Varan hangs back for the moment, allowing the smarter and nimbler sorts to handle any traps, wards, or other such difficulties. He does, however, keep his shield and his sword at the ready, just in case.
The trough is carved of stone into the floor of the hallway so that the runoff from the crying statues above then flows to either side of the hallway and falls down into the caverns to the left and right below.
Toranindracar and Thomi observe that whoever passed through here did the same as each of you, crossing over the carved canal and toward the back to the open door. Brogdar quietly catches his breath and says: "Those are Ma'an's tracks. He's been here. But where did they go? Beyond these bars or to the open doorway ahead?"
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The open door is an open invitation - probably too obvious an invitation. Bring the torch over here, and I will take a close look at the opening and what lies beyond it.
I carefully examine the door, the frame, the floor, and as much of the passage beyond the opening that I can see without breaking the plane of the doorway.
Perception: Ugh!
Bijannar, looking somewhat bored, follows.
Using detect magic once again, I want to carefully examine the doorway and try to identify any magic I see there.
Spellcraft:
And, of course, look for any tracks from Ma'an or the others around the doorway, or any sign of traps.
Perception:
Aegwyn walks to the end of the room, and quickly updates her map.
She walks to the opening in the bars on the right, beside the ramp down and uses mage hand to push the torch 35 feet down the ramp, to illuminate where the ramp goes.
Thomi, very calmly and patiently, examines the door and its frame for traps. His expert gaze methodically and carefully passing over every detail. In so doing he discovers that the door is indeed trapped, or at least it was, and certainly the blood and blast stains at his feet (the base of the door) are an indication that whoever opened the door at least, was not prepared for this particularly nasty trap. The blood and prints seem to pass through the doorway into the narrow corridor beyond. The damage was severe enough that the person lost so much blood that they were dragging their feet through it into the passage on the other side.
Toranindracar carefully observes the door's magical aura and determines that it has four auras, two weak auras of abjuration, a strong aura of adjuration, and a strong aura of illusion. By divining the auras, Toranindracar is able to determine that the lesser spells are alarm, arcane lock, and that the stronger aura of abjuration is a greater blast glyph of warding, although the power of the illusion remains too strong for even Toranindracar to determine. Toranindracar finds it very odd that the door is open, a trap apparently triggered, yet somehow the wards remain in place.
Aegwyn has difficulty determining much in the dim light and can only see that the ramp slopes downward before switching back on itself and descending again.
"There were indeed some powerful spells guarding this doorway, as we can tell from the blood here. There is something unusual about these protections, namely, the spells have been triggered, and still they linger, somehow. But I think it's safe to pass through as long as the door remains open. My hunch is that, if the door were now closed, the spells would be activated once more...."
"Who would like to test my theory and step through the doorway?"
I smile amiably at the group.
Toranindracar seems ready to discuss further, but then thinks better of it. He sighs and casts dispel magic on the door.
Dispel Check:
Aegwyn pulls a rune from her belt and drops it.
The winds catch the tile, and flick it towards the door where it lands in the blast radius at the threshold. She smiles at Toranindracar.
Don't worry, we were meant to go this way.
She bends to pick up the rune and starts towards the open door.
Varan hefts his shield and falls in behind Thomi, ready to catch him if anything happens. He looks back to the rest of the group, “If it seems safe to proceed, I’ll go in next. I appreciate having someone with good eyes and a light step in front of me, but I do my job best when I’m between my enemies and my allies…”
Aegwyn skips the torch up the corridor in front of Thomi and falls into the shadows beside Varan
As far as Toranindracar can tell, every spell in this corridor has been permanent. The winds tell Aegwyn indeed to continue forward and avoid what is clearly a force overwhelming for a small band of adventurers, much less a city-state of dark daethol. Toranindracar dispels the most basic spell, a spell which has no doubt already warned the casters that this ancient vile place has been violated. Varan steps to the front, raises his shield, the others falling in line behind him as he steps forward, his feet trailing through the bloody prints of the person who passed before him, whether noble Ma'an or the worshipers of Makish, or someone else. As Varan steps forward, cautiously, sword drawn in this space which until recently had not seen breath in generations, Thomi observes a small piece of parchment, half covered in blood, laying in a blood stain at the base of the stairs...
I dash over and tug at Thomi's trouser leg, looking up at him and motioning for him to let me see the parchment.
"Take care now! Don't smudge it!"
I also want to check the blood stain at the base of the stairs, to get an estimate of how old the blood is and whatever else I can discern about it. I assume it's all dried up?
Perception:
Aegwyn uses her experience from treating many battlefield wounds to see if the bloodstains can give us a clue to the severity of the wound, and the time since they were left (clotting etc)
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I stand behind Toranindracar, looking over his shoulder while he silently examines the parchment. The dim light of the torch makes it difficult to see, so I lean farther.
Long moments pass, and still Toranindracar is mute. I rest my forearms on his head, and lean over more, attempting to discern what is on the mysterious parchment...
Toranindracar and Aegwyn examine the blood stains. Aegwyn scratches her head in puzzlement while Toranindracar determines that the stain is not more than a week old, although without medical training he cannot be sure, the blood was unleashes in a spray, and judging from the angle and trajectories of the spray, would have hit the individual in the chest and gut, passing both through him or her and laterally. He quickly ascertains that it was most probably caused by setting off whatever trap was set into the door.
