Quinn made her way carefully down the hallway, keeping an eye for tripwires, pressure plates, and other tricks of the trade. About halfway down the hallway she came across a section of stone that looked slightly different. Looking at it carefully, she identified it as a pressure sensitive spot that likely opened a pitfall trap beneath them.
Go ahead and try. DC 25. Failing by 5 or more will spring it. It will take 2d4 rounds.
If you guys want to hang out there for ten minutes, go ahead.
Recognizing the pressure plate in the floor, Quinn set to disabling it so that it wouldn't depress when stepped on. It took her a little longer than she expected but she was usually working on locks which had a different kind of mechanism. To test her handiwork, she stepped on it gently. When nothing happened, she continued on but still warned the others to step carefully.
Quinn found nothing else untoward in the hallway, and they soon reached the open doorway. Beyond it was a large cavern, the floor uneven and the walls rough. The ceiling writhed with unnatural shadow - it was difficult to see what exactly how high it was, or what it was composed of.
Directly opposite their door was another door, this one very strong and solid looking, made of steel. A large, ornate-looking keyhole was smack in the middle of the door.
In the middle of the room, hanging from the ceiling, were three chains. Each hung down so the lowest link was about five feet off the floor. They dangled in a line, about four feet apart from each other, in line between the two doors. The chains were old, slightly rusty, but still solid. It was impossible to see exactly what they were attached to above.
As Quinn tinkered with the odd section of floor, Jibril waited like he had ten years to get down the hallway Quinn is rather ingenious with sabotage. If the out of doors is my realm then this is truly hers ... wait a minute, where's Dun Ca' oh, just behind Rex. He pulled out his book and looked in it to see how everyone is doing but stopped on the fourth page. He looked confused then smiled a broad smile and put the book away just in time to see Quinn test a foot on the odd section of floor and move into the adjoining room. He followed confidently.
Rex liked movement and was starting to regret agreeing to this door. All this stopping and waiting was leaving him rather restless, especially since everyone was so quiet. "So...crazy weather we've been having, huh?" He said, chuckling a bit to hard at his own, not all that funny, joke.
"So...crazy weather we've been having, huh?"
Not looking up from his book, "One would expect with the mare's tail in the north and the mackrel's scale eastwardly that change would be in the air for some sturdier cloud to come in. The late summer always brings taciturn weather. I imagine it's raining in Ibith's capital right now."
Dizzy edged into the strange room, keeping her eyes open for any sort of trap or secret door. She was no stranger to underground caverns, and felt more at home here than she did topside.
(+2 in stone)
"So, what do you suppose these are?" she reached uptowards one of the chains, but came short of touching it. She squinted at the roof, trying to figure out what they were attached to.
When she got to the chains, Quinn peered upwards but didn't have much hope for seeing anything useful. She also studied the chains themselves to see if there were any differences between them that may be informative.
"I assume that one of these chains will provide us with the key we need to open that door. If you guys want to figure out the chains, I'll go take a look at the door. I'll see if there's a way through the door without the key but I highly doubt it. I would think they'd make it nearly impossible to open it without the key for something called the Trap Door. It would attract a certain class of people after all."
Duncan raised his eyebrows, "Why are we talking about the weather? If we wanted to chit-chat, I can find us a good table at an even better restaurant."
He added, "Are we done here? Quinn, are you going to open up that door or what?"
-------------
Quinn examined the door and the lock. There were no hinges, knobs, or anything else on the door - nothing but the big keyhole. It looked nothing like anything she'd ever seen before. The good news was that she saw no sign of an actual trap, on either the door or the lock.
Likewise, the chains provided no clues. All three were similar - heavy iron, slightly old and rusty, heavy links. The ceiling above them was covered in shadows that wouldn't abate, no matter what light source they used. The rest of the cavern was featureless. Behind them, the door they entered through remained open.
Dizzy uttered a short prayer, and her eyes became attuned to anything magical. She looked at the chains and the lock and the door.
"Because the way you were hopping through that balance challenge, we clearly shouldn't be taking you to too many restaurants..." Rex ribbed towards Duncan with a laugh. Sighing he turned his attention back to the challenge ahead. Staring up at the chains he said, "Well, we could start tugging or climbing and see what happen...but that doesn't seem like such a great idea in a trap challenge....Not sure what else to do though..."
"Are we agreed that the key is at the top of one of these chains?", pause for effect, "There is no guessing what the chains might do. The shadow could be a poisonous miasma, a section of the ceiling might fall on the climber, the room might fill with sand.", Jibril was envisioning each result and it's morbid effect on the team with his passionless elven serenity, "Is there a way to get up there without using the chains? Or make someone so light that they don't activate a possible device? Even if the climber were light as a feather it would probably be an act of great delicacy to not jostle the chain."
