Ilya will collect her sword from the floor and set the crossbow back on her belt. Once everyone is out of the pit, she'll collect her rope before following Perfire into the madman's lab.
She pays special attention to the green rock thing. Is it like the same glass that the goblin-infested spire above them is build from?
As soon as Ilya moves into the center of the room, she feels a click! beneath her feet as she triggers a pressure plate. A panel falls open in the ceiling and drops down an enormous steel cage! Also, there's something in there, but you don't have time to think about it as the huge steel object hurtles at your head!
Health Status
Yirrik (21 damage, -1 STR)
Ilya (10 damage)
Perfire (2 damage)
Wymond (7 damage)
Wymond rushes into the room after hearing the loud CLANG!
"Ilya! Are you okay?!"
Ilya springs aside at the last moment, the heavy cage slamming down on her shoulder with a horribly painful sound. As the cage slams down you can see that what was suspended in its midst is a dead man, one that now easily slips its bonds and with an inarticulate moan lunges at Ilya, its dead fingers just barely missing her long hair.
"Blast! Everyone get back!" Wymond cries, swinging his bardiche in front of him.
The dead man cannot reach very far beyond the bars and seems to pose little threat to those outside the cage.
Wymond calms down as it becomes clear the danger isn't as great as he'd thought.
"Is everyone alright? I can probably put this poor bastard out of his misery right quick."
When the cage comes crashing down Perfire whirls and fumbles with the club at this hip, falling back against the table behind him. He takes a moment to collect himself before realizing what he was leaning against. The halfling grimaces with disgust and attempts to wipe his hands on his pants.
'Probably for the best. Poor thing.' Perfire frowns at the undead creature trapped in the cage.
Ilya rolls her shoulder, grimacing with pain from the impact.
"Yeah, I'm good. We're in pretty bad shape huh? I think I can fix most of that."
Making her way around the cage, careful to keep her distance from the thing inside, she motions for people to huddle up.
[b]"Wealthy Father, grant us strength that we might prevail in this vault of the earth."[b] With that, she lits her key-shaped amulet up, and lets golden light cover the party, pulsing slightly as their wounds are gradually restored.
Yirrik gives Wymond a weary smile at his sharing of his holy gift, closing his eyes as the warm feeling mends a few of his wounds.
He grunts and groans his way up out of the pit, then stands for a moment before the loud clang announces another trap sprung in the other room.
Trotting in , he's glad to see Ilya and the others were unharmed. Gladly he joins the other in the huddle around Ilya. Once the tingling of the healing was over, he rolls his shoulders and says, "Ah, that feels better. Thank you, Ilya."
'Thank you Ilya, give my thanks to Abadar as well.' With a smile he returns his attention to the bodies piled on the tables.
Wymond smiles as Ilya heals them.
"Thank you, Ilya, and give my thanks to Abadar."
Triath trots up to Ilya and nuzzles her.
"Triath thanks you too!"
In addition to the horrific display of body parts, you find a great deal of clutter. Amidst this you locate two sealed vials...possibly potion bottles? There is also an ivory scroll case.
Nearby, the green stone is similar to, but not the same as the green glass of the surface-level castle. It is subtly smoother and completely intact. It is quite similar to the green gem-like stone you saw while descending from the surface. On it is marked a strange symbol you do nott recognize, save that it is similar in some ways to the sigil you saw on the level above.
Perfire collects the two vials and the scroll case. Before manipulating them any further he focuses his will on them to detect any arcane auras.
The halfling's eyes brighten at his discovery and he focuses further on the items of interest.
Well, the two potions are difficult to identify, as is the second of the two scrolls wrapped up in the scroll tube. The other, however, is a scroll of fireball.
Also wrapped up in the scroll tube is a parchment with an elaborate sigil inscribed on it. Below that is inscribed a short inscription in an unknown language. Below that is the number "4" in Taldan (Common).
"Any idea what these things are, Perry?" Wymond asks, leaning on his bardiche like a walking stick.
Perfire holds up the scrolls and potions for Wymond to see.
'These are all magical. This one,' he says separating out the scroll of fireball 'will allow someone to summon a large burst of flame. Unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out the other three right now.'
The halfling places the 4 magical items on the table and pulls up the parchment with the sigil on it. 'There's also this. The only thing I understand about it is the '4' here.'
"Hey! Nice find, Perfire."
Emboldened by his find, Ilya will pick up the gross-looking bucket and empty it in one corner of the room, to see if there's anything interesting in it beyond the blood.
Yuck, this is so gross...
'I can try to study the other scroll and these two vials later. I'll hold onto them for now. Anyone able to read that other slip of paper' Perfire nods towards the parchment on the workbench as he rolls the scrolls back up and replaces them in the case. He stows it and the potions carefully in his pack, wrapping them as best he can.
He then makes his way over to the crystalline wall and examines it.
The curving green wall radiates an almost blinding level of power, astonishing, breathtaking and painful. Perfire could not say what school or schools of magic he has just witnessed, or something transcending all such notions, but he knows that the power of that wall is something out of legends.
