Cyrioul readies his wand again, watching for signs of spellcasting by the surviving magic using trog.
The thrust of Bree's rapier excises much of the remaining fight from the trog warrior, who seems on the very verge of death.
The other warrior, regaining its courage, runs and swings feebly at Caladra.
Strafing wide along the edge of the room, Thorek maneuvers himself towards the acolyte and remaining warrior, attempting to pin them between Caladra and himself. Lashing out at the troglodyte guarding the acolyte, he catches the enemy warrior right between the shoulder blades with his heavy stone hammer.
Cedric shrinks back down to his normal size, then strikes out at blue with his spear, trying to finish the job that Bree started. Unfortunately, trying to attack diagonally through to doorway proves more difficult than he would have hoped.
Boudra, seeing that one of the troglodytes is disabled, strides into the room and places a hand on Caladra's shoulder to bless her next blow.
Boudra effortlessly moves through the grease to bestow her blessing on Caladra.
Thorek's hammer stroke utterly crushes the troglodyte warrior, even as the other, disabled warrior manages to evade the large Cedric's spear thrust.
Seeing the trogs falling like flies, Caladra laughs as she moves to flank another of the lizard people with Thorek before striking at the beast.
Thanks to the magic aid of Cedric and Boudra, Caladra manages to land one final strike to slay the last of the trog spellcasters.
With a screech, the last warrior standing lunges at Bree with his club. Although his attack lands, in his weakened state his blow is dampened. After finishing his final, spiteful attack, he collapses to the ground and begins to succumb to death.
All of your opponents lie motionless before you. The battle is won, and the troglodyte tribe is defeated.
Thorek takes a cautious step away from the door he was standing near. "Was that the last of them?" he wonders aloud.
Cyrioul's blood takes a few minutes to settle, as does his stomach. "If it is, I'm sure I should feel better about the security of our base. But I can't help feeling like I haven't done good here. Only carnage." He frowns, then waits for the grease to dissipate before helping to arrange the bodies in some semblance of ceremonial state.
Bree searches the bodies for anything useful but also to see if they have any more gems stones on them. She'd like to stay on good terms with the crysmal.
Bree, recovering from her injuries, casts her spell and discovers quite a few magic auras across the room.
Most immediately apparent is the glowing blue crystal held by the insect-like statue against the southern wall, near where Thorek and Caladra cornered the acolyte.
Near the fallen acolyte, two gourd flasks radiate magic, as does its fallen spear - although Bree discerns that this quickly fading aura is the result of a temporary enchantment. Although not radiating magic, the dead acolyte also wears an amulet made from a purplish geode.
The tribal shaman bears many enchanted items: 3 gourds containing potions of some sort, a pair of stone tokens - one etched with a bird, the other etched with a tree - the bracers on her scaled forearms, a dropped wand, and a set of crude bandages wrapped up in a leather satchel. The shaman also wore a necklace adorned with large chunks of aquamarine.
A barely concealed magic aura also attracts Bree's attention to one of the woven sleeping mats, leading her to a small hide pouch stuffed with powder that glows beneath her spell's sight.
Lastly, although it only shows faint traces of ancient magic, the metallic door dominating the eastern side of the room is otherworldly, as its polished blue steel contrasts with the dirt and stone of the rest of the chamber.
The wheel of pictograms includes many symbols: a beetle, a rock, a wedge, a hammer, a crying face, a flame, a claw, a door, a metal bar, a figure standing in triumph, and a bottle.
While arranging the corpses, Cyrioul assists Bree with the identification of the magic items by casting detect magic.
Cyrioul manages to identify nearly all of the items:
Oil of Magic Weapon, Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds, 2 Potions of Shield of Faith, Potion of Owl's Wisdom, Wand of Hold Person (8 Charges), Feather Token (Tree), Bandages of Rapid Recovery, and 2 Doses of Dust of Appearance.
He is also able to reason that the other stone token is another Bird Feather Token, as it is almost identical to the one previously found with the trog hunting party.
Do not feel too badly, Cyrioul, Boudra signs as she moves into the room. These creatures seem to have been violent and unfriendly, given what we saw above. I doubt that we could have lived in peace with them.
Seeing that the others have the bodies well in hand, she crosses to examine the strange blue door. She frowns as she sees the symbols etched into its face, and waves Cyrioul over. There are strange signs here...
With the battle finished Cedric takes a moment to fix the wounds sustained during the fight, always mindful that there might be something else coming that they don't know about. He sends a wave of divine energy from his holy symbol.
Still not proficient at reading hand signs, he unwittingly also covers some of the same ground as. "I understand that it can feel somewhat distasteful to be the aggressors in a fight, but don't forget about the room filled with bones, Cyrioul. If left to their own devices, they would likely have continued murdering and sacrificing sentient beings to their dark gods. Sometimes distasteful things have to be done to ensure a healthy community. I'd say the fact that we wrestle with the idea is the one, clearest sign that we're not depraved like they were."
However, you recognize some of these more ancient symbols from the earlier hallway, interspersed with the records inscribed in Aklo.
"Its kind of funny though. I kind of get the impression their dark god was the rock creature we encountered in that room. The only person we met so far that wasn't trying to murder us, being duplicitous or verbally berating us," Lily says while nursing a gash in her arm.
After cleaning her wound she picks up the geode amulet and says with a confused inflection,"Does anyone mind if I give this to them? I'm sure they'll enjoy the tasty rock."
Cyrioul claps Boudra on the arm, nodding and sighing, and saying, "Thank you, Cedric. It is good to remember that they are not so innocent. Who knows how many Nirmathi have gone missing and found their end here?"
