“Wait, what?!” Ankha exclaims in surprise as Braxton thrusts his rapier through the gleaming white wall. “They’re in the walls?!” Seeing a trident burst from the wall and blood dripping from the swashbuckler’s blade is enough to quell any doubts, and the alchemist quickly moves to attack the skum that ambushed Braxton.
Braxton does indeed stab the surprise skum coming out of the wall, but Ankha is so surprised she misses wildly. The stabbed skum retaliates with his trident, gurgling what is undoubtedly an insult in their strange language.
The other skum charges out from behind the illusory wall, aiming to stab Becky with his trident.
Init:
Round 1
19- Braxton
11- Ankha
10- Skum
7- Becky
3- Ku'Hania
Round 2
19- Braxton
11- Ankha
10- Skum
7- Becky
3- Ku'Hania
“Becky, watch out!” Ankha cries out too late. Fortunately the second skum’s strike is wide, and the alchemist breathes a sigh of relief. Stepping back to gain more room to use her polearm, she unleashes a wide, sweeping slash at the fish-creature.
Seeing the skum come leaping out of the walls, Ku'Hania dashes forward to strike at Becky's attacker from behind.
With a surprised "Eep!", Becky just manages to turn away the skum's attack with her buckler. When Ankha and Ku'Hania instantly come to her aid , a wide-eyed Becky give a quick nod to each of them and then steps up to try to finish off the skum that assaulted Braxton. When her stab fails to connect, the frustrated teen shakes her blade a bit, as though it's a malfunctioning wand of cure light wounds.
for
Braxton dances around the next spooky fishman hidden behind a wall and stabs with his rapier. "Let's see how you like it!"
Ankha and Ku'Hania team up to quickly dispatch the skum that had targeted Becky, and it falls to the ground with a gurgling cry that sounds like someone choking on water. Bizarre creatures, these fishmen.
Braxton hits the other one, but Becky misses and it survives for just a bit longer. Recognizing the threat Braxton poses, it lashes out at him again.
Init:
Round 2
19- Braxton
11- Ankha
10- Skum
7- Becky
3- Ku'Hania
Round 3
19- Braxton
11- Ankha
10- Skum
7- Becky
3- Ku'Hania
Becky steps into flanking position opposite Braxton and stabs at the sinister skum. Her accuracy's better with the second strike; the power behind it, however, is still rather pitiful.
for
"Damn! This fish actually knows how to use its trident!" Becky moves in tandem with Braxton and the pokey pair spear the fishman betwixt them!
"Good job," Becky compliments Braxton and his swordsmanship; she doesn't even bother to pretend that she contributed to the skum's demise. "Let me heal you up some," she tells the adventurer/brewmaster, drawing her healing wand. "I hope this stupid thing works better than my rapier just did! Argh! Nope!" Wondering if perhaps she walked into an ancient Azlanti anti-Becky zone, the young archivist shakes the wand vigorously and taps Braxton a second time. "Well, that's better," she grumbles, returning the wand to the holster on her belt.
Becky and Braxton manage to finish the last one off, and it falls to the ground with Becky's rapier in its hide. Skin. Scales? Whatever it is, it's dead now, leaving its trident to clatter across the floor of the tower's foyer.
“Well done everybody,” Ankha relaxes as the second skum falls to the floor, dead, then has a sudden misgiving. “There aren’t any more hiding back there, are there?” She stabs her fauchard through the eastern ‘wall’, then speculatively reaches a hand through it, before cautiously poking her head through the illusory barrier, followed by her whole body. “Nope, all clear. But we’d better be careful from now on, if they’ve gone to all this trouble to hide an ambush behind illusions. And with such well armed guards,” she adds, when it’s revealed that the tridents are powerful magical weapons.
After searching behind the illusions to ensure that there aren’t any secret passages and that the double door is the only way forward, she suggests “We should take the tridents with us. I’ve heard that magic weapons are really useful against some creatures.”
