"Well, I don't know if they let you be a paladin without eyes," Marvin comments. "Anybody else have 'questions?'"
"Nope." Rose shrugged.
The Doctor resisted the urge to snort at the boy's dreams. Somehow he doubted he would have made a very good paladin. Unless paladin school teaches you how to deal with torture on top of how to spout religious fanaticism? It was possible. He could probably ask Lady Rose later.
He then blinks as the boy continues to talk about the dungeon. To his surprise, it seemed he actually knew something worthwhile. Wonder what else that means he knows...
"So...leave him tied up here and come back for him later?" As he speaks, the Doctor attempts to pry the boy's holy symbol from his hand, hitting it with the butt of his crossbow if necessary. A part of him was tempted to leave the orb in the room, leaving the boy sniveling in complete darkness, but, well, it just seemed too handy to waste on such pleasures.
"Just one. Who is the 'him' you heard talking about how dangerous this place was?"
"What? No don't leave me here. I told you what you wanted. Please," he begs. When Kelvar asks him who he was talking about he says, "The man. He was old. He chased me down here. He was looking for me and I heard him talking to a woman. Please, that's all I know!"
"Well, what do you think? Shall we leave him here and collect him later?"
"It's that or use him as a trapspringer." Rose smiled.
A snake made from metal must likely be a construct or clockwork creature or object animated in some way. Snakes are well known for their ability damaging poisons and such is often replicated in constructs. Depending on size the ability to constrict may be present. Damage Reduction and Spell Resistance is also very common.
An obscure story comes to mind about what can happen to those who drown at sea.
Draugr smell of decay and the sea, and drip water wherever they go. These foul beings are usually created when humanoid creatures are lost at sea in regions haunted by evil spirits or necromantic effects. The corpses of these drowned sailors cling fiercely to unlife, attacking any living creatures that intrude upon them. Their attacks smear rancid flesh, rotting seaweed, and swaths of vermin on whatever they hit.
In the case of draugr who manifest when an entire ship sinks, these undead usually stay with the wreck of their ship. Some draugr may be found under the control of aquatic necromancers, while others may wander the seas as undead pirates aboard ghost ships.
These beings have a moderate resistance to fire and are resistant to piercing weapons. Their rotting flesh is sickening making their attacks likely to cause nausea.
Timeon starts to sob and cry at his fate.
"He has been helpful - His description of the drowned men told me what they are. We'll leave him here and come back to get him. We could...educate him, and perhaps he will sing the praises of Asmodeus."
"Yep, and keep an eye out for some sort of poison snake golems. Alright, you think that's all we're getting out of him?"
"No idea, but I'm already bored and tired of listening to him cry, so strap him down and let's get going." Rose said, looking with disgust at Timeon.
"Please don't leave me here. Please! He might find me!" Timeon cries out begging to be released.
"But if we let you wander about, you'll probably just get yourself killed. Or worse, get us killed. And we can't have that. And whomever this 'he' is, he'll probably run into us first. This place seems relatively linear thus far." The Doctor pauses. "Of course, he's far more likely to find you if you're busy yelling."
"Yeah—let's not ruin this puzzle for the next recruits. I say we leave him here, and move on. We can use his wailing as an anchor if we get lost."
"I concur. We can collect him later if we want."
As you leave the room and close the door on Timeon he stops begging and truly starts balling his eyes out. Thankfully the sound of his weeping is muted a short distance away. Passing through the previous room and down the second hallway leads you to yet another door with an inscription above.
The door opens to another identical stone room lit by an oil lantern hanging from its center. There is another door to the south but it is barred(full round action to unbar). At the far end of the room are a couple of metal cobras but not just any metal. They seem to be made from mithral. Their heads sway from side to side like a real snake and they hiss at you for intruding on their domain and each spits, one at Rose and one at Talia. The venom drips harmlessly off your armour.
"Right. Poison snake golems. Gonna have to hit these really hard, I guess."
Marvin moves to attack cobra 1, attempting a likely-useless quarterstaff blow against the metal snake.
Seeing that the snakes are too far away to hit both with his bomb (and not sure he wants to use all his bombs just yet), the Doctor uses his crossbow to also fire at the one Marvin attacked.
Rose moved in alongside Marvin, bringing a two handed swing of her axe down on the same snake Marvin aimed for.
"Focus attacks. Break 'em down." she said in a no nonsense tone.
Marvin is able to strike the creature but his blow doesn't even dent its armour. Rose fairs better and her attack breaks off several of its mithral scales revealing some of its inner workings. It rounds on Rose for this, hissing and attacking with lightning speed but its metal fangs find only her armour. The Doctor's shot plinks harmlessly off the top of its head.
Talia moves in to attack the other cobra with Kelvar close behind. It is too quick and evades their attacks but is also unable to successfully bite them in return.
Kelvar studies the second cobra, observing it's sinuous movements before moving up to the creature with Talia, saying, "Talia, flank the beast! We can more quickly slay it."
