The burly bard shoves one end of the casket along its rotating axis so that it aligns with the newly replaced torch... and prays he isn't shocked, blown up... or worse yet, rendered speechless.
"Well, nice to know that I wont get blown up twice today. In any case, let's see what happens when it spins."
With a grunt of effort, Borden can feel whatever mechanism lies beneath the sarcophagus engage...and resist his push. After a moment though, the mechanism begins to turn...slowly...until the sarcophagus is pointing at the next alcove holding the yellow lantern.
Before he has a chance to continue pushing around to the newly hung indigo lantern, a low rumbling can be felt and heard from below the floor! The circular stone below the yellow lantern begins to rise, pushed up by a five foot diameter metal cylinder. After some eight feet of cylinder rises, it stops and two thin doors slide into the side of the cylinder, revealing a small empty chamber.
Khatín pulls her attention away from the chain as the cylinder rises out of the floor. She looks at the bard, impressed. "Wow. How'd you know what to do?"
Just brilliant is all, he says confidently, having NO idea whatsoever about how he made that happen at all.
Ashlynn checks the cylinder for magic and if it is free, steps inside for only a moment...
"Oh, now that's quite clever. Careful Ashlynn, tomb makers are notorious for their love of booby traps." He points to his own singed personage. "Case in point. If nothing else this place is truly ancient and things tend to become a little unreliable as the centuries pass."
"Maybe drag in one of the dead wolves first?"
As Nym speaks, Khatín returns to the chain she was inspecting, and tugs on it once more. She starts to climb, muttering, "I'm an idiot for trying this...".
While Mac will let Borden bask in the adulation, he will no less try to see if he can figure out how this whole thing works!
"Oh, now that's quite clever. Careful Ashlynn, tomb makers are notorious for their love of booby traps." He points to his own singed personage. "Case in point. If nothing else this place is truly ancient and things tend to become a little unreliable as the centuries pass."
"Maybe drag in one of the dead wolves first?"
That sounds like a plan... a good one at that.
Ashlynn looks perplexed, but dampens her natural curiosity and backs off.
"Oh poo. Its just a cylinder! It must lead somewhere? I was more afraid it would let something out when it opened..."
She runs her magical light from her small crossbow over the sarcophagus again.
"Maybe we should check every setting to see what each color-location does?"
Krios frowned momentarily at the mention of using the wolf's body as a detector for traps. The hide was relatively intact on each of them, their killing blows having been swift strikes. Yet the situation was getting more harrowing as they delved deeper.
"I'll bring a body. Someone should watch Khatin." The elf says quietly, nodding for the large feline to follow him back the way they came to bring back a wolf's carcass.
I'll use my manly physique to help shift it, once the carcass is in.
Ashlynn checks the cylinder for magic and if it is free, steps inside for only a moment...
Ashlynn steps out of the cylinder and it remains, standing open invitingly.
Krios returns with the wolf carcass and places it into the cylinder. After a moment or two, the cylinder doors close with a soft hiss of air. Then the cylinder slowly sinks back into the ground, the low rumble of its mechanism shaking the ground.
Using the chain, Khatin finds the ascent quite pedestrian. The faint light from her torch below allows her to see the higher roof....and a passageway that lay hidden in the shadows, cut into the rock , leading into darkness to the North West.
Pouting, Ashlynn's bottom lips sticks out. She waves her hand generally in the direction of the mechanical marvel.
"See? Its just some sort of mechanical lift or something: Not a trap. Hey...Anybody seen Khatin? There is no blood, so...nothing ate her...probably?"
She already seems distracted, looking into various shadows of the room for the missing group member, shining her light upon the darkness as needed.
Soooo... does it just lower itself to grave level, and sorta just sit there as a metaphorical six feet under or go to some underground level? And are we still spinning this coffin?
"Ladies," Khatín's voice echoes down from above. "Ladies! Up here. There is a passage of some sort. Can we get a light up here?"
Ashlynn puckers her lip then responds.
"Yeah, I have you. Stay where you are...which direction is the tunnel?"
Once informed by Khatin of the particular direction needed, Ashlynn re-casts her light spell on one of her simple crossbow bolts then launches it at the tunnel, much away from Khatin, in order to light it up as requested.
"That should last you 10 minutes or so. What do you see? Is it safe? I'm not much of a climber."
Krios quietly moves over, looking up towards where Khatin was high above them. The monk seemed safe enough and had a source of light to protect her. There still remained the mystery of the sarcophagus itself.
"We should see if there is another way there. Otherwise, we may be trapped down there and there will always been someone stuck up here, it seems." The elf suggests to the group.
Ashlynn's bolt flies up and sticks into the wall, illuminating the top of the cylindrical room. There , all in the room can see a passageway extend to the north west , it's first 30-40 ft illuminated by the light of Ashlynn's spell, before it continues into darkness.
Well, well, well... now this is interesting. Shall we?
Yes! Let's! Mac will take point to the passageway, looking around as he goes.
"Do you folks have anything to help you climb this?" Khatín calls down from above them, rattling the chain.
Frowning now at the distance upward, Ashlynn turns to the group.
