"STONE! We need to throw stones at them. Fight them with the bones or stones!" shouts Ullar, while looking for anything useful nearby.
"Pietro," Tolik calls across the melee, "Don't you have a sling?"
Hearing Ullar's suggestion, Forte tries to use the bone club he has carried since testing the tower door.
Having no non-ferrous weapon, Arkady plans to charge and tackle a statue.
Seeing Rhune unable to fight without a weapon, Forte rushes toward the statue with his club to help her. Ullar meanwhile lunges toward the thing with a wrestler's stance. However, even his immense strength has no effect, as the thing does not budge an inch, other than to smash it's hands down upon Ullar's back. Ullar realizes that he is in very serious trouble here.
Forte advances with the club, but his stroke does not seem to affect the thing at all, rebounding hard of it's skin. In return it swings at Forte, but cannot get a hold of him so easily.
Still tucked into the tunnel on the other side of the bridge, Rhees is barely aware of the party, let alone Ullar's plight. Focused on keeping the fog solid and moving in a realistic way, he can barely spare the attention to see if the others have entered yet.
Antonia eyes light as she sees something she had not thought of before and she pulls out one of her daggers. Flipping it expertly in her hands she aims for the metal beast and throws. Her aim is to hit it, but her intentions are to just touch it with her dagger, doing any damage is a bonus. She watches as it meets the figure and she continues to watch, waiting for something to happen.
When the metal statue absorbs her dagger then she yells to the group, "Metal only makes them stronger. Don't touch them with metal. And she goes into a defensive stance, her staff whirling in front of her as she tries to distract the creatures so that the others can arm themselves accordingly. She does everything she can to get them off balance, to keep the statues form hurting her pack before they have a chance.
Moving in, she tries to help Ullar against his opponent, but finds herself similarly unable to penetrate it's armor hide. Remarkably, Ullar bull-rushes it and knocks it over for a moment, but it quickly gets up, obviously unharmed.
Tolik, watching the scene progress while leaning carelessly over the water so he can see around the others, begins casting his spell. He stands at the edge of the bridge, displaying an uncanny sense of balance that comes from living ones whole life with no fear of falling. As he completes his spell, out of the very air come a pair of small, glowing, blue streaks, which orbit the elf in a complex pattern that resembles nothing more than a dog chasing its tail.
With a flick of his wrist, first one, then the other, flies off, darting in and out of the crowd to wind up crashing into the first of the two statues. The missiles explode in a flash of unnatural green fire, the slightest hint of ozone the only thing left in the wake.
As the first statue rises from Ullar's attack, it is impacted by Tolik's spell, and definitely does not care for it, as it lurches backward once again, clearly on the defensive now, though you cannot see any apparent damage other than a scorched mark upon it's chest.
Seeing the statue off guard, Daegwyn rushes toward it. His staff becomes a mere blur as he brings it to bear upon the statue with all his might, hoping that a wooden weapon may have an effect on the creature.
His staff rebounds without effect of the thing's armor-like skin. Unfortunately, unlike armor, there are no gaps in this thing's hide!
Having no stone or wooden weapons, ingenious Caboto tries to make do. He uncoils the 50' of rope, and folds it over and knots it, making a quadrupled strand, roughly 12 feet long. He moves in with unhurried haste to support his warrior companions.
Caboto calls to Arkady. "Grab the other end. If we both charge that metal fighter with the rope near-taught between us, we can hurl it down!"
Unlikely though it is for the mad Slav, Arkady complies with the request, not wanting to lose the sylmar blade to the thing's hide. They rush at Forte and Ullar's opponent, with the rope thickly coiled between them. However, the strategy does not work, as the thing remains standing and the two feel the rope jerked from their hands. They do not have the power to topple this thing. Ignoring them, the thing strikes at Forte again, but the wily big man dodges the attack, responding with his crude club. But his attack is ineffectual. He cannot break through the thing's hide, not with this weapon and his lack of skill with it.
Rhune stays out of the way of the warriors as she tries to look for another way out or anything that might give a clue as to how fight the statues.
She sees that there is another similar door on the opposite side of the chamber. Other than that, it is a bare and windowless room. Only the slightly flickering light of Ullar's torch, added to the few party members still near the door holding it open, enables you to see anything at all.
Seeing this Rhune turns around to try and make her way out of the room back to the bridge to retrieve her armor not believing that she would have forgotten to get it in the first place.
