"Are any of you skilled in the detection of traps? If so, you should lead the way. If not, I will do so. I can see in the dark with no problems." Gaius asks the group, while adjusting the new weight of the mace on his belt.
Gaius watches Nichelle move to the front impassively. Once she has cleared him by at least ten feet, he will begin to follow her into the depths.
Azrim keeps pace as best he can as they go down the steps, putting himself as close to the front of the line as possible. As Nichelle pushes past the group and beyond Gaius, he says nothing, but does his best to keep on the hobgoblin's heels. He has his warhammer in his hand as he goes, muttering prayers under his breath. "And he used the hammer to forge a world of peace and order and to cast down anything that threatened it...I am the anvil, solid and unyielding, that accepts the Father's craft, each hammerblow a deliverance of wisdom...""
After a few paces Gaius stops and turns back to Azrim. "Azrim, I understand your piety is important to you, but can your prayers not be uttered silently? I would hate for anything down here to hear us. I mean no disrespect, I simply want us all to succeed." He then turns back around and continues on after Nichelle unwilling to let it develop into an argument. If the dwarf continues aloud he will say nothing further.
Alexi pauses to light his lantern, holding it up in his left hand, while his right contains hs heavy mace.
Much better he whispers.
This is what he has schooled and trained for, for many years. Yet in this moment of the realization of his ambitions he is as terrified as he is exhilerated. The others are so assured, almost indifferent to the task, pushing past each other to get to their objective. In his mind, their confidence amplifies his own akwardness.
'Stay alert, shake it, follow your training. May the light of Sarenrae guide us' he thinks to himself as his heart races, the pulsing of blood pumping through his ears like a drum beat.
Tom was preparing to light his lantern, but Alexi does do first. He decides that one lantern is enough for now, and who knows how long this will take, so might need another in the future. He places the lantern in his backpack, looks back, and realizes he is now last in line. Well it shouldn't matter for the trip down the stairs at least.
He stays as close to Alexi as he can without stepping on him.
The catfolk rogue prowls ahead, seeking out any hidden dangers in the dark, but finds no obvious traps or hazards. Using the light from the party, she stays ahead just far enough to be out of sight.
As you descend the steps, you are all struck by the eerie silence. Whatever this place once was, it feels much like a tomb now.
Nichelle finally reaches the bottom first, where there is a small landing. The rest of you are following about ten feet behind on the spiral stairs when suddenly you notice that your lights are beginning to dim....
A dark shape seems to drop from the space between the stairs and the hexagonal wall from above! It must have been waiting to pick off some prey once most of the party was past, and attempts to attack Tom!
Alexi quickly moves to support Tom ().
He swings his heavy mace at the creature in a wide arc, as it comes crushing down upon it with a solid thud:
Attack:
Damage:
Round 1
Init: 18
HP:14/14
Gaius, seeing the light dim and the creature drop from the ceiling, reacts quickly to defend the gnome. He shoves his way back up the stairs past his allies and past the squid-like creature, drawing his sword as he goes. . Once he's in position, he brings his falcata down in a brutal overhead chop at the monster...
Tom looks at the strange creature dropping towards him and lets out a yelp. He draws his quarterstaff and takes a swing.
The stairway is narrow and cramped, with only a small gap between the vertical stone shaft, which is shaped roughly hexagonal, and the stone slabs which make up the spiralling stairs and central column. The space is tight, and you have to descend single file down the stair without squeezing.
Alexi wheels around to help the gnome, but even with his heightened vision, manages to miss the creature concealed in the dim light.
However, the hobgoblin moves quickly to assist, and being able to see in the dark, delivers a powerful and accurate blow to the creature, and it emits a terrible spitting, squealing sound.
Tom tries to put the thing out of its misery, but it recoils, skidding on the ground and trying to flap itself airborne again.
"Azrim, I understand your piety is important to you, but can your prayers not be uttered silently? I would hate for anything down here to hear us. I mean no disrespect, I simply want us all to succeed."
Azrim stops his praying abruptly and narrows his eyes at Gaius, but holds his tongue, preferring to tug on his beard-braids. His mind wanders for a brief moment and recalls another passage that speaks of the virtues of preparedness, the defense as the best offense, and awareness. Realizing that the vocalizations of his prayers could have put such things in jeopardy, he gives the hobgoblin a solid nod. The cleric was not above admitting his mistakes, and Gaius had been surprisingly respectful.
As the creature erupts from the darkness and causes its brand of chaos, Azrim mentally offers thanks to Torag for giving his chosen children the advantage of darkvision. Cradling his warhammer, he moves in to strike the creature.
Warhammer
Damage
The agile catfolk rogue slips between everyone and places a surgically precise dagger blade into the creature's...something.
Evidentally, the blade hits something vital, since the creature ceases its attack and begins moving back into the stairwell, even as Azrim tries to end it with a blow from his warhammer - which goes wide.
As the commotion dies down from the brief skirmish with the creature from the stairwell, you find yourself at the bottom of the stairs where a small landing leads into a square chamber.
Old carvings cover the walls, thick with dust and cobwebs. Three sets of stone double doors stand in the three facing walls. Heavy bronze seals emblazoned with the symbol of Pharasma (a comet with a spiraling tail) secure the doors at whatever lies beyond.
Gaius will move into the center of the room and wait. If we don't find any clues, always turning in the same direction will eventually lead you through a maze."
"From what we were told, it sounds like any door will lead us to something that needs taken care of. I might say straight...may be it leads to the heart of things."
