Khatín glares up at Borden, half a hand taller than she is, then up at Ashlynn as well, nearly as tall. She grunts noncommittally, inspecting the stone.
I might be able to slip through. Mac offers.
Trying to be helpful, Ashlynn picks up a rock and re-casts her light spell upon it. The one on her crossbow goes out, as she hands the rock to the halfling. She tries to smile sweetly.
"Here you go: Just in case."
Examining the stone, the group finds that there is a gap at the top that would allow someone flexible enough to slip through.
Also, it is noticed that it may be possible to tilt the stone over back into the room , thus allowing easier passage.
"Maybe we try to tip it over first? We don't know what might be up ahead. If you get into trouble, I don't know if we could back you up."
Ashlynn thinks for a second, then replies carefully.
"He just wants to take a look right? If we tip over the rock and there is...say a pool or acid or something on the other side being held back by the rock, then we are all melted...or squished...or chopped...or diced... or bled out...by whatever could be on the other side. Its just a big rock to him. What harm could it be for him to scout a little to see what's on the other side? Right? I mean..."
She then looks a little scared as if she'd said too much already.
Krios folds his arms and settles back against the wall, the cougar settling by his feet.
"You have a minute, halfling. Then we will push the rock aside. Be safe." He says softly, giving the halfling a chance to see what may be up ahead.
Khatín meets Mac's eyes. "Be careful."
Borden begins stretching out in preparation to move stones if his team member runs into trouble.
Why did I volunteer for this? Mac asks himself as his sudden burst of heroism passes. With a grim nod to all of his companions, he shimmies past the rocks.
Once atop the stone, Macavity eyes the narrow space skeptically, before laying down and trying first an arm , then a leg. He tries a trick he'd been taught about exhaling all of the air from his lungs, but had the ominous feeling he'd get stuck. For a moment he was sure that he was stuck, but managed to haul himself back up onto the top of the stone.
In your efforts, you did get a better look at the corridor beyond. You see a number of alcoves, with similar figures to the first room. You can detect a slight breeze playing about.
You can retry the Escape Artist attempt.
"No go?" Khatín asks redundantly. She nods at Borden, "Should we try to move it?"
Interesting! Mac thinks to himself as he looks around. Time to let the group know. he mutters.
He returns to the group and let's them know what he saw.
Smiling, Ashlynn bounces a little in excitement.
"Awesome! No lake of acid then. Just more traps maybe? Like the other areas? Or could it be a real tomb this time? Has anybody fought the undead before? I haven't..."
She stops and shudders at the thought of trying to fight off the moving dead.
"Likely. Let's get this moving." Krios says, looking to the others for help in moving the rock. Whitepaw watches as the elf positions himself and begins to push as hard as he can.
"Well crypts and undead do fit together like peas in a pod."
Nym urges on the rest of the team as they try to tip the block over.
Borden grins and flexes some impressive looking arms. They won't win "Who wants to be a Barbarian chieftain" contest but they're definitely well muscled.
Everyone grasps the edges of the block of stone and strains against it's immovable bulk.
After a few moments, they feel the stone begin to shift, it's top slowly pitching away from the wall.
Eventually , gravity takes over and , ever so slowly, the block begins to fall, landing with a heavy thud ; a cloud of dust poofs up into the air.
Looking down, all can see that the stone actually pivoted on a cleverly hidden hinge and that it had pressed down upon a flat trigger.
It's then that all of the group can hear a hissing sound. Green gas is being emitted by the adoring statues!
Looking to to elevator, the group is shocked to see that it had quietly risen back up to the lantern room. Now it is also noticed that there is a button recessed into the wall, possibly to recall the elevator.
The passage beyond the stone block lay open...
Krios does not hesitate, moving forward with Whitepaw at his side. The elevator would be too slow and whatever poisonous gas was being emitted could be ignored for only a short bit. There had to be an escape deeper in.
Ashlynn immediately follows the quick Krios, assuming he has some sort of sane-ish idea what to do...
"RUN!"
Small sparks fly as Ashlynn quickly catches up and passes Krios!
Shit a brick!, the tomb robber before following his companions.
Khatín yells, following the others. "Go! Go!"
Nym clamps a hand over his nose and mouth and double times it after the rest of the team.
The group hustles into the corridor , running as if their lives depended on it!
