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Martha nods repeatedly as Karsa speaks and casts his various spells on her, finding his sudden change of heart surprising but welcome. When he finishes, she simply says, "we will come back."
She follows the wizard sorcerer to the water's surface, where she crushes the fragment in her hand and allows its sickly green light to embed itself in her and removes her gloves to reveal a new layer of webbing between her fingers. She takes a deep breath, and submerges.
Martha fails to move the scepter, not used to manipulating her strength underwater. Thinking quickly, she points at the rope Karsa is holding, then at the scepter, and makes a motion with her hands as if tying a knot.
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The immediate room rumbles, and the waters ripple extraordinarily.
The altar is not trapped, per say, but it is definitely unusual that the sceptre is blended the way it is. It is likely going to cause something to occur, but definitely not a "trap".
As Martha removes the sceptre, the waters violently shake, you realise the portcullises are quickly descending, and new ones are starting to emerge!
[ooc]As you can imagine, we will do it in combat rounds now. As you've reacted first on initiative, when you find your way back, you will have figured there is a secret door that is about to release some ugly looking humanoid creatures. Kn. Local to identify. If you want to tug the rope, i'll treat it as a move action.
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Adjusting his position Karsa drops the rope so he can cast a spell and levels the strange metal rod at the creatures. He intones a spell and a ball of bright blue energy leaps forward, engulfing the alcove and crackling out from it but missing him or Martha.
He targets the back of the secret room so, as a burst, it wont hit anyone else.
His caster level is 10 due to varisian tattoo. If they are actually immune to electricity he will do something else.
multiplied by 1.5 for 63 damage.
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After taking a quick swim around the perimeter, Karsa reacts immediately to pull Martha and himself out of potential danger through the use of dimension door. Magically, they reappear wet and soaked, in the altar room. Turning back, the sorcerer quickly yells to the rest of the Pathfinders waiting along the edge of the waters. "Get out! What ye waiting for?! Grab the sceptres!"
The group hustles and waits not for what lies in the water to emerge, running back and taking off the placed sceptres. Luckily for them, the creatures below spend some time searching for a missing water elemental. With the sceptres removed, the door slowly closes again, trapping whatever is left behind.
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The only unexplored path now seems to lie within the hall of blades.
Immediately in the hall of blades...
The eastern panel reads, “The first and worst”
The western panel reads, “The last of my hopes”Sceptre of ??? "???" (No one with ancient osiriani underwater)
Sceptre of Iltorian. “For Iltorian, the blessed second who taught me faith in the gods, but reliance only in oneself.”
Sceptre of Osomi “For my beloved Osomi, the last love of my long life.”
Sceptre of Kiranna “For Kiranna, my right hand, my fifth, the one who brought order.”
Sceptre of Elea “For Elea, my delicate desert flower. May the fourth rest forever at my side.”
Sceptre of Shasha “For Shasha, my third wife, who taught me to always seek the best in life.”
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Karsa remains in water elemental form. As they head to the wall of blades he mutters away in infernal.
As he does so he occasionally glowers at Kramac.
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When they appear with the scepters, Juhnavi startles, and says, "Oh good, you're back! That was sudden, did you encounter some danger? Thank you for getting this," as she looks at the scepter to translate the markings on it.
"Well, I'm not familiar with this word, but transliterated phonetically, it would be 'Irian'. Perhaps the name of his first wife?"
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As the wall is translated and the mechanism of the corridor explained by Juhnavi (who spend a good amount of time studying it earlier!), Kramac believes he has figured the puzzle. The panels on each side start to glow as the they come into contact with the appropriate sceptre and soon a loud clicking noise is heard. With immediate effect, the blades slow down and retreat into the walls and floor revealing the next set of blades.
Second Wall:
The eastern panel reads, “My right hand”.
The western panel reads, “The bringer of faith”
Third Wall:
The eastern panel reads “The desert flower”
The western panel reads “The luxurious one”
And at the end of the corridor, a plain stone door. (Unlocked, and looks like it can be opened)
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Ingrge recalls the words that Juhnavi translated earlier concerning the wives and their sceptres. With help from one of his friends, they'll touch the second wall east panel with the Kiranna sceptre and the west panel with Iltorian. If that works, on the third wall, they'll touch the east panel with Elea and the west with Shasha...
