"Let's gather up the shards. We can ask Allustan what they are, and maybe sell them to Tidwoad."
You gather the shards and continue your exploration. However, before you can venture further north, the gnome paladin watching your back and the hallway alerts you to the danger! Three canine creatures come into view, perhaps alerted by your noise or the light, their yellow eyes come into view, piercing the darkness, their tongues flicking across their sharp white teeth. Growls of hunger emanate from the creatures, who come into full view of the torchlight: wolves!
"Guess we're on the meal plan....let them come to us." Andros grips his MW kama, the torch in the other hand, and after his other 2 companions have acted, he moves forward 10', baiting the wolves to attack him, ready to dodge their attacks.
Rik quickly gets out ahead of the rest of the party , then draws a flask from his bandolier and hurls it at the middle wolf!
Rik's bomb finds its target, causing the wolves to yelp in pain! However, they do not flee, as their hunger is greater.
Cedric steps out into the hall past Badabar to get a clear shot at the middle wolf. He does his best to line up his crossbow at the wolf at the edge of darkness.
HP: 19/19
Status: normal
Spells active: light
Items Used: 1 bolt
Cedric's shot is perfect and pierces the scorched wolf's ear. However, the wolf still lives. Andros moves up forming a line to protect the back line of the party.
Initiative Score 10: Wolves
The runic wolf charges at Rik, its jaws flashing its teeth, and clasps on the ratfolk's leg, drawing blood, but Rik does not fall!
The chain-link and hex wolves charge at the stout Oread, but the monk gracefully dodges their bites, as they nip at his heels!
Badabar moves up to the Chain-Link wolf and swings with his greataxe.
Andros welcomes the gnome to the front line and he focuses his attacks on the wolf trying to bite the ratfolk. "Leave him alone, you mangy cur!"
Round 2:
Bleeding slightly, Rik takes a quick step back and brings his light crossbow to bear on the wolf in front of him.
With no clear shot at the wolves, Cedric drops his crossbow and steps a bit closer as he pulls out his longspear to attack.
Badabar's blow kills the gravely wounded wolf.
Andros and Rik team up to kill the runic wolf.
Cedric's longspear fails to connect.
Round 2:
The desperately hungry wolf runs around the gnome on the eastern side of the corridor and tries to flee to safety, as its pack is down.
Not wanting the beast to menace his pony outside, Badabar slices the wolf as it runs past.
Cedric was content to let the hungry animal go as it was just trying to find something to eat. "Maybe it will find a rabbit outside." When Badabar attacks the creature he's about to ask why when he remembers the gnome's pony. "Oh my, the pony will be helpless," he thinks as he also stabs at the wolf.
Badabar's greataxe grazes the wolf, while Cedric's spear pierces the wolf's spine, ending its life.
Rik's wound is bothersome.
After that, you move forward.
The central hallway opens into a large chamber with wings leading to the east and west. Across the chamber to the north yawns a twenty-foot-wide open arch draped from top to bottom in translucent cobwebs. An eerie green light flickers from beyond the webs, casting strange shadows about the room, which smell of animal spoor and wet fur.
To the west, three short stairs led to a wide marble dais, but the far end of the wing is obscured by darkness. Huge slabs of cracked masonry and irregular piles of scattered debris choke the eastern wing, giving the appearance of complete collapse. The sibilant, almost human whispers present in the passage become a chorus in this massive chamber, eerily echoing off the walls.
Andros nods at the gnome and the cleric's martial prowess. "Well done, all." He then looks in concern at the ratfolk. "You all right to walk, Rik? The wolf sunk its teeth in ya a little bit."
After the wound has been bandaged by someone else or healed, Andros will check out the east side of the corridor.
"I'll be fine. Just a scratch." The alchemist reloads his crossbow before looking around the area. "Is that an opening in the rubble there?" He points to the east.
There is an indeed opening in the rubble. However, Medium-sized creatures have to get on their hands and knees to crawl inside. Small folk can pass without issue.
Behind the rubble is the remnants of a wolf den, rank with the smell of wild animals. Irregular piles of rubbish litter the den, as do hundreds of bones and bone fragments from past meals. Some of the bones are unmistakably human.
Andros' keen eyes spots something under one of the rubbles. He investigates and finds an old leather backpack containing an elaborate lantern of indigo metal inset with indigo glass panes. Image of Lantern
Andros also spots on the other side of the room an intricately carved armband of unmistakable Elven craftsmanship, bearing a repeating leaf motif.
Rik looks over the finds, trying to estimate their value.
-_-
Andros is definitely willing to get on his knees and get a little dirty in his search for clues and answers about this cairn. He hands the treasures to Rik, stands, and walks over to the marble dais to the west.
Cedric wipes the blade of his spear on the wolf's fur before putting it away and retrieving his crossbow. He then quickly examines Rik's arm and then the wolf that bit him. "Let me know if it starts to bother you. We'll want to watch that it doesn't become infected. Who knows what these animals are carrying," he says.
He then follows the others into the next room and crawls through to the wolf's den. Seeing the human bones among the pile, he doesn't feel as bad having put the animals down.
"That is quite the find," he tells Andros when the monk finds the lantern and armband. While Rik is studying the items, Cedric calls on Pelor to determine if the items are magical.
Cedric bandages Rik's wound with great skill. He does not detect any magic on the two items found.
Andros approaches the western wing of this room.
