Kythel remains on the wall and crawls into the room positioning himself on an inside wall so that he does not block the doorway for his companions.
He then releases a stick wad of spider webbing at the foe.
Marigold gives Sarenrae's ferrous blessing to the group!
JJ goes in being cautious of the lattices, and faces the ice devil cold lance.
The lance pierces through the young man's shoulder and a numbling coldness on his wound.
Maxim moves faster but cunningly around the ice lattices and secures a good position inside the room and far from the falling hail.
With a sign Kythel fills the room with web strings around the ice devil. If it was complicated to move around, it is now a mission impossible with all the strands. Anyway the devil avoids being stuck in the strands.
AC = 29 BoF
HP = 135/148
Weapon Equipped = Eldgammel
Condition(s) = Resist Energy 20, Blessing of Fervor, water breathing
As the others bound into the room, Kikinnin looks at the damned thing rise into the frigid air, and he harumphs. "Why do the cursed creatures have to fly? Why can't they lay down, and take the Axe." He speaks to no one, in particular.
His first swing tests the lattice.
If the way is made clear, he steps into the room, taking care not to twist an ankle on the chunks of ice littering the floor.
JJ shivers slightly as the frozen speak strikes into his arm.
But only slightly.
Kikinnin strikes with force at the lattice in front and shatters it to pieces, moving then over with care.
The ice devil holds its flying on place and points at the middle of the room.
Suddenly a sheet of strong, hard ice appears, dividing the room and the party.
Marigold's Round 2
Marigold puts on a burst of speed and struggles through the icy corridor to stop just in front of the doorway.
More ice! Wait...fire should melt ice, right?
Though a part of her knows that it may not be the best idea, Marigold also knows that they really don't have time to hack their way through the wall while JJ and Maxim face the beast on the other side alone.
"ಹಿಂದೆ ನಿಂತು!"
"Stand back!"
She calls out a warning to Kikinnin and Kythel before launching a small orb of fire at the offending wall!
The exceptionally overconfident ice devil fails to notice he is falling and lands on the ground lattices to his utter surprise.
Still confused and too scared by JJ's presence the devil misses his concentration and the wall only appears momentarily to quickly ruin itself and disappear in front of you like a mirage.
With his foe at his feet, so to speak, JJ unleashes Alakast on him.
Blow after blow from the holy staff rain down on the large devil. While he is no demon, Alakast cares not for such distinctions.
Extra attack from fervor.
+4 to hit and damage from FE(evil outsider)
and +2 to hit and +2+2d6 damage from evil outsider bane
From his current position, Kythel decides his best course of action is defensive and not offensive. He channels energy to heal himself and his allies, excluding of course, the Devil from Pharasma's sacred light.
AC = 27
HP = 148/148
Weapon Equipped = Eldgammel
Condition(s) = water breathing 30 min, resist energy 20 (cold) 23 min, blessing of fervor
Watching everyone else taking a fair bit of caution around the Lattice, while simply smashes it, Kikinnin decides to push through, and claim a single strike against the damnable devil.
Kikinnin definitely bumps into the Lattice.
Getting to the creature with the spear, he keeps his shield up, as it might try and take a whack at him, while he struggles to get closer. He marks the thing, hoping Eldgammel will take its head clean off with one blow. Gauging how JJ might be faring with his precise strikes, Kikinnin keeps Eldgammel steadier for a more controlled swing, given the obstacles and ice...
Marigold's orb of fire explodes on the ice devil, but he emerges unscattered. It would seem the devil taint of the creature renders him immune to fire.
JJ profits the devil's fall and connects three good hits with Alakast. The reliable staff shines with bright light punishing the evil ethos of the creature.
Kythel's positive energy quickly heals the Cauldron Watchers from the recent hail.
Kikinnin moves forward ignoring the ice lattices which he finds cold like death.
The dwarf finds out what the books meant about the interweaving energies of ice and death the spellweavers where exploring in this vault.
Izzaedruzz receives the dwarf with his frost spear.
And so he bites Kikinnin's skin.
Maxim does something heroic.
The devil attacks Kikinnin with all his strength.
But he only manages to strike once with his spear as the dwarf deflects each other attack with the skill of his axe.
