Bear stops pushing flatly, takes a step back, a deep breath, and hits it at another angle - with the girls' help.
<-- Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!
"Right, let's give it another go then..."
Aid Another to Bear:
On the third go, you manage to prop up one end just enough to get it over the lip and then push the block partway to the side, making sure that the weight is still on the side touching the pressure plate. It's tiring work, but you succeed, and the trap is not set off.
You can feel a slight breeze coming from the corridor, but there's no clear indication where it's coming from. Dara can tell that it's not like back at the entrance to the Whispering Cairn.
Fredrik can now aim his detect magic down the corridor, and he detects faint magic coming from each of the statues.
It's conjuration magic.
Fredrik turns back to the group, an uncertian look on his face. He turns to Bear and says, "We have a conjuration effect coming from the statues. Not sure what that means."
He looks at Dara, "I believe this is trapped, but I really can't say what will happen here. I am not sure it is a physical trap. We should be ready for anything."
Dara grumbles, "I'm about sure this whole damn place is a trap."
Dara doesn't notice anything that would indicate a trap.
Fredrik turns back to the group, an uncertian look on his face. He turns to Bear and says, "We have a conjuration effect coming from the statues. Not sure what that means."
"Don't look at me... you're the smart guy. Though you're right, with conjuration, it could be damn near anything. Trigger the trap and we might have devil-monkeys vomiting acid up in here with us." There is a pause and he shrugs defensively, "What? It could happen."
"Don't look at me... you're the smart guy. Though you're right, with conjuration, it could be damn near anything. Trigger the trap and we might have devil-monkeys vomiting acid up in here with us." There is a pause and he shrugs defensively, "What? It could happen."
"Great, I think. Now, I will need to drink a lot to get that image out of my mind, Thanks, Bear. Well, Dara, you may as well check for traps here anyway."
"Uh... what do ya think I was doin' while you guys were talkin'? I don't see any others except the one I already told ya about."
"Well someone's gotta walk down there I suppose. Step aside, Shorty. You're done your bit for the moment." UU draws her sword and gingerly starts walking down the corridor along the left-hand wall. She stops just short of the first alcove to see if anything happens like a statue animating or an acid-vomiting devil monkey appearing.
Udaya walks a short distance down the corridor to just before the first set of alcoves. No acid-vomiting devil monkeys appear and the statues do not come to life.
UU breathes a sigh of relief. I hate AVDMs! (Acid-Vomiting Devil Monkeys) She watches the statues carefully as she proceeds in front of, and then past them. Assuming nothing continues to happen she proceeds down to the next set of alcoves and repeats the process.
Udaya continues cautiously down the corridor, reaching the next pair of alcoves.
She fails to notice the strange tiny creature hiding behind a statue until it's too late. The creature is nothing more than two floating eyeballs connected by a rope of muscle.
A beam of energy shoots from one of the eyes at Udaya.
The beam hits Udaya in the face.
Udaya is unaffected by it.
The others don't see the creature, but they do see the beam coming out from the statue.
Order: Fredrik, Bear, Dara, Lurking Strangler, Venedictus, Udaya
Up First:
Fredrik sees the flash of light emitted at Udaya, and moves without hesitation and yells at Udaya, "Get back!"
Fredrik sees the flash of light emitted at Udaya, and moves without hesitation and yells at Udaya, "Get back!"
Next Up: Dara, Lurking Strangler, Venedictus, Udaya
Venedictus squeezes through the opening past the stone block and as far down as he can go, cutting back to the north side of the passageway, ending two squares directly "below" Fredrik.
Seeing UU get hit in the face, Dara exclaims, "What in the nine hells was that? UU, you ok?"
Dara, round 1:
Dara shoulders her way down the hallway to see if UU needs help, waraxe instinctively finding its way into her hand as she moves.
If/when she sees the thing attacking UU, she retaliates against it.
Round 1
"Udaya, draw it out if you can!"
Knowing he can't really do anything to help Udaya immediately (and she might not even appreciate it if he did), Bear steps up next to Freddy, preparing to slam the hidden assailant if it shows itself.
After Bear moves and readies his astounding critical , Dara moves up to assist Udaya. She has to get up right behind Udaya before she can see the thing hiding in the alcove behind the head of the statue. It takes her a double move to get there, so she can't attack it this round.
The floating eyeballs then take another zap at Udaya.
The beam again strikes Udaya.
Udaya feels sleepiness wash over her, but she shakes it off.
Venedictus then makes his way down the corridor up to Dara and Udaya.
Next Up: Fredrik, Bear, Dara, Lurking Strangler, Venedictus.
Having gotten blasted by the beast twice, and having everyone yelling at her, UU falls back on the only thing she knows...
She ineffectually stabs at the beast and then moves aside to get out of its sight-line.
Udaya stabs the statue and then moves aside.
The telekinetic blast shoots out from Bear's fist and ripples through the air. It slams into the creature, slapping it back against the wall of the alcove with a light thud. The creature then drops to the floor. Dead or unconscious, you're not really sure, but it's definitely not moving anymore.
