Ayaal pulls the lever and manages to jam a rock into the top area, waiting for a bit. Sure enough, after about ten seconds the "fangs" begin to lower back into place, raising the lever. The rock stops it. There is a brief grinding sound and then the bars stop lowering.
"Well," Apedemak says, out of his element when it comes to traps and other machinery, "that worked out easily enough. Who wants to brave that room?"
"We should proceed one at a time to minimize the risk... I'll go, and signal when I'm through."
Zayid takes a rope out of his pack and gives one end of it to Apedemak, coiling the rest around his shoulder. He then carefully enters the room, watching extra closely for any signs of danger, and proceeds cautiously until he arrives at a portion that looks less likely to collapse. Giving the rope a little tug, he indicates that it's safe for the next person.
Ayaal follows along, one hand resting lightly on the rope. She takes a good look around the chamber, particularly for anything of value peeking out of the rubble or navigable ways into the room above - either by climbing or the skilled use of a grappling hook.
She looks back at Apedemak and points up. "Might have a challenge worthy of those claws, Scoundrel. Take a look when you come through."
"I'll certainly take a look, once you're safe," Apedemak says to Ayaal, maintaining a tight grip on the rope and a wide stance. After a moment, he clarifies, "All of you, I mean. Once you all are safely across the dangerous area."
Shaking his head a little, he peers at the collapsed area, gauging the ease of climbing.
Zayid makes his way into the room carefully, pausing when he reaches the spill on the floor. The footprints lead right through it. Whoever passed through here ducked beneath the precarious angled shelves and went out the archway on the other side.
It was dark brownish in color but reflected the light like a slick of oil. Years of accumulated dirt and dust had given it a gritty looking texture. It smelled faintly like a smelling-salt and burned the eyes a bit. The lone boot in the middle of the mess gave a clue to the nature of the substance. It looked like it the leather had been eaten through along the edge.
It looked like there might be a way to cross the room without stepping in the caustic mess, but it would bring him very close to the unstable shelves.
Zayid will proceed around the fluid, even if it takes him close to the unstable shelves.
Zayid manages to traverse the room avoiding the spill on the floor with impressive grace, hopping from one clearing to another even landing on one foot at one point before carefully setting himself down again.
Ducking low beneath the angled shelf he comes out on the other side in a small alcove created by the wall, the shelves and the collapsing ceiling. Glancing up made his stomach knot as he realized he was directly under hundreds of pounds of lose stone.
From where he was now he could see that this room possessed an extra doorway beyond the two he'd become used to seeing. It led inward, into the center of the ruin, probably directly underneath the Observatory.
Kneeling down to glance into the archway the tracks went into, he could see that the toxic spill ran down into the sloping hallway, collecting to one side as it curved and vanishing around the bend. Whatever that gunk was, it was in the next room too.
Ayaal can't make heads or tails of the strange objects on the shelves, but she sees the danger and faint opportunities of the weakened ceiling. She shoots a look to Apedemak. "Don't get your heart set on a climb. It looks bad from here."
Zayid calls back softly the way he came: "Watch out for the stuff on the floor... I'm not sure what it is, but it seems to eat away at things. There's another door in here, too... I'm going to follow the prints a bit more, it's still not stable here."
He continues toward the archway where the tracks lead, glancing over at the extra doorway a few times, as if wanting to follow it.
Ayaal skips around and leaps over the acidic puddles to catch up with the ranger. "Going alone? With those puddles and broken shelves between you and possible help? Doesn't sound like a good idea to me." It seems pretty clear she means to provide back-up.
Ayaal makes the hopscotch-and-balance around the much and through the rubble look easy. Ducking into the small area beneath the partial collapse with Zayid, she glances around as he points out the things he noticed.
They slip down the hallway until they can see around the corner.
The room has a large oval table standing about three feet off the ground sitting in the center. A candelabra hangs above it, lit with strange glowing spheres giving the room an impressive luminance.
The top of the table is shining with the reflection of the light above and rippling slightly like the surface of a lake.
In a heap against the table is a crumpled body of a man with a missing foot.
Zayid chuckles as Ayaal appears, and smiles slightly even as he scolds her. "I thought I suggested we go one at a time, eh? That way at least if something happened to me, it'd be only to me and the rest of you would be clear."
When they move around the corner, he grimaces at the sight of the clearly magical table, and the body next to it. Moving cautiously, and careful to stay as far from the table as possible, he proceeds forward and examines the man.
"The room seems safe enough... let's get the others in here."
The man was alive. Barely.
"Quick, get Hasani!" he exclaims to Ayaal.
Zayid attempts to lift the man, and carry him to rest against a wall away from the table . He tries to lift him without touching the table, if possible. Pulling out a waterskin, he pours a few drops into the man's mouth, and begins to examine him further to try to determine the extent of his injuries.
