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Agriver walks onto the floor of the new level with his platemails metal on metal sound stark against the quiet.
”No door… another snake and by the feel of it – magic. This is the first time we have evidence of common creatures from floor to floor. Perhaps the lower levels of this cursed place is a den of snakes – it is good we have a ranger and a druid with us.”
The paladin adjusts his wayfinder to illuminate all the corners of this small room – squinting he says ”Robin, can you give Vala a hand and look for secret doors? Vala, what do you make of it? Do we need to go further down?”
He then takes some time to study the figurine.
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”Hmfph, Agriver. We need ta talk. Learned something while you two were joy’n tha countryside. This affects you too, Vala. At the Chancery I discovered how to teleport short ranges and can bring the two of you with me. Place you nicely on either side of whatever we end up facing.” The dwarf tries to read their reactions. ”Now I can’t do this a lot, maybe twice, max, but that’s pushing it. If we think it’s time, we all see that same look in each other’s eyes, you both stay by me and say..” he looks around for a moment before leaning forward and whispering, ”Wubba lubba dub dub.” The dwarf sits back up and nods knowingly. ”Then we’ll go.”
Ansel is pretty far back in the line going up the stairs. As he starts to hear murmuring of a statue though, he presses into the room. ”Let me see this, you said it is magic?” The dwarf proceeds to inspect it thoroughly.
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As Ansel starts his investigation, Robin decides to actually cast the protection spells he has been preparing. He casts an extended barkskin on both himself and Ayame (using the lesser extend spell metamagic rod he received from his funded expedition. He also casts resist energy, fire on both himself and Ayame.
"Ansel, when you get a chance, can you cast mage armor on Ayame, and perhaps read this scroll of heroism on me? Thank you." He offers the use of a pearl of power for this.
As Agriver starts to move forward to investigate the statue, Ansel dashes into the room to see what's happening. Robin pulls his rod and casts extended barkskin.
Ayame looks over to Rboud after Yon casts his spell. 'At least your manling has some use, eh?'
Agriver enters the room and announces the funny feeling he got. He does not recognize the idol.
At hearing about potential magic, Ansel excitedly rushes in, despite Vala's warning.
Robin shakes his head and casts barkskin.
As Ansel rushes into the room, he recognizes the suggestion aura affecting him and Agriver, who shakes it off again.
Ansel fails to dispel the effect, as he realizes by its strength it is a mass suggestion spell.
Vala pulls her tools and starts the disable process.
Ansel works his magic as Agriver moves across the room.
Vala plys her trade as Robin casts another barkskin and Yon observes from relative safety.
As Agriver nears the staircase...
Vala continues to work her rogueish ways and works to unweave the magical trap. Ansel retreats from the room... and looks back to see Agriver jump over the water towards the idol... and disappear in mid-air!
You spin around to find yourself in a dead end of a 5 foot wide corridor. It goes to the edge of your wayfinder's light... and perhaps turns left 35 feet away.
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Yon waits for Vala to finish her task. Says to Ansel, ”how old you think that statue is?” before noticing that Agriver has vanished.
”where’d he go? Vala, you almost done with that trap? We gotta get in there and find him!”
”Aggriver? You still in here?” and then as an aside to Robin, ”He didn’t pick up any tricks from those assasins, did he?”
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Robin sighs, as he hears what Agriver has done. "No, I am sure that he did not. He'd have been more likely to have picked up a poisoned dart from them."
The surly ranger waits for Vala to clear the trap, finishing his planned spell casting. "Anyone else want a fire resistance spell? I'll need a pearl of power to do it, though."
"And I suppose we should figure out what happened to Agriver. Ansel, have you been able to figure anything out?"
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There is no end to how foul this place is. I wish I was more perceptive like Vala and Robin, if there is a secret door leading out of this place – I will likely die of old age before I find it. Hopefully the wolves or Robin can track me down… that is if I am still on the same floor.. where in the nine hells am I??
Ansel casts the detect magic spell per request. Ribin casts fire resist as the group waits for Vala. As she snaps her fingers, she disables the trap successfully.
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Vala lifts her head from her task, a sense of accomplishment at conquering her obstacle.
She looks around and sees Yon and Robin entering without a word "Hmph. Some appreciation."
She packs up her tools and takes a look around. "Now where did Agriver go?" Vala looks around for clues, seeing if she can use any knowledge from the trap she just disabled to help glean any information.
Yon moves quickly in and bounds over the water, landing on the other side next to the idol. Rboud sits just on the other side of the water looking at him.
Robin, Ayame and Vala enter the room and look around but don't immediately find anything of great interest.
Ansel concentrates on his detect magic spell, and suddenly realizes the trap's aura is no longer active but only a lingering presence.
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Agriver hears the hissing and smiles to himself.
Creature if you think I am the one who is trapped, you will be in for a surprise soon enough... let's see what's up ahead - if this thing thinks to cause fear and panic in my heart, he has never dealt with one of Iomadae's champions before.
Agriver continues his cautious advance making efforts to avoid being corral'd into a pit or something worse.
As you continue forward, you begin to hear hissing ahead, though slightly quieter than behind. The corridor turns left once again just ahead.
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”You’re sure he didn’t learn anything, or pick up a sense of practical humor while on your trip?” Yon says to Robin, and without waiting for an answer, ”Then that trap sent him somewhere we can’t follow after directly... “ then slapping his brother on the back, and roaring with laughter, ”Course he coulda become invisible... but woulda splashed around right?” and as he says that his laughter becomes more a thoughtful expression.
”Ansel didn’t you say you just learned a spell to go a little ways away? If this trap worked like that you could recognize that, right?”
Agriver turns the corner to find a 5 foot tall, giant spectral snake!
His sight does not detect an evil presence. His attack slashes through the snake, and cuts into it.
The snake relentlessly slams into agriver, pushing him back around the corner a distance of 10 feet.
What is the party doin?
Vala carefully searches around the room. around the three walls she can traverse, passing by the dirty, murky water. She finds no further traps nor secret doors.
She disappears down the new stairs as they wind our of sight 5 feet down.
Whilst she investigates... Yon realizes he is leaning on the idol... it didn't move an inch.
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Ansel doesn't notice Vala wander off, he is too intent with the serpent statue and still searching for magic. "Hey, could one of you help me?" the dwarf asks as he joins Yon and starts to rub his hands over the statue, studying it. "Now don't here me wrong here, we are not going to break this like Agriver seemed keen to a few weeks back, but I'm curious if we could dislodge this artifact. I would like to bring it back with us whole if possible. All these works shouldn't be left here forgotten in the dark.." Ansel tests his shoulder against it, then looks to see if the statue is a free standing base or carved directly from the stone surrounding the Spire.
Yon plays around with the statue's magic... until Ansel informs him it isn't magical anymore.
The idol itself is clearly a different material that the pedestal is. However the effort to move or dislodge it fails. The idol does not budge.
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"What the hell are you doing, Ansel?" asks Robin. "Let's just follow Vala down!"
Robin moves up, and asks Vala if she wants to take point, or if he should. If she wants him to, he puts his bow back in his efficient quiver and draws his falchion. He then moves down, using his wayfinder for light, as per usual.