"Well, that's good to know. Given how the stairs nearly killed a couple of us, I'm guessing those spokes will be meant to hurt us one way or another. I'm going to take a few steps closer, so I can get a little light on things in there, and see if I can sort this out. If I can't, it might make sense to tie a rope around one of those levers and rig up some tackle on the floor, so we can go back up the stairs and pull the levers one at a time when we're nowhere nearby. Though I worry one of those levers will close up our entrance."
Morin advances five to ten feet, the minimum necessary to be able to make out the stone plinth, looking for pressure plates, tripwires, and any other badness.
Karo begins to regain his composure as he watches, intrigued, the wounds on his legs begin to mend themselves. Chloe, I would hazard a guess, that we will all owe you our lives before this errand is complete. I know I certainly do. Karo stands and tests his leg strength before creeping a little closer to Morin and Tek. He begins to study the levers intently. So what do you make of it Morin?
"Because we're adventurers--terminally curious lot," says Sarusa, although she doesn't smile. She sniffs the air. "I should know what that is," she muses.
Shaking her head, she looks around at the area Morin is creeping towards.
"Not your fault, Tekkis..."
---
"Be..because we can't sit by if there's... something bad, going on, too..." Chloe shakes her head. "As long as this is here, doesn't it pose a danger to Sandpoint...? I-if I'm wrong though, let me know."
The oracle peers off into the distance after the front line.
"Morin... you being careful up there?" Chloe asks,
Morin's sunrod illuminates the stone floors and walls of this reddish, brown cavern. It stretches nearly sixty feet from the steps to the back wall, twenty feet wide, and less than ten feet from floor to ceiling.
Past the levers, it seems that every inch of available wall space has been chiseled into burial niches. Dust curtains over scattered bones, fragments, and decayed cloth. The scent of cinnamon is almost overpowering here.
Morin cannot spot any pressure plates, trip wires, or other tell-tale signs of traps.
Sarusa likewise does not see any obvious dangers. It occurs to Karozekas that the levers, the blades, the spoked pillar and the ratcheting sound from opening the altar may all be linked as a single mechanism, but he cannot be sure.
Unfortunately, his reverie is interrupted by a shower of bone fragments from the far wall. A large, skeletal snake with a humanoid skull and wicked, sharp fangs explodes from one of the burial niches and charges Morin. It sinks its metal-capped fangs into the brave young halfling's shoulder; an icy rush sweeping through his body. The ten-foot long monstrosity reeks of cinnamon.
AC = 13 until next round
NECROPHIDIUS CR 3
XP 800
N Medium construct
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +0
DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 36 (3d10+20)
Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +1
DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune construct traits
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +6 (1d8+4 plus paralysis)
Special Attacks dance of death
STATISTICS
Str 16, Dex 17, Con —, Int —, Wis 11, Cha 1
Base Atk +3; CMB +6; CMD 19 (can't be tripped)
Skills Stealth +15; Racial Modifiers
+12 Stealth
ECOLOGY
Environment any
Organization solitary or coil (2–6)
Treasure none
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Dance of Death (Ex) A necrophidius can entrance opponents by swaying back and forth as a full-round action. All creatures within 30 feet who can see the necrophidius when it uses its dance of death must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or be dazed for 2d4 rounds. This is a mind-affecting effect. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +4 racial bonus.
Paralysis (Su) Any living creature that is bitten by a necrophidius must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +2 racial bonus.
Despite its sinister appearance, the snake-like necrophidius is not an undead creature. Rather, it is a magical construct built from the skeleton of a giant snake and then mounted with the skull of a humanoid creature. Fangs are cemented into the jaws of the skull, after which the entire creation can be brought to life by a series of obscure and expensive rituals—these rituals are traditionally well guarded by those who discover them.
As a mindless construct that requires neither food nor sleep, a necrophidius makes an excellent guardian, and its innate stealth allows it to slip up on the unwary undetected. In certain areas, the necrophidius is commonly employed as an assassin, able to disable its quarries with its dance of death or paralyzing bite before disposing of them in a gruesome manner—as long as the assassination doesn't require any particular intelligence to carry out. Particularly macabre creators might even construct the creature from the skull of a friend or loved one of the intended victim in order to magnify the horror of the assassination, leaving much of the flesh on the skull so the victim can recognize its source. This flesh rots eventually—only freshly crafted necrophidiuses have this grisly feature (although regular applications of gentle repose spells can keep such a morbid decoration fresh for a much longer period of time).
