Drovic steps up to the building.Can any of you read what it says He asks while circling the building looking for an alternate way in , afterward he says Scotty get to the roof and see if you can find a way in, or at least a thin part of the roof to break through. It would be faster than trying to clear away the mess in front of the door. Oh and tie yourself to something first I would hate for you to fall through a weakspot, I would have to climb my way up rather than climb up a rope Untrusting of his allies' chances Drovic begins trying to move the obstruction with pure strength.
Scanning his brain through the hazy drunken nights back topside in town, he tries to recall ever hearing tale of this chamber.
Oddly enough, Scotty has no second-hand knowledge of this particular sub-section of the massive forgotten metropolis. Even if he did, he's not 100% sure where he is at the moment, having been led to this spot by a rat of dubious trustworthiness. Not being a dwarf, the buildings also all look suspiciously similar to him.
"Hmm.... this place seems familiar... I believe I may have heard some adventurers mention something like this back in town."
Scotty has heard many bar stories of adventure. Approximately 1% were told by actual adventurers, and 1% of those were true.
"So... I would suggest you think real hard about the next thing you say, because, for your sake, I really hope its some information I can use, not just a rat leading me into a dead end!"
"This is the treasure house. Where the shiny things live. Says up top. The Ratticus told you, needs big help. Big ones move the rocks, treasure for everyone."
Can any of you read what it says He asks while circling the building looking for an alternate way in perception: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (19) - 1 = 18.
The building is seamless and you can't find so much as a crack outside the area of the entrance.
Untrusting of his allies' chances Drovic begins trying to move the obstruction with pure strength. Str check: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8.
Still wet and tired from the slog over here, Drovic makes slow but steady progress removing some of the obstructing stones. If you all worked together you could likely clear the debris in a matter of hours.
Scotty, feeling embarrassed by his stabs in the dark (pun half-intended) at attempting to figure anything out. He thinks to himself:
Stupid, Scotty. You're a man of the sea! Stop trying to charm these fools with knowledge you don't even have. Only the little kobold cares to listen to you anyways.
He sees Drovic slowly trying to push around the rocks. He decides he really doesn't feel like pushing giant rocks and rubble around, so he heeds his ally's advice and pulls his rope out of his pack.
He ties it up to himself, and then scampers up to the roof, taking his time and being careful not to make too much noise.
Scotty is able to scale the roof without too much trouble. The walls are sheer but the use of the rope makes the climb fairy routine. The roof is domed, but Scotty is able to to crawl up onto the ledge and pull himself onto it.
The building is larger and taller than any of the others around it, and Scotty imagines that, if he weren't relying on the light of a Sunrod, he'd be able to see a large portion of this level from here.
The roof seems pretty sturdy. A determined enough adventurer with a pick or a hammer might be able to chip their way through, but it would be hard labor and a long job.
Jamako opens his mouth, giving the rat an accusing expression, but the Rat manages to defend himself promptly. Looking up, indeed the kobold had no idea what the signage said. He mumbles a moment and makes a gesture as his hand passes before his eyes. He looks at the sign suspiciously then sighs. Then harumphs. Should've taken more man-things. Moving these rocks will take the pointy-ears all day! The kobold pauses a moment to count on his fingers, then shrugs and with a disappointed sigh moves to the rubble pile to try his hand at moving a rock.
Detect Magic.
The lettering is completely mundane, as is as much of the rest of the building that is caught in your spell's effect.
Jamako lacks the strength of his larger companions, but he is able to remove small stones to allow Drovic to focus on the larger ones. Between the two of them they begin to make meaningful progress clearing the entrance.
Jamako, quick to bore and quicker to tire, isn't long in giving up straining himself to push around pebbles. He gives the daunting pile of rubble another displeased glare. If only he had some sort of spell to deal with this.. or more minions. He repeats his mumble and gesture from before, this time maintaining the effect to give the entire building a thorough investigation.
Seeing that his allies lack the ability to help him much he continues to shovel rock with his bare hands. Occasionally tying his rope around a particularly heavy piece of rock to drag it away. Seeing that he has begun to make decent headway Drovic pauses to make a mental list of what he will need if he is going back into this pit.
