"Damn." Ava says, lowering her bow. She hefts up her hammer and takes the vanguard, eyes darting about as the arches shift.
"Looks like we've stumbled into a labyrinth." She says simply. "Viscount, have you heard of anything like this before?"
Corneleous believes the gates appeared as part of the Asmodean Knot and whatever bizarre mind thought this particular portion of the Knot up. As Sabinus remained visible as he went through the archway, you do not believe the rooms have shifted.
As the rough hewn stone doors appear in the other archways, a disembodied voice, the same teifling woman lurking somewhere, rings out in apparent wicked glee.
"It seems like this is a mechanical trap. Ava, do you think you can figure out a way to get the doors back up?"
Enko peers at a door. "Caladius, you'll keep an eye out for our hostess?"
"I have a feeling this is more infernal in nature. In any case, I'll see what I can do, though I don't really know much about magic."
Ava runs her hands across the wall, muttering common activation words and tapping on stones. She crosses back and forth the threshhold a couple of times, stroking her chin as she contemplates the ways in which she could approach this.
Ava's perception and skills help her determine the suddenly appearing stone doors are real and not spontaneous magical creation. This behavior, not seeming to be magical in nature, may have to be added to the list of physical impossibilities already observed in this strange place. The arches have no seams or outlines or anything to suggest the doors open and close, but truly seemed to just appear in place, at least as far as the observant dwarf can tell.
Sabinus wanders by himself to the far side of the opening, parchment still in his left hand. He taps his foot and looks around nervously. Aside from just anxiously glancing around, he's trying to see if there's a way out by going up.
Suddenly, a moments-ago invisible tiefling appears behind Sabinus, holding up the parchment previously clutched by the witch, removed with a deft slight of hand. She laughs uproariously at the side of the hole, ready to dive inside. "There! Being trapped in this place forever has a certain justice to it. I believe I shall unleash a few more 'friends' into this place, just for you. I wouldn't want things to get too boring!" and she trills a light laugh.
Caladius whips around, a wry grin spreading across his face as he raises his bow.
"Heh. Thing is, we're not trapped. Never were." He nods to Sabinus, "You feeling any better?"
The tiefling's features flash with sudden suspicion "What do you mean...?" and suddenly tears open the parchment, taking it in at a glance, "Oh SH-" and a otherwordly clap of thunder shakes the room, accompanied by a noxious smoke. When it clears a huge bone devil has the tiefling clutched in enormous hands. "PLEASE! NO NO! Them! THEY ARE THE ONES! NOOOOO!" and screams as the devil slowly removes her arm with demonic glee, popping the apendage into its mouth. Ignoring all of you, the two creatures suddenly vanish away, with the same clap of immense thunder.
Besides the blood from her arm and the smell in the air, its as if the woman never was.
Enko bows deeply to the vanished pair, then turns to the group, making a gesture of blessing to Sabinus in particular. "Lying to save a life in the fact of danger is justified, and thus our souls are unblemished by this act. Let us find a way out of these closed doors."
Sabinus almost crumbles with relief, as an immense weight lifts from his mind. He watches with horror as the devil takes away the tiefling, seemingly contemplating what could have been his fate. After a few moments of labored breathing, Sabinus looks up, his face clear of the contortions of anxiety that had been present just before. "Caladius, you have my deepest gratitude and respect for that brilliant gambit. I feel myself once again."
"Now let's figure out how to get out of here. Either I triggered this trap when I walked through that passage or the tiefling triggered it from up above. Why don't I try walking through the arch again, and if that doesn't do anything maybe someone can climb up?"
Sabinus walks back through the arch, a certain bounce in his step.
Nothing happens as the merry-witch passes back through the door, the doors and the rock sealing them remaining in place.
"Do you want to try to climb up there, Ava, and see if there's a mechanism that controls the walls? Seems like the web would catch you if you fell."
Scanning above there aren't any placed to hook anything, the walls being relatively sheer.
Lucon balks at the terrifying sight of the bone-devil, turning sheet white. "You mean... that could have been us?" he shudders. "I don't want to think about that." He'll tap at the stone door and pace about, trying to make himself at least look useful, a skill every tradesman learns early in his career.
"... That was quite a show."
She turns to the others.
"I'm afraid I'm out of rope." Ava says, folding her arms. "If it comes to that, I suppose it might be an option... Are there other possibilities we could explore?"
Ava hangs her head over the edge of the pit, peering down with her darkvision for any devices or switches.
[dice=1d20+9[/dice]
"Do we even know who that was? It's alarming how many people we don't know seem to like trying to kill us."
