"Thank you Rafael. I don't think the gods mind when we use their powers to help others."
Ingra looks back at the creature while responding to Phari, "Talking is always better than fighting so it is worth a try."
She faces the creature, taking a step into the door, her hammer in her hand and her shield at the ready.
"Excuse me, we didn't mean to disturb you. Can you tell us what this place is and why we were brought here?"
If common does not work, she will try the same speech in Dwarven, Giant, Goblin and Draconic. looking for any response and praying to Torag that it is a friendly response and not an attack.
Not knowing how dangerous the creature might be Rafael readies his crossbow but hold his shot. Pharithstilis scans the creature, recognizes it and tells the party. Roland watches, holding his gun ready but not targeting. Pharithstilis suggests trying to talk with it and Ingra moves into the room, trying several languages. She starts with dwarven, then giant, but the creature interrupts her with a screech and leaping into the air. It is amazingly fast with it's wings propelling it forward....
Init:
Pharithstilis is up. The creature reaches Ingra on its initiative....
"What the hell is that thing?" Roland drawls just as Pharith tells what he knows and Ingra begins to converse with the winged creature. Then it screeches and leaps at the dwarf, and the gunslinger takes quick aim and fires...
vs Touch AC
Total Damage = 12 bludgeoning and piercing
Includes +1 attack/damage for Point Blank Shot, -1/+2 attack damage for Deadly Aim, +1d6 precision damage for Up Close and Deadly
"It has a weird way of saying hi," Rafael yells out as he takes a few steps into the room, trains his crossbow on it, and pulls the trigger.
Ingra is praying to Torag for guidance. She is ready to attack. Hammer and shield out. If the creature attacks then she will defend herself, Maybe it is getting closer to talk better.
OOC: All is not normal here, if this is a real attack, just praying I will survive. But it may not be.. just remembering what happened to the goblins.
The party makes quick work of the homonculus. Pharithstilis's crossbow bolt hits it square and Roland's bullet finishes it off. The creature collapses and falls to the ground right in front of the study dwarf.
Moving in to the room and checking the doors.... Ingra notices something strange about the north wall between the doors (a secret door) and Rafael finds a trapdoor under the debris in the center of the room. There is no visible lock on the trap door and no visible handle ob the secret door. The trap door has a handle that can be levered up and pulled....
Rafael attaches his crossbow to his waist, a confident smirk on his face. "I'm starting to think there won't be many friendly faces around here." He moves into the room, giving the creature a wide berth. "Hey, Phari. You seemed to know what this thing is...was...Why don't you come over and take a closer look. See if it's different from any you've seen before."
After some digging around, Rafael uncovers a trap door under some rubbish. "Oh, Desna, you've done it again." He lets everyone know of the trap door.
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Pharithstilis takes the time to reload his crossbow and enter the room. He shrugs at Rafael’s suggestion, “I’ve never seen one before, just hear of ‘em. Wizards like to make ‘em for messengers and spies and such. Sometimes they can hear and see through them, ‘tis why I thought we could talk to it.”
Regardless, he peers at the homonculus remains with his arcane sight, and when Ingra points out the secret door, he’ll check that out too.
Pharithstilis can tell that there is an aura of conjuration magic on the homonculus body. He also notices that it is starting to dissolve while he is watching it.
There is no magic on the secret door.
The handle on the trap door looks like this
As previously stated (but I can't type for crap!) there is no handle on the secret door.
Roland reloads his pistol then moves to examine the secret door that the dwarf spotted. Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, the gunslinger offers. "Might be you just push hard on one side or the other, if it pivots. Or maybe there's something elsewhere that opens it. A lever or a button in another of these rooms."
The gunslinger moves to the trapdoor and offers to open it, since he can level his gun into the opening once the lid is pulled up.
Roland pushes against the door and feels a click. When he releases the pressure the door slowly opens.
Is the trap door in the same location the creature was when we entered the room? And if so, may it have been guarding whatever is down there?
With the secret door opening, excitement washes over Rafael and he lays his hand on the trap door. "Look, I'm all for checking out this trap door, but secret doors hold secrets, and secrets are usually good. I say we check out what's behind that door over there," and points to the now ajar secret door.
Rafael eagerly jogs up to the secret door, drawing his crossbow before saying a quick prayer and laying his hand on his tattoo. He pauses when he gets to the doorway. "Sooo, who's with me?"
"I don't know about fun, but I am not going to choose the door. This one is on you Rafeal."
I follow the other two into the hall way.
"May as well come along Roland. You wouldn't want to miss this."
With a fair amount of trepidation, she hoists her shield and has her hammer in hand, holy symbol fixed in place. Prayer on her lips, carefully and cautiously follows the two into the corridor. Wondering what happened to her cousin Gerrok. He would certainly be of great help here.
Roland slips into the passage after Rafael, if the armored man insists on going in first.
Rafael takes the lead moving into the exposed corridor. Pharithstilis steps in behind, slightly ahead of Roland who then bows to the dwarf lady and takes the rear position.
Moving along and around the corner the group notices total silence. With the light spell available they see a door ahead on the left and the corridor ends shortly after.
Checking at the door, nothing is heard. There is visible handle and no hinges. You assume that the door opens by pushing on it.
