Mirinde glances up at Degan here, "Let me examine these symbols...This will not take long."
The symbols appear to be abstract and have no special meaning. You barricade the secret door and rest for the night. The flying emerald skulls find places to roost, keeping their gazes on you but otherwise not interfering. The night passes without incident, and Mirinde is able to copy the spell scroll into her spellbook.
Mirinde peers up bleary-eyed as she carefully stows her grimoire away. Glancing back over to the emerald skulls she then turns her attention back to the corpse next to the sarcophagus. Closely examining the body of the tall, thin man she prepares to summon her magicks...
Thesdipedes' corpse moves jerkily as Mirinde invokes the spell. It moves a bony finger through the dust along the wall, writing the words: "Ask your questions."
As the corpse begins to move, Istevan slowly draws his sword. He doesn't appear to be anxious, just wary.
Degan backs away. He definitely appears to be anxious.
Rather than drawing a weapon, he slinks into the darkness.
Mirinde pays no attention to those around her, totally focused on her spell here. Her voice eerily intones, "Tell me the Word to return those transformed back to their true form; And How can we bypass the emerald slab portal to reach the Emerald Sorcerer?"
The corpse scrawls out the answers to the questions: The word of power is 'yasmilon.' Speak it and offer a blood sacrifice to change man to emerald and back again.
To bypass the slab, proceed along the hall outside this room and go east. Seek the hidden door past the giant skull carving to enter the sorcerer's inner sanctum.
Having answered the questions, Thesdipedes leans back against the sarcophagus and goes still once more.
"Now we have the answers we came to seek," Mirinde nods in satisfaction, "A return to the sanctum is in order."
Istevan straightens from a crouch he didn't realize he was in and expels a breath he didn't know he was holding: "Whew! Okay, sounds like we are looking for a giant skull. Interesting decor choice..."
Roscoe picks up the brass frame holding the skull and presents it. "Is this one big enough"?
The hallway turns east. Ahead, you see stout iron bars set into the wall on either side, clearly designed to restrain something powerful. Harsh sniffing and scratching sounds come from behind the bars.
In the first cell are two large felines. They have tawny orange skin and furry tails. Most unusual, though, is that each feline has an enormous ruby implanted in its forehead.
In this second cell is a fat, listless serpent. Its skin is pebbly and yellowish. It does not even lift its head to acknowledge you, choosing instead to simply stare.
The final cell contains a gelatinous mass. It appears to have a solid central orb of a crystalline nature, from which extrude a tangled net of pseudopods. The central orb pulses as you approach.
Another door is set at the end of the hall past the cells.
"More experiments? Are these other townsfolk who have been transformed by the sorcerer?" and he mutters something about these cells opening to cut off their retreat.
Istevan will pause in case Mirinde or the others want to examine or discuss the creatures, but otherwise will push on to the door at the end of the hall.
Mirinde slows her stride as she gazes at the various creatures. "Hold, these may be worth our time to investigate further." She keeps her distance as she looks over each of the creatures, wondering if indeed they were the results of the Emerald Sorcerers experiments, or whether they came from somewhere else...
Roscoe picks up the brass frame holding the skull and presents it. "Is this one big enough"?
"I believe we are looking for a carving of a skull in the hallway. That is our point of reference to find the hidden door."
"More experiments? Are these other townsfolk who have been transformed by the sorcerer?" and he mutters something about these cells opening to cut off their retreat.
"Thesdipedes only spoke of the word's power to change a man to emerald or back again. I don't know what we could do for these creatures. I could possibly jam their locks so that they cannot open, in order to prevent them from coming out to surround us, but doing so may doom them to a slow death in captivity."
He waits for Mirinde's examination of the creatures.
Clancy has his shield and warhammer at the ready as he stares at the strange creatures held in the cages. "Be careful, Mirinde. I don't like the looks of that gelatinous... thing. It might be able to reach you between the bars."
The felines and serpent appear to have been mundane creatures that have been experimented on. The gelatinous being, however, defies explanation.
To casual examination, there doesn’t appear to be any way of opening the cell doors. They are solid bars set into the floor and ceiling encased by masonry. You could get closer to examine the doors more thoroughly, but that may expose you to attack from the caged beasts.
Roscoe warily eyes the creatures and is anxious to get past them and on with the quest.
"Let's just leave them alone and find the wall skull".
He walks along the wall as far from these cages as possible, then waits out of their reach.
Clancy gives the bars a wide berth as well, then smiles grimly at Roscoe. "Lead on." It is clear that the cleric is uncomfortable leaving these things behind them, but it seems foolish to go looking for trouble - unless someone else comes up with a good reason to do so.
The way forward seems clear, and so Roscoe opens the door at the end of the hall. Unfortunately, Degan's search failed to uncover a hidden spring attached to one of the door's hinges. When the door opens, the bars in each cell in the hallway drop into the floor with a loud clang! The two ruby cats, the topaz serpent, and the strange gelatinous creature start to move out of their cells...
Degan will move through the door, away from the creatures.
If possible, he will valiantly place his companions between himself and the threats.
As Degan retreats from the enemies, the felines stalk out of their cell. Yowling, the rubies in their foreheads glow brightly as deadly waves of heat blast forth at Clancy! One beam grazes the cleric's arm, while the other one burns a hole in his chest, the wound continuing to glow red-hot!
Meanwhile, the topaz serpent slithers out of its cell, moving to bite at Istevan! The warrior avoids its snapping jaws.
