Tekk eyes Karozekas and grunts, "It's the armor. Adds a few pounds."
Morin happily shinnies back up the rope to the roof, and as the group discusses how to make the descent, offers up "If we're going to be lowering folks, we should lower Tekk first - it'll take all of us to hold him up. On the other hand, I could take a moment and put some bowlines on bights in the line - for you landlubbers, that means there will be loops in the rope you kin grab onto - and we could use the rope to climb up and down more easily. Could even anchor it at the bottom, make it almost like a ladder."
Looking around, Morin offers one other thought, "Does it make sense to have someone stay up here and keep an eye out? Wouldn't do to have someone cut that rope while we're all down below. Perhaps Sarusa's fine frog friend, or Corvus, could stay, if none of the rest of us want to?"
"Gellig is an excellent watch-frog," says Sarusa.
With Gellig standing watch, the rest of the party makes the descent into the mausoleum using knotted ropes.
The overcast sky above provides scant light for those inside. Those without the aid of low-light or darkvision can barely make out a raised dais with a massive, square block of stone squatting atop it like some crude idol, obscure symbols carved into the stone.
Those with low-light vision fare a bit better, and can make out two rows of featureless stone sarcophagi, five on a side, marching towards the entrance, where a massive stone wedge blocks the doorway to the graveyard.
Near to the rear wall, several squares of flagstone have been pulled up, revealing a dark tunnel into the earth below.
Tekkis' eyes easily take in the details, while the rest of you make do with what little illumination penetrates this crypt.
Tekk describes what he sees for everyone before moving toward the raised dias to look at the stone block and the symbols.
"Ah. An altar.. of some sort, then...?"
Chloe asks, running her hands along the sarcophagi to make sure they were shut and still.
"I'd like to s-see it, in a minute..."
Sarusa reaches out with her spirit senses.
"No objections to some magical light, my friends?" Sarusa finds herself whispering in the gloom.
"I should have studied more about these kinds of structures," says Sarusa with a scowl.
"I don't th-think anyone here is... is judging you, Sarusa."
Chloe chuckles, reacting the scowl heard in the half-elf's voice.
"I don't mind... the light idea... I can provide, if you cannot."
Morin begins to walk over to the rear wall, where the flagstones have been pulled back, then pauses and turns to Sarusa and Chloe, saying "As much magic light as you can muster, I'd say. If there's another of them devil-dogs lurking about, I don't want to find it by having its teeth in me, like I did the first time out, I'd rather be coasting by a lee shore with not a scrap of sail showing."
Karo digs around in his pack and removes a continually shining torch. Here is some light. he says handing it whoever takes it.
Tekkis finds that the block is solid stone, six feet long, four feet tall, and perhaps 3 feet wide. The carved symbols trace all around the altar, six inches from the top.
Let this place serve as a beacon of rest for all wandering spirits. May the departed find comfort and succor here, and trouble the living no more. By Ashava, moonlight dancer, let it be so.
Sarusa's spirit senses do not detect any abnormal vibrations or distortions in the aether now that the corpse pack has been destroyed.
Chloe feels along the ten sarcophagi, all of which are closed, and do not move when she pushes them gently.
Karozekas' torch greatly aids Morin in his search of the pit. There are several paw prints in the mud, each roughly the size and shape of a wolf's paw.
Sarusa casts Light on her club. "Does anyone have a crowbar? Or should we just sprinkle some salt and leave?"
Karo digs around in his backpack and removes a crowbar. I have one, a hammer too, if needed. Karo then takes the torch and goes over to inspect the idol, forget that he still has the crowbar in hand.
"There is nothing otherworldly that I detect here," says Sarusa.
"So, do we disturb the dead? I'm rather curious as to why these dogs were here. Perhaps the coffins are coincidental; perhaps not."
"Wow, Karo, you've got everything in that pack of yours!" laughs Morin. "Do you have a book that will translate the writing on the altar?"
Hearing Sarusa's question, he pauses. "You mean open the coffins? You said you don't detect anything...wrong? I guess that means the devil-dogs' master isn't sleeping in one of them, waiting for us to come knocking, eh? Unless there's some secret door or something that we're missing somewhere, opening up a coffin or two seems the only way to learn a bit more about what's going on here. Speaking of secret doors, I wonder if this altar has any hidden surprises..."
Distracted by the idea, Morin uses Karo's everburning torch to carefully inspect the altar on all sides and on top, high and low.
Morin spots some scratches in the stone of the dais to one side of the altar, but finds nothing else of interest.
"Secret... doors? I've adventured a.. a few times... never found one... but.. there might be a first time for everything,"
Chloe moves to run her hands along the walls, humming as she makes her way around the crypt.
"Not wrong, my dear Morin, just overlapping on many levels of existence along the plenum," says Sarusa with a laugh. "Um...like a deep sea creature come to the surface at night. It leaves a...ripple. Strong enough forces leave permanent marks, or almost permanent. Anyhow."
She wedges the crowbar under the nearest coffin.
"Say when."
"Ummm, when?"
"Uh, Chloe?"
"Hm? Yes, Morin?" the oracle asks, obviously not as aware of her surroundings as she should be.
"Well, lass, Sarusa's about to pry open one of these sarcophaggin things, and I figured I oughta let you know. When ye need sails mended, ye call the sailmaker, when you need a cannon trued, ye call the gunner or his mate, when ye're about to open a coffin, ye call someone like you, who can do a whole bunch a harm to the kind of baddies we're like to find in a coffin, and keep us a bit safer meantime."
