The doors swing open noisily on old rusted hinges, but that’s not what attracts the senses. As the doors open, a small bead drops from the center - perhaps held in place by the closed doors. As it hits the ground, it explodes in a fiery conflagration.
Reflex DC 19 for half
As the flames snuff out instantly and your vision clears, you see three short corridors sloping down from the center of this cruciform chamber, each ending at a wall with a large, carved stone face - one frightened (N), one sad (E), and one angry (S). Tablets, statues, icons, and carvings cram the corridors. A fourth hallway leads west to a set of bronze double doors which you just opened.
A heap of skeletons topped with a crocodile skull, sits in the intersection of the corridors.
The corridors angle upward at a 45-degree angle and their smoothly polished floors are slippery. You must succeed at a DC 10 Acrobatics check to move at half speed up or down the corridors (DC 15 to move at full speed) or fall prone and slide to the end. You are considered flat-footed when traversing these halls.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, but the Dark Depository is in fact dark. No lights. You have plenty, but I failed to describe that earlier. You are using your own light sources.
Cahal, under the rules (link), a fumble on a roll such as this can cause several of your magic items to have to save as well.
I however do not utilize that rule. It seems only designed to remove WBL, which I find no fun for anyone. The damage to you is enough.
Reflex
Zilchus burns and then grouses about burning, hoping his hooch doesn't catch fire...that would be disastrous.
He draws his falchion as if expecting an attack, then relaxes after a few moments and no attacks transpire.
With an oath, he reaches for his holy symbol and channels some piddlespotting positive energy.
healing
And touches himself up using the wand of CMW.
CMW
When others are ready, Zilchus will push forward.
Nidhi holds her Everburning Torch in one hand, feeling giddy and trying to hide her smile when she hears the tail end of (what is assumed to be) a private conversation between Florence and Ben. When did they get so close? I wonder if Ben’s been working o-
A fiery explosion occurs in front of Cahal and Zilchus. In response to the blast, Nidhi instinctively raises her arms to cover her face.
Nidhi turns to her companion who has shown an aversion to fire before: "Florence! Are you okay?!" Then, "Ben, weren't you here before?" Nidhi turns to her scholarly companion with a concerned look.
Suddenly, Nidhi's eyes widen as she comes to the conclusion:
"Well, I think it's obvious: we send Zilchus in first." "If anything happens to him, Muminofrah will make sure there's retribution on whoever is sending these assassins." Nidhi now strokes her chin with her free hand and nods. "Yes, this was a mistake on the assassin's side. The flames were clearly meant for me and Cahal." That's... right. I'm... important enough to be assassinated. Nidhi dreamily clasps her hands together while holding the torch. What a great story!
Nidhi, feeling like an important member of the party again, stands up a little straighter and instructs Zilchus: "you should take a big swig of that now. For courage... and to celebrate."
~*~*~*~*~
The corridors angle upward at a 45-degree angle and their smoothly polished floors are slippery. You must succeed at a DC 10 Acrobatics check to move at half speed up or down the corridors (DC 15 to move at full speed) or fall prone and slide to the end. You are considered flat-footed when traversing these halls.
Although the party was nearby turned into shish kabobs, Nidhi looks thoroughly excited and she tries to peer past Cahal and Zilchus. Her eyes appear alive and vibrant as she looks at the slick angled floors and the crocodile skull centerpiece. "Oh~! This is just like back in the tombs!" Nidhi jumps up and down, clapping excitedly. Nidhi smiles broadly and her eyes crinkle at the corners. This is perhaps one of the most genuine smiles she's shown (besides the time she saw all the horderves being served at the auction.)
She looks ahead for possible dangers.
When he asked Florence to be careful, Benedictus was not expecting something like this. As the fire spreads, Ben’s first thought is to protect Florence, but he quickly realizes he would not be able to help her: he decides to protect his familiar instead.
*COUGH! COUGH!*
"Is everyone alright? Ptolomy?!"
The faerie dragon flaps on Ben's shoulder. "Good to see you are fine buddy...," says Ben. He then looks up at the others.
"I took a bad hit, Nidhi...Do we have some magical healing?"
