Elizar slams himself into the scum a few more times before realizing that Ashlyn has wandered off. He hurries after her, howling all the while.
He stares at the circle and frowns.
Aurelian cleans his blade and thinks about sheathing it with his usual flourish but decides not to at the last moment. Who knows what other strange things are in this place.
"What are these strange circles, my friend?" he asks the dwarf as he looks around.
Once he has an answer -- or not -- he turns to the doors.
"Shall we continue on? There is more ... research ... to be done in this place."
Nothing happens when Ashlyn stands in the circle.
Ashlyn looks up at Aurelian's suggestion. "Coming!"
Elizar hurries after Ashlyn, scowling at Aurelian the entire time.
"Let's try this door again. Those creatures weren't guarding this place for no reason."
The two skum possessed magical tridents and a potion each, which cursory examination reveals to be a curative potion.
Through the doors a curving ramp spirals along the northern wall of the chamber ahead, ascending to the floor above. The east and west walls each have a door in them, obvious among the murals which cover the walls. Each mural depicts kind-looking human adults smiling benevolently at happy, healthy-looking children. All the figures have tiny jewels orbiting their heads in shining rings that resemble halos. Bold words are painted on the far wall.
"It says: 'Ours is the Great Work to see humanity achieve its greatest potential.'" Sarine muses as she reads the inscription while looking at the mural.
"That's...I wonder what that could mean? What would the greatest potential of humanity be? Isn't that something that each person should decide for themselves? It seems that the Azlanti that built this place had their own idea..."
Ashlyn examines the room curiously.
"Perhaps they gave people a choice." she suggests naively.
"Huh. Look at that." She points off down the east and west hallways. "There are slots in the east and west walls which seem to be angled towards this southern doorway... And look! In the wall ahead of us there's a small panel. I wonder what it's for."
"Everyone hang back just in case it's dangerous."
Turning to Elizar she asks, "Want to check it out for me, pal?"
Elizar glowers at Ashlyn and wails mournfully. But, as she moves a hand towards the hall he quickly dashes ahead, clearly worried she might get hurt.
He waits for everyone to back up away from the door, and shuts the door in their faces..
Elizar stalks into the room and up to the panel. He inspects it.
Ashlyn stands perfectly still and closes her eyes. "He's fine so far... He's approaching the panel....
Whizz, thunk! Whizz thunk!
Elizar survives unharmed as the ancient mechanisms both misfire, sending their bolts screaming across the room. Unfortunately the mechanisms are still in good condition and almost as they fire the crossbows are reloading.
Elizar scrabbles at the panel but can do little more than knock it askew before the crossbows fire again!
"Oh, yeah, that's a trap alright." Ashlyn remarks. "He's getting shot by... bolts I think. All he's really telling me is 'OW'"
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Elizar fiddles with the panel. If it has a lever he pulls it. If it has buttons, he pushes them.
"OWWWW!" he moans pitifully as he tries to turn off the trap.
...Ashlyn waits nervously to see if Elizar tells her he makes any progress.
Elizar smashes the panel in anger.
"Yup... yup that's definitely not working. I'll call him back."
Elizar continues to be pummeled by bolts, nearly collapsing alltogether before Ashlyn can draw back his substance and render him immune to the crossbow bolts, which fall silent as his physical form vanishes.
Elizar floats out of the door and scowls at Ashlyn. He roars loudly right in her face.
"Oh, you look fine." Ashlyn assures Elizar.
Then she turns to the others. "There was some kind of crossbow trap, but Elizar didn't understand it and couldn't figure out how to turn it off. He just got shot a lot. I don't suppose any of you are good with traps?"
Aurelian shakes his head.
"Aurelian Fache prefers to deal with foes who confront him face to face, not hiding in the shadows and using traps," the swordsman says.
"Perhaps we can find some sort of shield to use?"
Jenner muses on the issue. "I've got that fancy shirt I'm wearing," he points out, tapping the quick runner's shirt where the fabric peeks out under his armor. "Guess I could use that to hurry across fast, but I'll probably take an arrow in the process. Doesn't seem we've got much way around that, though... not with the skills we have among us. Maybe there's a switch on the far side, hey?"
He picks up one of the tridents as well as one of the cure potions the skum had, lashes it to his back, and positions his buckler in front of him. "I think it's worth a shot. Tie a rope to my ankle in case I'm wrong, hey, Sarine?"
Jenner moves to the door, waits for the ankle rope to be secured, takes a breath, and says Abadar, watch my back!"
Jenner takes off at a dwarven run, shield hunkered over his head with one hand, and the other hand over his other... bits that need protecting from stray arrows.
Sarine helps with Jenner's plan, ready to help him if needed.
Aurelian watches and waits for a moment while Jenner prepares to go in and then has a sudden idea.
