Torvi nods, "then destroy it we shall, as soon as the circumstances permit."
"We ought to bring it to Zenais. Yes, we could pour holy water over it and be done with it, but I don't think the House of Mahal will appreciate us doing that."
"Pocket the thing, and we shall handle it appropriately when we can."
"I'll put it in my satchel, conveniently located next to a reinforced vial of holy water," Karti says with a sly wink as he kneels down and makes it so.
You gathered yourselves and then pressed on, having taken a few of the most valuable items of clothing and the noble sigil which you believed contain the soul of Duin. Pyrsa lay some three miles to the south. You could see Nikia's Peak rising high, a towering spire of sheer rock that pierced the sky. A few clouds clung to the jagger rock of the pinnacle, obscuring the summit from view. Nestled beneath the mountain was Pyrsa castle, which you could not see as you climbed the mountain road.
The sun still rode high in the sky when you set out from the Skirling pass. There were few clouds, and a strong wind was blowing out of the Ice Lands to the West. Following the mountain road, you passed over an abandoned mine. It had been cut into the side of the mountain, so far below you that workers had come up from the valley rather than descending from above. There were a pair of abandoned houses above it, one collapsed in on itself, the other missing a roof, and the ruins of an old winch that had once raised ore, and dwarves, up from the mine below. Not long after, you came to a place where the road passed through a tunnel. There was no choice but to walk through it in order to get to Pyrsa.
The tunnel was so long that you could see no light on the other side. It was dark inside, the kind of darkness that is found only in places where no sun has ever shone. The walls were slick black rock, hewn so long ago that here and there imperfections had begun to form on an otherwise perfectly flat surface.
Torvi stopped the group. Thirty feet ahead of where the group stood, she could see that the floor had an unnatural boxy shape to it. Moving closer, she realized that it was a pit trap, disguised so carefully that it would be almost impossible to find. But not for a dwarf. There was a twenty foot section of floor as wide as the tunnel that would give way if you set foot on it, at least, that was what Torvi guessed.
On the other side, Karti noticed runes on the wall. There was a spell hidden there, waiting for someone to come too close.
"Traps designed to catch non-dwarves it seems."
Karti is mighty impressed with the tunnel and he runs a hand along its black wall in admiration and wonder. It's only that the traps come into play that he snaps out of it, realizing that the way to Pyrsa is just as one might expect: a foolish endeavor if you value your life.
"T'wouldn't surprise me if the undead have altered the existing traps to make sure the living dwarves get their fair share of suffering as well for daring to venture through this tunnel."
Torvi turns to Atash, "can you see about safing those please?"
"Hrm, I can try. Magical traps are tricky ..."
Karti tries to get as close to the runes as (he thinks) he can. From there, he studies the runes and ponders what can be done about them. Simply covering them up feels like a straightforward enough solution. Perhaps some acid and a chisel? No, that would require getting too close. Ah!
To help his thought process, Karti rolls out the leather case containing his extensive set of masterwork tools and studies each and every one of them.
Karti is certain that if he can get close enough, he can disable the magical trap. The only issue is the more mundane pit trap in his way, which he sees no obvious way to disable. Certainly there must have been one, since any traffic to Pyrsa would have to come through here.
"Time to backtrack. There must be something in this tunnel that temporarily locks up the pit trap, perhaps a series of stones you need to step on, or something in the wall. Anything a group of soldiers could do, I'd suppose."
Karti led the group back the way they had came, searching for a way to lock the mundane trap shut. His eyes were sharp, but he found no such mechanism.
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The dwarf grumbles as he realizes he made a mistake. Whatever mechanism there is to disable the trap, it has to be on the other side. The side where a Pyrsan soldier would be waiting. "The mechanism must be on the other side, which eh, makes the logistics of getting there without triggering the runes complicated. I'd appreciate any input. "
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"A pit trap is the concern then? How about we send one across, with a rope around them, to keep them from falling to their doom?"
