"Afizionatu bat besterik ez, Mimips." Lope examines the offered cloak with merchant eye "Begira, kapa ondo dago, baina garesti samarra dirudi. Baliteke sari normalago bat ezarriz gero aurkitu ditugun bitxi horietako batzuk trukatzea interesatuko litzaiguke."
"Just an amateur, Mimips. Look, the cape is fine, but seems a bit overpriced. We might be interested to exchange for some of these jewels we found if you set a more... normal prize."
While they chat, he points to the western door "Ezagutzen al duzu eremu hau? Zer dago ate horien atzean? Leku honetatik atera behar dugu."
"Do you know this area? What is behind these doors? We need to get out of this place."
Triphylla does not speak gibberish, or dragon, or whatever they are conversing in, and a quick look at the kobold's wares reveals a lot of the kind of thing she could make herself, so not particularly interested.
While Lope haggles, she pokes around the room looking for any other oddities or evidence of how long this little creature has been down here.
Julia rose from the bed ready to head back to her own. "Hopefully that helps. Giving advice its exactly my forte I'm afraid."
While very much amused by the haggling going on, Julia doesn't see anything that the kobold has that immediately catches her fancy. Instead she follows Triphylla's example and starts looking for anything of note in the room.
Pelligrina is quite short of hard cash like everyone else present. She does her best to explain to Mimips.
"Interesgarriak izan daitezkeen gauza batzuk dituzu zure stockean, baina aldi baterako lotsatuta aurkitzen gaituzun momentu batean elkartzen gara. Zoritxarreko istripu batek hemen kokatu gaitu bat-batean, ikusten dituzun funtsetarako gure ohiko sarbiderik gabe. Momentu honetan uko egin behar dugu. Baina, agian etorkizun hurbilean egoera hobeetan elkartuko gara berriro."
After a momentary pause, Pelligrina thinks to ask a question that might elicit a useful response if Mimips will answer.
"Nola aurkitu zenuen hemengo bidea? Goitik, behetik edo albotik?"
Valeria followed along with the group, making sure to back away or turn around when they needed to. As they continued their explorations and found the red lizard creature she was more than a little surprised. That it seemed to be trying to sell them things was quite amusing and she wondered what it had, not that she could afford any of it.
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The kobold Mimips barked something in reply to Lope and Pelligrina, pointing at various doors.
At the mention of gems he perks up replying, "Gems very good. Mimips like gems!"
When asked about the doors he replies, "That door, open onto twisty hole." he indicates the one to the west. "It go very very deep, used to be Mimip's home!"
He then points to the northern door , "Hall through there. Big cave in! Another door, locked! Mimips no able to open."
The door is a bit stiff but with a creak you shove it open to find the wood panelled hallway suddenly gives way to a stony cavern. A series of two sharp slopes lead south, eventually ending in a sudden hole. Roughly half the width of an adult human, the hole descends into the darkness, winding off in a gentle western curve.
The door is much easier to open than the other and it leads into the ruined continuation of the partially collapsed and trapped corridor you were in before. A leering statue stands atop a plinth in the northwestern corner. The statue holds a scepter, which it points toward a door to the east.
The eastern door has a fancy dual custody lock requiring two keys.
Anyway apparently you are The Lockpicking Lawyer and you picked both sides to show that it was not a fluke.
Triphylla looks at the pair of ornate locks drilled into the unopened door. She laughs. "No chance. Going to need keys for this one."
"If our little friend wants to trade for some of the art and gems we found, I would suggest we take the trade. Better to carry useful stuff and survive than to try hold to the richness" voices up Lope before opening the doors.
Lope examines the double locked door "These two locks look very hard. But maybe we can find the keys somewhere. Seems we will have to trace it back to the corridors and look around the doors there"
Lope will offer Mimips the Vorita's coins in exchange of the healing wand and the assorted cultural trophies, the golden key and the alcohol bottles on exchange of the magical cloak . There seems to be no more jewelry for more trades.
Mimips happily aggress to the exchange, swelling with pride as the transaction is completed. Thumping his chest he yammers something!
"Let's go that way." Cyrene suggests, pointing west. She doesn't offer a reason, and frankly there isn't any, one direction seems as good as the other.