Crowbar, Cheesewire for Scotty because he won't expect me to do close work, a Hammer, Pickaxe, some inhaled poison for the fire when DR. and Jamako are sleeping so I can sit back and watch them die, paper and ink for an ad for new adventurers, drow poison on the wire would be good and I know a dealer, oh one of those grappling arrows would be good to.
Jamako if you aren't going to move the rocks at least acid splash a few of them into smaller pieces. Scotty a hand down here.
"Well done, strange Ratticus!" Dr. Silver does not help move things.
Scotty will give one last glance around up in the roof, and then climb down.
Rejoining the group, he will untie himself from the rope and begin helping move the rubble.
"didn't see any way in up there, but the building seeme pretty huge. Bigger than the rest around here. But then again, I don't have eyes that some dude gave me in a deep hell hole of a prison so... Uh... well, I can't see in the dark is what I'm sayin."
"Your metaphors are deeply complicated, Mr. the Blade."
Drovic pounces on Scottys mistake easily.
Oh Scotty this talk of your failing saddens me. But we all face challenges, I will use my far superior eyes to look around on top of the roof. You stay here and dig out the door.
Drovic quickly climbs up the rope and does a quick search of the top of the building and the surrounding street. He sees nothing of interest on the roof and sits down by the edge waiting for Scotty to run out of curses.
"well, I do what I can. You know how it is. So tell me doctor, what exactly is this The Beyond. I've heard many a strange take in my travels, but until I met you, is never heard of it. Spooky stuff."
He turns to Drovik with a smirk,
hey big man, did you find all sorts of cool things up there? No? How odd."
Drovic and Scotty, under the hands-off supervision of Doc Silver, continue to remove the rubble while Jamako walks around the perimeter of the building checking for magic, secret doors, or other hidden points of interest. In typical dwarven fashion the building has no windows, and there are no other way in that you can find. Jamako does, however, faintly sense some source of magic through the walls. It's beyond the typical range of his spell but he can sense a few sources of magic through the stone. It's too faint to pin it down, however.
Scotty's sunrod is just shy of hitting hour four, hanging from his belt as he moves a stone, right as Drovic pulls an especially large boulder free with a rope. The removal of this stone finally breaches all the way through the rubble. The hole is small, maybe just large enough for Jamako to squeeze through, but it's evidence of serious progress.
At that moment, sensing his opportunity, Ratticus suddenly springs into action and fires towards the door. Scotty and Drovic have their hands too full to react in time, but luckily Dr. Silver was totally not being lazy and was actually keeping his hands free in case something like this happened.
Dr. Silver runs up behind the little bastard and grabs him with both hands, but the creature twists and squirms, and manages to wrench itself free of his grasp. It dashes to the entrance and through the hole without even slowly down.
"Oh, son of a.... Jamako you get in there and you grab him! Jamako!? Dammit, I knew this would happen. Never trust a rat, I guess."
He will then start hurriedly trying to remove more of the rubble so the larger folks can squeeze in and kill that trait!
Silver summon something in there that can kill the rat and make sure it can see in the dark.
Drovic shouts as his rage fuels a desperate attempt to move the rocks in his way. A surprisingly massive upsurge in power fills him as he pushes at the rocks.
Thank you Andirifkhu I will skin the rat alive in your name.
[ooc]oh hell yeah critical strength check[ooc]
Jamako returns to the front entrance just as the others break through with a small gap through the rubble. I sense magic inside, minion did good! He blinks as the rat-thing bolts inside, then grins. Ah! Excellent work man-things. I'll go with minion to scout our treasure, try to find the magic ones. With that, he follows inside.
"SO BE IT, RATTICUS! MEET YOUR FATE AT THE HANDS OF THE SSSHLKAAAKSOR OF Castrovel!"
The Doctor conjures an advanced celestial eagle, FROM BEYOND!!!!
Jamako doesn't even have time to squeeze through the hole when Drovic, seething with a rage only an offended Drow can know, removes the single largest boulder by grabbing it and tossing it aside, leaving enough room for the rest of you to follow.
