Although disabling magical traps is often complicated and dangerous, due to the degraded state of this one, Chana is actually correct in her guess. Amandine is able to disarm the trap by carefully erasing the almost imperceptible lines painted upon the iron door. Furthermore, her mental fortitude holds fast and she is able to shield herself from any accidental discharge while attending to her task.
Once the danger is dispatched, you carefully open the iron door to reveal a ten-foot wide hallway beyond. It leads north for roughly forty feet before abruptly ending in a wall of dirt and broken wood. Bits of dust and rock fall from the collapsed ceiling ahead, suggesting that it remains somewhat unstable.
Another door sits on the western side of this abbreviated hallway, perhaps offering a route around this collapse.
Now on edge, Chana carefully inspects the path ahead for immediate hazards. She also checks the collapse itself in case she can find any sign of what might have sat in this direction before the ceiling gave way.
If she can find any openings that might be big enough for a dire rat to crawl through, she makes note of them.
With a shake of her head she turns her attention to the side door. "Anyone else hoping this door isn't for a closet?"
Chana opens the west-ward door.
Amandine takes a couple of minutes to reassure the nobles they are escorting. She explains they were subject to a magical trap, not a bout of insanity or delusion, that the trap has now been rendered harmless, and that it is perfectly safe to approach and enter the hallway through the door.
She then herds them through to the hallway after Chana.
Amandine's reassurances calm the nobles, still shaken by the recent magical ordeal. The confidence she projects spreads to them, even if only ever so slightly, and they are ready to move again. Malphene offers her own haughty albeit less effective encouragement, particularly focusing her criticism upon Zubari.
"My father honored you as his guest; act like you deserve it," she chastises the Abadaran as she helps him to his feet.
In the partially collapsed hallway, Chana carefully picks her way forward, warily watching suspicious patches of the cracked ceiling.
Chana tests the door and finds that its old hinges are somewhat stuck, so it will require a bit of effort to open. Unfortunately, as she jostles the door, larger bits of stone and old wood tumble down from the ceiling. The passage is still unstable, and applying enough force to open the door could disturb the damaged architecture enough to call down a heavy shower of stones upon you.
Chana pauses in front of the collapse, tugging at her dress.
'Wot you finkin' Snips? Wonna take a peek? Split if that guy's there, yeah?'
She sends currents of curiosity through her empathic link between her and her familiar, Snips. Then, when her familiar starts moving, she covers his movements by crouching next to the debris.
Snips sniffs at the air and scurries, spiraling down Chana's arm and down to the ground. With a barely audible squeak, he looks back at her, rolls his beady eyes, and heads on into the rat-sized tunnel for a quick look-see.
While he's looking around, Chana gets up and looks over her shoulder. "A bunch of nooks and crannies in this collapse, big enough for our immortal rat to have gotten by. Too small for us though... we'll have to manage with the death-trap over there." She waves at the side door.
"Anyone have some kinda trick to get this door open? Because I don't fancy gettin' stuck underneath 'nother collapse."
Amandine walks closer to the doorway and begins to look around carefully at the wall surrounding the door, as well as the ceiling and side walls.
Step one, is this rigged as a deadfall trap or is this a natural structural failure?
Step two, where exactly has the structure been compromised and how badly?
As she examines the area, Amandine begins thinking back to Malaprop's Literary Esoterica, the bookstore where she's worked for so long.
Basement, Row 14, Far end, bottom shelf, book with grey fabric cover, "Principles of Architecture" pages 43-47 on load bearing structures. Three books to the right, green cover looks like it once molded a bit, "Basic Masonry" pages 110-111 on wooden superstructures...
Books on such subjects were hardly ever of interest to the shop's cliental. Amandine had found their aisle, tucked away down in the basement and rarely visited, a good place to have an undisturbed lunch when she wanted it and things were busy. It was also a good place to hide when certain odious customers showed up, such as the one "chymist" who constantly invited her to come have tea at his place. She was perfectly aware of his book-buying habits, which sniffed around the edges of necromantic subjects. He smelled strongly of mint, which didn't completely cover a cloying, unpleasant scent often about him. Amandine didn't much doubt if she'd ever accepted his offer she would never have left his residence, to the point she took extra precautions when leaving work on the days he's visited the shop, in case a polite "no, thank you" wasn't enough of a deterrent.
