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"Doppelgangers!" He warns, at the sight of the first to fall, shifting form. "Not Adril. Not even human!" "Hopefully we're not dealing with another Simulacrum situation like on Akiton. This one does seem a little inept." He adds, with a slight frown. Concerned about Shemis, and the possibility of other dangers, he says a quick prayer, and casts a spell.
As the stones fall to the floor, disgorging Adril and his henchmen, the Osirion man almost curses. "I should have realized..." He mutters, knowing full well there were more than enough signs to have made the conclusion that those spirits inside the stones were not who they claimed. He holds up a long slender rod, made of three interwoven metallic strands, and quickly utters a spell, reaching one hand towards the remaining Decemvirate member.
"Beware Shemis. Get yourself clear!" He calls, as the spell takes hold.
"Oh my..." Strang exclaims, at the sight of the metallic sphinx. "It is, of course, a gynosphinx, quite well known in Osirion." He starts, seemingly pleased to see a creature from his native land. "But, the coppery skin, the beautiful shaping of the wings along the lion torso." He looks back at the others, and smiles. "My friends, we stand before Andrexiel, the Copper Sphinx, herself!" He immediately turns back to the sphinx, stepping forward and bowing slightly at the waist, holding his palms together in front of him. He then says what sounds like a greeting in Osiriani. Osiriani:
"It is a great honor." He exclaims to Andrexiel. "I had forgotten that she was up here. Standing watch over the Decemvirate's halls for the past two hundred years." He adds, in a quiet aside to those behind him. "It does not look like the invaders have reached this far yet, at least." He turns back to the sphinx, dropping into Osirion once more. Osirion: "Most noble Andrexiel. We bring warning, and news, of grave dangers descending on Skyreach and those who dwell in it. Would you hear us out?"
Strang checks on the two fallen foe, attempting to stop any excess bleeding, in case they need to be questioned later.
He studies each of the areas they pass through with interest. Using both mundane and magical sight. "I must say, they certainly keep their fancy meeting place interesting." He observes, though frowns slightly as they come to the spherical chamber. He studies the ebon gemstone with the strange chains attached to the walls.
"Interesting, but definitely not safe to walk around in, by any means." He adds, after moment, pointing out the purpose of the facets on the gemstone. "No, don't look at it." He says quickly. "If the item works as is typical just looking at it might trap you inside. And would quite likely release whatever was in there already." "Can't imagine anything friendly gets put in such a prison." As they move on to the next hallway, he again stops to study the murals on the floor, wary of more less-than-safe features of the place.
"Apparently." Strang agrees. "Though they would not typically bar the door from this side, would they?" He adds, pointing towards the bard one. "If a fight happened here, the only reason to secure the door would be to keep whatever is beyond it from joining." "Adril would not have gone that way, so the Numerian door seems more likely." He points towards the eastern door.
Strang frowns slightly, puzzled, though he stops trying to talk to the ioun stone... at least out loud. You ocassionaly note him glancing towards it, and pausing distractedly. Telepathic chatter: <<Then how do you know it is Adril? If you can not sense them?>> He attempts to project. <<Or that it was anyone specific really, that room seemed to have some sort of visual ward over it>>
He will also ask who the spirit is? Or was. <<Where is Shemis now? That we can offer aid.>> He adds.
"Oh my!" Strang says suddenly, as the second voice suddenly speaks in his head.
"You can sense your surroundings?" He muses aloud, surprised by that. "That is unexpected. Far more than a repository of knowledge then. I shall add espionage, spycraft, and infiltration, to my list of useful applications."
"How do you know Adril?" He asks, "And how many did he come with?"
Of course, as hey come into the observation room, he finally finds something to distract him from his efforts with the ioun stone. "Oh dear." He immediately goes to check on the bodies, trying to determine time and method of death, or other information that might prove helpful.
"Adril continues to add to his body count, it would seem." He observes with a slight frown. "Though this does not appear the work of a single person, so perhaps he brought allies here as well."