Atash scuttles forward and motions for the rest of the party to get back to a safe distance. With himself outside the range of the pit, he uses mage hand to put five pounds of pressure on the pit trap, to see if that much weight will make it activate.
Atash fusses with his whiskers for a moment, then dashes forward across the pit!
As Atash reached the far side of the pit trap, he triggered the magical runes. They went off, unleashing a blast of wind which hurled Atash backwards, shoving him into the pit. There was something wet in this sudden gust, with a gritty, sandy texture. Moving with an almost supernatural speed, the ratfolk twisted and tumbled along with the wind. The lid of the pit trap slid downwards with a silent ease that spoke of the care the dwarves who had crafted it had taken. The ratfolk noticed Voriparae fungus lining the bottom of the pit trap, forty feet down. Just before he lost traction on the lid to the pit trap, he leapt back, barely landing on the floor of the tunnel next to the others.
Then he felt a searing pain on any exposed skin. Whatever gritty liquid had been in the blast of wind was acidic, burning at his skin.
The pit now lay open, its lid lowered.
Atash hurriedly tries to brush the acid off, squeaking in displeasure. "Misjudged...the distance..." He pants out.
Torvi is startled by all of what happened. "I'm sorry Atash, I have no way to assist."
Karti gets out his waterskin and helps Atash where he can by squirting copious amounts of water at the ratfolk. "Water's the best I got, I'm sorry to say."
Atash brushed off the acidic liquid with Karti's assistance. It smoked on the stone of the floor for a moment as it returned to the earth.
The pit yawned open, twenty feet wide and forty feet deep. Beyond it, you couldn't be sure if the runes were still active, though they seemed to be different. More dull, perhaps.
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The dwarf observes the runes from a distance and comes to a speculative conclusion. "Purely conjecture, but the runes might need some time to recharge. Eh, now might be the time to cross."
"Atash paid the price of admission for us, let us not waste his sacrifice."
Atash remains where he is and tries to fiddle with both of the traps from where he is. With a range of 30 feet his mage hand extends his reach.
"The Voriparae complicates matters. It respects fire, so if anyone has some sort of way to traverse it, a lit torch should keep the fungus from shooting spores at us. We could try and fell a tree, but eh, time and all that."
Atash reached out and touched the runes with his magic, trying to find a way to disarm them. There was something about the angles of the carvings, certain spots that gave way to pressure. The runes were faint, though, so much so that a passing traveler might not notice them.
The pit trap lay open. Between the far edge of the lid and the solid ground that lay beyond, there were metal bars. If the lid could be reset, there was probably a way to extend the metal bars underneath it, while it was closed, so that they would hold it closed.
"This may...take a moment..." Hoping he is out of range of the trap now, Atash makes subtle movements of his fingers, causing it to flare as he messes with it from afar.
Atash also tries to put his ranged telekinesis on the bars inside the floor, seeing if they are light enough that he can slide them in and out with 5 pounds of pressure.
After less than a minute, the runes gave way. Atash was confident that they were disabled until a trap maker could reset them. The metal bars in the pit trap were locked in place, and wouldn't budge.
"The runes...are disabled...still need...to get across this gap..."
"Who thinks...they can jump?..I can...we would need to...secure a rope...for those that can't...make the jump...but I won't be able...to hold any of you up with it...perhaps with climbing gear...I can put a piton in..."
No one could see an obvious crack to place a piton on the far side. It might be possible to hammer in an iron spike, though that would be noisy. There was also the possibility that there was a crack underneath where the lid was now to place a piton, though you couldn't see any from where you stood.
"I can jump across" - Razaniel nodded with confidence - "The Goddess willing" - he added, calling for divine guidance.
Taking a few steps back, the nimble half-orc jumped with surprising ease over the open chasm.
Atash waits for Raz to secure the rope and makes his way across.
Razaniel jumped across, then held the rope for Atash. It was easy for the ratfolk to climb his way over, walking on the rope and using the wall for balance.
Razaniel secured the rope to the hinge of the pit trap using a grappling hook. It was secured on his side, but not on Torvi and Karti's side. The side you had all started on. One of them could hold the rope for the other to cross, but there would be no one to hold the rope for the last person to cross.
Having secured the rope on the far side, Razaniel held it in place while Karti climbed across. Once the dwarf was across, Razaniel leapt back and held the rope for Torvi to cross, before leaping over a final time.
The group continued on. Not long after you came to a spot where several rooms had been cut into the rock to your right. At the back of each was a tunnel, all connected to a wide hall deeper into the rock. This would be a perfect spot for soldiers to wait, ready to ambush an attacking force that was halfway across the pit trap. Thankfully, it was empty.
There were three exits in the wide hall. one led to the remains of a kitchen, complete with several chimneys, the second led to a long sleeping room. There were beds made of the same rock you stood on, complete with rock pillows. The third exit from the wide hall led to a series of small rooms. Scroll racks cut into the sides of several of these rooms indicated that they had once been offices, though now they were empty. Mostly, one had an assortment of furniture, storage chests, and other odd items piled into it. Perhaps it had once been hidden, but now a bag of coins sat in this room, spilled out onto the floor. One hundred platinum pieces, evenly hung in sets of ten on strings of fine silver thread.
These were obviously intended to be used as official pay for anyone working here.
At the end of the office rooms were two chambers for sleeping. Karti immediately noticed a secret door at the back of one. You glanced around the room for things that might open it. There was a scroll rack, a stone bed, and a statue of Torag. Atash quickly realized that his dagger could be pulled like a lever.
Atash watches with wide eyes at Raz's jumping prowess. He had not expected the man to be that agile.
Atash pokes at the wide hall meant for an ambush. It's good we weren't trying to infiltrate this place in its prime. It would take an actual army.
He can't help but to snicker at the beds. "Made of rock...what's even the point?" He pokes at one of the rock pillows and snickers for the next minute or so.
Atash looks excitedly at the scrolls for a moment, poking around to see if any have any magic radiating off them.
Of course the coins themselves are always nice. Why had they been spilled out in the open and ignored such though? Before he went for the coins he checked for any funny business, including a scan for magic.
Atash pokes around curiously, then scrambles up and reaches for the statue of Torag. He pulls at the dagger on it to see what it does.
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+2 for dwarves and their enemies
"Those coins were for the paymaster to pay the troops."
"Of course they are made of rock? What else would you make them from? You would rather sleep on some soft bed made of what? Feathers?"
Atash checked the scroll racks carefully. Most were empty, having been stripped bare many years ago. There was one room with a pair of racks that were set in a wall alcove. They could be rotated on a swivel to access four different sides, each capable of holding its own set of scrolls. There were a few old scrolls in here, which Atash picked through briefly. Each one had a list of goods merchants had once carried, apparently copied from an official list that had been made at the Skirling Pass, and a list of taxes paid on each. 18 bottles of Argodian Red; four silk chemises and one brilliant overcoat, stitched in southern Autokratoria; twelve axe handles of southern ash, finished beside the lake... Another scroll, farther down on the rack, recorded official payments received from the castle. Atash could find no magic here, only cold grey stone and yellowed parchment.
-----
When Atash pulled Torag’s dagger, you heard a faint click. The stone door swung ajar on silent hinges. There was a dark opening beyond which breathed the frozen air of the mountain in a slow, steady rhythm.
Dwarven runes just inside the door gave a warning. Access without permission is a violation of your oaths. Treason is punished by death. A set of stairs led down. The secret door had a regular handle on this side. A long, narrow vent had been drilled upwards, you could see the sky above you through it as you reached the base of the stairs. The air inside the hall had been warm and still, but here a frozen rush of outside air was drawn in steadily and forced through the vent above. There was only one way forward. After walking a short distance down the tunnel, you came to a small room.
There was a twenty foot wide slot carved into the stone at the base of the East wall of this room. Only a few feet high, it was blocked by a sheet of metal. Actually, as you looked closer, you saw that there was a large metal box which had been shoved into the slot. If you lay down on the floor and peered upwards to try to see between the metal box and the top of the stone slot, you could just about see a woody substance sprouting from the top.
