"I agree," Neolandus says with a frown. "We should prioritize finding Vencarlo and escaping the dungeon. Everything else, including its destruction, is secondary."
Other than the necromantic rajambari (which seem indifferent to your presence for the time being), you find no other magical auras, items, or enemies.
The party, deciding to hold off on tampering with the dungeon’s apparent “engine”, returns back up the stone stairwell, Neolandus in tow. You find yourselves again before the large bronze doors engraved with tigers. These lead into an alcove with two statues, each depicting a tiger-headed man, set back in alcoves to either side of the doors. Their arms are wide, as if to usher visitors forward into the space beyond.
Li again inspects for traps. Finding none, the party steps over the gap in the floor and wall. Two alcoves open on either side of an otherwise empty room. In one alcove, a long lever with an ebony handle protrudes from the wall.
Curiosity takes over as Li spies the lever with the ebony handle. She moves towards it wondering what would happen if she pulls it. Of course, her years on the streets made her self-preservation instincts stronger than her curiosity so she looks for traps before pulling anything.
Li finds no traps, but recalls Glorio's words.
"The dungeon is actually a labyrinth, its tunnels and rooms shifting on a mechanical chassis. The labyrinth can be controlled and adjusted by pulling key levers that rotate its four sections."
Pull the lever then. Ha!
"We cannot trust anything that the pompous slime told us, but I don't see that we have much choice." Yaziyah sighs, nodding at Li to pull the lever. "Be prepared."
Li reaches for the lever, "I don't be seein' any other way outta tha room so I be thinkin' tha pullin' tha lever be tha only way."
She pauses, "But mebbe ya be movin' close together so ya don't be gettin' separat'd."
Once everyone is in place, Li grasps the ebony handle and pulls.
Mouse heeds Li's wisdom and draws close, setting one hand on Li's shoulder and one on Yazi's as the ebony handle is drawn.
Garvid:
Kynes:
Li:
Mouse:
Talfryn:
Yazi:
With a hard pull the lever gives, cranking down with a groan. The sound of pulling chains and ratcheting gears fills the entire dungeon, and the floor jerks hard to the right as the entire room begins to turn. Neolandus stumbles and narrowly avoids being crushed as the walls meet. The chamber to your back disappears behind the emerging wall. But after a few seconds, the spinning stops and a second chamber appears before you. This chamber is barren save for another lever to the southeast. In the northeast corner there is a closed door.
__________________________
Garvid:
Kynes:
Li:
Mouse:
Talfryn:
Yazi:
Li has no idea what to expect as the floor moves and spins but an empty room was not it. Before moving, she takes out a piece of chalk and makes a mark on the wall of the niche they start in by the lever. Then, expecting the worst, Li cautiously moves forward until she spots another lever and goes to inspect it all the while looking for danger. She sees a door to her left but goes for the lever first.
Focusing on the lever, Li first inspects the lever and then the door for traps. "Both tha lever an' tha door be safe ta touch. Mebbe we should be lookin' in tha room before we be movin' tha floor ag'n." She listens carefully at the door.
Li hears nothing behind the door.
"As wise a decision as any," says Lord Talfryn, moving to join Li by the door. "I am ready when you are."
"Does that lever look the same as the one you just pulled, Li? Or would it be too much to hope for colour-coded hints in this place?" Yaziyah asks as she tests the wall she is closest to, not trusting anything in this dungeon.
Kynes keeps an eye (literally one eye) on everything.
The lever is substantially similar to the first . Neither Yazi nor Kynes find anything else of interest .
Talfryn notes the presence of a magical aura coming from behind the door.
Kynes slips an extract of heightened awareness into his jaws.
"Magic aura behind the door," mutters Lord Talfryn. "If you can give me a moment, I'll tell you more."
Mouse steps forward into the room behind Li and stands at the ready, letting her allies play to their strengths and waiting for a fight where she could play to hers.
Garvid: bless
Kynes: bless, heightened awareness
Li: bless
Mouse: bless
Talfryn: bless, false life
Yazi: bless
Li makes a distinctive mark on the wall near the lever while Kynes sips an extract of heightened awareness.
Talfryn detects a single, moderate aura from behind the door.
__________________________
Garvid:
Kynes:
Li:
Mouse:
Talfryn:
Yazi:
"We'll need to open the door for me to get a better sense of what lies beyond. Or perhaps I can try a more subtle approach."
Lord Talfryn then proceeds to cast gaseous form so as to slide under the door and peer into the next room, allowing him to determine the nature of the aura and what lies beyond.
