- Samara moves to inspect the door. It is not locked and there are no sounds on the other side.
Zara creeps upto the corner of the junction and looks down the spiral stairwell. Listening carefully even her heart pounding against her chest seems loud.
The staircase leads down in a spiral some 20 feet and then into a pile of rubble. There was obviously a collapse here at some point and the below level is not accessible. It would take a team of men weeks to remove the large boulders that fill the stairwell.
His curiosity getting the better of him, Silva kneels down by one of the nearby trapdoors and attempts to open it up.
Damieka notices what Silva is doing so aims at the trap door in case something happens when it opens.
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Davben returns with Nicea's lantern and looks about at the others as some of them have already proceeded down the hall. He hands the lantern over to Nicea as she asks for it, it is hers after all, of course he'd probably give her anything else he had if she asked for it. "Here you are, did I miss anything? Should we check the door in the room behind us before we go further this way?"
Looking curiously at Silva starting to open a trap door then looks quizzically to Damieka "What is he doing?"
"I guess he is curious about these other trap doors." She states to Davben. She doesn't look to him partially because she wants to be ready and partially because he has seemed so intent on Nicea. Even though she understands it she is still a bit jealous due to them not being able to actually "be together" as of yet. It was a part of her personality, wanting to be the first with something that she was trying to change.
His curiosity getting the better of him, Silva kneels down by one of the nearby trapdoors and attempts to open it up.
The pit drops down 20 feet. Its only contents are a singe motionless Human Zombie. It stands there swaying and lets out a deep but gentle "HHhhhrrrrrr" sound. Judging by the same sound coming out of every other trap door in the room, you'd say that each other pit has the same contents.
As Samara runs her fingers along the edge of the door to look for traps, it gently swings open. Whoever was here last must not have latched it properly when leaving...
This strange room is a fifteen-foot-diameter sphere. Several objects float in the room, spinning lazily in space, a ragged book, a scroll, a bottle of wine, a dead raven surrounded by a halo of floating and writhing maggots, and a twisted iron wand with a forked tip. Yet perhaps the most unnerving aspect of the room is the walls, for they are plated in sheets of strange red metal that ripple every once in a while with silent black electricity that seems to coalesce into strange runes or even words far too often for the effect to be chance.
Within this room, everything floats. Anybody stepping in is immediately lifets off the ground and floats around as if in outer space.
Treasure & Detect Magic Results:
- 1 bottle of fine wine
- 1 scroll of Burning Hands (CL3)
- 1 Iron Wand of Shocking Grasp (28 Charges)
- 1 Book. The book is a magically preserved but still ancient prayer book dedicated to the worship of Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters. Written in Abyssal, the book reads as much like a bestiary of the world's most horrific and cruel monsters (along with numerous woodcut illustrations of how they kill) as it does a religious text. The book
is worth 100 GP.
Feeling some apprehension Zara looks down the hole at the collapsed spiral staircase, a low wave of vertigo washes over her and she places a hand upon the stony wall. The solid rough texture reassures her mind, if not her emotions. 'There could be a wave of rats down there... or ghosts...anything!'
Taking a step back she just about sees into the dark spherical room, not being able to make out any of the runes. As she moves closer moving ahead of Nicea's able to see the floating items in the room. "Should we try to get them things out by casting a net in there?" she wonders.
"My scarf skirt could work as a net." the dancer looks down at Nicea's trousers, seeing no skirt there. "Either that of acrobatics?"
Stepping into the room is harmless.
Damieka wrinkles her nose at the undead in the hole then looks towards where she can hear the others speaking, "I don't think anything in this place is right. Is it safe in there?"
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Davben lightly puts an arm around Damieka when she looks down at the zombie in the hole. "Careful Dam, the footing around these trap doors isn't the best. I will jump in and fight that thing to get you out, but I'd rather avoid it if possible." Silva doesn't get a protective arm around him, and Davben might be less inclined to jump into a zombie pit to get him... maybe they could just throw things at the zombie until it died then lower a rope for the man.
He peers down the hall towards the spherical room "What have they found down there?" The monk asks and slowly moves away from Damieka down the hall to investigate.
"Witchery?" He asks putting a hand on Nicea's shoulder and peering past her into the room "Hmmm..." Dav takes his hammer off his belt and lightly tosses it into the room to see what will happen and watches it float in. "It must be the room not the things. Do we still have that rope around? I can go in and collect whatever looks important, but it might be good to have someone out here that can quickly pull me out if need be."
Silva quickly loses interest in the noisy undead, his curiosity piqued by the commotion at the room down the hall. Heading on over towards the door, his eyes widen slightly when he sees the "witchery" in action. "Ah, that's no witchcraft! That's just some floaty magic... stuff," he says, not quite able to place a finger on the proper terminology. He never really put much effort into hitting the books - the stuff just came to him naturally. "Hm. Those runes look kinda familiar... can't read them worth a damn, though."
As the others discuss how to get the floating objects out, Silva frowns. He points a finger towards the room and wiggles it around, casting the same spell he used to get the mutant goblin's weapons out of the pit.
Damieka smiles at Davben as he mentions to her to be careful and turns from the noisy undead as well, walking over to the room quietly then looking in. She snorts as Silva makes his explanation, "So that's the official term for it. 'Floaty magic stuff'. Let's get what we can and then go."
She gets the rope that they may have used for Damieka to go into the one hole but did not use it and started working on tying up Davben. Once done she looks up at him and waggles her brows, "This seems like fun. We'll make sure not to lose you in there."
