Carina has a relieved smile on her face as Robin heals Farrukh's injuries. In fact, the worst of them appear to have been fixed.
"Nice, Robin. Believe me, I'd be more than happy to offer you a potion, but, well... I haven't figured out how to keep them from spoiling as soon as I let go of them yet." She says with a bashful look.
"I'm pretty sure worgs are capable of hoarding stuff... there might be something valuable wherever the wolves came from." She points down the east wing.
Tanith frowns at the tight quarters. Being a big man, he was accustomed to a certain of level discomfort but this was too much.
"Anything in here?" he mutters aloud as he pokes at the pile of furs.
Tanith spots something amid the furs--an old leather backpack.
Assuming he pulls it out and looks inside, he finds an elaborate lantern of indigo metal inset set with indigo glass panes.
Pulling the ratty backpack and it's contents free, Tanith examines the fancy lantern.
"This looks like it might still be in working order", he says as he shows off his prize. "Let's get out of here. My neck's starting to hurt."
Carina takes a look at the lantern Tanith produces.
"Ooh!" Her eyes light up as she ogles it. "This looks like it's worth a good bit of coin... I'd estimate it at about fifty gold pieces, if you're looking for someone to buy it."
Erip also crawls in and picks around the scattered bones. "Probably nothing, but . . ."
"Let's check out the dais, perhaps?" Erip moves west and repeats the rhyme, producing a new light on his pick. He also waves another cloak over Farrukh.
"Fifty gold?" Tanith repeats, impressed with his find. "I'd say that's a good start."
"Hm, nice. And I'm curious about that dais myself."
A wide dais spanning the back half of the western wing calls attention to a faded fresco on the south, north and west walls.
From a vantage point at the center of the dais, the wall painting makes it look like you stand within a massive room with seven short hallways radiating outwards from a central point.
A chain dangles from the ceiling at the end of each hallway, and each chain bears a gleaming colored lantern. Clockwise, the colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Cutetzpalli checks Spiny over after the fight, the poor guy had been bitten badly. He'd survived worse in the past, but not many times. He goes with the others as they search the wolf den and then head towards the dais. He tells Spiny to guard the passage further into the Cairn, to make sure nothing else sneaks up on them while they look at the dais.
"Seems like we might want to hang onto the lantern after all," Cuetzpalli says, pointing to the indigo lantern in the painting. "It might be the key to accessing the place. Well, if this painting is a map anyway. It might be more symbolic."
Tanith nods in understanding after points out the coincidence. "You think this is some kinda puzzle?"
Cutetzpalli checks Spiny over after the fight, the poor guy had been bitten badly. He'd survived worse in the past, but not many times. He goes with the others as they search the wolf den and then head towards the dais. He tells Spiny to guard the passage further into the Cairn, to make sure nothing else sneaks up on them while they look at the dais.
The seven tunnels end with the lanterns.
Not seeing anything worth fiddling with, Tanith gestures for the group to backtrack.
"Well, should we continue on?" the Olman asks the others. The mystery of the place is beginning to take ahold of the superstitious jungle warrior. Who built this place and why?
Examining the wall painting more closely, Carina looks from the painting to the indigo lantern. She quirks an eyebrow in confusion.
"Hmm... curious. Maybe it's part of a puzzle, or something?" She ponders as she follows Tanith to investigate the spider webs.
The cobwebs completely fill this arch, it turns out. Behind it, those nearby can make out a staircase leading down. The green glow is very distinct now.
The webs are teeming with dozens of tiny spiders.
"Interesting...wonder what these are for?"
Farrukh shrugs when if they find no purpose for them.
Farrukh searches the area for anything that might be a clue as to what this is.
"Perhaps something elsewhere will provide a clue? Maybe from the north, where the green light was coming from?"
"I have some torches, if we want to burn through these."
Tanith visibly shivers at the sight of the tiny many-legged terrors. There was few things the big man was scared of. Spiders was one of them.
"Uh. Anyone got a torch?"
Farrukh notices that, unlike the other six, the hallway with the blue lantern doesn't have a ceiling--at least not one drawn in the fresco.
Cuetzpalli waits for Farrukh to burn through the webs before proceeding. He moves out of the way, and make sure Spiny stays back during the procedure.
