"Hrmph. Some undead. I am sure I could do better, that is if I wanted to."
"What secret door? How could you see that and not I. Unbelievable. Taylor must have distracted me this time..."
Penny makes excuses as she approaches the doorway, casting detect magic before she crosses the threshold into the seemingly empty room. If she finds any magic, she will stop and alert the team.
Yngvilda picks up her shield again, but not before double-checking the sarcophagus for hidden treasures that might have been left behind.
She tries a few different weapons, but settles on her handaxe for now, liking the feel of the lighter weapon. Following Cwm to the door, she nods to Tykent.
"Thank you Tykent. Your wisdom and magics have made the difference for us more than once, it's an honour to have you with us"
After the secret room is discovered and a stairwell down is revealed, Yngvilda leads the way deeper into the crypt.
A huge mosaic of a red dragon decorates the floor of this large chamber. To the north lie three circular alcoves, each with a single pillar of black marble in its center. To the south, in a single large alcove, a spiral staircase descends to a deeper level of the crypt. Four stone sarcophagi sit on the floor on the south side of the main room, two on each side of the alcove entrance.
"Well then what a room. We knew what was hiding in just one sarcophagus, now 4? Better to be prepared I say"
Penny, from a safe distance, casts detect magic on all 4 sarcophagi, reporting her findings to the rest of the team. Additionally, she investigates the black marble pillars in each of the circular alcoves.
Penny detects three magical auras, two of which come from the westernmost sarcophagus. The third aura however, comes from the huge mosiac of a dragon that covers the majority of the floor here.
Yngvilda is about to stride forth into the room, but she stops when Penny mentions magic on the mosaic.
"Magic floor you say? Does it look trapped Cwm?"
As it doesn't appear that she can go anywhere without stepping on it, she stands back and studies it while she waits for the expert's opinions
After squinting at it for a while she lets everyone in on her observations.
"Is it supposed to be a donkey? Or a cloud?"
Cwm scouts the room for traps and tries to discern anything useful.
Cwm finds that the floor is indeed trapped should anyone take a step onto the mosaic that spans most of the floor here.
"Hey Penny, want to go check out that mosaic real quick? It appears to be trapped but I'm sure you'll be fine." Cwm chuckles, sure she won't actually take him up on the offer.
He settles down near the edge and tries to determine if he's able to disable the trap before anyone touches it.
Before Penny can come back with an answer, Cwm tries to disable the trap. Once he's finished, he motion to Yngvilda to tell her it's probably safe. The Ulfen fighter moves onto the floor as Penny announces "I believe spirals of fire will lance and blast throughout the room, igniting everything here."
Yngvilda takes her first step and nothing happens. Then another. Then another. It does appear that Cwm's trap disabling skills were successful.
Penny looks at Cwm "Ha! Even a stopped clock shows the right time twice a day. Good job chap. " She give Cym a pat on the head before following Yng into the room. "Shall we continue our investigation now?"
She approaches the Western sarcophagus and gives it a good look over. "I am detecting more magic from this one. Be prepared..."
"Well done Cwm"
Yngvilda waits for Penny to give the all clear magic-wise then has her step back before she tries to open the sarcophagus.
"Maybe this magic is of the treasure variety and not the try-to-kill us variety!"
Penny relays that the floor is no longer detecting as magical, but the sarcogphagus has two separate auras emanating from it.
As you pass through the dragon mosaic, an inscription reads "Red Azramo, Give the Dragon Her Due."
"No idea what that means. Looks like jibberish to me. No distractions while I concentrate on the aura's"
"Ah, Azramo," Tykent sighs. "Fearsome red dragon she was - at least until she was slain by Tula and her mercenaries. I'm sure it was before your time, Penny. No shame in not remembering."
Penny detects two distinct abjuration auras coming from within one of the sarcophagi.
Yngvilda will open it, trying with her bare hand first before resorting to the crowbar
BEFORE Yng starts to open it, Cwm runs over and positions himself for when something that wants to eat them comes out.
for
Using the crowbar to get leverage, Yngvilda pries open the sarcophagus to reveal the desiccated remains of old Taldan fighters clad in badly aged plate armor. The corpse wears a ring of strength sapping on its left hand and a +1 acid resistance light steel shield on its right arm.
Yngvilda takes the shield. "Is this what is magical Penny? It's beautiful, so light and elegant"
"Magical acid resistance? That's ... incredible! I'm used to fighting with a heavy shield though, Tykent could you use this?"
"Yes yes, I am confident as ever that shield and ring are what I was sensing here. The ring could prove useful if anyone here fights with their fists, otherwise perhaps we just hold onto it for a little while ehh?"
Penny nods in satisfaction, and agrees with Yngvilda that she, Penny, does not want to dirty up her hands by wielding the shield.
"I am not picking up any further magical aura's from this place, but perhaps we should not leave any stone un-turned, aha if you get my drift. "
Penny points at the other 2 sarcophagi, waiting patiently for Cym to give it a look over.
"I've inspected them myself, and it seems like there is nothing special about either."
Cracking open the remaining sarcophogi reveals nothing but decayed bodies long at rest.