***
As the healing is administered to him, Ben's thoughts run wild. And since he wants his companions to take part in his deductions, he decides to think out loud.
"This event, just any other, has a cause. Someone placed the exploding beam here. First deduction: someone knew someone else was coming, and intended to hurt them. Those who placed the exploding beam must have been here before us, otherwise they would not be able to place the bead. Second deduction: someone gained access to the Dark Depository before us. Third deduction: this someone has been the last to access the Depository before us, otherwise someone else would have triggered the trap."
Ben sighs.
"This makes our situation more dangerous than expected. Coming to the hypotesis. First hypotesis: those who came here before us, probably knew we were going to come here and intentionally decided to hurt us. If that's so, first deduction based on the first hypotesis: it is likely that whoever placed this trap for us has left more dangers inside the Dark Depository in order to kill us."
Ben shakes his head.
"And I won't go further. You all can see the implications of this, folks. Let's be super careful from now on. This might be more dangerous than we thought."
***
***
Once healed, Ben analyzes the situation at hand. He glimpse at Cahal and notices the woman's eyes fixed on him. He shrugs in response.
“Sorry, no arcane tricks available to overcome this situation. But perhaps we can use more mundane means…Does anyone have a rope? If someone makes the climb then we he could hold one end of the rope, thus helping the others...”
Once the matter of reaching the center of the room has been solved, Ben goes on. “I vote for the sad face.”
Before letting his friends go in whichever corridor, Ben uses detect magic on them all.
Nidhi finds no further traps in the room and Benedictus finds no magic in his sweep (though until you reach the top, you can’t see around the corners to the other two halls, you’ll do it when you get there).
When you move into the room, nothing jumps you either, so feel free to make those acrobatics checks (you can take-10 making it somewhat moot though slow). The floor is definitely slippery, but there is nothing on it. It’s just smooth stone, carefully polished and shaped. Now there’s a layer of dust over everything so, if anything, it’s even slicker.
In anticipation, Zilchus finds no tracks to speak of…
"Well, I think it's obvious: we send Zilchus in first."
Zilchus turns to glare at Nidhi, not happy (again) about being teased (and right after channeling to heal people as well!). He ponders leaving these ungrateful piddlespotters to their own down here.
He pauses with closed eyes, trying to quell the raging river within.
I'm beginning to truly hate Nidhi. He breathes out...not yet fully embracing the thought that he's been holding back.
He puts away the wand and moves to the Sad door (which is perfect because it's how he feels inside) and looks for danger.
Perception
The stone face at the end of the eastern corridor is carved with an expression of sadness. Like the other faces, it is about 3 feet across and perfectly round.
Zilchus finds two secret doors flanking the face of sorrow, one in the north wall and one in the south wall. The northern door is incredibly well hidden while the southern door is rather easier to find . The face itself is not a secret door, but keen-eyed Zilchus notices that the face pivots quite easily if pressed.
However, he also sees that pivoting the face of sorrow (which reveals another carved face on its reverse side, one with an expression of surprise) or opening the southern secret door, triggers a flame strike trap, which will fill the end of the corridor with a pillar of divine fire.
"So the doors are trapped? Good work Zil," says Ben patting his friend on the shoulder. "The solution seems quite obvious to me: we open the northern door."
Ben looks to the others as well.
This thing between Nidhi and Zilchus must come to an end...But this is not the time for a long speech. Perhaps Cahal and Florence will help me handling this, once we're out of here...
"Just in case, I propose that only two of us are in the corridor while the door is opened: the one who actually opens the door and another one, to prevent unpredictable event. The others should take shelder behind the double doors to the west, the ones we used to enter."
"I volunteer for being the partner to whoever opens the door."
Nidhi casts Cure Moderate Wounds on herself. The damage wasn't enough to nearly kill her, so she doesn't seem that bothered.
"Right. Then Nidhi, may I suggest you go in first and try to find traps before they find us? You can be roped, and I can follow you closely in case something comes at us?" she suggests.
Nidhi shrugs, "yeah, I'll try my best to disable any traps we may come across but I can't promise I'll be able to find them all. It's been a while since the tombs." Nidhi tries to count back on her fingers how many days have past but gives up. Her memory is fuzzy around the time they started researching.