Those of you with Darkvision are struck by how well you can see inside the building, so perfectly is it designed for darkvision. Every angle and every curve are precisely placed to enhance darkvision. Everyone's effective Darkvision is doubled while inside the building.
The entrance leads into what appears to be some kind of lobby, dominated by four giant statues of ornately armed and armored dwarves that serve as columns. There are also many smaller dwarf-sized metal statues embedded into the walls, almost like bas reliefs. The effect is powerful.
There are three large archways in the hallway leading into different rooms, each with the same style of dwarven lettering as the entrance above them. The archways lead North, East and West. None of you have any idea what they say.
Through the doorway to the north you can see the room is centered around a giant (literally, as in sized for a giant) battleaxe. It is half lodged in a stone dias, and has some kind of plaque. There seem like there may be other displays in the room but you can't see any detail from where you are.
Through the doorway to the east you can see rows of statues. Those of you with darkvision catch that the statues are made of a higher quality of stone than the column statues.
All you can see through the doorway to the west is that there is an engraved wall depicting a massive battle between dwarves and drow.
You see no sign of the dirty rat (okay, technically he's pretty clean right now). He's small enough that there are hundreds of potential hiding places.
"SO BE IT, RATTICUS! MEET YOUR FATE AT THE HANDS OF THE SSSHLKAAAKSOR OF Castrovel!"
The Doctor conjures an advanced celestial eagle, FROM BEYOND!!!!
The eagle from BEYOND begins to circle the air, looking for the rat.
It screeches to communicate the fact that it has not caught sight of the rat.
Jamako hops to the side in time to narrowly avoid a horrific death involving a boulder much larger than himself. Rushing inside he takes a moment to look around curiously and take everything in. After the original glamor has worn off he scowls, giving a shifty-eyed look about. Minion! Where are you? And where's my treasure? He harumphs, a gout of smoke expelled from his nostrils. Trying to guesstimate where he had detected the magic auras earlier, he begins searching for the source.
You couldn't summon something with scent could you. Search the floor it could have left tracks.
Drovic looks for any sign of the creature with his now 240 ft vision
Not seeing the beast he searches for its tracks through the no doubt dusty floor and walls. failing at that he looks about the room to see if there are any paths the creature could climb up like a air vent.
You couldn't summon something with scent could you. Search the floor it could have left tracks.
Drovic looks for any sign of the creature with his now 240 ft vision [dice=Perception]1d20-1
Not seeing the beast he searches for its tracks through the no doubt dusty floor and walls. [dice=survival]1d20-1 failing at that he looks about the room to see if there are any paths the creature could climb up like a air vent.
There are holes that could be air vents, except that they lead downward instead of up and out. Most of them, however, look too small for the somewhat bloated rat to travel through (although you have no idea how small this thing can squish itself).
Detect Magic used with reckless abandon.
There's magic everywhere up in this b+!%#. Concentrating for a round Jamako senses at least a dozen magical auras. The most powerful is a moderate aura through the north archway.
"Well, gents, it looks like the bastard rat (or is he a rat bastard?) led us to some sort of museum, or a treasure room. Whatever it is, my loot senses are tingling."
He greedily rubs his hands together, dollar signs in his eyes.
"The Raticus may have tried to screw us.... but it may have paid off following him. Anyways, let's find him and kill him."
Keeping one blade in his hand, and pulling his sunrod out with his other (2 hours left?), he takes a look about, checking out the statues in the wall and looking for any displays or obvious signs of something valuable.
Keeping one blade in his hand, and pulling his sunrod out with his other (2 hours left?), he takes a look about, checking out the statues in the wall and looking for any displays or obvious signs of something valuable.
[dice=Perception]1d20 + 6
[dice=Appraise]1d20 + 6
The statues are very well made, crafted of many intricate pieces instead of carved from a single hunk of metal and are possibly hollow as a result. You could probably sell them for a pretty penny up top if you could justify to yourself dragging one of the things all the way to Dead Hero's Drop then hauling it up. You figure you could get at least 250 gp for one of these things, maybe a cool grand if you could find the right dwarven collector. You'd have to pry them from the wall though.
