The door is unlocked. But still closed. Through the iron-barred window, you see the ten-foot-square room with a windowless iron door on the opposite wall beyond.
What do you do?
If it was too heavy for Guruthos to open, Thomas offered his help. He'd then illuminate the small room with the tip of his spear and let everyone peak inside. "That's obviously a trap. Way too suspicious! Why are we here again?"
Guruthos opens the door cautiously, and Thomas lights up the room with his spear. Suddenly, a booming voice fills the room saying "Please enter and close the door before proceeding with the pass phrase."
After a careful look and some feeling the floor with his spear, Thomas revealed his discovery. "As I said. Way too suspicious! Look down here. It's a pit. Can you disable it, or do we need to climb over it?"
Guruthos cocks his head to the side and gazes at Thomas... "Disable... a pit?"
"I don't know? Jam the hinges or something? You're the magician."
Disable covered pit trap: Disable Device DC 20
Magician? What does he know? Guruthos eyes the oracle suspiciously, then looks at the trap. Kneeling down, he locates a thin crevice indicating the edge of the trap door. He removes a long, thin, forked device from his pack, and gently dips it into the crevice until he feels it tap something. Spring-loaded pressure trigger. He thinks for a moment, then removes his last remaining piton from his pack, finds a precise placement, then takes a small hammer from his toolkit and taps the piton into the edge, gently at first, then building with force.
Apparently Thomas isn't the only one who has seen these things before. Guruthos gets to work and soon feels confident that, should the trap be triggered, it will fail to open up.
Leaving the piton firmly wedged in place, Guruthos stands and reaches a foot out to test the false floor. When he is confident that it will not fall away, he turns to Joriannika for his torch, then turns towards the room, but remembers the voice. He pauses and turns towards the group, **"Magic voice?"**
"This must have been what that little devil was talking about. Hey, maybe that means there really is treasure down here!" Hanzo brightened, poking his head into the room and looking around.
With measured steps, he ventured into the room, ready to leap for the doorway if the floor gave way.
When (if) he made it to the iron door, he set about examining it for another trap or a way to get through. "Just don't close that door!"
With a curse, he leaned back on his heels from the iron door, unable to open it. "Maybe Guruthos had better have a look," he grumbled.
Joriannika gave the room and door a hard look as well.
Then she stopped Hanzo from putting away his tools as he left. "I don't know anything about that voice, but I may have an idea. Here, let me see those."
"Tilt ratio... weight distribution... glide coefficient..." she muttered to herself as she worked on the iron door.
Guruthos watches the Hanzo and Joriannika with trepidation. Yes, he disabled the floor trap, but could the strange disembodied voice be an ill omen? He keeps a weary eye on their surroundings while the humans work on the next obstacle.
While the others were working on the door, Thomas was as suspicious as Guruthos. With a few incomprehensive words he cast Detect Magic and scanned the area.
Slowly, each party member stepped into the room with the trapped floor. At the very least, their weight seems to have had nothing to do with setting off the trap.
Guruthos speaks to the air, but gets no response. The disembodied, booming voice doesn't speak again.
Hanzo, either supremely confident that the floor is safe, or merely excited at a possibility of finding a treasure hoard, strides over to the solid iron door. He can tell that it, too, is locked but that the lock, too, is badly damaged. Unfortunately, thoughts of treasure impede his ability to focus and he can't get the door open.
He's about to put his things away and see if the elf can assist when Joriannika pipes up, takes his tools, and, once again, shows that she's just full of tricks.
As she's in the middle of unlocking the door, you all hear a sound of dull whirring, like gears trying to turn but unable to. As everyone tenses up, Joriannika gets the door open and everyone pours into the chamber beyond.
As soon as the last person is in, Guruthos' pitons get knocked out of place and the floor of the small room falls away, swinging on hinges attached to the wall. The party, safe for the moment, takes stock of where they are now.
