The party inspects the sculptures and it seems there is dried blood on the fangs, with almost invisible tubes at the back of the necks. "It seems we may have to feed these things," and he gives the sculptures a suspicious look. "If we do, I would feel safer to try it without direct physical contact."
„How about a little cut and letting the blood drip into the tubes?“ Allister takes his cutlass, finds a crease in his armor and cuts his arm, just deep enough to get some blood. He holds his arm to the neck of each snake and lets some blood pour into the tube.
Allister pulls the bottle with the hydra blood out of his pack. „I don’t want to use too much of mine. Maybe animal or monster blood will help, too.“ He pours what is left of the blood into the left snakeˋs tube.
The slurping continues in earnest as the blood is poured in. After it is gone, the clanking of chains can be hear from the tubes as the right most door lifts into the ceiling revealing a vast chamber beyond. This vaulted chamber features a ten-foot-deep sunken floor surrounded by ledges without railings. Alcoves along the ledges hold painted wooden statues of hornet-headed humanoid warriors, each wearing a grass skirt and clutching a spear.
A gruesome throne lashed together of bone and strips of skin stands atop the west ledge. A fearsome horned skull surmounts the throne, and small skulls are piled around it. The seat of the throne appears to be made of stretched skin and has a metal scepter resting on it.
Shuffling about the sunken portion of the room are three gaunt humanoid figures in dusty robes draped in cobwebs, their eyes and mouths stitched shut. Armed with brushes and clay pots of pigment, they paint the walls and pillars with grim, poorly rendered illustrations.
Painted on the wall is a chronological display from left to right of heroes lost to the party. Funderburk is being buried under the raking claws of a kamadan on the far left, while Lo is nearly disentigrated on the far right. Even companions that went missing are there, painted in. The mural captures the party's worst moments.
"F-Funderburk? How?" Nenne looks down at Boosey, eyes puffy. "I think you are right. We've been watched since before we entered."
Her eyes settle on the scepter. "The plaque said to find the iron scepter's twin. What if we need it before we enter?"
She steps up beside Allister and invokes her deity's power to see into the Veil. (Detect Magic and Eyes of the Grave)
"The painters are undead. I see no others, though they might be hidden from me. No magic that I can detect at this range, but...everything you see...it's charred bones. The walls, everything." She looks pale.
„Could be that we need another scepter to safely enter, or we need this one to enter another room. How can these creatures paint all this? And why? Why are there no pictures of the Yellow Banner guys?“
“We should check the doors. If we enter and that thing shuts on us, we may have no escape route. Who knows what might be conjured up in there once we enter, or pick up the sceptre.” Boosey goes to inspect the door. “Wedging it is most likely to be futile too, anything underneath will likely just be crushed. Is this the army that sleeps in silence, do you think?”
He peers in at the statues. “Those bother me too. What if they deliver something similar to the locusts?”
To Nenne he says, “There are so many things unexplained about this place. How can they have known....unless.....” he rubs his head. “Has this Lich has access to our thoughts and minds?”
„How are we supposed to check the door? We don’t even know how it was raised. It’s looked so heavy a wedge won’t hold it up.“ Allister takes a step into the room and yells „Hey? What is this?“
The painters continue painting without showing the slightest simblance of recognition that they even heard Allister. Boosey notices that the stone door moves a bit as if its great weight is being held aloft by muscle. It will not last forever.
"Are we searching for more tombs, or are we searching every room systematically now?" Nenne asks, unable to tear her eyes from the depiction of Funderburk's demise - not having been there when it happened.
"We still have Shagambi to locate, and there is no sarcophagus here. You no longer have Kubazan - a great loss to us all - so whatever the kamadan can offer you is sure to help us survive down here. I don't think this is wise, warrior."
