Bolkin stares incredulously at the Dwarf's offering for a brief moment before promptly taking it, handing the Dwarf his flail to look after. "Dammit, you better hope this works Drosk, because I'm not about to die in here." That said, Bolkin strafed counterclockwise around the burnt pile, hoping that Garik at least distracted the apparition enough for him to attempt his assault, hoping there was more to the glowing dagger than just a trick on the eyes. Hopefully if nothing else, he could give Garik an opening to withdraw.
Unfortunately, a sudden smoke cloud hits Bolkin in the face, throwing off his aim entirely as he curses his luck.
Garik felt a profound weariness engulf his body after the menacing shadow swiped at him. "Well this aint no wolf fer sure" The dreadful and palpable feeling the shadow gave him and realizing that the group might indeed be overmatched, prompted the dwarf barbarian to start retreating however he decides to warn the others first.
"Aye,Telp! Ye got the right idea! This be shadow here got some uncanny art of sapping me strength! All of ye better head out for the door! Be keepin' it busy fer a bit!"
Garik amidst the withering feeling the shadow gave him, inexplicably remembers Raven's pointing to a key earlier.
"And guys! Dontcha be fergettin' the key Raven pointed out before ye get out! Got me hands full here!"
Once she manages to make out the shadow creature, Raven makes her dancing lights circle around it to illuminate it for anyone else in the party that hadn't seen him yet. She drops her spear and fires a bolt at the shadow creature, but her bolt sails well wide.
Raven's lights play eerily off the clouds of smoke, her bolt striking a wall presumably somewhere behind the target before clattering to the floor. Drosk's own holy light fills the chamber, for a brief moment the smoke almost seeming less harsh and more like the controlled heat and output of a forge. The shadow reels in response, the embers dimming for a moment.
Telperion snatches the key and darts back towards the entrance, looking back just long enough to see Bolkin's wild swing into the dark be met by the creature's own shadowy appendage. The two briefly meet, almost as though shaking hands, before momentum causes the limbs to depart.
Even with the brief touch, Bolkin can almost feel as some of the tissues in his forearm go soft, and even through the tear-clouded eyes, he realizes the foe's arm passed through his own.
Initiative Order (Round 2)
> Garik (22)
Raven (18)
Drosk (18)
Telperion (18) (delayed)
Bolkin (15)
Shadow (12)
EDIT:
Round Two:
"Garik! Bolkin! Get out o' there!" Drosk calls to his companions.
The dwarf priest raises his hammer again, intoning, "By Torag's might, be at peace!" Again, the hammer-shaped birthmark on Drosk's cheek glows with a holy radiance that spreads out to engulf the shadow.
"Aye, indeed, Drosk! Torag bless ye! Yer the only one hurtin' it, methinks!"
"Great sneakin' on the key, Telp!"
Raven follows Garik out.
Not wanting to stick around any more than he had to, Bolkin noticed the others pulling back and quickly moved to join them, motioning for anyone he passes by to follow.
Garik and Raven duck down the corridor, covered by another burst of holy light from Drosk's symbol. The shadow continues to wither under Torag's might, faltering for a moment.
Bolkin breaks off, joining Telperion and Drosk as they retreat back down the corridor. Their pursuer is difficult to track, but between occasional clouds of roiling smoke, it appears as if it's taking a circuitous route to give the fire pit a wide berth.
The dwarves start to trail behind, Telperion holding the door open as they stumble through. Just as he's about to slam it shut, the being rounds the corner, staring through the open portal a moment before dispersing not unlike the smoke from the fire.
It seems either it can not or will not follow you beyond that point.
"Blessed Forgefather! Has this crypt been always haunted?! Skeletons! And now strength-sucking dark ghosts?!"
Garik is clearly flustered with the surprising weariness the shadow dealt him. Even now the young dwarf barbarian could feel keenly the weight of carrying two weapons. He promptly put aside his light mace and went on just carrying his morningstar on his right hand.
"Methinks the only immediate way is to go down deeper from that 'beetle' room or we go back to that fountain room Gruuk mentioned. Either way is fine with me."
Suddenly Garik felt the same nagging feeling he felt when they were just leaving Kassen.
"Er . . . actually the right way methinks is the way to the everflame. And frankly now that we're here in the crypt, be havin' no idea at all where the flame might be. Does anyone know? Did we miss anythin' from the map they gave us? A clue maybe where the flame might be found?"
