"Okay, maybe there's no need for arrow shooting." The teenager holsters her weapon, her attention fully captured by Emmaline's new idea.

"Hmmm..." Is all she manages to say, before the human starts jumping on the mosaic.

Izore is rendered speechless, her eyes widening in disbelief. Her hands instinctively cover her eyes, but curiosity keeps her fingers parted just enough to watch Emmaline's audacious antics. The half-elf remains paralyzed, unable to react to the paladin's words due to the initial shock. All she can do now is stand there, frozen, staring in terror as Miss Gladstone attempts to cross the mosaic.

Emmaline carefully continues her progress... Onto the green grass of the second panel... and the blue water of the third panel before pausing, taking a breath and saying... "Now the tricky part...

(OOC: Question. How far of a jump is it to the fire image on the mosaic? Is the giant rat in the way at all? Just trying to gage how challenging it is before I attempt the jump.) 

[[OOC: Can be prestidigitation be used to blow tiny objects (collecting the bird's pieces) towards a direction? Looking at: 

• You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor.

Doesn't specifically mentioning being able move objects but they are small pieces. And so hoping they're tiny enough to not require gust for the effect.

]]

Fiselius is taken aback as Emmaline steps onto the mosaic. After a moment of tension and seeing she's fine he turns to Vonbek and says, "G-g-guess we won't need that barrel?" Inside a part of him is slightly disappointed with the prospect of slicey-dicey barrel experiments no longer being needed. But he impressed with the paladin's deduction. "Good work on finding the solution." He waits in anticipation as she prepares to jump on the pyre. 

"I guess we won't", Vonbek replies, while shaking his head, and grumbling about the wasted ale.  

Emmaline continues her dangerous escapade across the mosaic's colored tiles, stepping first onto the green hillside section of the second panel. Once again, the floor is still, with no blades emerging to slice at the Paladin. The body of the giant rat lies in front of her, halved by a blade between the second and third panels. But Emmaline passes the rodent's body, stepping next onto the blue river section of the third panel. As she does, the mosaic remains dormant and still. The only panel of the mosaic left for the Paladin is the final one.

(@MAOShea the rat isn't in the way between Emmaline and the fire part of the mosaic! each panel is five feet long, so it wouldn't be difficult to jump there

@VitusW I'd say prestidigitation would work to move the bird pieces!)

As Emmaline makes her way across Fiselius begins collecting the parts of his clockwork bird, using prestidigitation to gather those stuck in more slicey-dicey predicaments. As she prepares to make the final leap he says, "Best of luck with the final test." If it's successful, he will begin to follow suit across the mosaic.

Emmaline's heart races as prepares for the jump... She whispers a short quiet prayer to the Morninglord and hops... Uncertainty suddenly striking her just as her feet leave the ground... 

Despite the Paladin's uncertainty, she manages to successfully jump onto the final panel of the mosaic. Her feet land upon the colored tiles depicting the evening campfire burning brightly on the hillside, and the floor beneath her remains safe and silent. Emmaline has correctly figured out safe passage of the mosaic's trap, and Fiselius follows her path afterwards. There at the other end of the corridor, the mosaic behind them, Emmaline and the Wizard see two doorways before them — one heading left, and the other straight on. It's too dark to see what lies in either direction without approaching closer with their torches, but from the doorway to the left comes the smell of smoke. What will you do next?

Emmaline's heroic countenance slips for a moment, taking on instead the enormous smile of an overachieving schoolchild who just passed her a big test. She turns, looks back at the others and beams, waving her hand wildly. "It worked! It really worked!" She shouts. "Come on! You've gotta see what's over here." With that, she steps off the mosaic and squats down on her haunches, gazing into the darkness and seaching through her gear for something useful. Waiting for the others before pushing on.

Vonbek attempts to cross the mosaic successfully navigating, just as Emmaline had done.  At the last panel he jumps for the pyre.  

Athletics 4+4 = 8

Acrobatics 6 + 3 = 9 

(wasn't sure if it was Athletics or Acrobatics, in the end, not much difference)

Gary sweat immensely as he try’s to traverse behind the others after all dwarfs are not exactly known to be nimble! 

