Aerdeth impatiently dances from foot to foot while they wait.  He was familiar with how careful his compatriots could be, but this was not the time to be slow.

"We're wasting time.  That battle was intended to delay us, by only a few minutes.  Now we are giving him all the time he needs to finish whatever fell ritual his pawns gloated about."

Glancing around, he realizes he's outvoted and outnumbered, moving to a corner of the room above the stairs.  He's visibly agitated, perhaps even fearful.  He takes a deep breath, reaches for the strange steel cuff he carries with him, and clamps it onto his forearm.  The elf-kin grunts in pain, then exhales - more calm now.

Zogar takes the crowbar back, praising it for doing such an amazing job on the door.

He also wonders why we're casting a 10 minute ritual spell here.  Are we just looking for spellbooks?  Time seems too critical to stop here.

But then, there's a reason he's not in charge.  He mutters something quietly to Mythrien Sarath and waits for the word to move forward.

Lia finishes her spell and Immediately sees one of the books glowing with a magical energy along with another non-magical book with four pieces of parchment crammed inside. When inspected, the pages appear to be four scrolls, one each for the spells Mislead, Teleportation Circle, Chain Lightning, and Scatter. The magical book appears to be some kind of traveling spellbook rather than a normal sized one, which appears to be magically sealed.

Afterwards, you slowly circle up the stairs coming up through an open door in the floor, finding yourself in a circular room with various altars and statues fashioned in Helm's likeness with full plate armor and each wielding a different weapon, though a larger than normal statue on the north wall only holds the hilt of a longsword, the arm stretched out towards the center of the room. As you all fully enter, the door slams closed and the eyes of all the statues begin to glow with a golden light as the works of art turn their heads to stare at your party. 

(OOC: Some of you have no descriptions or alignments, please fix?)  ;)

(filled alignment now and already had traits, do we need to fill appearance as well?)

Lia and Emma have everything but 'appearance'.

(OOC: Appearance is not a big deal as that was done in game.)

Hastings sighs and with a quick flourish, draws both his rapier and dagger. "Why does everything have to be alive. Now I am going to b fighting art..."

The statues begin scanning the room, looking each of you over before their eyes become brighter.

Hrothgar: As you look around, you notice your companions stiffen up and stop moving, you can detect no movement at all, including their eyes or even see their chests move to breath. The larger statue of Helm steps forward and the hilt in his hand ignites in a blaze of light, the sword blade made up of pure radiance. It takes the hilt in both hands and holds the close to your face, you feel the heat coming off of it. "Why have you come? What do you seek of this defiled place? Do you skulk about with agents of chaos, looking to gain from a place that has fallen so much?"

Everyone else: Though your bodies are frozen, your minds as still working. In your head, each of you sees a different statue of Helm standing before you, standing guard. "Agents of Chaos, you trespass here. Why have you come? What do you seek?" 

Hrothgar responds shocked as he realizes the statues must have remained here. His initial reaction is to avenge his friends for whatever is happening to them but their power kept the undead out it seems, it would not be wise to fight them alone. 

We are here to cleanse this keep of the vile undead and return it to the living. If you watchers are still devoted to helm you will release my allies and allow us to fight these undead. He says with sincerity in his voice. 

I know of the conflicted intentions of my allies. But they are here under my command and as such they are bound to me and i to them. Together we have defeated great evils in service of the people of this land.  So if you must pass judgement then pass it onto me, i lead them so i must bear the burden of their past decisions. Now pass your judgement or release them, I will not allow you to harm my friends any further! His voice now stern and a bit inpatient not knowing what had happend to his allies. He will also go back into defending stance to show this watcher he will defend the others if he must. 

"My heart loves freedom, true." Aerdeth responds to his personal perception.  He lowers his bow and relaxes it's eldritch string.  This was not a simple for to be destroyed . "But my actions serve the Raven Queen, the great arbiter of mortals.  There are beings here that defy the natural order of life and death, defying the most basic rule of life.  We are here to make that right."

