"Arval, lad. Ye go' t' stop gettin' int' these kind o' messes. We'll get ye free as soon as th' beastie dies. In th' meantime, stay with us!"
Whiskeyjack reached out and healed Arval, sending a goodly portion of his stored power into the young man.
Magic missile thud in their reliable, satisfying way into the mimic. It lets out a weird gurgle as it continues trying to choke down poor paralyzed Arval. Whiskeyjack quickly rushes over and heals him up some.
Lena
Wren
Arval (15 dmg) (paralyzed 1) (grappled)
Kawrock
Whiskeyjack (12 dmg)
Eldon
----
Mimic (37 dmg)
Kawrock flies to the far side of the room and throws some fire at the mimic.
Kawrock's fire bolt flies in, nailing the mimic and Lena quickly follows up with a scorching ray. With a weird shriek, it turns into a puddle of goo, melting onto the floor. Arval remains stuck to it, however.
End of Combat
After a few moments, Arval's paralysis wears off, and he finds that the adhesive has worn off as well.
The sarcophagus is ancient, but clearly carved into it - and recently, is the Whispering Way symbol.
Perception
Wren stares at Arval, wondering if the man will ever move again and then is pleasantly surprised when he does.
"Oh dearie...good thing you can move again. In Kaer Maga, there is this one brothel...blahblahblah...like men who are stiff...blahblahblah...several more uses per day, per halfling...blahblahblah...lie on their back...blahblahblah...twice in a row! I couldn't believe...blahblahblah...the thawing process...blahblahblah...and then it's over!!" Wren explains. "We really shoudl visit Kaer Maga when we're done here."
|
Ignoring the featherbrained elf, lena peers atvtge coffin the undead monster came from.
look, this carving. It's fresh, and the symbol...the whispering way!
She looks at the others as wren continued to babble nonsense.
this is becoming clearer. The theft at the University. The use of brodur to break in. The b$#@$$@d's who killed the professor. We mustbtake extra care. Maybe brodur's father is involved.
Arval fall to the group with his sword in hand. He wakes with Wren right above his head and he scrambles back.
"What?! Stop blabbering and tell me what happened!"
He yells at her as he slowly stands and surveys his surroundings.
"Is there some kind of knockout spell going on here?"
Whiskeyjack sighed and pulled out his wand again. This was starting to get ridiculous. He moved among the injured, starting with himself, and heled their wounds. Worriedly, he checked the wand's magical resources, noting that it was getting low. "Gonna need t' buy another o' these when we ge' back t' town. This one's almost had i'."
Arval let's the healing wash over him and he stands.
"Feels a lot better!"
He flexes a bit to see if everything is all right, feeling that it he is ready to go on.
"Oke... where to now?"
Kawrock gives out a "Kreee!" before heading down stairs.
"Oh dearie," Wren shuffles over to W'Jack. "Here you go. Take mine just in case. With Arval not listening to me, you're going to need it to keep him alive." Wren smiles at WhiskeyJack, showing all her yellow, bent, and broken teeth.
"Whispering Way!"
Wren's head snaps to Lena, her head tilting from side to side to hear better.
"Oh, the Whispering Way again? Oh dearie, they are causing problems around here, aren't they? When we get back to civilization, I'll research them more, I will."
"Thankee Wren. This'll help keep th' young'n alive until we can resupply. Now, wha's this abou' th' Whisperin' Way? More o' their signs here? Startin' t' make some kind o' sense."
Kawrock leads the group through the trapdoor to stairs below.
A spiral iron stair literally hangs above the valley beneath the museum, connecting to a small stone terrace and a wooden door. Although the view is dizzying, the stair and terrace are stable and safe.
From the stairs, you move into a room below the museum.
This bare basement room is crammed with more curious objects. Three large crates sit in the room, which appear to have been recently opened. Opaque glass jars line the walls.
Kawrock will cast detect magic and take a closer look at all the boxes and jars.
Kawrock takes a close look over the boxes and jars. The jars are opaque and black and would need to be opened for further investigation. However, the insides of the crates reveal they once held living things. One crate smells very strongly of rust, while the other has a dry, and dusty smell very reminiscent of the mummy the group just battled.
