Tanjvats began to suspect there was nothing to be found, but he tapped a bit harder, just in case.
Faedrin nods to himself, convinced he's struck upon an idea that will, at the very least, please the Heidmarches. He kneels down besie the open chest in the room and idly checks for a false bottom then glances under the bed.
Tanjvats and Kascio, find nothing more of interest in regards to false walls and illusions. Just the same, Faedrin reaches the conclusion that anything either portable or valuable has already been removed from the room.
Tanjvats leads the others back into the western room and explores the northern door.
The northern door, a little stuck at first, leads to nothing more than the ruins of a room or hallway beyond. It looks as if nothing remains in this space other that large chunks of rubble.
Tanjvats was nervous about entering the room alone while everyone else was still milling further to the east.
But he poked his head in timidly and looked around with his darkvision.
Kascio moves into the room slowly, cautiously and looks around as well.
Faedrin looks up as Tanjvats wanders off into the adjoining chamber. Rising to his feet, he quicksteps after the half-orc, catching up to him and Kascio as the pair peer through the stuck door.
"I don't suppose we're lucky enough for the shard to just be laying on a shelf on the other side of those doors?"
Sadly, the room or hallway is thoroughly destroyed. It is most likely that whatever brought down the impressive Irespan itself is the same that caused this place to collapse.
Tanjvats shook his head in response to Faedrin's sardonic comment. "No such luck. But Desna won't completely abandon us."
Moving to the large set of double-doors on the west wall, Tanjvats called to Kasio.
"Help me with these, friend, as they seem to be our only remaining choice."
With arms akimbo, he scrutinized the doors intently.
Kascio nods and moves to help examine the doors.
Faedrin sighs even though the answer is what he expected. He regards the large set of double doors with a frown, shaking his head at himself for not studying the cantrip that would let him see the presence of magics.
"Be careful, you two. Those doors are rather... ominous." He shudders as he looks at the runes on the doors.
These doors are made of a silvery metal decorated with images of burning eyes that look inward toward two sets of runes carved onto the face of each door. The images are not of anything overtly as disturbing as the mosaic wall decorations, but there is still something just a little off about an image covered in burning eyes. Not to mention, just like some paintings, the eyes feel like they follow you.
Nearing the doors, it's easy to tell that they put off a decent amount of heat. One could probably stay warm in these large stone halls just by standing near enough to whatever the odd metal is that makes up the doors. It is only a small radius of heat, felt maybe no more than a foot away, but increases intensely the closer you get over that brief span. It's almost like the heat put off by an iron pot just taken from the flame.
Kascio reaches his hand toward the door, trying to determine the aura of the heat. "Fascinating," he murmurs, then looks around the door to see any traps/locks.
Nothing about the door seems to bear traps of any kind, nor are there any visible locks. The heat doesn't seem to be centralized to any specific portion of the door, as much as it comes from the metal the door is made of itself. The whole door is equally as hot.
"I can feel the heat even from here - is it too hot to touch, Kascio? Maybe those runes have something to do with it. Or maybe we can pull the doors open with some rope?" Faedrin shrugs, unsure what to make of the runed door and the rather obvious danger of its heat.
Kascio, his curiosity getting the better of him, will touch the door.
Dareon looks intently at the door, crossing his mailed arms. He's a little concerned about the heat of the door, but he's more concerned with the material makeup of the door.
"Does anyone have something flammable that you don't care much for?" Dareon murmurs, patting his backpack for a moment before realizing that he probably doesn't have anything of the sort - unless he rips a page out of his formula book. "I'd like to see if this is hot enough to hurt us before we try and open it."
Kascio gingerly decides to feel the surface of the door, and had it not been for the gloves that he wears, he certainly would have burnt his hand. Even with the glove, he was able to tell that if he kept his hand there much longer he would feel the heat more severely through it.