A single iron lever protrudes from the wall next to the door in this otherwise empty chamber's west wall. To the east, a ten-foot-wide hallway curves to the north. And, it's not quite empty. A four-armed metal construct, with three jointed legs, blocks access to the eastern corridor. There is also a rather large, metallic key that floats in the air next to it. A few seconds after the party enters the chamber, it whirs to life and speaks in a tinny voice:
"Please present the crest for passage."
"Just a moment, if you please." Joriannika turned to the others and whispered, "It's a clockwork servant! Very fancy. Immune to a lot of damage, but vulnerable to electricity, like lightning. I think that's the key that winds it hanging there beside it. If we can grab the key, we can come back in 2 days and see if it's run down."
"Ok. Now I feel sorry and stupid that I did not bring the big heavy plague from before."
Guruthos sets down his backpack and calmly reaches into a side pocket, removing a small stick of chalk. He then proceeds to draw a crude representation of the Canteclures crest on the floor about 10 feet from the machine.
vs
Guruthos, with a keen image in his mind of what the crest looked like, knelt on the cold floor and did his best to recreate it.
The construct "sees" the finished result...seeming to consider it. You imagine that maybe it's cross checking the quick crude image with one implanted in its "memory".
A second passes.
Two seconds.
Then it steps to the side, no longer blocking passage to the hallway beyond.
"So you're an artist, too, eh? Good work."
As before the group moved forward slowly following Guruthos and his trapception.
The masked elf eyes the contraption wearily as he moves past it, then turns his focus towards making sure they don't trigger another trap as they move into the far hallway.
The mechanical monstrosity is quite distracting, though...
Guruthos leads the way, and no traps are sensed. As the group rounds the corner, another solid iron door greets you. It is closed. It is locked.
Joriannika breathed a small prayer to Shelyn as Guruthos worked. She held her breath as they edged past the guardian, hoping they wouldn't have to destroy the mechanical marvel to get out.
She sighed with relief when they were faced with yet another iron door. "Well, it's better than an axe in the head, as the dwarves say! ...I don't know if they really say that, but my dad used to, a lot."
Hanzo whistled cheerily as he took out his tools. He had considered trying to swipe the construct's key as they passed, but had decided to leave well enough alone.
Both Joriannika and Hanzo take note of the good condition this door is still in. The hall is unremarkable, nothing special.
Hanzo works, trying to unlock the door. For a moment, he thought he nearly had it, but his hand slipped. The door is still locked.
"Someone please lend Hanzo a hand. He's a little shaky."
As Hanzo steps aside, eyes turn to Guruthos, and he makes his attempt at the door.
His attempt was not even close to the effort of his fellow rogue. The masked elf curses in elvish as his pick bends against the rusted tumblers. He sighs and steps back.
Joriannika tugged the tools from Hanzo's hand while the rogue was busy giving Thomas a dirty look. To Hanzo's astonishment, she began twisting them in the lock as though she'd tried this before.
"Wow, this is a tough'un," she muttered to herself. "Maybe it just needs more time to go at it."
Guruthos looks at Hanzo, and croaks "Rusty key?"
Hanzo smacked his head. "Completely forgot about it! Here it is."
He fit the key into the keyhole, and turned it.
The key fits, and the door is unlocked.
As you all step through, you find yourselves out of the cramped hallway, the light from Thomas' spear barely reveals the decent-sized room. While the details are all wrapped in shadow, you can tell an area along the south wall is enclosed in a cage of thick iron bars that extend from floor to ceiling. Within the enclosure sit seven black iron chests. To the north, it looks like the stone wall has collapsed, revealing a rough-hewn tunnel.
Welp.
Joriannika entered, hanging back while Guruthos did any checking for traps he might want to.
"I hope whatever's in there isn't as nasty as the rest of what we've found!"
Hanzo took a careful look around, then sidled up to where the bars kept him from the chests, and looked for another keyhole.
"Hole in the wall. Huh. Think this is what those kobolds were really after?"
Guruthos draws his mithril knife and examines the room, the tunnel, and the cage area, looking for traps.
"If there is a treasure in these chests, you owe me a beer after all. Because then the devil wasn't lying, as I suspected."
Thomas kept the spear up, too, and treaded carefully towards the cage.
