His companions make short work of the mechanical menaces yet one remains. Asturu steps up to it and pulls back his arm, readying a vicious thrust, but the creature's unnatural speed catches him by surprise.
Daidalos tries again, repeating his spell on the surviving snake with a steady hand. It strikes true, leaving a slightly frosty construct marely harmed by the masterful display of magic.
Luke: Sonic Blast - Miss
Daidalos: Ray of Frost - Hit
Affyria: Aid Another
Timo: Attack - Hit
Price: Attack - Miss
Asturu: Attack - Miss
Working together, the team begins to damage the western cobra and then Timo, with a well-timed strike, manages to shatter the creature. Bits of mithril rattle throughout the room.
The surviving cobra, already damaged and foiled time and again by Price's infernal resistance, switches to attack Asturu. Its fangs bite down hard... on the stone.
Daedalos manages a well-aimed blast of his ray of frost, rattling the already damaged construct.
Affyria moves to a flanking position and attempts to smash the head of her mace into the last remaining of the snakes.
Move: move to melee
Standard: PA
Affyria re-positions herself and brings the heavy mace slamming downward into the middle of the mithril cobra. There is a snapping sound and a splash of sparks from metal against metal, and then the construct falls still.
With the threat dispatched, Daidalos breathes a sigh of relief, "Well that was fun. Everyone okay?" he moves through the room, picking up the mithril pieces and fallen cobras throughout, scavenging as much of the valuable metal as possible.
With some amusement he eyes the arcanist scavenging for mithral scraps, but then turns to the others."Good job all, that could've ended way worse. There's only one door, but perhaps it is worth checking the walls real quick just in case we're getting deceived .. again."
Ineluki lands on Price's shoulder and settles there until the mithril scraps are collected and the walls checked... Once a path is determined, he takes to the air again.
From each of the cobras, you are able to collect ten pounds of mightily, worth approximately one-thousand gold. (Each.)
Asturu finds nothing on the other walks
Price wraps up the bloody wounds on her legs and checks the door.
Price inspects the door and finds no traps. Meanwhile, Grumblejack cautiously kicks at one pile of mithril before Daedalus collects it. "Grumblejack sorry. Just... snakes. And spiders." He shudders.
"Seems we're good to go. I'll take point since I still got a stash of extracts to burn through."
Without further ado, Asturu opens the door and readies himself for another hallway and advisory quote.
Asturu opens the door and finds a short hallway heading south where it ends at another door. Above the door is the public service announcement:
“Suffer not the fool. Stupidity is our faith’s cardinal sin.”
Examining the door reveals no traps.
"Asturu? You said you wanted to take point? Whenever I step outside, you're the smartest person in the room. You ready for this?"
Asturu opens the door, revealing a similar room to all the others with a podium in its center. The chamber is lit only by a hanging oil lantern.
Upon the podium lies a pendant of silver -- a dragon with sapphire eyes. There is also a stairway leading up to the east.
Daidalos mutters a quick incantation, and summons the pendant from the pedestal, looking it over.
"Hm. Pretty trinket. Well? Are we ready to continue? Given the sign, the ease of this challenge, and the fact we've only done six rooms, I highly doubt that this is our objective."
"She will lead you to the basement of this domicile. There you will fine nine chambers, each more dangerous than the last. Somewhere hidden within these chambers is a pendant of silver and sapphire. Recover the pendant and bring it to me. Let nothing and no one stand in your way."
"This item fits the description given to us. Since we still have plenty of time left to complete this task, I say we take our time to ensure we don't stumble into any traps or hostile magicks and then have a closer look at the pendant before bringing it along. A healthy dosis of paranoia shouldn't hurt .."
> 18 vs traps
"It does indeed fit the description given us, but we were also just told to not be stupid. I get the feeling that we still have a ways to go. Besides, whether or not this is our final goal, I know I want to have a bit of revenge with Sir Balin, who is presumably in here as well- otherwise, why put his squire here?"
"It seems to easy... probably a replica or something"
Asturu examines the area just inside the door and finds no traps.
Daidalos studies the amulet, assessing its worth and looking for any clues it might contain.
Daidalos examines the amulet and determines it is cheap costume jewelry. The eyes are made of glass, not sapphire.
"Revenge is all good and well, but let's not forget why we're down here,"Affyria offers. "A captured inquisitor and his squire might prove a valuable asset, which we shouldn't dismiss out of hand. If he is down here, that is, which I'm not sure of. Capturing a squire who's little more than a boy is one thing, capturing a seasoned Mitran inquisitor, is quite another thing."
Affyria glances around the room with seeming disinterest. "Seeing as the quote above the room spoke of fools and stupidity, I would not touch that necklace. That's a trap, if I've ever seen one."
