@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel
GM POST
Perilously perched on de Courcy’s shoulders, Thwip takes a closer look at one of the metal fixtures.
Looks like copper under the verdigris; nice metalwork, well done. They’re affixed very solidly to the ceiling; although Thwip could undoubtedly pry one loose given sufficient time and tools, it wouldn’t be a quick job.
The inside of the shallow metal dome is absolutely stuffed with cobwebs.
Blue Hawk
Hawk notes the absence of handles on the door.
“This room is a trap. If doors behind us close, we may not get out before those,” the tribesman gestures at the ceiling, “kill us however they are meant to kill us.”
Hawk turns to their sponsor. “Lord Arron, if you are on the outside, do you think your magic can force the doors open again? It may be best to have someone wait outside and open the door for us if we get trapped in.”
The shaman then picks up a gauntlet from each of the guardians: the left gauntlet from the left guardian and the right gauntlet from the right guardian. “When we are sure that we will not get trapped, I have an idea to try.”
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GM POST
[quote=“nimelennar, post:365, topic:83574, full:true”]Hawk turns to their sponsor. “Lord Arron, if you are on the outside, do you think your magic can force the doors open again? It may be best to have someone wait outside and open the door for us if we get trapped in.”
[/quote]
“We stay together; I’m paying all of you, all of you can come along.” replies Aronn.
“As for the doors”, he continues, “I doubt that they’ll prove troublesome”.
With that, he waves his staff at the inner door. As he does so, both staff and door briefly glisten with a hint of black, and the door swings open. Beyond it, you dimly perceive a short hallway and shallow stairs heading up.
Thwip
Screaming internally at the magic on display.
– He doesn’t need us! He doesn’t need us! –
Thwip’s imagination runs wild through the stories and tales he learned as a youth. Of elves and a history of bad magic practices. Of things locked away in the dark that practitioners of dark arts may want. Of phylacteries, demon hearts, vampire lords, dragons, Necronomicons, and zombie armies. Of sacrifices.
“We shult… uh… mebbe stomp a couple off tese bits off armour flat as we kin. Ten wedge ‘em in t’ doors t’ keep ‘em from shuttin’.”
He turns away from Lord Aronn and catches the eye of Ranar, with whom he feels the most kinship in this group. “We may hafta run out a here inna hurry and we don’ want t’ doors t’ be an obstikal.” he adds.
Thwip hopes that he is able to convey with his expression that he is now more worried about what is behind them than what is ahead.
Ranar Bolijyr
“Alright, let’s get it done.” Ranar shrugs and grabs a breastplate from one of the sets of decorative armor, slams at it a bit with hammer and boots, and stuffs it into the outer door. Trying to gauge Aronn’s impatience, he grabs the breastplate from the other suit of armor, stomps and hammers a bit, and jams it into the inner door. Were he alone, he might not be satisfied, but with the whole team along to deal with any problems, he’s not too worried. “That’ll let us get out. Also let things get in. But I doubt the centaurs will come down here.”
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GM POST
As Ranar is hammering away, the echoes make it obvious that there is a large chamber somewhere down the hallway.
Jibrīl Al-Las’as
Jibrīl leads the way through the doors, into the hallway and towards the stairs.
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GM POST
At the top of the short flight of stairs (they rise to about the height of the tops of the doors), the passageway opens into a large chamber. It is difficult to tell just how large; the opposite wall is lost in the gloom.
The domed ceiling likewise rises out of the range of your lights. The stonework is once more clean and unadorned; a handful of rats scurry into hiding as they are revealed by your light.
The air is dusty and stale, but not foul. Apart from the echoes of your own noise and the skittering of the rats, the place is silent.
“Might I suggest that we follow the wall and look for doors?” says Aronn, indicating with his staff to the right.
Thwip
– He’s too confident about all of this. He’s still keeping information from us.–
“T’ rats sugg-jest tat tere’s an otter way in. Or at lest sum air vents. We need t’ keep an eye out fir it.”
– What are those rats eating? Is anything eating them? –
“Might I suggest that we follow the wall and look for doors?” says Aronn…
Thwip nods to Jabril and proceeds into the gloom. He hopes he isn’t going alone.
@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel
GM POST
Following the wall to the right, it continues for a few yards before taking a 45° bend to the left. After that, it continues straight for about half a dozen yards before taking another 45° left turn.
A few yards beyond that, an open doorway is visible heading right, with stairs heading up.
Ranar Bolijyr
Ranar follows a little bit behind Jibril and Thwip, keeping close to Blue Hawk, Aronn, and De Courcy. While the others are searching along the wall, he’s squinting out into the room, watching for any reflections in the darkness or signs of movement.
Jibrīl Al-Las’as
Jibrīl continues forward, and looks into the chamber on the right.
@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel
GM POST
The stairs are shallow and short; they only rise a yard or so. Beyond them is a passageway, about ten yards long and three wide.
On the right is a doorway, surrounded by splinters that appear to be the remains of a door. One the left there is also a doorway, but where you would normally expect a door there is instead a strange blue glow. Beside that doorway, a small metal plate is attached to the wall at chest height.
The doorjamb on the left is unusually deep; about a yard. The blue glow is on the near side of the door jamb.
Jibrīl Al-Las’as
Jibrīl examines the blue glow, without stepping directly between it and the door on the right.
@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel
GM POST
Looking at the blue glow, it appears to be a force field covering the doorway. Just beyond the forcefield, metal grills are visible on both the top and bottom of the doorway; they might be air vents. Within the doorjamb, another blank metal plate is attached to the wall.
There is Arabic script engraved on the metal plate outside the forcefield. It reads “Plague/Demon Ward”.
Blue Hawk
Hawk peers over Jibril’s shoulder and reads the plate. The third word he can read clearly; the concept of a “Ward” is well-known to shamans. The second word gives him more trouble, until he sounds it out and realizes that it’s what the guards were shouting back in West Tredroy. Okay, a Demon Ward. Is this wall a Ward against Demons, or a Ward powered by Demons? he thinks to himself.
Maybe that first word, which he can’t translate, will give some enlightenment. “Excuse me, but what is that word?” The shaman points at the word that he was unable to translate.
Thwip
“It sez ‘playk’. Like t’ pox.”
Thwip says the words out in his thick Arabic accent. Staying with Arabic, he asks Aronn a question.
“I trust zat vee art not here to free som deemons upon zee vorld?”
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GM POST
“Of course not!”
Aronn appears to be both surprised and offended by the suggestion.
*Blue Hawk"
Playk? Tippox? Hawk tries to parse the Arabic words as spoken by Thwip. The green man has such a thick accent that he could be saying anything from “playing” to…
Hawk’s back hits the wall of the passageway hard, and his head snaps back to follow it. At the very thought of the word “plague,” his legs had taken over and backpedaled him away from the ward and out of that room. The tribesman normally doesn’t second-guess his instincts, but this time they’re dead wrong: the appropriate distance to have stopped moving away from that door would have been somewhere on the other side of his homeland from where he currently is.
“<P-please…>” The shaman realizes he is speaking in his own language, which he doesn’t even know if Lord Arron understands. He closes his eyes, shakes his head, and starts over in Anglish, his shock causing it to come out broken. “Please tell me we not going behind ward. I have seen villages after plague. I not want to see such things again in this life time.”
Hawk realizes that he’s shaking and takes a moment to pull himself into the recovery trance to get his wits about him again. Some device he could understand pulling out of an old ruin, but a plague?!. Oath or not, honour or not, that’s not something he can live with.
@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel
GM POST
Aronn raises an eyebrow.
“I doubt that what we’re after would be in the infirmary; no need to push through here at the moment.”
