Dandi let's her hair free, the strands feeling their way from a distance.
Fondo walks amid the party, letting the eagle eyed Barael and Briar take point. He does peer at the lion maws rather intently.
The party takes a half hour to get down to the doors, some likely becoming somewhat agitated at the snail-speed the party makes down the twisting hallway.
As Barael investigates the wall, Briar barely brushes up against the doors to the north with his ear as he prepares to listen to any sounds from beyond causing them to swing open magically revealing a small room beyond with four alcoves.
The first pair of alcoves have two statues, one similar to the room you just left with a tiger headed man, the other a fox headed woman. Both figures have their arms wide as if to usher visitors forward into the room beyond. The other pair of alcoves are largely empty. The western one though does have a long lever with an ebony handle protruding from the wall.
Briar Detects Magic on the statues, airwalking to R04 to look around.
Perception
There is no magic on the statues or the room as a whole. There is a very faint twinge in the air generally and on the lever in particular. It looks more like the lever has been magically reinforced, as perhaps have the walls and doors. Very background, nothing you can really label.
The lever looks particularly large and solid like you'd be lifting a heavy weight with it. It's not just a little switch.
Oh, and Barael is sure what he's looking at is a moveable wall, but he can't figure out for the life of him how to move it (taking-20 disable device fails).
This wall here, it probably rolls back, but I can't find a release for it." Barael joins the elf in entering the room. "Glorio said something about locking down the labyrinth. That lever responsible for it?" Barael waits for the others, studying this lever for a purpose.
It's a lever. Maybe it moves the world...
Fondo examines the lever as well.
No, not that sort of twinge - that's much, much stronger than you get from a detect magic here. This is a mild sort of thing, like background radiation bleeding through. Maybe there's something very magical nearby, or maybe someone routinely casts a lot of powerful spells in these chambers.
Also, please do note where you are moving to on the map - particularly if anyone is going to start pulling the lever. Not to ratchet up the paranoia, but I do need to know exactly where folks are standing/moving. :)
Er, I should also know if anyone can see invisible creatures/objects. I know that Barael can scent for example when in lycanthrop form. Is he in that form continuously now? Also, is he still wearing the mask?
I have Barael at R3, Fondo at S3, Briar at R4 (with Majenko on his shoulder) and the rest out of the room currently.
Briar stays in R4, climbs high as possible.
"Pull the lever, it must lead to a way forward. There isn't likely to be anything we've missed," Briar rationalizes.
Still 8' ceilings. And I missed you were generally searching - I thought you were still just looking at the lever...
The alcove opposite the lever has a very well concealed secret door, but not DC 40...
"Wait. What I meant to say was let's open this secret door I just now decided to mention."
Briar air walks to R3.
"So, are we in it then? The labyrinth?" Barael continues on in hybrid form, and swaps one Mask for the other, activating both See Invisibilty and Perception +5.
Barael moves to the secret door, looks for anything discouraging, then opens it at the encouragement of the Elf.
Charlie will move to R04 and be twitchy.
"Mayhap we ought jam the lever up. Might be it's what turns the randomizer thingie on." Fondo smiles encouragingly at his searchy friends.
I can't think of another group I'd rather be accompanying into a labyrinth. Though, to be fair, I'd rather not be accompanying anyone into a labyrinth. Oops. Did I think that out loud?
"Are we going in?" Dandi whispers, looking around the others to try to see.
Nikolay watches Briar move around with Briar's "helpful" advice.
At least he doesn't tell me how to swing a sword.
The secret door slides open quietly and leads down a short straight tunnel to the NE where another secret door opens into a small circular room with a five-foot-diameter pool of crystal-clear water.
The room immediately beyond it has a complex symbol in the floor. Hard to see from here, it looks like it might have been painted on the floor - or maybe carved? Hard to tell without a closer look. You can make out a door in the far room (it has two, but you can't see the other quite yet).
Barael gets a twitchy feeling about symbols on floors.
"Long-lived, there's something scritched on the floor through this passage. I don't like the thought of getting burned by trap magics. Can you try and figure it out?" Barael makes room for the floating elf.
Briar airwalks a bit closer to take a look, recasting Detect Magic as necessary.
Yo Clumsy. Did you want to come take a look at this? Or did the poison sap your eyes from working too?
Know (Arcana)
Spellcraft
Does anyone go in the pool room to watch Briar (and maybe Nikolay) check things out? Or is everyone hiding behind Barael in the tunnel unable to see what's going on?
The paranoia is deep... How deep?
Fondo steps forward and also scans for magic, taking care not to stand on the sigil.
Barael will actively block Charlie from advancing, but will not stand in Dandi's way.
Dandi tries to follow the others, but can't find room.
Once Briar and Fondo come into the pool room and gets a clear view of the entire symbol on the floor in the room beyond, it flares briefly and flashes brightly. The light also hits Barael watching from the door, but fails to wash over the rest of the party…
Fondo, Barael, and Briar DC 20 Fortitude please. Failure means you are racked with pain which subsides after a second, but it does not go away. The lingering pain imposes a –4 penalty on attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks.
However the symbol does NOT go away, it continues to pulse and wash the area with the sickly pain inducing light.
Fondo stumbles back and clutches his groin (the part of the body he usually clutches when he's experiencing this much pain, usually after making an untoward advance). "That... Ouch. Oh. Why... There too? When will this stop....? OHHH."
