"I say we back up. I would rather have stone to my back than a Skulk's blade."
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UtsanomikoBros before DoesRollin' in the thlayRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
The Gnight scowls over his shoulder at his comrades' meek indecisiveness. Surely this was not what heroics was about? To be faced with a heinous obstacle in the way of a noble cause and to back away?
Blublo sighed. He turned his back on the hall of floating cloaks and passed back inside the tunnel entrance. "Let's go look over that weapons stash and return when better prepared. Then we strike them down valiantly."
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simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
If you guys just want to backtrack all the way to the spot where Alead felt the magical item presence, say the word and I'll assume you simply backtracked your steps.
simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
I'm also assuming one of you will light a torch again, once you hit the completely dark areas.
As you move carefully back into the tunnel, the lights flash on and off several times - fortunately, your area was never significantly bathed in light, and nothing jumped out of the dark and yelled "boo". Without further words, you all turn east, then north, finding yourselves back in the room where Kreel was ambushed. Carefully stepping through the propped-open door, you make your way into the room of masks and dead bats, then head west and into the hall, moving until you reach the intersection.
To the south, though you cannot see it, you know there is the pitfall trap that Kreel activated. In front of you, there is one of the marked doors, which you now know stands for 'Z'. Around twenty feet to the north, on the same western wall, there is another door labelled 'D'.
Alead, remembering the feeling of magic in the air, instantly knows that the items they seek lie but twenty feet away, to the west and a bit south.
"Slime or floating Skulks, we will prevail." He glances behind himself. "Or at least one hopes."
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simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
I'm going to assume you move into the hallway and explore a little bit, not touching anything or coming too close to the walls. Also, being super careful about where you walk.
After spending quite some time walking the hallway, avoiding the known trap at the south of the hall, you now know two things about this north-south running corridor. For one, the three doors you had seen before were not alone - to the north, you discovered three more doorways labelled with runes, while to the south you discovered another three, including one labelled 'J'.
You also made the discovery that this hall is dead at both ends.
Gathering back in the middle of the corridor, in front of the 'Z' door, you begin to formulate a new plan of action, as well as sharing any relevant information you discovered on your own personal observations during the scouting mission.
Discuss further, ladies! Also, if you want to make a particular check while you were scouting the corridor, roll 'em now. Keep in mind that nothing came out to attack you, nor did you trigger any traps, so you're probably going to want to make (these are only a couple of suggestions) Perception, Dungeoneering or Arcana checks.
This what you all know about the hallway so far:
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Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
After walking the length of the hallway, Quinn lets out a sigh--not so much as to express weariness as to show he's thinking.
simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
Quinn:
You can tell this enclave is particularly well made, Dwarven engineering at its finest. The doors, however, are another matter - you can tell they need a key to be opened, much like the one in the party's inventory. However, you're pretty sure that there must be some other way of opening them.
You don't notice anything that out of the ordinary in the hallways, either.
"Hmm. The Runes on the doors would seem to very nearly spell "Jzadirune". I wonder if that indicates an order of safe entry -- spell the city's name right, and the ceiling doesn't collapse on your head. Of course, that begs the question of the location of the "U" room."
Alead pauses, humming to himself for a moment.
"Well, I suppose there's nothing for it but to try."
I changed it so I'm just taking a closer look. If it seems kosher, I'll use the key to open it.
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Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
"Definitely going to need the key," Quinn comments. "The dwarves didn't just shore up the ceiling and throw this place together." He runs his hand over the stonework and turns.
"Is that a...silent J or something? I mean, Dizarune...no?" His mouth moves, and he sneaks another look at the map. "Ohhhh."
Alead shrugs. "You only live once. Well, you do, anyway."
He puts the key in the lock and turns it, then pushes open the door.
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simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
As Alead pushes the key into the appropriate hole, there's a sudden change in the noise of the dungeon. What was previously silent is now flooded with a sound of cranking, clacking gears, with a slight grating sound of rust. It probably isn't loud enough to be heard from the landing room to the east, but it's rather startling at first.
Alead begins to try and push it, but finds it will not budge - not that way, at least. With the sound of more gears, the door rolls to the south and into the wall. From his vantage, Alead can see that the door normally resides partly inside the wall, with the bevelled stone simply providing a stylised relief from viewing raw masonry. In the open space directly above where the door lies, Alead can see that there are a number of moving, grinding gears, that come to a halt as the door stops rolling.