Here is the map
Gently laying his hand upon the door, he looks down toward the eccentric looking gnome. "I thought you'd never ask," he says with a grin. Rafael closes his eyes, takes a deep, calming breath, and focuses on the door. A minute passes...
Roland slips past the gnome and the cleric, his eyes studying the wall ahead of him while Rafael uses his magic to determine something about the room beyond the door.
While Rafael uses his divine magic to see through the door, Roland moves past the door and searches at the end of the corridor. While the construction is very good, age has made the perfectly fitted door less than perfect and he detects a slight crack. He doesn't see any handle or hinges though.
After another minute or so, Rafael comes back with a quick inhale and his eyes shoot open. "You never really get used to that," he says while turning to the group. "Luckily, this room has some light in it, though not a lot. The only thing I could see was a door on the other side of the room, about 30, 35 feet away. It looked empty, otherwise." He turns back to the door and says a short prayer while touching his tattoo. "Let me know when we're ready to go."
Roland gestures to the blank wall in front of him. "There's another one here, but no handle same as the last one. Might be it rotates again, though." The gunslinger shrugs and glances at the others.
Rafael's head snaps over to Roland. "A secret secret door?!" He grimaces when he catches himself speaking a bit louder than maybe he should. Quieter, he says to Roland, "Do you want to give it a little push? See if it's something we can get through?
While the males are doing their thing, Ingra watches the hallway they have just come down... watching our backs. She doesn't want anything to catch us by surprise, we have enough of that just moving forward.
Seeing the other door not budge, Rafael shrugs and slightly tilts his head. "Ah well, at least we've still got this one."
With everyone seemingly ready, he slowly pushes his door open and takes a step in and to the side to give the others room.
New Map
Rafael pushes on the door. It is stuck at first but slowly releases and creaks open. The room is empty and dimly lit. As the party moves in to the room they notice a crunching sound like stepping on crushed bone. It is coming from their feet as the floor is coated with a layer of.... something. It feels very rough, almost sharp, and crunches under the soles of their boots.
You also realize that although the room is dimly lit, there is no visible light source. There is a door visible across the room and a portcullis on the north wall.
Other than the sounds that you are making, you hear nothing.
Ingra looks around. Although there is no light source, is the light directional or is it just .. there. She also squats down.. what kind of material are we walking on.. if it is bone, can we tell what kind of bone it is?
Rafael's stomach drops further with each step. Oh, I was not prepared for this... He shakes it off, and following Ingra's lead, also kneels down and examines the...whatever it is.
He has no freaking idea what it is. It's probably chalk or something.
Ingra examines the floor and thinks it might be coral.
Pharithstilis examines the room looking for any magical aura. He does see what appears to be a really old, REALLY powerful aura,(probably in the creation of the room?) but nothing active.
Rafael isn't sure. Chalk is pretty soft and wouldn't likely be used for construction.... But what is it?
Roland bends down as well, holding his lantern just above the surface of the floor in order to get a better look at whatever it is they're walking on.
Regardless, he continues on and inspects the portcullis, looking for any levers or the like, whether in this room or in the one beyond.
At least it is not bones. Since they are crunching, can Ingra take some samples? If she can, she will watch for sharp edges, she doesn't want to get cut.
"This looks like coral, not something you would find in a room like this.."
Since this is maybe coral, could the light be a luminescence property like the ocean and the luminescence quality there?
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Pharithstilis scratches his head, not being able to make sense of the strange floor and strange light. But, being that novelty is good for his well being, he doesn’t worry too much about it.
When Ingra suggests that it might be coral, he too takes a pouch from his pack and collects a few choice samples. He then takes a look at the door on the south wall.
Hearing the suggestion that the floor might be covered in coral, Rafael makes the same incantation he made at the fountain and creates water from the air to pour on the floor.
He then joins Phari at the southern door.
New Map
Roland moves over to the portcullis, searching for a way to open it. He finds a crank that he thinks will lift it. He doesn't see any locking mechanism to keep it up.
Looking through the bars he sees a large room, lit like this one with no visible source. The walls of the room have sarcophagi standing up all along them, spaced close together so there is one about each 5' section.
Ingra examines the floor. She's never seen stone like this but also can't think of any reason someone would make a floor out of such a strange substance as coral. Using her weapon she cracks a couple of small pieces from it. It is white with a very slight pink tint. It does not appear to glow.
Pharithstilis also cuts a couple of small pieces of the coral from the floor. It doesn't appear to be a precious gem and it too soft for any use he can imagine. He moves down to the south door to examine it.
The door is wood. There is no visible lock. There is a handle on this side and hinges indicating that it pulls in to this room to open.
Rafael creates a puddle of water on the coral floor, then joins Pharithstilis at the south door.
Pharithstilis hears Rafael breathing beside him, but does not hear anything through the door.
"I'm not a big fan of sarcophagi right now, our luck, we go through the portcullis and they will all open up, I will continue to follow the lead of the group."
She does a shudder at the sarcophagi, and sends a prayer up for their souls. And waits for the direction of the party.
Rafael sees Phari struggling to hear through the door and places his hand against it. "I can only do this a few more times before needing to rest, but they can see through that gate over there, and it sounds like what they see isn't too inviting. Let's see if our door has any better luck." He closes his eyes for a minute as his vision moves beyond the door.
.
Rafael focuses on the door for a minute, and....