Fallende shrugs and struggles the cover back onto the stone coffin.
"Since the shard is not here," she says with a wave of her hand at the entombed runelord, "Then it must be somewhere else nearby."
She pulls out the black, metal shard that she carries and attempts to concentrate on it to get an indication as to which direction the next shard is located.
Charlotte looks at Falls shard, considering, before sighing as she slips her own from a hidden pocket in her skirts.
Leaving the sarcophagus behind, you follow the Shard's pull down the hallway. The hallway ends at an immense panel of reddish metal that is nearly twenty feet tall and ten feet wide. Dozens of scenes have been carved into individual one-foot-square frames on the panel. These scenes chronicle Runelord Sorshen engaged in a magical incantation involving some sort of winged creatures.
A careful inspection reveals that the metal wall is in fact a door, and that each of the panels on the door can be depressed as if they were buttons. The buttons themselves depict Runelord Sorshen conjuring succubi and binding them into all matter of objects, structures, and carvings. The central panel depicts Sorshen binding a particularly powerful-looking succubus into what would seem to be the scepter held aloft by the Lady’s Light.
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"Oh well that doesn't seem good..." Isabel says, understating the situation significantly. As she studies the carvings she pulls out a pair of woven friendship bracelets and, grasping behind her, slips one over Lottie's wrist before putting the other on her own.
"It's magic." She whispers to her best friend with a wink that rather calls the statement into question.
Charlotte seems perplexed by the gift, saying thank you. Despite that confusion, her fingers run over the woven thread and a smile curves onto her lips.
"Powerful people always inflate their réputation to intimidate those they see as their lessers," Fallende declares with a shrug as she looks over the pictographs on the door. "You do not really believe that she trafficked avec des succubes?"
She frowns and presses a panel at random in an attempt to open the door.
Randomly pressing panels seems to have no effect until Fallende eventually pushes the central panel. The panel glows softly as Thassilonian writing appears along the panel's upper edge: "Ayandamahla is bound to the Light for all ages."
The door swings open, revealing a sloping sandy beach that extends down from the walls of a cave to the edge of a slowly flowing underground river. Two wooden skiffs are moored to four-foot-tall stone posts protruding from the sand near the river’s edge. Each boat is relatively narrow and has room to seat three, and each contains a long wooden pole.
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"Are you sure about that?" Isabel asks, translating the thassalonian aloud. "I can absolutely believe that the runelord of Lust trafficked with a succubus, or many. Ayandamahla..." She murmurs the name a couple more times as the group pushes on through the doors.
"Two each then." She proposes when they reach the boats. "Lottie, we'll go together and Fall can sail for Wesley. Best way to split things I think."
As if acknowledge defeat at the hands of a foe, Fallende bows her head momentarily towards Isabel before gesturing for Wesley to precede her into the boat.
Charlotte nods, moving toward the boat, but turns and gives the other two a quick look "Be careful. This..." she gestures to the boats "... seems too contrived to be safe." then she moves to the boat, helping pushing it out, then settling into the seat.
You pole the boats down the river for a few minutes before the cave opens up into an immense chamber. This immense cavern is a breathtaking sight. Dozens of tiny colored motes of light flit and dance in the air, illuminating a vast, cathedral-like cavern. A forest of delicate stalactites hangs down from the ceiling 30 feet above a dark pool of water. To the east, the water foams as it cascades down into a lower cavern, while to the southwest, a low beach of white sand slopes up from the shore to a single stone door set in the wall. A seven-sided stone platform sits in the middle of the lake—an artificial island whose surface sits a mere six inches above the water level. A three-foot-tall stone mooring post protrudes from each of this island’s seven points. A single glass statue of a beautiful woman stands atop this platform, one leg poised before the other as if she were preparing a running leap into the water.
As her boat joins the other at the statue, Fallende rolls her eyes and shakes her head at the overly elaborate display. "Humans," she mutters under her breath. She eyes the dark water warily before stepping from her boat to the platform.
Charlotte wobbles out of the boat, then brushes nothing off her and answers "She will probably wish to send a team to record everything, especially the clone."
She gives a slight smile at the human comment, before she notices where Fall's eyes are going. Then the smile disappears. "Anything?"
As soon as you start to tie your boats to the mooring post, the glass statue animates! Its arms transform into gleaming blades as it strides towards you, the magical lights casting colorful reflections off of its body!
Fallende's curved elvish blade is in her hands in an instant as she slashes at the glass construct. Another attack follows and she shoves the animated figure towards the water. A final sweep of her weapon follows.
The doctor isn't sure fire affects glass, but she tries anyway.