Tom shivered at the thought of that thing that had attacked them. I hope that creature doesn't make a reappearance on our way out. He contemplates Azrim's suggestion. Well, I suppose straight is as good as any. This time, though I'd prefer not to be in the back. I mean, I don't even have any armor on me.
"Ready when you are, I suppose any door is fine unless there is something that suggests otherwise."
He sight having returned, he carefull examines the room for details or anything of interest and pauses at the doors - can he hear anything beyond them or sense anything?
Perception:
As Nichelle and Alexi look around the chamber with its ornate engravings, they notice some more recent (but still old) graffiti, scrawled in Common on the northern wall.
"My heart beats on the wrong side of my chest, or is it right? Is left right, or is it wrong? I don't know what it means, or why."
The stone doors all seem to be locked, but there doesn't seem to be any mechanical locking device or keyholes.
Hmmm. I believe it is some sort of riddle. Based on the riddle, I would think we need to take the passage to the right. Or maybe left. No I think it is the right. As far as opening the doors, there is the chime that we were given.
Do any of the doors or the floors in front of them look like they have signs of recent traffic?
The engravings depict stylized figures engaged in various scenes that look like orgies devoted to different types of pleasures. One shows a portly man at a great feast, another a sneering man with a crown with supplicant prostrating themselves at this feet; and yet another that show several writhing, naked figures in various decadent positions.
Even though the hard stone floors makes it difficult to see any tracks, the layers of dust do show some slight disturbances that might be boot prints that lead through the door to the north.
"I'm no priest, but these don't strike me as motif you would normally find in a tomb watched over by the Lady of Graves. What do you make of these Azrim?" Gaius says, pointing to the newly revealed engravings.
"Perhaps these are the graves of sinners. If only I had more knowledge of religious matters." Gaius says with a sigh. "Do you see anything Alexi?"
Azrim moves forward at Gaius's request, narrowing his eyes at the imagery. "Nothing wholesome, I'll say. Let me see..."
Knowledge (Religion):
Knowledge (History) (Untrained):
Alexi examines the ornate designs on the doors, looking for some releasing mechanism, even a seam that might indicate a means of entry, focusing especially on the north door.
Perception:
If we can't find a way to open these dang doors, I will use the chime on whichever one.
"Azrim, Gaius, look here. Faint, but discernable ... foot traffic from this door here, somewhat recent I think, at least more so than the other doors. This might be the way to begin our search." As he kneels, placing a hand to support himself on the full bosom of a 'writhering' form depicted in the door. And I agree this hardly appears to be the imagery of Pharasma."
Smiling at Tom, "And yes gnome, you shall get to play with your trinket."
As Azrim ponders the nature of the engravings on the walls, and the seals on the otherwise unadorned stone doors, he recalls what he knows about ancient Thasillonian religion.
The ancient empire of Thasillon was built upon seven rewards of rule-envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath-which in turn became known as the seven great sins of the soul. Each sin was associated with a school of magic-envy with abjuration, lust with enchantment, pride with illusion, sloth with conjuration, and wrath with evocation. Divination was not considered a separate school of magic.
You also realize that the Thasillonians did recognize Pharasma, but she was only a minor god in their pantheon. The symbol on the doors is archaic.
The doors are magically sealed.
"You weren't far off...eh, you there," Azrim says, inclining his head towards Nichelle. "Thassilonian rewards that were transmuted to sins in later times. From what I can tell, these markings each depict one, and if my memory serves me ably, each one should have some link to a school of magic. I will test this." Moving up to the image depicting Envy, Azrim grasps his holy symbol, muttering "Impart this servant with thy protection,", casting resistance and then touching the image.
"I see. Well, if the northern door has been most recently used, I agree that we should start there. Shall we Hallingtom?" Gaius asks, pointing to the door with his sword.
I suppose now is as good a time as any. Tom walks up to the northen door, and rings the chime. As soon as the door begins to open, he will move back towards the way they entered.
As Tom strikes the chime against the symbol, the chime makes a not unpleasant resounding ringing that reverberates for several seconds.
A moment later, the circular brass seal rotates, and the stone doors slide apart with a grating sound.
Looking through the door, you see no immediate threats, only a long corridor with a copious amount of stringy, thick cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. Everything is coated in a layer of dust, and there are at least two alcoves you can see set into the walls on each side, about five feet wide. It appears that on each side of the alcove are recessed areas that hold what look like very, very old interred corpses.
Gaius' eyes carefully scan the dust on the newly revealed floor for other footprints before stepping into the hallway behind Nichelle. "Hallingtom, behind me please. I can protect you more easily that way." He says, waiting to allow the Gnome to follow.
Alexi keeps pace beside Tom, supporting his flank and assuring a two man front should something come up frm behind. He'll also be mindful of the door closing.
He has his mace in hand, at the ready and his lantern in the other. As he walks he is keeping an eye especially on the webs and cieling - he doesn't want anything else to get the drop on them.
Azrim tries to keep near the front of the group, glancing into each of the alcoves as he passes them to make sure nothing is hiding in wait. He has his shield out and at the ready, but carries nothing in his right hand.
As you move further through the catacombs, Nichelle hears a rattling, creaking sound. Suddenly, a large spider comes crawling out of one of the eye sockets of a skull attached to one of the corpses. Several more rattling noises echo out in the chamber. They look aggressive, and not at all friendly.
Alexi slips past Azrim and races to engage the spider on the left, raising his mace high in the air and bringing it down with ferocious thud, the blunt end of his weapon crushing into the skull though he can't tell if the spider caught in the dust kicked up from the blow is injured or not.
Attack:
Damage: