"These look to be of fine make," Auguste says, squatting down to examine the weapons.
Though this room is quiet, you can vaguely hear a weak metallic scraping sound from beyond the closed door, interspersed with occasional crackling noises, like the sound of a bad shock from metal in dry weather.
You see little evidence of what caused the hands to crumble. But from the positions of the arms and forearms that remain, you can tell that the statues on the left held spears, while the ones on the right held swords.
The weapons are obviously fine, usable as well as beautiful. Each bears an a pegasus crest like the one on the wax seal used by Remaio.
Emil enters with the others, and surveys the room.
The youthful priest perks up, his eyes flick back and forth, and he gestures towards the closed door with his rapier.
"Does anyone else hear that? That metallic, scraping sound?"
"I do," Auguste says, drawing his rapier. He approaches cautiously.
Dawnilea nods, "I do. No idea what it is. Anyone think of anything significant that these were spears on one side and swords the other?"
Emil glances at the damaged statues,
"Hm. Good question,..."
"Interesting,..." Emil murmurs, pointing out that the weapons are fully functional, as opposed to mere decorations. The cleric picks up a sword and examines it. He tucks it into his belt.
"These are here for a reason. It may come in handy. Perhaps as a key, or a ward against a guardian. I suggest that everyone borrow a weapon. We can return them on our way out."
Emil pauses suddenly, makes a quick count of the statues in the hall, and of the weapons lying on the floor, being sure to count the one tucked into his belt.
Dawnilea asks, "Do we think one of these wasn't armed, or that whatever smashed them took a weapon?"
Emil pats the 'borrowed' sword tucked into his belt.
"I suspect that whomever preceded us had the same thought I did. They were just, not as polite about it." He says wryly, indicating the damaged statues.
"Which means they may know something we do not. Everyone borrow a weapon. Just in case." He advises again.
"Sounds as if our 'friend', or something, is not too far ahead. Tiem to introduce ourselves, I think." Emil says with a smirk, headed cautiously towards the closed door,...
Dawnilea looks at the blades with distaste, "Not really my preferred weapon, but I suppose I can take one in case there's something special."
Thaddeus nods, grabbing a sword and slinging it quickly from his backpack with a smile of appreciation at the cleric's intelligent suggestion.
Auguste shrugs and takes a sword. ”Hmm. Weighted differently than I am used to, but a fine weapon all the same.” Even so, he stows the weapon in favor of his trusty rapier.
[ooc]Sorry, but Emil, Dawni, and Thaddeus grabbed the three swords before Auguste could! Four spears adorned with the flying pegasus remain.[ooc]
Thaddeus and Auguste, who are in the statue room, hear something scrape along the floor and thud against the door, with the accompaniment of odd crackling noises.
Initiative order (nobody is surprised):
23 Dawni
23 Emil
22 Auguste
19 Thaddeus
5 The Thing Beyond the Door
"I guess the party is coming to us?"
Emil looks about at his companions. He seems excited, but nervous. But his smile is quick and his rapier is sharp. And currently pointed at the door,...
Dawni nods, keeping her cutlass in hand, ready to strike when the door opens.
Round 1: (bolded may go)
Auguste
Thaddeux
Thing Behind the Door
Dawni
Emil
Auguste holds his new spear ready. (Delay to see what happens.)
Thaddeus glances behind in hopes the others will appear, then bravely raises his newfound sword to defend the hall!
There's another thud against the still-closed door, and the subsequent scraping noise grows fainter.
Round 2:
Dawni
Emil
Auguste
Thaddeus (no longer a binary person)
Scrapey thing
Dawni whispers, "Guess we need to open the door?", then, rather than waiting, pulls on it.
With the door open, Dawni can see stairways leading up to a marble dais, where rotted wooden offerings lie in splinters. The tiles of the floor are scorched black, and the smell of magical ozone fills the air. A pile of statue fragments lie in a pile on the floor before the dais, wildly throwing blue sparks from its metal jaws. As the metal frame crawls along the floor, the statue pieces follow in its wake.
