"There doesn't appear to be anything else we need to find... unless you want to check the other doors." Soren shrugs, keeping her arms close her body as the chill bites into her. "I'd suggest we keep moving. This cold would make statues of us if we let it."
"Yes, perhaps I could rip off your member and mount it to the wall? It would probably freeze there." Soren's tone is deadpan, and her eyes belie an icy seriousness. Without any shift in her voice, she continues speaking. "I would say there's no harm in examining these doors as well, but I couldn't say whether or not that would be the truth of it."
Grumblejack laughs. "That'd be fun to watch."
Nathaniel
Grumblejack
Vaundor
Shalewigg
Soren
Nathaniel walks near the doors to the East and the South, from what he can tell they may be trapped but as he is not an experienced trapsmith it is more of a gut feeling than anything else. The rest of you take a look but Grumblejack and Soren are not so sure, there is nothing obvious about them that appears to be a trap, no telltale signs of pitfalls or drop ceilings. The handles are the last things to be tested of course.
Vaundour agrees with Nathaniel's assessment, both doors are trapped. The nature of the trap must trigger upon the opening of the door itself.
"Where's th' traps?" Grumble grumbled.
Upon it being pointed out to him, he took a look and tried to figure out how to break them.
Grumblejack manages to disable both traps once he realizes they are of the exact same type. Both are set with spring loaded javelins .
Behind each door is an alcove with words inscribed:
Thou Hast Followed the Herd
Having found all there is to find, the group proceeds through the only real door in the room. A nondescript U shaped passage, brightly lit by torches every 15' on either side of the wall, brings you all to a plain wooden door with yet another inscription.
Know Your Enemy. Shatter all that Blinds you and the Burn Thy Adversaries to Ashes
Ah finally an area where my expertise may shine through, I do know a few things about burning my enemies to ash says Lothyrin as he analyzes the door in front of him.
Upon reading the inscription, Soren plucks one of the torches from the wall, slinging her rifle back around to her back. "Burning... better safe than sorry, I suppose." She examines the door for a moment, making sure the doors aren't rigged in any way, then opens it and heads through.
Any who oppose the will of Asmodeus shall be torched like the chaff they are, my enemies are any who do not bow to the might of our dark lord. I will show them the error of there ways as I burn there life away.
"Your enthusiasm is sound, but I'd advise some caution. These tests have been simple so far, but I doubt we'll have the same luck as we continue. Perhaps I'm overly cautious, but I still think these last few rooms have been trying to lull us into making a mistake."
Soren finds the door devoid of a trap, as she opens the door it is clear to see, well nothing. The chamber is pitch black. As she steps through the light of her torch is doused as if it were not lit at all.
Along with darkness the room is perfectly silent except for the sound of your own breathing and heartbeats.
"Nothin'. Jus' a... stump thing. Made 'a carved rock."
"Shatter that which blinds you... seems simple enough." Soren moves over to the podium, looking over it for a moment with Grumble. "You want to, or should I?" Soren pulls her mace from her belt, gesturing to the podium. She taps it once or twice with the weapon, before motioning to the others. "I have a feeling once this thing breaks we're going to have some company."
"Heh heh. Good." 'Jack grinned at an opportunity to smash something, and then brought the hammer side of his weapon straight down on the dumb rock stump.
"Wait, does that produce darkness? That could be very useful."
"Ah curse this darkness," Lothyrin says as he begins an incantation shooting light out of his hands.
|
"So, Asmodeus doesn't want us chained to him?" Vaundour said in mild confusion before shrugging his shoulders as the ogrekin went to break the alter. "Well, no time like the present to get in some fencing practice, I suppose." Turning to the aloof witch, as she has yet to threaten his dangly bits, he asked, "Shall we dance with the devil beneath the pale moonlight?" With that, he tightened his grip on the top pommel of his cane, ready to draw his hidden blade at a moments notice.
Shalewigg finds Vaundor's personality excessive, but she still manages a slight upturn of her lips. Through the minimal smile she replies.
[b]"Shall I hold them down for you while you dispatch them?"[/ooc]
Long ropes of hair separate like black snakes, rising before falling back into place on either side of her shoulders.
Soren and Grumble identify the podium as the source of the darkness in the room and approach it.
