Aelerie recognizes the being as a Grick. An underground aberration that is a carnivorous predator and quite deadly to groups that don't have magical or attuned weaponry. Relies on ambush tactics to hunt.
Gorat peers out from behind the group. That would work as an incinerator sure enough. Knowing the blashempy rampant here it probably was a sacrificial pit or something terrible like that to boot.
In her time traversing dangerous places with the woodsman, Aelerie has long since learned that Albus has a far better eye when it comes to spotting hidden dangers than herself. Like a conditioned response, when Albus's hand raises, Aelerie freezes midstep, her wide-eyed gaze searching the chamber to try and spot what hazard she might have blundered into without him. She recoils when she catches sight of the creature in all of its festering ugliness. "It's a grick. An aberrant, subterranean-dwelling type of creature. They prefer to lie in wait before springing an ambush, and they're thought to be nearly impervious to anything but magic and enchanted weapons. Luckily we aren't lacking for either. Should I try to lure it down?"
"If you want." Javell tells Aelerie, assuming his fighting stance.
Aelerie nods once after Javell's reply. They couldn't just leave the grick for the next unfortunate, possibly less than prepared group to come across, after all. And even if they could keep the locals from exploring the monastery, there was no telling what the creature might resort to without a steady supply of fresh meat. That settled, all that's left is to find a way to draw the creature out on their terms. "Hmm... let's try this." After briefly digging around in her pouch of spell components, Aelerie points a butter-slicked finger at the grick. "Liukas koska märkä."
Albus nods, "Ready whenever you are, Aelerie, Staggered line with warriors, others behind." Albus is in the center, slightly ahead of Javell and Laro, with Master Gorat and Aelerie behind them.
Laro nods to the others and moves to Albus' right, waiting to see the thing fall down.
With a screech the slimy collection of tentacles and hooked teeth slips out of its hiding spot and slaps onto the group wetly.
Whisper yelps in surprise and dashes behind Gorat who clutches his mouth That thing is not natural!
Albus steps forward and does an overhead swing with his axe at the horrid creature.
To hit target. Critical on a 20. Weapon Attunement +1 Hit and Damage, Power Attack.
Damage Weapon Attunement, Power Attack with Two-handed weapon
To confirm a critical if rolled. Weapon Attunement +1 Hit and Damage, Power Attack
Damage from critical X3, Weapon Attunement, Power Attack Twp-handed weapon.
Laro moves around the grick to flank it with Albus and attacks the creature.
Javell calls on Desna's blessing and sends his blade spinning across the battlefield and into the far wall.
Between the four of them the grick doesn't even have a chance to respond and is cut apart into pieces.
Well I can see the four of you are quite competent at this... business Gorat comments.
There seems to be nothing else in this chamber other than dour and depressing engravings around the edges of the pit. They are similar in design to what was seen on the obelisk in the previous chamber. Dwaven figures laboring unceasingly in supplication of an angry god.
Albus reassures Whisper after the quick disposal of the grick. He replies to Gorat. "Well,Master Gorat, we learned to work together to rescue the kids, necessary to survive, and it's a special bond when you need each other, time after time. And we've all learned things, ... it's hard but doing hard things is a good teacher ... even if the price is a bit high." Albus finishes a bit wistfully.
Albus continues frowning at the engravings, "It seems that a cult took over here that twists virtue into vice. Hard work is a good thing but it appears that these 'worshipers' make it a form of torture, a source of suffering. Why would anyone want to do that?" Albus shakes his head in bewilderment.
Aelerie pats her face with her scarf and then nods her agreement to Albus's explanation. "That's right. We've had at least..." she trails off briefly as she does the math before finishing her thought, regardless of absurd it sounds, "a couple of weeks of practice at this." Clearing her throat, the mage gestures toward the exits. "If that's everything to see here, can we move on? I think I'm going to start melting here soon," she good-naturedly grumbles.
I wouldn't dwell too long on why followers of evil gods follow 'em Gorat says making a sign of a hammer to ward off evil. It's madness pure and simple.
As they head north, leaving the red-lit magma pit behind, they enter back into the dark grey corridors of the small labyrinth dedicated to Droskar. Quite quickly they are faced with a choice of going north or west. The corridor to the west is one they glanced down a long time ago when they were following the other path. To the north they see a round chamber with a strange obelisk at the center.
As well at their feet at the intersection is a headless skeleton, long dead, it's got human proportions and doesn't rise to attack. There are a pair of boots though that Aelerie readily identfies as boots of elvenkind. Seems like none of the other denizens of these corridors cared to loot it.
