Round 3, Initiative 11
Weapon Equipped = Crossbow, Crossbow
Channel Energy Left: x7
Resistant Touch Left: x8
Strength Surge Left: x6
Cleric Spells Left: 1) Command
"Finneas, give me about 15' of length on the rope and hold tight. Atol, you may want to help!"
Atol breaks from his preparations and looks at Dyrant. "May the blessings of St. Cuthbert be upon you sir!". He grabs the other end of the rope, ties it around himself (move/standard) and prepares to be an anchor.
Round 4 Initiative 24
Finneas draws his sword and attacks the entrance to the trap.
Finneas and Glimmil each chip a hole in the floor, but Silfir is not to be seen. Instead, the spiked room is gone and large rotating gears can be seen 30' down. Silfir still to act before the trap.
Dyrant looks at Atol with a small measure of thanks in his eyes, but instead unties the rope from his person so that he can move should the furious chopping be fruitful.
Dyrant looks at Finneas chopping away and wonders why didn't hold the rope.
I should be thankful that at least Atol knows the value teamwork.
Finneas and Glimmil each chip a hole in the floor, but Silfir is not to be seen. Instead, the spiked room is gone and large rotating gears can be seen 30' down. Silfir still to act before the trap.
Silfr expects to be thrown onto the floor on the next rotation, so will take this moment to look for hatches, controls, or objects to manipulate.
He also will continue to hang in the event the room action pattern is not yet clear.
Round 5, Init 20+
Glimmil glances downward, seeing the large rotating gears now exposed from the hewn trapdoor.
He spots the rope tied around Atol and Finneas.
"Someone needs to get down there and stick something in the teeth of those gears!"
Glimmil appears ready and willing, but seeing how Atol and Finneas are both already secured by rope, he makes himself ready to assist the "anchor" person.
Round 4, Init 20, Trap
Gears continue to turn and the room lurches into view of the party as Silfir is thrown against the wall of spikes. One particularly sharp spike pierces Silfir's armor and goes to the bone of his leg.
spike
to hit
to confirm
damage
crit
Silfir looks around for any means of escape without success.
Round 4, Initiative 11
Weapon Equipped = Crossbow, Crossbow
Channel Energy Left: x7
Resistant Touch Left: x8
Strength Surge Left: x6
Cleric Spells Left: 1) Command
After tying himself (at the waist) to the rope, Atol moves to N -13 and wedges himself as best he can in the door to improve his 'anchor' position.
Truly I am Dyrant's anchor!
Then he turns around and sees the rope, slack, tied to no one, resting on the floor...
What the? What happened to the plan? What do I do now?
Atol hovers indecisively between his original course of action (healing) and his new task (anchor). "Hey, guys? What should I be doing?"
Leaving the rope tied to him, he finishes his movement by going near the edge of the pit and trying to see Silfr and readies his action again to heal him if he sees him even for an instant. He feels most despondent and dejected...
Dyrant tosses the rope down.
"Silfr, if you have the strength, we have rope for you."
Dyrant will attempt to aid Atol should he need bracing the rope.
Strength check:
Round 5 Initiative 24
"Silfr!"
Hang on Silfr
Initiative
Round 4
Atol = 11 - Atol channels for 5 which will reach Silfir.
Dyrant = 9 - Dyrant tosses the rope down.
Silfir = 8
Round 5
Finneas = 24
Glimmil = 20 - Glimmil is on the other side of the trap and would need to go across. Two people are anchoring it. I'm assuming he'll stay and chop at the floor.
Trap = 20
Atol = 11
Dyrant = 9
Silfir = 8
Initiative
Round 4
Atol = 11 - Atol channels for 5 which will reach Silfir.
Dyrant = 9 - Dyrant tosses the rope down.
Silfir = 8
Round 4
Silfr has lost his shimmering otherworldy armor, and has taken significant wounds. Seeing the rope, he will stand up and climb.
"Pull me above this murderous room before it spins again!"
Round 5, Init 20-, Trap
Silfir climbs 15' up and is in the space between the floor and the spiked room. The room does not move. The party can chip open a hole large enough for Silfir and grab him before he needs to make another check to stay on the rope. We're out of initiative.
Dyrant will look into the hole scanning for his, uhm, he means, Silfr's marvelous armor.
Perception
Glimmil claps his hands and looks at Silfr with profound admiration.
"Truly an exciting adventure, sir! I am most jealous. I would have greatly enjoyed a closer look at this gnomish work of art!"
The gnome is so distracted by the excitement, he doesn't even realize Silfr's mystical armor has dispersed.
