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Seeing that nothing happens when he tosses his bedroll over, and not feeling any more confident for it, Balaxxius turns back to his companions and offers them a smirk before leaping over the half wall to inspect the altar from a closer position.
His hand crossbow is in his main hand, while his rapier is in the other, and his +1 mithril chain shirt is cinched tight, now that the strength has returned to his arms in order to cinch it.
"Let's see what devilry this place has yet to offer..." he mutters to himself.
Balaxxius takes a minute to fully search the alter and the area beyond the wall, looking for anything out of place, or any clues as to another passage to exit the room. Based on previous experience, these portals don't seem to be too promising, and he would rather avoid it if he can.
[dice=Take 20 Perception check "UDLF" (Up Down Left Right) and Altar]20+19[/dice]
Although Balaxxius can't tell exactly what the deal with it is, the glowing blue altar (which, he now notices, is pulsing ever so faintly) gives him a really, really bad feeling.
Most everything else in the room seems normal...the wooden chair appears completely mundane, the two urns are empty, and the skeleton (aside from the issue of looking like it's pointing to the archway in the southwestern corner) seems free of any traps. The only thing Balaxxius finds is a tiny slot with the letter "A" faintly traced above it in the southeastern corner...as the drow takes a step back, he realizes that that section of wall is actually a single block of solid stone, separate from the rest of the wall.
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Balaxxius resists the urge to jump back over the wall before reporting, and decides to see if this odd part of the wall is in fact, a secret door. He spends a few moments trying to find a way to make it work.
"I think I have found something, A door perhaps? Something is not right though... I feel... Funny. Funny odd, not Funny ha-ha." He says, with the utmost, serious look on his face.
Balaxxius carefully examines the stone he's found, running his fingers over it, poking, and prodding. He steps back and stares at it thoughtfully...
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From his current position, Balaxxius thinks out loud, expressing his thoughts and questions in case one of his companions had something to add. He goes back to the altar to inspect it closely, to see if perhaps another clue might be in there somewhere.
After this most recent search, Balaxxius finally comes back over to the other side of the wall, hopeful that the strange feeling he had will go away. He gathers up the group to explain the apparent puzzle he has found, and get their thoughts.
"we seem to be missing a piece to this puzzle....was there something we missed earlier?"
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"Search me." the knight says, with a shrug. "The only thing I've picked up is this collar."
With nothing to contribute, Alaric begins to pace, letting out an exasperated groan. "Come now, Acererak-..." he moans. "... I had hopes this place would test my mettle! So far all you've managed to test is my patience." he complains, to the ceiling. "" he bellows, in the hopes of attracting some monster to their presence.
"Perhaps we could put the collar on the altar and see if that does the trick?"
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"I believe we need to put something into the slot here on the door. Though we might be on the wrong side of the door... "
"Does anyone have anything shaped like a coin, just a bit larger?"
Curious, balaxxius hours over to the piles of silver from the pews and grabs a handful. Bringing them back to the door, he slides a few in, just to see what happens
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Balaxxius's tinkering does nothing to the door, although it does confirm that a coin is about the right thickness...but there's still that ovular depression in the back of the slot...
Coins aren't right, but are thick enough. Need something to fill the depression. What's Balaxxius doing with that coin. He keeps tapping that rin..
"Balaxxius, that ring you are wearing. Would that fit into the slot and fill up the depression?"
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why didn't I think of that?
"Brilliant! Let me try..."
Balaxxius proceeds to pull the mundane, albiet pricey, ring with the opal stone set in it off his finger. He subconciously grips his other hand, containing his ring of feather falling, hoping that it won't be necessary to use that ring to solve this puzzle.
The elf fiddles with the opal ring, trying to fit it into the slot he was just sliding coins into.
Balaxxius slides the ring into the slot and it fits nearly perfectly, the stone set into the ring clicking into the ovular depression at the end of the slot. Nothing else seems to happen, however....
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With a deep sigh, the dark elf extracts his mundane ring from the slot and slides his magical ring of feather falling into the slot.
oh I hope I get that back...
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As Balaxxius releases the magical ring into the slot, magical runes flare outward from the slot, and the huge section of wall begins suddenly to shift downward with a rumble!
The rogue, with a horrified yelp, just barely manages to wedge his blade into the slot and pry out the ring before it's crushed into powder; as it is, he nearly loses the blade as well. The wall stops with a rumble at about waist height on a human, the arcane runes dying down now that they lack a power source. Beyond the ten-foot-thick stone you can see another corridor, this one advancing for twenty feet before turning to the right...
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Reflexes honed by years of tense training, often resulting in painful lessons of failure, pay off as Balaxxius snaps his dagger into just the right crevice to pop the ring out of the slot as the massive stone door shoots up.
whew...
He nods, smiling, to Quadravos. "It is indeed, can't say I saw that coming though..."
With a sigh of relief, he slides the ring back on, then goes about his normal procedure of checking the area to make sure it is safe for his friends.
Moving into the hallway, he peeks around the corner 20 feet down.
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"Ugh," the old gunslinger sighs a little under his breath at the rogue's joke. "My friend, perhaps you should stick to spotting and disarming traps... I don't want that joke to be the last thing I hear in life..."
Maybe it's simply a language-barrier-type-deal, and he's actually quite funny? the old man questions to himself, lifting his musket and preparing to cover the others.
Balaxxius continues to creep down the hallway, and, seeing that a flight of stone steps descends around the corner, he slowly and carefully descends. At the bottom of the stairs there's another turn, again to the right; this time the drow finds himself in another hallway, staring down a blank stone corridor. Thirty feet on, he sees what looks like a standard wooden door...it is, however, boarded over.