Can I return to the previous room, or am I paralyzed? Can I also identify the rune with my previous roll?
Talfryn flows back into the room with his companions, but even in his gaseous form they can tell he is wracked by agony, his body contorted, his eyes squeezed almost short.
"A symbol of pain," he gasps, "Inscribed on the floor. A hallway beyond, nothing else, leading to another - ah! Another... another doorway."
Talfryn understands that one able to disarm magical traps, such as Li, could negate the rune, though this would require that Li be exposed to its effects.
Anyone capable of summoning an extraplanar thief? While both he and Li could potentially disarm that trap, it certainly didn't seem like a fun idea.
Li looks hesitant, "I be thinkin' I c'n be tryin' ta disable tha symbol on tha floor. I ain't goin' back wit'out Vencarlo an' this be tha only way forward unless we be pullin' tha other lever."
Li thinks she's braced herself enough as she opens the door but the moment she comes into contact with the symbol, she experiences a wave of pain that is intense. She may have survived a beating that nearly killed her but it felt like every bone in her body was being broken simultaneously as the pain engulfed her.
She sways momentarily on her feet but growing up as one of the Little Lamms had made her stronger than she looked. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she gets to work with disarming the rune so that the others can pass this way.
Garvid: bless
Kynes: bless, heightened awareness
Li: bless
Mouse: bless
Talfryn: bless, false life
Yazi: bless
Gaedren’s lessons in pain were not without their uses. Li is able to withstand the magical assault and manages to disable the insidious rune.
A hall branches north and west. Another closed door lies to the east. There are also two available levers.
__________________________
Garvid:
Kynes:
Li: symbol of pain (-4 attacks, skill checks, and ability checks)
Mouse:
Talfryn: symbol of pain (-4 attacks, skill checks, and ability checks)
Yazi:
Li manages to disable the symbol of pain but she can still feel the after-effects. She goes back to the door and lets them know. "It be safe..." another wave of pain washes over her and she doubles over and has to brace herself with an arm on the wall, "...now."
Now that the rogue doesn't have a trap to focus on, the pain seems more intense. She groans, "There be a door. I be checkin' it shortly, I just be needin' a minute."
Lord Talfryn palely loiters at the back of the group, but with Li's declaration he ghosts forward to peer under the closed door to the east.
Li detects no traps on the eastern door. Talfryn hears no sounds, nor does he detect any movement.
Talfryn notices no movement peering under the door.
As Li doubles over, Mouse rushes forward, getting an arm around Li's chest to support her. Everyone here had signed up for the danger, she knew that...but that didn't make it any easier to see a friend suffering. "Take that minute," she answers reassuringly. "I got ya. I really should 'ave ya show me a bit o' pickin' locks someday - ain't righ' for y' t' 'ave all th' fun." While she tries to lighten the mood, it's abundantly clear that her attention is still on the imagined dangers lurking around every corner of this hell hole. Her head swivels back and forth wildly, and the hand that isn't supporting Li is balled up into a fist, her silvery gauntlet sparkling in the pale light.
Li leans heavily on Mouse drawing from her strength and trusting her to hold her up. The rogue shakes her head and grins, "I be too selfish fer that. All tha fun, all tha glory, all fer me. Now ya be ready ta be punchin' whatever be behind tha door, unless it be Vencarlo."
She moves slowly towards the door with Mouse's help. Then Li realizes that she needs to settle into the pain if she's going to be any use to the others. Separating from Mouse she checks the door and signals it as safe to open.
Yaziyah follows the other two women, also settling a hand on Li's shoulder. "You got this, girl."
Garvid: bless
Kynes: bless, heightened awareness
Li: bless, guidance
Mouse: bless
Talfryn: bless, false life
Yazi: bless
Talfryn slips under the doors. This time, there is no immediate threat, and he reports his findings to the group. Li double checks the doors for traps, finding none, and pushes them open...
Three large wooden chests, their lids decorated with carvings of cavorting tigers, sit against one wall of the room. Some sort of message seems to be carved on each lid . Colorful frescoes on the wall opposite the chests depict hundreds of tigers marching in widening circles around a single green gem the size of a fist, set in the wall and carved to resemble a tiger’s head.
__________________________
Garvid:
Kynes:
Li: symbol of pain (-4 attacks, skill checks, and ability checks)
Mouse:
Talfryn: symbol of pain (-4 attacks, skill checks, and ability checks)
Yazi:
Yaziyah watches through Talfryn and over Li's shoulder, scoffing at the sight of the chests. "Unless Vencarlo is suddenly a mimic, there is nothing here for us. Even if those chests hold treasure, we do not have the time for it."