Julia takes a good long look at the eastern door in the hope she'd spot something that would make breaking it easier. Unfortunately she spots nothing of note and can do nothing but agree with the others. "Cyrene and Lope right. Maybe doing some backtracking will help us find the keys. Not sure what else we can do."
Following Cyrene's suggestion you all travel west and turn the corner which ends in a door that's ajar. You gingerly open this revealing a large almost cavern like room. While this area is entirely underground its brightly lit by numerous continual flame spells which have allowed a riot of vegetation to grow. Thick briars and vines cover the eastern and western walls. To the west, the vegetation overruns several neatly arranged sets of patio furniture. Further south, past the morass of vegetation, a stone building looms, the top of it emblazoned with a brass-winged eye.
A closer look at the vegetation reveals a mixture plants plants including several that are edible. There are blackberries, kudzu, and various types of mosses. You notice footprints in the area along with evidence that berries have harvested recently.
The building at the south has three rows of pews and a stone altar. A human statue stands atop the altar, its face and right arm broken off and shattered at the floor around it. Two smaller statues of women—each wielding a sword and shield—stand in raised alcoves in the southeast and southwest corners.
A small tithing box on the altar rattles as he speaks. He turns to each of you in turn and gestures you towards the box!
Cyrene looks around for the source of the voice but can't see anything. She does go to look at the offerings bowl though - she's curious about whether whatever it is here gets any offers at all.
Following Cyrene, Triphylla furrows her brow at the odd temple. At the sight of the statues, she can't help thinking that the defaced male could represent Stavian, now that he's dead, and the women represent the new order of things. Although, all of that literally just happened, so probably just a coincidence.
All of this seems very human, especially the demanding voice from on high. The young halfling looks back to her friend Imistos and puts up a hand to stop him from entering. Then she herself quietly backs out.
"This does not look like the way out," she whispers.
Lope goes in, approaching the plants " Strange place for a groove "
He is surprised though by the voice " Wait, who are you?"
Cyrene doesn't spot anything in the tithe box, apparently there were slim pickings round these parts.
Lope's question leads to the transparent figure booming in response, "It is I, Ardoden. The patron of humanity! Abase yourselves!"
Triphylla looks around nervously at her human companions. Her parents were practicing agnostics, but if anyone outside the family asked they would not admit it. The gods surely existed, but she was raised with no fear in her heart than any one of them might raise her voice loudly enough to be heard on the material plane.
And why not bury an ancient temple to an old god beneath the Senate Mount in Oppara? Seemed as good a place as any.
"Should we be running away now?" she asks.
Pelligrina leaves Mimips with an assurance that if they happen upon enough money soon and come this way again, they might well do more business.
She recognizes the overgrowth of plants as she passes among them.
"This is a very old seed vault. A place where seeds were stored for various uses later on."
The image in the old chapel claiming to be Aroden is surprising, but Pelligrina goes straight to amusement after the surprise. She mostly stifles a laugh, but a mirthful snort still escapes her.
"That's what you're leading with? That you're Aroden? My dear whatever you may be, we're not so ignorant as you think we are. Deal with us honestly or leave us be."
"What?!" Lope can barely control the surprise, he does though look at Triphylla and Pelligrina and tries to recover the composure, slightly coughing to clear his voice "Well. All we need right now is to find the way out of these chambers. Would you happen to know where the key to the northern doors is? Or perhaps you know about another way to get out of here"
Without being able to see who is performing this little farce Cyrene slips into hiding instead, hoping to ambush the ambusher.
Julia cocks an eyebrow as the alleged Aroden starts making his decrees and demands. Unsurprisingly she isn't exactly convinced by the transparent man's claims of godhood. Still... that didn't mean she couldn't play a part and maybe play on the figure's obviously massive ego.
Accordingly, Julia falls to her knees in mock reverence and pleads with "Aroden" for succor. "Oh please, Lord Aroden. My dear friend speaks true! We are trapped here with a door barring our way! Use your divine power to save us from this labyrinthine place and break it down for us. Show us the way, Lord Aroden! I beg of you!"
Lope advances towards the altar in order to have a better vision of the figure. He draws a gold coin into his left hand in order to keep his rouse and to divert the attention from the rapier still held on his right hand.
Valeria continued to remain fairly quiet as they explored the place, not really having a lot to say, and figured it was better for them when it came to being discovered. When they finally arrived at the shrine to Aroden and a voice claimed to be him Valeria was quite taken aback. Either this voice was the worst liar in the world or it was incredibly behind the times.
