Arlok nods.
"Goblin Brok have good plan."
"Malzii should heal Arlok if she hasn't already today."
"Arlok thank little dragon. Feel better now."
As the others join Brok in the corridor, so does Keil. He listens to the goblin's plan and smiles quietly muttering, "An excellent scheme." Turning his eyes to the witch, Keil watches with interest Grey's reaction.
"Nearly anything a living creature could." Grey says to Grezzor. "It simply has no driving will behind it's actions. I act as that force now, but my wishes must be purposefully given. It will understand and act, but not deviate or improvise."
"Like so," Grey said moving to the fore behind Keil and turning to the zombie. "Move into that room. Kill anything that attacks you."
The zombie lurched into the room.
Keil cautiously moves back.
tie goes to zombie.
As the zombie lurches into the room under the watchful eye of Praetor and the rest of the party, you all notice movement coming from the dam itself! As the zombie advances further into the room the dam shudders and the end rises up from the ground, causing the water held back to cover the stone floor and wetting it slightly.
While the 'dam'- serpent looks down at the lone figure that even now moves up to its 'torso' and swings at it...
; miss.
..it slips upon the wet stone and its blow flies wide of it.
The dam-serpent strikes down upon the zombie, much like a real cobra...
; miss.
...but the wet stone inexplicably throws off the balance and the strike impacts the stone floor with a loud bang. The 'serpent' does not seem affected by the blow otherwise.
"Brok tell you that pools of water always bad in this place!"
He levels his crossbow and fires.
The he uses his move action to get out of the way.
Brok aims and fires into the room aiming at the 'serpents' head. His shot flies true, yet the bolt shatters harmlessly on the stone barely leaving any mark on the stone.
Praetor steps into view and sends his magic at the construct. Despite the fact this construct has no intelligence that could be affected, the spell takes hold....as the 'dam-serpent' slowly sinks back to the ground it extends its body all the way forward to take its original place.
The zombie hears his master's command and immediately stops attacking the serpent, now laying motionless as if it had never moved, though the puddles of water on the floor indicates otherwise.
Grey tilted his head as he realized the serpent was some kind of construct.
"That... should not have worked."
"So snake monster asleep?"
"If snake monster not killing not-dead dead man, probaby safe for Brok to take a look."
Brok cautiously approaches the pool to look for anything the snake monster might be guarding.
(+3 for traps)
"Curious." Resuming his position near the front of the group, Keil cautiously makes his way past the serpent as he enters the wet chamber and takes in his surroundings.
-
"and how long stay asleep?" Brok asks (quietly).
"Is there a way we can execute it?" - Grezzor ponders, wary of the 'sleeping' dam-snake thing.
|
Varg stands at the entry to the room. While he knows nothing of constructs, the fine stone crafting of which the snake is made is astounding. As he watches, he determines to become more attuned to stone so that he will be able to work with such creatures, whether it is creating them, or destroying them.
Grey realizes whoever created the construct must have incorporated the vulnerability to his magic at the time it was created. The skin does appear to be even harder than normal stone, and looks immune to the blows from your weapons. The snake-construct seems to be quiescent for the moment.
Brok explores the pool briefly and sees nothing of interest. On the far side of the room across the water he does see there is a black stone in the wall, with a bronze handle set into it. The stone is actually the front of a stone drawer that can be pulled out by the handle. Inside is a scroll , a potion , a silver dagger worth 50 gp, three magical +1 arrows, and a pearl worth 100 gp.
"It will only be asleep for a few more moments. We should leave this place."
"If we have no way to 'finish it off' then I agree we should leave" - Grezzor nods - "At least we know of a way to defeat it if needed"
Brok scampers from the room upon hearing that the snake monster will wake up.
Keil jerks his head to Grey's revelation. His eyes wide with realization, the fetchling hobbles out of the room, his quarterstaff tapping rapidly against the stone floor.
