Frowning at the slick footing, Darvesch attempts to to start pulling himself back up only to end up nearly on his rear. Clearly his training instructors had a strictly academic approach to rooting out evil without any appreciation for the value of athleticism. Good thing the old man and his father had made certain to supplement the young dwarf's schooling with ample 'sparring'...
Just as he is about to retry, Darvesch hears something from behind him. Turning his head towards the small tunnel he spied, Darvesch finds what could only be described as a tiny doll comprised of a child's bones, black hair, and twine. From within its chest, comes a faint red glow from something within. Its tiny, eyeless skull swivels back and forth, assaying the situation whereupon it exits the tunnel and darts around the corner.
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 979)
Darvesch simply huffs at the thing, and uses Lureene's magic rope to get back up. "Damn thing isn't worth my time."
With a grunt of effort, Darvesch pulls himself up and out of the dank, moldy cavern. As he gets near the top, he grasps the hand Mal offers and gets back to his feet.
With the exception of Sasha, who seems to be lost in a reverie as she takes in the carvings on the walls, the rest of you can hear the sound of clacking bones much more clearly now. Mal frowns, gazing back down the hole.
What was that in the shadows?
"Find anything, Hellhammer?"
top
Perception Checks
"It sounds like something found him," Priyya comments. "Do these old ears deceive me, or is that the clatter of sleep-walking bones I hear? Tut, tut, the poor dead just can't rest with the likes of old Mother Sarah around..."
"Just a child skeleton. Sort of like a doll. Made of bones. Not even worth the effort, I say. Feel free to do what you wish, but I doubt it'll climb up. And even if it does, just flick it back down there. Now then. Let's be on our way."
Alis rolls her eyes, a grin coming to her face. "My Sarah, but what do you use on your skin? All your wrinkles have gone!"
After the two share a knowing wink, Alis asks, "Darv, can we head on or is there anything down there we need to investigate and/or put back to sleep?"
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 981)
"The only thing down there is a single doll-like child skeleton. I don't feel it to be a significant threat. I say we move on. I'll take point."
Lureene nods slowly, "Well, it certainly does not sound like a threat, more of a curiosity. Still, if it is teamed with something bigger then it would prove...troublesome." She glances up the stairs where the group has not explored yet. "We should get moving. If that...whatever it is...is a scout for the vampire spawn, or Ieana, no need to give it extra time to prepare any surprises".
"That's good enough for me," Alis comments as the magic rope coils itself back onto Darvesch's belt, "lead on."
With Darvesch leading and Alis close behind, checking for traps, you proceed south thru the great bronze doors which still seem to flow with blood down the geometric carvings in their surface. Alis and Lureene continue to light the way with spells as you make your way up the eastern stairway into the arched hallway above.
Along the walls, at 10-foot intervals, fluted pilasters support a vaulted ceiling inlaid with garnets, tourmaline, and lacquered tiles. The walls depict scenes of wanton depravity, orgies, and bondage taken to extremes. In many of the murals, you can see a beautiful woman with great, feathered wings and the lower body of a serpent feasting upon the blood of mortal supplicants and granting them power in exchange for their immortal souls.
"Charelle..." Alis whispers the name of the fallen muse like a curse, lips pressed tight in quiet anger.
As you approach the center of the hallway, you can hear the rattling of bones coming from further up, yet it echoes as it from behind a closed door. The princess puts a hand on Darvesch's shoulder and signals for a stop, pointing to the floor ahead.
"Hear that?" she whispers. "It's coming from beneath the floor just ahead. Stay here..."
With a snap of her finger, Alis summons a small raincloud that douses the center of the hallway ahead. You can hear the sound of water draining away and she nods pointing out the air-bubbles escaping from along the edges of a huge, 15-foot long pit trap running down the center of the floor.
She flashes a brief smile before getting to work. After nearly a minutes, she stands up and dusts herself off with a prestidigitation. "[smaller]Keep to the right and one at a time!"
Stealth Checks
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 992)
Darvesch goes across as delicately as he can.
Lureene waits patiently for her turn to cross the pit. Once the signal is received, she skips lightly across the pit edge.
Mal shakes his head, grumbling at Lureene's antics.
In a low voice, although not low enough for others to not hear, he mutters to Priyya, "Can I just cuff her across the back of the skull? Just this once?"
Priyya simply pats Mal on the chest and shakes her head. "Now, now, what you break I have to fix so. Save it for the vampires and don't let prancing succubi get to you. Well, at least not this prancing succubus anyway."
With that, Priyya follows after Lureene although in a less ostentatious manner.
"Thanks for spotting that trap, cousin*. Please, stay behind me. I'll stay on point." With that he makes his way down the hallway, making sure Alis doesn't get ahead of him. "Remember, it's my duty to protect you. Wouldn't want you to get hurt now." He smiles and winks at her.