Even in the dim light, Joriannika, Hanzo, and Guruthos spot something in the floor. To the east of the floor-to-ceiling cage is a slot in the floor. A circular breakline in the stone keeps it "separate" from the rest of the floor. . Hanzo's first thought was something along the lines of, Bingo!And it's hard to tell, with Thomas providing the only light, but you can just make out an identical looking slot in the floor to the west of the cage as well.
Guruthos saw it most clearly, his eyes used to seeing in dim light. However, Guruthos was more focused on what he heard.
There was low, ragged groaning coming from the tunnel. You squint your eyes trying to see. Soon you all could hear what only the elf heard at first, as a creature comes stumbling toward the party, ready to strike!
COMBAT STARTING! ROUND 1
Bold may act:
Guruthos, Thomas, Joriannika, Hanzo, Creature
Global Condition: None |Global Condition:
Thomas HP: 8/10 AC: 16/12/14 Status:
Guruthos HP: 5/8 AC: 15/13/12 Status: 1pt DEX dmg (no penalty)
Joriannika HP: 6/9 AC: 17/13/14 Status:
Hanzo HP: 6/10 AC: 17-1/13-1/14 Status: 1pt NL dmg, 3pt Dex dmg (-1 Penalty)NPCS:
Creature HP: ? AC: ?
The masked elf hisses at the sight of the creature, "Ghoul! Undead!" He takes a step back to place himself next to Thomas, then readies himself for the foul creature to attack.
The elf takes a step back, and the ghoul's eyes refocus onto the oracle whose glowing spear makes him an easily spotted target. The ghoul advances toward him. But as he does so, the elf sees an opportunity to strike! Unfortunately, a loose rock under his foot shifted so his balance was thrown off and he swung wide. He caught himself so as not to fall, but felt foolish for losing his bearings.
The ghoul closes in on Thomas, his mouth wide.
The ghoul tries to chomp down on Thomas' shoulder, but "Thomas" was too quick.
Bold may act:
Guruthos // Ghoul // Thomas, Joriannika, Hanzo
Global Condition: None |Global Condition:
Thomas HP: 8/10 AC: 16/12/14 Status:
Guruthos HP: 5/8 AC: 15/13/12 Status: 1pt DEX dmg (no penalty)
Joriannika HP: 6/9 AC: 17/13/14 Status:
Hanzo HP: 6/10 AC: 17-1/13-1/14 Status: 1pt NL dmg, 3pt Dex dmg (-1 Penalty)NPCS:
Ghoul HP: ? AC: ?
Thomas found the varity of creatures down here very strange. Nevertheless, that ghoul was another nuisance and had to be dealt with. Thomas quickly dodged its attack with a step back and than thrusted his spear forwards.
Joriannika shouted at the ghoul, pulling a vial from her belt. "By all that's holy! Get away from him, you disgusting thing!" She lobbed the vial at the ghoul as Thomas stepped away...
Hanzo looked up from where he was considering the slots they'd found. "What the-?" He whipped out his daggers and circled around, meaning to step in and flank the thing at the first opportunity.
"So how long has THIS thing been down here?"
Thomas thrust his spear forward, piercing the ghoul's shoulder as recompense for trying to take a chunk of his. The creature groans and wails from the pain as the spear is yanked back out.
Joriannika shows why it's best not to get on her bad side, as she lobs a vile that explodes on impact. Unfortunately, her bomb fell ( ) closer to Guruthos than the Ghoul. And while the Ghoul took some splash damage from the bomb, so did Guruthos and Thomas.
Bold may act:
Guruthos // Ghoul // Thomas, Joriannika, Hanzo
Global Condition: None |Global Condition:
Thomas HP: 4/10 AC: 16/12/14 Status:
Guruthos HP: 1/8 AC: 15/13/12 Status: 1pt DEX dmg (no penalty)
Joriannika HP: 6/9 AC: 17/13/14 Status:
Hanzo HP: 6/10 AC: 17-1/13-1/14 Status: 1pt NL dmg, 3pt Dex dmg (-1 Penalty)NPCS:
Ghoul HP: -10 AC: 17