off a healthy chunk of wood, which he tosses aside.
Meanwhile the statue swings its shields at Nicolette and Kayle. Nicolette once again dodges out of the way of the massive block of wood. But Kayle's luck seems to have run out--even as he interposes a slab of stone between his body and the oncoming blow, either the stone is too slow to rise or the size of the blow is too large, and the druid feels the full force of the statue's strength.
Bohrs
Kayle & Owens
Calaithes
Nicolette
Statue
Map
Bohrs calls upon Cayden Cailean's power. "Give them the resolve to stand, Cayden! Let them feel the hand of the Drunken Hero upon them!"
Off balance and stumbling as the big wooden statue slams him with a shield Calaithes' attempt to trip the thing has his weapon wrenched out of his hand. Grimly he pulls the magical dagger and takes a step closer to the wall to try and flank the creature. While he hadn't wanted to actually break the thing, it was too dangerous and everyone was involved.
Nicolette finds the statue's movements too erratic to climb onto at the moment.
"Keep still, you hulking monster."
Bohrs' healing energy uplifts the group. He notices that, despite being unable to exclude the statue, it seems unaffected by the positive energy.
The statue is moving too erratically for Calaithes to land a blow with his new dagger.
Nicolette once again tries to grasp hold of the berserk statue long enough to steady her aim to thrust the new-found key inside, but her footing is uncertain. The statue swings its shield at her and she dodges to the side. Chips of stone and splinters of wood sting at everyone's legs from the impact.
Bohrs
Kayle & Owens
Calaithes
Nicolette
Statue
Map
Owens will continue his assault, showing no fear and following his person's lead. He ducked back, growling and making use of Kayle's screening strike, and then attacked again.
"Good boy!" Kayle calls to Owens, "Rip it's damn arm off." He was hurt. Owens knew it, and he knew it was pointless to try and fool his dog. Still, it was important he kept his resolve. They were both hurt, but they would do this together. Kayle banged his curved club on his shield, more to psych himself up than try and get the statues attention. Then he reared back and swung as it, again trying to hinder it's attacks against his dog.
The statue unerringly hits both Owens and Calaithes again, though Kayle's distraction prevents the blow from taking the poor pupper to unconsciousness. Bohrs' healing also ensures that neither dog nor half-elf go down under the relentless assault. This statue seems implacable! Can the party pull this off and plunge deeper into the Crypt?
Bohrs
Kayle & Owens
Calaithes
Nicolette
Statue
Map
Nicolette leaps once more onto the thing's back. This time, she tries to dig her fingers right in through the sinews of the wooden golem, whether there was space for them or not. She would not be gainsaid.
"Fight on, Friends! A mug of Cayden's best awaits your victory!" Bohrs cries, continuing to bolster his allies.
Calaithes shakes his head at Bohrs's encouragement. "I hope we don't get a bill for the damages we're doing, if we survive this!" He tries to hit it again....
Kayle will jump forward, trying to press his shield and his body weight into the statue so that it can't shrug Nicolette off. "Just hurry with the key!" he pleads while straining against the golem.
While Owens was no seasoned combat veteran, dogs well understood trying to pull an enemy down. No wolf, he could still try and bite down and pull.
Bohrs sends out another wave of energy, healing his party. While Kayle fumbles around trying to distract the statue, Owens grabs a momentary hold of it.
Calaithes whips out his new dagger and slashes across the back one one of the statue's legs, where it's knee is. It seems to be more effective than he expected!
Unfortunately, Nicolette can't quite get enough of a hold of the statue to stop its wild swinging, and looks like it might suffer its retribution for her audacity.
The statue slams its shield hard into Nicolette, almost as hard as the Combusted had the night before.
The statue then tries to lash back out at Calaithes, but the rogue ducks under the flying shield. In Kayle's effort to help Nicolette, he leaves himself open to attack and nearly buckles underneath the assault.
Bohrs
Kayle & Owens
Calaithes
Nicolette
Statue
Map