Barael flinches, closing his eyes to all but the slightest light bending around the walls of the room, suddenly filled with pain. His sudden leap into the air is akin to a firecracker making its way underneath a rodent.
"!#$!%! Way to go, Briar, whatyoucouldhavedispelledthepainfiremagichereandsavedusallalotofdiscomfortw hatamIsayingdiscomfortthisfeelslikeahotcoaljustgotplacedoneveryexposednerve endinganditwillnotstop!!!"
Fort Save (vs. hating Evilan)
Briar's skin feels like it's burning and peeling, angry washing over him...only to subside.
"Oh shoot! Thank you, Barael, ma boy. You may take the first drag of the only pain killer I have in my kit. If anybody figures out what this thing is, maybe I can dispel it."
Charlie takes a fresh flask of whiskey out of Hewards and passes it around, starting with Barael. He will attempt a heal check if it helps.
Briar watches the Rat and others writhe in pain, intrigued by the magical power and potential of the rune.
There are some arcanists that spend a lifetime researching such runes. I could write the definitive work on the subject....hmm...
"As you know, the concept of the pain symbol is centuries old. Really that's all this is except that instead of inflicting damage, it's sucking life. It just sucked one year of your life away. It might one day go as high as five if we stay close, but we really don't need to test that. So, let's just start with what we have. How do you feel about this rune? Tell me. And remember, this is for posterity so be honest. How do you feel?"
Briar walks deeper into the room and looks around.
Perception
"So...that was interesting...I bet I could muster something similar if I cared for such magics," Briar muses aloud, only mostly oblivious to the pain of others. "The effect will wear off...but will definitely last as longer if we stand here staring at it. We should press on. That is, if you all can manage it."
Wut? Please do slow down. The immense and unrelenting pain that you're in is making it hard to understand you. Please slow down your complaints so that I may give them their proper attention.
Fondo moves as far away as he can from the symbol and jumps around, howling. "Ooch. Ouch. Agh. Aieee. Oh, Desna, that smarts." He considers magically enhancing his voice, just so the world can know how much pain he's in.
"Briar, what do to with Nik, Dandi, and Charlie? I'm ready to pass through, because it's done with me. How do we pass the unaffected through?" Barael proceeds through the room, to the opposite door, and opens it, checking for traps at the door handle first.
If the party is pressing on, there are two doors in the room which Briar has examined revealing they are common (though very fancy) doors. Anyone going into the room will have to save vs the symbol so long as it is active (and it is still active).
Presuming his detect magic is still on he catches a new aura. Focusing on it he 'sees' a
Fondo, are you backing out of the room or opening a door and going through?
Barael, as you step into the room and study the door, it pulses again - extending your agony. You open the door and look in (second pulse - ow!) to see a room with three large wooden chests, their lids decorated with carvings of cavorting tigers, sitting against the northern wall.
Some sort of message seems to be carved on each lid. The wall opposite the chests is carved to depict hundreds of tigers marching in widening circles around a single green gem the size of a fist, set in the wall and itself carved to resemble a tiger’s head.
It's really very beautiful, or would be if you weren't in so much pain...
Briar does, indeed, either maintain or re-cast Detect Magic so enthralled at what he is learning as he continues on in this maze.
Spellcraft
Oh, Nikolay...you should see what's in here. Lots of fun stuff. Watch your eyes...
Briar will go (try to) read what is written on the chests.
"We have three chests with messages written in a foreign tongue. There's also a beautiful gem on the wall." Barael waits for others to examine the writings on the chests, and takes a moment to appraise the gem.
He turns his attention to the chests, looking for mechanisms to prepare for, tears streaming down his face, much like the rakshasa. He abstains from opening any of them until there is an interpretation of the scrawls.
Fondo continues to make vocal complaints as he gropes himself, but does move forward.
--
--
Nikolay continues to observe from afar, but is ready to dash through the symbol and take the pain if necessary.
"We could go the other way once you're done checking the chests."
The language on the chests is Vudrani. Does anyone speak Vudrani?
Briar airwalks over to not-read the chests because Vudrani is a silly, non-elvish language. While there and not-reading, Briar will inspect the chests for traps.
Perception Chest #1
Perception Chest #2
Perception Chest #3
The chests do not appear to be trapped. There is a door to the south of the pulsing symbol of suffering.
"A...are we going through, then?" Dandi asks, a tremor in her voice.
Nikolay, X6 is a wall. There is a door at Q9.
"Briar doesn't seem to be able to disarm the magics in the scratching, so unless we can find a way around it, I think you're headed this way. Pray to whatever god you like, and maybe close your eyes before you pass around the bend. The pain entered through my eyes."
Barael waits to hear if anyone can interpret the Vudrani writing before he considers blindly opening them. Nothing good from opening things in a death trap, that are like as not to contribute to the ambience.
Dandi takes a deep breath and moves forward.
Fondo shakes his head. "I like not the idea of ... OH GODS ... Entering this maze in such a ... AGH ... State. Brother ... MOTHERFRAKKER ... Rose, Nikolay, have you a sense of whether the trap will become active again, should we ... KILLL ME NOW huff puff ... Wait?"
Varisian, this symbol has done all it can to you...and I will continue to plague your for a while. Since there is no exit the way you've run to (save for following the crab beast, presumably out to sea thus abandoning our quest), we'll have to push forward.
Suck it up, Varisian.