Bolkin, while clearly not showing the same signs of weariness as Garik, still looked slightly worse for wear than he did entering the room. "If it's okay with you guys, I'd rather avoid the ghosts and such. Fighting something I can't hit isn't fun at all." He massaged his arm a bit where he felt the shadow hit him, "Man, it feels like I just did combat drills for an hour. I'll be fine though."
Garik's question was a valid one indeed, but not one that he knew the answer to, "I don't remember hearing anything about where they put it, so I guess part of the challenge is supposed to be finding it ourselves. It couldn't hurt to be thorough, especially if it means finding whatever it is that's causing this." Pausing a second, he began muttering under his breath, "There's also the matter of finding that stash they hid..." While he was sure there was unlikely to be proper compensation for this new development among the hidden goods, Bolkin was too stubborn to let a challenge go by unfulfilled, even in these dire circumstances.
He turned the dagger in his hand over and he thought out loud, "It was dark and filled with smoke in there, so I couldn't hit very well, but even if I did I wouldn't know what effect this thing had. Drosk just handed it to me and I went in, but maybe we should have a better look at this thing while we're not under attack." Mentioning Drosk briefly reminded him of something as he turned to the cleric, "by the way, do you have my flail? I know I did something with it when I took the dagger, and I'm hoping someone didn't drop it. It's a cheap piece of dreck, but I like having it around."
"I never would've thought this place would be so big. I never asked where the everflame was. I thought it'd be obvious. That couldn't have been it, could it?"
Raven casts detect magic and holds her hand out for the dagger.
"Am not so sure that'd be the everflame . . . Drosk's dousing did seem a fine job snuffin' it out . . . unless all the queer going-ons here so far also did somethin' wrong with the town's flame . . ."
Garik felt a tide of regret and a tinge of fear if indeed what's happening in the crypt also did make the eveflame lose its eternal glow. It would hint of powerful magic at work and the dwarf barbarian thinks even with his newfound respect for the group, that they are indeed merely Spice Guardians and would be ill-equipped and ill-experienced against more powerful foes such as the shadow they just escaped from.
"But I guess Bolkin's right. Might be needin' fer us to explore this crypt to make sense of this mess. And our fellow Kassenites demand justice at least!"
"Here ye go, lad," Drosk says to Bolkin as he offers the young guardsman's flail back to him. "Bein' magic an' all I thought th' dagger might hurt that shadow better'n yer flail, but it looks like th' only thing that'll hurt that poor soul is the blessed power o' Torag. At least it seemed unable or unwillin' to leave that room. Didn't seem to like that fire pit, though..." the dwarf priest muses.
"As fer th' Everflame? Nah, I don't think that was it. Roldare said there's a lower level - just a hunch but my guess is th' Everflame is down there."
"I'll tell ye this, though. Once we see to puttin' down that 'Voice o' Death' an' rescuin' Dmira, I'm gonna want to come back here an' lay that poor soul to rest," Drosk states grimly, glancing back toward the closed door securing the room with the fire pit.
"Speakin' o' rest, it was nightfall when we entered th' Crypt. Are ye all wantin' to rest yet, or keep goin' on? Bolkin? Garik? That shadow looked to have drained some o' yer color. Do ye need to rest to get back some o' yer strength?" Drosk asks with concern.
Raven's examination of the dagger proves that Drosk's assumption was right - it is, indeed, magical.
Anybody stopping to recall the tale of the Everflame (which would be hard not to have heard if you've spent long in Kassen), it's located literally on Kassen's grave, in the lower levels of the crypt.
"I'm a bit sore, but I'll be fine, thank you," Bolkin answered Drosk as he accepted his flail, "Garik seems to have gotten the worst of it, though. If he absolutely must get some rest, I suppose the people of Kassen can wait patiently. Though, if we're going to be doing any rescuing, we might not be able to afford the wait, and I'd personally like to get to get to the bottom of this before it gets worse."
Bolkin handed Raven the dagger, turning away any attempts to give it back. "It's a fine weapon, and quite a score if it's magic, but surely someone else will get more out of it than I," he suggested, "This flail fits my style better."
