Karamjeet moves forward and aims to take out another skeleton. Sadly, his aim is off and his fauchard scratches the wall.
Aurika aims three darts of magical force at the skeleton across from her. The first two darts slam into its skull and rattle it around, but the third one manages to knock it off its vertebrae. Without the skull, the skeleton collapses to the ground.
Zourn
Karamjeet
Aurika
Skelly 4
Skelly 2
Ingmar
Nic
Nic and Zourn may act!
Nic prepares to defend Aurika when an enemy comes close.
Zourn moves up to the eastern skeleton and tries to bash it against the wall, but without much success.
Skeleton 4 drops its shortbow and draws a scimitar, then slashes twice at Zourn. The first one connects, but the second one goes wide.
The skeleton threatened by Karamjeet drops the shortbow, draws a scimitar as well, steps into slashing range, and goes to town on Karamjeet. But not before Karamjeet slashes back.
Both attacks miss their targets.
Zourn
Karamjeet
Aurika
Skelly 4
Skelly 2
Ingmar
Nic
Everyone may act!
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"This is going well so far," Aurika says, considering the foes for a moment. "I need to test a theory, so bear with me."
She then once more intones an incantation, drawing signs in the air before hurling more electricity at the two remaining skeletons. "Electric Arc!"
"Shield!" Aurika says as a follow up, protecting herself with magic.
Skelly 4 crackles with electricity but seems unfazed. Skelly 2 dances out of the way entirely.
Nic runs in and jabs twice. His first attack snaps off some bones, but it's hard to break bones by piercing them. Luckily Karamjeet's powerful fauchard strike shatters the rest of #2's bones and it is no more.
Zourn 3 damage, shield 3 damage
Karamjeet
Aurika
Skelly 4 6 damage
Ingmar 12 damage
Nic
Ingmar is left to go!
Skelly 2 draws his scimitar, provoking from Karamjeet.
[ooc]Meh, good enough. I don't think a skeleton with 2 HP left is much of a threat.
Karamjeet slashes through the final opponent and it is quiet once more in the chamber. You patch yourselves up, refocus, and continue. You inspect the bags and all they contain is a lot of mold. You sigh and continue.
A statue stands on each side of this room, each sculpted to look like a dwarf woman wearing an apron. Their hands stretch out in welcome. The only difference between the two statues are the veins of raw ore preserved in their stone robes. The statue to the east blinks her eyes open. “Oh!” she says. “Sister, we have visitors. It’s been so long.”
The other statue shakes herself awake. She yawns before saying, “I told someone would come back. Now, who are you?”
"How rude, dear sister," the first statue says again. "Allow us to introduce ourselves first. We are Raseri Kanton and Jernashall. We are here to guide travelers to their families."
Raseri Kanton has a bright river of silver on her apron, and Jernashall is adorned with veins of obsidian.
Jernashall, the statue to the east guards a hallway, while Raseri Kanton to the west sits in front of a similar elevator you encountered a few rooms back.
Both statues start speaking at once, glad to have a new speaking partner. They glare at each other until one of them gives in and stops, letting the other one speak.
"We store information about travelers passing by," Jernashall says. "They can leave behind messages that others can call up, to let them know how their loved ones are doing."
"But sister, it has been several hundred years since the last traveler passed by," Raseri Kanton says. "Face it, they don't need us anymore. No one is going to ask us for their relatives, they're all dead by now. We should become beacons, to guide new people to us and help new travelers, rather than caring about old ones."
"Seri, how dare you," Jernashall gasps. "Forget all those messages? How can you abandon our divine duty, given by Mother Folgrit herself!"
Raseri Kanton sighs. "See, travelers? We've been like this for over a hundred years now. Neither of us can convince the other of their point of view. Our discussions have grown rather tedious by now."
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"That all depends on how wide the family is. Do you have any messages for someone of the Ironfist clan?" asks Ingmar.
"However, I do see your point, Jernashall. One should honor their obligations, at least when it is practical. Raseri Kanton does have a point about perhaps the time has passed. If it has been so long that generations upon generations have been born, and died, I don't know how you could ever deliver your messages. I expect that you don't have contacts in the Boneyard, so your only chance is happenstance.