Still on the defensive, Antonia moves to defend Rhune as she moves away from the creature. She winces with the thought of the unborn child but continues to do whatever she can to defend the woman as she moves away. Another thought comes to her and she yells, "Lead them towards each other, maybe they can hurt each other, absorb each other. At least it may give us a moment of confusion." After she has already said so she has another thought, hoping that she is wrong she says nothing and hopes that if the creatures touch that they will not mold into one giant creature. She looks at the ceiling and then hopes that maybe it would be a good thing if it did happen that way. Maybe it would damage itself if it got too big for the room.
Seeing the last party member enter, Rhees gradually allows the fog to dissipate. As the last swirl of mist dissolves into the night he releases the spell. Tired from the sustained effort, he frees his short spear and uses it as a staff, leaning on it for support. After a brief pause to collect himself, he begins casting again - after all this effort, it wouldn't do for him to be seen by the gnolls. A small self-indulgent voice at the back of his mind remarks that it's a shame no one will appreciate the effect as Rhees becomes invisible. Confident that he won't be seen crossing, Rhees makes his way across the bridge to join the others.
He easily makes his way toward the group, a couple of whom still are near the door as the others fight inside. He sees that the group is in some degree of trouble, unable to cause any damage to the things other than Tolik's spell, of which he only has one more.
Tolik notes that only the magic seems to be having any effect on the creatures, and so readies another pair of bolts. But this time he holds off with the fancy display, the missiles flying to their target even before they are fully materialized. Like a quarrel from a crossbow, they fly straight and true, directly at the now weakened metal beast.
His second series lacks some of the strength of the first, as apparently his magical abilities have not recharged enough to cast another set of powerful bolts, but once again they do have effect, as the thing lurches backward once again.
Recovering his balance, Caboto spits on his hands to ease the chafing pain of having his thick rope yanked from his grip by his and Arkady's own momentum and the fighting statues great weight. Standing by his dropped rope, the Florentine mage moves his hands, bringing them together with a clap, sending a magic arrow at the statue fighting Forte.
"Let them trip using their own momentum" he reckons.
The second statue reels backward for just a moment from the impact of the magical bolt, but it wasn't a particularly strong spell, and the thing quickly redoubles it's attacks, scarcely injured.
Caboto shakes his head at the ill-luck of the magic arrow. Not the well aimed blast he had hoped for. Heart pounding, he pauses, unsure what to do, as his remaining spell is not useful in combat.
After that, Caboto tries to advance past the statues and tie his rope across the floor in such a way that a charging statue might trip over it, if places to secure the rope ends can be improvised.
Looking about, the stone chamber, full of melee, has not the slightest decoration, nothing other than bare walls, and nothing that might anchor his rope trick. While looking about, though, he finds a bone map case lying on the floor near a corner. Unfortunately, it is not secured to anchor his rope, but he pockets it nonetheless.
Passing some of the others on the way Rhune looks at them with a sheepish expression, "Don't say anything I forgot my armor. I will get it and be right back, we need all the help we could use." she murmurs. She moves to get her armor and quickly return to the room.
Seeing Rhune moving back out to the bridge, Antonia yells, "The clubs, we need the clubs. They will absorb all metal, weapons, armor, we have to keep the metal away from them."
Hearing Antonia's words, Rhune heads out to gather the clubs as well as her armor.
If Rhees had any color, it would certainly drain from his face at this point. Mindful of getting in the way of companions who can't see him, he tries to work his way into the room. "Ullar!" shouts Rhees, "I don't know about you but this I'm getting desperate. Drop your pack, we can see if the blue tube means anything to these guys - what if it's a key or a pass rather than a map."
While folding his body in an uneasy manner, the ex-gladiator rises, sliding his pack from his back in the meantime. The aching of his ribs after the impact of the statue's fist makes him grimace from pain. Moving as quickly as he can to get out of range, the warrior stumbles to the side, putting his left hand on his left hip while stretching his torso to the left, resulting in another grimace.
Meanwhile, Daegwyn takes Ullar's place combating the creature, but disaster strikes him, as his first blow, a strong overhand strike, shivers the staff, sending a long crack down it. However, the force of the blow, along with Tolik's second spell, does stop the thing from advancing, for the moment. Seeing that he has little choice in the matter, Daegwyn strikes again, knowing that any contact will surely shatter his preferred weapon. His strike misses completely, though.
If anyone was puzzled by hearing Rhees but not seeing him, they are doubly confused when Ullar's dropped pack rises from the floor. A disembodied voice speaks, "One of you by the door, find the blue tube, see if it will open in here, or if brandishing it gets noticed - I'm not sure what, but we should try something!" Suddenly the pack is coming towards the door as though someone had thrown it. Rhees then makes his way to the other door in the room. By the poor light, he looks to see if he can see anything of note on the door.
