Fluuk crosses his eyes and studies the doors intently, looking for hints or clues to the possible presence of magic on the doors
Fluuk:
A strange Aura is seen all around this door, it has elements to it that suggest it is a conjuration type of magic. Please make a Knowledge Arcana Skill Check, not a Spellcraft Skill check
While Fluuk stares at the door trying to understand what he is seeing, Gemdar suggest that someone try to open the door when Fluuk is done. At that moment, Gobzilla crouches by the face of the door and examines the markings
Spoiler:
You cannot tell exactly what you are looking at for la long moment, and then it is suddenly crystal clear. The residue is metallic in nature, and the small patterns, and narrow markings clearly are the result of the dagger like arms of the small bug like machines with zombified goblin heads you encountered at the top of the gorge. A partially devoured machine like this was also seen in the lair of the shambling mound
As the others discuss the possibility of opening the door, Fluuk racks his brain trying to think through all the reasons why the door has such an unusual aura, when suddenly it occurs to him
Fluuk:
Somehow this door is directly connected to a source of energy from the negative material plane, that is the only explanation. Opening this door will channel negative energy, and that could be bad...
"Hey, whoah. This door is dangerous. It is connected to the negative material plane. It will channel deadly energy if we open it. We need to use the zombie machines somehow so we aren't subjected to it. "
The party of goblin heroes back tracks through the cavern where they encountered the large undead bug/machines, and approaches the cavern of the shambling mound with caution.
The mound appears to be sleeping in the center of the cavern, surrounded by the metal parts of the creatures it has recently consumed
[ooc]To sneak by the sleeping Mound will require Stealth Skill Checks, the DC is 8[/dice]
Male Goblin Druid (Saurian Shaman) 3 | AC 19 T 14 FF 16 | HP 33/33 | F +6 R +4 W +6 | CMD 20 | Init +9 | Perc +9
Gobzilla and Gaia take their sweet time stealthing across the room. Gobzilla even takes off his dragon suit to make sure that it doesn't hinder his movements. Once safely in the other room, he puts it back on.
That said, he keeps a bag of animal feed handy just in case.
Taking 10 for both characters. Gobzilla removes his hide armor to avoid ACP and puts it on again once in the other room. The thing is asleep, so we really aren't in danger per se.
Following the pathway out of this cavern to the southeast* the group follows a twisting turning series of tunnels until they arrive at small door, made from a single piece of stone. The door is only four feet high, and barely two feet wide.
After a quick inspection of the door, it is revealed that there are no traps, or locks here, and no magical auras.
"He's so brave!" Fluuk watches and hope nothing blows up, although a tiny part of him secretly does, not because he wants to see Gobzilla hurt, but because explosions are so cool.
Gobzilla opens the door with a simple turn of the handle.
Beyond the door is a large peculiar chamber. It is not a natural chamber, but is obviously carved out of the rock. It is a round chamber, with a hole in the center of the room. There is an ancient wooden door, across the room to the southeast, and a five foot wide passageway going north.
In order to keep myself clear about the map, it may seem like the direction are backwards, but the top of the map is actually the south here
Gobzilla has apparently opened a secret door formed out of the curved stone wall.
Male Goblin Witch 4 | AC 18 T 14 FF 14 | HP 30/30 | F +4 R +4 W +6 | CMD 15 | Init +10 | Perc +14, I +2
Gemdar looks around as he enters the room, "Ooooo, that's a secret door. Let's see if there are any more!" He then starts moving to the left looking at the wall.
As the Goblins move through this unusual chamber toward the old wooden door across from the secret door they take note of some features that are not all that easy to explain
First, there is a deep grove cut in the floor of this room. It comes from the north and can be seen passing under another old wooden door in an alcove in the northern most part of this round chamber. The grove is smooth, smoother than the flagstones that make up the floor here. The grove passes straight toward the hole in the center of the chamber.
