Rafael pulls his hand off the door and blinks open his eyes. He turns to Phari. "Well, no sarcophagi, but it's a pitch black hallway running that way," he says while pointing his finger east and west. "The last dark hallway we went down turned out ok, but if everyone wants to go in the creepy sarcophagi room, I'll join as long as I'm not going first." He says another quick prayer and lays his hand on his tattoo.
Roland doesn't particularly fear the walking dead, it's the actions of the living that often make him jaded and cynical. But he shrugs and turns away from the gate and the crank that he is certain would open it. "I can lead the way, if you'd like." The gunslinger offers, holding his lantern aloft.
Decision made the gunslinger moves to the front and the door is opened. Well, it isn't quite that easy.... The door is stuck, but with some struggling you do get it open. It won't close again easily.
Right or left? Roland leads taking a right turn. The hallway goes a little bit, then turns and dead ends. Time is of little importance so you all search, but find nothing.
Reversing the team heads back past the stuck open door to a T-intersection. Immediately to the right is a door. To the left is more hallway with a turn to the left visible.
The door is wood with a crystal door knob, hinges on this side.
Can Ingra tell what kind of crystal the door knob is made of?
Ingra moves up to look at the door knob. It appears to be common, low value quartz.
How are you examining it?
While Ingra is busy examining the doorknob, Rafael says his normal prayer to Desna, then picks up a stone. After saying a few words under his breath, the stone glows a warm light. He looks at Roland and Phari and nods his head toward the other hallway. Rafael takes a few steps and tosses the lit stone at the far wall where the hallway turns left. Crossbow in hand, he walks up to the corner and peeks around.
I thought I had posted the updated map.... Oh well, here it is, updated again.
The stairs go up.
Rafael slips around the corner and inches toward the stairs. Without peeking, he tries to hear anything up the stairs.
Ingra would look at it and then finally touch it, careful not to turn the nob.. she just wants to get a feel of the texture.
Feeling an uneasiness and not hearing anything, he returns to the group, informing them about the stairs. "They lead up to another lit room, but I didn't hear anything up there. I have no idea if we're in a basement or a tower, so I suppose up or down makes no difference," he says, referencing the trap door. "Ingra, how's the door coming along?"
Ingra reaches out and touches the knob. She and Roland disappear is a bright flash of light.
Rafael returns to where the group used to be, mentioning what he saw, and notices that Pharithstilis is alone.
Pharithstilis checks the door knob for magic, and YES! It has very powerful magic on it. It is conjuration magic and at least a 6th level spell. And you are certain that it is still active.
Pharithstilis isn't sure what the spell aura is, other than way beyond his power. He is fairly certain that whatever happened, it was when Ingra had her hand on the door knob. And it expanded out about 10 feet from the door, causing Roland to disappear as well.
"Ingra, how's the do-" Rafael stops mid-sentence as he looks up to see the gnome by himself in a panic. "Umm, where did everyone else go?" Rafael holds the light stone up and peers down the hallway they came from, but doesn't see anything or anyone. "What happened while I was gone" he asks, turning back to Phari.
Rafael snaps out of a trance that seemed to last about a week.
"Time in this place is weird sometimes. Anyway, Ingra and Roland are still gone. What happened?"
Rafael stares at the door in a mix of wonder and worry. "It's still a door, right," he questions out loud. "Maybe they poofed to the other side." Careful to stay away from the doorknob, Rafael places his hand to the door, lowers his head, and closes his eyes.
For Roland and Ingra: Map
You awaken together in a different room. Your bodies are encased in rapidly thawing ice that crackles and drops away as you move. Perhaps the ice was a good thing as it held Roland's hand tight on his lantern, not allowing it to drop.
You find yourselves in a small (15' square) room with three visible exits, a wooden portcullis and two locked wooden doors.
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Rafael and Pharithstilis: Rafael uses his power to see through the door again. After a minute he can determine that there is no light in the room. The magic lets him see the area just past the door. He can see what looks like a corner of a rotted wooden wagon.
Pharithstilis remembers that the human gunslinger carried a lit lantern in his off hand.
Pulling his hand off the wall, Rafael steps away from the door and back to Phari's side. "Another dark room, but I was able to see part of a wooden wagon. Looks like it's been here a long time." He scratches his head. "How did they get a wagon into this place?"
Rafael's eyes fall back on the doorknob. "I wonder..." He finds a small stone as he and Phari step well away from the door. Rafael rolls the stone around in his hand, focuses on the doorknob, and tosses the stone at it.
Stepping back from the door, Rafael tosses a small stone at the door handle.
The tiny stone bounces off of the door handle and falls to the floor.
After a moment, Rafael turns to Phari. "...I don't know what I expected to happen. I guess it only works on people." He sighs. "OK, either we touch that doorknob and have no idea what happens, walk up these stairs, or go back through the trap door." He shakes his head. "I know for sure I'm not going in the dead person room. My vote is the trap door. Maybe we'll find them teleported in a pit or something."
Chattering as she speaks, "So.. sorry Roland. Are you alright?"
Not wanting to risk the powerful magic on the door handle, Rafael and Pharithstilis return to the trapdoor in the floor where they had defeated the homunculus. Quickly checking it for magic/traps and finding nothing, they still carefully use a tool to lift and turn the handle, then lift the door. They find a 5' deep pit with a locked chest.
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Ingra seems to recover from the freezing transport quicker than Roland, perhaps due to her sturdy dwarven heritage....
Peering down into the pit, Rafael chuckles to himself. "I guess I was half right, unless they've been transformed into a chest." Eyeing the lock on the chest, he turns to Phari. "I don't think I have any easy way to open that lock. Do you?"