"I'm not much of a climber. Nor do I have any magic I can think of that would help me climb. Could we tie a rope around me and somebody pull me up? I promise I don't weight very much. My father always claimed I didn't weigh much more than a damp towel usually."
Borden pulls out a silk rope and tries to find some way to safely secure it...
Borden cannot see anywhere to secure the rope, it appears someone will have to climb unassisted and and secure the rope with a spike or somesuch.
Anyone a good climber? We need to secure a piton or such...
Mac will climb up and secure a rope for the others.
Once the rope is up and secure, Ashlynn waves to the others to go and that she will wait to go last.
"If anyone falls first, I can try and heal them so they don't end up like our skelton-y friend there. I can then tie the rope to myself and try to climb last too. If I fall, I won't fall on top of anyone else, and the shorter rope should keep me from smacking into the ground fully...at least I hope so."
Khatín nods at Mac as he joins her, speaking softly. "You think there is anything else in that room down there we need to look at?"
Taking the illuminated bolt out of the wall, she peers down the tunnel ahead of them as he ties off the rope. "Or should we press on?"
"Well there's the whole lift system down here. Not to mention the fact we haven't seen what happens when we point the sarcophagus at the other lanterns."
Nym looks at the rope dubiously. "If it's all the same, I might just wait here while some of our nimbler entourage determines whether lugging myself up there is worth the effort."
Krios gives an order to the large feline accompanying him, the beautiful cougar growling for a moment before settling nearby the others who were staying here.
"Whitepaw will protect you down here. Just stay by her side, she will not follow if you head deeper." He then grabs ahold of the chain and begins to climb up.
"Well there's the whole lift system down here. Not to mention the fact we haven't seen what happens when we point the sarcophagus at the other lanterns."
Nym looks at the rope dubiously. "If it's all the same, I might just wait here while some of our nimbler entourage determines whether lugging myself up there is worth the effort."
You're cut from the same cloth as I am, he says, happy to avoid extra effort.
Krios, then Ashlynn , join Khatin and Mac above in the corridor entrance.
Khatin presents the illuminated bolt to the dark corridor. The light penetrates the darkness to it's fullest extent, but the corridor continues into the darkness. The walls revealed are of the same superior craftsmanship as that below, but does not have any adornments or markings.
You notice several long scratch marks in the floor, as if something had been dragged toward the lip leading 40ft down to the floor below.
Trying to appear professional, Ashlynn squeaks a bit once she notices the desiccated corpse of a rat in a large web...and notices nothing else for a while because of it.
Khatín pears back over the edge to the drop off below. "Something was dragged here. Likely pushed off the ledge." She gestures at several scratches on the ground, leading up to the opening. "See?"
It is only when Khatin points it out that Mac is able to see the drag marks. You're right! he says while nodding in agreement.
"I wonder what it was? Had to be heavy."
Ashlynn puts 2 and 2 together.
"The body? Somebody tossed that body over the ledge I think. The crushed one we found down on the ground. Maybe he didn't fall after all...?"
"Hmm. Yeah. I wonder why?" She nods at Ashlynn. "Nicely done."
"Seems fair enough. Let's move forward." Krios says, drawing his long blade but holding it tightly beside him to compensate for the close walls beside them. With the light behind his shoulder, the hunter would begin to head deeper into the dark.
Reloading her crossbow, Ashlynn follows behind everyone wondering the whole time who...or what...dragged that man over the edge.
Whatever it was, it was strong.
Nym looks up the chain, wondering how things are going.
He looks at Borden, "No screaming yet, so I guess that's a good sign."
Krios leads the way, peering into the darkness as the corridor was slowly revealed. Twenty feet, thirty feet, forty feet...nothing but bare walls and floors. With the exception of a scratch in the floor here and there.
Finally in the dim extremity of the light, the end of the corridor is revealed.
Spanning the entire width of the corridor, an enormous stone human face, its mouth open in an angry scream, bars any forward progress.
"That's...exciting." Khatín says nervously, her voice quiet. It still feels too loud in the dark corridor.
Looking at the face and back down the tunnel toward the place the body was pushed off, Ashlynn frowns and makes a nasty guess.
"Maybe the dead guy was spit out of the tunnel? That's a gross kinda trap!"
She casts Detect Magic again in order to see if there is anything magical near the face that could be harmful.
"Oh I do not like that idea."
No need to be so jittery... has all the hall marks of a tomb. BUT likely one to mask or disguise something bigger.
Krios approaches the mouth in the wall carefully, waiting to hear from Ashlynn is she detects anything immediately dangerous. Once it was clear, he would cast light upon an arrow and aim down the hole. Firing the shot, he would watch the lit bit of stone fly down the chamber and study its course. Perhaps it would hit stone, perhaps it would disappear into a shaft downwards, or maybe something in the darkness would take it.
As Krios approaches the face, his is stopped by Ashynn's raised hand. She's noticed a pressure plate on the floor, about 10 ft in front of the face. The plate spans the width of the corridor, but is itself only 5ft wide.
You detect a couple of magical auras emanating from the face, enchantment and transmutation.