Albus is sad at the sight of a skeleton in that path, but frowns at the sight of the boots, with a feeling of familiarity about it. When Aelerie identifies it as boots of elvenkind, Albus grows more concerned. He bends down to examine closely the body, estimating time of death and evaluating both the body and its clothes and other items. Attempting to identify the person. Is it the body of Kimi's father?
How long has the body been dead? How did he or she die? Is it a he or she and of what race?
Is there anything the indicates it's Idris(if I recall the name of Kimi's father correctly)? Is there anything that indicates it's not?
Boost to identifying the body.
Albus mutters absently as he works, "Hope it's not Kimi's dad, she worships that neglectful ... "
The skeleton is old, very old. So old that there's no way it could be Kimi's father.
In any case Kimi's father's exploits are all in exotic foreign locales, at least judging from his tales on the occasions he comes back and flashes his wealth around. A small forgotten dwarven ruin deep in the Vale's hinterlands aren't really his 'style'.
Albus gets up and says, "The skeleton is very old so not anyone I ever knew."
Albus memorizes the location, saying. "But this body should be properly buried none the less, since it's a skeleton it should be easy to pack it away and do so." Albus takes out some of his sacks, sorting items in one(or more) and the remains in another.
Aelerie runs simple little calculations in her head while Albus sorts through the remains in his sack. She figures the woodsman must be hauling around at least nine or ten stones worth of human and dwarven bones now. She isn't looking forward to having to sort out which was which when it came time to unpack them, and she is fairly certain Albus will insist on it, she realizes with a rueful smile. She supposes it would be a bit dishonorable to bury the long-lost adventurer's remains with the bones of evil dwarf cultists. At least the human foot bones would be easy to discern if Albus was planning to carry them inside the magical boots. "I'm guessing you didn't picture that you'd be using your new enchanted sack for this, huh?"
The group moves north. Right before they steop into the large circular chamber, Albus and Laro notice that the first few steps into the chamber are raised just slightly enough to be off. There are pressure plates strewn all across the floor and it would take someone very nimble to pass through without activating them.
In the center of the chamber is a stone obelisk. At the foot of the obelisk lie a few dented shields and armors. Some of the armors have skeletons in them while other skeletons are strewen about the room as well.
It's a safe guess that the pressure plates activate some form of trap.
Laro sticks a hand up quickly "Pressure plates! They've trapped this room. Let me see if I can clear us a path. Someone keep an eye on those skeletons and let me know if they come after me."
Wow. Reflex save please Laro.
Albus ties the sack with the human bones up and adds it to the enchanted havesack, where the sack with the less saintly dwarven bones are carried.
Albus nods to Aelerie, "Yes without that it would be like carrying a heavy person. Can't take much more weight though. Once we complete this sweep we need to get out and do some burying."
Albus stops at Laro gesture and spots the oddness of the flooring that the Master noticed. Albus says, "We'll keep watch for any trouble, Master Laro, while you see about the traps."
Laro's exploratory probe of the first pressure plate trips it off.
The obelisk at the center of the room starts to thrum with some sort of arcane energy and the various bits and bobs of metal in the room start to tremble and vibrate before they fly to stick to it.
The includes Laro's theives tools, which he had out. The surprised halfling is unable to hold on to them as the metallic implements in them scoot out of his grasp and slap onto the obelisk
Laro has just enough warning thanks to the loss of his tools to scramble back to the rest of the group in the corridor before the large iron door behind him, intricately carved with now familiar Droskaran motifs slams shut with a sonrous clang that resounds and echoes through the basement, giving everyone a momentary headache.
In spite of his alertness Albus is a bit startled by the sudden twist of events. Recover quickly he asks Laro, "Master Laro are you alright? What was that?" Assuming Laro replies in the affirmative Albus will then ask, "What, if anything we can do now?" Albus looks around for anything that might shed some light on this situation.
Laro pops to his feet and and turns to Albus "That was fun! Let's not repeat that though. I think we'll need to find another way in or around this room. See if we can shut it off. I lost my tools in there."
"Gah!" Aelerie clutches her head as the force with which the massive door shuts threatens to rattle her teeth. "Thank goodness you made it out in time!" Aelerie shouts, her hearing not yet returned to normal after the thunderous boom. "I'm curious to know what's happening in there, but I would not have wanted to find out that way."
