Komana's arrow again slices through the air, rushing past Zareth's right ear and through the space where Iacobus's head used to be merely seconds ago, piercing the skeleton through its nasal cavity. The skeleton, with a small look of surprise at an arrow sticking out of the middle of its face, crumples to the ground, lifeless and unmoving.
"Is anyone else in need of curative magic?" Iacobus asks, not hesitating to use some on himself from a slender ash wand that he produces from his haversack, expending five charges.
Dird let's out a cry of victory as the second skeleton falls, before turning to reply to Iacobus' offer.
"Ah hahah, that second one nicked me when I slipped back there. A little touch-up would be returned with a debt of gratitude!" says Dird, grasping the wound after he sheathes his swords.
Soven nods to the group and proceeds into the darkness. He is most obviously pleased with the group's recent victory.
BTW, is their a way to make sure that the remains the skeletons were writhing in were not human, i.e. our new friends?
As you turn around the corner at the end of the corridor, you find another door in front of you. This one is marked with two swords crossing each other.
As to the other matter, the grisly remains were well past identification.
While Komana searches the room for hidden passages, Dird approaches the door marked with an axe. With an expert eye, he begins a thorough search for traps, all the while repeating the riddle over and over under his breath.
Dird, your trap sense pays off in examining the door. You can tell that there are miniscule mechanisms throughout the door, but whether it is a locking device or something else you're not certain. It does not feel dangerous, like a trap, or at least not anything that's intended to be.
The door marked with the axes opens slowly outward, as though heavily weighted by something. In the darkness beyond the doorway a flash of something gray and solid swings past with a whirring noise. Just behind it, a second axe swings down from the ceiling, and a third beyond that. Like giant pendulums, many heavy axes swing across the narrow corridor in front of you.
Iacobus appraises the swinging blades, checking first to see if there is room for a figure to crawl safely past them, and looks to Dird. "Could there be some way of jamming the mechanism, either on an individual basis, blade by blade, or all at once, by damaging whatever system of weights is used to keep them in motion?"
He attempts to peer past the blades, as he speaks, looking for some sign of a lever or similar device on the far side.
Iacobus appraises the swinging blades, checking first to see if there is room for a figure to crawl safely past them, and looks to Dird. "Could there be some way of jamming the mechanism, either on an individual basis, blade by blade, or all at once, by damaging whatever system of weights is used to keep them in motion?"
He attempts to peer past the blades, as he speaks, looking for some sign of a lever or similar device on the far side.
"Well, I could conjure a mass of webbing to stop the axes, but I'm afraid it wouldn't leave us much room to maneuver."
"Simply wedging a blade near the top of the mechanism, where the um, fulcrum, something, something..." Iacobus mutters, realizing that he lacks the language to describe what he is thinking of, "Anyway, near the top, it should be easier to jam..."
If this was 1st edition, I'd have some climbing pitons in my bag of holding for just such an emergency!
"Well I'm not sure if it'll help us any now that we've gone ahead and opened the thing, but there were...mechanisms in the door, I couldn't tell what their nature was but there were three of them, and there are three axes."
Studying the door, Dird will unpack his thieves tools and attempt to disable the mechanisms in the door.
Iacobus, as you peer into the darkness of the swinging axe corridor, you can see a fourth, and even a glimmer of a fifth axe swinging away. There does not seem to be much room to maneuver.
Dird, the mechanisms you are looking at are present on both sides of the door, but they are significantly smaller than what you are used to working with. It seems likely that they are outer indications of gears and other mechanical structures within the door itself (which is surprisingly heavy for a door of its size).
"Perhaps the door itself is the counterweight, and the way to stop the axes motion is to close the door? It would require a leap of faith, and the ability to withstand or foil the initial strike while we pile into the corridor before closing the door, but might be an option..." Iacobus muses.
"It sounds crazy enough to be a 'test.' Then again, it might also simply chop up anyone foolish enough to think so..."
"Well, if you don't mind standing here for a few hours, I might be able melt through one of the axes. I doubt it would be an efficient use of our time. Perhaps we should see if there are a another series of swinging blades behind the sword door or a switch to turn these things off."
You can hear nothing through the door, but whether that is an indication of the axes no longer swinging remains to be seen. The door is exceptionally heavy and could very well block the sounds from the other side.
Dird will walk over the the door marked with swords, inspecting it for a similar mechanism as the one found on the axe marked door. If he can, he'd like to try to disable the mechanism, assuming there's a way to get to it.
Perception to search: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17
Disable Device if I can: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (19) + 15 = 34
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