Now that you're focused on it, you notice that's not a ceiling at all. It's a magical wall of darkness.
Tung shifts his dagger into a rapier with a quick prayer. He then focuses his attention on the ceiling, ready for an attack.
"I'd say loose an arrow up there unless one of our mages has a better idea." Tung says to his old salty friend. "Just be careful it doesn't ricochet back on one of us..."
Dain looks up into the darkness. "Hmmmmm...let me see." He looks around, then reaches out towards the nearby wall. "Will you help me?" He speaks a few otherworldly words, then reaches out to tap the tip of Skarvek's arrow, which bursts into bright light.
"Try it now," he says to the archer.
, 4th level Light effect.
You can all hear Skarvek's arrow hit an unseen ceiling above the darkness and see it fall back, gleaming brightly. From the sound you'd guess the room is roughly twice as tall as it appears (15'). The darkness is unaffected.
Silas frowns up at the roof and says, "We probably shouldn't mess with the roof of darkness. It might hold something back we do not want to release...or drag us into a place we do not want to be."
"Sounds about right for this horror show. So... keep moving on?" He said as he counted his remaining ammunition.
"Unless you want me to stick my head up there again..." Tilver looks up at the plane of darkness. "...Sure, let's keep going."
He moves to the door to examine it.
The door is unlocked and Tilver can't find any traps.
Silas follows along behind Tilver, but leaves him room to work.
Tilver shrugs and with one more glance back at the dark ceiling, he opens the door.
Dain continues to stare up at the darkness. After a minute, he pulls out Malkith's withered hand. He reaches up with it towards the darkness and says "Dismiss the dark!"
Tilver looks up and waits with anticipation. He retreats from the vault door.
The darkness wavers and blinks out. Above you, you see that the true ceiling is fifteen feet above where the darkness began. That space is plain and unadorned. But in the center of the ceiling is a three-foot wide tunnel leading up. And from it, extending downward by six feet, is a metal ladder.
Moving to stand directly under it and shine your light upward, you can see that the "tunnel" only rises another ten feet. It looks as though there is a small metal panel affixed to the wall up there.
Silas stares at him blinking and wondering what happened to not messing with the giant potential death trap on the roof and is surprised when they are not all hit by something terrible.
"Well, that worked better then I would have expected...so should we just take the ladder now?" Silas asks.
Skarvek reaches into his pouch and measures out about 70' of fishing line, give or take a few feet. Cutting it off he ties one end to an arrow and the other end to his powerful bow. A few seconds and he is taking aim at a point between the third and forth rung before releasing his arrow. All the while he hums an inspiring shanty about a dog and a bone...
No problem. He hooks it easily.
"Anyone got a rope?"
Tilver digs into his pack and pulls out a rope, handing it to Skarvek. "Nice shot."
Quickly ties off the line to the rope and pulls it up and over before tying a loop in the rope and running the through end through. As long as nothing happens to the rope he will pull it through so the tied loop pulls tight around the last few rungs and give it a quick tip to make sure the ladder doesn't just come down.
It rattles, as though it was meant to come down, but it doesn't come down. You've got your rope tied securely.
"I'll head up first. Just in case whatever up there is magical." Isabel starts to climb.
Isabel climbs up the rope to the ladder. She can see that the ladder is segmented in a way that is intended to lower to the floor. There's probably a switch or something you missed somewhere, she thinks.
Anyway, the only thing up there at the top of the ladder is a switch. It has only two positions. It's now in the "DOWN" position.
"If you don't detect any magic then I suggest you come down and let Tilver or Tung check for more mundane traps." Silas says as he looks up at Isabel.
Isabel detects no magic. Tilver ascends and detects no traps. But who knows what this switch might do?
Tilver shouts down below. "Ok, watch out. I'm going to flip it." He waits until they clear out immediately around the space, then he presses the switch.
Tung waits patiently watching his companions work as he ponders if the magical rope in his backpack would have worked for this.
He readies for combat as Tilver announces his intent.
The switch thrown, there is a soft click and whirr to the south as a heretofore secret entrance is revealed!
Tilver finds himself bracing and shying away form the switch as soon as he activates it. He slowly opens his eyes to see if he's still in the same place. "Everyone ok?" The ex-gladiator climbs back down once it seems that no immediate dangers have manifested.
Seeing the new corridor, he draws his sword. "Ok, let's see where the secret corridor goes..." He walks into it, looking around for any traps.
Silas will wait for the others to climb up after Tilver and then follow along in the back of the party in case something comes from behind.
Tung follows closely behind Tilver.
The corridor leads back about 50 feet to a room. The walls and floors of this room are blue-green. A strange, bluish light fades in and out, giving the impression of water currents. Here and there, on the walls and floor, an inlaid mosaic of tiny dark stones depicts an octopus or other creature of the murky depths.
To the south stands a statue of a beautiful woman carved from a greenish stone atop a pedestal of coral. The pedestal bears a corroded bronze plaque that reads: “Estalada.”
Dain follows along behind Tung and Tilver.
When they reach the room, Dain moves to the statue and examines it for any details in the sculpture that might give a clue to who "Estalda" was.
The style of the carving reveals she probably wasn't human. Most likely a nymph or other water-spirit.
There is a door on the western wall.
Tung looks for any sign of trouble as he flanks off toward the western door. He ponders the statue a moment but lets his companions inspect it closely. As he approaches, his attention turns to the door itself.
Works on retrieving his fishing line first. Retrieves the rope by climbing up, tying one end to himself, and lowering himself down slowly so they have the whole rope. Afterwards he follows behind the others.
Tilver takes a moment to study the statue of Estalda, trying to determine if he's ever heard of her or knows what kind of creature she was.
Then he goes over to check the door for any traps with Tung.
The door in the west wall is made of glass! Through the glass door, you see a large square chamber filled with water. Tiny fish swim about. Three dark, circular pits, each about 8 feet across, lie in the middle of the floor in a line just south of both this door and another glass door that you can barely see through the murk, on the other side of the room. The chamber appears to measure
about 50 feet across.
"This is unexpected." Tung balks at an explanation before continuing. "There's a room full of... water."
He turns to the others. "What do you think those pits are for?"
You recall that below this...perhaps directly below this... was a tiled room with two large water-filled glass tubes protruding from the ceiling. They had valves at the bottom to let out water.
"Perhaps we should go release the valves and let the water out." Silas suggests.
"Lead the way my feline friend." He smiled and bowed in an exaggerated measure.
As the party begins backtracking their way to the tiled room on the first floor, Dain points to the unexplored hallway to the north. "Maybe we should see what's...ummmm...around this corner, first?"