The sarcophagus still turned, coming to point toward the blue hallway. It settled there just as it had in the others.
Nothing happened.
"Disappointing." Lu frowned at the sarcophagus and placed her hands at her hips. "Another step?"
“I guess? I just wish there were an easy way to tell if this thing resets itself,” Chaïa offered. “I wouldn’t mind another look at the lower level we know is down there, but if someone has to stay here to turn the sarcophagus, with that shaft where those things came from open now…”
She hoped something would occur to her that would make their explorations easier, regardless of what the other alcoves might hold, but so far that something was eluding her.
"Well, we can keep trying. Let's hope this thing turns around all the way, then we can avoid dialing in the swarm again."
Nothing happening did not seem good. But then, maybe not every alcove held a secret. Turning it all the way around towards where Chaia had entered a Cylinder previously would let them see if the mechanism even still worked, or some integral part got damaged in the cave-in...
"If we can deduce it still works, we can take a break, see if it resets by itself, have a bite to eat. That fine with the lot of you?"
"Works for me." Saeri said agreeably. For the most part, she tried to avoid being a disruptive person - all told, it was usually better to support others than try to fight their every idea, and it wasn't like she had a reason to oppose the suggestion. Harmony generally helped.
"Eminently reasonable."
A few good pushes turned the sarcophagus to indigo, where another lift rose from the floor.
"So far, so good...it seems the system still works, after all...now to see if it's on a timer. Because I agree that staying up here alone with that open hole to bug country is not a very agreeable prospect."
Janus sits down near the entrance wall, rummaging around in his backpack, retrieving a loaf of bread, some jerky, and a cheese wheel:"Cheese?", he offers to the others.
Quite a bit had happened since they set out from the city, taking a break was not a bad idea, nor was eating lunch while they had time to wait.
Saeri passed on the food for now - she tried to watch what she ate, and despite a few moments of excitement, she hadn't actually put too much physical work into things yet. Now, those busy turning the sarcophagus? They needed some food.
Yellowknife's explorers had their highsun meal in the dark of the Whispering Cairn. In the more cynical stories, that would be when the true monsters descended upon them. Yet none came. Real life proved less cynical...for now.
"Oh well.." Lu sighs slightly disappointed as their slow lunch came to an end and nothing had happened. I mean, I don't want more beetles, but something maybe? "So! Let's shift zis another step!"
"By all means." Saeri said... keeping well back, as before, so as to not get in their way. They weren't in that much of a rush, after all, and a certain amount of patience and thoughtfulness could help reduce many types of risk.
“Right,” Chaïa said, unfolding her lean form from where she had leaned against the sarcophagus while taking a bit of lunch. She gave a bit of an involuntary start as she consciously registered that she had been leaning against the last remains of one the people whose infested tomb had roused her to such fury only a short while before. “Do you suppose,” she mused, “that the things are balanced on a very fine set of counterweights or the like, to know when someone’s gotten in?”
"Another step? We still got this lift to check out. I figure one is as good as another...as long as it's structurally sound!", Janus approaches the indigo cylinder, checking it for signs of wear.
"I'm curious to see if zey come back up again. But I suppose we can check zis one out." Lu mumbles and follows Janus. "Anyone got an *uh* architectural degree for our structural concern?"
“Well, I dabble,” Chaïa said, with a self-deprecating gesture. Stepping closer, she checked the lift for any signs of dangerous wear or instability.
“Hmm,” she hedged, “I suppose there’s one way to check if it’s at least partly a question of clever mechanics. Shall we?”
As Janus and Lu approached the lift, they saw numerous crushed bones and bits of moldy clothes, enough to make a thin layer across its floor. Among the less battered debris was a leather pouch.
However, Chaïa was quite sure that the structure was sound as could be. She couldn't find a single crack in the whole thing.
"Ehhhh..." Lu groaned and nodded at the bones, quickly reaching for her sword. "Zat one suddenly feels like an *very* bad idea. I mean, zey being crushed flat might just be a coincidence. But if it isn't I'd like to remain in three dimensions a while longer. You all zink we can send down some decoy or something to see if it is safe or a fancy mortar-and-pestle?"
"I dunno, toss a rock, maybe?" Saeri suggested. It looked a bit like a ceiling dropping down there or something - either way, not something to get close to.
"Would it have to be a large rock? I mean, if I were to create a crushing death-trap, I would prefer to make sure it would only be set off by the weight of a likely intruder. Still, let's see what we can do..."
Clasping her hands together, Chaïa began to murmur a prayer. As her voice grew louder, a ball of water grew midair in the lift before, at her last words, crashing down to pool messily on the floor.
