Has Donkor learned all that there is to learn from the room, or is there still more to read? If he's done here, it may be time to sprint around places we've already been and been unable to translate before the spell wears off.
"I wouldn't think so," the halfing responds after consideration. "Maybe we could force it in."
"If that hole is for a key, I would think we're looking for something with a sharper point to it."
"What if we are supposed to pour that liquid into the hole, or that hole is a passage of some sort, requiring the application of transformative energies to make the journey. Didn't our read of the arcane aura from that pool indicate transmutability? Perhaps we can summon a, um, volunteer to sample the liquid and thus observe its potential effects."
Has Donkor learned all that there is to learn from the room, or is there still more to read? If he's done here, it may be time to sprint around places we've already been and been unable to translate before the spell wears off.
-
There is a ton more to read inside the room - care to go back inside?Likely though it is more variations of the same: a description of a human experiment with lethal consequences, followed by some amazingly advanced numeric data. But to be truly certain of that, you would need to read every panel.
As for heading to past-visited locales for translation I would ask you to let me know specifically where you want to go. While I might be aware of some unread hieroglyphs, I don't know that the Dune Squad is aware of them. . .
"What if we are supposed to pour that liquid into the hole, or that hole is a passage of some sort, requiring the application of transformative energies to make the journey. Didn't our read of the arcane aura from that pool indicate transmutability? Perhaps we can summon a, um, volunteer to sample the liquid and thus observe its potential effects.""I wouldn't think so," the halfing responds after consideration. "Maybe we could force it in."
"If that hole is for a key, I would think we're looking for something with a sharper point to it."
"Yeah, it was transmutation. But I didn't think it was a potion."
Does this mean the Dune Squad is headed back to the room with the purple pool?
Anything anyone else want to do before--
--before I need further Fort saves from Karek, Hal, Gandel and Donkor.
Karek and Hal get +3 for their time spent away from the room. Gandel and Donkor +1.
Oh and Mr. Exciting:
-
No comment!
Karek sags against the wall, fighting to pay attention to whatever the group is planning to do next. He hardly registers Hurgah's dig at him, or Sooron poking at him.
Also I cannot remember what rooms might have had things I wanted to translate but didn't, but if we are travelling back to the pool room, Sooron will go slowly and scan the walls for interesting things to read.
Save:
"The beat," says the halfling suddenly. "It's come to a complete stop! What does that mean for us? What does that--"
The halfling looks over at Karek. The dwarf is clutching his chest. A moment later Kogan wordlessly topples over right in front of him and goes completely silent, the light fading from his eyes.
Gandel's own eyes widen with fear as he realizes the same fate now awaits him. His heart has stopped. He looks to Donkor, who seems oddly at ease, as though the priest is communing with the death goddess who awaits him. Sooron is nonetheless slumping against the wall and as he crashes to the ground it becomes clear that the end is nigh for him as well.
Where is Hal? Where is. . .?
Gandel collapses to the ground. He can draw a breath but the oxygen won't circulate to his brain. His vision fuzzes over. He's losing consciousness. He's losing his life.
With a sudden gasp the halfling's eyes pop back open! His hand clutches his heart. It's moving again! Slowly, but powerfully. He can feel it gaining momentum.
Amazing! How long had his heart stopped? It could not have been more than several seconds. He wiggles his fingers and toes looking for signs of stroke or loss of motor function from brain damage but none are immediately apparent. Miraculously, he appears to have been clinically dead for the briefest of moments.
Although it has become quite faint, Gandel can still hear the drum beat. It seems to be picking up speed.
[dice=Fortitude Save:(]d20 (2) +12 = 14
Karek sags against the wall, fighting to pay attention to whatever the group is planning to do next. He hardly registers Hurgah's dig at him, or Sooron poking at him.
-
Karek’s eyes open suddenly. What happened there? he seems to have blacked out for a half second – or was it more? He feels Ok though. Maybe better than OK. His ticker seems to be recovering nicely.
Donkor has likewise survived the brief stopping of his heart. As interested in the crossroads of life and death as he is, he should probably get experience points for this. He feels like he has been in the temple of his unknowable goddess, be it ever so briefly.
Fortitude save
Tragedy befalls the Dune Squad - Hal's heart stops and the terrible trauma is too much. Hal lies dead on the cold stone floor of the coridore.
Fortitude save
Karek, having recovered from whatever momentary weakness befell him, springs into action. He springs at Hal's fallen body and grasps for the scrolls handed to him by a mysterious old man, trying to get them into Donkor's hands as quickly as possible.
