"Someone get a rope and pull him out of there!" The witch urges.
Mara pulls out her silk rope, orders the earth elementals to hold onto it, and throws it over the edge to Uwe. She readies herself to help the elementals pull him up.
Uwe will climb out using the rope, "Thank you kindly. This appears to just be an illusion...so where would the real stairs be?" He asks as he looks around and moves to Zen to deal with the damage caused by landing on spikes.
The witch looks at Mara, then back at the guys. "Probably covered in an illusion. We can scan the floor brick by brick with our detect magic cantrips between all of us. It will take some time to find the illusions that way."
(Uwe Fort save too)
Zen performs a Cure Light Wounds spell upon Uwe at his request and then using Detect Magic helps to search for the hidden stairs.
Mara also detects for more magic in this room and has the elementals move around, feeling the walls for any illusory or hidden points of egress.
As your group uses magical and normal means to scour the room for another staircase, one of the clumsy elementals runs into a statue and Zen’Zot can see the statue turn a bit, before it slides back into place.
Uwe’s body is quite strong with its natural antibodies that the poison is harmless to him.
Zen moves over to the statue he say move and move back, and signals to the others as he does so. Once the others are close he says, "This statue got turned by one of the elementals and then it turned back on its own. Perhaps it is a switch or hides an egress."
"Thank you Zen." Uwe says as he then goes to look where Zen pointed.
Once Uwe has looked, unless he finds a trap, Mara stands back and orders the magma elemental to try to turn the statue as far as it will go.
Karita stays back and keeps her eyes open in case moving a statue causes something else to open, such as a hidden stair.
Zen backs away a good distance to make sure if grouping up close would take out the entire group.
After about 10 minutes of trying different combinations, you manage to find the right sequence of statue manipulations to cause a staircase to be revealed in the center of the room that’s leads upwards to the next floor. The smell of burning incense calmly and subtly fills the air as the stairs come into fruition.
"We found our way up. Is everyone ready?" The witch asks. As she speaks, her familiar sneezes at the scent of the incense.
Mara nods vigorously. "Yes! Up we go!"
(Please readjust everyone where you would like to be. The top of the stairs is where the elementals currently are. Once I get a OK from everyone I shall continue)
(When looking at the stairs the “left side” is the top and the “right side” is towards the bottom)
As you progress up the stairs…this time nobody feels as if time and space is being altered around them. As the elementals reach the top, the incense lessens…but each elemental triggers a trap upon reaching the top. Two bright symbols appear on the ground where the minions step, one is of a viper wrapped around a skull, while the other is snail.
(Everyone not an elemental within 30’ please make a Fort Save & Will Save please)
The magic of the symbols wash over each of you, and some of you are able to steel your bodies and minds more so than others. Mara, Zen’Zot and Karita look down as blood stars to drip…then almost pour out of their noses and mouth spilling onto the steps of the tower. Uwe seems to have a strong body with amazing clotting as he seems unaffected.
Karita is only one unable to exert a strong mental barrier as she her hands move slowly to check her mouth and nose as she bleeds.
"Move...out...of...range...I'm...bleeding...."
The witch urges the others to move forward, trying to bypass the magical effect's range.
Mara tries to move out of range as well. "Quick! We need healing!" She tries to staunch her own bleeding as she moves.
Uwe will also move to avoid the runes triggering again.
(Blue circle is the Bleeding area and Pink is the slowed area. If you leave and re-enter then a new save will have to be made presuming you failed the first time around. If you made it then you are immune to its affects for the remainder of this encounter mostly likely)
While the others rush out and patch themselves up, Mara tries to heal herself. This goes poorly so she asks for help "Help!"
Karita slowly staggers up the stairs, blood profusely running from her nose. By the time she turns to bolt past the stairs, the witch is now retching from the dark magics affecting her. Huddled in her arms is her cat...and the familiar also begins to bleed. The orange mouser raises a hair-curling howl as he too begins to bleed. Karita tries to rush forward past the magical traps, her own body now racked with coughing. After a painful half-minute she breaks past the edge of the traps, all the while carrying a screaming bleeding cat. As she nears the edge, there's a horrible yowl...and the cat falls still in her arms.
The young witch screams as she passes the edge of the effect, now tracking her familiar's inert form.
Uwe moves to start pushing people from the area.
Once out of the area of harm, Zen'Zot will attend to those who seem the worst off first and touching each that he can to improve their condition some.
(Zen, don’t forget to take bleed damage since I’m pretty sure you failed the Fort save versus bleed. I think you’d have taken at least 2 rounds of bleed unless you make a DC 15 Heal skill check for yourself to get no bleed effect)
Zen focuses the divine energy of Torag, "Torag touch us with your healing hand."
You all manage to exit the deadly trap, as Zen’Zot heals the party a little bit. He only managed to get a single channel off, before you hear a booming voice out of nowhere.
My, my, my…aren’t you such a troublesome lot of adventurersss. You have entered my home, but you aren’t the first to do sssuch a thing. My ssspiders have dealt with some, but I suppose they would’ve had to fail eventually. Anywayssss…what foolish reasons bring you here…I assssume riches and grandeur?
The voice sounds serpentine do to the heavily accentuated S syllables. The voice echoes around you due to the high ceiling of the top of the tower.