Bones and dismembered limbs lay scattered throughout this irregular, branching hallway. As it broadens into a wide section. Bella finds a trap! The hall is littered with dozens of pressure plates! There are so many, plates it’s impossible to avoid them when moving through the room.
Zetty spends a moment listening out for any creatures out of view from the open doorway.
Assuming she doesn't hear anything, she casts out to detect magic auras, just in case there's something magical to supplement the trap that Bella spotted. She also looks out from the doorway for any levers or controls that might serve to control the trap.
There doesn't appear to be any magical parts of the trap, nor does there seem to be a safe way to bypass it.
"We could try triggering them by throwing something on them from afar, and see what the trap has in store for us. Perhaps it does not rearm itself, or perhaps it is somehow avoided by doing something such as crawling." Bertolt suggests. He begins looking around for something suitably heavy he could toss, heavy enough to push down a pressure plate but light enough he could actually lift and toss it.
Bella looked examined the trap for a couple of minutes before replying, "It does look rather tricky! I could buy some better tools and come back later. That would give me a better chance of not setting it off."
"Yeah, maybe too tricky to risk, but I like Bertolt's idea." Zetty scurries back through the halls to where she put the mimic remains. "Think you could throw one of these two onto the pressure plates? They've got to be heavy enough. And then we can see what the trap does."
You throw a heavy rock into the center of the room ahead. Six long blades, hidden in grooves in the walls and floor, slice out at the empty air in the center of the room, then retreat back into their grooves. You can hear them sliding behind the stone--
--then one pops out in the central area gain, while the others slice through the halls to the south! Luckily, none appear in the hall you are in. They retreat back into the grooves again, but you can hear them sliding around once more...
"Ah, a foul contraption! Retreat, lest we be cut to ribbons!"
Bella considered the situation, "I'm still feeling a bit nauseous from before. It might be better for me to rest, and come back and try to disarm it in the morning."
Zetty needs to be encouraged to back off, hesitating for a moment in an attempt to capture the dramatic slashes of scythes swinging in the hallway. "Err, right. Back off then." She steps away and then asks "So, maybe lets try another direction first, and we can come back once you have better tools Bella?"
"Alright, how about..." Zetty leads the way back through the secret tunnel and into the 'bar' room. She searches the western-facing door for any hazards, puts her ear up to it like she's seen Bella doing, then shrugs and gives it a try. "This one! With luck, there'll be something really weird out this way."
Finding no hazards, you go through the door Zetty suggested. A long hall leads into a massive space ahead. This stately hallway stretches from a single door to the north to a wide exit to the south. Frescoes depicting powerful creatures in battle with each other adorn the walls. Pinpoints of light glimmer in the vaulted ceiling, illuminating the hallway with a pale radiance. Balconies run the length of the hallway, 20 feet above the floor, their low railings rusty and twisted in places. A stone bridge connects the balconies across the hallways to each other, providing access to the tunnels out of the hallway to the east and west from the balcony.
Zetty gasps as suddenly interminably dark and dusty corridors are replaced by the massive hall - and the frescoes and glittering ceiling lights do a lot of impress. She looks up and down the massive hall trying to take it all in before she starts sketching her impressions. She squints at the far south end, trying to make out the shapes there.
"Wow." She starts with capturing the sweeping arc of the ceiling and all its lights. "Give me a sec. And if anyone sees any more of those scythe traps, let me know so I don't step in one." After saying it, she quickly glances around in case there are more pressure plates to be careful of.
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Zetty doesn't find any traps or other hazards in the area.
Bertolt takes his own look around, a flash of remembrance coming to him. "I...yes, this was the last room I remember seeing...how did I get all the way up to the next level?..." He muses quietly.
"How did they get you up there...?" Zetty ponders as she works, imagining a particularly large wheelbarrow and a bunch of ghoul porters in pressed suits. Vengis' comment snaps her out of her dreaming "Oh, right!" She clears her throat "I mean, left. Left's good by me."
She takes a couple of steps left then asks out loud "Doesn't this take us back to that scything hall though?" She takes only a few steps out and cranes her neck to get a view of the balcony and how it may connect to the east.
After retching for a minute, Bella felt better. "OK, I'm going to have go at disarming that trap. Everyone should stand back: perhaps someone could have some healing ready?"
She went back to the room with the scythe trap and carefully tried to disarm it.
After a minute or so, she declared, "I think it should be safe now!"
With a bit of work, Bella manages to jam the mechanisms that move the blades, disabling the trap! The hallway is now safe to traverse.
"Nice one Bella! Oh, I wonder, can you hear me from this side?" With Bella disabling the trap from the east, Zetty continues southward along the balcony to see if the large trapped hallway connects to the grand hall. If it doesn't, she backtracks to where the secret passage connected to the trap hall.
"All these scythe traps... really makes you think about what purpose this place served."
The main hall doesn't seem to connect, but a hidden door on the balcony leads into a small room that does connect to the secret passage.
Zetty cracks open the hidden door, carefully listening in case there's anything dangerous on the other side. When she doesn't hear anything, she throws the door open the rest of the way and heads through the small room to rejoin Bella. "This place sure has a lot of wiggly passages."
She looks around the small room and the interconnecting secret passageway, seeking any remaining fixtures that might provide a hint as to the purpose of each chamber - if it has one beyond being a secret interconnecting passage.
