Jill, "I wonder if I should pull out a sword."

Barbara shrugged and smiled
"On one hand,  'Nothing ventured,  nothing gained', but on the other hand,  we're also in unknown territory here"

Jill nods, "Your right."

Jill will hop down for a moment and tries to pull the white sword. She tugs at it, tries to twist it. "Ok how did you guys do it."

Barbara looked at the sword with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
"I'm almost wondering if the sword makes that decision. "

Jill tugs at it harder but it doesn't seem to come free.

"What is with this, there has to be a trick."

Barbara smirked
"I'm definitely thinking that this is like Excalibur or something.  The sword chooses you"

The Crocking comes up and says, "May I ?"

Jill shrugs and steps back.

He tries and even with his massive muscles he seems unable to draw it. He hesitantly looks at the black sword as he reaches for it he glances at Millenia and withdraws his hand.

"Yeah, don't know what calibur x is but maybe she is right."

  "I think it's like the door back in the bar was.  It decides who it lets open it, or in this case, who it lets pull out a blade and which one."

Jill smiles, "Ahhh I get it now. Yeah even you couldn't get that Door for a long time till Millenia came along." Jill tried her best she really did turning to Kingcroc, "Hey big guy it's ok I think if we hang out with them it's like grease or oil, eventually we might be able to open a Door or pull one of these swords."

Kingcroc looked down at her, "Perhaps, I used to believe such a thing myself."

Xan looked up at the swords looked at her huge hammer and said, "Eh, I'm good."

Kingcroc started laughing and after a while so did Jill.

  Dean shrugs. "Maybe.  Who knows, right?  I suppose anything is possible.  If you had asked me three days ago if any of this was possible, I'd have said no...but here we are.  Right now though, we aught to get back on track before the trail gets cold.  Shall we?"

  He scoops Jill back up.  Who knew how many hours or days of stair climbing lay ahead.

Barbara was fascinated by the conversation,  but nodded and joined the march forward

The group resumes following the Crocking though he talks with Millenia reluctantly.
After getting back to a main route they begin moving along the stairs and the group ends up in a hall with what looks like melted statues standing every fifteen feet from each other.

The Crocking eyes them warily as he walks along.

Barbara looked around warily
"Well, THAT'S not ominous at all...."
She crept closer to examine them

They look from the unmelted parts like they are made of marble and done in ancient Greek style. Upon closer examination some statues have items on them. A piece of jewelry here, a belt there, a helm there etc. These don't seem to be part of the statues themselves.

Dean quirks an eyebrow at the statues and their items, but doesn't get particularly close to them.

  "Fish bait?" he queries Millienia. "Ever seen this before?  Seems like shiny little lures to dupe curious fish to me."

Millenia looks to Dean, "The Grand Stair doesn't have many decorations too it so you may be on to something. There are a few exceptions, but they are rare. The melting is unusual since it takes a tremendous amount of force to damage something of the stairs, I could do it but it is exhausting."

 Barbara does a cursory glance around for traps
"Do we have to proceed through here, or is there a way around?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:33, Wed 22 Dec 2021.

Crocking, "I have heard other Wardens say there is always a way around but it could take much longer one just has to follow there warden senses, which I don't have so I don't know."

Millenia nods, "True, it's like following a feinter pull but it could take much longer."

Barbara begins searching around and she does find a few hairline strands very thin and the same color as the statues that go under the items, they have on them. On some like the ones with jewelry she sees them wrapped about the jewelry but not enough to notice save for her now being hyper aware with the training she has. She thinks someone taking the items would trigger something, but she isn't sure what. There don't seem to be any trip wires going across the hall but she does find one between two of the statues.

If they just avoid messing with the statues, they should be able to continue at least she doesn't see any traps that way.

Barbara nodded grimly
"Yes, they're definitely trapped, though I'm not positive what it does.  Nothing helpful,  obviously.  We should be able to avoid them by not touching them. "

  "Good, then we move on.  Whatever did this is beyond us, and it doesn't seem to have bearing on our quest right now.  So...forward."  Carrying Jill, Dean begins to continue onward, following the stair further up, past the melted statues.

"It's very strange though, very strange and I know strange. As you all know by now few people have access to the Grand Stair and even fewer have reason to trap it. So well, it's odd but yes, no reason to set anything off. I am not sensing any power from anything, so those baubles don't seem to resonate with any inherent power of their own." She shrugs and will follow the others.

Xan eyes the statues, "You said there is a minotaur, is there a Medusa ?"

Millenia, "Yes there is why ?"

Xan points at the statues.

Millenia, "Oh, oh I see what your getting at, she doesn't tend to melt her creations and I don't sense enough umbra about them to suggest they were changed from their true flesh and blood form, so these I imagine are real statues."

Xan nods and clutches her big hammer tightly.

  As they pass them, Dean asks "Does anyone recognize who the statues are of?  Maybe there's some significance to it.  Maybe it represents something of the whole Umbra and Eidolon thing."

  A thought occurs to him.  "Where about are we on the stair, anyway?  Top half, bottom half, midpoint?  Do the worlds change based on where they fall on the stair, like, is there an Umbra kind of zone and an Eidolon zone?"

Barbara looked to see if she recognized anyone, either personally or from Legends

The statues do have a Greeco/Roman look to them but no specific person that she recognizes. Perhaps Diana might recognize them better.

All of them looking at the statues none stand out as people they recognize.

Millenia says, "Well, there might be zones like you say Dean but they aren't enough that the Grand Stair Warden's recognize them enough. There are some sages of the stair among the wardens who probably know more then me though. I am kind of a free spirit most of the lore I know is from personal experience. I was chased by the Minotaur. I have been to the Labyrinth. Medusa is a Gorgon and I have met Gorgons before if you meet one be on guard be very on guard."

"Let's move out, and everybody keep on your toes"