When everythig settles, the quiet returns - though it is now sprinkled with dust, let loose by the long-rested gears.
In the newly visible hallway, Alead can only see as far as the torch light will go - it's a small, thirty foot corridor, barely ten feet at its widest. At the other end, he can see a door labelled with a dwarven rune, identical to one Quinn earlier identifed as 'L'... uh, wait, no, 'I'.
In the middle of the corridor, on the southern wall, he can also see a round, dug-out hole, with piles of rubble and stone on either side. It looks similar to the ones you had crawled through earlier.
simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
Alead:
You feel the same beacons of magic items from before, but to the north. They're so close, you almost feel like you're able to touch them, if it weren't for that wall in the way.
You also feel some other strange magic - to the west, you feel the presence of another Magic Mouth ritual, with the same trademarks as the one cast upon the talking mask in the landing room. To the south, however, right on the edge of your magical vision, you feel something else - the markings of an Illusory Wall spell.
"I would guess that the items might be through the 'Z' door. As to the other two spells -- well, I'm not sure what those are. Perhaps the 'U' door is hidden behind a wall... perhaps not. Thoughts?"
"During my time with the Sect, they told me of hallways deep within their underground city that led to nowhere. Constant long hallways that met with other long hallways that descended ever deeper before turning back the way they came. Once when I was older the head priest took me to the first level of corridors. The bodies of those who had attempted to pillage our city were mummified from the passage of time, but you could still see where they had attempted to claw through the stone itself."
Kreel shrugs. "I wonder if we got the idea from the dwarves."
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simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
As soon as Kreel steps into the hallway, something happens that strikes everyone as remarkably similar to earlier events.
His foot goes onto the floor, and there's a clicking sound.
The floor beneath him, in a ten foot square, opens like a doorway in the middle. Only this time, wrapt in his story as he is, Kreel doesn't have the active perception required to avoid the trap. He falls down twenty feet, landing on a floor of thick, solid wood.
Tilt-A-Pit Trap attack versus Reflex - HIT!
Kreel lands in the Tilt-A-Pit Trap and takes 7 damage.
Battered and dazed, Kreel starts to recover - but as he moves from his prone landing position, he can hear the sound of gears beginning to grind from far below him. Though the torch light from above is dim, he can see that he's landed in a small chamber of sorts - the floor is ten feet square. What worries him, however, is what's on the walls - rows upon rows of spikes, slightly rusted, but still glinting with sharpness. The wooden wall stops around ten feet above the floor, with a small gap present before the stonework that trademarks these halls returns.
You doubt that pit door is going to stay open for very long.
Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
Quinn appraises the situation, and sticks a hand into his pack, removing a long coil of thick rope covered in pennants with elven writing.
"Swiped this from the Corellon festivals earlier this year," he says, "knew it'd come in handy." He tosses one end down into the pit. "Grab hold, Kreel!"
He looks over his shoulder at the deva. "I certainly hope that in yer rich and varied life you've done a rope rescue before."
I am unsure of how to proceed mechanics-wise...Athletics check? Endurance?
Alead grits his teeth and, as he begins to pull, mutters over his shoulder. "Can you handle this, Sorcerer?"
Kellus simply glares back at the Deva and tightens his grip.
Same question as Mike.
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simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
Standard in-combat rules. I'm assuming you were all gathered around the 'J' door when it was opened, so no need to play a move action. Unless you want to go to the other side of the pit (you can't simply walk around it), which will require you to make a jump move action.
So, getting out the rope will be a minor action, and dropping it down the pit would be the same thing. Anyone else can grab the rope, once it's out and dropped, at the expense of a minor action.
Actually pulling him out will require Kreel to make an Athletics check against DC 12. Usual climb rules will apply from there.
More mechanics will come into play as they come up.
Kreel stands up slowly, shaking his head at his own lack of balance and reaches for the rope.
"Well, that did not go well."
Athletics Check: [10,3] = (13)
Holy Hell that was close. So, climbing at half my speed would be 3. Does that get me out of the pit o' doom?
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simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
I'm assuming you're trading your standard action for a move action?