Valeria hesitated on how to respond at first but finally she knew that, if this was some kind of servitor of Aroden that was unaware of it's god's demise it should be told as much. The attitude made her think it was not something connected to Aroden though so she decided to pop that bubble and said, "Julia, please do not try to be humorous, it is inappropriate under the circumstances." Her gaze shifted to the alter, "It is common knowledge that Aroden died one hundred eleven years ago," her tone was gentle as she spoke just in case this was something that had once been connected to the God of Man, "We are now int he Age of Lost Omens and there is no going back. I suspect much has changed in the world since you were there."
When Lope and Julia play along and humbly ask for succour there's a chuckle from somewhere up in the rafters followed by a pompous booming voice from the translucent image, "Tithe, and all secrets shall be revealed!"
Lope advances with the coin in hand and the figure smiles, but then Valeria drops a bombshell. A thin reedy voice from above screeches indignantly, "What?! Dead! Age of Lost Omens! Aie Aie Aie!"
Triphylla's attention diverts toward the rafters, and then she immediately feels a fool for granting any legitimacy to this ruse.
"Come down here, gremlin! We only want to get out of here, and are not interested in your ill-gotten gains. You may profit for truthful answers."
Pelligrina doesn't see anything herself, but when Triphylla mentions a gremlin she goes looking for it.
"A gremlin you say?" Lope follows Triphylla's stare to the rafters and exhales a bit deceived. With a quick swift movement he makes the coin tilt in the air and stores it back into his pouch "Well then, would you be a good lad and help us find the key we need to get out of here?"
Lope also looks around the altar in case there is here what the group is looking after.
Julia spotted the gremlin right as Triphylla helpfully told her and the rest of the party what exactly she was looking at. "A bit tiny for a god, eh," she says with a wryly smile.
She shook her head trying her best not to break out laughing. They may have been trapped down here but at least the true gods saw fit to give them some entertainment. "Well now that your act is up how about you do as my friends say and help us out? Perhaps you can get something out of this if you do."
"Come down here, gremlin!"
The thin voice called down, "No I think not! Not with all those clumsy big feet around you! No telling who or what they'll tread on!"
The commotion attracted the interest of the nobles who crowded round to see. Upon seeing the temple, Sir Gryphus exclaimed, "By the inheritor this must be a shrine to Aroden, and look there's Iomadae and that must be Arazni..."
Lady Urbaen inspected the statues remarking, "An older style but the craftwork is excellent. Still as interesting as the temple is, I'm amazed there's plants growing down here lit by those continual flames. I wonder could this have an application?"
Jowuan countered with the point that, "A continual flame spell is what fifty gold in ruby dust or something on those lines, it's much more cost efficient to just pray for food and water, if you were unable to farm normally for some reason..."
The gremlin's voice grew shrill, "Aieee! Too many big feet! Too much noise!"
"Well then, would you be a good lad and help us find the key we need to get out of here".
"A key?" squeaked the gremlin.
"Well now that your act is up how about you do as my friends say and help us out? Perhaps you can get something out of this if you do"
"It's too noisy!" wailed the gremlin from the rafters, "You can have the damn key if you promise to go away!"
Julia made a wolfish smile as the gremlin finally caved in. Sometimes the gods caught them a break it seemed. "Works for us. Hand it over and we'll be well on our way."
Cyrene waits in the shadows for the rest of them to go and then slips out at the back of the group.
Triphylla ushers the nobles back into the corridor and away from the temple.
Lope retreats a couple steps and brings his hand into the components pouch. The Aldori starts to play with a pitch of blue powder while he waits for the key to be delivered.
If the key is given, he moves out with the others and goes try use it in the locked door.
The gremlin throws down something silvery which clatters near Lopes feet and cries, "Go away! Please! Please! Please! PLEAAASE!"
Lope picks up a key with complicated looking bitting, he checks the dual custody lock in the other room and the key turns with a click. The door however does not open.
The kobold Mimips seemed to be setting up a crude stall having dragged a sheet over the table. Excitedly he yips at Lope when the Aldori tries the key.
