"Far be it from me to advocate risk-taking, but did you not encounter a false dead-end when you and Glimbul were trying to rescue us from the tumbler room?"
"You think it could be an entrance to somewhere, or something? That place had a balcony and stairway cut off from everything, there had to have been an entrance there, it made sense. This," he gestures at the small tunnel, "is just a featureless dead end. If you want to take a look yourself to make sure, but remember what I said about the tumbler looking benign?" He gives a genuine hearty laugh. "Look at me, cautioning you against recklessness!"
"I merely mention it as a reminder that appearances can be deceiving," she admits with a humble nod. She gives a little smile. "Though I'm pleased some of my caution has passed on to you, at least momentarily. Also, I neglected to mention, but it is nice hearing you speak again."
She looks at the rest of the party. "So do we risk this potentially false wall, or do we move on?"
After some discussion, Allister follows Glimbul into the crawl way. Methodically searching the passage, Glimbul notices a narrow seam in the stonework that wraps all the way around the crawl way just past the bend.
Glimbul returns with Allister to the party. “I found something that seemed out of place in the passage. An unnatural looking seam in the stone was in the passage, could I ask you to check for any harmful magic before we try anything with it?”
The party waits while Nenne casts her ritual and she clambers into the crawlspace with the rogues. "I see no evidence of spellwork here. Nor do I believe you have missed anything in your investigation."
With the tall man punching the wall nobody seems to notice that Allister has crossed over the seam. He stands there, arms crossed, and saying „Maybe this is just a seam?“
Nenne rolls her eyes. "If I survive and escape this tomb, how long will it be until I can trust walls and doors again, I wonder?" she mutters. To Allister she says, "Make room, I am coming to you." And she follows him across the seam.
Lo decides to crawl to the end of the crawl way, his eyes intent on the end of the passage. He nears the end and Allister sees an interesting change happen ahead. With a loud grinding noise, the dead end section of crawl way begins to rotate and the passage sinks down as it turns. After a few seconds, it comes to a stop and the grinding abates, leaving a straight passage that without a dead end behind. A corpse lies in the center of the the newly exposes passage.
The eladrin watches the corridor shift and cut the party off from Lo as a cold dread washes over her. "Why is it when I follow you into secret tunnels people get trapped by moving stone?" she vents to Allister, out of helplessness rather than blame. "Lo! Are you safe?"
Something catches in her augmented vision and distracts her momentarily from her rising concern. She points to the remains. "The dragonborn is not undead, but it does carry a small magical artifact."
Boosey asks Nenne, "Shall I try to retrieve the artifact with mage hand? I have no idea how we will get Lo out of there, unless we find a way to set it off again."
"I am not certain we triggered a trap," Nenne replies as anxiety pours more silver into her locks. "This section of the tomb has been uncharacteristically noisy. I fear these tunnels are rigged to shift on their own. And I truly hope I am incorrect, because I have no understanding of how to fix this."
She regards the bard briefly before nodding toward the corpse. "Be delicate and wise," is all she says.
"Nothing but respect," Boosey says in reply solemnly, "they must have been snared like Lo has been." Using mage hand he begins to remove items from the corpse, being careful not to disturb it too much.
Boosey retrieves a ywkla, dungeoneer’s pack, a pouch containing 8 gp, an ivory back scratcher shaped like a dinosaur claw, a holy symbol of Bahamut, and a red crystal eyeball measuring 1 inch in diameter from the corpse.
Nenne closes her eyes to better visualize what happened with the goliath. "If I recall correctly, the tunnel began to descend when he approached the dead end," she says. "There is no magic in these tunnels that I see, so that leads me to conclude this is purely mechanical. Assuming there are no triggers or pressure plates that caused this, then it is either constructed to move independently on a clockwork schedule, or it is a counterweight system we can manipulate. I can think of nothing else."
She lets out a sigh to master her nerves. "We have little time to dither. He could be suffocating as we speak. My only ideas are to go back the way we came or to go further into this hallway and hope one of those actions triggers the hall's movement. And if we can somehow create a wedge so that the stone does not close entirely, all the better." She stops for breath. "How insane does that sound to you? Because it sounds insane to me."
Pondering for a while looking at the party salvaging items from the corpse he gets an idea. “Could we use the corpse to try setting the trap off again to return the goliath? It is worth a shot right?”
The dragonborn's bones are fished out of the passage along with any other of his things that aren't rotted away too badly. The companions decide what they can live without and Allister tosses those into the passage along with the bones bundled into a pack back. The weight triggers the trap again, this time it rotates up and to the left. When the grinding of stone on stone stops, an empty dead end is visible to the party.
As the empty passage appears with its dead end, Boosey curses silently. “We’ll have to get it to trigger twice more to get him out, then.”
Just as he finishes saying this, something clicks with the gnome and his eyes widen. “What if he is directly opposite us? He might be able to get out into that curve at the other end if this thing has simply spun 180 degrees. We need to find the other end of that passage.”
”Quickly, before he sets any more traps off. Come on, there’s no time to waste.”
"Far be it from me to advocate risk-taking, but did you not encounter a false dead-end when you and Glimbul were trying to rescue us from the tumbler room?"
