"We'll have to come back to clean this up." Thawm comments, following Tandyn beside Aroden.
Ahmose's attention turns to the details of the chapel, as the small kobold tip toes to the dwarf statue, using it to hide behind as he views the rest of the chamber.
Where the f+&+ did I go!
Before you enter the chapel Nurah pulls everyone aside, except Ahmose who is lost to time and space, and starts handing everyone a locust with dried blood on it. "The statues in there are corrupted by Deskari, but they're not so bright. Display these and they won't attack you."
Defender's Chapel, full description
A huge statue of a squat dwarf with a massive hammer and shield stands at forefront of this small chapel, flanked by twin tapestries depicting forges. Several rows of benches extend back from the dais on which the statue is mounted, watched over by three more stone dwarven sentinels in the alcoves along the eastern wall. A final, larger tapestry covers the back of the chamber, apparently illustrating and commemorating the construction of Citadel Drezen and its stand against demonkind. All of the room’s decorations have been torn, smashed, scratched, and otherwise befouled—their original sacred purpose can be barely seen below layers of filth and ruin. The three eastern statues in particular seem to have suffered the brunt of this blasphemy, for the entire surface of each has been etched with demonic runes.
Aroden looks at the locusts with distaste.
"I don't like this particular deception, but I am willing to employ it as a tactic. However, if there are any among us who will not do so, then I will approach openly without the locust and help destroy those blasphemies."
"Really? Including while we restore the statues?" Thawm asks, scrutinizing her bug.
Thawm makes a face of disgust, then anger, then ...pity?
"Uh- thanks? Nurah, I really appreciate the offer, really." Thawm says, offering the unholy symbol back.
"-but I'll only display the holy symbol of the best goddess." she explains with a pat on the thick silver angelic ankh hanging around her neck.
"If it's to redeem the statues, I'll allow you all to use these for a short time." she adds magnanimously.
"Maybe if I ask, Sarenrae can simply hide my presence?" Thawm adds, looking around after finally noticing the absence of Ahmose.
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"Thank you for trying to keep us safe Nurah. I do not wish to wear the symbol of any other deity, especially not Deskari."
"-but I'll only display the holy symbol of the best goddess." she explains with a pat on the thick silver angelic ankh hanging around her neck.
"Ahem.... the goddess of friendly fire indeed... In any case, I'm fairly certain Deskari isn't a goddess, if that helps." Tandyn grins.
"Hold on, is that a flask?"
"If we aren't going to disguise ourselves, then battle it is. These are constructs of some kind?"
...
"Hold on, is that a flask?"
"...it's an angelic ankh?" Thawm explains, looking down.
"Oh." she adds, unscrewing the bottom of her holy symbol and pulling a flask of acid out.
"This is... a momento from a long time ago. Before I was strong enough to defend myself." she explains, putting the acid back and resealing the hidden compartment.
She nods to herself, grits her teeth, and lines up next to Aroden.
Nurah doesn’t abandon the unholy symbol of Deskari but begins to tell the story of how Sarenrae forged a coalition of myriad deities against the Rough Beast and how each used their own talents and proclivities to aid in the effort. Including how Torag and Gorum forged the Dead Vault which would serve as Rovagug’s prison within Golarion. She makes no move to provoke the statues directly.
The slow moving constructs turn their heads towards the party as they enter the chapel.
Round 1
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Aroden moves into the room, takes a look at the constructs, and uses Total Defense (AC 24).
Ahmose's attention turns to the distressingly and disturbing dwavenl statues moving and shaking their fists at them....
Dorek strides forward besides Aroden, drawing his blades and readying them to turn aside any attack directed at him. The tiefling's crimson eye flicks over to Tandyn. "L-let's cleanse these things, friend a-angelkith! I'll d-distract them, you go for their..." He trails off, glancing over the massive stone statues and coming to the realization that a rock has no weak points, which puts a crimp in his usual tactic of repeatedly stabbing the enemy's weak points. "...Do you t-think it's too late to sit this one out?"
"...Do you t-think it's too late to sit this one out?"
"It's just shattering a few rocks, right?" Tandyn walks to the center aisle and attempts to stare at the first construct. "If a sculptor with a chisel can do it, I'm sure you'll be fine." Radiance goes flying toward it.