As Grumble prepares to smash whatever it is that is creating the effect he feels a cloying mist creeping up his legs.
Lothryin's light, which pierces the gloom albeit weakly reveals the mist as having surrounded the Ogre's body.
As his weapon swings down, he feels a sharp pain throughout his body.
The globe shatters and a single non-magical lantern bursts to life as the magical darkness effect comes to an end.
The mist formed creature hisses as the darkness disappears.
Lothryin
Nathaniel
Grumblejack
Vaundor
Shalewigg
Soren
Order Round 1:
Nathaniel
Mist Formed Menace
Everyone Else
"Ahhh!! What the hell is that?!" Nate pulls out an arrow and lets it fly at the mist!
Nathaniel's shot seems to dissipate the thing slightly.
It meanwhile disengages from Grumble and attacks Lothryin.
The creature strikes and Lothryin has the same sharp pains the Ogre did.
Vaundour, you recognize this entity as vampiric mist.
"Burn our enemies to ash, this creature must be weak to flames!" Soren shouts, pulling her rifle from the sling at her shoulder. Holding it in one hand, she brings back her other holding the torch, before whipping it towards the creature flame-first. With that done, she grasps her rifle firmly in both hands, ready to fire on the creature when it approaches. "Lothryin, light this creature ablaze! My magic cannot summon the God-Fiend's flames, but your's might burn this creature to ashes!"
Grumblejack snarled as the mist sapped his endurance making his muscles seize up and shake for a moment.
He was smart enough to know that he probably wasn't going to be able to hurt a bunch of angry fog with his hammer. Instead he reached out a hand towards it, a red-black fire swelling up from his palm.
"Yer gonna die, fog." he snarled.
With no fire at her disposal, and seeing Nathaniel's arrow cut through the mist, Shalewigg reasons that strength is her best weapon. She pulls her scimitar from its scabbard as she rushes to meet the creature, joining both hand overhead and swinging down viciously.
The mist pulsates and shrieks, it is obvious your attacks are harming it.
Nate knocks and fires another arrow!
Lothyrin gathers his arms about him as he mutters an incantation in a defensive stance. As he finishes flame roars out of his fingertips rolling across the room.
Lothryin manages to get his spell off burning foe and friend alike.
Betwee the flames and the final arrow of Nate, the creature uses its amorphous form to retreat through the floor.
The ogre giggled as the flames washed over him.
"Tickles."
Then he looked at the floor to see if he could smash open the mist's escape route.
|
|
Having managed to dodge the worst of the flames, Vaundour watched in slight amazement as the shadowy creature somehow vanished through the floor. "I don't think it would be wise to gear into the floor to chase the thing down," he said as he looked around. That being said, however, he did give the floor a good look to see any obvious signs of edit or of the creature coming back.
Very small holes in the floor around the base of the pedestal. Between the darkness and the combat you did not notice them until the creature utilized them for its escape route.[/ooc]
"Leaving it alive will lead to later problems, but I'm not sure how easily we could attack that... thing from here." Soren leans down to examine the holes, looking for any clue as to if it leans to a tunnel or pipe of some sort. "Lothyrin, could you channel your flames through these holes? Even if we fail to scorch it, we might flush it out from the smoke."
Nate frowns. "Do we really want to waste resources on an enemy that hides from us?"
Grumblejack brought his hammer down on the floor trying to smash through the mist's escape route.
The Ogre obliterates the floor with a single stroke of his mighty hammer. The debris falls into a small chamber beneath Chamber 3, approximately 10' deep.
You see a small alcove, perhaps large enough for a halfling to enter near the floor heading north.
As Grumble seeks to slay the mist, the rest of you see two more doors in this room. One to the North and one to the East. Both are heavily barred from this side. The way the doors are barred appears easy enough to open but would have been difficult to open without adequate light.
"The creature might still hunt us, should we allow it to go free. I expect it has fled down that alcove, but none of us are so small we might fit. Shalewigg, would that spider of yours be able to explore that tunnel for us, see where it leads? The rest of us could work on the doors." Soren moves over to the door heading north, the same path as the alcove, and starts to pry the door open herself, waiting for someone else to start prying at the eastern door.