"Some to many of these 'bespoke animations' I have no doubt." Caraid says grimly. "Potentially worse. Such an execution might mean that the fool was meddling with creating chimeras or something equally stupid."
His mismatched eyes pierce the darkness beyond easily enough but he reaches over to tap Ceceka's sword and imbue it with light regardless. It's the polite thing to do and the quick stick together.
"Lead the way Humerus." He commands.
Ceceka releases all the pent-up anger once Dizonn has left. To the outside world, they might've gotten a promotion, but inside the nefarious pyramid-shaped world of the Blood Lords of Mechitar, they are still the same: disposable tools. "By Rovagug's balls, we're no janitors. Fine, open that blasted door, Humerus, and let us get this over with."
Aily is also irritated that the lords once again have been rewarded with something no one else wants. It is almost enough to put a dent on her elation.
Stepping forward, she places a hand on Humerus, before he manages to open the door. "We need to treat the entire place like a trap." she tells him, then checks the door for those traps, before nodding to him to open.
A thick layer of dust coats everything in this chamber, including a long V-shaped stone table and its eight high-backed chairs. Shelves filled with books and eccentric art objects line a few walls. A long workbench has been placed against a wall to the northeast. An alcove to the northwest contains some sort of mummified bat-winged creature, its arms crossed over its chest. Yet the most eye-catching feature in the room is the twenty-foot-tall, fully-articulated fossil skeleton of a towering bipedal dinosaur that stands in the room’s center.
Telvir stands, fascinated by the remains in the hall. "My, my."
"Well I don't know what the bat is." Caraid says slowly. "But something in here is going to be a guardian of some sort. Telvir, what do you think? Can we identify what and find a way to usurp its control somehow?"
Testing his theory he begins with the simplest of cantrips - Detect Magic.
The sick layer of dust is an abomination that is seeking to drown out Aily's ability to function, to concentrate on ANYTHING other than cleaning this mess. But she raises her red eyes at the bat Caraid expresses ignorance on. "It is a sabosan. They are a batlike humanoid from the Mwangi Expanse." the maid adds the second part when she draws a blank stare. Hmm... not blank, simply uncaring, she notes, but then tells them all "The skeleton is a tyrannosaurus."
"Fascinating. Just decorations, then, Aily?" Telvir wanders in for a closer look at the specimens.
Smoke takes a break from following Humerus to go sniff the T-Rex skeleton.
"Hmmm?" Aily says with distraction as she opens her pack for the retractable feather duster stored there. "Ah..." she focuses on the bat, and then the skeleton, her eyes narrowing "Doubtful. Few remains used in a necromancer's lair are truly just ornamentation, or without some form of animation. Your rooms back at the manor can be used as proof."
"Yeah, and skeletons are pretty great, blood boss!"
"True." Telvir fall silent as he starts calculating ritual components and required amounts of onyx. Now this would make quite the centerpiece for a procession.
Ceceka eyes the dinosaur and shakes his head. "Great, more trash. We can try selling the skull to a collector, and that mummified bat person thing, well maybe we can find a fool who wants to buy that. And yes, Smoke, we'll keep a few bones just for you to chew on."
As Smoke gets close to the skeleton, the entire thing suddenly lurches to life! Ah! A golem!
The golem snaps at the dog!
Ceceka bursts into action when the golem snaps at Smoke. He mutters some vile words that are best forgotten.
"Point made." Aily says as she sighs, dropping her feather duster to pull out her shadow dagger. The maid rushes over to the massive skeleton, even more massive than theirs, to save her second favorite member of this group.
Smoke.
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HP 175/175
AC 30 / 31 in Mountain Stance or 33 if use Mountain Stronghold
Resistance 2 to cold, electricity, fire, piercing, and slashing damage
Fort +20, Ref +20, Will +18(+1 vs. disease and poison; +2 circumstance bonus to Fortitude DC vs. Grapple and Swallow Whole; +2 circumstance bonus vs. being Shoved or Tripped while in Mountain Stance, +1 vs. fear)
Hero points: 2
Effects:
"That's an awful big skeleton, blood boss!" Humerus observes as he realizes he needs to do more than look impressed by it.
He falls into his fighting stance, rushes forward and -- realizing it's probably too big to grab -- tries pummeling it.
Smoke makes a sharp yip as the T-Rex snaps its jaws shut.
Telvir scowls at the creature. "A mere golem! How uninventive."
"Smoke, attack."
The dog snaps at tendons that are not there, attempting to damage the T-Rex.
Meanwhile, Humerus hears a voice inside his mind: "Strike again!"
for
for
Humerus punches again, but the violent flinch away from Smoke makes it almost impossible to tell.
Caraid frowns. "This seems awfully wasteful." He murmurs, but there doesn't seem to be a better option right now. Perhaps the golem can be repaired later...