"However, you could help travelers that will be newly coming. We of the Pathfinder Society will be traveling through these grounds, and with a higher frequency. Being able to help these travelers and explorers would be a service that would be highly valued."
"We do not contain any messages about the Ironfist Clan," the sisters reply immediately after Ingmar's request. Jernashall's features then soften, asking, "Perhaps it is a newer clan, after our time, or your clan simply didn't come here?"
"Still," Raseri Kanton says, "We've been in a deadlock about our situation for a hundred years now, and I know my sister; we're stubborn enough that we're not going to be swayed. I put it to you, travelers, what do you think we should do? If we purge all our information we can send out a signal to guide visitors, or keep doing what we're doing and be a glorified voicerecorder."
So, how this works is that I'm going to need a number of successes to convince either side. Each person can attempt two checks: Diplomacy, Religion, Society, or an appropriate Lore check (such as Dwarven Lore). You can also offer an unaligned vote for an alternative solution (be creative!), and if you manage to tie the vote, they do both.
So, feel free to channel your character and act out what you would do or value. There is no right answer here. I'll give you about a full day to discuss and make skill checks, and we'll continue afterwards.
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"Oh my, I would think it would be a terrible loss for all if you purged your messages. After all, there are many long-lived races in Golarion. When word gets out, and it will when I write my chronicle about you two, you can bet that people will return with the hope that there's a message for them," Aurika smiles, adding, "Or new messages to pass on!
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Karamjeet thinks hard about the situation. "On Jalmeray, where I come from, the caste system rigidly forces everyone into their place in society. This can be beneficial when there is a positive effect on society, but is often negative as it does not allow for innovation and growth. For instance, I was born to the farming class. Even though I was talented with weapons, I would not be granted access to even the lesser centers of martial learning on the island.
So when I found an opportunity to join the Pathfinder Society, I took it and changed my status and role in life. Now I am fulfilling an even greater destiny on my path to perfection. However, I do not forget my past or my family, and I try to honor them with my deeds and actions.
As there are two of you, perhaps you can honor your old function and your new found function at the same time. You, Jernashall, should keep the old ways and continue to carry the messages. And you, Raseri Kanton, can guide others that come to this place. Thereby, you can still be useful to those who visit here."
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"The Pathfinder Society has a great deal of chroniclers. The head in books type. If we get some of them down here can we have to tell your histories and messages to them? As we record them you can have room to guide new travelers?" Zourn says pulling out a barely used journal they gave him when he joined, Report he thinks.
He sighs, "The value in records cannot be understated. There are kin of mine that may have rights to some of these homes and cities. We cannot just toss that away. No matter how old we remember our lineage."
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With unusual forthrightness and articulate presentation, the halfling adds, "The paladin says what I would have--revere the past by recording your messages in another way, then turn towards the future. We honor you for your long service, and the words you have preserved from ages past. It is time to lay that burden on others, and serve in a new way."
The Sisters ponder what you've said for a while. "Hmmm, yes, that would work, I think," Raseri Kanton says.
"As long as you promise to keep good care of our records, there's nothing stopping us from sharing the information with you. It might take a while to share all the messages, but we've waited hundreds of years. What's a year or two on top of that?"
"Thank you, Pathfinders, for coming up with a creative solution to our problem. Now we both get what we want. I look forward to working together with you," Raseri Kanton smiles.
You say goodbye to the Sisters and continue exploring this area. Behind the statue to the west is another elevator up. You go up and check out where it leads, and it indeed goes to the same area as before. You make note of this, as this allows you to send multiple groups up, and continue downstairs.
Behind the eastern statue, there's a shaft that leads to a spacious cavern below. It's easy to climb down, and the cavern leads to a short passage, which ends in a pair of doors covered in all the symbols of the dwarven pantheon. They're all heavily damaged, except the symbol of Droskar, the evil dwarven god of toil. You open the doors and look beyond. A metallic scent wafts through the passageway, and you recognise this smell as Abyssal energy that remains after summoning fiends. For the smell to have lingered this long, a lot of fiends needed to have been summoned in the past. You make note of this and head back to base camp to report all of this.
You decide to not yet your feet wet (yet) and head for the Labyrinth.
