This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Theldrin slowly relaxes, having tensed up as the sarcophagus was being opened. He lets out a quiet, almost inaudible sigh of relief, then nods and begins searching the area for secret doors.
Khessa seems... to blush slightly? ... If I am here now, it is also thanks to the inner strength they gave me in decisive moments."
Xanrym acknowledges her thanks and says, "It's my pleasure. I hope to inspire you and the rest of The Company to accomplish great feats." To allay any awkwardness, he jokes, "After all, how could I write an epic saga about the heroes of The Company of the Grey Chain if we never do anything heroic?!"
(OOC: FYI - I was mostly just trying to ensure that Khessa had bardic inspiration to buff her saving throw in case she triggered a Glyph of Warding or some other deadly effect in the mausoleum.)
If no secret passages are found, however, Khessa also tries to open the other sarcophagus, that of the drow female.
Once we're ready to open the female drow sarcophagus, Xanrym dismisses the bonfire. He sets his lantern down on the ground so that he can load a bolt in his crossbow, saying ominously, "Even though one sarcophagus was empty, that doesn't mean that both of them are!"
Theldrin finds no secret doors in this area, and Khessa opens the other coffin. Inside you find the decomposed body of a female drow. She has been presented very meticulously, her bone hands placed on top of each other just so. Most of the clothing and finery she was buried in has rotten away, but her spidersilk cloak and ring inlayed with dark fur are untouched by time.
Nothing happens when you open the stone sarcophagus, the quiet in this dark place still overwhelming.
"...And indeed, this wasn't empty" Khessa notes, struck by the two objects that seem untouched by time. Could they be magical? She focuses her magically-enhanced senses [[ OOC: I think Khessa's Detect Magic ritual-cast before opening the mausoleum door is still active. ]] to confirm (or deny) the hypothesis... while delicately removing them from the corpse anyway - because, even if they weren't magical, given their fine workmanship, they should at least be valuable.
Theldrin finds no secret doors in this area, and Khessa opens the other coffin. Inside you find the decomposed body of a female drow. She has been presented very meticulously, her bone hands placed on top of each other just so. Most of the clothing and finery she was buried in has rotten away, but her spidersilk cloak and ring inlayed with dark fur are untouched by time.
Nothing happens when you open the stone sarcophagus, the quiet in this dark place still overwhelming.
Xanrym is surprised that there aren't undead horrors in either sarcophagus: "She must have been someone of great significance to Maroe to be laid to rest here. I find it hard to imagine the necromancer taking a wife! Perhaps a close family member: a sister or his mother?"
Once Khessa takes the (magic?) items she found, Xanrym can enter the mausoleum to help Theldrin [Tooltip Not Found] the second sarcophagus, the back wall, and the floor for any concealed doors or secret compartments. He also looks for any inscription (over the door, on the sarcophagus, on the mausoleum walls) that may indicate the identity of the long-dead drow elf.
If we find nothing else of interest in the mausoleum, Xanrym will take a moment to check the stone stakes to see whether those markers (combined with the notes that Xanrym read earlier in the library) shed any light on what Maroe was doing with this graveyard. Of course, they may have already seen the answer to that question in the Graveyard Revenant!
Xanrym does not approach the area to the south. He assumes that it just leads back to the "Hall of Audience," and he's worried about dragging The Company into more danger with little hope of finding a reward or some sort of treasure.
Two passages branch off close together in the western section of the northern wall, and apart of that western wall has been worked smooth. In the middle of that wall is a stone door. The air still smells like earth here, but the scent of rain mingles with that odor, and the burble of flowing water comes from the northern passages, and you can just glimpse a small body of water in that area.
The graveyard and the scattered bodies that fell from the Graveyard Revenant give Xanrym an uneasy feeling. Once The Company is done with the mausoleum and he has a chance to check the stone markers for the graves, he suggests climbing back up to the more solid ledge above unless the others want to do a more thorough search of the graveyard. He says, "Before the wraiths attacked, I thought that I heard the sound of water coming from the north end of the chamber." He suggests that they check out the passages to the north before seeing whether the other door leads anywhere.
