Luca twitched slightly as Tyrus spoke up. Someone wanted her opinion on what to do? "I... um... I think it's better to have what information we can get before we explore... but safety comes before that." she said quietly. There was no sense in putting themselves at risk, after all.
Dante hands the dagger back to Kien and gives the room another once over. Not seeing anything else worth investigating, sighs and heads out. The south passage seemed an appropriate passage to take now.
Dante heads down the south passage, which turns immediately to the right - and into a solid slab of stone, carved with the now-familiar Makon script. However, this once no-doubt formidible door seems to have lost whatever supporting mechanism once held it shut - it now sits directly on the floor, with a sizable gap at the top. Dante believes he could simply push it over.
Luca peeked over curiously. Pushing the door over was probably for the best - but she could also send a Vilstrak through to investigate if need be. That didn't seem necessary, but she was-
Wait, no, I shouldn't be relying on their help!
"I suggest we stand back to push it over" Tyrus suggests "Unless there's something behind it that would be crushed. Wait a moment and I'll send Torble."
Popping Torble up into the crevice between erstwhile door and ceiling, the little bug is able to report back that there are stairs leading downwards behind the door, but nothing in sight that would be obviously crushed.
Tyrus holds up a hand and calls for Torble to jump on.
"So - no reason not to push? I must admit I'd prefer to pull, so the door doesn't go skidding down the stairs. We'd need a rope or something."
"Alternatively we could leave it here and explore elsewhere on this level. If something is below it would not be able to pass here without knocking the door down and making a noise. Constructs might be programmed not to pass a closed door. I have to admit that is my preference."
After a few moments (and making sure Torble was safely back), Luca made ready to assist the others from behind.
Her frail form, however, impressed exactly nobody. After a few seconds, realizing just how pathetically little help she was going to be, she stepped back and out of the way. Shaking its head slightly, her Eidolon moved forward-
-and rammed the door with its shoulder.
The heavy stone slab gives away easily as the stygian creature slams into it. It topples, slowly at first, grating against the stone to either side, but picks up speed until it crashes into the ground - and begins sliding down the stairs (which are steep, descending two levels rather than one), gouging shards from the walls and steps as it goes. It slams into the far wall at the bottom with a mighty boom.
Stone dust clouds the air, but the way is clear.
Tyrus winces with each crash and slam, and coughs into his handkerchief as dust billows up.
"*cough* well, or that."
Luca looked at her Eidolon. "You know that anything down there DEFINITELY know we're here, right?" she asked uncertainly. "And that Tyrus' idea was better?" It just yawned widely and took a few steps forward, pausing every now and then to sniff as it explored the way forward.
Great, now I'm even more of a liability.
..."that might have been dangerous if we came up that way. Guess that was for the best."
Fluffy moves downward, smelling only the must of many centuries. Nothing raises its alarm.
"Well. Come on then, I suppose." Tyrus grumbles, and steps through.
With her Eidolon at the front and herself towards the back, Luca joined the others in heading downstairs to see what was here.
The Eidolon leads the way down the stairs, stepping carefully up onto the fallen door slab at the bottom to test it's balance, finding it solid. Beyond the final landing, the corridor turns to the left. Fluffy begins to move into it, but stops short. When Dante arrives, it points out the reason - another thin band of inscribed silver laid into floor, wall, and ceiling. Continuing down the corridor will require crossing it.
Luca's eidolon bent down and sniffed the silver slightly, then growled a little at it and backed up instead of continuing blithely across it. "I don't suppose you're willing to say anything about it?" Luca asked with a slight frown. It just sneezed in response.
Dante sighs and walks forward to within a few feet of the silver line. They really needed to find that whip. He squats down and scans the line with magically altered vision. Maybe the magic was gone or disrupted after so long. Or wouldn't be life threatening.
The auras are faint, but with careful study Dante determines they are still active. There are definite traces of conjuration in the ward - it may trigger a guardian similar to the one you've already faced.
Tyrus groans when he sees Dante's face. "Let's scour up here first, then. Perhaps the key we seek is up here... somewhere..."
Kien shrugs at the plump mage. "Seems as good as any. We'll get through it all eventually, or die." He says, as cheerful as ever.
The group searches the rest of the manse. On the first floor are several rooms seemingly devoted to dining and food prep, as well as what might have been a small servant's waiting room. Finally, a shrine occupies one corner, but it appears to have been desecrated, and whatever figure it once revered is undecipherable.
"Well beyond the trapped corridor, we've searched the place. I think we can take a breather here. Doesn't seem to be a way around it so I think we should just go for it tomorrow. Send a stone man through and either fight or run from what ever is summoned," Dante suggest.
"I could get them to do that..." Luca said agreeably, eyeing the desecrated shrine worriedly and stepping away from it. She was happiest when she was noticed as little as possible by the gods, and fully intended to try and avoid their gazes as much as possible. She had enough voices in her head, thank you very much.
Tyrus speaks carefully "I... I think we should continue today. Our wards are still up and we're not very injured. I don't wish to rush, but we will run out of resources. We've not found the Key, and we've now checked every where it might be."
Tyrus rushes in to finish his sentence "Logically we should check the other buildings while our wards hold. I vote for the barracks."
Dante sighed but said nothing to contradict Tyrus. Sure. Might as well search the barracks too. "Right. Where's the door again?"
