Bohrs nods and retraces his steps back to the door, stepping just outside the door until Calaithes tries the lever.
"I mean, is there no way of knowing what the lever does before we pull it? You are pretty keen. Are there triggers indicated in the mechanism? Maybe you should look first before pulling it. We'll keep the light here for you." she states as she backs out.
Calaithes glances to Nicolette and back at the lever, then steps over to the pit trap, examining the mechanism of the traps. "You speak true. The lever could be a distraction, or another trap. Give me some time to examine this...."
Examining the lever, Calaithes does not think that it is connected to the pits, at least not by any wires or such along the floor. Peering carefully into the mechanism, it looks like there may be something embedded deeper in the wall, although where exactly it goes from there is uncertain.
Having withdrawn to what they believe to be a safe distance, Nicolette and Bohrs wait while Calaithes assesses the situation. Kayle and Owens stay near Calaithes, with Owens enjoying the game of tug-of-war that he has just played with Nicolette. In his excitement, however, Owens has not noticed a potential danger below . He feels his paws beginning to slip...
...and slides into the pit below!
As Kayle realizes what has happened and looks below, he sees, in addition to the pillows, a small sack down with Owens. Owens, or perhaps someone with opposable thumbs, may need to try to bring it back up if you want to see what's inside.
"Bohrs, don't stay alone in this room. Come back in." she states since she is going further into the room they've been messing with. After seeing Owens fall in, she doesn't want to abandon their cleric out in another room alone.
As she progresses, she keeps a mindful eye out for traps. She may not be able to disable them, but she has a keen eye.
Bohrs re-enters the maze, retracing his previous steps back to where Kayle and Owens are currently.
"One of us can climb down, boost Owens back up, and retrieve the bag, while the other helps from up here," Bohrs suggests to Kayle. "Do you want to go into the bit, or be the one to grab Owens and pull up from here?"
Kayle waves off the concern and hops down into the pit after his dog. "I'll get him." he reassure the others, "Just haul us out? I'm not as strong."
Kayle underestimates the burden of his armor however, and when he lands he wasn't prepared for the momentum he had to brace. Without much grace he stumbles forward onto his face, leaving an ache in his shoulder. "Well, guess we both slipped up." he ruefully pointed out to Owens. Who took advantage of his height to lick him square in the face.
Kayle then pushed his dog off of him so he could inspect the sack he had noticed.
"What did you find boy?" he asked Owens.
Bohrs waits with the rope for Kayle's cue to help him and Owens out of the pit whenever he's finished checking out the bag.
Nicolette will reach down with her rope to help pull up the dog and get both him and Kayle out when they are ready. With them out of the pit, she will try to make sure the dog doesn't head that way again.
"Well, the lever has nothing to do with the traps. It does something but maybe we should search this room fully before we pull it." He moves around the room looking for and marking any other traps found.
Kayle's descent is less than graceful, but he still does not injure himself on the way down. At the bottom, he spies that small sack and opens it up. Inside there are four platinum pieces and a small scrap of parchment. Unfurling it, Kayle reads:
"Three to open, but be quick, for the door will only open for those who work together."
Moving beyond, Calaithes spots a second lever to his right--in one of the dead-end alcoves to the east.
Nicolette is carefully moving step by step. As she does, she's giving the ground in front of her a strong tap with her hammer. Not enough to break the stone, but certainly harder than any footfall would trigger. It is her hope to dismantle the traps before stumbling upon them.
Calaithes considers checking oput the new lever, but figures it can wait. He continues, carefully searching for any more pit traps or other clues.
Moving along, both Calaithes and Nicolette each find an additional pit trap. They get the feeling that they have almost explored this entire area.
"Three to open. Does that mean two at the levers and one at the door, or is there a third lever we haven't found? Would it hurt to try both levers and see?" He shrugs, not sure what else to suggest. "I would guess the swiftest two would need to pull the levers, and whoever's at the door needs to be able to either hold it or set a spike to keep it in place."
