I have one more spell of flying... it will last a score of minutes, no more.
I’m willing to use it to explore this shaft, it seems promising. Once up top I can secure some wetted rope to aid others in climbing. Khayal offers as a plan.
Provided Rayhan is willing to make another cast of fly, Khayal will use his climbing kit to make a fairly safe way up for whomever wants to come. He takes care to wet down the rope.
Rayhan casts a spell of Extended Fly, internally wincing because that was one of his "get out of trouble" spells, on Khayal. The spell will last for 24 minutes.
With the fly spell cast and the rope properly wetted, Khayal flies to the top of the tunnel and does his best to secure the rope properly. Allowing others to follow if they wish.
After several minutes of cautious flying, Khayal finally reaches what should be the end of the tunnel.
He and Coldtooth emerge...into a room filled with debris, both organic and inorganic. Odd bits of rotten food and brass and metal junk. The entire floor is extremely smooth brass sloping downwards to the chute. A dim red glow emanates from a grate in the ceiling high above. A door in one wall of the room is locked from the other side.
Two of the azer volunteer (rather quickly, it seems) to stay behind and guard this side. "If someone, anyone leave behind long chain or much metal, even brass, we will fashion bridge. Given time." one of the fire-dwarves tells the adventurers.
"Oh dear..." Bartan grumbles.
He slides down the rope just a bit, but doesn't fall...
Hajar will climb up the rope. Hajar tells the Azer The Brass guardian, surely that would be enough brass to fashion a bridge?
Yazi and Bartan climb up the long rope after being carried across the magma waterfall by Khayal. They are met by Coldtooth in the chamber. The fire-dwarf is listening at the door.
Hajar - almost makes it up the rope, but failed at the last segment. Falling back down the slippery brass walls, he did manage to grab a rope without pulling the pitons loose. Hajar pulled himself back up to the trash chamber by himself.
Of the four azer left, two wait for Khayal while the other two, hearing Hajar's suggestion, start examining the brass construct's corpse and making measurements.
Rayhan climbs almost all the way to the top before falling.
After alot of struggle, Rayhan appears in the trash heap. His chest is heaving with exertion and he flops down into the muck, uncaring.
argh waste of a nat-20
The two azer have no trouble getting up the staked rope, although the heat from their bodies dries out the rope by the time they make it up to the top.
Khayal flies back to the trash room. He finds his fly spell wearing off as he reaches the chamber.
"No traps on lock. Need tools back." Coldtooth asked Bartan, motioning towards the lock he was looking through.
"I can handle that part." Bartan pulls out a harrow card, makes little tears and folds in it, and prestidigitates it over to the lock.
The door opens, and you see...a wide set of stairs, going up to a passageway.
Coldtooth grunted. "Me and azer cover back route." he said, impressed by the magic and the skill.
Khayal will begin cautiously heading up the stairs, giving Yazi the chance to look for traps before walking headlong into one.
He draws his kukris as he looks up the large staircase, Surely stairs this grand must lead to something impressive.
What Khayal finds is an ordinary brass-lined passageway going North-South. Thirty feet to the South is another door. The passageway goes further than sixty feet to the North.
No traps, and this corridor appears to be empty for some time. The refuse in the trash room was old, as well. Like a well-oiled machine that's been abandoned for several months, if not years.
No hidden doors, either.
Yazi opens the unlocked and untrapped door to find...
A oddly shaped chamber with a large stone statue centered in the room. The state is a crouching lion with dragon-like wings and a jackal's head. A bloodstained stone cup rests between its' front paws. The face has been partially broken off, leaving a network of jagged cracks throughout the head and neck.
Running your hands along the south wall, you discover a portion of the wall pivots on a single point, giving a secret door to another room!
The jackal-sphinx follows no known religion, but is associated with some of the darker ones that permit oracles.
Not in its' current damaged condition, however.
Through the secret door is...a room strangely similar to the upside-down double pyramid back on Kakishon. The room is a square with alcoves at each compass point. The walls, floor, and ceiling are the now-familiar brass paneling.
The ceiling looks like stucco - thicker than normal, and, well, wet. Like paint that hasn't dried yet.
At the West alcove is another pivoting secret door!
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"My Lady Yazi, your eyes never cease to impress me, both with their ability to notice the unseen, and of course their depths of beauty." Bartan bows to Yazi in deference to her abilities.
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Tracing his finger on a bit of he stucco, This paint seems wet, as if it were recently applied. It could not have been long ago in this heat.
You hear a grinding sound from the North as the pivot door closes. The ceiling brass sags noticeably all over the room, and large drops of brass, their metal gleaming with shadow, fall from above!
Each Round:
You take fire damage , but the splatter of brass sticks to you.
You take fire damage , as well as one negative level, as the heavy brass clings to you!
The brass drops are only falling in the "main square" of the room - not the alcoves to each compass direction! If you can make it to an alcove, you won't have to dodge the brass drops!
In the jackal-sphinx room, the secret door at the back closes, and a section of wall next to it, about the size of a Medium hand, protrudes out of the stone, like a short lever made of brick.
You see the magically molten brass hit the floor like raindrops, but the floor absorbs the brass an instant after it lands. The ceiling keeps dropping a seemingly-endless supply of brass, however.
Hajar gets free of the brass and calls out
Where next? We cannot remain!
Rayhan's magical protections keep him safe from harm, but the rapidly cooling brass slows him down and makes life miserable.
Ooof! Indeed. Rayhan hurries to an alcove.
Khayal manages to dodge the majority of drops as the spatter touches his skin. Due to the magic of Hajar and the ring it feels little different from a warm rain. The type that rarely graced the desert.
was with Yazi anyway
farthest distance from the Northern door
As everyone makes for the alcoves, Nasir and Yazi end up in the West, Khayal to the South, Bartan and Hajar to the East, with Rayhan at the North alcove with the secret door that got you all in here.
You hear another grinding noise, and the secret door to the North opens. Coldtooth pokes his head through the gap of the pivoting door.
"This room very dangerous." the fire-dwarf shouts. "You should not stay."
The brass rain stops when no one person is in the main "square" of the room.
Bartan also high-tails it into an alcove, squeezing in with Yazi and Nasir, winking at them.