'Yes, that is acceptable- we can return here if those paths lead to dead ends.'
Shiv motions for Sim to lead, content to take up his place in the marching order.
The party discusses and agrees to go through the western door first, leaving the cages for another time.
They listen again once more at the door and, hearing nothing, ease it open to find a short hallway that curves to the left and abruptly ends in a plain wooden door that opens away from the hallway.
The party easily determines the door is unlocked and not trapped.
Lash slides foot in front of foot and kneels by the door, ear pressed against it.
She clearly hears the sounds of eating; meat slurping and bones crunching. She's fairly positive it's only one creature.
Lash will approach the door and bend down to listen. Upon hearing what is inside, she will signal that there is one creature inside munching on something, which looks quite comical but gets the point across. She will then swap places back with Sim and will pull some of her regular arrows for action. She also will hug the wall to ensure that people who are going to rush into the room can get by her.
Readying action to fire for surprise round.
Marcos quickly tries to remember a story firing the situation. He smiles when he finds one in his memory, and nods to let know he's ready.
With the explanation of what is heard, Kahli stands back to let the others lead the way.
Following the established operating procedure, Sim takes point, shield at the ready, Lash with arrow trained above the Halfling's head at whatever threat might appear, Shiv and Kahli ready to rush in, and Marcos clearing his throat to ensure his voice carries throughout the stone halls and rooms.
Sim tries to ease the door open as quiet as possible, but a loud creak erupts from the rusted hinges as he pushes the door into the room. He finds himself 20 feet away from a humanoid-looking creature standing over a pile of gore, meat, and bones. It turns its head, showing tightly stretched flesh over a gaunt face with a long, purple tongue hanging out of its mouth, blood and meat falling to the floor from its open maw.
Looking into the room, you see three piles of the gore and meat, along with a circular pillar in the center of the room with four torches, one on each side.
"Ugh, a Ghoul... I would stay away from its sharp teeth, if I were you, lest you want to end like the famous Fred the Undead, which gained his sobriquet because... Eh, well, the thing is that Fred..."
Kahli reaches ahead to touch Dash. "It's taller than Sim. Aim for the head...."
"More dead things, how quaint! Croc, come!"
Full Round action:Double move to J2; if I can cross the bones the path goes F3-G1-H1-I1-J2; if not, I have to go G3-H2-I1-J2 and provoke, but will still do so since I can't get to attack in a single move.
Croc Action:Double move to I1 following behind.
Lash has readied her shot so as the horrific sight is revealed, she lets loose her arrow at the ghoul.
A quick moment later, she redraws and fires again with two more.
"That is disgusting!"
Ready Action
Round 1
Kahli watches Lash's shots and cheers on the hits. "Good one! It can't last more than a couple of those..."
Sim moves towards the ghoul, raising his shield to protect the others as he attacks the creature.
Move Action: Open the door
Move Action: Move to H3 while drawing gladius
Standard Action:
The Ghoul is quickly met with a rain of arrows as Lash deftly fires over Sim and around the advancing Shiv. All three arrows pierce into a neat cluster in the Ghoul's left side, causing foul smelling blood and fluid to leak from the wounds.
Sim moves forward, ever on the defense, and barely misses his attack, his sword smacking the flailing tongue out of the way, but he can feel that this thing is on its last leg.
"...so he ended up being known as Fred the Undead."
Marcos hesitates just for a< second before his final line.
"You know, some colleagues of mine
Ne'er miss the chance for a rhyme."
The Ghoul can't focus on multiple opponents, and while Sim has its attention, Shiv cleanly cuts straight through the Ghoul, similar to the Festrog, and it falls in a pile of meat and bones, both its own and those it's been eating.
Searching the Ghoul, you find the following:
All is quiet
The party notices the door on the eastern wall, another plain looking wooden door that opens in to the room. Lash looks it over with some help and determines it to be unlocked and not trapped. She turns the knob and pulls on the door, but it doesn't open. She gives it a couple more tugs, but it doesn't move. She feels that, with some help, the party could either pull it open through strength, or bust it down.
Lash finishes at the door after collecting her arrows and cleaning them of blood. She then will begin the systematic search of the room to ensure there is nothing else. There are nasty piles of things, so she will utilize the tongs to sort through the bones instead of her hands, and she will keep a keen eye peeled for dangers hopefully before they jump out at her.
If her companions seek to open the door at the far side of the room, she will lend a hand by pulling on them with a hand to gain added leverage.
Kahli walks into the room, passing the ghoul with barely a glance. Seeing the debris she picks up the hammer. "If I knew anything about construction maybe I could take the door off of its hinges. But since it pulls open into this room, maybe we could just knock?"