From what she saw and what Laro describes, it seems like the pressure plate Laro tripped activated a strong magnetic force from the obelisk which pulled the iron door closed. If Laro had been a inside the room when the trap had been activated then he probably would have gotten trapped in there!
The legends say Droskar excelled at creating traps, while he was still Torag's student of course. Gorat says shaking his head. Dwarven ingenuity is hard to overcome even for your nimble fingers eh? he says to Laro.
Aelerie lightly places her hand on the door and hmms. "It seems the pressure plate has activated some sort of magnet inside the obelisk. But how it's managing to create such a powerful magnetic field is beyond me. I have to say it's rather ingenious." Belatedly realizing that she was complimenting the evil cultists' deadly work, Aelerie clears her throat and lets the awed smile fall from her face. "Ingenious, but terrible," she amends.
Pressing her ear against the door, Aelerie tries to listen for signs of anything else that might be happening inside the room. "Can that really be all that the trap does? The poor fellows in the armor might have died on impact after colliding with the obelisk, but that doesn't explain what happened to the others in the room, and I've never heard of magnetic forces strong enough to kill a person. Unless, of course, they were also wearing metal armor at the time, but have since been stripped of it. It's also possible that whatever timer the trap likely runs on might have sealed them in long enough that they starved to death..." Aelerie rambles on with her theories and hypotheses.
Aelerie cannot hear anything from the other side of the door other than the otherworldly thrum of the obelisk.
"I don't hear anything... just a low humming from the obelisk," Aelerie mentions to the others. "There's no telling how long these doors'll stay shut, and who knows how many traps are set in the rest of this place..." Aelerie trails off, looking thoughtful for a moment as she wonders how best to solve their little conundrum. The flash of inspiration that flits across her face tells she's thought of an idea. With a snap of her fingers, the stone corridor around the group trembles before two small earth elementals pop out out the ground with a sound like two boulders crashing together.
Aelerie tells the two stone creatures about the trap in the other room, and with a liberal use of gestures, she explains that she would like them to glide into the next room, retrieve the tiny tools stuck to the pillar, and inspect it if possible.
"...I hope they aren't formed from any ferrous minerals," Aelerie says to herself after she's already sent them in.
Albus is uncharacteristically at a loss for what to do next when Aelerie starts her mysterious magic. A loud crash occurs and two stone creatures appear as Aelerie tries to communicate with them.
Albus says, "Aelerie you never cease to amaze. It seems at every trip you do something new and spectacular."
Aelrie's heavily accented Terran is good enough to get the message across to the small elementals and they disappear into the worked stone . They come back pretty quickly with one of the elemenatls clutching Laro's small tools.
Just as they come back though the barely felt thrum of the obelisk shuts off and the door swings back open. As it swings open the group can see the north and west door swinging shut with heavy clangs. It's been about a minute since the trap was sprung.
Heat fills Aelerie's face after Albus's compliment, making her feel as though she were standing in the incinerator room all over again. The bookish young woman ducks her head to hide her quickly pinkening cheeks, but a hint of her shy smile can still be seen. It was nice to be appreciated for her arcane talent instead of being looked at with suspicion. "Thanks Albus. I feel the same way watching you all work."
Saved from her self-consciousness by the timely return of the elementals, Aelerie holds out her hands for Laro's tools just as the obelisk powers down and the door swings open. "Huh... I guess we could have just waited a minute." Thanking the elementals for the help, Aelerie releases them and then hands Laro his lock picks. "Do you want to try again or should we go around?"
Laro stands looking into the room for a minute. "I could try again, or I could mark the pressure plates and make sure we miss them or we could go around. I leave it up to everyone to deceide."
Albus sees Aelerie's flushing cheeks, he makes a wry smile and says quietly, "No one needs say it, Aelerie you know you deserve a lot of credit for what you've accomplished, I've had years of fighting in these woods. When it counted you took what you knew and went into grave danger, over and over, in a way that books could not have prepared you for. It takes more than skill to do ... all this." Albus waves vaguely in the air.
Albus considers Laro's words. "Might be best if we go around for now, it's not going anywhere. Maybe we can find something to control it. They had to have had a way to stop it, otherwise they'd fall into their own trap." Albus looks around for any other opinion, while pointing down the corridor to the west. (Assuming we're standing at location 6.)
Heading to the west, the group soon passes an intersection. To the north lies a small chamber dominated by a large fountain.
Steam rolls off from a stone obelisk at the fountain's center, filling the entire chamber with its haze.
