Elvar moves up to inspect the column to see if can be moved back into place.
Elvar fiddles around trying to find a way to raise the column, just when he is about to give up, he feels an odd irregularity in the stonework. On closer investigation he finds a catch that raises the stone trap revealing the crushed body beneath. The desiccated flesh and crushed bones are still encased in a brilliant suit of chainmail and at its side you find a leather sack that crumbles at a touch. It is mostly filled with shattered stone fragments, but there are 3 small, exquisitely carved stone statuettes, that remain unbroken. They are of a grand palace, a slim spire with eight connected smaller towers of different heights and what looks like a grand stadium.
Scattered about the corpse among the other refuse, you find 2 wands and a pair of fine googles.
Harold winces when he sees the level of destruction wreaked by the stone block...
There but for the grace of the Gods...
...but then he is distracted by the revealed items.
"Is any of that stuff magical?"
"I dunno.." Elvar mutters and casts detect magic on the loot, "..probably, given the state of everything else here.."
Magic indeed, to have survived untouched
Istvan and Elvar readily identify the wands, goggles and chainmail as being magical.
Between the 2 of them they identify the items as a wand of unseen servant(16 charges), a wand of Shatter (7 charges) and goggles of minute seeing, but they cant quite figure out the enhancement on the chainmail.
Elvar nevertheless takes a particular interrest in the statuettes despite them not beeing magical, putting on the googles and inspecting them in minute detail.
Istvan be thinking there is a very fancy map somewhere missing a few important pieces.
While most of the explorers gather around the trap, Talia keeps her vigil, wary that some critter would try to jump the group.
"Let me look at that armor."
Spellcraft for the armor:
"Harold I think you should wear the armor since you will be up front more than the rest of us. If you don't want it however....."
Bones breaks of the sentence with all to easy to read grin.
Harold winks at Garish.
"I don't need to be asked twice. Give me a minute or two to see if it fits..."
"Yup, I think that would be best. If you don't mind I'll hang on to these goggles. They enhance my eyesight greatly when inspecting things in detail and that helps me greatly in disarming any traps we come across."
"Istavan, do you, as a mage, want to hand on to these wands? Both of these spells are on my spell list so I can put them to use if you don't fancy them."
Istvan will happily accept the wands, one never knows when such things will be useful.
Istvan stores the wands in easily accessable locations about his person, grinning as he does so. Istvan never knows when an invisible butler will be direly needed
"Heh, didn't picture you as the type to actually want one."
You be thinking Istvan not able to appreciate fine things? Istvan once served a very great man.
Harold winks at Elvar.
"Ah, so you were a butler, Istvan."
Elvar suppresses a grin and stifles a laugh.
"Ah, I see!" he exclaims in mock revelation and then adopts what he thinks is the voice of finer gentleman. "Well then, my good man Istavan, I must welcome you to the ranks of the finer gentry my boy. Having a serving man puts you a peg above the leg of the rest of us but having one so good at his job that he's actually invisible puts you a peg above the peg leg."
Elvar peeks into the room behind the pillar as he chats with the warrior and the mage, careful not to set the trap off again as he's not keen on experiencing the same fate as the previous consciousness occupying the powdered skeleton.
A perception check to investigate the room across from the trap.
Taking 10 equals 20 for perception.
Talia will help investigating the room.
You peer into a wide chamber that must once have been the living quarters of an important figure. A large stone slab that suggests the shape of a bed rests against the east wall, under a huge bas-relief of a robust, long-nosed bald humanoid figure with outstretched hands. The figure wears a lovingly sculpted wind-tossed robe that gives him the appearance of a triumphant go. A glyph that looks like a stylized arrow marks an amulet worn around the figure's neck. Wardrobes and dressers, seemingly carved from the stone walls, look to have been ransacked a long time ago.
Elvar inspects the statue, paying particular heed to the glyph.
[b]"Istavan, this glyph mean anything to you?"[/ooc]
"Well Mr. Nadroc." Elvar says to the statue, straightening his back and putting his fists on his hips. "Nice ta met'ya, I'm Elvar. Nice place you've got here. Mind if we help ourselves to your belongings?"
"Mr Potter, don't taunt the dead - we don't want him 'waking up', and replying..."
Still, Harold can't stop himself from smirking slightly at Elvar's quip...
Elvar cringes a little at Harolds warning abash at the prospect of raising ghosts. "Just having a laugh, sorry.. Let's continue forward."
Taking the goggles off his eyes to rest on his forehead Elvar heads into the pillar room.
Talia pats the air bed, sits on it for a second and gets back up to follow the others.
"Neat, I'll keep that in mind for the future. Do you think we can bring that back up? It could fetch a good price.", she adds with a smile.
"Yes, the-one-ton-stone-slab with the miniature whirlwind. People will come from all around to see it I'm sure."
I am ready to go on to the next room also.
20 perception again for the next room.
Continuing your exploration, you swing around to the south of the central pillar. In the southern wall, you find a small room that looks to be a long disused privy. On the southern face of the central pillar, you find a dry and dusty washbasin, but nothing else of note. Creeping closer to the source of the cold to the west, you see that west wall of the room's great central pillar holds a deep recession that ends at what looks like a fountain basin about 4 feet off the ground. It is filled with an orange slurry that looks a bit like vomit.
The area around the fountain is infested with a brown mold that appears to be the source of the bitter cold. As you approach, you have to stop short before the cold becomes too painful. The mold spills across the floor into the open doorway of an adjacent room.
Talia tries to recall if she has already head of such thing.
"This is a brown mold. It feeds on heat and we need to use cold to destroy it. Can any of you cast a spell like that ?", she says to the spellcasters of the group.
Elvar just shrugs and shakes his head and gives Istvan a look.
Referring to the ability to create cold-->"I don't have anything like that.
"Well if we can't get by it we will have to come back to it later if anyone can bypass it. We can still explore the rest of the area before going back up top."
"That sounds good to me. Elvar? Would you like to lead the way?"
"Hmm..? Yes, of course." Elvar heads off to the south at a cautious pace.
Istvan does indeed have access to cold, but would need time. Perhaps tomorrow we can revisit this particular problem. For now, let us explore the rest of this place.
Investigating the skeleton under the blue lantern: