"Was this his bath? I don't even want to think about it..."
Mika examines he contents of the bucket and looks in the bath to see if there's anything of note. If not, she'll continue back out check out the rest of the hallway.
You find no traps on the door, but--oddly, as it's the first door you've found like this--it's locked. Raga has no difficulty with the lock, however, easily aligning the tumblers so that Mika can open the door.
Rows of iron bars anchored in the floor and ceiling divide this room into three smaller cells. Two of the cells are empty, but a gaunt, black-haired man in the tattered robes of a mage lies on a simple straw pallet in the southern cell; he appears to be unconscious.
"We should be very careful when we wake him up, if he'll even wake up -- if he is a wizard he may have spells that he can access with minimal effort that could prove devastating."
Raga will start to look the human over warily for any signs of mistreatment, malnutrition, or the like.
The man awaken's to Raga's gentle nudges, and he immediately sits up and back, a little nervous. "You're here to help? You're not with that... metal wizard?"
"The metal wizard has been deactivated, to the best of our knowledge. I'm Raga, my traveling companions are Yroh of the Snows, Jahz, and Mika. Who are you? And equally important -- how did you come to be here?" Raga offers helpfully, pulling out a waterskin and some rations for the apparent prisoner.
He sits up more comfortably now, apparently convinced by your manner that you're not here to harm him.
"My name is Jharun, and I am a wizard of the Goldenfire Order in Thornkeep. My colleague Tiawask and I came to the Emerald Spire two weeks ago—perhaps three or four weeks by now—to explore the dungeons. Unfortunately, we were defeated by a brass minotaur and dragged before its master, a Numerian wizard named Klarkosh."
"He accused us of spying on him and threw us in these cells, but Tiawask escaped—she’d managed to conceal a potion of gaseous form in her boot. She promised to go get help, but that was days and days ago, and she hasn’t returned. I don’t know if she even made it all the way out."
"The machine man was most unreachable indeed. The company he kept was much the same. Come then, we shall investigate the rest of this perilous maze for your companion."
"Maybe help is still on the way? How about this. You stay here for now and we'll come get you once we've cleared out the rest of this area here? We're with the Pathfinder Society. Though we're deep underground, our coworkers have made sure all the floors above us are safe to pass through, so you'll be outta here in NO TIME!" Mika adds an obnoxiously large wink before remembering that the man's eyes were covered. She hopes the point still got across.
"As for your companion, the Pathfinder's have eyes everywhere, so it shouldn't be too hard to find 'em!"
Male NG Half-Orc Spell Warrior Skald 5 | HP 38/38 | AC 20 T 11 FF 19 | CMB +7, CMD 18 | F: +9, R: +5, W: +5 (+4 vs language-dependent effects) | Init: +3 | Perc: +6, SM: (+10) | Speed 30ft | Spells: 1st 5/5 2nd 3/3 | Raging Song 23/24 | Active conditions: None
"Of course the Society will be happy to assist!" Jahz's beaming smile is likewise lost on the blindfolded man. "But we can at least make your wait here more comfortable. Tell me, friend Jharun, when was the last time you had anything to eat or drink?" The half-orc doesn't wait for an answer before slinging his pack to the ground and rummaging through it.
Jharun's eyes light up as Jahz begins searching for food. "I... I don't know how long. I haven't seen the passing of day nor night for too long; I can't tell." He motions to the blindfold that he'd slipped off at some point. "I'm afraid I wouldn't be much help exploring any more; I have plenty of recovery before I'm in shape for dungeoneering again."
The module is clear that Jharun isn't available to help explore the Emerald Spire, FYI. No need wasting effort trying to convince him; my hands are tied on that point. I don't even have full stats for him.
"If you can point me towards the exit, and show Tiawask the same way, if you find her."
"Do you have some item or code-phrase combination that the two of you use to verify identity? Something that's not obvious and wouldn't be brought out with torture?" Raga inquires, trying to come up with some way to identify the party as having met peacefully with Jharun.
"Agreed. You stay here and we'll be back when the path is clear. Deal?" Without even waiting for a response, Mika immediately responds, "Deal!" and walks out of the room, headed for the door at the end of the hall.
Raga examines the door and determines it's safe to open. A variety of artwork and keepsakes are displayed on the walls of this chamber: a tapestry depicting a royal court, an oddly melted lump of iron on a pedestal, a fine heavy mace hanging on the wall, and a broken staff lying on another pedestal.
"Ugh, I've heard Stories about that place even out here. Why haven't they burnt that place down again?" Raga offers, keeping her senses sharp as the kitsune looks for traps and other concerns.
...keeping her senses sharp as the kitsune looks for traps and other concerns.
I'm only rolling your checks for doors, and that's only to keep things from slowing down in PbP, because "doors". If you're actively looking for traps elsewhere, you can make your own rolls.
Male NG Half-Orc Spell Warrior Skald 5 | HP 38/38 | AC 20 T 11 FF 19 | CMB +7, CMD 18 | F: +9, R: +5, W: +5 (+4 vs language-dependent effects) | Init: +3 | Perc: +6, SM: (+10) | Speed 30ft | Spells: 1st 5/5 2nd 3/3 | Raging Song 23/24 | Active conditions: None
Jays follows along, desperately trying to write down descriptions and sketch things and balance his paper on his shield and look around to see everything and keep walking to keep up with his companions.
Raga gives the room a quick once-over, and finds nothing of concern.
GM Zin wrote:
A variety of artwork and keepsakes are displayed on the walls of this chamber: a tapestry depicting a royal court, an oddly melted lump of iron on a pedestal, a fine heavy mace hanging on the wall, and a broken staff lying on another pedestal.
The opposite door is not locked, and doesn't appear to be trapped. Beyond is a hallway that--if your map is correct--appears to connect to the first of the rotating brass cylinders you encountered after entering this level of the spire.
Mika runs back and grabs the man before guiding him to the exit. She'll try to flag down one of the Pathfinders on the floor above and hand him off before returning down the stairs.
"Alrighty. Now...Where are those other doors..."
Mika suggests the door circled in red in the south of the map.
"This may sound like a silly question, but did we run across any keys on our trip? I can try to be a bit more... vigorous with my picking but it's really fighting me." the investigator inquires, getting ready to test the lock again.
Raga's second attempt at the lock pops it open with no difficulty; she can't even see why it stumped her the first time. It was the "1;" a "2" on the dice would have done it, haha.
This bedchamber is furnished with a desk and plush chairs, a large bed strewn with pillows, a thick carpet, and hanging tapestries in scarlet and gold. On one corner of the desk sits a wooden coffer, and a fire crackles in an iron stove in one corner.
Mika pries around, opening anything that opens, including the desk and the coffer, ensuring to also turn the bed upside down looking for loose change stuffed under the mattress.
Mika finds a key in a desk drawer, but the coffer is locked, and the key she found doesn't even fit the lock, let alone open it. Yroh finds no exits that aren't obvious.
"Hey," Mika says as she points to the coffer, "Can you pick this too, Raga? If not, I've got an adamantine rapier I'm willing to try and break this lock with."
