You all head outside and attempt to temporarily wedge the crypt's doors shut. You're not sure how well it would hold up against a truly determined opponent, but it should at least give you a bit of warning should anything attempt to break through. The night is damp and miserable, and even the cheerful blaze of your fire does little to lessen the gloom of death than seems to hang in the air.
As you take turns on watch, you hear the occasional howl of a wolf off in the distance. However, none come to disturb you. It seems even their hunger cannot prompt them to come near the cursed place. Some of you sleep soundly, too tired from the stress of the day to do anything else. Others are not so lucky, suffering from dreams laced with the grasping claws and eerily smiling faces of the undead and the screams of their victims. Nonetheless, the next day you all feel a bit more rested.
My companions could have died yesterday and it would have been on me. For better or worse it is up to me to make sure that this group stays alive. I must be more prepared to heal them tomorrow.
After meditating and preparing for the next day Finnrick lays down and quickly falls asleep with Millsy. His sleep is racked with images of the butchered ponies and of the skeletons they had fought that day. Only in his dreams they didn't stop coming and Finnrick woke up with a gasp as the skeletons finally cut him and the last of his companions down. His only respite from the horrible visions was when he was on watch, but even then every time he heard a wolf howl it brought him back to the night before when the wolves had attacked.
What am I doing here?
Runvald awakens from his rest still feeling the beating he had taken the day before. He felt better than when he went to bed, but still not good. [i]I guess I should drink this potion that Finnrick handed me yesterday,[i] he thinks as he looks at the bottle with a sneer, [i]kind of looks like brandy... I hope it tastes like it.[i] He guzzles down the bottle, which tastes nothing like brandy and turns his sneer into a grimace.
Etam sleeps soundly, though with his spear very close to his hand. Even if slightly disturbed by the eerie feelings that sleeping by a crypt full of undead tends to bring, what keeps coming to his mind again and again are the two dead villagers. Why were they here? Why was there a third horse?
He wakes up early and does a few sets of exercises and reviews some of the warhammer techniques he knows. After finishing it he dons his armour and shield and waits for the others to get ready 'Morale is low. We need to do something about this.'
Artair sleeps like a rock. On a rock. But wakes refreshed and 1HP stronger.
Jaed still had the adrenaline running through his veins during the night. That made it difficult to sleep. Any noise would woke him up, upset.
We almost died today. Why are that many creatures in the crypt? What were those poor dead fellows looking for? His mind didn't want to let him rest but in the end his fatigue was stronger and Jaed fell asleep. However, nightmares full of skeletons accompanied him through the night.
Next morning Jaed was feeling better, calmed, more focused. He loaded his crossbow, readied his sword and prepared his mind for what was going to come.
"We should get that flame and get out of here as soon as possible. There are probably more and worse things waiting for us in that damn crypt so the less time we spend in there, the better. I remember there were two doors, one to the East and West. I say we stay together and search this place room by room until we find what we are looking for and then we get the hell out of here. Where should we start East or West?"
Etam thinks a bit and says “I am not sure, but perhaps start from the west? In any case, let us all keep in mind that, in case of hostilities, always lead the enemy to a bottleneck where they cannot attack us all at the same time. And if your weapon seems to be inefficient, aiding someone else can be a good strategy” and then, with a slightly less stiff but happier tone “Tonight we shall be on our way back. All of us, and the flame.”
They say when you are going through a maze to stay to the left...
I sure hope "they" are right.
So that would be "WEST!"
Jaed shrugs his shoulders. "Ok then, the West door it is."
Jaed carefully opens the crypt's door; the skeletons still fresh in his memory. "Finnrick, could you do that trick of illuminating Etam's shield again?"
After the light fills the room Jaed approaches the West door and starts inspecting it. Yesterday I didn't find anything, but it doesn't hurt to look again.
Carefully you open the West door and peer in. In the center of the room is a large pool of clear water, fed by a fountain on the wall above it. The fountain has a stone statue of a weeping maiden holding the slain body of Kassen, but his head has been broken off and is nowhere to be seen. When the door opens, a deep voice booms out from the darkness, saying, "Magic is the key." The voice then slowly fades, leaving a dreadful silence. On the South side of the room, you see two doors.
Try the one on the left! But look for traps first!
Runvald stares bleary-eyed across the room. This place fives me the creeps, I sure hope this is worth it.
He follows. Behind Artair, not wanting to get himself on a jam, like he did with the skeletons and trying to keep as careful an eye as possible, watching for anything of interest, paying special attention to the statue in the center. Though not raise see with or trained by other dwarves, he still seemed to possess a knack for spotting unusual stonework.