Yes the items are magical, and no more secret doors. The stakes are somewhat hastily popped in, and there’s just as many simply lying on the door as properly standing up. They feature an assortment of drow names from many sections of that society; lots of nobles, but also lower class names as well. Quite a few stakes, espiecially the ones lying on the ground, feature just numbers: “#43”, “#18”.
Is the plan to explore the area to the north? If there’s nothing else, we can describe that mission.
[[ OOC: Khessa, at the moment, considering the party has just concluded a furious battle with a colossal monster, complete with lightning flashes and battle din, isn't worrying too much about being stealthy - because she assumes that if anyone was within hearing range, they would have already noticed the party's presence. ]]
"Hey, the cloak and the ring are magical!" Khessa reveals to her companions. "Anyone want to identify them? They might be useful right away..."
And if no one has a way to identify them, the blonde arcane warrior tries an empirical approach: "Let's see if they have a noticeable effect" and she tries the ring first. Does she feel different in any way? Is she able to notice any effects?
Yes the items are magical, and no more secret doors. The stakes are somewhat hastily popped in, and there’s just as many simply lying on the door as properly standing up. They feature an assortment of drow names from many sections of that society; lots of nobles, but also lower class names as well. Quite a few stakes, espiecially the ones lying on the ground, feature just numbers: “#43”, “#18”.
(OOC: @drumdigby - I guess that means that there was no inscription to indicate who the drow in the sarcophagus was?)
Xanrym takes out some paper to make note the names in case that information becomes useful later. He assumes that the numbers probably correspond to numbered experiments in Maroe's notes, but since Xanrym has no interest in this kind of necromancy -- other than learning how to thwart it -- he doesn't bother recording which graves had which numbers.
While Xanrym does that, Theldrin could probably Identifyone of the new magic items. Xanrym expresses some concern about lingering here too long in case the necrotic energy here reanimates the Graveyard Revenant. If The Company does wait for 2 ritual castings of Identify, Xanrym spends any of his remaining time just keeping watch on the graveyard, watching for any sign of movement from the corpses or from the dirt covering the graves.
Theldrin is happy to Identify the items but doesn't want to take the time to do so in the graveyard. He suggests the party move to a probably safer location first, at least back to the ledge above.
(OOC: @Ben_E knows that most magic rings and cloaks that would actually be helpful would probably also require attunement, but Xanrym probably doesn't know that. He's OK with waiting if the others want to figure out what those two items do before we finish exploring the upper part of the chamber.)
[[ OOC: Khessa, at the moment, considering the party has just concluded a furious battle with a colossal monster, complete with lightning flashes and battle din, isn't worrying too much about being stealthy - because she assumes that if anyone was within hearing range, they would have already noticed the party's presence. ]]
Xanrym agrees that anything within this chamber must have already heard the noise of the fight. The Company also entered this pitch-black dark chamber with 2 lights and a lantern, so they won't exactly surprise anything that may still be hiding int he north passages. On the other hand, if there's anything lurking there, it did not come out and join the fight when the two wraiths attacked.
Xanrym feels bad that he's the one who argued most strongly for exploring the Necromancer's Spike more, but he's the only member of The Company who has escaped injury in all of their fights so far. He doesn't feel like he's sharing the risk with the others, so he offers scout ahead and gather some information. He says, "If there's anything dangerous down those passages at the north end of the chamber, they must be bound to a location -- possibly guarding something? I could sneak ahead to see what's there just so that we're better prepared."
Xanrym suggests that the wizards could move their Light spells to something portable, like a couple of the unused grave markers, and then throw them up the northern passages. Xanrym could leave his lantern behind, aiming east or west, away from the passages. "That way, the light will be in front of me, and I won't be preceded by my shadow."
Unless someone has a better idea, Xanrym will scout ahead when the others are ready to move forward. He wants to start start with the easternmost "passageway" that leads north. That way, we can check the area from east-to-west until we reach the door at the northwest corner of the chamber. Basically, Xanrym would scout ahead while everyone else waits up on the ledge, hopefully close enough to help Xanrym if he gets into trouble but far enough back that they don't spoil his stealth or provoke any other monsters who might be guarding anything at the north end of the chamber.
(OOC: Skill checks in the spoiler.)
