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AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 5217971" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter 44, " There's dead things down here that didn't stay dead!“ (Episode Two, Chapter Four) - Wednesday, September 6, 1882, 4:30 P.M. (Egyptian time).</strong></p><p></p><p>The first skeleton is almost upon Ruby. It is the one whose arm she broke off with her fall, as it tries to grab at her with its remaining arm. Noting the dirt walls, she doesn't hesitate to blast the skeleton in the face with her pistol. "Uh, George, can you do anything?"</p><p></p><p>George grasps the rope while reaching for his own gun. "I can shoot their heads off too, if that works. I haven't exactly studied the nature of reanimated life forms. I imagine I'll have to look into that now." Ruby rolls her eyes. "Just shoot them George!" So he does. Half-dangling from the rope, Fish un-holsters and fires the small revolver that Hardin helped him strap to his chest harness, targeting whatever creature has moved nearest to either Ruby or George. </p><p></p><p>Up above Nana looks around that room for anything that could help clear out the smoke, a large ornate shield or some sort of palm fan. She hears Ruby calling for her and her ears perk up when she hears "undead" and "stairs closing." "Everyone stay calm, we need to think quickly here. Any ideas? I can affect the undead if I can get over there. We have to keep Ruby, George and Ben from getting trapped down there. They're the ones who can get the trap open! Larry, can you disable the stairs from closing? Hardin and Abby, can you work on trying to clear the smoke out? Nanuet? Ideas?"</p><p></p><p>After helping Nanuet get down below the smoke, Abby heard the sounds of the mechanics grinding back to life and the trap beginning to reset. She reached into her deceptively small rucksack and pulled out a spike, then held a deep breath and ran back up the stairs, looking for a way to temporarily keep the stairs from completely closing. </p><p></p><p>Ruby manages to blow the heads of the first two skeletons to bits. Above, the others all hear the gunshots discharge. Nana concludes that it will take a considerable amount of time for the smoke above to dissipate. Abby realizes that they could probably jam the stairs with one of the stone shelves from the library room. However, that presents two problems. The first is physical, as each shelf probably weighs in excess of 500 pounds. The second is moral, as it would destroy a piece of furniture three thousand years old, which her archaeological training has taught her to never do. </p><p></p><p>Ruby looked up to the stairs trying to estimate how much time before it totally closed. "I'm sure glad I cast that spell, at least we have light," she said as advanced her gun. "The life of adventure, huh?" she said with a grin and took another shot at the undead with her gun. George shook his head at his fiancé's antics. He reached out and placed a hand on her arm, healing her.</p><p></p><p>During the past minute since Fish moved the hourglass the stairs have risen approximately one-fifth of the way back, meaning that in approximately four minutes they will be sealed. "Blazing bitches bleeding maggots!" curses Fish from below the stairs, "There's dead things down here that didn't stay dead! Jam the gears and help us already!" </p><p></p><p>Fish manages to shot and stop another skeleton but seven continue to move towards Ruby and George from all sides. Ruby yells up, "Ben, you made the stairs go you can make them stop, try to fix it! Or pull us up and I will!" Fish holsters his pistol and makes the attempt, sweat beading on his brow. He deliberately smirks as he does, jauntily flirting with his Lady Luck.</p><p></p><p>It takes all of Benjamin Trout's strength pushing and pulling on the cylinder, but he finally hears a click and it allows him to pivot it around 180 degrees, with the hourglass section now turned. Two things immediately happen - the rising stairs immediately collapse back downward, and the black smoke starts to pour out of the pipes again. The skeletons continue to move towards Ruby and George.</p><p></p><p>"We'd need something huge to jam those gears, bigger than Mrs. Parker and I could carry," Abby shouted, then shot a magic missile spell at one of the skeletons. "Damn the smoke!" Mina quickly wrapped her scarf over her mouth and nose. Then she hurried up the stairs, stopping at the edge of the break. She peered down into the pit but could barely see, the smoke and darkness almost making it impossible. But Ruby's globes of light still hung there above the sand and gave her the faintest view of below. She quickly cast a command undead spell on the skeletons and she yelled out "Halt!"