Sapher will head back with Mok dragging Ez along if she is still out of it.
"Take cover!" Caroliss falls back again.
She sure hopes Vel is right about her own strategy.
As the others run out of the room Vel, goes the opposite direction and squeezes in behind the statue but is left in the darkness as the room as those with the light flee up the hall. After a moment there is flash of light as the room explodes in flames once again.
The entire room is engulfed in flames and ten feet out into each hall, including the statue and where Vel is standing.
Drask growls as the fire erupts again. Vel you damn hothead. "Vel! You alright!?" He shouts.
”Didn’t...quite make it...” she groans as she scrambled on to the next room...
"Come on, let's hurry past this thing before it blows again!"
She drops a heal with her wand as she catches up to Vel.
The group, after seeing Vel is ok, if not a little bit crispy, moves on out of the room leaving the trap for someone else to deal with. The hall continues south for a ways before eventually turning east, then opens south into a long, wide hall.
A line of pillars runs down the center of this hall, between which lie the ruined remains of what was once an immense magical laboratory. Crumbled tables, broken stone urns, rusted cauldrons, and ancient fragments of broken glass lie scattered throughout. The northern wall depicts a vast mural of armies of deformed monsters and demons gathering on the shores of a mountainous island. Above, a woman’s face has been carved into the mountaintop, and an immense bridge arches out from just below this woman’s face. Below the mountain, at the end of a side view of a tangled network of caverns, lies a vast underground vault in which an immense monstrosity of tentacles surrounds a central fanged mouth; within the mouth glares an angry red eye.
Drask glances briefly up at the mural, but then his eyes focus on the rest of the room to identify any potential threats. He trusts the more educated members of the group to inform him if there's anything of note about the artwork.
Caroliss takes in the scene with curiosity, and a newfound trepidation after the party was fireballed by a statue. "Whatever that tentacle creature is, it does not look friendly." She searches for any magical auras.
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As Caroliss tops off Veltariel with the wand, Esrisi looks over at her charred clothing and hair and kept help but smirk. She leans in and whispers a joke "Look at us. A couple of regular burnt up explorers, eh?"
Even though she jokes, she's glad she can't see what her hair looks like even though she keeps pulling black singed pieces out of it.
In the crazy mural room she remarks "This room looks quite ominous."
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As they quickly move past the trap, Mokhasi pauses, and takes a breath. ”Friends, do we have any way to disable similar traps in the future? The next one may be deadlier - we were lucky.” He looks around at everyone appraisingly, ”If we do not, may I suggest that we invest in some mechanism to do so as soon as possible? The remaining shards will be in further trapped areas, and next time we may not have a warning”
Mokhasi examines the mural carefully, trying to identify the mountain.
”I believe that complex would now be called ‘Hollow Mountain’, on an island in the Gulf of Varisia. I cannot identify the creatures though.” Mokhasi makes a crude copy of the mural, and writes in his journal some notes.
Sapher grunts in agreement with Cars.
"Does it help us?" Sapher asks about the tapestry Mok points out.
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”Perhaps... this looks to be at least related to ancient Thassalon, presumably this shows that there are ruins there?” Mokhasi shrugs, ”what is not important now may be important in the future.” He taps his head, ”plus, it has to go in our report for Heidmarch. She expects detailed notes.”
Mokhasi detects magic everywhere, too.
Checking the room for magic, there is none to be found and the debris here don't appear to hold anything of value. Eventually you make your way to the other end of the hall, though you keep looking back at the creepy tentacle-eye monster and it almost seems to be watching you as you move. You're fairly certain that is not the case and it is just an optical illusion but it is creepy none the less.
At the other end of the hall stairs ascend to the west and a closed door rests in the southern wall.
Veltariel’s lip curls into a slight smirk at Esrisi’s remark, but she doesn’t reply. She is clearly hurting from the encounters to this point. As the others discuss the venture ahead of them yet, she sighs and knocks an arrow again, assuming the inevitable continued threat.
Veltariel will listen at the door in the southern wall before the group decides on a path.
Vel hears nothing behind the southern door.
She opens it up a slight bit and takes a peek inside...
Peeking on the other side of the door there is a hallway that leads south eventually ending in two closed doors. There are hallways that split off to the east and west from this southern hall.