Looking back you can see the entrance room has filled with a greenish mist, but it doesn't seem to be following you into the corridor:
Curious carvings that seem to represent a stirring tempest cover the walls of this ten-foot wide passage. At ten-foot intervals, small alcoves flank the passage, and each alcove contains an androgynous humanoid figure with cupped hands. The figures stand roughly seven feet tall. A faint wind seems to play within the passage, but it's difficult to tell where it's coming from.
you both ran a bit further than the rest and where you're at you can feel that the air has become quite a bit colder...
"Creepy iconography i think. I wonder what the statues represent?"
She immediately casts detect magic and starts looking at everything around.
(+1/2 Oracle Level to detect traps!)
"It's colder." Khatín says quietly, holding her hand out and feeling the air.
No magical auras detected.
You do notice that the upraised , cupped hands of the statues are 'holding' a soft, current of air.
Then as you were examining one of the statues, you notice up near the ceiling, in the dark shadows there, what appears to be two large eyes watching the group.
Trying to act like a 'professional' adventurer, Ashlynn quickly but casually walks over to Krios and grabs his free hand and tugs him over to the statue with the best view of the 'eyes' in the corner...
Speaking a little too loudly: "I think there is something odd about these statues, small currents of air are swirling around each of the outstretched hands..."
Then in a small whisper hopefully only Krios can hear:
"Something is watching us from the corner...up there. Eyes! I know not what it is, but it can't be good. Be prepared! I will try and warn the others..."
Krios's ears twitch from underneath his hood as she whispers the real reason why she had pulled him over. He would not look up but he would give an imperceptible nod as he spoke.
"Ah, I see. We have a word for that in my tongue." Krios says, perhaps a little more loudly than needed. It was certainly the loudest anyone had heard him speak. "An cunnart gu h-àrd." The elf says, waiting to see who understood or did not.
Nodding and smiling at the clever Krios, she replies easily.
"Tapadh leat a charaid airson do thuigse."
"Too be clear of course, I have no idea how these statues are doing this odd air control. Magically, there is little to see..."
She glances at human and halfling members of the group, her eyes narrow in hopes for seeing understanding in the others faces.
"What do you all see? Anything worth noting?"
"I see what you're saying, yes." Khatín shifts subtly in her stance.
With the danger pointed out, Nym surreptitiously tries to get a better look at it while giving it a respectful distance at the same time.
Noticing nothing, Nym shrugs his shoulders, and dismisses it all as novice jitters.
Focusing instead on the carvings, he tries to identify the species being represented.
"What do you all see? Anything worth noting?"
Mac will take a look at the statue.
Nym can easily see the statues here, as well as those in the first room and the sarcophagus upstairs all represent the same race. But that race is unknown to his knowledge of the denizens of the terrestrial world.
Climbing up to take a closer look , you see that each of the statues' hands' palms are perforated with minute holes, through which a constant stream of air flows.
Hmmm....It looks like there is air coming from the palms of the statues! Mac observes.
Ashlynn immediately forgets about the eyes on the ceiling…
”Really? That’s an incredibly detailed type of work! I wonder how they managed it…?”
"Bloody hell -" Khatín curses under her breath, abandoning pretense and turning towards whatever is on the ceiling. "Focus up! We're not alone."
Borden jabs his long spear up at the ceiling... somewhat experimentally.
Nym mutters to himself, "What are you..."
With Borden prodding, he prepares for something bad to happen. Nothing friendly ever hangs out in crypts.
Snapping out of her oddly distracted state, Ashlynn raises her crossbow again and points it at the area where she saw the 'eyes.'
"Yeah...YEAH! I got it...ON it!"
Krios watches the reactions of the others with a cool stare; some were confused, some indifferent, some prepared. He keep his hand on his blade but lets his eyes drift upwards towards the ceiling to see what dangers may be lurking there.
He tries to anyways before Whitepaw nudges against him, hissing softly and distracting the hunter from the ceiling.
Ashylnn points at a dark area above one of the statues as Borden experimentally jabs up at an adjacent area.
No 'eyes' in the darkness can be seen by anyone.
Frowning Ashlynn, harrumphs.
“It was there! I’m…sure. Yes! It was there.”
"I hate this bloody place," Khatín swears nervously.
"Well, I don't care for that at all. I guess we might as well press onwards and see where this leads."
Borden, probing carefully ahead with his long spear leads on...