"Alright then. How 'bout we check out that fountain Grukk found just as we entered the Crypt? If the waters ain't fouled maybe we can get some fer Grukk an' Roldare an' then decide if we need to rest or not. I agree with ye, Bolkin. If we're gonna be rescuin' Dmira we need to move as quick as we can, but we won't do no one no good if we stretch ourselves too thin."
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Telperion belatedly realized that the others were talking. The sound of his own heartbeat had retreated from his ears, and he was starting to lose the sense of panic that had taken hold of him in the shadow’s lair.
He tried his best to compose himself and listen to what the others were proposing. But he found he was simply checking to make sure no one was suggesting re-entering the smoke filled room.
He felt a growing shame at his persistent fear, and he mentally berated himself. Look at the others, scared sure, but still functioning. He remembered the admonition Holgast would shout at timid students, "Pull the thumb out, child!"
As he realized this last was said aloud, he turned to Drosk with hasty regret, "I was talking to myself!" He blushed heavily and apologized to each of the others in turn.
"Bless ye Drosk remindin' us it's certainly shuteye time! Though got me a sapped strength now, I can still have some more ta give enough explorin' that fountain room before givin' ourselves a well-desreved rest."
Garik feels his body screaming for rest but with just one weapon on one hand instead of two to compensate for his diminished strength and the still bottled anger in him that is yet released, the dwarf barbarian knew it was enough to plow in some more into the crypt's dangers for tonight.
"Well, if that's how it's going to be, we'll explore while we still have resources and then call it a night."
Bolkin, with one arm stinging from the beetle's spray, and the other slightly sore from his encounter with the shadow, offers to follow immediately behind Garik as they prepare for what little exploration they'd planned for the day. Despite his desire to continue still going strong, all this talk about getting some rest was beginning to appeal to him more and more.
"Alright, let's head fer that fountain that Grukk found then," Drosk says, heading back toward the entrance to the Crypt.
The group makes their way back to the entrance, the journey tense but uneventful. The door is opened and the group makes their way in.
In the center of this room is a large pool of clear water, fed by a fountain on the wall above it. The fountain has a stone statue of a weeping maiden holding the slain body of Kassen, but his head has been broken off and is nowhere to be seen.
As the last person enters the room, a voice booms out from the darkness, saying, “Magic is the key.” The voice slowly fades, leaving a dreadful silence.
The pool is deep, perhaps about 40 feet. The more interesting thing is that, down at the dark bottom lie dozens of keys.
"Well if magic is the key, then what's the point of all those?" Bolkin asked himself as he examined the bottom of the pool. Quickly rummaging through the stuff in his backpack, the only item of potential use he could produce was a hooked metal object.
"Got a grappling hook," Bolkin exclaimed for the others, "but I think I gave my rope to Drosk to climb down with, so I hope we have some left over. Dunno if it will actually work though."
Oh, bugger. Raven had felt so useless in so many of the group's encounters, she'd resigned herself to just staying out of the way. But the whole group was going to be looking to her now.
She tries to cast detect magic before anyone asks her what she thinks the message means. She's hoping that she can pick up some aura that will give her a clue of what to tell them.
"Got a grappling hook," Bolkin exclaimed for the others, "but I think I gave my rope to Drosk to climb down with, so I hope we have some left over. Dunno if it will actually work though."
"Ah! Here ye go, lad," Drosk exclaims, handing the lengths of rope back to Bolkin. "First yer flail, then yer rope. Seems I'm becomin' yer reg'lar pack mule!"
Looking at the clear pool and how far the bunch of keys is at the bottom, Garik couldn't help but feel a tad cautious of being too near the edge of the pool.
"That's pretty deep even for a human! Well whatever that voice said, methinks we could start usin' what we've already got. Telp's managed to sneak out the key from the ghost room. Might be it fits one o' the doors locked yonder."
The dwarf barbarian points to the couple of locked doors at the south wall.
"If y'all want to try Telp's key first, I can do it. But if ye want to do yer trap sniffin' first on the locked doors, Telp, by all means do. Ye got quite a knack for it."
Raven's magic immediately illuminates a single key amongst the masses at the bottom of the pool. It seems the phrase was a bit if a dual meaning, if one takes it to also be a description of the key.
Raven gazes into the pool and sighs heavily. Coming from a family of such diverse spellcasters can be frustrating for a young sorceress. You're astutely aware of what you don't know. That "mage hand" spell would've come in useful."
"The key is on the bottom of the pool. Let me go grab one of those bedrolls from outside so I can dry off."