Lord Talfryn harrumphs in agreement with Yazi, but still casts a reflexive detect magic on the chests.
Talfryn finds that the middle chest exudes six weak auras of conjuration. The green gem in the wall radiates one of moderate divination.
Mouse leaves examining the chests to Talfryn, staying close to Li and Yazi and remaining alert for any surprises. They were bound to arise, in a place like this.
Kynes looks around intently.
'
Li takes in the contents of the room. She hears Yazi's words and nods absentmindedly in agreement but her eyes keep drifting over to the chests and the green gem on the wall.
"It be a shame ta be leavin' such pretty thin's behind but Vencarlo be our priority. It be helpin' if we be knowin' what tha carved words be sayin' but it probably be safer ta keep goin'."
Garvid: bless
Kynes: bless, heightened awareness
Li: bless, guidance
Mouse: bless
Talfryn: bless, false life
Yazi: bless
Li carefully inspects the chests with their exotic script. The left and middle chest don’t seem to be rigged, but she notices a strange mechanism on the right chest’s back hinges...
Meanwhile, Kynes makes a masterful effort at translating the Vudrani.
”The left chest says, ‘By gentle caress shall truth be known’.”
”The middle chest says, ‘Life within but death without’.”
”The right chest says, ‘Breathe deep your salvation’.”
Li manages to disable the right chest’s mechanism and opens the chest. The cavity exhales as the air-tight hinges are separated…
...revealing nothing. Except an air bladder, likely filled with poisonous gas that would have filled the room but for Li’s skills.
__________________________
Garvid:
Kynes:
Li: symbol of pain (-4 attacks, skill checks, and ability checks)
Mouse:
Talfryn: symbol of pain (-4 attacks, skill checks, and ability checks)
Yazi:
Garvid, snapping his head at every odd sound and clink from the mysterious mechanisms, grunts quietly with approval with Li's masterful sleight of hand. "Can't say I like all those mechanical mysteries...", he mutters quietly. "It's been too quiet for too long, weird magic on the ground... This is enemy territory, I wouldn't be surprised if there's someone's stalking us at every step." I'd take a damn six armed b*%~* every day..., he starts saying, but a glance at Mouse makes him hold his words, and he instead sits at the ready, halberd raised to stab at any unknown threat.
Garvid: bless
Kynes: bless, heightened awareness
Li: bless
Mouse: bless
Talfryn: bless, false life
Yazi: bless
Li is able to pry the green gemstone off of the wall using a dagger.
You recall Dhirtarashtra Gulati’s esteemed treatise, Wayward Spirit: the Mysticism and Illuminism of the Vudrani, which explains the practice thusly:
As part of the process of crafting a third eye, the creator grafts an actual eye into the palm of the recipient’s hand. Once an eye is grafted into a palm, it is undetectable while closed and doesn’t hinder the user’s manual dexterity in the slightest. When in use, the eye opens.
The owner of a third eye can use it to see through the donor creature’s remaining eye. The third eye can also be attuned to specially prepared bloodstones, allowing the user to observe things in each bloodstone’s vicinity as if the bloodstone were an eye as well. Preparing a bloodstone in this manner requires soaking it in a potion of clairvoyance/clairaudience for a week, at the end of which the owner drinks the potion and spits the bloodstone into the hand bearing the third eye. These bloodstones are often incorporated into magic items like phylacteries, rings, and amulets, allowing the user to gift such items to other creatures and thus gain a new viewpoint. This remote viewing ability functions at any range as long as the owner is on the same plane at the bloodstone. It also allows the owner to cast clairaudience/clairvoyance up to three times per day.
As long as the third eye is open in a hand that isn’t holding an object, the owner has all-round vision, gaining a +4 bonus on Perception checks and making it impossible to flank the owner.
A third eye cannot be transferred between creatures—if removed from the owner’s body, a third eye is destroyed. A third eye that remains in the owner’s palm but is damaged or otherwise permanently blinded becomes useless until a remove blindness spell is cast upon it.
__________________________
Garvid:
Kynes:
Li: symbol of pain (-4 attacks, skill checks, and ability checks)
Mouse:
Talfryn: symbol of pain (-4 attacks, skill checks, and ability checks)
Yazi:
"A pretty bauble, and dangerous. It's a third eye stone, something that allows the owner to see and hear through it. I don't think we should take it with us."
She crosses her arms in impatience.
Leah stares with a single orb into the third eye, then lets out a raspy laugh. Carry it with us so that they may witness the destruction of all their machinations.