The duke has been around the block a few times, so he isn't shocked about the cabin springing up. "Well if I knew there were accommodations, I might have said something different. Though we probably should get started. We're not getting any younger. "
As Gabriel turns the baton one more time, the face twists again, its eyes crossing. The baton slides down its throat, and the mouth opens wide, wider than you thought possible... or are you shrinking? Everything within 10 feet of the mouth seems to shrink, spiraling into darkness towards the monstruous maw.
"Oh crap. "
Rasil is unphased by the magical effect he can't even see, but his would-be protoge screams from deep within the earth.
After collecting himself, he searches around the walls and corners of his new arrangements with his hands, searching for anything that might get him out.
Yura takes out his dagger and starts jabbing at the corners of his prison.
Vars will try again.
Yura's blade gets stuck in between the sarcophagus and the stone acting as a lid, slipping out of the boy's fingers with a sonorous twang! while Vars' attempt at pushing the lid away has him put his left hand wrong. The bones in his wrist shift uncomfortably, forcing him to wait and readjust his grasp.
Well at least I'm lying down so I won't throw out my back. My shoulder though...
"Bloody hell - they just got plane shifted! Isn't that what we wanted to happen?" He looks at Mahb and Rasil. "Why are we still here? Is that a good thing?"
Together with Yura and Vars, Pyewacket is transported away from you too. You instantly feel your telepathic bond break, but the empathic link remains in place. Angust. Cold. Claustrophobic.
Looking at Mahb and Rasil, Gabriel says "Should we assume that was the normal activation of the gate? I can try to activate it again, and not resist the effect this time."
"No. Pye feels trapped - somewhere cold. Start diggin' maybe." The hag sounds worried. "Unless this is the feed the beast / begin where all men end bit. Then maybe we have to turn over and push open the stony door, whatever that is." Ideas pile on each other as the old woman thinks it through. "Yes, trigger it again!"
Rasil braces himself against any physical ramifications that may come from the impending plane shift to which he will now submit.
"Alright then, here goes." Gabriel focuses on the baton again, twisting it until the gate once again activates.
Finding himself in the dark, enclosed space, Gabriel doesn't bother with trying to force the lid open with his lackluster strength. Instead, he focuses on the lid, and applies the full brunt of his telekinetic strength against it.
It only takes a few prods with your telekinetic skill to lift the heavy marble cover, and you find yourself in a richly decorated octagonal chamber with a domed ceiling. There are twelve sarcophagi on the floor, and you hear faint grunts and thumping coming from four of them.
One snap of your tongue allows you to perceive your surroundings: you are entombed in a sarcophagus, topped by a heavy stone lid.
Something feathery flaps frenetically around your face, and in that same instant, Pyewacket's telepathic link snaps back into place. He's trapped with you, and tells you what you suspected: you are buried alive in a sarcophagus.
Assuming he heard one of the lids moving he will call out "Hello out there. I'm not dead yet!"
Mahb gathers the bird to her chest before turning over, to face downward. "Well, this is cozy. Don't worry, we've got a couple ways out of this trap. Let's try something mundane first. Push when I do."
The hag's hair grows and writhes like tentacles. It fills the space and presses against the sarcophagus with its mistress' monstrous intellect.
Pressing on the stone, Rasil doesn't think his frail form will be able to push it open, but he understands that he has no choice but to try.
Yura saddened by the apparent loss of his dagger, feels around for his grappling hook, and uses it for leverage instead.
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Stepping out of the stone sarcophagus, Gabriel shakes his head. "Waking up in a bloody sarcophagus - I'm getting to old for this s++&."
Hearing Vars calling for help, he goes over to his sarcophagus. "Vars, is that you? Are you not out of there yet? We even gave you a head start!"
"Yes, it's me dammit! Damned lid is really heavy and I can't get any leverage. "
As Gabriel approacher Vars' sarcophagus, the one next to it bursts open, moved my a mass of squirming, tentacular white hair. At the same time, Rasil and Yura both manage to push their own lids off enough to squeeze through the openings. Those of you who aren't still trapped take a better look at the mausoleum.
The octagonal chamber is made of fine, polished white marble. The domed ceiling peaks twenty-five feet overhead, decorated with frescoes of people in billowing robes, hands joined, looking down with pity on those below. Braziers along the base of the dome filled with flickering flames faintly illuminate the chamber. Twelve carved stone sarcophagi lie beneath the dome, surrounding a large carving on the floor of a leering medusa’s face.
Frowning at the sarcophagus still entombing Vars, Gabriel says "Can't you please let the poor fellow out already?" As he asks this, he animates the sarcophagus, and causes it to open itself up and let Vars out. "People never think to ask politely."
