"Well that's at least one poor soul to make it out of this hole alive."
Jakun goes back to the torture chamber and finds a few spikes. He uses them to secure the secret doors they came through.
Jakun listens at the southern door, Perception .
Neither one of the listeners detects any noise beyond the teak doors.
Tragon opens the Southern door.
Taishe reaches for the handle on the Eastern door, but sees Tragon open the South door, and waits to see what happens THERE first.
Jakun steps back, spells at the ready as Tragon opens the door.
The door is unlocked and opens smoothly. On the other side is a straight brick tunnel, like most of the others they have passed through. About 50 feet down the tunnel terminates in a dead end. There aren’t any doors in this stretch of hallway
"Hidden door?" Nahuatl ti asks, looking at the dead end wall.
Taishe appears next to Nahuatl, draconic horns perked up.
"Hidden Door?" the kobold echoes.
"One shall look."
The kobold scuttles down the hallway, slowly checking for traps. He finds none. He reaches the end of the hallway. It seems like slimy moss-furred bricks like the rest of the tunnel.
Taishe pauses, stroking his mustache-tendrils thoughtfully.
"One would be foolish indeed to build a hallway to nowhere."
The kobold takes a look around the end of the hallway, highly suspect that he is missing the obvious.
Like a secret door.
Taishe stares intently at the slimy brick face at the end of the tunnel. He spies one brick in the dim light that looks as if the face of it has been worn slightly smoother than its surrounding ones. He presses it and there is a *click* and the bricks swivel a hair, revealing another secret door. From the crack issues familiar smells - salt, sea mud at low tide, dead fish, rotten seaweed, even a whiff of tar. It smells a lot like a harbor.
He is certain with a bit more force the door would open wide, but he is leery of doing that himself!
Taishe turns around, and pads as silently as possible back to the others. His impassive draconic features somehow managing to convey extreme self-satisfaction.
"One found secret door. Cracked it open. Odor like a Harbor. Invesstigate? One cannot figure where target may be in thiss ratss nesst. No offensse."
The kobold directs the last comment to Norveg.
”Let’s be ready.” Weapons drawn, Tragon leads the way to the secret door. Once the party has filed in behind him, he opens it.
Tragon easily swivels the secret door aside. Like most doors in this place, its mechanisms seem to be well tended, and the pivot that the door is centered on is well greased. Tragon enters the next area silently, smelling the same things Taishe did.
The next room looks as if it started off life as a natural cave. This isn’t unknown in Opal. The limestone base of the city holds many small cave/ponds known locally as ‘Cenotes’. This one seems to have been extensively reworked by the hand of man.
The floor of the cenote is about five feet below the bottom of the secret door. Not a large distance, but inconvenient for maneuvering. The floor is dirty sand, strewn with various flotsam and jetsam. Across a small distance is the other wall of the cave, sporting a brick patch which looks identical to the one Tragon just opened.
The cenote is narrow, and drops down to the east. The harbor smell is more pronounced in that direction. There is also a distinct dripping sound echoing through the chamber from the east. The wall of the cenote curves as it falls away, limiting the view to eastward.
To the west, the cenote curves upward, rising to the north. That area is also blocked from view by the curvature of the cavern wall.
At semi-regular intervals, the side of the cenote seems to be propped up by old tarred ship timbers. Looking up, Tragon can see a lattice of similar driftwood/ship beams holding up a ceiling about 10 feet from the cenote floor.
Taishe peeks in the doorway behind Tragon.
"Hidden harbor for ssmuggling?" The kobold inquires softly?
Norbert slips through the door and looks around. "Noice place," he observes quietly to Taishe and Tragon.
Noveg doesn’t hear anything but the sound of water dripping. He can judge the water is dripping from several different sources from the timing and echoes
Norveg jumps down to the sandy floor of the cenote. He clambers up the five foot ridge to the other brick patch for a listen. Just as he readies his ear to the bricks, he hears a grunting roar coming from the upper side of the cenote. He looks over his shoulder and gets a bad scare. Visible from this angle is a huge crocodile! It is the type common in waters around Opal, known as a Cipactli. Cipactlis are large evil brutes, said to be part dino. This one roars, and swarms towards Norveg, only to come up short against a grating that pens it up in the upper part of the cave. It is unable to pass it. .
"So much for an empty unused passage." Nahuatl ti says with alarm, drawing her spear at the terrifying roar.
"Pets 'r kenneled, at least. Can't hear nuffin now, tho," the little cleric calls, still pressing an ear to the brick in an attempt.
