GM..Kashka's Emerald Spire Campaign

Game Master Andrew Torgerud

Brushing aside some of the decaying cobwebs, Agriver will move into the area declared safe by Vala. His full plate making his presence known.

The paladin focuses his divine sight throughout the room. "Vala, what do you make of this place?"

Yon shuffle steps forward, to stand in the secret doorway looking into the room.

Stealth (Dex): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

digging his toe into the stone tiles, making an awful scrapping noise and glaring right back at Vala as he does.

Spyridon moves up, nervous to step into the room, his eyes darting back and forth.

"This place is odd. Secret doors to more useless rooms. Nothing but undead and spiders down here so far. Do you think this place is abandoned?"

Spyridon will detect magic and cast his gaze at the medallions and chest.

vala perception on room: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25
stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22

Vala carefully, quietly examines the room, pointing out two secret doors, before turning her attention to the chest. The more she looks at it, the more suspicious she is. Everyone sees her focus go from the chest to the north wall to the ceiling; where she and everyone sees an inch gap between the ceiling and the wall. The chest is definately a trap.

Agriver sees no evil.
Spyridon detects no magic.

Agriver will walk to the north wall near the secret door and stand guard while the party examines the room. "Vala, what do you make of the chest?"

Glancing at Yon - "Don't touch anything....." he says with a smirk.

"About that, I'm going to go ahead and let Vala disable that trap first. Don't want to be in the room if it suddenly splits open like two halves of a box and dumps us all down into a pit. Plus, if she fails, maybe something lands on Robin's head this time, and this is a good spot to watch that."

Vala ignores Yon.

"Chest is trapped. For sure. The whole room makes me squirm. I'd advise at least half of us to stand outside if we're to touch anything in here."

Vala mumbles, thinking aloud. "No webs on the ceiling or floor. But they're on the walls.. Medallions on the ceiling. All four corners. Moving ceiling? Crushing room? Huge net? Fireball?"

"Should I try to disable it or do we want to move on and come back to it later?"

"Please disable the trap, we should investigate the contents of the chest. It may have something we could use as we continue the search of this floor. I will remain in the room and should anything happen, I will help you."

"Three in the room, and three out. Just as you advised. Go for it, unless you're stalling because you think this trap is out of your league."

Vala shrugs. Ignoring Yon. Again.

Once everyone is in position she'll attempt to disable it.

Disable device: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25

"Works for me. Yon, take a step back, in case I need to step back, please."

Vala goes to work, examining the base of the chest...

She carefully moves down to the pedestal... traves her finger along the edge meeting the floor...

She stands up and moves to the corner of the room... looks up along the wall past the medallion... and she grins.

Confidently she walks over to the hole, reachs down to the handle and everyone else hears a slight click. She pulls her hand out, flips a brass pin into the air confidently.

"Room crusher. Disabled."

Vala moves over to the chest to open it.

take 10 for 20 to unlock it if its locked

Vala easily takes care of the simple lock... she thinks Agriver coulda unlocked it......

She opens the chest to find.... a bleached cat skull and a message scribbled inside... "Curiosity Kills: another ingenious demise, courtesy of Addington's fine Traps and Defenses."

There is nothing of value inside.

Vala opens the chest and talks to herself. "Haha. No demise here Mr.. or Ms. I suppose, Addington."

Vala looks to the group. "Our trapmonger has a message for us." She says, showing them the note.

Robin moves over to take a look. He glances at Vala while reaching in to inspect the cat's skull, just in case. "That's odd. We've got a joker here, or something? What the hell is going on?"

”It would appear we are being toyed with, and I fail to find the humor. Should this be the novice necromancer we have been seeing signs of – I will have to let him know.” says Agriver frowning and furrowing his brow.

Motioning for Vala to follow him he continues – ”Let’s backtrack a bit and open that door we left behind us. I would rather not move forward with the possibility of something flanking us.”

The paladin walks back thru the corridor into the previous area and stops near the door he is suggesting.

”If you would be so kind?”

Vala nods at Agriver in agreement, following him, as this echos her thoughts from earlier. She checks the door for traps and opens it once everyone is in place.

"I'm not a fan of these jokes. If the entire spire is just one big joke, I do not think it's worth my time to explore. Who comes this far beneath the surface for jokes?" Spyridon pauses for a second, thinking as he walks.

"Dwarves?"

"The creature of entity that is taunting us will be brought to justice, dwarf or otherwise - rest assured."

The party backtracks to the unlocked door.

Vala finds no traps. The door is opened...

This large stone chamber contains two clusters of four stone caskets each. In the center of the room, between the two groupings, stands an empty, unlit iron brazier that is covered with soot and smells faintly of past fires. Drapes of dust-covered spider webs cling to the ceiling.

Robin moves up next to Agriver, into the room.

"Robin can you light the brazier while I examine the room?"

Agriver examines the room intently taking extra time to gaze upon the caskets. His eyes taking on an amber hue as he focuses his attention on his surroundings.