Zilchus finds two secret doors flanking the face of sorrow, one in the north wall and one in the south wall. The northern door is incredibly well hidden (DC 35!!) while the southern door is rather easier to find (DC 20). The face itself is not a secret door, but keen-eyed Zilchus notices that the face pivots quite easily if pressed.
However, he also sees that pivoting the face of sorrow (which reveals another carved face on its reverse side, one with an expression of surprise) or opening the southern secret door, triggers a flame strike trap, which will fill the end of the corridor with a pillar of divine fire.
Nidhi makes a quick glance at Florence, concerned about the woman's aversion to fire. "That sad face trap looks like it'll be hard to disable. Maybe we can avoid it all together." Nidhi bends her knees slightly and tightens her grip on her Everburning Torch. "Hup!" She pushes off from the ground and jumps from foot to foot, scaling the incline. "Hup! Hup! Hup!"
Once she's arrived next to Ben, she examines the secret doors more closely (for traps.)
1st level, 5/day: 1 Disguise Self (Heading to M), 2 Cure Light Wounds (finger), 3 Disguise Self (traveling to DD)
2nd level, 4/day: 1 Cure Moderate Wounds (self)
3rd level, 2/day: 1 Terrible Remorse
The northern corridor ends at a carved stone face twisted in an expression of revulsion. You find no secrets or traps to the north.
The carved face down the southern corridor bears a frightened expression. Perfectly round and about 3 feet across, the face is a secret door that pivots on a central axis. You also find a trap here as well - of scything blades chopping you to bits when you pivot the insignia.
"There are a lot of traps here. The southern secret door has a bunch of scything blades that will release when you push the insignia." Nidhi tilts her head and places a hand on her hip, "do you want me to try to disable it while you all wait at the elevator or do you all want to open the North secret door?" Nidhi looks first at Ben, then at Zilchus with her serious adventurer's expression: "I'll disable the traps we find and you two open the doors. Cahal can watch our six and Flo can have the ward at the ready," Nidhi suggests. Nidhi waits for a reply and her companions to move if they want her to attempt to disable the South secret door.
"I don't see any necessity to disable the trap for the moment. It might be risky. I propose we just open the northern door for the moment. What do you guys think?"
Ben discusses calmly, knowing that such interactions could help tone down the tension building between Nidhi and Zilchus.
I wonder whether they will actually agree on something...Stubbord as he is, Zil will probably go against Nidhi regardless, just because...
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"Indeed, I'm quite good at taking fire blasts in the face! No one takes is as slow to react to them as me, considering that I can even foretell them. But you see, my body has never been as fast as my mind, unfortunately...," Ben jokes, before stepping back.
"In any case, Cahal is right. I will let someone else do this. I already took my share of burns for today..."
"I'll disable the traps we find and you two open the doors. Cahal can watch our six and Flo can have the ward at the ready," Nidhi suggests. Nidhi waits for a reply and her companions to move if they want her to attempt to disable the South secret door.
Zilchus shrugs and moves away from the dangerous area, giving Nidhi room to work. He doesn't look at her as he moves.
He keeps alert for danger and other traps.
Perception
Nidhi waits for her companions to move back to the elevator in case she fails to disable the trap. "Well, it was nice knowing you all. If I die, please bring my body and things to Grandmother. Tell her I love her," Nidhi says half-joking.
She carefully places her Everburning Torch on the ground so she can pull out her Masterwork Theives' Tools. Working by the light of her torch, Nidhi slowly and carefully interacts with the trap on the South hidden door. She will stand as far away as possible while interacting with it.
The party backs off and the previously skilled Nidhi goes to work!
Unfortunately, her skills have grown rusty, and she has not kept up her training. She does remove the trap - by setting it off! The hallway almost all the way up to the crocodile headed bone pile is burned smooth.
Reflex DC 17 for half
Smoke from Nidhi coils to the ceiling, and the southern secret door opens with a soft click revealing a small chamber with a small, but elegant, pile of treasure within.
You find 200 platinum pieces, and two items which glow softly under Benedictus' likely Detect Magic. The first is a headband of vast intelligence (+4, Knowledge Religion, Sense Motive) and the second is a Phylactery of Positive Channelling.