Although a necrophidius is mindless, it can follow the simple commands of its creator. These can include commands to lie dormant until some specific condition is met or to follow and kill an indicated target to the exclusion of all other activities.
A typical necrophidius is 10 feet long and weighs 200 pounds.
Tekk roars as he moves in to attack the snake.
Morin reacts to the sweet-roll-smelling snake with startling speed, dodging around it to get into a good flanking position with Tekkis and striking with his shortsword.
"It's not undead...perhaps a golem after all," calls out Sarusa.
She swings at the thing with her club.
"Morin! H-how bad is it?!"The oracle falters as the lifelink does its duty, though her petitions for help had gone unanswered. Oh, well. This was her job and she did it with pride.
Karo is startled to see the snakeleton jump out of it's hiding spot, but has there wherewithall to draw his curve blade and begin to intone arcane phrases. He strides forward slashes at the thing with his curve blade.
Karo follows up with another attack, trying to divert the things attention from Morin.
Damage K 12 electrical, 2 melee
Damage M 3 melee
Damage T 15 melee
Damage S 10
Damage C 4
Total = 46(50)
Karozekas brings his blade around in a shimmering arc. Lightning crackles and coruscates over the skeletal ophidian.
Morin is able to slash at the monstrosity with his blade before it sinks its fangs into his shoulder, but finds he cannot move immediately thereafter.
Tekkis rains fury down on the snake's bony ribs, flattening a large section.
Chloe grabs onto Morin, and drags the helpless halfling away from the fray.
Sarusa follows Tekkis lead, and brings her club down on the too-human skull of the beast, nearly staving it in.
Corbyn's first shot sails wide, but the second rattles in among the bones.
Karozekas strikes again at the skeletal snake, and connects, but his blade bounces off, doing no further damage.
Beset by foes, the beast rears up and seems to spread its skeletal ridges wide. A strange rattling fills your ears, disorienting you.
Corbyn, Chloe, Karozekas, Morin and Sarusa are dazed for rounds.
Tekkis frowns as the creature begins rattling, but notices as the faces of his comrades begin going slack. Gritting his teeth, he again swings at the strange snake!
Tekkis over the shoulder swing knocks the skull from the vertebrae, rendering the latter into dust and shards while the former bounces to rest near the base of the spoked pillar.
After half a minute, the rest of the party regains their faculties and can speak and move freely once again.
The heady scent of cinnamon lingers in the air, but all else is still.
Sarusa still seems a bit dazed. "Tekk..." Bereft of further words, she gives the half-orc an embrace, her longer half-elf arms barely spanning 1/3 of the circumference of his armor.
She then pulls away, a little embarrassed at her failure to assist the friend she has teased so much, and pulls out her wand of Cure Light Wounds, touching it to Chloe.
"I forgot," she says simply.
"Chloe, how many cures do you need?"
Morin wiggles his fingers and shakes his arms and legs, enjoying the sensation of being able to think and move again. He looks at up his enormous half-orc friend and says "Tekk, you really saved the day. And saved all of us. We'd have foundered for sure if not for you. That was a hell of a hit you gave that thing." Morin reaches up a small hand to pat Tekkis on the arm and quietly says "Thanks, buddy."
He then looks around the chamber, paying particular attention to the spoked pillar and the burial niche that the bone serpent sprang from. He also asks his companions "Anybody want to help me figure out the levers and this pillar, and if they have anything to do with the trap on the stairs and the moving altar? It's got to be connected, but I'm not really sure how it all works."
Chloe shakes her head, one of the last to come out of the haze, though her usual vacant expression made it difficult to discern as such.
"Alive... sound... oh, mercy with us t-today. Thank you, Tekkis..." she manages, trying to disinguish between lingering effects of the dance and what her own consciousness was doing. She struggles with this until Sarusa taps her with the wand. She squints at the druid and then smiles.
"A-all is well, Sarusa... though I think one more should make it possible to continue on. Thank you."
Not valuing her mechanical ability overmuch, she offers Morin a quick prayer of guidance and proceeds to beam at Tekkis when she assumes his head is turned.
Sarusa nods and touches the wand to the oracle once again.
"Thank you v-very much, Sarusa," Chloe says, shaking her head to get the rest of the cobwebs out before stretching her arms out tentatively, as if she is afraid she'll whack someone in the face.
"... is there anything I can do to help, now...?"
The burial niches mostly hold the dessicated, skeletal remains of humans, although there are one or two smaller corpses that might be gnomes or halflings.