”By the gods does this complex ever end? There’s more side paths this way...” Veltariel groans in frustration.
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Esrisi shares Veltariel’s frustration as her resolve begins to wane. ”It’s no wonder no one has found the shard. It’s buried so far underground no one is able to make it there alive.”
She pauses was she just comes to a realization. I”Uhm. If these dangers we are facing are only on the way to the shard, what happens when we actually get to the shard? There is going to be some kind of guardian, isn’t there?”
When Veltariel relays the information on what’s ahead, Ez suggest ”Let’s try left first.”
Veltariel nods in agreement with Esrisi, and as the other woman brushes past Veltariel, her elbow brushes against Vel’s exposed skin of her waist, eliciting a painful inhale of breath from the elf. Esrisi can see the skin is, while no longer burned from the trap, is still quite red and painful looking.
Vel gives Caroliss a glance over her shoulder. She was thankful for the healing she had given her so far, but she also remembered her and Ado...Mokhasi together in his room.
”It...it’ll be okay. I just need to get out of this tomb and see the sun again. Breath some fresh air...”
She reaches up and catches Esrisi’s upper arm gently with her hand. She looks at her and says ”Hang on a second...” as she looks to the others. ”Give us a minute, please?” hoping they acquiesce and head on down the hall enough to give the two women a moment to talk in private.
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Esrisi nods to her comment about the sun. ”Oh yes please! I can’t stand this dark and treacherous dungeon and won’t stay down here one more moment then we must!”
When she grabs her upper arm, she freezes and is unsure how to proceed. She shoots a glance over her shoulder to Caroliss for guidance but she is too busy talking to Mokhasi about something and misses the plea for help. Turning back to Veltariel, she nods silently and walks off with her looking back over her shoulder again for Caroliss, but this time Drask is standing in front of her blocking her line of sight.
"Honesty, it would take a thorough researcher years to study this place. I'm sure someone would want to do that once we've dealt with the dangers."
Caroliss looks at Vel and Ez with momentary suspicion as Vel asks for some privacy, but shrugs and proceeds along to let them talk. I can't fix all of your problems, she thinks.
Sapher starts looking for traps again, but not so focused that she misses those two walking off together. Grinding her teeth in frustration, she hates not knowing if something bad has happened there. She suspects, her gut screams it, but without Mok or Cars expertise to tell her what, hitting them both with her hammer until they confess SOMETHING seems too Not-Bolkan.
She has considered it though, A Lot.
After a few moments away, Veltariel rejoins the group, giving the others a nod that she was ready to proceed.
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Esrisi doesn’t immediately follow Veltariel back into the room, I’m fact it’s probably closer to two minutes before she emerges through the doors. While shaking her left hand and clenching her left fist, she stares at the floor, avoiding all gazes with the party and appears to be deeply lost in thought. Closer inspection would reveal she is talking quietly with herself, which is not that unusual or out of place unfortunately.
Caroliss comes up to Esrisi and gives her a hug. She doesn't say anything, but gives Ez a chance to open up if she wants to. If Ez rejects the implied offer, Caroliss is prepared and does not outwardly take offense.
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Esrisi leans into the hug, putting her head on Caroliss’s shoulder and lets her friend hug her but doesn’t her back. She just stands there motionless for a minute with her face pressed into Caroliss’s hair. After several breaths she stands up and walks away. She announces while still staring at the floor ”Let’s get moving. I want to get out of here as soon as possible.”
"Right, let's get moving," agrees Caroliss. "I think everyone's in good shape, but if anyone needs healing just let me know."
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Mokhasi watches the exchange that occurs, but it is plain that he is pretty confused. "Vel, we can leave as soon as possible - let us be more cautious though. Anything that looks dangerous, let us back off and try to regroup. I do not want you getting killed." He looks concerned at the beating she's taken.
”Sure you don’t,” she grumbles as she passes him without making eye contact. She shoots Caroliss a look over her shoulder before taking point again, hoping Esrisi joins her there.
