Seeing the statue move, Fianna reacts by bringing up her staff and readying a spell.  Hearing Chen, however, Fianna reconsiders...

     "Something..."  Fianna says.  In Elvish.  

     Fianna has been on her own for years, she's not entirely used to being around people or perfected her comedic timing yet.

     She clears her throat and starts again though.  "Apologies for disturbing these halls," Fianna says, continuing to speak in the most formal Elvish she knows. "We meant no disrespect and are now departing..."

     Looking to Mirica, Fianna nods enthusiastically.  :We can certainly try," she answers in the common language....

A smile picks at the corners of both Chen and Jahren's mouth as Fianna says a single word in Elvish.  Everyone else stares on, oblivious to the joke. 

Then she launches into her diatribe but it doesn't seem to have much affect on the sentinels reaction to the group.  SinSin is the first to back through the door, then the rest of everyone else backs up as well.  Chen, the last one back, pulls the door shut just as the sentinel reaches the door.  The group backs away from the door a few feet and watch.  The doors have fancy metal door latches in them, etched delicately with small flower designs. Sealed as it must have been for so long down here, it's all but untouched except by a layer of dust, now cleared by their hands.  The latch is the lever kind. 

The group watches silently for a few moments.  Then, as if they were learning some lizard they thought was just a stupid lizard, was actually an intelligent enough being to figure out a doorknob, making it all the more terrifying...the latch begins to slowly move.  It every so slowly creeps down, further, until...click....the door swings open.  The stone sentinel strides through, azure eyes glowing, stone blade swinging. 

(Roll init) 

Sentinel : 17

It's a 4 foot wide hallway, so a bit narrow.  The marching order, determined mostly randomly is: 

Chen, Mirica, Fianna, Jahren, Loane, SinSin

If you go before the sentinel, please take your turn. 

20

     It couldn’t be as simple as closing the door, could it?  Still, it was worth the try... but once the latch started to move it was apparent that this crew was not that kind of lucky.  But if it won’t respect the door, perhaps it will respect A Wall of Force - Raising her staff and muttering the quick words of power, Fianna puts an invisible barrier between the statue and her party.

((not sure how this works indoors?  Can it go through walls and floors and such?))

Mirica Initiative: 9

Jahren initiative: 5

"I'd hate to destroy anything here, although if the elves intended it to ward off their enemies, perhaps some of these sentinels could be brought to bear against any current and undesirable residents."

Mirica nodded, still watching the sentinel - force field or not, with crazy magic around you do not know what to expect. "If only we knew how to control that guard... Do you think they are everywhere in here? Our enemy does not seem to be bothered by them."

     "Hmmm, maybe we should have read the scroll statue?"

There was no writing on the scroll statue. I would have told you if there was something to read. 

A wall of force appears. The statue thuds against it and then stops. 

Initiative: 23

Chen lifts his hammer, knowing that the statue's sword will strike before he does... but then the statue stops suddenly. Chen slowly extends one hand and touches the wall right in front of the statue's face.

That's the first one that has tried to follow once out of sight, he says quietly.

"Don't tell me they can learn." Mirica turned (she could not leave the corridor with Jahren and Fianna being on the way), and was ready to departure: "That "wall" is not for long, is it? May be reading that stone scroll is what it takes. Shall we check?"

     “I can drop the wall whenever we wish, but can only hold it for ten minutes or so,” Fianna answers. “Not sure the statue scroll even had writing on it, was just a thought.”

((we trapped in this room?  Is the sentinel blocked door the only way in or out?))

Jahren looks back the way they came.  "Perhaps we can bar the next door...or three."

The group heads back...this passage leads directly to the entrance hall, but you figure you can probably cut through one of the crypt rooms and get behind the sentinel so you do so.  (the only unexplored place back the way you've been is the wide hallway full of statues that tried to cast a spell on FinFin). 

You get through to where the sentinel was.  There are several passages and doors leading from here, so you pick one and continue exploring. You push open a door and find what appears to be a coat room, with pegs on the walls.  A mundane elven cloak hangs from a peg.  There is a stone bench all around the small rooms walls.  Under the bench though, is a disturbing site.  You see the head of what you all recognize as a mind flayer.  The thing appears to be fresh, and...in fact, its tentacles are still squirming, it's eyes roll up to glare at you.  Sitting next to the head looks to be a rather fine pair of boots that might be magical.

"Did someone just changed clothes here and that head did not go with the shoes?" She shook her own head in disbelieve. "Not sure how this thing is still alive, but fact that it's so fresh is kind of disturbing - if it's not necromancy, then whoever did it is next door. What do you make of these boots?" 