Agriver detects no evil.

"Finally, something of actual historical significance." Spyridon says, wandering in to the first casket and attempting to identify its origin.

Robin moves in, shaking his head, pulling out his flint and steel, and checks out the brazier. If there is anything to burn in it, he will try and light it. "Agriver, what did you do with my torch after the webs?"

no need to burn up our air Yon thinks, as he steps forward and touches the brazier. Shirak! he says.

"Cute, Bro'. Gives light, but I am not sure that's what Agriver meant."

"Why waste the tinder when the drowned god provides."

As Spyridon approaches the casket near him....

A chill breeze arises from nowhere with an eerie howl. The room seems to darken, and in the sudden gloom, scores of small spectral eyeballs appear, drifting with the breeze. They peer intensely before fading away.

Still no evil detected.

"The fire in the brazier may have some purpose in regards to the odd burial here. Given the otherworldly effect we just witnessed, it may make sense to try it."

Gesturing to Vala - "Can you check out caskets, perhaps they have traps of mechanisms that are protecting their contents. Normally I would not want to disturb the remains of the fallen, but after that..... we should be sure."

Looking at Yon and Spyridon - "Can you discern any magical auras or enchantments in play here?"

Agriver looks around the room and ponders what he just saw.

Kn: Religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

Frowning inwardly he mutters "confusing... unknown..."

Vala ignores the content of the room and gets in the zone of focusing on structure of the room, architecture, searching for traps, etc.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23

Vala starts circling the edge of the room, observing carefully. She stops at the north west corner observing another latch and seeing an outline of another door.

Detect Magic!

"There is a mysical fog where those creepy eyes were floating a moment ago."

Spellcraft +6: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

"What did you find Yon? Did you investigate the caskets? What did you cast?"

Agriver looks around the room waiting for the others to continue their investigations.

"I'm not sure yet, it's just where those eyeballs popped up in front of Spyridon... it's giving a strange vibe... it was definitely magic. I'm still trying to make sense of it."

Yon cannot make sense of it. insert gm face of unhelpfulness - whats next?

"Well. That was weird." Vala shrugs. "Here's another door." Vala checks it for traps then moves to open it after the typical glance to the colleagues to see if they want to position themselves first.

Spyridon closely examines the casket, casting detect magic and attempting to identify the make/creators.

"You all need to slow down. This is exactly what we were sent here to find! If the dead here are the creators, then we need to do a thorough examination."

Spyridon begins pulling out paper and ink, as well as his chalk.

"Have any of you taken a rubbing before? Please, just put the weapons down for a moment - we should be able to document this room in less than an hour. What's the rush anyway?"

Knowledge checks, etc etc.

Vala shrugs, standing near the hidden door.

"Sure. But, someone should stay on watch. I dunno. Keep an eye out for the stuff that can still jump out at us." Vala says, keeping her eyes off of the caskets.

"Why am I more comfortable around the dead that walks than the dead that doesn't?..."

"You're point is well made scribe. Take the time you require to chronicle the passage. We will stand guard while you finish."

Agriver nods at Vala as she stands near the secret door. "Where does your gut tell you we should go next?"

"This secret door. Then the two others, I'm thinkin"

Robin does not abide by the command of the elf, and keeps his bow out at the ready. "Do what you need to do, Spanky, I will stand guard. You know, I was thinking, though, maybe we should all learn a language that isn't so common up here... Something we can talk to each other in that will not be easily translated by the critters in the Emerald Spire. Don't know what that would be, but..."

Spyridon realizes the others are apparently not going to assist him.

He begins his work of documenting what appears to be an ancient noble family's crypt. Definitely Azlanti in origin, he does not recognize the family name. Centuries appear to have left these stone caskets in peace.

He acquires several rubbings of the family crest.

"Excellent quality on your work Spyridon. It reminds me of the works we found in the caves of the gillmen."

Watching the bard pack up his kit, Agriver waits until he is ready and then gives Vala a stoic nod.

"Robin, are you ready sir?"

The paladin quietly mummers a prayer to his goddess as the rogue gets to work.

Robin nods to Agriver with a look on his face that says it all... 'Always. Bring it.'

He adjusts his gear a bit, and is ready to move on.

"Well, I don't feel like grave robbing today if there's no need to - I'll send these notes to the Society and let them deal with it."

Spyridon repacks his gear, his spirits a bit higher.

"At least it's a sign of something normal, for a crypt like this. I'm ready to go when you are team."

The secret door is opened to reveal a passageway ending in a door that is visible from this side, but leads into the room with the cage.

"Oh, hey. This place looks familiar."

Vala looks around the room. Poking at the shiny green pillar.

"I wonder if this goes all the way down.."

Musing to herself she'll pull out a string from her trap crafting kit. Pull out some bit of her parchment from her craft cartography kit and measure the circumference of the pillar. Jotting down notes.

"Definitely larger circumference than top level.."