Garret's axe blows bite deeply into the creature's tough earthen flesh, and after the third it drops dead. Upon hitting the ground, it glows a very subtle gold and slowly crumbles into dust, eventually leaving only a pile of dust and a golden neck-ring.
Inscribed in the neck-ring is the following message:
Look low and high for gold, to hear a tale untold. The archway
at the end, and on your way you’ll wend.
—A.
The room the gargoyle was in has two doors in it (besides the one you're entering from). Both of them are in the southeast corner of the room, although one is on the south face of the room and the other on the east face.
Garret slowly exhales, pushing back his hood. The swirling spiral of light around him faded and where the spectre of death had stood was now just an aging knight again.
"Ow." he said grumpily.
"Everyone alright?"
Shadassa reaches out to the knight, her hand looking incandescent.
"may the fires of life restore you," she murmurs.
It takes several attempts for the oracle to heal his wounds, but they do eventually knit up.
Garret smiles and stretches a little gingerly as his wounds close up.
"Thank you. That feels much better."
"Ah finally, a bit of progress!" Saren turns to the rest of the group and flourishes his hand at the new opening, "Welcome to room number two." giving an over exaggerated bow at the end.
"What say you Magi Gralamin, shall we continue?"
Holly's centaur lurks around in the back, swishing her tail and watching Shadassa heal with wide eyes,
"I can summon some more if we need ... but we could rest if we need to."
"Might as well check this room since we seem to have killed it's primary occupant." Garret says carefully moving into the chamber.
There's nothing notable in this room but the two doors that lead out of the room. One door is on the south face, and another on the east face, but both are in the southeast corner.
"Looks clear to me." Garret says. "Anyone see any magic auras?"
"Well if we don't find anything dangerous with any of these doors... Well even if we do, I vote for the right one. Because left is never right which means it is always wrong.
I do find it strange that there was only a gargoyle thing in this room. Acerak likes his riddles quite a bit, then again he likes traps even more. Wouldn't be surprised if everything blew up out of nowhere... I'll be right back." Saren exits back out of the room to search the gargoyle for clues.
Shadassa casts Detect Magic.
"Merfolk are just about equally left and right handed, as are the fish we swim with--well, finned, not handed. Eyed, technically."
The gargoyle is ashes, and leaves only a pile of dust and the golden neck-ring.
Honestly, the entire Tomb is suffused with magic. There are, however, no specific magic edifices in this immediate area.
When the gargoyle crumbles to dust, Gralamin lets out his breath in a deep sigh, then smiles. "I seem to have picked the right companions. Well done, everybody."
When he sees the neck-ring's riddle, he frowns. "More words twisted upon themselves to confuse the reader. I presume we should keep our eyes out for hidden caches of gold, in order to discover some crucial bit of information - likely in the form of another riddle. This is yet another reference to an arch or archway, though the first riddle implied we'd find the archway early, while this one implies it is at the end."
After thinking for a few more minutes, Gralamin indicates that he is ready to proceed forward.
"Should we take that neck-ring thing?" Garret says, not sure if they should trust anything they find in this place.
"Remember, we need the ring ... the original riddle?" Holly notes, squinting while she tries to recall it.
"If shades of red stand for blood the wise
will not need sacrifice aught but a loop of
magical metal—you’re well along your march."
She trots forwards to scoop up the ring with the tip of one of her falchions.
"Brilliant, Holly," the merfolk oracle says, gazing up at the rather tall centauroid. "South or East?"
With no particular clue either way, Garret checks both doors.
Neither door is trapped, and both lead to a short hallway (10 feet long) with a door at the end.
Holly takes her neck-ring anyway, darnit!
"Great." Garret says, unamused.
"If I were designing this place, I'd do something like have opening one door close another, to separate us. Let's see what we can do to jam the doors open."
"And I would like to mark where we've been with chalk," says Shadassa. "I sense a labyrinthine or hall-of-mirrors hint, myself. Oh, to be in an easy situation, like a burning ship on the river Styx or a collapsing sea-cavern full of aboleths."
Garret uses the backside of his axe to slam an iron spike into the frame of the open door, so that it can't close any longer.
The iron spike sticks - the first door into the two hallways won't budge.