"Wait! Perhaps it would be better to throw in one of the corpses?" he suggests. "They might draw the fire, but as we have already filled them with holes, they won't care about one or two more... Perhaps we throw one in right before Jenner runs quick as a woman who has just discovered her lover's husband has arrived home!"
He heads over to grab a skummy corpse, though Sarine could probably do this all much more easily than he.
"Oh, be careful, Jenner!" Ashlyn remarks with worry.
Looking at Aurelian, Ashlyn grins. "Oh, I wonder if that would work! Let's try!" Suddenly she looks confused. "...Wait... What? Why would someone married have a different lover?"
Clearly the concept of adultery is foriegn to her.
Elizar stares at Ashlyn for a moment, clearly communicating something non-verbally to her.
Ashlyn's eyes widen, and she blushes brightly. "That's horrible!" she exclaims.
She shakes her head, as if to get the thought (or perhaps voice..?) out of her head. Then she fetches a skum corpse and brings it over to the door.
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Aurelian looks around in alarm as Ashlyn's exclamation, sword whipping up as he's certain more fish-men have arrived. He mirrors her confusion a moment later as no enemies or anything else horrible appears.
Clearly the concept of monogamy is foriegn to him.
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Jenner is almost in charge mode before Aurelian speaks-- there's a comical windmilling of his arms as he struggles to stay back on this side of the door. "Yeh, but a corpse can't flip a switch if there is one," he points out. "Still, it's worth a try! I like any plan that reduces the odds I gotta get shot."
Sarine and Aurelian hurl a corpse into the room where it immediately take a bolt to the chest. Another bolt, misaimed, sticks quivering in the door frame by Aurelian's handsome face - but no harm is done!
Jenner takes advantage of the firing to hurtle (well... hurry - he is a dwarf) across the room and into cover on the staircase. Two bolts hammer into the stone parapet as he ducks behind it, and the mechanisms whir for a second - clearly trying to reload from an empty chamber.
"What helpful...things those creatures were," Sarine comments as it becomes clear that the trap has run out of ammunition. "Let's proceed."
Ashlyn grins as the plan works. "Oh, wonderful!"
She hurries off after Jenner.
Elizar floats after Ashlyn, wailing all the while.
Ashlyn pauses at the side doors. "Should we check in here first?"
Aurelian follows the others into the room, looking around.
Through the right-hand door runs a long marble workbench. Squat stools line the workbench and the rusty metal shelf on the far wall is covered in precision tools, including small hammers and chisels, as well as fragments of crystalline stone.
Exiting through a door to the north reveals a dark chamber, featureless except for a large ring of unusual metal embedded in the floor - it appears different anything the group has seen before.
Ashlyn looks around the room. She sifts through some stone chippings and finds a glowing stone. "Oh! Look at this!"
In the dark chamber, Ashlyn looks around. Then she wanders into the circle. "I wonder what this is for?"
Ashlyn suddenly glows with a brown aura which appears to emanate from her belt.
"Huh?" Ashlyn looks down at her belt. "Weird."
She steps out of the circle and re-enters it, curious if the belt glow again, or something else magical of hers.
The ring on Ashlyn's finger emits a white aura, that is overshadowed by the more vivid brown. Close examination reveals both however and all spellcasters present are able to identify the auras easily, as though they had studied them for some time.
"Aurelian Fache has always thought you were radiant, but now you are positively glowing," Aurelian observes happily.
"Were they making magic here? This would be most useful research. We should see if they discovered how to make magical weapons. An ioun rapier would be most useful. It could dance along with Aurelian Fache!"
Once the others are ready to proceed, he'll lead the way to the other door.
Ashlyn blushes brightly at the compliment. She opens her mouth to reply...
Elizar howls angrily then flies right between Ashlyn and Aurelian. Apparently he's forgotten he's incorporeal and you can see right through him. Still, his voice is loud enough to drown out whatever Ashlyn said.
Ashlyn steps out of the circle and follows Aurelian to the next room across the hall.
Jenner squints uneasily at Ashlyn's new glow, and mutters a prayer that tells him the gleam is magical, of course, if nothing else.
"Damn, I wish I knew more of spells on the scholarin' side," the dwarf sighs into his beard. "Mayhap Evie can take a look at yeh when we get back to camp. That's probably a harmless bit of light, but... I can't promise for certain. Why brown? Odd."
Shaking his head, the dwarf adjusts buckler and axe. He steps into the metal circle as well, a little leery of developing a glow but feeling a vaguely guilty sense of not letting innocent young Ashlyn take all the risks, as it were.
Presuming nothing other than a possible glow happens to him, he'll join the others in trying the opposite room.
Sarine will step into the circle as well, curious to see if she can learn more about the properties of her sword. That done, she is ready to move to the next room.
"This is like a children's game," Aurelian says happily. "When Sarine is done, Aurelian Fache will step into the circle next. He will be last, so he will win."
He chuckles for a few moments at his little "game."