As your vision comes back from the sudden blinding white light, you find yourself in a dark, damp stone room. The musty smell hits you, and you taste mold in every breath. Those of you with darkvision look around and see four strangers, all of you in a four-walled 10 by 15 foot room, sitting along the walls with no doors. The irregularly cut stone on the floor shows a few small puddles, into which the occasional waterdrop from the eight-foot ceiling falls.
Before you can fully take in your surroundings or acknowledge the strangers, a stone in the center of the floor lifts as if on a hinge and a pedestal with a perfectly spherical orb resting on it rises up, eventually replacing the floor stone. The intricately carved pedestal stands about three feet high with three delicate fingers sticking up to hold the approximately two foot orb in place.
A few moments after the pedestal comes to a rest, the orb emits a soft glow, lighting up the room and revealing all the details to the rest of the party without darkvision. Everyone looking at the orb sees a blurry vision in the orb slowly coming into focus. You see an old frail-looking human with pale skin and a balding head of white hair. He's sitting in front of a wall of books and what you can see of his desk appears to be in disarray with papers strewn about. He looks up from his desk, seemingly noticing he's being watched and, with a slightly taken aback look, adjusts his glasses up his nose and clears his throat.
"Ahem! Welcome, welcome to our dungeon," he says in a high pitch nasally voice. "We have asked you here because, well, I suppose 'ask' isn't the right word. Uh, we have brought you here because we feel you are uniquely suited to not only survive, but to thrive here! Let's see, who do we have this time…" He shuffles some papers around. "Yes, yes. Marcos Mundstock. The honorable Sim Calinean. Khali Salist. Shiv'Raston," he raises an eyebrow, "and his dwarf caiman. And, ah yes, Lash Vaeledi. We have been expecting you, specifically." He chuckles while adjusting his glasses again.
The man taps the papers into a stack. "You will need to work together, so make friends quickly. I shall give you some time to introduce yourselves before sending you on your way. I do hope to see you all in the near future. We are awaiting your arrival! Best of luck!" With a dainty wave of his fingers, the image in the orb dissipates, but the glow remains.
While some seem to be there in the room, Lash appears to be thrust into the room with her hands bound behind her back under her bows. Tear still stream down her cheeks from the sight of Ben's death in front of her eyes. Knowing she herself has been sentenced to an even longer, prolonged form of death and punishment, her eyes don't stop streaming. "Calm yourself...breathe...let in the air and out..."
Immediately she can tell that the air is moldy and reeks of that scent she despises so much. Her piercing eyes show no light despite their fire-like quality, but as the orb produces a glow, they would see a brilliant aasimar already observing those around her.
She slowly will struggle to stand as the orb lifts from the ground. Rage boils within her at the elder human's words and everyone there can hear her huffing back the seething anger that curls into her strap-bound fists with whines and groans of the tight cord. As he wishes them luck, she mutters a curse under her breath and wipes her tears from her cheeks with her shoulders.
Whoever this aasimar is, she seems to be a young girl in her youthful twenties and exceedingly pretty. Perhaps average to some, but to those who find beauty in uniqueness, she is a sight to behold. As those in the room will look to her, they may see oddities on her skin of flaming celestial symbols, while, to others, they may see prismatic wings of blue flame appear and disappear behind her, and to others, she just seems like a normal human in appearance. With the room so dim, her creamy skin seems to fade down to an ashen color into the darkness of the dim room.
With a sudden leap, she curls up and slings her hands that were bound behind her to her front and asks someone freehanded, "Could one of you be so kind as cut these bonds with your blade? I'm Lash, by the way."
Shiv'Raston grunts, "heh" Then palming a sickle, cuts his own bonds, and rising, uses his scythe to begin freeing the others, "For saying welcome, he seems not so welcoming."
Shiv is a straing looking man- human in size and proportions, but with obviously blue skin marking his Samsaran heritage. He is dressed even more strangely, in stone armor, with his matted hair wild, adorned with a necklace of teeth and a belt with, are those human ears!?, bones through his nose, lip, and ears, and his face smeared with crusted mud and ash, his teeth obviously filed to points.
"I am Shiv'Raston of the crocodile tribe."
Marcos fines himself in a strange room, with the image of a strange man talking about a strange dungeon. He tries to process all the info quickly, but his warped mind can't cope with it. It is surely due to the teleportation.
When he realises what all of this implies, he discharges a load of questions on the figure. "Where are we? Which plane is this one? Who are you? Why do we enter this dungeon?" None of them are answered, though, as the figure disappears.
He turns to the other people there. A man in his forties, his beard helps dissimulate the oddity of his factions - too big a nose, almost no lips, warts, pimples, greasy skin...
When he talks, however, his baritone voice sounds delicate but firm. "I am Marcos. I come from Golarion." He nods, as a very light reverence. "I guess none of you knows what we are doing here" he adds in Taldane.