"Well, now that is taken care of. Let's move forward. Ten foot hallways don't scare me... except when then are full of invisible ghost things, then they get kind of scary."
Garret moves into the south-facing room and gives the door a thorough sweep.
Holly trots cautiously in the back. She seems pleased that they've gotten this far, but the farther they go, the more nervous she is, switching her haunches and her falchions perpetually drawn.
"Good choice indeed, Sir Garret! Now only to find out if it is the correct one! Ha" Saren follows Garret into the room quickly and raps on the door at the far side listening for any signs of hollowness or other strange sounds.
Navigating their way through the many-doorwayed hallway, the group comes out of stasis to find themselves at the door to another room. Opening it (as it is unlocked and untrapped) reveals a long hallway. Ten feet wide, it extends ten feet to the north and fifty feet to the south. The floor of this long, wide hall is inlaid with tiles, and the walls and ceiling are painted with figures of animals and strange signs and glyphs. Humans and humanlike creatures hold painted spheres, each a different color from the next. From north to south on the western wall are the following figures:
First is a naga, holding a golden sphere over its head.
Second is a mummy holding an orange sphere at waist-height.
Third is a purple sphere held at the feet of a stooped minotaur.
Fourth is a bronze sphere held at weight height by a nymph.
Fifth is a gray sphere, thrown almost over the shoulder of an owlbear.
Sixth is a brightly colored blue sphere, held at a stooping sahuagin's feet.
Seventh is a red slaad, holding a white sphere above its head.
Eighth is a turquoise sphere being held at shoulder height by a satyr.
Ninth is a scarlet sphere being held waist high by a mind flayer.
Tenth is a pale green sphere being held at a medusa's feet.
There are more figures painted on the east wall, holding even more spheres. From north to south:
First is a pale blue sphere held at a werewolf's shoulders.
Second is a four-armed gargoyle holding a silver sphere. This sphere is actually overlaid on the door that goes into the hallways that you just exited, and is illusory.
Third is a green sphere held above the head of a half-orc.
Fourth is a pink sphere held above the head of a yuan-ti.
Fifth is a black sphere, held within the coils of the center of a hydra.
Sixth is a pale violet sphere held at shoulder height by a kuo-tua.
Seventh is a red sphere held at waist height by a skeleton.
Eighth is a buff sphere held at the feet of a white-haired wizard.
Ninth is an indigo sphere held above the head of a seemingly human woman, but who has bat wings.
All of the spheres are about a foot and a half in diameter, and all are the same size. Silence still reigns in the Tomb, and the walls and ceiling are still stone.
"I hate this already." Garret grumbles.
"We just killed a four armed gargoyle that looks like the one there over the door. I really hope that doesn't mean we're going to run into all the rest of this. I'm going to try to check these tiles."
As far as Garret can tell, not all of the spheres go anywhere, in fact many of them appear to be just paintings. Along the same vein (although just a general check can't tell what they are) some of them are more than they appear.
No immediately dangerous traps are in the area, though.
On the west wall, the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th are real walls and paintings.
On the east wall, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th are real walls and paintings.
"Yeah. I definitely hate this. Alright, first things first, floors and ceilings. Hang back while I do this."
First he attatches a rope to his climbing harness and gives the other end to the rest of the group, then he Pulls a long pole from his haversack, and proceeds to slowly check the hall for traps above and below. As he reaches areas he thinks are not simply painted walls, he marks them with chalk.
The floor and ceiling are as mundane as anything in this Tomb is - no traps or tricks or anything. It seems as though the primary point of interest in this room are the spheres.
"Looks like it's all clear to come into the hall." Garret said, pulling out a notebook. "I'm guessing this is a puzzle or a trap of some kind. Give me a little room, I'm going to start at the north end. This looks like it might take a while."
Hall of Spheres, north to south.