"Did... did you hear that? I know nothing about magic. Anyone has any idea of what that could mean?"
Jaed enters the room, fascinated by the pool. He wanders around looking for the meaning of those words. If magic is the key, where is the lock?
Finnrick surveys the room as he takes a step in.
"This place just keeps getting more and more gruesome."
Finnrick approaches the body and examines it.
The pool appears to be surprisingly deep: around 40 feet in fact. At the bottom of the pool, you see what appear to be hundreds of small metal objects. It's a little hard to tell as the light doesn't penetrate the water well, but it looks kind of like the floor of the pool is covered in keys.
Etam circles around the room, making sure the perimeter is clear and that there are no surprises (disembodied booming voice aside). Once he’s satisfied, he turns to Erazmus: “Master Solmonath, are you able to detect if there’s any magic here? More specifically, inside the pool?”. He shines the shield directly towards the pool.
Erazmus moves towards the pool and begins concentrating. "Kindly move the shield away a little bit; it's interfering with my reading." After nearly 20 seconds of relative silence, he finally says, "Yes, there does seem to something magical down at the bottom of the pool." He then slowly turns in a circles. "I'm not sensing anything else magical in the room though."
"Wow, this thing is deep. I would say around 40 feet." Jaed says as he leans over the pool which is now illuminated by Etam's shield.
"Look, there is something at the bottom. It's a little hard to tell, but it looks kind of like the floor of the pool is covered in keys."
Mmm, "Magic is the key". Would it refer to one of these keys? I have a hunch that those two doors are going to be locked or trapped.
Jaed moves towards the South wall and examines the doors trying to know if they are locked or trapped without opening them.
"Ok, these doors are locked and we have a very deep pool full of keys. I don't feel like diving a hundred times to try all possible keys, so any ideas? Anyone knows any key lifting magic trick? Otherwise I could try to pick these locks."
"Does anyone have a torch? I have an idea. It won't get the keys out but it might help us see them." Finnrick with a hint of his old merriment creeping back into his voice.
When someone with a torch lights it.
Finnrick walks around the room looking at the ground until he finally springs up holding a rock.
"That should do."
Finnrick takes the rock over to the pool and casts light on the rock. As the light from Etam's shield goes out Finnrick gingerly drops the glowing rock into the water, careful not to make a splash. He peers into the water as the rock plummets to the bottom. Millsy stands next to him and peers into the water with her head cocked. She licks Finnrick's face and purrs in his ear before going back to patrolling the room for rats.
good trick, now what do we see?
With the aid of the light source, you can all clearly see that the bottom of the pool is indeed covered in keys. There look to be about 100 of them.
Erazmus peers into the pool with you as well. "Ahh yes, the magic seems to be coming from that key over there. The one kind of next to that squiggly one and between the round and square one." Try as he might, Erazmus is only able to vaguely describe which key he's referring to. You do, however, get the general area that he's pointing to.
Etam dips his hand in the water and sips it to see if it’s actually water. “Thank you, master Solmonath. Should I dive in and get the key?” he says, whilst trying to detect any hidden corners or such that might hide some animal or any other surprises.
"If you choose to swim here." Finnrick pats Etam on the back casting guidance.
"I also have this grappling hook we could try rake the bottom with it. I almost brought a fishing pole but I didn't think I would get the chance. I'm not sure that it would work but I thought I would suggest it. Either way I think we should tie some rope to Etam encase he needs to be pulled up. I have 50feet if we tie two together it should be enough."
"Good thinking Finnrick."
"I still have a bad feeling about getting into that pool but I don't see any other option. Either way, I know I couple of things about locks so let me see if I can magically open that West door while you prepare for diving."
Jaed approaches the left door and starts messing with the lock.
"Hmmm…I am not a big fan of diving in as well, master Zandorias, a man in heavy armour makes for an easy target underwater. But what if we attach a sack to the hook to create a makeshift basket of sorts to just fish out as many keys as we can? I am sure master Solmonath will be able to pick the correct one once they are closer."
Etam supplies the sack, attaches it to the grappling hook (he rolls the fringe so the cloth around the opening is a bit thicker, pierces the now double-layered opening with the hook making sure the opening is big enough) and tries to do as Finnrick suggested:
Jaed works on picking the locks out of the room. He keeps getting tantalizingly close to unlocking the doors, but seems unable to lock in the final pin.
