Play@YSDC

"GODS ALIVE!" The cry explodes uncontrollably from Decius as the blood drains from his face. Now what can we do? Keep moving maybe?

"Everyone scatter! Ranged weapons!"

Decius frantically puts distance and shrubbery between himself and the creature before shoving the khopesh into his belt, and drawing bow and arrow.

OOC:   Sanity roll - well seems Artemis has a 20...frig...ok [dice]0[/dice] Sanity loss [dice]1[/dice]So rolling for idea against 70 [dice]2[/dice] So, Artemis is temporarily insane...

It was the roar, the movement. His mind couldn't relate to what was now a moving, talking statue before them. He froze as he tried to understand what he was seeing...his mouth twitched and he started to shake as his eyes went wide.

"I um, uh...wha..uh...wuz od uta uk.. His mind could not put the words together and neither his native tounge of his youth or that of the battle fields was there for him to use.

Elizabeth rolling Sanity (stat 56%): [dice]0[/dice]
plus if fail 1/1d10 [dice]1[/dice] and if need be Idea roll (stat 65%) [dice]2[/dice]

"Try to stay calm!" shouts Elizabeth to the others, shocked at what happened, but still in control of herself. Like Decius she moves back from the creature, trying to take a defensive position.

The Sphinx made no move to attack. It held its position, but it was still moving ever so slightly, in spite of the fact that it was a stone statue. "If you would pass," it said in a deep, gravelly voice, "you must solve my riddle: There are two sisters. One gives birth to the other, and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?"

OOC,[b]Aricus[/b]'s Sanity roll (current level 54) for seeing the Sphinx animate: [dice]0[/dice] [b]Spurius[/b]'s Sanity roll (current level 40) for seeing the Sphinx animate: [dice]1[/dice] Current Sanity: [b]Elizabeth[/b]: 55 [b]Titus[/b]: 59 [b]Decius[/b]: 33 [b]Aricus[/b]: 53 [b]Artemis[/b]: 17 [b]Spurius[/b]: 39

"I know this," says Elizabeth to the others, grateful for her classical training coming in useful at some level. "Sphinx, the answer is day and night." She waits, hopefully, wondering if the creature really will let them through.

"Correct, wise one," said the Sphinx. "You may pass." It resumed its original posture and stopped moving and speaking.

Artemis gained his senses, or seemed to at least snap out of his frozen state, and gave a sigh of relief when Lady Elizabeth answered the talking statue's riddle. He shivered and sighed in relief when the creature froze back into stone.

Titus bleakly remembers that it was Oedipus who answered the riddle of the Sphinx, and that he met with a grim fate.

Decius stared at the creature, slack jawed. He quickly stowed bow and arrow for sword and shield and edged past the sphinx, fearful of annoying it and causing it to come back to life. Decius gritted his teeth and focused on the door to the villa, next problem. With a breath, he lunged through the door...

Elizabeth nods and smiles with relief, as the Sphinx speaks. Carefully, with the others, she makes her way past the Sphinx and into the villa.

Artemis' breath was a still a bit quickend, but he followed after Elizabeth and shivered as he passed the now still Sphinx.

The small group hurried past the motionless Sphinx. It remained still, and it was hard to believe that it had ever moved. Had it truly, or had they imagined it? The door to the villa was still wide open from when the guards had fled inside, so they proceeded through the vestibule into the atrium. A fountain bubbled in the center of it, and various doors led off from it on either side. There was another door at the far end of the atrium that those who had been here before recalled as leading to the study, and another corridor led further back a short distance to the right of that door. It was down this hall that the two guards ran, though one of them was leaving a very obvious trail of blood from his wounds that would have enabled them to see which way he had gone even if they had not been within sight.

OOC,Everyone, please roll Listen.

Elizabeth rolls Listen (stat 38%): [dice]0[/dice]

"One of the guards is trying to wake the others," says Elizabeth urgently. "We need to move fast." Throwing caution to the wind she shouts as loudly as she can: "Story! Brook! Lucius! Caelia! Can you hear us? Where are you?"

Decius nods to Elizabeth. "Lady, you did well with that monster outside."

Decius quickly follows the trail of blood to the hall the guards seem to have disappeared down, but he is ready to change direction if Elizabeth's call gets a response from somewhere else. Decius is assuming the guards will rally sooner or later.

OOC,Could [b]Decius[/b] make a [i]Tactics[/i] roll at this point to gain any insights into the best or safest way to battle through a villa?