Isabella stays put for the moment. "Thanks Dart. I guess we keep moving forward? But slowly, because there's probably more traps. Which, uh, I think is going to have to be you. I'm not really sure how to spot such things."
Torian gestures to the lever. "Wha' ye thin' this'un does?"
Assuming no one stops him, he will give it a test push, wait a moment to see if anything happens, then throw it back the other direction.
Torian pulls the lever down and he can feel something ratcheting as he pulls and the resistance increases as he pulls. When he gets it all the way down, everyone hears a loud click...and then another...and another. 6 loud clicks from inside the walls a second apart and then a thud and the lever pops back up.
If he tries to push it back up before the thud, it’s completely loose and just flops up and down with no resistance.
"Well, tha' was odd. Naugh'un move b'f're I ta'e ah look."
Torian carefully goes to the closest of the places where a thud was heard from and examines it, looking at the stonework for the cause of the sound.
Just looking at the stonework doesn’t reveal anything, it’s as though the sound were coming from the interior of the walls.
If Torian investigates while someone else pulls the lever, it appears the sounds travel up past the ceiling but it is hard to tell. They are loudest at the point that the lever goes into the wall.
During the investigation, intermittent wailing is heard along with what sounds like sobbing.
Isabella starts tentatively moving along the south wall and looking for an exit. She's cautious as she does so, keeping an eye out for traps and testing each tile with a good poke of her newly-obtained broom before stepping on it.
Isabella wanders over the the east following the wall and steps around a pillar. She taps with the broom and the tap sounds different to the north, but she was already turning to tap a different spot and before she turns back toward the sound, she spots a gate out of the corner of her eye. Looking closer, it appears to be a path that branches past the gate but it is hard to make anything out with the flickering torchlight making shadows dance behind the metal gate.
Dart moves past Isabella, resting a hand on her shoulder Gimmie a sec.
He moves ahead, looking for traps. He will try to deal with any he finds.
These guys are fearless. Gotta keep up!
Galin timidly follows behind wary of foes from all around.
Dart moves forward and checks carefully for traps but doesn't find anything, so he takes a look at the door. It is locked, but it is very intricate and he can't seem to unlock it. Galin, Isabella, and Dart can all head that this is the direction the wailing is coming from.
Hearing about the gate, Torian throws the lever again.
"Le' me know iff'n th' gate opens fer ye!" He calls over the sound of the mechanics in the walls.
Galin, Isabella and Dart hear the same loud click from the lock and then another click 6 seconds later from the lock at the same time as the thud from over by Torian.
"It seems like the lever did something to the lock, but it didn't open the gate. Do you think there's another lever somewhere? There's a delay between the clicks and the thud; maybe it's waiting for another trigger."
Isabella starts (carefully) moving around the wall to the east. She still carefully tests each tile before stepping on it. Using her torch she peers at the wall to see if there are any more strange levers.
"Hey, up front, how sturdy does the gate look? Do we see anything on the other side of the gate?"
Very, Doesn't seem the lever did anything. I'm going to go check out the rest of the area.
Dart goes back to the area with the traps, and starts slowly move through the maze like area. Making sure to check to traps and deal with them when needed.
Galin doesn’t spot anything of note, and he soon can’t see anything at all, as Isabella walks away with the torch.
Isabella walks around to the east, realizes that she has reached another wall and heads north to explore more. She taps as she walks, and everything seems to be going well. She thinks to herself, I’m glad I thought of this when, all of a sudden, the floor underneath her falls away and she plummets down 10 feet and hits the bottom, hyperextending her hand as she lands. She picks herself up, cradling her hand and realizes the floor feels strange. Looking down, she sees a small pile of pillows has broken her fall somewhat.
Isabella cries out as the floor suddenly drops from under her. She lands hard, but somehow not as hard as she expected. Glancing down, she notices the pillows, and isn't sure whether to laugh or cry.
"Uh, good news everyone. I found out what the traps do, and it's not that bad. I also figured out why...why Vark and Gerol were bringing pillows here. They were making the traps safer."
Still cradling her hand, she looks up. "Could one of you throw me a rope? I'm not sure I can get out otherwise."
After a few minutes, Dart spots another trap door in the middle of the room and manages to disable it as well.
