As the key turns in the complex lock, it suddenly disappears, just as the doors swing open, granting you access to a single large room.
The mausoleum itself is filled with damp, musty air. Dust covers most of this barren room of solid stone. Several broken and rusted weapons lie on the floor along with the butt-ends of several used torches. The room’s sole feature is a large stone sarcophagus, on top of which are two brass candelabras, each holding a black candle.
"Why would someone go to all the trouble to make the door almost impenetrable only to leave the key lying next to it?" Tika asks out loud
"Good question," Gregori mutters as he scans the area,, sword and shield ready as he enters the room.
Artival casts a protective spell upon entering the room.
Whoa , Whoa , hold your ponies ! There is something wrong there . If the door reappear while we are inside , we are doomed if this is a dead end . so let's us wait and see if when the door reappear , we will be able to reopen it
Whoa , Whoa , hold your ponies ! There is something wrong there . If the door reappear while we are inside , we are doomed if this is a dead end . so let's us wait and see if when the door reappear , we will be able to reopen it
The dwarf pats the halfling on the shoulder Of course , you find things , you find Ogres all the time
This being done , Mahaffy will proceed to open the door to the mausoleum
As she follows him up the steps, she replies, "That's different. They find me."
Let's spike the doors !
"These candles seem strange", Lyria says and moves closer to the sarcophagus and examines it and the candles on it without touching anything.
Just about to step into the chamber Ka'kara pulls up short at Mahaffy's words. Pausing a moment in thought at the keys disappearance she walks back to the dwarven statue to see if the key has reappeared there.
The key is indeed back in its compartment.
The candles seem pretty ordinary except that they smell rather nasty and don't emit heat.
Knowledge (arcana) 18:
Perception 18:
Perception
Know. Arcana
Perception
"Ah, a variant of an everburning candle. Those things will burn indefinitely. Might be handy in a dark place like this."
Roylenna peers at the candles with the cleric and the human sorcerer.
Looking at the candles from her height, she can't help but notice something else - in the ceiling, there's an indention that looks like it would match the sarcophagus.
"Mahaffy, what do you make of that? Do you think this raises somehow? Maybe there's stairs below!"
She casts Detect Magic and begins to scan the room, starting with the sarcophagus and concentrating as necessary on anything that detects as magical.
"Hmm.. or if you get on top of the sarcophagus, it slams up and crushes you. This place is @%^&#ed up."
Gregori mutters to himself.
Ka'kara flips the key and re-catches it in her hand, "We can get out now." Then she frowns to herself and looks at the back of the door, "If there is a keyhole on this side."
The candles are obviously magical, and so are the walls, but that's about it.
"Hmm.. or if you get on top of the sarcophagus, it slams up and crushes you. This place is @%^&#ed up."
Gregori mutters to himself.
"Maybe someone should try standing on it to find out?"
While his companions ignore his words of prudence, Mahaffy take pitons and tries to secure the doors to stop them from being able to close
A little miffed that the dwarf completely ignores the fact that she has the key again, Ka'kara folds her arms and watches him spike the door.
Lyria looks at the others and says: "Well, does anyone want to blow out the candles? Maybe that will raise the lid of the sarcophagus".
Ka'kara is hanging just outside the chamber and door debating on whether to put the key back for others to use while this is going on.
Once the doors are secured , Mahaffy will move up to the sarcophagus and check it (DC 31]
Strangely enough, the sarcophagus does not appear to be trapped. The lid is removeable, though.
Mmmmmmm ... Roylenna , did you not say the walls were magical ? "
Mahaffy will move to check one wall
"Uh-huh."
She continues to study them and then the candles, attempting to determine the strength and type of magic aura.
Gregori allows his vision to shift, his gift from his goddess allowing him to see the true nature of the impliments around them.
The candles and wall all radiate both magic and evil. The candles show faint evocation while the walls give off a strong aura of abjuration. The entire place is suffused with evil, but the candles have their own aura.
Perception DC31 [+2 if stonework )
"Has anyone tried looking inside the coffin?" Tika suggests
Mahaffy finds a secret trap door in the floor, a removeable 10' square slab in the floor between the sarcophagus and the back wall.
After Mahaffy indicates it's safe Ka'kara will lift the trapdoor.
After Mahaffy indicates it's safe Ka'kara will lift the trapdoor.
Ka'kara lifts the enormous slab with nary a grunt. Under it is a circular shaft descending into the darkness below. The smell of death radiates from the pit as it descends down into oblivion. The circular shaft descends 30 feet below the floor of the mausoleum above to a dirt-floored hallway. There are some blood stains and smears on the walls of the hallway, which are made of roughly worked stone, including one rather recent large hand smear of blood on the north wall. The passage leads east and comes to a dead end some 100 feet later. At the end of the passage is an obvious ten-foot deep 5 ft. by 5 ft. pit. There is a rope pegged into the wall that descends into the pit.
"Um, I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but does anyone else think it's awful convenient of someone to leave us a rope?"
"Well, its not like the blood on the walls makes me feel better here", Lyria adds. "In any case, this pit is not too deep, unless there is a trapdoor or something similar in its bottom. If there isn't, I prefer using our own equipment". That being said, Lyria drops a small rock into the pit to check her theory.
The rock drops to the bottom of the pit and stays there. It's not too deep. Or so it seems.
"I'll go down first."Gregori says, strapping his shield across his back.
Ka'kara will drop down after Gregori.
You spot a poorly made secret door at the bottom of the pit. The door begins 3 feet off the ground from the floor of the pit and opens by pulling up and out on a small knob on the bottom of the door.
Beyond the door, which doesn't seem to be trapped, there is a corridor into the darkness. A passage branches off to the left and there is a wooden door ahead.
Roylenna scrambles down behind the barbarian. She whispers, "I can send my lights in, if you want."
Ka'kara nods silently then whispers, "Yes sister, that would be welcome."
And the little spellcaster does so, even as the others in the party are still coming down the rope.
Mahaffy is for once just behind Roylenna . He still frowns a little and mutters Evil walls ? Evil place I understand but evil WALLS ?
Door or passage then?
"Let's follow the passage. We can come back to the door later."
Tika decides to bring up the rear