Fhingle follows the others trying to be as quiet as possible.
Talvek moves up, invisibly to scout to the east, stopping before a pit.
A ten-foot-wide pit yawns in the center of this room, leaving a five-foot-wide walkway surrounding it. No railing guards the edges of the pit, which are decorated with shards of jagged glass and metal.
The rest of the party lags behind, at safe distance. Some more quiet than others...
"There is a 10-foot wide pit in this room that starts five feet from the entrance and there's no railings, so be careful." He whispers to Kyda as he moves carefully south to scout more of the space.
As the invisible Talvek reaches the edge of the odd pit to look down and ascertain its depth...he hears an ominous ‘click’
When Lubella heard that there was a trap next to the pit, she whispered to everyone, "Trap near the pit! I'm going back to cast a spell where the enemy is less like likely to hear me."
She returned to the chamber where they had fought the cultists, and recited an incantation.
Talvek manages to leap clear, landing to the south of the pit as the platform encircling the pit immediately drops, sloping down into the depths below to a perilous fate.
Even down the hall the rest of you hear a mechanical noise and crash of some sort.
Talvek starts to share his close call with Lubella then pauses...
Ah, it seems we have a visitor. Someone to offer sport or entertainment in their misery I can only hope.
You hear a heavy creature's steps toward you...will need immediate reaction.
Not wishing to confront whoever that was alone, Talvek quickly retreats the way he came, whispering to the others. "I'm afraid my clumsiness has alerted someone who is now aware of our presence. does not seem friendly."
Though Aldren still couldn’t see Talvek, the tiefling’s quiet voice was audible enough. Aldren whispered back, ”I’ll take your clumsiness over most people’s grace any day, Jackdaw. These things happen.” As it seemed narrow corridors were going to be the next order of business, Aldren swapped his morningstar for the barbed scorpion whip at his waist. It would do less damage but let him reach past the more capable fighters.
”Should we wait here and hope your friend comes to play, or move up?”
"best to move up so we aren't to far away, this armor and my short legs don't allow me to move to quickly." Fhingle says with a smile at Finch
When Lubella heard the loud crash, she whispered urgently, "Jackdaw, are you okay?"
She was relieved when her friend answered, and seemed to have avoided disaster. "I'm going to back up slightly and cast a spell; don't want to draw too much attention."
She returned to the chamber where they had fought the cultists, and recited an incantation.
Once she had finished, she whispered again, "What's the situation with the pit? Can we still get around it?"
Talvek is able to miraculously spring back over the pit unseen as the door opens to the south. None have a vantage to see who, if any emerged.
"The platform around it has collapsed, so footing is very treacherous. I would advise against trying to traverse while there are still hostile presences." talvek replies to Lubella's query.
Lubella's colorful kellish curse was broadcast to all included in her message spell. After a pause, she asked, "How big is the gap? Is it feasible to jump across? We need to reach the boys before it's too late!
"Okay, what resources do we have? I have the spell that allowed me to jump the canal, when we rescued Benjen Preveau from the public public excruciation. I can't cast it on anyone else, though. Anything else to help us jump, climb, levitate or fly?
"You would think there would be another route to the rest of the complex, but that could take quite a while to find if it's well hidden."
"It's about a 20 feet gap, and I could not see how deep the pit was." Talvek responds as he rummages through his satchel for any forgotten resources. Unfortunately, nothing presents itself that would help them in the current circumstances.
”I’d say the odds of my jumping a twenty-foot pit are on par with bedding dear ol’ Barzillai,” Aldren quipped then, after a moment’s thought, added, ”Worse, probably. Maybe there is a switch or other way to disable it? How'd the cultists get by it?”
Arcos doesn't notice anything in the pit. Arcos furrows his eyebrows, "Well, it's a long shot, but I could conjure and eagle to carry a rope across. We could either fasten it to make a sort of tightrope, or rappel down into the pit, and then climb the other side."
Lubella considered the matter. "Jackdaw, can you take another look at the pit? Maybe it's possible to step over the corner? I'd look myself but I'd have to show a light."
"The pit is quite deep, and lined with sharp edges, so climbing in and out would be difficult and dangerous. Perhaps going back and looking for secret passages is our best shot, if we all look carefully."
He pauses for a moment, cocking his head and listening intently.
"I also hear some mumbling in Infernal coming from the south of the pit."
"They had to get by the pit somehow. Secret passages are an option, but the two of you have a gift for this. I'd be surprised you didn't find them earlier."
Sidius nods and whispers, "I hear it too. Wonder if it can fly or jump the pit... Or if we could knock it back into the hole if it comes at us."
Lubella rejoined the others, and replied on the subject of searching for a secret passage, "We can't afford to spend too much time searching; my spells on Jackdaw and myself last less than an hour. We could spend ten minutes or so, I guess. Maybe search the far wall of the bedroom right next to the stairs, and along this wall. My hunch is that it wouldn't be right by the pit."