Dareon recognizes the door as similar to the shard, whereas the shard was made of a coppery substance that wasn't actually copper, the doors are made of a metal that is very much like silver, but not. The decorations on the door do not stand out as anything specific to any one era or historic time period, but he does notice that the runes pointed out by Kascio are written in Thassilonian.
Faedrin shakes his head in helplessness as Kascio brings his hand away from the door, tendrils of smoke plainly wisping off his gloves. Turning to Dareon, "Whether or not it's hot enough to cause something to combust, I'm not sure - but Kascio's gloves are smoking so I'm pretty convinced that, yes, those doors can hurt us as they are." He scratches his head and looks back at the door. "Do the carvings or decorations on the doors mean anything?"
Dareon raises an eyebrow at the runes. "It's another puzzle." he says, somewhat tiredly. "The words "Listen" and "The Eyes" are spelled out in Thassilonian here on the doors - I think we're supposed to re-order them like with the puzzle box that Heidmarch gave us."
He thinks for a moment before continuing. "The puzzle box's key was "Lucre" - a word that's connected to greed. So, it stands to reason that the key here is connected to greed as well. However, I doubt it - this place seems to be a shrine to Alaznist the Runelord of Wrath - so I'd be willing to bet that the keywords for this puzzle are related to wrath."
"Ideas? Anyone?"
Faedrin nods, and turns to Kascio and Esmerelda, taking a moment to explain the Thassilonian box, its solution, and the blasted pugwampis it contained from a few weeks back.
"I don't know about how wrathful it is, but LISTEN could be become SILENT?"
Kasio absent-mindedly rubs the burnt gloves while Faedrin talks. "A puzzle? These Thassals loved being clever, didn't they?"
"Sure seems like it," Faedrin offers, his tone tinged with disdain. "For being some world-spanning empire or whatever, they sure left a lot of tedium for those who came after."
Tanjvats began to mumble the words to himself, trying to hear the letters, but not disturb the others.
Listen. Silent. The eyes. The eyes. Listen. Silent. The eyes, the eyes, silent. The eyes, silent, they see.
He stopped abruptly.
He spoke up softly, offering a timid guess to the others.
"Silent They See?"
Faedrin shoots Tanjvats an admiring look and nods.
Kascio looks at the cleric with open awe. "That's some high Thassal-thinking, Tanjvats." Moving quickly as his glove burns, he rearranges the letters into the words Tanjvats spoke.
As Kascio touches the runes with his gloved hands, nothing happens. Each rune pressed, pushes in, but does not change places with the next one pushed. It looks as if he's doing what he's supposed to, but nothing is happening.
Tanjvats blushed at the praise, and gave a small, shy smile of pride.
But when the guess turned out wrong, that smile quickly disappeared. A deep shame replaced mild embarrassment and he made a fist on his own leg.
You idiot! Why can't you get anything right?! Worthless!
Swallowing hard and nervous now, he blurted out a desperate guess.
"Enlist! Enlist...they see."
That's horrible! Why do you even try?
"I don't know!"
|
Esmeralda curts a smile as the group begins to put together the code. "I don't see what silence would have to do with wrath, but I've yet to help in the solving of said puzzles, so I know little." she points out. "What do you suppose solving this one does? Cools down the door?" she asks, pointing at it. "If that's the case, what we're looking for is likely inside, and apparently the tower girls were too foolish to actually access it, fortunately." she says with a grin as Penance nears the group dragging his sword across the ground.
Faedrin tries to console Tanjvats, "I don't that you're wrong in your suggestion, Tanjvats. See? The letters didn't even change position when Kascio pressed them. I think your solution is probably right, we just have to figure out how to get it into the door."
He nods at Esmeralda, "Cooling the door would be nice, I just hope there isn't a tribe of pugwampis or worse contained on the other side."
|
|
"Listen and... The eyes. If it's just something that involves rewriting the words to involve Alaznist, and wrath, for that matter... then..." She trails off for a moment, placing her hand to her lower lip and tapping it for a moment. "Perhaps Inlets?" Though Silent does sound oddly more appropriate."