The parchment does not seem to have any words on it, but is instead a crude and not entirely accurate drawing. Looking at it carefully, Toranindracar and Thomi discern that at the far right hand side of the "map" is a drawing of the Citadel, with several cave like portions drawn underneath the Citadel. An "x" is marked on one of the lower caves where a passage is drawn leading halfway across the page to a rectangular "room", the room contains another passage leading from it's left and toward the top of the paper where a small hill and tower are drawn and the illustration of several trees around the hill.
Aegwyn floats the torch up the stairs to see if we can see what's ahead.
Follows the group, his eyes darting to and fro in the soft, yellow torch light.
Aegwyn floats the torch up ahead, through the doorway and past the first small chamber and up towards a flight of stairs. At the furthest distance of the torch's flickering light, Aegwyn can just make out a landing on top of the first flight of stairs, and what looks to be a large number of wooden casks stacked on top of one another upon the landing.
Thomi does not sense any traps immediately outside the door or in the small room immediately beyond. His sense of the layout of underground places, however, gives him the impression of fresher air coming from further ahead up the stairs, and what, from the sound, must be a long tunnel gradually moving upwards in the direction of the surface.
Aegwyn takes a look at the map
Bijannar follows the group further, keeping his eyes on the possible dangers ahead. He pays particular attention to the floor.
Do you all pass through the doorway?
Aegwyn passes through, looking up ahead and keeping to the shadows.
Bijannar stops for a moment and concentrates his focus, then casts a spell.
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I find it hard to believe that whoever bled this much did not die from the wound. And yet, I see no body. Whoever was wounded here had healing assistance. There is an air current coming from the direction of those stairs. Perhaps they lead to the surface.
One final thought...I am suspicious of the stack of casks at the top of the stairs, considering the type of trap we encountered earlier. We should continue to be very cautious.
Considering the amount of blood, are there any bloody footprints or a trail leading up the stairs?
I cautiously enter the room beyond the doorway, continuing to have senses on high alert:
Perception (checking for traps):
Knowledge (dungeoneering):
Varan passes through the doorway, keeping both his shield and his guard up, just in case.
Bijannar passes through, following closely behind Varan.
Guided by the divine grace of Elpis, Thomi slowly and cautiously passes through the doorway and up the ancient flight of stairs. At the top a small landing is packed on either side with wooden barrels stacked all the way up to the ceiling. An acrid smell lingers in the air and a fine black grit dusts the ground. On one side of the chamber, leaned against the barrels is what appears to be mining equipment, picks, lamps, and the like. On the other side, slumped against the barrels, legs splayed out on the ground, is a man in dark cloth, sitting in a pool of blood. His hand clutched over his abdomen, he has clearly bled out some time ago, left to his fate by his two companions, whose prints can be clearly seen passing through the silt to the end of the chamber ahead and towards another flight of stairs which go up.
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I check the area and the body looking for traps.
Perception:
If no traps are found:
I look through the mining equipment and barrels to see if there is anything useful to pick up, such as the lamps, lamp oil, torches, tools, etc.
Perception:
Knowledge (dungeoneering):
Appraise:
I also examine the body, to determine the nature of the clothing, and to see if there are any clues or useful information to be found concerning his identity. That examination would include a search to determine if there is anything useful in his equipment, pockets or purse.
Perception:
Knowledge (local):
Aegwyn studies the map and beckons the others over to look.
It looks like whoever dropped this wasn't using this tunnel to find the Daethol, but instead they were trying to get into the citadel. Look - the tower to the left in the trees must be Dubdind. We didn't carry on down the river - the first red cross - maybe the other two also indicate turnings we shouldn't follow. Toranindracar - do you know of a tunnel down to the Daethol beneath the Citadel?
I search the body for any clues. Also interested in his clothing. He's not wearing brotherhood robes, correct? Does it look like he may have had robes removed around the time of his death, and then been wrapped in "dark cloth"?
Perception:
Appraise:
To Aegwyn, nodding warily:
"I know of no such tunnel, but this is concerning. I agree with your reading of the map, and I think we should press on with haste along the path toward what seems to be the Citadel of the Brotherhood."
Your search of the mining equipment and body, between two keen sets of eyes and their appraisals, reveals roughly 50 - 100 solins worth of items and equipment, although nothing looks out of the ordinary or exceptional at first glance.
Does anyone have a healing skill?
Toranindracar - you are able to determine, through your sensitive observation and training, that stamped on to the each pick is a maker's mark, which you don't immediately recognize, but whose characters and lettering you identify as coming from Airgiallne. The "robes" are not Brotherhood robes, although they do seem to be designed to give the wearer (something Thomi's expert eyes discern) a () benefit to slipping through dark places.
One thing strikes you both in pilfering through the dead man's belongings. He is absolute devoid of any personal insignia, personal items, papers, or other markings.
Aegwyn asks the fates for guidance and takes a closer look, carefully examining the body.
Aegwyn investigates the body of the dark robbed dead man, leaning down and carefully examining him.
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I cautiously start up the next flight of stairs, continuing to search for traps.
Perception:
Stealth:
Quietly: I am going to go up the next flight of stairs and see where it leads. Keep the torch here, I don't want to be seen...
I am fairly certain that if I follow the footsteps up the stairs, any obstruction or trap will have previously been triggered.
Bijannar looks around as Aegwyn searches the body, seeing if he notices anything others may have missed. He makes a point not to touch anything.
Aegwyn motions the others over to check out the black liquid in the guy's eyes.