Allister hesitates for a moment, then steps back outside. „I hope we have someone elseˋs blood next time we open this door and we don’t need that scepter to find Shagambi. So where we go now?“
“How many tombs have we still to find. Shagambi is one and Unkh, will they have a tomb too? We could start by looking down those stairs. I’ve had an idea on how to deal with this door, but I would need a bit of time,” he looks down at his hands, “well some more than a bit, to create something”
"Eleven days ago," Nenne shakes her head at Funderburk and finally looks away. "I can hardly believe it was just eleven days."
She glances at Allister and says, "If we need the scepter, then we shall return. If we have learned anything, it is that the more knowledge we have, the better equipped we will be when this place tries to kill us all again. As for what is next, I agree about the stairs. Anything out of sight of those gargoyles is better for now. Though given their design and the clue on the plaque, I can't see us avoiding them entirely. We may need them, or what they bequeath when they are defeated."
"It seems like so much longer. This place makes time stand still." Boosey looks at his deformed hands. "We should return to this place later. If we enter the room, that door will close on us, I'm sure of it, and we may not have any way of escape."
The gnome raises a finger in the air. "I will need time to make a Fire Starter. With the blood we have, we can rig a vial up with string or rope to tip it into a mouth, enough to set the mechanism off. I can set the fire starter underneath to burn the string away, tipping the blood and opening the door, I just need to know how much time we would need. I can set a clockwork timer inside to set the lighter off from fifteen minutes to an hour, whatever might be best for us." His face wrinkles a little. "There's always the possibility that something could interfere with it, but it might well be an idea that allows us to escape that room if it all goes wrong."
"If we are in there and the door does close, we will know that eventually enough blood will be spilled to trip the mechanism and let us out."
Leaving the doors be for the moment, Boosey turns his attention to the chest at the foot of the stairs. Pulling out his sling, he whirls it above his head then sends a bullet fizzing down to strike the chest with a "thock". The projectile just bounces off, and lands with a gentle "pink" on the ground. "I guess it's just a normal....well, a chest".
The gnome waits for a moment to see if there is any movement from down below. When nothing stirs, he and Allister slowly and carefully check each of the steps in turn. Once at the foot of the steps, Boosey stops to eye the chest suspiciously once more. He walks slowly round it, expecting something untoward to happen at any moment, then when nothing does, he bends down to inspect the lock. The lock looks simple, but well corroded. "This is a job for the rogue, I expect," he says to the others. "Everything looks all right," and he glances round once more. "There's going to be some kind of trap in here. We'll find it eventually."
He takes a step forward into the room, and this looks as if it could well be one of the remaining tombs. There is s soft light which constantly changes colour, creating endlessly moving shadows emanating from a sarcophagus in the middle of the chamber. The coffin is opaque and appears to be made of crystal, eerily beautiful in this place of death and destruction. Boosey's gaze settles on it for some time, almost transfixed. Eventually he looks further round the chamber, four marble columns hold up a high ceiling and a twin staircase leads onto an upper gallery. His breath catches at the giant carved maze that fills the wall there.
Eventually he tears his eyes away from the maze and looks round the tomb at the lower level. Here, the walls are adorned by murals of minotaur's. The whole thing is a grand construct, magnificently built.
Allister goes to work on picking the lock, but he doesn't get very far before, quite suddenly, the tiles under Boosey's feet give way. A large area breaks away, radiating out from the gnome. He falls with a splash down and out of sight. His chilling, scream of pain follows shortly thereafter. An acrid smell of acid, burning flesh, and singed hair fills the air around Allister. The walls of the pit seem to be made of smooth glass. It is impossible to tell how deep the pool of sickly green acid is.
Allister walks as close as possible to the rim of the pool, gets his rope out and ties the nook around his waist. „Grab the other end, Nenne“ he says, then lowers himself carefully into the pool, kicks off from the wall and with one stroke, more painful than he could imagine reaches Boosey’s position.