Taking another step over, Kelvar swung his axe in at the cobra, looking to bite into its metal flesh.
Seeing that there's now a wall of bodies between him and his targets, the Doctor moves further into the room as he reloads his crossbow.
Marvin takes a second to catch his breath, , then attempts to hit the snake with his stick again.
"Good call, Kev. Marv, move to flank with me." Rose said as she stepped forward and brought her axe down again.
She cursed under her breath as the lithe construct dodged. "Keep still you little f#$!er." she growled.
She cuts down at the creature, swinging to decapitate the construct.
Marvin and Rose fight together with the first cobra. As its focus is on Rose, Marvin is able to land a hard hit behind its head, knocking off some more of its protective mithral plates. It turns around and lunges forward at Marvin in reaction, a quick strike which finds flesh.
Meanwhile Kelvar and Talia coordinate to take down the other cobra with Kelvar's axe finding purchase and shattering some of its armour.
The Doctor moves into the northwestern corner of the room, reloading his weapon.
As people move in their slow dance of death, the Doctor lets fly another crossbolt, resisting the urge to inform Lady Rose that that is not how a proper young lady should talk.
Rose switched sides on her weapon, not wanting to dull the edge of her axe by hitting the floor. The hammer side slammed down.
Kelvar continues hacking away at the cobra, seeking to fell the beast quickly. Thus do we prove our strength to Asmodeus.
Talia spins to continue to strike the foe.
Rose crushes the inside workings of the cobra and it falls limp on the floor.
The second cobra hisses at Kelvar, strikes lightning fast and finds an uncovered place on his leg . Striking back at it he manages to land a solid hit and knocks away some more of its mithral plating.
Kelvar feels the Cobra bite into his leg. He feels venom pump into his veins, but his allegiance to Asmodeus destroys it and he shrugs off its effects.
Pressing his attack, Kelvar strikes at the beast, shouting, "Asmodeus destroy thee!"
Seeing that their battle was mostly done, the Doctor had full confidence that his allies could deal with the last snake. Nevertheless, he decided to take one more shot at it. Just to be safe.
Rose stepped in next to Kevlar and swung again.
Slipping around, she brings her blade in low to decapitate the unloving serpent.
Marvin swung his stick again at the nearest snake.
Marvin moved to the other cobra and kept thumping away.
Talia and kelvar smash the last cobra to pieces, removing the danger from the room. The Mithral plates covering the cobras could be pried off and used as material in crafting or sold. There is about 20lbs. of it here.
The southern door is easily unbarred with a little effort and another short hallway revealed. Above the door at the end of it is a sixth inscription.
Opening the door reveals a new 30ft. by 30ft. room lit again by a solitary hanging lantern. There are no doors to be seen but on the eastern side there is a staircase that leads back up to the manor. In the center of the room upon a waist height podium lies a pendant of silver, a dragon with sapphire eyes. You remember Thorn telling you that such a pendant is what you are searching for down here. "Tiadora will lead you to the basement of this domicile. There you will find nine chambers each more dangerous than the last. Somewhere hidden within these chambers is a pendant of silver and sapphire. Recover the pendant and bring it to me. Let nothing and no one stand in your way."
Kelvar will pry loose the mithral from the cobras, so as not to waste such valuable material.
Kelvar looks at the pedestal, with its silver pendant, then the stairs, then the pedestal again, then the stairs again, before saying, "This is far too simple. This is only the sixth chamber we have encountered, and we are to go through nine. We have seen nothing of the draugr, Timeon's drowned men, nor this...shrieker...he spoke of." A thought occurs to the Asmodean priest. "However, he also said there was a secret door across from the stairs..."
Kelvar moves to the wall across from the stairs, searching for a secret door.
Talia will examine the pendant and podium, not touching them, but seeing if there are any more secrets involved.
"Suffer not the fool," Marvin replied. "The cardinal simply said the pendant would be in one of the nine chambers, not the last one. By all means, check the room for traps, maybe shoot the necklace off the pedestal and see what happens, but this could be a test of our ability to act swiftly and confidently."
"Suffer not the fool? And it's just sitting there?" Rose said skeptically.
"Trap."
"Asmodeus is not a deity who rewards haste. Confidence, yes, but not haste. Some of the abilities I was gifted as a follower of the Infernal Lord allow me to fool the senses of those who observe me. For instance, while I find the iron circlet useful, I can also pray to Him for a spell that allows me to do the same thing," Kelvar says, continuing to study the wall opposite the stairs. "While this may be the pendant we were to seek, it would not surprise me if there were more to this room than meets the eye. A devil always tells the truth, but the truth you hear may not always be the truth you're told."
Talia is not fooled as she examines the pendant. The eyes are coloured glass and the 'silver' is grainy like painted wood and not smooth metal. This pendant is worthless.
Kelvar finds exactly the thing he was searching for. Pushing on one section of the wall reveals another exit into a hallway that turns left, heading south and turning left again to the east.