There was only one other way to go, so the party explored the other end of the tunnel which turned south after eighty feet or so. The door was covered in circles and diagrams but again these proved to be harmless and the door was unlocked. Lope pushed the it open to reveal a squarish shaped room thick with wooden bookshelves on the eastern and western walls. Bundles of paper, scroll tubes, and thick tomes cram these shelves nearly to bursting. Layers of dust coat some areas of the chamber, but others remain suspiciously clean. Books and papers crowd one of the worktables in the corners, smeared with ink.
"Mostly rubbish," Triphylla observes in the last room. "But clearly someone has been obsessing again with the circles."
She checks the doors at the other end of the room for traps or tampering, and if she find none she opens one.
Cyrene doesn't pay much attention, it's just another dusty room filled with dusty old crap.
Pelligrina doesn't pay too much attention to the books and such, but one title happens to catch her eye. She goes to pick up the book after checking it well for nasty rodent droppings, which she refuses to touch. She mentions its author aloud.
Hmpf! Eros Glendower. This is old. He wrote about achieving immortality mostly."
Since she's standing there anyway, Pelligrina casts a cantrip to search for magical auras. She notices something from a scroll case and, after checking it for rodent poop first as well, brings it over to show the others."[/b]
"There's something magical inside."
Lope winks an eye to Mimips before leaving his stall room.
Reminding about the cloak the group just bought, finding everyone was either to polite or too proud to ask for the cloak, he looks around and decides to directly offer it to someone. His eyes halt on Valeria and he just places the cloak over her shoulders "Whatever happened in the Wound, I have confidence on your ability to keep us all up while there is breath remaining in you"
Lope oversees the room and pokes a few of the rodent's detritus with the pointy end of his sword "Doh, some heaving rodents have been around. We better do not disturb this place too much"
"Let's just open it, it might be something useful within" Lope comments, taking the risk to open the case if Pellegrina does not see it clearly.
As Pelligrina picks up the case, to her surprise it rattles violently and suddenly a scroll flies out with serpentine grace. It doubles back on itself and flies towards Pelligrina as if to attack!
Environment: Normal brightness
COMBAT ORDER:
Julia <----- WE ARE HERE
Scroll
Pelligrina
Valeria
Lope
Cyrene
Triphylla
Julia is up.
"Careful!" Lope manages to exclaim as the scroll takes life and flies out of the case "A Scroll Guardian! It is a type of magical construct that protects an area or object unless the proper password is used!"
Without losing time, Lope steps to the side, leaving some room for Cyrene, and thrusts forward charging his aldori sword with magic "It is just a piece of paper though, so it cannot be that tough!"
Valeria was relieved getting the key was so simple, it paid to be honest, at least sometimes. As they back tracked and stopped at the kobold merchant again she let those who could speak to him handle things and stayed off to the side. She was rather surprised when Lope brought the cloak over to her and draped it over her shoulders as he spoke to her. Valeria looked over at Lope and smiled slightly as she said, "Thank you Lope, you can be assured of that."
As they moved on and began to look through the dusty room she heard Lope mention that there were rodents and Valeria couldn't help but wrinkle her nose with distaste. She really didn't like rats and hoped they were long gone from there.
For a second Julia couldn't believe what she was seeing. A scroll suddenly coming alive and striking one her compatriots. Her shock didn't last for long though and the bard quickly started to move and unleashed her rapier on the malign slip of paper.
Cyrene takes Lope's cue and comes circling into the room to cut at the scroll from behind.
Julia thrusts but she misjudges the distance and misses, the scroll whips past her leaving a painful bleeding cut on her left arm.
<--- HIT
Environment: Normal brightness
Buffs and Debuffs:
Julia
Scroll
Pelligrina
Valeria
Lope
Cyrene
Triphylla
Julia Bleed 1d2
Scroll
Pelligrina
Valeria
Lope
Cyrene
Triphylla
Damage Log:Round: 1
Julia was hit by Guardian Scroll for 4 (total damage taken 4)Totals:
Julia: 4 damage
COMBAT ORDER:
Julia
Scroll
Pelligrina <----- WE ARE HERE
Valeria
Lope
Cyrene <--- ACTION POSTED
Triphylla
Pelligrina, Valeria, Lope, Triphylla and Julia are up.
Pelligrina drops the scroll case with a shriek and steps back away from the fluttering thing. While burning it seems ideal since it's paper, she would also have to scorch several people along with it. Pelligrina opts to try dazing it.
Tragically out of position, Triphylla hustles back to where the excitement is.
2x Move