(Adventure) The Island of Varras'zul (Manzanita Judging) (Concluded)

Ogrin ponders a bit. "I guess I'm the lightest, so I should go over to the stairs and check it out. I'll retreat in case anything real ugly shows up, you could stand ready with missile weapons if it comes charging. If we have some more rope, we could tie it around my waist and you could haul me in if things turn ugly; if they don't, maybe I can secure it near the stairs."

Ogrins rope is 20ft long. He'll bring one of his remaining torches in his left hand and rapier in his right - he's a bit worried as the last two times he went off in the dark by himself did turn ugly real quick.

OOC: Do we get XP for the Xorn?

Oog: Yeah. I forgot about that. If you have enough XP to advance to level 2, you won't advance until you find the time to rest and reflect.

150 XP to each party member

"Be careful, Ogrin" warned Mona. It wasn't something that Ogrin didn't already know, but she was worried nonetheless.

Ogrin reached the bottom of the stairs without incident. The darkness was almost palpable here. His torch seemed diminished by the encroaching shadows that moved with every flicker of the flame. The sound of constantly dripping water reached the halfling's ears.

The stairs led him to the corner area of a large stone chamber. Immediately to the left of the stair's base was a closed door. The door led into a room that was but a portion of the huge chamber that he beheld. The walls and floor seemed pocked and pitted by marks of battle. Here and there could be seen the wake of vitriolic acid, searing flame or thunderous lightning, of powerful blows that broke stone floor and wall. Even the ceiling, 20 feet above him was not spared magickal scarring. Looking up, he could see the giant crack that bisected the level above.

At the center of the room was a hemisphere of flickering shadows. Ogrin could see dimly what was within, but his torchlight could not bring brightness into the location. Keen halfling eyes spied concentric runic circles engraved unto the floor. At the center of the dark hemisphere was a raised stone platform, about 5 feet in height. There may or may not have been markings on it. From his current position, Ogrin could not be sure.

The northwestern corner was collapsed by rubble. A pool of fetid water formed around the mess of stones and rocks, fed by a trickle from above.

The length of the rope did not allow him the see anything else. He would have to let go if he wanted to explore the room further.

OOC: I'm at a friend's house right now. My family is moving to Florida, so I have been/will be out of commission due to that.

When the rope goes taut, Razh, who has gathered his equipment from before, whispers down to Ogrin, "Oy! Ah'm a'comin' down t'ye!" He grabs the rope and shakes it a bit to further warn Ogrin of his descent and begins to carefully pick his way down the stairs. His hopes are that his darkvision will allow him a better view of the room, not to mention that the poor halfling has already been through enough these past few days. Once he reaches the floor, he draws his axes and stands ready next to Ogrin, intending to act as eyes and bodyguard.

oog: understood

Rasereit saw as far as the halfling did, but kept his eyes and ears open. The dwarf's descent was audible but not overly loud. There didn't seem to be any reaction in the surroundings to the sounds of his approach.

The dwarf took in his surroundings slowly and carefully, relying on his racial abilities and his survival skills for insight. The stone here was damaged as Ogrin saw, but the dwarf noticed that it was better crafted than the levels above. Racial senses told him that this level was yet another 30 feet descendant from the previous level.

Rasereit kept his senses sharp out but saw and heard nothing in the way of movement.

"Should the rest of us come down?"

If the answer is yes, Rillian will climb down next.

"I'm not hearing any objections.", Nezrak comments after a while. He will climb down after Rillian.

It's quiet...

Scun held rear guard as the rest of the party descended. Nezrak and Scun had that feeling again, except that it was stronger and clearer. There was something otherworldly afoot below, something unnervingly alien and evil.

The party saw the room just as Ogrin did save that more light was brought into the room via Mona's lantern. However, the area around the raised platform at the room's center remained dark. One didn't need arcane training to see that the darkness in that area was magickal.

Nezrak could see farther than anyone else, thanks to his elven eyes. Beyond the darkness, the grey elf saw the dim outline of a huge metal door. It was closed shut.

The party heard the sound of chitin chittering against stone but could not localize its source.

"Two doors, two ways to go.", Nezrak says while casually pointing at the doors with his sword. "Three if you count investigating the platform. Do we check out the smaller and closer door first? That platform disturbs me though. But the "crawlies" are probably a bit more pressing danger for now. I just hope that we spot them before they spot us."

OOG: I'm ba-aack!

"Bah, bloody 'crawlies' can't be much of threat. Ah'll tear 'em t'shreds!" The dwarven barbarian swings his axes around threateningly, glaring eagerly at the stone walls. "Ah vote we take one room at a time. Let's go on into this 'un." He points at the nearest door and walks boldly over to it. After examining the door to see if it opens inwards or out, he either kicks it in or yanks it open and jumps back.

Ogrin rolls his eyes and follows, five steps behind Rasereit. "Right behind you, friend..."