At the mention of torches, Tanith happily makes space for Farrukh. "Make sure you burn them all..."
Farrukh lights one of his torches and burns away at the cobwebs.
Not fond of the idea of tangling with spiders, Carina steps aside and lets Farrukh burn them.
The cobwebs go up in flames like a greased goblin. The spiders pour out of the archway,
In seconds, the arch is clear.
Farrukh extinguishes the torch and gestures down the hallway.
"After you." he says to Tanith.
Tanith's eyes grow as the survivors flee toward him. With a prejudice, the big suel stomps them under his heavy boots.
"Uh. Thanks."
Cuetzpalli grunts again, and moves in front of Spiny. "Follow me," he says, waking down the steps into the green tinged darkness...
A wide stairway descends into an immense domed chamber. Seven short tunnels branch from the room in all directions, extending some thirty feet before ending in rounded walls.
At the terminus of each passage, a thick chain dangles from an unseen high ceiling. Five of the chains bear colorful lanterns, but two hold nothing at all.
Opposite the entry stairs, a bright green lantern containing what looks like a torch casts a weird, murky light about the room.
Countless chips of glass and shiny metal inset into the chamber's domed ceiling reflect this light, giving the impression of starlight and falling snow. The dome starts about ten feet off the ground and reaches an apex about thirty feet over the center of the room.
In the center of the room, a long dais holds what appears to be a marble sarcophagus. A milky white bas-relief figure, perhaps of a human, rests passively upon the sarcophagus lid.
Unlike the rest of the tomb, this room is completely silent.
Farrukh looks carefully around the room, trying to determine if it is visibly trapped before stepping into it.
Farrukh doesn't see anything immediately.
Cuetzpalli moves right into the room, walking over towards the right hand side, in the spot where indigo would be in a rainbow. "Look, maybe that painting was a map. There is no lantern on the hook there. Perhaps we need to light all the lanterns to activate this place? Does anyone know who this man is?" he asks, gesturing towards the sarcophagus.
"Should we hang the lantern and see what happens?" he says, examining the face of the sarcophagus.
Upon closer examination, the figure is definitely not human--it is roughly seven feet tall, completely hairless, and of indeterminate sex. It's difficult to say why, but the outfit conjures thoughts of ancient times.
Its arms and hands rest at its side. The left hand curls upon itself in a fist, but the right is placed palm-up, with the thumb turned in and all but the index finger held parallel to the arm. The index finger appears to have been broken off.
The figure wears a scarab-like amulet around its neck, inscribed with another strange glyph.
The sarcophagus rests upon a small raised platform carved in the shape of an arrow, pointing at the orange lantern.
Cuetzpalli pushes on the arrow platform.
Cuetzpalli is easily able to push it. It slides over, ticking into the next slot. It now points at the yellow lantern.
A moment later, there is a great rumbling from down below. Slowly, a five-foot diameter circular stone beneath the yellow lantern rises, pushed up by a metal cylinder that seems to arise from the ground itself.
Seconds after, two thin doors slide into the sides of the cylinder, revealing a small empty chamber.
Impressed by the fancy machinery, Tanith cheers. "Do it again. Maybe there's something in the next one."
Cuetzpalli nods, whistling for Spiny to join him. He tries to get the dinosaur to help him push the dial towards the green lantern.
The chamber recedes into the ground, and the 'cap' draws level with the floor one more.
When the sarcophagus turns to face the green lantern, nothing initially happens. Then, a cacophonous creaking of stone against stone emerges from the ground below the green lantern.
The creaking does not immediately stop.
Farrukh walks over to the green area and looks down, curious to see what's down there.
If he sees nothing and the creaking continues he scampers back.
"Why didn't it work that time?" Tanith asks aloud as he readies his poleaxe again. "And where's that sound coming from?"
Farrukh sees a 5-foot diameter circle of stone much like the one that rose under the yellow lantern.
The creaking gets shriller. The sound is now unmistakeably coming from the area beneath the lantern.
"It's probably jammed or something. I'd get back from there Farrukh, who knows what might happen..." Cuetzpalli warns.
Tanith cocks an eyebrow and lowers his poleaxe defensively.