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Approaching the door, Balaxxius keeps his eyes peeled for danger, or movement of any kind. This place has proven to be filled with traps in nearly every nook and cranny, so why would this forgotten door be any different? He closes on the decrepit frame, looking for any catches or switches. Once close enough, he presses his ear against it, to see if there is anything to be heard on the other side.
The elf ponders the situation as he studies the innocuous door. It wasn't that bad of a joke... was it? and stifles a lingering cough.
As the party approaches cautiously, Quadravos scans the passageway ahead, but the only magical auras he can detect are the ones on the dark elf's person. There seems to be nothing else amiss here: just a hallway with a boarded over door. As the other four approach, Balaxxius steps back from his close examination of the door.
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Balaxxius stands up and cocks his head sideways a bit, peering at the boarded up door.
"Its almost as if we have found an entrance that was never intended to be used. Normally my mind would scream trap, however its maybe more so like this doorway is just... forgotten. Much like this whole tomb... Anyways, there is nothing here that will blast or slice or shoot if we make our way through. Now what is on the other side, that still remains to be seen."
As the dark elf thinks out loud, he grabs one of the boards and gives it a good push, just to see how sturdy it is.
The elf strains for a moment against the boards which refuse to give way. He turns back to his companions. "Sir Alaric. Perhaps you could give it a shot? I've always been better at hitting a target than breaking it anyways." Balaxxius attempts a half-hearted chuckle to deflect the attention on his spindly arms.
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Alaric readies his shield arm to make a running-tackle, stumbling to a halt in front of the door. "You're right, at that. Who know's what's waiting on the other side..." he says, gratefully. "Let's try a different tack. Stand back!"
Rather than knock it from its hinges, Alaric attempts to reduce the door to splinters with a few swipes of his flail.
A few blows from Alaric's flail easily reduce the fragile door to flinders. Beyond, the hallway stretches a further 20 feet before terminating in a barred door that seems, disregarding a few minor variations in flimsy board placement, identical to the one you just demolished.
As the group prepares to move forward, Balaxxius throws out an arm, preventing Alaric from stepping forward...onto a concealed pit trap that lay just beyond the door. With a few moments' work, he's disabled the trap, rendering the hallway safe enough to move down.
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"Whew... That was close. Here this should do it..."
Balaxxius finishes rigging the trap, and takes a few steps out onto it just to prove its safety. Looking at the heavily armored fighter, then down at his skinny frame, he jumps up and down a few times to accentuate the point.
Moving forward to the next space, he does another search to confirm that this door is indeed, much like the one they just came through.
"Looks like this one will need your delicate touch as well, Sir Alaric." Balaxxius chuckles, hoping his sarcasm is taken as intended, light hearted humor in a dark, damp, death trap.
The elf steps aside, waving his arm towards the boards.
As Alaric smashes through the door, Balaxxius squats down to stare intently at the floor behind the carnage. Now that he's prepared, Alaric pauses and waits while the drow steps forward and confidently locates, and--the work of a moment--disables another pit trap.
Which leaves you staring down yet another section of hall...at yet another door...which, again, seems identical to the two you've left smashed in your wake.
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"It seems our gracious host loves repetitive rooms and non-decorated hallways. Probably to lull us in some sort of false sense of security. Thinking we know what to expect in the next room, to then hit us with something completely different. But let's see where this leads us. Balaxxius, if you would be so kind as to check this boarded up door for any trickery or foul play?"
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"My thoughts exactly Quadrovos. At some point he must have a twist in store.. "
Balaxxius moves up to the next door and repeats his inspection, keeping his eye out for the subtle difference that could spell their doom. Once he has determined the boarded door is free from surprises, he motions to sir Alaric to do his effective handiwork.
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"Lull us to sleep then kill us. Sounds like his kind of idea. I'm going to keep an eye behind us to make sure nothing approaches."
Since Balaxxius finds nothing threatening about the door, Sir Alaric moves forward and, once more, carefully smashes the door to pieces with his flail. As the dust settles, the rogue is already crouched on the floor, examining the area beyond, and after a few moments he begins fiddling.
A couple of minutes later, he straightens back up, and the third pit trap in the hallway is deemed safe to tread upon.
Beyond this point, however, the hallway is different than before: there are no more doors in sight, and instead, forty feet from where you're standing, the hallway makes a right-angled turn to the north.
Balaxxius creeps down the corridor and, peering around the corner, sees a long, unadorned hall stretching away...into darkness. As far as he can tell, there's no trickery and no traps. No doors or openings, for that matter, either.
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Balaxxius continues down the hallway, waving his companions forward. He continues to sweep the area for traps.
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Advancing down the long, empty hallway, you eventually find yourself looking ahead at a massive oaken door, solidly bound with several iron bands. There are a number of sturdy looking iron locks on the door as well, which makes it look quite intimidating.
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"I think we've come to the next hurdle. This door seems to be intended as some form of distraction. The way it's built it is not intended to be opened. We could try to destroy it of course to see if anything can be seen beyond it. But first we should check it for traps and magic."
Quadravos φ looks around while he casts Detect Magic.
As Quadravos gazes at the door with his magically enhanced vision, he does in fact see a faint glimmer of magical light emanating from the door.
The door radiates a faint aura of illusion magic.
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"If the door is fake, and truly a wall, perhaps the trick is that the wall is a door. Or perhaps the door really is a door, but what appears to be the hinges is the handle..."
Balaxxius goes about his standard inspection of the area and the door itself. Placing his hands of the wooden frame, he looks closer at the solid hinges.
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