Sandy crawls across the body of the orc before stroking the bloody fur of the lion. "It's alright my friend, well done." he says soothingly before looking to the hawk perched on his shoulder. "And to you for being my eyes, thanks."
As he strokes the bloody fur of the big cat he sings a sonnet softly;
Then him and his menagrie goes over to the rest of the party; "We survived? He asks looking at the bloody group. I tried to hold the group by the fire, but the leaders went your way?"
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Xia, the least bloodied, although having a large gash in her side, sighs as she wipes her bloodied dagger off and resheathes it.
She then waves her hand over her shield, causing it to burst into light to be able to survey the damage. Seeing the grievous wounds of her companions, pulls out the healing stick she was given.
Could be worse. So, what in hole? Should check.
Fiona lets out a long breath as the last foe falls. Moving to Sahar's side, she eases the other warrior down against a rock. "Let's have a look at that wound," she offers, waving Xiaruau over.
The tall warrior looks over the rest of the group, reassuring herself that they're all present, still alive, and that no one's wounds are poisoned or likely to soon be fatal. At Xia's question, she nods. "We certainly paid for that privilege. Can you remove the magic on the rock?"
Sahar slumps in relief as Lysander appears, nodding at him in greeting. "Forgive me for leaving you, and for taking the light. I thought you would follow. It is good to see you on your feet, along with your friends! Holding them was bravely done."
"If you magical folk wish to examine the rock, I would like Fiona's help looking at these orcs. We stripped the bodies at the acorn site. I'd like to see if they have anything in common, or any marking that ties them to the symbols on the spears, or any tattoos on themselves or the cat-thing, or anything magical."
Merlan assists in checking the others for injuries, and lets the healer-types do their work. he assists with searching and stripping valuable gear form the orcs. ( )
Merlan claps his hands together and rubs them briskly.
"SO, who wants to help explore what we came out here for in the first place, eh?" He asks cheerfully, looking at the sealed burrow.
In answer to Fiona's inquiry he responds, "Ah, no. Not yet. Magic which can carefully remove magics and spells is much more sensitive and higher-grade than simple magic bolts, or enlargement enchantments. Doesn't mean I can't help find a way AROUND it though!" he smiles, cheerfully undeterred.
Each of the 4 warriors and the Slayer are branded on their right forearms with a curved mark about 3 inches long, like a claw or horn. The half-orc has no such mark, though he does have a tattoo of a black stormcloud with a thunderhead.
Their equipment and gear seems generally of better quality than that of the Bloodtalon corpses you came upon - especially the leaders - wool and linen clothing, boiled leather boots and belts...
Speaking of which, there is something odd about Venak's boots - the weight and balance are off. There are also a number of strange runes, spaced evenly, on his belt.
Sahar examines the tattoos and belt runes to see if they have any religious or other significance she's aware of.
If they aren't recognizable, she will detect magic again on the belt to be sure it's nothing dangerous. If it's OK, she will remove the belt and stash it to take back to Reckan and, if necessary, Lastwall.
She'll remove and examine the boots, again detecting magic, looking for any sort of hidden compartments or weirdness.
If she can't identify the tattoos, she will make good use of the found skinning knives to carefully remove the thundercloud tattoo and the best of the claw tattoos, wrapping them in a moistened piece of wool so they'll still be pliable and legible when they get back to Reckan.
Lastly, she'll take a look at Venak's right hand. They cut off the other half-orc's right hand. Can she find any reason on this half-orc why they might have done that?
Fiona assists Sahar in searching the bodies and the area.
In one heel, you find a small vial and a small brush with short, sharp bristles. In the other, you find a second vial, what looks like a tattooing needle, and a small lens of smoked glass.
Fiona notes that the leather wrapping on the double-axe's grip seem to have a few similar runes to Venak's belt, though very, very faded and worn.
Xia fails to disable the glyph, but narrowly avoids setting it off.
Fiona looks up from where she's helping Sahar pile the bodies, flashing a light toward Xiaruau to get the other's attention. "If it's a fire trap like he said—" she nods her head toward Merlan, "—wouldn't that incinerate whatever's inside?"
"Can we dig under it?"
Wait!" Merlan shouts at Xia as she moves to try and obviously work on the trapped door.
Uselessly, obviously, since she can't hear his shout.
After a tense moment, when nothing goes 'BOOM!' Merlan relaxes a smidge.
"Yes." The wizard says, making sure that Zia is looking at him.
"Fire Blast Rune. Very dangerous. We need to find a way to set it off with out one of US doing it."
"Actually,.. I DO have an idea!"
Merlan pulls a small pearl from a pouch, and concentrates ion it for a few moments. The pearl flashes once with a small glimmer of magic, then fades back to its original appearance.
"Alright, Stand back! Stay away from the trapped stone."
"If it's just going to explode in the air, someone could take a shortspear, lie on the ground, put a dead orc over them, and pry the rock away with the spear," Sahar offers. "If it's going to incenerate the contents of the hole, that's another story. Can you tell what it will do?"
