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Motioning Soren over, while standing a respectful distance from she-who-would-rip-off-his-dangly-bits, Vaundour gestured towards his finding. "Found out how to open this door, though I can't seem to get the mechanism to work quite right," he said. "Also not sure if this is the right door to open, anyways."
"Hmm... alright. To cast such an illusion, you would see through it instantly; you are immune to your own deception." Soren goes down on one knee, pulling her tools from her pack. "At least, I hope that's what it means. If not, be prepared to jump." While phrased like a joke, nothing in Soren's body language hints towards humor. She looks tense, squinting as she attempts to work the latch with her tools. "This might take me a moment or two."
Surprisingly, Grumblejack moved forward with Soren, and after watching her for a moment, wordlessly picking up a couple of tools she wasn't using and lent her unexpectedly skillful aid.
With an audible click the lock holding the door in place releases. The secret door slides away revealing a small niche. Located within the niche is a small pedestal that holds a jewel which glows with a pale blue light. The jewel radiates cold.
Behind the pedestal on the wall is another inscription, “Thou hast seen through deception to uncover a useful tool.”
The girl cocks here head to the side.
"It ain't got magic, but it's got some value. Throw it and the fluid inside turns to clinging ice. But this isn't our trinket. There's no sapphire here."
"It seems obvious that the unhidden door is a trap. Let's go to the hidden one."
Upon closer inspection Soren can see that the mechanism keeping this secret door in place is the same as the one on the northern side of the wall.
To the East Vaundour stares longingly at the only obvious door in the room though he makes no motion to go towards it.
Vaundour you are able to verify Nate's suspicion, it is indeed a trap.
"What's tha trap do?" Grumble said going to take a look at it.
Grumble you walk around the door and analyze it. It appears to be a simple pit trap, turning the knob activates the level to cause the floor to drop. Onto what is not clear.
Soren moves over to the hidden door, clicking her tools into place when she finds what she believes to be the locking mechanism. "It could be worth our time to investigate what is beyond the trapped door," Soren remarks, fiddling with the lock as she tries to set one of the tumblers. "Traps are a deception as much as a hidden door would be; it's possible we'll find something useful in our task squirreled away behind it."
Grumblejack marks out the pit on the ground by scraping the outside edge of it with the horn of his massive axe. Then he flips the axe head over and brings the sledge side down onto the trap door in the floor.
As Grumblejack smashes the trap door it falls in to reveal a 10' pit with spikes protruding from the floor below. Grumble reaches over to the door and turns the knob. The door opens to a brick wall on the other side.
The falling floor triggers a magical mouth spell"Thou wert deceived. Pain is thy reward".
Having opened the first door, the second southern door is child's play for Soren. The doors swings inward.
The short passage from the north ends in a solid wooden door with another inscription:
“Following the herd is for fools. Fear not their icy derision. Instead, fear only thy Infernal Lord.”
"Hmm. Sheep or sharks." Nate takes a look around the room.
Grumblejack snorts at the magic mouth and moves to walk into the room revealed by Soren. He eyes the writing on the wall derisively.
"Other room's got magic t' yell at us when it thinks we're tricked. This room's just got writing when we do it right. Stupid."
"Wha's it say?"
Nate does not notice any other secret passages in this hall, the door forward appears to be the only way forward short of powerful magic.
"Well there's being a sheep and there's going the only choice. I'm sure the real challenge is inside the room."
Shalewigg moves confidently to the door and kneels in front of it.
"Let's just have a quick look and we'll go in. Seems as though the test looks to choose a leader or punish deliberation."
Her black spider with red markings crawls out of her sleeve and jumps to the floor. It crawls under the door to see beyond, but remains under the cover of its wooden frame.
The spider climbs back through the space under the door, as it climbs back up Shalewigg's arm, she feels a coldness coming from it, in addition it moves ever so sluggishly in such a manner that only Shalewigg would notice...
"There, there, love." the witch brushes the spider slowly as it climbs to her shoulder. She lifts her head to Soren, then to the words. "He's cold. Ict derision, it says. I think we face a crisis of leadership in their. That or the illusion of cold and a separate real threat. Shall we go?"
The ogre gets bored and opens the wooden door.
Nate smiles at the ogre's approach to life, peering into the room.