Dawnilea says, "There's some sort of frame moving here," and steps back to let someone rush in... or to be able to jump the creature as it comes out.
Emil peeks past Dawn's own frame (pausing only the briefest of moments to admire it as he does so) to observe the 'frame' mentioned in the room. He takes in the scene at a glance.
"Looks like our predecessors didn't stop at smashing the statuary in the entryway. I'm guessing,... enchanted guardian-golem of some sort? Magically repairing itself it looks like."
Emil's eyes gleam with something dangerous.
"Well then. I'd say our predecessors are doing us a favor. They can't be too far ahead. IF we run past such already disabled defenses, we can catch up to them while they wear themselves out clearing our path for us!"
Emil grins. "If it doesn't respond to the symbols on the weapons we 'borrowed', Be sure to play 'whack the statue' on your way past! We dont want to have to fight it leaving now do we?" The cleric laughs.
Emil pulls his borrowed longsword out and holds it defensively in his left hand, his rapier ready in his right. He judges the path before him, and dashes forward into the room. As he crosses the chamber, he holds the Crypts' longsword between himself and the animated statue fragments.
Sadly, the cleric is too busy running, (and looking good doing it!) to pay much attention to the moving frame. Or anything else, really.
Thaddeus studies the strange sight in the room, a puzzled look on his face. At Emil's explanation, his eyes widen and he nods in appreciation. "Ohhhhh... that makes sense..." he mutters, moving into the room and waiting for a moment, then giving the creature a quick boop with his borrowed sword if it seems about to attack.
Whether you use Acrobatics or not, if an opponent takes an attack of opportunity, it gets that attack before yours comes in, so you can't pre-empt theirs with yours.
So let me know if you're Acrobaticsing or not, and I'll let you know what happens. :)
Emil pauses at the entrance, taking time to pull the Aldori longsword from his belt and properly preparing himself. He takes another good look at the room before dashing in headfirst.
Auguste moves to get a closer look. ”Poor thing. It seems to have fallen to pieces. I suppose the pressure got to it.”
Dawnilea says, "Sadly, I don't think the edge of your wit will be as useful as the weapons we just picked up."
Thaddeus skips past the snap of the dog-like creature's mechanical jaws and stops where he can get a good swing in. His Alcasti sword bites deep, but does not completely disable the statue, whose rocky pieces assemble around the frame again.
The creature ignores Auguste's jibe, but very much does not ignore the flesh creature standing next to it.
Without warning, Emil, Dawni, and August feel something drop onto their heads from above without warning. The Something attempts to claw them and hang on.
Only Emil's attacker manages to scratch him. Nobody feels like their hair or necks have been grabbed.
The guardian dog snaps again at Thaddeus, this time biting the big man. Thaddeus feels a shock as the jaws close in a bite, and the creature tries to hang on and bring Thaddeus to the ground, with no success.
Round 3!
Dawni
Emil
Auguste
Thaddeus
Something on the head
Guardian dog.
"OW!! Of all the,... GET OFF ME you,... No, NO! Not the face! NOT THE FACE!"
Emil pulls back his hand holding the Aldori sword, and tries to knock the thing off of his shoulder by punching it with the guard.
Emil does NOT shriek like a little girl as he continues to do an absurd dance until he can no longer feel the things on him. He looks at the thing now on the ground at his feet, blinking in surprise.
Remembering the smashed statues in the previous room, he asks, "Does anyone ELSE get the impression that mayhaps our competition is a teensy bit better informed that we are?"
Auguste gingerly attempts to skewer the stone hand with his newly acquired spear.
The Aldori spear skewers the wriggling hand for a moment, then it pulls itself off the blade and drops to the floor again, still full of fight. But now it has a gaping, unclosing wound in the top.
"OH come ON! This is getting redonkulous!" Emil declares, seeing the effect (or rather, LACK of it) of Auguste's attack upon the stone appendage.
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