Reinholdt's Repository

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Milton Island Assault]

Fortunately for Damon, when the effect starts to trigger, he's already in the middle of channeling his black fire, which means it takes all of a moment to send a stream of black fire backwards and send himself along it as a ripple of flames, re-emerging in a dramatic flare of darkness beside Ilpholin. Possibly close enough to singe her skin a little bit. He didn't really have time to adjust his aim to account for speed-backflipping nymph.

"Well, there'sss the trap."

[Shadowcaller]

[Milton Island Assault]

Oh, the two have just begun to see the scope of this trap.

The soldiers have enough presence of mind to move out of the way as Damon and Ilpholin rushes back towards the door they came from.
But as they find themselves in the foyer they will see that runes are flaring up inside here too. They aren't activating right away like they did in the corridor but the effect is bound to go off here as well in just a few moments. Could they reach the ladder and climb up it in that time or do they have another solution to this trap?

Going back into the corridor would likely just put them under the same effect.

[Caedem Temple]

Despite all her experience seeing that the spirit is crying causes Obriane to hesitate with the second arrow for moment. If the spirit had wished to do anything but possess people she assumed it would have already done so.

So the spirit gets a moment, but then Obriane fires the second arrow at it.

[Reinholdt]

[Caedem Temple]

That hesitation gives the spirit the opportunity it needs to raise up one of the chairs and psychokinetically toss at Obriane and Kitty in the most violent manner as the spirit screams at them. Unfortunately the heavy object does a good job naturally deflecting Obriane's second arrow.

[Milton Island Assault]

Ilpholin let's out a small, pained yowl as her skin is singed. That's of less concern to her than the fact that the end of her hair got caught in the flames and is on fire. If she could spare a moment to put herself out, she would.

"The hell is this?!" Ilpholin exclaims, taking short hops back towards the ladder her arms shifting into whips. They lash out, extending and catch on the rungs before suddenly shortening and propelling Ilpholin up the hatch where she alights on the ground outside in a crouch. She's tempted to just cross her arms defiantly and wait for the demonic runes to spread across the isle surface as well, but she is preoccupied with patting the fire out of her hair.

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

It seems highly impractical for attack magic. If only that were enough of a distraction. Reinholdt has already been building a fair storage of his own lust naturally. Hanging with Tina the tease. Seeing a naked succubus clone. Carmen's display in the kitchen was distressingly arousing. Being blasted with a fresh wave of magical lust just makes things so much worse.

He leans against the wall to try and play it all off, like everything's chill. But truthfully, he's panting slightly, his eyes are roaming, and he looks a little flush. It's fortunate there are three people in the room at the moment or he'd start turning the ideas in his head into words.

[5a Violista]

[Getting That Song out of Your Head]

Once it's done, Carmen gets up, straightens her hair, and backs off. She runs her teeth along her bottom lip. Now it's her turn for her face to be all very flush and her breathing to be altered. (She is weak to lust-type magic, after all.)

"Yeah!" she answers, half to distract herself and half because this is something she knows about, so it's fun and easy to answer: "It's especially useful in surprise attacks and prolonged battles."

She adds, "A group of six, with one on support, can drive a whole squad lust-mad in seconds if you've got enough preparation." Just got to treat each other like a suicide bomb by saturating them with Lust Magic beforehand. She's stepping away as she keeps on talking. "Could even get away with just one attacker and one support if you've got enough prisoners." Carmen nods quickly. "And paired with charm effects, I've seen it disable an entire platoon in less than a minute." It's not particularly effective with groups larger than that, or when there's few people using it to attack, no matter how hard you try - her player pulled out the spreadsheets to see.

"So." She points back out to a different room. "I...I need to step out for a second to, um...metabolize some things. Be right back."

The half-succubus woman steps out with the full intention of being back in a few moments, so probably no need to check on her or whatever.

