"I think there's another trap here. This place must have had quite the security system when it was at its prime." He kneels down to take a closer look and see if he can deal with it.
"It makes Úlf wonder who they were trying to keep out! Is lot of trouble to go to for something simple like goblins or orcs."
"Dwarfs do like their privacy." Tyler supplies dryly.
Kyrus is able to disable this mechanism also. The group moves through the rest of the rooms on this level, only finding cobwebs and various footprints in the dust. One of the passages leading northwards is collapsed and full of debris.
One of the group notices a discoloration on a wall, which leads to the discovery of a secret door. With a little prodding you manage to trigger the lock and the wall slides away to reveal a 20' x 20' room! The room stands empty, but there is an air shaft in the ceiling with iron rungs set into the wall...
"Shall we take a look up this air shaft, hopefully it will just lead to the surface and won't take long to confirm."
"It can't hurt. And maybe we can find other outlets that we can use to move around. If they're all hidden by secret doors, the other groups down here might not have found them."
Tyler nods "Sounds good to me. There might even be some undiscovered treasures." He adds jokingly.
You climb up about one level and come out in a 10'x10' room. On the west wall is the back side of a secret door - the locking mechanism is easily accessible from this side! Opening the secret door reveals a 30'x30' room with a passage to the south. This room contains a stone statue of an armored dwarf, standing in the center and facing south. The statue comes to life when anyone enters the room, holding a stone warhammer at the ready!
Úlf brings his greataxe to bear as soon as the statue comes to life, but then hesitates, seeing that it did not immediately move to attack the group. Without taking his eyes away from the construct, Úlf questions the others. "...what is it waiting for?"
Ami tries retreating back out of the room and suggesting others do the same, she's not familiar with creatures of animate rock, but can't imagine they are easy to break.
"If it just wants to guard the room, we can leave it for the Dwarves, maybe they know how to command it or deactivate it."
"Fighting what's probably a stone golem of some kind isn't my idea of fun. We had enough trouble with a gargoyle. But... it looks like this room is hidden even on this floor. If we could get past him, maybe we could get access to part of this floor that's not easily accessible or be able to come from a different direction. Shall we leave for now and remember this possibility?"
"Aye, mark it down for later exploration." Tyler agrees that this is the smart option.
Úlf nods in agreement with the others and backs away from the golem, though doesn't ever take his eyes off of it while doing so.
By staying out of the room with the stone statue, it stays in place. The group then heads back down the air shaft to the bottom level.
Tyler offers. "There are two groups bothering the Dwarfs. The Orcs and this other mixed group. Perhaps we could go and thin out the Orcs enough for the Dwarfs to deal with them. That leaves them with only one problem to handle."
Tyler has a sudden inspiration. Holding out the Ironeater amulet given to him by Derval Ironeater he takes a step into the room again. If the Statue still seems hostile he'll back out quickly.
As Tyler steps into the room, the statue again animates, but remains in place. Taking a few experimental steps, it appears that the statue recognizes the amulet and takes no actions against Tyler!
"Ok, I think we can keep checking this area." Tyler says to the rest of the party, letting out a long relieved breath as his test works.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Úlf claps Tyler on the shoulder. "Is good thinking! Will make looking around easier!"
"Excellent thinking my friend. Maybe that will help us past a few other guardians too, if we're lucky." Kyrus hurries to keep up with the alchemist.
"Have you come across many of these guardians? I am gald I joined up with you!"
Perception:
Tyler and Kyrus once again team up to discover another secret door on the western wall...the statue, having seen the amulet, remains motionless in the center of the room.
"I guess I'm just too curious, I can't go passed secret doors." Tyler shrugs.
"It certainly is hard to pass up a mystery."
Opening the secret door reveals another 10'x10' foot with a shaft in the ceiling leading up. The amount of dust indicates no one has been here in centuries...
"Another one. I wonder if these were meant to be secret passages or if they're just the ventilation system."
"I suppost a ventilation system would be a weak point for invasion, makes sense to keep it hidden, are we going up again?"
"I'm tempted to suggest staying here and taking a look around this floor. We don't want to leave anything important behind. But of course any other opinions are welcome."
"It sounds like good idea to me! Úlf doesn't want to leave any stone unturned, either."
"That is a good point. I agree with searching here first."
Heading south, you find a door on each wall of this 30'x20' room.
Úlf looks to the others, scratching his head. "One door is as good as another...but I think I will wait for those who know what a trap looks like to go first."
Checking all three doors.
Shall we try the east door first?
After checking each of the doors and finding no apparent traps, the group heads east. The door opens to reveal a 20' x 40' room - some sort of armory! Inside on stone shelves are a helm, a suit of dwarven-sized plate mail armor meant to go with the helm, gauntlets, a short sword, and a crossbow with 24 bolts.
The short sword has a faint blue glow to it.
"Well now, this is quite the find," Kyrus says. "But it's rather odd. I wonder if these belonged to someone specific. They might have been important if their armor deserved a hiding place like this."
"This place is a real labyrinth. Seems the safeguards for this room at least were warranted!"
Tyler. Spellcraft on the glowing shortsword.
Ami will examine the crossbow, she's no knowledge of magic, but can at least check the quality.
"I don't think the armor will fit any of us. Should we take it back to the Dwarves or leave it here and let them know where to find it?"
"I think that we can afford to carry it back. And I'm sure that they'll be grateful to have it. Maybe one of them can tell us the history behind it as well."
"Is good idea! Dwarves have always been helpful to us so far."
Tyler can tell there are some magical aspects to the sword, but he can't tell anything specific. The group can carry everything in the room if you split it amongst yourselves.
"Let's try to divide up the weight as evenly as we can then. And we should clear this level to see if there's anything else interesting like this before heading back. It will take far too long if we keep running from here back to the dwarves and then here again."
"That sword is obviously magic." Tyler sighs, "But I can't identify it, and something you don't understand is a bad thing to risk."
Tyler.
"Let's simply move in a circle." Kyrus heads to the south door and looks inside.
This room looks like a king's robing room. In a chest along the eastern wall is a suit of dwarven-sized bronze plate mail. Hanging on a rack on the western wall is a plain gray cloak with intricate stitching along the hem and cuffs in a crawling vine pattern. On a padded shelf on the southern wall is a crown, studded with 5 diamonds, 10 rubies, and 15 fire opals!