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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5731829" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p>The door to the room right side of the entrance chamber opened without problem. </p><p></p><p>In the center of this room was a large pool of clear water, fed by a fountain on the wall above it. The fountain had a stone statue of a weeping maiden holding the slain body of Kassen, but his head had been broken off and was nowhere to be seen. A voice boomed out from the darkness, saying, “Magic is the key.” The voice slowly faded, leaving a dreadful silence.</p><p></p><p>"So, w-what n-now?" Mook felt increasinly nervous without her wolf and without open air around her. </p><p></p><p>"Ah., how nice. A riddle." The paladin went to the pool and looked inside. "And I think I got it – we need to find the right key. Probably with magic." </p><p></p><p>"Genius," Teltz mumbled so only Mook and Samin could hear. Loud he said "I can do a detect, but I'm no good at swimming." He looked at Mook, knowing Samin to be unable to swim with a sunrod and knowing the gnome to be very agile in water. Mook just stared back. "H-how do you th-think I'll k-k-know the right k-key? T-to many for me to r-remember wh-whatever you t-tell me." </p><p></p><p>"Can you do a detect?" Bjön asked of Samin. </p><p></p><p>"Sure but I'm not too good at diving, either."</p><p></p><p>"Well, then, take off your clothes and you hold on to her, you can carry the sunrod and you'll direct her. You can hold your breath, yes?" </p><p></p><p>Samin thought about it, then he nodded to the paladin. He had no issues taking his clothes off in front of his friends, so he started undressing and so did Mook. The water was cold, and he shivered uncomfortably, while the gnome was used to cold water. </p><p></p><p>With a lot of gestures and losing the sun rod twice, Samin was able to locate the key and they retrieved their price. Samin gasped for air, shivering like mad, while Mook handed the key to the bard, seemingly unaffected. Teltz took the key then grabbed a rug from his backpack to dry of his son. "Are you ok" he worried. </p><p></p><p>"Pfft, grrrck.." It seemed to mean yes, so he helped Samin into his clothes and when the three-quarter Elf and the gnome were dressed, they looked around the rest of the room. Two doors were leading out of it to the south, the left one was locked. The other opened, with a protesting squeak they thought could be heard in all the crypt, to a long corridor flanked by a row of human statues, set into alcoves on each side. The statues looked like Kassen, and each one helds a longsword out in front of it. The blades of roughly half the statues were wrapped in leather padding. Some burned down torches were there, too, and the room faintly smelled like lamp oil. </p><p></p><p>"What now?" The bard peered into the corridor, but the sun rod only illuminated part of it. "You dwarfs can see in the dark, no?"</p><p></p><p>"Ah... well, usually, but I'm night blind." It seemed the paladin blushed. "A fault of my family."</p><p></p><p>"Why are the swords of the statues wrapped?" Samin asked. "Did our townfolks do that?"</p><p></p><p>"Looks like it. By my guess, it's that sort of trap where the statues try to hack at you. They can't with the leather wraps." The paladin had seen such before, it seemed. </p><p></p><p>"That w-will s-s-still hurt!" Mook growled. </p><p></p><p>"Well, there must be a trigger." Bjön sounded almost cheerful. "We just have to avoid it. I suggest the gnome hugs the walls and tries to find it, she is lightest." </p><p></p><p>Mook harrumped. This would be something right in Zaza's pocket, would she be here. The little halfling was much better at avoiding traps, as some foray into some ruins in their past had shown. She half hoped to see her friend and her brother come through the door to the pool room, but of course that was not happening. "A-alright," she whispered. "G-give me a sun rod." They had enough of those to last a while, she hoped. To be able to maneuver better, she left her backpack behind</p><p></p><p>With her own sun rod, she pressed herself to the wall, trying to half vanish into the alcoves. She didn't look very agile doing so, but she managed to get half down the corridor when she saw it. "T-there i-is a weird l-looking flor t-tile." </p><p></p><p>"A pressure plate, most likely." The paladin's voice was still cheerful. "Drop something heavy on it." </p><p></p><p>"L-like what? I-I didn't b-bring anything." </p><p></p><p>"Err yeah, should have thought of that," Bjön admitted. </p><p></p><p>Teltz emptied out her backpack and added the contents to his and Samin's. "I'll get some rubble," he announced and vanished to outside. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The halfling rogue so badly missed by her friend was shaken awake just then. The face of her brother appeared above her in the pale light of their own sun rod. "Are you ok? What happened? My head hurts." </p><p></p><p>In a few words and while handing him a Cure potion, Zaza explained the situation – pretending she had fallen asleep though. "We need to follow them quickly."</p><p></p><p>Cajun pushed the trapdoor back open and got out, then lifted his sister out and waiting for the wolf to join them. "I really knocked myself out in a pillow trap? I'll never hear the end of it." </p><p></p><p>"They went this way." Ignoring the attempts of the wolf to lead them into the other direction, Cajun and Zaza went east and then south when they noticed the door. There was a paladin sized dent in the wooden door. "Yep, they came here," she chuckled, for a moment forgetting her fears.</p><p></p><p>"Didn't make it through that way. I wonder if there is a mechanism for it? I could probably burn the door down, but I don't think our elders won't be happy about us damaging the crypt any further."</p><p></p><p>"We are trying to rescue someone. Does it matter?" </p><p></p><p>"You have a point there," Cajun nodded. "Step back."</p><p></p><p>A flask of alchemist's Fire, thick black smoke, coughing fits and a panicked wolf later, the door was gone. Zaza got up from the floor still gasping for air. "I won't ever ask you to make fire in closed quarters without air again." </p><p></p><p>Another wail sounded, even louder now. "This way," Zaza said, following the noise. </p><p></p><p>"What if it is not the survivor?" </p><p></p><p>"Then... well, you have more flasks of that, don't you?" </p><p></p><p>"What was that about fire in close quarters again?" Cajun followed her though, he needed to protect his sister, after all. His hands were on the hilts of his weapons. </p><p></p><p>They went left and then down a long corridor to their right. The mournful wailing grew louder with each step toward the door at the end of this musty hallway. There were a host of bones strewn on the floor here, many of which were cracked and broken. "Who is there? Cajun shouted. "This is Cajun, and Zaza, on the ill begotten Quest for the stupid Everflame." </p><p></p><p>The wailing stopped. A moment later, the keen ears of the two unwilling heroes made out the sound of a loading crossbow. "I don't believe it, we come to help this one and now we are targets?" Zaza snapped. </p><p></p><p>"Maybe he's lost his mind," Cajun suggested. "Hey, we are from Kassen and here to bring you back home. Do you hear? We are friends!" </p><p></p><p>"Please?" Zaza added. "We are scared, too. There were skeletons but Cajun destroyed them." </p><p></p><p>"And I'll destroy any others coming close." Cajun wasn't as certain about that but he sounded confident enough to make the person on the other side shuffle towards the door. "You help me? And my sister? The one with the voice of dead who stalks these halls in ancient mail took her, she must be alive still. She must. The dead one who speaks..." </p><p></p><p>"Wait," Cajun shouted as the one on the other side started to push away the barricade. "We need syou to stay in there and be safe until we rescue your sister and can come back for you. What's your name?" </p><p></p><p>Zaza looked surprised, but then she nodded. "No need trying to take a mad man with us, and if we leave him outside he may run and get lost." </p><p></p><p>"I'm Roldare. My sister, she's Dimira. Heeeeelp her!" The man started wailing again. </p><p></p><p>"Where did you see her last?" Zaza shouted over the noise. </p><p></p><p>"Don't remember... somewhere in the crypt..." </p><p></p><p>"That's helpful," Cajun groaned. "We'll look for her now. You need to shut up and stay calm, hear? So nothing bad will find you?"</p><p></p><p>All of a sudden, the noise stopped and they could hear only whimpering. </p><p></p><p>"Do skeletons wear mail?" Zaza asked while they walked back the way they came. </p><p></p><p>"I don't think so. We should ask the paladin. How come the others have not found Roldare?"</p><p></p><p>"Maybe they have but decided to give up on him." Zaza pointed to the other corridor, now to their left, which they had ignored before. "Which means they must be that way." </p><p></p><p>"Or they took right where we left the trap room before." </p><p></p><p>For a second, they stood undecided. Then Cajun went left. "The smith always says that when going into unknown area, you need to make sure nothing falls into your backs. So let's check this out first." </p><p></p><p>Zaza didn't bother to mention that until they had not checked everything out, there was always a chance of something falling into their backs. But for some reason, she was not as scared as before. </p><p></p><p>A moment later, they arived at another door which was slightly ajar. The stench of decay came out of it. "I hope that's not Dimira," Zaza mumbled. </p><p></p><p>"Someone died, and that's always tragic." Cajun peered around the edge of the door, holding