Manipulating the now obvious western secret door, Moragul feels hot air gust against him as the door pivots smoothly open.
The chamber beyond the hidden door is all but buried in a pile of rubble.
Finished walls encircle part of the room but end in a collapse to the south.
Dried flesh and wisps of white hair still cling to a handful of ancient bones lying on the floor.
Standing more actively, four short statured skeletons continue to work as they have for millenia now since they died, pounding and working the items of metal over and over again...
What do you do?
Antoni thinks a moment, but shakes his head in the negative, looking at the others and redrawing the wand of magic missile. Shrugging and looking at the skeletons to see if they attempt to advance on the group.
Moragul hefts his axe. "We will put these abominations to rest. They cannot be allowed to continue to exist."
Making a long story short, you blitz the short statured skeletons, and they go down quickly.
The four skeletons were wielding masterwork Aklys.
Cost 5 gp Weight 2 lbs.
Damage 1d4 (small), 1d6 (medium) Critical x2 Type bludgeoning
Range Increment 20 ft. (thrown)
Category light Proficiency exotic
Weapon Groups hammers, thrown
Special performance, trip
The aklys is a hooked throwing club with a 20-foot-long cord, usually of woven leather. Some aklyses have holes drilled through them and whistle when flung.
You can retrieve the aklys after throwing it as a move action. The hook allows you to make trip attacks at range.
Searching the place turns up two sets of masterwork smithing tools and one set of masterwork mining tools in the rubble.
"I wonder how these undead got down here. Seems strange for them to be trapped in this small room."
"That is pretty odd, looks like they were miners of some sort in life." Faerieth says, "Probably those that built these tunnels originally."
Antonii looks at the weapons, shaking his head in wonder, Strange, maybe they were the old inhabitants, but they don't exactly look reptilian, maybe their gods were reptilian though. I've heard stories of old deities, long forgotten buried in the ground. Okay, let's see what's to the east!
Yaron shrugs, "Possible. Evil creatures often turn to even darker things to worship in an attempt to gain power."
"This place keeps getting weirder and weirder
"That it does. All the better to clear it out before bringing people here."
Moving over to the Eastern exposed secret door, you are easily able to trip the exposed mechanism and the door swung open.
In this chamber, tiny, intricate carvings line the walls, forming great columns of text.
Much of it has cracked and crumbled, and the entire southern wall is fractured, with a yawning cavern beyond.
It also describes how the derros opened a "puzzle door" to pray at the feet of something called the Excavator.
"...grandmother, in seeking the Excavator, turned her eyes to the Stone, and to the Steel, and finally to Woe."
Antoni peers at the writing, looking at his companions, Can anyone read that? before a light apparently goes off in his head, and he fishes out a wrapped piece of parchment from the tube suspended from his belt.
Casting the spell from its magical bindings his eyes glow green for a moment, as he begins to read the text. Interesting, something about a clan of Derros - anyone know what those are? Its a history mingled with apparently hallucinations and completely depraved insanity. They emerged from the deep darkness and the embrace of the caverns far below and cower beneath the great torch above. And possibly an even older structure, these drug-addled derro things aren't maybe the ones who built it, because they reference a 'puzzle door' to pray at the feet of something called the Excavator - they say something about grandmother, in seeking the Excavator, turned her eyes to the Stone, the Steel, and finally to Woe. No idea what that means, but seems significant.
Yaron shakes his head, "I can tell you it's not Orcish, but that's about it."
"I'd say it's just trogg nonsense, but that all sounds a little high concept for troggs." Moragul says. "Most of the things you hear about coming from the darklands are bad."
"That definitely sounds extremely dark, and dangerous. Makes me wonder how deep this place actually goes." Faerieth says apprehensively, as they move through the room, heading south.
Yaron nods, "That is worrisome. Certainly makes me wonder about the thought of moving the camp here."
Moving south, you see the tunnel opens into a long, irregular cavern running north to south.
Streaks of purple crystal run along one wall.
To the east, you see a number of display cases featuring various goods, attended to by a mysterious black cloaked figure.
It turned towards you as you approach.
"Ah, customers..." It said. "Though less scaly than expected, you are no less welcome."
Ummm, greetings? What do you mean 'customers'? Antoni ventures when the cloaked figure addresses the group.
"Yesss. I am here to trade." It said, waiving its hands to the display tables next to it.
Yaron blinks at the sight, then again at the display cases, "Impressive.... There are several things here that could help the refugees."