[Murkus]

[Getting That Song out of your Head]

Fettina watches Carmen go so she doesn't say anything impolite beforehand, but then she goes, "Well that sounded terrible." She shakes her head. Those feelings shouldn't be used as weapons! It's a crime against her very nature! Peace and love, man. Partners in crime. Well, mostly. She'd been getting into more and more violent escapades lately, whereas violence used to sicken her...

"Uh, Rein?" Fettina looks at him. "Maaaybe we should get the two of you out of here. So you can, like. Decompress a little. Ya dig?" She looks after where Carmen went. "Or maybe I should leave you two alone. Not that I think that's a great idea, or anything, given her powers..."

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

Oh right. You use the attack on your bottled up allies and blast the opposing side with waves of distractions. Rein bites his lip. Imagining that was not helping things in the slightest. His eyes blatantly follow Carmen as she walks away. His feet are halfway to following when Fettina speaks to him.

"Hm?" He sounds like he barely heard the angel. "Her powers? Those. Right..." A thought strikes him and he realizes his earlier mistake with Carmen. "I'll, uh... go check up on her. It'll be fine." Rein's assurances seem distant and unfocused, but he definitely resumes movement. Heading straight through the door Carmen went through, he walks a tad faster than she was in order to catch up. Not that she had much of a head start.

[5a Violista]

[Getting That Song out of Your Head]

With just one of her, she's at a tactical disadvantage, anyway. So there's little-to-no point in imagining it.

It's rather fortunate that Rein remembers his earlier mistake, because Carmen isn't really sure which one that mistake was.
He manages to catch up pretty quickly, before she gets as far as she wanted.

"Oh." She turns and walks backwards for a bit, when she hears someone approaching. "You're...you...I see."
The succubus totally-a-half-elf stops and runs her hands through her hair. "Did you need something?"

[Gullara]

[Caedem Temple]

Despite all her experience seeing that the spirit is crying causes Obriane to hesitate with the second arrow for moment. If the spirit had wished to do anything but possess people she assumed it would have already done so.

So the spirit gets a moment, but then Obriane fires the second arrow at it.

[Caedem Temple]

That hesitation gives the spirit the opportunity it needs to raise up one of the chairs and psychokinetically toss at Obriane and Kitty in the most violent manner as the spirit screams at them. Unfortunately the heavy object does a good job naturally deflecting Obriane's second arrow.

[Caedem Temple]

Kitsuki steps in front of Obriane and holds out her hands in a warding motion. As the chair nears she steps forward, getting under it just slightly, and pushes upward. Without much apparent effort she alters the chair's trajectory. It flies way high, crashing above the doorway they entered through and likely scattering debris.

[Shadowcaller]

[Caedem Temple]

What about a third arrow then? As getting a chair thrown at her is a good motivation for permanently ending this being and Obriane is quite quick on the draw. Firing without any sort of hesitation this time.

[Reinholdt]

[Caedem Temple]

The spirit cannot stop a third arrow and cries in agony as it loses its form, dissipating into the ether, its screams a haunting death knell. As the sound fades, nothing exciting emerges to replace it.

Rein pops his head in from around the door. "All done? No one hurt? Nice." He looks around at the rather ordinary, if messy room. "Guess this is where they ate the victims."

Stepping inside, he makes a beeline for the door that appears to be the one way forward. One check and a peek later, he looks back and smiles. "And ladies... the stairs! About time." He opens the door wide to show off the steps behind it.

[Murkus]

[Getting That Song Out of your Head]

"Okay, Rein--" Fettina starts as he toddles off into the corridor, helpless as a kitten before his libido. She drops her face into her hand with a laugh. "Okay, I'm going home, dude! Don't get yourself, like, succ'd!"

Tina is, indeed, gonna grab her booty with greedy swiftness and take wing toward home.

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

Fettina gains +1 knowledge of Rein's secret cloning facility. Use it wisely.

