While Brok and Keil do not find any traps on the door in the wall to the north, the door does not immediately budge at first. It does not appear to be locked but it has been jammed shut from the other side.
"Спасибо. Тогда это будет так" - Grezzor replies, coming to a halt behind the others.
"Thank you. Then it will be so"
Brok steps back and looks at Arlok
"This door looks safe, but it's stuck. Somebody jammed it to keep people from entering from this direction. We need somebody with big muscles to push it open."
Arlok looks down to Brok. He leans his glaive against the wall and puts his two large hands against the door and begins to push. It doesn't budge. He looks on frustrated and turns placing his back against it and squats down and begins to push and again nothing.
"Arlok need help. Door stuck."
With the aid of whoever Arlok re positions again pushing with his back in a squat position. The door slowly begins to open.
While the others work on the door, Keil moves down the hallway. His eyes search the corridor for any signs of "inhabitants" but all appears to be nice and quiet. Seeing the door to the south, the fetchling pauses here for a moment to check the barrier before moving to the end of the hall.
Keil scouts ahead but finds no discernible dangers along the hallway.
Arlok is able to force the door open with a prodigious show of brute force and once it is forced open the reason for the difficulty is apparent; it was spiked shut from the inside, and a skeleton was leaning with its back against the door. Once Arlok has knocked the spike off the skeleton topple forward. Now you all can access the room, where you see two more skeletons wrapped up in bedrolls. A burned out lantern stands on the floor in the middle of the room. The room also contains an old-looking wooden chest, which does not appear to be locked. There is also a backpack beside each of the two bedrolls.
"Well Arlok think, spike on inside to keep bad out. Maybe bad stayed till they too week to leave. This one died trying to pull up spike. Just Arlok guess. Though what bad. Not lots of leg crawly things."
With the sound of Arlok's successful break and enter, Keil returns. The fetchling steps into the room and nonchalantly kicks at the skeleton laying by the door smirking, "Trapped like cowards more like." Moving to the center of the room, he looks for loose stones or other ways into the room to suggest something else was at work.
Vargrenz and Keil move slowly into the room and look around for any signs of what killed these poor folks. Nothing apparent presents itself, though it is clear they did die in their sleep and there are no signs of a struggle.
Keil looks over his shoulder to Varg as the monk leaves the room. The sneer of disgust on his face tells the Duegar that Keil is not amused by Varg's sudden change of tactics.
Brok checks the chest for traps.
"Doesn't look locked, but there might be something dangerous in this ...
"somebody see if there's anything useful in those packs..." he says over his shoulder as he looks over the chest.
Keil sees the other door was indeed spiked shut as well.
Malzii confirms these skeletons did not die due to foul play, it seems as if they died in their sleep.
Brok checks out the chest, which is not trapped or locked. Inside is ten sets of garments: eight of these appear to be servants’ clothing, one of them is a silk gown , and one of them is a crimson wizard’s robe embroidered with stars and astrological symbols . There is also a backpack beside each of the two bedrolls; these contain a large ball of twine, a bottle of holy water, 30 sp, and sketched map from Zelkor’s Ferry to the Mouth of Doom’s entrance.
As Brok, Malzii and Keil move around the room a sudden wave of dizziness washed over each of them. The room seems to tilt and spin around them.
"Whaaaa....." Brok slurs.
As the others watch from both inside the room and outside, the goblin ranger sways on his feet before collapsing to the floor unconscious.
Seeing Brok fall Arlok heads in to pick him up.
"What happen to goblin Brok. He open chest. Was there trap? Any one know what wrong"
Keil shakes his head clear then sees Brok collapse and Arlok enter, "Poison of some kind. In the air..." spitting at the floor the fetchling points to the Half-Orgre and commands, "...get him to clear air! Malzii, you too." The shadowy man strides towards the kobold, takes her by the arm and escorts the shaman back out into the hallway.
Spitting again the fetchling reflects, "We were there only a minute. The sealed doors must have concentrated the source. Malzii, see to Brok, I should get that other door open to vent the gas."
Taking a minute or two to clear his lungs of the poisonous gas, Keil pulls out his ragged blanket. Holding his blanket in his hands the fetchling looks to it then back into the room. Making up his mind, he begins to tie it around his face like a mask in an effort to prevent breathing in more of the gas. Then reaching under his cloak, Keil retrieves a crowbar. Staring hard at the Mighty Arlok, Keil's tone is serious, "Arlok, stand ready. Should the sound of spikes falling not reach your ears, I ask that you do the same for me." Keil nods in the direction of Brok implying that the warrior may need to drag Keil out of the room as well.
Taking a deep breath in the hallway, Keil strides back into the room to remove the spikes from the other door and get it open.
Arlok looks over the goblin and sees he is simply unconscious. Once the godling has carried Brok out of the room, the goblin eventually does regain consciousness none the worse for wear.
Keil acting on his hunch moves to the other door and hurriedly removes the spikes on the other door...too late it seems as he also feels the dizziness threaten to overwhelm him.
"Goblin Brok alright now. Arlok go help with door."