In a low voice, although not low enough for others to not hear, he mutters to Priyya, "Can I just cuff her across the back of the skull? Just this once?"
Lureene overhears the comment from the stoic ranger, and glances back at him. The look in her eyes is an amused one and she starts to reply, but then she stops and instead just waves to him in a poor imitation of a jaunty sailor salute.
While it is certainly unnerving to hear something skittering around beneath the trap doors, Alis' rigging holds and you are able to cross the pit trap without the floor giving way.
The princess notes Mal's comment and Lureene's response with an inward sigh.
They're like two children that I need to keep separated...
She is about to say something when Darvesch's words return her focus to the task at hand. "My pleasure," she says with a smile, "just be mindful not to outpace me. Surveying the passageway takes time and I don't want you getting hurt either {he-cousin}."
Around the corner, the stairs ascend another 20-feet to an intersection leading west towards the bridge you spied earlier. Straight ahead, you see yet another pair of the 'bleeding' bronze doors barring your path.
Darvesch is just about to proceed towards them when Alis once again calls for a stop. "Looks like another one," she whispers.
It doesn't take her terribly long to disable the trap, although while she works, you can once again hear the sound of bones approaching from below, following your progress around the complex. After finishing she gives a nod to Darvesch to proceed, once again admonishing you each to cross one at-a-time.
Stealth Checks
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 1009)
"We can't all fit over here while the door is closed. Everyone stay back, just in case something happens." With that, Darvesch attempts to view the other side of the door. He places his hand on the door and bows his head, "Reveal to me, the contents of this room."
Darvesch concentrates and a small, sensor forms upon the opposite face of the door revealing pitch blackness. Even so, the darkness is not magical in nature and he is able to see for a short distance around it — no more than 10-feet. Sadly his spell lacked the ability to see as well as himself.
What he can see are the edges of an oval pool of what looks like softly rippling blood. The room itself appears to have angled walls, but a pair of pillars near the doors block his line of sight to the walls and the ceiling is beyond sight overhead. To the left of the door, he can make out a 2-foot wide circular hole in the wall at chest level.
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 1020)
There doesn't seem to be anyone near the doors. Hmm... Darvesch gives everyone the signal to wait for him as he tries to open the doors and walk in.
Darvesch pulls the doors open and steps into the dark chamber beyond, his dwarven eyes able to reveal what his spell could not.
Judging by the metallic tang filling the air, the oval pool at the center of this octagonal room is indeed brimming with blood. Four round pillars support a ceiling decorated with crisscrossed supports and grooves, while ten two-foot-wide circular holes decorate the walls at chest level.
Facing the pool on the inside of each of the four pillars, Darvesch spies a small, carefully concealed button almost imperceptible if not for his familiarity with stonework. He also notices that the hole in the center of the west wall is much deep than the others. In addition, the nook at the south end of the east wall contains something with a pearlescent sheen and the glimmer of polished metal as does another nook just to the west of the double-doors on the north wall.
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 1021)
"Hey, Alis. There's a button right here, and a hole over there. What do you make of it?" Darvesh will search for magical auras, while waiting for Alis to determine what the button and hole are for. "Show me the taint of witches and heretics." He whispers
To save time while I'm waiting on your clarification, I'll give you a freebie. Here's the 1st round's results for both. Please clarify which one you mean though for subsequent rounds.
Detect Evil: The pool in the center of the room radiates evil.
Detect Magic: The buttons, ceiling, pool, and items in the two nooks I called out earlier all radiate magic.
"Be right there, Darv."
Stepping lightly, Alis walk across the jammed doors of the pit trap sending a pair of her dancing lights in ahead of her while leaving two outside. Upon taking in the chamber, she says, "Oh, this is a cleansing shrine or at least it's patterned off of one anyway."
She points to the holes in the wall. "Priestesses would disrobe and store their garments in the nooks then bathe before entering the sanctum. It seems Charelle's 'flock' have perverted that practice as well."
Perception Checks
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 1022)
Lureene crosses the pit (less flamboyantly this time) and moves to the door entrance. "That is very interesting, 'Lis, but I am more concerned whether that pool was recently used."
Darvesch notes the taint of evil emanating from the pool of blood, and decides to concentrate more on that to determine just what the group could be facing. "I'm checking for the taint of evil. Could someone else be so kind as to check for magical auras?"
"Sure thing, Darv." Her voice is serious, but to those who are familair with her can detect an undercurrent of amusement at the dwarf's request.
"That is very interesting, 'Lis, but I am more concerned whether that pool was recently used."
Is she being flip? What brought that on?
"Look. " Alis gazes up from what she's doing and points towards the cubbyholes to the left of the northern doors, and the one at the south end of the east wall. "Those nooks have something in them — looks like silk and gold to me. There aren't any bloody foot-prints, but if those vampires can turn into mist when they want to and don't just become mist when they are killed then..."
