"I have one," Marius said, "But we're not at the point where I'd have to give it up just yet. The riddle seems a bit disjointed to me. I've no dount that there's a fair bit it's not mentioning."
'Well, lets go investigate this passage.'
He grabs his lantern and strolls down the centre of the passageway until he gets to Dresmond, then he slowely starts to trek further down, inspecting the mosaics as he goes and keeping one eye out for anything suspicious.
"Tormentor = torture chamber ; I love riddles --especially what have you got in your pockets " I check out the torture chamber mural (scanning for traps all the way).
@ Wesley, Victor, and Desmond: You all notice what appears to be a trapdoor, and behind it a pit.
"Let me check these first." The burglar would like to check the trapdoor and the pit for traps. Taking 10 makes it a 28 perception check.
Victor cautiously creeps to the edge of the pit, casting his light down to see whats at the bottom.
Is this going too slow for you guys? It's been over a week, and we're only a few pages in.
Faey will join the others at the pit, but is mostly letting others do the work of investigating for the moment.
I feel for ya. Having the same problem with setting up for Carrion Crown and Rise of the Runelord. The maps I get off the PDFs have all the secret doors labled...highly irritating. Luckily some of the more common games have fan made maps out. Can't say I've come across any for ToH...
I feel for ya. Having the same problem with setting up for Carrion Crown and Rise of the Runelord. The maps I get off the PDFs have all the secret doors labled...highly irritating. Luckily some of the more common games have fan made maps out. Can't say I've come across any for ToH...
Exactly my problem. I have Autorealm, so I can make maps, but I've never used it for a grid, so I don't know if I can even make a useable map with it.
After noticing the trapdoor he try's to avoid it completely and examine the wizard workroom mosaic closer.
Perception:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
Marius hung back a bit for the moment, letting the experts peruse the traps. He turned his own attention to the mosaics, committing the riddle to memory. It might well prove helpful, though no doubt less so than any of them might hope.
You notice nothing further about the mosiac.
If I don't see anything I open the trapdoor carefully.
Do I see anything down the pit?
The pit is filled with spikes. The trapdoor is marked on my map with no details of precisely what it is, so I have no idea what you see in the trapdoor :/
Also, I had a mistake. The wizard workroom mural has what appears to be a chest held by two jackals that protrudes into the room slightly. It was hinges on the bottom.
I will examine the chest for traps, especially looking at the hinges for a "safe way" to open the chest.
Victor makes his way further down the passage, moving at half-speed watching for traps.
"Let's make sure to lock that trapdoor up behind us," Marius put in, "Wouldn't want to be leaving in a hurry and fall down the thing."
yes
Okay, clearing a couple of things up. The pit spotted earlier is in fact concealed. You've spotted the outlines of a trapdoor at that location, faintly visible against the flagstones of the floor, and an experimental prod against the flooring causes it to pivot on a central axis, revealing a ten-foot drop onto some rather nasty-looking spikes.
The trap-door in front of the chest doesn't move similarly, and in fact there is no means of opening it that Wesley can discover. It seems to be solidly in place, but does constitute a potential hazard in terms of investigating the chest, standing right in front of it as it does. Even from a distance though, Wesley can discern the opening mechanism for the chest - An out-of-place, slightly raised stud atop the chest's lid.
Victor ponders for a second, then scouts around for a small stone to throw to trigger then stud. Then, he takes minute to brew himself a extract of True Strike, and hurls the stone at the stud.
Wesley produces a weasel from his bag of tricks to trigger the stud from a distance if the mage hand doesn't work.
Iset attempts to casts mage hand upon Victor's stone, hoping to gain control of it before it flies off.
"My friend, I think steady might be the best way to go here."
After a moment's discussion, Iset's mage hand is decided on as the best means of manipulating the stud. A brief press from the hand saw the chest swing anticlimactically open, revealing... absolutely nothing inside. Very anticlimactic. On the other hand, the trapdoor hadn't opened. Small mercies, at least.
Victor grunts, 'That was a waste of time, lets keep going.'
He picks up his lantern, and slowely starts to make his way down the corridor, being careful of his footing.
Iset follows Victor from 5 feet to the left and rear, making a perception check of her own.
"I am confused why everyone wants to jump ahead of the burglar." Wesley produces a weasel to precede him for every step from his bag. He is looking for traps and secret doors.
"Make sure you measure the outside and inside so that the dimensions match."
Knowing what he's looking for now, Victor has no difficulty tracing out the outlines of another large trapdoor beyond the other two and to the left. An experimental shove causes it to swing open revealing, surprise surprise, more spikes. It should be possible to step diagonally across the trapdoors, avoiding standing on either while still proceeding.
Meanwhile, Dresmond's questing hands find a long, metallic rod sticking vertically out of the chest's base, quite invisible to the eye. Following it to the base of the chest, it seems designed to pivot back and forth. Though his hands won't fit through the (invisible) hole in the chest's baseplate, it's a good bet that it connects to some moving object beneath. Looking at the set-up, it's a good bet that something is the catch for the trapdoor he's now standing on.
"Want to tie a rope to it and pull from a distance?"
A length of rope and a sharp tug on the lever caused the trapdoor in front of the chest to swing open revealing, to nobody's surprise, a pit full of spikes. This one contained a layer of dust and several scattered bones amongst the spikes.
While this was going on, a slow, steady advance down the corridor revealed several more pit traps, to the same design as those before. There were no hidden triggers for these, the trapdoors opening to any pressure upon them. The tiled path seemed to cross or avoid the pit traps at random. Beyond the last of the traps, the tiles bifurcated, one path leading to an arch filled with gently moving mist, the second leading to a leering, green devil face set into the mosaic on the southern wall. The devil's mouth gapes wide and is dead black, light failing to illuminate anything within.
Wesley cautiously advances into the mist with his loyal xtra-D weasel leading the way.
As Wesley approaches to arch, three of the stones making up the archway begin to glow. The bottom left foundation stone glows yellow, the bottom right glows orange, and the keystone at the top glows blue.
The weasel, entering the archway, disappears into the mist.
Wesley shouts "I have yellow, orange and blue. Anyone know the order? Left is yellow, right is orange, and top is blue. The inscription read 'Shun green if you can, but night’s good color is for those of great valor'."
"Since yellow and blue make green and the opposite of night is an orange sun, I'm going for orange."
If no one has any better idea, Wesley will try to activate the orange stone by touching it. Wesley's plan is to have only the orange light on if touching the stones turns them off.
While Wesley is working with the tiles, I abandon Victor and move directly towards the mosaic, rolling perception along the way.
Sounds like a good idea to me, however might I suggest we tie a rope to whoever goes in, that way if there's any trouble they can tug on the rope and be dragged back?
"Good idea--the weasel was first."
Wesley touches the orange stone, causing it to grow somewhat more brightly. Otherwise, the scene remains unchanged. The mist continues to swirl within the archway.
Iset's perusal of the mosaics reveals a third point of interest. In addition to the protruding chest and the leering green devil's face, one portion of the mosaic, surounded by scenes of a torture chamber, portrays an iron door which evidently restrains some horrid creature (its scaled and clawed hands grasp the bars of its small window) that can be released to torment the prisoners. Like the chest, the bars seem to be real, recessed into a small hollow in the wall.
Wesley ties a rope to the weasel and follows him in.
He calls out "I'm going in on orange."