As Sim first breath the moldy air of the room he instinctively draws his gladius and spins around, as if fighting invisible enemies. When the room is bathed in the light of the sphere, the others can see a halfling wearing a fancy clothes on top of a polished breastplate, his hair combed and smelling of perfume. In one hand he now brandishes a naked sword, while the other still hold a bouquet of white roses. "What madness is this? Sorcery? Witchery? Black magic of the Forsaken?"
It takes him a couple minutes to understand the situation as much as he could. "I'm... I'm Sir Calinean, Knight of the Whiterose, under the service of Queen Elaine of Almoth, The Fair, first of her name, Ruler of the Rath River people, the Brugs and the Small People of Redrock, Protector of the Eastern Tower."
Sim lowers both his sword and bouquet, feeling the others around him are as much lost as he is.
Kahli sniffs at the odor of mold, and wonders briefly at the flash of light. This wasn't where she had been. She quickly grips her mace and scans the room for clues or enemies....
She sees the others before the orb glows and the figure becomes clear. She watches and listens, but stays quiet, waiting for answers that don't come. As the others react she waits, watching and listening. There is no more information given and no apparent danger so she hangs her mace back on her belt. "Golarian? I've seen a good bit of there. Originally from Varisia. I'm Kahli Walker, Priestess of Calistria. Other than that.... well, until we have a clue about what's going on I don't think anything else matters. Do any of you have Divination magics? Or skills at trap finding? Let's see if there's any dangers nearby that we need to avoid!"
After spending a few moments to get to introduce each other, the party begins to investigate the room.
Marcos, you take a closer look at the pedestal and notice that some of the runes and designs are actually runes written in Abyssal. They speak of "endless trials" and "countless deaths".
The rest of the party works together and manages to find small cracks in one of the walls that indicate a passageway, but are unable to immediately find any way to open it.
"I have only the most basic divinations prepared today, unfortunately, and while I am studying traps, I have not yet mastered their secret."
"I would agree, not very welcoming at all," she mentions in response to Shiv on their commentator. As he comes over to her with his sickle, she does tense slightly, but kindly holds out her arms for him to cut her free. Given that her hands are now free, he can see on her ashen-colored her wrists that she does have some minor rope burn. It appears that her bindings were quite tight. "Thank you, Shiv'Rason."
Marcos asks her and the others a question. She does not answer him at the moment and just shrugs with a slight shake of her head. Her gem-like eyes scan over each person as they introduce themselves.
"Such titles, I suppose I could title myself as a Monk, but I'm really nothing...just me...," she will think to herself as she bows respectfully to each one and bit deeper to the higher society halfling among them.
"I can hopefully help with traps...it's been a while...," she will answer Kahli as she wipes her eyes clear of the last remnant of her tears, "...although we should all keep our eyes out for any potential pitfalls and traps. From the sounds of things, I think the odds are stacked in a way that we are all intended to die here without escape. I am not going to die here." She seems almost defiant in this manner. "I believe alone in here we stand little chance, but together...well...I hope we can all make strides to work together and it will improve our chances."
The others can easily perceive that Lash is not a confident woman. Whether that is a permanent effect or a temporary one is not known. There is deep sadness on her face still, yet she at the same time she is bravely pushing through it like a warrior.
Lash will scan the room with deeper insight into the mechanisms and trapworking. Working with the party, they manage to find small cracks, but is the potential door trapped? Is there a mechanism to open it? She searches high and low.
Noticing the inscription, Marcos takes a step back, a bit alarmed. "This... this is written in Abyssal..."
Sim approaches Lash and handles her his bouquet of white roses. "I had not bought them with you in mind, milady, but it would be a shame for such nice flowers to have died for nothing."
Sim joins the others in looking for an exit, but also gently pokes the magical sphere with the tip of his sword.
Sim makes his way over to the door, tapping on the orb as he passes, his sword creating a resounding metallic "ting" with each hit. The orb appears unscarred from the contact.
Lash, you run you fingers along the cracks, feeling for a button or anything, but find nothing. Sim presses his hand on various stones, hoping for one to depress and open the way, you turn up empty handed. Lash puts her ear against the door and listens....nothing. Or something? A breeze? Groaning? Your mind playing tricks? You're not sure.
But you don't have to wait long to find out. As Marcos finishes reading the inscribed runes, the orb's light intensifies and the old man's voice emanates from it. "Ah! Someone who speaks our language! I suppose with that revelation, you should be on your way. Tread carefully!"
The orb's light dims back to its normal intensity and the runes on the pedestal begin glowing red one-by-one, working their way from the bottom to the top. Once the topmost runes are lit, the wall Lash has been inspecting groans as dirt and debris begin falling to the floor. Lash and Sim take a step back as the wall shifts forward into the room and slides across the wall to reveal stairs leading up. All falls silent again.