The gelatinous creature quivers, its central orb pulsing. It remains in its cell for the time being...
Clancy staggers back as the ruby red ray blast into his chest, burning through his armor and making the graze across his arm seem insignificant by comparison. The cleric fights the urge to leap into the fray, realizing he must heal himself to be of any use in the fight. He calls upon Justicia to bring him healing, so that he might aid his friends against these monstrosities, but he feels no soothing relief...
= Nope! +1 Disapproval
"Get back Clancy you fool!" Mirinde cries out as she tries to summon aid for the party!
She barely manages to call forth a miniature version of the feline creature (sans ruby) to oppose its twin here!
"Follow Degan!"
Istevan backs away carefully while taking a swing at the serpent:
"Away! Run away and close the door. We can deal with these creatures at a later time.
Roscoe in a flash of brilliance... and survival instinct ushers the others through the door and attempts to leave the enemy behind.
Make it so.
The connection with Justicia is tenuous at best, but as the halfling's gaze falls upon the cleric, Clancy feels the magic begin to flow...
As the worst of his injuries heal up, Clancy will follow the others as they move through the door...
Istevan misses with his attack. As he retreats from the serpent, it takes an opportunistic attack on him! The warrior just barely manages to get his shield up to ward off the snake's fangs!
As you all rush through the door at the end of the hall, Degan quickly works to disable the device. With a bit of luck, the thief is successful. The heavy door slams shut, keeping you safe from the creatures that are now roaming on the far side. Of course, you'll have to deal with them if you come back this way, but for the moment, you are safe.
The flying emerald skulls swiftly followed you through the door before it closed. They continue to flutter about, keeping you in their sights.
Istevan takes a shaky breath: "That was entirely too close for comfort! Nice work on the door, Degan."
Clapping Clancy on the shoulder: "Looks like you took the worst of it there -- do you need a minute?"
"Yes indeed, it would be wise to rest for a moment," Mirinde agrees, "Then we need to keep moving. We mustn't keep our watchers waiting." She points to the floating skulls.
The hall leads into a wide room dominated by a massive carving of a skull inscribed into the northern wall. Its eyes are painted red and its teeth painted green. Otherwise the room is empty.
"Alright -- the sorcerer's inner sanctum was through a secret door in the room with the skull, right? Degan, this is your area of expertise, but let us know how to help."
Istevan will start poking around at things in the room, looking for "secrets" that he probably has no hope of finding...
"Of course, Isteván."
Degan begins searching for secret doors.
Before Degan gets too far into the room, he discovers several pressure plates on the floor! There is a trap set to cause bars to drop from the ceiling behind anybody who steps on them, trapping them inside the room.
Avoiding the trap, the thief continues his search. He discovers a lose stone in the wall. When depressed, it causes a secret door next to the giant skull carving to click open.
Unfortunately, at the same time, the giant skull animates! Its red eyes begin to glow with energy as its teeth chomp and gnash! Meanwhile, the eye sockets of the two flying emerald skulls that have been following you this whole time start to glow red as well...
The skulls attack before you can react! Degan lives up to his moniker as the "unlucky" as a burning beam from the giant skull's eyes strikes him in the chest, laying him low! Mirinde takes a hit as well.
The smaller skulls blast Clancy and Mirinde with ruby eye-beams!
Roscoe turns to one of the mean watchers and attacks with both handaxes.
Handaxe 1
Edge 1
Handaxe 2
Edge 2
"And here I thought we were becoming friends".
"We need to get out of here!" Mirinde screams as she staggers here. Displaying an unusual amount of bravery here she retreats to the doorway and desperately calls upon her patron to strike at the floating skulls....
"Back! Into the hallway!" Clancy calls out, clearly in agreement with Mirinde's sentiments. He rushes forward to grab the fallen thief, wrapping one arm around Degan's thin chest and using his other to hold up the shield and fend off any further rays of death. "Istevan! Help me and lets fall back! Roscoe, Zathra! Cover us and get that door shut when we're through!" The cleric shouts as he does his best to stagger back through the door.
"Got you! Go"!
Istevan rushes across the room, scoops up the other end of Degan, and rushes with Clancy to the hallway, dodging around the pressure plates. When they are safely inside, he will spin back around to deal with the flying skulls.
Roscoe's attacks miss the flying skull. Following Clancy's advice, he moves with the rest of the group back into the hallway, out of view of the giant skull carving's deadly eye-beams. The two flying skulls zip after you in pursuit, however, firing as they go! Zathra takes a glancing hit.
Knowing Clancy is needed to tend to the dying Degan Mirinde draws her bow and sends an arrow at the closer skull, "Tend to Degan! I will cover you Clancy!"
;
Easing Degan to the ground, Istevan leaps to the attack:
Clancy lays Degan gently on the ground, balancing that against the need to act swiftly as he drops to his knees and begins to murmur a prayer to Justicia. Moments later, he reaches out a hand to touch the thief's injury...
Roscoe decides to concentrate his attacks on just his favorite Axe.
HandAxe 2
Edge 2
"Quit spying on me! We should have locked you in a room ages ago".
Zathra manages to cut down one of the flying skulls with her polearm, destroying it! The rest of you fail to hit the second one, though. As Clancy heals Degan, the skull fires a burning beam at Zathra, singeing the woman's hair.
"Trapped or chopped down, certainly!"
Recovering from his stumble, Istevan chops again at the skull:
Mirinde staggers back and sends another arrow flying at the remaining Skull!
;