Cordwin will take the lead on the stairs making sure it is safe.
The stairs are very creaky, but seem to hold you. There are quite a few of them.
Druamin winces as Cordwin starts up the stairs and they creak loudly. "You think that's going to hold all of us?"
René felt confident that his ancestors would protect him if he fell. As such, he deferred to the others to decide where in the order he should go.
Yes, looks like about 8 flights of stairs.
The inner wall of this vast space is traversed by a winding wooden stairway supported by an intricate network of wooden beams but lacking, at many stretches, a handrail or other enclosure. In certain places, two or even three stairs at a time are partially missing or gone altogether.
Climbing the stairs is roughly 1/2 move rate, so about 6 rounds per level of double moves, and 5-6 levels means a little less than 4 minutes to get to the top.
As you look up, it appears there are cross timbers holding four immense bronze bells. Clearly, this is a bell tower.
Looking up, Reynard says "You know, we could probably just set fire to all these beams and bring the whole tower down."
Cordwin continues to lead the group up the stairs.
"Reynard, I think that the locals wouldn't much appreciate that. Besides, aren't we here to talk to that Xanesha person? If we collapsed the tower, she might not survive and we'd have no one to talk to."
Druamin lines up behind the others to begin the ascent. He takes his place just in front of Erond.
"I didn't sign up to be destroying ancient artifact buildings myself!"
René started waving members of the party through. "Keep about 10 feet of distance between ya to spread out the load." He kept a wary eye on people in case he needed to dive to catch them.
You get half way up the stairs, when suddenly one of the bells sounds... as it starts crashing down the tower, smashing stairs and people along the way!
Luckily, only one of you is in danger, but unfortunately it is Cordwin.
Cordwin being rather lucky himself, though, manages to leap to the next few stairs and avoids falling to the ground. He is, however, looking at a 10' gap in stairs behind him.
Trox, unfortunately, does not manage to retain his footing, and falls to the ground, landing at Skarn's feet.
I'll bring up the rear, or wherever the others want me.
Tronx! Cordwin yells as he sees Tronx fall to the ground.
At the sound of the bell crashing, Druamin jumps back from the edge of the stairs and puts his back flat against the wall.
"Trox! Hold on!" he shouts but to no avail. He watches as Trox falls the to ground below. He only hopes that Raynard can care for him.
He looks back to the stairs and the 10 foot gap. "Well now, that's going to make things more difficult. I've got some rope but is the rest of this structure still stable enough? If we attach a rope and start swinging on the thing, it might all come tumbling down."
He lifts his gaze further and sees Cordwin is holding his leg and grimacing in pain. "Cordwin, you ok? Did that bell get you?"
A little bruised, but no bones broken Cordwin says in response to Druamin.
Skarn moes to Trox and lays in with come healing...
"Bloody hell!" Faywen curses, and she looks down the way Trox went. "Trox! Are you all right?"
The beams holding the bells look strong.
As the bell crashes down a few feet from him, Reynard jumps back, surprised. "Told you we should've burned the whole thing down." he grumbles to himself, looking with dismay at the gaping hole in the stairs.
Trox sits on the floor blinking for a moment as his head clears. When Skarn heals him he looks up and smiles.
"Better me then you folks. I'm ok. I'm ok"
He gets up and brushes off clearly still a little injured but unconcerned.
As the others climb up the rope, Cordwin will continue to go up the stairs.
"Glad to hear it, Trox. Take your time catching up."
Cordwin continues his climb, and he can see that the fallen bell was cut from it's rope.
Four (well, now 3) immense bronze bells hang from timbers here, affixed by rusting lengths of chain and thick ropes. Above the bells are massive gears and clockworks, although they seem both rusted and scavenged-many of the smaller components are missing entirely. The rickety wooden stairs wind up and around them but don't quite reach the ceiling above, coming to an end at an opening in the wall. Here, the stairs continue up the exterior of the tower to a room that must lie just beyond the ceiling directly above the bells.
Three creatures stand in your way on the stairs.
Faywen stops in her tracks, then glares at the creatures waiting for them. "Cordwin, step to the side, please," she says, winding up a blast to clear their path.
Cordwin will dutifully step aside and cast Cure Light Wounds on himself.
Finding herself at the back of the line and still on the ground Trox rushes to catch up. Mumbeling to himself as she moves.
"Not much use back here god's blast it."
Not wanting to get in the way of the front-liners, René hollered out, "Don't ferget ta keep some space between ya for structural soundness!" before moving back to give Trox more room. Once in the back where hopefully no one would pay attention, he started muttering to himself.
Glancing back and forth, Reynard shrugs and runs up to the first of the enemies and slashes at him with a claw.
René's spell seems to have little effect on the creatures, although the others' attacks are fairly effective.
AS Reynard moves past Cordwin, the stairs creak loaudly under the weight, but seem to hold.
Reynard swings and connects . Faywen follows up with her blast, and then Erond puts an arrow square in its chest, causing green to drop down the large shaft to land near Skarn on the ground.
Red and purple both move down the stairs. Red attacks Reynard, reaching out with a large claw.
Reynard is grappled. The stairs groans under the weight of both of them.
Cordwin will shoot a bolt at Purple.
Skarn tries moving up the stairs towards the threat, carefully avoiding any weak steps.
Trox takes the time to holster sword and shield as there is no way for him to move to the front.
In that case, Reynard and Faywen were able to drop the first, so Erond redirected his arrow to the next in line (red).
Cordwin misses.
"Let go of him, monster!" Faywen shouts, trying to knock the creature off of Reynard.
Cursing at his distance from their foes, René took a different tactic and started to move down the stairs, hoping to get close enough to them but a floor down instead.
What are these?
+3 to identify creature abilities and weaknesses
Dungeoneering, Nature, Planes, and Religion are the same. Local is 1 less.
"This whole place is a wonder, round on the outside, but square from within!"
"Faceless stalkers! My grandpappy told me about these guys. They are resistant to bludgeoning attacks. Oh, and don't let them flank you!"
Druamin gauges the distance to the stalkers. There's just not enough room on the stairs for everyone to attack. Taking a break, Druamin steps of the edge of the stairs into open air and begins to fall. Moments later his arms transform into feathery wings and his body morphs into the shape of an eagle. He flaps his wings to gain some height and soars towards the stairs a few steps above the stalkers. He lands and transforms back into a dwarf.