The north passage is entirely over the filth-filled sluice. The slime bubbles and swells, sometimes randomly, sometimes reacting to your movements. The passage curves around to the West, bringing you north of the the large room you saw earlier. The roar of the 'water' sounds loudly in your ears.
Your progress, however, is stopped by heavy grates blocking all north-south access; and a tunnel collapse further west.
The north passage is entirely over the filth-filled sluice. The slime bubbles and swells, sometimes randomly, sometimes reacting to your movements. The passage curves around to the West, bringing you north of the the large room you saw earlier. The roar of the 'water' sounds loudly in your ears.
Your progress, however, is stopped by heavy grates blocking all north-south access; and a tunnel collapse further west.
"I could try my Knock-spell on the grate," Lym says. "Or we can try to brute-force it. Rexil, Thordak…?"
Do the grates look like they are intended to be opened?
"What about the room just to the south of us?" We can backtrack a bit and not have to go through the grates.
Do the grates look like they are intended to be opened?
They do not look like they are supposed to be opened.
”Other than being able to come into rooms by an unexpected path, I don’t see much value in forcing our way through, and smashing open those grates is likely to make quite a bit of noise, which ruins the stealth aspect. Perhaps we should just go around.”
A slippery walkway connects four platforms running down the room’s center to a station of some sort at the far end of the chamber—there,
three large and filthy levers protrude from the dripping wall. To the north, four metallic pipes protrude from the wall, ten feet above the level of the sewage—fresh foulness runs from these pipes in thick streams. Every now and then, something larger and hideously more substantial than mere fluid strains through the bars blocking these pipes to drop with a turgid splash into the foulness rippling below.
"You have to wonder where it's all coming from, don't you?" Lym muses -- as she continues to float well above the filth. "Presumably, those levers will cause something to happen. But odds are good more than one is a trap of some sort."
”Well, this is conjuration land, so there’s bound to be a conjure liquid sewage spell somewhere. Come to think of it, didn’t Thordak cast that one last week after we had the pork and beans?”
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! GOOD ONE! THAT'S... wait a minute," he says, his laugh instantly turning into a glare at the paladin. "That was not me, elf. I'm pretty sure that was yer over-sized pet over there," he motions to Rexil, nodding quite confidently.
The curious Aurora flits over to the levers and has a look at them.
She uses Prestidigitation to clean the signs to read them better. Aurora's Permanent Comprehend Languages allows her to read them.
"I don't trust this sludge." Tomaru stays as high off the sewage as he can as he moves to float above the first platform.
"Be careful, Rexil, soon you'll be flying as well as Thordak."
All the levers protruding from the wall are massive, 3-foot lengths of of pitted iron. The slime-encrusted plaque above each lever bears a short word or phrase in Thassilonian.
The left and right levers are in the 'up' position, while the middle one is in the down position.
The plaque above the left lever reads 'Access Control'. The middle lever's sign reads 'Portal Control', and the right-hand's sign reads 'Warning: Cleaning Cycle'.
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Lym flies after Aurora and eyes the plaques.
"Nobody touch the lever on the far right," she says. "Thordak? Rexil? That means NO. Do NOT touch that one. Not by accident. Not by tripping and falling on it. NO.
Now. Suggest we try 'portal control'."
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"OK, but you just told the two folk who would do it not to do it."
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Thordak nods in complete agreement. "He's right, lass." He then looks over at the 'Cleaning cycle' lever, cuts his eyes back to Lym and then back to the lever before going back to Lym again. Man I really want ta pull that lever. This place needs cleanin' if any place does. "I'll pull the lever if ya need me to, lass. And dont'cha worry, I won't be pullin' the far left one," he says with an obvious look about him that shows he doesn't realize what he's just said due to the fact he's too caught up in wanting to pull the far right lever.
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"If you even think of laying a finger on the far right lever, I will transmute your ears to the size of elephant ears and bind outsiders to flick them day and night," Lym says in a flat tone of voice.
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"Big ears might look nice with your beard."
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Raising an eyebrow in thought for a long moment, "Ya know, I'm thinkin' it's probably best we don't actually pull the far right one. I've got a bad feelin' about that one. You're just gonna have ta trust me on this, folks, and I'll not be listening to any arguments about it, okay?! Okay." He says with a firm nod, deciding to remain silent about any more lever pulling.
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Without further ado, Thordak cracks his knuckles and heads toward the middle lever - double and triple checking to make sure it's the middle lever - "Okay, 'Portal control' it is," and pulls it barring any objections.
tinka...tinka...tinka...tinkatinatinkatinaktinkaTINK!
sllliiidde
sssscccrrraaaaaapppe
The lever grinds upward as Thordak puts some muscle into it. As the iron bar locks home, a series of sounds echoes from behind the wall.
BOOMMMMMmmmmmm!
Something slams closed deep within the Festering Maze, and almost immediately, the flow of sludge into the room ceases.
”Hopefully that wasn’t the way out,” Praxim quips.
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"Alright. That's not bad for a start. Next, try access control. The far left one; pull it, Kronk Thod!"
Nodding, "Far left one. Got it." Thordak spits on both hands and rubs them together. He then gets a good grip on the far left one and proceeds to pull that one.
The sound of metal on stone reverberates through the Maze. The metal gates all through the room (and beyond, from the sound) raise up, granting unfettered access through the sluices.
"Excellent," Lym says, nodding with approval. "Now we can get beyond that grate. Pity we don't have a way to prevent creatures from moving the levers after we've gone, though… Hmmm."
If I'm understanding the map right, there's a section to the right side of the map that we haven't explored yet.
Passing back through the tunnels, you work your way to the eastern end of the Festering Maze. The 'path' ends in a large, sunken space.
The surrounding stone has fallen away into a large, curved cavern. Here and there, foul water cascades into the room from intersecting tunnels, tumbling ten feet to the frothy surface of liquid below.
That was three separate castings of Air Walk with 140 minutes each. I have no problem using the staff to cast Air Walk on Praxim and Veronica too.
You move cautiously into the room, the narrow confines forcing you into a somewhat linear formation.
Suddenly, the area is plunged into darkness! At the same time, the spell holding up Thordak is gone, and he plunges into the filthy sewer water below!
When darkness falls right in front of her, Lym immediately chants an urgent spell on her newly-acquired staff -- which starts to blaze with the warm, golden light of Golarion's sun!
Praxim begins scanning for evil auras.
Readying for combat, Aurora casts Haste for the group. She looks around for the darkness casting troublemaker.
See Invisibility
Tomaru readies to cast Fly so that when he can see again, he can cast it for his swimming ally.
Each of us has our own Air Walk. Did all of them wink out?
Rexil reaches down and hauls the sputtering dwarf up by the back of his coat, and lacking any good options, lifts him up onto his own shoulders.