With everyone ready to continue the group heads into the southern hall and takes the western passage. A short way in the worked stone gives way to natural stone work eventually opening into a cavern. Ahead you see stalactites of various sizes hang from the irregular ceiling of the cavern, dripping slowly onto the stone floor to form shallow pools. Sheets of fungus grow in a riot along the walls and floor of these dank caves, while what appear to be the fossilized bones of some huge monster lie slumped to the northwest. Heading into the cavern you see a larger pool to the south that seems to have a muddy layer of film over the top of it. The cave opens to another tunnel heading east in the south.
"We've gone so deep we're now in natural caves. Do you think we missed the shard, or would someone have hidden it beneath the fortress?" Sapher knows they skipped some steps, but also is pretty sure their exploration obsessed wizard will insist we look through these tunnels as well. Caves can go on for miles though.
Lastly she'll detect evil on the muddy pool, cause pools of stagnant water just worry her.
"I don't know, but could this place still somehow be part of the fortress? I don't want to turn back yet. Not until we've learned more about this place. The builders of the fortress didn't connect to this natural cavern by accident." Caroliss starts searching for magic.
”Or whatever that was,” Veltariel pointed to the bones, ”claimed this area and altered it into a more natural environs. It may shock some of you,” she adds, rolling her eyes at Sapher, ”but some creatures prefer more natural environments.”
Sapher notices the fungus is nothing harmful or concerning, but could be eaten and provide nutrients if something were desperate enough. She doesn't see any signs of danger and does not detect any evil on the muddy pool. Caroliss looks the bones over and she is fairly certain, in her mind, that these must be dragon bones. There are four legs, a tail and a nasty looking skull, she just assumes the wings must have decayed instead of fossilizing like the more prominent bones. Otherwise, the cave seems to hold little else of interest.
"Let's see where the cavern continues," suggests Caroliss, hoping to find something more interesting in the process.
Sapher sighs at Vel's comment. It is loud. It is long. And then it goes into a comment "Sure, makes more sense to think this place was once a neat and tidy proper room and someone turned it into a cavern for ascetics! Sure, great suggestion Veltariel. Perfect..." muttering turning more intelligible as she moves forward to the east.
As they pass the dragon, she whisper a prayer of reverence and rest, silently glad no one suggested gathering the bones and selling them for ingredients.
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Esrisi is no engineer nor in the frame of mind to be commenting on the caverns. She hears people talking and buts into the conversation, cutting off Sapher without actually meaning to. "So, right. Yes. Good point Sapher. Anyway, what do you guys think about camping for the day? It's been a hard day and all those burns and spiders."
She forces a yawn, trying not to fake it too badly.
Feeling her missing hair she asks "Is anyone else beat? I've been webbed, burned and swarmed by hugs today. Oh, and I'm hungry too. Are we camping soon?"
”Yeah, but it feels like we’ve been down here for at least 58 days,” Veltariel grumbles.
"What is it now, Esrisi?" Sapher says with even more irritation than she had with Vels. Sighing and closing her eyes, she tries to remember her teachings of UNDERSTANDING "Listen, if we keep moving, we'll be out of here quicker."
We doesn't wait for a response and starts to move down the corridor.
Sapher, obviously frustrated with Ez for some reason storms off toward the south, as she passes by the other pool of water, the muddy top layer starts to congeal and form into a terrible pseudopod that lashes out at Sapher.
Luckily she notices it just as it is about to slam into her and steps out of the way as it hits the ground with gooey liquid sound.
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Esrisi pulls at her hair idly, looking first at Mokhasi when he replies and then to Sapher. "Oh."
She wants to just look at the floor and follow along, but there is something about Sapher's words that grab a hold of her. She holds her hand out to say something to Sapher "Look, if-" but the dwarf had closed her eyes and turns and walks away from her.
When Sapher nearly walks into the gooey thing, she shouts "Look out!" just as the dwarf moves out of the way. Studying it she adds the useful bit of "I have no idea what that is, but I'm not touching slime!"
Because she doesn't know what it is, she isn't sure how much of a threat it is. She asks "How dangerous is this thing? Should I say a blessing?"
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Mokhasi is startled as the pseudopod attacks Sapher, and in the surprise he finds himself flustered. ”An ooze, I do not know what type. I will do research if we survive this to be better prepared.”
Testing out his magic, he tosses a ball of acid at the creature while holding a flask of acid that pops from his sheath.