After Jenise points at the trapdoor, Zuriel begins to walk over. He then freezes in place as he remembers the ghost-dragon. His eyes quickly glance over at the apparition just before taking a step back.
"Ok. I'll help to clear the timber." August declares. He puts away his sword and his shield, and grabs one end of the beam.
Face red from the effort, the paladin puts his muscles to work and tries to lift the timber just enough to move it aside.
The sight is impressive as August ainglehandedly hefts the beam up and moves it clearing the trap door of debris. Zuriel you look and see the semi transparent dragon looking about and it’s eyes rest on you for a moment unnervingly.
Zuriel moves ever so slowly behind the group member standing the farthest from the translucent beast.
hiding behind me wont help much against something like that you know
"Possibly not, but it might loose interest. Besides, the paladin is a much more viable target if it gets hungry."
August overhears the conversation between Zuriel and Faust, and casts a confused look at the pair, and a wary look at the dragon, and then returns to the task at hand.
He grabs the trapdoor with both hands, and lifts it open.
"Way is clear. Who wants to go first?" he asks, peering down.
Looking down beams of light pierce the pitch black, illuminating the room enough to see the majority of the room, specks of dust and dirt float in the light. As you look down you see the the tower’s large ground floor has mostly collapsed under the rubble, but along the western portion of the room a section remains clear of debris. An iron trap door set in the floor is directly below a companion door you now look through, in the ceiling above. Shattered wooden furniture lies scattered around the corpses of two small, green-scaled creatures.
Tristan sighs. "It doesn't get hungry," he says. Then, smiling, he adds, "Though that won't stop it from biting you."
When August asks who will go first, Tristan smirks. "I would have thought our brave and noble paladin would be first to venture into unknown dangers for the sake of his companions' safety." After a brief pause, he laughs. "Don't worry; I'll go first."
At that, the dragon stretches—much like a cat—and jumps down into the room below.
As soon as the dragon jumps through the trap door, Zuriel quickly beelines it to the doors edge. While looking intently down into the hole, he carefully watches the ghost-dragon. "CRAP! That thing is going to take any treasure it finds for its horde!"
Zuriel kneels down next to the trap door and watches the small dragon as closely as he can.
"I can see another trap door down there."
"Relax, Zuriel. It's not an actual flesh and blood dragon." Jenise jumps down after Tristan and his magic dragon.
"Sure looks like one. Possibly a variant of some kind. Admittedly, it does have a weird quasi-real look to it. Almost ghostly. If its not a dragon, then what is it?"
Tristan smiles to himself as the others ponder the nature of his draconic companion. Truthfully, he wasn't quite sure himself what it was except to say that it was a part of him. He could feel that much.
Jenise grins up at Zuriel and wiggles her fingers at him. "It's maaaagic!" She laughs. "Come on down, time's wasting."
After considering Jenise's comment, Zuriel climbs down. Still attempting to keep as much distance between himself and the magic-dragon as possible, he inspects the next trap door for traps.
He checks the trapdoor and it seems safe to open, trap free. Once it’s opened you can see down barely. Those of you with darkvision can see all of this in moderate black and white detail, others however can see just barely through the dim light as it extends down. The walls of this chamber have buckled precariously in several places, and masonry and dirt are scattered across the floor— the collapse above plainly caused this structural damage. The dry-rotted frames of five simple beds lie against the north and south walls. To the southwest, the room broadens into a larger chamber. A rusted, grinning iron statue stands in an alcove in the north wall between the two wings of the room itself, and in the wall to the south is an old iron door.
"The room below looks interesting, but perhaps we should search this level before considering the next level."
Zuriel secures the trap door and begins searching his current level. He attempts to search everything except where the magic-dragon is located.
You search the area but rubble and the corpses are broken and beaten along with what sticks and other shoddy items they had.
After inspecting the immediate area, Zuriel makes his way back to the trapdoor. Without hesitation he opens the door. "If someone could provide a light source and a rope to support me if the old ladder gives out, I would be willing to climb down and test its stability.
Faust will cast Light and hand Zuriel a rope Always be prepared i say
Without hesitation Zuriel tethers the rope around his waist, hands one end of it to the paladin, and then begins climbing down the ladder. "Don't let me fall August. I have a feeling this old ladder is brittle." With each step, he applies all his weight in order to check and make sure its stable.
Zuriel unties the rope and begins searching the area for traps.
Zuriel lets out a high pitch, ear piercing, scream.
Jenise casts a light spell on her left glove, waiting for Zuriel's word on what's down through the trapdoor.
"Don't worry, Zuriel. Ah will keep you safe." August says, and takes the rope. He loops the rope around his waist, and grabs it firmly, and keeps it tight as the elf descends.
