As Derrick begins his assessment of the sarcophagus, Vedic looks at the various lanterns on their chains, trying to figure out which chain his violet lantern goes on.
Cindersnake steps up beside Vedic as he looks about with a puzzled expression at the lanterns hanging and the one in his hands. She tap his shoulder with more force that she probably means to as she motions around, "Scholar, what do the lamps signify in this chamber? I take it they are not just simple colored decor to make the room more hospitable? That would be a silly, tshamek thing to do for the dead."
"Derrick, you okay? You singed one of your eyebrows there," Valsaya offers a hand to the boy to help him up.
Carefully glancing in the sarcophagus, she finds a statue of a bald man, with some sort of scarab necklace affixed to his throat. Her attention drawn to the weird position of the statue's hands, she notices he's missing one of his fingers.
"There's a statue here of a man with a missing finger, didn't we find something like that? And there's another one of those runes carved here."
"Fu--" Derrick lets out, sliding back as a gout of flame bursts from the sarcophagus. Feeling the burning sensation on his head, the thief quickly slaps at his hair, putting out the flames. He accepts Valsaya's oustretched hand with a nod of thanks. Nearly blew my head off, he thinks, annoyed with himself more than anything. Clumsy fingers have brief lives, the saying went.
Now that the trap's been set off, Derrick spends a little more time to examine the sarcophagus itself. "Yeah, the missing finger is... interesting. Probably just some other explorer who decided to vandalize it, or just damage over time..." Derrick shrugs. "We already know there are wolves living in here. Who knows what else has been here over the years?"
Casting his gaze along the arrow, Derrick hooks a thumb at the orange-lanterned alcove. "Something is--or was--in there, we should check it out." The thief himself, however, continues to look at the sarcophagus.
Derrick suddenly puts his foot against the top of the sarcophagus on the opposite side of the trap and gives it a push, not trying to shove the lid off to be smashed into oblivion, but wanting to look inside regardless.
The thief looks inside, and frowns. Leaning down to look around the structure, he lets out an exasperated and frustrated sigh. Finally, standing up, he crosses his arms, and for a moment, he looks even younger than his age--almost like a petulant child.
"Empty." Tapping his foot, Derrick's expression becomes thoughtful. "But why would they trap an empty coffin?"
"I have the finger." Vedic says. "Is it safe to approach?"
"Yeah," Derrick says, waving a hand. "No more traps, and it's empty. Go ahead."
Vedic brings the stone finger and attaches it to the hand, keeping it in place via prestidigitation. The index finger curls under the thumb, leaving the three fingers extended. However, Vedic is unsure whether that may be intentional or not.
"Curious."
While the others worry about a dead man's finger, Cindersnake keeps looking at the colored lanterns hanging about the room. Her earth breaker bounes against her shoulder as she taps her foot impatiently.
"It doesn't look like this place exactly holds the riches that our employer assumed," Valsaya proclaims as she regards the room in its entirety.
"Perhaps try lighting that lantern we found, and hanging it on one of those empty chains, mimicking the situation on the mural outside?"
Vedic nods, snapping his fingers to light the lantern.
Vedic proceeds down the indigo tunnel, lit lantern in hand. After about forty feet of travel, he reaches a long hanging chain meant for the lantern. Once it is place on its chain, the lantern's light mixes with the green to make aseagreen glow in the central chamber. After placing the lantern, Vedic notices a decorative circle about five feet in diameter directly below the lantern.
"We should keep an eye out for the last lantern." Vedic says.
"The color spectrum moves from blues on the left to reds on the right."
Cindersnake grunts at the light in the lantern shifts the color hue of the room and nods to Vedic, "I'm sure it is somewhere around here. There are a couple side tunnels we didn't fully check out on the way deeper into this burial chamber. Maybe it is in one of those." As if to prove her point, the Shoanti woman sets off back toward the spider-web tunnel. Reaching the edge of the light sources of this room and Valsaya's spell, Cindersnake turns to look at the others and motions toward the tunnel, "Quickly now. Let us find this other lantern and be done with this place before the dead come back to claim that which is their's."
"Sound advice," Valsaya agrees. After taking another thoughtful look at the central chamber, she follows Cindersnake. "So where should we check first?"
Starting with the red lantern alcove, Ulfak checks them one by one, clockwise (if he knew what one was). He looks all over to see what they contain.
"Help is good here. I know not this place well."
"I think we should attempt to find the red lantern. If this is some kind of puzzle, it will be impossible to solve without all the proper pieces." Vedic says looking toward the sarcophagus chamber.
"Agreed," Derrick says, glancing around again. "Like I always say--said--don't do a job if you don't have the tools." With that, the thief moves cautiously forward.