The North wall had hooks with swarm suits hanging from them. They had special masks fitted to filter gasses while breathing. On the South wall, there was a wheel with a handle attached to some sort of gearbox set in the wall. Next to it were a series of magical runes, difficult to parse.
This is a control panel for the magical runes you encountered earlier. If Atash hadn’t already sabotaged them, you would be able to turn them on and off here.
Outside, the secret tunnel continued to the North, back the way you had come.
Torvi reads the warning, and silently confirms to herself that she has taken no oaths which would deny her going through the door and down the steps.
"Hmm...not sure...what that does..." He looks at the slotted stone opening, investigating to see if he himself could squeeze in anywhere. As he does this he muses about the swarm suits. "Might be best...to take those...there may be a good reason...they are...here."
[dice=Knowledge (history)]1d20+12 +2 for dwarves and their enemies
"Those coins were for the paymaster to pay the troops."
"Of course they are made of rock? What else would you make them from? You would rather sleep on some soft bed made of what? Feathers?"
"I have slept on the ground many times, but never on a bed made of rock - how different is it Torvi?" - Razaniel inquired, genuinely curious, as he picked up one of the swarm suits at Atash's suggestion.
The secret tunnel continued on, back the way you had come, while the main tunnel you had been traveling on before led away to Pyrsa. There was nothing stopping you from going in either direction.
"It is the most restful way to sleep. Growing up, only the most well of families could afford to bring a large slap of rock into their homes for sleeping. I find sleeping on the soft ground, as we have been, to be most uncomfortable."
Just like the others, Karti fails to figure out what the runes do and how they work.
"I must be the odd dwarf out because I greatly prefer sleeping on soft ground. The cold stone and my hips do not like one another, though I'm afraid the stone cares little about what my hips think and feel. Say, should we check the tunnel, and see where the secret entrance to this place is? Admittedly, the presence of the swarm suits isn't exactly a soothing one, but yes."
Torvi shakes her head at Karti's admission of frailty. She knew some dwarves had succumbed to the sleeping habits of the softer races, but she hadn't known Karti was one of them.
"Might I suggest we don the suits here, before proceeding further, rather than just carrying them?"
"Agreed"
After a pause to don the swarm suits (none of which fit on Atash), the group continued on down the secret tunnel. It led back the way you had come, smooth and straight. The tunnel was not quite ten feet wide, just big enough that two could walk abreast.
After a couple minutes of walking, you stopped abruptly. There was a much more obvious trap located ahead, a small pressure plate, only about a foot wide, worked into the stone of the floor. Any dwarf would have a decent chance of spotting it. There was even a vein of unusual stone on the walls to either side, so that anyone who knew to look for this location would probably be able to find it. The group glanced around, but couldn’t figure out what stepping on the pressure plate would actually do. Probably something unpleasant.
Past the pressure plate a hundred feet or so, there was a small room with a spiral staircase and three exits. The staircase led up to another small room with three more exits. Each of the exits had runes at the top clearly labeling them, 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C. Each of the exits led to another tunnel, these only five feet wide. Exploring for a few minutes, you quickly determined that each of these six smaller tunnels led back outside, to a small area a couple hundred feet West of the mountain road you had traveled earlier. The entrance to the main road tunnel, where you had encountered the pit trap, was nearby.
This was clearly a sally tunnel, intended to allow for sorties against an invading army. You could easily imagine a group of dwarves mustering in the small underground complex you had previously scouted, filing into the secret tunnel, then pouring fourth suddenly from six different locations to surprise an invading column of enemies that was working its way along the mountain road.
You were able to mark the six different exit points. Each had a stone door disguised amongst its surroundings which could be opened only from the inside. If you came this way again, you could use these to bypass the pit trap, the magical runes, and to surprise any defenders who might have taken up positions in the small underground complex you had previously scouted.