The slab that seals this hallway bears the marking of a gravestone. Three icons are carved into it, as well as an inscription and foot-wide square that glow faintly with magic.
The inscription reads in dwarven, “It is not how it ends, but how it starts.”
The three icons seem to be worn down by some kind of erosion. Aurika and Ingmar recognise it as coming from repeatedly being touched.
The first of the three icons portrays a dwarven hammer. The second icon represents an underground city. The third icon shows a dwarf cutting off his beard.
Ingmar and Nic look at this slab and think there's something off about it. You think it might be some kind of trap, but it's difficult to pin down what will happen. It'll definitely go off if touched, however.
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"That one is easy, I could spot Torag's hammer in my sleep." Zourn shares as they begin to look over the puzzle before them.
He shrugs at the depiction of the shaved dwarf, already being a bit odd in terms of dwarven tradition himself as he wears his hair shaved close.
He looks between the others to see what they have to say.
As soon as Aurika says the words "Tar Khadurrm," there's a soft click coming from the door as something shifts inside its mechanisms. She tries to open the door and it swings open easily. Seems like that was some kind of passphrase.
There's a long hallways behind the door, with several passageways branching off from it. Inscriptions decorate the walls with scattered images, Dwarven script, and other symbols. The images and runes depict relics of dwarven life in centuries past.
The images include portraits of loved ones, carvings of the destroyed cities, and small remembrances of the life left behind in the aftermath of the disaster. For example, images of the markets bustling with commerce are alongside images of children’s favored toys left behind in the crisis. The walls also contain numerous letters to those left behind, often with a pining sorrow for what life was like before the volcano erupted. You piece together that a community of dwarf refugees moved through this area after the destruction of Jernashall and Raseri Kanton, the two great cities of the kingdom of Tar Khadurrm.
As Ingmar and Nic look down the hallway, they spot several carvings crying actual tears, then immediately evaporating. You think something might happen as soon as you set foot in the hallway.
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"You know, I think we can bypass the danger by plugging the holes. I think I have just the thing..."
She pulls a few rags from her backpack that, upon further inspection, look like an old tunic. She tears pieces from it and attempts to plug the holes.
I would use a hero point here...
Well dang. Let me know if I burned that hero point
Aurika starts plugging the holes, but doesn't apply enough force and the rags fall out after a few moments. She tries again slightly hurried, and in her rush makes eye contact with a crying statue. The entire hallway fills with the sound of sobbing as every single statue starts crying, their tears immediately evaporating into a thick mist.
Everyone takes points of negative energy (basic Fortitude save) from the mist.
Let's go into Encounter Mode now. There's no set initiative, but things will happen at some point.
Karamjeet
Nic
Aurika
Ingmar
Zourn
Everyone may act!
Everything in the hallway is now Concealed by the mist.
Nic and Karamjeet are overwhelmed by the sudden outpour of emotion, but Zourn keeps his composure.
Karamjeet 4 damage
Nic 4 damage
Aurika
Ingmar
Zourn
Everyone still has all their actions.
The party scrambles to get rid of the mist, but all their attempts are in vain. The images are still crying, but luckily don't produce any more negative energy.
Karamjeet 4 damage
Nic 4 damage
Aurika 2 damage
Ingmar 8 damage
Zourn
Everyone may act! The hallway is full of mist, and everyone is Concealed. Karamjeet can confirm that the previous room is free of mist.
The party tries to disable the crying walls until Ingmar finally manages to recite a prayer and calm them down. You retreat back to rest and patch up everyone's wounds, and a Pathfinder runner greets you and informs you that other teams have pointed out several traps to be careful of in Droskar's Crag.
You push on, exploring more of the Labyrinth.
A bas relief of a great city split in two adorns the walls of this chamber. Every inch bears a fine detail, from pairs of guards that watch over the doorway to a forge hammering away at a clan dagger. Dwarven calligraphy covers the stone tiles that make up the floor.
You still hear wailing dwarves echoing around this room. You think it's just a figment of your imagination, until a form rises through the floor and looks at you in a mix of sadness, anger and anguish. A broom materialises next to it and somehow seems to agree with the spirit.
Aurika
Ingmar
Karamjeet
Broom
Spirit
Nic
Zourn
Aurika, Ingmar, and Karamjeet may act!