"I'm me," Reinholdt confirms to Carmen, just in case this was a secret code to out shapeshifters. "I do not. But you do. See, I know you lied about the sandwich earlier..."

He steps forward, taking off his jacket and revealing a rather tight shirt underneath. "Succubi don't eat food. They eat life essence." That was his mistake! Offering a sandwich. Though isn't she just half-succ-

"Eat mine."

M-maybe just a nibble. Not like, completely devour or anything. That's probably what Rein means.

[5a Violista]

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

No, it wasn't a secret code. It was literally just Carmen not expecting to be followed and stumbling over her words, a little.

Carmen has no choice but to glance down at his rather tight shirt. It's very prominent. "Um..." She doesn't feel like correcting him. Or...whatever. She ate half a sandwich pretty easily! It was just the other half that went really slowly. "I..." She runs her teeth across her lip, and runs her hand through her hair. "Look, I..." Her gaze lowers a bit more, then goes back up to his chest, and then his face. "I haven't decided if you're my type or not..."

Even though she still hasn't decided on that yet, she still quickly closes the distance between them.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Milton Island Assault]

Well, this is less than convenient.

Damon's mind briefly turns to the arsenal of forms at his disposal. He's killed an eaten a number of demons, some of whom had innate resistance to magic.

There's a temptation there to try his luck. Shift to something capable of simply shrugging off whatever this effect is. But get it wrong, and he gets reduced to the size of a mouse. Or smaller. Not a particularly enticing gamble.

Black flames surge up the ladder behind Ilpholin, propelling Damon out of the chamber and onto the surface.

He looks over at Ilpholin, then lets out a wailing hiss of pain, clamping a hand over his eyes, blinded by the sudden rush of surface light and staggering aimlessly away.

[Gullara]

[Caedem Temple]

What about a third arrow then? As getting a chair thrown at her is a good motivation for permanently ending this being and Obriane is quite quick on the draw. Firing without any sort of hesitation this time.

[Caedem Temple]

The spirit cannot stop a third arrow and cries in agony as it loses its form, dissipating into the ether, its screams a haunting death knell. As the sound fades, nothing exciting emerges to replace it.

Rein pops his head in from around the door. "All done? No one hurt? Nice." He looks around at the rather ordinary, if messy room. "Guess this is where they ate the victims."

Stepping inside, he makes a beeline for the door that appears to be the one way forward. One check and a peek later, he looks back and smiles. "And ladies... the stairs! About time." He opens the door wide to show off the steps behind it.

[Caedem Temple]

Kitsuki breathes out, leans over and rests there with her hands on her knees for a moment. "Yep, we're fine." Tired, but fine. She spends the free moment like that until Rein looks back. She straightens, stretches her arms over her head, and then comes over to get a closer look. "Time for things to really get exciting, huh?"

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

"Oh?" Reinholdt's just intrigued enough to ask, his husky voice carrying his warm breath as he stares at Carmen, heart beating wildly. It would technically be correct that they're inches away from each other as Rein leans towards the silver haired elf. But only barely correct.

"Indulge me. What's your type?" He asks, his body straining against his passions.

[5a Violista]

[Getting That Song out of Your Head]

The silver-haired elf looks up at Rein.

"Don't laugh," Carmen cautions, because it might ruin the mood and also laughing at what people like isn't very nice, "but what really gets my heart racing is when someone acts really heroic, y'know? Knight in shining armor, incorruptable, smiting evil, the whole nine yards."

She pauses, reaches for his arms. Her voice gets quieter. "Sometimes you seem that way, sometimes you don't. I guess I just don't know you well enough to say either way."

[Shadowcaller]

[Caedem Temple]

"Ate...?" Obriane mumbles as she looks around the room and puts away her bow. "Yikes." Once Kitty is done stretching she will attempt to take her hand and give it a quick squeeze. Outright cannibalistic spirits was something she had never dealt with before.