It'll get you close to the end of the pit, but you'll still be five feet away.
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UtsanomikoBros before DoesRollin' in the thlayRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
"Jinkies!" exclaims Blublo as he rushes up to the front and grabs a hold of the rope. "Let us pull at the same time! Reel Kreel!" He gives the best heave his little bitty arms can muster.
No whammies...
Athletics: 1d20+8 → [14,8] = (22). Well, about as much as I can hope for from IC.
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simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
With Blublo unable to pull the Goliath up, even with his mighty Gnight arms, they could do little but hold tight and catch their breath. An exhausted Kreel, having pushed himself to the limit, held onto the rope and looked down, into the dark pit. The spiked, wooden mouth below appeared as though it was hungry, yearning to consume him and keep him within this dark place for all time.
There was a clicking noise. With a gear-driven force, the coverings of the pit trap closed quickly and hard - though the Goliath in the way proved to be a small issue, but the pure energy of the doors closing knocked Kreel from his grip on the rope and back down into that dark pit. He landed as before, in a sprawled out, prone manner, taking the wind out of him and crushing some important organs.
Tilt-A-Pit Trap attacks Kreel's Fortitude using door covers - HIT! No damage, but Kreel is knocked from the rope.
Kreel falls 20 feet, landing on the pit floor and takes 12 damage
The people holding the rope watch as it is crushed, but still whole, between the twin lips of the pit trap's covering.
The pit is entirely dark on the inside, now, as no light can enter from above. Regaining his senses, Kreel looks at the walls from his prone position and thinks for a moment. Though his first few thoughts are not appropriate to type here, the most important one goes as follows - Am I moving?
From Kreel's perspective, there is a sudden jolt of movement as the room he is in moves like a felled tree, falling hard to the east. After a second that stretches for eternity, it slams hard into solid matter, creating a loud noise and driving Kreel downwards, into the spikes that used to be on the wall - now, they make up the roof and floor of this awful room. Fortunately, his flesh is protected by leather armour, leaving him unscathed from this vicious turn of events.
He can tell that gears haven't stopped moving yet, however.
Tilt-A-Pit attacks Kreel's AC with wall spikes - MISS!
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UtsanomikoBros before DoesRollin' in the thlayRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
The gnome falls flat on his behind from the sudden jolt. Yet without hesitation he bolts back up and draws his hammer. "Don't lose hope down there, or your life!" Blublo exclaims through the narrow gap. "Grab hold of something whilst we force open the hatch!" He jams the pointed end of the small hammer into it, forcing it further with a stomp of his boot, and then attempts to force the hatch open by prying with both the hammer and his tiny hands.
He struggles to make it move in the direction he intended. "A tad bit of assistance would be sublime here, fellows," Blublo says.
Someone can try assisting me, I think. 1d20+8 → [3,8] = (11) Yeah, I'll need help for sure.
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Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
Quinn moves over to the trap slowly, and begins trying to help force the doors to open.
simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
Bam! Right on the money.
With their brute force, Blublo and Quinn manage to push down upon the pit's lid and hold it down. Their torchlight shines down into the pit, revealing the mechanics of what has happened beneath their feet.
The wooden chamber Kreel was in no longer exists at the bottom of the pit. As a matter of fact, they can't see it at all anymore - with it missing, they can see several new, shiny points of interest.
A rather sturdy-looking wooden pole is lying flat on the ground, capped on one end with what appears to be a 10 foot square section of flat, solid-looking wood. On the other end is another cap, which is connected in turn to a massive series of gears and mechanisms, covering an area around five feet square. This section of gears is almost directly below the point where Kreel's chamber used to be.
"We need to stop those gears. We can dig Kreel out afterward, I think."
As Alead speaks, his mind is calling out to the Gods.
Help us. Please. As he prays, he feels the Will of his former selves adding their strength to his plea. There is resistance, and then -- acceptance.
Yes.
A bolt of light flashes from the Deva's outstretched hand and smashes a small section of the gears clear of the main mechanism. The clanking whirr comes to a gradual end and silence returns to the dungeon -- broken only by the quiet grunts of Quinn and Blublo, and a groaning from the pit that can only be Kreel.
Alead smiles in satisfaction. "Now we just need to get him out."
