|
Brathas examines the secret door but finds no traps. The party opens the door and looks into the next room.
The floor of this 20' x 30' room has a red and white checkerboard pattern of 2' x 2' tiles. Court scenes are painted on the east and west walls. In the south wall, two small archways lead to another tiled area.
Once in the small chamber, Zynazyr is able to remove his blindfold. Brathas identifies a secret door in the wall opposite the one you came in by. No traps are found in this area.
"Let us go South, through the Eastern archway."
Brathas will pay particular attention to the tiles, their pattern, and any deviation in placement or craftsmanship.
Walia says, "I agree"
|
|
The group emerges from the narrow archway, and encounters another 20' x 30' chamber, which also has red and white tiles in a checkerboard pattern. There are another pair of narrow archways in the southern wall, though as you get closer you can see that the eastern one of the two is a dead end.
As the party begins searching, Ferrous discovers some loose floor tiles to the west.
Brathas also detects some loose tiles to the south, though by the time he notices them, Ferrous and Fistep have already stepped on them, so it is unclear if this represents a trap or not.
"Stop! Ferrous, Fistep, you may be on a trap. It could trigger when you step off. Let me examine more closely and see if I can disarm it."
Ferrous looks down at his feet. I see your concerned about the loose tile here. With the way the rest of this place has made use of hydraulics I understand your concern. I will await your inspection.
Zynazyr freezes when Brathas yells. Recalling the triggers to the giant ball, Zynazyr scans the room.
"We've seen these narrow passages in several places down here. In this room, setting off a trap could cause a stone block to drop and close off our exit," he says a bit nervously.
Uh...
In that case, Brathas will investigate those tiles carefully, to see if they appear to have been part of a trap or are merely loose.
He'll try to point out ones to avoid in the future just in case.
Ferrous looks around and waits for Brathas to give the all clear.
"Ferrous, you've already stepped off of the loose tile. I'll examine it, but let's try to avoid any others."
The dwarf gives a sheepish look and then proceeds to walk up to the archway to the South and peers through.
Brathas is looking at and around the edges of the loose tiles, slipping a wire underneath to see if they are connected to a mechanism. Does the surface under the tiles recede when they are stepped on? Is there a button or trigger under the tile?
Since I myself have only limited understanding of how a trap might be designed, Brathas will use his more extensive knowledge and look for other clues that he would recognize. If Tinker also covers this sort of close examination:
|
|
The tile rattles back and forth, like there is a gap underneath and it is not quite balanced (like a four-legged table where one leg is slightly shorter than the others).
With some work Brathas is able to prize up the tile. He notes that one of the stones underneath is a bit higher than the others (but only by 1/8th of an inch or so). There is a seam around this stone suggesting that it could be pushed down and acts as a trigger, though Ferrous put his weight on it and nothing happened. There is a lot of grime under the tile and this may have gummed it up.
There is no way that Brathas can see of disarming the trap (if it even is one) but marking the stone in question would at least make it clear that you shouldn't step there.
Pulling up all the loose tiles will take a lot of work (though it will be a bit easier where the loose tiles have an edge that has already been pulled up). There is really no way to avoid the tiles in front of the narrow archway if you want to continue south, though the other groups of tiles (to the north and east) could be bypassed by going across the corners.
Can we find some blocks and boards to make a short bridge over the loose tiles?
Bit of a mystery ain't it. Maybe I could force the one pressure point down and see what happens. Ferrous says as he stows his axe and takes out his mace. Looking to the thief with a please let me smash it face.
"Maybe the trap collapses the ceiling on us? I'd prefer not to trigger it. Not even with a 10' pole, let alone a mace."
Walia does not move but he starts looking carefully at the columns and also the ceiling for anything out of the ordinary.
Brathas will instead try to wedge things under the loose tiles so that they do not go down when stepped on. Other bits of tiles, or stones or rubble. Basically propping them up on the solid stones beneath so no pressure gets to the raised trigger stones.
He'll just try to disable key tiles that can't be avoided.
Walia will try to help Brathas by gathering materials.
Ferrous sees what Brathas is trying to do. You already pried up that one tile. What if we wedged it underneath the tile in front of the archway? We can avoid the other tile.
Zynazyr holds the torch as needed for the others to see what they are doing. He continues to scan the room, on the lookout for any visitors.
"Sounds good Ferrous, let's give that a try. Carefully."
Assuming this is all part of the Tinker check.
Ana watches anxiously as the men do their work.
|
|
Wallia looks over the ceiling, but it seems to be the same vaulted construction the group has seen elsewhere.