Meanwhile Etam tries his luck at fishing. While an interesting idea, the bag with its floppy opening merely passes over the keys rather than scooping them in.
"Well…that did not go as planned. Barring any better ideas, I am diving in." Etam removes his backpack and leaves his spear close to the pool's edge. He asks for a borrowed short sword, straps it to his belt and then dives in, with a sack in one hand. Using Finnrick's light to guide him, he snatches all keys close to where Erazmus pointed.
Etam successfully dives down, shoving a bunch of keys into his sack before swimming back to the surface. Now that he has them within easy reach, Erazmus points out the key that registers as magical.
"Well done Etam. So, I'm going to guess we'll keep going West? Both doors appear trap free to me, I have already checked twice."
The key does not seem to unlock either of the doors in this room.
"Ok, what now? Magic is the key. Maybe we can try casting a spell on the key or on the door. Or could be that the missing head of that statue hides some other clue..."
Jaed walks around the pool, examining the fountain closely from different angles and scratching his head as an expression of his confusion.
“Hmmm…this is unexpected. Is there anything written on the key? Perhaps it needs to be activated somehow.” Etam examines the key:
He then looks towards the entrance “Or perhaps we should remove magic from the room in order to open the door?”
"Maybe we could try the east door. As the sun rises in the east and starts the day so should we begin our search?"
Finnrick says with a smile knowing that Olmira would laugh at his logic and say to one of her animal friends
"The sun, the sun, he always speaks of the sun, doesn't he know that there is more to life than the sun."
Oh how I do miss being outside with the warm sun beating down on Millsy and me as we run through a fields of green grass. Beats being stuck in this musty old crypt, though I do enjoy the company while, solitude does suit me, it does become lonely from time to time.
The key does not seem to have anything written on it. As far as you can tell, there's nothing to make it stand out compared to any of the other keys Etam brought up from the bottom of the pool.
The pool likewise does not seem to have any hidden compartments or tunnels or anything else that you missed.
"I agree with Finnrick. We are at an impasse here. Better go explore the other side of the crypt. We may find some clues or the door that that key opens." Or we may find some more friendly skeletons but I suppose that's a risk we have to take.
Jaed walks towards the East door in the adjacent room and starts to carefully inspect it.
“I do not have any other ideas. Let us try the other door”, Etam says. Slightly paranoid, he waits until everyone leaves, covering their backs, and tightly shuts the door once he’s in the main hall.
Stumped by the pool room, the group pockets the magical key and carefully backs out in the hopes they'll have more luck in the room to the West. After carefully opening the door, the group sees a large chamber containing a maze of pillars that obscure the far side of the room. Next to the door is a pile of empty saddlebags and three brooms.
The wailing that you heard in the main entrance is much louder in this room.
That sound is getting on my nerves.
Jaed whispers to the others: "Let me take a quick look inside this room before we all get in. It may be better if we don't get noticed right away."
Then he carefully enters the room trying to avoid making any noise and watching his step for possible traps. When he gets to the first pillar he peeps out on both sides trying to see what's at the end of the room.
What is up with the brooms? Witches? He says with a chuckle. It is either that or we have to clean something. Anyone know if there are any traps to be concerned with?
He starts to look at the entry for traps and picks up one of the brooms.
Should we head right this time? He shouts headed to the right.
And where is that wailing coming from?
Jaed sneaks forward and sees that the room extends with even more pillars, though the far end still remains out of sight. He barely makes any noise, though if anybody's listening, they undoubtedly hear the dwarf's loud voice as he walks in to the room.
South, it sounds like the wailing is coming from this way. Something is not right about this place. It does not add up. How do we want to proceed?
Finnrick and Millsy follow behind Jaed keeping his eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.
"I wonder if these saddlebags were from the last group who came here."
Finnrick crouches next to the saddlebags and searches through them for anything useful or for clues as to who owned them.
"I think so, master Finnrick. I fear for the fate of the third person, but I believe we will find that out sooner rather than later. But what about these brooms?" Etam inspects the brooms, first poking them with his war hammer and then crouches to properly examine them.
I donnnn't like thiss place... Could be more of thosse damnn skeletons in this room... How do we move through that maze safely?
Runvald looks around at the pills as best he can, trying to spot anything they may use to their advantage.
Should we start to explore the maze?
He joins the monk in looking at the pillars
Jaed glances back over his left shoulder, sending a murderous look at the dwarf.
"The legendary dwarven finesse... There goes the element of surprise."
"Finnrick, could you cast some light so we can see better before moving any forward?