The Tin Man
Spruce Springstream charged forward at the animated armor with his sword in hand. He swung and missed, only to be punched in kind twice. His nose bled and he could see stars. At that moment, the shadow that had manifested from the book hurled itself at
Xolos.
Chupa Saltamontes attempted to slash at it, but she only succeeded in running her blade through the incorporeal form. The creature attacked the sorcerer, but the elf was too nimble for it.
Chupa and
Kregsmum, seeing their bard friend out on his feet, charged forward and engaged the armor. The barbarian took her bo-staff to the side of the construct's head, leaving a dent in its armor. It attacked her in return, successfully hitting her once. Chupa stabbed at it, but it barely seemed to do any damage.
Torque summoned a mage hand on top of the armor to pick it up and shake it. It very clearly didn't appreciate it. Chupa and Kregsmum took the opportunity to strike at the armor, doing what damage they could.
Xolos shot a mote of flame at the shadow, hitting it directly. It let out a scream of pain and anguish before it disappeared into the darkness. At that moment, the armor broke free from the mage hand and dropped to the ground. Xolos reacted in an instant and cast his own mage hand and held it down. The rest of the party - Spruce, Chupa, and Kregsmum - worked to finish it off, with Spruce landing the finishing blow.
The bard searched the wreckage of the construct and was able to recover an animating sigil, which he realized would allow him to animate a single inanimate object.
With the immediate threat over, the group sought to search through the bookshelf to find what they needed with haste. Torque immediately took to the task, but had some difficulty with the books as they were written in an unknown language. Kregsmum assisted, and together they were able to find a maroon-colored leather bound book titled
Alchemical Transmutations. Their prize in hand, they began to flee.
Escape From the Basement
On their way out, Spruce could still see just make out a shadow following them in the darkness, but he wasn't sure if it was just his dazed head playing tricks on him or not. Either way, he knew for certain that he didn't want to wait around to find out. As they passed by the body of their deceased friend,
Penguin, they realized just what this small victory had cost them. They would have to be much more careful in the future.
The group exited the library at last. It was close to midnight. They knew they needed to rest, so, with the body of Penguin, they headed back to
The Sterling Beaver to figure out their next moves.
Comments