As Reed looks closer to the wall that Corlith points out, he doesn't notice anything special about it. And as he prods at it, little pebbles of stone crumble from the wall, just as he would expect to happen.
"This looks like it's a wall. Not a nice wall. And not something that will be in my posh mansion some day," Reed says.
Reed looks over at Corlith and shrugs then goes over to look more closely at the altar and everything scattered about it.
He pays close attention to the unlit candles to see if there's anything unusual about them such as having never been lit or connected to any pressure pads under them that they might set off a trap once lit.
IronMaiden sighs and walks over to where Corlith is stabbing a wall, as she presses her gauntleted hand against the stone, and then removes it, looking at her hand she presses her breastplate 'Not magic' appears in scrawled writing on her.
"Well you're not wrong, there's something up with it, something magic... Maybe there's a switch or something to engage some kind of arcane lock? It could be a secret door!" Looking round the room she too notices the black candles, pointed out by Reed "this could be a trap, move away a sec and be on guard..."
If Corlith and Reed move from the wall Archie will click her fingers igniting the black candles.
Roo almost struggles as Wilfred picks him up, then settles down and goes rigid and stiff in Wilfred's arms.
"I'll be back for you, clucker." He whispers as he is hauled out of the room. "We are not finished, and I will not suffer this outrage. I bet you're a cowardly featherless milksop even in hell you feckless dog. When I return I will unmake you so thoroughly that your mother's fat ass will kick over and die in whatever backwater indignant mammalian wasteland she pollutes with her putrid exhalations."
The rooster relaxes later and allows Wilfred to set him down without struggle.
"Thank you, Wilfred. I am afraid I got a little carried away back there dealing with our worthless assailant. Once we are done with our primary objective, I shall return to break everything in the room and ascertain the location of any living relatives of that coward. I apologize for allowing my rage to blind me and slow everyone down."
The rooster nods as if this is the most reasonable thing to do. While his eyes are always wide open, they seem to open wider as they enter the dark room with the alter of skulls.
"Ooooh!" He says with glee as he runs close to the room, stopping to strut his way around the alter as he observes it. "I like this room. It is a wonderful alter to Gallus and a perfect reminder that death comes even for you long lived simian things. No offense, Ironmaiden. You are clearly a superior being. Oh, and no offense to you either, Wilfred. You are an impressive specimen even for a hominid."
He nods, bobbing his head up and down and tilting his head about.
"Ironmaiden, if you would, could you light these candles? I'd like to get a better look at this marvelous work."
Virro steps forward to the altar, interested and ignoring the others for a moment. He puts his hand on one of the skulls, outlining the orbit. He speaks out to Reed and Corlith, in a monotone voice, “You’ll note this slight notch here in the superior portion of the orbit. That’s where the supraorbital branch of the ophthalmic division of the trigeminal nerve exits. It provides sensation to the forehead on that side. If you cut there, they can’t feel their forehead, or it will burn like mad!” He turns around and looks at everyone with an odd grin, then realizes where he is and what he is doing, then gathers himself again. “Ahem. Yes. I suppose one would light these candles, correct? Want to see what happens? Can anyone do that magically, instead of using crude flint and tinder? What’s going on with that section of wall over there?”
Reed watches the anatomy lesson about the skull with interest, running his hand over his own skull to find the spots mentioned.
"This is wonderful information to know," Reed says happily. "Think of how much more quickly you could subdue someone."
Reed then seeing IronMaiden and Roo about to light the candles, steps away from the wall and moves to the top of the steps, pulling his bow back out and nocking an arrow.
Ironmaiden turns to look at Roo, unmistakeably incredulous. "I'm not descended from apes any more than you would be if I plucked your feathers!" With that she snaps her fingers and sparks leap from her hands igniting the rest of the candles in the cluster where Corlith had already lit one.
As soon as Corlith and Ironmaiden light one of the cluster of candles.. nothing happens.
At least, not immediately. As the wicks warm up and the fires gain strength, what is different about these candles is that they shed a green light and it casts eerie shadows about the room.
On the wall, behind the altar, Black letters slowly begin to appear, starting from the bottom and creeping up to fill in the full letter so you can eventually read them.
Virro looks at the wall with a blank look on his face. The green light and eerie shadows don’t seem to bother him at all. He reads the message, and raises his hand up in the air. “Here. Present and accounted for. What now?” He turns to look at the others, his eyebrow raised in a questioning look.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
"Thank you, Wilfred. I am afraid I got a little carried away back there dealing with our worthless assailant. Once we are done with our primary objective, I shall return to break everything in the room and ascertain the location of any living relatives of that coward. I apologize for allowing my rage to blind me and slow everyone down."
