As Ghina falls over the edge with the ogre, Krysta whooshes after them. Seemingly able to fly faster than the pair is falling, she snatches Ghina from the ogre and changes course to fly back to the top of the dam as the ogre continues to plummet down to the rock terrain below.
Once safely back on top, the group scours the corpses of the remaining ogres but don't find anything of significance beyond normal ogre hooks and body armor on them. Moving to the east you come to a large break in the dam where the water spills freely out down below. Krysta helps everyone across the gap and you continue on to the other side to a pair of double doors.
These double doors are large and not designed for humans. IT appears they are quite old and weathered, with numerous patches of repair visible on them. The doors are closed and look quite heavy, in fact a quick push reveals they don't give at all.
Delendir suspends in tension as Krysta snaps the little hawk in the air. The half-elf only breaths calm once dragon and hawk are back at the top of the dam "Ghina! Oh, why did you took such a risk! Are you ok?" the ranger checks the hawk for wounds and takes a piece of dried meat and offers it to Ghina "I was so scared for you..." he turns to Krysta, his eyes watery "Thanks a lot great dragon. I won't easily forget this you have done today"
Once the group proceeds to the east, Delendir pushes the doors. When he discovers the stone will not easily budge, he looks around for alternatives.
And looks how to mechanically force the doors if no alternative is found.
Krysta set the brave bird in Delendir's hands as he makes over Ghina and check her for injuries. Krysta nodded at his thanks and said, "You're welcome Delendir." She reached out one crystaline clw to carefully stroke the bird's head, her touch far more delicate than one might have expected her capable of, and looked very directly to the bird, "You are now part of my Horde Ghina, woe betide any who harm you for now they will face my wrath."
As Delendir began to try and work on the doors Krysta was not far behind him and watched over his shoulder to see how he did it. She'd been learning how to pick locks but hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. She was obviously no where near as good as he was, so she figured she might be able to pick up a trick to it. She even managed to catch some ambient light and shift her head right to help shine some more down on the mechanism for him to see better.
The heavy stone doors don't appear to be locked nor trapped, it appears to be barred from the inside. Since the heavy doors aren't budging it will either take tremendous strength to open it or some other method altogether.
Delendir spends some time scouting around and finds another stone door similarly locked on the northern side of the dam. Krysta takes to the air and spots two possible alternative entry points. It appears that there are large round windows in the center of of the southern room that hangs overtop of the dam, it looks to be some type of observation deck. Alternatively, the room to the right is damaged and the wall has broken off revealing a side open entry into the room. Both rooms have stone doors that are closed.
"Too many choices..." Sunday grumbles as he looks back and forth between the doors and windows.
Krysta gave up on the doorway, it simply wan't going to budge anytime soon and it would take her far too long to eat her way through it. As she lifted off and circled she found a few means of entrance and then landed at the first. Needing a more delicate touch she used her ring to shift to her half-elven form and carefully tested the door to see if it was locked. She didn't open it or mess with it further before flying to the right hand room and shifting again to check that one. When she finished she flew back to the other.
"It won't budge. We will need to destroy this one with the ogre picks Daud" the half-elf starts looking for the biggest pick when he spots Krysta flying through the window "Or as my mother used to say, when a door closes, a window opens somewhere else"
Delendir climbs up and attempts to reach the window to join Krysta in her explorations.
"Let me know if its trap free" Elisai calls up at Delendir, fairly confident in her friends trap finding skills. She isn't worried about being able to follow the Half Elf up the stone entrance-way, but she is worried about clumsily triggering some potentially lethal tripwire. So its with care and caution when she shields her eyes with a hand and carefully watches her friends progress.
Sunday was nodding along with the pick idea before Krysta catches both of their attention. "Windows are easier to break, too."
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"True.
If successful to climb, Delendir takes a look at the place, making sure there are no traps. Then he sets his cloak of elevenkind in the window and attempts to help everyone climb up the window.
Krysta finds more doors in the center room than she anticipated, five in total. and finds neither of them locked. The first door, the one in the center, was extremely heavy though and barely budged when she pushed it. The door on the right she finds pushes open and leads into the broken room on the right that was visible from outside. The other three doors are also unlocked.