It was perhaps fifteen years ago...perhaps longer. Either way...it was a lifetime ago when SinSin had last seen such a face. Such an alien, revolting, and truly evil face. Who could imagine a more fearsome creature than this thing...which he well knew were called Illithid. The world full of all sorts of evil for sure....Orcs...Drow...Dragons.  All of these things he'd now faced and with his new friends somehow bested. He felt like a hero. But at one time he wasn't a hero. At one time...a time that had somehow been buried in his past, buried deep in his mind, he'd been a slave. He couldn't remember the details. Did it happen on his way to Hillsfar?  Before he'd ever come to Hillsfar.  Goodness...was this evil IN Hillsfar?  He'd been enslaved.  For how long. Weeks...no months seem to echo in his dull brain...memories that made no sense yet were filled with action...killing people, missions..and yet always behind every image was this face, like a mirage across his vision wherever he looked.  It was there, always, inside his mind.  And yet...somehow he'd gotten free..he remember fighting them...fist and leg rebelling even though his mind could not...something having crystallized inside him and let him fight back. All of this came with a flood of anger, frustration, and then rage. 

As the group stood there staring at the gruesome head next to a pair of boots under a stone bench, SinSin slipped between them with sudden alacrity and his right heel, like the butt end of a burning stone falling from the sky slammed out and crashed into the head.  The thing burst open, the bone tearing the flesh from the inside after the force of the blow.  Brains that had long since rotted away were like dust within, and whatever magic kept the face artificially intact ended, the skin shrivelling up and the tentacles ceasing to move. 

SinSin stood there, breathing far more heavily then he should have been for one sudden kick, turned and walked silently to the back of the group.

Everyone looked at him....wondering...where the hell did that come from?  Then they shrugged and continued their exploration, unaware of the deep schizm that had just been discovered in their friends mind. 

The boots were magical though, so that was good. They are later found to be Bracers of Defense, except of course they are boots...and they confer a +4 bonus instead of a +2. 

Another door is opened and you find another crypt.  Here though, the bodies have been dumped on the ground and the remains of a sentinel lays in chunks across the floor. Whatever occurred here happened months ago though. You open another small room and it looks much like a closet, but appears to be full of potion making supplies.  Everything someone could want, though it looks heavily picked through.  Vials, holders, powders some liquids.  Amidst the detritus the group finds four potions.  Jahren asks to take a peek, carefully examining them.  He figures one is a potion of healing (greater), one is a potion of water breathing, one is a Potion of stone giant strength, and the last is a potion of invulnerability. 

Another door opens up to a larger room with stone shelves with round nooks all around, and a large stone table carved with legs and all but out of the ground itself, at the center of the room.  Jahren motions to the table, "Careful, it is magical."  This was clearly a map room, but cracks in the walls have let in moisture and the maps appear to have all rotted away.  

Watching SinSin, Jahren waits until not all are watching and then kindly and quietly asks his new friend "what is it?"

(wow, great Bracers, etc.!)

"Mind if I take a few minutes to look over this table?" asks Jahren, potentially temporarily pausing the exploration while he uses Identify as a Ritual.

Chen squints at SinSin. The pressure is setting in, he says to himself. I imagine it's these surface-dwellers not accustomed to long periods underground. 

<Oh wait, wrong campaign>

As they leave the room, Chen falls back. As SinSin draws near, the dragonborn reaches out and pats him on the back reassuringly. No words are said. Unaware of the cause of his outburst, Chen knows 'the struggle' when he sees it.

If none of the others stake a claim, Chen is interested in the potion of water breathing.

SinSin, looking a bit unhappy, just shakes his head to Jahren, and turns away, seemingly unwilling to talk. 

They wait as Jahren casts his spell...though as he's touching the table to cast his spell, his mind wanders just a snitch, and a map appears on the table top of the Moonsea area, which is also where his mind had wandered to.  He thinks of another location, and map of that location appears on the table top.  He thinks of a map of Myth Drannor, and a map, like a view of the place from 1000 feet up appears, rubble and ruins and all.  There is no "zoom in" feature, and that 1000 foot view seems the best sorta map he can find. Though he can also imagine larger areas and get much larger maps to appears.  Finishing his spell ends with no other special features than what he was already able to determine.

"Well, this could be handy... and dangerous if it somehow provides the current layout of things for one's enemy.   Anyone having a flying castle or anything we can decorate with this?"

(Jahren would have interest in the healing potion mostly in service to the others, since he's always flying around in a support role.  Then again if someone with a Haste spell or something could take it during battle within their action economy without losing a turn, even better!)