With nothing left to explore on this floor, you head south to another set of stairs and descend even further into the crypt. After traveling down a flight, you enter an oval chamber with an altar, the front side of which is carved to resemble a winged eye. A chalice and a small leather-bound book sit atop the altar.
The gold chalice is worth 875gp, and the book is an antique tome of prayer for devotees of the Last Azlanti. This rare book is worth l,000 gp.
A set of double doors is closed, leading north.
Cwm checks the door for traps and to see if it's locked. If it looks clear, she waits until the others are ready and then opens one door.
Cwm declares this door so completely free of traps that he decides he's going to open it himself! Pushing it open reveals a large room twice the size of the one they are in. The floor of this great, domed chamber has a coppery metallic sheen, save for three mosaics of blue dragons made of polished blue glass. Chiseled into the north wall is an inscription, and the air smells slightly of ozone.
Yngvilda points to the dragon mosaic and looks at Penny.
"Is that another one of those deadly magic trap thingies?"
Penny follows, and after Yng asks about the mosaic she rolls her eyes "Yes give me a moment to investigate!"
Penny detects no magic from anywhere in this room.
"No magic, hmm?" Tykent considers the room carefully. "That smell has to be made by something though - otherwise it would have dissipated when the tomb was sealed all those years ago. So what could be the source..?"
Yngvilda is wary of constantly walking into traps, so he hangs back while the others check things out. She turns to Eldon who's constantly zapping things.
"What do you say Eldon, is this going to zap us unexpectedly?"
Muttering the words to a minor spell Eldon scans the room. Seeing no sign of magic he says "Penny's right, there is no magic in here, but I could go first. Getting zapped doesn't hurt me as much anymore."
If Eldon walks in safely, Yngvilda follows sheepishly behind to guard him against any non-zappy threats; shield and handaxe drawn.
"Let's check out that inscription!"
Cwm brings up the rear.
Tykent can't locate the source he's looking for, but he does note that the sheen on the floor is more than visual design, it appears the entire floor is metallic and made of copper and would conduct electricity quite well as the party suggests.
Eldon goes first to test the theory and unsurprisingly is met with a blast of electric current that explodes through the floor and transmits into his body
Smiling at the tingling sensation of the electricity flowing through him, Eldon raises a hand for the others to stop. "Good call Yngvilda, definitely some sort of zappy trap here."
Assuming the magic to be expended, Yngvilda boldly walks over to the inscription to read it, shield and weapons at the ready to guard against any threat
Yngvilda crosses the floor without any electrical interference. Deeming it safe, the others begin to follow as well without a shocking experience.
Moving into the room you can see a message on the north wall that reads, "Baesterogh, Alamitatus, and Vernegash-each dragon slain by Lady Tula of Belhaim and the Slayers of Nazilli, Battle of Blue Note Hill, 3668 AR."
A door to the west is locked and Tykent discovers a secret door hidden on the eastern wall.
Ygnvilda reads out the names, trying to commit each to memory in case they might be used as passwords or such later. Then she approaches the secret door.
"A secret door Tykent? Good find! Perhaps dragon slaying treasure lay behind it?"
She opens it with a flourish.
”Don’t go too far ahead,” Tykent cautions with a smile. ”Cwm would be disappointed if he didn’t get to check for any dangerous surprises before the rest of us walk into them.”
To Yngvilda's disappointment, the "treasure" behind the secret door is a spiral staircase that leads further into he depths of the crypt.
Cwm is walking over to examine the door when Yhgvilda pulls it open. He winces and steps to side the just in case.
"How about that locked door Cwm, can you open it? This place it so nice it would be a shame to smash it to pieces with an axe"
She says this in a tone that suggests she actually might rather enjoy smashing the door down.
Cwm nods and approaches the door, examining it for traps and attempting to pick the lock.
Cwm opens the door with ease. Inside the room there are painted statues of four human archers, bows drawn, occupy the western curve of this circular chamber. The two archers to the north aim toward the northeast, and the two archers to the south aim southeast. An inscription decorates each statue's base. The inscriptions on all four statues' bases are identical: "May your arrows strike center and true."
Yngvilda has a look around the room. "Arrows are well and good, but a good blade is better"
”Curious - look at these scrape marks.” Tykent draws his companions’ attention down from the statues themselves to the floor. ”It seems these are meant to move - perhaps to point towards the center if the room as the inscriptions mention?“
Yngvilda goes to work moving the heavy statues as instructed by Tykent the Perceptive. Once she completes her work, a section of the floor in the center of the room begins to slide down in wedges, creating a spiral stairway that descends down.
"Wow a secret staircase! Good eye Tykent. That's probably where they put the real dragon fighting gear."
She's been burned enough times to have some caution, so she checks the new stairway for traps (and allows anyone else to the same) before heading down.
Cwm quickly checks for traps before descending, "anything's possible Yng."
The stone spiral stairs open onto a circular alcove looking out into a great domed chamber. Seven statues stand to the north, and seven more to the south--burly figures wielding large hammers. A single stone sarcophagus sits in the center of this room, at the bottom of a series of four tiers descending in five-foot increments.
The stairs continue descending down to another floor below you.