Cinra listens thoughtfully. A closer look at his clothing, reveals it be most accurately described as woven ash. A true marvel to be keeping all that heat inside without hurting any of you fleshy people.
"I do not trust a tomb of earth to wither beings of plants. Then again, I have not fought them in such methods before...I will agree to either plan, but I warn you my patience grows thin with this indecision."
"Why not both? Let's look for the others from Terrace. If the townspeople get impatient and come after us, they've done what we want anyway. If not, we can still lure them in afterwards. Done!"
Okay we're making our way to the other side of the water... I'll need some help though.
Arnek walks down to the water and ducks under. He takes a few experimental kicks in the water then something comes over him and he decides to go for it. He kicks and pulls at the ceiling but he makes it to the other side of the water.
"Yeah, let's find the people from terrace before we blow up the cave."
He follows Arnek into the water.
It doesn't take long, but everyone takes the dip in the cool pool of water. On the other side, you all surface. The air feels much more cool, but it is breathable. What you do notice is there appears to be a series of glowing rocks on the ceiling leading down the tunnel.
You all pull yourselves out of the water, a bit chilled moving from cold water to cold air. You begin to make your way down the tunnel. Its a long walk, and as soon you run into what looks like a completely flat wall. A dead end.
You think that you may have missed a side passage, but it has been one long tunnel.
Strange... maybe the pool led to another place? Emerich begins walking back. He taps the wall, looking for a secret passage along there well.
Trini hopes their soak has not caused leaves to sprout from her or anything. She asks for Gozreh's guidance before having a look for any passages herself.
(+1 guidance)
You carefully examine the tunnel you took, a ten minute walk one way. As far as you can tell, there are no hidden passages.
There's something about this wall that blocks your way....something odd about it. There's some kind of...film on it.
Roll a knowledge dungeoneer check. Anyone else you alert may roll one as well.
"Something strange seems to be blocking us... is it just me, or is there some sort of film on this wall?"
(max 10)
"Film?"
From what you two can tell, its some kind of oiled surface. Consistent in some areas but inconsistent in others.
No hidden passages... should we head back? Emerich walks over. Film?Emerich runs his hand against the wall, then sniffs the hand. Oily.. Do you think it's natural?
I think it's a trap meant to stop folks that aren't of last-embers people. Prolly means it involves fire. If you all want to back up I could hit it with a fire ray.
Trini moves back to let Arnek do his thing.
Korunar follows Trini to a safe distance.
Daniel, being from the proud dwarven people, knows when tunnels can get dangerous, and likewise takes some distance.
Arnek backs up to the maximum range of his spell and as soon as everyone is clear he hits the wall with a "Ray o Fire".
The spell hits the wall, an arcing blaze, but it indeed reveals the secret of the wall.
Burning embers bright as day, must be dimmed to pass this way.
The letters are burning from the fire spell but eventually they do go out once more
Emerich approaches the wall.
Hmmm... It needs darkness. By burning embers, they mean the glowing stones, perhaps?
Let's stsrt by turning off all of our lights... then if that isn't enough we can start in on the glowing stones.
Arnek hurries to turn off any of the lights that the party has. Soon the tunnel is filled with Dim light from the speckled stones above. Nothing seems to happen.
"Okay, so this is the first trap Last-Ember talked about. The one that is against his own kind. He said something like the trap would flood the room. Maybe we have to trigger the trap to continue? But how? Pouring some water on the wall maybe?"
If no one else expresses an other idea, Korunar starts to pour some water from his waterskin where the words had appeared.
Water does extinguish fire...
Though this might be the second trap, and the water we swam through the first, that somebody already triggered.
The fiery words are smothered by the water and soon lose their flame.
As you dump the contents of your waterskin onto the wall, it almost seems as if your hand passes through the surface of a dry section of the wall for just a moment. On closer inspection, the part of your hand that made it through, was wet.
That didn't work.. Emerich looks to see if the glowing stones are trapped. If not, he reaches up to pull one out.
Emerich reaches for the stones, but finds them embedded into the ceiling. A good deal of gripping and wrenching leads to no result.
"It might not work your hands, but maybe this will help."
Daniel takes out a crowbar.
The others got by without destroying them... Probably used a darkness spell or some kin o illusion. Maybe we can just cover them...
Korunar looks shocked at his hand for a moment. Then, without saying any word, he pours water from his waterskin over his right hand and his lower arm. He seems baffled and doesn't react at all to the other group members. Slowly and doubting his senses he tries to push his hand through a dry part of the wall.
Huh? Korunar. What are you trying to do? He turns to Arnek. What should we use? Anyone know any darkness spells?
You all watch as Korunar's arms slips through the wall to his elbow, essentially stopping where the wet part of his arm ends.
"THATS IT! Korunar shouts. "A barrier for a burning creature as you have to wet yourself. Come along!
He hurries back to the pool, dives into it and makes sure every inch of his body is soaked. Then goes back to the wall and tries to walk through it.
"It'd be nice if this got rid of the things growing on me..."
Trini follows suit.
You all watch as Korunar slips through the wall.
You emerge on the other side of the wall, completely dry. The cave here seems far more cavernous and there is a steady stream of water to the side. There are several large bundles of cloth by the stream, large enough for a man to be under.
Arnek follows everyone else through the wall.
I guess I was completely off track about the wall. I was so sure it had something to do with the light too... What do you think is up with the pile of laundry?
Emerich runs back to the pool, jumps in, gets out, and runs back, through the wall.
Wow...
The cavern area you are in has a large ceiling and seems to stretch on farther than you can see. Around the room, you can see what appears to be stores of objects such as pickaxes, stacks of wood, cut stone, and other items that you might find in a large warehouse. There is no trace of the other adventuring group, but you can tell some of the supplies have been disturbed.
The room is dome-like in nature, and there really isn't a path of sorts. As far as you can see there isn't an exit plainly visible.
"A hidden storage, huh, how about that.
Pretty clever, i'll admit."
"It's a complicated hideaway! The other adventurers must like getting wet. Hopefully, there's some sign of where they are." Trini starts looking around.
Emerich walks over to the supplies that have been disturbed. What did they take?
Trini makes her way to the center of the large room, but can't seem to tell which direction they went. The ground is solid and leaves no markings and the piles of supplies don't seem as if they've been waded through.
With your keen eye for detail, you do see that some of the piles have disturbed and maybe rooted through. It may just be the way things are laid out, but there does appear to be some coils or rope missing...
Some rope looks like it has been taken. Rope seems ineffective against fire though... Maybe this is magical rope?
Emerich picks up some rope to investigate, and while it may seem old and dusty, its just functional hemp rope.
Arnek has a shiver run down his spine as a thought occurs to him. He walks up-to one of the bundles of cloth and looks underneath....
"Rope is briefly more fire resistant, if drenched in water..."
You lift up the bundles and find....
MORE CLOTHING!
(heh)
You are all standing in this dome-like room, bundles of mundane items lay all around you, and it seems the only missing piece is just some rope. There are no visible exits, and even the ceiling is concealed in darkness, the only reason you can tell its a dome room is that the sides start to slightly curve.
. looks like they shucked off all their clothes and went swimming. Another underwater tunnel you think?