Asturu throws Affyria a look of disbelieve. "Do you honestly think we will get our chance at revenge this easily? I mean, don't get me wrong,
I relish the prospect of it, but I have a hard time believing our friend the inquisitor is roaming these corridors. Perhaps I should have a little more faith."
He then moves into the room and continues to look for traps, secrets and other obfuscated truths.
> 8 vs traps
> 23 vs traps
Affyria and Asturu find no evidence of traps either in the vicinity of the podium or on the podium itself. There is no magic in the room and the lamp is the same kind of oil lamp found elsewhere in the trials.
Daidalos shrugs as the others argue about whether or not to continue, and lets out a small chuckle, "Well, whether or not we want to continue is irrelevant. This is clearly not our goal." He throws aside to the ground, "It's nothing more than polished steel and glass. Our benefactor may be many things, but cheap is not one of them. He sent us to find something made of silver and sapphire, which this most certainly is not. It's a stage prop, meant to trick the unwary into thinking it is the genuine article. So it seems our search must continue."
"Like I said, I believe it would take a lot more effort to capture an inquisitor than a boy squire," Affyria repeats herself.
"Ok, assuming this stairway leads out and by taking the stairs we fail, what other options do we have left? I recall a pair of unchecked doors in the room with the .. gooey ooze on the door we ended up taking? Going by the notion that we still have to encounter three more rooms, that would or could account for two of them."
"My understanding was that those other doors were fakes, or traps. Since we've already determined that pendant is a fake, it's safe to say there has to be something else down here, like a secret passage or something."
Affyria starts a meticulous search of the room, fully expecting Price to spot it immediately.
"Of course it's always possible the secret passage could be off of another chamber... perhaps one we already passed through?
Ineluki helps search, first transforming into his half-bat form...
As Affyria and Inelukii begin their search of the chamber, just as Affyria is about to step into the space in front of the stairs, Inelukii puts out a hand and stops her advance. His keen eye notices a subtle difference in the level of the stone floor, covering a stretch of the room from west to east, ten feet wide. It's a trap. Stepping into that space will trigger a large stone to descend from the ceiling and roll through the space, crushing anyone caught beneath it.
With the danger safely identified, Inelukii refocuses his search and identifies a hidden door in the center of the west wall within the band of the trapper floor.
"Hmmm... how do we get to the hidden door without setting off the trap? Anyone have an idea?"
"We find a heavy object and either drag or toss it onto the area. If need be, I can enlarge myself through alchemical means and do the tossing. Alternatively, we can try to disable the trigger.." Asturu sighs and kneels next to the apparent dangerzone, wondering how to go about disabling this one.
The challenge in front of him completely overtakes the man. He brings forth a leather bag and starts fiddling about with all kinds of fancy looking instruments. "Don't mind me, but a word of warning, I might fail and set off the trap so it's best if you either step to the side or evacuate the room."
Ineluki backs away but leans forward and keeps a hand on Asturu's ankle, to pull him to safety if he can if the ceiling block falls on him.
Asturu studies the challenge in front of him, including the triggering mechanism, the spiked ball hidden within a recess in the ceiling and it's likely path. After a few moments, he discovers a way to trigger the trap while staying out of the ball's path... With a crash and a roar, the ball rolls through the chamber, smashing the podium and slamming into the archway on the east wall, blocking the stairs. Glancing back up, Asturu sees no other instruments of lethality... it would seem this trap requires a manual reset. It is now safe.
Searching the hidden door on the west wall, you find no traps. When opened, it reveals a hallway leading to the south which then turns left.
Asturu returns the tools to the leather bag. He stashes it away and draws his rapier, readying himself for what is to come.
"Hm, that went well, although now our exit seems to be blocked. Are we ready to move once more? I expect that what is to come will test our skills more than any of the challenges have so far."
Daidalos nods and follows the group down.
You move through the western door and into the corridor. Rounding the corner, you find a doorway to the right at the end of the hall. Above it is an inscription:
"Secrecy is our greatest ally. Exposure brings death."
Still in hybrid form, as Ineluki rounds the corner to the west, he checks the east wall and south wall for secret doors.
As Inelukii moves down the hall, he senses a hidden door at the corner on the west side.
Further inspection by the party suggests it is not trapped.
"Nice find, Inelukii, now, the real question; 'secrecy is our greatest ally', do we check out the secret door first, or do we take the obvious path," Affyria muses as she runs a hand over the secret door, then looks at the palm of her hand and wipes it off on her skirt.
"Personally, I'm inclined to investigate the secret door first, after all, the line does say that secrecy is our ally."
Affyria opens the hidden door Luke discovered. On the other side is a short hallway at the end of which is the backside of another hidden door. Above it is an inscription:
"Beware the fallen for they may rise once more to threaten you.”
Ineluki nods, "I agree, the cryptic advice has not steered us wrong yet...secret door first"