The room beyond is much larger, but similarly empty, except for one thing. A strange metal man-like construct, full of whirring gears, with four arms and three legs, stands in the center of the room, close to a large lever protruding from the wall.
"Please present the crest for passage"
Xylas steps back from the mechanical man. "Dangit. It looks like we're gonna have to go back for that crest."
"Did we see anything crest-like on our way in?"
"Did we see anything crest-like on our way in?"
"Yeah, back in the room before the itchy, burny water. Going back to get it is a pain, but probably gonna hurt less that fighting with this machine creature."
"Let's just go get it," the elf-blooded adventurer sighs leading the way back to the pool.
Heads back to get the crest with Xylas.
Diana easily clears the sludge and comes back a bit later with the picture you saw on the wall. It's a bronze plaque, depicting a crowing rooster over a pair of crossed spears.
Slightly annoyed at the silly demands, Xylas presents the seal of chicken shish kabob to the contraption. "Here it is! Now clear the way."
The strange construct steps aside and appears to deactivate, allowing you to pass through the room.
Xylas glares at the thing as he passes following the others forward.
The hallway turns again into another room. A large section of the room is barred off, and inside the barred area are 7 iron chests. More concerning is the standing blueish corpse at the end of the room near another passage, which turns to look at you with hunger.
Diana runs up to the ghoul, landing a solid blow with her scimitar.
Leithe joins Diana and strikes at the ghoul.
but stumbles on her way to the ghoul and strikes feebly at it.
Xylas' eyes grow wide at the sight of a walking corpse. "Dead things oughta stay DEAD!" he shouts as a radiant bolt flies from the carved symbol hanging around his neck.
Mikraft brings his axe down on the ghoul with a terrific overhand chop.
The ghoul falls under the party's attacks, and the hungry light fades from it's eyes. You now notice that there are two strange slot's in the floor, a bit less than the width of a hand. They may be connected with the barred section of the room.
Xylas inspects the slots and steps back to give Mikraft a look. "Do you think that it's some kind of key hole?"
"I'll give it a look."
You don't think you'll be able to open it with just your tools, it requires some sort of key, although most keys are far too small for these slots.
"Well, shoot," Xylas grouches. "Did we see anything that might fit this yet? Maybe near that crest?"
"It'd be nice to see what's in those chests, but we could always come back."
Mikraft don't notice any traps, but he does notice a pair of silvery daggers in the rubble. They have a strange series of notches carved into the flat of the blades.
Xylas thinks back a bit. "There was that key we found in the funny statue, but I don't think that's it. What about sticking one of the weird daggers in the slot?"
Xylas frowns at the potential abuse of the gleaming dagger, but attempts to stick one in the slot to check its fit.
The dagger fits quite well into the slot, and soft click is heard when it is inserted fully.
Xylas shrugs. "Two slots, two daggers, right?" Xylas sticks the other dagger in the remaining slot and twists.
The bars recede down into the floor, making the chests available. THere are 7 chests, and they al appear to be locked.
"Well, there you are," Xylas grins. Then his smile fades as he considers the hoard. "You know, I'm of two minds about all theswe here locked chests. Especially given all the funny business in this fallen tower. On the one hand, might just be a lot of misfortune that we might want to save for later now that we know how to open the bars up. And on the other, there might be something useful in there. Leithe, you got that trick to see magical things? Might make our decision easier."
"Not sure it can look through INTO the chests... but might be able to tell if there are magical locks or traps on them."
Leithe casts detect magic and examines each of the chests in turn.
The chests are made of iron, so Leithe's detection spell is unable to penetrate. She does not find any magical auras on the outside of the chest, however.
Xylas sighs. "Well, you wanna see if you can get one open Mikraft? Make sure we haven't just found a bunch of guard uniforms."
"I'll give it a try."
Mikraft is unable to open the chest his first time, but is able open it after a few tries. Inside is a bunch of silver pieces.
Xylas nods appreciatively. "That's some seed money. We could get our own caravan going with this. We haven't reached the end of this dungeon yet though. Might be best to lock it back up and get it on the way out. What do you all think?"
"Sounds fine with me, it will probably be safe enough here, as it has been for some time."
Taking Mikraft's silence for assent, Xylas twists the knives back to close the bars and pocketing the twin blades, gestures for Diana to lead on.
The passageway that continues is clearly recently excavated, as compared to the old smooth stone walls of before. A pair of crude barriers of timbers and rocks partially block passage, although they do appear to be easy to climb over.
Xylas checks the barricade out.
"Huh? I wonder when these got put up and who did it?" If they look safe, he climbs over.
As Xylas climbs the barricade, several broken off-stalactites swing down like pendulums, however the one that does hit him does so at an angle, unable to get past his armor.
"I don't think those are supposed to swing around like that... that's not normal. A trap then?"
Xylas gives a yelp as he is knocked off his feet. He ducks under the dangling stalactites checking his armor for holes. "Should'a known better," he grumbles.
There doesn't appear to be any more stalactites on the ceiling, and the trap doesn't reset itself, so they do appear to be clear.
Xylas keeps a wary eye on the ceiling. "Might be more traps ahead. Maybe you should check it out first, Mikraft."
"I'll find them one way or another."
Mikraft finds no traps.
"You're sure?" Xylas peers about suspiciously before proceeding.
The barriers have no further hazards. The passage widens into a much larger cavern, though the west half is mostly caved in. What looks to be the body of a man lies half buried under the debris, while two more bodies that appear to be kobolds lie nearby.
Xylas looks at the little scaly things. "I've heard of kobolds before, but don't know much about them. What do you think they are doing here?"
Looking closer, Xylas notices that the kobolds both hold spades.
"Now what do you think they were doing with those spades? Must have been digging. Do you reckon that these little diggers could'a made the tower collapse."