Gregolyn winces slightly when Marius hits the lizard-creature; unconsciously rubbing his own head...
He then looks to the now unconscious creature and says; "Yup, you're going to have one killer of a headache when you wake up..." adding; "I should know, I've been there..." under his breath...
Gregolyn stows his shortbow, moves over to the doorway (making sure not to disturb the bard) and looks to the room beyond...
The wounded troglodyte looks like he'll be out for a good long while.
Anadyr find no magical radiations within the next room.
Everything looks normal,although there are a few left over arms, and a dusty banner in one corner. Gregolyn spots a dagger and a light steel shield have retained their quality, while any other leftovers are rusted and dull.
Gregolyn moves into the room, and walks over to the dagger and shield to take a closer look...
He picks up the dagger, then the shield; trying to ascertain their value and significance, if any...
Gregolyn then turns his eyes towards the banner that sits in the corner collecting dust...
Gregolyn is able to identify the two items as masterwork, but can tell less about the aged banner. He believes it is not of significant value.
Anadyr follows his companions into the room, and says in a soft voice, "Sadly, nothing here is enchanted.... I imagine the magical items were the first things taken."
Gregolyn gestures to the dagger and shield, and says to the group; "These two items appear to be of quality. I have no use for the shield myself, but I'll but in a bid for the dagger."
After saying this, Gregolyn takes the opportunity to get a better look around the room...
Both doors are closed doors are made of dry wood planks. There are no locks but Gregolyn does notice a simple mechanical tripping device on the south door. It likely acts as a spring for some kind of trap released from the other side.
"Interesting!" Gregolyn mutters softly...
He walks over and kneels down in front of the southern door; "Yes, very interesting...
Gregolyn looks to his companions and say in a low voice; "It would seem, that someone wants to keep us out of the room beyond this here door...
Gregolyn focuses his attention back upon the door again and carefully leans forward and presses his ear against it, listening...
Marius watches Gregolyn carefully, still holding his blade within his hand. After all the dangers he's experienced today, he was expecting the boogeyman, or something of the like to jump out from that door. He took a balanced stance, ready to strike if need be.
Anadyr whispers wryly, "But the rest of the tower has just been so welcoming...". He walks closer to the door, standing in a guard position near Gregolyn.
You hear absolutely no sounds as you listen at the door.
Gregolyn having heard no sound coming from the other side of the door; frowns...
With a sigh, he says aloud; "Well, I don't hear anything coming from in there... I'm going to try to disable what I believe to be a trap that has been placed upon the door."
With that, Gregolyn pulls out his set of "special tools", takes a moment to concentrate upon his breathing, and begins disarming the trap...
Jali steps over the unconscious troglodyte and into the next room. She holds her breath as Gregolyn fiddles with the trap, hoping he succeeds.
Gregolyn easily disables the trigger of the crude trap.
Anadyr lets out the breath he wasn't aware he was holding when Gregolyn begins to put his tools away.
Oh, good, we didn't explode.... maybe our luck is improving? I thought about standing back a bit, but didn't want Gregolyn to think I had no faith in him.
He smiles and says, "Nice work, Gregolyn...That's one less nasty surprise, at least..." His tone shifts from light to pensive as he continues, "I must confess that it makes me wonder what's on the other side of the door that's so important... and how those green kids got in here without setting that thing off, for that matter."
Marius nods at Anadyr, and sighs a breath of relief. He sheathes the longsword he was holding, and takes a moment to gather himself. The adrenaline running through his veins from the moment of combat seemed to slowly leaving him. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, a technique he made himself while running through the wild. When he opened his eyes, he was much more calm.
"Let's check out that room."
Gregolyn, once his tools have been secured, wipes the sweat that had accumulated upon his brow...
He stands and looks to his companions to make sure they are ready, and with a hand upon the hilt of his sword, he carefully opens the door...
As Gregolyn prepares to open the door, Anadyr nocks an arrow in his bow and reaches for the magic within him, ready to fire at anything hostile which may lie beyond.
This octagonal room is covered in a fine layer of dust. It’s clearly been abandoned for a long time.
There is a crude improvised javelin trap aimed at the door. The room is otherwise empty.
There is a closed door to the east, which would lead back to the first room you climbed into. There is also the door in the room you came from which presumably leads to the central stairway.
Anadyr looks at the door to the stairs and back to Gregolyn, "Hopefully that one opens to more than rubble", he jokes, but keeping his distance in case of trap.
Gregolyn sighs...
"Indeed!"
He moves over to the door and listens...
Gregolyn is sure that all is silent behind the door.
Gregolyn turns and says to the group; "Well, all seems quite."
He then focuses upon the door again and checks it for any traps he may have missed earlier...