"See how the scythe points over me at the missing lantern. We have a finger that points too. It was not found with the wolves unless for a reason." Ulfak stares at the central sarcophagus. Then shrugs.
"...Hold on..." Derrick says as the group begins to move off, glancing back at the sarcophagus. Raised platform, arrow-shaped... Pointing to one lantern in an arc... And is that...
"Movable," the thief whispers, then louder, "It's movable. Of course!" Waving the others over, Derrick continues, "We've been thinking of it wrong. A missing lantern in a group is as important as we've figured, but what if it's supposed to be missing? It's a sign..." The thief pushes against the sarcophagus, but he isn't a strong man. He turns to the group. "Well? Do you have any better suggestions?"
"Interesting. Well done, Derrick." Vedic says. "Red is the first color in the spectrum. Turn it towards where the lantern should be."
A few more come over and assist Derrick in pushing the sarcophagus. An attempt to turn it to towards the red alcove is fruitless, so they begin to push the other direction. After a bit of effort, its entire base turns clockwise towards the yellow alcove. It turns rather smoothly, but abruptly stops with a resounding click, pointing at the yellow lantern.
A moment later, a great rumbling below the chamber is heard as the circular stone at the end of the tunnel rises eight feet into the air, pushed up by a 5-foot-diameter metal cylinder that seems to arise from the ground itself. Seconds after it comes to a rest, two thin doors slide into the sides of the cylinder, revealing a small empty chamber.
"Well, that's interesting."
Cindersnake wipes the dust of the tomb off her hands as she laughs and pat Derrick hard on the back, "Good thinking. A spinning crypt. Very odd customs you tshamek have for your burial spots."
"A false trail to keep us happy. This is the tomb of a clever man. No doubt dust will settle to find more from each of the other alcoves. Yellow is the colour of sunshine and morning. We are coming into the afternoon so be careful. A thoughtful man would leave cunning snares for unwary folk."
Ulfak looks into the empty cylindar to see if there are clues. Or gain a measure of the size of person it would fit.
"A thoughtful man did leave cunning snares," Derrick says, tapping his singed forehead. "And as for burial customs, this is far from normal, as far as I know." With a shrug, the thief moves forward investigate the cylinder as well, once more taking his time to uncover the secrets of every inch.
"Yellow first? Why would that be?" Vedic muses. "How shall we approach?"
"Nicely done, kid," Valsaya says, giving Derrick an approving smile. "Seems like there might be something worth finding here after all."
Glancing at Vedic as she skulks forward, she answers, "Very carefully, where there's one trap, there's bound to be more." She stays behind Derrick, studying his movements with an intense look. She gives the boy some time and some light as he seems to be searching for something.
Ulfak pulls out a packet of berries from the foraging on the journey here. He briefly passes his hand over them and watches for which ones change colour. Some turn a bright and vivid red like the lips of a willing lady.
"Here Derrick, nature provides." The wolf shaman hands over the four berries to the rogue.
Derrick cocks an eyebrow at the Shoanti shaman. "Magic berries?" he asks drily, taking the small fruits in his hand. "What do they do, give me the reflexes of a cat? Make me strong as ten bears?"
"Eat them. Your burns calms and your body heals."
"Yeah, I'm sure," the young thief scoffs, rolling his eyes, but he puts one berry in his mouth. Chewing for a moment, he feels the burst of sweet juice in his mouth, followed by a soothing sensation across his body as he swallows, relaxing most of his tension and easing the pain on his forehead. Raising his eyebrows at the shaman, Derrick throws back the rest of the berries and swallows. "Not bad," he offers, clapping the man on the shoulder. "Those would've been nice when I took spills in OK--not that it happened often, of course."
Derrick rubs his forehead, feeling the skin still a little cracked and sooty from the encounter, but not painful. Blinking, he leans down and runs his fingers along the cylinder once more. "Looks like someone's supposed to step into it," he says, standing up. "Only one, but two might be able to squeeze in. Definitely no more than that, though." Pausing, the youth absently runs his fingers along the hilt of the rapier. "If nobody objects, I'm willing to try it. Despite the earlier incidence, I'm pretty good with traps, so if this thing is one..." The thief shrugs as his voice trails off, his meaning obvious.
"Two people huh? Well, I'm not about to let you risk your skin all by your lonesome self." Gripping her scimitar, Valsaya adjusts its scabbard hanging from her belt as she steps inside, scraping her throat in an attempt to hide her nervousness.
"Let's go kid, just don't cop a feel, alright," she smirks at Derrick as she shuffles back, giving him some room.
"Relax--my hands only wander into pockets." The thief shakes his head and steps in, his lean frame giving some extra space in the close quarters. How young and horny does she think I am?
"Well, now we just have to figure out how to get it started." The thief glances around inside, looking for anything to push, pull, twist...