Keil does not stop until he reaches the main corridor. Catching his breath he slows his pace and moves to inspect the last door. Still not feeling like his usual self, the distraction of the pain in his joints fills him with hatred for this place and his growing dependence upon this walking aid. His eyes narrow in determination that this dungeon will not get the better of him as he inspects the door.
The fetchling notes the door is not locked or trapped and reveals an irregularly shaped large room. The north wall of this room is a mosaic that depicts a lone figure that Keil recognizes as himself moving inside the room, as if it were a mirror. The south wall is also painted, and the painting, like the mosaic, depicts the fetchling. The pictures in the mosaic and in the painting mimic every movement as Keil moves about in the room. The north-wall mosaic also shows a large wooden chest sitting on the floor against the south wall.
The painting on the south wall also shows something that does not appear to reflect the reality here. It does not show the treasure chest depicted in the mosaic but instead shows a set of stairs that descend into the darkness.
There appears to be nothing else in the room.
Brok advances up to the door of the odd shaped room, but no further.
Seeing the weird magic at work, he looks back down the hall to the party and motions for either Malzii or Grezzor to come forward.
"Need someone to explain magic room."
"Indeed." Leaning on his walking stick, Keil peers at the images depicted on the opposing walls. Turning his head one way, then the other to take note of the differences however soon grows tiresome for the fetchling. Reaching deep, Keil works up a good volume of phlegm then horks the wad of spittle onto the floor. Looking at the goblin he sneers, "We should secure the room. Check the chest," the shadowy man hooks a thumb toward the image of the chest on the north wall, "I have the stairs."
Keil's quarter staff taps in rhythm with his step, as he moves towards the mosaic on the south wall. Stopping just before he reaches the wall the disgust covering his face at having to regarding himself borders on hateful. Keil practically snarls at the mirror image of himself before giving his reflection a rough tap with one end of the quarter staff. Snorting, the shadowy man gets on with his work of studying the tiny colored fragments and the mortar adhering them to the wall for irregularities.
Grezzor steps in the room, taking some time to observe it carefully - "This is interesting" - he ponders.
Then sets to study some of the immediate effects - by watching his position on the painting, he tries to move to where the set of stairs should be, touching their supposed position, and looking for a possible illusion covering them.
Likewise, he does the same with the chest position, while watching himself on the northern wall mosaic.
Grezzor is easily able to determine the aura is one of moderate illusion. While the auras permeate the entire room it seems to be strongest at the south wall.
As he approaches the south wall closer to inspect the chest, the goblin suddenly feels the floor vanish from his steps...
Grezzor manages to catch his balance before stumbling forward. A closer look past the glamer shows a set of stairs descending into the darkness where the 'treasure chest' was located.
"Careful Grezzor! Might be a trap!" Brok adds helpfully.
"So, if the stair is here.." - Grezzor ponders, regaining his balance - "The chest should be..." - then moves to where the painting shows the stairs, with a nod to Brok.
Grezzor checks the mosaic on the north wall thoroughly but is unable to find any chest. Apparently the only place the chest shows is in the south painting.
"It time go down? We check all here?"
Checking his mental map, Keil shakes his head, "Other passages remain." The fetchling looks to Brok to confirm his assessment of this level then to the others, searching their faces for their willingness to clear this level or descend.
"Makes sense. We should head back and check the corridor by the room of the goat priest." Brok nods.
If everyone agrees, Brok leads the party back north.
(+3 for traps)
Grey uses his chalk to mark out some symbols on the wall, and follows the scouts back to the madman's lair.
Backtracking your way to the corridor where you encountered the mad goat-priest, you find the corridor wends its way south before turning east, then south again. Two door break the monotony, both located in the south wall of the eastern portion of the passageway.
Grezzor follows suit, still pondering the mosaic room with a smile on his face - "Ingenious, to say the least"
Brok advances to the first door in the corridor and looks it over for danger.
If he sees no traps, he'll put a big ear up against it and take a listen.
(+3 for traps)