The columns, on the other hand, ain't going nowhere. They're solid stone. Even if moving one didn't cause the ceiling to collapse, none of you could carry one and nobody in their right mind would buy one. If by some twist of fate and madness you did get one up top to sell, you could probably sell it to the right collector, but the price would be highly situational.
Looking around for displays, Scotty finds himself drawn to the north archway and the giant's axe. Inside the room are six additional displays, each containing a weapon (although these are dwarf-sized) and each with a plaque in Old Dwarf, that it looks like maybe someone put a lot of thought and effort into, which you can't read. So they might just as well not exist.
The displays are as follows (you can have a closer look at any of them). They all strike you as magic, or at least important.
The closest display to the right is a short-sword with a matching dagger. They are silvery and every inch of them are covered in heiroglyphics that you can't read (but you know enough to tell that they're a different language). To the left it is a black metal staff topped with a ruby cut into the shape of a perfect spider.
Further back and to the right is black longsword made of no kind of material you've ever heard of but which looks chitinous. To the left is a highly ornate and bejeweled disc, likely the holy symbol for some deity or other. This thing is dripping with wealth. You could conceivably get 1000 gp for this thing from a collector (although the component materials won't fetch half that).
Finally, in the two cases at the back, to the right is a nasty looking bastard sword with a black blade and a purple hilt. To the left is a musket (you think) made of what you can only presume are humanoid bones and other mummified body parts.
Once again, you can't read the plaques, which probably detail the rich and intricate histories of these weapons and give you a clue whether it's okay to put them in your mouth.
At once, the beautiful dagger catches Scotty's eye. He becomes mesmerized by it, slowly stepping closer to admire it.
"It's.... so pretty... I must have it!"
He will take a minute to examine the case, checking to see if it is trapped.
Jamako wanders in the direction of the most powerful auras sensed, pausing in the room moments before Scotty to look around curiously at what appear to be weapon cases. He moves closer to the metallic staff to inspect it more closely. See! Minion did good! Such a good minion. I have good taste. The kobold grins triumphantly.
Drovic is aught between resuming his hunt for the rat. Realizing the hole behind him is not very large Drovic pulls out his bedroll and uses it to cover the gap. Tying his fork knife and spoon together and stabbing the fork in the middle of the bed roll Drovic makes a crude sound trap. Drovic then looks around at the items for a then detects good on all of them besides the holy item but especially the statues. If nothing jumps out at him he will take 20 for 19 looking for the rats trail.
Dr. Silver goes about the room, looking at all the goodies.
The cases do not appear to be trapped, from what Scotty can tell.
Scotty casually plays with the lock for a bit, before gaining more respect for it. Then (taking 10) he redoubles his efforts and the case snaps open with an audible "click".
Meanwhile, Jamako detects a faint aura of magic on the case, and a moderate aura coming from the staff. Indeed all of the cases seem to be mildly enchanted.
Drovic sneers at the display cases while detecting for good. Nothing, it reads as clean as the Underdark. He avoids detecting the Holy Symbol but does notice that it is the symbol of the Drow goddess Lolth. This was a very important deity to the Drow during the days of the Elven Civil War, when they were known as the Dark Elves, but the pantheon has expanded somewhat since then.
Drovic is just about to start looking for the rat again when he notices the bastard sword at the back. He almost can't believe his eyes. Drovic doesn't need to be able to read the plaque to know what he is looking at: it is Gil-Vrockrist, the least of the 13 legendary Demon Swords forged by the ancient Dark Elves to use in the Elven Civil War. Each sword hilt was made from the body of a different type of demon. Gil-Vrockrist is supposed to be held in the ancestral vault of the ruling House in Drovic's home city, but instead here it is on display in a filthy Dwarven museum as though it was a trophy.
Dr. Silver examines each of the weapons as closely as possible without touching them. He is as certain as he can be without magic that they are all enchanted, and likely what those trapped in the paradigm of binary morality would describe as "evil". None of them are blessed with the power of the BEYOND, but they do have a lesser power all their own.