"I'm checking for the taint of evil. Could someone else be so kind as to check for magical auras?"
"Uh oh, hope El and I don't hurt your eyes," she says with a wink. Alis then walks over to another pillar checking its surface for something that Lureene cannot discern.
Now what do these buttons do?
[spoiler="Rolls"]Sense Motive Checks:
Perception Checks
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 1023)
"Please don't touch anything. That pool of blood is radiating a fairly powerful evil aura."
Biting his lip, King Tut reaches out a finger towards the button Alis is looking at, but she smacks his hand lightly. "No, no, listen to Darvie, Tut..."
"I don't think I have to tell everyone, but stay out of the pool. I think you're right, Alis. I believe this pool was corrupted, and may have the opposite effect of the original. Try to stay along the edges, and stay below the holes. Wait by the door till I get to those next doors. If it's okay, come on over."
Darvesch kneels as he walks slowly toward the unopened doorway, hoping not to set off any traps. Once he's at the doorway, he'll touch it like he did the previous, and whispers "Reveal to me what may lie beyond this passage."
While Darvesch scans the door hoping to learn what lays beyond it, Lureene concentrates on exactly what these auras portend.
Lureene continues to concentrate on her spell, gleaning more information with each passing moment. She quickly determines that the pool of blood contains the most powerful aura in the room , although the emanations from the ceiling are nearly as powerful.
Alis raises an eyebrow a bit at Darvesch's instructions, but shrugs her slender shoulders and keeps her head down.
Hmm, I suppose it does make sense that he would have been trained in such things. I guess I just assumed he didn't know anything of skullduggery.
She shakes her head. No wonder he keeps stepping in front of me! Was he just being nice then letting me deal with the traps so I'd feel useful?
Alis gives a soft, melancholy sigh as she inspects the button on the next pillar unable to discern any difference between them and only able to guess at their function.
They face the pool... A manual alarm? A defensive measure perhaps?
As Darvesch kneels by the north door, hand on its bloodied, bronze surface, Tut reaches out trying to lay his own tiny hand upon the pillar.
"What is this, monkey see, monkey do?" Alis holds onto her pets little hands and shakes her head at him. "Darvesch knows what he's doing, you just want to play, don't you?"
Reflex DC 15
Lureene glances up at the ceiling uneasily, This place is some sort of death trap, but for the life of me I cannot figure it out… Frustrated, she turns her attention to the items that radiated a magical aura in the niches.
Theme: [Don't] Touch
As Lureene continues to concentrate, unable to determine what the trap might be, Darvesch focuses on forming his scrying sensor. Alis meanwhile moves to the last pillar and grumbles quietly in frustration unable to figure out the purpose of the magic buttons.
From the nooks you sense matching auras — moderate abjuration.
The pool itself, also has an aura of moderate strength, although somewhat more powerful than the rest. It is definitely necromantic.
Lureene walks over to one of the nooks and removes what she find there discovering that it is a white silk gown identical to the ones the vampiresses were wearing earlier.
Before she can contemplate what this means, certainly well before Darvesch can see anything, there is the shriek of metal on stone and perfectly flat sheets of bronze greased with blood slam down over both of the doorways. The succubus gives a start from the sudden noise as it very nearly clips her wings.
Darvesch is not so lucky. Lost in concentration, the metal barrier slams all of its weight down upon his wrist filling his senses with white-hot pain. Before he can even wonder what happened or if his wrist is broken, he finds himself yanked to the floor, the immensely heavy sheet of metal pinning his hand against the floor.
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 1024)
Alis nearly jumps out of her boots at boom of the great bronze gates and the sound of Darvesch's cry of surprise.
I was holding his hands, Tut didn't move!
She lets go of Tut and runs over to her cousin to see his right hand pinned beneath the blood-streaked bronze sheet.
Sh1t!
She slips her wand free and touches him on the arm with it. Lowering her voice and trying to stay calm, she asks, "Is it broken? We need to get you free..."
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 1024b)
Lureene gasps in surprise and shock as the trap is sprung. Simple but effective, she thinks ruefully.
As 'Lis moves to assist Darvesch, she wracks her brain trying to think of a spell that would free the hapless dwarf. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. She wonders, I wish I could summon Grak here...wait a minute....maybe I can summon something to free him. She thinks on the summoning ritual she knows of and realizes there was a creature that could help here...
Without a second though, she starts her summons ...
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"RRHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Darvesch screams a guttural exclamation of pain.
Alis winces at Darvesch's outcry. "El, we've got to get this door off his hand!"
She turns at the sound of her friend casting and finds that a portal has appeared. It has all the seeming of a pit full of tumbling, rumbling gravel. "El?"