Amandine asks anyone who might be listening. I believe it can be braced, but a point brace or two probably won't do. Go find to two largest, flattest shields you can, and a half dozen or so long, stout spears."
While she waits for the bracing supplies to arrive, Amandine tries to determine the location of the structural failure. She cuts a length of string from her ball and ties a caltrop to one end, making a plumb bob. She uses it to check the walls for any lean, and to see if the doorframe is still square.
Lean inward would suggest pressure from the other side of the door, meaning a collapse on this side would be a secondary result of collapse on the other side. I wish I could see the hallway beyond the door, it would be very helpful. Outward lean would suggest a failure on this side, probably joists directly above pressing downward. That's better for us. If the doorway isn't square it could be the lintel is load bearing and has failed. Simpler than a failure elsewhere, but harder to brace since the door is now working to bear the weight...
Once she has the shields and spears, she directs volunteers to help her place the shields over the areas of weight pressure she has (hopefully) identified, and spears to brace the shields tightly in place. The spear's opposite ends will be jammed tightly in place in corners along the hall to keep them from slipping.
Snips vanishes into the passage and does not immediately return.
There is a pause, and you presume that Snips is sniffing the air and looking around. Something catches his attention, and very shortly after you can feel a fright passing through your familiar as it turns to scamper back through the tunnel and to the safety at your side.
.....
The well-read Amandine's knowledge of engineering would be on par with even a journeyman mason or architect. The structural failure was to the north, at what was once the middle of this passage. The walls bulge outward, towards you. There is slight distortion to the door's lintel, suggesting that it has been put under pressure by the failure of the walls further along the hall.
Olivia, Malphene, and Sir Gryphus collaborate to retrieve a few more abandoned museum pieces from the display rooms on the other side of the arterial hallway. They return with a number spears and polearms, as well as a couple of broad wooden shields once carried by conquered Kellid tribesmen of old.
Snips returns from his sojourn just before work begins on bolstering the walls and ceiling.
With these improvised joists in place, the bowing hallway will be more secure, although it would still be a stretch to call it stable. Nevertheless, with some careful effort, it will no be possible to open the door to continue in your escape without bringing down the rest of this treacherous passage upon your heads.
Another message from Martella reaches your minds as you work according to Amandine's directions.
"Not all military are with Stavian. Assassins seem to be a collection of foreign agents. City guard is in chaos. Lion Blades and Eutropia's allies fighting back in the senate."
Chana quietly lets Snips slip back into the voluminous puffs of her dress, then moves to join the rest of the group bracing the door. When the team gets another message from Martella, she touches her badge and adds.
"If we get out, where should we meet you? We might have a way out soon."
----
With that message sent, Chana jams a spear in place following Amandine's instructions, then steps back to take a look. "I've seen worse before. At least half the death trap it used to be." She grins at the half-elf from behind her veil. "You really know some things, Amandine. Saved us here."
She tries opening the door.
Chana opens the door in a tense, interminable moment - the grinding of the hinges sending flakes of plaster and small bits of stone tumbling down from above. Nevertheless, the spears and shields hold the walls and ceiling in place, and disaster is averted. Beyond, the door reveals a short, curving hallway that has fared much better.
This leads to a greeting room of sorts. A graying wooden reception counter extends from the eastern wall, overshadowed by a faded, curling portrait of a group of Taldan nobles. Comical alterations adorn the portrait, with red and green markings adding in stink lines, ridiculous mustaches, and other odd embellishments.
The hall continues northward, curving back again, but you only dimly take notice of this. Of far more interest is the lone occupant of the chamber. A reptilian creature, wearing a crudely stitched leather hood, sits at the counter upon a wobbling stool, dining upon a roasted lizard. Noticing your entrance, he nearly chokes upon his latest bite in surprise.
Clearing its red-scaled snout with several wheezing coughs, it begins to speak with exaggerated gestures of welcome.
