Olwyn fires her crossbow at the creature hoping to end its suffering:
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Taken aback by the appearance of that many-tentacled creature, Balin takes a wary step back and with a wordless motion, directs his black-clad consort to advance. The armored figure strides forward with a clatter and raises its scimitar, sweeping in a downwards arc at what remains of the tentacled beast, dragging a long, deep cut through its rubbery flesh.
(hit; threat)
> (no crit)
>>
Balin
Standard Action: Total defense
Move Action: None
There is a final hiss from the creature that had fallen upon the party as it succumbs to the ferocity of the attacks upon it. Within seconds the dimness that had fallen within the staircase lifts and the aftermath of the brief skirmish can be seen.
An examination of the dead creature reveals it to be a small, vaguely octopoid beast. What it is, why it was there and the reason for its’ attack upon the party remain a mystery.
Gazzer watches as the other poke and prod at it with some interest. Darting forward, he draws a small vial and collects some of its blood in the vial, making soft squeaks to himself as he does. Then his quick hands secret it away in one of his many pouches and he skip-slinks to the front of the party to begin his vigil again.
Olwyn walks up the beast, and begins examining it as she reloads she crossbow casting a new light spell on the fresh bolt.
She recognized it is a monster. Probably.
Kairen flicks the blood of his sword and keeps his eyes a bit higher as he moves on. "No bat was that thing, never seen its like before. So we watch the ceiling now too."
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"That," Balin notes with a nudge of his cane to the rubbery flesh, "was... I'm honestly not sure. Suffice to say I believe it subsists on a diet of faces, and we seem to have all of ours remaining." Stepping over its carcass, Balin meets back up with his stalwart protector. "Therefore, the only solution is to maintain our forward momentum, yes?"
He glances up at the cloaked bodyguard over his shoulder, then returns his attention to the others. "We wouldn't want to give anything else a temptation for our facemeat, would we?" Balin taps a finger at his chin, as if indicating a particularly tender morsel, and turns about face with a clack of his cane, ready to continue onward. Humor, thankfully, is a fantastic mask for anxiety.
If not a slightly manic one.
Failing to determine anything useful about the creature that attacked you, the party descends a further thirty feet along the staircase. You note a small opening, less than one foot wide, in the wall of the shaft not far from where you were attacked; there is a very gentle flow of fresh air into the staircase from the opening.
Reaching the foot of the stairs with no further difficulties, you negotiate a small pile of rubble and bones on the final steps and find yourselves in a large chamber. The chamber is square with a width of approximately 30 foot wide; Olwyn's light source fully illuminate the room.
The first thing that strikes you about this room are the carvings across the walls, the cobwebs and dust settled across all of the surfaces in the room somewhat obscures the artistry but, what can be seen, is clearly of a very high quality. The only other significant features within this room are the three sets of stone double doors in the three facing walls (North, East and West). Heavy bronze seals emblazoned with the symbol of Pharasma secure the doors against whatever lies beyond.
Zazou reads out aloud to the others what he read on the wall.
"My heart beats on the wrong side of my chest, or is it right? Is left right, or is it wrong? I don't know what it means, or why?"
The goblin then wrinkles it's nose. Hmm funny people in htis place...
Gazzer sniffs the air, tasting the scents on it carefully. "Zazou speaks words on the wall. But what does it mean, yes yes, what does it mean? Heart is on which side, yes yes? Wrong right, left right, wrong. Gazzer says go left, yes yes!"
"So now we face riddles as well? Wonderful. Nothing like mind games to keep the dead occupied for all eternity, I suppose." Kairen moves to the door at their left, placing a hand on it to see if it moves or responds in some way. If no sudden reaction is forthcoming, he attempts to open it.
While the others are debating, Olwyn focuses her will and reaches out with her arcane senses attempting to gather more hints on the riddle.
Level 0: Detect Magic, Light, Spark
Level 1: Enlarge Person, Mage Armor, and Ear-Piercing Scream
There appears to be nothing terribly unusual about the western door; the doors are certainly very large and, dependent upon the thickness (which you are unable to determine), probably weigh more than could be manually opened (indeed, they do not move when force is applied). Looking at the floor around the doors, you can see curved grooves suggesting that the doors may open outwards towards you.
The bronze seals, located at the join between the two doors, are emblazoned with the symbol of Pharasma and, oddly, feel slightly warm to the touch.
Olwyn reaches back through her years of magical study and attempts to deduce the exact nature of the magic used on the seals:
But they seem completely unfamiliar to her outside her general knowledge of abjuration.
"The three seals are all infused with abjuration magic. So they could be seals of some kind to keep us out... Or well, to keep something in..."
"But as far as which direction to proceed... Your guesses are as good as mine..."
