“Frankly, none of them, Loam Yin.”
Ylandria pauses to ensure she hasn’t forgotten anyone. “Nuh. I can’t think of any of Uncle Titus’ crew who has the strength to even match Two Coyotes. And I doubt she could physically break through the stone door.”
The Varisian rogue shakes her head. “Clearly Uncle Titus got through somehow after reading that writing on the statue, but it wasn’t by brute force.”
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The rusty cogs in Kala's brain are turning, albeit slowly.
"...Not that there is any reason you should not, dear Kala," she adds hastily.
"What?" Huh? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Kala puzzles for a moment over Lady Vulpina's statement, trying to determine whether or not it was an insult. Before she can figure it out, however, Ylandria's statement pulls her focus back on track--albeit perhaps not in the most useful manner. "Ha! Maybe we just shout at it all angry-like." She snorts in amusement at her little joke, before second guessing herself. Wait, was that funny? No, it wasn't. Rats. Okay, uh... Distraction! "Okay, well, let's take a closer look at this thing. Maybe we can see how it works." Kala begins poring over the stele, looking for a button to push or lever to pull--anything (even if that's already been done).
Andor goes to work trying to find a mechanical or arcane mechanism for opening the secret stele portal. But after investigating a few hopeful leads, he finds they all result in *ahem* dead ends.
Kala watches Andor place thin shivs and hooks into numerous curved grooves, that could plausibly form the outlines of a doorway. She also runs her hands over several indentations and protrusions that would make fine door handles.
Unfortunately, the stele refuses to budge. Clearly something is missing.
“Signorina Kala, why do you doubt yourself so?”
Ylandria has been observing the hunter’s progress curiously. “Were you not the first to follow me down the alley to rescue that stupido Eun? Based on what I saw of the elevator ride, Señor Stinky has much faith in you.”
“I do not understand why you do not have more confidence in yourself.”
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Andor is quite disappointed.
She looks at the varisian lady with a stern look. “I would really appreciate it if you could stop your mentoring or coaching or therapy session here and think a little about what could have closed this door!“ he says and seconds later shakes his head in frustration.
Andor starts to look at the other walls to find a secret door.
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“Signorina Kala, why do you doubt yourself so?”
Ylandria has been observing the hunter’s progress curiously. “Were you not the first to follow me down the alley to rescue that stupido Eun? Based on what I saw of the elevator ride, Señor Stinky has much faith in you.”
“I do not understand why you do not have more confidence in yourself.”
Kala pauses, still staring at the stele. ...What? How does she...? Oh man. That's not good. We gotta get moving, or she'll spill all my beans to everyone and they'll see what a wreck I am. Forcing her focus back on the stele, she wracks her brain some more. "Um... Let's stay focused here, people. So... It's dedicated to Gozreh, so maybe we need air and water to move it? I'm just spitballing here. Anyone else got any ideas?"
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...That was my first idea. Kala gives Lady Vulpina a deadpan stare, then suddenly snaps herself around to face the stele and vents all her pent up frustration and self-loathing in one great explosion of sound.
She turns back to Lady Vulpina with a sullen "I knew that would happen" look. "Now they know we're here. Maybe they'll open it for us." There's a bit of sarcasm dripping from her voice.
Kala's eyes go wide. Wow. Didn't think that would work. Okay, so only a little bit embarrassed now. She squeezes her warhammer, taking comfort in the solidity of the handle and the weight of her grandfather's weapon.
“I am sorry, Master Andor. Per favore, do not let me get in your way.”
Ylandria backs away to let the Investigator search for secret doors on the other walls, as Kala moves up to the stele once more at Lady Vulpina’s urging.
The stele slips to the side like it’s set on well-lubricated internal hinges, revealing a dark, damp stairway leading down to the south, and curving slowly westward as it descends.
Ylandria's open hands fly to her mouth in excited surprise. "You did it!"
She pauses to collect herself, before adding, "I will stay here at the top to ensure nobody on this side of the stele interferes with you."
"Buona fortuna, Pathfinders."
The passage's walls are reinforced with wooden supports, and the western wall is set with empty alcoves, each several inches deep, suitable for displaying religious icons.
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After metaphorically retrieving her jaw from the floor, Kala scrambles in behind Korum, holding out her warhammer like a flashlight. Who woulda thought? Huh. I was right twice. I...don't know how that happened.
She's so busy musing over her unexpected success that she barely remembers her animal companion. "Stinky, heel."
Lady Vulpina finds her way to the front of the line, allowing Korum to discover her back.
Kala finds some confidence (maybe?) before losing Stinky and then finding him again.
However, as she swaps places with Stinky, Loam spots a secret door hidden behind a support post, directly to Kala’s left. The huntress is able to remove the false wooden support and open a hatch onto an east-leading passage, which bends to the south after travelling ten feet.
Korum concentrates and once he’s opened his eyes, Lady Vulpina appears to his eyes as a celestial being sporting a rainbow-colored toga and matching cape over a pure white tunic, matching boots and helm.
The paladin notices her wakizashi has transformed into a glaive composed of rainbow crystal.
The angelic vision mouths the words: ghobe' wej Heghpu', before Korum wakes from a standing micro-nap, like a recent convert to the Sleeping Sword's Way.
Lady Vulpina has regained her usual human avatar, and stands on the bottom step before the entry way to a large stone chamber.
🐺
Meanwhile, Andor follows the secondary tunnel branch, which terminates quickly at a dark, 5-foot-square room containing a 3-foot-wide window resembling the inside of a humanoid’s mouth.