The small, lizard-like creature proceeds to fish a number of bottles and knickknacks from beneath the counter, and he places them atop the surface as though to put them on display.
Amandine hands Olivia's halberd back to her. "You'd better keep it unless you don't want it back. Once it's in place as a brace, we would have to leave it behind."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Amandine gives Chana a brief smile as a "you're welcome", but she is too concerned with getting everyone moved through the hallway quickly for anything more.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Amandine is only a little surprised to come across a lizardman. After what we've seen so far down here, why not a lizardman? But she's confounded to find him selling wares in what must surely be a terrible location. At least he speaks a language she knows.
"Hǎo ba, wǒ cóng méi xiǎngguò huì zài zhèlǐ zhǎodào yīgè shòu huò tíng! Shāngyè xiānshēng shāngrén zěnme yàng?"
Photinè's initial surprise fades quickly; she offers the merchant a slight curtsy and follows up Amandine's question with a statement of her own.
She begins examining the trinkets, keeping an eye out for anything useful or unusual.
The unusual, unexpected merchant - who, upon closer inspection, turns out to be an especially tall kobold rather than a stunted lizardman - eagerly plops more of his wares upon the reception counter as he speaks.
"Not many customers come through here, but I have had a good spot of luck finding items that my customers back home would be interested in. In fact, this may be your first and only chance to acquire items like these before I next return home. In addition to coins and gems, I am also in the market for unique surface items."
A total of 13 potions, all glowing with dull magical radiance, sit atop the counter when he finishes setting them out. He also puts out a wand, a cloak, and a set of bracers - all of which also possess magic.
A number of other flasks and tinctures that do not register as magical, likely alchemical mixtures, also hang from the numerous straps he wears around his torso and his bulging backpack.
As you continue to speak with Mimips, you realize that he is applying a sizeable markup on his prices: 20% greater than the market price you might find on the streets of Oppara. Most likely, the canny kobold recognizes that he has no competition down in these old halls and judges that he can command a higher price than normal.
...
In Draconic, the kobold merchant freely explains the nature of each item available in his makeshift shop, although in several cases you suspect he is merely drawing upon the faded labels peeling from the bottles.
5 Potions of Cure Light Wounds
3 Potions of Jump
3 Potions of Keen Senses
1 Potion of Barkskin
1 Potion of Remove Disease
Wand of Aqueous Orb
Braces of Armor +1
Cloak of Resistance +1
"Aw now I know fis place is jus' messin' wiv us..." Chana mutters under her breath as the two most skilled members of the group immediately start showing off their ability to speak some strange lizardman language.
She stands back with her arms crossed as the kobold lays out his wares, and after he's done with his first wave of babbling in draconic, she asks Amandine and Photine "From the body language, he's not completely crazy. Or at least he's good at hiding it. Do you think he might know the way out of here? And what's this shop all about anyway?"
"He came here through a sinkhole; I suppose we could try to climb our way out," Photinè explains, looking less than thrilled about the idea. "He's also trying to overcharge us."
"As will I," Photinè agrees grimly. "Several of the items could be of use; I'll talk him down—after I learn where this sinkhole is."
She turns back to Mimips with her best simpering smile: an odd combination with the primordial tongue that comes from her mouth.
As with everything, Greenly is lackadaisacal about the markup. "Maybe, Miss Mitchell, maybe you could, like, call him out on his prices? Or maybe we could, like, take them?"
Mimips points behind you, aiming his spindly, scaly finger at the door set in the western side of the room.
Chana's eyes follow the direction of the pointing finger. "That the way out? Or..."
She looks to the two party members that know Draconic. "Please don't tell me he wants us to buy something before he shows us the way out."
"Hm," a slight look of frustration passes over Photinè's face before she catches and composes herself. "The sinkhole leads further down, not up, and he knows of no way to the surface."
"Ask him about the rat," Greenly suggests, fidgeting with her crooked ear.
Rather than Photine's rather subdued reaction, Chana throws her hands into the air and growls in frustration. Abruptly, she stops, breathes out and composes himself. "I was an idiot for hoping we'd get out of this crazy place so soon."
