Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

26st of Rova 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

"Take them on the way out," you say as Gorok reaches out for the scrolls. At his questioning tip of the head, you explain: "If there is some kind of alarm here we would do not see it's best to be on the way out, not in."

"A fair compromise," Sirim counters. Mina too nods, if with less confidence.

"Though we should probably check for traps and curses now in case we have something on our trail when we make it back out," you add, but neither Mina's sight nor Cob's inquisitive eye can gleam any trace of a trap. The scrolls had, by all appearances, been left here to be used by any of the family or guests who might find their way into the 'chapel', as the small temple is apparently called.

Though you do not have any map of the tombs nor any means to divine where Ergriso's might be, simple geometry indicates that it must be among the deepest, the oldest hewn, and isn't that an bizarre thought?

The tombs are carved in three long parallel lines that descend like inverted steps into the stone beneath Augustana coast, sealed with bronze plated doors set with prayer-script and the image of birds, perhaps in memory of the distant sky. Embraced in the wings are the names of the dead: Neros Valeyn, Irea Valeyn, Virios Valeyn...

Why the word Valeyn has to be on all of them when all know this is the family crypt even Mina cannot properly explain. At first it had seemed like the lines of tombs do not crossover at all, forcing you to turn back and check the other three paths, but after Virios tomb you spot a cross-corridor, making the whole structure of the tomb more of a grid. Standing guard at the intersection is the first light source you had seen down here, a brass statue with gleaming steel wings and a crown of flame atop its brow.

Knowledge (Arcana) (Mina; Sirim DC 21): 16, 29 (Failure, Success)

As you try to get a bit closer, basking in the pleasant radiance, Sirim's voice calls a warning in your thoughts: "Ware, guardian construct. Step back... slowly." After you shuffle back out of sight of the guardian Sirim offers a lecture on the lethality of this particular sort of servitor, from wings sharp enough to decapitate a foe to being able to channel the fire they bear into blasts strong enough to match a young dragon. They are apparently common as guardians of both the wealthy and their homes throughout much of the territory of the old Taldan lands, from Opara to the Arch of Aroden, though they are not made here, but in the Golemworks of Magnimar.

You question the need to know this when you might soon be on fire, but he explains that unlike true golems and other more complex arcane guardians these imitations of celestial grace are intelligent enough to attack intruders, but not allies outside of the immediate sight of whoever holds their control talisman, if such a thing even exists, so they are most likely triggered by proximity.

"They must have some way to tame the bird men," Gorok points out. "When they bring new dead they must pass by. This forged-being is in the likeness of angels, the spell we left in the chapel was angel-seeming. Key and lock are oft alike. Though they cannot all wear the spell, perhaps the one who is in front of the procession is enough."

Gorok Wisdom (DC 10): 1d20+2 = 15 (Success)

"So do we go back and fetch the scrolls then?" you ask sheepishly, but Sirim sends wordless denial tinged with greed.

"That spell is worth more to study than to open the way. The guardians see as well as any of us in the dark, but no better. I can slip by under their feet, while you could don veils once more."

Careful scouting reveals that there are four of the constructs throughout the complex, at lest one of which you are going to have to pass by to reach and then enter Ergriso's tomb.

What do you do?

[] Go back and recover the Angelic Aspect Scroll to hopefully pass by openly as a 'procession'

[] Use invisibility to sneak by
-[] Write in plan

[] Destroy the construct, you're sure Cob can pry something valuable out of it... and any others that might attack
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: Good thing Sirim made that roll or the first you would have learned about those constructs would have been the line of 6d6 fire headed right at Akorian.