"Locked by magic? That adds concern to our purpose. Common tomb thieves don't just come and go when magic seals the way. Gazzer, Zazou, see if you can spot any other kind of mechanism to open the door. Balin, any ideas on the key to this magical lock, so to speak?"
We have the chime! Will that help? But Zazou is no good at opening doors... the goblin offers to the big strong human sad to dissapoint his protector.
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Having allowed the others time to inspect the room while he confers with his silent companion, Balin finally strides forward, having retrieved the chime of opening from his doctor's bag. With his cane tucked under one arm, Balin looks around the chamber and draws in a slow, deep breath. Methodically, he paces around the room to get a good sense of its dimensions and to contemplate the decision he is about to make. The chime, after all, only has so many uses.
That Olywn has informed him that the doors are sealed with abjurations, Balin looks to the door with more confidence that the chime is the only course of action. "A thorough search is necessary." Balin notes plainly, "therefore we will begin by heading to the right, and move thusly until such a direction is no longer possible. If these catacombs are a labyrinthine as we presume, a simple method of following the wall to our right should lead us on a full circuit of chambers."
Lifting the long, mithral bell up, Balin retrieves his cane and whacks it against the side of the chime, creating a resonant and loudly sonorous musical note that echoes through the dusty chamber.
_______
A high pitched note emanates from the chime and, for a moment, the only noise in the room is the chime echoing around within the confines of the antechamber. Suddenly there is a cracking noise as the Pharasmin seal splits in two and, with a crash, falls to the floor; almost immediately there is a rumbling noise as some hidden mechanism drives the massive stone doors open...clouds of dust fall from the surfaces of the doors as they slowly move to a fully opened position.
When the doors come to a halt and the dust has settled, you can see that you are stood in front of a long, 10 foot wide corridor that continues to the East for some forty feet before turning to the South. The corridor continues to the south for a mere 10 feet making this room into an 'L' shape.
A large statue stands in the corner of the room, at the point where the corridor changes direction to the south; it depicts a tall feather emblazoned with a single open eye. Though apparently carved from stone, the statue gleams with a golden-green iridescence. A pair of stone doors stands in the East wall in the short leg of the 'L'.
The other notable feature of the room is an inscription in the floor between your position and the statue...the stone carved letters proclaim, Though veiled behind the plumage of the soul, the Eye still sees, unblinking through all the ages, from the beginning to the end of time. When the Three are One, and the spirit becomes flesh, the Seal may be opened and the Sleepers awakened. And the glorious apocalypse shall consume us all
Kairen frowns at the inscribed proclamation. "As much as I hope to progress here, I don't enjoy tampering with anything that suggests any kind of apocalypse. How many uses did that chime have again?"
Four. But remember we need one to get out of this place! offers Zazou. I wouldn't be too concerned about apocalypse. For thousands of years some have always been crying about Apocalypse but we are still here!
"I'm tempted to agree with the green one. If I were trying to scare off potential intruders, I would make the entrance seem as scary as possible. I say we continue and let this 'apocalypse' remain nothing but an empty threat."
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"Many cultures have their own myths about the end of the world," Balin notes as he walks into the darkened hall, putting the chime away in his bag. As he walks in, the cloaked guardian he travels with moves ahead with shield raised and sword drawn, tirelessly advancing towards the statue. "Some have the distinct fortune of being able to live long enough to witness it come true, or for the doomsaying to simply fall on deaf ears."
Retrieving his cane from under his arm, Balin approaches the statue and gives it a studious look, nudging his spectacles up the bridge of his nose with two fingers as he does. "Fortunately for us," he admits with a smile, turning to look back at the others. "This old, dusty warning isn't what we came here for." With that, he gives that statue a ginger smack with his cane, as if demonstrating how harmless it is.
Gazzer bobs his head as he reads the seals. "More warnings mean more treasure, yes yes! Always with the dire warnings when the treasure is very good, yes yes!" He surges eagerly forward.
Balin's tentative smack of the statue results in nothing more exciting than a small amount of settled dust becoming airborne.
It is a DC20 Knowledge (Religion) check to determine anything about the strange feather statue. Balin and Kairen can attempt this check
Ahh.. gazzer is a smart rat! Zazou says with a smile.
With the cleric and the paladin poring over the statue, there is precious else in this room to investigate; beyond maybe the doors to the East.
A general examination of the doors reveals that they are oddly featureless and, although they are of a similar size to the ones through which you have just passed, are not of an identical construction. With a closer look, it appears that the gap where the double doors meet is no more an a depression in the stone and that the 'doors' are formed of a single piece of stonework carved with a seam to look like a pair of doors.
It is also notable that, unlike the previous set of doors, there is no Pharasmin seal on this 'pair of doors'.
Gazzer will pause, bob his head and begin to systematically search the room for a secret exit.
While Gazzer is searching the room, Olwyn attempts to sense any arcane elements to the room's design hoping to find a link between the odd "doors" and the cryptic statue.