Ilya, the nauseating bucket of human and animal viscera is heavy and its contents twitch when you touch it. But underneath is a heavy iron key.
Wymond winces as Ilya dives into the bucket of offal.
"Haven't seen something like that since our mare was foaling."
He smiles when she finds the key.
"Smart move to hide the key in a place most people wouldn't touch."
Perfire screws his face up at the mental image spawned by Wymond's comment. The halfling reaches a hand out hesitantly and touches the wall.
Only this curved green wall, so similar to yet clearly different from the green glass castle on the surface. The rooms you are in are carved from the native stone. The curved green wall is different.
Wymond notes Perfire's interest in the green wall.
"Something magic about that wall, Perry? You been awfully quiet."
'It's giving off some strange, powerful magic. I couldn't begin to tell you what kind. If I had to venture a guess I'd, say it may be what's part of keeping the Spire standing after all these years. I'll have to keep an eye out for more sections like this.' Perfire rubs the wall and gives it a pat before rejoining his friends.
"Yirrick'll love te hear that. Let's plan our next move."
Once they rejoin the others, Wymond starts.
"Arright, I'm not wounded anymore, but you two," he says, indicating Yirrick and Ilya,"Have gotten scratched up pretty bad. I got maybe one or two more blessings from Erastil that I can heal with this day, an' I don't know how many more healing spells Abadar'll grant Ilya before he starts chargin'. Do we try to heal you two up best we can and then try te make camp down 'ere, or push forward an' hope we don't run into more nasty traps or venomous an' surprisingly smart critters?"
'I'm still at full strength, but I don't mind resting if you all think that's wise. My arm is a little sore from that fight with the spider.' the halfling rubs his club arm and rotates his shoulder slightly.
'I'm still at full strength, but I don't mind resting if you all think that's wise. My arm is a little sore from that fight with the spider.' the halfling rubs his club arm and rotates his shoulder slightly.
"Next time someone tells me mages are weak I'm gonna tell 'em about how I watched a sorcerer, an a HALFLING mage no less, singlehandedly thrashed a giant spider with nothing but a stick!" Wymond replies with an impressed grin.
Ilya is all to glad to put the bucket down, grabbing the iron key instead. "Yuck." she makes a face in disgust. "I think Yirrik is the only one who's still wounded."
Wymond nods.
"What say you, Yirrik? You've probably had the roughest day out of all of us. We should at least patch you up, I say."
Perfire wanders out into the hallway while waiting for Yirrik to respond. He edges up to the pit and give Triath a gentle pat while peering over the edge, glad for the pig's company. He attempts to judge how tough a time he and his friends will have traversing the open, spiked pit to get to the door beyond.
Yirrik rubs his face, and smiles wryly at his friends, "Aye, still a little worse for wear...those spikes mean business. Any help you two an give me would be greatly appreciated."
Perfire sees that there is a very narrow ledge around the pit, but he's pretty certain he doesn't want to chance it unless the mechanism is jammed somehow. Maybe the team can just go another way.
Wymond nods and lays his hands on Yirrik, to continue to heal him.
Yirrik feels slightly better after Wymond prays over him.
Health Status
Yirrik (9 damage, -1 STR)
Ilya
Perfire
Wymond
"I think we passed a door, back in the first hallway."
Ilya starts backtracking, stopping at the door she talked about.
"So Yirrik, hate to ask you to get hurt, but could you check for traps and stuff?"
She also gives the door a lookover herself.
Yirrik closes his eyes as Wymond's healing knits some of his flesh back together, "Ah, thanks Wy." he says , doing some deep knee bends to loosen up his stiff leg.
He trots to catch up with Ilya, gracing her with a courtly bow, one that causes him to wince a little, "No problem, Ilya, I'll take a look..."
Perfire kicks a pebble into the pit before turning to join his companions at the previous door.
'Careful, Yirrik' The halfling warns the ranger unnecessarily, wincing every time Yirrik makes a move toward the door.
Wymond frowns as the power of Erastil doesn't heal Yirrik as much as he'd hoped. When Triath trots into the room after Perfire, he turns to the pig.
"I don't get it...I can heal, but I can't heal enough to get Yirrik back to fightin' trim."
Triath replies with a gentle grunt.
"Yeah...I know I'm new at it, but I figure if I was good enough fer Ol' Deadeye to grant power to in the first place he'd at least help me help me mate."
Triath snorts and gives a small squeal.
'Back where I... grew up, I heard that the gods only helped those that help themselves. Maybe your Deadeye does things the same way.' Perfire says, hoping to comfort Wymond somewhat.
Wymond gives Perfire a confused look.
"But...I'm NOT helping myself. I'm helping Yirrik."
Ilya and Yirrik examine the area around the southern door and then the door itself. A plain stone door with a lock and keyhole, it seems to contain no further dangers beyond being locked.
Wymond looks at Ilya with a smile.
"Good thing we've got a key. Care te do the honors?"