Sun Strike vs the gears: 1d20+5=13. Damn. Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes: 1d6=2 Total: 15 -- Hit. That'll be enough to stop the gears, right?
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simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
With a large section of their mechanisms missing, the gears come to a stop.
Posts
Blublo sighed. He turned his back on the hall of floating cloaks and passed back inside the tunnel entrance. "Let's go look over that weapons stash and return when better prepared. Then we strike them down valiantly."
As you move carefully back into the tunnel, the lights flash on and off several times - fortunately, your area was never significantly bathed in light, and nothing jumped out of the dark and yelled "boo". Without further words, you all turn east, then north, finding yourselves back in the room where Kreel was ambushed. Carefully stepping through the propped-open door, you make your way into the room of masks and dead bats, then head west and into the hall, moving until you reach the intersection.
To the south, though you cannot see it, you know there is the pitfall trap that Kreel activated. In front of you, there is one of the marked doors, which you now know stands for 'Z'. Around twenty feet to the north, on the same western wall, there is another door labelled 'D'.
Alead, remembering the feeling of magic in the air, instantly knows that the items they seek lie but twenty feet away, to the west and a bit south.
"Probably surrounded by traps and knee-deep in corrosive slime, but not far from us at all."
"Slime or floating Skulks, we will prevail." He glances behind himself. "Or at least one hopes."
After spending quite some time walking the hallway, avoiding the known trap at the south of the hall, you now know two things about this north-south running corridor. For one, the three doors you had seen before were not alone - to the north, you discovered three more doorways labelled with runes, while to the south you discovered another three, including one labelled 'J'.
You also made the discovery that this hall is dead at both ends.
Gathering back in the middle of the corridor, in front of the 'Z' door, you begin to formulate a new plan of action, as well as sharing any relevant information you discovered on your own personal observations during the scouting mission.
This what you all know about the hallway so far:
You don't notice anything that out of the ordinary in the hallways, either.
Alead pauses, humming to himself for a moment.
"Well, I suppose there's nothing for it but to try."
Arcana check on the door: 1d20+9=22
"Is that a...silent J or something? I mean, Dizarune...no?" His mouth moves, and he sneaks another look at the map. "Ohhhh."
As far as you can tell, there's nothing magical about the door itself.
He puts the key in the lock and turns it, then pushes open the door.
Alead begins to try and push it, but finds it will not budge - not that way, at least. With the sound of more gears, the door rolls to the south and into the wall. From his vantage, Alead can see that the door normally resides partly inside the wall, with the bevelled stone simply providing a stylised relief from viewing raw masonry. In the open space directly above where the door lies, Alead can see that there are a number of moving, grinding gears, that come to a halt as the door stops rolling.
When everythig settles, the quiet returns - though it is now sprinkled with dust, let loose by the long-rested gears.
In the newly visible hallway, Alead can only see as far as the torch light will go - it's a small, thirty foot corridor, barely ten feet at its widest. At the other end, he can see a door labelled with a dwarven rune, identical to one Quinn earlier identifed as 'L'... uh, wait, no, 'I'.
In the middle of the corridor, on the southern wall, he can also see a round, dug-out hole, with piles of rubble and stone on either side. It looks similar to the ones you had crawled through earlier.
Where are you?
You also feel some other strange magic - to the west, you feel the presence of another Magic Mouth ritual, with the same trademarks as the one cast upon the talking mask in the landing room. To the south, however, right on the edge of your magical vision, you feel something else - the markings of an Illusory Wall spell.
"I would guess that the items might be through the 'Z' door. As to the other two spells -- well, I'm not sure what those are. Perhaps the 'U' door is hidden behind a wall... perhaps not. Thoughts?"
"During my time with the Sect, they told me of hallways deep within their underground city that led to nowhere. Constant long hallways that met with other long hallways that descended ever deeper before turning back the way they came. Once when I was older the head priest took me to the first level of corridors. The bodies of those who had attempted to pillage our city were mummified from the passage of time, but you could still see where they had attempted to claw through the stone itself."
Dungeoneering and Arcana:
A = [3,2] = (5)
Kreel shrugs. "I wonder if we got the idea from the dwarves."
His foot goes onto the floor, and there's a clicking sound.
The floor beneath him, in a ten foot square, opens like a doorway in the middle. Only this time, wrapt in his story as he is, Kreel doesn't have the active perception required to avoid the trap. He falls down twenty feet, landing on a floor of thick, solid wood.