Strang eyes the lone attack with some confusion, his earlier protective spell soaking up all the damage from the blade. "So how did this fellow get up here?" He muses. "Certainly not the sort of place one would expect to get ambushed." He holds up the ioun stone, and tries to see if he can communicate with the spirit residing therein. "Interesting creations these." He offers absently to the others. "Each contains a spirit of some sort. Not necessarily a deceased one either. One that should be able to communicate with the person holding it. And one we could draw out, should we have a need. Though I'm unsure what process was set to do so in these cases." He starts to ponder the utility of the things, and what would go into their creations. "Some sort of modified Soul Trap spell, I imagine... Would be helpful far beyond just keeping a source of knowledge, from moving on to the Boneyard, but could have applications for interrogation, incarceration, transportation. Fascinating!" Eventually, he trails after the others, renewing his protective barrier before he does, but still occasionally getting whatever soul is inside his stone to communicate.
At the column with screaming angels, he studies the artwork thoughtfully. "Certainly not for all tastes, for sure. But it could simply be tacky art, not actual souls..." His tone indicates he's not entirely convinced, and he takes a moment to study it using the usual divine detection and appropriate knowledge skills.
Strang approaches the basin curiously, more interested in the stones than most. He doesn't touch one at first, instead taking a moment to study them.
Once he's done so, he plucks one out of the bowl, and tries to examine it some more, before realizing that is hard to do when all he sees is shadows. He turns his divinatory sight to examine the room for a moment, then follows the rest.
The good doctor is a little disappointed to be leaving Akiton, not expecting to get an opportunity to visit another planet again, any time soon. Still, the game was certainly afoot, as he had heard once said. No time to dawdle. He watches with intellectual fascination, as Eliza works on manipulating the portal, picking up what she's doing quite easily... though it elicits little more than a raised eyebrow. He seems more interested in seeing it in action, success or failure, than whether there is success or failure. He doesn't offer to help, more interested in observing. "Certainly seems like we're in triage mode here." He says absently, as the Venture-Captain relays the gravity of the situation. "Of course, its felt like that since this whole mess started." News of the ioun stones seems to really draw his attention though. "Really? Ioun stones with souls contained within?" He exclaims, unable to keep a small note of excitement out of his voice. "I've occasionally theorized about such a setup, though mostly just as a thought experiment... and certainly not with this particular purpose in mind." He smiles slightly. "I can't wait to examine them." "What is Shemis' part in all of this?" He asks, with a slight frown. "Do we hope she can divine some of Adril's plans, or are we hoping to keep Adril from using her to divine someone elses?" He seems ready to go, though casts a few spells while waiting for the portal to be completed.
If it turns out there was a wizard foe with a spellbook, or some scrolls with spells to scribe, I'll be sad... but otherwise, much prefer the story makes sense as we move along, not that we force our way down any particular railroad. So if the simulacrum was the big reveal, and we got that early... that seems the spot to stop regardless... unless there's other info we need to get (like where Adril is, et al)
"Oh my." The doctor exclaims, as he observes the effects of the other's efforts to get to Adril. "It would appear to be a force barrier of some sort." He was not entirely surprised to see such a thing... given the activities and creatures that occupied the arena, there would have to be something in place to protect the spectators. What he was not expecting, was it to be technology based. He had seen and studied enough of the Numerian sites on Golarion to recognize such a thing when he saw one. "But this one appears to be housed in technology, not magic." He observes, after studying it a bit longer, his interest suddenly piqued. "I might be able to shut it down... or at least disable it temporarily... a few seconds at most." He adds, his brow furrowed, as he starts to concentrate on the shield, and the technology behind it.
"Will you look at those..." Dr. Strang muses, at the sight of the behirs. "We must be seeing a regional variation of the common behir." Confident his companions have the creatures well in hand, he swoops around to his left, eyes focused on the warrior down in the arena, and Adril up in the stands. After a moment's thought, he utters a prayer to Anubis, pointing one delicate finger towards the erstwhile venture-captain.
The doctor flies through the swirling dust, trying to come up on the far side of the arena, with a decent view of the battle. "I must say, if the grandeur and spectacle of it all is their goal..." He observes drily, to no one in particular, "... then having beasts that obscure the action seems rather a poor marketing decision." He quickly takes in the view with a critical eye, and notices that Kol Voss is taking quite the beating. Not quite wanting to get too close, he holds up a delicate silver rod in one hand, and focus the will of Anubis through it, casting a healing spell from a safe distance.
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