"Don't get too far ahead," Simon calls softly after Baelor. "Hope he's not walking into an ambush," he mutters to the others as he produces a Sunrod.
Kindling it, he walks to the entrance and peers down into the darkness. With a grimace, he swings his axe onto his back once more and holds up his left hand, considering it for a moment as a pale radiance flickers across his fingers.
"Dammit," he concludes softly, and follows Baelor.
Seeing things moving quickly now, Keth went to the door of the lock shop, speaking to Ghelve as he went.
We'll try to bring back your rat friend.
He opened the door to the shop.
C'mon Fang
As he petted the shaggy wolf affectionately he spoke to the two half-elves.
If you want to help your friend, you had better come with us.
Keth figured there was safety in numbers, and besides he felt more comfortable being able to keep an eye on these two.
He lead Fang back over to the passageway. As he looked down into the dark he briefly wished he possessed old Karst's keen darksight. Nothing to do about it though and with that thought he padded quickly down the passage to catch up with the point of light that was Simon.
__________________ Oni
"Each man, one way.
Each horse, one stance.
Each church, one buddha.
Each master to his own technique."
“One moment...” Alexi says and heads for the door, opening it. A raven comes flying in and sits down on some shelf. “Kyra's senses are way better than my own and could be of use down there.”
__________________
“In our world, immortality is not for the living. The legend lives on!”
In Memoriam Dave Arneson († April 7th, 2009) & Gary Gygax († March 4th, 2008).
Wondering what the Dungeon Tiles are like? Take a look here (up to DU5 Sinister Woods).
A stone staircase, its steps shrouded with cobwebs and dust, descends twenty feet to a ten-foot-square landing, then bends to the right and plunges into darkness.
Simon's sunrod illuminates the staircase as you delve another twenty feet before opening into a room. From this landing, you can hear strange sounds emanating from the chamber below, specifically chirping birds, rustling leaves, and cheery giggles. The landing itself is bare save for an empty iron torch sconce mounted on the south wall (T19).
The staircase ends at a forty-foot-square room with a ten-foot-high ceiling. A slight draft blows into the room from directly across the stairs. Two four-foot-diameter circular doors are set into the middle of the south wall (O21 and P21). Each door is made of wood and framed with a ring of mortared stones. The westernmost door is closed and inscribed with a strange glyph. The easternmost door bears a different glyph but rests half-open. The half-open door reveals an iron rim of gearlike teeth, and dim light spills from the chamber beyond.
Mounted to the walls of the room are twelve tarnished copper masks. the masks are two feet tall and cling four feet above the floor. Each one depicts a smiling gnome's visage. The soft giggling, chirping, and rustling noices seem to pour from the very walls.
The Orc breed holds his weapon tight and scans the surrounding. He motions to the other to the lighted room. He then decides to walk along the wall to the partially opened door as quite as he can. (To Q21)
__________________
Spoiler:
Zirat Igruf, Gladiator (Rhun's ToEE): OOC ; IC ; RG
Baelor moves out of the way as the rest of the group catches him at the bottom of the stairs and floods into the room. He fingers his axe and watches as Floch moves to investigate the open door.
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
Floch and Simon move up to get a better view and peer into the room with the cracked door. A dozen small cots and chests line the walls of this ten-foot-high dusty room. Cobwebs blanket many of the cots and chests, and tiny spiders scurry about. Two rough-hewn tunnels, each five feet in diameter and tubular, breach the eastern and southern walls. Stony rubble covers the floor near each tunnel. A one-foot-long iron rod lies in the middle of the floor, its golden tip shedding enough light to cast lurid shadows on the wall.
OOC
An 'X' represents rubble (difficult terrain; double movement cost; Balance, Move Silently, and Tumble are at -2 penalty). Also, the yellow shaded squares indicate lighting. Bright yellow is full illumination, dim yellow is partial illumination.
The strange noises that drifted up the stairs made Keth uneasy. They would not have been so menacing were they not so horribly out of place with their surroundings. As he slipped into the room below, the apparent source of the sounds did little to set his mind at ease. Keth hadn't thought about it before, but gnomes were kind of creepy.
Keth moved over next to Floch and Simon to get a better look at the odd circular door. The odd teethlike protrusions made it look as though it were a mouth opening. A line from the riddle floated to the surface of his mind and he muttered quietly, beware the doors with teeth....
ooc
Do the glyphs on the doors have any decipherable meaning? Any obvious signs of traffic through any of the exits to the room?
__________________ Oni
"Each man, one way.
Each horse, one stance.
Each church, one buddha.
Each master to his own technique."
While the others investigate the open door, Baelor moves across the chamber to the passage from which the draft blows. He stops at the entrance to the corridor, cocking his head as he watches and listens for any signs of a threat.
Spot +4, Listen +4
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
Alexi heads into the room with the others, looking around the chamber. For some reason it didn't disturb her as much as it probably should, but the weird masks certainly did make her feel uneasy, at least a bit. The teeth on the door also immediately made her recall the riddle they had heard in St. Cuthbert's temple. So far the words had all proven right, and there was no reason to believe otherwise now.
“Careful with that door. It might be the one we have been warned about!”
__________________
“In our world, immortality is not for the living. The legend lives on!”
In Memoriam Dave Arneson († April 7th, 2009) & Gary Gygax († March 4th, 2008).
Wondering what the Dungeon Tiles are like? Take a look here (up to DU5 Sinister Woods).
If the glyphs have any meaning, you cannot decipher it. Oddly enough, there seems to be no sign of tracks through this door. You notice it is only propped open by a fairly large piece of rubble on the floor. Had you not looked for tracks, you might not have noticed it.
Rhun "Baelor"
The only thing of particular interest down the hall is a door at the opposite end. It too bears a glyph. It is at this moment that you notice the glyphs use a variant of the dwarven alphabet (like English uses a variant of the Latin alphabet). So you imagine the language the glyph is from is related to dwarven.
"Another door down this way," says Baelor, moving to join the others. "These glyphs appear to be a derivitive of the dwarven alphabet, but I can't quite make them out."
For Airwalkrr
I'm correct in saying Baelor can't make out the meaning of the glyphs, right?
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
For clarification, each of the doors look exactly the same, except for the glyph inscribed upon them. Each door has a unique glyph. Otherwise, it follows that all doors that you can currently see (three of them) will have gear-like "teeth" such as the open one in front of you.
On another note, I've switch the game view to a fog of war style. Light grey indicates partial concealment, dark grey indicates total concealment. Let me know if you favor one or the other.
Simon politely asks Floch to step aside and attempts to push open the door next to the open one, but it does not give way. It is either stuck or locked, but he cannot determine which. In any event, he is incapable of forcing it open.
Baelor approaches the closed door, looking it over for a keyhole or other device that could be used to open the portal.
Search +5
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
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