Xanrym - Stealth: 27 (advantage from Cloak of Elvenkind) to avoid being noticed Xanrym - Perception: 25 to see / hear what's there, especially if it's hidden
Theldrin is happy to Identify the items but doesn't want to take the time to do so in the graveyard. He suggests the party move to a probably safer location first, at least back to the ledge above.
Khessa accepts and leads the group back to the ledge. Once Theldrin identifies the object, she has no objections to the proposed strategy.
Khessa puts on the ring, and feels a warmth spread through her body.
Xanrym heads to the east side of the northern part of this cavern. Looking for hidden doors reveals that, in fact, this area has another secret door in this corner of the room. From the west, he hears the water again, but also a mad gibbering. There i something in that direction.
Khessa's blue eyes light up with wonder: "Hey, the ring indeed does something! I feel a warmth spread throughout my body... a real relief in this cold, humid environment! Perhaps it's a ring that helps protect against the cold. Since it seems to work right away, perhaps it's worth deciding who to give it to now!"
At that point, encouraged, the blonde arcane warrior temporarily removes her non-magical cloak with the mirror keywords and dons the magical one found in the sarcophagus, trying once again to perceive any clues about its effects...
(OOC: @Ben_E knows that most magic rings and cloaks that would actually be helpful would probably also require attunement, but Xanrym probably doesn't know that. He's OK with waiting if the others want to figure out what those two items do before we finish exploring the upper part of the chamber.)
Theldrin is happy to Identify the items but doesn't want to take the time to do so in the graveyard. He suggests the party move to a probably safer location first, at least back to the ledge above.
That is, after Xanrym and Theldrin finished searching the mausoleum, Theldrin was going to head back up to the ledge to ritual cast Identify on the two magic items while Xanrym finished looking at the grave markers, looking for inscriptions on the sarcophagi and mausoleum that might tell us more about the "occupant," and updating his map and notes. Presumably, the rest of the party would split up between the graveyard and the ledge while they're doing that to ensure that nothing attacked Theldrin or Xanrym while they were doing that.
After the Identify spells, we would finally proceed with the Xanrym's plan to explore the passages to the north.
(OOC: @drumdigby, could you remove the "fog" on the map so that we can see where the secret door is? I'll assume that we can resolved the identification / distribution of the new magic items already, and I'll just push forward...)
Xanrym heads to the east side of the northern part of this cavern. Looking for hidden doors reveals that, in fact, this area has another secret door in this corner of the room. From the west, he hears the water again, but also a mad gibbering. There i something in that direction.
As Xanrym moves worth, his magic cloak seems to blend in with the dark, stony walls of the chamber. As soon as he moves out of sight beyond an outcropping, you lose track of him. (OOC: Stealth check was a nat-20.) Xanrym is surprised to find another hidden door in this chamber. After listening to the distant gibbering, he creeps back south, returning to The Company. He doesn't want to approach the strange sounds in the other area before warning the others!
One moment, you're watching the dark tunnels for any sign or signal from Xanrym, and the next moment, he seems to emerge from a shadow cast by the Light. He appears suddenly and startling close to The Company. You may be glad that Xanrym is your scout and not a stealthy spy working for Fadheela! He lowers the hood of his cloak and reports what he found / heard.
When he reports that he found a secret door, Xanrym says, "Maroe was very secretive! Then again, I guess his paranoia makes sense. I imagine that the drow matriarchs insist on loyalty to the Demon Queen of Spiders. He wouldn't want them to discover how far he had delved into necromancy, especially his secret worship of the Demon Lord of the Undead." He points out that the shrine to Orcus was hidden behind secret doors and various guardians: the living spells, the glass spiders, and the mirror shade.
Xanrym says that he heard the sound of burbling sound of running water again, toward the other passageway north, but this time he realized that the sound was mixed with the sound of voices. "But it reminded me of Numa, that old drow we met in the tannery. But worse. It was a maddening sort of babbling that seemed to assault the mind as well as the ears." He speculates, "Possibly some undead spirit that descended into insanity over the decades. Or maybe that kind of maddening speech is what fiends sound like when they're talking to each other?" If Xanrym heard multiple overlapping voices, he'll say that it sounds like there's more than one gibbering creature in that direction.
Xanrym asks: "Do you want to check the secret door first? Or should we find the source of the mad gibbering before they find us?"
