The Way To Doomwatch

The entire group entered the hallway and moved up with Hern and the Prince in the lead and Arbiddance and Qova in the rear. Once they reached the side passage, they stopped and focused their amulet lights down it.

"You must tell me where I can get one of those," the Prince muttered. "I don't like dancing by someone else's light."

"I'll make you one later," Arbiddance replied.

The passage seemed to end at a large iron door much like the others. Hern spoke. "Let's go a little further up and see what's there, and then return to this one." All agreed and moved forward.

Just past the right passageway, Qova stepped forward and felt something give under her foot. A light click accompanied it. Everyone froze, looked at each other, and then looked around at the walls and then the ceiling. They collectively exhaled, and the Prince grinned even wider.

Qova jumped when the iron door flew open with a tremendous crash. Hern stepped back and peered down the passage.

Through the door charged a large humanoid figure... roughly 7 feet tall and the color of brass. It had four arms, and each hand held a large sword.

"Heads up!" Hern shouted and took a defensive posture to receive and attack. He sensed the Prince drawing both of his short swords and moving behind him to take a slightly recessed position on his right. Arbiddance stumbled back a little toward the way they came. "Keep an eye out the way forward," Hern told Qova. "This may be an ambush!"

The brass creature stepped forward with alarming speed, its face a blank stare that morphed into a mimicry of Hern's face as it brought all four swords down on the fighter.

Hern was stunned to see his own face looking back at him even as he dodged two blows, parried a third, and felt the fourth bite into his knee. He stumbled a bit and switched legs to return a sword blow from his weaker side. The Prince lunged forward in a stabbing motion with both blades only to find them bouncing off the creature's abdomen.

Hern's blow seemed to gouge a gash into the chest of his opponent. He brought his sword down in an arc and then reversed its momentum to strike at the creature's crotch. Always been a weak spot in the past, he thought.

The creature retracted its swords, brought the left two toward the Prince, and used the right ones to scissor Hern's head. There was nothing the fighter could do except take the punishment.

The Prince parried one blow while sweeping his other sword against the creature's knee in hopes of tripping it. It didn't, but he sliced a severe gash into its leg.

Golem, Arbiddance observed from his position. It's a golem. Look how it mechanically it moves. But what to do... what to do...

Qova braved a look at the battle to see Hern flopping senselessly to his knees and bound for the floor. She grabbed him by his belt and pulled him back with all her strength. The golem took the opportunity to land two more blows on the fighter before he was dragged to safety.

The Prince primed his swords to deliver another flurry of blows before he felt himself also dragged back, by Arbiddance who shoved a wand past him and uttered a single word.

A blast of shocking cold shot forward and knocked the golem on its back... it's exterior coated with a thick ice. It floundered on the floor as the Prince lunged forward, pinned one of its swords to the wall with one of his own, and used his other sword to severe the golem's hand. He grunted when yet another sword stabbed deep into his back.

Qova stepped over Hern and into the fray with her mace drawn high... bringing it down on the creature's face (slowly forming to look like her own). She smashed it in with one savage blow.

And suddenly all was still.