"Never understood it all. A good pit is just a good a deterrence and cannot be as expensive as all this. Rather a flair for the dramatic."
Bella explored the connecting passageways, making sure to check for traps.
"You never know how these crazy people think Bertolt. Maybe pits aren't stylish enough for Belcorra, or something."
Bella tried looking into the rooms through the gaps in the wall. Then she carefully moved to the secret door, listening for a moment before opening it.
Each of the spyholes looks into an empty room that contains nothing more than a bed, an empty footlocker, and a metal chamber pot. Anything of value was stripped long ago, and each room has signs of being used as a prison.
The secret door opens into a larger chamber. A giant mural wraps around this entire chamber; this mural depicts mutated and fleshwarped warriors, grotesque and powerful, standing in a round room within a beam of eerie blue light. The blue light originates from a tall lighthouse, and the inhuman champions spring forth from the light to slaughter humans, elves, and other surface-dwelling creatures. A door exits the room to the east.
Bertolt's face twists at the massive mural. "Ah, my heart is conflicted. So much effort and time into such a piece of heart, but so awful and twisted in its visage. Zetty! I ask for your expertise, tell me how mine heart should be pulling!"
"Neat!" Zetty starts taking down an impression of the intricate and creepy mural. She grins at Bertolt's question "I definitely can't tell you that. It's all about how it makes you feel. Conflicted is good! Things can have different aspects to them." She nods "In this case, it sure looks like more murals about Belcorra's evil plans. She really liked these."
Zetty looks around at the murals carefully, trying to suss out if there's another purpose to the room beyond its artistic merit. If she doesn't notice anything, she checks the eastern door and then steps back to let the others lead.
"That lighthouse reminds me of the Guantlight," Bella remarked with a shudder. She listened at the eastern door and checked it for traps, before venturing to open it.
You don't find anything hidden here, nor is the door trapped.
Overturned tables and benches, all made of petrified wood, lie scattered around the edges of this expansive chamber. Pale bones are interspersed with these furnishings. Several preserved monster heads and silver plaques adorn the walls. A glowing circle of runes is etched on the floor of an alcove to the east.
The preserved monster heads display creatures killed for sport, including a basilisk, a chimera, and three manticores. The plaques commemorate victories in the arena; many bear dates, and all occurred within a 10-year period from 4235 AR to 4244 AR. The sturdy furniture, though upended, remains intact.
As you are investigating the room, the bones scattered around the floor rattle and slide together, forming a massive gladiator made from the assorted bones of several humanoids!
The creature quickly strides closer and makes a broad swipe with its claws, attacking Bertolt and Kragga! It manages to land a hit on the dwarf.
"Ah, the answer of a true artist! Utterly unhelpful!" Bertolt barks a laugh, but it is quickly cut off by the gathering bones. "A foul omen, now mine heart is decided!"
Bella took a moment to study the skeletal gladiator and give her advise on how best to fight it. Then she moved nimbly around the and tried to stab it from the side.
Zetty's eyes go wide as the skeletal giant just keeps growing bigger and bigger. She quickly starts scribing "Hold on, hold on! I'm sure I've seen this thing before." As she thinks back, she inspires her teammates to greater glory.
Eyenia moves into the room, standing behind Bertolt as she places a hand on his shoulder, ”Fight on, and know that the grace of the cosmos protects you from the beast.”
Zetty recognizes the creature as a skeletal hulk. A mindless undead, the creature is a straightforward brute. It is resistant to piercing and slashing weapons, as well as cold, electricity, and fire.
Bella assesses the skeleton, realizing it is weak-willed. She moves in and stabs it, but her rapier doesn't seem to hurt it much. Bertolt's hammer proves more effective as he lands a solid hit, but misses with his shield.
Kragga swings her sword, channeling acid into the blade, then enters her arcane cascade stance. Her swing goes wide.
The skeleton resists Vengis's spell, though it is momentarily slowed.
It claws at Bertolt, landing a normal hit and a critical strike!
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Bertolt fends off the first attack, letting his shield share some of the burden.
Bertolt shoves the shield hard against it, knocking it off balance!
Bella ducked around behind the skeleton and stabbed again, searching for a weak spot in its defenses. She hoped to relieve some of the pressure on Bertolt.
Zetty rapidly rattles off what she knows of the skeletal hulk's defenses, then draws a scroll of soothe (just in case) and casts a quick telekinetic projectile spell. A plaque bearing a manticore's head flies off the wall and careens toward the skeletal hulk!
"RAHHHH, I AM NOT SO EASILY FELLED MONSTER!!" Bertolt roared his defiance at the creature, spitting blood!
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Seeing Bertolt suffer a massive blow, Eyenia conjures up a massive amount of healing energy and directs it towards Bertolt, bathing the warrior in holy light.
Zetty's projectile caroms off the skeleton, narrowly missing a solid hit! Vengis's magic missiles slam home, though, doing full damage. Bella fails to land a good strike, but Bertolt manages to hit with his shield bash.
Kragga transforms her blade into force to blast the skeleton, then delivers a powerful spellstrike, splattering the undead with acid!
The skeleton makes a broad swipe, clawing at both Kragga and Bertolt, then follows up with another strike on Kragga that the orc dodges.