Rafael looks back at the lock after saying a quick prayer and tries to see if it's rigged.
Saying a prayer to her god, Ingra lightly touches Roland. Can she tell if he has taken any damage?
She looks around this room,,, is it empty or is there something I can burn to warm Roland?
Pharithstilis and Rafael work on the lock of the chest. Between acid and physical damage you are able to get it open. It is mostly empty except for some coins and rough stones.... Quickly examining what is and isn't valuable you find:
3 gp, 50 sp; Freshwater Pearl (9 gp), Malachite (9 gp), Milky Quartz (35 gp), Moonstone (50 gp), Moonstone (55 gp), Obsidian (10 gp), Tigereye (10 gp); Decorated silver plate (60 gp)
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Ingra examines Roland and realizes that he is not harmed. He just seems quiet....
Roland finally shakes his head as though to clear it. "Feel like I've been asleep..." Once he is able to move, the gunslinger raises the lantern and keeps his pistol in hand as well, moving to peer through the gate first and then examining the doors. He has no tools, nor any knowledge of how to pick a lock, but they could probably be busted down - though that'd be a noisy proposition.
Returning to the portcullis, he looks for a way to open it. Perhaps a lever, though if any such thing is on the other side of the gate, it could prove problematic...
The doors are heavy wooden doors, both locked. The portcullis is also wooden. It appears that it could be lifted, but you don't see any way to prop it to hold it open. Testing, it will take the combined strength of Roland and Ingra to lift it.
Roland grunts as he finishes his inspection of the gate. "We need something to prop it, even if we manage to get it lifted high enough for us to squeeze under. Might be something beyond one of those doors, but unless you see a key somewhere or know how to pick a lock, we're going to have to force one of them open. Unless there's another way out of here we aren't seeing."
After taking a careful look around the room for a secret door or passage, if his search goes unrewarded then Roland suggests they try and bust down the left-hand door. The dwarven woman seems stout enough to assist (or maybe even take the lead?), and between the two of them, the gunslinger hopes they can do exactly that.
"I guess they're not in here," Rafael jokes, placing gems and coins into his backpack. "I don't know if we'll get a chance to sell these, but it can't hurt to take them. We'll divide this up later." He closes up his backpack and slings it onto his back before pulling himself out of the pit. He offers a hand down to Phari. "Where do you want to look for them next?"
Rafael runs his hand through his hair. "It's possible they got teleported into one of the sarcophagi. I guess it wouldn't hurt to poke our heads in."
Ingra is also going to look for secret doors. And then help Roland to get the door open. If worse comes to worse, she does have acid darts that may help to dissolve the locks, but I couldn't imagine how long that would take or if it would even help.. It might do more damage in the end. Can we see the hinges,,, that may be the best way to bust this door open,, by ax or acid? Just throwing out some suggestions.
Roland and Ingra: The portcullis will have to be lifted. However, it is just wood. If either of you has an edged weapon you could chop it open. There are no secret doors. The two doors are locked and Ingra is fairly certain that she could damage the locks with acid, but it might just fuse them locked. The doors are also wood and could be bashed/chopped apart. It would make even more noise that breaking the portcullis apart.
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Pharithstilis and Rafael: I'll wait for your decision on where you go next. ?? Stairs up? Sarcophagus room? And there were a couple other doors that you didn't open. ??
Roland eyes the portcullis, then shakes his head. "My dagger won't do much against this. Your hammer might do the job though." Stepping away, he glances at the dwarf. "I won't offer to use your weapon without your blessing, but you seem more capable than I'd be anyway." He gives her a crooked smile that indicates he means exactly what he says. "Besides, I can keep watch in case someone or something hears the racket if you want to bust the gate or one of the doors down." He slaps the pistol that hangs on one hip meaningfully.
The gunslinger is quite certain that Ingra is strong enough to accomplish either task. And he's better off watching to see if anything hears their demolition, using his pistol to dissuade them from interfering.
"I think the portcullis would be the best bet. That way you can see if something is coming from that direction as well."
She will bust the portcullis with her hammer.. breaking enough of a section for both of us to go through.
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Roland and Ingra: New Map
Roland readies his weapon and watches as Ingra starts pounding in the portcullis. As the barrier was never designed to withstand that type of assault, and it appears to be quite old, the dwarf is able to break a significant hole in it fairly quickly.
Exploring the strangely quiet corridor, first to the right there is a skeleton chained to the wall. It appears to be a human skeleton (not animated) of someone that died many years ago. If there ever was anything of value, it was removed. To the left the corridor turns right. There is a maze pattern in tile on the floor completely blocking the corridor. Careful examination reveals nothing and you get past it without anything occurring. The corridor turns left again and there is a door on the left wall at the end.
Listening at the door you hear nothing. Searching for any hidden door you find none. The door has no latch and appears to push open, but it seems stuck tight.
As he begins walking away from the trap door, Rafael sees the two doors they didn't open. He pauses and recalls the other doors they missed and turns to Phari.
"We skipped over a couple doors on our way to the crazy doorknob. Let's give a quick listen through those doors and see if we can get a lead on where they might have gone."
Accepting that the pair is alone they very carefully and as quietly as possible check out the unopened doors visible in this room. While neither is a trained rogue, perhaps their nerves help them to find a trap on the northwest door. They can't determine what it would do, but are fairly certain it would be a nasty surprise. The northeast door appears to be quiet and safe, but also stuck. It is a heavy wooden door with no visible latch or knob. You assume it would be opened with a hard enough push....
here
"Let's see if we can force this door, but I'll keep my gun in hand. Just in case."
Roland draws his pistol, aiming it toward the floor as he slams his shoulder into the door...