Dara pokes at it with the tip of her waraxe, "What the hell was that?"
Dara pokes at it with the tip of her waraxe, "What the hell was that?"
Venedictus had his hand half raised to give Bear a guidance spell, when the mighty wizard finishes the encounter in one shot. He lowers his hand, shrugs, and peers into the darkness down the hallway.
"GOT'EM! Right between... the... eyes?" Bear looks at the thing dumbly, "Okay, seriously, what the hells is this thing?"
Then he looks up at Udaya mischievously, "for the record, I think that counts as totally saving your life... you owe me. I'll let you decide the payment."
Venedictus had his hand half raised to give Bear a guidance spell, when the mighty wizard finishes the encounter in one shot. He lowers his hand, shrugs, and peers into the darkness down the hallway.
Venedictus can see that the corridor seems to open up just at the edge of his vision. (This is what Bear and Fredrick can see as well.) Dara and Udaya can see that the corridor branches to the left and right.
Flash shrugs, "Hopefully its dead by now." Seeing an awkward moment approaching, he turns away from the couple, and examines the statues studiously. Once they have finished, he will have a look down the corridors.
The statue bears a great deal of resemblance to the figure on the sarcophagus. It's not identical, but presumably represents someone of the same race. Fredrik notices that the soft wind in the corridor seems to come, at least in part, from this statue's cupped hands (perhaps the other statues are behaving similarly). Holding his own hand over top, he can feel a strong current of air coming out of the statue's hands, but the air current quickly loses strength more than a couple inches away.
Once they have finished, he will have a look down the corridors.
Once they have finished, he will have a look down the corridors.
Fredrik looks back at the others and waits patiently for Udaya to finish rewarding Bear for his gallantry. Once they have fininshed , he says to the others, These statues are apparently harmless, I figured out what the conjuration aura is. Like refreshing the air in this place."
Then he looks up at Udaya mischievously, "for the record, I think that counts as totally saving your life... you owe me. I'll let you decide the payment."
UU gives him a raised eyebrow that says Do I owe you?. She then pulls out an imaginary ledger, licks the nib on an imaginary chalk pencil and notes a check-mark in the aforementioned ledger.
"With three checks, you get a bonus. Or you can trade them in when earned. Ball is in your court, big man."
Unless there is a reason to investigate this conjured airflow, UU will suggest they proceed as before - with her doing her paranoid of statues and AVDMs routine - until they reach the final set of alcoves.
Udaya moves further down the hall until she reaches the final set of alcoves. As soon as she gets, the temperature suddenly drops (the others do not feel a temperature drop), like winter just descended on the Whispering Cairn. She can't help but shiver from it.
Up ahead, she can see that what appeared to be a branching of the corridor is actually an opening into a large chamber with a massive central column. She can only make out what's on the side of the column to her right. There, she can see a mass of what looks like mold spilling out over the floor.
Udaya moves back to the rest of the party and describes what she saw and felt. She chose not to go any further without a little conference.
"Ya know, I should be up there with ya checkin' the stonework fer traps right?"
Udaya feels much better now she's out of the strangely cold zone.
Dara moves down along the corridor as far as the last alcoves, but finds no sign of any traps. The sudden cold at the last alcoves is quit unnerving though.
Bear takes a moment to chop the little eye-ball-thing into a couple of pieces before moving on. "Well, nothin' for it but to move on, right? I say we move up into the cold and see what else we can see."
Bear does not detect any magic coming from the cold area other than the conjuration magic coming from the statues.
The group moves down the corridor and into the cold area, which extends into the larger chamber. It seems to get even colder once you are in the chamber. To the group's right, you can see that quite a large area of the floor is covered in this putrid brown mold. The floor to the left looks clear though.
Diplomacy check to make Udaya drop everything she has (including clothes) and jump Bear where he stands... 13... damn! Well, it was worth a shot.
"Mold is generally unhealthy, although I've never seen this particular kind before. Try to avoid touching it, or stirring it up, or breathing it in. If we can't get around it, some of the fire we didn't have to fight the beetles might burn it away. Next time we decide to explore an ancient tomb, we should bring torches, even if we do have magical light."
"Yeah, no kidding there, Vene." Fredrik eyes the mold uneasily. "I think the cold seems to be coming from the mold itself. Probably wanna see if there is another way around it"
You move round to the left side of the central column . The cold starts to diminish noticeably as you do so, lending support to the idea that the cold is coming from the mold.
On this side of the column, there is an opening to another chamber, which must have once been the living quarters of someone important. A large stone slab that suggests the shape of a bed rests against the far 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 god. A glyph that looks like a stylized arrow marks an amulet worn around the figure's neck. Wardrobes and dressers carved from the stone walls look to have been ransacked a long time ago.
Fredrik peers into the room, and comments, "Hmmm looks like someone beat us to this place. Still, there might be some more clues about the Wind Dukes here as well."
Fredrik, once finished scanning the room, waits for an all clear from Dara, and Udaya if she cares to assist, before entering the room to examine the bas-relief.
Fredrik detects magic coming from the stone bed.
It's a faint conjuration aura.