</p><p></p><p>"Haul Miss West up and outta here!" shouts Fish to those above as he repositions his grip on the wall, "She's tied to the bottom of the rope." He then fires at the skeleton nearest George. Fish stops another of the skeletons. Mina's spell is successful at stopping all but two who are more towards the far end of the pit. This pair begins to move towards Ruby and George.</p><p></p><p>Hardin starts to move backwards, hauling on the rope to bring Ruby out of the pit. Beads of sweat immediately form on his brow at the exertion. "Girl needs to pass on the pastries..." As he continues to pull, he calls for anyone close by to assist with the rope-work. Abby moved over and helped Hardin haul on the rope. Ruby is hauled up into the air and out of the reach of the skeletons. Both still moving skeletons advance on George.</p><p></p><p>Ruby leaned to the side so she could see below her. She targeted the skeleton that Fish didn't and blasted it with a shot from her gun. "George, are you alright?" she called down as she was being hauled up. "Just hang on and we'll send the rope right back down before those others start up again!" Once Ruby was near the top she tried to find a foothold to help pull her up. Lawrence reaches down and pulls Ruby up. "I got ya. Hang on and we can get your fiancé. Are my old eyes betraying me, or did I see moving skeletons down there?" Once Ruby clears the lip, Fish retrieves the rope to drop it toward George.</p><p></p><p>Abby tossed another magic missile spell down on the skeleton Ruby didn't shoot. "Let's get the gent out of there, we need to get out of this smoke," she said, coughing. "Mrs. Parker, you might want to get that door open. We need to get out of here for a bit." "Oh, I'm fine" calls out George with forced cheerfulness as he moves his eyes from the skeleton he fires at to the opening above him. "I am quite sure Mary Shelley did not have this in mind when she wrote." quipped George.</p><p></p><p>Nanuet coughs heavily, having inhaled quite a bit of the smoke. As his lungs clear at least temporarily he says "Is anyone in position to plug up wherever that smoke is coming from?" He'll stay low and make his way back to the edge of the trap and see if he can't help pull anyone out.</p><p></p><p>After dropping the rope on George, Fish maneuvers himself near the trap apparatus. Once George is tied in, and friends above begin tugging, he begins manipulating the hourglass again in hopes of stopping the smoke. He has gathered that he needs to allow time for the two of them to climb from the pit before the stairs lock shut.</p><p></p><p>Ruby reached up and took Lawrence's hand, letting him pull her up. "Thanks for the hand up! No, you saw right. There were skeletons moving down there! There aren't any left alive, er, dead, er, undead, I don't think anyway. I think we all blasted them to bits." As Lawrence pulled on her arm she grimaced. "Ouch, I think my arm is still broken." She quickly pulled the rope off her and threw it down the pit. She yells "George grab the rope and these strapping men will pull you right up. Just hold on one more minute..." She started coughing, just then realizing she was breathing in smoke. She fanned in front of her face. "Abby's right, we should get out of here."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet seeing Ruby wincing in pain lays his hand on her and chants in Apache, as blue light washes over her arm and the swelling that had started begins to subside. "How's that?" The healing spell manages to fix Ruby's arm, as it was sprained but not actually broken. George is pulled up in short order. Fish makes his way back up top and they are all able to make their way safely back down the staircase to the first room that the scrolls had been kept in. </p><p></p><p>"Thank you Nanuet, you always make me feel better. How is everyone else? Anyone hurt?" She turned to George, "Sorry that I tripped the trap and made you fall. You could have died! I don't know what happened, I thought I had it. Next time I will," she said confidently. "You're welcome Miss Ruby. Where do we go from here?” </p><p></p><p>George smiled at Ruby "No Constance, I did not fall, put your mind at ease in that regard. I know you did your best, and that is all any of us can ask of any other member here. We are dealing with ancient traps that have kept these places safe for thousands of years, they are well made. We need to re-group and proceed with more caution is all." says George as he take Ruby by the hand and gives it a squeeze. And tie a rope around Miss West's waist when she tries again, so she can be quickly and easily rescued," Abby added.