"Stay still, lassy. Help's ah comin'!" The dwarf, using his ability to see in the darkness, carefully navigates to the pit and opens up his pack.
"Gimme ah minu'e, lass. Noe where be tha' rope..."
The dwarf fishes through his pack and finds the silk rope his father insisted he bring with him. Now I have a better idea o' why he though it 'might be useful' on this trip. Muttering to himself, Torian ties a few knots into it at various places to serve as hand and foot holds, then ties the other end to the closest pillar.
"Rope comin' down! Watch yer 'ead!" So warning, he tosses the knotted rope down to Isabella.
"Thanks Torian! Grimacing as she has to put weight on her injured hand, Isabella slowly climbs up.
With the handholds, it's fairly easy. Soon she's out of the pit. She picks up the torch and broom, (both of which she'd dropped as she'd fallen), and looks around sheepishly. "Uh, maybe I should leave the exploring to you Dart. I'm apparently not very good at it."
Galin looks around noticing he is the only one trying to look at the door and lets out a "Ack." I need to be more observant... Father Prasst keeps telling me that, maybe there is something to it.
Using the light from the rock, Galin finds it and reunites with Torian as the first person he would have line of sight with.
Torian nods. "Naugh trouble, lass... jess keep an eye 'n yer feet." The paladin starts to untie the improvised rope ladder place it back into his pack. So that be what he was 'eferin' to... He thinks to himself and shakes his head. It would almost be amusing if not for the earlier encounter with the skeletons and former townsfolk.
As Isabella climbs out of the pit, she glances around and catches sight of another lever just to the north east nestled between two columns. It protrudes from the wall just as the other lever does.
"Huh." Isabella (cautiously) moves over to the new lever. "There's another lever over here. Do you think we have to pull both of them at the same time to open the door? It probably can't hurt to try if one of you wants to move over to the first lever."
She'll wait for people to get into position. "On three? One, two, three!" She then pulls the lever to see what happens.
"Aye lass... 'ut be wary. Naugh tellen' wha' be on th' other si'e."
Torian heads to the other leaver and nods that he is ready. At three, he throws the other lever as Isabella does.
Isabella and Torian pull the levers and both levers ratchet down and the clicking starts and Galin hears two loud clicks from the lock almost at the same time and six seconds later 2 thuds sound, one from each lever as it raises back up.
The door still isn't unlocked during this time.
"Feels like a start, Dart, have you found any other levers? or anything else that seems out of place in here? Here, I'll follow you in case of emergency if you haven't finished looking"
Dart continues on his slow quest to the north west and sees another lever to on the north wall of the room, but also spots a trap between himself and the lever and says, "Agh, found another one, these things are scattered all over this room. Shouldn't take me too long."
Dart crouches down to work on the device, but this one is a little harder to get the right angle on. He works at the seam and can't get any traction. he works at it a little more and applies just a little too much force and the door pops open and he plummets down.
Dart lands awkwardly on his pinky toe and stubs it awfully but doesn't take any serious damage because of the mound of pillows at the bottom of the trap.
When Isabella triggered the trap, after the echoing bangs die down, silence returned. You realize now that the wailing from the south has stopped.
"Dart, are you okay? Torian, it sounds like we might need your rope ladder again."
Speaking of sounds...
Isabella listens for a minute. "The wailing's stopped. Hopefully that's a good thing and not a sign that whoever-it-was..." she trails off.
She continues hovering near 'her' lever, reluctant to move too far away and risk falling into another trap.
Dart easily jumps to the edge of the trap and pulls himself up, frowning at his likely bruised toe, he dusts his hands off before replying.
Yep yep, just fine. Darn floor plates are hard to jimmy with.
he takes a few steps back before jumping over the trap.
Once on the other hallway, he takes a look around for either more levers, or more pressure plates.
Dart spots the faint outline of one more trap door to his left but that’s all.
Galin shivers visibly, "I don't miss the sounds, but it's quiet, almost too quiet now."
I found another lever! Lets try the levers again. Okay, on 3 guys, 1, 2, 3!
Dart pulls the third lever, on 3, and hopes the others do so as well.
Galin makes his way to a lever and pulls on the count.