Brathas will instead try to wedge things under the loose tiles so that they do not go down when stepped on. Other bits of tiles, or stones or rubble. Basically propping them up on the solid stones beneath so no pressure gets to the raised trigger stones.
He'll just try to disable key tiles that can't be avoided.
Tinker: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23
The tiles are 2' x 2', which makes a total of 25 tiles in the 10' x 10' area in front of the archway. Brathas identifies two more tiles that are loose, and when pried up reveal a raised stone that may sink into the floor when weight is applied.
Using pieces of a cracked tile from a "safe" area of the floor, Brathas begins wedging pieces underneath the loose tiles.
Brathas isn't sure that the tiles will necessarily hold, but once propped up they are easy to identify, and the group can avoid those tiles. The group files through into the next chamber.
|
|
The next chamber is smaller. A massive stone block occupies the northeast section of the chamber, and heaps of rubble occupy the southern part of the room. If there is a wall or portal behind the rubble, it is not visible; there is too much stone here to tell. You can see that the wall comes down just like the double portals to the north with the narrow archways.
Ferrous thinks the stone blocks were dropped into the structure from above as it was being built. The Rubble may have been accidental as stones crushed one another as they fell, though arguably it serves the same purpose.
No other exits can be found.
Walia says, "I think we should dig our way through the rubble or maybe climb over it."
"Where will we put all the rubble? Out in the halls, I imagine. But if we're going to walk over those trap tiles multiple times, sooner or later we'll trip one. So I have to find out what they do."
Brathas begins inspecting the walls and ceiling for arrow slits, gas vents, crushing wall mechanisms, or other traps that might be triggered by the tiles. He's found the cause, now looking for the effect.
[ooc] Can we climb over the rubble?[/b]
Zynazyr looks at the massive stone blocking the east passage to the previous room and the rubble ahead.
"Could these things have been triggered by the pressure plates in the last room? If so, it would appear the builders were trying to keep people out of some room further ahead. We should be careful not to trigger any other traps so our exit from here doesn't get blocked."
He then looks at the volume of rubble they are attempting to move and tries to calculate how long it will take them to move it.
"I think we'd have heard that collapse. We seem to have been lucky that the pressure plate we stepped on didn't work. But if we carry many loads of rubble through this room, we may trigger another. A stumble, a dropped armful of stones.
So I want to find the trap that goes with these pressure plates before we accidentally trip one."
Brathas continues searching the ceiling and walls.
"I'm sorry, I should have been clearer. I agree we would have heard the collapse if we triggered it. The lack of dust in the air would suggest this happened some time ago. The stone either blocked someone from entering or possibly leaving."
Walia says, "We could line the rubble against the walls and make a sliver of a path through. Without setting off what may be triggered."
The dwarf studies the pile of rubble an all too familiar reminder of his former days as a miner before serving in the guard. Every dwarf has seen many a pile similar to this. He tries to discern how much of an effort it would take to clear the rubble enough to decrease it's height 2 feet.
|
|
Ferrous looks over the rubble. With six people working, lowering the level of the rubble by two feet should take about 10 minutes. The rubble could be placed in the area to the northeast, for a while, anyway. If the whole pile is to be removed some of it will have to be moved to the area to the north with the traps.
The party gets to work.
|
|
After ten minutes of moving stones more of the far wall is visible. The tops of two narrow archways can now be seen, much like the walls to the north.
Ferrous goes up to the top of the rubble to peer into the entrances. Both archways seem to be blocked with a large stone block after going for ten feet, though the narrow passages are still mostly full of rubble and it is hard to see what is in there.
You will need to spend another turn moving more rubble to open either entrance.
Ana sighs and consigns herself to moving more rubble.
Ferrous relays what he could make out and then resumes the rubble moving.
Fistep stands around.
Zynazyr stands out of the way holding the light for all to see. "There's a reason I spent my time studying magic, I'm not quite cut out for manual labor. Besides, someone has to hold the torch," Zynazyr thinks to himself hoping nobody calls him out for not helping.
|
|
Brathas spends the time examining the trapped area further.
After looking around the room for a while, he notes that there are "stripes" on the ceiling, going from east to west in several places in the chamber. The "stripes" consist of sections where the stone blocks that make up the ceiling look... fake somehow. Brathas concludes that they are likely wood or some other material that is painted to look like stonework. There are six such "stripes," evenly spaced throughout the chamber, and go from one side of the chamber to the other (though the pressure plates in the floors do not; they occupy only one side of the room or the other).
It is impossible to tell what the stripes actually are without closer inspection, which will require climbing the wall.