Seeing now that a pit separates him from the others, he will systematically search his side for anything of note - all the doors, walls and floors around him.
"You're safe now friend. That was a vicious trap. We must be more careful."
Atol unties himself and carefully coils up the rope and hands it out to, er, Finneas.
This was his rope, was it not? I don't remember...
"Finneas, is this yours? Good idea having it. I would carry some as well, but alas I am not strong."
"Thank you Atol, that is my rope. Kord willing we won't need it again."
We meet another trap like that and we're done for
Dyrant helps collect the assorted gear from around the pit.
"We were lucky not have one die with this one. We must be cautious."
Dyrant surveys Silfr again, now without his armor.
I once read a book called "Natural Selection: Why Owlbears will eventually rule the World" (by Zurisatro Mandurkin) and I would have thought Atol would be first to prove it true. But maybe another is the weakest.
"If I recall correctly, we were about to enjoin in an orderly and patterned search of this city, starting with that door back on the right."
Dyrant points his companions to the door on the far side of the hallway.
Seeing now that a pit separates him from the others, he will systematically search his side for anything of note - all the doors, walls and floors around him.
Taking his time, Glimmil is now able to clearly see the 10'x10' trap doors. There is no lever or other obvious release. You believe you could disable it safely.
"You're safe now friend. That was a vicious trap. We must be more careful."
Silfr climbs out of the pit with Finneas's help, and see's Atol anchoring the rope, Glimmil with the axe that defeated the trapdoor, and Dryant eyeballing him and looking around the pit.
"My friends, that was an experience I would not recommend! Without my armor I would have succumbed to this mechanism as surely as the silversheen man down there who now resides on a spike."
"And Atol, if not for your quick thinking to gift me with healing I the bone piercing spikes may have left me too shocked to climb out!"
Recovering from the shock of the ordeal for a moment, Silfr then looks to Finneas and shakes his hand in thanks.
"Finneas, Glimil, you have my heartfelt gratitude as well. Lesser men would stand by and do nothing, quailing from the risks these traps present. As long as we are together the dangers of these halls cannot defer our good intentions!"
What is he looking for down there?
After searching the end of the passageway, Glimmil stands at the edge of the trap, looking at the others not unlike a small puppy that may be upset at being left home alone.
"Hmmm..." he says, while surveying the situation.
Clearly I need to get myself a larger spoon, perhaps a 10 foot wooden one...
"Dyrant, lead the way."
Dyrant leads the way to door B-12.
"There, let's start the ordered search in that room. It should be closed off."
Dyrant confirms it with the map.
"Silfr, are you still injured? Do you need aid? And your armor...did you want to go back and get it? Was it destroyed?" Dyrant looks concerned.
After searching the end of the passageway,
Glimmil finds both doors A & R securely locked. However, while "searching the end of the passageway" he finds the southern wall (T/U,-12/-13) to be, well, not there, as his hand passes through it.
"Hello? What's this?" Glimmil asks, his hands passing through the southern wall.
He steps through the wall, taking the lone light source with him beyond.
Dyrant notices the gnome, GarlGlimGnome, disappear from view and contemplates on the duality of the gnome nature: one on hand, they possess the knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence to build a wonder like this city...on the other hand, Dyrant wonders where Glim went.
"Glim, are you there? Glim!?"
"Hello? What's this?" Glimmil asks, his hands passing through the southern wall.
He steps through the wall, taking the lone light source with him beyond.
Glimmil, being of a race accustomed to use (abuse?) of illusions, appreciates the intricate work to create a false wall such as this.
Stepping on his toes, he quickly surveys the map on the south wall.
Is this similar to Dyrant's map? Is it more updated? Oh, I didn't even really pay much attention...
"Silfr, are you still injured? Do you need aid? And your armor...did you want to go back and get it? Was it destroyed?" Dyrant looks concerned.
The brigand covets my armor!
Softly, Silfr responds to Dryant. "As you can see I no longer have it. You are welcome to descend the pit and seek therein."
Silfr considers the wall, and says"It is strange that there is not an open room here, as the map Dryant carries would suggest."
"As I suspected, what we saw was initially did not match our map."
"There friend Silfr, now you can all see again."
I'm glad I didn't get my mother's eyes
"Glim. Glim where have gotten to? And is the trap disabled?"
So rash, he keeps wandering of like that he's liable to get eaten
"And Atol, if not for your quick thinking to gift me with healing I the bone piercing spikes may have left me too shocked to climb out!"
Atol stands numb, still reeling from the near death of his new companion, and his thanks. Quick thinking!! Oh my.
He barely notices when he becomes the new source of light for the party and won't shake it until action is called for. Glimmil missing? Nothing new there, he's just off on his own adventure...