She still recalled her fathers stories about the wendigo spirit which helped people survive in the wilderness, but at a terrible price.

"So if they sacrificed and ate people up here, then what's down there?" She inquires as she moves after Reinholdt.

[Milton Island Assault]

One of the draachi soldiers in the back of the group is both close enough to the ladder and has the presence of mind to figure out what's going in time for them to scramble up the ladder after Ilpholin and Damon. The rest are presumably caught in the curse.

The two will be pleased to know that the runes are not present in the shaft leading up to the surface. Nor are they present outside the bunker.

However, once the two seems to have reached relative safety on the surface along with the one soldier, Ilpholin might be able to spot a small group of what appears to be gnolls running towards the bunker entrance. They're still a fair distance away so she can't make out much details but it looks like they're in quite a rush. So much so that they haven't noticed them yet.

They might just be fleeing from the other draachi soldiers.

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

Reinholdt doesn't laugh. There's nothing especially funny about Carmen's tastes. He does glance away for a bit. His armor is tarnished at best. But he truly believes in things better than himself.

Her touch on his arm draws his eyes back in and reminds him of his own desires throbbing in his head. "It's not... unreasonable." Sometimes Rein does shine through. "But you failed to mention what you like about them. Are you getting smited by this incorruptible knight of virtue?" Rein asks, his hands slowly finding their way to her waist, to hold her. "Or rescued?"

[Milton Island Assault]

Ilpholin gets herself out and surveys the damage. Hopefully Damon can recover from the sun, but she can't do much for him at the moment. She does glance down the ladder and shout. "Hey! You alright? What happened?" Ignorant of the details, she only knows one thing at this point. Going back in without a plan of some kind is stupid.

Fortunately, it seems rescue is on the way. In other circumstances...
Ugh. She starts heading towards the fleeing gnoll group, arms just arms with no weapons out. They need at least one of these gnolls alive to tell them how they regularly get through the bunker. Which means not murdering them today. Maybe even seeing what they're running from.

Definitely not letting them go though. If they change direction, so will her subdued, non-threatening demeanor and otherwise gentle walk.

[Caedem Temple]

Reinholdt stares at Kitty for a bit. "Really? Not exciting enough for you? How many spirits do you need? Or were you hoping for some special attack?" Kitsuke's just tempting fate at this point!

He turns back towards the stairs and examines them for a bit. "Lots of species eat themselves, in hard times. I'm not sure why these people would bother ritualizing it." Seems silly to him. If you gotta gut the other person and nom them, don't make a show of it.

"Hopefully, Vidar's resting place. Mind the Fourth step." Rein starts heading up, going 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 in quick succession before rounding the halfway and continuing further.

[5a Violista]

[Getting That Song out of Your Head]

"Either one," Carmen says. "Both, I guess." Maybe it's the gap between both ideals. She's not really sure. "They're both pretty good."

Her hands run upwards and the half-succubus moves in for a kiss. A kiss that'll start to consume his energy, sure, but still a kiss.

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song out of Your Head]

"Well, I can promise to protect you tonight. To guard you. Hold you." And if she gets too bad, he'll have to smite her too.

Rein's hands slip around her back as she kisses him, pulling her closer as he leans into it. He feels a little weak in the knees as the kiss continues, but nothing he can't manage.

Reinholdt's energy tastes of the old and the new, a little like reheated leftovers. Probably natural for a clone. But it also has a surprisingly spicy kick, tasting actually hot. It's definitely different from average life energy, but the source of such flavor is remarkably unclear.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Milton Island Assault]

Damon clutches his face, providing some brief merciful shade for his eyes while he coats his body with fire once more.

His vision still blurred, he staggers awkwardly after Ilpholin. "I ssshall be alright, in a few minutess. Damned sssun." He mutters in answer to Ilpholin's question, not having been able to tell who her question was directed at. "Ssstill can't sssee very well. What are we walking towardss?"