"Can the lock in the door be picked? The slightest misstep or scratched cog and the walls will most certainly become perforated with spikes and close in about us.", surely Jibril didn't realize how gloomy he was getting.
"If we cannot circumvent the system then we should have one of our three best climbers on each chain, a runner on the floor to catch the key and rush it to the keyhole, and everyone else by the door ready to get clear."
The lock lights up as magical, but nothing else.
"I'd open the door if there was a way to open the door. Obviously they've made it more difficult than that. There's no differences between the chains, at least not apparent from down here. Unless someone has a way of seeing above those shadows, our only option is to start yanking on chains or climbing them."
Nope, the chains aren't long enough to reach to the door, or any of the walls.
So, going with Rex's plan, or Jibril's? Who will pull which chain? We'll call the one closest to the locked door 1, then 2 and 3.
Jibril looks at Rex eyeing the chains and seems to be guessing what is in his mind, "I have cut my rope short. Does anyone have a rope we can tie to the end of the chain? We could pull at one and none of us need be in the room."
Quinn handed her rope to Jibril, "You can use it but don't cut it."
Looking up into the shadows she added, "I could also shoot a crossbow bolt upwards and see what happens. At least it would tell us roughly how high the ceiling is."
"I was thinking of just yanking it." Rex admitted with a laugh, "So, your plans are probably better to try first!"
Quinn handed her rope to Jibril, "You can use it but don't cut it."
Looking up into the shadows she added, "I could also shoot a crossbow bolt upwards and see what happens. At least it would tell us roughly how high the ceiling is."
Duncan put a hand on Quinn's arm, "I like that idea but let me light up your bolt and see what's up there."
The blond man then snapped his fingers and made a gesture as if pulling something from Quinn's ear, "Ah, it looks like you already had light."
He smiled and placed the light on the tip of the crossbow, "Shoot."
Quinn loaded the lit bolt into her crossbow, and shot up towards the ceiling, close to the chains. The lit end of the bolt disappeared into the swirling shadows, but it hit the ceiling with a loud clunk before the feathered shaft had even disappeared from sight. The bolt then tumbled to the floor. It sounded like it had hit stone.
Quinn gave Duncan a look that made it clear she was not amused. "That is the last time you pull anything out of my body, understand?"
When her bolt quickly struck something solid, she was surprised. "Why mask the ceiling with shadow when it's not that high? Maybe there's something written on the ceiling?"
Jibril threaded an end of Quinn's rope through the bottom, figure eight-ed it through the second link from bottom, then back through the bottom link like he was trying to balance a house of cards. He tied the end of the rope to itself and uncoiled it until it reached the doorway they came in.
"Rex? You're the strongest, would you like to do the honours?"
Rex raised his eyebrow, "Honors, eh?". He looked up towards the shadow and then traced it down to the rope that Jibril had handed him. Honors of getting blown up. Still, Rex was never going to admit out loud that he was nervous to pull it. With a sigh, he said, "Alright, everyone yet back..." and began tugging the chain.
Rex pulled the rope, which pulled the chain. They heard a loud click, as if something metal were being unlatched. Then a shower of scorpions fell from the ceiling, landing where they'd been standing a few moments ago. The small creatures began scurrying in all directions.
Dizzy shivered as the venomous bugs rained down. "Good plan!" she said, giving Jibril a solid pat on the shoulder. Shouldering her mace, she stomped into the room, intent on smashing them under her boots.
"Good plan!" she said, giving Jibril a solid pat on the shoulder. Shouldering her mace, she stomped into the room, intent on smashing them under her boots.
Jibril drew his hammer and followed Dizzy in, "The plan was half Rex's ... there must be a quicker way to clear this room? If only we had a broom!
As soon as it began raining scorpions, Quinn was pulling a flask from her bag. She lobbed it into the room just before Dizzy and Jibril moved back inside.
"Just leveling the field. Stomp away."
"Yep. My half was the part where scorpions rained from the sky. Your half was the part where they didn't land on us us." He gave Jibril a hard clap on the back, "Good job, lad."
With that also moved in to stomp on the scorpion. He also lifted his spiked shield and slammed in into a few on the group. Once he was satisfied that the majority were dead, he looked to the others and asked, "Next one? Or do you think there's value in trying to actually see what's up there?"