"Good to know." Ku'Hania says as she steps through the other wall for a moment to look around. Turning to face the door, she prepares to move on.
No secret passages or other hidden walls, and the pair of smaller rooms behind the illusory walls each has a simple stone floor and undecorated gray stone walls. The stark nature of the room is interrupted only by a large circle of silvery metal set into the floor in the corner of this room.
A detect magic spell returns an aura of transmutation magic.
Beyond that, the double door is the only way forward.
"Thank you, dear Rebecca." Braxton says as the bard closes his wounds. "And excellent initiative. Not so many can react so quickly to a magic-assisted ambush. Well done." He pats Becca's noggin. "Magical tridents, eh? That explains why they were so sharp, but where did the fish people get magic weapons? Some unnamable leviathan deep beneath the waves, perchance?" He says, turning one of the tridents over in his hands, examining it. He does not have much use for a trident in the melee, but they make for deadly javelins. More awkward to draw than one of his daggers, but all the more deadly for it. "That ring is... probably related to the illusion spells." Braxton knows little of magic. "Should we scratch out some of the metal? Break its... circle-yness?"
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"Whoa!" Becky exhales as she catches a glimpse of the silvery circle that detects as magical. "Come take a look at this!" she urges Ankha excitedly. "What do you suppose this is used for?" she asks. "I have some theories but figured we should put our brains together to piece together this puzzle."
"Wait...WHAT??!!" Becky demands of Braxton. "We find an ancient magic and your first impulse is to destroy it??!! Heavens NO! Please step back while Ankha and I try to figure this out."
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After picking up and stowing one of the tridents, Ankha hurries to Becky’s side. “Ooh, that is interesting,” the alchemist admits. She doesn’t know how to view magical auras the way any wizard-in-training can, but she has studied a fair bit of magical theory to assist her experimental research. “Hmm …” she murmurs. “Do you see how the circle fluctuates a bit there … and there? I suspect it’s some sort of transmutation magic.”
“Not illusion,” she smiles apologetically at Braxton, then winks mischievously at Becky. “Don’t mind Braxton—he has no use for magic unless it makes beer.”
Becky and Ankha work together to puzzle out the circles' intentions as a construct repair station. They're not connected to the illusions, nor are they fantastical teleport traps luckily.
That leaves just the double door as a path forward. Once you move on from the circles and open the door, you see that a curving ramp along the northern wall of this chamber ascends to the floor above. The east and west walls each have a single door, and a double door stands in the southern wall (the one you came through). Murals cover the east and west walls in this space, depicting kind-looking human adult figures smiling benevolently at children. The children, for their part, are smiling and appear healthy and happy. The figures, both adults and children, have tiny jewels orbiting around their heads in shining rings that resemble halos. Bold words are painted above the door in Azlanti.
"Hmm... ramp is probably for the construct things." Ku'Hania mutters.
"I hadn't thought of that," Becky replies to Ku'Hania, her countenance growing grave as she translate the words above the doorway.
"Sounds benevolent enough...right?"
“Ooh, I wonder if the warden jack swarm uses the circle for healing?” Ankha idly wonders out loud. But when Becky deciphers the Azlanti words, the alchemist’s eyes shine brightly and all thoughts about constructs are forgotten. “Greatest potential … that’s wonderful! And with such advanced technology—that’s still working today, centuries later—I’m sure they achieved their goal of giving everyone a happy and long life! What an amazing society this must have been!”
Awestruck and giddy, Ankha moves to open the door on the left. “Let’s uncover their secrets!”
The second that Ankha steps into the larger room, two clockwork arms spring out of the wall, one above each of the two side doors. Each one is wielding a wicked-looking crossbow and they fire upon the group without delay, shooting a bolt each at Ankha and Braxton.
Even as the bolts launch towards her, Ankha spots a small control panel on the northern wall that would likely allow one to disable the trap.