[Gullara]

[Caedem Temple]

"Ate...?" Obriane mumbles as she looks around the room and puts away her bow. "Yikes." Once Kitty is done stretching she will attempt to take her hand and give it a quick squeeze. Outright cannibalistic spirits was something she had never dealt with before.

She still recalled her fathers stories about the wendigo spirit which helped people survive in the wilderness, but at a terrible price.

"So if they sacrificed and ate people up here, then what's down there?" She inquires as she moves after Reinholdt.

[Caedem Temple]

Reinholdt stares at Kitty for a bit. "Really? Not exciting enough for you? How many spirits do you need? Or were you hoping for some special attack?" Kitsuke's just tempting fate at this point!

He turns back towards the stairs and examines them for a bit. "Lots of species eat themselves, in hard times. I'm not sure why these people would bother ritualizing it." Seems silly to him. If you gotta gut the other person and nom them, don't make a show of it.

"Hopefully, Vidar's resting place. Mind the Fourth step." Rein starts heading up, going 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 in quick succession before rounding the halfway and continuing further.

[Caedem Temple]

"Expecting is different from hoping." Kitsuki clarifies. It only makes sense that getting deeper inside this place will up the danger, right? But no more chatter right now. Time to head in. She nods to Obriane and head in right behind Rein, leaving Obriane to take the rear. She follows his instructions and keeps a sharp eye on his back in case he gives her some sign.

[Shadowcaller]

[Milton Island Assault]

The draachi's reaction to all this is hard to read but one would guess they're not too happy about essentially abandoning the rest of their unit. They too shout something down the hatch but if there is a reply it's too quiet to hear.

But Ilpholin might still be able to tell that the low glow that the runes were emitting have now faded as she was shouting down into the hatch, so something has at least changed down there.

As the gnolls continues running towards them the draachi raise their spear but doesn't go to meet them. Standing back in a defensive position while Damon and Ilpholin goes to meet the fleeing hyenaites.
Once they get closer Ilpholin can tell that they're dressed very much like the two gnolls which she killed down in the bunker. They don't appear to be civilians with relatively modern clothes and without any weapons.

One of the gnolls abruptly stops as they appear to have finally noticed Ilpholin and Damon. "H-hey, who're they?!" They point and shout.
This get the attention of the others who all stop or at least slow down, uncertain how to handle them. Even Ilpholin can tell that they're extremely tense, stuck in a fight or flight mode and without any weapons they only really had one option.

One of the gnolls in the back steps forward and unlike the others this one doesn't seem panicked, only determined. They're dressed differently from the others too with a black vest and actually armed with what appears to be a rifle. "More intruders." This gnoll declares though makes no motion to use their weapon. "What do you want?" They then inquire in a softer voice, gesturing back towards its group. "These are civilians, we're ready to surrender if you can promise we're not harmed."

[Caedem Temple]

"Humans shouldn't." Obriane declares as she shudders. "Only monsters do that." She then goes quiet and will just follow the other two down the steps while listening closely to Rein's instructions.

[Reinholdt]

[Milton Island Assault]

"Gnolls from nearby. Appropriately terrified." Ilpholin half-whispers to Damon.

The nymph considers them for a moment, her eyes wandering across these supposed civilians. After a tense silence, she motions back towards the bunker. "I need information. How do you traverse the halls below without being subjected to the demonic runes within? If any one of you knows, you shall all be held, questioned... and spared."

[Caedem Temple]

Reinholdt wouldn't hesitate to eat a human if it meant not starving. But he supposes Obriane is probably more on the herbivore side of the food chain.

No particular incidents happen with the staircase and the next room is a larger one. This one is more ornate, with drawings and symbols scrawled along the walls and floors. Often violent imagery, but not always. Some seem to detail rises in food, culture, and wealth. In fact, it seems to be an intricate detailed history of the entombed warlord, from beginning to end. At least, his autobiographical version of his own history. Needless to say, a lot of the details are more flattering than what occurred in reality, but most of them are true in some form or another.

