As the bard retrieved the ring he'd placed on the statue, he peered through his familiar's eyes, then immediately frowned. "Ichabod! You're going the wrong--" He dropped his telepathic rebuke once he saw that there was a second dragon statue in the next room.

Sighing, he turned to the group. "Sorry, this may take another minute; my familiar went ahead instead of back to where we were. Good news though, sort of, is that there's another dragon statue in the room ahead. But for the moment I'll redirect Ichabod back to the room we were in, just to make sure nothing happened back there." Jumble then put on a smile as he redirected Ichabod to go back to the room they'd been in before.

(Lol oops I since you said two doors I thought you were sending him down the other path :'D anyways....)

Ichabod turns around to fly back to the dusty room. The stone door is still closed.

"Well lets go then!" Nygil says a little too cheerily considering they just found a dead body. 

He then starts heading in the direction that the familiar had just come from, hoping to be the first to get to the other statue. 

Kashika takes that moment to tell the others, thought it was just a hunch.... I-if that's true, then we should put somehting heavy on that c-claw too. The script did say ask for help f-from both dragons.... or so i t-think. Lets use one of the t-things we killed on the way here for it.... b-but lead the way J-jumble. As for you, whicket.....  she said, letting an uncomfortable pause linger in the air for a minute, as she lightly teased the kobold once more. G-good job. We would probably have f-found this anyway, but your running off f-found it faster. Just don't be r-reckless. Don't w-want you to get hurt.

"Well, just to confirm," began the bard, "the stone doors we tried to open in the previous room are still closed. But as far as the next room, it's this way." With that, Jumble recalled his familiar and headed forward toward the second statue.

(( OOC @DM: No biggie about the mixup, I wasn't sure if you were trying to give us new info to move things along or not, so I figured it needed to be incorporated. ))

Devona watches the others for a bit before commenting, "Another dragon...alright someone go check that and I will stay here and keep on this statue. Perhaps you are right, between the two of them we can get some headway here."

Whicket stiffens when Kashika says his name, and pauses dramatically, as if expecting to be chastised. Then his face turns red when she complements him and he starts rocking on his feet again. "Ah-ok. I won't run off again." He chuckles nervously.

After a bit of struggling, you manage to hang one of the breastplates, from the animated armor, on the claw of the second dragon, which you realize to be a statue of Zoran. Once the claw is pulled down, you hear another loud click and then a rumbling, grinding sound echos down the corridor.

"Sounds like something moved. If it isn't that door we tried to go through I am going to be rather disappointed." Devona half laughed to herself before taking a few steps back towards the room with the blocked door.

Kashika nods, agreeing with Devona. Her logic had merely been 'if the door wont open normally, can't be destroyed, we have to ask the dragonS for help and this one's claw moved.... she still may have been wrong, but one thing the little Kobold didn't lack for was logic. Happy that her guess was correct, but having little time to stand around smiling, she started to move towards the path back to the door before pausing long enough to say to Whicket Good. I d-don't want you dying here alone. I don't want a-any of us to d-die here, but if it will happen... atleast let it be t-together.

Whether this was an admission of anything to whicket, or to the group was hard to tell, as there was little inflection in her voice. But it was clear she was heading for what had been her goal for years.... and her penultimate goal...

You all walk back to the dust room and immediately see a dark redish glow pulsing from the open doorway. As you get closer, you can hear muttering, in a language that sounds like Abyssal coming from within. Once you get close enough to look inside, you see a stairway leading down to yet another statue of a dragon, leaning over a large pool of water. The dragon is leaning over the pool and is positioned with one arm reaching down towards it. In this hand, is the carving of a large crown, it's hard to tell if it is supposed to be placing the crown into the water, or pulling it out. This statue is far larger than those of Cyra and Zoran, it is even larger than Cyra herself, this statue also seems even more lifelike than either of the other two, almost to lifelike. The room is a large rectangle, with the pool and statue at the far end, both on a slightly lifted part of the floor. Directly in front of the statue, is a swirling black and red portal, a portal that looks to be a doorway into the Abyss. In front of the portal stands a large black minotaur, who you have determined to be the source of the muttering. Inside the portal, are two giant red-orange eyes. Eyes the color of a dying sun.

(Just for clarification: The statue is on the end we came down on and the portal with the minotaur is on the other end of the pool? Or all on one side? Also, how big is the room?)

It is a 65 by 50 rectangle. The statue is at the far end of the room, and the minotaur is between it and you facing the portal. Will put the map in the PM.

"Ah ha! Looks like we've found the culprit!" Nygil says to the others in a loud whisper. "Sooooo should we attack? We shouldn't have any trouble taking him down with how many skilled fighters we have here." He cracks his knuckles, "Or we can take the boring rout and see if we can talk him into surrendering. Up to you all."

"The goal is the crown, right? Or at least it's location?" Jumble leaned forward as he whispered; he wasn't wanting to take another step into the chamber.

"We might as well try some diplomacy; if he's the only one who knows where the crown is and we just eliminate him, it wouldn't get us what we want. I say we try to get the info from him first."

Kashika chimes in, saying W-well, I could levitate him, which would g-give us some forcible leverage.... if he can't fight back.... he can't really say n-no... she offers. Though if it failed it may simply make him angry... It was a coin-toss in terms of odds of success though. He's more likely to talk if he feels like he  can't fight back.

So far the minotaur doesn't seem to have noticed you despite the fact that it should have been pretty obvious that the door opened. He seems almost angry with whoever he's talking to in the portal.

"Perhaps we should get a bit closer and see if we can hear what they are talking about? I'm not sure we really want to get in between the two of them, right? The minotaur I'm not so worried about, but the portal..." Devona mused softly as she watched the interaction down the way.

Kashika then looks to Jumble and says W-Well, couldn't your familiar listen in without being seen....as easily?

Jumble nodded toward Kashika, suddenly deciding that whispering was too risky. He pointed, and his familiar flew toward the minotaur, landing on the ground about fifteen feet behind him, and then creeping five feet closer. The bard then switched his senses to those of his familiar, and prepared to relay what was heard.

(( If either the minotaur or the entity he's speaking to is speaking in a language Jumble knows (incl. Draconic, Dwarvish, Elvish) then he'll translate to Common and whisper to the group what's being said. If needed, owl's Stealth Check: 17 ))

Ichabod successfully creeps up to try to eavesdrop on the conversation, however, Jumble is unable to understand what is being said. From the odd sounds of the words, (and the gaping portal) he would guess they are speaking Abyssal. At Ichabod's distance, Jumble also notices that the Minotaur appears to have black scales mixed in with the fur on his shoulders. 

Suddenly, the fiery eyes within the portal flick upward and lock onto the party. "Do you really think that I cannot see you standing there?" The voice booms from the fluctuating portal, followed by a deep rumbling chuckle.

Then, the Minotaur spins around to face you, locking another set of fiery red-amber eyes on the party, like tiny clones of those glowing in the black abyss behind the portal. Eyes that clearly do not belong in a bovine face. His face quickly shifts from a snarl to a smug grin, a grin that clearly exhibits sharp pointed teeth.

"Come closer." The voice booms again. "You need not fear me. ...unless you give me reason to end you." 

The Minotaur flexes his clawed hands.