Seeing Marigold's spell ineffective and assuming ice will not harm the creature, Kythel decides to move to the aid of his comrades.
He comes off of the wall and carefully picks his way through the lattices until he is behind his comrades in arms.
JJ steps sideways, trying to get a flank against the horrid devil. Alakast, having already tasted the diabolic flesh of the creature, slams into it again and again, each blow taking a little more of the essence from the fiend.
+4 to hit and damage from FE
+2 to hit and +2+2d6 damage from evil outsider bane
+2 to hti from flank
Fevor for extra attack
Marigold's Round 3
Wha...no effect? That's not fair at all...
Marigold continues to take advantage of the increased movement that Sarenrae grants to her and pushes forward into the room proper. Having seen that fire had no effect on the creature she instead tries to strike it with a bright ray of light!
______________
AC = 27 (32 v Ice Devil)
HP = 115/148
Weapon Equipped = Eldgammel
Condition(s) = water breathing 30 min, resist energy 20 (cold) 23 min, blessing of fervor, Smite Evil v Ice Devil
Kikinnin actually barks as the Lattice proves itself to be more than just obstruction. "Damnation, the crystals punish for the touch! It's got more than just cold in it, there's pain of the grave just bumping into it!!"
Kikinnin watches with a good amount of respect as JJ thrashes the devil in as many seconds with the quarterstaff. For the Web nearby, and the Lattice all about, the young man's weapon seems to blur in its barrage of blows. His attention is ripped away, as the devil's spear begins to seek him out behind his armor.
Getting struck twice, soundly, and standing among the Lattice still, the black beard asks Abadar to shore up his growing wounds, before the icy creature gets the better of him.
Feeling a bit more confident, Kikinnin maintains his position, uncertain he'd be any better moving into the Web for a flank with JJ. "Alright, guardian, you've proven quite able, but we are expected elsewhere here in Carin' Curl, so you're gonna have a really bad day for us crossing paths." As much as he'd like to swing wild, he's still tentative for the Lattice surrounding him.
Edit:
Kythel moves extremely carefully through the lattices.
JJ attacks and feints with Alakast striking two times on the devil. Then Marigold's golden light ray and Kikinnin's axe quickly finish off destroying Izzaedruzz.
All that remains after him is the magical icy spear of the devil.
+1 frost spear
With the room coming back to quietness you realize both doors, east and north, are blocked by a similar wall of ice.
"Wh-whew...that c-could've been a l-lot uglier," Marigold remarks, exhaling with relief as Kikinnin finishes off the devil. "B-but now it looks like there aren't anym-m-more paths carved out for us. We'll have to c-carve or m-melt them ourselves. I c-could try my f-f-fire but only t-twice more t-today, I think..."
JJ looks worried.
"That is the second devil we have encountered recently. This is the Demonskar.. not the Devilscar. Devils and demons don't like each other at all. Heck, if they put aside their differences we'd be in a world of trouble. "
He looks frustrated as he tries to come to the point.
"I guess what I am saying here is that there is something very, very odd going on here. "
Kikinnin watches as the ice devil collapses, making sure it's not feigning death to get one last stab at any of them. Once he's sure the body will just lay there, the black beard begins systematically disassembling the Lattice of the guardian's chamber. He takes his time, shattering what he can, avoiding the leeching nature of the ice and death trap.
When he's cleared the chamber, facilitating their quick retreat, should it prove necessary, only then does he focus on the Walls of Ice barring their way. He nods to JJ, encouraging the young man to join him in the manual labor of swinging their weapons to see things cleared. He doesn't want the spellcasters to have to needlessly waste their magics to join them.
"This was the first guardian. I'd assume we're going to see greater foes shortly. This place punishes those who rush in, blindly." Kikinnin taps his shoulders, where Lattice once brushed.
He continues to swing Eldgammel to open the ways to both doors, before stepping back and opening the floor for discussion as to which way they should go. For his protective magics against cold, he'll not want to wait too long to push through any cold-based obstacles. As for negative energy obstacles, well, the dwarf has reason to worry...
Kikinnin devotes a couple of minutes to shatter the lattices of the room, at least the ones at ground level. Once the work is finished he breaks the surface of the ice walls, making large enough holes for the party to pass. You do discover the wall holes remain dangerously cold to cross, but fortunately your magical protection will take care of that.
