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Brathas and Ferrous examine the holes. They look like holes made by some small burrowing animal (definitely bigger than mice) and are clearly not part of the original design of the room.
Wallia looks at the sarcophagus. The ebony is finely carved with a nature motif, with a border around the lid decorated with plants and animals. It is possible that this indicates nature worship of some kind, or it might be simply that it matches the theme of the other decorations.
"I wonder to which of the three gods this one is dedicated," Ana comments, eyeing the sarcophagus. "If we're not going to open it, then I suggest we try that other door ."
"I would most like to go back and explore where the boulder came from; possibly I can disarm the mechanism that resets it.
I do admit to being curious about the warmth coming from the sarcophagus. My guess is that it is a nest of rats, like the ones that we fought earlier. I don't like the idea of killing these poor creatures, but they did seem unnaturally aggressive. I will go along with whatever you all want to do."
Walia says, "I am intrigued by this sarcophagus, we should give this a gander."
He then put his ear close to it but not actually touches it.
Zynazyr considers their options. "I too would like to see what is in the sarcophagus. We have found some nice treasure so far in them, although I agree that something is using it as a nest. Maybe if we can block all of the holes but one, we could limit how many would come out at once," he comments.
"Alright," Anna nods, "We open the sarcophagus." She pushes against the lid.
Shrugs and helps push on the lid with his shoulder.
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Ana and Fistep push the lid of the sarcophagus to the side.
Inside, it is possible to make out a vague human form, which is hidden by perhaps two dozen furry bodies. Rats! The rats begin to squeal and hiss and jump around in agitation.
Some of the rats pour out and engulf Ana. They try to bite but cannot find their way through her plate mail.
Round 1 Initiative
Block 1: Blue Rats
Block 2: Ana, Brathas
Block 3: Red Rats
Block 4: Wallia, Fistep
Block 5: Purple Rats
Block 6: Ferrous, Zynazyr
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Ferrous lets out a sigh when the rats pour forward from the sarcophagus.
Ana yelps in surprise, dropping to the floor in her haste to step back. She struggles to stand.
Zynazyr starts to protest when Ana and Fistep move to open the sarcophagus. "I said block the holes, not open it!" he yells.
"I hate being right."
Brathas backs away a bit, pulls out a torch, and starts to work at lighting it. How long will that take?
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"I hate being right."
Brathas backs away a bit, pulls out a torch, and starts to work at lighting it. How long will that take?
Brathas pulls out a torch and lights it.
Zynazyr gets ready to cast a spell.
You can try squishing the rats against a solid object (like a floor or a wall), which basically counts as an attack against them. But the rats are quite capable of jumping clear and then jumping back on should you roll around, so you still basically have to roll to hit.
I'm willing to say you can do both at once if you want. That would count as your attack and you could either stand or crawl as a move.
With your initiative you will probably move before the rats next turn.
More rats swarm out of the sarcophagus, this time engulfing Fistep. But they fail to find a weak spot in his armor.
Round 1 Initiative
Block 1: Blue Rats
Block 2: Ana, Brathas
Block 3: Red Rats
Block 4: Wallia, Fistep
Block 5: Purple Rats
Block 6: Ferrous, Zynazyr (readied)
Walia will step back and use his sling at the rats if hits
Ana will try to crawl free from the bulk of the rats and then will roll about on the ground, trying to squish as many rats as she can.
Manages to stay standing and starts to bash the rats with his shield.
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Wallia takes a shot with his sling but the shot glances off the frame of the sarcophagus.
Fistep Tries to bash at the rats with his shield.
Ana will try to crawl free from the bulk of the rats and then will roll about on the ground, trying to squish as many rats as she can.
Ana fails to kill any of the rats but manages to crawl clear of them.
The last group of rats swarm out of the casket and head for Wallia! Wallia is now covered with rats but is unhurt for the moment.
Zynazyr casts a spell, and sparkling sand seems to rain gently out of the air on the rats. All but one of the rats on Wallia and two of the rats on Fistep fall asleep.
Round 1 Initiative
Block 1: Blue Rats
Block 2: Ana, Brathas
Block 3: Red Rats
Block 4: Wallia, Fistep
Block 5: Purple Rats
Block 6: Ferrous, Zynazyr (readied)
Round 2 Initiative
Block 1: Brathas, Zynazyr
Block 2: Red and Purple rats
Block 3: Ana, Ferrous
Block 4: Blue rats
Block 5: Fistep, Wallia
Brathas moves up to defend Ana and Fistep. He will wave the torch to keep the blue rat swarm at bay; if possible, he will try to herd them to one of the holes in the wall.
Save THUD as he falls down.
Walia tries to grab the one rat still on him and throw it against the wall.
Not wanting to hurt Wallia, Ferrous drops his axe and tries to crush the lone rat on Wallia with his gauntleted fist.
The rat's skull is crushed and it drops to the floor, lifeless.
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Brathas moves up to defend Ana and Fistep. He will wave the torch to keep the blue rat swarm at bay; if possible, he will try to herd them to one of the holes in the wall.
The rats shy away from Brathas' torch and clearly want nothing to do with it. But they tend to scatter in multiple directions as Brathas approaches, making it difficult for Brathas to 'herd' them (unless he wants to herd one rat at a time).
