Rand grimaces. "Look, V. I'm the first to say I don't wanna go marauding through here like a murder-hobo either, but there's a kinda big flaw in your logic there. We don't know exactly where we need to go. Might be down, might be across. We just don't know. Somewhere in this mess is, presumably, a tunnel leading to the Darklands, and we need to know where it is. That means we have to search every level thoroughly. I'll be checking my blows, so we're not killing everybody outright, but I know how hard it is to go easy with twenty pounds of razor-sharp adamantine. Let's just try not to turn this into a genocide, yeah? In the meantime, we should keep moving."
Astrid frowns at her bow and sighs. She knew she should have dropped the merciful property on it at some point. Ah, well.
"I know you don't like the bloodshed, Randall. I'm not a big fan of it, either. But we have bigger stakes here; the morlocks are definitely in league with the Ironfang Legion, considering they worship this witch who's a lieutenant or whatever for them. And the Legion wants to wipe Nirmathas off the map. There's just too much at stake to pull punches. If you can do it without making it easier to miss, go for it. The rest of us are going to have to do whatever it takes. I'm sorry."
Rand scowls, but he knows she's right. He can disable enemies as easily as kill them, and prefers it most days. "Alright, alright. I get it. Greater good, and all that. I ain't judging any of you for doing what needs doing. Let's just get the job done, yeah? C'mon, V. Time's a-wasting."
Rand claps his friend on the shoulder, then steps up to the southern corridor and peers down it for danger.
V sighs and hefts Hoblopper to rest on his shoulder as he walks. "Yeah, okay."
He follows his friend down the south, trying not to be sullen about it.
Tink listens to the debate bemusedly. He knows that morlocks are almost exclusively evil and would, if they had the strength and opportunity, kill and eat everyone in the party. He's generally a live-and-let-live type, but Astrid is right: they've thrown in with the Ironfang Legion, who undeniably has "world domination" aspirations. That's about as far as live-and-let-live as you can get, and Tink has the strength to help stop it.
That doesn't mean he thinks the party should subjugate all the hobgoblins and morlocks, just that they need to be knocked down a peg. He's not going to order Loiosh to bite the heads off any creatures that have surrendered.
He follows the party down the southern corridor.
A ten-foot-wide stone door stands within an excavated wall of stone on the east side of this basalt-walled rectangular chamber. The door is embellished with imagery of two stout humanoids barring the path with crossed axe-headed polearms. A recess just below the crossed weapons--shaped like a four-pointed star--appears connected to a deeper mechanism. A passage departs north from the excavated door, while a similar hallway leading south has completely collapsed.
Rand's keen and practiced eyes immediately notice the danger: if the door is tampered with (either by attempting to pick the lock or force it open), a particularly nasty trap will trigger. He follows the tendrils of magic from the locking mechanism to the chamber entryway to the north, and he determines what would happen: a wall of stone would spontaneously erect across the entryway, trapping anyone in the chamber. Then, predictably, some sort of fog effect would be released into the room. He can't tell exactly what the fog would do, but chances are it's nothing good.
In any case, he can use his knowledge of magical traps to disable it, though he knows it will be a delicate process.
Rand rubs his chin as he studies the trap. It's a doozy. He's heard of magical fog that can just outright kill you, or suffocate you in noxious fumes. Either way would be bad.
"I think I can disable this trap," he says carefully, "but uh. You guys might wanna wait outside the room until I do. If I screw this up, it's gonna make a stone wall to bar anyone inside while it fills with magic fog. I've heard of fog magic that can do nasty sh*t. Dunno what, I'm not a magician, but if I get trapped inside, I think you probably have a better chance of saving me if you're not stuck inside magic death farts with me."
Astrid blinks in surprise. "You sure? I don't like the idea of leaving you alone with a death trap."
"I wouldn't worry about it," V says mildly. "Ol' Hoblopper here is pure adamantine. I should be able to cut a way through even the thickest stone without too much trouble. But try not to set it off anyway, yeah? No telling what this fog you mentioned will do, but nothing good."
He steps back from the room, hoping to exude nonchalance, and not the worry he definitely feels. He doesn't want to shake his friend's confidence, but he also knows how easily the monk can get distracted.
Astrid gives the pair an uncertain glance, but does as Rand requests.
Once everyone who's going to back out has done so, Rand hunkers down and pulls out his thieves' tools to get to work.
"We'll stay. I trust you." He winks. "Plus, if you set something off, I can probably help you."
Rand weaves and knits the magical tendrils to his will. He doesn't exactly understand what he is doing or how he does it, but his training makes the actual actions second nature. With a final magical snick, the trap is disabled.
Now that the trap is dealt with, Rand examines the locking mechanism. The lock itself is strongly magical like the trap was, and he is pretty sure the star-shaped recess accepts a magical keystone. He could probably pick it given enough time, or maybe there is a keystone hidden somewhere around here?
"Okay," Rand calls as he tucks away his tools and stands up, "should be safe. Problem is, it's still locked. And it's a doozy. I might be able to unlock it, given time and some luck, but this is a very specialized key. Maybe it's around here somewhere?" He frowns at the surroundings. "Maybe not, though. I didn't see any passages aside from this" he points to the locked door "that" he points to the collapsed passage to the south "and the blocked door back there."
He sighs and shrugs. "I'm open to suggestions."
Astrid leans on her bow and purses her lips thoughtfully. "I sure don't have the kind of magic that can lift boulders. What about you, Tink? Got any nature magic for big rocks? I feel like if any of us can do it, you can."
While the others debate, V goes around the walls of th eroom, checking for secret doors or hidden caches. Who knows?
Tink shrugs. "I do have access to spells that could help but I just topped off my spells for the day when I meditated before. We would have to wait till tomorrow." He looks at Rand. "I believe you forgot one, my boy. The chasm over there." He points to the north, where a pit heads down into darkness.
V doesn't find anything the party hasn't already found.
Astrid frowns at the direction of the chasm. "Guess we're going down, after all." She slings her bow and motions the others to follow. "If we're going, we better go now. The spell's gonna wear off soon. We can worry about how to get back up later."
Rand snorts. "All that debate about down or over, turns out V was right all along." He lopes quickly toward the chasm. "I'll go first, but we should stick close together. C'mon."
V shrugs with a grin. "I keep tellin' him, but he never listens. You go ahead Tink, I'll take up the rear." After a pause, he calls to the descending Rand, "Not one word from the peanut gallery!"
From somewhere ahead, Astrid hears a snicker and a muttered, "Heheh. Rear."
As you reach the bottom of the chasm, you feel the tiny barbs in your hands and feet retract, and you know you might have to get clever to find a way back up to the magically locked door. Now that you are looking at the wall, though, you can see it is craggy enough that it wouldn't be too hard to climb mundanely .
You take a look around. Fungi cover the walls of this chamber, some of them with an oddly putrescent, violet glow. The light travels up along the walls, where it is eventually swallowed by the darkness of an open ceiling.
Several natural fungi-covered corridors lead off to the south and southeast.