Eyes gleaming, Scotty careful picks up the knife, examining the blade with the gentle persistence of a secret lover. He calls over to Jamako:
"Hey, little buddy, you don't think these cases are enchanted with an alarm spell or anything like that do ya? Ah, doesn't matter.'
Jamako frowns as he detects a faint magic aura in the display case, curiosity taking him to the staff. Hearing a click behind him he wheels around, claws extending as he calls out in an alarming tone Cases are enchanted! He almost goes limp in defeat as he notices it's too late.. before looking at the case he stood at suspiciously. Unsuccessful at first glance, he pauses to inspect it and ponder it carefully, determined to glean into its purpose.
Cases are enchanted!
Jamako shouts, but he is either too late or the pirate ignores his warning. Scotty picks up the knife. It feels wonderful in his hand, perfectly weighted and smooth to the touch. Already is seems like an extension of his body. Scotty has never owned anything made of the metal before, but he recognizes it instantly: mithril.
Scotty is suddenly overcome by the feeling that he should own the short sword too, but he quickly recognizes the thought as not his own. Scotty was always more of a knife man. Nice try, magic dagger, you're going to have to do better than that.
Seconds after Scotty picks up the knife, you can all hear a loud noise coming from the lobby. Ta-chink ta-chink ta-chink. It almost sounds like someone winding up a giant pocketwatch.
Nice try, magic dagger, you're going to have to do better than that.
Deciding not to mar the perfectness of his new favorite thing ever (The dagger. He loves it), Scotty carefully tucks it into his pack, and pulls out his butterfly-knives. *flippity flip*.
"Well... oops. Right off the bat, I'm gonna go ahead and apologize. Whatever that sound is, it's probably my fault. But, hey! I got a really pretty knife. Maybe one of you magical fellas could tell me what kinds of cool stuff it does? There's a short sword too, if anyone wants that. Oh, and you're all welcome. For being cool and picking the locks."
Reacting with almost supernatural speed, Silver directs his alien bird to find the disturbance and grabs the musket. If this be some mechanical monsteocity my arrows would be useless!
Drovic spend a good deal of time giving on last longing look at Gil-Vrockrist feeling deep down that just smashing the container and stealing it would set of a different trap. Just looking away almost exhausts him. Ah, well I should deal with this one first then get the blade. He walks over to the center of the room while pulling out his great sword. He stands in the center of the room prepared to defend him self from all angles.
"ah, what the hell?"
Scotty reaches into the case and also grabs the short sword.
"I guess they probably belong together right?
He then strains to identify what that noise was.
Jamako's attempt to identify the magics involved, evidently, are disturbed. His head whips towards the entrance and the sound of impending doom, eyes widening as his claws take a moment to fidget. An eye twitches. This is how Jamako dies. He stays near his case, trying to hide behind it as he waits to see what's come to kill them.
The Doc calls out for his bird, but it slipped away back to THE BEYOND while his attention was elsewhere. He smashes the gun case with his elbow and retrieves the grisly looking musket.
Before he can react, the gun sucks about a pint of blood straight out through his skin. The Doc had tons more where that came from (he always makes sure he had plenty of blood) but it's still unnerving. The change in the weight of the gun afterwards leaves little doubt as to where this vital fluid went.
The Doc can also tell that the gun wants him to hate dwarves, but actually he is fairly ambivalent about them.
Jamako's finely honed cowardice allows him to leap into action at the first sign of danger and cower behind cover.
Scotty has no trouble putting the knife away, even through he can tell it doesn't like it. Then he grabs the short sword anyway. It would be a shame to waste a perfectly good evil short sword.
Drovic moves to the center of the room and puts his back to the giant axe. He raises his sword in a defensive posture.
Scotty doesn't need to strain to tell what the source of the noise is; seconds later you can see them. The metal statues from the lobby have come to life. You hate when that happens. Six of them are clunking and lumbering 2-by-2 through the doorway towards you. The middle two are just inside the doorway, and the other two rows are one square up and one square back respectively. Drovic, in the center is 30 ft. away from the front two dwarves. Scotty is also 30 ft. away and to the side. Jamako is 20 ft. away but can make a Stealth check if he likes to stay hidden. The doc, at the back with the gun case, is 50 ft. away.