Business then, I am Antoni Asterii, of the purple-wagoned Asteriis. Varisian trader extraordinaire. Whom may I have the pleasure of doing business with today? What can you tell us of your other clients? You know the ones with scales? And are you interested in trade or are you willing to purchase things? the Varisian slides into sales mode quickly.
"Both, or either young being." the hooded figure said eagerly.
Questioning the hooded figure, you discover that her name is Novvi. She is a travelling Darklands merchant that comes by here every couple months to trade with the trogs that live here.
"That would be quite beneficial, and it is possible that you might find regular business here soon, if the caverns above prove safe enough to move others." Faerieth says, looking at the display tables.
He blinked at the 'merchant' and then shrugged. Might as well take a look.
" you got anything sized for smaller friends? speaking of friends in your recent travels you havent ran across a trio of halfing triplett women... bout my height? hair as golden as a polished coin?
He asked while going throoght thier things...
The hooded figure deftly turns a couple of the displays about, and now half of them feature small sized arms, armor and equipment.
I fear I have been travelling the Darklands for my trade these last few months. I have not heard of a triplet of halfling women."
Accepting the unusual luck, Faerieth begins unbundling some of the spoils of their encounters, selecting items that they could sell.
Moragul finds the location of the merchant odd.
Smiling as Novvi examined your offers and dickered, the shadowed figure stacked coins on the table and splits them between you.
Each of you gains:
70 gold sovereigns
125 silver crowns
69 silver pennies
Then the figure folds up its displays, racks and tables into... apparently nothingness, bowed to you, and slid away backwards down the eastern tunnel into the Darklands.
None of you feel like pursuing Novvi down the eastern passage. All of you consider ways in blocking it up before the refugees come.
The complex passages lead south and west.
That was very odd, I don't even know what happened there, but we got some coin at least - maybe that can help us down the road somewhere..... Should we go check the west chamber before going south? Antoni asks.
Yaron nods, "You'd think she'd have remained a moment in case we wanted to spend our newfound coin. Still," he trails off, then quickly casts Detect Magic on the money. "I'm suddenly in the mind of cursed treasure, hope it's just one too many stories flooding a bard's head."
He slides his bow back into his hand, then nods, "Makes sense to me, Antoni."
"Yes, West then South makes sense. Faerieth agrees
Moving southwest, you come to another cavern.
A partial collapse mars the symmetry of this large, circular chamber.
Crude carvings of reptilian heads and bodies cover the wall, snaking around empty sockets in the stone walls.
A thin, bluish mist hovers in the air, swirling gently.
The mist rises about halfway up the walls, like a diaphanous ocean.
You are surprised by the appearance of a human sized scorpion made of multicolored crystal.
The creature scuttled up to Faerieth, put it's forelegs up on her shoulders, and ran it's antennae over her upper body, like it was looking for something.
Seemingly disappointed, it turned it's attention to Yaron and also ran it's antennae over him.
Again disappointed, it turned and wandered over to one of the walls, where it seemed to search about with it's antennae before digging urgently into the rock wall.
There is an iron reinforced wood doorway inset into the south wall.
Antoni looks very confused, what was that?!? what just happened? I mean it didn't eat us, but that was very, very strange.... This place keeps getting weirder and weirder he focuses a moment, eyes flashing with magical energy before pointing to the crack in the northeast corner of the room, Something's giving off magical emanations over here... Maybe that thing eats gemstones? he crosses working something out of the crack.
The doorway, when tested, is shut tight. You're pretty sure it's locked.
"That was truly bizarre", Faerieth replies, shifting her own vision into the magical spectrum and looking to where the odd creature was now feasting on what it found in the wall.
When Antoni digs the badge out of the wall, a mixture of hope and alarm quickly passes through the druidess at the sight of a Chernasardo Ranger badge. "That's the symbol of the Chernasardo Rangers! And there's been foot traffic through here, leading to the doorway...rather recently too."
Huh, that's strange, I wonder what Aubrin would make of this? he asks, continuing to stare at the badge...
Seems like its a.... he says. Any idea who made the footprints through that doorway? Should we be expecting trouble? he asks nervously, IF we are, Faerieth, can you use this wand on Caleb? he asks proffering her his wand of Magic Fang to use, while using his mage armor wand on himself.
Yaron says, "That thing seemed harmless enough, but let's not make it feel threatened."