A wide dais spanning the back half of the western wing calls attention to a faded fresco upon the south, west, and north walls. From a vantage point at the center of the dais, the wall painting makes it look like you stand within a massive room with seven short hallways radiating outward from a central point. A chain dangles from the ceiling at the end of each hallway, and each chain bears a gleaming colored lantern. Clockwise, the colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Rik jots down a short description of the fresco.
Rik jots down a short description of the fresco.
They are identical.
"People being as they are, I'm surprised that any of these things are still here after all this time."
Rik nods. "The other oddity here is the lack of anything like a tomb. If this is a burial cairn, I would expect sarcophagi, coffins, and the like."
"Time to go north." Andros, kama and torch in his hands, goes forth, expecting a huge spider and sets the cobwebs on fire with his torch.
"Wait! Don't burn that yet! The fire might damage something!"
Andros sets flame to the cobwebs before Rik's warning...but thankfully, no giant spider pops out to threaten the party. It takes awhile, but the thick cobwebs eventually give way, revealing a short flight of stairs past the archway.
A wide stairway descends into an immense domed chamber. Seven short tunnels branch from the room in all directions, extending some thirty feet before ending in rounded walls. At the terminus of each passage, a thick chain dangles from an unseen high ceiling. Five of the chains bear colorful lanterns, but two hold nothing at all. Opposite the entry stairs, a bright green lantern containing what looks like a torch casts a weird, murky light about the room. Countless chips of glass and shiny metal inset into the chamber’s domed ceiling reflect this light, giving the impression of starlight and falling snow. The dome starts about ten feet off the ground and reaches an apex about thirty feet over the center of the room.
Below the dome’s peak, a long dais holds what appears to be a marble sarcophagus. A milky white bas-relief figure, perhaps of a human, rests passively upon the sarcophagus lid. Unlike the rest of the tomb, this room is completely silent.
Andros looks around the room. "I wonder if the tunnels' colorful lanterns match the colors and order listed on the fresco: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. And, if so, which two colored lanterns are missing?"
Rik rubbernecks at the sight, then pulls himself together before holding up the lantern that Andros found. "I'll bet this is one of them." The ratfolk breaks out his paper and pen, writing down more notes about the cairn for Allustan. "Master Osric, would you look for magical auras before we start searching?"
You move into the chamber and yes, you see colored lanterns in the same order as the fresco hanging from a chain at the end of each tunnel except two: the indigo and red lanterns are missing from the chains. Only the green lantern is currently lit.
Osric does not detect any magic in the room from his current position.
Badabar walks over to check the sarcophagus.
and sees nothing.
Rik follows the paladin and examines the sarcophagus himself.
At the center of the chamber is a raised platform, upon which sits a sealed sarcophagus. The lid bears a white stone relief of a tall figure cloaked in a simple garment of flowing cloth. It’s difficult to say why, exactly, but the outfit conjures thoughts of ancient times. The figure at first looks human, but a cursory examination reveals that it is about 7 feet tall, is completely hairless, and is of indeterminate sex. Its arms and hands rest at its side. The left hand curls upon itself in a fist, but the right is placed palm up, with the thumb turned in and all but the index finger held parallel to the arm. Part of the figure's right index finger has broken off. The figure wears a scarab-like amulet around its neck, inscribed with the personal glyph, different from the glyph you found on the mirror.
Rik notices that the sarcophagus rests upon a small raised platform carved in the shape of a stylistic arrow, with the tip aligned with the head of the relief figure upon the lid and a short “shaft” extending from the foot of the sarcophagus. The sarcophagus' arrow point is currently pointing toward the tunnel with the orange lantern.
Rik detects no traps.
Badabar stretches up on his tiptoes to look down at the lid of the sarcophagus.
"Somebody broke off her ... his ... their finger." Badabar says.
”i know we’re not tomb looters but should we try and open the lid?”
"I think so. We won't take anything, right?" Rik takes a few more notes, and sketches the figure on the lid. "Can't tell if this is just artistic license. Maybe Allustan will know. Hey, can one of you check what's making that light?"
Badabar disagrees: "I don't think we should disturb anyone's final rest."
The ratfolk reluctantly nods. "All right. But if it looks like the only way out of here is through the sarcophagus, we'll do what we have to." Paladins.
"Maybe the arrow pointing to the orange hallway is a clue." Badabar suggests.
"Let me check it out."
The gnome hefts his axe and advances cautiously down the hallway to see if there's anything to be seen.
Cedric continues casting detect magic throughout the area, surprised he doesn't detect anything in such a strange area. He watches the gnome carefully as he goes to investigate the orange lantern.
Badabar explores the orange tunnel. The ceiling of this tunnel is 10 feet off the ground, but the alcove ceilings at the end of the tunnel extends 40 feet. His keen eyes also spot a 5-foot-diameter circle carved into the floor, directly below the hanging lantern.
Andros will escort the gnome with his torch to search the orange tunnel. He yells back to the party, "There's a shaft of sorts here leading up about 40'." He can see the top of the shaft with his darkvision.
"Can one of you hang the indigo lantern back up? I don't think I can reach it." Rik crosses over to the green lantern and tries to figure out what's making it glow.
Andros will escort the gnome with his torch to search the orange tunnel. He yells back to the party, "There's a shaft of sorts here leading up about 40'." He can see the top of the shaft with his darkvision.
"Can one of you hang the indigo lantern back up? I don't think I can reach it." Rik crosses over to the green lantern and tries to figure out what's making it glow.
Rik investigates the green lantern and sees a light source inside. He opens the lantern and sees someone left a torch inside. However, the torch is unusual in that while it emanates light, it emanates no heat and no smoke and does not burn. Also, the "flame" does not ebb.