"If you have knowledge of the one whose form you wear, then you know we are here to destroy the evil that has claimed this place." Lia says simply.  "If you do not share Helm's knowledge, then there is little i can say here that will matter."

"Well now statues talking in my head is something that I have not felt before. Now before you try to kill me or my companions I'll haveyhave know that we are here to put an end to th evil that had infested this place. It may not be to your liking that I am one of those to do it for yes I do indeed have a chaotic past and it her not but I have done more good then most and have no plans of stopping. Now kindly release me or fight me, either way I will end the evil that lairs here." Hastings says.

Zogar grunts and mumbles a bit, "Knowledge and curiosity are admirable, but using that knowledge to serve only yourself, at the expense of all else is intolerable.  Raising an undead army to achieve your means is intolerable.  I come to end this evil.  Let me pass."

Hrothgar: The statue's eyes dim as it pulls back its blade and it stands before you as if contemplating your words. "There is conviction in your words warrior... Helm would be pleased. We have been cut off from his power and wisdom by that foul beast. We tried to expand our power and cleanse our master's keep, but we failed. We must be certain though, we cannot fail him again." 

Everyone: Its eyes begin to shine bright again, blotting out the darkness of the room as the statues begin to clamber forward. Each statue in front of one of the party members reaches out and engulfs their head in it's hands and they begin to sing a hymn to Helm that goes on for several minutes. When it finally stops, the room flashes with a brilliant light and all of the statues except for the largest burst into fragments that fall to the floor.

Hrothgar:  The last statue nods peacefully at you and holds out its hand that is visibly cracking slowly, offering you the sword hilt it held, the blade now extinguished. "Your memories have been judged and found to be honorable despite your groups chaotic ways. Destroy this creature that has fouled our halls and cleanse it once again. Our power fades but yours is still growing. We give you this boon, be refreshed and renewed as if the day had first started. Goodbye warriors."

With that, the last statue crumbles into pieces and you now hear the sounds of pounding at the door from your comrades below.

(OOC: Through the last bit of power of the statues of Helm, everyone has taken the equivilant of a long rest. You now have a Sun Blade to use as you please.)

(OOC: Very cool.  We still have the effects of the heroes feast and the Aid spell, right?  Can't remember where we got the temp HP, but do those stay as well?)

(The temp hitpoints are from Hrothgars inspiring leader speech and that states it last untill you finish a short or long rest. But the DM says its the equivalent of a long rest so im reading it as it just restores our hitpoints and spellslots/abilities but i could be wrong.

@DM: The sun blade says it needs attunement so im guesing Hrothgar cant use it yet right?)

Hastings shakes his head and moves to fix his hair as if he had been wearing a helmet or just woken up. With that done he moves his hand back to rest on the pommels of his weapons carefully. "Well I was deemed good enough for them not to smite me. Guess I have lived a good... I am not going to question my luck on second thought..."

Quote from Bierp >>

(OOC: Very cool.  We still have the effects of the heroes feast and the Aid spell, right?  Can't remember where we got the temp HP, but do those stay as well?)

 Yes, the heroes feast and aid still apply as this was not a passage of time type of long rest. :)

Quote from acoolnamehere >>

(The temp hitpoints are from Hrothgars inspiring leader speech and that states it last untill you finish a short or long rest. But the DM says its the equivalent of a long rest so im reading it as it just restores our hitpoints and spellslots/abilities but i could be wrong.

@DM: The sun blade says it needs attunement so im guesing Hrothgar cant use it yet right?)

 I've seen an adventure or two that had an item attume immediately when the need is there, so I'm fine with it attuning instantly on this occasion as part of the guardians blessing. :)

Lia gives a long sigh.  She had been a bit more worried there than she would like to admit.  Moving to the doors she opens them to let the others inside.

"I've thought it before, but I'll say it now," Aerdeth begins with an exasperated sigh. "You people worship some arrogant gods.  Let's get a move on."