Half the scurrying scorpions burned up under Quinn's magical fire, and most of the others were quickly dispatched by boot, shield, mace and hammer.
Jibril untied the rope and handed it over to Dizhildi, "I don't think the chain trap could reset itself that quickly. If you set up for the next chain I'll go feel around ... I hope all of the scorpions have fallen. You better all step back just in case." Jibril tried to hand-over-hand up the chain but quickly resolved to use his feet as aid. When he got close enough he felt at the top of the chain flinching every time he touched something.
"Alright. Just be careful." Rex said, as tried to hold the bottom of the chain stable for Jibril to climb.
Quinn helped Dizzy tie the rope through one of the links of the next chain. "I guess it makes sense to just systematically pull the next one." Once they had the rope in place, Quinn waited for Jibril to finish climbing the first chain to check it out and descend before contemplating pulling the second chain.
Jibril climbed the chain with ease. When he reached the top, he stuck his hand cautiously up into the shadows. There was no sensation to accompany the illusory darkness. He was barely wrist deep in shadows before his fingers brushed the stone ceiling. It felt like the chain ended at a small cage, which no doubt had held the scorpions. The door was still open; likely the trap would not be reset until they had exited the cavern. Other than the cage door, there was nothing to feel up here other than the uneven rock of the cavern.
Jibril cannot reach as far as where the next chain disappears into the shadows.
Once he was safely down, they repeated the endeavour with the 2nd chain. This time the chain release a flood of metal items - a cacophony of clanging as hundreds of small somethings rained down onto the cavern floor. After waiting a moment to see if anything nastier would fall, they approached to see a small heap of iron keys. It didn't take long to see that they all looked almost identical; there were only small differences in the cuts on the blade.
"Keys? Really?"
Duncan shook his head, "I guess it's better than scorpions."
He neared Quinn, "Well, how about grumpy? Can you tell which key will fit the lock?"
He quickly added, "And don't get mad about being called 'grumpy'; we all need to lighten up here. It's suppose to be a game, right?"
In a fairly monotone voice she said, "I know, right? Keys, how shocking. There is that huge hole in the door that's key shaped but I'm sure that means nothing."
Quinn was already on her way back to the door to take a closer look at the lock. She looked for any possible distinctive ridges within the lock that would hint to what the key would look like.
Quinn whirled around and presented Duncan with her most dazzling, fake smile that she would often use on her mother. "Grumpy? Who's grumpy?"
Quinn's face quickly returned to its usual reserved, slightly aloof, state. "The lock was magical, right? Does that mean the key might be too?"
Dizzy looked up from her scorpion stomping, and saw that Quinn was ready with the rope for the second chain. "Aye, right, I guess the last few wee buggers won't be bothering us."
Quinn's face quickly returned to its usual reserved, slightly aloof, state. "The lock was magical, right? Does that mean the key might be too?"
Dizzy nodded, and turned her attention to the heap of keys. "Aye, I'll take a look. Makes sense that the magical lock would need a magical key." She waded through the keys, kicking through the pile, looking to see if any had an aura of magic around them.
Dizzy's magical sight reveal that the entire pile of keys gives off a transmutation aura. (The lock had an abjuration aura).
Rex eyed the pile of keys skeptically. "Are we sure any of these are going to open it?" He began to also start looking through the keys. "Seems like the trap door would be all about tricks and smarts. This just seems like time and guess work." His eyes kept wandering with curiosity at the third chain. What if that one holds the answer?
Hmm Jibril took off his cloak and gathered all of the keys into it, "I agree. Let's try the last chain and if it doesn't present a solution then we look for a way to try these." He moved the keys to the hall and transferred the rope to the final chain.
A third and final time they pulled the rope-chain from a safe distance. This time it was not a gentle "click" of a small latch; rather, there was a grinding sounds, as if a large stone door were being opened. Then, a large, strange creature leapt from the ceiling to land lightly on the ground. It hit the ground with a thud, and immediately turned to face them.
Over ten feet long, and taller than Dizzy, it was mottled green and grey, and covered in scales like a reptile. However, it had 8 strangely jointed legs, with bone spurs sticking up from it's joints and spine. It had a squat, serpentine head, and in the dim light of the cave, its eyes glowed with a green light. It opened its mouth in an inaudible challenge, clearly ready to attack.
Duncan was either getting tired of this or he finally realized that there was no real danger of dying in these games.
Either way, he softly exclaimed, "Oh goody, something else for us to fight. Joy."
-------------
Quinn rolled her eyes. "We had perfectly good keys. Were you hoping for more?"
She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the reptile, "What is that thing?"