Karek, having recovered from whatever momentary weakness befell him, springs into action. He springs at Hal's fallen body and grasps for the scrolls handed to him by a mysterious old man, trying to get them into Donkor's hands as quickly as possible.
-
Ever a man of action, Karek is unwilling to accept the cards fate has just dealt the Dune Squad.
He moves as quickly as he can, but he needs more time!
As his life fades to black, Hal reflects on a dark irony. It was less than an hour after he chose to reveal the truth to his comrades, namely that he knew he would not live to exit the pyramid, that he suddenly died. He knew this moment would come, but by the gods, not like this!
Perhaps Morgrym also expresses a final regret that his oath to Lydia would now be left unfulfilled - at least by him. That task would now fall to Breach, the elder dwarf.
Perhaps the others would pick up his gauntlet and still delve forward to confront the dark horror that lurks inside Ahn'Sehlota. By defeating it, as he pledged to the High Priest of Angraad, his spirit might yet one day be free. He had only known them a short time, this Dune Squad, but they had proven themselves to have an indomitable spirit as a collective. Perhaps they would succeed where his mortal flesh had failed.
But these - these are all thoughts of the living. Hal's path would now take him elsewhere.
"Halstadt!"
(Who is calling him?)
"Hal! Listen to me Hal!"
"Halstadt!!"
(No, this isn't right.)
“You need to wake up!”
(Is that. . .?)
“This isn’t the place for you.”
(That voice, he recognizes it.)
“You’re not finished yet, Hal”
(It wants something of him.)
“We still need you. I need you. Now wake up! Please!”
(He knows her face. It's from another time, another life. It seems so long ago.)
Seeing Hal hit the ground, "What the...!" Breach quickly moves to see if he's alright. Noticing him to be eerily still, "He's not breathing! Somethin's wrong! What the blast is wrong with him! Sooron! Get over here NOW! We gotta find out why he's not movin' or breathin'!" He pounds on his dwarven brother's chest in hopes to get him moving.
Fortitude save 12+10 = 22
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-----
The power of the pyramid is not done messing with Morgrym's heart. The drum beat starts up again. Slowly at first but growing stronger and then stronger still.
Blood pumps and then rushes into the dwarf's brain, bringing life. With a horrid gasp, Halstadt's lungs scream for air and begin to fill once more. His eyes flare open. He is very much alive.
But why is breach lying over him? Is he punching him? Is that Karek with his pack? Is his fellow dwarf looting him?
-----
OK! I need to clarify, or perhaps add to the confusion:
In case it matters, when I called for Hal to make that second save (the heart re-start roll, let's call it), I should have asked Donkor, Karek and Gandel to all make a Fort save as well.
They are all still potentially affected by whatever strange thing started in the drumbeat room. Though it is not nearly as loud as it once was.
But since they all made their first save, and none of those three were killed, the results of the second roll did not matter - raise dead has no effect on a living person. So I didn't bother - I was kinda more interested in what would happen to Hal. And man! He did not disappoint.
But I don't want to mislead the three of you. . . you can still hear a faintly accelerating heart beat.
-
Definitely a low one for this crew. But a real pain when you have to keep on rolling it, over and over. (Yeah, and there's that natural 1 thing too, I see.)| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Breathing a sigh of relief, "Whew. That was a close one. It looks like whatever I did worked. Never count out a good rap ta the heart. That'll get it goin' ever time." He winks. "Good ta see ya breathin' again, Morgrym. Now get up and let's move. We're wastin' time."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Fortitude save 1d20+10
Not all dead..."mostly dead".
"Wait, I thought I was dead! How am I not dead? The drum beat, I can still hear it..."
Hal teeters onto his feet and reaches down for the haversack in Karek's hand, he reaches in and produces one of the scrolls handed to him by Suekhain then turns and hands it to Sooron, "You better hold one of these!"
Hal the stumbles against the wall and tries to control his breathing.
This place has more ways to kill you than there are fleas on a gnoll, it seems. Are you strong enough to move out, Hal?
"Wait, I thought I was dead! How am I not dead? The drum beat, I can still hear it..."
Hal teeters onto his feet and reaches down for the haversack in Karek's hand, he reaches in and produces one of the scrolls handed to him by Suekhain then turns and hands it to Sooron, "You better hold one of these!"
Hal the stumbles against the wall and tries to control his breathing.