Grumble opens the door with little trouble, it did not appear to be locked or trapped.
Inside this plain stone chamber are three more doors, one each to the East, South, and West. Cold emanates from the room now that the door has been opened. The ground is dirty and dusty.
A single lit oil lamp hangs perfectly still from the ceiling in the center of the room. A small amount of frost obscures the lantern's glass panes.
Nate stares up intently at the oil lamp. "Huh. Interesting."
Walking into the room, the young witch looks down at the floor and scans both doorways.
"There's plenty walked this way," she says, indicating the Eastern and Southern doors. None to the West."[/b]
Might be we should take the hint and just go the untraveled route,"[/b] she says, starting toward the West door.
"Probably some other lesson about not being too hasty and asking everyone else what they think." she says as she strides to the door and pulls the handle.
"This one, then?" the ogre said pointing a thick finger at the west door. He thumped over to that door and tried to open it.
Nate frowns. "Why is it so cold in here? It's unnatural."
Though much smaller than Grumble Jack, the tall human witch stands her ground, her hand still on the handle.
"Wait your turn, giant."
She looks past him over to Nathanial. "The lamp is cold. Something in it freezes the air. We'll tend to that when we see what's here."
Shalewigg opens the door and steps beyond.
Oh I do hate the cold so, it tends to disagree with my fire very strongly. Makes it far harder to set things ablaze, of course I still manage" says Lothyrin as small flames curl and flicker around his bunched up hands.
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Walking over to the previously ignored Western door, Vaundour took a good look at it. "Yup, it's a door alright," he muttered to himself as his eyes traced the door's edge and the latch. "So, when you woke up in the morning three days ago, what were your plans for the day?" he asked the others during his visual investigation.
"To choke the life out of a prison guard," the lithe woman says as the door swings open. She looks back and smiles wryly.
"So far, so good."
"Don't make plans. Just do what needs doing. When nothing needs doing I do what I want." the ogre rumbled, looking over Braidy's head.
As Shalewigg and Grumble approach the western door the source of the coldness becomes much more intense!
Shalewigg and Grumble both feel the heat evacuate their bodies while the effect causes the Ogre to grunt Shalewigg staggers backwards after she opens the door, her hand burned from the effects of the frost on the handle. .
Both the witch and the anti-paladin see a u shaped hallway beyond the door.
Grumblejack grunts as the warmth of he body was ripped from his body. He snarled and stepped back. "Wha's That! Cold!"
"If ice up there keeps it at bay then the alchemists ice should destroy it." Nate guesses.
At the last, Shalewigg glance at the door and cocks her head. When her expression shifts to one of alarm, her head snaps up to the lamp. Too late, the violte mold sucks the warmth from her hand, which tightens in place. Frost coalesces on her skin as she flings the door open and yanks her had away.
The witch looks at her bluish hand and narrow her eyes.
"Damned test is just a joke. There's no wisdom in this lesson."
"Jokes are funny. This ain't funny." the ogre growled.
"If ice up there keeps it at bay then the alchemists ice should destroy it." Nate guesses.
Nate shakes his head. "I can't believe we left it back there." He goes back to retrieve it, then comes into the room and chucks it at the organism!
Soren hangs back as the others move into the corridor, her rifle leveled towards the other doors. "Obviously we're meant to head in this direction. Forge our own path..." She watches observantly as the rest of the group venture into the cold, deciding instead to conserve her own strength until it was necessary to proceed. 'The cold saps the strength from their bones... what other trials must await us farther in?'
At Shalewigg's comment on jokes, she lets slip a grin. "Perhaps it's just a testament to our own wisdom. We are wise enough these tricks and tribulations do little to deter us?" After a second, she sighs. "In all honesty, I expect the farther we go the more dangerous and... complex our trials will become. These simpler obstacles might exist solely to lower our guard against that which comes later."
The crystal smashes into the door and instantaneously, the mold cracks and falls away from the door.
A inscription is revealed, "Thou Hast Made Thy Own Path"
Soren looks around the room and finds no other hidden compartments or passages. Unless the group wishes to test the doors to the east and the south, the western hallway beckons...
"More writing." the ogre grumbled. "If the way we weren't supposed to go had a magic talking thing, how come the way we are supposed to go just has stupid writing?"