Center room: Three round windows in this room look out over
the southern view from Skull's Crossing. Additional skull carvings decorate the walls, ceiling, and even the floor. In the middle of the north wall stand massive stone double doors, their smooth surfaces smeared with graffiti written in dried blood. Four other doors are present in this room, one opposite each other on the west and east walls and one door in the northwest as well as the northeast.
Right room: The southeastern section of this ancient room has collapsed away, leaving a treacherous-looking gap in the wall overlooking the lake far below.
Looking at Delenir Krysta said quietly, "I think we have our entrance. Let me get the others and bring them up here. I can fly them faster than they can likely climb it but we should make sure they are all unlocked and openable first." She moved to first the double doors and then the other four checking each for traps and to see if it was locked but not opening them.
On any case, Delendir attempts to secure a rope on the opening he used to help others climb up that way. If that is not possible, he does as Krysta, attempt to find the entrance door to help others go in. And he does so silently.
Delendir secures the ropes to the building to make the passage for his companions possible while Krysta searches the nearby passageways. She concludes that none of the doors are trapped as far as she can tell.
Door #1 (left): The doors are unlocked by are exceptionally heavy.
Door #2 (top left): Unlocked and appears it would open.
Door #3 (double): Unlocked and very heavy.
Door #4 (top right): Unlocked and appears it would open.
Door #5 (right): Unlocked and partially ajar. Reveals broken room to the right you spied from outside.
Through a matter of the ropes and with Krysta's help, the two successfully bring the remaining party members into the room with the five doors.
Finally making it up and in Sunday looks around. "Which way first?"
"I propose we go to the east then follow clock-wise order discovering everything hidden here" says Delendir as he helps Yavenee in.
The half-elf readies his bow once everybody is in and helps to search the place.
Everyone makes it out of the pouring rain and into the shelter of the face of the skull. Starting with the door on the east, Delendir pushes it open to reveal the broken room Krysta saw from outside. The southeastern section of the ancient room has collapsed away, leaving a treacherous-looking gap in the wall overlooking the lake far below.
With nothing of usefulness here, the group opens the heavy door on the west following Delendir's clockwise direction. This small 10'x15' room is nearly clogged with thick coils of the strange, vinelike fungal growths, transforming the chamber into a miniature jungle that reeks of damp mold and rot.
Delendir takes a look at the room "It does not seem the controls of the dam are here. Any of you knows anything about how this structure might work? We likely want to safe this place to safe the region"
If nothing is found, Delendir continues with the next door to the north-west, then the central one.
Elisai follows closely behind Delendir, stepping where he steps to avoid triggering any traps, while clutching her weapon close, certain that more enemies might lie around the corner.
"I haven't worked in a dam before, so I don't know much about a layout or how it works unfortunately. Anyone else?" she replies to the half-elfs question.
The door to the north west opens into a large chamber with two sets of double doors. The doors on the west are barred and are likely the pair you first encountered when you came upon this structure on the dam. The second set of angled double doors is twenty feet to your northeast. The heavy stone doors are closed.
Before continuing through another set of doors, the party heads back and opens the central double doors in the room they are all in. A very long set of steps descends into the darkness below.
Checking the final door in the room they are all in, the door to the northeast mirrors the one to the northwest with two double doors. One pair to the east and another angled pair that heads northwest.
"Which way now?" Sunday asks, his shifting from side to side.
Delendir shrugs "No idea. Whatever can help run the water controlled is likely downstairs, but the dam controls might be located in this level"
"I say we take a look first downstairs" provided the party is not against it, Delendir scouts ahead the stairs.
Hearing no objections, the ranger leads the way down the steps. The steps go on for quite some time, you would imagine somewhere around 200' of depth downward or so before you finally come to another sealed stone double door. As you descend the temperature decreases appreciably, falling at least ten degrees from the surface. The air here begins to feel damp with moisture and the stones are slightly wet and slippery.
"Another set of doors, probably locked or sealed. I'm shocked. This is my shocked face." Sunday flatly says as Delendir leads them onward.
"I need some extra light here" requests Delendir while he examines the doors ahead. The half-elf works to unlock them or push them open "Prepare for whatever. These are old ruins"
Yavenee whispers an arcane word, touching the tip of her spear, and setting a stark silvery glow on the spearhead, casting a cold light about as big as that of a torch
The stairs head down into the dam, turning several times as they descend. The skull motif continues here too, with their blank eyes staring out from the stonework. Eventually the stairs end at a large chamber, deep within the dam.
