"They seem like the stories mom used to read to me about heroes selflessly fighting evil."
As Casper approaches the statue he notices some grooves in the floor, as if it has been pushed in that direction a number of times.
”Genies and their offspring are an interesting touch. I was reading a piece of two-copper literature recently about such things, as it happens, about a Suli who could take on animal shapes through dancing, and defeated her enemies with her hair.”
She takes a sip from her canteen; ”I suppose we, too, must dance through the danger of this ruin.”
** spoiler omitted **
As Casper approaches the statue he notices some grooves in the floor, as if it has been pushed in that direction a number of times.
The cautious ginger thief takes in the long-abandoned chamber's ornamentation with a moment of reflective consideration. Then, he notices the series of odd indentations in the floor near the fantastical statues.
He gestures his erstwhile companions towards the mysterious grooves with a gentle motion of his outstretched palm,
"Hai! Come over and have a look at this here, friends. It looks like the statue might be mobile. I wonder if it's a device of some sort. These grooves here," he points out the lines in the floor, "seem to indicate that this artwork has been moved on more than one occasion. "
He then steps back a pace, hoping that someone else will take the obvious next step and risk activating the associated mechanism.
”Genies and their offspring are an interesting touch. I was reading a piece of two-copper literature recently about such things, as it happens, about a Suli who could take on animal shapes through dancing, and defeated her enemies with her hair.”
She takes a sip from her canteen; ”I suppose we, too, must dance through the danger of this ruin.”
"I have never been taught how to dance. So if a situation arises where dancing ability is necessary, I will be a liability." Sarona replies, completely serious.
Should someone want to give the statue a shove, please give me a strength roll.
If nothing blows up or hurts Lupe he tries again
"Help me Wolf. Ya like that. I bet there is some smart stuff to these guys to find."
Indeed, the halfling flexes and strains and Wolf lends a paw and the statue starts moving over the grooves Casper pointed out. With all eyes on the floor uncovered beneath the statue it takes a moment to realize that the wall behind the statue is moving. Before long you see a staircase revealed heading down, like the other staircase in the southeast corner except without the strangely growing mold, though a puff of dust does spread from the door which has remained undisturbed for a very, VERY long time.
”Well, that should be interesting,” chuckles Vulpina, covering her mouth to avoid inhaling old monastery dust. ”Shall we?”
"This is just like the stories. I bet there is monsters and treasure down there."
Lupe's Brother mutters something in his helmet.
Rahella followed along with the group cautiously as they continued to explore the monastery. It was their good fortune they hadn't run into anything that was a threat this time around but she figured it was only a matter of time so she kept her eyes opened for trouble.
As their explorations led them to the room with the statue of the warrior Rahella was intrigued by the sight. It was certainly different but the fact that it hid a stairway beneath it was something of a shock to her. "Well, I should have expected something like that but I certainly didn't. It seems we have an interesting place to look into now."
The dark interior of the area they had stumbled upon was more than a little eerie. It kind of reminded here of the streets of her hometown if she was honest, which was more than a little disturbing to Rahella. The strange fungal lights didn't help matters any either as she "I don't like this place, it seems too much like the city I grew up in back in Geb."
Aaliyah trots behind Rahella and gives her a little *yip!*
"Investigation of this area is likely necessary to the completion of our objective." Sarona steps up next to the unsettled sage. "We must proceed--but we will do so with caution."
You descend into the funerary catacombs shrouded in silence, your steps leaving puffs of smokey dust trailing in your wake. The sight that greets you is an eerie one. The place must have been the site of a brutal battle for there are skeletons lying everywhere, most of them pretty much intact. You see one slumped up against a wall as if the previous owner of the body collapsed there never to move again. Another lies sprawled out on the floor with a bashed skull. Most wear a faded orange robes with the symbol of Sarenrae upon them. You travel a bit further and see that the main tunnel has branches to the east and west and these branches have branches. The passages are filled with niches that contain the remains of scores if not hundreds of the honored deceased. Many of these remains have been roughly treated and tossed to the floor where they now mingle with the remains of their defenders with little to differentiate between the two.
At the southern end is a door and you suspect that it leads to the area beneath the fallen tower that was mold infested.
You descend into the funerary catacombs shrouded in silence, your steps leaving puffs of smokey dust trailing in your wake. The sight that greets you is an eerie one. The place must have been the site of a brutal battle for there are skeletons lying everywhere, most of them pretty much intact. You see one slumped up against a wall as if the previous owner of the body collapsed there never to move again. Another lies sprawled out on the floor with a bashed skull. Most wear a faded orange robes with the symbol of Sarenrae upon them. You travel a bit further and see that the main tunnel has branches to the east and west and these branches have branches. The passages are filled with niches that contain the remains of scores if not hundreds of the honored deceased. Many of these remains have been roughly treated and tossed to the floor where they now mingle with the remains of their defenders with little to differentiate between the two.
At the southern end is a door and you suspect that it leads to the area beneath the fallen tower that was mold infested.
Casper reflexively takes up the rear and faces towards the exit in case anyone tried to ambush the party from behind as they descend into the long-sealed corridors beneath the monastery.
Rahella followed along with the group cautiously as they continued to explore the monastery. It was their good fortune they hadn't run into anything that was a threat this time around but she figured it was only a matter of time so she kept her eyes opened for trouble.
As their explorations led them to the room with the statue of the warrior Rahella was intrigued by the sight. It was certainly different but the fact that it hid a stairway beneath it was something of a shock to her. "Well, I should have expected something like that but I certainly didn't. It seems we have an interesting place to look into now."