The rats swarming over Fistep attack him again! But once again his plate mail easily keeps them out.
Round 2 Initiative
Block 1: Brathas, Zynazyr
Block 2: Red and Purple rats
Block 3: Ana, Ferrous
Block 4: Blue rats
Block 5: Fistep, Wallia
Ana will also fire off a sleep spell.
Seeing Fistep getting swarmed by rats again, Zynazyr trys to shoot one with a bolt of energy, but in his haste, is unable to get the spell to work.
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Ana casts a spell ans sparking sand again coalesces out of the air onto the rats.
Eight rats fall over, asleeep, including one of the ones that were on Fistep. Only six conscious rats remain; one by itself and the other five crawling all over Fistep. The lone rat scurries over and joins the one rat pack harassing Fistep.
Zynazyr tries to cast a cantrip but fails.
Round 2 Initiative
Block 1: Brathas, Zynazyr
Block 2: Red and Purple rats
Block 3: Ana, Ferrous
Block 4: Blue rats
Block 5: Fistep, Wallia
Round 3 Initiative
Block 1: Ana, Brathas
Block 2: Rats
Block 3: Ferrous, Fistep, Wallia, Zynazyr
Bashes at the rats...
Walia tries to use his empty sling to swat rats off of Fistep.
Ana stands and begins squishing rats under her boots.
Brathas will try to drive the rats off of Fistep by waving his torch near them, though he doesn't want to burn the warrior.
Ferrous sharp eye caught a solitary rat scrambling across the floor to join the others crawling all over Fistep. With a heavy grunt he slammed his shield into the dungeon floor.
Pinning the rat between the shield and dungeon floor before slamming the shield through the neck of the rat.
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Ferrous runs over and smacks a rat just as it is trying to join the other rats.
Fistep kills another rat with his shield.
Wallia tries to hit a rat with his leather sling but misses.
Ana steps back into the area with the sleeping rats and crushes one with her boot.
Brathas waves his torch trying to frighten the rats.
The four remaining rats squeal and scatter, running into the various holes around the walls.
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The party quickly finishes off the sleeping rats. Four rats escaped, so there are 20 dead rats, each will provide one half-meal of food.
Now that the rats are gone, the party is able to examine the contents of the sarcophagus.
Within lies the desiccated body of a woman. Her clothing has turned to brittle rags but she wears leather armor that looks like it is in good shape. There is a bow that is dried out and cracked, and a quiver with twelve arrows with green fletching, which seem to be in decent shape. On a finger of her right hand is a ring made of silver with an amber stone; a small insect can be seen inside. Zynazyr detects a magic aura on the ring but does not know what the aura signifies.
Zynazyr carefully removes the ring to inspect it further. "I detect a magic aura, but can't determine what it is," he says as he looks more closely at the ring.
If Zynazyr is taking more time to examine the ring, Brathas will take more time to search the room. He'll also take the arrows.
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If Zynazyr is taking more time to examine the ring, Brathas will take more time to search the room. He'll also take the arrows.
Zynazyr spends ten minutes trying to plumb the secrets of the ring, without success. Likewise Brathas searches the room for secret doors or other hidden things, but finds nothing.
Ferrous spends the time checking the stone and mechanical work of the statue. He is trying to puzzle out how the arrow was set and then people left the room if the trigger was the door being opened.
Walia says, "Do you think we can set up the arrow launcher to attack a wondering monster? Maybe by setting up a tripwire and then when the beast walks by it opens the door and it gets hit by a large arrow."
"No, I do not think that wise. All kinds of people walk these halls, many of whom mean us no harm."
If we were going to spend the evening here I would say your suggest has merit. But I don't really want to spend the night with this lady's corpse. Ferrous says with a shrug.
I agree with Brathas' wisdom... He looks around and shrugs, Perhaps we should explore the eastern hallway were most of it us ducked into to avoid giant ball of doom?
Walia says, "Well I suggest we take a gander at the area where the boulder came from mayhap to figure out how that contraption works."
"I too would like to examine the boulder's mechanism, before it returns."
Agreed lets see how it all works before the giant ball of death returns. No doubt it with hydraulics as many other things in this buried city.
Ferrous says as he slaps Brathas on the back before heading back through the doorway.
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Ferrous spends the time checking the stone and mechanical work of the statue. He is trying to puzzle out how the arrow was set and then people left the room if the trigger was the door being opened.
Ferrous examines the statue. The bow of the statue is made of metal but is a genuine bow with a metal string (much like a crossbow). The fingers of the statue are on a hinge and released the arrow from the bow. They must be connected to the catch in the door. The fingers are now in the open position and clearly the trap would need to be manually re-set.
Ferrous also notes from the aim of the bow that if he had been the one to enter the arrow would have passed above his head.
Walia says, "Do you think we can set up the arrow launcher to attack a wondering monster? Maybe by setting up a tripwire and then when the beast walks by it opens the door and it gets hit by a large arrow."
If the door was gone it might be possible to jury-rig some kind of tripwire or other feature that would hit the catch and let the arrow fly into the hallway.
Ana takes the same amount of time to examine the ring but is unable to discern it's properties.