"I think it's a big... tomb door? You roll it aside somehow?" says Sienna dubiously.
"Bug, what are you trying to say? Rilkus, can you translate?"
”No idea what Bug is saying, as she isn’t clicking. Plus I’m not convinced that I’ve really got the language’s basics down yet. Most likely she’s telling us that inside isn’t safe? But from what I can see...the wheel is some kind of rolling door. Like the stone doors outside, it'll be impossible to move the wheel from the other side. If we all work together, perhaps we can budge it.”
"I think these... handles? ... can be used to roll it to one side," says Sienna. "But... the kreen drew these handles in the ground. I'm not sure what she's trying to indicate."
Sienna turns and stares into the bug's multifaceted eyes for a few moments. "I don't understand. You're trying to tell us something about the handles? Is it supposed to be operated a particular way? Is it a trap? Is it magic?"
Sienna looks at the handle, at the kreen, then back at the door, then says, "Oh! There's only handles on one side! This could trip a mechanism that shuts us in, if we don't figure out a way to keep it from rolling shut. Right."
There are little catches in the tracks. The wheel shouldn't be able to roll back on its own.
Rilkus nodded. He pulled a flank from his belt, and drank his mutagen. He shuddered, as his muscles began to swell from the alchemical concoction. He then gripped the wheel and..
Endless Stamina: Athasian muls add a +4 racial bonus to Constitution checks and Fortitude saves to avoid fatigue and exhaustion, as well as any other ill effects from running, forced marches, starvation, thirst, and hot or cold environment.
As such, he'll keep at this for as long as he is able.
"There are catches on the track - it can't roll back and shut on its own. Let's push!"
He assists Rilkus.
With a mighty heave, Rilkus sends the stone wheel rolling. It rocks forward, slowly turning along its track. His prodigious strength almost gives out for a moment, but Darzus and Badr quickly grab the other handles and pull it away from Rilkus setting it rolling further down the track with the loud sound of stone scraping against stone. It finally comes to a stop at the end of the track revealing a square doorway into a second chamber.
The square room is completely bare. Its walls are empty blank stone, not a single scratch or carving mars their surface. in the center of the chamber's floor, a square shaft rises drops straight down into darkness. A faint musty odor rises from the pit. A single piton has been hammered into the stone floor by the northeast corner of the pit, and a dusty length of giant hair rope dangles from the piton into the darkness of the shaft.
The shaft itself is ten feet square and its smooth surface is designed to make it very difficult to climb. Rilkus' foot gently taps the rope, and it disintegrates into dust instantly.
"Eerie. Anyone have a torch?"
"No... but we did tie the water barrel to Rilkus' back with rope. If we can figure out a way to get light, we can use that rope to lower one of us down, make sure it's safe, then lower the barrel and the rest of us," suggests Sienna.
Badr scans the room for traps and then pulls out 50' of silk rope. "I got rope, but no torches."
He feels his way to the piton and ties it down.
Badr can just make out a floor 60 feet below. The chamber is otherwise completely dark and silent.
Badr knots together the barrel rope with his silk rope and secures the silk rope to the piton. He then turns to the others intently. "I'll scout ahead. If I tug twice it is clear to come down."
He then swings down over the edge and climbs down.
"How are you going to get out? We only have 50' of rope but the shaft goes down 60'."
Badr smiles grimly. "I've scaled walls a lot higher than 10'. I'll get out."
Badr deftly slips down the silk rope, as silent as a shade. He drops the last ten feet to the stone floor below. Beside him are the crumpled remains of some tomb robber long since rotted away. Naught but some leathery skin and shattered leg bones are all that remain of the fool. Clearly, whoever it was fell from the shaft, shattered their legs, and crawled away to die. The nick in the windpipe gives away the desperation they must have suffered at the end. The wastes are never kind to the foolish or desperate. Death is the fate that awaits both.
But, the dead are dead, and it is worthless to pay them any mind. Badr stands, ignoring the body, taking in the chamber. It's another perfectly square room, with intricately carved walls depicting powerful warriors in profile in breastplate with a shield and raised khopesh. The shaft opens ten feet above the floor from the center of the ceiling. It'd be impossible to scale the walls.
Smooth stone slabs from a door in the western wall. They're heavy, but Badr thinks that he could push them open with some help.
the dice trolls keep doing weird things with the dice. so.. I'm just gonna handwave this. Badr sticks the landing (giggidy).
Bug kept looking at the big slab door they'd come through. Her new packmates were getting spread out now, going down the big hole. They clearly weren't worried like she was. She couldn't assume they didn't realize the danger. They seemed like they understood. Maybe they knew something she did not and she was simply being overly cautious.
With the decision made, she turned around from the doorway and looked at the hole, and the mechanisms it was attached to.
Badr calls up, ”It’s safe to descend.”
He then scans the room for traps.
Sienna manages to shimmy down the rope.
She drops the last ten feet, rolls in the dirt, and manages to come down unharmed.
"I sure hope you're right about getting back out."
|
Darzus looks around at the rest of the group, sighs, and approaches the rope.
The free falling after he slips incurs an overwhelming sense of panic before he finally hits the bottom. At that instant he opens up his eyes, having imagined very negatively how this climb is going to go.
"I'm... not so good with heights." He backs away and looks down at his feet while others descend on the rope.
Bug stood next to Darzus, feeling equally unsure, but for different reasons. She let out a small whistling chirp and waited to see what Darzus did.
Bug answered with short series of clicks, pops and antennae twitches.
"This place riskdanger. No hunt. Could trap inside."
Whatever Darzus said was enough for Bug. She grabbed the rope. |
Falling: "If a character deliberately jumps instead of merely slipping or falling, the damage is the same but the first 1d6 is nonlethal damage."
The doors easily push open and reveal a long hallway. The walls of this ten-foot-wide corridor feature bas-relief carvings of great battles. Armies with spears and shields clash at the direction of generals, while other leaders direct troops from chariots that are ruthlessly overrunning their enemies. A general standing at the far doors points at a carving in the eastern doors.
Engraved stone double doors stand at either end of the hallway.
"Wow... this is quite an entrance," says Sienna. Her voice is quiet, reverent, as if disturbing the air is itself somehow... disrespectful?
She shakes herself out of her reverie and says, "Of course, probably tomb-traps."
Badr silently scans the room for traps.
Badr takes in the intricate carvings, and dismisses them quickly. They are impressive, but they don't tell a story, or of what treasures may lay beyond the door. The large stone in front of the door, however...
The harsh sandstone is slightly raised higher than the rest of the stone floor. It's blended to look like a natural variation in the stone slabs. But, no. This place is far too well built, this is NOT an overlarge rock. It's a TRAP. He takes a quick look and, yes... there are small holes cunningly carved to look like spears falling from the sky. If the stone is pressed, then the trap will send arrows or spears ripping down the hallway to impale any in their way.
DC 20 to disable.
you can do aids another to help out
Badr will tell the others what he sees. He then attempts to disarm the trap. ”I will need some help.”
"I don't really know how this sort of thing works," says Sienna. "You'll have to step me through it."
She starts with a quick whispered invocation to the spirits of rain.
Bug silently waits, seeming to be watching everything and nothing all at once.