Snotra begins to snort out a barely contained laugh at the sight of the Sphynx slumped over snoring. She had certainly hoped the spell would work but was surprised at its efficiency, nonetheless. Her eyes darted over to Valeria and moved towards the door in preparation, smiling and giggling to herself all the while.
Ghyrryn hacked the beast' head off. It rolled to a stop at Snotra's feet, just as the halfling started to cackle. It was almost enough to make her lose lunch.
Ghyrryn moves forward to the door. He readies in case there's an enemy immediately there.
The door opened to reveal another chamber much like the one you started in after the elevator debacle. Four metallic doors lead into this room, two from the direction you entered, one on the left and one on the right. Above each of the two side doors is a metal plaque etched with ancient words.
Two five foot circular gold platforms are situated between two lit braziers on the opposite side of the room. A brass etched plate is located on the wall behind the platforms and two three foot circular stone pillars emit a soft blue light sit in front of each circular platform.
Your overseer stands erect in the corner of the room of the room and nods once to you as you enter the room. He states ”Welcome to the second checkpoint. I will now answer one additional question.”
Valeria went and retrieved the contents of the chest before pressing the button and was just in time to see Ghyrryn execute the helpless sphinx Jespeth. "Why did you do that!? She wasn't a threat to us and might have joined us if we'd shown her mercy!" She took the stuff from the chest and then stopped at the sphinx's body where she said a brief prayer and then went and opened the doorway, proceeding into the next room without further comment.
Upon finding the Overseer Valeria realized that there was something else going on here. How did he get ahead of them like this? She looked at the brass plates to see what they said while the others entered.
"When somebody threatens to eat me, I believe them. Defeating somebody rarely makes them loyal." he says, as if explaining to a child.
"But if you'd have said something, I wouldn't have acted alone."
Keydas goes over to the pile of bones and searches through them, looking for anything that looks like a fang.
Keydas doesn't find anything in the bone pile except...bones.
Keydas walks into the next room, having found nothing in the pile of bones, and read the metal plaques above the doors and the brass plaque behind the two gold circles.
Keydas looked at the plaques and was unsurprised to find that they read read the same as the "Hard" and "Easy" paths in the previous staging area. The one behind the two platforms also reads "Recovery".
Keydas looked at the overseer and asked, "How many copies of the Fang and the Trimerix have been claimed?"
Valeria recognized the words on the plaques and nodded as she realized what they meant. When Keydas asked his question she felt kind of annoyed with him. That was not the best wording he could have managed and she said quickly, "Amend that, how many copies of the Fang or the Trimerix have been claimed during this contest?"
The figure seemed about to answer Keydas, but then Valeria jumped in with her question. Waiting another moment, he replied "None".
Ghyrryn and Kraath move in to guard the exit.
Keydas nods in thanks to Valeria for her clarification, and says, "Well, unless anyone needs to use the Recovery platforms, I suggest we continue. Hard path again?"
Keydas moves to the activation stone that will open the door to the hard path.
Keydas activated the opening mechanism for the path marked as the more difficult one, and the door slid to the side.
Three feet of clear water floods this rectangular room. Numerous metallic grates on the floor create a current as the water is pulled down below. In addition to the grates on the floor, metal grates line the ceiling in a pattern opposite to the grates on the ground, with drops of water dripping from them at a fairly consistent rate. Metal rungs line the southern wall of the room about four feet off the ground. The activation stone for the next door appears to be completely submerged, though just barely.
Valeria looked around the water room from the doorway with curiosity. She wasn't quite sure what was going on in there or why there were grates above and below, but she knew she didn't like it. She used what knowledge she had of engineering to try and determine what this might be designed to do.
Kedyas watches the water currents and the dripping, then says, "This room either has strong currents that must be fought against, or else will begin to flood once we enter. I'm not sure which, but we'd better be prepared to swim."
Keydas studies the floor, looking for any signs of pressure tiles or similar.
The floor, being under three feet of water, looks to be made up entirely of grating, through which the water is flowing. Keydas doesn't notice any kind of pressure plates, but then the gratings and the water covering them make that kind of determination difficult.
Nodding in agreement Valeria said, "I think you may be right." She looked at the group and asked, "So who's going first?"
"Ghyrryn, you're the strongest of us. Will you take point?"
Glaring at the suddenly reluctant and silent gnoll Valeria said, "Fine, I'll do it, here's hoping this goes alright." Valeria carefully made her way out into the room and did her best to stay on the path between the grates.
Moving across the flooded room is difficult because of the strong undertow caused by the water flowing through the grates. As Ghyrryn moved into the room, he and Kraath were almost immediately doused by a deluge of water pouring in from above. The falling water wasn't particularly dangerous, though it did stagger the pair a bit. What was more dangerous was the effect of the water falling in combination with the undertow. It swept Kraath off his feet, and the bear floundered in the water.
Keydas says, "Well, I hope we're all ready to get wet."
Keydas moved to the room, hoping to use the metal rungs to augment his lack of swimming ability.
As the party made their way across the treacherous water, a vortex suddenly appeared along the northern wall. A great column of water splashed upwards to reveal a blob of water, completely self contained, with pseudopods that were vaguely reminiscent of arms. The creature was slow to form, but its malevolent intent was pretty easy to see.
While you are not completely underwater (and so underwater combat rules don't apply), you are constantly having to fight to avoid being sucked under, so you still need to make your DC15 swim checks every round.
R31: ghyrryn, keydas, valeria, snotra, elemental
Keydas sees the watery creature form.
"Watch out! That water elemental will try to suck us down, more than the room already is. Stay strong! We can defeat it!"
Valeria was careful as she hung onto the rungs and made her way out onto the rungs into the room, just in time for the fighting to start. She knew this could be ugly and that she was going to have to work on this one but was relieved she had the rungs to hold onto. She began to pull in her power as she took a death grip on the rung with her other hand, and sent a burst of energy flying at the elemental wrapped around a small rock from her pouch.
[b]"Well done, Valeria! Keep it up!", Keydas shouted, trying to keep their spirits up. He then prepared to swim for the activation stone. If they can open the door, they can get out quickly.
Snotra rides Nod into the room, having the gecko climb along the walls to keep her out of the water. As she does so, she eyes Valeria and says, "I think you will be quite lucky now." She then laughs.
Ghyrryn is thrown a bit by the waves. He manages to eventually get a bit closer, but not in stime to get a strike off.
While this isn't the same as the rivers he's fished in, it's close enough that Kraath manages to get control as he attempts to tear the hostile water apart.
As Keydas and the others struggle to hold on, Kraath and Ghyrryn move to attack. The bear slashes at the water elemental, confused as it comes up with nothing more than water for his efforts. In return, the water elemental slams down on the bear's head, leaving the bear with a ringing in its ears and a whopper of a headache
Kraath takes 11 damage
Keydas attempts to recover himself and swim for the activation stone.
Succeeding, he presses the activation stone to open the door so they can leave.
Snotra looks at Ghyrryn and says, "You shall also be lucky." She then cackles.
Maintaining her hold on the rungs Valeria focused and pulled in energy again while pulling another pebble from her pouch with the energy that swirled around her. A moment later she sent it slamming out at the elemental with as much force as she could manage but the awkward position caused her attack to simply plow into the water near the thing.