"Would it have to be a large rock? I mean, if I were to create a crushing death-trap, I would prefer to make sure it would only be set off by the weight of a likely intruder. Still, let's see what we can do..."
Clasping her hands together, Chaïa began to murmur a prayer. As her voice grew louder, a ball of water grew midair in the lift before, at her last words, crashing down to pool messily on the floor.
Chaïa washed all the debris from the lift, but the stone didn't react to the sudden weight at all.
Janus, meanwhile, had grabbed the oversized bug they slew earlier by a couple of the legs, careful not to cut himself on any blades or spikes, and hauled it over to the new lift.
He shared Lu's worries, but moved to act, rather than voicing them:"Should we try fishing out that leather pouch before in case we are right? Flat coins are still coins...but coins with bug all over them are yucky-"
Janus, meanwhile, had grabbed the oversized bug they slew earlier by a couple of the legs, careful not to cut himself on any blades or spikes, and hauled it over to the new lift.
He shared Lu's worries, but moved to act, rather than voicing them:"Should we try fishing out that leather pouch before in case we are right? Flat coins are still coins...but coins with bug all over them are yucky-"
Within the pouch, Janus a handfull of coins. All were struck in Waterdeep.
For a few moments after he tossed the giant bug into the lift nothing happened. Then the doors slammed shut and the cylinder's roof plunged down with a loud, crunchy thud before the lift as a whole descended back into the floor.
"Yeah, well, going by sound, I think we're not using this thing. At least I'm not jumping in, and if nobody has a taste for bug salsa, we should probably move on - first elevator seemed the safest...but we may want to make sure it's not malfunctioned, either.", looking directly at Chaia, he continues:"The dead wolves go first. THEN we go"
"Yeah, well, going by sound, I think we're not using this thing. At least I'm not jumping in, and if nobody has a taste for bug salsa, we should probably move on - first elevator seemed the safest...but we may want to make sure it's not malfunctioned, either.", looking directly at Chaia, he continues:"The dead wolves go first. THEN we go"
"Yeah. I vote for another step. Let's try the whole rotation before deciding where to get crushed yeah!"
The sarcophagus settled into its place pointing to the violet tunnel. Despite giving the tunnel a more than generous opportunity to do something, it never did. The red tunnel gave the same disappointment.
Another few turns of the sarcophagus brought it back around to yellow, and Chaïa's lift rose up from the floor again. It took several trips up and down to bring everyone, but the explorers found themselves all at the bottom without losing life or limb.
As she had said, they found themselves in a room with walls covered in bas-relief images much akin to the slender man on the sarcophagus. Nearly a dozen androgynous, hairless figures stood in poses of deferance, as if paying homage. Many reached out hands in adoration, expressions open and yearning. Many also lacked hands, arms, heads, or anything else that projected too far. In those places, the carvings ended in jagged rock.
To the south, an arch opened to a dark passage, barely visible at all past the huge stone slab that stood barring the way. It would take crawling on top or a great deal of muscle to pass.
"Yeah, well, going by sound, I think we're not using this thing. At least I'm not jumping in, and if nobody has a taste for bug salsa, we should probably move on - first elevator seemed the safest...but we may want to make sure it's not malfunctioned, either.", looking directly at Chaia, he continues:"The dead wolves go first. THEN we go"
Chaïa met Janus’ pointed advice serenely – at least, as serenely as one could, bedaubed in the scorched remains of acidic beetle guts. She knew it made sense, but she hoped they wouldn’t need to experiment with lugging wolf corpses around anyway. “Fair enough, but the first one was safe, after all.”
She pitched in cheerfully with shifting the sarcophagus as the group considered their options, only to announce triumphantly, once they had decided on exploring the yellow level more thoroughly and everyone had been collected, “See? Nothing to it! At least, to getting down here. These carvings are something else.”
Having made their way down, Janus looks at the slab with suspicion. Did it miss in the ceiling? Did it fit exactly into the beyond?
"Why would that slab even be there? If it's meant to impede our progress, placing it exactly in the gap would have been better - possibly hide the fact there even is a pathway at all. And if someone was here before, they would have pushed it away from the lift, not pulled it closer...Lu, could you take a look? Maybe you see something I'm missing here-"
That said, Janus looked at the figures on the walls again...towards where did they direct their deference? The viewer? Deeper inside? Towards the sarcophagus?
"Well, we know someone was here before us. Maybe zey didn't want to stay down here for longer zen necessary so zey just moved the slab a little?" Lu offered and moved closer to examine the block of stone. "Or zey found some terrible horror further down and this was the best zey could do to seal it? I mean, I doubt a zombie horde or something would be smart enough to move zis rock even if zey had the strength - or zink enough to crawl over..."