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Ingrge easily figures the solution to the puzzles and leads the group in coordinating the scepters. And like magic, when they come into contact with the wall panels, they glow and soon follows the immediate halting and retracting of the wall of blades.
What lies beyond the corridor is a single stone, and extremely heavy looking door. It is without locks, and seems to be able to open with a solid push inwards.
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Confident that the door is untrapped, Ingrge gives Juhnavi the green light to push it open. The door slowly swings open to reveal a large chamber made mostly from the same sandstone that dominates this place. A strip of black marble runs from an altar on the east end of the room, through the floor, to a throne that sits on the west end of the chamber. Behind the throne, another stone door but this one looks unable to open through normal physical means.
Resting on the arm of the throne is another, scepter. This scepter is made of simple sandstone and appears older than all the rest. An inscription on the throne in ancient Osiriani reads:
“The throne of the Merchant Prince—those who would seek audience must sit and judge the worth of all things.”
On the east side of the room is an altar made of the same black stone as the strip running through the room and the throne on the opposite side. Atop the altar are seven depressions, each one large enough to fit any one of the rods. On the left side of the altar, just outside the row of depressions, is a small piece of quartz, embedded into the stone. On the right side, opposite the piece of quartz, is a beautiful diamond.
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Seeing the throne Karsa flows into the room and casts a spell (). Examining the throne for any traps
if it seems clear he plops himself down in it and wriggles about.
This is more like it he burbles. Seems like our merchant prince had a bit of style at least, probably a pompous ass though.
He picks up the scdeptre and peers at it (comprehend anguages should just about still be up). Apparently if we want an audience youv'e got to sit and judge the worth of things. Hah, I was right!
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"An audience? Kiboko does not wish to meet this prince if he still lives: or has cheated death by becoming an undead. Kiboko will fetch Mvumbu now, in case we must fight."
Kiboko goes back to where the companion creatures wait, and casts Reduce Animal on Mvumbu so that she can navigate the narrow corridors of the tomb.
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Juhnavi realises the magical ability is something akin to a burning hands spell, but does not know how this spell plays into affect with respect to the altar.
Karsa peers in and additionally does realise that it is a magical trap on the altar, one that activates if the wrong item is placed in the indentations of the altar.
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Ingrge nods to Kramac. "Since the tray puzzle was the literal weight of the sceptres, I can only assume that this puzzle would be the literal value of them..."
Ingrge eyes the trap that Karsa and Juhnavi identified. "Hmmm...this looks like a difficult trap...I'll try to disarm it...I recommend that everyone leave the room while I try..."
Once his friends have left the room, Ingrge will work on disabling the trap...
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After what seems to be a couple nerve wrecking minutes, Ingrge's first attempt makes the magical trap go awry! Each of the indentations illuminate a bright hot red and black flames spring forth from the altar running straight into Karsa! As the flames dive, it also burns as it licks everything else in the room!
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Ingrge curses loudly as he tries to avoid a fiery end...
...and barely avoids death but gets singed badly...
"Erastil's antlers! Damnation Karsa, you don't have to sit on the throne to disarm the trap, that's just for solving the puzzle...bad enough I nearly killed myself, I don't want to be the cause of another..."
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Ingrge nods sheepishly at Juhnavi. "Thanks...and yes I have my own wand..."
The ranger will use his wand of cure light wounds on himself...
With Juhnavi casting Resist Fire on him and as he's back at full health, Ingrge will make sure everyone is out of the room this time, and have another go at it...
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As the flames hurtle towards him Karsa waves a hand and casts a spell, smiling enigmatically. The flames leap towads the throne and splash harmlessly against an invisible barrier which is revealed by the fire.
Nice try you murderous old git but you need to do better than that to deal with me!
Ow, ow, ow, that bloody well hurt
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Sceptre of Alkhet: "Cheaply made"
Sceptre of ???: "nothing"
Sceptre of Iltorian. "Deep respect for"
Sceptre of Osomi "Strong emotions of love"
Sceptre of Kiranna: “Strong emotions, arguably the most respected"
Sceptre of Elea: "beautiful feelings, but superficial"
Sceptre of Shasha "Emotionally neutral "