There doesn't seem to be any devices or switches that Ava can see, but all of you have been able to tell this shaft is very similar to the ones previously encountered. Per Corneleous's test of the never ending loop, gravity seems to be at roughly half speed here, and an object essentially makes one revolution through the loop and is falling as fast as someone falling 10' outside the Asmodeon Knot.
"My thought was that the tiefling seemed to be hiding up above somewhere, so I thought there might be controls up there. The Viscount's web should be around for more than another 30 minutes, and I should think it would stop any fall."
"What do you think about the ability of the web to stop a fall, Corneleous?"
"I can jump or fall for two cycles and be unharmed, if I can keep my hand on the side of the pit," says Enko slowly.
Caladius looks to Enko and cracks, "Sounds like somebody just volunteered." He fishes his length of rope out and tosses it to the monk. "Take it with you and toss an end to us when you've had enough. We'll reel you back in."
Enko nods and ties one end in a makeshift harness around him. He places one hand against the wall of the pit, focuses for a moment, and then jumps smoothly into the endless blackness.
Descending quickly with a flutter of the rope, the monk disappears from view, only to come down from above your heads at a brisk pace. Somewhere between his descent below you to his descent from above, one of the stone doors vanish, and the other exits all suddenly become sealed.
"That clarifies things." Ava says, glad she wasn't the one to have to leap in. "It seems we'll be able to move forward, if we keep casting Enko out like a fishing line."
Moving slowly and utilizing Enko's incredible abilities, the group navigates through the heart of the Asmodean Knot. No one ventures into new paths discovered, but after a while you find several possible exits to this twisted and mind-bending place. Two paths on the 'west', one to the 'south' and two new paths to the 'east' (not including the path you entered from).
Enko rubs his palms ruefully after having slid through so many endless gravity-defying tubes. "West may make a loop. Perhaps we could go south?" He appears to be slightly dizzy and weary, or wary, or both, of all loops.
"After all those gymnastics, I'm happy to let you choose."
You enter a wide, circular chamber of thick yellow sludge—a lake of disease and decay over fifty feet across. An island of filth, broken weapons, dead bodies, and worse floats in the center of this chamber, the walls of which loom nearly a hundred feet above and appear almost as half-melted walls of some grand cathedral. On the east side you see a twisted stair case winding northwards.
The fluid in this lake is thick and slimy, the consistency of half-clotted blood or fresh, not-quite-set pudding. You're unable to tell it's depth, the scent of the stuff fills the room with such foul odors that any creature in this room quickly becomes nauseated, or near to it.
"Ugh. Maybe we should look at those West or Eastern doors after all."
"Oof, I don't know if I can stand the stench in here... but what's that holy symbol on the floating island? Is it resting on some sort of pedestal, or is that just a trick of the light piercing through the miasma?"
"Gods above, where... Oh. I see it." Lucon says, covering his mouth. "But I don't think I can reach."
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The Viscount, despite the fine silk cloth held to his nose, is overwhelmed by the stench. His contribution to filth of the room adds a faint order offal and includes most of the fine foods consumed from the party. He hides his embarrassment of his weak stomach. A quick prestidigitation washes the flavor out of his mouth, and cleans his breath with minty freshness.
I don't see the item in question. Can you tell which symbol it is? Do you think my invisible servant could grab it, or is it close enough for mage hand. Excuse me a moment. and he retches again.
Enko manages to keep his gorge from rising, but the endless falling through the Knot has left him a little blurry. "Magic would...be a good idea for retrieving it," he offers, a little weakly.
"Gods, that's worse than Rat's cooking..." Ava groans. "Urgh, maybe I shouldn't have eaten so much..."
She seems too nauseated to take notice of the symbol.
As the rest of the group seems overwhelmed and crippled by the horrid stench, Caladius nods admiringly to Lucon and Enko.
"I wasn't joking. Wouldn't you all rather look at those other doors? Best not to pass through," he gestures to the fetid pool, "that unless we absolutely have to, right?"
When the others explain the distances involved, Corneleous is able to compose himself long enough to cast Mage Hand and propel the small symbol over to the shoreline.
The black disc rests on a black chain and has a holy symbol inscribed on it.
Enko regards the disc coolly. "'Darkness and Discipline, All Creation Writ And Sealed.' This is of Asmodeus."
Caladius' face twists in disgust as Enko elaborates on the symbol's meaning. "Belongs in that filth if you ask me."
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Not all Asmodeus worshipers are evil, you know. He does have a few law abiding, morally grey fans.
The Viscount considers taking a level of cleric. Detect magic on the symbol. if it has any extra properties.
The Viscount is careful not to touch it, and floats it gently into a small leather pouch when he's completed the inspection.
The holy symbol does not detect as magic, but in close quarter it's plain to see there is some type of energy around the holy symbol, but it is not magical.