The godling sits the Goblin down and goes to help with the door after taking a deep breath and holding it.
As the spike to the door falls to the ground, the fetchling's world begins to spin. With his vision narrowing, Keil fights to keep his eyes open, sputtering, "Arrlok...
Despite the fetchling's best efforts he too feels darkness overwhelm him and collapses to the ground as the last spike is undone. Fortunately, the godling does not feel any effects and is easily able to carry Keil out of the room, where he regains consciousness shortly afterwards.
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Varg shakes his head at the others:
As I was attempting to say. Because of all the . . . tests . . . that my former master performed, I tend to be more resistant to much magic and poison. I can scout such areas in the future. But, if others are going to jump in behind me, I shall step back and let you set off traps and get yourselves killed.
It is clear that the highly structured grey dwarf was not happy with how the last room was overrun by party members.
A woozy fetchling wobbles his head in Varg's direction, "Did not know that. By all means...go invest..., not finishing his sentence, Keil closes his eyes and passes out again. With the rogue and ranger fighting off hangovers, the room is free and clear for Varg to inspect at his leisure.
"Varg can at least go in there and get the valuables." Brok suggests.
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Varg shakes his head once more and the self destructive and chaotic actions taken by his companions. After pausing, he carefully proceeds into the room to see what he can find.
Perception:
If he does not find anything unusual, or the source of the poison, then he will get the valuables and return to the others.
"It is either an inhaled poison, or an undetectable, airborne contact poison. Perhaps, hold your breath." Grey advises.
Vargrenz moves cautiously into the room and detects an odd...almost metallic tang taste in the air itself. It is very hard to differentiate from the normally stale and musty air you have breathed in before. That could be the source of the poison as the air does not seem clean to the duergar's finely tuned senses. Where the source Vargrenz cannot tell, perhaps from the many various cracks in the walls and ceiling?
In any event he is able to retrieve the valuables without any incident.
"...or be immune" Grey muses, remembering the Duergar's extraordinary resilience.
From the doorway, Grezzor casts an arcane spell, before scanning the room.
Brok struggles to his feet when he wakes and tries to shake off the effects the same way an animal tries to shake off waters. [i]"bad air.."[/i} he mutters to himself.
"I think we should leave this room with its bad air and look elsewhere. There must be another way to whatever's behind that door or they wouldn't have spiked the door." Brok says to the group.
"Keil got spike out. Arlok take Keil crowbar and open door."
Arlok takes another breath and heads back into the room as Varg is searching. He jams the bar in the crack of the door and begins to pry it open.
It takes the godling little time to pry the door open allowing a cross breeze. He goes back out to the others and sits the crowbar down by Keil.
"Give few moments then we go this way."
"Careful that the bad air doesn't flow out here in the hall and make us sick." Brok says.
Though his eyes are still blurry, Keil blinks slowly as he watches Arlok take the crowbar to force open the other door. "He could probably just use the door handle..."
Arlok's successful return makes Keil wonder how he and Varg suffer no ill effects while in the room. Still dizzy the fetchling waves thanks to the godling for returning his crowbar and slumps back onto the floor to gather himself together.
Grezzor's spell detects no magical emanations in the room, lending credence to the theory the air itself is the cause of the dizziness spells.
The other door reveals a short corridor leading north to the connecting corridor you explored previously.
Standing, Keil's usual sneer creeps across the shadowy man's face, "Fine with me." A few loud cracks pop from underneath his black cloak as Keil rolls his head backwards, then slips past the others towards the intersecting passage and south.
Raaz Al'Zuul will watch the party explore the poisoned room from outside. Once Keil moves down the passage heading south he will follow him alert for any trouble.
Keil moves down the corridor to the door in the eastern wall. A quick check shows the door is not trapped. Opening it reveals a large room apparently used as a barracks recently yet now stands abandoned. There are ten crudely-built wooden beds in the room, each with a wooden footlocker underneath. All of the footlockers are empty, with the exception of a candle stub, a mouse skeleton, a needle and thread, and a bent copper piece. The blankets on the beds are intact and can be used for those who need them.
Moving on down the corridor, it eventually opens up into another large room which contains three rows of pillars running north to south, leading to two deep bronze fire pits that stand against the south wall. Each fire pit contains a wide bronze bowl ten feet across, and these are both blazing with eerie green flames that rise ten feet into the air, throwing emerald sparks toward the chamber’s arching thirty-foot high ceiling. Both bowls are decorated with leering gargoyle heads around the rims, and have two massive handles at the sides. The pillars in the room are also carved with a multitude of small gargoyles.
With his search of the room turning up little of value, Keil looks at the bent copper piece with disgust, but pockets to coin anyways. He moves down the hall to the next room and stops at the entrance way. His eyes narrowly survey the pillars and strange green flames erupting from the fire pits. Turning to the goblin, "Brok. What do you make of this?
From the corridor, Grezzor peers into the room beyond, looking for any signs of danger, which he is already anticipating.
Again his lips go through the practiced words of a frequently used spell, as he becomes more attuned to magical auras - he expects the greenish flames to be magical, but he looks for other auras as well.