The old gunslinger lowers his musket, slowly reloading his spent alchemical cartridge, and looks upon the tattered and destroyed corpse. "I fear what we will face later," the old man says, staring into the distance, looking off into nothingness. "If this is the first of Acererak's minions we face."
A few moments later, the gunslinger regains his composure and casts detect magic to see if any auras can be found throughout the remaining corridor. Scanning the room in as much detail as he can see.
As the party picks through this room, and heal themselves up, they see that the interior of the tomb seems to be far less ornate than the entranceways...at least, here it is. The gargoyle wears a bronze collar studded with huge blue stones, but otherwise, you can see nothing of interest, magical or otherwise, in this barren chamber. The doors to the south and southeast appear to be the only way forward.
"Well, this room is boring." Azgar peers around, slightly disappointed. "Where are we going next?"
"Aye" Azgar makes his way to the southeast door, careful to avoid the unsprung traps. He searches the door intently for antything mechanical.
Azgar and Quadravos, giving the southeastern door a quick once-over, find nothing of immediate concern. In fact, it looks like the door doesn't even have a lock.
"I would check them both just to be sure."
"Though I would like to proceed with haste, I'm second checking for traps to be sure," Ibid speaks as he looks over the remaining door. "I'd rather check before we proceed.... just so we know."
"Would you mind taking a look, Azgar?"
Azgar joins his comrades in staring a the door.
This door, like the other one, appears to be free both of traps and of locks. Neither gives any indication of what they might contain...
Watching Sir Alaric walk several paces into the second door, the old gunslinger wipes a sweat-soaked tangle of hair from his brow with the sleeve of his jacket. Raising his musket a moment later in preparation to cover the brave knight in case anything should attack.
Ibid's keen eyes peer down the length of his musket from beneath the weathered brim of his hat.
Sir Alaric finds himself in a 10'-square room with no adornment, and only a single obvious exit: another door, also apparently sans lock, on the far side of the chamber.
Nothing else happens...
Elan winces and readies himself to rush in and heal Sir Alaric.
Much to everyone's surprise, this one also opens onto a bare room; this time, an identical door lies to the right, on the western wall.
"Go on, sir knight. I'll stay back at a safe distance and cheer you on!"
"Be careful, my friend," the old gunslinger says to the knight. "I'll do my best to cover you, should anything unnatural deem it the right time to attack."
No one, at this point, is shocked to find another chamber, this one with a door in the northern wall but otherwise identical to the others...
The northern door reveals, yes, yet another room, this time with another door in the northern wall (which, if memory serves, would seem to lead back into the chamber you started in). As far as you can see, this room is identical to the previous ones in the series...
"Well, I do have a spell that would let me find traps like Azgar does, but not secret doors. Sorry."
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"Ah right, hidden traps, not doors. My apologies. Well then it's good old fashion searching for cracks or other signs of possible hidden doors we'll have to rely on!"
If nobody stops him, Quadravos φ checks the 4 smaller rooms and then the room with the gargoyle for hidden doors in the walls, floors and ceiling.
Ibid slings the musket over his shoulder and begins to search a separate room from Quadravos φ, starting at the first of the four smaller rooms which the party discovered.
"I'll take this one," the old man calls out, beginning to comb the walls for any signs of a well hidden door.
Elan searches the room next to Quadravos for any secret doors.
"I'll search here."
Azgar joins his teammates in searching for secrets.
Despite a solid half-hour of searching, no one finds any sort of trapdoors in the rooms you've been through so far...as far as you can tell, it's just a circuit of chambers that (apparently) would open back into the one you fought the gargoyle in. Although you're unable to find any mechanism, or for that matter evidence at all, of the hidden door that should lead into that room...
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"This is most certainly odd. The last door we found should lead back into this room, yet we can't seem to find it from this side."
Quadravos φ paced back and forth for a few moments, before heading back to the last door they had found.
He cast Detect Magic to see if he could perceive any magical auras around it.
When Quadravos scans the door with his enhanced sight, he sees nothing for a moment; then, dimly, he perceives a faint aura shining through the chinks of the door. Unfortunately, the spell seems to be seated on something that's actually on the far side of the door, so it's not possible to determine the school of magic the spell belongs to. The aura seems fairly faint.
The old gunslinger move to the door, holding his musket in his off-hand. After taking one last look at the door, hoping to see if it is trapped, Ibid opens the door and prepares to fight for his life.
Ibid., finding nothing, opens the door...revealing a blank wall. But only for a second.
Then, a series of runes suddenly ignite, covering the surface of the wall behind the door in glowing symbols. A bolt of force blasts out of the wall, blasting Ibid. backwards! The older man lands hard on his rear as the glowing runes fade, leaving only a blank wall and the smell of faintly singed hair...
"Ouch," the old gunslinger stammers, sitting up and rubbing his lower-back with one hand. After a moment spent wincing from the pain, Ibid continues, "I think I'll let you do the honors from now on, Sir Alaric."
The old man tries to laugh at his joke but coughs instead, grabbing his chest and recoiling from the pain once more.
Elan pulls out his wand and rushesh to Ibid's side. "I think the lesson from this is look before you leap."
He then taps Ibid with the wand.
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"Ha! Not a bad look for you, gramps." he says, thumping Ibid on the back, wincing at his own forgetfulness as he thumps him right on his burns. "Cayden's teeth, I'm er, sorry about that... I'll just uh... we should press on."
Pointed ears burning with embarrassment, the braggart night thunders through the next door.
Alaric boldly steps through the door...into what appears to be an empty, 10'-square chamber. There's a brief moment as he looks around in confusion...
Then, as he stands there, glyphs in the corners of the room light up, and Alaric is blasted with a bolt of arcane force! Or, more accurately, he's jolted with a silvery bolt. Perhaps the trap is just warming up...it does seem to be still glowing, and possibly recharging!
"No one learns do they?", Elan says out-loud seemingly to himself. Then to Alaric, "Come out of there before you lose more than a little singeing."
Alaric's been a bit rattled by the trap, and his frantic scrabbling over the walls doesn't reveal any doorways...though it's a hasty search.
Quadravos casts detect magic, and in the first few seconds is able to detect that there is indeed a magical aura in the room.