Part 3: The Other Shoe Dropeth

Crossroad · Aug 29 '12, 3:07pm

"Oi, careful there. Don't you know that secret temples to angry gods usually have traps, or worse yet, curses?" Afterr chiding the bard and the monk, she turned and called to the halfling.

"Mister Redknife, can you go with those two lunkheads and look for tracks around that chamber? Who knows, perhaps you can keep them from losing their fingers, or their souls." Cheekily smiling back at the subject of her pointed words, she waved and went back to the tunnel. Aegon was still looking at the dead end, which Jan also agreed looked rather peculiarly put.

But rather than helping the elf, she skipped back down where they came from, passing by the room where Sai was working at, and turned to the first corner, where the dead Sinspawn sprawled over the rough tunnel floor. She poked around,

Dice Roll: 1d20+5
d20 Results: 20 (Total = 25)

trying to discern if there was anything of interest in the room.

Zuriel · 11:58pm

After a few minutes of poking around at the tunnel's dead end, Aegon noticed a separation in the stone around a roughly three by three foot section of the floor.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Brego studied the sculpture, but he could not place the figure depicted therein as one that he had any familiarity with, or one that represented any nation, religion or other group that he had heard of.

He and Veritas admired the ornamental quality of the ranseur, which was fashioned of polished steel and had hand-carved, ivory grips, but also noticed that it appeared to be well cared for and quite serviceable, as the blade held a fine edge.

Brego found that the weapon easily slipped from its stony grip with a soft 'click,' which was immediately followed by the emission of a cloud of yellowish dust that enveloped both he and his companion, causing them to feel weakened and sluggish.

Surprisingly, the cloud of dust was accompanied by a deep, gruff, roughly female voice as the statue's stone lips opened to speak! "What fools dare intrude upon the unholy cathedral of Lamashtu?! Turn back at once, else face the unfettered wrath of the Demon Queen!" the statue commanded, and then as quickly as the lips had come to life, they returned once again to their inanimate state.

* * * * * * * * *

Sai carefully investigated the door, but detected no traps and no magic in place. The rogue employed her newly acquired, high-quality picks on the door's lock, and after fiddling for a few short moments, she heard a tell-tale click as the pins gave way...

* * * * * * * * *

Poking around the cavern, Jan found nothing of interest about the room itself, but out of the corner of her eye, she did notice that the fallen sinspawn had begun to stir! Alone with the monster, and with mere moments to react, the fighter readied herself...

Karsh · Aug 29 '12, 11:55pm

"Huh." Noticing the unusual gap, Aegon knelt down, attempting to pry open the separation with his gloved fingers.

Kuroimaken · Aug 30 '12, 1:01am

Veritas coughed, his healthy lungs hard at work to expel the dust from within. Waving the air in front of him he posited, "I guess that answers my previous question. I've got a feeling this isn't just some out-of-service smuggler's tunnel, hasn't been for a while..."

Mick the Rogue · Aug 30 '12, 4:13am

Tom o' the Six Strings

Brego coughed several times before finally clearing his throat "Heh, what gave that away? The talking statue, the sinspawn or the creepy runes everywhere?" he asked beginning a coughing fit again. He looked at the newly acquired spear "It looks to be fine quality, a shame its not my preferred style of weapon, still I'm sure it will fetch a nice price to the right buyer" he said looking over towards the others moving eventually over towards Sai to figure out if she was getting any further with the door

Crossroad · 4:18am

Jan didn't blink.

"Okay, that's not good is it? Hello again, Mister Uglyface." Calmly, the warrior turned to face the rising abomination, raising up her shield, with the lit torch stuck on its place on the frame, to offer her better protection and illumination.

And then her free hand blurred.

One of her throwing axe was out of its sleeve and and into the air in a blink of an eye, not that either side did.

KingGoblin · Aug 30 '12, 6:05am

Gozzik Redknife

Somewhat unaware that the sinspawn was moving, Gozzik continued to gather his weapons. "Tracks? Yes, I suppose I could..." At that, Jan threw her axe, and retreated.

LucianV · Aug 31 '12, 3:02am

Saitylvaness Sylvari The Knight of Stars

Sai looked over from the door she knelt in front of. "Are you guys alright?" Seeing that they apparently managed to avoid the trap, she just nodded her head. Looking up at Tom as he moved to stand next to her, she stood up and dusted off her knees. "Door's open. I didn't hear anything on the other side, though with that flying screaming head, it's possible if anything is inside, they decided to keep quiet." Placing her new lock picks carefully back in their proper places, she drew her rapier. "Ready to see what is behind locked door number one?" Sai looked over for confirmation from Tom before opening it. If there was anything on the other side, she wanted them both to be ready to stab it.

Mick the Rogue · Aug 31 '12, 3:38am

Tom o' the Six Strings

"Nothing a little coughing fit couldn't cure. Ready" he said with an affirmative nod as Sai readied herself to open the door

Zuriel · 1:16am

With a deep, scraping sound, Aegon found that he was able to lift the roundish, stone cover and drag it aside, revealing a dark, narrow tunnel, just about wide enough for a human-sized creature to crawl through. The roughly hewn passage led approximately five feet below the floor and then turned abruptly north. As the ranger brought the stone cover to a stop, he could faintly make out the sound of speech coming from somewhere further along the secret passage; a single, hushed, raspy voice speaking in a

Aklo

very strange, guttural language.

* * * * * * * * *

On the other side of the locked door there was only another plainly carved, stone hall. Saitylvaness, and those who followed her, found that the passage led north about fifteen feet, and about the same west, then north again, and eventually joined with the staired hall behind the statue. There was also another long hall leading east for some distance before turning softly to the south and east. No sounds could be heard coming from either of the eastern leading halls.