The party sits to decide: north or south-east.
Sweating a little from the work, Kikinnin pictures the shards of ice in a squat glass of whiskey, keeping his mind off the muscle fatigue. He shudders a moment later, when he thinks of Lattice ice being plinked into a fine pour, and ruining a good glass.
"Well, let's see what lies beyond." Kikinnin puts his faith in Abadar's Cloak against the Cold, and tries to open the Northern Door first.
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JJ nods to Kikinnin, bashing away with Alakast at the presumably devil made wall.
"No sign of who or what left that devil here though. And no sign of remains of whatever made the tunnel through the ice. I don't like this at all, too many things don't add up."
Kythel lays his hand son the battle scarred Kikinnin.
"That removes the worst of what you received.
I say south-east. This way we do not leave foes potentially behind us to cut off an escape if one needs to be made".
Kikinnin remembers himself only after receiving the Pharasman's ministration. "Heh, much appreciated. Too busy thinking through the next door..."
As the black beard works on the Northern door, he turns back to Kythel. "Sure, we'll want to mark what lies behind both doors, and decide which way we want to push forward."
"Th-then we open both and p-proceed from th-there, got it," Marigold nods, standing back slightly from Kikinnin as he works first on opening the northern door.
Considering the ice walls were intact prior your intervention, it would seem whomever has accessed the vault in more recent times completely bypassed the room, probably due to the presence of the devil's guardian.
Taking also into account the devil corpse has remained in this plane of existence, that would mean he was probably bound to this place in ancient times by the spell weaver constructors just as another guard.
Kikinnin and Marigold push open the northern door to find a dead end. After checking the collapsed corridor you find nothing or interest and proceed to open the other door as suggested by Kythel only to find more spell weaver coffins.
Pale blue lights set flush in the ceiling light this hallway. The walls have a subtle curve, and the entire length is etched with disturbing images and symbols. Strange glassy circles, each roughly five feet in diameter, checker the length of the hallway's floor. Under each disc, a six-armed humanoid figure hangs motionless as if suspended in fluid or encased in glass. At each end of the hall, a pair of frost-rimed metal doors stands closed.
At the corner of your eye you glimpse a corpse calmly runs its fingers along the underside of the coffin's top pane. Then you stare at it and find nothing there.
The south end of the corridor ends in a staircase choked in rubble and ice.
You could possibly dig your way through it down to a lower level, but that will probably take days or weeks of work and it seems unlikely whomever has recently entered the vault made its way through this point.
Six doors line the north and south walls of this passageway, three to a side. The hall itself ends at a tangled lattice of icy strands that flicker and writhe with cold blue tendrils of light.
Kikinnin walks down the hallway, wary of the circles, wary of the doors. He doesn't immediately move to the Lattice at the end of the hall, and destroy it, as all Lattice in Karran Kural should be. He waits for the others to explore the other corridor, before he moves down the current one.
First, he checks the single doors, to understand what might lie behind them. He starts with the first door on the right.
"You kn-know...those w-walls being in p-place and all b-before we got here, I think it m-might mean that either no one else has b-been down any f-farther than we have in some t-time...or that anyone that's c-come in lately had a w-way to b-bypass that d-devil entirely..." Marigold muses as they press forward through the northern door and into another long hallway, containing yet more coffin-cylinders.
"Um, this is g-g-getting c-c-creepy...it l-l-looked l-l-like one of those spell weavers moved!"
So caught off-guard is the halfling by what she thinks(?) she might've seen that she's slow to follow Kikinnin's lead down the hall to the east.
"Eeek" squeeks JJ, just as easily creeped out by the suggestion of movement as Marigold. He moves up close to his little sister, hands running nervously along Alakast.
While the others creep out at the unnerving spell weaver corpses Kikinnin opens one of the doors in his corridor side.
This chamber is empty, save for a set of four of the ubiquitous circular discs set into the floor. Each of these coffins contains the corpse of a sturdy dwarf.
The dwarf corpses seem trapped here in a state of constant pain.
All of a sudden you feel a terrible agony clutching at your throat.