These words bring a smile to Chloe's face. After all, who doesn't like to feel needed? even so, her body language proves her discomfort with opening coffins to begin with. However, as long as no desecration or robbing occurs, she won't complain. Her companions only wished to ensure safety and purity on the sacred grounds.
"A-alright. I'll be on standby."
Chloe waits by the sarcophogi for Sarusa's results.
"If we can have some weapons drawn, my friends."
Chloe reluctantly pulls out her morning star, knowing that the party could well be doomed if they had to depend on her melee abilities. However, a morale boost is better than none, and if Sarusa said to ready weapons, Chloe will hold one out.
"D-do you need help with the crowbar...?"
Tekkis hefts his mattock and grunts sarcastically at Sarusa.
Karo is deep in study of the crude idol.
Morin will draw his swords and stand by Tekkis, ready to set up a deadly flanking duo. Or get behind him. Depending.
Sarusa works the crowbar until the stone lid of the sepulchre comes free. She slides the heavy cap to the side, where it reveals a dessicated, nearly skeletal corpse. It is hard to tell where the rotted strips of cloth end, and its decayed yellow skin begins. Its arms are crossed, and a tarnished silver coin rests over each eye. A hint of putrescence fills the air, but all else in the tomb is still.
"I wouldn't touch anything," says Sarusa.
Thick copper and silver band with a marquise-cut, pink and white striped stone (Rhodochrosite) total value = 34gp, stone value = 19gp
Sarusa's keen senses, both mundane and supernatural lead her to the conclusion that these skeletal remains are quite dead, and have been so for a long time. The dry conditions and lack of air in the sealed stone crypt has mummified the corpse, instead of allowing it to decay as it would in the ground. She also spots a tarnished ring of silver and copper around one of the corpse's fingers, with a marquise cut stone of banded pink and white.
Karo continues to examine the stone, feeling the surface, with his fingers delicately tracing the runes. He searches for any clues pertaining to the vague and it's purpose.
"So, Sarusa, not touchin' anything probably means we're leaving the shinies where they are? That's a fancy little ring he...or she...is wearing. Are we going to check the other boxes too? I tell ya, bury me at sea any time over this - rotting away in a box while undead dogs play at being moles, ruckin' up the floor of yer fancy stone house."
Looking over at Karo as he peers at the altar, Morin calls out quietly "See anything interesting there? Still looking for a secret opening or something? Let me know if you want a hand, I've learnt a thing or two about getting things open in my...well, uh, anyway, I might be able to help, ya know?"
Arousing from his study, Karo looks up. What's that.. well yes I would accept any help that is offered. The meaning of all this is escaping me. Karo says, a little crestfallen at his failure to comprehend.
Morin sheathes his swords and steps over to Karo's side as he examines the altar. "Sometimes folk are mighty tricky about how they design these things, and sometimes it's pretty obvious. And sometimes it's obvious once you've found it, hindsight bein' so sharp and all," say Morin, as begins to push and pull on the eyes, nose, ears, and whatever other identifiable features he can discern on the face-like carving on the altar. He pushes both eyes, then each one separately, and tries similar patterns on the other features. Then he attempts to shift and rotate the altar itself, muttering "Maybe the whole thing's gimbal-mounted, or it could sit like a rudder, with its gudgeons hooked onto a pintle down below there...
"I'm not here to rob graves; let us close this one up and check the others." She nods respectfully at the mummy and closes the cover by manipulating the crowbar carefully.
She moves on to the next one, waiting to ensure she has an armed escort.
Sarusa has no trouble resealing the stone coffin.
There is no response to Morin's various pokes, pulls and prods, but when he attempts to shift the altar itself, it gives about six inches, moving in the direction of the scrapes on the stone that he noticed before.
A small crack appears on one side of the floor below the altar, hinting at at pit under the stone revealed by the shifted block, and an ominous click, as though some large gear had engaged, sounds through the crypt.
Sarusa hops on top of the coffin. "'Ware the floor! These won't fall into any pit trap, I reckon."
Morin leaps onto the altar he's standing next to, declaring "It does rotate on pintles! Just as I thought!"
Chloe frowns at the mention of what to do with a dead Morin when he goes into his spiel about the preference of being buried at sea. Granted, he'd made things perfectly clear, but with the group far from out of danger and the near-result of the last battle, the healer fails to see any humor in the words, despite the ever-chipper intonation that followed them.
"Ah... Sarusa, which coffin next...?" Chloe follows and prepares her action once more to cure any undead rising, only to be surprised by the room's mechanisms whirring.
"Wha?!" she asks loudly, grabbing onto Sarusa's chosen coffin for dear life.
"Grab on to my arms, Chloe!" Sarusa drops the crowbar on the coffin lid and hauls up Chloe by the forearms.
Chloe does her best to assist the druid in pulling her up. She huddles up against Sarusa, eyes staring vacantly into the darkness.
"Corbyn?! Did you grab something!"
Relief splits onto the oracle's face as she realizes the exiled marine is in no real danger whatsoever.
"S-something tripped down here, a machine of sorts! Sarusa.. and Morin... they jumped on top of things, so I thou-"
You cling to the raised stones in the mausoleum for several tense moments, but no pits open beneath your feet. No poisoned darts fly towards you, nor do ghoulish horrors emerge to feast on your flesh. All is quiet, except for your own ragged breathing.