Kayle and Owens are pulled up thanks to the rest of the party. Particularly Nicolette, and the two take to idly following her as it seemed the safest way as she thumped about looking for more pitfalls. Trusting that to her, Kayle looked around for more levers. He spared Owens a brief smile as he figured his pooch wouldn't know what a lever was.
Nicolette reveals yet another pit trap on the road north, however, upon seeing Cal up near her alone, she circles back to the main room and then ventures up the eastern path to perhaps see what was around the corner from the half-elf before his searching would uncover it (should it be hostile). Knowing the way is clear, she rushes almost up until the lever, then proceeds more slowly in her search northward on the eastern side, knocking on the ground as before.
With some keen vision and a clear plan, the party finds two more pit traps and a third lever. They are fairly confident that, unless there is a part of this room that they haven't figured out yet, they have found everything that there is to find here.
Meanwhile, the pitiful wailing and sobbing continues unabated to the south.
"Ahah, see here Bohrs!? A third lever. Okay, so three to open. So I'm assuming all three have to be pulled at once to either close all the trap doors, or open that door by the wailing. I think I should probably go mind the door, three of you get set and ready to pull. What do you all think?" she asks.
"Perhaps it best stand by the door, being the least athletic of our company. I think I could clear that those pits, but I wouldn't bet on myself in a time-sensitive situation," Bohrs suggests.
"I'll take the lever at the opposite end of the room from the door. We each pull a lever at the count of three. Then Bohrs tries to open the door. Wedge something in there to keep it open while we all run hard to get there, assuming it opens. Maybe this is a set up and why they pick four each time? Three levers and one door...."
"Okay, Bohrs, and keep Owens nearby. We don't want him running after Kayle and falling into a pit. Just be careful," she warns the cleric as she moves to set up at the one further away with Cal. She places her hammer in a strap set up to hold it and readies to pull the lever. On the verbal count of three, she pulls and rushes toward the door.
One would think the pits were a foot wide how easily she leaps over them. Clearly, her inner strength plays a part, but she is also flexible and nimble as well.
Kayle has Owens wait with Bohrs, but not before getting out of his cumbersome armor and leaving it at the door. "If I fall in a pit again I might just sic Owens on the mayor as well." Kayle reasons aloud, "Alright, best of luck to each of you."
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"One..."
"Two..."
With careful timing, Calaithes, Kayle, and Nicolette throw the levers simultaneously. There is a great grinding behind the walls, old stone gears turning together as Bohrs watches the door slide up into a recess above. Almost as soon as it rises up, it begins to slowly fall.
he yells, not seeing anything immediately accessible to hold the door up. Instead, he holds his glowing tankard up as a beacon of safety.
Kayle takes a few steps back away from the pit in front of him, stretching now that he is out of his armor, and takes a running start towards Owens on the other side of the pit. He clears the pit, but wobbles back as he makes it across. Owens leaps forward and catches Kayle's shirt in his jaws, yanking him fully back across the way and then looking for direction of where to next in this game of jump and pull. The two are easily able to make it across the threshold to the hallways behind, shepherded along by the vigilant Caydenite.
Nicolette also takes a few steps backward, swiftly and nimbly soaring over the pit and skidding around the pillar as she slides under the falling door.
By this point, Bohrs is beginning to look a little nervous, wondering if Calaithes will make it in time before the door finishes closing. He crouches down with the door's ever-encroaching crush while the half-elf swings dashingly around pillars and leaps over pits. Even the momentum from jumping and turning a corner only to jump again seems not to deter him so much as they audible clock of grinding wood and stone along with a companion nervously saying "Hurry!"
Then Bohrs watches as the rogue leaps across the final pit, his eyes wide as he recognizes that time is almost out. Calaithes reflexively turns his leap into a horizontal dive, grabbing Bohrs around the waist and shoving him backwards through the door at the very last moment. They tumble together in a mass of limbs and magical light, stopping just short of the wall on the other side of the door. With a shudder, the door closes behind them.
The mournful wailing is louder, issuing from a door at the end of this musty hallway. There are a host of bones strewn on the floor here, many of which are cracked and broken, but some of which have been placed as a makeshift barricade in front of the door. There are bits of rope and string around some of the bones, along with some pieces of wood and cloth bags all tied haphazardly together. To the west, Kayle watches Bohrs' light disappear around another corner. Ahead, Nicolette spies another possible turn away from the door.