Xanrym votes for gibbering voices first. He doesn't like the idea of leaving any monsters who could get between them and their exit if they have to retreat from something worse through the secret door.
(OOC: Yes, Theldrin would be working to Identify the two new items, assuming the party wants to spend the time to do so right now. As far as further exploration goes, his interesting in doing more of that before a Long Rest is now gone after the battle with the undead and having used up all his spell slots, but he's willing to go along with party consensus.)
(OOC: Yes, Theldrin would be working to Identify the two new items, assuming the party wants to spend the time to do so right now. As far as further exploration goes, his interesting in doing more of that before a Long Rest is now gone after the battle with the undead and having used up all his spell slots, but he's willing to go along with party consensus.)
(OOC: Xanrym was just planning to finish clearing this area and then confirming whether the door at the NW of S20 and/or the northern end of the secret tunnel don't provide an alternate path to Fadheela that could help them avoid the rickety metal staircase. But he's willing to retreat back to the Mirror Room for their Long Rest once the others feel like we've done enough exploring for today. I think that we're in decent shape after our Action Short Rest, but if we end up in another fight as hard as the last one, we may not all survive in our current state!)
Theldrin slowly relaxes, having tensed up as the sarcophagus was being opened. He lets out a quiet, almost inaudible sigh of relief, then nods and begins searching the area for secret doors.
Investigation (with Advantage): 13
Xanrym acknowledges her thanks and says, "It's my pleasure. I hope to inspire you and the rest of The Company to accomplish great feats." To allay any awkwardness, he jokes, "After all, how could I write an epic saga about the heroes of The Company of the Grey Chain if we never do anything heroic?!"
(OOC: FYI - I was mostly just trying to ensure that Khessa had bardic inspiration to buff her saving throw in case she triggered a Glyph of Warding or some other deadly effect in the mausoleum.)
Once we're ready to open the female drow sarcophagus, Xanrym dismisses the bonfire. He sets his lantern down on the ground so that he can load a bolt in his crossbow, saying ominously, "Even though one sarcophagus was empty, that doesn't mean that both of them are!"
Theldrin finds no secret doors in this area, and Khessa opens the other coffin. Inside you find the decomposed body of a female drow. She has been presented very meticulously, her bone hands placed on top of each other just so. Most of the clothing and finery she was buried in has rotten away, but her spidersilk cloak and ring inlayed with dark fur are untouched by time.
Nothing happens when you open the stone sarcophagus, the quiet in this dark place still overwhelming.
"...And indeed, this wasn't empty" Khessa notes, struck by the two objects that seem untouched by time. Could they be magical? She focuses her magically-enhanced senses [[ OOC: I think Khessa's Detect Magic ritual-cast before opening the mausoleum door is still active. ]] to confirm (or deny) the hypothesis... while delicately removing them from the corpse anyway - because, even if they weren't magical, given their fine workmanship, they should at least be valuable.
Avery watches the surroundings for any threats: Perception: 4
Xanrym is surprised that there aren't undead horrors in either sarcophagus: "She must have been someone of great significance to Maroe to be laid to rest here. I find it hard to imagine the necromancer taking a wife! Perhaps a close family member: a sister or his mother?"
Once Khessa takes the (magic?) items she found, Xanrym can enter the mausoleum to help Theldrin [Tooltip Not Found] the second sarcophagus, the back wall, and the floor for any concealed doors or secret compartments. He also looks for any inscription (over the door, on the sarcophagus, on the mausoleum walls) that may indicate the identity of the long-dead drow elf.
If we find nothing else of interest in the mausoleum, Xanrym will take a moment to check the stone stakes to see whether those markers (combined with the notes that Xanrym read earlier in the library) shed any light on what Maroe was doing with this graveyard. Of course, they may have already seen the answer to that question in the Graveyard Revenant!
Xanrym does not approach the area to the south. He assumes that it just leads back to the "Hall of Audience," and he's worried about dragging The Company into more danger with little hope of finding a reward or some sort of treasure.
The graveyard and the scattered bodies that fell from the Graveyard Revenant give Xanrym an uneasy feeling. Once The Company is done with the mausoleum and he has a chance to check the stone markers for the graves, he suggests climbing back up to the more solid ledge above unless the others want to do a more thorough search of the graveyard. He says, "Before the wraiths attacked, I thought that I heard the sound of water coming from the north end of the chamber." He suggests that they check out the passages to the north before seeing whether the other door leads anywhere.