Torian winces as the man falls, but is glad that he is able to get back out unassisted.
"Well, m'thinks tha' wha'e'r be causen them howls must ha'e ears. Be e'en more cautious iffen this opens tha' door."
So saying, he pulls his lever when Galin and Isabella are pulling theirs.
With Galin pulling on the lever Isabella was standing near, and Torian and Dart taking care of the other two, Isabella cautiously makes her way back to the gate to see if it opens.
At the end of Dart's countdown, the three of you pull your levers. Galin has to stretch to get a good grip on the lever, but he manages it ok, being used to working in spaces meant for larger folk. Isabella hears 3 overlapping clicks from the door and pulls on it and it swings open toward her freely, but with it open, she can see the lock re-engage with the final clicks. It will be locked again if they close the door. The path ahead has branches to the right and the left.
"It's open! But we need to make sure it doesn't close again." Isabella looks at the broom in her hand, then shrugs and uses it to prop open the gate. She tests it a couple times, making sure that if the door started to close the broom would prevent it from fully doing so.
She waits for the rest of the party to join her before moving forward.
Torian carefully moves to Isabella. "Is there ah lever 'r somesuch on th' other si'e?"
There is no lever, or really any feature of note, visible in the short hallway before the T-intersection. Bare stone walls with flickering torchlight greet you.
Galin follows cautiously, and does not take the lead. In a whisper, "I guess we should keep going."
Isabella moves to the intersection, looking both ways to try and see which way to go. She also listens in case the wailing has started up again.
Torian follows Isabella, armed once again in case whatever was making the noises earlier isn't friendly.
"'ere ya close t'th' deceased lass? Canaugh say I knew 'em, bu' betten' someone from me clan did."
Isabella frowns, still looking around. "Not close, really. I mean, I'd see them around the Seven Silvers, or shopping in town, but they were Mayor Uptal's friends. Not the sort to pay too much attention to a random girl. But still...I did know them. And to think they died out here, possibly because they were trying to help us..." She trails off, clearly upset.
"I just want to know what happened. Why were they here? Was it just to leave pillows in traps? Or...or did they know about the dead? And where are the others, assuming there are others? But at the same time, I don't really know what to do. I wasn't expecting this. An old tomb, sure. But it's just a stupid tradition. No one is supposed to get hurt."
"A secret like that would be hard to keep if this was standard... this is quite alarming."
Maybe we could have helped them if we had arrived earlier... I knew I should have gotten out more in my youth.
Isabella walks into the intersection. To her right is a hallway that goes 15 feet and then turns the the left and she can't see anything after that. The path to her left immediately turns to the right and she can see a long hallway with another T intersection and then a door at the end of the hallway.
Torian stands at the intersection behind Isabella and he can't see much of interest from his vantage point and he almost thinks he hears sobbing coming from the left hallway . Glancing down the long corridor, the door looks damaged in some way.
Torian shakes his head at Galin. "Naugh really. Eye'm naugh sure abou' you lot, but in m' clan n'ne talks abou' this with thosen who ain't gone threw et ye'."
As he is saying this, he holds up his shield arm in a halting gesture.
"Sobbin' be down tha' way. Still naugh sure iff'en it be good 'r ill." So saying he gestures down the left corridor. "Door be off someho' though... liken it be damag'd."
"Good or ill, it's what we came here to investigate." Isabella hesitates, then steps forward with a determined look on her face. "I'll go first. If it is someone from the town, I'm the one they're most likely to recognize."
She heads down the hallway, cautiously peeking around the intersection to make sure there was nothing coming from the west.
Assuming she doesn't see any indication of an ambush, she heads to the door. "Hello? It's Isabella. From Kassen. Is that where you're from? Are you hurt?"
The side hallway leads to another door that seems intact, but being closer to the door at the end of the hall, Isabella can see that it looks like it has been hacked at, and you can actually see dim torch light through a tiny rent in the door. The door itself is unadorned wooden door and sits in a simple wooden door frame. Isabella's words reverberate slightly in the bare stone hallway and no sound is heard for a moment...and then Isabella hears a high, almost shrill, winded, male voice say, "Trick of the dead one, dead one who speaks, don't trust it. No, don't trust it at all."