Rein's attention is more drawn to the area on the other side of the room. Clearly different with three large squares situated in front of a large stone statue, twice Rein's size. This statue has the appearance of some kind of bird man, rippling stone abs of the prominently underdressed statue give rise to a bird's head upon the humanoid torso. Stone feathers run along its arms and lead to what it clutches in its hands, a very black looking, but also somewhat rusted axe. Reinholdt pulls out a little notebook and peers back and forth for a moment. "Oh hey. I think that's it. One of the things we're looking for. Uhh... don't touch anything."

Stepping forward to get a better look, his eyes are drawn to both the door the statue is guarding and the words on the wall beside him, clearly separate from the documentation in the rest of the room. Reinholdt shines a light to get a better look and does some more cross referencing. "Ok... so... I think that says... 'Which of these is the tallest?' No... 'Greatest'. Yeah, yeah, yeah." His light swings down to the three slabs on the floor, writing located prominently in the middle of each and notably just within range of being bisected if the bird-statue decided it can move.

"Right. Okay. The one on the left with two characters says... hmm... Strength. And the one character on the middle one should be Power. Then... the right one with those three symbols means... Might." Rein closes his notebook. "I think." It's a hasty translation.

Perhaps Kitsune and/or Obriane's focus remain on the bird-statue, however. Obriane seemed to have thought there should be a lot more spirits here and she was right. Kind of. They're here, they're just all bound inside that statue, buried under its outer shell. They may be able to feel the spirits' presence just from their numbers, but they are definitely being held there against their will, no doubt to fuel whatever twisted riddle trap lies before them.

[5a Violista]

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

Maybe he recently ate some peppers, or something. Peppers are spicy. It's okay, though, she actually likes spicy.

Carmen plays along, liking that part.


When the curtain rises again much later, Rein is not actually dead. Turns out he's only mostly dead. See, the difference is that mostly dead is still slightly alive. He's still alive.

Unless he had some (magical?) protection against drain, he'd feel completely listless, unmotivated, numb, hollow, apathetic, languid, lackadaisical, sensationless, and any other similar word that could be used to describe the feeling of having all motivation and lust and liveliness drained from your body. Carmen isn't entirely sure how to describe it, because she's never really experienced it fully.

Most people claim they feel completely back to normal in two to three days, assuming regular exercise and a healthy diet and plenty of sunshine and chocolate ice cream.

Carmen wants to just continue lying there, snuggling, but since they're not married she feels like that would be improper and immoral.
Snuggling is something you can only do with your spouse.

So, instead of doing something immoral, she gets up, makes sure to cook some rice and meat and beans or sandwich-and-salad or something, wrap it, and put it in the fridge with a note, and so on so that she can leave in good conscience.
...
At which point she realizes that Tina was going to tell her where MERC was but she already left some time ago.

[Gullara]

[Caedem Temple]

Kitsuki's eyes are fixed on the statue from the moment they walk in the room. She watches it carefully at they approach and continues staring at it as Rein speaks. "Be careful with that, Rein." Not that he needs the warning. He just warned them not to touch anything after all. "There's something going on in that statue. It reeks of spirits. Way more than the others we fought earlier."

[Reinholdt]

[Getting That Song Out of Your Head]

Reinholdt has no protection. So he is drained. But the song is finally out of his head. As are his thoughts. He's still having them, but they're wispy and hard to hold down. Not worth the effort. His thoughts are certainly not being formed into words.

He makes no protests or suggestions as Carmen rises up, gets dressed, goes out to cook. He has nothing to say. The world exists and he was just floating in it, not devoid of life, but devoid of liveliness.

Carmen can leave without incident if she wishes, to seek out MERC on her own. She could wait a long time here for Rein to recover and he could direct to MERC, but it would probably be faster just to ask anyone in town. Eventually, in the future, Rein will make it to the fridge and see her note.