"Anyway, all I know is that this lizardman seems really suspicious. He came out of a sinkhole to... what, the Darklands? And then just decided to set up a shop in an almost deserted isolated place? With no customers?" She scowls at the kobold from behind her veil.
"I'm going to check out what he's hiding over there. I don't have a chance of talking to him anyway."
She looks over the western door for dangers and then (assuming its safe) opens it up to test the truth of the kobold's statement.
When quizzed by Photinè or Amandine about the rat creature, the kobold merchant tilts his head in puzzlement. Based on body language alone, you suspect that Mimips has not encountered Dagio in his time scavenging these forgotten hallways.
Mimips concludes his latest spat of words by, this time, pointing towards the door to the north.
Opening the western door, Chana finds that the wooden paneled hallway on the other side suddenly gives way to a natural stony cavern. A series of two sharp slopes lead south, eventually ending in a sudden hole. Roughly half the width of an adult human, the hole descends into the darkness, winding off in a gentle western curve.
"Wow. He wasn't kidding." Chana calls back to the rest of the team. "If we get desperate, maybe we can try our chances down there." Chana stays fairly well away from the hole for now.
When she rejoins the group, she adds "Not much that way unless we want to go climbing. Any luck here?"
Greenly knocks and opens the northeastern door.
Greenly steps down the narrow, oddly angled hallway and opens the door. Poking her head out, she discovers a leering statue standing atop a plinth in the northwestern corner of the L-shaped hallway beyond. The statue holds a scepter, which it points towards a door to the east.
The ornate door is made of thick darkwood and set with brass-plated steel fittings. A complex locking mechanism dominates the center of the door, harboring a pair of keyholes.
The south end of the hall is a heap of dirt and wood, clearly highlighting the other end of the collapsed passage you bypassed.
Chana pokes her head out into the corridor. "Looks safe enough?" She eyes the statue for a couple of seconds, half expecting it to spring to life, and then heads to inspect the collapse from the other side. She tries to work out if there are passageways here that are large enough for Snips to have exited from.
As her companions begin to move on, Photinè fixes the kobold with a haughty stare.
With that, she turns on her heel and makes to join Greenly at the door.
After Photine has taken a few steps away, Amandine smiles nervously at Mimips.
"Tā hé yīgè píqì dōu hěn bù wěndìng..." Amandine lets out a soft, low whistle. "Nǐ bù xiàng wǒ yīyàng liǎojiě shàngmiàn de chéngshì rén. Tā bù huì wàngjì, kěnéng zhǐshì juédìng hé qítā rén yīqǐ huílái jiēshòu huò pòhuài yīqiè zhǐshì yīnwèi tā juédé bèi cuòbàile."
"Rúguǒ wǒ shì nǐ, wǒ xiànzài jiù dǎ diànhuà gěi tā, bìng tíyì yǐ gāo yú dìjià chūshòu tā de dōngxī. Wǒ huì ràng tā juédé tā yíngle, bù huì yǒu rènhé bùxìng de chǎngmiàn huò bàolì."
"If I were you, I'd call after her right now and offer to sell her something at above ground price. It will make her feel like she's won, and there won't be any unfortunate scenes or violence."
Mimips grimaces at Photinè's assertion, but it is Amandine's corroboration of her friend's threats that finally breaks down the kobold merchant's stingy resolve. With no small amount of grumbling, Mimips acquiesces - agreeing to sell his wares at market price, abandoning his markup.
.....
As Chana joins the investigation of the next hallway, her connection with Snips imparts a new sensation: unfamiliarity. The exact details do not translate between species or senses, but it is clear that this is not where the rat tunnel had previously led her familiar.
Seeing the scepter, Greenly attempts fervently to wrench it free. If she succeeds, she hands it to Imistos, further encumbering the poor halfling footman, otherwise she grows frustrated and pouts.
Chana turns with alarm as Greenly starts fiddling with the probably-a-deathtrap statue. Her eyes dance across the scene for a sign of any kind of trap activating. If she sees something and has time to help, she warns Greenly.
If nothing happens, she heads over to the eastern door and beckons Greenly and Malphene over. "You two've got the keys, right? How about we see if they fit in this door? If that Factor fella wasn't lying, this was probably how they got in here after the renovations."