The ladder holds, though it’s complaints are heard as it creeks loudly, as you look around you scan the room, though your ears catch the sounds of clicking and movement behind you. As your eyes catch something moving out from under a couple rocks. It has many many legs, and pinchers and suddenly you realize it’s a very large centipede that’s eyeing you.
"CENTIPEDE! A giant one!" Jenise bites back a curse, realizing that her favorite spell won't work on vermin. Instead she chants her second favorite spell, surrounding herself with an invisible field of protection. With that the sorceress descends the ladder to join the fight.
faust primarily being a mage caster type with little offer in melee, will hold his turn until after others have gone down the ladder
"Well, I should hope you wouldn't make so much fuss over a normal sized centipede," Tristan mutters as he follows his draconic projection to the room below.
The two centipedes undulate up now in full view of the light. They snap Zuriel and Tristan the pincers dripping with foreboding poison.
One bite dings off of Tristan’s armor while Zuriel nimbly dodges the other.
After making a small adjustment, Zuriel brings his blade around into an over head swing.
You bring the blade down and behead the centipede, instantly killing the vermin.
"Darn, that's a big bug..." August whistles.
"Hold on! I'll come and help"
The paladin hastily starts climbing down the ladder. One hand holding the shield makes the descent a bit cumbersome, but one free hand is enough.
Once his feet touch the ground, he quickly draws his sword, and lunges to thrust the remaining centipede. Unfortunately, all this action at once is too much for poor August, and the sword gets stuck in his scabbard - and the enemy critter is able to freely move away while the man struggles with is weaponry.
With blade stuck in scabbard the centipede back away just enough so at the last second August takes the blade and strikes out its able to survive.
Jenise points at the remaining centipede, calling forth her powers. Tiny sparks of white light rain down on the vermin, burning its carapace.
Zuriel moves to a location, which places the centipede between himself and one of his group mates. After carefully relocating, he brings his blade into a side-long swing in an attempt to sever the insect in-half.
"Yum!"
once everyone else is down, Faust will climb down, Combat isnt yet something he's good at
With the last centipede cut in two, you all are left to yourselves once again, the room yours to look over. The walls of this chamber have buckled precariously in several places, and masonry and dirt are scattered across the floor— the collapse above plainly caused this structural damage. The dry-rotted frames of five simple beds lie against the north and south walls. To the southwest, the room broadens into a larger chamber. A rusted, grinning iron statue stands in an alcove in the north wall between the two wings of the room itself, and in the wall to the south is an old iron door.
A contemptuous hmph escapes Tristan as he looks down at the remains of the giant insects. Stepping over the viscera, he and the draconic manifestation move to search the room for anything of value.
Keeping his distance from the Ghost-dragon, Zuriel also begins searching the area.
"Nice hit, Zuriel." Jenise joins the others in searching the room.
"Are we on ground level now? Or underground?" August asks, trying to get his bearings.
Looks like everyone starts searching for something, and August doesn't want to be any different.
The paladin looks at the top of one ruined bed, under the same ruined bed, and both sides of the ruined bed. And all he finds is dust and debris.
"What are we looking for?" he asks, a piece of mortar in hand.
"We climbed up a ramp and then jumped down a level and then climbed down a level. Depending on how high the original ramp was would determine if we are now in an underground room. What we are looking for is any clue or treasure before the Ghost-dragon can add it to its treasure horde.
You all begin to look around and coming through everything eventually Zurial the least squeamish out of you all likely, opens the iron maiden. The bones of its previous occupant clatter to the ground, with scraps of clothing hanging from spikes and falling apart at the sudden movement. A rusty metal key clatters to the ground with nothing else of note though it beckons with the question, what does it open?
Meanwhile seemingly fitting its nature Tristan’s Psche begins to move about the broken bits of weapons and armor. It pokes at the rubble, before finding a closely latched case opening it with a claw two shiny daggers of a silver covered metal lie within. A strange series of notches carved into the flat of each blade.
Zuriel picks up the key and hands it over to the August. "This might be needed at some point."
He then realizes that the Ghost-dragon uncovered something. Quietly he observes the thing from a distance. (I wonder what its going to do next.)
"A key? We were looking for a key?" August looks at the the small object placed in his hand. Well, there's doors in here, so a key could be handy.
"There's a door over there. Should I try the key on it?" he points at the door to the south.
The dragon rests its claw on the case, stares at Zuriel, and huffs as if daring the elf to try and claim its discovery.
Tristan approaches, and, as he stoops over to retrieve the daggers, the dragon removes its claw, though it does not stop staring at Zuriel.
"No, we weren't looking for a key, but it seems we've found one... and some silvered daggers," he says inspecting the weapons more closely. "And, I would see if it's even locked first—after letting Zuriel check for traps, of course—but it isn't as though keys disappear after you use them, so... feel free."