The souls of the dwarves have been trapped in here by the fearful magic of the spell weavers. You do think that channeling positive energy on them could free them from this ancient magic and allow them to finally make their way to the River of Souls.
Kikinnin staggers back into the hallway, stepping out of the doorway to avert his eyes.
"Bror, there are dwarves here. From what I can tell, they're in some kind of spellweaver hell. I've a mind to shatter the glass, to see if we can end their suffering." The black beard rubs his throat, uneasily.
Kythel nods to Marigold, "I thought i saw motion from one of then pre-battle as well in the other room".
Knowledge Religion
"D-dwarves?"
Kikinnin's voice finally pierces Marigold's thoughts and she hurriedly moves to catch up with him. As she does, she peers over his shoulder into the tiny room beyond.
"I g-guess they d-didn't just experim-m-ment on themselves..." she whispers as she takes in the sight of the unfortunate dwarves.
After a moment's pause, she glances at Kikinnin and then back towards Maxim. "D-do you think we could b-break the glass? It l-looks awful sturdy, for g-glass..."
"I'd like to try at least, miss Marigold. If I were ever to find myself in such a state, I'd want someone to free me, if they could."
Kikinnin tries out Eldgammel on one of the coffins. Before he does so, he brings a greater strength to his axing-arms.
Kikinnin steps back to observe what, if any, effect his Axe has had on the first dwarven coffin. If there is nothing to show for his first three swings, he switches his effort to 'chipping away at marble'. He lines up each shot, and takes half a dozen swings, before stepping back. He will step away from the work after this, as he doesn't want to consume significant time, while the rest of Karran Kural awaits.
He finishes, a sad and frustrated look on his face. "Alright. I'm done for now. I don't know who exactly to hold responsible for the fate of my kith, but my ire is raised. Once we've taken what we need to from Carin' Curl, I'll see to its destruction, however I can."
The black beard crosses the hallway, and checks the next door, resigned to finding more dwarves in similar state.
Kikinnin attempts to push to the ground one of the coffins, but it will refuse to budge.
Following that, he starts to bring his axe repeatedly at the same point with all his considerable strength. A noticeable scratch opens with the first attack, and it only gets wider with each follow up. After this succession it becomes clear the coffin will require a few more hits to be destroyed, but it will certainly take a long time to destroy them all.
Meanwhile the others in the group will discover the next door just holds more dwarven coffins, and the doors at the other side of the corridor have similar coffins but hold trapped elves in this case.
This chamber is empty, save for a set of four of the ubiquitous circular discs set into the floor. Each of these coffins contains the corpse of an elf.
The elven corpses seem trapped here in a state of despair.
After seeing the dwarves, the finding of the elves start to give you a hint of what is going on here. The souls of the elves have been trapped in here by the fearful magic of the spell weavers. You do think that channeling positive energy on them could free them from this ancient magic and allow them to finally make their way to the River of Souls.
Marigold gasps as further exploration of these small rooms reveals more dwarf corpses and then elves.
"Their s-s-souls...their s-s-souls are t-trapped here! D-dwarves, now elves...and I b-bet we m-might find other r-r-races down here t-t-too," she calls out, horrified. "B-but I think b-b-blasting them with p-p-positive energy m-might be enough to f-f-free them! K-Kythel, c-can you try?"
______________
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"I wonder why they are here? Some type of soul-based magic? " ponders JJ, with the enthusiasm for the sick than only the young who have not thought through all the implications can have.
"So if we release them... which we totally should.. then that might stop other things here working too.. like magical defenses."
"When Beatinator went up against the dread Necromancer Dah-Kaul he faced something similar.."
Kikinnin hears Marigold speculate about positive energy, so he moves into one of the dwarven rooms, and does so. He gives it some thought, and does his best to expose both rooms to the same burst of energy, in hopes of conserving his vital healing.
He moves to the last set of doors, and cracks them open as well. He looks back to Kythel, allowing the priest to share in the energy dispensations, should the man desire it.
Once he's finished moving down the hall, he gives the Flickering Lattice a looking over. "Miss Marigold, Bror, what do you think of this?"
Marigold moves a little closer to study the flickering lattice, her expression curious but also uneasy.
"Um, l-l-let me see..."
