Terry takes up a position near Firinn, also with his bow out and an arrow nocked, though he hasn't drawn, yet.
No respone is heard from above.
You have the rod of Cancellation, you know that they have a chunk of the ward stone here. No allies are suspected to be in here.
The stairs lead up 20', who will brave them?
”No way I’m getting up there. Eh...don’t we have them scales? And one of them let’s us levitate? Pass it over and I’ll float on up.”
"Okay, so I guess I'm going up, then." He takes his pack off, again, and puts it on the floor. "Feel like I should take a hat on a stick with me. Anybody bring a mirror?" Once he runs out of excuses, Terry will start cautiously, quietly moving up the stairs.
Terry feels confident that there is no trap at the top of the stairs, feet sliding on the slick stone, Terry tries the handle but finds the door locked.
Seeing Terry safely up top, Drazh said ”Good job, lad. Here, I’ll toss ye a rope. Tie it to something secure so we can get up.”
"Hold off, Khaz. Nothing to tie it to right now but the door, really. Might be something behind it to use as an anchor, though."
Terry gives the door a quick check, honestly expecting to find this one trapped after the oiled stairs. Maybe a magical fire trap?
He's already realized the door is locked, so he goes to open it, if he can.
Terry Eventually gets the door open, slowly pushing the door open Terry sees a dark hallway. Whatever lights would have been up here are not currently lit or the magic has been suppressed.
Terry doesn't hear whatever slams the door closed in his face, the slick steeps throw Terry's feet out from under him but he manages not to crash down the stairs.
"Okay, I'll tie it to the door handle. Looks like I'll need help with whatever slammed the door in my face. Wouldn't want to many people up here to slip and slide, though. Who wants to try it?"
Terry knows that if he ties a rope to the door it will make it more difficult to open the door, anyone standing on the stairs will have to make a DC 11 reflex save or lose their balance each round.
Firinn mounts the stairs carefully, his inherent speed making the stairs a relatively easy matter.
"You open I'll shoot?" He offers.
"Works. I didn't see anyone, though, so it may need to be I open and you scoot. On three? Ready? Three." And he tries to push the door open, again.
Terry doesn't do it to be funny, he does it because he assumes whomever is on the other side of the door can hear them, at least partially.
Terry pushes the door open, the darkness shows no sign of anything being there, nothing pushes the door closed again.....
Taking the scale of levitation, Khaz made his way up. He wasn’t willing to allow a comrade to be lost just because he couldn’t get up the stairs.
Lorena waits nervously at the bottom of the stairs, constantly looking out to make sure nobody's approaching from behind. She's definitely not looking forward to the task of climbing the stairs even with a rope.
Terry leans to his side and looks past the doorway on the open side of the door. If he doesn't see anything alarming, he'll do a quick roll in that direction, coming up to face whatever could be hiding behind the door . . ..
Firinn takes a quick step forward to stand against the door and stop it moving further, clearing the way for Terry to look past him. His bow is ready for the first flicker of movement.
Khaz floats up in a straight line, finding the problem with the levitation spell quickly that if he moves he will wind up upside down and cannot move forward without some help.
Terry Takes a peek into the second floor. To his left a short hallway and a door on the same side he is looking out, to his right a longer hallway, a door at the end and what looks like 2 other hallways moving north and south.
Khaz pushes himself with enough force to make it across the wall to the north wall. The ceilings on this floor are 15' high, as Terry's torch illuminates the second floor Terry sees just who pushed the door closed, 6 teiflings armed with short swords guard this door. Something that looks like a deer with wings flies over Terry as a shudder runs down his spine.
Terry now spots two shadows that resemble him on the floor as the creature flies over. Two of the tieflings move up to ambush the group as they come off the stairs.
Jocasta makes a frustrated noise as she has no way to get up the stairs and the choke point prevents her from getting up to help her allies, so she waits for the situation to clear.
Khaz tossed the scale of levitation down to Jocasta and hurried up the stairs. With his shield up, he yelled ”Terry, Finn, behind me, and look away from the foes. Now!”
The scale floats down to Jocasta and Lorena....
"Hey, make some room at the top for us!" Lorena calls out at the sounds of battle above them, then simply looks over at Jocasta with an expression that asks, Do you want to go up there first?
Jocasta takes the Scale, pushing off the floor as Lorena guides her up as the proper angle.
Jocasta grabs a hold on the wall pulling herself up to the top step and grabbing the door, dismissing the power of the scale she tosses it back down to Lorena.
Yellow moves up to stab a Terry, the other Tieflings move around a bit knowing more people are likely to come up the stairs.
Terry parries the blade downward
Lorena follows Jocasta's path up with the scale, heading up as best she can without anyone to guide her, then clambers up onto solid ground as soon as there's room.
Lorena makes it up, she continues to float on the stairs fingers a just a grasp away from Jocasta's cloak.
Jocasta, noting Lorena's arrival, shifts her position slightly so that she can keep her guard up in front of the more vulnerable tiefling and try to intercept foes who might be tempted to attack the oracle.
Khaz moves forward a blinding light exploding from his shield brightening up the entire second floor. 2 of the Tiefling are able to close their eyes in time one not so much.
The large magical Beast moves to dive Bomb Terry.
The Purple Tiefling moves forward to Stab at the distracted Khaz.
Khaz grimaced as he was stabbed. He moved forward, to let Jocasta in, and swung back at the tiefling who had hit him. It was glancing blow, but given his strength and the nature of his weapon, it was still a painful one.
Jocasta likewise slashes at the nearby tiefling with her cold iron dueling sword.
Jocasta swings around the corner, her blade biting deep. The tiefling putting his hand to his arm as it comes away blood stained, he goes down his eyes rolling back.
The yellow Tiefling moves up to the open spot at Khaz's rear, Stabbing out at him with his short sword. The Green Teifling moves up to attack Terry.
The red robed Tiefling turns and opens a door behind him....
Terry Stabs out with his rapier at the Tiefling in front of him.
Firinn struggles to get into the fight with Khaz Still at the door. Once Khaz Moves Firinn will advance and stab at the Teifling behind Khaz.
The Cyan robed Tiefling moves up to back up his fellows. Taking some blows already throws off Terry's stab, Firinn being fresh and not having taken any damage is able to Kill the yellow Tiefling as he steps out.
Not able to do much in the logjam at the top of the stairs, Lorena opts to stay back and defend herself.
"Khaz! Get over on this side, let Jocasta come off the stairs for that one!"
The Large creature dive bombs Terry again.
The blue tiefling stumbles around blinded still by Khaz's shield.