</p><p></p><p>Not long after they return the 'hourglass cylinder' flips again and the stairs return back up to their original position, the massive stones crushing in the process the spikes and obstacles that had been placed to keep them from closing. The smoke at the upper end of the staircase begins to slowly dissipate. Nanuet asks, “Onward and upward or back to regroup?" "Hrmm, prudence would say re-group, but if you have healed Constance's arm enough, perhaps we need to press our advantage and knowledge. We are on a tight time line" offers George. </p><p></p><p>Mina says, "I guess the next key question is how are we going to get around the trap we've already discovered, it runs for the thirty feet up the staircase. We could go back to the Florida house and get construction materials to make a semi-permanent way over it, or we might already have what we need to get by it in the short-term." </p><p></p><p>Abby says, "That's true, but we used up some valuable resources getting out of that mess. Nanuet there used some of his healing, I used up most of my spell power for the whole day... I hate to put off leavin', but it might be for the best." Nanuet says, "I guess another attempt at disabling the trap is out of the question</p><p></p><p>Ruby exclaims, "I can try the trap again. Perhaps Fish and I can work together." Ruby nears the steps and studies them again, being especially carefully to look where she set the trap off before. "Ropes to climb over the stairs without touching them... or Ben, did you see the underneath to see better how to disable it?" Ruby, with Ben's help (if he gives it), will attempt a second time to disable the trap. "Two sets of eyes are better than one, Miss West," replies Fish.</p><p></p><p>While neither see any way to disable it from above, it is now clear to both exactly where the pressure points are to trigger it, that being not only the steps that collapsed but the one immediately before it. ?" Fish explains what he has seen to the others. "Fish, can you monkey climb along the wall with some ropes so we can rig up a way to move past without stepping on the floor? I didn't bring any of that kind of gear..." Hardin trails off uncertainly... </p><p></p><p>"Yes sir, I can clamber along the wall and avoid the steps themselves," replies Fish confidently, "and I can rig some sort of harness to help the rest of you do the same..." Ruby says, "Or now that we know where this step is that sets off the trap, let's check the rest of the stairs for anymore that look like it... just the two of us... then we can just have everyone step over those steps. Might be easier." "Fair enough," says Fish cautiously, "but let's the both of us tie ourselves in before we try." He prepares the ropes. Ruby raises an eyebrow at Ben as he ties the ropes around her waist. "Don't get too frisky now Ben, we have a serious job to do," she chuckles. </p><p></p><p>Tied together they proceed cautiously, avoiding the steps they think to be trap triggers. When Ruby reaches the spot that sprung the trap before she carefully avoids that step, reaching the one beyond it. As before, the thirty foot section collapses out from under them and the black smoke begins to pour out from below. Unlike last time, they only fall as far as the ropes holding them allow, with the other members of the party holding the ropes securely from further back. The Indian exclaims, "Well that didn't work out so well." Nanuet tries to haul them back </p><p>out of the trap.</p><p></p><p>Ruby coughs and fans the air in front of her face. "Alright, I guess we have to go over all the remaining steps. Ben, let's make some sort of contraption to get that done. I have a feeling you'll be able to help me with that," she smiles. They first have to retreat a short while to wait for the trap to reset itself and the smoke to clear. </p><p></p><p>They set about using ropes and any other equipment they can find to make a pulley system so they can get up the stairs without touching the stairs. Fish and Nanuet go first followed by his wolf. He then "untangles" Maska from the rigged harness and sends it back waiting on the far side of the trapped stairs for everyone to cross. "Fish, maybe you should go ahead and see what other delights lie in store for us?" It takes close to an hour, but they are able to work out a rope and pulley system to get everybody up and across the section of steps.</p><p></p><p>Fish and Ruby carefully make their way up the remainder of the staircase to a stone doorway that opens out onto the top of the staircase. Looking carefully, they discover a swinging-blade trap by the door. The trap and blade is on this side of the doorway, clearly intended to spring on somebody opening the doorway from the other side. They have no difficulty at all in blocking the trap. "Are we good to go, my friends?" asks Fish, smoothing his hand across the face of the stone doorway whilst crouched low alongside it. He nods at Miss West.</p><p></p><p>The door opens easily from this side. It opens onto what is either an empty room or wide corridor, ten feet to the opposite stone wall and running forty feet to the right, ending in a solid wall. There are no other doors. Lawrence stoops to check the floor in front of the group. "Hold on. Let me check for other traps."