Heal
Zayid chuckles as Ayaal appears, and smiles slightly even as he scolds her. "I thought I suggested we go one at a time, eh? That way at least if something happened to me, it'd be only to me and the rest of you would be clear."
She shrugs playfully, "You did... and it was a very gallant suggestion. Sadly, I'm willful, a fact much lamented by my poor father. But don't worry, I'm sure you'll have more chances to face danger without me tagging along."
"Quick, get Hasani!" he exclaims to Ayaal.
Ayaal nods and dances back through the gap, looking to bring a healer forward.
"We've got an injured man, here. Who can help?" She waits at the most difficult section of the crossing and lends a hand to whoever comes forward to help.
Cahal begins moving through the obstacle course, but his folding is not as deft as the others had been. About half of his right foot ends up in the mess.
His shoe begins to smoke slightly, accompanied by a hissing sound. It seems to have glue-like properties as well. Lifting your foot up is difficult.
Apedemak dashes forward as soon as he sees Cahal step in the mess, deftly leaping to a good spot to help haul him out.
Farooq tries to nimbly clear the mess,
but his nimble days are long past and he trips, sprawling into the mess.
Farooq steps gingerly onto the first rock that acts as an island in the goo. It shifts unexpectedly and he falls, sprawling prone into the muck.
Faint wisps of white smoke begin rising from his clothes. His hands, completely submerged in the goo, begin tingling, which quickly becomes an uncomfortable pins-and-needles sensation. The muscles in his fingers began twitching and spasming. The fumes made his eyes burn.
Rushing forward, Zariah grabs hold of Farooq's robes to pull the old man out of the deadly muck.
Broken from his contemplations of the enchantment upon his mind by the calls for healing Hasani hurries forward,
"I promise you all I will not let anyone go without healing when I might provide it!" He calls, feeling the dull lurch of his stomach as his curse locks the promise in place. Hurrying forwards he removes his armored coat and hurries across the precarious path.
He then hurries over to the injured man, then moves to ensure he will catch the injured Farooq to and channels the healing energies of Ash! For a moment everything is warm and fresh smelling, and wounds begin to knit closed.
Hassani carefully made his way into the room and crossed it just after Farooq.
He paused as the old man sprawled out in front of him.
Apedemak wasn't in a very good position to give Cahal the leverage he needed to get free, but Ayaal quickly hopped to another stone and helped him pull him free...
...just in time to see Farooq sprawl into it behind them.
Hasani moves past Farooq trying to place both injured men within thirty feet, and holding up his shrivelled scrawny burnt arms to the wizard in apology. But seeing this is impossible he channels to heal the injured stranger calling,
"Somebody help Farooq, hold on my friend!"
This done he moves back to the room the others are in offerings using the power of his misfortune revelation on any who look like they might fall.
The thief spews an unladylike drover's curse when the older man falls into the acid and she looks for a path to help that won't dump Cahal or anyone else into the goo.
The unconscious man twitches but does not wake. A quick check of his pulse shows a steadier heartbeat, but he was obviously on the brink of death before Hasani reached him.
Next to the glimmering table Hasani sees that it is is actually full of water, the raised outer edge keeping the liquid from spilling out.
The warm light from the candelabra was shining down onto the surface causing a reflection across the ripples of the water, making it into a distorted mirror.
If there is water on the table, that means it was put here recently, was pumped here from somewhere below, or it has been enchanted not to evaporate over time. It is also rippling, which means someone recently disturbed it, or there is something moving beneath the surface.
"Ahh my hands!! My beautiful, beautiful hand!!"
Farooq will try to scramble to his feet,
Apedemak hops over to help Farooq up a second time, and he mutters his own curse under his breath: "Sekhmet's shedding, this is ridiculous..."
Finally spurred into action, Mahsati tried to make her own way around the toxic substance to help the fallen old man. "Here, take my hand."
Cahal was beginning to feel an impressive tingling in his foot. It seemed the substance made short work of his shoe and had made contact with his skin.
Getting Farooq free of the mess quickly became a comedy of errors.
By the time they had all managed to get out of the stuff, many of them had come in contact with it. The acrid smell of slowly dissolving leather and cloth began to fill the air, and skin began to tingle uncomfortably.
For poor Farooq, the tingling was becoming pain...
Apedemak grimaces as he looks at the stuff burning on his hands and pants. With a sigh, he wipes what he can of his hands on his shirt before stripping it off, wiping his pants for a moment, and tossing the thin cotton into the substance. "Looks like I'll be facing the sun and sand on the way back," he says with a thin sigh, knowing the dangers of walking about without proper protection. "Although, I left my robes on the surface, so at least I have those."
Even after he washed his hands, Apedemak could still feel the substance tingling. His hands began to blister.
It looked like this substance caused a slow but persistent corrosive effect, and was difficult to get off, even with water.