He nods. "I understand. You must promise me that you will be careful. I will never sleep again if you all get yourselves killed while I am away!"
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Placidus looks concerned. "I would worry for you all without me to shield you, but you are right, Ugly could cover ground very quickly if it was just the two of us." He strokes his obsidian colored chin. "What do the rest of you think? Should we split the unit? If it is the best choice I will swallow my misgivings and go."
Placidus nods to Garland, "Correct." Athyra laughs. "N'ezie! Gịnị mere anyị ji mee ọgụ a niile ma na-eje ije n'ụzọ dị iche?" Polygot: Of course! Why did we do all this fighting and walking otherwise?
"I do not like that idea, Placidus. I would rather not be tried for treason," Garland said quickly. "The Black Widows are a concern, but we have dealt with assassins before; unless I am missing something, I think we can handle them. As for Yarzoth, she might be ahead of us, but does she know where to go? It seems to me that we were the first ones to figure out that map." "We probably were the first ones to activate the map, yes, but we don't know what other information Yarzoth has access to. The map here in Taizon may not have been the only record of Saventh-Yhi's location. Just the only one we knew about." "I am fine with waiting for the others if that is what most of you want to do. We could leave a trail for them as we have been doing, or someone could stay, but it would also be good to report to the general in person."
"Yes, I believe so. We need to lead them to Saventh-Yhi. On the other hand, it's almost certain that there are Black Widows hiding in the General's group and Yarzoth is still ahead of us..." "I wouldn't normally suggest this, but maybe we should ignore orders and continue on our own...?"
"Well, even the serpentfolk mage was unable to solve their mystery without all the gems. He must not have realized the fourth one was the eye of the snake in the charau-ka's smaller temple below." The dark skinned warrior shrugs. "As long as we take all the gems I think the secret is safe with us. We must remember, Yarzoth is out here somewhere and the Black Widows are behind us."
"We need to get back to the others, they have been waiting for us. Not to mention the fact that at this rate the main expedition won't be far behind. We'll need to inform them of the location of Saventh-Yhi somehow before we can leave, yes?"
Placidus hisses in a rare display of frustration as he flings another dart at Issilar, this time wreathed in acid.
Placidus loads a dart in his Atlatl and flings it at the serpentfolk.
His attack hits only the blurry distortion around Issilar.
Placidus calls on the divine power of the elemental lords to channel healing energy into himself and Cica.
"I'm hurt too. I'll be there shortly!"
PLcidus slings an acid lined kick at the ape.
Placidus steps up and tries to land a blow on the ape, but it is thrashing around too much for him to land an effective blow.
"This was an imperial outpost during the Great War. It's been taken over by Serpentspawn now, but remember we are looking for the place where Saventh decapitated the snake. This was once our ancestors' hall."
Placidus nods. "That makes sense given the halls on the other side." "I don't see any crystals here. I guess one could be inside the wasp nest? Should we anger whatever is buzzing in there to make sure, or go back upstairs and finish exploring the second level?"
Placidus turns to Garland, and sees that the spell has worn off. "Help me smash the others!"
Placidus runs around to flank one of the idols with Cica. It rapidly animates and flies through the air to slam into the warrior! Placidus deflects the slam with his shield and kicks out at the idol. The animated stone hops out of the way, causing his foot to smash a small piece off its pedastal.
"Screw this, let's break those things before they mess with our heads any more!" Placidus runs down the stairs towards the idols. He gives the closest one a heavy kick.
Placidus shakes off the spell under Cica's help. "Some kind of magical statues," he calls, answering Ilistra. One of the statues emanates a voice speaking in archaic imperial, directed at Garland. "Lay down your weapons and await judgment!"
Placidus appears to be completely captivated by the pattern. He stares at the idols blankly.
Placidus nods and pops the stone back out of its socket - there doesn't appear to be anything locking it in.
"We did find this magical gem as the eye of that serpent in their temple, remember?" Placidus says, drawing the magical moonstone that the group recovered in the Temple of the Snake. He looks at the gem. "Moon...moonstone? Hmm..." He attempts to fit the moonstone in to the moon rune slot; it slots in perfectly. It begins glowing softly once locked in place. "I think we need to find three more stones, right? Then maybe there is some record of the correct settings in here somewhere. There's still a lot of this place we haven't explored yet."
Placidus shrugs. "If you say so." He gestures vaguely around the room "None of this means anything to me..."
"It's worth a quick look, I suppose. We can always come back down here later. I'm not too concerned about the apes, other than their priest they haven't been too much trouble. Let's avoid them if we can, but..." he shrugs.
Placidus fights his way through the toxins and steps up to attack the strange fungal creature!
He sinks a fist deep into its shroomy flesh, leaving a ragged fist-shaped hole in the mushroom beast
"I've got it covered," Placidus says before calling on the power of the Elemental Lords to knit his wounds back together.
Placidus pats Garland affectionately on the pauldron. "Glad you're okay, my friend." He looks around the large chamber. "Which way should we go?"
Placidus' foot lashes out from behind his shield to strike the wounded wasp with an acid blasting kick.
"We may as well use the doors and work our way up then. We won't miss anything that way."
"Amazing...Look! There are the doors." Placidus points out the heavy stone doors hidden beneath the vegetation. "Should we go in those doors, or try to climb up to a higher level?"
Placidus nods. "That seems more likely to yield results than the ruined aquaduct that Polyphemous spotted on the western side. Shall we?" he asks Ilistra and Cica.
"I'll be okay, just covered in tar."
After a moment of the sounds of combat ending, Placidus calls out from within the sphere of darkness. "Is it over? Sound off, is everyone alive?!"
The rest of the group can hear Placidus splashing around in the tar behind them, but can't see him inside the sphere of darkness. "I'm swimming for now, but I can't get a grip on the ledge!"
"No! I fell in the tar! Help!"
Placidus creeps forward to the corner, crouching down while he waits for Cica to advance.
"The rest of them have attacked us on sight, and their gear seems to indicate an affinity with Ydersius. I say we ambush them and take whatever they are guarding, yes."
"These apes don't seem to be much of a threat...at least not the untrained ones in small numbers. We should keep exploring, but carefully. Want to send Polyphemous ahead of us?"
Placidus clambers up the magically knotted rope without too much trouble, taking some more time.
Placidus waits for Garland to finish climbing up. When he hears the fight is over, he ties the rope around Luna. "Get her up first, in case more of them show up!"
Placidus looks down into the pit and notices the glint of light off metal. "Look..." he says, pointing it out.
"I'm fine with that."
"This tunnel seems like it was made to carry water more than people. We can go up here or somewhere else, but I doubt we will find what we seek in a derelict well..."
"Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes? I hate snakes..."
"Maybe...but I don't think we should rely on that. Do you have a concrete suggestion for how to approach that?"
"If the whole ruin is occupied, we will need to approach this carefully."
"Excellent. Your power grows, my friend. Your connection to Mazda's fire is getting strong." Placidus offers a slight bow to Polyphemous. "Hello, Polyphemous. I am Legionnaire Placidus Utilinus."
"That seems like a sound plan. Who knows what horrors lurk within? We should be as stealthy as is practical."
"I guess we need all the help we can get. I will accept your blessing."
"Trying to understand the logic of demons is a recipe for madness, dear," Placidus suggests. "What should we do with these three?" he says, motioning to the enchanted Zenj girls who had been the succubus's harem. |