The rooster nods as if this is the most reasonable thing to do. While his eyes are always wide open, they seem to open wider as they enter the dark room with the alter of skulls.
Wilfred will nod to Roo'. "Thank you for the apology. I don't know how much use it will be going back there. You'd just be fighting shadows of the past. Best to find something constructive to do to make the future better. And Roo', you are a part of this team right now. You gotta stick with the rest of us, you can't just ignore everyone when we are all telling you to leave something be. Gotta stick with your flock. Yea? Good."
Wilfred hangs back and lets the smarter folk take the lead here. He is about to poke the wall with his Glaive, then thinks better of it, after what happened last time. He prepares himself when they light the candles, Glaive at the ready. Then... huh. He looks at the words, then counts. "Umm, my count is six plus a possum.... This is a weird trap."
As you stare at the words on the wall and look to your party trying to figure out what the words mean, nothing happens.
While Corlith checks the altar a little closer, looking for blood stains, he knocks into the altar making the flames jostle and the whole room appears to move in the green light.
As soon as Reed speaks the words RISE AND BE COUNTED, the letters on the wall vanish behind the altar.
From behind the group, you can hear a commotion under the debris at the North end of the room where the wall had collapsed. Bones within the debris rise up and start knitting together, forming three animated human skeletons. They slowly start shuffling a few feet towards Reed and then stop.
"hey look Reed, you made some friends... Finally." IronMaiden points out sarcastically, she brings our her light hammer and readies for if the skeletons attack.
If Reed doesn't find anything obvious about the wall, he pulls a dagger out and prods at it a few times.
As Reed looks closer to the wall that Corlith points out, he doesn't notice anything special about it. And as he prods at it, little pebbles of stone crumble from the wall, just as he would expect to happen.
"This looks like it's a wall. Not a nice wall. And not something that will be in my posh mansion some day," Reed says.
Reed looks over at Corlith and shrugs then goes over to look more closely at the altar and everything scattered about it.
He pays close attention to the unlit candles to see if there's anything unusual about them such as having never been lit or connected to any pressure pads under them that they might set off a trap once lit.
Investigation: (20) = 20
Reed sniffs the candles a couple of times and rubs his fingers together and looks at the soot that comes off.
"These have been lit before," Reed says.
He turns around and smiles at the others.
"So, we light them again?" Reed asks. Then he nods his head towards the stairs going down. "Quick exit that way if another axe appears."
IronMaiden sighs and walks over to where Corlith is stabbing a wall, as she presses her gauntleted hand against the stone, and then removes it, looking at her hand she presses her breastplate 'Not magic' appears in scrawled writing on her.
"Well you're not wrong, there's something up with it, something magic... Maybe there's a switch or something to engage some kind of arcane lock? It could be a secret door!" Looking round the room she too notices the black candles, pointed out by Reed "this could be a trap, move away a sec and be on guard..."
If Corlith and Reed move from the wall Archie will click her fingers igniting the black candles.
Roo almost struggles as Wilfred picks him up, then settles down and goes rigid and stiff in Wilfred's arms.
"I'll be back for you, clucker." He whispers as he is hauled out of the room. "We are not finished, and I will not suffer this outrage. I bet you're a cowardly featherless milksop even in hell you feckless dog. When I return I will unmake you so thoroughly that your mother's fat ass will kick over and die in whatever backwater indignant mammalian wasteland she pollutes with her putrid exhalations."
The rooster relaxes later and allows Wilfred to set him down without struggle.
"Thank you, Wilfred. I am afraid I got a little carried away back there dealing with our worthless assailant. Once we are done with our primary objective, I shall return to break everything in the room and ascertain the location of any living relatives of that coward. I apologize for allowing my rage to blind me and slow everyone down."
The rooster nods as if this is the most reasonable thing to do. While his eyes are always wide open, they seem to open wider as they enter the dark room with the alter of skulls.
"Ooooh!" He says with glee as he runs close to the room, stopping to strut his way around the alter as he observes it. "I like this room. It is a wonderful alter to Gallus and a perfect reminder that death comes even for you long lived simian things. No offense, Ironmaiden. You are clearly a superior being. Oh, and no offense to you either, Wilfred. You are an impressive specimen even for a hominid."
He nods, bobbing his head up and down and tilting his head about.
"Ironmaiden, if you would, could you light these candles? I'd like to get a better look at this marvelous work."