He then looks around the room some after this. "Fine place, this is. There are worse places to be laid to rest." He begins to investigate the room further, looking for any points of interest.
"Thanks. I was started to think I was looking at my future. Maybe I'll just get created. " he says as he climbs stiffly out of the sarcophagus.
Her hair shrinks back to its normal bird-nesty proportions, then Mahb rises from the grave, stroking the ruffled and unhappy bird. "I expected that to be more restful." She glares at the statues, "Arrogant bunch, ain't they?"
Looking around the mausoleum you notice that, indeed, there do not seem to be doors. However, at the foot of each sarcophagus there is a baton, looking just like the one Dellum gave you, but made of brown stone instead of white marble.
Taking a closer look at the medusa head on the floor, you notice that on the edges of the iron disc, at each of the four compass points, is a circular hole that looks like it could fit the batons.
the Duke walks around the room inspecting it, squinting,
"I think if he use those batons to rotate the medusa head, we can open that door over there. Yes, it's a door. Well hidden, but a door. "
He grabs a baton and sticks it into one of the holes in preparation for some help rotating it.
"Muscles aren't what they used to be, " Gabriel says, as he focuses on one of the batons, "but I'll see if I can lend a hand, so to speak." The baton he is focusing on rises into the air, and inserts itself into one of the four holes. Once there, Gabriel raises an eyebrow at his other companions, waiting for their help as well. He then slowly fades from view. "Ready whenever you are"
Vars will start to yank on the baton to rotate the face in cooperation with Gabriel. He'll try to rotate it the same way as the baton outside.
Mahb pulls another of the batons and prepares to insert it."Sure you boys don't want to try jiggering the door without setting off something else?"
Rasil picks up the batons in front of his and Yura's sarcophagae twisting them back and forth in his fingerless-gloved hands in an attempt to discover any writing or recognizable markings.
Gabriel's voice echos out in response to Mahb, "Heh, I'm not the one touching the thing, so no skin off my back either way. I could also try forcing the door open without the crank."
The batons do not have any signs on them. Once inserted on the holes, they click into place but don't rotate like the one outwards.
Pressed by Vars' powerful arms, the face starts rotating counterclockwise, and the wall on the northern side of the mausoleum slowly begins rising.
"Ok, that worked, why don't we see what's outside?" and he puts on his shield, drawls his falcata, and walks outside.
The stone door clicks in place, and you can walk out. On the other side of a door, you see a magnificent sight. It's the necropolis as you had seen it from Mahb's spell, under a dark night sky. A marble-paved road departs from the mausoleum where you currently are, towards a tall, domed building with a small chimney sprouting from the rooftop. At the sides you see smaller mausoleums (mausolea?). On the grass at the sides of the road are hundreds of smaller tombs, marked by limestone.
It is evident, despite the richness and opulence of the constructions, that the place is in deep disrepair. Sickly tufts of grass are growing within the stone slabs paving the road, dead trees are rotting, and there is moss growing over the walls of the mausoleum.
"Ok,l this seems to be what it's actually supposed to look like. Pretty swanky. A lot of money spent on dead people though. Seems a waste. Should we just head for the closest building? This place is pretty big. "
Yura having heard, but not seen his master leave the sarcophagus near his, follows the others out the door.
"So what, we're searching for the most recent graves?"
He looks at the different mausolea looking for the building with the shortest plants, and the least overgrowth.
His master, on the other hand, hurries invisibly to the first building , using the path as a guide. He feels along the outside for a window or door, trying to locate the weakest/thinnest area in the construction. Once he thinks he finds it, he uses his gloves of reconnaissance to listen into the interior.
Gabriel, also still invisible, will respond to Vars - "I'll check out the view from above, and meet you at the big building"
He will then fly up above the tops of the buildings a ways, and try to get a birds-eye view of the place. Looking for anything that may indicate recent activity or potential danger.
While headed towards the closest building, you notice an unusual sight. Several tombstones on the western side of the path here have been crushed and shattered in a wide swath. The back of an ancient carriage is visible through the overgrown weeds and shrubs at the far end of the array of destruction. At a first glance, it looks like a hearse, and a crumbling, open, empty coffin is lying on the ground behind it.
Feeling his invisibility wearing off and hearing his would-be follower say something about an empty coffin, Rasil focuses his ki once again on the light and air around him, and vanishes yet again. Brandishing his twin wakizashi, the assassin feels his way to the wreckage as stealthily as he can, and feels for signs of what occured when he reaches it.