She walks up to the door, turns to face the others and holds up the hammer. "Shall I knock? Can't be louder than trying to tear the door down. And whatever is on the other side can possibly push the door open?"
While the party ponders the door, Lash turns her attention to the rest of the room. She carefully pulls meat and bones from the various piles with the tongs, but doesn't find anything useful. They appear to be regurgitated bodies.
She looks at the center column with the four torches. Closely inspecting them, she figures they're not trapped or connected to mechanics or anything. Just normal torches.
"So far, I wouldn't want whatever is inside to answer the door...especially with this as its neighbor," she speaks with a grin to Kahli, hinting at that humor underneath once more before it fades. "You use the hammer to pry open the door, I'll pull on you and someone else get the handle and pull on them. We'll get it open by brute force. If that doesn't work, I'm sure Shiv'Rashton's crocodile could tear that thing apart."
"I am sure that we can take this door down, let me try here."
Lash, Kahli and Shiv all position themselves appropriately and pry at the door with the hammer, the creaking and groaning of the door slowly building until BAM, the door bursts open with the rusted hinges breaking from the stone wall and the door falling, the three of them barely getting out of the way before the door slams to the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Once the dust clears, they see a dark stone hallway running 25 feet away before turning right.
Taking her time to scout ahead while the rest of the party moves the door to the side, Lash finds the hallway does a U-turn, turning right, then turning right again 10 feet later. She motions for the group to follow, who come up to the apex of the hallway.
Peering around the second turn, she sees the hallway continues 30 feet before turning left. The end of this hallway is bathed in light from a source after the turn. She makes her way down most of the hallway to where she can lean forward and see around this final turn. She sees another portcullis, similar to the one in the room with the cages. On the right wall by the portcullis is a wooden lever with the end wrapped in leather. Looking through the bars, she can see a large rectangular room with numerous torches lining the walls and three small chandeliers filled with candles hanging from the center of the ceiling. In the center of the room below the chandeliers is a long wooden dinner table set with all sort of decadent food and drink. At a glance, she can see a large roasted bird, bottles of wine, loaves of bread, and various fruits. Around the table are at least eight comfortable looking stone chairs with dark red cushions on them.
Before Lash steps closer, her instincts take over and something seems off. She looks down and sees a thin split in the floor, too perfect to be a naturally occurring crack. She's positive the portcullis is trapped.
Sim moves closer to Lash ready for anything but gives her some space to work the trap.
"This is a large room," she whispers to those behind her to pass on. As she describes the room to them, she also lets them know about the trap and to stay back.
"Are we proceeding this way or backtracking?"
"We are ready." Shiv nods for Lash to proceed.
Lash nods to Shiv and proceeds carefully.
If all is clear, she will carefully bend down and work on the trap to ensure that it is disabled for her party members and her. With them behind the wall, she also feels safer about unleashing whatever this trap may do.
"okay...what are you...," she thinks to herself as she inserts her thieves' tools carefully.
Kahli listens from several feet back down the hallway, too far really to watch....
Lash inserts a tool into the lever hole in the wall. She starts tinkering, and after a few seconds, she hears a click. A smirk comes across her face, but quickly disappears as the lever drops and she feels the floor shift and begin to fall from beneath her.
Her quick instincts take over and Lash, and her tools, leap back to safety, landing on solid flooring. Between the party and the portcullis is a 20 foot deep hole the goes 15 feet and under the portcullis. Lash peers over the edge into the hole and sees a flat floor that could be safely traversed.
Marcos tries to have a look at the pit to see what was expecting them down there.
Lash does not typically come across as a monk, but as she flips backward, she lands on the edge of the pit balancing on one of her feet in only what could be described as a monk-like pose. Clearly, she has had some training in that regard. Her body relaxes and she peers down over the ledge more clearly.
"That was close. My wrist trembled a little and I set it off...whew..."
She then bends downward searching the floor of the pit for traps and takes her time.
"It doesn't make much sense to be a flat floor...?"
Taking some time to really look at what just happened, it appears the floor was a trap door of sorts and opened in two halves, like a double door for the floor . The floor of the pit sits 20 feet down and looks solid with the same stone walls as the rest of the hallways in the dungeon The pit is basically a hallway with 20 foot walls. Since the fake floor opened up, the portcullis doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the pit, and you could walk under the portcullis as its bars would be 15ish feet above you.
"I guess it isn't trapped down there. I'll check it out. I see a path too under the portcullis. Do we want a rope attached so we can get back up this way so we can backtrack if needed?"
Kahli watches as the pit trap is opened. "So maybe the point is to open the pit and traverse that rather than raise the portcullis? Do you see any mechanism to affect the portcullis? I'd hate to see an additional trap within the trap...."