-
Two quick points of clarification, and one point of being a schmuck. It's open to interpretation which is which.1. You weren't wrong. Hal was dead. It just didn't exactly stick.
2. There are not two breath of life scrolls, only one with two castings inscribed on it. Assuming Halstadt still gives it to Donkor, which in the circumstances sounds like a very prudent idea, you should appreciate that Halstadt will no longer have one.
3. Halstadt will know that restoration has a nasty material component which I suspect he does not immediately have on hand - though I could be wrong.
"Hal! You're alive!"
Donkor recovers from his near death, and then stumbles into action, examining Hal thoroughly, questioning him on the event with great interest. Always excited to talk to the recently dead, he gets as much information as possible.
A little part of him that wants to be extra thorough regrets not having a Detect Undead spell memorized, just in case.
As per the scroll, if there's only one of them it probably doesn't really matter who carries it, so Hal can have it back.
Sadly, no 1000 gp of diamond dust over here so this restoration could be out of reach.
Hal looks at the Reaver, "Go ahead, I will catch up".
Hal takes the scroll back from Donkor and places it back in the Haversack, "I heard voices calling to me, strange voices, ones I would not have expected to hear. My memory of them already grows dim. I could swear I saw the Mithril Scarab, the others I fear have already faded from my memory. Perhaps it was Angradd and His presence is so awesome to behold that my mortal mind could not retain His memory or perhaps it was flashes of my past".
. . . A little part of him that wants to be extra thorough regrets not having a Detect Undead spell memorized, just in case. . .
-
You're so suspicious! I can't imagine why.It sounds like the party has plans to return to what is now being referred to as "the potion room".
Not that it at all matters, but am I right that the doors to this "heart beat chamber" be left open?
Finally, did anyone else want to do anything before--
Karek, having "recovered" from his brush with death, straightens up, and resumes "command" of the divided party. He moves once again to the front of the line, and prepares to lead the Dune Squad to their next destination...
Once they figure out where that is.
Finally, did anyone else want to do anything before--
--before we require another round of saves from Karek, Gandel, Donkor and, yes, poor Hal.
Karek and Hal still have +3, Donkor and Gandel +1. Though Hal is effectively a +1 as he has a -2 for his two negative levels.
The drum beat you hear continues to accelerate. By this point it is quite the flutter. If it's true that it has co-opted your own heart beat in some way, your heart must be racing quite fast.
The halfling looks a bit flushed, but he seems otherwise okay. He's more concerned about Halstadt than anything else.
"Hal," he says, "I have a magic cloak which might help with this sort of thing. Maybe you should wear it instead of me - it will re-size to fit."
"Sure", replies Hal as he dons the cloak.
Fortitude Save
Hurgah regards Hal and the others with a stoic expression.
"I'll wait. Best to stick together." he says in a tone that registers neither concern nor impatience.
-
Once more, Karek is looking pretty beaten down. But it's different this time. While he's still lethargic, this time he's actually sweating and red in the face. He looks like he did a couple days ago when he ran across the desert sand for a half-dozen hours in full armor.
Karek can still hear the drum beat in his ear. It continues to accelerate.
"Sure", replies Hal as he dons the cloak.
-
My mistake, I should have indicated that, if accepted, Halstadt would not be able to don the cloak in advance of the immediate save. He needs to get his current cloak off and replace it, all of which will take precious seconds.Fortunately for me, it clearly doesn't matter as Halstadt has aced this particular save. But should there be other saves to come, Halstadt can certainly take the benefit of the cloak.
Also, he will have to remove his cloak of elvenkind, as he can only have one magic item in that particular slot.
Hal looks at Karek, "Still feeling the effects as well my friend? Perhaps we can still hear the spell, let's close the door and see if that cuts off the arcane effect".
Hal moves to the doors to this blasted room and closes them after donning Gandel's cloak of course.
Hal moves to the doors to this blasted room and closes them after donning Gandel's cloak of course.
-
The doors are very thick and scrape against both the floor and ceiling, fifteen-feet above. Just as it was needed to open them, a DC 12 Strength check is required to seal them once more. As it happens, Halstadt has a -2 from his negative levels, recently being dead and all.I am sure one successful Aid Another from a fellow member of the Dune Squad would be enough to set-off the penalty. But it doesn't look like Morgrym will get much help from old man Karek. The formerly youthful dwarf looks rather spent. . .
I am reminded of an insidious detail:
Hurgah kicked the double-doors in. That means the doors are largely in the room. Unless somebody has a creative solution, closing them will first require someone to enter (or re-enter) the room.