@Parnel: You figure he's been dead for decades at least.
Elvar fiddles around trying to find a way to raise the column, just when he is about to give up, he feels an odd irregularity in the stonework. On closer investigation he finds a catch that raises the stone trap revealing the crushed body beneath. The desiccated flesh and crushed bones are still encased in a brilliant suit of chainmail and at its side you find a leather sack that crumbles at a touch. It is mostly filled with shattered stone fragments, but there are 3 small, exquisitely carved stone statuettes, that remain unbroken. They are of a grand palace, a slim spire with eight connected smaller towers of different heights and what looks like a grand stadium.
Scattered about the corpse among the other refuse, you find 2 wands and a pair of fine googles.
Between the 2 of them they identify the items as a wand of unseen servant(16 charges), a wand of Shatter (7 charges) and goggles of minute seeing, but they cant quite figure out the enhancement on the chainmail.(It's +1. Even if you don't know the enhancement, it still is functional if worn.)
Halleluja! Dibs on the Googles. Suggest the wands go to Istavan though I can use them if need be and the chain to Harold, our resident front line fighter.
Elvar nevertheless takes a particular interrest in the statuettes despite them not beeing magical, putting on the googles and inspecting them in minute detail.
Any knowledge or something offered for those? Knowledge Engeneering or Arcana:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15 Knowledge History:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8 Profession Arcitect:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24
@Elvar: The statuettes are of exquisite detail and probably very valuable. You don't have any idea whether they represent real places, but if they do, those structures would be technical marvels and the architect behind their design would be famous throughout the lands.
Does Elvar know of a possible interested party besides himself? Knowledge Local:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
"Yup, I think that would be best. If you don't mind I'll hang on to these goggles. They enhance my eyesight greatly when inspecting things in detail and that helps me greatly in disarming any traps we come across."
"Istavan, do you, as a mage, want to hand on to these wands? Both of these spells are on my spell list so I can put them to use if you don't fancy them."
HP 16/16, AC 12/12/10, CMD 13/15, F;+2, R; +2, W; +5
Istvan will happily accept the wands, one never knows when such things will be useful.
Istvan stores the wands in easily accessable locations about his person, grinning as he does so. Istvan never knows when an invisible butler will be direly needed
"Ah, I see!" he exclaims in mock revelation and then adopts what he thinks is the voice of finer gentleman. "Well then, my good man Istavan, I must welcome you to the ranks of the finer gentry my boy. Having a serving man puts you a peg above the leg of the rest of us but having one so good at his job that he's actually invisible puts you a peg above the peg leg."
Elvar peeks into the room behind the pillar as he chats with the warrior and the mage, careful not to set the trap off again as he's not keen on experiencing the same fate as the previous consciousness occupying the powdered skeleton.
@Elvar: The trap was blocking an shallow alcove that seemed to serve as a storage closet. There are some empty stone shelves and hooks for hanging things. There is nothing else of interest in it. You guess that at least some of the things that the crushed body had on him were taken from there.
Where to folks: there is an open entrance to a room directly across from the trap, and the south or west side of the pilar room that you are in currently.
You peer into a wide chamber that must once have been the living quarters of an important figure. A large stone slab that suggests the shape of a bed rests against the east wall, under a huge bas-relief of a robust, long-nosed bald humanoid figure with outstretched hands. The figure wears a lovingly sculpted wind-tossed robe that gives him the appearance of a triumphant go. A glyph that looks like a stylized arrow marks an amulet worn around the figure's neck. Wardrobes and dressers, seemingly carved from the stone walls, look to have been ransacked a long time ago.
@Garish +Talia: You find that there is a whirling cushion of air resting above the carved stone bed.
@Elvar: The glyph is another Vaati personal name glyph, similar to those you've seen on the broken apparatus and the sarcophagus. This one says Nadroc and probably is the name of the room's former occupant.
"Well Mr. Nadroc." Elvar says to the statue, straightening his back and putting his fists on his hips. "Nice ta met'ya, I'm Elvar. Nice place you've got here. Mind if we help ourselves to your belongings?"
Next room or are you guys going to play with the whirlwind first? (The fantasy version of a feather bed if I've ever seen one.)
Female Human Ranger 2 (HP 20/20, AC 17/14/13, F+5 R+7 W+2, CMD 18)
Talia pats the air bed, sits on it for a second and gets back up to follow the others.
"Neat, I'll keep that in mind for the future. Do you think we can bring that back up? It could fetch a good price.", she adds with a smile.
Continuing your exploration, you swing around to the south of the central pillar. In the southern wall, you find a small room that looks to be a long disused privy. On the southern face of the central pillar, you find a dry and dusty washbasin, but nothing else of note. Creeping closer to the source of the cold to the west, you see that west wall of the room's great central pillar holds a deep recession that ends at what looks like a fountain basin about 4 feet off the ground. It is filled with an orange slurry that looks a bit like vomit.
The area around the fountain is infested with a brown mold that appears to be the source of the bitter cold. As you approach, you have to stop short before the cold becomes too painful. The mold spills across the floor into the open doorway of an adjacent room.
@Talia: You recognize the 'brown mold' as brown mold, an uncommon underground fungus. It feeds on heat, making the surrounding area cold and you need to use cold to destroy it.
"This is a brown mold. It feeds on heat and we need to use cold to destroy it. Can any of you cast a spell like that ?", she says to the spellcasters of the group.
HP 10/10 Fort 4, Reflex 1, Will 6 AC 18, T 10, Flat 17, CMD 14, init +1 | +4 vs spells, SLA, and poison
"Well if we can't get by it we will have to come back to it later if anyone can bypass it. We can still explore the rest of the area before going back up top."
You've explored everything that's not beyond the brown mold. So you guys can return to the sarcophagus room if you wish and try pointing the arrow at a different lantern. There is also the mystery of the skeleton under the blue lantern.
HP 16/16, AC 12/12/10, CMD 13/15, F;+2, R; +2, W; +5
Istvan does indeed have access to cold, but would need time. Perhaps tomorrow we can revisit this particular problem. For now, let us explore the rest of this place.