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The party inspects the sculptures and it seems there is dried blood on the fangs, with almost invisible tubes at the back of the necks. "It seems we may have to feed these things," and he gives the sculptures a suspicious look. "If we do, I would feel safer to try it without direct physical contact."
„How about a little cut and letting the blood drip into the tubes?“ Allister takes his cutlass, finds a crease in his armor and cuts his arm, just deep enough to get some blood. He holds his arm to the neck of each snake and lets some blood pour into the tube.
Ravenous slurping sounds can be heard from the tubes as the little bit of blood trickles in.
Allister pulls the bottle with the hydra blood out of his pack. „I don’t want to use too much of mine. Maybe animal or monster blood will help, too.“ He pours what is left of the blood into the left snakeˋs tube.
The slurping continues in earnest as the blood is poured in. After it is gone, the clanking of chains can be hear from the tubes as the right most door lifts into the ceiling revealing a vast chamber beyond. This vaulted chamber features a ten-foot-deep sunken floor surrounded by ledges without railings. Alcoves along the ledges hold painted wooden statues of hornet-headed humanoid warriors, each wearing a grass skirt and clutching a spear.
A gruesome throne lashed together of bone and strips of skin stands atop the west ledge. A fearsome horned skull surmounts the throne, and small skulls are piled around it. The seat of the throne appears to be made of stretched skin and has a metal scepter resting on it.
Shuffling about the sunken portion of the room are three gaunt humanoid figures in dusty robes draped in cobwebs, their eyes and mouths stitched shut. Armed with brushes and clay pots of pigment, they paint the walls and pillars with grim, poorly rendered illustrations.
Painted on the wall is a chronological display from left to right of heroes lost to the party. Funderburk is being buried under the raking claws of a kamadan on the far left, while Lo is nearly disentigrated on the far right. Even companions that went missing are there, painted in. The mural captures the party's worst moments.
"F-Funderburk? How?" Nenne looks down at Boosey, eyes puffy. "I think you are right. We've been watched since before we entered."
Her eyes settle on the scepter. "The plaque said to find the iron scepter's twin. What if we need it before we enter?"
She steps up beside Allister and invokes her deity's power to see into the Veil. (Detect Magic and Eyes of the Grave)
"The painters are undead. I see no others, though they might be hidden from me. No magic that I can detect at this range, but...everything you see...it's charred bones. The walls, everything." She looks pale.
„Could be that we need another scepter to safely enter, or we need this one to enter another room. How can these creatures paint all this? And why? Why are there no pictures of the Yellow Banner guys?“
“We should check the doors. If we enter and that thing shuts on us, we may have no escape route. Who knows what might be conjured up in there once we enter, or pick up the sceptre.” Boosey goes to inspect the door. “Wedging it is most likely to be futile too, anything underneath will likely just be crushed. Is this the army that sleeps in silence, do you think?”
He peers in at the statues. “Those bother me too. What if they deliver something similar to the locusts?”
To Nenne he says, “There are so many things unexplained about this place. How can they have known....unless.....” he rubs his head. “Has this Lich has access to our thoughts and minds?”
„How are we supposed to check the door? We don’t even know how it was raised. It’s looked so heavy a wedge won’t hold it up.“ Allister takes a step into the room and yells „Hey? What is this?“
The painters continue painting without showing the slightest simblance of recognition that they even heard Allister. Boosey notices that the stone door moves a bit as if its great weight is being held aloft by muscle. It will not last forever.
With his weapons drawn Allister steps into the room. „This won’t hold forever. And I don’t want to waste too much blood to open them again.“
"Are we searching for more tombs, or are we searching every room systematically now?" Nenne asks, unable to tear her eyes from the depiction of Funderburk's demise - not having been there when it happened.
"We still have Shagambi to locate, and there is no sarcophagus here. You no longer have Kubazan - a great loss to us all - so whatever the kamadan can offer you is sure to help us survive down here. I don't think this is wise, warrior."