The voices you thought you heard seem to have stopped and the open pit has not changed since Talvek's hasty departure.
"Let us do that, then. I'll head back to the room by the stairs and search there."
Aldren accompanies Lubella and does what he can to assist in the search.
Sidius says, "Let's be logical and limit our searches to what makes sense. If there's a door going past the pit, presumably it's in the room in that direction. So Jackdaw's right to start in that room. While he's doing that, the rest of us should probably look in the northern rooms - based on what we've mapped out so far, that looks like a likely gap."
Lubella said to Talvek, "In addition to the far wall, have a look at the wall next to where the stairs come down. There might be a passageway underneath the staircase. I'll start searching the wall in the main corridor here. There's also the ten foot section at the south end of the hallway.
"If we haven't found anything in ten minutes, we should probably just try to get over the pit."
"I don't want to move to far forward, I am loud and slow. Something will get me." Fhingle says
Talvek finds a storeroom to the west.
Floor-to-ceiling shelving lines the walls of this storage space, although little beyond cobwebs and dust-covered fragments remain on the shelves. A large nest of filthy rags, soiled clothing, and moldy pillows lies in a heap to the west.
Looking east he spots a chamber with opening in the center.
A ten-foot-wide pit yawns in the center of this room, leaving a five-foot-wide walkway surrounding it. No railing guards the edges of the pit...
Talvek takes a few more steps down the corridor to the east, whispering to Kyda. "Best leave that storeroom alone for now, we need to hurry and find the boys." He inches towards the pit, trying to discern its depth, while keeping his senses tuned to any presence in the room.
Talvek invisibly heads back and begins searching the small bedroom next to the stairs. He searches for a couple minutes while Lubella searches out in the hallway.
Halfway through, Talvek becomes visible (3min potion duration I believe). But his attention to detail prevails and he finds a very well hidden secret door in the room's east wall. Opening, he finds a short hallway.
"Found it! Over here!"
He ponders whether or not he should take another invisibility potion, and decides against it. Whoever was lurking on the other side of the passage was likely aware of their presence by now.
Aldren made his way to the room Talvek had been searching.
"Nice job," he said, then winced when he saw how narrow the passage was. "That's quite the bottleneck. Once that door opens, we better hope we can get into the room quickly."
Lubella whispered to the others, "Jackdaw found a passage! Let's go."
She moved swiftly behind the tiefling, her glowing scimitar lighting the way.
Sidius makes his way over to the others, and readies himself to throw a hex at whatever nasty creature Talvek may reveal when he opens the door.
Assuming that Fhingle and Arcos follow the others to the newly discovered secret passage, Talvek waits just outside the short hallway.
Once the others are gathered behind him, Talvek proceeds down the passage, carefully checking it. His experience earlier has made him far more cautious, and he taps every stone in the floor and walls with the point of his rapier before taking a step.
Lubella followed Talvek into the secret passageway, lighting the way with her scimitar.
You can move through an unoccupied square without difficulty in most circumstances. Difficult terrain and a number of spell effects might hamper your movement through open spaces.
Friend: You can move through a square occupied by a friendly character, unless you are charging. When you move through a square occupied by a friendly character, that character doesn’t provide you with cover (see page 195).
Linky link
Talvek searches the far door after the hall, but no traps or secrets on this side of the doors, and the mechanism to open is easily spotted in comparison to the outside, which was nearly impossibly to find but with luck and persistence.
The door opens, and looking in, Aldren and Talvek can see...
An antique wooden desk sits in the southwestern corner of this room, attended by a high-backed chair with tufts of stuffing protruding here and there from its rotting cushions. Partially broken shelves sit against the north and east walls, and strange symbols of a one-eyed insectile face have been painted on the walls along with curving lines of strange, sinister script.
"OK everyone, get ready!", Lubella whispered as Aldren was about to open the door. She expected an ambush, so as soon as it was open, she somersaulted through the doorway, sprang back to her feet, and darted behind the desk.
Lubella does not see anyone in this strange office, however within moments she hears a deep voice from the north door as a red skinned, horned guard steps into view, very clearly not from this side of the Astral plane.
AHHH, there you are. I feared you had fallen into your own pit. Well, at least that would have provided me some entertainment to end this mindless task of guarding...nothing.
He scoffs as he looks upon Lubella.
What are you a slave? I did not call for a slave. No, I can tell you are not. Is SHE finally ready? It is about time? Waiting for the cusp of adulthood to sacrifice a soul is a waste of time, and that souls are souls regardless of how long they’ve been lodged in living flesh!
He stands with a wicked looking polearm in one hand as he awaits a response from Lubella.
Lubella stalled to give her friends time to move up. "The details of ritual don't make sense to me either. In any case, a small issue has come up..."