the sunrod out in front of him. This small chamber was mostly empty, save for the body of a villager sprawled in the center. Perched atop the corpse was a man-sized brown and yellow beetle, trying to push the corpse into the corner where a pile of trash and filth awaits. </p><p></p><p>With a quick move, Cajun closed the door. "A corpse of a man and a bombadeer beetle. I encountered one before, we don't want to deal with it. It probably just wants the corpse, we can come back for the dead later." </p><p></p><p>They went back to the burned dowwn door and took the only way they hadn't checked. Again, they came to a wooden door tighly locked. "This is hardwood, can't burn it," Cajun said after trying to push it open. "And I'm not that good a locksmith but to me it looks like this is a one way door."</p><p></p><p>"What, so the others can't have come this way? Then they must have passed the beetle." </p><p></p><p>The wolf howled, trying to get them to understand yet again that they weren't on the right track, but he was ignoired once more. </p><p></p><p>"Maybe the beetle wasn't there yet or they magically subdued it. We need to get past it somehow." Cajun frowned and started trotting back to the door he had just closed. </p><p></p><p>"Can't you burn the beetle?" Zaza asked, "We can close the door until the smoke settles." </p><p></p><p>"Yeah but, I only have two flasks left. What if there are dangers more worthy of a fire attack?"</p><p></p><p>"What else did you bring?"</p><p></p><p>"Just some acid. And I'm not sure of those things aren't immune to it. They spit acid themselves. Asides, we might need it, too." </p><p></p><p>"Then" Zaza deducted, "you need to kill the thing. You just destroyed some undead, you can do this!" </p><p></p><p>"I was not really thinking straight when I busted the skeletons," Cajun admitted, but nodded to show he agreed. He turned and went back, hesitation clear in his step. Carefully, he opened the door a little bit and sighed. "Maybe I should burn it anyway, and we'll close the door until the smoke is gone?"</p><p></p><p>"My talking," Zaza agreed. "The skeletons you can deal with by yourself, brother!" She sounded proud, but there was no mistaking her saying you instead of we. </p><p></p><p>A good aim and a long while later, Zaza became impatient. "Shouldn't the beetle thing have burned out by now?"</p><p></p><p>"Well, yes... but not the dead body and the heap of rubbish," Cajun explained, smiling sheepishly and, as he hoped, apologetically. "I kind of miscalculated the effects. I should have waited until the beetle was out of the corner." </p><p></p><p>With a dramatic sigh, Zaza folded her arms. "This is taking ages, and I don't feel good without the others. Well, maybe I'd not feel much better with them." </p><p></p><p>"Sorry, it can only be minutes now." Cajun smiled again and shrugged his shoulders. "We should run through that room rather quickly, though, I saw a door at the other end."</p><p></p><p>"Agreed."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 5731829, member: 53286"] The door to the room right side of the entrance chamber opened without problem. In the center of this room was a large pool of clear water, fed by a fountain on the wall above it. The fountain had a stone statue of a weeping maiden holding the slain body of Kassen, but his head had been broken off and was nowhere to be seen. A voice boomed out from the darkness, saying, “Magic is the key.” The voice slowly faded, leaving a dreadful silence. "So, w-what n-now?" Mook felt increasinly nervous without her wolf and without open air around her. "Ah., how nice. A riddle." The paladin went to the pool and looked inside. "And I think I got it – we need to find the right key. Probably with magic." "Genius," Teltz mumbled so only Mook and Samin could hear. Loud he said "I can do a detect, but I'm no good at swimming." He looked at Mook, knowing Samin to be unable to swim with a sunrod and knowing the gnome to be very agile in water. Mook just stared back. "H-how do you th-think I'll k-k-know the right k-key? T-to many for me to r-remember wh-whatever you t-tell me." "Can you do a detect?" Bjön asked of Samin. "Sure but I'm not too good at diving, either." "Well, then, take off your clothes and you hold on to her, you can carry the sunrod and you'll direct her. You can hold your breath, yes?" Samin thought about it, then he nodded to the paladin. He had no issues taking his clothes off in front of his friends, so he started undressing and so did Mook. The water was cold, and he shivered uncomfortably, while the gnome was used to cold water. With a lot of gestures and losing the sun rod twice, Samin was able to locate the key and they retrieved their price. Samin gasped for air, shivering like mad, while Mook handed the key to the bard, seemingly unaffected. Teltz took the key then grabbed a rug from his backpack to dry of his son. "Are you ok" he