The hole turned out to be a circular staircase leading down into the darkness. Torj used a basic light spell and they looked around the room that held the golems, but there was nothing but blank walls. After clearing some golem remains, they decided to make camp inside the building. Torj and Kyt looked around the area while Raz and Maz got the camp set up, but it seemed this was the only intact building. The state of the rest of the ruins indicated that the site was extremely old.
It was getting late so they decided to explore beneath the building in the morning. They still took turns on guard duty but nothing happened. Chuck half expected some creature to crawl out of the hole during the night. He almost thought he could see a faint glow coming from the hole but it was probably his imagination. The previous day Tess had been a three tailed fox girl and when he woke up in the morning she was a nine tailed fox girl. Chuck just shook his head as Tess smiled impishly. He was glad she was enjoying herself.
He went down the stairs first with the flashlight in one hand and gun in the other. The stone stairs were just as clean as the rest of the building. When he reached the bottom, he found himself in a hallway with several doors on either side. Torj cast another light spell which showed a metal door at the far end of the hallway. It was decided to check each of the side rooms with wooden doors before tackling the metal door.
Torj and Kyt took out their swords and approached the first door on the left while he took the first door on the right. Raz and Maz had stayed upstairs at the camp while Tess waited at the bottom of the stairs. Chuck’s room seemed like a study with a desk and some book shelves. The shelves were empty however and a quick look through the desk revealed it was empty as well. The room Torj and Kyt investigated looked to be a storage room with shelving but again the shelves were empty.
Chuck was starting to wonder if everything had already been removed long ago. It didn’t make sense for golems to be guarding nothing though so they kept exploring. The next room was completely empty without even furniture. The last room seemed to be some sort of laboratory but again nothing remained but the work stations. They tried the metal door but it was either locked or stuck shut. Torj and Kyt tested their strength against it but it didn’t budge.
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Chuck decided to use his universal lock pick and cut the hinges off using his gun. Torj and Kyt then wrestled the heavy door off to the side. There appeared to be one large room behind the door. Unlike the previous rooms, this one was lit using magical lights. The lights showed some boxes stacked up in one corner, a book shelf that actually had a few books on it against the wall, and in the middle of the room a crystalline statue. The walls had the same preservation symbols as before.
Chuck couldn’t be sure it wasn’t another golem so had to be careful. It stood a head taller than Chuck and was vaguely humanoid with two tentacle like arms, two legs, and a tail but no noticeable head. Its body seemed to be made up of multicolored crystals. He thought briefly about shooting the statue from the door like the others but this one didn’t give off bad vibes and he was afraid the gun’s laser would reflect dangerously off the crystals.
He entered the room carefully, keeping his eyes on the statue. So far it hadn’t made any movements. The others came in after him and proceeded to study the contents of the room. Torj and Kyt started going through the boxes while Tess studied the books. Chuck approached the crystal statue. He had never seen anything like it. There was still no movement from it so he was starting to relax. He walked slowly around it, wondering if it would be possible to haul back. It looked to be fairly heavy.
Tess called him over to the books and showed him what she had found. He still couldn’t read very well so she excitedly explained that they were magical tomes. Anything magic related should fetch a good price from the alchemy guild so they would definitely have to be brought back. Kyt was also excited and said the boxes contained some kind of magical devices. Chuck went over to look and had no idea what they were. The small devices all used crystals which Torj and Kyt seemed to think were magical in nature.
Hauling their finds all the way back to the pickup would be a problem. Not to mention the crystal statue. Chuck returned to it and tried pushing it to see how heavy it really was. The minute he touched the statue, an electric shock ran through him. He jerked back in surprise but it was only on the level of static electricity. The crystals started glowing brighter and brighter until it was hard to look at them. After a few seconds the bright light subsided back down to a gentle glow. With a tinkling sound the statue started moving its limbs and turned toward him. “Ah, I have finally awoken and find none other than a fellow otherworlder. How interesting.” It said to Chuck’s shocked face.