Yes the items are magical, and no more secret doors. The stakes are somewhat hastily popped in, and there’s just as many simply lying on the door as properly standing up. They feature an assortment of drow names from many sections of that society; lots of nobles, but also lower class names as well. Quite a few stakes, espiecially the ones lying on the ground, feature just numbers: “#43”, “#18”.
Is the plan to explore the area to the north? If there’s nothing else, we can describe that mission.
And how stealthy are you being?
[[ OOC: Khessa, at the moment, considering the party has just concluded a furious battle with a colossal monster, complete with lightning flashes and battle din, isn't worrying too much about being stealthy - because she assumes that if anyone was within hearing range, they would have already noticed the party's presence. ]]
"Hey, the cloak and the ring are magical!" Khessa reveals to her companions. "Anyone want to identify them? They might be useful right away..."
And if no one has a way to identify them, the blonde arcane warrior tries an empirical approach: "Let's see if they have a noticeable effect" and she tries the ring first. Does she feel different in any way? Is she able to notice any effects?
(OOC: @drumdigby - I guess that means that there was no inscription to indicate who the drow in the sarcophagus was?)
Xanrym takes out some paper to make note the names in case that information becomes useful later. He assumes that the numbers probably correspond to numbered experiments in Maroe's notes, but since Xanrym has no interest in this kind of necromancy -- other than learning how to thwart it -- he doesn't bother recording which graves had which numbers.
While Xanrym does that, Theldrin could probably Identify one of the new magic items. Xanrym expresses some concern about lingering here too long in case the necrotic energy here reanimates the Graveyard Revenant. If The Company does wait for 2 ritual castings of Identify, Xanrym spends any of his remaining time just keeping watch on the graveyard, watching for any sign of movement from the corpses or from the dirt covering the graves.
Theldrin is happy to Identify the items but doesn't want to take the time to do so in the graveyard. He suggests the party move to a probably safer location first, at least back to the ledge above.
(OOC: @Ben_E knows that most magic rings and cloaks that would actually be helpful would probably also require attunement, but Xanrym probably doesn't know that. He's OK with waiting if the others want to figure out what those two items do before we finish exploring the upper part of the chamber.)
Xanrym agrees that anything within this chamber must have already heard the noise of the fight. The Company also entered this pitch-black dark chamber with 2 lights and a lantern, so they won't exactly surprise anything that may still be hiding int he north passages. On the other hand, if there's anything lurking there, it did not come out and join the fight when the two wraiths attacked.
Xanrym feels bad that he's the one who argued most strongly for exploring the Necromancer's Spike more, but he's the only member of The Company who has escaped injury in all of their fights so far. He doesn't feel like he's sharing the risk with the others, so he offers scout ahead and gather some information. He says, "If there's anything dangerous down those passages at the north end of the chamber, they must be bound to a location -- possibly guarding something? I could sneak ahead to see what's there just so that we're better prepared."
Xanrym suggests that the wizards could move their Light spells to something portable, like a couple of the unused grave markers, and then throw them up the northern passages. Xanrym could leave his lantern behind, aiming east or west, away from the passages. "That way, the light will be in front of me, and I won't be preceded by my shadow."
Unless someone has a better idea, Xanrym will scout ahead when the others are ready to move forward. He wants to start start with the easternmost "passageway" that leads north. That way, we can check the area from east-to-west until we reach the door at the northwest corner of the chamber. Basically, Xanrym would scout ahead while everyone else waits up on the ledge, hopefully close enough to help Xanrym if he gets into trouble but far enough back that they don't spoil his stealth or provoke any other monsters who might be guarding anything at the north end of the chamber.
(OOC: Skill checks in the spoiler.)
Xanrym - Stealth: 27 (advantage from Cloak of Elvenkind) to avoid being noticed
Xanrym - Perception: 25 to see / hear what's there, especially if it's hidden
Khessa accepts and leads the group back to the ledge. Once Theldrin identifies the object, she has no objections to the proposed strategy.
Khessa puts on the ring, and feels a warmth spread through her body.
