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Poking her head out of the crack, Laafdahni hears that the combat is over."I'll keep watch on the doors." She volunteers, starting to squeeze herself through the crack.
"Ugh!" Frustrated, she shifts some items on her chain belt and tries again.
"Oof! Okay." Sighing, she takes up a position facing the doors, straining her ears for sounds from the other side of it, and ready to start casting Color Spray on anything that comes through them.
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There is a pair of huge stone doors on the western side of this room. The door is slightly ajar, just wide enough for a small, slim creature to slip through.
On the northern side of the room is a rusty portcullis that has been lowered to block the room from the hallway. The bars on the gate are more rust than iron at this point and would be a little easier to smash open than the solid iron doors in the hallway.
On the southern wall there is a grotesque stone dragon head that is carved into the wall.
Next to the huge stone doors is a sack containing about a dozen strips of leather. There is also a large stone bucket containing about 80 small sized crossbow bolts.
In the room that most of the party passed through, the party discovers a trap on the floor next to one of the wall cracks. It appears to be some kind of pit trap designed to collapse if someone steps on it.
The toughest kobold is unconscious from a concussion given to him by Bask. Another kobold is bleeding out, on the edge death but still alive. Bocke is able to put some pressure on the wound, keeping them from dying. The third kobold is dead, frozen solid by Laafdahni's freezing spell.
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Bask prays to Sarenrae and stabilizes the other Kobold via magic while Toral works on the first, in case time is a factor.
"I pray you use your second chance wisely and do not cross us again" he mutters to himself while scruffing Salim's hair.
"Laafdahni are you OK? Guy is right about those dark magics, they have a hidden cost I think"
He absently examines the leather straps, and looks at the large door to the west, suspecting the trap that Guy mentioned
"Shall we go west, or check on the room we missed? I'd hate to miss Sharrowsmith if they have him locked up"
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The third kobold is dead, frozen solid by Laafdahni's freezing spell.
“We do not want to start a war here so we need to show them that we do not mean any harm!“
...Oops.
“Might as well check the remaining room here first.”
Laafdahni calls softly over her shoulder. "You guys go ahead; I'll keep an eye on this door. Make sure you can dash back here quickly in case they burst through."
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Between Bocke and Toral the dying kobold is stabilized several times over, wrapped up in so many bandages that he looks like a mummy.
Laafdahni doesn't hear anything past the doors.
Rubble fills the northeastern corner of the next room, blocking the door leading to the last unexplored room in the entryway chambers. The room is inaccessible due to the fallen rubble but it seems like it could be entered by knocking down the northern or western door.
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"Huh..." Guy points up to the ceiling. "Pick marks, like someone intended to cave this area in."
"Might be easier and safer to come at it from the hallway."
When he gets to the hallway he then points out "Looks like someone took a crowbar to this door. At least it should be easier than the others to get open!"
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Sinaryn kicks the stone wall and swears some more.
"Well, I was about as useless as a ship on land. The next thing that shows up is getting a face full of lead so I can blow off this steam." she mumbles as she reconvenes with the others.
She helps translate anything into Draconic as neccesary.
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Sinaryn pushes against the stuck door until it gives way. A broken piece of metal falls to the ground as the heavy iron door swings open. It appears to be the end of a pry bar.
The door on the southern wall is bulging in slightly from the weight of the rubble on the other side of the wall. Having seen the pile of rubble on the other side, it is clear that opening the door would be a bad idea. Besides a pile of rubble in the corner, the room appears to be empty.
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Part of her mind knows it is a wonder she has stayed alive this long and successfully captained a ship but if it isn't broken don't fix it.
"Huh, looks like someone else wanted this thing open." she smiles and flexes, also not spotting anything of interest.
She keeps her pistol ready and points ahead, "Yeah, nothing but t-rubble behind that door...let's press on?"
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Toral nods.
"Yes, but .. but I am honest that I am too emotionally attached to my ancestors treasure!" he says and it is clear that he understands his own feelings quite well.
"I cannot ensure that I will react adequately in case there is a moral tradeoff to secure and guard the treasure or ... or save one of you by using it." he says and looks at Sinaryn.
"Maybe you better take it." he says and hands over the treasure that the grippli handed over to them.
