Kiki can review the tracks . She can see that they main bipedal ones go in and out of the entrance of the ruins. The animal ones just use the trail as far as she can tell.
She is willing to creep into the entrance for a bit just for a look around, but splitting up seems like a terrible idea.
"See, they are leading out as well as in, so they might not even be here anymore, but they might have left behind something that could give us information about what they are and what they are doing here. Still, we should be catious, there might be something in there. I agree with Kiki that splitting up completely seems unwise, what if something happens and we aren't nearby to help? If we are 60 feet behind our sounds will still be muted, and walls and corners might help that further. Let's just do it!"
"I agree if the tracks go in and out then we should check the ruins. This could be a staging point of some kind, an entrance to the underdark or who knows. It is our duty to provide knowledge to the dwarves as well. Let us go in then."
The entrance appears to perhaps at one time housed a door, this is long since gone, and you can't even find remnants of the door, but you do see ancient rusted and twisted iron hinges that it must have hung upon, mortared into the natural worked stone.
The smell wafting from within smells musty, dank and foul, pretty much like you would expect an underground place like this to smell like.
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"Ah, this bring back memories, I used to live underground you know." Xanya says as she distribute her magic.
Quassine nods, "Like I said, if my brothers and sisters want to proceed into the ruins, I would follow especially if we prepared with spells prior to entering."
Quassine looks at Simon and Xanya waiting for his Mage Armor, "I will have to write Mage Armor into my spell book to memorize or figure out another way to protect myself further without interrupting my physical prowess?"
Quassine looks to Xanya, "I lived in an Underdark too but it wasn't as long as you sister. Do you miss it? Unfortunately, I can not say the same for me. Although Father Goodwin did tell me once that the Underdarks of the Realms are beautiful in their own right."
Quassine looks around and whispers, "We probably should whisper or keep it low for now?"
The entrance tunnel is 5' wide and 10' tall. It will be a squeeze for Goliath, but you can see that it widens almost immediately to a larger chamber of about 25' square.
Simon cannot fly inside, unless the group encounters a large enough chamber.
Don't forget Aster next to Simon, though maybe it should be
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Because Aster is a Pouncer too.
"Miss the underdark? It was nice there, so I miss that. However most of the people I lived with were evil. I don't miss that at all. I also like to see new places, I guess I like to see more new and exciting places more than I would like to go to the underdark. I was too busy getting to know about good from Goodwin to go out exploring before. Then what you know, suddenly 10000 years pass!" Xanya responds to Quassine's comment about the underdark. She is thoughtful at first, but goes back to her usual cheerfulness quickly enough.
"Actually I got something much better than whispering, I got a spell that can send messages over hundred feet. This could also keep Kiki in touch without having to go back and forth." She proceed to cast message on everyone.
The group casts their spells armoring up, and Kiki slips into the first chamber.
Like a shadow she is gone, crawling up the walls and around cracks and crevices, within a short time she response via whispered message to Xanya, "First room all clear. There are shield motifs carved into the stone on the walls, they have been somewhat defaced and smash by someone who used rocks to damage them. The room has two exits from it, both on the east wall, each a 5' tunnel, each accessing a separate room."
"Does one tunnel have tracks or appear more worn Kiki?"
Xanya says to the others "Clear room up ahead. Let's catch up to her and see." Once they start moving she whispers back to Kiki. "Ok, we are coming up." She then turns to those around her again. "There are some smashed shield motifs in the room, maybe by the same things that made those tracks outside."
Assuming Kiki reveals herself Xanya smiles. "It's kinda creepy for you to pop out of nowhere like that, but it's also really cool, I like it. You could check one of the tunnels to see where it leads while we remain here and look for clues? Maybe these motifs are in the book we got?"
Simon will be ready to cast See Alignment(evil) if Kiki says there are any sort of sentient seeming beings when they move in to investigate.