The window provides an excellent view of a massive room where six youths – some wearing faded and torn Twin Candles colors, others just in rags – work using soft brushes to clean and sort bits of ephemera on the tables before them.
Two slightly older males make periodic rounds of the floor, checking on the progress of the laborers.
Directly opposite his window, Andor notices the large room’s south side features another enormous stone face, resembling an ancient, bearded man. From between his defiantly clenched teeth issues a trickle of murky fluid, which runs down the knotted coils of his beard to pool onto the stone floor, draining away once it reaches the chamber’s edge.
Andor finds no traps during his search, though he does discover two ancient inscriptions in an unknown language etched into the stone here.
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Loam is equally surprised to have noticed the door. She pokes her head up to the window for a quick look before making room for someone else to. "There is the opportunity to rain an indiscriminate attack from up here. But we don't know enough about the situation. Those ragged ones look like slaves from where I stand." The ratfolk is happy to look for something concrete in the strange script, however.
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Lady Vulpina does not seem aware of her sudden transformation into a rainbow celestial-- but it's not the first time she has appeared as an otherworldly beauty in someone's eyes.
Instead, she ponders their current situation.
Whatever she determines, she does not do so as quickly or as well as Loam.
"Seems like perhaps we could barge in, demand a surrender, and see how it plays out from there," she states, checking through the window for whether anyone has weapons drawn.
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Loam spots a secret door hidden behind a support post, directly to Kala’s left.
Ah. That's more like it. See, I was gonna walk right past it without noticing. Well, guess I can open the door, anyway.
Once inside the little room, Kala takes in the scene through the window, pretending not to notice the inscription that everyone else is taking a turn at examining.
Once finished, she exits the side passage, whispering to everyone else: "Stay quiet. We don't know how sound travels here. Once you're done, we need to keep moving."
None of the Pathfinders can decipher the strange language, until Sleeping Sword reads from his scroll.
May the lightning raze the lands of my enemies,
while the tempest churns his ships to flotsam.
The second: May the storm spare us in our humility.
You get the impression the younger boys are poor, rather than ill-treated.
While there is sometimes harsh criticism or laughing ridicule of their intelligence or work, there is no overt hostility between laborer and overseer. Nobody lays hands on anyone else and the younger boys seem to have a grudging/envious(?) respect for the older ones.
Kala notes the two older lads wear chain shirts, and are armed with short swords and light crossbows.
The younger ones are unarmed and unarmored.
"Stay quiet. We don't know how sound travels here. Once you're done, we need to keep moving."
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...I would say yes.
Huh? Really? Oh, fine. Probably worth it. Maybe. Wishing they could just move on to some more active work, Kala stifles her sigh of impatience and casts Detect Magic, staring into the no-longer-secret side passage where Andor indicates.
Kala ✨casts detect magic, revealing no additional items of interest in the secret passage.
However, the detection cone also *lights* up Andor’s magic items like a Crystalhue bonfire, which could draw the attention of those the observation room.
☀
Ducking her head around the corner, Lady Vulpina takes in an oblong 10-foot-by-40-foot stone chamber, which appears less damaged by the wet conditions than the damper areas of the crypt. No supports are positioned here to hold the roof up. Eighteen standing stone crypts are set into the walls.
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Yikes! As soon as Kala notices that Andor's glow may be enough to draw attention, she quickly turns her head back up the way they came, then continues around in a counter-clockwise direction to point the way Lady Vulpina is headed. Her lips press down tightly as she mentally reprimands herself: Shoulda thought about that. Stupid...
Loam cannot perceive anything more than what has been described without moving into the crypt-filled space.
Korum and Sleeping Sword’s vigil is certainly NOT silent. Andor observes the two older youths conferring in Varisian and pointing towards his window. The names Uncle Titus and Abby are mentioned in querying tones.
Their body language suggests they're not sure about something.
Then one of the lads hooks his thumb towards a wooden door in the south-east corner of the chamber and asks his companion a question.
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"Uh, we made enough noise, I think.
Now, the Way of the Sleeping Sword says: strike like a thunderbolt!"
Sleeping Sword retreats from the viewing window into the corridor, joining the others.
"Uh, speaking of thunder, the latter inscriptions were more Gozreh-isms. Lightning and storms, and much smiting of foes. I wonder who made this place, and why?"
Sleeping Sword draws his sky-metal katana...
A casual examination of the crypt lids reveals they are ‘dummies’ which are carved into the wall. They are not removable and conceal no space behind them.
Several indistinct names are inscribed upon each “lid.”
Kind of like the Grand Lodge’s Wall of Names.
A short passageway at the southeast corner leads to a sturdy, wooden door.
Andor tries the knob stealthily and finds it unlocked.
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As Lady Vulpina slides past, Kala takes a moment to check out the inscriptions on the lids.
"Ah. Memorials for sailors lost at sea." She falls in line behind the others, but they're just standing in place for the moment. Well, are we going somewhere, or are we stuck in another dead end? How many secret doors does this place have, anyway?
When Andor opens the door and prepares to cross the threshold, he is challenged by one of the older Sczarni punks, who is taking cover behind a work bench on the raised eastern level. The lad's light crossbow is cocked and levelled at the investigator.
His partner begins *RAPPING* a simple pattern on the wooden door behind him. He yells in Varisian through the closed door.
The second youth also holds a cocked light crossbow in his left hand.
Finally, Andor notices all of the unarmed and unarmored younger boys have crawled under their work tables, where they clutch themselves or each other in fear.
Andor
--
Yellow Sczarni
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Sleeping Sword
Loam Yin
Lady Vulpina
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Green Sczarni
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Korum
Kala + Stinky
, do something rad!