Nurah drops the unholy symbol in Cecily's hand and Cecily immediately drops the gross dead bug on the ground, making a gagging face. "I think not, Nurah."
But she's gung-ho on punching some statues into rubble.
She moves into the room, passing Tandyn as she lowers her center of gravity and serpentines toward the already-damaged statue, and she barrels into it fist-first.
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Ahmose and Aroden come to the same conclusion at the same time, that the statues are constructs animated by Deskari’s will through his cult. Such constructs are blessed by their patron’s divine influence. Their weapons could cut deeper, or in this case bash with more strength against Deskari’s foes or shatter fragile objects without so much as touching it.
Dorek manoeuvres forward, wary of attacks. Tandyn tosses radiance at one of them cracking its stone slightly. Cecily’s fist meets stone and as usual when that happens, the flesh breaks not the stone. She pulls her hand away thankfully she hasn’t broken her wrist.
Ahmose casually saunters over to the benches. He then tosses a Tanglefoot bomb at Cecily's date!
Ahmose’s bomb blows off chunks of stone and immediately catches them, holding the inert chunks fast to the statue. Thawm’s magic fails her, unable to harm this construct.
The statue penned in by Cecily goes to move and strains against the glue holding it fast to the floor. But the other two rush past Tandyn and Cecily and aim their stone warhammers at Aroden. The first hammer blow strikes the reborn god in the gut, the graffiti marring it flashing a nauseating mauve as it does. Aroden is barely knocked out of the way of the second by the first blow.
Round 2
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Ahmose's blue eyes widen at the pounding the Wizard just took! Proud to be smarter, the Alchemist (safety first) decides to help him out.
The Alchemist then--Fast bombs--the other two Statues!
Cecily lashes out at one of the passing golems as it strides past her with a back-handed fist, sees where they are headed, and she follows after them with a flying kick, trying to slip below the swings of the Golem before her.
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Dorek glances over at where Aroden is being cornered by the statues - as he moves to aid Cecily, he jerks his horned head towards the unmoving statue of the dwarven warrior. "G-go, Aroden - I don't t-think they'll fit in the gap there. I'll hold t-this one off." Turning his gaze to the defiled golem between him and Cecily, he narrows his eye, driving his blades into where the golems' legs bend. "It will be m-much harder to follow you without kneecaps."
As he works, the rogue gives a nightmarish grin to his fellow tiefling on the other side of the golem. "It s-seems we keep ending up on opposite sides of the d-demons - you make a v-very good distraction, Your Graceship." The lanky locksmith bends backwards almost double as an errant fist flies over his head, his scorpion tail twitching with anxiety. "T-these ones are very hard to s-stab - any more l-luck pummeling them?"
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As the startlingly quick constructs bolt right over the pews, Tandyn catches one with his blade.
"What the..." He quickly turns and charges after them.
"you make a v-very good distraction, Your Graceship."
Tandyn chuckles. "Agreed."
Aroden is not particularly frail, so he keeps his composure as he takes the hit.
"They want to attack me? We can use this."
He falls back, but to a place where the statues can still pursue him.
Thawm heals Aroden as he passes by, then she rolls her fireball into another statue, hoping the previous statue ignoring her magic was a fluke.
"Stay behind me Nurah." Thawm says protectively.
Tandyn and Cecily both strike each golem as they rush past to menace Aroden. Quick with explosives, Ahmose blasts off chunks of each, causing one to crumble to the ground unable to move with the gross amount of damage. Soon the magic powering it leaves it. Cecily rushes to help Aroden, punching it to the ground and it similarly stops moving. Dorek and Tandyn advance on the remaining golem and end its existence in two final strikes.
The Flaming Sphere rolls around, burning up some filth before disappearing in a tiny puff of smoke.
"There we go. No need for blasphemy today." Thawm explains cheerfully in Nurah's general direction before she finishes tending to Aroden's injury.
Ahmose frowns.
Guess they don't make them like they used too...bummer.
The Alchemist begins to Search the chamber that was guarded so...