The group tromps back outside to investigate the barracks buildings. They are almost entirely bare, whatever furniture they once held having long since succumbed to time. Each of the two buildings is layed out identically, with a large main space and one ancillary room to the side. You find a few extremely corroded pieces of bronze in the small side rooms, likely all that remains of spear and axeheads.
As the group looked around, Luca's Eidolon led the way and sniffed a few times to try and locate anything that might have been hidden - a ladder going down, perhaps, or a vault with some less-ruined weapons.
"So... the central pyramid?" Tyrus suggested.
The party finds that the pyramid seems to lack an actual entrance. You climb the stair leads to the top, where a large globe of dark stone sits in a carefully carved depression. There seem to be hollows in the "lip" of this depression with holes leading down into the pyramid, but they are only barely wide enough to fit a hand in, much less a person.
You think that the hollows would just about fit the head and shoulders of a human sacrifice, such that their throat would be right above the hole... from what you now know of this place and of the Makon religion in general, it isn't surprising that human sacrifice played a part in the powers driving this complex.
As you finish your investigation of the rest of the complex, the sun has passed its zenith. It is now perhaps four hours until the early dusk of the jungle descends.
"Don't touch it!" Tyrus warns, shuddering. The Makon performed human sacrifices - which, now I think about it, probably explains their facility for catching and redirection energy..."[/b] Tyrus trails off as a new thought occurs.
"So... we should sacrifice one of those stone things to get through?" Luca asked, trying to follow the experienced Wizard's train of thought and perhaps being just a little too excited at the thought of sacrificing one of her own protectors.
Tyrus blinked "Uh, I'm not sure we should sacrifice anything until we know who we're sacrificing too and why."
"He has a point," Dante says, agreeing with Tyrus. Then again, this looked like alter for live sacrifices. Blood. Heads. Did the stone men even have blood? Probably wouldn't work if they tried. "Let's sacrifice one to that trap in the manor. This was the last place to visit here right?"
Luca didn't respond verbally, but she seemed to have an aura of... pep, one might say, or even sparkles. She had no problem at all with Dante's strategy.
Kien sneers at the sacrifice alter. 'Sacrifice' was just a word religious people used to justify murder of innocents. "I say we tear the thing down."
Tyrus looked at the pyramid with an engineer's eye. "Perhaps. That's going to take a while though. Perhaps we can enter it from a passage underneath?"
"I'm not too inclined to see that," Dante says, trying to peer down one of the holes into the pyramid. Since it was used for sacrifices it wasn't too hard to picture what flowed down it. He imagined a room full of blood and heads. Not a pretty picture.
"We could pour something else in, in case it is a mechanism tripped by fluid weight. Perhaps water?" Tyrus suggested.
"Alright." said Tyrus, coming to a decision. "Everyone off the pyramid. we all go fill up our canteens - and more if we can. Timm- you're the best jumper of the lot of us. Go up there and pour the water in. If you feel anything, then jump off."
Luca was... admittedly less than stellar at physical tasks even compared to the average adult, much less someone who had real physical training. She had no problems with letting the most capable person handle something like that.
Following Tyrus's plan, Timm pours a canteen full of water into one of the hollows in the stone.
None of the group feels any response, but after a brief moment Timm frowns and places his ear closer to the hollow. "I can hear something down there," he reports. "Some kind of rustling - something moving, maybe."
"Um... want me to send something down to look?" Luca asked. Those flying... horse... tentacle... screaming things were pretty good scouts, all things considered.
*sigh*
This is a terrible idea.
Dante fills a canteen and hands it off to Timm though. He didn't see a way out of the pyramid so if they pissed something off it would take a while to get to them. When nothing obvious happens he breathes a sigh of relief. Then Timm speaks and he doesn't feel so relieved. "Probably an undead or something that feeds on them."
This whole situation reminded him of the crevice in the cave a while back. An idea pops into his head. The blade becomes aware of that idea and immediately voices its disapproval.
"We are doing that again."
"Oh come on. We have to know what's down there."
"Use the girl's flying things."
"She can't communicate with them well and we don't want to expend to much of her power. we might need it in a pinch."
"And should you drop me or it attacks you may never recover me. I am a family heirloom. A powerful artifact you are using go fishing."
"Timm barely heard it so its probably a long way from the hole, I hate my family, and all you can do is talk."
"...mumble mumble."
"Didn't hear a no."
Dante climbs the pyramid and ties a rope to his weapon. He then lowers the blade into the hole as it mumbles some more. Probably a good thing it was keeping it's thoughts to itself.
"Lights please."
Dante obliges and casts some Dancing Lights through the hole.
Tyrus starts to object to Dante's strange plan, until he realises what the young man is doing. 'Clever' he notes internally, nodding with approval.
Dante lowers his sword down the sacrificial tunnel. It catches on uneven brick several at several points, but each time Dante is able to free it and continue the descent. Just before the rope runs out, Dante hears the Blade's voice.
"Slow now, I'm entering a room. There is... a body here. Something large - some manner of devil! It looks dead, but there is power here, Dante. Evil power. There are binding runes... wait, it's moving!"
Dante begins to pull the blade back up, but then the Blade speaks again.
"No, stop. It isn't moving - things within it are. Some sort of maggot-creature, but enormous. It must have been twisted by feeding on the devil's corpse. Intriguing."
"All good?" Tyrus asks nervously.