The hole in the center of this round chamber is about ten feet in diameter, and has a strange fixture in the center. A sort of protrusion of the floor extends out toward the center of this hole, but there is little to no room for anyone to stand there. Instead the protrusion is dominated by what appears to be some sort of fountain. The grove cut into the floor passes under this fountain and seems to end there. The strange fountain is shaped like a prostrate goblin hero, with her chin touching the floor right at the edge of the protrusion. The mouth of the fountain/statue is open, and the eyes are shut. This statue is shaped in the form of a prostrate goblin girl, dressed in simple robes and wearing a crown.
Peering carefully over the edge of the hole and looking down into the darkness you see something that looks like a shiny reflective surface.
Crossing to the old wooden door on the east side, Tabaaac stops and gives the door the once over. It appears to be a simple, but heavy door, which fits loosely in the frame. The hinges are old but free from rust or signs of damage. There is a large handle on the door which can be grasped to pull the door open in toward you.
There are no signs of any sort of trap on or near the door.
Moving slow and quiet, Tabaac creeps toward the turn in the passageway and peers around the corner.
He sees that the passageway goes south about twenty feet and opens up into some kind of room. His doesn’t hear or smell anything unusual, but this area does seem drier than the previous caves have been
Tabaaac leads the others in a single file column southward down a narrow passageway into the larger area, room or chamber whatever it might be, ahead.
It turns out to be a small room, some fifteen feet square in dimensions, with a door in the south wall, near the east wall, and a strange sort of standing stone in the center of the room. On top of the standing stone are several stacks of small stone bowls.
The standing stone is approximately one foot thick, four feet high, and seven feet wide and it is carved very meticulously with a graphic representation of some sort of water blessing, collecting, and transporting scene.
The scene depicts a group of goblins following behind a beautiful female goblin as she raises her hands near a pool of water, then the next image shows several goblins collecting water into bowls carried in their hands. The procession then passes by the very same stone you are looking at, going to the north. In the next engraved image, the goblins hold the bowls high above their heads as they stand around a pit with a place in the center of the pit where the beautiful female goblin stands and holds her arms to the sky with her head tilted back (you recognize this pit as the one you just recently passed in the previous room). The final image shows the goblins dumping water out of the bowls and from each line of water rises a stylized image of a fantastical creature, plant, or object.
The whole sequence of images is not too difficult to interpret and it would seem to imply that a ritual is performed (or was performed at one time long ago) where water was drawn from some source to the south of you, and poured into the pit in order to enact some agent of creation magic.
When Fluuk grabs a bowl, the first thing he notices is that it is not deep, it is shallow, and the inside is polished to a very smooth surface, almost glass like.
peering closer you look for hidden messages in the relief carvings, but you cannot find any. You think back on all the stories you’ve heard about the “Pool of all the Right Words” and some of what you remember is confirmed by what these images reveal. There is a ritual, though you do not know the details, you do know that it involves “thanking the spirits of the water,” which in most stories is an elemental creature of one kind or another. Blessed water from a special source is offered to a deep well of “right words” and the Right Words are revealed. Oh, and there was something about not spilling the blessed water, yes that did come up in one or two stories. Finally when you go over the images one more time, you notice that the procession toward the deep well of right words, seems to look as if the people carrying water in bowls have deeply troubling looks on their faces, with most of them holding their tongues, out the side of their mouths with lips clamped tight, while the ground beneath their feet seems to be rendered in “ripples”
Male Goblin Archivist (Bard)/4 AC 18, T 16, FF 13, | HP 28/28 | F +2, R +8, W +5| CMD 17| P 8 | Int +6 | Perform 12/12
Look the people carrying the bowls don't look happy! Maybe we look around more and only do this if nothing else comes! Tabaaac says I think carrying bowls of water will be very hard! And we shouldn't spill any water!
Male Goblin Archivist (Bard)/4 AC 18, T 16, FF 13, | HP 28/28 | F +2, R +8, W +5| CMD 17| P 8 | Int +6 | Perform 12/12
Yeah yeah South Tabaaac says, still freaked out by the unhappy goblins carrying the bowls. If this really is the pool of right words though we should only look around a bit more