Lash shares that she is fairly certain there is a way to make the lever affect the portcullis, but it triggered the floor instead of the portcullis while she was attempting to disarm it.
"Traps within traps inside of the traps" Marcos starts digressing. "That reminded me of an old tale which starts in a far away world, made almost entirely of sand and riddled with enormous sand worms..."
While the party debates the pit and the portcullis, Kahli's pack begins to emit light and she hears the muffled sound of talking. She opens her pack and sees the orb glowing and the face of the old man.
"Hello friends!" His high pitch nasally voice rings out. "I just wanted to check in on how you are all doing. I got a message that you have made decent progress through our house of fun. I do hope you are enjoying it so far." He flips through some papers. "I am sad to see you made quick work of the ghoul. He was my idea, you know. I don't get to have much input, so I try to take pride where I can." He adjusts himself in his chair and folds his hands. "You know, not many take me along for their adventure. So, while I'm here, I would love to hear your feedback so far."
Kahli almost drops the orb when she hears the voice again. She listens and considers.... "Well, the flaming skeleton was a bit much. But otherwise this has been, interesting. ?? But are the creatures in the rooms just living there? The living ones I mean?"
"Interesting," she comments to Marcos. "Tell me more when we rest tonight."
She will look for a place to secure a rope for others to drop down into the pit trap to allow them to climb back out again if they wish to backtrack.
As the Orb begins to shine, the reminder of her situation returns and she falls silent. She will not speak to the face of the old man but only gives him a rude look as she endeavors to knot the rope.
Once the rope is secured, she will simply jump down intentionally and tumble.
(Knotted rope with a wall to brace)
"Heh. Yes, interesting after a fashion I suppose . . . all these undead creatures! If only there was a way I could bend them to my will. Perhaps I will find insight in the past lives."
The old man chuckles. "Oh, wasn't that a treat? I wish I could take credit for the 'enemy in a trap' idea, but that was all his idea," he says, nodding his head to the right, as if he would be directing your attention to look that way if you were in the room with him. "Now, I suppose you're speaking of the goblins when you say living creatures, is that right? Well, we were able to get all of you in here with little to no effort. Those brain dead big headed buffoons put up even less of a fight." He smiles, but it seems off, and it unnerves whoever is looking at it.
While Kahli speaks to the old man, Lash finds a stone sticking out far enough to tie the rope around. It's not the most secure, but it will hold. Lash and Shiv slowly make their way down the rope and into the pit. It's a little chilly down here, compared to the hallways and rooms. It seems the heat from the torches and whatnot hasn't made it down here and it's more cave-like in its temperature.
Lash may not be giving the sphere any attention directly, but she does listen as she descends. Part of her is glad when the man in the sphere is further away from her.
At the bottom of the pit, she will wrap her arms around her chest to keep warm as she waits for the others. Being down below, as Kahli speaks to the old man, Shiv'Rashton can see Lash visibly saddened more and more as he speaks onward.
She is all too happy to move onward and will check forward down the tunnel a small distance to ensure it is safe in the immediate sense.
As Lash treads carefully forward and away from the old man's voice, she's confident the pit is no more trapped than it already was. She even waves her arm under the portcullis to see what happens, and nothing does.
Kahli watches as the couple climb down into the pit. She listens but doesn't really pay too much attention to the orb. "Well, good to hear, but I really need to pack you away for now. I need both hands to climb a rope you know. So unless you want us to leave this behind.... ??"
Glancing down to Lash she comments, "Good, but how do you plan to get up the other side? And if I might make a suggestion? Maybe we could untie the rope and toss it, loop it perhaps, through the frame of the portcullis and you check it by pulling tight down there? If it holds we can all swing down that way and then just pull it through once we're all down?"
The old man lets out a wheezy cough. "No, no! Please, I would love to keep note of your progress! I will check in on you again later. We're looking forward to hopefully seeing you soon!" With that, the light and image of the old man from the orb fade and Kahli closes her pack.
"If we need to, we can do that," she responds to Kahli, but then states, "I think I will brace from one side to the other and try to walk up. I've had to do that before in training. It's doable."
She will, however, help the others up first. In particular those with armor and frontliners on those first 5-10 feet of climbing/bracing.
Once everyone is up, she too will climb by bracing her slender form between the two walls and using her inner core muscles. In this way, it should help to assist her in keeping rigid while walking the whole way up.
Kahli climbs carefully down into the trap/pit.
Once there, and applying first aid for the strained muscles and joints, she moves to the other side and looks up. "Maybe it'd be better to have someone that knows climbing better go up first? They could hold a rope and pull those of us that are klutzes, like me. ??"