She returns a moment later with one of the abandoned bedrolls and walks over to the pool. She turns to the party.
"Well? Go wait outside. I'm not going in dressed." When the party leaves, Raven undresses and drops into the pool.
After a little over 2 minutes, her hand reaches out of the water and grabs the edge of the pool, and she pulls herself above the surface, gasping for air. Sonuva...
She tosses the key onto the floor near her clothes and climbs out. She wraps herself in the bedroll, and pats herself off as she makes her way to the door. Her modesty nearly killed her. "You can come in now. Just don't look." She finishes drying and gets dressed, not so concerned now with anyone stealing glances.
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Telperion spent the few minutes outside the room chatting with the others about the potential use of the key and a possible watch schedule. He offered to take the late watches, as this always seemed hardest for others, while he didn't seem to need much sleep.
Telperion walked in when Raven called to them, trying to figure out what she meant by "Just don’t look." Her partial nakedness surprised him and he realized he was staring before he hurriedly looked away.
Bluff to hide the accidental stare
Too late, he realized as Raven caught his eye. Blushing yet another time in her presence, Telperion turned to face the door he came in, the door that was locked, Drosk, then Bolkin and finally Garik before shouting "Traps!".
He latched on, with desperation, to the barbarian's suggestion of searching the door, hurrying over to spend many, many minutes examining it carefully.
Bolkin took his time re-entering the room when Raven invited them back in; not like there was much for him to do anyway. "You know," he commented as he casually strolled through the door after everyone else, "I didn't take you for the athletic type, Raven. Or the modest type for that matter."
Bolkin continued to the well, not concerning himself with Raven getting dressed outside of a couple glances to see what she was doing. An older woman may have prompted a more significant viewing, but someone as young as Raven didn't align much with his tastes. "Still, it's a good thing you've got such an eye for magic," he continued as he glanced into the well, frustrated with his own inability to make out the differences between the keys. "Why do magic-users have to over-complicate something as simple as a locked door, anyway?"
With Raven suddenly taking command and shooing them all away outside the fountain room as she decided to retrieve the glowing key revealed by her magic, Garik tried to protest in the wisdom of leaving her alone but the dwarf ultimately kept her mouth shut. "Be needin' ta give her the respect am givin' ta the elf's ability as well."
"Well if the water's not that cold, ye can take yer time takin' a bath as well. Bein' clean suits ye well, Raven . . ."
The young barbarian redenned immediately with his own remark.
"Not that bein' dirty is not ok or anythin' but . . . " Rusted iron! Am really beginnin' to sound like the elf! Blurtin' out me thoughts like crazy!
"Bah! Ye know what I mean . . . sorry, am just sayin' things actually for meself, with this beetle goo still clingin' on & stingin' me still. Well, be leavin' a torch for ye here or if ye still got yer magic lights, ye may want ta use it to be sure no sudden sputterin' o' the torch leaves y'in the dark."
Garik shuffled out the door without waiting for a reply from the human girl; afraid of what Raven might say about his embarassing remark.
Waiting for the girl outside the room proved to be trying for the dwarf as he really truly cared now for each member of the team.
And so as soon as he heard Raven said it's ok to come in, Garik went in. He was still pondering what she meant with "just don't look" when she sees the human girl just wrapped in a bedroll while still drying her body not unlike someone who just came out from a bathroom!
The dwarf perfectly understood now what she meant and promptly looked away and joined the elf who could not help but stare at the human girl.
"Yep, Telp. Lemme help ye with yer trap sniffin' Be holdin' the torch fer ye as usual. "
Telperion and Garik's examination of the door, thorough as it is, turns up no threatening mechanism, and any attempt to use their first key unlocks it.
The second door is clear as well, though neither key fits that lock.
"Good job, lass," Drosk compliments Raven, honoring her request for modesty by keeping his eyes averted.
Drosk is somewhat surprised to see that the key retrieved from the fire pit fits within one of the doors leading out from this chamber. "Well, what do ye all think? Should we see what's beyond that door before we head back to Grukk an' Roldare?" he asks his companions.
"I say we go on with this door first before we get some shuteye. Let Grukk enjoy his cards with Roldare first and hopefully the bard's talent can finally calm the cobbler's panicky behavior."
And so saying, Garik takes a deep breath and holds on tightly onto his morningstar and started for the door that their "ghost room" key was able to open.