Do you steal from the library?
Zilchus covers his eyes from the blast, waiting to see if there is any more Nidhi left after his eyes re-adjust to the light. He's not sure if he is happy to see Nidhi mostly alive or not, but decides that he is. Somewhat.
He will take the phylactery, having no qualms about 'stealing' from this place, now that he's been double be-trapped. He wonders why his 'love' didn't warn him about the dangers, but will ask her about that later.
"Uh, Nidhi, are you, like, okay? I really care...or something," Zilchus asks weakly as he draws his wand of CMW.
"Wow!"
Ben's eyes are filled with wonder as the scholar identifies the magic properties of the items found beyond the secret room.
"I told you it could be risky...," the scholar comments looking at Nidhi.
"As far as these items are concerned, I would like to put the decision to votes. I vote for keeping them. That headband has already won a place in my heart, and I think we paid a price for it with the traps and all. I do not consider this as stealing, more as finding instead..."
Nidhi coughs from the smoke, "I'm still alive guys!" She waves her hand to ward off the smoke, making her various gold bracelets jingle. Nidhi doesn't seem too bothered but mentally notes she needs to invest more time into her trap disarming.
Nidhi looks at Zilchus a little confused.
"Thanks for the heal, Florence." Nidhi tilts her head and places a hand on her hip, "I don't think they even know about these secret rooms. Why else would they leave money here?"
Back at full health after the recent trap, Nidhi takes a closer look at the Northern secret door. This one to have a trap since the South one was armed... Nidhi squints as she reexamines the Northern secret door. "Since the Southern door was trapped, I think this Northern door is too. Maybe we just haven't noticed the trap yet."
Nidhi finds no new traps on the northern door as the party steals from the library and puts on their ill-gotten gains.
I presume you collect the platinum too. For no particular reason, who is carrying it?
Zilchus steps forward to see what Nidhi is looking for, then silently (as possible) steps back to let her work.
Perception on North Door
"Looks clean to me, in my brief glance. I'll be over here while you open that up."
Zilchus again steps back, not wanting to enjoy Nidhi taking another firebomb to the face, but he might just enjoy it a little bit.
- Cahal has the coins unless she refuses them. :)
To speed things up slightly - there are a lot of doors down here - Nidhi opens the certainly-trapped northern door. She's sure she heard a faint clicking sound, but nothing happens as the door swings open to reveal a very dust filled narrow room.
It appears to be empty.
Hearing no explosions, Zilchus moves up to look into the northern room.
Perception
If nothing is there, he'll go back to where he was, wondering if we're going to go into the angry or frightened doors next.
Zilchus examines the hall, and finds another secret door, and it seems to be untapped to his keen eyes.
She's sure she heard a faint clicking sound, but nothing happens as the door swings open to reveal a very dust filled narrow room.
"I heard something click when I disarmed the door," Nidhi informs the party. She examines the new door.
"I don't see any traps. Are you going to open it Zilchus? Discoverer's privilege and all." Nidhi lifts her palm upward and shrugs (her other hand is holding her Everburning Torch.
In the event Zilchus refuses to open the door, Nidhi will fearlessly step up and do it (after all, it doesn't look trapped.)
"I don't see any traps. Are you going to open it Zilchus? Discoverer's privilege and all."
"Oh, now you decide to appreciate me?" Zilchus gives an ugly look to Nidhi, awaiting more mockery. He then decides to take the high road for the party, moving to the door to open it...after giving it a good looking over.
Perception
Ben wears the recently found headband, removing his one. After doing so, he draws Florence attention.
"This won't be of any use to me now," he says as he offers his old headband to Florence, "but I guess it could still prove useful to you...I think it will suit you."
***
Benedictus follows the party as Nidhi and Zilchus open the doors one after the other. He is a bit confused upon seeing so many doors.
"Nine hells, I though we were here to make a research...This looks more like our tomb exploration exploits than a research..."
Nidhi raises an eyebrow, "Appreciate you? Like how she croons over you?" Nidhi scoffs, her mood turning sour again: "You know, I think I-" Nidhi stops.
