Over a minute or two, Shiv concentrates on the food and finds an aura of transmutation across the food and finds a majority of the food poisoned.
He figures the poison is Blinding Sickness from a spell cast on the food, and that whoever did it must have disguised the food to look OK.
"That's a pretty mean trick! Make the food look good and poison it to make you go blind! I say dump it in the acid so nobody else can be tempted by it."
With the creatures finished, Sim also helps to dispose the food and get the table in position to be used as a bridge.
The party takes some time to carry the piles of food to the acid, ignoring the delicious smells and being careful to not ingest any.
After that task is done, they gather around the long wooden table. On a three count, they all lift at once, and begin moving to the doorway. Shiv's croc runs around Marcos' feet and he shoos it away while Sim spends most of the moving with his arms above his head. When they get to the doorway, another three count is had and the party tilts the table sideways. With some struggling, they manage to pivot the table through the doorway. They scoot the table to the edge of the acid and Lash leaps over to guide it to the other side of the channel and get it set down.
"It's too bad we couldn't magically make the food better or clean again. It sure is making me hungry!"
She will smile as she helps the others carefully dispose of it in the acid. As for the platters and dishes, they can be used to make a mess kit for eating later. With Kahli's help, she will make sure they are properly cleaned and washed off before stowing them.
Once across the acid and the table set in order, Lash will recover her arrows and ensure the Chon Chons are dead before searching them and the area. She will also search the other doors for traps and locks .
"Which pathway do we want to take?"
Lash isn't sure how deep the acid itself is, but it's slowly flowing about 5-6" from the lip of the channel, low enough that the heat coming up is uncomfortable, but you won't get hurt in any short period of time. Perhaps, over an hour or so, the wood would start to deteriorate, but she feels the table should hold up long enough for the party to use it to cross safely.
While making her way around the room and collecting her arrows, some of which she struggles for a moment to dislodge from the dead heads, she closely inspects everything, being careful not to lose track of where the acid is. There's nothing outstanding in this room besides the channel of acid. She takes a look at each door and doesn't find any of them trapped. The iron door on the western wall is locked. The wooden door on the southern wall is unlocked, but she she can see that the hinges are rusted, however, it should open with some force. The door on the north that Kahli mentioned is unlocked and appears to be in good working order.
Listening for a moment at each door, she doesn't hear anything on the other side of any of them.
Before continuing, Shiv retrieves his dagger and short spear and returns them to their respective holsters.
"Some of these were shots like I should be doing. Shot's like the master could make..."
After having checked the monsters and each door, she will inform the group of what she's found. Before proceeding, Lash will gather a large serving spoon from the table.
"I'm going to open this rusted one first,." she answers to herself as no-one yet has volunteered which way or did not hear her.
Unless there is some hazard to it, she will bend down with the thicker metal spoon, scoop out some of the acid, and drip it down onto the rusted hinges--hopefully weakening them even more to where the door just comes off without a hassle or loud noise at all.
Holding the spoon away from her, she begins to ladle acid, bit by bit, onto the rusted hinges. Though she spills some on the floor, the manages not to get any on herself. After some time, she sees that the worst of the rust has come off and she's confident she can open the door by herself.
She pushes the door open partway and peeks her head in.
She sees yet another hallway that runs 15 feet before turning left, and one that branches off to the left just inside the hallway. Looking around while staying safely behind the door, she doesn't see any danger in the immediate area.
Sim follows Lash while wondering their options. "I'm completely lost in this place... any door could be the right or the wrong one..."
Kahli watches as the groups check things, then notices Lash open the door across the room. "Hey, What about this door?"
With someone showing a preference for a door coming from one of her companions, she will simply look down the hall into the room she opens herself and then will reclose the door. With agility, she will make her way back to the door near Kahli and will check it.
"It's fine. I already checked it," she comments concerning traps and then will wave to Sim to go first. She will linger behind the acidic river so she can see into the room when the door is open. Her hands will ready her bow.
Move: 2 squares south of Kahli at the door (currently).
Lash makes her way back as Sim gets into position. With a nod, he swings the door open and finds a hallway that heads north. Lash hops up on the table and across and steps into the hallway. She taps her bow on the walls and floor and doesn't find anything. Stepping forward, she eventually finds the hallway splits at a T-intersection. The right side dead-ends, but the left continues on.
She looks ahead and recognizes the portcullis as the one in the room with the cages. In fact, she can see a couple of them through the portcullis. Leaning around the corner, she doesn't see any way to open the portcullis from this side.
"Since the other door seems a bit more difficult to open" Marcos points out referring to the one with the acid stream just in front of it, "and the one Lash just checked would take us to a place we've already been to, I guess the choice is clear."
"So it just goes back to the weird portcullis that we already saw but didn't open? Boring! OK, Back to the door you checked. What's down those corridors?"
"Well, it's good to check everywhere. Any place may give us a way out or a tool we can use to get out." It is clear she is not here by choice.
She will return back across the plank and make her way to the doorway. It is clear her companions have trouble in their armor, but with enough cooperation, they shouldn't have struggles with it.