The statue's arm begins to bend as Greenly struggles to pry free its scepter. She feels something wet welling up beneath her hands, seeping through her clenched fingers. She pulls her hands away and discovers them stained with blood, having apparently wept out from the statue's surface.
More blood soon appears, staining the passage's walls, the door behind, and the locked door ahead. They appear as circles, as though painted in rough strokes by a large, invisible painter's brush.
"You two've go-" Chana cuts off. Blood seeping out of the walls? Obviously she was stuck in some kind of nightmare thing. Or maybe more magic traps like that one in the big hallway. Either way, not something to mess around with. She backs on up out of the passageway.
"Somethings up with that hallway. Anyone else seeing a bunch of bloody circles on the walls? Don't know if they're dangerous, but I figgeh they migh' be magical." She clicks her tongue a few times to focus and murmurs until she manages to cast detect magic on the north-eastern hallway.
As best as you can figure, some terrible magical accident happened and left a haunting imprint upon this hallway.
"Ugh..." Chana wrinkles her nose in distaste. "Smells like something died in here." She sneezes. "Not magic, I think. Maybe something really did die in there and its haunting the place!"
She looks over her shoulder at Olivia, veil draping to the side. "Oliv, what do you think? This something you might be able to make sense of?"
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Infinitely distractable, Greenly shouts in alarm as the bloody circles appear before her; however it only serves to steel her resolve, continuing to tug at the scepter in a mix of fear, obstinacy and greed.
"No blood painter is gonna, like, steal my soul," she insists, tugging away.
While waiting for Olivia to respond, Chana watches Greenly's antics with concern. It was hard to tell if the half-elf had been caught by some kind of weird madness that affected the hallway, or if she was just being Greenly.
If the hallway suddenly does anything to harm Greenly, Chana will jump in there to try to pull her to safety.
Amandine waits in awkward silence with the kobald, expecting Photine to return. When instead she hears loud noises and shouting from Greenly, Amandine starts getting twitchy. Finally she tells Mimips "Look, I'll just go ahead and take care of this and sort it out with her later."
She buys two of the curing potions and hurries onward to see what's the matter this time.
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The bodyguard wrenches the scepter free from the statue, also breaking its hand and wrist free in the process. Despite the bloody haunting in the hall, she has claimed her prize: a gold-plated scepter and a stone hand.
The effort of ripping the accessory from its stony owner causes Greenly to stumble back, falling against the wall and landing atop one of the bloody circles. For a fleeting moment, she seems wracked by a painful spasm.
You see this happen in a wide, circular chamber not dissimilar to the senate floor above.
When Greenly regains her senses, she finds Chana grabbing her by the shoulders, looking eager to start slapping her back to reality. This is the scene that Amandine finds when she joins the pair in the next hall, with the two newly purchased potions in tow.
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"My soul!" Greenly shouts, patting herself as if putting out a fire, trying to prevent more from leaking out. Had that wizard man done this?
"I had a vision," she tells Chana, shakingly placing the scepter in Imistos' care. "When I got all the blood on me. A, like, wizardman melted, and there was a rat, and then pieces of my soul or his soul or uh, somebody's soul entered the rat, in like, the Senate building? It was like a nightmare. Oh, thank you for savin me, Miss Chiara!"
Greenly throws her arms around the veiled woman and shudders, allowing herself to show stress and weakness for the first time tonight.
Rather than slapping her, Chana awkwardly pats the half-elf on the head. Seeing her injured and freaked out by this bizarre curse has really put Greenly in a new light. She might be a weird one, but really, who isn't a bit weird. And the group here was all in this together.
Speaking quietly and in as reassuring of a manner as she can manage, she says "'ya all right Greens- there, there. Nobodys gonna be stealin' ye soul." She pulls back once Greenly is a bit more composed.
For her part, Chana speaks a little more carefully and a little louder "So no touching the circles then? We sure don't want them to do... whatever they did to you Greens. Maybe we can walk through the hall without touching them, use the keys, and get through that way? Anyone fancy themselves a bit of an acrobat?"