As Jali peers into the empty room, she notices the javelin that had been rigged to the trap. It certainly looked more effective than her tiny dagger. "Anybody mind if I take this?" Without waiting for an answer, she picks it up, then moves near the door the others are examining.
There are no traps found.
Gregolyn puts his tools away, and stands up. As he does this, he starts to dust himself off, and then stops; chuckling to himself...
"What's the use!? I'm already quite dirty..."
Still smiling to himself, he reaches for the door and says to his companions; "Everybody ready?"
Gregolyn then opens the door...
Noticing Gregolyn's actions, Anadyr smiles and readies his bow. He chuckles and says, "Better dust than blood, friend." And then nods in response to Greoglyn's question.
The stairs lead up to the floor above, the third level, where there is a door. The stairs continue on to the fourth level.
The door is locked and nothing can be heard behind it.
Gregolyn cautiously moves up the stairs to the next landing. Kneeling down in front of the door, he checks it for traps...
Anadyr shakes his head when approaching the next door, joking,"It seems someone has an overly developed sense of privacy."
One again, he takes up a covering-fire position with his bow, ready to release both an arrow and some of his magic.
Marius nocks an arrow into his bow and stands opposite Anadyr, pointing his bow at the direction of the door. Anadyr's joke forced a grin on his face. I wonder what terror will befall us this time...
No traps are found.
Gregolyn says; "Yes, well, at least they haven't felt the need to place many traps to enforce that 'sense of privacy'. At least not yet..."
With that, he pulls his tools out and begins to work on the locking mechanism...
Gregolyn pops the lock and the door springs open.
Across the room are two humanoid skeletons, wreathed in auras of fire. Their jaws open, as if screaming without sound. They raise their weapons to attack.
As the door swings open, Gregolyn exclaims; "Desna weeps blood!"
Gregolyn, shaking with fear at the sight of these unholy abominations, scrambles backwards towards the other side of the stairwell...
"What is it? What do you see?" Jali takes a step back, attempting to get a clear view into the room. At the sight of the burning skeletons, she gasps in horror. Her first thought is to go fleeing down the stairs, but she can't abandon her friends. This is what you wanted, Jali. You wanted to be an adventurer. Did you think it would be sunshine and roses and free gold?
Face grim, Jali forces a degree of calm on herself. When the first skeleton comes rushing in, she hexes it.
Anadyr grits his teeth as the flaming skeletons come into view and begin their attack. The curse escapes his lips without him even realizing, "By the Harp and Flute..." trailing off as he sees the flaming skeletal things move with such speed, closing in on him before he has a chance to react.
He drops his now-useless bow and draws his rapier and shortsword, with a small part of his mind shouting doubts about that plan, They have no flesh to stab, fool. What will your weapons do? His mind fills with fear for a brief moment -- and then begins to fill, instead, with wise-cracks, as it always does. He smirks a little at the bad puns pushing away the fear, and then reaches into himself and drawing forth the magic as he was taught.
"Now that's the most severe case of heartburn I've ever seen..."
A burning skeleton moves to the doorway and attacks Gregolyn.
miss
Marius delays his action.
Jali squints her evil eye at the lead skeleton.
fail
The other skeleton closes in on the doorway, stopping behind the other as the passage is clogged.
Gregolyn withdraws.
Marius drops his bow, and moves into the doorway while drawing his long sword. He then attacks the skeleton.
A narrow miss!
Anadyr draws and begins his song if inspiration.
The lead skeleton attacks Marius with it's sword and a bony fist.
Thanks to the witches hex Marius avoids both attacks.
Well, that seemed to work. Confident now after seeing the results of her hex, Jali focuses on the other skeleton.
Marius growls after the skeletons nearly hit him, then lets off a deafening battle cry as he brings his longsword downward at the skeleton. "Dodge this one!" he shouts at the creatures.
Anadyr keeps up his litany of jibes at the skeletons to inspire his companions, "Flaming skeletons... Flaming idiots is more like it...", and draws some of his magic into his weapons to try to strike them down.
Safe for the moment, Gregolyn uses the opportunity to steady his nerves by taking a couple of deep breaths...
Once a bit calmer, he puts his tools away, and then draws his shortsword...
Jali cackles and issues another evil eye.
fail
fail
Skeleton #1 does nothing.
Gregolyn readies an attack.
Marius lands a solid hit on skeleton #2.
Anadyr swings with both hands and misses.
Burning skeleton #2 moves after Marius.
Gregolyn is ready and stabs with his short sword.
Gregolyn slays the forward undead!
With the skeleton's back to him, Gregolyn sees his opportunity! He strikes at the skeleton with his shortsword...
Marius moves into the other room, knowing the dangers passing the skeleton on his guard. He ignores those dangers for the tactical advantage. Circling behind the skeleton, he brings his blade down on the creature, much in the same way he did to the other one.