Marcos accepts the ladies' help. "You're too kind to help an old man, darlings, thank you very much."
Lash reaches a hand out to Marcos, who gingerly hops over. Kahli taps everyone on the shoulder, including herself, before making the leap fairly easily.
Sim puts his shield on his back before jumping over the acid and does so with ease. Looking at Shiv and his pet, he points to the table. "If you wish, we could bring that table over this acid as well..."
Sim does some quick math and figures they could move the table to a more advantageous position. It would take some finagling with people getting into the right position to reach across and hand off the table, but they could do it.
With the table balanced somewhat precariously across a long portion of the channel, the party is able to get from the middle island to the southern part of the room, Shiv carrying his croc across the table. With the party packed onto the 10'x30' section, Lash gets back onto the table and kneels in front of the lock and spends some time working at it. About 20 seconds in, the table slips a little and the party freezes, but the table remains on the floor. Slowly, Lash starts working again and finishes unlocking the door without further problems.
She puts her tools away and gives the door a push. After it creaks open, before her is a long, boring hallway, reminiscent of all the others they've been through. With Marcos' help , they determine the hallway runs back to where they fought the Festrog.
The party moves ahead into the south hallway with Lash taking point. Peeking down the first little hallway is a short deadend with three demonic faces, similar to the ones they first saw leaving the orb room. They are also carved into the walls and are laughing, one on each the north, east, and south walls.
Continuing on, the hallway turns left before turning back up. After a right turn, Lash sees what she thinks are three more hallways, all right next to each other. Upon further inspection, in each hallway, is a torch on the left wall and, set 10 feet back, is a plain looking wooden door.
Kahli imbues Lash with magical intuition, then Lash holds the party back as she looks at each door, and, knowing the history of the dungeon so far, barely sees a thin wire filament attached to the doorknob on the leftmost wooden door.
"Be careful, there is a trap on at least this one." She looks to the others but can't see any others.
Instead of proceeding, Lash is going to investigate the faces. Three masks, three doors. It seems to fit. Perhaps seeing them more accurately will display a hidden mechanism?
Kahli glances at the doors after Lash backs away. "If there's a trap on one, there's likely one on all of them.... What about cutting the wire on the door? If its attached to the knob it probably pulls something when the door gets opened. So if the wire is cut, the trigger should be disabled, right?"
"Or.... Maybe if you hook something under the wire and pull it without opening the door? If it sets off something behind the door you would be safe with the door closed. Of course, if it opened a pit trap where you're standing. ?? Hmm.... Maybe not a good idea."
"How about someone chacking for magic on those demon faces? They could be a magical trap, or a demon oracle, or maybe the sing a song when asked...."
Sim frowns his head at the endless possibilities of the traps. "Anything could go wrong... I bet the safest way is for Lash to disable it than we try to sping it. I hate traps."
Lash chuckles at Kahli's assumptions.
"I used to think like that until my mentor at the time made a trap that would go off when I snapped the cord. No...trap maker's are highly intelligent most often, even if primitively done, traps can be complicated and dangerous. One outcome could trap you eternally in a room where another method of disarming could trigger a pit trap. It all depends on how complex they make it. There is so much dust in here though that it's hard to see what is what...but I'll do my best to figure it all out. Unless you want to be the one to step on the plate to see what happens?"
She jokes briefly as she goes around the corner to check the faces, provoking the very woman who slammed a necromantic-powered heart into a statue just not long ago.
Lash makes her way back to check out the carved faces. Standing at the end of the short hallway, the one on her left has changed its face from laughing to a more quizzical expression, as if it's interested in Lash's actions. The other two are continuing to show a laughing expression.
If someone follows back and Detects Magic, they would discover a moderate transmutation magic on each carved face.
Looking closer, she doesn't discover any mechanical connection to the door or doors. However, now that she's inspecting, she sees that each face is slightly larger than a regular human head/face. The details are exquisitely done and she can make out wrinkles, laugh lines, and hair details carved into the stone.
"I wonder if the faces are somehow connected with the doors? You approached the left door but noticed the wire. And now the expression on the face has changed.... Maybe if the trap is disarmed or safely discharged it might change again? If so, what about the others? Open one of those doors and check the faces again?"
"Knowing there's magic in the faces intrigues me..." He checks how they change. "We're only certain about one thing: one of the doors has at least one trap. I think we should work starting from there - that is, disarming it. We'll study what happens then." These kind of complex problems with multiple choice that can make you lose have always thrilled Marcos, though the ones he's been involved in the past had not so dire consequences...
Shiv frowns, "Another riddle or puzzle. Not what I prefer. Perhaps we should just bash through one of the doors? Try to smash the faces? Just throwing out ideas here!"
Nodding with her companions, she considers. Perhaps they are right? She will first return to the room with the trap and will take a bit longer scouting out the other doors.
She then will move back to check on the faces based on what she may or may not find, and then will return to the main room to disarm a trap.
"Make sure you all keep your distance."
Lash is careful not to trigger anything and manages to find the same kind of wire attached to the other two doors as well. She also notices the doors are unlocked and would open into the next room.