Athletics: 8

Izore exhales deeply and wipes her forehead as Emmaline makes her way across the mosaic. The teenager is relieved that the paladin managed to cross safely. Surprised by her own emotions, as she barely knows these people, and yet here she is - worried they could have fallen victims to the blades.

"Emmaline, you are so smart!" The ranger exclaims with awe. "And so brave! That was amazing!"

As the others did, the half-elf tries to follow behind.

Athletics: 7 Acrobatics: 20

Once she (hopefully) makes it through, she looks around. 

Investigation 7 

Fiselius smiles as the others make it across. "To the left is a smell of smoke. And as my pappy used to say, where there's smoke there's fire." He continues, "Now whether that's because something is about to burn this tower down, someone is cooking a meal, regular torches, or some unknown monster I don't know. But, in my opinion, it would be better to check out what's causing the smoke lest it comes to bite us in the back. What say you?"

Vonbek, happy to still have all hits wits and not chopped into bits, walks gingerly, well as gingerly as possible for a dwarf, to the others.  He peers down each direction of the passages, hoping his dark vision will help him see something useful.  "It's definitely dark, can hardly make out a thing." "If you want to investigate the smoke, I'm in agreement".

Perception check 3+3 = 6

To your great relief, each of the companions cross the mosaic safely after following the Paladin's path across the colored stones. Once the entire party is safely on the other end of the hallway's traps, Izore and Vonbek examine their surroundings. Thanks to their Darkvision, the Ranger and Barbarian can see that in the room ahead of you sits a large stone well, into which the remnants of a heavily frayed rope descend. And in the room to the left, from which the smell of smoke drifts, they can see a moldering desk that might have once belonged to a lab of some sort, with shattered remnants of alchemical glassware scattered atop its burned surface. There are blackened scorch marks and smoldering small fires around the room.

The teenage half-elf tries her best to relay to the group what she can see in the two rooms, careful to be clear in her descriptions. Every detail matters and Izore wants to make sure she doesn’t lead the rest of the adventurers on. She is hesitant to step foot in either room, concerned about the potential of more traps. The encounters with the rats and the blades have left her more shaken than she lets on. But despite being the youngest, the girl is determined to not let the others see her fear, lest they think of her a coward. 

She inspects the door frames as best as she can for any potential triggering mechanisms.

“What do you think about the fires?” The half-elf turns instinctively to Fiselius. As the wizard of the group, he ought to know if something is created by magic. “Do you think it can be a spell to be here so long? Or should we be concerned about someone else keeping us company in here?”

Perception 10 if needed

The Ranger inspects the door frames leading into each room for further traps or mechanisms — such as the mosaic they had just crossed. But Izore finds nothing of the sort, and it seems to her that the danger lies beyond the threshold of the two directions, whatever it might be.

(sorry about that, I somehow didn't read the sentence about inspecting!)

Emmaline follows Izore's look towards Fiselius. "I was wondering the same thing. Any thoughts, Wizard friend?"

She then looks to the others with a grin on her face and hand on the hilt of her sword. "I'm all for inspecting it either way though. Your Pappy seems a wise man, Fiselius."

"A fair question as to if they're magical in origin." says Fiselius, approaching the door of the room. He takes a look at what he can see to see whether the flames seem natural or magical. 

Arcana: 17+3 = 20

(so sorry for the wait, everybody! I got sick this past weekend and I've been suffering since lmao)

The Wizard approaches the doorway of the room, and he can now pick up the scent of burned meat in the air along with the smell of smoke. Peering closer into the dark room illuminated only by the crackling of the scattered fires — Fiselius can see the remains of wooden furniture that have been blackened and burned in places, and what may have once been a pile of books has been reduced to crumbling ashes. Singed traces of what appears to be spiderwebs hang from the ceiling. Examining the flames with his arcane knowledge, the Wizard deduces that the fires themselves are natural, not burning as the result of a spell. However, he considers that perhaps the source of the flames might be someone — or something — that possesses the ability to wield fire magic.