Kahli watches the people more than the surroundings, surprised that none of them try casting even a simple cantrip to detect magic. Hearing Marcos catches his interest. "Abyssal? Can you read it?"
If anyone were to cast Detect Magic, they would detect strong Illusion and Divination auras coming from the orb.
Marcos and Shiv'Raston spend a few moments discussing it and come to the conclusion that the images of this man must be being sent in real time and not some sort of generic welcoming message, as he did respond to Marcos reading the runes. Though they cannot figure out where the other orb sending the images would be located, they feel like the orb itself poses no threat to the group.
The attractive halfling, Sim, hands her the bouquet and she will hold them to her chest a moment, bending her head down to smell them.
"Thank you," she replies and kneels briefly to give him a kiss on the cheek for his kindness. They obviously mean more to her than he realizes. Through the kiss, if he allows it, Sim can almost feel a source of divine power seek to restore his body, mind, and soul of fatigue, but it fades as if she were not willing to bestow such a gift upon him at the current time or unable.
Lash will rise, and still holding the flowers, will look to her task.
"I think I hear the bending of wind...or groaning...I can't be sure, but I can't find anything here to open this," she whispers to the group.
In an instant, Lash will set down her flowers draw her bow with a ready arrow as the door opens to them. She'll retreat back into the group and will study the corridor as far as she can.
"Although I don't enjoy the presence and speech of this man, he is an outsider...the only one we know currently outside of this dungeon. Might we attempt to take the orb with us?"
MArcos keeps his worried looks. "He said 'our language', which means his native tongue is Abyssal. That looks bad." Still, he thinks, they have no other option for now but to climb the stairs, so that's what he gets ready to do.
Lash peers up the stairs, and though her darkvision allows her to see into the blackness, the height of the stairs and the low ceiling prevent her from seeing passed the top of the steps. The stairs run about 10 feet up and she doesn’t see any immediate threats.
As it seems difficult to spot what (or where) is at the top of the stairs, Marcos concentrates on the small spell again. That way, they can at least detect if there's something using any kind of magic up there.
Kahli looks at the orb, considering whether or not to try and take it. "I don't know.... A magic glass ball? If someone is carrying it gets hit, who knows what might happen if it breaks?"
Kahli takes her position and moves up the stairs.
Sim blushes only slightly before assuming a defensive posture as they move around to investigate the place.
Lash sees the coast is temporarily clear, or at least thinks so.
Looking briefly to Marcos, she will reply, "I agree, that doesn't bode well for us."
She will move back up to where she had dropped the flowers and will reach down to take a single flower from the bouquet. Quickly and capably, she will place it in her hair so it cannot be knocked loose. Her eyes scan over to Sim as she leaves the bouquet there, sadly.
"Shall we?"
When Shiv and Sim are ready, she will head up cautiously up the stairwell, searching along the way for traps.
She will also attempt to walk lightly.
Shiv nods, "Yes, we might as well begin then. Do we need a light source?" before beginning, he casts Light on his scythe.
"Oh, light, yes..." Marcos puts his hand in one of his pockets and produces a small stone. He flips it into the air and the small rock starts floating around Marcos' head, emitting light which iluminates several feet around. "There we go" he smiles.
Lash leads the way, stepping out into the short dark landing before stepping up the stairs, stumbling on the first one but quickly regaining her balance. She makes her way to the top of the stairs, peeking out as she gets high enough to see down the hallway. With Shiv and Marcos' light bleeding up and over the top of the stairs and illuminating the immediate vicinity, Lash's darkvision is able to easily see down the five-foot wide 55 foot hallway to the dead-end.
On the left side of the unlit hallway, Lash notices two passageways, one 15 feet away and the other 45 feet away. Her attention is drawn, however, to the right side of the hallway, as she sees a series of relief carvings into the masonry of demonic looking faces running the length of the hallway.
Kahli glances down the hallway, then at the carvings on the wall to the right. "Can't say much positive about the decor...."
"We have runes ahead, and two passageways on the left. The hallway ends about sixty feet ahead," she whispers loud enough for them to hear. "I can't be sure, but the runes look similar in a fashion to the language down below on the pedestal."
She'll chuckle at Kahli's comment.
"What is worrying me, is that the only things that likely ever leave the room we were in, are those who know Abyssal. While I'd hope that all such people are as educated and as civil as you seem to be, Marcos, I doubt all are. We may very well face natural-born speakers of abyssal here, and I wonder what happens to those who don't know it? I didn't see any bodies..."
She'll then head forward down toward the lip of the first passageway off to the left and will watch her path for traps and possible hazards. With the noise they are making, she is extra cautious. Surely, they are not the first ones to make it in here.
Lash peers around the first hallway, keeping an eye out for danger. She sees a short hallway that turns left. Taking a cautious step forward, she's able to see a wooden door.
