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Seeing as things start to devolve into a maze quickly, he sets down his
backpack and produces a set of small vials with different colors.
"Stop for moment friends-purr. My race has developed a technique to ...
mark people, objects and places with a special smell only we can detect-meow.
I want to mark everyone of you as well as every special place down here with
some mark, so I will be able to find my way around even if we loose us or the
way. The alchemists of my folk have even developped several, slightly
different smells for different meanings like shelter or danger-miaur.
The smell can only be detected by a Catfolk and within 30 feet - or more if the
situation is beneficial. Don't fear, it can be washed off with water if you
want to , but I guarantee you, you will not smell anything-purr.
I suggest that I mark some part of your cloths or equipment rather than your
skin, so you can wash yourself without loosing the mark - those things are
not cheap-miahh."After everyone agreed (or not everyone?) Simon starts to mix some of the vials
together, then adds one of his whiskers and shakes the vial around. It shortly
becomes blue (the same color as Simons eyes), before turning back to colorless.
He will one or two drops of the liquid on Emilies armor and everyone willing,
at a location of their choosing.
After seeing the first few doses applied he takes a large bolt of cloth and begins cutting strips into it save for the very end of one side. He ties the strips into knots to keep them from fraying further. He balls it up for Simon to apply the secret marking scent to it. He fastens the uncut end like an armlet just above his elbow, hidden behind the wooden bracer. He shows the piece to Simon. "If I somehow git split from the rest of them, I'll start pullin' dees purple strips off and be droppin' them. I won't be leavin' the last bit behind, if ye find that then know I dinnae do it"
After finishing up with Simon he steps what most would consider uncomfortable close to Ignatzia. He starts searching her with his eyes, moving his hands to pat at her bag "Lady Iggy, do ye' think ye' precious little friend could come oot an play awhile? Maybe she can see wha' lies ahead? If'n she dinnae mind that is?"
The party goes left on a whim and the worked passage opens into a small room. On the far end, near an archway leading to a passage beyond, rests a coffin without a lid. There is nothing in the coffin, having been looted long ago.
The chamber beyond ends in a cave-in. You could dig through, but the experts present estimate that it would take a week to dig out and stabilize any kind of passage through the rubble.
The party heads back, making a note of the cave in, and goes right. The next room is strewn with bits of bones and loose dirt. A cool breeze blows by, and whispering can be heard off in the darkness. This room has several small piles of bones looted from the graveyard above. The air is drafty and rather fresh. A search of the bones (DC 5 Perception) reveals a rat corpse that has been eaten as if by acid and has some residual green slime.
Marco blocks anyone from entering before pointing at the walls "green slime, not something I want to tangle with if I don't have to"
Maglin offers an arm to Simon, letting the scent mark his sleeve, following along after the others.
He stiffens at the sounds of whispering coming from the breezy room. Who could it be? They may have already seen us by our light, I suggest throwing a glowing pebble or bit of bone forward into the dark, as far as we can. He moves his hands forward, ready to act on his suggestion.
Maglin notices the coins but does not pick them up, afraid to make too much noise before they've investigated further.
Vuzi looks at Dalkk. "Are vu going to send a goat or a chicken through to see vat happens?" She has her spear out. "Ve can rush through the room to de other side."
Cain throws a rock
After following the left way, Simon carefully scans the newest room.
Something acid ate those things ...
Just as he is about to scan for the origin, Marco points it out already.
"We should take care to look up in the ways ahead of us-meow.
Don't want it's big brother to drop down on you and eat you-frchh!"
As the whispers are getting more intense he carefully approaches the end of the room, sniffing the air.
As the rock is tossed Simon crouches low and follows the tumbling stone carefully with his eyes.
If nothing happens (which I guess), he will nods in the direction of the tunnel.
"Shall I go ahead now? Careful and silent-iii?"
Nothing happens to the stone and nothing happens to Simon.
"Looks good guys. I'll take
lead ... but don't let me all alone-meowi."
Simon advances the empty corridor, carefully taking one step after the other he
advances silently. Every couple of meters he stops for a moment to listen and smelling the air.
Emily follows Simon with a decent distance, never letting him completely out of her scent range.
Nothing meets Simon as he enters the next room. Broken candelabras and a worm-ridden red carpet have been left long ago by the undertaker in this viewing room. There is a wooden casket in the center of the room that has had its once decorative silver trim rudely pried off. There is nothing of interest in this room. The casket is empty.
Simon proceeds slowly down the steps leading away from the empty room.
About half way down Simon steps down and the stair instantly gives way! His foot slides past metal and down, sinking him nearly up to the knee! He reflexively pulls back and feels the pinch of sharp metal cutting on his skin. Downward facing spikes have dug into him, trapping him!
The small size of the trap makes removing the limb alone nearly impossible. The spikes themselves must somehow be removed along with the limb to avoid massive damage.
Poison! frequency 1/rd. for 6 rds.; effect 1d2 Str; cure 1 save
first round:
A shout of pain elapses the Catfolk as he falls for the trap."Ayahhfrchhrr!"
A short moment of blurr follows, before he sees clear again. The stench of
poison is obvious to his trained nose, but he trusts his body to handle that.
He quickly calls back to the group, preventing them of a blind rush. There may
be more traps around after all.
"Carefuly-meow. Trap-Steps!
I have fallen for one with spikes in it-frchhrr!
I could need some help to get out of it ... but advance with care-rrrrhhh."
Worse are the metal spikes. Removing those will probably be a real pain.
Until the others are closing in, he carefully examine the trap. Maybe theres a
way to disassemble it alltogether, elevating the need to dislodge the spikes.
As Simon cries out in pain, Emily rushes forward with a wide jump that carries her through half the newly discovered room.
When his voice sounds up again, she calms down and advances the rest of the way more slowly - her teethes are tight-clenched though.
After she reaches the still sunk-in Simon, she folds her paws into a fist and slightly boxes his head with it.
It is like she wants to say "Stupid Simon. Can't you watch your steps?!"
Seeing a possibility to get out of the trap, Simon offers a quick prayer to Gozreth lend a little of his favor and prepares his well-stocked set of tools.
He then turns to the party.
"I could use a steady hand here-meow.
Dulkk, would you help me-iii?
I just need you to hold this little spring in its place with this hook.
That's really all ... But please, hold it in place-purrr."
Vuzi carefully moves up. She looks at where Simon's leg disappears into the step. "I haf a Reinforced Scarf. ve could try to stuff it down beside your leg and push the spike back."
Maglin follows after the others, taking a look around the empty room as they pass through it. He kneels down calmly beside Simon, that looks like a complicated version of a quite common trap, normally used to hunt four legged creatures. I'm not sure if there's enough space to get a scarf in, though we might manage by using a stick. Once it's around your leg you need to try to lower yourself so that the scarf gets between the spikes and you. Maglin examines the trap, trying to figure out an easy way to help Simon, The hunting version is buried in the ground and you have to dig it up to get the animal, maybe this one has a dedicated release mechanism?
Moves to the front of the pack boldly, pushing one another aside. Dalkk looks down to Simon "Dinnae worry Blue.. ye'll be free soon enough. Maglin we'll need ye as well."
Dalkk positions Maglin and himself on the side of the steps that have proven true. He puts his hands down the steps along with Maglin. "Yer de expert 'ere Blue, tell us what ta' do."
He looks over the grey fur leg ”All'n'all nae too bad lookin' Blue.
If ye' feel a’ightvta continue I'll be in ta back"
Simon's leg is carefully removed from the trap and you all can breathe a sigh of relief. You move on down the stairs after a quick moment to collect yourselves.
Broken furniture is everywhere in the next room, and a skeleton sits in a large chair facing you. Red, poisonous-looking ants crawl all over the skeleton and chair. On the table with the skeleton is a deck of cards. A tapping sound emanates from the hallway.
Vuzi looks at the others. "Can vu tell me about the ants>" She studies the sculpture. [b]"This sculpture of a horse could be mended, and worth something. She casts detect magic on the horse.
Maglin stays near the doorway, obviously uncomfortable at the sight of a human skeleton. That thing has unsettling teeth.
We could try to deal with the ants using a bomb, since I've got plenty in a day and they're not really powerful enough to take down stronger monsters. It'd be loud and set things on fire though, so I suggest we try to carefully avoid them. We're faster than them anyway, I'd guess.
I don't like that tapping, let's throw another rock and see what we can see about it.
Upon first mention of the ants Dalkk stops L'nshpad and changes into his Swarm Suit.
He steps forward into the room looking for other exits "Can ye talk ta 'im Vuzi? I dinnae know how that works. Ye should take dat horse too, I tink Maglin can fix it"
Just in case the Skeleton should rise, Dalkk swaps over to his Blunted/Bludgeoning bolts.
Cain follows the dwarf's lead and grunts, shaping the bone sword into a crude hammer
"Not unless it's undead. Even then I don't talk, I control. It may just be a skeleton." Vuzi casts Mage Hand and tries to pick up the cards from the table.
She will pick up the horse and tuck it into her backpack.
The cards easily lift from the table and float over. A couple stiff shakes dislodge the ants that came along for the ride before you have to touch the cards.
I bet Vuzi could fix it more easily than me using the same spell which fixed my pants.
Maglin places the horse on L'nshpad, should be worth roughly twenty five gold, give or take a few silvers and depending on the buyer. That's what something of that quality would normally sell for, at any rate.
Maglin looks around for the source of the ants, keeping his distance from the skeleton. I want to poke it, he says, grinning like a fool. He chuckles, I just want to know that I can. If no one stops him, he reaches out and pokes the skull in the forehead stiffly, watching it wobble.
I suggest we move on.
Vuzi examines the cards. "Vat do ve have?"
The ants, though looking poisonous, are meekly mimicking a more deadly species. They're are also not given to agressive swarming. They appear to be picking the last scraps off of the skeleton.
frequency 1/rd. for 6 rds.; effect 1d2 Str; cure 1 save
The deck is a normal playing deck. The top card is the ace of spades. As soon as you touch it you start to feel funny...
"orc-er Vusai? you ok?"
Vuzi shrugs. "Poison I think. Nuthink to vorry about. I am able to withstand it." She tucks the cards away. "I think ve have seen everything here. Shall ve follow de sounds in the hallvay."
After finally escaping the hideous trap, the Catfolk thanks Maglin and Dulkk with a quick (fluffy) hug. His eyes are near-glowing with the joy of another mastered adventure. Then he bows down to Emily and tickle her under the chin which causes her to near-immediately start to pur.
"It's fine-purrpurrr.
While I somehow overseen it,
I was quick enough to evade the worst of it.
Lets continue-meow!"
In the next room, filled with a skeleton and fake-fire-ants, Simon is oddly quiet. He seems to feel uneasy and only exhales after Vuzi steps back from the poisonous-cards.
"Do you also have the feeling like every room, every step down here holds a danger-iii?
And if there is no obvious one, you feel even more in danger than before....
Aye, let's go on.
I'll take lead again, my leg is better again-meow."
Vuzi, I don't think it's a good idea to take those cards unless they're worth something, which I don't think they are. At the very least do something to try to remove the poison. Maglin looks quite uncomfortable, and pokes the skeleton again, this time significantly harder. He watches the skull tilt backwards and fall, a look of silent horror crossing his face before it lands not so silently on the ground.
Oops.
Nothing comes to greet you as a result of Maglin being a fool of a human.
As you exit you find what's making that tapping noice. Water drips into a shallow pan here just out of sight. It's almost like someone wanted to make the room creepier after the fact. As you approach the hall...
Pit trap! Reflex DC 20 to avoid falling 20 feet and taking 2d6 falling damage. If the both the first two people in line fail they both fall!
"Hmm, it's just water dropping down from the ceiling-meow.
No ... endless wave of rats and spiders or anything-mii.
This place is weird..."
Just before entering the hall, Simon stops dead (mid-sentence), then takes a few careful steps back, while holding out both hands.
"Stop, trap again-grrchh.
Looks like a simple pit."
If it really us just a simply pit all we have to do is use a large object to poke in front of us with, or if we don't have one we can throw something heavy, like the chair from the previous room.
"yes, but how will we cross the room"
One of us jumps over with a rope. That seems like the easiest way to get across without using up any spells. We could also ride L'nshpad, right? Maglin looks at Dalkk for confirmation.
"I haf a piton and rope. I do not plan on jumping across dis pit. Unless Simon can disable de trap?" she digs around in her back and pulls out a couple of pitons and rope.
Catches up after changing back out of his swarm suit so he can move at full speed once again. "Aye we could Magsy, but it be slow going at that. Tis fine fer one way, but if we should have any desire to all run back hastily across it we'll be want'n it out of the way fer good I think. It dinnae look as nasty as ta one on ta stairs either. Let's give Simon a hand."
He pauses for a moment and looks to Vuzi. He speaks in
He puts his hand on Maglin's elbow and walks next to Simon who is likely already calculating what must be done.
The party works together to jam the lid of the trap and they immediately come to a T. Left or right?