worried. "Pfft, grrrck.." It seemed to mean yes, so he helped Samin into his clothes and when the three-quarter Elf and the gnome were dressed, they looked around the rest of the room. Two doors were leading out of it to the south, the left one was locked. The other opened, with a protesting squeak they thought could be heard in all the crypt, to a long corridor flanked by a row of human statues, set into alcoves on each side. The statues looked like Kassen, and each one helds a longsword out in front of it. The blades of roughly half the statues were wrapped in leather padding. Some burned down torches were there, too, and the room faintly smelled like lamp oil. "What now?" The bard peered into the corridor, but the sun rod only illuminated part of it. "You dwarfs can see in the dark, no?" "Ah... well, usually, but I'm night blind." It seemed the paladin blushed. "A fault of my family." "Why are the swords of the statues wrapped?" Samin asked. "Did our townfolks do that?" "Looks like it. By my guess, it's that sort of trap where the statues try to hack at you. They can't with the leather wraps." The paladin had seen such before, it seemed. "That w-will s-s-still hurt!" Mook growled. "Well, there must be a trigger." Bjön sounded almost cheerful. "We just have to avoid it. I suggest the gnome hugs the walls and tries to find it, she is lightest." Mook harrumped. This would be something right in Zaza's pocket, would she be here. The little halfling was much better at avoiding traps, as some foray into some ruins in their past had shown. She half hoped to see her friend and her brother come through the door to the pool room, but of course that was not happening. "A-alright," she whispered. "G-give me a sun rod." They had enough of those to last a while, she hoped. To be able to maneuver better, she left her backpack behind With her own sun rod, she pressed herself to the wall, trying to half vanish into the alcoves. She didn't look very agile doing so, but she managed to get half down the corridor when she saw it. "T-there i-is a weird l-looking flor t-tile." "A pressure plate, most likely." The paladin's voice was still cheerful. "Drop something heavy on it." "L-like what? I-I didn't b-bring anything." "Err yeah, should have thought of that," Bjön admitted. Teltz emptied out her backpack and added the contents to his and Samin's. "I'll get some rubble," he announced and vanished to outside. The halfling rogue so badly missed by her friend was shaken awake just then. The face of her brother appeared above her in the pale light of their own sun rod. "Are you ok? What happened? My head hurts." In a few words and while handing him a Cure potion, Zaza explained the situation – pretending she had fallen asleep though. "We need to follow them quickly." Cajun pushed the trapdoor back open and got out, then lifted his sister out and waiting for the wolf to join them. "I really knocked myself out in a pillow trap? I'll never hear the end of it." "They went this way." Ignoring the attempts of the wolf to lead them into the other direction, Cajun and Zaza went east and then south when they noticed the door. There was a paladin sized dent in the wooden door. "Yep, they came here," she chuckled, for a moment forgetting her fears. "Didn't make it through that way. I wonder if there is a mechanism for it? I could probably burn the door down, but I don't think our elders won't be happy about us damaging the crypt any further." "We are trying to rescue someone. Does it matter?" "You have a point there," Cajun nodded. "Step back." A flask of alchemist's Fire, thick black smoke, coughing fits and a panicked wolf later, the door was gone. Zaza got up from the floor still gasping for air. "I won't ever ask you to make fire in closed quarters without air again." Another wail sounded, even louder now. "This way," Zaza said, following the noise. "What if it is not the survivor?" "Then... well, you have more flasks of that, don't you?" "What was that about fire in close quarters again?" Cajun followed her though, he needed to protect his sister, after all. His hands were on the hilts of his weapons. They went left and then down a long corridor to their right. The mournful wailing grew louder with each step toward the door at the end of this musty hallway. There were a host of bones strewn on the floor here, many of which were cracked and broken. "Who is there? Cajun shouted. "This is Cajun, and Zaza, on the ill begotten Quest for the stupid Everflame." The wailing stopped. A moment later, the keen ears of the two unwilling heroes made out the sound of a loading crossbow. "I don't believe it, we come to help this one and now we are targets?" Zaza snapped. "Maybe he's lost his mind," Cajun suggested. "Hey, we are from Kassen and here to bring you back home. Do you hear? We are friends!" "Please?" Zaza added. "We are scared, too. There were skeletons but Cajun destroyed them." "And