Satisfied that there is nothing truly interesting that he can find here, Kawrock soars out over the falls. Waiting for his companions to follow the trail to the tower.
A spiral iron stair literally hangs above the valley beneath the museum, connecting to a small stone terrace and a wooden door. Although the view is dizzying, the stair and terrace are stable and safe.
This bare basement room is crammed with more curious objects. Three large crates sit in the room, which appear to have been recently opened. Opaque glass jars line the walls.
Wren pokes around the crates with Detect Magic, letting the Kawrockbug go first to identify any overt dangers.
She keeps an eye out for that symbol of the Whispering Way as she examines.
"Oh...I think the rusties came from that box. And the mummy from that one," Wren notes aloud.
Arval follows and adds to Wren's remark.
"But what was in the other boxes?"
He bends over the other crates and starts inspecting them.
"I be knowin' i'. Th' monsters we be fightin' here be left behind, likely after th' Count Whozits left. No way Bigguns'd be invitin' us t' stay here wit' all these monsters abou'. Course, there were th' giant blind construc' wit' th' homonculi, bu' he were likely jest th' guard dog."
"Anythin' else o' interest here?"
Eldon inspects the jars with detect magic. If there's no magical aura he'll open the jars.
If there is a magical aura Eldon keeps the jars closed and inspects the magic.
If there's a magical aura and Eldon's 100% sure it's safe, he'll open the jars.
The group scours the room for anything of interest, but finds nothing. A quick detect magic spell doesn't reveal a magical aura.
Eldon happily pops open the first jar and peers in.
Within is a preserved head, floating in a pungent alchemical mixture to preserve it. The head bobs and turns, and as Eldon sees it, he's struck by the sight of the most horrifically ugly woman he has ever seen in his life. The sight is so unnerving he feels his legs go out from beneath him.
Wren tries not to snicker as the scary face scares Eldon.
"This is a most unpleasant area. We should burn it all, don't you think, Kawrock?"
Eldon lets out a "YEEEK" before he quickly stoppers the jar, backing away from it. Realizing the other jars may be opaque for a reason, the group gathers itself and strikes out northwards towards the towers Kawrock spotted.
This exposed, winding, narrow pathway climbs the bare rock face to the set of towers.
The climb is a treacherous one with the waterfall pounding below, high winds, and moderate rain. Whiskeyjack, sturdy and armoured, almost falls repeatedly, but with the combined effort of the group you all manage you claw your way upwards along the path.
Four interconnected towers stand 200' above the falls. East of them, across a grand stone bridge, is a high tower topped with a lightning road which towers over the spectacular vista. West of the towers, water pours in towards them from what may be a mountain stream, flooding their base.
The stretching way ends here, at a small stairway that descends 10 feet to a recessed iron door. The door appears to be rusted shut.
"Damme, there ain't no call t' be crawlin' ou' on these bridges an' tigh'ropes, an' who knows wha'. Me question now be how in th' nine hells are we gettin' back. Because I ain't sure I ken be doin' tha' again!"
Whickeyjack let his breath settle and his heart stop racing before looking to the stairs and the door.
"A rusted ou' door ain't likely t' lead t' anywhere tha's been used lately. Le's see if'n i' be used lately."
So saying, Whiskeyjack tromped down the stairs to get a better look at the door.
Whiskeyjack gives a good look over the door. Good construction, not dwarven, but next-best thing. With the water from the stream up above, and the heavy amount of relatively recent rusting Whiskeyjack concludes the other side is flooded, which may make the door extremely difficult to open.
Arval peers at the door and concludes that it is not worth the effort. He looks up to see if there is any way inside for the normal walking people.
"Thought we had the worst behind us."
He sighs as he peers around.
Know (Engineering)
Perception
"Oh look at that," Wren says, looking at the door. "Looks like it's waterlogged. I was once waterlogged, but that's a story for another time. It's too bad I had to kill those rustie monsters, they would have opened this door quiet quickly."
Wren shakes her head. "I can't get through that very easily. Might be that we can bash through it, Arval?"
Kawrock will circle around to the eastern bridge and check the status of that door.
As Kawrock flies around, a seagull crashes into him, fouling his vision. The unfortunate gull bursts into flame and crashes into the waterfall below. Kawrock rights himself, and takes a look at the door.
Both the eastern, and western door from the bridge are bound with iron and resolutely closed.
Back on the ground, Wren uses her own considerable knowledge of engineering she happened to pick up while doing other stuff, and gets a distinct impression these towers are not meant to be exited, or entered easily. They are fortress-like in their construction but seem more designed for keeping things in than out.
The door could be bashed through, but it would be a considerable effort and likely require the cooperation of the entire group or something clever.
"Arval, let's try this together," Eldon says as he walks up to the door. "I'm positive we can open it if you aid me in the effort."
Arval looks a bit doubtful but joins whiskey and starts at the door.
Kawrock flies back over to the group, circling the air to see how the others plan to get in.
"Look 'ere. If there be water behind th' doors holdin' 'em shut, then we dinnae want t' be messin' wit' them. Kawrock. how high is that bridge? Think ye could take a grapplin' hook an' anchor i'? We could climb th' rope an' see if we ken be enterin' a door wha' ain't held shut by who knows how much water."
Whiskeyjack looked to the others for their agreement. If no one has a better idea, he pulls a rope and grappling hook from his pack and begins to fasten one to the other.
Wren steps back, letting 'WJack do his business. She seems rather confused by the difficulty of opening the door.
Wren ponders her existence while she waits.
Eldon and Arval get the door to budge a bit and some water pours out. It's clear that there is around two or three feet of water on the other side, but no more than that. More help would be needed though.
Whiskeyjack tries to figure out what it would take to climb up to the bridge. The bridge itself is only around 40' above the group's current position. However, to get beneath the bridge would be quite difficult.
You are currently on a staircase descending into the side of what is basically a hill made of rock with the towers built on the top. You would need to circle around on the hill to get beneath the bridge to climb up. Getting along the rock face would require a climb check. Falling into the water below would be certain death.
"There's only about two or three feet of water on the other side of the door," Eldon tells the others.
"What about the following epic plan of mine? We use our weapons to cut off the top half of the door, instead of trying to open it. Wood doesn't have a very high hardness, so we can easily do that. And the water won't flow out if we take out just the top half."
Eldon looks at Arval. "Could you do the chopping? I can do many epic things with my rapier, but the weapon type is incompatible with chopping wood."
"Meh. If we be goin' in through th' door, I go'a crowbar in me pack . Jest force th' door an' be done wit' i'."
Whiskeyjack put the rope away and got out the crowbar, holding it out to Arval. Once the man had the crowbar in place, Whiskeyjack lent his support.
Wren waits, very anxious to get behind this door!
"What's behind this door!" Wren almost threatens to begin pecking through it with her beakish elf nose.
After a good ten minutes of straining and groaning, the door slowly, slowly opens up as water pours out, threatening to wash out Eldon and Lena. Finally, with the door open, the group find themselves looking into a magically lit hallway that leads west and east. Directly in front of them is a stairwell. The walls beside the stairwell have collapsed in, completely blocking off the stairwell.
The collapse looks to have been local and intentional, rather than the result of damage. Some sort of accidental destruction would cause far more damage to this area. Instead, someone deliberately blew in the walls to prevent passage upwards.
From here, the hallway leads west and east.
Know (Engineering)
Wren notices nothing at all and waits for others to continue on.
"This reminds me of the time I came to a tower filled with trolls! And outside the tower were numerous scary troll dogs! I nearly lost my wits and ran away...blabblahblah...<describes the fight from yesterday as if it many years ago>...annoying halfling...blahblahblah..."
The door gives and water splashes around his feet.
"Bah... We have to go through this?"
He takes a few steps into the building and shivers.
"This water is cold!"
He slowly makes his way past the right hallway and peers around the corner, he will help any halfling struggling to swim.