This cold, damp room features a large pool in the floor, the edges of which are caked with pale yellow slime and fungus. The surface of the pool bears a similar film. Additional carvings of skulls decorate the walls here. To the south, an impressive mound of skulls—mostly from humanoids—lies heaped against the wall, where they partially block a large stone double door. To the east and west passages lead into darkness, beyond the range of the meager light cast by Yavenee's spell.
Something moves under the surface of the pool. You are not surprised by what happens next.
Delendir pierces through the dim light of Yavenee's spell and past the pool, quietly hearing all the noises of the strange subterranean place.
The half-elf instinctively readies his bow, he attempts to shout an alarm but he is likely late to it.
Eagle-eyed, Elisai prepares herself for whatever happens next...
Krysta let Delendir lead the way down the stairs into the depths of the damn and stayed close behind him in case he needed assistance. When they reached the room with the pool and began to look around and noted something in the water. She used her head to gesture towards the water in warning and began to shift around as stealthily as she could to try and flank whatever it was should it attack.
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Yavenee is completely distracted from whatever the others notice.
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Suddenly something bursts up out of the pool, spraying foul water everywhere. In the flickering light it appears as a giant figure standing waist-deep, but still towering above the adventurers. Water streams over its scaly flesh and gill-slits pulse in its neck and torso. Fins sprout from its back and along its arms, and it clutches a massive polearm life a two-pronged fork. It roars furiously, the tusks in its mouth glinting.
Even though she sees the creature in the water rise, Elisai pauses a moment to get her bearings.
The towering creature bellows furiously, its gigantic polearm sweeping the air in an attempt to intimidate your party.
"Well this will be annoying", Sunday grumbles as he steps up to the flailing creature.
Delendir and Ghinna tremble at the sight of the new menace "W-what is that?!"
"Are you the one holding the waters of the dam? What are your plans?! Well, by your manners you do not seem to be willing to help us anyway" the half-elf steps back and starts to shot arrows.
Ghinna steps in the air to engage the giant beast as well.
Elisai immediately takes the total defense action in the face of the huge threat, standing into a passive posture.
The creature in the water either does not comprehend what Delendir says or doesn't chooses not to respond with an intelligent statement. Instead it only roars loudly while holding its massive weapon aloft.
As Delendir unleashes his volley of arrows towards the terrifying creature, a realization washes over him, the creature in the pool before him is not an ogre! Though large like an ogre, it is not an ogre and in fact something else.
Delendir's first shot strikes the creature in the water, the other two miss high and fly behind it. All of Ghina's melee attacks miss as well as the creature swats her away with his large trident.
Krysta was not surprised at the things sudden appearance but it's roar, and the hungry gleam it sent in her direction took her aback and left her unsure of how smart a fight this was. She took a nervous step forward to be behind and to one side of Sunday then began to vibrate as she let out the bellowing roar of sound that slammed into the creature with resounding force as waves of sound pummeled it.
Krysta's sonic attack inflicts full damage on the creature in the water.
Roaring in defiance, the wound around Delendir's first arrow partially closes. The creature rears back and with tremendous power attacks Sunday twice with its trident. After his two deadly trident strikes, it leans forward and takes a bite out of Sunday's shoulder, critical striking a major artery in the process.
36+18-5=49
Krysta saw what had just happened to Sunday and hoped the thing was distracted enough that she could slip around behind it. She began to move, quickly getting on the opposite side of it and snapped at it's hindquarters with her jaws.
"... already leaving again so soon? Hmm..." Sunday absentmindedly mumbles after the creatures's savagery.
After Daud's savagery Delendir face turns true white "Perhaps we should reconsider exploring this area"
Anyway, the half-elf keeps giving projectile cover to the front-line.
Ghina keeps her attack as well.
"Wh-what? It's injury just healed!"
Though clearly afraid, Yavenee turns her baleful black gaze on the aquatic monstrosity willing it's defenses to weaken.
"Getting colder." Sunday muses as the spirits envelop him and he begins swinging at the beast.