</p><p></p><p>No traps are found, but Lawrence does manage to locate a hidden doorway on the far wall, half the width of the wall itself. It appears that the door will open once significant pressure is pushed against it. Lawrence states, "Well, look at that. Let's go here." Hardin steps up to lend a shoulder on the door..."What's the worst that could happen?" He says and grins his crooked grin. Lawrence raises a finger, "Well. Instant death would be one thing. But other than that..." </p><p></p><p>Lawrence and John both push, assisted by Nanuet, and the stone door pivots on the ride side, pushing outward. The face a cobweb-filled corridor continuing onward, the webs so think that visibility is limited to ten feet out. Lawrence blows webs from his mouth. He brushes his sleeves to rid himself of the sticky threads. "I'd hate to see the amount of spiders that created this." </p><p></p><p>"Ladies, it's a good thing you put your 'do in a bun..." says Fish, shuddering a little at the thought of bugs in his hair. "They'll be long gone," Abby said, twisting her hair up and off her neck. "Burning them would be easiest, but not a good idea. We'll just have to sweep them out, we need to see the walls."</p><p></p><p>George takes an unlit torch and extends an arm into the corridor. He raises the torch up and catches the webs and begins to twirl the webs about the torch. The sticky webs cling to each other as he winds them about the stick making a large wad on the end of the torch as the webs pull away from the ancient walls. 'We'll need a few more to clear the whole tunnel but they'll burn well afterwards" says George reaching deeper into the corridor. "Someone get some light onto this floor before we step on it"</p><p></p><p>Hardin's skin crawls as he slides past the webbing..."I don't like bugs..." he mutters under his breath. Using George's unlit torch method, they begin to make their way down the corridor. They soon come to a closed doorway on the right-hand wall. The stone door has a bronze doorknob and no apparent lock. The cobweb-filled corridor continues onward. Lawrence says to the others, "What do you think? There may be untold treasures behind this door. Let's go in."</p><p></p><p>"There could also be some fiendishly clever traps, sir," Abby said. "Let's get a look before we just go blunderin' in again." Arch and Engineering to see if there's anything Abby can tell that's odd about the door. The door is completely solid, flush to the floor, with no hint of air of light coming through. There are also no hinges or indications of any sort of how the door itself opens from the outside. Fish checks for traps. Lawrence and Ruby also do not detect any traps around the door. </p><p></p><p>"Let me just check it for magic before we call the all clear," Abby said and cast a simple detect magic. Abby detects no magic at or around the door. She does see a residual aura of magic around the doorway they entered from that heads down the trapped staircase. "No magic. If it explodes and kills us it won't be because we leapt before we looked."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 5217971, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter 44, " There's dead things down here that didn't stay dead!“ (Episode Two, Chapter Four) - Wednesday, September 6, 1882, 4:30 P.M. (Egyptian time).[/B] The first skeleton is almost upon Ruby. It is the one whose arm she broke off with her fall, as it tries to grab at her with its remaining arm. Noting the dirt walls, she doesn't hesitate to blast the skeleton in the face with her pistol. "Uh, George, can you do anything?" George grasps the rope while reaching for his own gun. "I can shoot their heads off too, if that works. I haven't exactly studied the nature of reanimated life forms. I imagine I'll have to look into that now." Ruby rolls her eyes. "Just shoot them George!" So he does. Half-dangling from the rope, Fish un-holsters and fires the small revolver that Hardin helped him strap to his chest harness, targeting whatever creature has moved nearest to either Ruby or George. Up above Nana looks around that room for anything that could help clear out the smoke, a large ornate shield or some sort of palm fan. She hears Ruby calling for her and her ears perk up when she hears "undead" and "stairs closing." "Everyone stay calm, we need to think quickly here. Any ideas? I can affect the undead if I can get over there. We have to keep Ruby, George and Ben from getting trapped down there. They're the ones who can get the trap open! Larry, can you disable the stairs from closing? Hardin and Abby, can you work on trying to clear the smoke out? Nanuet? Ideas?" After helping Nanuet get down below the smoke, Abby heard the sounds of the mechanics grinding back to life and the trap beginning to reset. She reached into her deceptively