Aðalbjörn is caught flat footed by O∂ørn's advance but he is quick to catch up
"Do not go rushing into the wolf den without me sea man. I would be forever shamed were I to let you fall."
with a comeradly blow to the druids shoulder they climb together.
O∂ørn takes the cuff to his shoulder and turns to the enormous A∂albaörn, "Do not worry, my friend. I shall not so easily fall. Especially not so long as we travel and fight together." He rubs at his shoulder which has begun to throb from the playful blow, "Though I may come away from our ventures with a new bruise or two." He laughs quietly then turns back to the labor of climbing the ridge.
When you finally reach the top, you find yourself at the mouth of the cave. Its very dark and the only light is that of the rising sun
You can see the cave narrows at the back. Beyond that. Darkness
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Dvallar peers with her Dwarven eyes into the dark. Pupils expand, past the iris, till the whole eye is black.
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Aðalbjörn kneels for a momment, withdrawing something from his pack. When he rises he is clasping a lit torch in his shield hand, spear held ready in the other.
"Into the darkness then."
Is his only comment as he moves slowly, cautiously, forward.
"Hold. I've torches in my pack. Who shall hold them?"
"I'll take one. I'm not much good with marital weapons. It makes sense that I carry it." Helle takes the torch from Dvallar. Next on the list learn the light spell. Especially if we're going to go into caves a lot.
O∂ørn stares into the inky darkness of the cave for a moment, then turns to Dvallar. "I'll take a torch as well. Unfortunately Rán has not seen fit to grant me sight through the darkness." He retrieves a torn from the dwarfess then moves toward the mouth of the cave. "Ulf, you said there were some levers we would need to pull or some such mechanism, right? Well, where are they?"
Dvallar hands out the torches. "Two should be enough. Try to stand towards the back - we don't want to be blinded."
Ulf points into the cave
"Near the back. You go in, the tunnel makes a turn, then you should arrive in the room where i found the levers"
As you enter the cave, the passage narrows till only 2 can walk next to each other. The walls are covered in what looks like pictures. Carved deep into the stone. The light of the torches almost creates an illusion of the pictures dancing as the shadows move with the light
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-Okay, who goes first with me?
Dvallar takes the time to look at the carvings, run a finger inside one line in an attempt to deduce how they were made.
As she walks along near the back of the group Helle holds the torch aloft to try to make sense of the carvings.
O∂ørn walks at the back of the group with Helle, his shield strapped on while his shield hand keeps hold of the torch. In his other hand, his spear is out and ready to face any unexpected threats. As they make their way into the cave, he takes a look at the carvings in the walls as well as checking the ground for any tracks the party ahead of him hadn't trampled.
Aðalbjörn pauses in his advance, just almost long enough to allow Snorri to catch up
"in together then."
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That is pretty incredible! Exciting time!
You enter a rather large cavern shape. The light is enough to illuminate most of it. But flame does throw shadows everywhere. So the room itself looks alive
To your front is a pedastil. There are 4 levers on it. A few feet infront you see a large, thick iron bar gate that seems to be blocking the passage ahead. There are stone stairs leading to what seems to be walkways around the chaimber
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-Levers? Uh... what?
Snorri takes a look at the pedestal but, not finding anything useful, decides to let the experts use their wits.
O∂ørn takes in the scene, trying to see if there are any clues about how the levers should be used to open the gate ahead of them or if they seem to serve some other function.
Aðalbjörn advances immediately to the iron gate squinting his eyes he tries to look beyond
"We need to get this open, quickly. We are ripe for an ambush"
Helle looks at the gate and turns to Dvaller. "Dvaller is this your area of expertise? It's mechanical."
"I don't deal much with mechanics. Good solid things like armour and ships for me."
Odorn, as you look around, you believe there are some sort of murals on the top section of this cavern. But they are completely covered in dirt and dust. Only way to uncover them is to go up there and clean them off
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"Looks like there's some murals up on the walkways. Maybe they'll have some kind of clue about how this whole thing works." O∂ørn ascends the nearest set of steps and checks the mural there.
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Snorri walks there to help O∂ørn clear the murals. Carefully.
Depicts a wolf ripping the jagular out of a man on the ground. Very gory
In this depiction one can see a wolf that is standing on some sort of jutted out piece of rock. It seems to be howling
On this one you can see a wolf snarling with what seems to be a cave behind it
This mural depicts a wilf entering a cave
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Helle carefully studies the first mural. She looks a little upset at the gory scene depicted."Saw this just yesterday I think."
O∂ørn examines the second mural. "A wolf. Standing on some kind of precipice and howling. What is this supposed to tell us?"
-A wolf in a rock, a wolf in front of a cave, a wolf entering the cave... does it have a specific order, or something?- Snorri scratches his head. This is the hardest he can think.
O∂ørn heads back down and looks at the pedestal with the levers to see if he can make any kind of connection between the murals and the various levers to see if Snorri is right about the specific order.
You catch that the levers are someway aligned the same way as the murals
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O∂ørn looks carefully at the levers, but is unable to determine any connection to the murals. "Would one of you come help me with this? I'm afraid I don't recognize what we are meant to do here."
"The Levers seem to be aligned with those murals. Maybe they're pictographic instructions? Maybe Snorri was right, and the order is important? Front of the cave then entering the cave seems obvious. Where do the other two fit? Wolf comes home after hunting?"
"Does there seem to be a time indicated in the murals. Such as howling at the moon or entering the cave during the late day?" She looks closely.
"That seems to make sense, Dvallar. Perhaps the wolf howls to show it has found its prey, then makes its kill, then returns to the cave? But this one, with the wolf standing in front of the cave and snarling. It's almost like it's guarding the entrance. Perhaps that one comes first?" O∂ørn racks his memory to see if he can recognize natural wolf behavior in the sequence of the murals.
One does seem to figure out a story to this puzzle. The two wolves seem to be at opposite ends of each other. They clearly do not wish to be in the company of the other. The fight also clearly depicts a winner.
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Growing impatient Aðalbjörn steps away from the gate and moves over to the levers placing his rough hand on the second lever he looks to the others
"If nobody has any better ideas...?"
Thinking through the story that the murals seem to tell, O∂ørn approaches the pedestal to stand beside A∂albjörn. "Hmmm...yes. That one first, then the snarling wolf in front of the cave, then the picture of the fight, then the wolf entering its cave again. Odd that the howling wolf seems to turn into a man in the second image. Perhaps this cave has some kind of ward against lycanthropes?" Shaking his head to focus on the task at hand, he calls out a warning for the others to take cover near the entrance, in case of traps of some sort, then nods at the burly warrior, signaling to pull the first lever (howling wolf), and proceeds with the rest of the sequence himself (snarling wolf by cave, fight, wolf entering cave).
Aðalbjörn pulls the lever...
Helle takes cover away from the levers. Just in case.
As the lever is pulled cranking and clicking could be heard. One was not sure if things were falling into place or perhaps there were things being armed. But other than the noises, nothing else happens as the lever clicks into place as its pulled completely
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"If we are separated, meet back at the last camp." Dvallar orders, shield out and weapon ready.
Each lever convers more and more grinding until the last lever is pulled and the ominous click feels like the sound of thunder in your ears. What sounds like metal on metal screeches and slowly the gate that barred your way to the deeper of the cave begins to grind open for you
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"It worked. Let's get inside before it closes again." Helle will follow an armored companion through the door.
-Come on!- Snorry gets quickly inside the place, though he tries to mentally remember the combination of levers in case they find anything similar.