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While Toral is preparing the relic, Bask moves to the large doors to the west and examines them for traps.
"Just wide enough to admit a kobold without touching the door wouldn't you say?" he muses to Salim, who of course would not say anything of the sort.
He tells everyone else to stand back and pushes his way through the door.
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Beyond the huge stone doors, there is a large chamber. Just five feet from the double door, a granite statue of a human woman stands in a running pose. The head of the statue is turned to look over her shoulder, her face locked in a silent scream.
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“If it weren’t for the kobold graffiti and the statue that I really hope is exactly that, this room would be nice. Sure it could use some cleaning, but all the stonework including the detailing is intact.”
Gesturing towards the statue, he adds “The pose of the statue makes me worried it might be someone petrified.”
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Slipping in behind Bask, Laafdahni's gaze is caught by the statue.
She's more interested in the statue than the decor, obviously. Her voice echos softly in deep, almost trance-like resonance. "It's exquisite." She reaches up to caress the statue's face, her dark hand in stark contrast to the lighter stone. "You look like a person. If only I knew a spell to release you."
After a moment, she blinks rapidly a few times and shakes her head as if to clear it. With a small, abashed smile she sighs: "Well, which direction next?"
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The statue is right in the middle of the hallway, only a few feet from the door. It is not on any kind of raised platform and appears to have been carved right out of the stone in the floor.
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Guy frowns as Laafdahni mentions the types of creatures that can petrify people like this.
“We best beware, this is much too lifelike and this Kelish woman is wearing the same sort of gear as the Aspis we saw in the Kaava lands.”
“I wonder if it was done by this Golden Guardian we have heard about?”
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Bask looks around warily after hearing the conversation about petrifying monsters. He tells Salim to "Detect!" and cautiously takes out his Shining Wayfinder and checks to see if the compass point is pointing in any particular direction.
He whispers under his breath: "Sarenrae protect us", then begins moving slowly through the room, scanning for threats. He follows Toral. "Let's check out all the hallways before we try any doors"
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Toral does not detect any magic aura's nor does Bask detect any signs of evil. The doors in this chamber are also made of iron, but are free of rust and look better made.
About twenty feet away there is a stone statue of a dwarf standing on a raised platform in the center of a fountain. The statue appears to have a staff in one hand and a book in the other but the party would need to move closer to examine it.
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Laafdahni follows the others as they begin checking the larger area. Upon seeing the dwarf, she murmurs: "Oh no. That better not be Sharrowsmith." The other petrified person wasn't on a platform in the center of a fountain, though, and this *was* a dwarven stronghold long ago. So maybe it's not. Probably. It wouldn't be smart to go over there by herself to check it out. But... Okay! I'll just be careful! Laafdahni slips along the wall to the corner so she can get a better look at the statue, trying really hard to spot any traps or foes along the way.
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At the center of a large fountain, a white marble statue of a dwarf in scholarly robes faces east in a defiant posture. In one hand, the dwarf holds a staff, and in the other an open book. While most of the statue’s elaborate details are still intact, its face has crumbled away, and water pours down from two holes where the statue’s eyes had once been.
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"Well, so the current residents don't like the previous ones. That's not unheard of, honestly. But why was the statue made to be crying? Does which way it's facing give a clue? Is it something we'll find here, or is it farther away, in a neighboring land?" Laafdahni seems to have gone down a rabbit hole here, intoning one question after another.
A moment later, she drags herself out of her musings. "Well, let's continue searching the area. I don't want to pass too many rooms without looking in them." She glances over at the door Bocke opened. "Looks like we're starting there."
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The staff and book are part of the statue and can't be removed. The book does have writing in it, though. The letters look similar to modern Dwarven but appear to be an unfamiliar dialect.
The statue is facing east. Its unclear what symbolic meaning this would have meant to these ancient dwarves. It does appear that the statue was design to have water trickle from its eyes like tears before the kobolds defaced the fountain and turned the eyes into two jagged holes.
Bocke opens the door and is relieved when the floor doesn't open underneath him. When light is cast into the room it reveals a room that appears to have been converted into a cluttered shop. Many bits and pieces of metal lie on stone shelves carved into the walls. Several ornaments made from animal bones hang from the ceiling. A crude, one-foot-tall statue of a horned and winged creature stands on a stone table set next to a wall.