"Carvings, uh?" Marcos curiously places himself in front of the faces. "Let me have a look..." he says, trying to recognise the art and see if that gives them any hint.
Sim follows in silence, paying attention to everything around them and getting ready to jump into action if needed.
"I can see a wooden doorway down this hallway to the left," she will whisper and then move forward toward the end of the hall and the mysterious second hallway. By moving up now, she hopes to give Marcos enough space to view the faces on the wall and their significance.
You flip through the rolodex of deities trying to find a connection, but you can't find anything specific. You come to the conclusion that these are probably just generic designs meant to unnerve people as they leave the room you started in.
You do notice, however, that all the eyes on the various faces appear to be looking towards to hallway Lash is walking down.
Kahli follows close behind Lash.
"No idea what they are" says Marcos about the carvings, "but they seem to be looking towards that very same hallway." He tries to discard the obscure ideas that slip into his brains and follows the others.
"Man, that was creepy..."
The wooden door appears to be a simple mundane door. Rectangular with no window, made of a dark brown wood with a round door knob on the right hand side.
"I think that is a clue. I can't say whether the demonic eyes looking this way is a good thing or a bad thing, but if this pathway ends up being bad for us, we can at least figure that we shouldn't be going in the direction of the eyes."
She will creep closer and peer around the lip of the hallway's edge.
After inspecting the door in the first hallway from a safe distance, Lash steps back through the group and makes her way down the hallway to the next passage.
She sees another hallway that goes 20 feet before turning right. 10 feet into the hallway, it branches off to the left. Lash takes a look around from her position, feels like it's safe to move forward, and takes a couple steps into the hallway. Looking forward into the hallway, she sees another door around the corner, similar to the first door; rectangular wooden door with a door knob on the left side.
Easing around the corner into the branching hallway, she sees that it immediately turns right and runs 20 feet before turning out of sight.
Lash will cautiously peer down the hallway open to them and undiscovered. Part of her wants to explore the doorway in front of her, but caution tells her to be mindful of what can be around the corner first. She also looks for additional signs of faces or other indicators of a "correct" way to go.
Shiv'Raston clutched his scythe following and prepared. He knew some others might be disquieted by the obvious demonic influence in this place, but it worried him not. He followed the Green Mother, a being of power to make these demons cower, and he could do the same when he met them.
Marcos is not an expert in exploring castles or old ruins. "I say we follow the alleys until there's nowhere to go, them we start checking doors."
Sim appears uncertain at Markus's suggestion. "I'd prefer as fewer doors behind us as possible... we do not want to get surrounded and forced to fight in these corridors."
"Both are good points. Maybe we should go back to that first hallway, the one that had the demon faces? It ended in a door. The faces might mean something, and since "our host" spoke in Abyssal. Well, it might mean something!"
"Seems good to me" Marcos shrugs. "I was suggesting according to my logic, but I've never been in such a situation before, so my opinion is worth less than a copper." Marcos feels at ease in a library or at a convention of sages, but other than that, he now realises his experience in many aspects of common life is... scarce.
"I think it's a good thing you aren't sure, Marcos," she smiles briefly back to him. In her mind, knowing the mentality and the ins-and-outs of how a demon works, one can do without. She is still going to check the unknown hallway, but if it seems to span far out of her sight, she will consider checking the door nearby instead.
Lash slips into the east hallway with the party following closely behind, Kahli laying a hand on Lash's shoulder and casting Guidance. Lash peers around and sees the longest hallway yet, at least 60 feet at first glance.
She's positive there are no traps in the immediate vicinity. However, what does catch her eye is the pale yellow, dog-like abomination covered in pustules snarling and charging right at her.
against Lash Flat Footed 14+4 from cover (no Snake Style)
As this ghoulish animal snaps its teeth at Lash's leg, she manages to pull her leg back in time.
Lash cries out, "Watch out! Wild dog thing!"
It snaps at her, but she uses the wall to pull her foot around out of the way of its bite just in time. The agile Aasimar glances behind her to Shiv before the dog can round the corner. She intends to swap places with him. "Shiv'Raston?" she inquires to him as she tries to shift back five feet to let the frontliners in. Once out of harm's way, she will look for that perfect angle and moment in which to get payback on the dog. She notches an arrow.
Move: 5ft from E3 to D4
Standard: Fire Arrow at "dog"
Attack:
Damage:
Free: Reload arrow, talk, knowledge check
"Moving! Croc, guard behind!"
Shiv'Raston moves forward, positioning himself to swing his scythe down at the beast.
Move: move action from D4 to E3 [ooc]This should provoke from the creature while I am in E4 which he threatens but I should have soft cover against that attack of opportunity]
Standard: attack with scythe
Free: talk, command croc to use the "guard" trick- it will bite anything that comes up behind