She kicks the wall with her boot out of frustration but immediately regrets it as a tremor of pain surges up to her knee. "Oww," she grabs the toe of her boot, dropping her torch, and hops around on one foot. Holding her foot: "I- You-" She leans against the wall for support. He is such an oaf... and I am an idiot.
Nidhi's voice takes on a softer, quieter quality as she tries to coerce Zilchus. She tries to make eye contact and gaze deeply into his eyes: "Zilchus, please don't leave me. I need you and I need you to be here. With me. You're my hero, remember? Only you can wear that armor. You saved me from those planes-jumping monsters. What if another one - or an assassin shows up? I need your strength and sword. You're the keeper of my life and I'll only be sweet to you with this tongue," Nidhi reaches to lift Zilchus' palm to her lips for a lingering kiss. "Only honesty and goodwill between us from now on." Nidhi feels annoyance start to bubble up but pushes it down.
Benedictus feels much smarter and more capable of answering every question put to him with his new headband. His mind spins in new cycles undreamt of. The power!
- - -
Zilchus finds no further traps upon this door as he opens it with an eye toward Nidhi.
The walls of this dark cramped chamber are riddled with shelves, cabinets, and cupboards wreathed in cobwebs. More than a dozen sarcophagi stand against the walls, all with disturbingly blank carved faces. The Hall of Lost Curators is the deepest archive of the Dark Depository and it is here you'll find the good stuff! You have found the library’s deepest collection.
The sarcophagi hold the mummified bodies of library curators who delved too deeply into the Dark Depository’s forbidden knowledge and were punished by being embalmed and mummified while still alive. Hieroglyphs in Ancient Osiriani inscribed on each sarcophagus name the “lost curators” within and tell their crimes.
- - -
Apologies, I see the AP description could be clearer - I should have caught that.
The shelves, cabinets, and cupboards wreathed in cobwebs are also filled with scrolls, books, cartouches, and all manner of ancient relics as were the other library shelves in the Spiral Archives. They are covered in cobwebs, but they are not in fact empty.
Nidhi is afraid on stepping on a tile inside the room and activating yet another trap, so she examines from the safety of the hall.
"The walls say some mummified curator named Khnenti researched the Spy Phararaoh too much. Something terrible or something wonderful probably happened to him, right?" Nidhi turns to Ben, "does his name mean anything to you?"
Nidhi takes a secondary look around the room for traps and will tell her companions about any spotted.
Nidhi doesn't find any traps, but she does notice that the casket for Khnenti shows signs of having been opened after the initial interment. The seal is different on his casket than on the others around him - mummified at around the same time.
Someone apparently opened his casket after his mummification, and then resealed it.
Zilchus gives Nidhi a look as he steps into the room. He figures that Nidhi is teasing him again, but can't figure out how her kicking her toe into the wall was supposed to mock him.
Am I the toe? The wall? Is this a metaphor for life? Or maybe I'm the toenail, and Nidhi is the bamboo, and the wall is...uh, life? I dunno. I was never good at metaphors.
Zilchus shakes his head in confusion, moving into the room carefully looking around.
Perception
Florence and Zilchus find nothing further in their searches. This is apparently where information on the Sky Pharaoh should be found.
The party may begin their research now (half day) and continue searching later, or you can continue with the one secret door still available to you in the southern passage.
If you research, it's a knowledge history* DC 20 and a d6 roll on success (d8 for Benedictus and Nidhi).
Zilchus will look for a quiet spot where he can not get distracted by glowering and will help research either the Sky Pharaoh or nudie pictures, whichever is fine.
Know (History)
success
"It helps you improve your...mental skills. A magic aid for your mind..." answers Ben, blushing. "Of course this does not imply I deem you stupid or anything, you see...I was wearing it myself after all..." Clumsy as always, Ben sighs. "Sorry. I mean, it was a gift. I thought you could appreciate it. But if you don't, it's not a problem..."
***
"Bleah, that's gross..."
Ben stares at the sarcophagi of the Lost Curators in disgust. "All they did was to search for knowledge..."
The scholar then turns to Nidhi. "Does not ring a bell, no. But the fact that his sarcophagus has been opened must mean something..."
---
"I want to start searching. We will investigate the rest of the place tomorrow, is that fine?"