"I mean, come on...there is no way that is natural crying. Not for how long and for how loud," she comments as they all make it through the door. She will help her comrades up from their floundered mass of limbs. She then pulls out her hammer to be ready for what must come. Her eyes easily pierce the darkness down the length of the hallway, even into the shadows beyond for the eyes of the humans. She considers what direction the crying is coming from.
she stumbles as she almost forgets the name of it and mixes it up with many variations (such as everfame, everlame, evertame, everlast, etc).
She moves slowly down the hallway to give her companions the chance to follow suit. She keeps Cal close, hopefully, both of their eyes looking for any traps that may be there.
The voice beyond the door goes quiet.
To her right, Nicolette sees down another hallway ending in a door. She doesn't see any traps.
Calaithes is openly laughing as he extricates himself from Bohrs and rolls to his feet. "That one deserves an ale, in the future once we wrap up this mystery! But for the present may I offer a hand to help you up?"
Hearing Nicolette already moving ahead he joins her searching for any dangers.
When the yelling goes silent he calls out,
Bohrs accepts Calaithes' hand, and pats him on the shoulder. "Yes! A moment worth sharing with a common room full of eager listeners! Drinks it shall be, my friend!"
Once Nic and Cal have given the all-clear for traps, Bohrs will approach the door, lay a hand upon it, and pray to Cayden Cailean for insight on what lies beyond.
"What does Cayden allow you to see beyond friend?" she addresses Bohrs with a whisper, then chuckling, looks to the others behind them, "We should call this his alesight, or beersight," she jokes. "What does your alesight see, my friend?"
Calaithes hears the sound of a crossbow being loaded on the other side of the door. The door is locked (requiring a disable device check), and blocked by a makeshift barricade (requiring multiple strength checks to move). The door opens outward.
On the other side of the door, Bohrs sees a disheveled man holding a crossbow and aiming it at the door. He is standing in a small rectangular room with a few small crates.
”Roldare! Is that you in there? It’s Bohrs Kreegan! Are you alright?!”
"Roldare?" she clarifies. "This is Nicolette Yardley. Are you okay? Tell us what happened. We are here for the Everflame and horses were dead outside. People from elsewhere too!"
Not the best at diplomacy, she considers if he would listen to their words. She looks down to her boots, handmade by the very man himself.
Calaithes gets his tools out to work on the lock. He isn't the expert that Jiles is, but his skill isn't bad....
Kayle pulls himself up from a head with a chuckle at the celebration. He seemed to find it contagious. Thankfully, he had plenty of time to clear the doorway, and thus was able to recover his armor. While the others pressed ahead eagerly he took the time to don his hide armor anew.
As Calaithes and Bohrs discussed his unique vision Kayle laughed. "Does it let you see pink elephants too?" he teased the cleric.
His amusement quickly vanishes as Bohrs find's a familiar face. "Ask him if he's hurt!" Kayle pleads before shouting, "Roldare! This is Kayle! Are you hurt? Are you okay?"
With his name called out by several voices, Roldar speaks from behind the door while Calaithes gets to work with his lockpicks.
"No...no, no, nonononono. It's a trick! A trick of the angry bones! Oh the bones, the blood, and the clatter. I won't be fooled, no, no, nonononono. This is just a trick of the dead one, the dead one who speaks. He deceives. YOU DECEIVE!"
The locking mechanism for this door is simple and straightforward, and with very little effort Calaithes picks so that he'd make Jimes proud if the halfling were here. But getting the door unlocked was the easy part. Getting it open, with all of the junk wedged up against it, might be a little harder. But with a little elbow grease and effort, you're convinced that someone among you--Nicolette, most likely--will be able to pry it open and rescue Roldare.
Nicolette listens with an ear facing the doorway as she hears a voice inside. Sure enough, it is the cobbler.
"Okay? He's obviously gone mad. That's the same guy, but not the same man." she whispers while making a 'cuckoo' symbol around her ear.
She scratches her head in thought, then addresses him.
"I don't know anything about a dead-one-who-speaks, but I can talk to you about some things about home that this dead one wouldn't know about. Maybe that would convince you?"
She will describe her interactions with him from the many shoes her parents have bought to the boots she wears now. Then she will go into some detail on her home and what little she knows of his home and garden. She will logically explain that he knew they were coming and that this dead one wouldn't know their names or what they look like, let alone who would come, as they themselves didn't know until last night. She will explain their interaction with the mayor as well as with the orcs on the way here.
Nicolette would then explain how Owens is out here, and ask why would a dead one care about a dog? If he wanted to raise animals from the dead, he would have raised up the horses out front they found dead. She would explain that the only undead they've found so far were humans. Then with great diplomacy, she'd try to encourage him to listen to reason and remove the blockade.
"Look. How about this. You slide whatever you have in front of this door back just a tiny, tiny bit; just enough to crack open the door. You can then look out and see it is us. I'll let you touch my hand and everything. I am wearing Ms. Badbatten's lavender perfume. You can smell it on my hand. That's another thing that can't be faked...right? Then, if you still don't come out, then I'm going to kick down that door and drag you out...and if you really know me...you know I can do what I say."
Perhaps a threat, but a nice threat. She is trying to be sweet as candy, but stern enough to know she's not going to banter back and forth anymore after explaining all of that.
"Dammit, man. Think! You came here to prepare the crypt for the Everflame Quest. You knew we were chosen this year! We're supposed to be here! We were just as started by those skeletons as you were! We saw the dead horses and the bodies of the others who came with you! The only reason the skeletons didn't kill us too is because of Nic's gigantic hammer! We're trying to help you! If you stay in there, you'll starve to death. You will wish those skeletons cut your throat! Show some sense! We know you have a crossbow. We're going to open the door now. Please don't shoot, or Nic will have to knock you out, and a few of your teeth, too!"
Kayle will wait and see if the others can talk him down or at least into opening the door before he acts. He had only one idea, and it wasn't one he could try before the door was opened.
To be frank he was very hesitant to try it even if the door did get opened.
Calaithes watches the two ahead but stays back with his 'brother', rubbing Owen's head when she mentions him. If they can't talk the fool down maybe they should just see if they can bypass him? They'd have time to work him out of the room later. And maybe the man would scream himself to exhaustion and fall asleep?
Bohrs decides to double down. "Do you know what happens to people who starve to death in places infested with undead, Roldare? Do you? They become ghouls! They rise in never-ending hunger, and the first thing they do is look for dead bodies to feast upon! Do you want that to be your fate? I assure you that we don't! We just want to get you out of here alive and on the road back to town! Please open the door and come out!"
"A trick!" comes the voice. "Lies, trying to trick me so you can slaughter me like Gerol and Vark. Oh my gods, they're dead. Everyone's dead! Except me. And Dimira. But the walking bones, they...YOU! YOU CAME TO KILL US! You won't get me!"
The voice trails off into disturbed muttering, and you can hear pacing on the other side. You catch a disjointed scatter of previously-spoken words and names: Badbatten, lavender, Jimes, horses, angry bones, hammer, ghouls.
Bohrs rolls his eyes and sighs in frustration. He fills his tankard from his skin, then drinks deeply.
”Alright my dear, it’s time to break the door down,” he says to Nic. ”May the Drunken Hero keep you safe from harm.” He dips a couple fingers into his ale and flicks it at her face.
"That's it Roldare..." she threatens with a ferocity in her voice he's never heard before.
She looks behind her to her companions and states, "If he has a crossbow, be mindful and crouch low. I don't want him hitting you all."
When her allies are crouched , she will set herself and push against the door.
Owens was not sure what his person was saying, but he picked up on Kayle's stress and his name. The dog looked pensively up at Kayle as if to say "Me?"
Kayle takes in a deep breath and sighs. "If he shoots my dog so help me.." he mutters.
Calaithes steps around the corner from the door. If the man fired his crossbow he wouldn't be in the line of fire....