After relaying his findings about the items to the others, he approaches the wall with blue door with Boudra, and compares notes with her.
Some of these symbols look like the ones from that hallway we found earlier, Boudra signs, pointing out the relevant ones. You could read that, right? I think you called it...'Aklo?'
Cyrioul nods, and signs back, Yes, that's it. An old language of the underworld... literally! We can go back and cross reference those symbols once we're sure the area is clear.
Having taken quite a beating from the paralysis, Bree directs a little of her own positive energy her way.
"Ah, that's much better." She hands the wand to Boudra. "I hope to never have to encounter one of these again."
She also takes a quick look at the bracers.
"You missed one, Cyr," she says, handing the bracers to him.
Turning to Lily, she says, "Hang on, Lily. I'm all for feeding the one creature that hasn't attacked us down here, but that necklace may be important and I don't want us to lose access to it if we don't have to."
Bree ably identifies them as Bracers of Armor +1
Once the physical wounds have been tended to, Cedric takes the time while the others continue to study the door to alleviate the more insidious lingering effects of exposure to troglodytes, laying a hand on the shoulder of anyone still sickened to remove the affliction.
Gratefully accepting the priest's ministrations, Thorek lets out a relieved sigh as the nausea fades away. "Thank you, Cedric. I'm going to head back to the pit and let the others know we're alright. Are we checking out that weird door next?"
Lily nods at Brees response and goes about searching for gemstones to feed their new friend.
Thorek gets back to the first room and hollers back up, "Hey, reporting! Everybody's okay--well, not the troglodytes, they're dead, and there's an old forge with a gas leak and a Crysmal and a weird door and a tunnel to the Darklands, so I think you all should stay up there for the time being!"
Satisfied that the others would do as he requested, Thorek returns to the main group.
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"And here I thought I was drinking water," Aubrin calls down with a laugh, "But only some stout could explain what I just heard. Regardless, we'll stay quite comfortable up here, thank you!"
“While I am all for the other townsfolk staying above, it does seem like we will need to do a bit of work down here to shore it up. Let’s see, besides the door here and the paintings earlier - likely connected as Bree described earlier, to the xiomorn, we will also want to repair that forge and surrounding apparatus. Then to clear out the smell... what should we tackle first?”
"Hang on a minute, Cyr. We're not quite done. We don't want anything coming out of that door in the middle of the night when we're all asleep. We should try to figure it out. But first..." Bree heads over to the statue. "What is this fella holding? I may need your help here."
"To my mind that forge should be a priority--that gas may be poisonous as well as flammable, and fixing it gives us a crucial resource." Thorek motions uneasily in the direction of the troglodytes barricade. "A proper gate on that Darklands tunnel would be good too, so it can be properly sealed but also opened to let us scout or flee if needed."
The crystal is a large, blue quartz that has been enchanted with a permanent Light spell. However, it would be difficult to remove without damaging the statue, as prying it loose would likely snap some of the spindly, insectoid arms clutching the crystal.
There seem to be no embedded mechanisms in the statue itself or its oddly curved pedestal.
“Maybe the engravings are a clue to opening the door. ‘Bring these things here and I’ll swing open,’ or something like that. Who knows what these folks might know, but I suppose my master in Tamran might. It could be worth using one of these bird tokens to get that message out today to her - she may have contacts that know of the xiomorn, and could also be a reputable voice to raise some alarm in the capital. Someone there should know.” He looks a little glum at this, then shakes it off.
”As for the forge, I can help with some basic engineering knowledge, but I’m afraid that I’m a little behind in knowing what to do with those gas lines.”
The blue steel door does not have any conventional handles, but upon examination you discover that the strange insectoid head carved into the center - within the ring of pictograms - can spin freely.
There is also some manner of pointer mounted to the top of the spinning mechanism, so it seems this functions as some manner of combination lock based upon the pictograms.
"Ah, of course. Why didn't I see it before? All we have to do is spin this wheel to the right points, and the door pops open. Now..." she says spinning around. "We just have to find the right symbols that activate it. Help me look around. The jewelry we found, the statue, the artwork on the walls. Some of them must have pictograms that correspond with these." She whips out her notebook and starts furiously scribbling, copying the symbols that she sees on the door to compare.
"Uh, okay," says Cedric. He scratches his head uncertainly as he glances around the room for anything that he can point out which might be helpful or point toward some sort of combination. This is way outside his realm of expertise, however, so his best hope is to walk the fine line between being helpful and in the way.
Bree notes the symbols on the door's puzzling lock, attempting to decipher what they represent with input from Cedric:
A beetle, a rock, a wedge, a hammer, a crying face, a flame, a claw, a door, a metal bar, a figure standing in triumph, and a bottle.
.....
Based on Boudra's suggestion, Cyrioul returns to the hall where the long-gone derro tribe had inscribed their story.
Spending some time rereading and contemplating the nigh-insane ramblings, the wizard picks out a key phrase that he translates from Aklo:
"...grandmother, in seeking the Excavator, turned her eyes to the Stone, and to the Steel, and finally to Woe..."
.....
Lily, still standing in the room with the slain remnants of the troglodyte tribe, peers back out into the partially collapsed, circular chamber.
She notes the Crysmal - almost concealed within the blue mist - seeming to sniff the air, hungrily sensing the nearby gems the party has found.
Lily just crosses her arms and says," All right. I'll help repair the gas line. Let's just make sure everyone including the Crysmal is a safe distance. Hopefully this won't end with a bang."
Boudra waves to get the attention of Bree and Cedric. She points at three symbols, one by one:
A rock
A metal bar
A crying face
Stone, steel, really sad? she asks, slightly annoyed that her sign language doesn't have an exact synonym for "woe."