"You think it could be an entrance to somewhere, or something? That place had a balcony and stairway cut off from everything, there had to have been an entrance there, it made sense. This," he gestures at the small tunnel, "is just a featureless dead end. If you want to take a look yourself to make sure, but remember what I said about the tumbler looking benign?" He gives a genuine hearty laugh. "Look at me, cautioning you against recklessness!"
"I merely mention it as a reminder that appearances can be deceiving," she admits with a humble nod. She gives a little smile. "Though I'm pleased some of my caution has passed on to you, at least momentarily. Also, I neglected to mention, but it is nice hearing you speak again."
She looks at the rest of the party. "So do we risk this potentially false wall, or do we move on?"
After some discussion, Allister follows Glimbul into the crawl way. Methodically searching the passage, Glimbul notices a narrow seam in the stonework that wraps all the way around the crawl way just past the bend.
Glimbul returns with Allister to the party. “I found something that seemed out of place in the passage. An unnatural looking seam in the stone was in the passage, could I ask you to check for any harmful magic before we try anything with it?”
The party waits while Nenne casts her ritual and she clambers into the crawlspace with the rogues. "I see no evidence of spellwork here. Nor do I believe you have missed anything in your investigation."
Pounding his fists together, the barbarian says, "I could push against it, and pound it. Maybe that could do something."
Made you look.
With the tall man punching the wall nobody seems to notice that Allister has crossed over the seam. He stands there, arms crossed, and saying „Maybe this is just a seam?“
Nenne rolls her eyes. "If I survive and escape this tomb, how long will it be until I can trust walls and doors again, I wonder?" she mutters. To Allister she says, "Make room, I am coming to you." And she follows him across the seam.
Lo decides to crawl to the end of the crawl way, his eyes intent on the end of the passage. He nears the end and Allister sees an interesting change happen ahead. With a loud grinding noise, the dead end section of crawl way begins to rotate and the passage sinks down as it turns. After a few seconds, it comes to a stop and the grinding abates, leaving a straight passage that without a dead end behind. A corpse lies in the center of the the newly exposes passage.
The eladrin watches the corridor shift and cut the party off from Lo as a cold dread washes over her. "Why is it when I follow you into secret tunnels people get trapped by moving stone?" she vents to Allister, out of helplessness rather than blame. "Lo! Are you safe?"
Something catches in her augmented vision and distracts her momentarily from her rising concern. She points to the remains. "The dragonborn is not undead, but it does carry a small magical artifact."
She glances back at the stone. "Lo!"
Boosey asks Nenne, "Shall I try to retrieve the artifact with mage hand? I have no idea how we will get Lo out of there, unless we find a way to set it off again."
"I am not certain we triggered a trap," Nenne replies as anxiety pours more silver into her locks. "This section of the tomb has been uncharacteristically noisy. I fear these tunnels are rigged to shift on their own. And I truly hope I am incorrect, because I have no understanding of how to fix this."
She regards the bard briefly before nodding toward the corpse. "Be delicate and wise," is all she says.
"Nothing but respect," Boosey says in reply solemnly, "they must have been snared like Lo has been." Using mage hand he begins to remove items from the corpse, being careful not to disturb it too much.
Boosey retrieves a ywkla, dungeoneer’s pack, a pouch containing 8 gp, an ivory back scratcher shaped like a dinosaur claw, a holy symbol of Bahamut, and a red crystal eyeball measuring 1 inch in diameter from the corpse.
Nenne closes her eyes to better visualize what happened with the goliath. "If I recall correctly, the tunnel began to descend when he approached the dead end," she says. "There is no magic in these tunnels that I see, so that leads me to conclude this is purely mechanical. Assuming there are no triggers or pressure plates that caused this, then it is either constructed to move independently on a clockwork schedule, or it is a counterweight system we can manipulate. I can think of nothing else."
She lets out a sigh to master her nerves. "We have little time to dither. He could be suffocating as we speak. My only ideas are to go back the way we came or to go further into this hallway and hope one of those actions triggers the hall's movement. And if we can somehow create a wedge so that the stone does not close entirely, all the better." She stops for breath. "How insane does that sound to you? Because it sounds insane to me."
Pondering for a while looking at the party salvaging items from the corpse he gets an idea. “Could we use the corpse to try setting the trap off again to return the goliath? It is worth a shot right?”
"Do it, and quickly."
The dragonborn's bones are fished out of the passage along with any other of his things that aren't rotted away too badly. The companions decide what they can live without and Allister tosses those into the passage along with the bones bundled into a pack back. The weight triggers the trap again, this time it rotates up and to the left. When the grinding of stone on stone stops, an empty dead end is visible to the party.
As the empty passage appears with its dead end, Boosey curses silently. “We’ll have to get it to trigger twice more to get him out, then.”
Just as he finishes saying this, something clicks with the gnome and his eyes widen. “What if he is directly opposite us? He might be able to get out into that curve at the other end if this thing has simply spun 180 degrees. We need to find the other end of that passage.”
”Quickly, before he sets any more traps off. Come on, there’s no time to waste.”