"So many false leads and fake doors already. So much work to keep the dead safe. Times like this I wonder why cremation isn't more popular..."
Did you find anything interesting Gazzer? the Goblin enquires of the ratman as he helps him in his search.
Gazzer pauses, sniffs. "The door is not a door, yes yes, so Gazzer seeks for real door, yes yes. Maybe door is hidden in room? Maybe there is no door and room is just dead end?"
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"Well that certainly is a queer architectural feature," Balin admits as he approaches the door once it seems safe, tapping the head of his cane on it once experimentally. Motioning with a jerk of his head to his bodyguard, he sends the armored figure down towards the entrance they came through. The shrouded warrior raises his shield and takes a vigilant, defensive stance while the others search.
"I'd hate to think we wasted a note of this chime," Balin worries, brows furrowed together.
Gazzer ducks out from behind the statue, holding a small feather, which appears to be an almost perfect replica of the statue itself. "Gazzer has found this, yes yes, in a hidden compartment in the statue! What is it?"
Kairen looks over the find, checking it's material. (sounds like its a real feather? or made out of something?)
"There's a larger riddle here, obviously. Naturally the priestess failed to mention we would face such obstacles..."
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"To my understanding, we are not pressed for time," Balin opines, walking over to stand beside Kairen and Gazzer, peering at the feather through the lenses of his spectacles. "Therefore, in order to conserve a further note of this chime, I recommend we expend our one replenishable resource -- time -- to find a way to make this portal open."
Offering a look at the double-doors, Balin pushes his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. "Has anyone the capacity to identify magical items or effects? I am regrettably bereft of such analytical incantations for the day. Were we to rest, I could prepare a more suitable selection of benedictions from the... Lady of Graves."
Kairen sheathes his sword for the first time since entering. "Not even a few hours in and we're at a dead end. There must be something we're simply not seeing here; this place was designed so that the clergy or curators could come and go as they please. It can only be so obscure before it becomes useless to its very owners..."
He returns to examine the unopened doors, especially the one with no indentations. "You said this was not a door; but why bother putting it here to throw off intruders when the place is obviously so well sealed already? If it doesn't open outward like the other one, what about upward?" Looking over his smaller companions, his eyes light up a bit. "Zazou, if I can give you a lift, can you examine around the ceiling more closely, see if there's any mechanisms up there?"
"Yes, yes!" the small goblin replies excitedly to Balin Dawnflower grant me power to see magic indeed. with that Zazou touches the tips of his large ears with the tips of his spindly fingers and begins to sing a high pitched note and touch it's ears.
"I don't know... I'm pretty stumped by this one." the witch says with annoyance in her voice.
"There is definitely magic involved. The stone has been transmuted in some way, but beyond that I don't know what to tell you. Maybe the feather and the statue hold a key to dispelling the effects and changing it back into a true door?"
Whilst Zazou, Gazzer and Olwyn focus on the Feather found at the rear of the Statue, others within the party examine the mysterious doors further. Noting that the central join where the double doors meet is indeed a mere indentation, examining the rest of the door confirms (as far as is possible) that it is separate from the surrounding wall...looking at the top of the door and the wall above it, it seems unlikely that it raises into the ceiling (and equally, looking at the bottom of the door, unlikely that it would lower into the floor).
After a continues period of examining the surroundings, Olwyn gives up on the door.
"I think this is a bust. The feather, while certainly interesting isn't going to open this thing. It can become a bird and send a message to someone... Not exactly a key..."
She walks over the door and feels it, "This is magic... But... I have no clue how use that to our advantage... It seems unlikely we will be able to dispel it and equally unlikely one of our more physically imposing members could smash through it..."
With a sigh of defeat the witch begins to backtrack, "I fear we have wasted a use of our bell, and the best course of action is try another path..."
Yes, Yes! Feather is very magic but what does magic feather do?
Gazzer stares at the feather. "Is not a key, yes yes? Humph. This is tricksome door for dead people, yes yes."
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NOdding once, Balin pushes his spectacles up the bridge of his nose and clacks his cane on the flood. "Very well, we have attempted to the best of our ability. This ruse of a door shouldn't delay us any further." Offering an askance look to Kairen, Balin moves past the paladin and back towards his cloaked protector at the end of the hall. "We will cross the hall directly and check the opposite side."
With that, Balin moves with his guardian ahead of him into the main chamber, then comes to stand before the door opposite of the one they had opened. Tucking his cane under one arm, he retrieves the chime from his doctor's bag and holds it aloft before fetching his cane and tapping the side of the chime, releasing another sonorous note that echoes through the hall.
Zazou looks at the pale man a bit disturbed then squeeks.
Hey! We only have 4 charges you forget? Maybe we should see what our magic feather does before wasting our only way to get back out!