Caraid's divine lances strikes the golem, but unfortunately, it is immune to most magical attacks! Ceceka scores a critical hit, and Aily stabs it from behind several times, though its physical resistance blunts the damage somewhat. Smoke and Humerus both fail to land any solid blows.
The golem bites Ceceka twice!
HP 175/175
AC 30 / 31 in Mountain Stance or 33 if use Mountain Stronghold
Resistance 2 to cold, electricity, fire, piercing, and slashing damage
Fort +20, Ref +20, Will +18 (+1 vs. disease and poison; +2 circumstance bonus to Fortitude DC vs. Grapple and Swallow Whole; +2 circumstance bonus vs. being Shoved or Tripped while in Mountain Stance, +1 vs. fear)
Hero points: 2
Effects:
Humerus continues to batter away ineffectively at the golem. "I wish my bones were as sturdy as hers, blood boss," he comments to know one in particular. He decides to try to grab it to help Ceceka hit.
The pain the golem puts Ceceka in awakes something within the warrior. He taps into the roiling source of anguish and uses it to retaliate with ferocious strength.
Telvir tries to recall what he can about bone golems.
Aily ducks under the swinging tail, jabbing her dagger up into a place she knows would hurt anything alive. And it is truly annoying that it matters not to an unfeeling golem.
Caraid has nothing useful he can do so lingers out of the way of the fight and looks for anything that might have been used to control the golem...
"Curious. What an unusual creation." Telvir sends a psychic message to Ceceka, urging him to Strike again.
Humerus continues to flail and miss. Ceceka misses with his initial assault, but Telvir's urging gives him another chance to attack, and this time he lands a hit. Aily stabs the golem twice. It continues to attack Ceceka, biting him once more.
HP 175/175
AC 30 / 31 in Mountain Stance or 33 if use Mountain Stronghold
Resistance 2 to cold, electricity, fire, piercing, and slashing damage
Fort +20, Ref +20, Will +18 (+1 vs. disease and poison; +2 circumstance bonus to Fortitude DC vs. Grapple and Swallow Whole; +2 circumstance bonus vs. being Shoved or Tripped while in Mountain Stance, +1 vs. fear)
Hero points: 2
Effects:
Deciding that perhaps the other skeleton isn't too big, Humerus tries to grab it. Turns out it is in fact too big, so he reverts to just trying to break it.
Finally, not really sure what else to do, he just raises his shield. "Try to bite me, boss!" he taunts it.
With Ceceka continuing to take hits Caraid pumps him full of healing energies.
Aily notices the sudden healing wounds of the savaged chew toy blood lord, and looks between rub bones to glare at the blood lord using ILLEGAL magic right out in the open.
In frustration, she stabs the skeleton repeatedly, like someone trying to break ice with a pick.
The golem's bite manages to slow Ceceka down, angering the man further.
Between Aily's and Ceceka's attacks, the golem finally succumbs to the damage dealt to it! The magic holding it together falters and fossilized bones clatter to the floor all around the room!
As the creature crumbles into a pile, Aily marches as graceful furious frustration incarnate directly in front of Caraid. The way her lips are held is in tight straight line, it is clear (to him at least) that she wants to scream at him, but instead, after a long pause, she says simply "Tricks of the lights can be misinterpreted by spying eyes, my lord. Your servant would hate to have to intercept every incorrect rumor before being passed up to undying ears."
Telvir sits at the table, surrounded by the remains of the golem, and refocuses. "Smoke, that bone is more rock than anything," he comments as Smoke worries a gigantic dinosaur tibia.
Humerus flinches. He picks up a bone -- on the far side of the room -- to examine it and see if it might be a good replacement, not that he lost any ribs this time.
"Gee, blood boss, it's like our own new house is trying to kill us," he comments. He can't help wondering what tricks of the light Aily is talking about. He doesn't remember seeing anything, but maybe he missed it.
With the golem defeated, you search the room. Among the art objects scattered on the shelves are seven different cat figurines made of different precious stones and metals—six of these are merely statuettes worth 40 gp each, but the seventh is a golden lions wondrous figurine with the name “Cleops and Chasmere” etched on the base (these are the names needed to activate the item).
Ceceka's sharp eyes spot a secret door hidden near the northern exit doors to this chamber. However, he also notices that the giant sabosan mummy is trapped, rigged to unleash magic on anybody who gets too close.
"A complex charm, but no matter. It seems our necromancer was skilled in magic, if not in politics."
Telvir is able to disarm the trap. Beyond the secret door, a hall leads to a hidden room behind the foyer. A lone desk sits against the northwestern wall of this room, opposite a long row of shelves lined with books and scrolls. The wall to the southwest is decorated with what appear to be several movable metal slats placed at eye level. The slats slide open to reveal peepholes to look into the reception hall.
The books on the shelves in this room are focused on the topics of positive and negative energy, the creation and destruction of undead, and methods of using necromancy to animate flesh. The collection as a whole is 10 Bulk, is worth 600 gp, and if referenced during exploration or downtime provides a +2 item bonus to checks made to Recall Knowledge on these subjects. Slim folios that contain all the information needed to learn the rituals word of recall and planar ally can be found among the shelves here as well.
Among the books are several mediocre works of fiction that feature cats in prominent roles. These books look out of place, and indeed, Telvir can detect that they have been affected by illusion magic, likely a secret page spell. You will need to either guess the password or dispel the effect to reveal these books' true contents.
"Bah, fiddling with illusions," Telvir scoffs as he shuts one of the books. "I've not the patience for it. Perhaps this fool left his passwords written down somewhere."
"Maybe it's Garfield, blood boss?" Humerus suggests. He looks at the books, waiting for them to change.
"I should hope there are no such eyes within my own home." Caraid replies calmly. "And if there were, I have no doubt I could trust that they were blinded in good time. I have every faith in the capabilities of my staff." For once that is not a double entente, his face is positively guileless. Besides Aily knows that he knows, full well, just how capable she is. Strangely enough Caraid believes in her - almost unquestioningly so.
--------------------
"Cleops or Chasmere perhaps?" Caraid offers. "Let us continue looking, perhaps we will find a note somewhere that offers a further clue."
Aily had been quiet since her talk with her lord, trying her best to keep an eye out of those eyes he mentioned. She does take time out of her watch to looked around the room for any clues.
Ceceka lazily flips through the pages of one of the illusionary books and shrugs. "The fool probably picked the name of an obscure or extinct species of cats as the password." And he obviously doesn't know the names of any such species.
With the password being out of their reach, for now, Ceceka focuses on the task at hand. With weapon in hand, he follows Aily.
"Cleops or Chasmere perhaps?" Caraid offers.
When Caraid speaks the names of the lion figurines aloud, the text in the books shimmer and change, revealing Xharduun's personal journals! It will take quite a while to read through them all, but you take them with you for now as you continue to explore the suite.
The southwest doors from the entry hall lead into a dusty room that contains a large metal table, atop which lies a large figure covered by a dusty shroud. Now and then, the figure twitches under the sheet. The western wall is lined with shelves covered with surgical equipment and writing supplies.
Pulling aside the shroud reveals the immobilized body of a zombie horse that still twitches periodically. Even a cursory examination of the body reveals the stitching along its belly that indicate it has undergone some sort of invasive surgery, and that further examination to determine exactly what was done would require time and proper tools. Fortunately, the proper tools to examine the zombie can be found on the western shelves.
With his mastery of medicine, Caraid notes that obscure methods indicative of an autopsy were used on the horse, and that some sort of magical examination and augmentation has been performed on the remains, so examining the body further might be dangerous...
Critical Success: The character successfully perform an autopsy of the zombie horse, causing the necromancy animating it and the explosive magic to fade and rendering the body a normal corpse. The character recovers a thin metal scroll tube hidden deep within one of the horse’s lungs.
Success: The character makes progress, and can tell that something long, thin, and solid seems to be hidden within the horse’s lung. They also realize that delicate magical energies suffuse the remains that could explode into fire and positive energy upon the slightest mistake. A character can attempt the activity again. Reduce DCs to Autopsy Zombie Horse by 2.
Failure: The character makes no significant progress on the autopsy. The character may attempt the activity again. Increase all DCs to Autopsy Zombie Horse by 2.
Critical Failure: The character triggers the zombie horse’s fail safe and the corpse explodes. This blast of fire and positive energy destroys the zombie horse, and deals 5d6 positive, 5d6 force, and 5d6 fire damage to creatures within a 30–foot radius (DC 28 basic Reflex save).
Aily arches an eyebrow at her lord, curious about his knowledge but not pressing for an answer. Instead, she dusts off each book, then slips them into her pack.
She cares nothing about the horse.
"I'll examine the horse after we have surveyed the surroundings," Telvir determines. "Messy to leave experiments just lying around like this."
"Whatever you say, blood boss. Or I can go leave it outside if you want."
"Unless you have a mastery of surgery you haven't shared Telvir, perhaps we should work on the horse together." Caraid suggests with a sardonic smile. "I agree though, this can wait for later."
Telvir raises an eyebrow, "I assure you, my knowledge of such creatures is quite extensive."
The last doors lead into the main suite. This dusty lounge is furnished with a few wooden tables, chairs, and benches. A long oval pool sits to the north. Instead of water, this recess contains a large mound of fossilized bones. Several doors provide exits to the north and south. These four side rooms are all plain, dusty bedrooms.
Four humanoid creatures composed entirely of blinding light float around this large room. They turn towards you as you enter and quickly begin to fly at you menacingly!