[Shadowcaller]

[Caedem Temple]

Reinholdt wouldn't hesitate to eat a human if it meant not starving. But he supposes Obriane is probably more on the herbivore side of the food chain.

No particular incidents happen with the staircase and the next room is a larger one. This one is more ornate, with drawings and symbols scrawled along the walls and floors. Often violent imagery, but not always. Some seem to detail rises in food, culture, and wealth. In fact, it seems to be an intricate detailed history of the entombed warlord, from beginning to end. At least, his autobiographical version of his own history. Needless to say, a lot of the details are more flattering than what occurred in reality, but most of them are true in some form or another.

Rein's attention is more drawn to the area on the other side of the room. Clearly different with three large squares situated in front of a large stone statue, twice Rein's size. This statue has the appearance of some kind of bird man, rippling stone abs of the prominently underdressed statue give rise to a bird's head upon the humanoid torso. Stone feathers run along its arms and lead to what it clutches in its hands, a very black looking, but also somewhat rusted axe. Reinholdt pulls out a little notebook and peers back and forth for a moment. "Oh hey. I think that's it. One of the things we're looking for. Uhh... don't touch anything."

Stepping forward to get a better look, his eyes are drawn to both the door the statue is guarding and the words on the wall beside him, clearly separate from the documentation in the rest of the room. Reinholdt shines a light to get a better look and does some more cross referencing. "Ok... so... I think that says... 'Which of these is the tallest?' No... 'Greatest'. Yeah, yeah, yeah." His light swings down to the three slabs on the floor, writing located prominently in the middle of each and notably just within range of being bisected if the bird-statue decided it can move.

"Right. Okay. The one on the left with two characters says... hmm... Strength. And the one character on the middle one should be Power. Then... the right one with those three symbols means... Might." Rein closes his notebook. "I think." It's a hasty translation.

Perhaps Kitsune and/or Obriane's focus remain on the bird-statue, however. Obriane seemed to have thought there should be a lot more spirits here and she was right. Kind of. They're here, they're just all bound inside that statue, buried under its outer shell. They may be able to feel the spirits' presence just from their numbers, but they are definitely being held there against their will, no doubt to fuel whatever twisted riddle trap lies before them.

[Caedem Temple]

Kitsuki's eyes are fixed on the statue from the moment they walk in the room. She watches it carefully at they approach and continues staring at it as Rein speaks. "Be careful with that, Rein." Not that he needs the warning. He just warned them not to touch anything after all. "There's something going on in that statue. It reeks of spirits. Way more than the others we fought earlier."

[Caedem Temple]

Obriane's attention is too drawn to the statue. She couldn't actually see the spirits like Kitty but she always had an eerie feeling when they were near and now it was stronger than ever. "Yeah... that's unusual to say at least. I've never seen so many spirits drawn to one object before. They might have actually have somehow bound spirits too it before they, uh, went bye-bye." Which sounded like the work of an angakok to her, a twisted evil one. "We probably shouldn't linger her. Just grab whatever you're here for and let us leave."

[Reinholdt]

[Caedem Temple]

"Hmm... yeah, I could see how that makes sense. Something's gotta power the statue or it wouldn't be much of a riddle. Might as well be souls." Rein steps up rather fearlessly, but stays away from the squares as he looks the setup over.

"Unfortunately... what we want is almost certainly behind the door it's guarding. But going for it is bound to set off the golem." He shines his light up at the axe. "I can't imagine that we actually want that axe. It has gotten old. I don't think any enchantments it had is strong enough to be of interest. So I guess we're just looking for the mask."

He crouches down. "Plus I'm not crazy enough to try and pry it out of that thing's hands." After looking the squares over, he stands up. "Nothing mechanical I can mess with here. Answering the question correctly is probably the safest bet."