Several of the skeletons have been turned out of their resting places, but you do not find any valuables. Perhaps someone has ransacked this place previously.
Morin does not find any traps, but he does find four strange holes, no more than a half an inch in diameter, curving into the top of the pillar. Two of the holes are a bit closer to each other than the other two, and the top two are separated from the bottom two by a distance close to half a foot.
"You're right, Corbyn, today would have been a rough day even at sea, and we're surrounded by dry land for miles. Can't say I've had rougher, in fact. But I am curious about this little pillar. You see these little holes on top?"
Morin looks up to the ceiling, muttering to himself "Maybe there's a block up there we could reeve a line through, with some kind of hook that fits in these holes? So we can lift this thing and go even deeper? Hmm, not sure that's the best idea, even if we could make it work. Still, it seems like something's supposed to fit in these holes."
Morin focuses on the small holes, then lifts his head and looks around, his eyes lit by an idea. "These holes look kind of like bite marks - could that snake-thing's fangs fit in these holes?"
Morin looks down and realizes the snake's skull has landed at the base of the pillar. He picks it up and studies it for a moment, then quietly says "Might fit. Worth a try." he turns the skull face- down over the pillar and tries to fit the teeth into the holes.
Chloe twitches apprehensively. Corbyn had a point, to be sure, but Morin had already taken to trying the puzzle before him. There also had to be a limit as to how much cheating Pharasma can take in a day.
"If what you're doing d-doesn't work, Morin... you know we can come back later, right...?" the oracle stammers, smile slowly melting off of her face. "...Maybe some sleep will... lend some light to this puzzle...?
Morin hears Chloe's words of wisdon and pauses just before trying to insert the necrophidious fangs into the small holes. He raises his eyes to her and says, "You think I should wait?"
"Well... that d-depends on how well we can expect to rest tonight. I have barely anything left. Should we, Sarenrae f-forbid, have goblins come upon us... well, I doubt we'll have any energy, any magic, for when they arrive if we use all our energy here. Don't get me wrong, though... I was all for this until Corbyn jogged my memory...,"
She wrinkles her eyebrows together thoughtfully.
"Unless.. you think we could make this place a safe enough place to rest with finishing clearing it out...? Hm... Well, if you.. you do finish what you're doing, Morin... let me at least ward you first... Sarusa? Karo? Tekkis...? Thoughts?"
Tekk nods at his friends as they recover from the strange trance, winking at Morin, and then quickly disengages from Sarusa's embrace as his neck and cheeks turn bright red. "Right, right, just my stubborn nature coming out. Snake tried doing that little dance or whatever... Anyway, everyone's alive. Let's... um.. move on."
-----
Tekk watches as Morin's curiosity overtakes his sense of self-preservation. Muttering in orcish, he moves to stop the halfling until Chloe speaks.
Flexing and rolling his arms, Tekk agrees, "I think she's right. We've been through a gauntlet today, and this place hasn't had a pleasant surprise yet. Best to take our rest then start fresh again in the morning."
Looking around, he grimaces, "But I'm not sure about staying in here... without a comprehensive search, I don't think we could defend ourselves. Secret doors, snakes with skulls, who knows what else is hiding down here? What about sleeping outside, or even on top of the tomb?"
"We should sleep outside, away from the graveyard. Too vulnerable on top of the tomb. We can walk back here." Sarusa blinks at Morin with wonderment.
Morin looks at the strange skull in his hand, and then at the holes it the top of the pillar, then back at the skull. Sighing a little bit, he says "Yep, you've probably got the right of it, we should find safer harbor and recuperate a bit."
He sets the skull down on the ground and says "But we'll come back in here and check it out right? Or do you all think we should get back to the job we were asked to do? I sure would like to see if I've guessed right on this little pillar-trick, but resting overnight will mean we lose the rest of today's travel."
Tekk nods once as Sarusa voices her opinion, "Good point, didn't even think about sleeping inside the graveyard. Thanks."
Responding to Morin, "I think we should venture down here tomorrow. I don't like leaving a tomb full of traps and undead monsters behind my back. We can make up the travel once we're back on the road"
"Agreed... Oh, I hope Dodi didn't get too worried i-in our absence..." Chloe smiles again, turning to ascend the stairs after placing her hands firmly on the wall.
"Though, I suppose th-there's enough time to forage, if we stay... close? Ah, at any rate, I... I can do some washing, then sleep... I don't think I've been this tired in a while."