1
W: Naga, gold, high, possible trap
E: Werewolf, pale blue, high, paint2
W: Mummy, orange, mid, possible trap
E: Four-armed gargoyle, silver, mid, illusory (this is where the door is), paint3
W: Minotaur, purple, low, paint
E: Half-orc, green, high, paint4
W: Nymph, bronze, mid, possible trap
E: Yuan-ti, pink, high, possible trap5
W: owlbear, grey, high, paint
E: Hydra, black, mid, paint6
W: Sahuagin, blue, low, paint
E: Kua-toa, violet, high (maybe mid. kua-toa are short), possible trap7
W: Red slaad, white, high, paint
E: Skeleton, red, mid, paint8
W: Satyr, turquoise, high, paint
E: Wizard, buff, low, paint9
W: Mind Flayer, scarlet, mid, paint
E: Winged woman, indigo, high, paint10
W: Medusa, pale green, low, paint
E: nothing
Garret moves in front of the painting of the Naga and carefully inspects it.
Garret finds that the ball the naga is holding is in fact illusory, and conceals a crawlspace-tunnel that extends into darkness.
"Got a crawlspace here." he says with a furrowed brow. "Do we want to take them one by one, or should I check the rest of the orbs before we start sending things down this tunnel?"
Shadassa purses her lips.
"there could be false tunnels, or traps," she says slowly. "I say we check them all. We, and the lich, have nothing but time."
"Let's take an inventory of the rest of the spheres before we start potentially getting lost or setting off traps. I'd like to get these notes outside of this place. If we get killed, my family will come to look into things after a while. I'd like to give whoever comes next a little help."
Moving around the room, it seems as though each of the non-mundane spheres is an illusory wall concealing a crawlspace or other way farther into the Tomb. However, as soon as he reaches the painted sahuagin, he feels an intense pressure in his head. He can't see anything, but it feels like tendrils of power are trying to weave their way into his brain. At he clenches his eyes shut in an attempt to resist, the tendrils recede.
This painting is no exception - it too contains a crawlspace.
For the first time in awhile, Gralamin speaks up, and you realize that Saren and Holly have left the room. "Friends, I'm afraid it's high time that I rested. If you wish to continue, the others and I will begin setting up a base camp just outside. Feel free to join us if you like."
They move outside to set up a few tents and bedrolls and establish a watch schedule, and if anyone were to come across the Tomb, the camp is what they would find.
Garret shakes his head, steps away from the sahuagin painting and jots something in his journal.
"Give me a few minutes to finish this note up, then we'll head out."
"And stay away from this fish-man. I think it was trying to enchant me somehow."
Hall of Spheres, north to south.1
W: Naga, gold, high, Crawlspace
E: Werewolf, pale blue, high, paint2
W: Mummy, orange, mid, Crawlspace
E: Four-armed gargoyle, silver, mid, illusory (this is where the door is), paint3
W: Minotaur, purple, low, paint
E: Half-orc, green, high, paint4
W: Nymph, bronze, mid, Crawlspace
E: Yuan-ti, pink, high5
W: owlbear, grey, high, paint
E: Hydra, black, mid, Crawlspace6
W: Sahuagin, blue, low, Hostile Enchantment. Keep clear.
E: Kua-toa, violet, high (maybe mid. kua-toa are short)7
W: Red slaad, white, high, paint
E: Skeleton, red, mid, Crawlspace8
W: Satyr, turquoise, high, paint
E: Wizard, buff, low, paint9
W: Mind Flayer, scarlet, mid, paint
E: Winged woman, indigo, high, paint10
W: Medusa, pale green, low, paint
E: nothing
"Alright, I think I'm done here. Let's go."
Once outside, Garret makes two copies of his notes and keeps one with his horse. The other he puts in a case, buries and marks with a large rock, which he paints his family crest on.
Then he makes a fire, puts on a kettle and a pot that he fills with the makings of a soup.
Once dinner prep is underway he takes off his armor, strips most of the way down for a field bath involving hot water and a rag, then changes his clothes and lays down while he waits for dinner to finish cooking.
He performs all these tasks with the efficiency of a career soldier, his axe never out of reach.
As Sir Garret lays down and waits for dinner there's something not quite right in the air.. His horse stirs and the tiny hairs on his neck stand up. All the sudden theres a smell of sulphur in the air and you immediatetly know you are not alone..
From the outskirts of the camp you hear a soft, but sharp voice..
"Do not be alarmed for i am not a foe, to you anyways.. May i approach?" She awaits a response..
"Reveal yourself, if you are as you say," says Shadassa, scanning with magic detection and ready to unleash flame.