The party travels east with Janek in the lead. The tinkerer opens the door exiting from the tile room into a 20' wide by 40' wide room. He immediately sees to the left of the entrance 3 sets of dwarven leather boots discarded, the soles and sides apparently melted or corroded.
Along the north wall of the room, you see carvings of religious iconography depicting Torag in his glory, leading the dwarven race from out of the Darklands. On the southern wall, you see carvings of the other dwarven gods gathered for a feast.
20' ahead of you in the middle of the room is a 5'x5' bronze statue of a dwarf smith, wielding a raised hammer.
The passage continues for another 20' past the statue before ending at another door. Janek does not detect any traps in his immediate vicinity.
Janek looks about the room, stepping aside to let others see clearly. "Well, this place at least looks proper, but mayhaps there is further hidden here. The boots back there show that others have managed to travel at least this far and that we are on the right track." Looking at the room from where they stand he looks along the carvings on the northern wall. "Does anyone see anything strange in the depictions of the gods? he wonders aloud.
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
Ingra takes a closer examination of the carvings, searching for any kind of inaccuracies.
Torag seems properly depicted but other than him not also being at the feast I don't see anything thing wrong. Kurag was never good with his studies in religious matters. They always seemed to stuffy for him when he wanted to go out and ride. Perhaps if the mentors wanted to try to teach while outside it would have been a compromise but they never wanted to be outdoors. Oh well, that is why the others are here for such occasions as this.
Kurag goes over to the boots once and compares them to the bits of metal and hide that he picked up earlier. He also looks for any tracks or blood splatter.
Perception
Ingra feels the carvings are accurate in their depiction, however, she does sense something odd about the carvings on the south wall, but cannot put her finger on what it is.
Kurag deduces that the pieces of melted leather he saw before in the tiled room definitely belong to the soles of these boots. He sees variou sets of dwarven tracks head east past the statue, but by the shape of the imprint, most were perhaps barefoot.
Pondering for a moment Janek utters a simple cantrip allowing him to detect magic. Looking around the room to see if anything unusual appears now before his altered sight.
"What are ye lookin at there, dear?" Jalnara comes up alongside Ingra by the Southern Mural. "Somethin' troubling you 'bout this feast?"
After two rounds, Janek senses two auras of magic: on the southern wall and on the statue.
Jalnara's eyes also seem to find something off, but you can't pinpoint what it is.
Pointing at the statue then the southern wall Janek warns. "Magic is here. Perhaps it is best to understand it before proceeding.". He then continues to study the points.
Janek, you cannot tell the schools of magic unfortunately for the two auras.
"What have you found, Janek?"
As Janek mentions the presence of magic, Jalnara calls up a simple spell to see the auras too. "Ah, right you are, young Janek. I've never had much a knack for makin' sense o' the threads of magic woven together. Can you make any sense out of it, lad?"
Shaking his head Janek responds. "No I do not understand what is exactly here, I will have a closer look at the statue to see if anything dangerous is there although. Although Perhaps we should follow the guards that came before."
Kurag points at the direction of the path the others took. It seems like after discarding their shoes they crossed the floor here. I can see no signs of blood nor anything else that caused them harm. Perhaps there was something here when they arrived that left he magical aura that you sense. They figured out the solution and were able to travers the area safely. Since none of us can find anything wrong it only makes sense that hey left it in the correct position granting us passage as well?
Once Janek moves forward to inspect the statue Kurag will move as well. Until then Kurag has his bow out and ready should something appear.
Jalnara also cannot identify the school of magic emanating on the wall or the statue.
Janek moves close to the statute of the smith and detects a magical trap on it, triggered by touch, but cannot predict what the effect will be. Nothing else seems out of place.
Janek takes a step back and with an unsteady breath exhales. "Ware the statue, the magic upon it seems to be a trap. Triggered by touch if I am correct. We should perhaps just go around as the previous group did or I could attempt to disarm it. This tomb seems well warded,.."
If you don't know what it does then let us just bypass it. Kurag chimes in. I mean I see no sign of foul play thus far to those we are following. Perhaps to be safe though we cross the room one at a time?
Holding his shield ready Varren prepares to cross. "Cover me."
Kurag nods affirmative, Good luck and may Torag be with you.
If Varren makes it across then Kurag will follow as well.
Ingra starts chanting, preparing a cure spell for Varren.
With the heavy armored form leading the way Janek will follow behind to see if further traps or hindrances lay ahead. "While I wouldn't mind exploring here further, we do have missing guards to find. We should make a point to return if the way here is clear forward."
Varren crosses the threshold past the dwarf smith statue and nothing happens. He continues to the door on the other side and after either he or Janek checks it, opens it revealing a large chamber that contains a maze of pillars that obscures the other side of the room.
The hall goes east 10' and ends in a T-section wall, where you can go North or South.
Janek ponders for a moment before looking from the entrance to see if there is any sign of the missing guards or passage of others. "Kurag, this might be more tracking to help find a save place." He observes out loud.
Ingra ends her chanting, glad to see that Varren has not turned into toast. She wanders past the statue and stands alongside Varren.
"Well y'aint toast so that good teh see, eh Varren?"
awill do, just stay back if you please while I try to find us some tracks.
Kurag starts looking first for any signs of blood indicating a problem with the first group of dwarves. Pending those results he will then look for tracks in dust or lint that may have caught along the walls from a sleeve brushing past.
Perception
Jalnara watches the younger dwarves at work as they try to ensure safe passage through traitorous halls. She cracks a wry grin at the sight of it and mutters to no one in particular, "Ah, but ye do Torag proud. He does smile on the diligent, after all."
At the miners hand signal from Varren, Janek slings off his backpack and digs out a small hunk of chalk and passes it over with a slightly apologetic nod as if he should have already had it at hand.
At the mention of chalk Kurag nods appreciatively, I might be able to keep us from getting lost and map our course but this is a lot easier. Also if something tragic should happen to me then you all have a way out.
Varren leads the party 10' east safely to the wall in the T-section.
At the T-section, Kurag notices muddled sets of tracks and stepping over each other in both directions, from which he can assume, the dwarves traveled both north and south. He also notices faint drops of blood in the stone, also in both directions, something he has not seen until now.
North or South?
Blast it, there are tracks in both directs and both of them have blood as well. I can't tell which are the oldest and which are the newest. Keep alert as we may have to go in both directions to find the patrol and those responsible. Shaking his head, It is a guess right now but I say we stick to the south and keep taking a right hand turn so we don't get lost.
Varren grunts pointing to the blood. "Can any of you tell which way has more fresh blood?" He asks the group.
Jalnara steps forward and regards the blood spatters with a heavy gaze, trying to make sense of the patterns in the stone. "Oh, lemme have a look there, pup. Let's what sense these old eyes might find in the trail."