Zara's hand moves away from her waist where she was about to remove her skirt. "You've got it?" she says not realising the double entendre. As Silva squeezes past her, the dancer look intrigued at the runes. "That would be fun to dance in, you are so right Damieka."
Leaning in to watch the half elf tie up Davben, Zara whispers to Damieka; "That's a nice knot, you practised." she gives the lady a cheeky wink.
The zombie has only rags to wear and no visible loot. It could easily be picked off with a bow or similar form of attack without crawling into the hole. Because it has nowhere to run it's considered helpless...
Zara watches Silva retrieve the items and pats Damieka gently upon the shoulder. Hustling back into the main room with all the zombies causes her to do double take at the undead in the pit. 'Tortured and left down there. What sort of place is this?' Her stomach revolts at the prospect.
"Lets be going, get the doors open and then get out of here." she whispers. Moving rapidly across the room, she glides into the outer torture chamber.
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Davben looks towards Silva after his technical explanation of the floating room. "I'm curious Silva, what would you consider witchcraft? Unexplained 'floaty magic stuff', and strange rippling walls I'd have thought would fit in that category. Well i am prepared to go in if there's anything you can't get with your own floaty magic. Oh, and if you don't mind grabbing my hammer too, I've managed to keep it for nearly two months now."
He smiles at Zara when she decides it isn't necessary to take off her skirt. "Yes, I don't think you need to take off your skirt right now." The monk looks at Damieka tying the rope around him, and Zara as she comes in to whisper "Hey, don't you two get any funny ideas now."
"Well, your hair and fingernails haven't fallen out. That's usually a good sign," Silva says as he brings Davben's hammer towards him, "This stuff definitely looks arcane though. Thassilonian maybe? It'd kinda explain why those sinspawn were hanging out around here."
Samara's check reveals no new information.
I'll update the map once I have a better idea of where everybody is going.
"Allies? And Koruvus, was a goblin chieftain. But not for the Thistletop ones, maybe that's how they have gained obedience from the other tribes?" Zara wonders quietly waiting impatiently for the others to turn up. The looted ranseur pointed towards the door.
"We could use tomorrows hunt as an excuse to do some poking around the forest without ignoring duty." she speaks quietly.
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"Are you sure it was a goblin? It was awfully big and had three arms. Maybe it was something else." Nicea pauses to think, because it's hard for her to do two things at once. "If they have allies... but why? What is so great about this little two-bit village in the sticks that so many people want to destroy it? I'm confused." She looks it, too.
"Well this is an ancient place, hence..." she shakes the masterwork weapon she found. "There are loads of old ruins all over Varasia. But can you not see how lovely the village is, from Savah to Crydak Drokkus. All the people are intriguing. (and they treat us like heroes)"
"Well, both Tsuto and his girlfriend seem to have some kind of grudge against Sandpoint," Silva says as he inspects the iron wand, putting its length at eye level, "And I'm sure the goblins do too, since well, goblins seem to hate just about everything. Doesn't explain the sinspawn or that weird room though."
The sorcerer raises an eyebrow. "'Little?'"
Zara's eyes glide down Silva's form as her face reddens and she breaks her gaze turning back to Nicea. "Yes, you excel at that. But you are so much more, passionate, bright, quick witted." she reaches out to put an arm upon Nicea's trying to comfort her.
Zara's eye widen; "I...err...I wasn't. How is that even possible?" she says quietly.
Damieka leans against Davben as the others talk and a brow lifts as Nicea whispers in Zara's ear to explain how "that" is "even possible." She chuckles and nudges Davben with a grin on her face as she tries hard not to laugh.
"How do you know so much, Nicea?" She teases not expecting anything except some rough retort.
"Well, you see Damieka, there's this thing you get after doing stuff called 'experience,'" Silva is all too happy to explain. "In Nicea's case, well..."
Damieka's eyes turn to look at Silva and she chuckles, "Oh really?" She jokes back, "I'm sure you can say the same for yourself."
Zara listens in en-rapt, a warm glow across her features. Looking through thick lashes at the others, she bites her bottom lip softly thinking things through. "Silva and 2 women...?" the whispered words carry and the dancer blushes more furiously.
'Or just Tsuto's sketches?'
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"Right then, where do we go from here? I worry that we're getting drawn out of town to no purpose if the goblins aren't coming in this way. So what? Keep going? Back to town? Try to find the tribe in the wilds? Wring some information out of the dirty art guy? What?" Nicea paces impatiently, avoiding the holes in the floor.
"That's a good question. I'm not sure we are getting anywhere with this place but fear it could cause problems at some point. Our main issue though is the goblins." Damieka closes her eyes and thinks of what she knows about this situation.
And apparently she is too tired to think. Or too interested in other things. Who knows...
'Of course we are talking about sex and life amongst all this death. We contemplate our own mortality and want to reassure ourselves that is life and pleasure.'
"Well there's this door in front of me? It might lead somewhere? Shall I open it?" she wonders insistently.
Zara turns around a pierces Nicea with a fiery gaze; are not dying, not today." she says with shocking vehemence from the usually relatively placid dancer. She firstly says a little prayer, touches Nicea upon the wrist.
As she waits for the others to get to the door, she casts Resistance on those who ask. {}
Then taking a short breath, Zara pulls (pushes/slides/lifts/pivots) the door and takes a step through.
"Who wants to bet that there'll be a four-armed goblin behind this one?" Silva asks as Zara opens the door. He holds the iron wand in his right hand defensively, as though he expects a mutant to pop at any minute.
Damieka stands behind the others and waits, "Bets on a five armed one."