Marcos stays at the carvings, intrigued by the magic in them. While he's looking them over, as Lash discovers the wires, the other two faces, one at time shift from the laughing emotion to the inquisitive emotion, stone grinding and dust falling to the floor. All three faces now display the same emotion.
"So now that the traps have been found on all three, the faces are inquisitive. Like, What will we do? Walk away? Try to break the trap? Set it off from a distance? Pull the wire without opening the door?"
"Makes me want a spell, like unseen servant, to open the door while I stayed outside of the room!"
"And did you notice the dust falling from the face of the statue? I wonder if there's any way to reset it to laughing? Changing it back and forth could make a pile of dust on the floor. But I wonder if the statue face would start falling apart?"
Now that she is sure that there are traps on each door, she will return to Marcos to see that indeed that was what triggered the faces.
"I feel the same," she responds to Kahli. "I've heard that and the mount spell are very useful in dungeons and would have brought some scrolls of it for someone to use, but I had planned on never being in a dungeon again." She suddenly shuts up and seems to have mentioned something she didn't want to. To deflect, she continues speaking on a different topic.
"I think that is some interesting magic. Perhaps the last person who came through tripped the floor plates, or that is their default faces."
She runs her hand through her ribbonlike metallic hair and leans on the wall at the mouth to the dead end with the faces to see what the party wants to do.
"If you can affect the faces, maybe it'll affect the trap. Have you tried making faces at it? If laughter is the face of us stepping on the trap and potentially getting roasted alive, then perhaps making a disappointed face will disarm the trap?"
She will leave it to Marcos unless he feels she would be better suited to handle what could happen.
"Costs nothing..." he says, and though he feels a bit ridiculous, he tries with different gestures at the stone faces.
Marcos leans in to the face on the northern wall and contorts his face into various expressions as the rest of the party watches in amusement. As Marcos begins losing hope that anything will happen, the face suddenly shifts to an exaggerated angry expression, baring sharp teeth. Simultaneously, the party hears one of the doors slamming open, followed quickly by the sound of something hitting stone. The other two faces don't change their expression.
The party gives each other a look and head back to the doors to investigate. Six seconds after the first hit, another hit occurs. As they get to the corner, they see two crossbow bolts laying on the floor. Sim holds his shield up and pokes his head around to look at the left door, which he finds open to a long 80 foot hallway with sections of the right wall open. He can barely make out a crossbow sat in the wall at the far end of the hallway just in time to duck back out of the way before a bolt flies passed his head and clinks into the wall.
Kahli notices the bolts are firing at about stomach level for a normal heigh human. She kneels down and holds her shield out about a foot lower. She notices that, while the bolts vary in height from shot to shot, there's no indication that it's intentionally aiming at anything. Over the next couple shots, one does fall short and slides across the floor instead of reaching the wall.
"Hrm. I think I know how to deal with this." Shiv raises his shield, waits for one bolt to pass, then runs forward towards the crossbow as quickly as possible.
Full Round Action:Run x4= 80 feet
Following round:
Free action: Drop shield
Move action:Draw scythe
Standard action:Attack Crossbow:
"Shiv! Wait! We don't know..." By this time, Shiv is already half way through the alley. "...whether there are more traps apart from the crossbow..."
Shiv charges down the hallway and almost makes it to the crossbow before it fires again.
The bolt flies at Shiv, but he's ready for it and deflects it off into the wall. While the automatic reloading mechanism is working, Shiv finishes closing the distance and slices into the crossbow, dealing a little damage to it .
----------
The reloading mechanism finishes pulling the string back, drops a bolt into the crossbow and it fires again.
Shiv hasn't fully gotten back into his stance and the bolt pierces into his left side, sticking through his back left side.
"Wait! Wouldn't it work best to just slam a shield into it? That way it just.... Oh crap!
Kahli runs in, keeping low and behind her shield. Cure Light Wounds wand in hand. "Kill that thing! Cut the string! I'll heal you in a moment...."
Lash finds it interesting to see Shiv valiantly charge forward against the trap. Typically she would be the one to deal with such a thing, but his armor and ability makes him quite resistant to the arrow. As the second one hits him, she gasps as it goes through him. She still will remain at the side of the doorway behind cover, letting Shiv handle it. She hopes that it is not a magical trap and unable to be destroyed by him.
"Wait..." Sim exclaims, too late.
He then looks to the others, wondering. "Markus, can you tell us if that bolt is magical? I'm wondering if it will shoot us until the end of our days... perhaps the best choice is simply to wait until it runs out of bolts."
"Marcos, ahem" he clears his throat. "And sure, I could check, but I would need to get closer. The area of detection isn't wide enough."
Marcos can safely move the 20 feet into the hallway and detect magic down to the crossbow and does not detect any magic. With his dungeoneering knowledge, he figures the trap must have a supply of ammunition and will eventually run out.
Hearing the trap fire again, Kahli doesn't even check to see if it hit. The previous shot did and that was enough. She activates the wand and taps Shiv.