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
Virro steps forward to the altar, interested and ignoring the others for a moment. He puts his hand on one of the skulls, outlining the orbit. He speaks out to Reed and Corlith, in a monotone voice, “You’ll note this slight notch here in the superior portion of the orbit. That’s where the supraorbital branch of the ophthalmic division of the trigeminal nerve exits. It provides sensation to the forehead on that side. If you cut there, they can’t feel their forehead, or it will burn like mad!” He turns around and looks at everyone with an odd grin, then realizes where he is and what he is doing, then gathers himself again. “Ahem. Yes. I suppose one would light these candles, correct? Want to see what happens? Can anyone do that magically, instead of using crude flint and tinder? What’s going on with that section of wall over there?”
Virro heads over as well to look at the wall.
Investigation : 17
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Seeing nothing of note about the wall, Virro comes over to watch the candles as Archie lights them…
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Reed watches the anatomy lesson about the skull with interest, running his hand over his own skull to find the spots mentioned.
"This is wonderful information to know," Reed says happily. "Think of how much more quickly you could subdue someone."
Reed then seeing IronMaiden and Roo about to light the candles, steps away from the wall and moves to the top of the steps, pulling his bow back out and nocking an arrow.
Corlith shrugs, "I am intrigued".
He moves away from the alter and the strange wall, then he too will speak a word of magic and point a finger at a candle, lighting it.
Ironmaiden turns to look at Roo, unmistakeably incredulous. "I'm not descended from apes any more than you would be if I plucked your feathers!" With that she snaps her fingers and sparks leap from her hands igniting the rest of the candles in the cluster where Corlith had already lit one.
As soon as Corlith and Ironmaiden light one of the cluster of candles.. nothing happens.
At least, not immediately. As the wicks warm up and the fires gain strength, what is different about these candles is that they shed a green light and it casts eerie shadows about the room.
On the wall, behind the altar, Black letters slowly begin to appear, starting from the bottom and creeping up to fill in the full letter so you can eventually read them.
RISE AND BE COUNTED!
Virro looks at the wall with a blank look on his face. The green light and eerie shadows don’t seem to bother him at all. He reads the message, and raises his hand up in the air. “Here. Present and accounted for. What now?” He turns to look at the others, his eyebrow raised in a questioning look.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Wilfred will nod to Roo'. "Thank you for the apology. I don't know how much use it will be going back there. You'd just be fighting shadows of the past. Best to find something constructive to do to make the future better. And Roo', you are a part of this team right now. You gotta stick with the rest of us, you can't just ignore everyone when we are all telling you to leave something be. Gotta stick with your flock. Yea? Good."
Wilfred hangs back and lets the smarter folk take the lead here. He is about to poke the wall with his Glaive, then thinks better of it, after what happened last time. He prepares himself when they light the candles, Glaive at the ready. Then... huh. He looks at the words, then counts. "Umm, my count is six plus a possum.... This is a weird trap."
"Why should we rise?", Corlith asks. "We are already standing".
He looks at the altar and ponders, "Unless this is for somebody who has been lying down on the altar".
He looks to see if there is enough room to lie down on the altar with all the candles, then looks at the bones.
"You don't think they kill people on this altar do you?", he asks looking closer for blood stains.
Investigation: Nat 1 for total of 1 - where did the altar go!?
As you stare at the words on the wall and look to your party trying to figure out what the words mean, nothing happens.
While Corlith checks the altar a little closer, looking for blood stains, he knocks into the altar making the flames jostle and the whole room appears to move in the green light.
Reed looks at the altar and the green words.
"So far these death culties haven't been the smartest," Reed says. "Is this supposed to be scary? Who's going to be scared by rise and be counted?"
He looks around and shrugs.
"They seem very keen on sacrificing and torturing people. Maybe something happens if there's a body on the altar."
As soon as Reed speaks the words RISE AND BE COUNTED, the letters on the wall vanish behind the altar.
From behind the group, you can hear a commotion under the debris at the North end of the room where the wall had collapsed. Bones within the debris rise up and start knitting together, forming three animated human skeletons. They slowly start shuffling a few feet towards Reed and then stop.
"hey look Reed, you made some friends... Finally." IronMaiden points out sarcastically, she brings our her light hammer and readies for if the skeletons attack.
Reed freezes when the skeletons stop.
"Has anyone dealt with animated skeletons before?" Reed asks and then looks over at Virro. "This isn't normal, right?"
When IronMaiden mentions friends, he remembers the rat and wonders where it got off to.
He then waves at the skeletons.
"So are you guys friendly?" Reed asks. "How about you tell me your names. That would be a good start."