Kiki reappers from behind a rock a few feet in front of Xanya and gigles
Ok gang, I have the map loaded into the campaign header. I have the first room and some side rooms loaded that Kiki was able to see into from her initial step into the first room and looking at the shields.
Her review of the tracks show that the large bipedal clawed feet lead into and out of the ruins but within on the stone floor she loses any sense of where the tracks lead on the solid surface even with the fair amount of dust, debris, dirt, old leaves and stuff that has blown in from the outside over the years/decades/centuries?
One thing she notices is that the place STINKS badly. Something foul lives within, and it smells like feces, offal, dead rotten things, musty old damp underground stench. Mix it all together and it is bad. It permeates the places even with the somewhat fresh air from outside.
Xanya you don't recognize the shields immediately. You have your book given to you by Loremaster Cronin, but it may take a few minutes to get it out and page through it to find if any of the heraldry match anything in the book.
Quassine nods his head to Xanya, "Just like me, you miss Underdarks uniqueness but excluding yourself, not the denizens who dwell within?"
Quassine smiles, "Yes ... yes ... message cantrip will work nicely." Quassine was about to cast it on himself but Xanya beat him to it.
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"Ok, let's catch up!"
...
"I agree, it is kind of creepy but that is how she is able to stealth around so nicely."
Quassine takes in the smell and gags a little, "Let's see, I read that Trogs smell bad, Trolls can smell bad, or it could be some creature with tentacles but can't quite remember the name? I believe it started with an O? Then again, it just could be simply filthy down here and the smell comes from more than one creature?"
"It must have no sense of smell itself to live in such filth. So witch room do we go in?"
Goliath draws the cloth around his face a little tighter to help prevent some of the smell.
Simon wets the end of one claw with a water skin, holding his other hand out flat, letting a drip fall on it and roll off.
"I say left. And I'm not staying here tonight, by the way."
Simon pops one of the leather straps on his arm and ties it around his nose, having those for situations exactly like this.
"Yuck." Xanya says and spits on the floor as she rides into the room in the lead. "Can't someone of you with Prestidigitation cast it to make me smell something nice instead?"
Xanya nods at Simon. "Left is as good direction as any, unless Kiki feels different. I still think it's prudent to let her scout ahead. We can see if we find anything interesting here while she scouts, though we should try to be somewhat silent." Xanya looks around.
[dice=perception xanya]1d20+5[/roll]
[dice=perception cryxial]1d20+5[/roll]
With an equally disgusted face, Quassine replies through message, "Unfortunately, Prestidigitation does not work that way. If we stay here for a while, I can progress on the filth and it would help if we killed or kicked out the creatures creating the smell." Quassine keeps alert and watches the area for signs of life and unlife.
Note:Trap finding +1
Kiki, connected by whispered messages slips like a shadow into the second room (room 2), skittering quietly into the dingy room. A long hall, with stone carvings along the north and south walls stretches to the east. A stone idol sits on the north wall, covered in dust, cobwebs and a layer of crusty fungus, lichen or moss. Kiki reports back in a whisper before moving further or investigating anything.
"Unfortunately, Prestidigitation does not work that way. If we stay here for a while, I can progress on the filth and it would help if we killed or kicked out the creatures creating the smell."
"Unfortunately, Prestidigitation does not work that way. If we stay here for a while, I can make progress on the filth and it would help if we first killed or kicked out the creatures creating the smell."
Xanya chants softly and scans for magic, trying to figure out if the statue or the pattern is magical. In between concentrating on her spell she relays the messages from Kiki back to the rest of the party.
Is the group waiting for Kiki to physically return? Or waiting for other people's actions?
Xanya has Simon and Aster scoot to the side a bit and she beams a Detect Magic cone down to the east and concentrates on the stone idol she can see. After a few rounds a faint aura of evocation magic is evident on the idol. Nothing seems to be magical about the geometric carvings on the wall to the north side of the room.
"The idol is magical! Faint evocation. We should figure out what it is." She whispers to the others. She focuses on the idol to figure out it's magic and what it does. As she focuses on her magic Cryxial brings her closer to the target where she stops right inside the next room.
