Strike First, Ask Questions Later
Having infilitrated an enemy's lair and having many rooms to investigate, as well as lots of questions needed to be answered, the party continued to investigate. In a stunning display of teamwork, the six members of the party, including one NPC, managed to find themselves in five different rooms for most of the time. This was obviously to increase everyone's safety, as it meant that when the Rogue 'found' more traps no one else was hurt from the ensuing Fireballs, and when I casually wandered in to a room with a large statue I alone was almost killed by the Stone Golem. Well, until I turned invisible, thanks to a rather handy artefact-level ring I just happen to have, and ran away, turning the Golem on the rest of the party in the process. Still, no party member died in that fight, which was nice.
We maybe could have found out about the presence and danger of the Golem if we had caught one of the several mages that inhabit this lair and interrogated him. As luck would have it, I have Improved Grapple as a Feat, making it relatively easy to capture characters and stop them from escaping. This enabled me to catch a mage who was trying to run away to alert others of our presence, but just before I could ask him anything our bold Fighter stepped up and cut him in half with one blow. Oh well, I guess he was asking for it. Ne'er mind! Another mage popped his head around a door and, on seeing me, tried to run away. He didn't count on my having more nimble feet. I soon caught up with him and got him in another grapple, stopping him from running away.
'Who do you work for?!', I queried him in my sternest voice, but alas he didn't answer. I would have asked him twice more, to guarantee a reply, but the reason he didn't answer was because his head became detached from his body when the Fighter stepped forward and severed it for him. Our Fighter likes puppies.
Because of these brutal slayings when grappling I quickly found myself covered in quite a lot of blood. It was one of the rare occasions when the blood wasn't mine, though. Well, not until I awakened the Stone Golem, but I think I've all ready mentioned that.