She attempts to discern if the lattice is magical in nature - even though she suspects she already knows the answer - and its function...
Kikinnin raises his key symbol making sure he washes with positive energy the four coffins in the room. Almost instantly the dwarves relax inside the coffins and Kikinnin stops to feel the strange agony that was invading him. A burst of energy fills the room and surrounds Kikinnin and anyone else in the room.
With the souls free the corpses visibly start to rot and decompose into dust.
The dwarf proceeds to the other two doors and opens them to reveal their singular contents.
This chamber is empty, save for a single circular disc set into the floor.
Differently than the other two, this coffins have a single spell weaver.
Unlike the elven and dwarven souls in the prior areas, these souls are permanently bound to their coffins and can be released only through the destruction of their coffins.
They probably were experiments and regarded as failures by the spell weavers.
Marigold detects magic in the lattice but cannot distinguish what could it be. Maxim though quickly finds there are some divination auras. Some are lingering what might mean this magical object has been used in recent days. After a thorough check the blond dwarf determines the lattice can be safely used for scrying once a day. The scrying lattice is bound to Karran-Kural and cannot be moved intact.
"M-more spell weavers...d-doesn't surprise m-me they'd use their own to p-power whatever they were d-doing here..." Marigold remarks, looking a mixture of disgusted and disturbed.
Kythel awaits the effects of Kikinnin channel, as it appears to work as intended,e saves his own Channels in case more are needed in this place.
Knowledge Religion DC 22
Kythel shrugs as he examines the circular disc.
"That worked on the dwarves, think you can free the elves and the spellweavers too?" he asks.
Looking upon the spellweaver coffins, Kikinnin snorts. "Looks like the spellweavers didn't hesitate to include their own, in these... trials. They wanted to entomb various races, and find something vital in their passing?" Kikinnin shudders, and turns away from the last two rooms.
"While we're in danger here in Carin' Curl, I'll not use Abadar's Gifts to send the spellweavers on to their final rest. I'd rather shatter the coffins outright to release them, and might, when we return from our exploration of the entirety of this horror house." As for the elves, Kikinnin looks back and forth between the positive energy channelers in the group.
"I can bring more energy to the others, yes. I won't have as much to use, later, if needs arise." Kikinnin shuts up, having demonstrated no hesitation to see the dwarves free. He'll channel positive energy for what is needed.
When the Flickering Lattice is established as some functional magical device, Kikinnin leaves its fate to Marigold and Maxim.
When it appears that they're content with this section of Karran Kural, Kikinnin moves to the next set of doors to the south, and opens them. "Alright, let's keep moving."
Kythel shrugs, "Kikinnin, better for you to use your positive energy gifts than me. In the heat of combat, such gifts will avail us less than the swinging of your mighty weapon whereas tactically in combat, the more depleted I am in such abilities, the more useless I will be. My dagger arm will fail to bring down even the least of the foes we face".
"Um...I c-can't power it the s-same way b-but I could t-try using some of m-my own m-magic to p-put the elves to r-rest," Marigold offers. "Otherwise, K-Kikinnin is r-right, we can f-free these sp-spellweavers on our way b-back. We should k-keep moving."
______________
After either releasing the other humanoids or leaving them for later, Kikinnin strides west to the last door in the corridor.
This barren room contains only one unusual feature; a smooth-sided, five-foot-diameter pit descends into the floor against the west wall.
Just behind the door stands an ice-rimed automaton twice as tall as a normal human. Its heavy footfalls shake the ground with bone-jarring force.
This is an iron golem, a large construct. The ancients of certain powerful civilizations once took great pride in crafting iron golems of tremendous size and strength. These golems, still exist in remote parts of the world, mindlessly following the orders of a long-dead empire.
As other golems it is immune to any spell unable to bypass spell resistance.
In addition to normal construct immunities, an iron golem has damage reduction 15/adamantine.
Every few rounds an iron golem is able to exhale a Constitution weakening poisonous gas.
The poisonous breath is a 10' cube.
Magical attacks that deal electric damage automatically slow an iron golem.
Fire magical attacks instead remove any slowness and heals them.
Any rusting magic affects an iron golem normally.
Kikinnin is rather surprised by the size of the automaton but Maxim and Marigold quickly react to the new menace.