So close to good magma. Gorat comments. I can see why this part of the world was such an important part of the old empire.
Albus leads to the next intersection and looks north into the steamy haze. At Master Gorat comment Albus replies, "Master Gorat, I'm very impressed by what the Old Empire made here, the finest of craftsmanship. I hope you will forgive me because in the beauty of that fountain, shrouded in that haze, my terrible, suspicious mind whispers to me - Beware Trap!" Albus thinks for a moment then asks Laro. "Master Laro, do you think it possible to prevent the corridor from being closed off? Then if the trap, that I'm sure is in there, is set off at least we could escape. Still there would be considerable risk involved."
Albus reaches down to pat Whisper on his head when he looked up expectantly on hearing his name.
Aelerie gives Albus an amused look from the corner of her eye as he continues to talk about her apparent accomplishments. Although the mage is sure that the woodsman's words are in earnest, she can't help thinking her friend might have an ulterior motive as well, like trying to find out just how far he can get her blush to spread. Especially when she feels the tips of her ears heat up. Aelerie's thankful that Albus has lowered his voice at least, sparing her some embarrassment with the illusion that their conversation is private. "That's really nice of you to say, Albus, but I don't think I did anything anyone else in my position wouldn't do. Besides"—Aelerie playfully jostles the ranger with her shoulder as the group heads west—"it's easy to be brave with friends like you by my side."
Aelerie warily regards the steamy room with the obelisk from the safety of the hallway. "My thoughts exactly," she says in response to Albus's concerns. Turning to Gorat, she asks, "Is there any chance this is just some sort of elaborate steam room?"
"I'm not sure there are doors. I'm more worried there is something hiding in the steam. Let me have a look."
Laro then moves to the entrance of the room stealthily and checks for doors. He then looks into the room for enemies.
All dwarves like a good steam room. Gorat says S'pose Droskarans do too.
While Laro is unable to see anything in the steamy room, a pair of 3 foot long lizards scamper out of the fountain and retreat to a corner of the room. They both open their mouths wide and hiss at Laro.
Albus and Javell recognize this kind of behaviour. The animals are frightened and trying to act bigger than they are to scare Laro off. It's probably the smell of grick blood that has disturbed the lizards.
Albus takes in the scene and says, quietly "The lizards are scared so they're acting big and tough. I bet they smell the grick blood on your weapons." Albus thinks then says, "I could try to calm them but I think their presence is a problem we may have to deal with."
What exactly are they? What threat do they represent?
Any more hiding or anything else to notice?
Albus recognizes them as Shocker Lizards. In large groups they are deadly. A pair such as these could still cause a lot of pain, but they aren't nearly as hardy as some of the other creatures the group has overcome.
Albus struggles to recollect his memory but some comes through. "Ah these are Shocker Lizards, weak individually but get stronger in numbers. Two I'm sure we can handle, a pack could be trouble. And the name isn't just cute, it's descriptive, can't seem to remember just how strong though."
The group ignores the Lizards and moves on to the north while the Lizards react to the lack of hostility by staying in their corner with flared gills, hissing at the intruders as they pass by.
The next room is an arched chamber.
It contains two rows of statues, one on the east wall and one on the west. The statues to the east depict fearsome dwarven warriors clad in simple plate armor and hefting their warhammers high.
Opposite these are statues of dwarves depicted in grotesque caricatures as overly obese, pig-nosed brutes with huge grinning mouths and beady
eyes. The western statues stand in two lines, the front kneeling, and both holding sharp, jutting spears leveled at the smiths opposite them. A tiny skeleton lies at the foot of a statue on the west wall.
Albus surveys the hall with deep misgivings. "Not any more inviting than the other but we are running low on options. I'm just going to assume those statues are not harmless, I've been attacked by cookery less well made. Can we tell if they are enchanted in some way? And as always see if we can spot any traps or strangeness before entering the room."
See what's to be seen before putting anyone's head into that noose ... err ... room.
Laro looks into the room and turns to their guest, "What do you think of those statues? They look like insults to dwarves to me."
Aelerie gives a quiet groan in response to Albus's comment about hostile cookery, remembering vividly the hag Ulizmila's enchanted cauldron and how it might have "swallowed" her up if not for the woodsman and their former paladin companion. "I've never been able to look at an iron pot the same way since," the mage quips with a shake of her head. At the suggestion that the statues might be similarly bespelled, Aelerie utters a simple incantation that causes her eyes to glow blue, allowing her to perceive magical energies.