"He has a unique tattoo and some odd things in his boot heel.. a brush and glass and.. here, look. Does that glass show anything?" She displays the items from the boot. "He also had a belt with runes on it."
Just for fun, she casts detect magic and looks at the capstone through the smoked glass to see if anything changes.
Lysander heals Kruss and himself, before going over to the group at the burrow.
"I have some small ability in the disarming of traps, but not as much as Xia - especially not eclectic mystical traps." Sandy gets near and crouches beside the others.
"If it's just going to explode in the air, someone could take a shortspear, lie on the ground, put a dead orc over them, and pry the rock away with the spear," Sahar offers. "If it's going to incenerate the contents of the hole, that's another story. Can you tell what it will do?"
Your spell reveals the same magical aura as before, just one - the glyph itself - but when you bring the lens into your field of vision, while nothing changes from your spell, you see what look like the smeared print of a thumb in blue-grey on the right edge of surface of the stone..
Sahar hands the glass to Merlan or Xia (whomever takes it first) and encourages them to look through it.
She'll pop open the vial from the boot and see what's in it.
Sahar hands the glass to Merlan or Xia (whomever takes it first) and encourages them to look through it.She'll pop open the vial from the boot and see what's in it.
Sahar shakes her head, the tattooed symbol is simply unfamiliar to her.
The contents of the vial have a powerful smell, slighly caustic, making your eyes water. The liquid within is slightly grey in colour, though stil mostly transparent, and a little thicker than water -- but not as thick as cream, say.
Merlan grabs the lens, looking through it at the stone cover.
Then he looks all around with it, including at each of his companions. Then back to the burrow.
"Oooooooo,..."
Merlan looks through the lens again, then sniffs, and looks at what Sahar is messing with.
"Oh, is THAT substance blue? Or grey? Ohohohoh hand it here!"
Sahar hands over the stinky stuff and looks at the other vial herself.
Merlan sniffs the vial, makes a face, And caps the vial. Then, VERY careful not to touch the rock, he puts his face close to it and sniffs. Twice,...
And Squeaky's head snakes downwards, sniffing alongside Merlan's face,...
"Mage, do you recognize the tattoos on the half-orc? I do not, but you seem to know many things."
The second vial has a liquid with a slightly sweet smell - it's thin, like pure alcohol, and has a violet inky colour.
The rock is earthy, smells line dirt - there's no trace of the vial smell on it.
"Could we deconstruct the blasting trap? Focus the explosion outwards with some sort of shield?" Lysander wonders, trying to use his Engineering knowledge to work out if there could be a controlled explosion without damaging those below.
Fiona watches Sahar examining the trap through the lens. "What do you see?" she asks, glancing around in the darkness as if expecting more orcs to show up at any moment.
"There is a print of a thumb on the rock that cannot be seen with the naked eye, but is visible through the lens. It may be that the items in the boot heels were for opening this rock without setting off the magic... a key, as Xia said."
She holds out the vial. "I think this is tattoo ink. It was with the needle. The other vial, I do not know. Perhaps Merlan or Lani or Xia can tell, or Sandy."
"If I cannot hit it or heal it, I am not certain what to do."
"Or the thumb print is thatthe orc put's his thumb on there to deactivate the trap?" Lysander wonders.
He pauses looking at the tattoo ink, "I know nothing of tattoo's or the ink, other than my father had a few."
"I think I could move the stone to ensure the blast would reduce the blast inside... but might be better to burrow in from the other side?" Lysander ponders knowing that might take a bit of time ro dig safely from that direction.
Merlan also notes that the half-orc has an indigo tear-drop/claw/horn tattoo on his forearm (in the same place the others are branded) which can only be seen through the lens.
"Oooh, um, THAT'S interesting." Merlan takes the lens from his eye, looks at the half-orc again, then brings it back up once more.
"The leader, he has a tear-drop, or a claw, or a horn,... Oh for pity's sake,... He has a tattoo! On his forearm. Same place the others are branded. Can only see it through this glass. Like the thumbprint on the stone." Merlan informs the others.
The mage holds up the lens for another to use it if desired. he kneels down next to the half orc. "Do I recognize the tattoos? Hrm. Let's see,... Do I?"
"Nope! Never seem them before!" He declares cheerfully after a moment or three.
The (hidden) tattoo (and brands) don't seem to ring a bell. It's wider on one end, tapers down, like a hooked claw.
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"You know, they cut off the other half-orc's right hand. Maybe that's why - they needed it to open another dead drop?" Sahar eyes Venak's corpse thoughtfully before wrestling the smoked glass away from Merlan and examining Venak's thumbs.
"Unless Xia brought that tool with her, we don't have a way to dig efficiently, I don't think."
"So, there's got to be some sort of way that magic isn't triggered by inanimate things, or even animals. Otherwise, what happens if a leaf blows on it, or a hare hops across it? So maybe now that Venak is dead, we can try to use his hand to try to open it without triggering the spell? Does that sound possible?" Sahar ventures. She looks to the magical people for answers.