Fallende lands a solid blow on the glass golem, damaging it. Unfortunately, Charlotte's fire spell only serves to heal the construct instead of harm it! Wesley raises a forbidding ward
The golem moves its body, creating waves of scintillating luminosity to wash over you! It then attacks Fallende with its bladed limb!
Success: The creature is unaffected.
Failure: The creature is dazzled for 1 round.
Critical Failure: The creature is blinded for 1 round and then dazzled for an additional 4 rounds.
The elf's large green eyes blink frantically to clear the swirls of light that fill her vision. Her jaw sets grimly and she takes a firmer grip on her blade before striking again. "Pas de flammes, Mon Ange!" she calls out when she sees the glass repairing itself from the heat.
Charlotte winces as the light hurts her eyes to the point of blindness. She forces her eyes to remain open though all she wants to do is shut them to blessed darkness. She saw Fall get her flesh torn into, and knows she will need healing but all she can see is blurred forms moving about.
She instead casts another shield on herself and rub her eyes in hope they will clear.
Isabel recognizes the creature as a glass golem. The resist physical attacks except adamantine or bludgeoning weapons. The thaumaturge moves in to attack but narrowly misses it. Wesley sustains his ward on Fallende as the elf lands another hit. The golem strikes back!
Charalotte's eyes finally begin to clear, to the sight of two gashes in Fall's flesh, both leaking bright crimson. She considers the bond she created between the two of them, but her training allows her to see neither wound is life threatening.
She turns her healing magic instead, her rapidly depleting healing magic.
"How about if I just hit it harder!" Fallende shouts back with a laugh as she sweeps with her blade again.
Wesley can't do much against the golem, so he continues to sustain his ward on Fallende. Neither Isabel nor Fallende manage to damage the gleaming construct. It slices Fallende again.
"Je ne te parlais pas!" the warrior woman shouts at the glass construct before growling and swinging her blade while ignoring the growing slashes on her own body.
Charlotte worries about the elf, since her limited elven linguistic knowledge is leaving her rather confused on what she is shouting at the mute thing. That worry translates into healing, more and more healing as more and more of the lovely elf is hacked away from her.
Fallende hits the golem once, but Isabel strikes it three times, exploiting its weakness to bludgeoning attacks and cracking its mirrored surface. Wesley changes his ward to the thaumaturge just in time, as the golem turns to attack Isabel! Despite the ward, the golem tears into her.
"Ah! So it's a contest of skill, eh?" Fallende calls out, giving Isabel a determined glare. "J'accepte votre défi!" She smashes into the golem once more.
"Mon Ange! You must ensure that Isabel does not fall. She may not escape from this challenge so easily!"
Charlotte's dark brows furrow in concentration and worry from seeing the sheer amount of blood sprayed across the ground. Isabel's sense at running toward her speaks to her awareness though, something that deserves recognition... and extra healing.
"Stay still." Charlotte orders, her tone firm, though the stress of Isebel being so hurt is evident in her eyes. A tight bandage soaked in numbing salve combined with divine healing, brings her nearly back to feeling well an good. "Be more careful. Please." the doctor insists.
Isabel lands another hit on the golem, then Fallende delivers a powerful strike! The golem shatters into glass fragments that tinkle down around you!
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Isabel drops her weapons and wraps Lottie in a hug, squeezing tightly for a few moments before letting the shorter woman put her feet back on the floor. "Thanks Lottie." She says softly, before turning back to Fallende and the destruction that has been done.
"Shame, that was a gorgeous statue." She says, shifting some of the glass with the toe of her boot. "Right, now what was it protecting?"
She begins searching the island for... whatever it is that's been guarded here.
The elf thrusts her sword into the air and shouts a victory cry. She then slams it back into its sheath on her back before approaching Isabel and Charlotte. She waits respectfully until Isabel releases the tiefling from her hug before taking the doctor into a tight hug of her own.
Finally relaxing her hold on the smaller woman, Fallende turns to Isabel and smiles. "I claim la victoire," she declares as her smile widens. Without waiting for a response, she turns back to Charlotte, still held in her arms. "Et le prix," she adds in a huskier voice. As Charlotte is still puzzling through her words, Fallende reaches one hand up the woman's back and takes a firm grip of her hair before pressing her lips against Charlotte's.
The kiss is held for one moment. Two moments. Three moments.
Fallende finally releases her 'captive', but just enough to meet her eyes. "You are un prix worth any cost, Mon Ange," she says in a soft voice. Another, much shorter, kiss follows before the elf releases her from her arms and turns her attention to the debris that Isabel is searching,
Fallende turns to Isabel, one side of her mouth curling up into a smile. She takes a step closer to the blonde putting her chest to chest and quite in the woman's personal space. She tips her head curiously.