Xanya approaches the idol but is unable to determine any spell effect currently operating. her knowledge of arcana tells her that enchanted idols are nothing new. The fact that it is evocation magic is not altogether expected but not unusual. You are unable to determine anything visibly noteworthy regarding the idol. Its design, motif and and representation are foreign to you. Again, perhaps a consultation to the book you were given might shed some light, but it could be also a waste of time.
"If it's evocation it's probably going to set something on fire if we try to move it. Let's check the other room first before we do anything with that."
Simon is still ready to cast See Alignment (evil) at the first sight of living things.
"we shoud deal with the idol later, it would be bad if we are busy examining it, when some creature wanders in"
Xanya responds through her spell. "Yes, I was just thinking to examine it while you scouted ahead. It must be some new age thing, I've seen a lot of idols, but this is not familiar to me. I could check the book, but checking out the place seems more important."
Kiki says she sees a pair of hallways and will scout south and see where they lead. She reports back that they lead to the same location, a small unadorned room, she has peeked in but not entered.
"Check it out, we will be ready if you are spotted."
Kiki slips into the next room looking around. She whispers back that it seems to be nothing exceptional as she crawls around the walls and in some cases ceilings.
She reports back that she has found a falling block trap, she didn't set it off possibly due to her light weight, or that she crawls on the walls and ceiling as often as the floor, or it may be that the trap isn't working correctly.
"That's exceptionally lucky! Xanya exclaims in return before telling the others what Kiki found. "When you explore further you should check back every thirty seconds or more often, just so we know to come at once if something happens. Also keeping to the walls or even roof sounds like a great idea, then you won't set of any trip wires or the like. It might even make it easier to hide as people won't expect people to move on the walls. Wait up to let us deal with the trap before you proceed. We wouldn't want you to be cut off." She relies what she told Kiki to the others. As they move to follow Kiki she casts guidance on Quassine to help with the trap.
"Attempting to disable the trap could set it off and will alert anything else in here to our presence. If we can move pass it without triggering it that would be better for stealth. It could even be uses offensively, or defensively in a pinch, if it comes to that."
"I don't think sneaking past it is very viable. We can't all climb on the walls. We could leave it active for now and explore the other path first though. Now we know there likely aren't going to come anything from this side. If we disable the trap we won't know that. How about having Kiki come back and explore the other path first?" She sends both her and Goliath's words to Kiki.
"Why its a rock fall trap with a pressure plate. Don't step on the pressure plate. Seems simple enough. If we need to someone could be pushed onto it to use offensively, or if we need to fall back we can trip it as we escape and try and cut off the enemy. If I were the enemy I would have a trap that damages and alerts me from the noise. It makes more sense if they are here they are down that path little sister."
"We can't trigger it, because the rocks might block off either us getting in or possible civilians getting out. Also Kiki on the other side. If the entire floor is a trigger, only Kiki and Samba, and possibly I can get through without setting it off. Unless there's a safe path to follow. Unless whatever set the trap could fly, climb walls, or teleport naturally, thats a likely possibility. Natural porting is less likely, becuase then doors wouldnt be neccesary. So climbing, flying, or smart enough for a path to follow. Though, because the building is not giant sized, it's unlikely Goliath could get through a path like that, as they wouldn't make it accessible for larger people. But, in case it is, let's be on the look out for anything with a square pattern that might represent the safe tiles to get through that area. Unless anyone can see the floor week enough to make out a more worn down path? If it's a rock fall trap, and it hasn't been triggered, people only would've been walking on that one path, so only those stones would show wear."
Simon does the thing where he talks himself through things while walking in a circle and gesturing frequently with his hands.
Quassine quietly moves to his current position on the map unless of course Aster does not let him but does not touch the walls.
Quassine looks back and forth between Xanya, Goliath, and Simon discussing about disabling the trap or not.