Init
23- Trap
22- Ku'Hania
14- Braxton
10- Becky
4- Ankha
2- ?
“Eep!” Ankha exclaims in surprise. “Not much of a welcome.” An open door leading to an ambush and traps—for all their advances, Azlant civilization has yet to master hospitality.
“There’s a control panel” she urgently points out to the others. “See if it disables the trap. I’ll deal with the crossbows.” Stepping to the left and swinging her long polearm up, she tries to knock the crossbow out of the clockwork’s grasp.
"Right--I'm on it!" Becky chirps, more than happy to take orders from her new friends; this adventuring in Azlanti ruins was much more interesting and rewarding than merely helping out around Talmandor's Bounty!
The archivist then examines the control panel quickly before trying to operate it to disable the crossbow.
Ankha attempts to disarm the clockwork arms of the trap, and actually does knock the crossbow off of the gryoscopic platform it was attached to.
Thankfully Ankha doesn't have to smack the second one down off the platform, because Becky figures out how to use the control panel to not only disarm the trap, but also reprogram its targeting parameters to specific targets (as in race, species, sex, etc).
Init
23- Trap
22- Ku'Hania
14- Braxton
10- Becky
4- Ankha
2- ?
Seeing the trap disabled and grasping the possible need for swift movement, Ku'Hania calls upon her connection to the ocean spirits, creating a low-cresting wave of water that carries her along the surface of the ground, as she sweeps into the chamber.
Braxton takes a few steps inside the room, curiously looking around at the decorated entryway. As he does so, the door on the right side opens and reveals two skum behind it. They exclaim in their strange language before attacking, one throwing a trident before the other one steps forward to engage Braxton.
Init
22- Ku'Hania
14- Braxton
10- Becky
4- Ankha
2- skum
For the first time since the expedition began, it seems luck is not smiling down favorably upon the sailor. The ambush by the cowardly frogs is a roaring success!
“More?!” Ankha exclaims as more skum rush to attack. “Hang on Braxton,” she cries out reassuringly as she hurries into action, skirting around the swashbuckler to a spot where her polearm has room to operate. There she unleashes a heavy two-handed chopping swing against the nearest skum.
Ku'Hania swiftly rides a small wave of water across the chamber, striking out at one of Braxton's attackers with her spear.
Becky yelps as the skum appear, rushes to aid Braxton in combat, all the while spouting everything she knows about the creatures to help her friends triumph over the fishmen.
Braxton swings and misses, perhaps surprised by the sudden appearance of the skum. Ankha and Ku'Hania, however, don't share the same surprise and quickly team up to take the red skum down quite handily.
The remaining skum steps forward and takes a stab at the already-injured Braxton, attempting to finish him off.
Init
Round 1
22- Ku'Hania
14- Braxton
10- Becky
4- Ankha
2- skum
“Becky—other side!” Without missing a beat, Ankha tries to direct the bard into a flanking position on the opposite side of the skum. Once the young girl is in position, the alchemist unleashes another hefty swing with her polearm. But she focuses entirely too much on power over accuracy, and the force of her swing sends the weapon flying from her grasp.
Taking advantage of the skum's focus on Braxton, Ku'Hania strikes again, thrusting her spear to stab at the fishman.
"Right! On it!" Becky shouts back at Ankha, stepping into flanking position, charging up her rapier with a touch of magical energy, and then stabbing at the surrounded skum. The plan is strategically sound, but the young ladies' execution of it leaves much to be desired.
for
"Ah! It's the devil of the deep! The master of the trident!" The group has finally met their match. Cthulhu has come for them!
Ankha, Braxton, and Becky are all still too surprised by the skum's sudden appearance to land stable hits, but Ku'Hania lands a solid blow against its scales. Seeing as how Ku'Hania was the first to hurt it, it turns its attacks against her but only the bite manages to draw blood.
Round 3
22- Ku'Hania
14- Braxton
10- Becky
4- Ankha
2- skum
Nothing can stop the rampaging kaiju!