"It sounds like someone else needs to be kissed," she says, her lips mere inches from Isabel's. "Vous aimeriez ça, n'est-ce pas? Pour que je t'embrasse? Il faut demander gentiment et être moins con." She glances down at Isabel's lips as if considering it.
"Until then ... perhaps Wesley could oblige," she says, turning away abruptly.
Charlotte manages to not squeak when her friend takes her off her feet, a smile curving warmly from her flustered cheeks. Then she is set down, her dark eyes turn to the elf, and the hug makes her fluster turn into a hot pudding. After, the curve of the smile is still present mixed with a bit awed uncertainty. Part of her mind wondered if this was going to be the norm now every time she healed one of them.
Then a squeak does come from her, her eyes widen, as that smile is crushed from her lips, which open in both surprise and... well something deeper. And for a moment, two moments, three... Charlotte is lost to that something deeper.
Truly and completely.
Then it is over, her arms slip away from where they had curled around the o the other woman's neck. While she is coming to terms with what just happened, she sees Fall pressed against Bell, and words she did understand ignite something else, much uglier.
"I think we should move on." The doctor manages to barely keep her tone away from a Snap, as she stamps down whatever that is. A feeling that makes her suddenly want to hurt... hells, both of them???
This is insane.
"We are hear for a stone..." thoughts of the stone slip away from her brain. What emotion was this one tied to again?
Assuming you don't want to ride your raft over the waterfall at the east edge of the chamber, you make your way from the central stone island to the southern beach. The sand of this beach slopes up toward a door in the cave wall. To the south, two seven-foot-long mounds of sand break the otherwise smooth contours of the beach. A long oval shield painted with a strange symbol sits atop each mound.
Isabel recognizes the symbol as the Thassilonian rune of lust...
The doctor had been silent since she reminded everyone about the stone. Her hands held tight, while her brian reminded herself to be CALM DAMNIT. "My magic centers on objects. I'll take the shield if you concentrate on the area?" she suggests to Wes.
Showing that while she might not be perceptive enough to realize why, Fallende can certainly see that Charlotte is, in fact, upset, the elf steps close and places a reassuring hand on Charlotte's shoulder.
"Do not let Isabel disturb your calm, Mon Ange," she whispers softly. "Je suis là si tu as besoin de moi."
Hell has touched Lady Charlotte Plumth, has infected her with its fires. Fires which flare up with her emotions, and in this case flare up so hot and quick, Fall's hand almost gets burned.
Charlotte also has her pride.
She knows she is jealous, even though that is insane. She knows she wants to leap to the defense of her dearest friend when someone calls her name, she knows she wants to melt into-- she stops those thoughts with a mental door slam.
Instead she says with tight control "Bel is not the problem."
There are no magical auras in the area.
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Bel is not especially clever, but she's done a lot of reading about how to do a good excavation and she can keep her feelings away - for a while at least.
"Right, then we steer clear of the barrows. We aren't grave robbers and we don't want to disturb anything else Sorshen might have hidden around here. We don't need to exhaust Lottie any more. Lets head for the door."
The walls of the room beyond the door are covered by detailed murals depicting wanton acts involving otherworldly beings of every description. The murals cover every vertical surface, but stop abruptly after turning down the hallway to the south, as though abandoned by the artist. You note the artist's signature in the corners—“Amivadeus Yasrin.”
The hall ends at a wide, locked iron gate. The gate's lock can be picked, or it can be forced open.
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Bel steps aside, allowing Wes the time and space to do his work as she examines the murals. The name, Amivadeus Yasrin, is scribbled into one of her many note-books, according to a system that only Bel herself knows. She suspects it will be a name worth knowing one day.
She pointedly doesn't look at Fall. Lottie can take care of herself, and has.
Fallende remains unusually quiet as both Isabel and Wes examine the mounds and then the mural-covered room beyond. The huge pools of her dark-green eyes continually flit between Charlotte and her friend as if attempting to unravel a puzzle that vexes her.
After much more mental exertion than she's accustomed to, the elf finally approaches the infernal-touched lady.
"Je suis vraiment désolé, Mon Ange," she says with a quick bow. "My apologies. It is clear to me that I have mis-stepped and made les hypothèses ... assumptions ... about your feelings. That was never my intentions. I will ... refrain ... from such displays."
She then turns and gives a sour nod to Isabel. Taking a deep breath, she sets her face in a scowl and makes her way to the locked gate. "Eeeeaaaiii!!!" she shouts before slamming a booted foot against the mechanism.