Allister hesitates for a moment, then steps back outside. „I hope we have someone elseˋs blood next time we open this door and we don’t need that scepter to find Shagambi. So where we go now?“
“How many tombs have we still to find. Shagambi is one and Unkh, will they have a tomb too? We could start by looking down those stairs. I’ve had an idea on how to deal with this door, but I would need a bit of time,” he looks down at his hands, “well some more than a bit, to create something”
"Eleven days ago," Nenne shakes her head at Funderburk and finally looks away. "I can hardly believe it was just eleven days."
She glances at Allister and says, "If we need the scepter, then we shall return. If we have learned anything, it is that the more knowledge we have, the better equipped we will be when this place tries to kill us all again. As for what is next, I agree about the stairs. Anything out of sight of those gargoyles is better for now. Though given their design and the clue on the plaque, I can't see us avoiding them entirely. We may need them, or what they bequeath when they are defeated."
"It seems like so much longer. This place makes time stand still." Boosey looks at his deformed hands. "We should return to this place later. If we enter the room, that door will close on us, I'm sure of it, and we may not have any way of escape."
The gnome raises a finger in the air. "I will need time to make a Fire Starter. With the blood we have, we can rig a vial up with string or rope to tip it into a mouth, enough to set the mechanism off. I can set the fire starter underneath to burn the string away, tipping the blood and opening the door, I just need to know how much time we would need. I can set a clockwork timer inside to set the lighter off from fifteen minutes to an hour, whatever might be best for us." His face wrinkles a little. "There's always the possibility that something could interfere with it, but it might well be an idea that allows us to escape that room if it all goes wrong."
"If we are in there and the door does close, we will know that eventually enough blood will be spilled to trip the mechanism and let us out."
Leaving the doors be for the moment, Boosey turns his attention to the chest at the foot of the stairs. Pulling out his sling, he whirls it above his head then sends a bullet fizzing down to strike the chest with a "thock". The projectile just bounces off, and lands with a gentle "pink" on the ground. "I guess it's just a normal....well, a chest".
The gnome waits for a moment to see if there is any movement from down below. When nothing stirs, he and Allister slowly and carefully check each of the steps in turn. Once at the foot of the steps, Boosey stops to eye the chest suspiciously once more. He walks slowly round it, expecting something untoward to happen at any moment, then when nothing does, he bends down to inspect the lock. The lock looks simple, but well corroded. "This is a job for the rogue, I expect," he says to the others. "Everything looks all right," and he glances round once more. "There's going to be some kind of trap in here. We'll find it eventually."
He takes a step forward into the room, and this looks as if it could well be one of the remaining tombs. There is s soft light which constantly changes colour, creating endlessly moving shadows emanating from a sarcophagus in the middle of the chamber. The coffin is opaque and appears to be made of crystal, eerily beautiful in this place of death and destruction. Boosey's gaze settles on it for some time, almost transfixed. Eventually he looks further round the chamber, four marble columns hold up a high ceiling and a twin staircase leads onto an upper gallery. His breath catches at the giant carved maze that fills the wall there.
Eventually he tears his eyes away from the maze and looks round the tomb at the lower level. Here, the walls are adorned by murals of minotaur's. The whole thing is a grand construct, magnificently built.
Allister goes to work on picking the lock, but he doesn't get very far before, quite suddenly, the tiles under Boosey's feet give way. A large area breaks away, radiating out from the gnome. He falls with a splash down and out of sight. His chilling, scream of pain follows shortly thereafter. An acrid smell of acid, burning flesh, and singed hair fills the air around Allister. The walls of the pit seem to be made of smooth glass. It is impossible to tell how deep the pool of sickly green acid is.
Allister walks as close as possible to the rim of the pool, gets his rope out and ties the nook around his waist. „Grab the other end, Nenne“ he says, then lowers himself carefully into the pool, kicks off from the wall and with one stroke, more painful than he could imagine reaches Boosey’s position.