Drovic charges at them with all of the burning hatred in his heart for dwarfs so upset in fact that he seems to forget that his enemies are constructs and not dwarfs. Using an attack pattern drilled into him by his mentor that guy shouldn't have tried beating his lessons into me he kicks out at the enemy only to end up with a standing construct and off balance from his charge.
The sniveling kobolds eyes widen with concern as he peeks around the edge of the case he was behind. ... Oh dear. Oh dear. When he hears the shattering of glass behind him he ducks back behind the case fully as an idea strikes him. Staying out of sight, he makes a few gestures with a hand while his face strains with an intense scream that not a soul can hear.
Dr. Silver encants and a shimmering, starfield shield appears before him.
Seeing the metal statues sauntering towards him, Scotty tightens his grip on his butterfly knives and braces his feet for a sudden burst of speed.
He shouts out to the group:
"Ah ha! Nothing like the classics, eh? Don't worry, gents, this isn't my first time encountering weird stuff in holes like this. Let's dismantle these things and get out with this treasure before something else gets alerted to us."
With a quick snap, Scotty digs his feet into the grounds and kicks off. With a flash like lightning, he charges towards the nearest statue, blades flashing. *Flicka flip*.
The Doc makes supplications to THE BEYOND, and it rewards him with blessings of protection.
Jamako continues to try to remain out of sight, but he let's out a scream that nobody can hear. Unfortunately for him they can hear the glass shattering and he gives away his position.
Scotty charges the nearest statue and strikes out with his butterfly knife. The weapon scrapes across the construct's metal skin, throwing sparks but causing no apparent harm to it.
Drovic, too, rushes a nearby statue, the one Scotty did not. He attacks with a classic Drow formation, but the statue catches the sword in it's hand, deflecting the attack almost like a shield.
Both statues lash out at their attackers, but their clumsy movements allow Drovic and Scotty to dodge the attacks. The other statues are blocked by those in front and unable to move up.
Jamako cringes at the sound of exploding glass, reaching up to snatch the staff before hurrying towards the back of the room. On his way, he pauses near where the man-things had engaged with the possessed armor to take advantage of the positioning. A quick mumble followed by a breathy, almost roar-like exhale, his gesturing hands moving up near his exhale. Anybody watching would quickly deduce that he was trying to emulate breathing fire.
Round 2
Scotty gives a vicious snarl.
"Damn, I can't punch through its armor!
He will give a nod to Drovik, making sure he stays in place. Then, he will jump and roll, somersaulting his way into flanking position behind the statue Drovik hit.
Once in position, he will unleash another attack with his knife.
Shaking his head at Scotty's foolishness Drovic shouts
Scotty get back here I need a warm body holding them at this door. we don't want them turning those artifacts on us. You are know surrounded by four of them instead of two you twit. If your little knife is bouncing of use the sword you just stole. Turning his head toward Jamako he shouts and you be careful with that fire.
Drovic stares at the clicking dwarf and raises his sword overhead for a powerful downward slash.
Jamako cringes at the sound of exploding glass, reaching up to snatch the staff. He hesitates only briefly to coddle it before whipping his gaze to the explosion of combat at the doorway. He extends out a hand, gesturing with it as he mutters and glares, firing a ray of frost at the nearest construct (Lets say.. the one Drovic is face to face with).
Edit:
Instead of foolishly jumping into the middle of a circle of living statues that want to kill me, I will whip out my good ol' trusty blue boomerang and throw it at the one of the constructs (The one Drovik didn't hit, staying by the case 30' away.)
bludgeoning damage.
"I just had this thought, fellas. That I decided to be cool and ninja flip into the middle of these armored living statues, and then they killed me really dead. It was horrible. I don't want to die, guys. Not before we get all this loot!"
Further edit:
Doing an epic backflip to avoid AoO while leaving threatened area. Moving backwards 30' away from creatures. then throwing boomerang from safe place.