“Let’s try this again,” Ankha mumbles to herself, upset that her last attack was so unhelpful. She draws her sling staff and wields it high like a club. Stepping in, she brings it down with a forceful smack against the skum’s skull.
Ankha, Braxton, and Becky are all still too surprised by the skum's sudden appearance to land stable hits, but Ku'Hania lands a solid blow against its scales. Seeing as how Ku'Hania was the first to hurt it, it turns its attacks against her but only the bite manages to draw blood.
The creature's bite manages to make it past her guard, so close in fact that she could feel it's teeth scraping across the magical field just along the surface of her skin, courtesy of the protective ring.
Twisting around for a retaliatory strike, the shamaness plunges her spear deep into the fishman's torso.
Ankha's smack and Ku'Hania's stab are enough when combined to bring down the last skum. These skum aren't carrying magical weapons this time.
Looking past the dead skum into the room they emerged from , you see a long marble workbench runs the entire length of the southern wall, and a rusting metal shelf stands on the opposite wall. Squat stools line up along the bench, which is littered with a variety of small, precise hammers and chisels as well as fragments of crystalline stone that looks like quartz. A single door exits to the west, and another exits to the north.
That leaves the room the skum exited, the door across the hall from that room, and the stairs as potential avenues of exploration.
“Well done!” Ankha praises Ku’Hania’s prowess with her spear. The alchemist stows her sling staff and gathers her fauchard before entering the eastern room, both out of curiosity and as a precaution to ensure there are no more skum. Peering at the shelf and workbench, she points at the crystal fragments. “That’s not the same crystals we found under the well—the ones those strange creatures were guarding—is it? Or maybe they’re using them for making spybots?”
If there’s nothing of interest in the room, she examines the door at the other end and cautiously tries to open it.
Although Becky dearly wants to join Ankha in examining the workbench and any ancient and amazing widgygidgets that might be found there, she first checks on Braxton.
"Good job protecting everyone from that skum ambush," she comments as she gets her healing wand out for more action. "Next time, though, try to do a better job of protecting yourself as well, OK?"
The teen bard-healer lets out a couple of "Tsk"-s as she ministers to Braxton's wounds. "Three whole charge from the healing wand...Gone! Never to return! You need to be more careful in the future!"
Ankha takes one look at the workbench and can immediately tell it was some sort of assembly line for workers making ioun stones. The table holds a multitude of small chisels, files, magnifying glasses, scales, and tools that pertain to the arcane but are not magical themselves. A strange metal contraption at the workbench has a rubbery hose snaking up the wall to the ceiling and a fine, needlelike end set near a vise built into the table. Dust from cut gems has accumulated beneath this device, which once used a high-pressure stream of water to help perform fine cuts in the shaping of ioun stones.
Amongst the tools and dust, Ankha finds a single ioun torch.
“Ooh, look!” Ankha exclaims as she picks up an ioun torch off the table. “It’s just like yours Braxton. I’m pretty sure they make all sorts of ioun stones here.” She puts the magical item in her bandolier, then gestures to Ku’Hania. “Could you wash this workshop clean of all the dust? I know diamond dust is good for some spells and rituals, but we really don’t want any in our eyes.”
Braxton groans, rotating one shoulder. "Thanks, Becks. You're quite handy with a wand. Hopefully the frogs don't get stronger the higher we climb." He takes various small bits and bobs from the table and starts chucking them at the walls, no longer trusting the structure itself. "Is that where they made the angry metal balls, Ankha?"
Ankha shakes her head. "No, this place is just a factory for ioun stones. The warden jacks must come from somewhere else. Maybe here?" The alchemist tentatively tries the northern door in the far corner of the workshop.
With a nod, Ku'Hania swiftly flows around the workshop, conjuring water from the air as the wave at her feet assists in thoroughly washing away the layer of dust all over the workshop.