The dwarf barbarian briefly glances at the rest of the group, hopeful that indeed the rest concurs with him just trying out this one room before they call it a night.
"Oh, so now you want to keep going. Alright, let's see how far we can get before we hit our limit."
Bolkin followed closely behind Garik, though he was seemingly more relaxed as he casually twirled his flail about, wincing slightly every time the ball accidentally brushed against his leg or shoulder.
He waited by the door, casting expectant glances between Telperion and Raven in between idly counting the links in his chain shirt.
Now fully dressed, Raven speaks up on the party's work on the doors. "So that key I got doesn't even unlock these doors?! You're right, Bolkin, spellcasters can think they're a little too clever, sometimes."
A small stone bench sits in the center of this dusty chamber. On the far wall is a faded mural depicting the hero Kassen defeating the mercenaries at the entrance to this crypt, with his blade piercing the chest of the mercenary leader. These figures stand alone in the center of a scene of carnage, with dead villagers and mercenaries all around them.
The hall continues past the mural, coming to another door at the end.
Bolkin stopped for a second to look at the mural. The imagery of Kassen made him wonder briefly if this imagery meant they were getting closer to the Everflame. He further took the time to comment on the scene depicted, "I suppose he wasn't called a hero for his stunning treatise on agricultural techniques, after all." Bolkin hoped that one day he would be able to stab a villain in the chest, the fact that his weapon of choice made for a rather poor stabbing implement notwithstanding.
He didn't see anything else immediately significant about the mural, so he slowly crept his way further down the hall (extra carefully if some of the others choose to stay) before coming to the door at the end of the hall. He reached for the handle, but then had second thoughts. They hadn't come across a trapped door yet, but he figured he'd wait and let someone else do the honors.
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Telperion followed Bolkin down the hall, stopping as well to view the mural. "Derivative of the Andoran historical representative style" the elf whispered to his companions. "Note the exaggerated features on the humanoid forms."
Content that this information had been duly shared, he crept around the corner with Bolkin.
"I'll check the door" he offered as the guardsman balked.
Bolkin's sobering comment on Garik's sudden zeal to continue on beyond the fountain room made the dwarf barbarian hesitate but the group seems to agree anyway with his rash decision and they all entered the now unlocked door . . .
. . . and found fortunately nothing apparently dangerous inside the room except that there was a large mural of Kassen amidst a scene of carnage at the crypt's entrance.
Garik couldn't help but be reminded of how the mural looks similar to how their group's earlier entrance into the crypt as if they found the remnant of this mural's actual picture but now with the addition of the dead villagers and horses.
Garik looks closely at the mural, dreading that like the skeletons, the dead bodies in the mural might somehow suddenly come alive as well.
Garik's paranoia also extended on the lone stone bench in the room.
Garik's careful perusal of the painting reveals that both Kassen and his opponent have a similar golden amulet around their neck. Other than that curiosity, there's little more of note in the artwork.
Garik's intense survey of the bench reveals little more than that it looks somewhat uncomfortable, though quite sturdy.
Telperion finds no traps on the door, and perhaps a bit too relieved, steps through the door. As he surveys the room, the door swings back to of his own accord and he turns to realize that this door is one-way.
The rest of you hear (or see) the door shut behind him.
After a moment to soak it in, you realize that the pillar seems to have holes all around it, an arrow protruding from each one.
"Whoa! Hey Telp! Open the door!" Drosk calls as he steps forward to check and see why Telperion shut the door behind him. Curious, the dwarf priest reaches out and attempts to open the door to see where Telperion went.
Bolkin nodded approvingly as Telperion went to work, even though the elf didn't find anything. He always enjoyed the underhanded ways of thieves and rogues, and perhaps if he had the grace and subtlety required to not get caught, Bolkin would have decided on a different profession.
Unfortunately, Bolkin's approving nod quickly turned into an exasperated sigh and the door closed itself behind Telperion. He quickly moved to hold the door open, both to allow Telperion back through and to get a better look at what was on the other side.
The only difficulty Bolkin and Drosk have in opening the door is that both attempt to do it. Eventually one gives way and they prop the door open, noticing that the door gives a little resistance as it tries to shut back on them.
"Now why'n th' heck would they build a pillar chock full o' arrows all around it?" Drosk muses aloud as he surveys the room beyond the doorway.