Xanrym heads to the east side of the northern part of this cavern. Looking for hidden doors reveals that, in fact, this area has another secret door in this corner of the room. From the west, he hears the water again, but also a mad gibbering. There i something in that direction.
Khessa's blue eyes light up with wonder: "Hey, the ring indeed does something! I feel a warmth spread throughout my body... a real relief in this cold, humid environment! Perhaps it's a ring that helps protect against the cold. Since it seems to work right away, perhaps it's worth deciding who to give it to now!"
At that point, encouraged, the blonde arcane warrior temporarily removes her non-magical cloak with the mirror keywords and dons the magical one found in the sarcophagus, trying once again to perceive any clues about its effects...
(OOC: @drumdigby - I think that we were going to Identify the new magic items before we explored the passageways to the north.)
That is, after Xanrym and Theldrin finished searching the mausoleum, Theldrin was going to head back up to the ledge to ritual cast Identify on the two magic items while Xanrym finished looking at the grave markers, looking for inscriptions on the sarcophagi and mausoleum that might tell us more about the "occupant," and updating his map and notes. Presumably, the rest of the party would split up between the graveyard and the ledge while they're doing that to ensure that nothing attacked Theldrin or Xanrym while they were doing that.
After the Identify spells, we would finally proceed with the Xanrym's plan to explore the passages to the north.
(OOC: @drumdigby, could you remove the "fog" on the map so that we can see where the secret door is? I'll assume that we can resolved the identification / distribution of the new magic items already, and I'll just push forward...)
As Xanrym moves worth, his magic cloak seems to blend in with the dark, stony walls of the chamber. As soon as he moves out of sight beyond an outcropping, you lose track of him. (OOC: Stealth check was a nat-20.) Xanrym is surprised to find another hidden door in this chamber. After listening to the distant gibbering, he creeps back south, returning to The Company. He doesn't want to approach the strange sounds in the other area before warning the others!
One moment, you're watching the dark tunnels for any sign or signal from Xanrym, and the next moment, he seems to emerge from a shadow cast by the Light. He appears suddenly and startling close to The Company. You may be glad that Xanrym is your scout and not a stealthy spy working for Fadheela! He lowers the hood of his cloak and reports what he found / heard.
When he reports that he found a secret door, Xanrym says, "Maroe was very secretive! Then again, I guess his paranoia makes sense. I imagine that the drow matriarchs insist on loyalty to the Demon Queen of Spiders. He wouldn't want them to discover how far he had delved into necromancy, especially his secret worship of the Demon Lord of the Undead." He points out that the shrine to Orcus was hidden behind secret doors and various guardians: the living spells, the glass spiders, and the mirror shade.
Xanrym says that he heard the sound of burbling sound of running water again, toward the other passageway north, but this time he realized that the sound was mixed with the sound of voices. "But it reminded me of Numa, that old drow we met in the tannery. But worse. It was a maddening sort of babbling that seemed to assault the mind as well as the ears." He speculates, "Possibly some undead spirit that descended into insanity over the decades. Or maybe that kind of maddening speech is what fiends sound like when they're talking to each other?" If Xanrym heard multiple overlapping voices, he'll say that it sounds like there's more than one gibbering creature in that direction.
Xanrym asks: "Do you want to check the secret door first? Or should we find the source of the mad gibbering before they find us?"
Xanrym votes for gibbering voices first. He doesn't like the idea of leaving any monsters who could get between them and their exit if they have to retreat from something worse through the secret door.
(OOC: Yes, Theldrin would be working to Identify the two new items, assuming the party wants to spend the time to do so right now. As far as further exploration goes, his interesting in doing more of that before a Long Rest is now gone after the battle with the undead and having used up all his spell slots, but he's willing to go along with party consensus.)
(OOC: Xanrym was just planning to finish clearing this area and then confirming whether the door at the NW of S20 and/or the northern end of the secret tunnel don't provide an alternate path to Fadheela that could help them avoid the rickety metal staircase. But he's willing to retreat back to the Mirror Room for their Long Rest once the others feel like we've done enough exploring for today. I think that we're in decent shape after our Action Short Rest, but if we end up in another fight as hard as the last one, we may not all survive in our current state!)
The items are Ring of Warmth and Cloak of Arachnida .
It's up to y'all if you retreat and rest, or keep going here.