I'll destroy any others coming close." Cajun wasn't as certain about that but he sounded confident enough to make the person on the other side shuffle towards the door. "You help me? And my sister? The one with the voice of dead who stalks these halls in ancient mail took her, she must be alive still. She must. The dead one who speaks..." "Wait," Cajun shouted as the one on the other side started to push away the barricade. "We need syou to stay in there and be safe until we rescue your sister and can come back for you. What's your name?" Zaza looked surprised, but then she nodded. "No need trying to take a mad man with us, and if we leave him outside he may run and get lost." "I'm Roldare. My sister, she's Dimira. Heeeeelp her!" The man started wailing again. "Where did you see her last?" Zaza shouted over the noise. "Don't remember... somewhere in the crypt..." "That's helpful," Cajun groaned. "We'll look for her now. You need to shut up and stay calm, hear? So nothing bad will find you?" All of a sudden, the noise stopped and they could hear only whimpering. "Do skeletons wear mail?" Zaza asked while they walked back the way they came. "I don't think so. We should ask the paladin. How come the others have not found Roldare?" "Maybe they have but decided to give up on him." Zaza pointed to the other corridor, now to their left, which they had ignored before. "Which means they must be that way." "Or they took right where we left the trap room before." For a second, they stood undecided. Then Cajun went left. "The smith always says that when going into unknown area, you need to make sure nothing falls into your backs. So let's check this out first." Zaza didn't bother to mention that until they had not checked everything out, there was always a chance of something falling into their backs. But for some reason, she was not as scared as before. A moment later, they arived at another door which was slightly ajar. The stench of decay came out of it. "I hope that's not Dimira," Zaza mumbled. "Someone died, and that's always tragic." Cajun peered around the edge of the door, holding the sunrod out in front of him. This small chamber was mostly empty, save for the body of a villager sprawled in the center. Perched atop the corpse was a man-sized brown and yellow beetle, trying to push the corpse into the corner where a pile of trash and filth awaits. With a quick move, Cajun closed the door. "A corpse of a man and a bombadeer beetle. I encountered one before, we don't want to deal with it. It probably just wants the corpse, we can come back for the dead later." They went back to the burned dowwn door and took the only way they hadn't checked. Again, they came to a wooden door tighly locked. "This is hardwood, can't burn it," Cajun said after trying to push it open. "And I'm not that good a locksmith but to me it looks like this is a one way door." "What, so the others can't have come this way? Then they must have passed the beetle." The wolf howled, trying to get them to understand yet again that they weren't on the right track, but he was ignoired once more. "Maybe the beetle wasn't there yet or they magically subdued it. We need to get past it somehow." Cajun frowned and started trotting back to the door he had just closed. "Can't you burn the beetle?" Zaza asked, "We can close the door until the smoke settles." "Yeah but, I only have two flasks left. What if there are dangers more worthy of a fire attack?" "What else did you bring?" "Just some acid. And I'm not sure of those things aren't immune to it. They spit acid themselves. Asides, we might need it, too." "Then" Zaza deducted, "you need to kill the thing. You just destroyed some undead, you can do this!" "I was not really thinking straight when I busted the skeletons," Cajun admitted, but nodded to show he agreed. He turned and went back, hesitation clear in his step. Carefully, he opened the door a little bit and sighed. "Maybe I should burn it anyway, and we'll close the door until the smoke is gone?" "My talking," Zaza agreed. "The skeletons you can deal with by yourself, brother!" She sounded proud, but there was no mistaking her saying you instead of we. A good aim and a long while later, Zaza became impatient. "Shouldn't the beetle thing have burned out by now?" "Well, yes... but not the dead body and the heap of rubbish," Cajun explained, smiling sheepishly and, as he hoped, apologetically. "I kind of miscalculated the effects. I should have waited until the beetle was out of the corner." With a dramatic sigh, Zaza folded her arms. "This is taking ages, and I don't feel good without the others. Well, maybe I'd not feel much better with them." "Sorry, it can only be minutes now." Cajun smiled again and shrugged his shoulders. "We should run through that room rather quickly, though, I saw a door at the other end." "Agreed." [/QUOTE]
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