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Cecily preens as she stands to her full height and straightens up her sleeves. "Well Dorek, yes. It is of course natural that they should find me distracting. I put quite a bit of work into being so." She flutters her eyes a bit at Tandyn and his very acceptable response, but moves in closer towards Dorek and lowers her voice. "Now Dorek, "Your Grace" is the proper form of address for a Duchess, which I am not. I am Baroness by Courtesy, Baroness Levain of Leeford, properly addressed as My Lady, or Lady Levain. My Father, the Marquess Levain of Golbury, would be properly addressed as My Lord, Your Lordship, or Lord Levain when you meet him. As a Knight, I would formally refer to you as Sir Dorek. Does that all make sense? You really do need to know these things if you're going to function in Society at all, Dorek." She eyes him critically and straightens out his apron. "And we so need to get you a new wardrobe."
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"Well Dorek, yes. It is of course natural that they should find me distracting. I put quite a bit of work into being so."
Dorek shakes his head, stowing his blades. "I'll s-say. That l-look you get on your face in battle, I've only ever s-seen it once before - on a fox protecting her k-kits near where our work group was s-supposed to be. I t-told Overseer Benjin to leave it alone, but he d-didn't listen - lost three f-fingers for his trouble." He shrugs. "The k-kits ate their mother a few days after we set up c-camp, so it worked itself out in the end. S-still, it was a very distracting face - all that u-unbridled fury and all that."
At Cecily's instructions on how to use the proper address, Dorek furrows his brow, looking incredulously at the noble-born tiefling. "What, I have to k-know this to enter a city? A-all of it? Because I always figured F-foreman Cardelli was pretty good at being in s-society, since he was a-allowed to fetch Baronet Maratek from a p-party if there was an a-accident at the foundry, and he always thought a l-lord was something you made with pig fat."
As Ahmose searches, Dorek spends time cleaning the room as best he can, pushing the rubble back into the alcoves out of the way and bowing briefly to the altar of Torag before returning to work, straightening pews and cleaning defiled decorations as best he can. While he works, he glances back at Cecily quizzically. "C-cecily, you mentioned getting new c-clothes - if I'm h-highborn now, do I have to get a g-glass eye instead of the eyepatch? Because I t-tried it once, with an old m-marble I found - it didn't glow like my r-real eye, and there's a lot of s-scarring around the eye-hole that the patch c-covers. Huresk said I l-looked like I was about to kill someone - he s-said I looked better with the p-patch. More... c-cute, I think he said. Less like I was about to e-eat someone's soul."
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Aroden joins Dorek in cleaning, scrubbing off or chiseling out demonic inscriptions where he can.
"It's possible the demons will come and find us here, or take the time to gather their forces. But they don't know where we are going next so I am not overly concerned. I think Torag would appreciate this effort that we make here.
More fun that you might think, Torag. Had a very dry sense of humor. Why, this one time -- uh... a very dry sense of humor, yes. So I am told. By... by some dwarves."
He quietly resumes scrubbing.
And he didn't have that weird accent that so many dwarves affect. What is that, anyway? Where did it come from? Torag has done well for himself these past hundred years. With the dwarves, of course, but he's picked up quite a few human followers too. Can't resent him for that. Hard to dispute the value of good craftsmanship. Almost everyone appreciates that, don't they?
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"C-cecily, you mentioned getting new c-clothes - if I'm h-highborn now, do I have to get a g-glass eye instead of the eyepatch?"
"Highborn? No, that's for noble parentage." Tandyn begins helping with the cleaning. "Our titles reflect our service with the crusade. Titles usually relate to wealth, power, and influence. A Knight Commander has some power and perhaps a little influence in the right circles, but titles often lead to more titles. Most titles are granted by people with higher titles, so learning proper politeness is a big deal. For example, you wanted to compliment Lady Levain's combat tactics and fierce style, but saying she's just like a cannibalized vixen from your past sends a very mixed message. The key to politeness is paying close attention to how other people will feel about your words and using them kindly. It's so much tougher than it sounds. Anyway, that about wraps things up here..." He takes out the map. "The courtyard was blocked going North, but we may have better luck with the armory. We could go there, or we could check the store rooms and dining room while we're here. Thoughts?"
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Nurah adds, ”Yeah what the Lady says is true. So addressing Queen Galfrey you would want to say ‘Your Majesty’ and then ‘ma’am, after that. If she had an heir you would need to address them as ‘Your Royal Higness.’ At least she’s not a stickler about it when she’s not addressing the masses, but other nobility get uptight about that sort of thing.”
Ahmose Subtlety Jones is seen with his mouth hanging open, his blue eyes staring at his company, and there seems to be a bit of a nervous tick in his left eye.....
