Zilo fell into the dark shaft and after a few moments, the fall turned into a slide and he was deposited in a stone worked room with glowing white runes lining the walls and floor in an intricate design and a humming noise. Zilo surveyed the room and pulled from what he had put together about Lidan Knowledge of Arcana since arriving in the city.
As he looked over the markings and leylines of the walls it was clear that this was a ritual room of some sort, but for what he couldn't be sure. He did find that one of the leylines seemed linked to the passage he fell through, and it made its way over to a rune at the epicenter of the room with the many other leylines extending outward.
Zilo proceeded over and examined the rune. After a minute of study he took out his violin and tried to synchronize a note with the magical frequency of the humming leyline rune. It took a few tries but he eventually matched the rune's energy then severed it with a Countersong. This removed the glow from the leyline that led back up to his friend's room to the room his friends were held in.
He put his violin away as he saw the leyline vanish, but he tensed up as he saw the rest of the magic lines turn a crimson color in response to his magic music. He heard stone grind on stone from the passage he slid down, and he was now trapped by a door falling shut in the passage.
He once again heard stone grind on stone as a large passageway appeared opposite from him. In the passageway, a looming figure entered the room clad in solid stone samurai armor and a demonic stone face-guard and helm. The top of the helm was decorated by obsidian black wings and the symbol carved into the figure's chest was a pegasus also cast from obsidian.
The figure stood around 3 meters tall and in both arms were held stone katanas. The figure's body was composed completely of solid stone and it's gaze lock onto Zilo as it began to lumber forward. Zilo was stock-still and spoke, "Of course there was another trap."
The bard flicked out Harmony and fired an arrow at the approaching Stone Golem. As the silver streak flew across the room and impacted the golem, the streak suddenly vanished from the air and its shining trail died with the arrow. The actual arrow itself flipped ineffectively to the ground, not leaving a mark on the huge construct.
The bard was dumbfounded, but as the golem got closer Zilo suddenly felt his limbs grow heavy and as he looked to his body he saw that there was an aura similar to the leylines shackling him and making him Slow. Before he could process this new feeling, the golem brought down its massive left blade and broke Zilo's left shoulder with a thunderous crack.
Not wishing to remain near the giant, Zilo snapped out a Haste spell and his movement ability had returned to him, for the most part. He tumbled and maneuvered his way around the statue's blades and retreated to the other side of the room.
"That hurt you jerk, but I'm willing to forgive you if you'd just let me leave!"
The Golem wordlessly turned and began to walk it's way over to Zilo. Thankfully the size and weight of the golem made him slow enough that Zilo had some time to get ready. First, he unleashed a second Haste spell to make his speed rise, then he cured his broken shoulder with a Cure Moderate Wounds spell.
By the time he finished the golem had gotten on top of him again and let loose it's slowness power again, but Zilo managed to resist it this time before it brought its arm about to swing at the bard. Zilo managed to duck under this attack, but the force of the blow demolished the corner of the entryway it had come from.
Zilo didn't want to confirm the answer to the question about which of them was stronger, so he retreated back to the opposite end of the room again, only this time while he made his way over the golem swung and nailed the bard in his shield arm. It didn't break the arm, but it did send him flying about 4 meters and forced him to tuck and roll to keep moving.
"So you're not the talkative type, I get it, how about this then!"
The bard spun around and fired three more arrows at the massive golem, only to have the same result as before and have all three of them pitifully lose their magic and hit the ground. Zilo grit his teeth and mumbled, "We'll then looks like someone took their anti-magic vitamins this morning. Figured that was just a one-time thing."
The golem began making it's way over to Zilo again and once again it swung, but this time, right before it struck the wall it halted it's weapon's strike. Zilo furrowed his brow examining the wall, but in his distracted state he was a sitting duck for the golem to bash his chest with a sweeping strike. The bard flipped backward and slid along the ground before hacking a bit and speaking,
"URH. I think that was a rib... or three, one second." Zilo used a Cure Serious Wounds to regain the ability to stand before the golem came in for another slam of his sword. Zilo sidestepped the attack and saw what made the golem's sword stop attacking. If it continued then it would have shattered the leylines along the wall and floor.
Zilo didn't know why it cared about keeping the leylines working, but he couldn't make a dent in the thing at the moment, so this seemed like his only option. He returned Harmony to it's bo form and began to match frequencies with any leylines he could. He managed to connect with one right away and snapped it's power.
He didn't have time to celebrate as the golem advanced and tried to flatten him. He continued to move to the far corners of the room to keep making use of the golem's lack of speed. and piece by piece he removed more and more leylines from the room, but the golem still looked to be moving along just fine.
Meanwhile, Zilo wasn't able to avoid all the attacks, and the limb shattering damage of a 2 meter long stone sword was not something that could be walked off, forcing Zilo to continue curing each blow in order to keep in the fight.
After almost a full minute of this game of cat and mouse, Zilo was down to the last leyline and he frantically worked to match it's frequency then sever it. He did so and the golem made one last swing intending to crush Zilo's skull, but the attack stopped inches from the bard's head.
Zilo used Detect Magic and saw that the golem's life force lingered a bit, but was dwindling to almost nothing. The bard let out a heavy sigh and turned to the passage the golem came from. Without a better route to take he made his way down the passage, hoping his friends were freed from the spiked room above.
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