The door is unadorned and completely simple. It does not appear to be locked either.
Ullar scans the room for any non-metal items which he might hurl against the jackal statues; clearly trying to stay out of their reach.
As Ullar moves backwards, Pietro calls out. "Ullar! Use my staff! Making sure the warrior receives the wooden staff, the priest stands back. Quickly getting his sling, he is waiting for an opening to use it against the metal statues."
Gladly the warrior accepts, although it's clear that he is not proficient in using a staff. However, glad that he has something in hand which he can use to trip the statues or harm them by the impact of the weapon.
Cautiously he awaits the right moment; that moment where the statue steps forward and is standing on one leg only. At that moment, Ullar strikes the jackal with the staff, hoping to topple it over.
Forte continues to fight with the bone club, hoping the club will eventually prove effective against the steely statues.
Forte and Antonia try their best to harm the thing in front of them, but they just cannot damage it past it's steely make-up. It's like hitting a rock with a stick! In return the thing swing's it's hammer like hand, catching Antonia alongside her cheek and sending her sprawling. She does not rise.
Meanwhile the more damaged statue now faces the combined attack of Daegwyn and Ullar, with Arkady looking about, unwilling to attack with the sylmar blade and not having anything else. Pietro waits with his sling, but in the close conditions and poor light, he does not risk a shot that might hit one of his companions. It proves unnecessary in any regard, as Daegwyn shows his mastery of his chosen weapon, caving the metal monster's head in with a terrific smash. It collapses to the ground as pieces of Daegwyn's staff fly about the room, leaving him weaponless.
Forte, however, is not having such an easy time with his opponent, as he has yet to do it any harm with the awkward bone club. He is doing a marvelous job of defending himself, though, as the thing has not managed to hurt him yet either.
When Rhune gets back she tries to keep her armor out of the way of the statues as she looks for a way to give the clubs to the others.
Seeing little other choice, most of the group surrounds the remaining steel statue, with Arkady taking a bone club from Rhune to finally participate, and Daegwyn taking another, leaving Rhune with the last one. And it's good timing, as Forte has apparently begun to run out of luck, taking a crushing blow to the side, though he does not fall.
Taking a club, Rhune hefts the bone weapon and tries to hit the creature with it.
Tolik tends to Antonia, and rouses her, finding her just stunned and not terribly damaged by the attack. Looking up, they see half the party converge on the steely beast. However, only none of you now is using a weapon familiar to you, and it shows from the shower of ineffectual blows. But it does seem to distract the thing, stopping it from effectively continuing it's assault on Forte.
As you continue to rain down blows toward it, with no visible effect, Forte is beginning to tire his defensive battle, and pays the price, as the thing slams a blow into his leg, causing him to yell out in agony. But he is not ready to quit just yet. He smashes his bone club into the thing's head, pushing it backward, but at the same time the club itself breaks off in his hand, leaving him only a jagged bone dagger of sorts. None of the others does it any harm once again.
Forte's stunning blow has stopped it's attack, though, as he realizes that all he has left to fight with are metal weapons. As the group has no more bone clubs, he steps aside, allowing Antonia to step in with her quarterstaff. Meanwhile Daegwyn breaks his shoddy bone club as well, shattering it on the thing's side without causing it any harm. You find yourselves rapidly losing options.
Seeing Antonia advance, the statue moves a bit forward and smashes her in the face once again, sending her backward before she even has an opportunity to attack. Every cloud has a silver lining, though, as her dropped staff is grabbed by Daegwyn, a much more comfortable weapon for him. From behind Rhune swings at the thing, misses completely, and breaks her club when it hits the hard stone floor. At the same time Ullar finally abandons any attempt at combat skill, simply using his great strength to hammer at the thing, crashing into it's leg and staggering it, but not quite toppling it as he wished. However, it appears that it's on it's last legs, though, as the continual battering seems to finally be having an effect on it.
But it's not done yet! It sends a crushing blow into Daegwyn's side, though the stalwart elf does not fall, rising with Antonia's staff to finish the thing, but the blow takes too much strength from him, and he cannot accomplish it. Meanwhile Ullar and Arkady continue to attempt to batter their way through, unsuccessfully. The others now can only watch, Pietro waiting with his sling until a clear shot avails itself.
With a sickening crack, the thing slams a metal fist into Daegwyn's side once again, the same side, and Daegwyn falls to the side, obviously seriously injured. But it's the thing's last gasp, as Arkady topples it with a crushing blow to it's own side. It does not rise. Taking a moment, the group breathes at last.