With the skeletons cut down, Tarvinda asks if there is anything Xeros can suggest to lay the bones to rest, so the the spirits can pass to the afterlife. Once they have completed whatever ceremony is required, Tarvinda asks, "Where these undead the guardians of something of value? We should look around and check this area."
Xeros nods in response to the paladin and as they gather the bones of the fallen. He begins to recite a parting ballad softly and sprinkles a little of his cheap wine to ease the rest of the spirits.
"It is done, there spirits will rest easy. So what do we have here?" He examines the chains to see if there apart of any trap or device.
Tarvinda takes up the chains, "Let us open the portcullis, be ready for I don't trust what we may find. Is there a mechanism to raise it, or am I left to use my strength?"
Tarvinda looks puzzled, "This wheel, what does it do? There's nothing I can see here. What should we do? I think its best to leave well alone, it might be part of some elaborate trap?" she asks her companions.
"It could control a gate in another room?"
"The chain connects with the portcullis, it doesn't seem to be a trap. So you should be safe to open if you want just let me know so I can keep my eyes out for anything unusual."
Tarvinda seeing no reason to use the wheel, turns. "If we need to come back to use the wheel we can. I see no advantage in letting loose anything trapped behind a gate, without first understanding it's likely nature." Tarvinda says resolutely, fearful of letting further evil undead loose in the crypt. She takes out a cloth and cleans her breastplate and weapons, removing any bone still stuck there. She moves towards the door returning the way they came.
"That does sound like a wise idea."
The tiefling moves close to the portcullis and puts his hand on it. He looks through the metal and sees what lies beyound the gate.
"Well, that didn't take long, finding the gate! What can you see Xeros?" asks Tarvinda shrugging her shoulders.
"It's that room with the bats, though they are gone as of right now.
Strange on who would close this gate on us. Anyway the room is clear."
"I think that crank we saw earlier in the other room, controls this portcullis."
"Well, if you're right Etna, best go back and try it out." says Tarvinda pleased to be able to help. "You know, it might be good to do something to secure the portcullis once its open, either at the winch or here. Do we have anything that might do it?"
Tarvinda walks back around to the winch, using it to pull up the portcullis. She offers her grappling hook as a tool in stopping the winch from being used to close the portcullis. Despite her obvious strength, her wet hands slip as she tries to winch the gate open. She gets a blanket from her backpack and dries her hands, getting a better grip on the winch she tries again.
Atokos shakes his head as he takes a wand from his pack, touching the tip to his wounds. I have nothing of the sort, unfortunately, he says.
When she passes through the fungus, she calls to her friends "That purple stuff is growing again, come and remove it whilst I turn the winch."
Hearing it click the first ratchet, Tarvinda tries to turn it 4 more clicks.
The tiefling notches a blunt arrow in his longbow preparing for any dangers that might come out from the otherside of the portculis.
Tarvinda quickly exits the room, having made sure that the ratchet will not allow the gate to fall. He returns to the others, "So what can you see?"
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A shallow reflecting pool divides this long chamber, running from one end to the other. The water looks cloudy and stagnant. What must have once been marvelous murals covering both walls are now scorched and ruined, the original subject lost in the destruction. At the far end the portcullis has risen and provides an exit from this chamber, when the sounds of the chains stop you watch, in a few moments you hear the sound of armor hurrying to wards you, Tarvinda is on her way back.
The pool is a magical trap.
Since Xeros was at the opening he will wait for the others to return and move in first. "May we have the luck of the Drunken Merc." He whispers.
Tarvinda waits for Arphad to enter the room before she enters. She breaths heavily after her dash from the room with the wheel.
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As Arphad walks into the room he sees the pool and watches as arcane fields of magic seem to emanate from within its waters. Yet no magical effect has seemingly affected his party colleagues. His curiosity gets the better of him, "Strange trap this pool, it doesn't seem to affect anyone. " he can't seem to resist but gaze into the clear sparkling waters. As he does he sees his own reflection, much like Etna and Xeros saw as they passed by, but unlike them his visage changes. His face becomes pale, as though the blood had been drained away, his eyes sink into their sockets as the skin around them, blacks and purples in bruises, before his white teeth yellow and brown, before some fall out, leaving an old gappy mouth. Then his skin starts to peel away, rotten and gangrenous, putrid flesh as his black hair falls out in patches. Arphad the zombie, stares back at Arpad the man.
A scream rings out from Arpad's lips as he runs out of the room, seeking safety else where within the dungeon's wall, anywhere just away from the face that stares back at him. He runs into Tarvinda as he exits, almost pushing her over in his rush to leave.
A scream is not the only thing that Etna and Xeros hear, the sounds of movement, flapping seems to come from the chamber they are about to enter.
Hearing the scream of his friend he draws back an arrow and looks to see what going on.
"What the heck, what did he see?"
Tarvinda moves forward and looks in the pool, hoping to see what Arphad saw that scared him, even as she asks "Whats that noise?" to Xeros and Etna.
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Xeros, Tarvinda and Etna look into the pool, and see their own faces reflected back, other than that nothing is seen in the clear water. Behind them the sound of flapping gets louder as a mass of black flying creatures swoop through the doorway. Their leathery wings flap vigorously as they take seemingly random directions, letting out angry squeaks as they see the three friends in the chamber.
Seeing the black cloud at the other end of the room, Tarvinda shouts "So that's what was making the noise." She readies her weapons, waiting to see if the creatures attack.
The noise increases as even more creatures come through the door, filling it in a dense black fog, that envelopes Xeros. The creatures dive and nip, as blood appears from nicks in his arms and neck from a barrage of attacks.
You are nauseated for 1 round.
Tarvinda rushes at the mass of black swinging her flail ineffectually at the hundreds of flying creatures. These creatures envelope Tarvinda as the others did Xeros.
Bats 1 init
Bats 2 init
"Bats"
Xeros crouches down and drops his bow and arrow. Takes off his cloak and dumps oil on it. "Get ready to move out."
Tarvinda hearing Xeros' words and seeing her efforts to stop the swarm attacking is totally ineffective, she reluctantly moves out of the cloud of biting bats towards the entrance. She stops and seeing Etna says, "Quick, out the door, I'll shut it after you."
Etna moves passed Tarvinda.
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Deep in the underground complex, Arphad run further away from the frightening image that shook him to the core. He stops before the door to the chamber of frogs, shakes his head as his mind pushes the fear from his mind. He stands there shaking, getting a grip on himself.
Tarvinda's blood continues to flow from her body, leaving a trail along the flagstones on the floor.
Before Etna is able to respond to Tarvinda's words, the bats swirl around, in a mass of darkness they cloak over Etna, biting her body as her arms flail in the air, trying to beat them back.
The bats flying around Xeros, continue their biting and scratching drawing more blood and flesh from the man. The blood seems to be flowing even quicker from his wounds than he realised.
As he fights off the bats biting him, he quickly snatches a tinder twig and lights his cloak on fire and starts to swing it above his head. "FIND THE WAY OUT AND MOVE!!!!"