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The wizard moves forward to examine the pit, his lights obediently lighting where he looks. The eagle will swoop down into the pit and flay about, looking for anything not usually found in pits. He spends his last few rounds on this plain fetching anything down in the pit for Artemus before the archaist thanks the eagle for its services and watches it fade from his existence.
@Artemus: The pit is still closed. No one triggered it (Nilfyr almost did though!), so the stone portions are still up.
You presume it'll take the weight of a Small sized creature or larger to trigger the pit trap to open.
The pit opens upon Nilfyr's first attempt, showing a 10 foot deep pit lined with spikes. Immediately upon the pit's opening, the door begins to close.
However, everyone can hear the screeching and tapping of chitin inside the pit... it sounds like another spider is trying to close the pit door!
Init Order (bold = up)
Nilfyr
Kristoff
Red Spider
Artemus
Thunderstealer/Belcher
Why yes! It's a hinged stone door, but the spider is trying to push it closed, so someone will need a Strength check against the spider to push it open while someone else puts a wedge or something to keep it open
-Posted with Wayfinder
The party seemingly relents to the spider's insistence that the trap be shut. Ignoring the pit trap, the party returns to the northern door that was locked.
With a couple of attempts, Thunderstealer bashes the door down, noting future kindling if need be.
Wisps of decayed and sagging spider webs droop from the walls of this room, which appear to be empty except for the long-dead, dismembered corpse of a giant spider and a stout, freestanding closet in the southeastern corner.
The ceiling is covered with dusty spider webbing bulging down from a grid of wooden beams and plaster fifteen feet above the floor. Faint moans and plaintive sobbing come from the closet. Nilfyr recognizes it as the same noise he heard before.
@Artemus: There is magic coming from the closet; it's a faint illusion aura. Unfortunately, it seems to be inside, so you cannot identify the spell.
@Thunderstealer: There is no answer, only more moans and sobs.
As soon as Thunderstealer touches the closet, it falls apart! Artemus can now get a read on the magic .
Of immediate concern, though is the shambled corpse standing there. Dressed in old adventuring clothes, it twitches rapidly now that it's free from its confines. It quickly moves its head over the party and strikes at Thunderstealer!
This is a fast zombie; it doesn't bear a normal zombie's damage reduction or staggered speed, but it's exceptionally nimble and bashes foes with both arms rapidly. Further, this one appears to be "healthier" than normal zombies.
Thunderstealer takes a rotten arm to the head, the undead's strength causing his head to ring.
Init Order: Bold = up!
Nilfyr
Artemus
Thunderstealer/Belcher
Kristoff
Zombie
Thunderstealer backs up to strike at the zombie... but he feels the stone floor he stands up sink slightly as a net bursts through the ceiling on top of him, showering the druid with plaster!
The heavy net slams into Thunderstealer, entangling him and his weapon!
Belcher immediately moves to defend his master, but another net bursts through the ceiling over the dino!
Belcher is also trapped within a net! The zombie now looks hungrily over the trapped foes.
Init Order: Bold = up!
Nilfyr
Artemus
Thunderstealer (14 damage, grappled, standard action left)
Belcher (4 damage, grappled, standard action left)
Kristoff
Zombie
Kristoff slices the zombie, although it doesn't seem to care.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Between Nilfyr and Kristoff ' s attacks, the zombie goes dowm!
-Posted with Wayfinder
As Artemus comes to aid Belcher and Thunderstealer...
The arcanist is entrapped by a net that bursts through the ceiling as well!
Eventually, the nets are removed and the damage healed.
@Thunderstealer: No traps, but you do find one more area where you presume the ceiling will give way to another heavy net. With your warning, no one else will trigger that one.
Aside from the back of the closet still making moaning and crying sounds, there is nothing else magical in the room, nor anything of value.
Back in the room with the zombie and nets... Thunderstealer thinks back and recalls that he thought he saw a secret door in that room after all! Going back, it looks similar to the other secret doors and a good pull will open it up.
Thunderstealer excitedly pulls open the secret door. Like the others, a somewhat dusty hallway with only faint lines of webbing leads to another similar door that needs to be pushed open. The party checking the usual retinue for magic and traps finds nothing and the other door is opened.
A few wisps of decayed webbing hang from the walls of this room, but there's none on the stone ceiling and no sign of spiders in the room.
The ceiling is blank save for four 1 foot wide round steel medallions, one set into each corner. The floor is equally bare except for a pedestal in the center of the floor made of a single five-foot-square block of stone, about two feet high. On the pedestal sits a metal-framed wooden chest, and to the side of the pedestal rests a shallow hole in the floor housing what looks like a brass door handle set into the stone. A stone tile lying loose nearby is clearly designed to fit over the hole, concealing the handle.]
The is a single door in the southwest corner of the chamber.
@Thunderstealer: Looking around, you find two more hidden doors , although no trappings.
@Pelkin: Likewise, no trappings for you, although you can tell that the chest is locked.
Kristoff also helps search while Artemus detects magic, but doesn't find anything.
Thunderstealer then pulls on the handle. As soon as he does so, the entire ceiling drops down to just over two feet above the flooring!
Only Belcher ducks quickly enough not have his head and shoulders crashed by the stone slab!
The damage is painful, with the entire party save the dinosaur severely injured from the now low ceiling.
@Thunderstealer: The handle is now rotated 90 degrees from where it was originally.
@Nilfyr: Actually, the chest sank into the pedestal it was sitting on; you can barely see the top of it poking through the opening.
@Thundrestealer: No more traps in here, although it's hard to tell while you're belly crawling along the floor. Interesting this time around, the secret doors are push doors, so you can exit through them if need be.
Thunderstealer pulls on the handle again, which raises the ceiling up over the course of a minute, the party applying healing as necessary . The chest rises up with the ceiling, once again prominently displayed on the pedestal in which it hid upon the ceiling's fall.