As she watches, a small, bulky, roughly humanoid creature of dirt and stone emerges, faceless save for two glowing gemstone eyes. It balls its hands into mallet-like fists and looks about for enemies to pummel. Finding none, it turns toward the one who summoned it and looks up at her expectantly.
Alis bites her lip a bits and asks hesitantly, "You can tell it what to do, right?"
Lureene stares at the elemental and belatedly realizes the flaw in her plan. Without any way to communicate with the creature, its responses were limited. The summoning ritual she had learned so long ago had mentioned that crucial bit of information, but in her haste to rescue Darv it had slipped her mind.
This is what happens when you learn such powers by trial and error. She gives the elemental a petulant glare, almost daring it to respond further.
She then sighs deeply. Well, nothing can be done for it now. She then responds to Alis, frustration clearly evident in her tone. ”No, I do not understand its tongue. Mother never deigned to educate me in how to communicate with the elemental races…obviously she considered them beneath her notice.”
"Lovely. Well, we need to get this off of Darv before he loses his hand. Let's put our back into it before anything else–"
From above you hear the clank of ancient machinery engaging and the whine of old gears and counterweights slipping into motion.
"–happens..."
Alis looks around, an apprehensive look on her face before squatting down next to Darvesch.
There's just no way we can lift... this.
Thinking quickly even as some engine perpares its doom, Alis notes the track in which the bronze sheet slide and wedges her mithril mace into the groove. "EL, cast grease on Darv, quick! {He-cousin}, brace your feet against the door and as soon as you're greased, pull!"
Even as the dwarf nods, there is a quiet, *whoosh*, as a great black shape sweeps across the southern most reaches of the room. Before Lureene can react, she feels a searing pain as a giant, bladed pendulum slices thru her left shoulder as if it were butter!
As quickly as it appeared, the cold iron blade vanishes back into the ceiling, the machinery growing quieter as it self-lubricates and reorients.
; Alis, Pendulum
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 1025)
Reflex DC 14
cold iron
Lureene cries out in pain as the blade slices into her. Once the blade has receded, she skaes her head helplessly. "Sorry, 'Lis. I did not memorize that spell."
She turns her attention to the elemental, who is still waiting for her orders. She points a slender finger at where the blade had energed from the wall. "Why don't you make yourself useful and that machine!"
Alis grits her teeth at Lureene's news. She turns to Darvesch and implores, "Hang in there a bit longer, I'll cast the spell myself..."
Behind them, the little elemental doesn't quite understand what his summoner wants, but it does see where she is pointing and that something just attacked her. It moves into the corner next to her and waits, watching for the enemy to show itself again.
Well, maybe it is not completely stupid after all...
Lureene nods in response to Alis, and proceeds to cast her own spell. Soon the room is bathed in a golden light. Once finished she steps to the other side of the doors and, drawing her rapier, watches the niche where she saw the tunnel leading off to the west.
As Lureene moves to guard the hole concealed in the western wall's center nook, Alis backs up and casts her spell. A stream of slick, fragrant oil springs from her open palm completely soaking the dwarf and the area around him.
Putting his pain aside, he strains with everything he has and manages to get his poor, blue and purple hand free. The sheet of bronze attempts to slide down as he does so, however it is unable to crush Alis' mace and remains open even if only slightly. The force of his exertion sends the dwarf sliding backwards towards the pool of blood, but he catches himself just in time to avoid plunging in.
Looking up, he sees a momentary look of relief on Alis' face before she presses herself against the wall to avoid the great blade that comes swinging out of the ceiling towards her.
We have to stop that thing. Wait, what about those–
A great crash upon the southern barrier jars Alis from her thoughts and you can hear Mal yelling. She tries to recall the thought she just had but it is gone.
–those... CRAP!
cold iron
; Alis, Pendulum
MAP: Z-Temple of Charelle, (Round 1026)
"Wait, what?"
Lureene wonders if the pillars are the key to disabling the trap. She knows she detected magical auras on them somewhere, and also Darvesch mentioning to Alis something about buttons. Now if she could figure out exactly where those buttons were...
She first scans the pillar to the north of her, before turning her attention to the opposite one.
Lureene recalls the area where she detected faint transmutation aura was also the same spot that Alis was looking and telling King Tut not to touch. Looking at the profile of the northern pillar next to her, she can just barely make out a small area that protrudes ever-so-slightly.
Lureene looks closer at the button inset in the pillar, trying to determine the effect depressing it would cause.
I wish I had some of 'Lis' luck. here.
She calls out, "'Lis, did you have any idea what pushing this button might do?"
Oh right!
"I thought it might have been an alarm, but... it could be a bypass. Only one way to find out..."
I was afraid you would say something like that...
"OK, 'Lis, here we--wait a minute! Do you think we should push the buttons together?"