"Trading in animals, maybe. But it's not like that thing is going to make a good pet." Tragon moves in and has a look around through the debris.
The debris is about what one would expect on a harbor beach. Some driftwood, seaweed, and a few bits of garbage - like lengths of rope and sailcloth. Tragon doesn't get the impression that it is more than what would wash up on a normal beach.
He wanders down the beach, away from the Cipactli. The beach slopes down and he sees a pool of water ahead. Several pipes stick out of the cenote walls that encircles the pool. The pipes drip water at various speeds. There is one very large pipe of about 2 feet in radius dripping the largest amount. He doesn't see any tunnel at his area past the pond. The ceiling is about 20 feet above the water level, and made of the same beam lattice as the tunnel.
"Pets 'r kenneled, at least. Can't hear nuffin now, tho," the little cleric calls, still pressing an ear to the brick in an attempt.
[dice=Perception (darkvision)]1d20+6
Whether the roars of the Cipactli, or the thickness of the brick, Noveg can't be sure. But he hears nothing
Taishe crawls down and also takes a look around. The kobold seems to be interested the plumbing situation. He strokes his whisker-tendrils as he looks at the pipes thoughtfully.
"Not a pet perhaps ... but a guardian it might do a fine job."
Narl takes a look at the pen holding the Cipactli to see how they might release the creatures to make certain someone can't come by and release them easily without getting too close.
”This place is huge. We will get lost down here if we’re not careful,” Tragon says. ”Where might we find what we’re looking for? I wonder if we should go back and try any dos we skipped before getting even further away from where we started.”
"One agreess." Taishe nods, still examining the pipes.
"One would think it, unusual, for thosse we hunt to be hiding among,... THIS,... when more comfortable quarterss are to be found."
The kobold strokes his whisker-tendrils again.
"One wonderss if we might not make usse of thesse as a disstraction in a way?"
”Maybe, but we have no one to distract at the moment.”
Taishe points at the pipes.
"Pipes are draining from somewhere in basse. If One were to block them, water would back up. There would be, at leasst, minor annoyance until it wass cleared again."
The kobold shrugs his narrow shoulders.
"It iss but a thought."
Taishe crawls down and also takes a look around. The kobold seems to be interested the plumbing situation. He strokes his whisker-tendrils as he looks at the pipes thoughtfully.
d20+7
Taishe recognizes the pipes as Xoltec ceramic work. The ancient people who had built the city Opal was built on were master engineers. They had brought water from the distant mountains via an aqueduct that still worked. These look like drainage pipes for the most part, likely the end point of the small sewer drains many of the rooms had in their floor. The largest pipe though could be anything. Taishe can see it drips a significant amount of water, although not a steady stream. Taishe can also smell that the water in the pool is brackish, very similar to Opal’s harbor and not what a sewer pool would normally smell like
"Not a pet perhaps ... but a guardian it might do a fine job."
Narl takes a look at the pen holding the Cipactli to see how they might release the creatures to make certain someone can't come by and release them easily without getting too close.
As Narl approaches the grating, he sees it acts as a portcullis, blocking the Cipactli into the further recesses of the cenote. The huge crocodilian beast roars louder as Narl approaches. Suddenly, there is a rumbling clanking sound. The metal barrier retracts into the ceiling!
The huge Cipactli moves forward, its massive mouth gaping wide!
As Tragon and Taishe turn to see what the noise is, there is a *zzzip* sound. Crossbow bolts wing towards them from several angles!
Taishe whirls, and cries in a gargling voice,
"IT'SS A TRAP!!"
"Of COURSE it iss a trap. WHY iss One ssurprissed?!?"
19 Taishe
18 Nahuatl Ti
13 Mystery crossbowmen
10 13 Spider
5 Cipactli
4 ???
?? Narl
?? Norveg
?? Tragon
The four crossbow bolts harmlessly whicker by Taishe and Tragon. The Cipactli fixes its beady eyes on Narl and advances
** spoiler omitted **
19 Taishe
18 Nahuatl Ti
13 Mystery crossbowmen
10 13 Spider
5 Tragon
5 Cipactli
4 ???
?? Narl
?? Norveg
13 Spider runs towards the pond, ready to assist
Taishe does NOT want to get turned into a pincushion.
NOR does he want to end up as a snack for his (DISTANTLY) related cousin.
The kobold is looking for a hidey-hole or some sort of half-decent cover. Where he can then (hopefully) use his inspiration and his crossbow to help his companions.