The dark interior of the area they had stumbled upon was more than a little eerie. It kind of reminded here of the streets of her hometown if she was honest, which was more than a little disturbing to Rahella. The strange fungal lights didn't help matters any either as she "I don't like this place, it seems too much like the city I grew up in back in Geb."
"And what city was that again, pray tell?"
Lupe and wolf make sure the path ahead is clear. Lupe will also cast detect magic.
Lupe is the first to find something, located at the end of the hallway to the right. Though his sense of perception fails him, his spell does not and he is able to uncover a mace in surprisingly good shape under a prone skeletal corpse. The metal is unrusted and the haft is firm and sturdy.
"I found a magic treasure!"
”It would appear to be an old mace,” says Vulpina, looking at it discerningly.
”...although it has certainly aged better than its wielded.”
Sarona's eyes widen and she invokes an arcane incantation to scan the mace.
Sarona is having a bad day and just can't figure the enchantment out.
Sarona blinks. "This item is enchanted."
Sarona blinks. "This item is enchanted."
"But is it a beneficent charm or a curse? We should be careful."
Indeed, the weapon did not seem to save the poor saerenrite that had lain clutching it beneath it's body.
”I would imagine it is a negative for the person struck with it,” says Vulpina.
"Let's put in the bag and look again later. We should keep searching, I keep getting dust in my eyes."
Wolf sneezes in sympathy, hoping he is not called upon to use his sense of smell to track something right now.
As you travel around you find a magical dagger at the other end of the first crossway and then a small but nice teak box with the holy symbol of Sarenrae emblazed upon it at the west end of the second crosswalk. Inside is a wooden holy symbol of Sarenrae suspended from a silver chain and also a magical brooch.
Lupe is the only one to have rolled perception so anything else will have to remain hidden. Does anyone take and wield the weapons or wear the brooch?
Rahella looked briefly to Caspar and said in response to his question, "The capital, Melchintar. Not a place for the feint of heart to grow up." She worked with them to explore the area but came upon nothing of interest until Lupe found something. Once Sarona mentioned it was enhcanted but couldn't figure out what it did Rahella cast a spell to see magic as well and looked at it before it was put away.
Unfortunately she couldn't figure out what it did either so said nothing as it was stashed out of sight.
As they proceeded and and found the dagger, holy symbol, and brooch, Rahella cast magic again and looked these over as well to see if she could identify them.
"Remain on guard. There may yet be threats nearby."
"Hey brother want to look around?"
Katsumi worldlessly looks around.
Katsumi seems a bit distracted by all the dead. He's spent a lot of time making sure he knows how disable an opponent without killing him and finds all these bones quite disturbing.
Saraona has nearly equally bad results but for unknown reasons. Sometimes the world looks a bit different to a machine, for better or worse.
While they scout around, Rahella finds a more productive pursuit and identifies a +1 dagger and a fully charged brooch of shielding. The mace remains a mystery and the holy symbol is just a fine piece of art and something obviously well loved at one time.
Vulpina does a once-over herself:
None of you find anything else of interest. There are various weapons and armor laying about in various states of usefulness, though most are not. This particular area of the monastery is drier than most so the wood is not a rotted mess. You could collect a fair bit before leaving or pick up a weapon. If the weapon is common and cheap I'd give you an automatic success. If less common, make it a 25% chance. If expensive, then no dice. It would have been looted. Any arrows are unusable without a bit of work.
Sarona blinks. "It appears we will need to investigate beyond the far door to proceed."
Vulpina doesn’t find much—except for a decent-looking dagger.
”You never know when you will need a backup,” she admits, slipping it into her belt.
Lupe pick up pieces of a broken gauntlet and bone and wraps them into his hand wraps. (Flavoring a crude cestus). Then he moves to the door.
"Well we found the treasure now we will have our fight. It's a bit backward. Hmmmmm"
Having completed your search, you open the door to the south (I'm going to assume that is what you meant, though nobody actually said they were opening it! In the future please say so.).
This chamber seems to be an enormous laboratory. Against the north and south walls are two identical daises raised about five feet from
the laboratory floor, each accessed by a wide set of curved stairs. Atop each dais is a wide workbench covered in a bewildering series of glass beakers, tubes, alembics, athanors, and other alchemical tools. Some of these containers are filled with a murky green substance. To the west you see the stairway to the broken down tower with the ex-spider in it and that strangely growing mold.
Speaking of mold, a massive mold-encrusted basalt table dominates the entrance of the room, flanked by two small tables to the east and west containing surgical tools and sheaves of old parchment. The walls of the subterranean lab were clearly fashioned from the living rock under the monastery, but carefully cut mold-encrusted tiles line the floor, interrupted occasionally by metal drains the size of dinner plates.
"Ewww what's the moldy stuff?"
Is there a dungeoneering role on the mold.
Perception
"Presumably something hazardous to a person's health. I advise against approaching it."
You all examine the laboratory at a safe distance and do not notice anything remarkable other than what you have already seen.
This room with the mold made Rahella very nervous. The dark mage cast a spell to augment her vision and began to look around them for signs of magical auras and focused on any that she found to try and identify them.
[/ooc]It's hard to say as I have no idea where your character is. Could you put your icon on the Catecombs map? In fact, could everyone?[/ooc]
Rahella stands near the entrance to the laboratory and does a slow sweep of the room. Fortunately, the spell has a great enough range that she is able to sweep the entire space from (relative) safety. About the only thing that would block the spell are some drains in the floor so anything burred in the drains would be out of reach. The table is made of basalt, but it is not thick enough to block it unless there is metal you cannot see.