Legacy of Death Part IX: The Ultimate Tomb

[TerraDave]

(I should have noted that you are all relatively "fresh"---and Epic! Well, if you level your characters you are).

You take the stairs

A red mist hangs throughout this area. Walls of black ice
thrust along the edges of a broad courtyard. Fragments
of blackened bone are spread across the ground, and the
remains of shattered blades are clustered into l0 foot-high
piles. A staircase at the far end of this area leads deeper
into the gloom.

It doesn't take a ranger to realize that the footprints found before become more frantic here. They are joined by some large and oddly uneven ones that are hard to identify.

 

[Jin Abackis]

Without approaching the red mist, Sim tries to determine if the red mist is harmful (arcana - 32). From a distance, do the human footprints look like they end here or continue to the stairs beyond and do the large uneven footprints look like they originate from within the courtyard or from the other stairs (perception – 31)?

 

[ecayford]

Forge will follow the others. "Don't shed a tear for the traitor gents. His was not our quest."

 

[TerraDave]

You pretty much have to enter the red mist to investigate the area.

You don't think it is directly harmful. Some kind of reanimation magic? Mixed up with other fairly recently invoked magic here. It all seems dormant now.

Its hard to follow the human footprints "from a distance". You think the large uneven ones may have started here.

 

[Jin Abackis]

The pattern is vague but I believe that when someone enters the courtyard the piles of blades will animate and attack. (This also appears to have happened to the human that entered here.) The trap then resets itself which suggests that it’s bound here and may not follow up the stairs. (How far away are the stairs?) I plan to charge across the courtyard (double move) and up the stairs (trying to avoid getting near any of the 10’ piles of shattered blades). Anyone care to join me?

 

[TerraDave]

Its about 65 feet across to the stairs leading down. Bypassing the clusters of blades would require you to pass through some ruble, which may take some extra time.

 

[Buckthorn]

"Simorai, if this is indeed a trap, and given our luck and expierience, I've no doubt it it is, might it be possible to disable it?" Buckthorn will examine the trap and attempt to disable it if he can (Thievery 38).

 

[TerraDave]

(I wonder what exactly Buckthorn is doing?)

You don't think you can 'disable' the strange mist. From a distance, you are not 100% sure about the clusters of shattered blades or blackened bones.

But, you are able to experiment enough at the edge to get the feeling that these may not activate in the immediate future. As if there was a trap, and it had been triggered and not yet reset.

 

[Jin Abackis]

I said trap but not the kind that can be disabled. I’m thinking more of a construct (likely of blade and bone) that animates on a trigger and then goes dormant. Such things must be distroyed or avoided.
But enough of theories, stay back out of sight just in case.
Sim picks a route to minimize the distance to the far stairs, trying to void the rubble, piles of blades and any other obstacles if, or as much as, possible. With the Ruinblade in one hand, he unfurls his cloak and charges/runs on his chosen route.

 

[TerraDave]

you would be surprised at what Buckthorn has disabled...but red mist may even be beyond his talents.

As you pass through the rubble you feel a sense of--panic?--and the blade clusters seem to stir a bit. The piles of blade and bone do not stir. And the mist itself feels unpleasent, but even its edge seems dulled for now.

You cross to the downward stairs.