"You come up with the loveliest ideas." Saeri said, smiling slightly as she looked around the room. "I am curious about what destroyed these statues with its passing, though. I'd like to think it's long gone, but alas, things are rarely so convenient..." A certain amount of pessimism was important for things like this.
“Or perhaps the builders were cutting corners, or simply miscalculated. I’m not sure what happened with that swarm, but compared to that, one block settling awkwardly over – how many hundreds of years? – seems almost minor,” Chaïa suggested, trying to see the brighter side of things.
"Well, we know someone was here before us. Maybe zey didn't want to stay down here for longer zen necessary so zey just moved the slab a little?" Lu offered and moved closer to examine the block of stone. "Or zey found some terrible horror further down and this was the best zey could do to seal it? I mean, I doubt a zombie horde or something would be smart enough to move zis rock even if zey had the strength - or zink enough to crawl over..."
[dice=Perception]1d20+4
The stone appeared to be no more than a large, dumb rock. However, as Lu examined it she caught one of the adoring faces left intact from an angle and noticed fine holes in the mouth. They were hidden so no one would see them just looking straight on.
When Lu points out the fine holes, Janus takes a closer look as well:"Think whatever is connected to these still works after all this time?"
With one set of holes found, Janus looks at the other faces, to see if there's more holes, and, possibly even more important, where they aim...his mind contemplating the possible reasons for their existance.
Lots of arrows? Flooding with water? Poisoned Arrows? Gas? Acid? Acid Gas? Acid gas with arrows? Acid gas with poisoned arrows?...
When Lu points out the fine holes, Janus takes a closer look as well:"Think whatever is connected to these still works after all this time?"
With one set of holes found, Janus looks at the other faces, to see if there's more holes, and, possibly even more important, where they aim...his mind contemplating the possible reasons for their existance.
Lots of arrows? Flooding with water? Poisoned Arrows? Gas? Acid? Acid Gas? Acid gas with arrows? Acid gas with poisoned arrows?...
Janus found many more holes. Some of them looked partly obstructed by the vandalism of the statues, but as many were not. All pointed out into the chamber and roughly toward the floor, as one might expect for something expected to rise when it came out.
Noting the various holes, Saeri prudently kept as far away from them as she could. She had no intention of being in the middle of things if trouble started to fly... but she did want to be close enough to help anyone that needed it.
“I must have missed that on my first trip down,” Chaïa murmured in embarrassment. “Thank you, Lucrecia! This rather complicates things, but let’s see what there is to see…”
Knowing what to look for now, Chaïa called up a cantrip to check for any magic that might be involved, before extracting a few picks and other small tools from under her bracers and poking around in the holes of one of the statues that was facing away from the other members of Yellowknife’s team. Hopefully she would be able to find out if the carvings were loaded with darts or anything before trying to figure out what to do about them.
Chaïa couldn't see much in the way of internal mechanisms on the tubes, but she thought they might be too small for darts or arrows and the downward angled argued against them. Given the uniformity in height and orientation, she believed the tubes all part of the same system.
Her spell revealed no lurking magic.
"Does not look inviting...so, what will we do? Try and squeeze through, or try and push the boulder aside and run in deeper in case we trigger a trap of sorts? Worst case? It's something with a trigger deeper inside thats only designed to bar our way out of here...lovely place, truly.", Janus thinks aloud as he focuses his attention on the stone slab blocking their way, considering wether it would require much effort to push it just far enough aside to open a 5-foot passage beyond it.
"Does not look inviting...so, what will we do? Try and squeeze through, or try and push the boulder aside and run in deeper in case we trigger a trap of sorts? Worst case? It's something with a trigger deeper inside thats only designed to bar our way out of here...lovely place, truly.", Janus thinks aloud as he focuses his attention on the stone slab blocking their way, considering wether it would require much effort to push it just far enough aside to open a 5-foot passage beyond it.
Janus thinks it would be hard to pivot the slab that way; it looks to have settled into the floor somewhat. Pushing it over entirely would be easier, but very loud and still a big job.
When Lu points out the fine holes, Janus takes a closer look as well:"Think whatever is connected to these still works after all this time?"
"Eeeeeh... Ze elevators worked, most of zem. And zis seems like some zing zat is still very bad if it only *mostly* works."
“I must have missed that on my first trip down,” Chaïa murmured in embarrassment. “Thank you, Lucrecia! This rather complicates things, but let’s see what there is to see…”
"Null sweat. To be fair, you didn't have much time. Now just if we can fix zis ..."