Killilli’s Dragon Heist

"He shouldnt have been kicking," Kerri eyes Aldrik as they continue on.

Cico’s investigation reveals no traps, and he safely opens the door. Impossibly, the door seems to open out into a green pasture, cloudless blue skies extending for miles. They even seem to go on past the wall leading back where you came. The soft trickling of running water fills the room, bringing a sense of peace. It seems to be coming from an overflowing trough to the left of the room. 

This landscape seems to end in two places - spherical ivory coves seemingly carved into thin air stand before you about 20 ft back into the space and 20 ft from eachother. The walls of these alcoves seem to have some strange geometric pattern on them and inside  alcoves sit identical Ox skulls, a glint shining off of their silver surface. 

"Ohh! Neat! What's the trap here you think?"

Cico looks around the room and notes the Ox skulls.

"I would imagine picking up one of those skulls might reveal the trap," Cico says. "Perhaps the water becomes a raging river and will drown us. That would be interesting to see."

He steps into the room and walks over to one of the skulls (left?) and looks at it more closely.

"There have been many triggers so far. Perhaps there is one on the skull."

He looks for any sign of triggers/buttons/panels/etc.

Perception: 8   

"That'd be amazing!"

Aimee will wander in to look at the trough.

She pokes the tip of her shoe into it to test it's wetness.

Perception?: 16

Lyss stays away from any potential traps, having learned her lesson until she forgets it.

Aimee’s appraisal of the wetness lands on a solid zero. No cold, no sticky sock feeling, no floatyness. Really, the wetness here is lacking on all fronts, particularly for the high wetness standard expected from a trough of water. Also, normally when you put something in water it makes the water rise, and in this case it should overflow. It seems like your foot is making no difference to capacity of the trough. 

Crossing the pasture and entering one the alcoves  it definitely feels to Cico as if he’s inside, there’s no breeze, and Aimee and his own voice seem to have a very short reverb. The walls of the alcove seem to have strange geometric shapes etched into the marble, and seem way too thin to support themselves in the middle of a pasture - not to mention that the sky seems to pass right through where the alcoves should be from certain angles. Cico can’t see any traditional levers or switches, as he was trained to sniff out. The horns of the skull do have strange runes on them though. 

"This is probably the worst water trough I have ever met! It is more of an idea of a water trough! Gonna look at the other one, no touching though! Right, Lyss? Kerri?"

She wanders over to look at the other skull, hand hovering but not touching.

Perception on the other skull, does she understand the runes (if it has them too)?: 8

Cico examines the runes, also tempted to touch but doesn't, tracing the shapes in the air.

Arcana? 9  

"Right! No touching! Or blasting unless Kerri says to! Or if somethings after us..." 

Unfortunately, without touching or blasting you’re unable to really figure out what this pair of skulls are for. The runes seem like some sort of magic, so you can imagine they do something.

Kerri approches with caution, "i dont suppose anyone here is capable of detecting the origin on a magic source?"

"It's a skull with squiggles on it! I am going to guess it is magic! Probably ouch, ouch magic! Stay back Lyss!"

Aimee shrugs in response to Kerri's question and says,

"It isn't in the water over there for sure!"

Cico sighs and then nods as Aimee gives an apt recap of their situation.

He rubs his thumb over his index finger several times before finally reaching out and pushing on the horns of the skull.

Upon hearing Kerri's question, Edvord gruffly replies. "I can renew my ability to sense magical auras via detect magic... but I will need a few minutes." With his spellbook out the mage begins to draw a circle on the ground.

Looking up for the ritual, the man continues to talk, "this relief appears to be of very fine craftmanship, I wouldn't be surprised if..." Edvord's voice trails off as Cico reaches out and pushes in the horns of the skull, "... well that is one approach... hopefully this will not interrupt my ritual."

Aldrik stands between Lyss and Cico, providing a layer of defense should another creature swarm out. He keeps his heavy sword unholstered. The nobleman looks to his brother. "Well, Eddie, suppose we'll find out..."

He mutters a bit to himself. "Least you can do more than percussive exploration..."

As Cico grabs the bull by the horns so to speak, a long “Mooooooooo” reverberates around the…. Pasture? Room? Whatever this place is.

As Cico grabs the bull by the horns so to speak, a long “Mooooooooo” reverberates around the…. Pasture? Room? Whatever this place is.

"I..." Aldrik stammers. "What?" His eyebrow is cocked as Cico takes the cow to the trough, riding the 'trap' straight to the pigsty.

Cico takes his hands off the horn and looks around for any other effects.

"I think that was someone's idea of a joke," Cico says. "I did not think it was amusing but I'm not good with those. Did you think it was funny?"

He looks over at Aimee and Lyss as he asks the question.

Then he looks around the rest of the room for any sign of another exit. If there isn't one he starts back to the door they came through and down the hallway to the next door.

Perception: 21