Phyrric Legacy - Shackled City IC Thread

Jon ponders on the sound. Can't be natural? Gnomish decoration?

With the map in hand, Jon thinks he knows where they are. "I think we are here. Should gives us an idea how to navigate now."

[OOC: Green dot is "I think we're here"; red "X" is skulk's info.]

Legildur said:

Flannad licks his lips. He knows that now his life, and those of the others and the children, may depend on his skills. He listens carefully for a moment before checking the stairs briefly for any traps. (OOC: Listen/Spot +7, Search +8, Hide +16, Move Silently +12)

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Aside from the strange sounds coming from the room below, Flannad doesn't hear anything. Everything looks clear to the whisper gnome as well; he doesn't find any traps.

"There are too many stairs for my taste." Dowlee pulls out her bow, her eyes searching the darkness in front of the group. "Shouldn't we be also looking for tunnels?" <Probably none in the stairway... though I'm just being paranoid...>

"Someone want to go take a look first?" Liracor whispers.

Flannad gestures for silence as he searches. Assuming he finds nothing, he volunteers to look into the room, relying on his stealth.

Dowlee's comment notwithstanding, there are no signs of any tunnels, and so it seems clear that the party's only recourse is to proceed down the last flight of stairs. Everything looks clear to Flannad, so the group proceeds.

The staircase ends at a forty-foot-square room with a ten-foot-high ceiling. A slight draft blows into the room from a ten-foot-wide open passage in the far wall, directly across from the stairs. Two four-foot-diameter circular doors are set into the middle of the south wall. 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 gear-like 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 noises seem to pour from the very walls.

[sblock=Flannad, Language]Flannad immediately recognizes the glyphs on the two doors. In fact, they are letters of the gnomish alphabet. The closed, westernmost door is marked with the letter 'J', while the half-open, easternmost door is marked with the letter 'A'.[/sblock]

(OOC: In addition to the updated map, I've put a diagram of the gear doors below. The first diagram shows only a door, while the second shows how the door rolls into its frame to open.)

"I don't like this," whispers Flannad. "Beware the doors with teeth. Isn't that what it said?"

"J and A. Can you make sense of that?" he asks no one in particular. "That's the runes - in gnomish."

Jon moves catiously to see into the half-open door room. "Labels, like those in a flophouse?" he responds to the gnome's question.

Dowlee nods. <Beware the doors with teeth...> "Doesn't that mean we shouldn't be using those doors anyway?"

stonegod said:

Jon moves catiously to see into the half-open door room...

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Jon notes that the door has been wedged open with a chunk of stone, leaving a crescent-shaped gap just large enough for a person to squeeze through. It's hard to make out much detail, but he does see a number of shapes against the wall that look like cots. Everything beyond the door is covered with dust and cobwebs, so it's hard to see much else.