The acid splats on the side of the door, the wall hissing and smoking a bit as it leaves a burn mark.
"Aw, cactus-butt!" she exclaims in disappointment.
She looks to the others.
"Sorry, I thought I had him. I won't start throwing those around up here. Too risky now that WE'RE the ones in the rafters!"
Sey would prefer to retreat. Perhaps draw them out to us or find another route.
"A wise move," Fawziya says, shouldering her weapon. "Watch the walls - they might have tunneled through them." She climbs back down the ladder, and begins leading the party back to the unexplored first level of the monastery.
"Exploration's fun, but it's more fun when you're not having things thrown at you. Let's go."
Alem follows along behind, his lighted staff raised high and his eyes always moving as he takes everything in. "It seems this temple is not so abandoned as it appeared. What else besides pugwampis might we find here?"
You all make your way back down the ladder quickly, not wanting to brave the floor above. Alem looks around to see if there is anything of note. In a pile of dired gnoll skull and bones, you find an uncut garnet worth around 150 gp. Further into the area (A2) you find some torn-out pages of a book. It seems to come from an old text called The Birth of Light and Truth, Sarenrae's Holy book. Unfortunately, the books pages and the altar that it rests on is smeared with excrement and smells absolutely foul. Other than that, you gather what seems to be about 47 gp worth of assorted religious objects, loose coins, and random trinkets.
It doesn't seem like the pugwumpi's are following you, even after waiting a few minutes.
Zoisa's eyes widen at the sight of the gem.
"Not a bad find, Reu!"
She looks about.
"Suppose we go pugwampi hunting? Might give us the opportunity to explore in peace."
Alem appraises the gem disinterestedly. It likely had some monetary value, but it was mundane and afforded no further information about the sanctuary. As he stows it within his robes, Kaspar watches the stone disappear with greed in his eyes.
Alem admires Reuleaux's find, thankful that someone in the party had the capability to cast such a handy spell. "Be careful with those pages - they may crumble if you mistreat them!"
Seyhannah notices Reu's wounds and moves to grant him some relief. "I'm sorry I didn't notice your wounds. I've been caught up in this place." Humming a soft hymn Sey places her hands on Reuleaux's shoulder and heals some of his wounds.
Zoisa cocks her head a bit, bemused at the group's awe at some dirty paper when compared to an actual gem, but she keeps her mouth shut. She knows better than to mock one of the best goddesses in the cosmos in her own holy space. She didn't want to risk a nasty sunburn.
Like Zoisa, Fawziya is less interested in the soiled pages of a holy text than the small amount of treasure found within the halls. "One of you can carry those pages," she says, wrinkling her nose. "I'll not carry something that has the memory of gnoll dung upon it."
"The magic got rid of it, though. They're as clean as the day they were made!" Zoisa says.
As Reuleaux puts the altar back in a respectable order, the light seems to change in the room, bringing the damp smell and eerie light into something more fresh and peaceful. A subtle change of the light hitting the broken windows seems to shine a ray of light on the altar, as if inviting you.
Alem cracks a wry smile as he pulls the gem out again. "But something with the memory of gnoll skulls upon it is so much more enticing," he says, he words dripping with irony.
"That doesn't sound creepy at all," Zoisa replies, equally sarcastically.
"Ghosts aren't gonna talk to you if you call out for them like lost kids in a bazaar!" Zoisa replies with a scoff.
"You gotta make them wanna say something to you. Keep doing stuff that'll please them and you'll get your oracular vision...or you could chew some pesh. I find that helpful."
Zoisa moves in to take a closer look at the nook.
Zoisa to examine the nook, seemingly oblivious to the commentary of the others, hoping there's something interesting within.
No ghosts answer Reu.
You all move over to the unexplored nook and look about. A statue adorns this area, a bearded figure appearing on a hilltop to a group of robed pilgrims. Though many of the faces and limbs on the bas-relief have been worn down or cut away, the expressions of those range from beatific to horrified.
As Zoisa pokes around, she notices that there seems to be a line pressed into the wall, most likely a secret door!
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Zoisa "hmmms" at the statue. Likely that Saint Reu and Seyhannah were talking about whose monastery they were conquering for Almah. The beard was certainly impressive. Zoisa had great respect for men with big ol' beards. Beards like that take effort. Her inner monologue is interrupted when she notices the line in the wall, and her eyes light up.
"GuysguysGUYS!" Zoisa says excitedly. "Secret door!"
She waves them over.
"I'm probably not going to be able to open it with my little noodle arms. You wanna take a crack at it, Fawziya? You're the strongest in our gang."
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"Certainly!" Fawziya says, sheathing her sword for the moment. "A heavy door shall not impede our search for long!" She sets her shoulder against the door and shoves...
...and with a mighty shove, the door gives way. "HA! Even a door must yield to Fawziya's might!"
"Hurray for Fawziya!" Zoisa cheers.
She peeks into the secret door and looks around.
Looming walls with no apparent doors enclose this small roofless garden. Monks must have come here to relax and contemplate the ways of nature, but any order they might have brought to the place all those years ago is almost impossible to notice now, as a wild cacophony of multicolored scrub plants and desert weeds have almost completely overgrown the space.
Fawziya looks around, but the mess of plant life doesn't leave much to find.
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"Hmmmph, that was disappointing," Fawziya says, pursing her lips as she surveys the room. "A secret chamber should have gold and jewels, not weeds and sand. I spy nothing in here of value."
"Weeds and sand?" Alem pushes his way inside the room to investigate the wild flora.
Zoisa follows Alem into the courtyard and starts examining the place more carefully, taking a lump of pesh from her pocket and chewing on it as she looks. Secret doors wouldn't be secret if they didn't have something interesting behind them!
Alem looks around, taking note of the local flora. As far as he can tell, these are grown wild and overpowered any of the plants that the long dead tenders had planted.
Zoisa stops the party from leaving, letting her take time to scour the secret garden, and finds a similar secret door on the opposite wall, similar to the one you pried open to access this point.
Zoisa bounces a little with glee.
"Jackpot! Double secret doors! Fawziya, if you would, please?" she says, twirling on her toes and gesturing to the door melodramatically.
Indeed, the room seemed to contain little of interest. The most interesting thing about it was that it shouldn't have been a secret in the first place.
When Zoisa finds another secret door, Alem tries not to get his hopes up.
Sey watches the others with interest through the original secret door. Wanting to give everyone enough space to work in the small courtyard and acting as a rear guard.
"Of course!", Fawziya replies, striding confidently to the door and giving it a hearty shove.
Zoisa notices Alem's frowny face and walks up to him while Fawziya bravely struggles with the door.
"What's wrong, Al? You look disappointed, and not the disappointed you get when Kaspar does something interesting or adorable."
Zoisa waves her hand over Alem's eyes...or at least as far as she can reach considering she was only half his height.
"Hellooooooo!"
Zoisa blinks.
"Are we talking SCARED petrified or GORGON petrified? Because he doesn't look really rocky."
Door open, you stumble upon an austere octagonal chamber that has a tall roof and an aerie of leering gargoyles perched atop each point where a wall meets another wall. An unholy stench of rotting meat, dried blood, and animal excrement hangs heavy in the air, no doubt from the fine crust of gore, animal carcasses, matted leaves, and guano covering the floor.
You're barely able to get over the nauseating stench before the sound of buzzing fills the room and 3 stirges immediately appear and attack!
Initiative Order: Fawziya, Stirges, Reu, Zoisa, Seyhannah, Alem
All of you may post your actions!
With a small shake of his head, Alem starts back to life. "What? Ah, apologies. Something was giving Kaspar quite a fit, but it seems to have passed." The apprentice wizard smiles, as if his explanation were actually coherent. "Now then," he says, his eyes lighting up as the next secret chamber opens. "What have we he-" He chokes mid-sentence as the odor washes over him, assaulting his olfactory senses and making his eyes water. He gasps for breath, bracing himself against the wall as he tries to recover.
As the oversized mosquitoes bear down upon them, Alem coughs his way through the incantation for a spell. "الجليد في مهب الريح" Despite his efforts, his spell does little more than provide a refreshing breeze.
Zoisa wrinkles her nose at the stench in the new room.
"Yuck! I guess not all secret doors lead to exciting things...or at least, exciting in the wrong way...either way, fight time!"
She conjures a glob of acid and launches it at one of the stirges.
Fawziya grimaces in disgust at the putrid stench wafting from the recently opened door, coughing as the stink causes her eyes to water. "Gods above and below, I thought Dashki stank!" The angry buzzing focuses her attention, however, and she draws her blade swiftly as she assesses the threat. "What is this? Dire mosquitos?", she says incredulously. "They will discover there is nothing my blade cannot vanquish!" She charges into the room, slashing at one of the insectoid creatures.
Thinking on her studies Seyhannah tries to recall information about these nasty little insects.
"Be careful! I believe these thing have been known to kill travelers or drain enough blood to weaken them to the dangers of the road. Don't let them get thier needle into you. " Says Seyhannah as she draws her sword and readies to strike any of the insects that come close enough.
"Thanks for the advice, Seyhannah! Let's squash these bugsuckers!" Zoisa says, her head darting right and left with the movements of the stirges, waiting to make her move.