Kreel lands in the Tilt-A-Pit Trap and takes 7 damage.
Battered and dazed, Kreel starts to recover - but as he moves from his prone landing position, he can hear the sound of gears beginning to grind from far below him. Though the torch light from above is dim, he can see that he's landed in a small chamber of sorts - the floor is ten feet square. What worries him, however, is what's on the walls - rows upon rows of spikes, slightly rusted, but still glinting with sharpness. The wooden wall stops around ten feet above the floor, with a small gap present before the stonework that trademarks these halls returns.
You doubt that pit door is going to stay open for very long.
"Swiped this from the Corellon festivals earlier this year," he says, "knew it'd come in handy." He tosses one end down into the pit. "Grab hold, Kreel!"
He looks over his shoulder at the deva. "I certainly hope that in yer rich and varied life you've done a rope rescue before."
Alead grits his teeth and, as he begins to pull, mutters over his shoulder. "Can you handle this, Sorcerer?"
Kellus simply glares back at the Deva and tightens his grip.
So, getting out the rope will be a minor action, and dropping it down the pit would be the same thing. Anyone else can grab the rope, once it's out and dropped, at the expense of a minor action.
Actually pulling him out will require Kreel to make an Athletics check against DC 12. Usual climb rules will apply from there.
More mechanics will come into play as they come up.
"Well, that did not go well."
Holy Hell that was close. So, climbing at half my speed would be 3. Does that get me out of the pit o' doom?
It'll get you close to the end of the pit, but you'll still be five feet away.
Athletics: 1d20+8 → [14,8] = (22). Well, about as much as I can hope for from IC.
There was a clicking noise. With a gear-driven force, the coverings of the pit trap closed quickly and hard - though the Goliath in the way proved to be a small issue, but the pure energy of the doors closing knocked Kreel from his grip on the rope and back down into that dark pit. He landed as before, in a sprawled out, prone manner, taking the wind out of him and crushing some important organs.
Kreel falls 20 feet, landing on the pit floor and takes 12 damage
The people holding the rope watch as it is crushed, but still whole, between the twin lips of the pit trap's covering.
The pit is entirely dark on the inside, now, as no light can enter from above. Regaining his senses, Kreel looks at the walls from his prone position and thinks for a moment. Though his first few thoughts are not appropriate to type here, the most important one goes as follows - Am I moving?
From Kreel's perspective, there is a sudden jolt of movement as the room he is in moves like a felled tree, falling hard to the east. After a second that stretches for eternity, it slams hard into solid matter, creating a loud noise and driving Kreel downwards, into the spikes that used to be on the wall - now, they make up the roof and floor of this awful room. Fortunately, his flesh is protected by leather armour, leaving him unscathed from this vicious turn of events.
He can tell that gears haven't stopped moving yet, however.
He struggles to make it move in the direction he intended. "A tad bit of assistance would be sublime here, fellows," Blublo says.
1d20+8 → [3,8] = (11) Yeah, I'll need help for sure.
With their brute force, Blublo and Quinn manage to push down upon the pit's lid and hold it down. Their torchlight shines down into the pit, revealing the mechanics of what has happened beneath their feet.
The wooden chamber Kreel was in no longer exists at the bottom of the pit. As a matter of fact, they can't see it at all anymore - with it missing, they can see several new, shiny points of interest.
A rather sturdy-looking wooden pole is lying flat on the ground, capped on one end with what appears to be a 10 foot square section of flat, solid-looking wood. On the other end is another cap, which is connected in turn to a massive series of gears and mechanisms, covering an area around five feet square. This section of gears is almost directly below the point where Kreel's chamber used to be.
As Alead speaks, his mind is calling out to the Gods.
Help us. Please. As he prays, he feels the Will of his former selves adding their strength to his plea. There is resistance, and then -- acceptance.
Yes.
A bolt of light flashes from the Deva's outstretched hand and smashes a small section of the gears clear of the main mechanism. The clanking whirr comes to a gradual end and silence returns to the dungeon -- broken only by the quiet grunts of Quinn and Blublo, and a groaning from the pit that can only be Kreel.
Alead smiles in satisfaction. "Now we just need to get him out."