"Strange thing to have behind secret door. There must be more here. Let's keep looking"
"Hm. Agreed. We can come back and check it more later. Perhaps we'll see a clue about this."
"This room wasn't made by the goblins. I doubt the crazy lass did this either. But lets move on." Crastor says as he turns and heads back to the previous rooms.
There are no traps and no sounds coming from behind the door.
Walking up a short flight of steps, this room contains three tables, covered with a bizarre selection of tools, saws, long-bladed knives, and objects whose purpose is not obvious.
A strange collection of humanoid-like bones lies on the floor near the southern table—too many to be one skeleton, but too few to be two. The skeleton seems to be a two-headed man with an additional partial skeleton of a smaller man growing from the small of his back.
Sitting on the easternmost table is an object that obviously isn’t a tool — it's a silver-and-gold seven-pointed star about the size of your hands. One surface is studded with blades and small hemispherical bumps, and the other side has a thin, curved handle.
"Is that some kind of weapon or some magic dingus? Odd for it to just be sitting here."
"Might it be a religious symbol?"
"I am going with some cultic blade." Crastor says as he looks over the room. "Looks like it might be valuable, too."
Jzero doesn't know of any religion that uses such a symbol or device.
More conversation, or move on to another room?
"Well, let's take it and move to the next room then. These last few rooms feel as if no living being has been here for some time.."
He looks around nervously.
"Yes, the sooner we are finished, the better." Crastor will turn and head to the southern doors.
Jzero is ready to see what's in the room.
You find no traps, and hear no sounds.
But, the door is locked, and there's no obvious keyhole to pick. However, there is an indentation in the door in the shape of a seven-pointed star, with slots and dimples within it.
Velrek looks at the door. Shakes his head.
"I was expecting it to be a piece of art or a magic wand or a badly designed weapon. Not a door handle."
I guess I took it so...
Velrek pulls out the odd thing and checks to see if it fits. If/when he does he looks to his companions to see that they are ready and tries to open the door...
Jzero nods, nocking an arrow in his bow.
Velrek puts the disk on the door, and turns it. It takes all his strength, as if turning the disk is moving many heavy things within the door.
As you open the doors, a creature rushes at you from within. It is 8 feet tall, and looks like a 400 pound wolf with a hunchback and large bat ears, but it walks on only its hind legs. As it reaches the door, it suddenly collides with an invisible barrier, and is thrown back a few feet. At first it roars loudly with frustration, but then it shouts "LET ME OUT OF HERE!" in common.
Initiative
Crastor - AD
Ceri - KD
Velrek – 10D
Jzero - 5S
Creature – 3C
Evesk - 2D
Crastor's up!
"Sure...how do we send you back to where you came from?" Crastor asks the creature.
Ceri says "This thing seems to be bound to the room, so do we really need to fight it?"
Velrek is up!
"I agree with Ceri on this. While it may be trapped and I do sympathize, it is enraged and will try to kill us. Close the door and move on. We'll tell the town about it and they can deal with it."
Jzero is up!
"In my training, fight avoided is fight won as long as no one comes to harm. If the beast has been trapped here for such long time, leaving it here seems wise. We can return and see if there are more experienced monster hunters or magic experts who can deal with it."
Jzero drops his bow and arrow, and starts to slowly walk towards the double doors.
Evesk sees this and shouts "Jzero is being mind-controlled! Everyone try to tackle him before he gets thru those doors! I'll try to close the doors!"
Ceri tries to tackle Jzero :
= 5 (Jzero's TN to not get grappled)
Velrek jumps in front of Jzero.
"Someone close the door!"
He then tries to grab his friend...
Crastor tries to grab Jzero!
Evesk says "I'm on the doors, Velrek!"
Vs Ceri
Vs Crastor
Vs Velrek
Fortunately, all three managed to grab Jzero somewhere, immobilizing him while Evesk closes the door.
The moment it's closed, Jzero regains his mental facilities.
Jzero, if you want to role-play your reaction to suddenly "waking up" and finding your comrades all wrapped around you, feel free...
As soon as the doors close, JZero halts his forward motion. He looks around at everyone holding on to him and says "What's going on? Last thing I remember I was pointing my arrow at the creature."
"The creature or some other trap beguiled you." He pauses and smiles, "I didn't think that was the kind of love you were looking for in life, but if it is, we can open the door again..."
Jzero shakes his head to clear it and ground himself again. "Sorry. I should have better grounding. I let myself get distracted."
"I think we should deal with it. We were who Sandpoint sent to deal with whatever was on this island. If there was someone better then us, they would have sent them instead of us." Crastor says.
Ceri says "It's odd that Jzero snapped out of his...whatever it was...as soon as the doors were closed. Perhaps there's a force field inside the room that keeps him physically contained, and spells can pass thru it, but not the material of the doors?
From what I've heard in tavern talk, a greater Barghest has a very tough hide, strong arms ending in long sharp claws, a nasty bite, and can cast many different powerful spells. If the stories are true, they have taken out groups stronger than us. That's just what I've heard, but I say we leave it alone."
"I still agree with Ceri. Let's lock it back up and leave it."
"If it has been confined for so long and even demon woman could not free it, then let us leave it be. It is well protected from anyone accidentally stumbling onto it."
Ok, so that's decided! The next place to explore is back into hallway E5, turn left and go south, where you find another set of double doors.
What do you do?
Crastor will search the doors for traps and locks and then listen for any noise on the other side.
Crastor doesn't hear anything, and the door is unlocked and not trapped.
You all enter to see four pillars supporting the domed ceiling of the room. Several alcoves containing standing sarcophagi line the walls, and a statue of a stern man wielding a glaive and holding a book stands in the southern part of the chamber. He looks like the person in the "video loop" in a previous room. There are runes carved into the wall around each alcove.
Everyone make a Notice-2 roll...
What do you all do?
"I am very curious to know who that man is.."
Velrek, if you look at the map, it's perfectly symmetrical except there's no alcove in the middle of the west wall - that seems odd.... You go over to that area, and you can feel a very slight breeze moving into the wall. Looking very closely, you manage to see the outline of a secret door in the wall.
"Great find Velrek, let me see if I can figure out how to open it and if there are any traps." Crastor says as he moves over and checks the crack.
"Huh. Glad I finally saw something.. "
Crastor - the door is locked, make a Thievery roll to unlock it.
Jzero - no, you're in E6. I said so in my 4:30 AM post on Monday...
Crastor works away at the lock.
Crastor opens the difficult lock with no problems, and opens the door. You all see a moderately long EW corridor with two right turns .
Assuming you take the first right turn, it is a shorter corridor with a short flight of steps down, leading to another door which is not locked. It opens into a small room which is empty except for a pool of water in the NW corner.
Going back to the EW corridor, you go until the hall itself makes a right-hand turn, and then a left-hand turn which ends at a door that is locked.
Crastor will go look in the small pool to see if anything was left in it.
Crastor - there appears to be a hole in the wall and floor in the corner of the room with the water. That's where the water is coming from, and the only thing you see are some small fish swimming in and out of sight. You detect the faint odor of salt water.