Re-emerging from behind the false wall, Glimmil moves to the edge of the pit and begins working on disabling it's mechanism.
Pulling out his tools, he lays them about on the ground while beginning his work.
Pausing in the middle of the effort, he looks up at the others, "Oh! There's two more doors in the room at the end here, runes are 'E' and 'Z'."
"Did you check all the doors on your side yet?"
There are four of them, hopefully they were productive while I was exploring!
Pulling out his tools, he lays them about on the ground while beginning his work.
Glimmil slides a spoon into a crevice, taps it with hammer, and is satisfied that it is now safe to walk across the trap doors--except where the holes are of course.
Glimmil strolls across the doors - which didn't even trigger for him before his "adjustments were made", so the gnome feels confident that they really won't trigger at all now.
Catching up with the others, he stands next to Finneas and glances upward at the large half-orc with an innocent grin.
Staring down at Glimmil with a somewhat manic grin.
"Were those doors open? I think that if they were not we should just stick with this door. Would you like to spoon this door open or should I try to force it open?"
"Glim, be a good man and open that door, won't you? We need to find those children."
Atol moves to H -5 and looks into the room we left particularly to see if the door is still closed at L -1.
He also casually looks up the stairs...
Safety back that way. I wonder how much longer we'll continue this leg of the quest before we take a break?
"Dyrant. How much longer shall we search down here before we take a break? Just curious."
Atol will then follow the rest of the party to top rooms and guard the space around A -13 with his crossbow as people open the doors at -C/-D -12/-13.
Weapon Equipped = Crossbow
Channel Energy Left: x6
Resistant Touch Left: x8
Strength Surge Left: x6
Cleric Spells Left: 1) Command
"I'd suspect we'll be finding a lot of traps. Gnomes love to trap things! I wouldn't be surprised if we already passed a dozen of them since we came down the stairs..."
Glimmil's tone conveys no nervousness, with only perhaps a hint of pride as he speaks plainly.
As he watches Dyrant back away, he shakes his head and makes a clicking sound.
"There could even be one right there!" he adds looking at the floor where the old man is standing.
While inspecting, Glimmil will continue to chat away to the others.
"I wish we had a gnome illusionist with us, they're supposed to be able to simply concentrate for a moment and they can see the faint outline of a magical trap." Glimmil sighs.
To the others, it's clear that Glimmil is not very thorough in his hunt for a trapping mechanism, often becoming distracted while he chats about other topics.
As the gnome works, Silfr asks him a question, and in consideration of the detailed work waits without impatience for the answer.
"Glimmil, while traps may captivate your interest and ours as well, would you expand upon what lies behind the illusion? Besides two doors, was there anything indicative of why the magic shrouded that room and those doors?"
Momentarily forgetting where he was at in his scan of the gnomish door, Glimmil to Silfr.
"There was a giant glowing map and more doors. You can go inspect it yourself while I scan this..."
Glimmil turns to the door, uncertain where he left off and continues a good several feet ahead of that spot he last examined, forever ignoring a section of the door that may have been trapped.
"... err, door. It's perfectly safe to cross the pit now and examine the room."
As if to convince himself, he adds again, "Perfectly safe."
"There was a giant glowing map and more doors. You can go inspect it yourself while I scan this..."
He didn't find a giant glowing map worthy of mention before!
"... err, door. It's perfectly safe to cross the pit now and examine the room."As if to convince himself, he adds again, "Perfectly safe."
"Of course Glimmil, your competence is not in question."
"Finneas, would you move your light cantrip to this silver pin of my house symbol I wear on my clothes? I wish to see that glowing map, and another light source remains behind on Glimmil's shield."
Silfr will walk back across the trap that almost claimed his life, avoiding the chopped hole of course, and will look beyond the illusion.
Silfr will walk back across the trap that almost claimed his life, avoiding the chopped hole of course, and will look beyond the illusion.
"I will go with you as protection if more of those silver men come back until you've had a chance to put your armor back on Silfr."
Looking back at the others
"It looks like Glimmil will be some time, please don't open the door without us. We'll be just down this hall."
I don't like splitting up but just a few feet shouldn't be too terrible.
"Why don't you let me go first Silfr, if there are any more of those pit traps I don't want you to fall victim to them."
Damn gnome is making me jumpy
Female voice: Don't swear!
"Yes mother."
"Dyrant. How much longer shall we search down here before we take a break? Just curious."
"Atol, we've only been down here 20 minutes. And we have yet to explore anything but the bottom of a pit, we have much work yet to do."
Dyrant goes back to his mapping and waiting.