Thawm momentarily stops alternately blasting various stains with water, acid, and fire.
"That explains so much." she explains with a look of epiphany on her face.
After a very long moment and a nod to herself, she continues cleaning.
"They so do Nurah, don't they? It is exhausting! Let's head to the armory."
"Dorek, Sir Tandyn is quite right about politeness. For instance, I was being polite in not pointing out how terrible your story was. My title of Baroness is hereditary, and I have it by Courtesy. That is, my father is the proper Baron of Leeford, but he is also the Marquess of Golbury, which is the higher-ranked title, and so ut is the one he is properly known by. As his heir, I use Baroness Leeford as a courtesy." She gives him a prim smile, but her expression sobers a bit as she examines her claws and picks a bit of dried gore off one of them. She glances at Dorek's eyepatch, and she seems to make her mind up about something, and then pulls the shreds of today's silk gloves from under her leather combat gloves. "How do you feel about your eye, Dorek? Would you prefer the eyepatch or a glass one? We can get you a realistic one if you would like, rather than a marble. If you like an eyepatch, we can acquire for you the finest eyepatch that the leatherworkers can produce. Society has expectations for quality, refinement, and taste, but that does not mean that you cannot," she drops the scraps of her gloves on the ground of the temple and continues with sudden resolve, "express yourself as you see fit."
"The courtyard was blocked going North, but we may have better luck with the armory. We could go there, or we could check the store rooms and dining room while we're here. Thoughts?"
"Let's check out the store rooms and then the dining room."
Ahmose points at Aroden.
Storerooms
A large number of crates, containers, and barrels of food and water are kept in both of these chambers.
Dining Hall
This room contains several long tables and benches—it’s obviously a dining hall, although it seems underused.
"Provisions! Wait, did they take these from the crusade?" Tandyn checks the labels. "Well, they can stay here for now. Once we secure the Citadel we may be storing them here anyway. Let's see about that armory."
"Let's." Thawm agrees cheerfully.
"Do they not eat here? Curious. Yes, the Armory. Finally."
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Ahmose falls in behind the Paladin and the Dragoness as they continue to traverse the corridors....
He probably isn't the one bouncing pebbles off the Paladin's armor... probably....not.... subtle....
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Tandyn smiles. "It warms my heart to know you're working on your aim." He takes a copper coin from his side pouch gripping it between his gauntleted thumb and forefinger and moves it up and down behind his back. "Are you up for a challenge?"
A cascade of rubble has fallen through from the upper parapets into this ruined armory, creating a rise of debris that allows access to the citadel’s northernmost parapet. A quartet of brimoraks stand guard here, smoke rising from their hooves while flames dance across their drawn blades.
Round 1
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Aroden casts Resist Energy (Fire) on himself and on Thawm, using 2 charges from his Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend (Resist 20, CL9, 1 full dungeon).
He casts Extended Heroism on himself with the rod's last charge (1 full dungeon), as well as Darkvision (1 full dungeon).
"Plowing through that rubble is a slow and fiery death. Let's regroup."
Aroden moves away from the doorway.
1 (6+1): Shield, Burning Hands, Magic Missile, Thunderstomp, Feather Fall,
2 (5+1):
3 (4+1):
4 (3+1): Conjuration Foil, Dimension Door,
"Plowing through that rubble is a slow and fiery death. Let's regroup."
Tandyn examines the rubble for a second and nods. "A sound plan. If they don't teleport here, a few of us can teleport there. Be ready for either." He moves back into adjoining hallway and prepares to launch Radiance at any arriving Brimoraks.
Ahmose Subtlety Jones smartly whistles innocently at Sir Tandyn's suggested challenge....
Ahmose peeks through the legs of the taller, in front of him folks at the quartet of brimoraks standing guard there, smoke rising from their hooves while flames dance across their drawn blades.
And me without my opera glasses.
The Alchemist begins to get many ideas that one could easily qualify as shananagins....
So....you want them here?
Cecily pokes her head out as well and eyes the Brimoraks and the rubble slope. "Ahmose and I can distract them while you telly forth."
She continues on into the room into the start of the rubble, lowers into her sinuous combat stance, and recites "Tuitio," with a gesture of her hand flat and the air briefly shimmers in front of her as a magical barrier goes up.