Faedrin steps up beside Kascio and, with an ungloved hand, touches the L then S. If the runes swap places and touching the runes doesn't burn his fingertips off, he next presses the T then N.
Deciding to test a theory, Faedrin removes his glove and touches first the 'L' and then the 'S'. The palpable heat of the door is stronger against his bare flesh, and the result is the beginnings of a blister forming to coincide with the feel of burned flesh. The runes, however, do switch. The letters glow briefly and switch places on the door, saying now "SILTEN" "THE EYES".
Faedrin shakes the pain out of his hand. He touches the T and E, then the T and N. He inhales sharply, shaking his hand again, "If we're wrong, this is going to hurt a lot."
Grimmacing, he switches hands and rearranges the runes on the second door.
Faedrin steels his nerves, and as quickly as he can, makes all the letter switches to spell out the guess by Tanjvats. Everyone can hear the unintended sound Fade makes as he sucks air through his teeth at the pain caused by each touch. The sound of skin being singed, and the following smell of burned skin soon follows. Finally, he manages to make all the appropriate changes.
The runes are alight, the ones he touched, then they all begin to glow. Soon there is light 'tunk' sound and the doors appear to hang more than before, as if they are now bearing their own weight on unseen hinges, instead of being supported by one another.
Faedrin shakes his hands again, trying rather ineffectively to soothe the pain. Looking up at the doors darkly he growls, "I think I figured out where the wrath part fits into the damn riddle! Gods that hurt!"
HP: 6/12
AC: 19 (15 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 17
F/R/W: +3/+4/+4 (+2 vs enchantment, immune sleep)
Arcane Pool used: 0/5
Harrow Points remaining: 2
Spells Prepared:
Cantrips (4) - dancing lights, daze, ghost sound, read magic
Level 1 (2+1) - feather fall [ ], jump [ ], shocking grasp [ ]
Ongoing Effects
Tanjvats moved quickly up to Faedrin, concern visible on his face.
"Desna help the worthy, please, for him", he whispered, and he transferred a small glowing touch from his fingers to the elf's.
Faedrin sighs as Tanjvat's magics wash over his hands and steal the pain. He nods after, seeing the flesh perfectly whole and soft once more. "Thanks, Tanjvats." He then turns back to the door, hanging free as it is, and he draws his rapier.
"Just in case this is also like the puzzle box in that something's inside..."
HP: 12/12
AC: 19 (15 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 17
F/R/W: +3/+4/+4 (+2 vs enchantment, immune sleep)
Arcane Pool used: 0/5
Harrow Points remaining: 2
Spells Prepared:
Cantrips (4) - dancing lights, daze, ghost sound, read magic
Level 1 (2+1) - feather fall [ ], jump [ ], shocking grasp [ ]
Ongoing Effects
Kasioc nods at Fade and draws two daggers, then uses his booted foot to open the door.
Dareon stands at the fore of the group, shoulders hunched protectively forward (kind of trollishly, but he's leaning forward into whatever might come tackling out), his new shortsword and shield at hand.
Tanjvats reloaded his crossbow and eyed the door nervously.
The door opens way too easily on old hinges bearing such heavy weights. Whatever methods or artisans were used to craft such a thing were clearly quite effective. The room beyond is of a decent size, and bare of anything except ages worth of dust. However, the Thassilonian murals here are as vibrant as if they were painted yesterday. A dusty, cobweb-choked corridor runs northward.
Kascio looks down the corridor, grins and moves in, moving half speed and looking about for trouble!
Tanjvats moves warily behind him, trying his best to be quiet, his crossbow out, and his darkvision scanning ahead.
Faedrin follows suit, the relaxation vanishing from his face as his guard goes up.
Dareon moves carefully in front of Kascio, casting his gaze in the same direction as his chest, making sure that he's ready to respond to whatever danger that comes out.
"Somebody detect magic? These are too well-preserved to be natural."