small rucksack and pulled out a spike, then held a deep breath and ran back up the stairs, looking for a way to temporarily keep the stairs from completely closing. Ruby manages to blow the heads of the first two skeletons to bits. Above, the others all hear the gunshots discharge. Nana concludes that it will take a considerable amount of time for the smoke above to dissipate. Abby realizes that they could probably jam the stairs with one of the stone shelves from the library room. However, that presents two problems. The first is physical, as each shelf probably weighs in excess of 500 pounds. The second is moral, as it would destroy a piece of furniture three thousand years old, which her archaeological training has taught her to never do. Ruby looked up to the stairs trying to estimate how much time before it totally closed. "I'm sure glad I cast that spell, at least we have light," she said as advanced her gun. "The life of adventure, huh?" she said with a grin and took another shot at the undead with her gun. George shook his head at his fiancé's antics. He reached out and placed a hand on her arm, healing her. During the past minute since Fish moved the hourglass the stairs have risen approximately one-fifth of the way back, meaning that in approximately four minutes they will be sealed. "Blazing bitches bleeding maggots!" curses Fish from below the stairs, "There's dead things down here that didn't stay dead! Jam the gears and help us already!" Fish manages to shot and stop another skeleton but seven continue to move towards Ruby and George from all sides. Ruby yells up, "Ben, you made the stairs go you can make them stop, try to fix it! Or pull us up and I will!" Fish holsters his pistol and makes the attempt, sweat beading on his brow. He deliberately smirks as he does, jauntily flirting with his Lady Luck. It takes all of Benjamin Trout's strength pushing and pulling on the cylinder, but he finally hears a click and it allows him to pivot it around 180 degrees, with the hourglass section now turned. Two things immediately happen - the rising stairs immediately collapse back downward, and the black smoke starts to pour out of the pipes again. The skeletons continue to move towards Ruby and George. "We'd need something huge to jam those gears, bigger than Mrs. Parker and I could carry," Abby shouted, then shot a magic missile spell at one of the skeletons. "Damn the smoke!" Mina quickly wrapped her scarf over her mouth and nose. Then she hurried up the stairs, stopping at the edge of the break. She peered down into the pit but could barely see, the smoke and darkness almost making it impossible. But Ruby's globes of light still hung there above the sand and gave her the faintest view of below. She quickly cast a command undead spell on the skeletons and she yelled out "Halt!" "Haul Miss West up and outta here!" shouts Fish to those above as he repositions his grip on the wall, "She's tied to the bottom of the rope." He then fires at the skeleton nearest George. Fish stops another of the skeletons. Mina's spell is successful at stopping all but two who are more towards the far end of the pit. This pair begins to move towards Ruby and George. Hardin starts to move backwards, hauling on the rope to bring Ruby out of the pit. Beads of sweat immediately form on his brow at the exertion. "Girl needs to pass on the pastries..." As he continues to pull, he calls for anyone close by to assist with the rope-work. Abby moved over and helped Hardin haul on the rope. Ruby is hauled up into the air and out of the reach of the skeletons. Both still moving skeletons advance on George. Ruby leaned to the side so she could see below her. She targeted the skeleton that Fish didn't and blasted it with a shot from her gun. "George, are you alright?" she called down as she was being hauled up. "Just hang on and we'll send the rope right back down before those others start up again!" Once Ruby was near the top she tried to find a foothold to help pull her up. Lawrence reaches down and pulls Ruby up. "I got ya. Hang on and we can get your fiancé. Are my old eyes betraying me, or did I see moving skeletons down there?" Once Ruby clears the lip, Fish retrieves the rope to drop it toward George. Abby tossed another magic missile spell down on the skeleton Ruby didn't shoot. "Let's get the gent out of there, we need to get out of this smoke," she said, coughing. "Mrs. Parker, you might want to get that door open. We need to get out of here for a bit." "Oh, I'm fine" calls out George with forced cheerfulness as he moves his eyes from the skeleton he fires at to the opening above him. "I am quite sure Mary Shelley did not have this in mind when she wrote." quipped George. Nanuet coughs heavily, having inhaled quite a bit of the smoke. As his lungs clear at least temporarily he says "Is anyone in position to plug up wherever that smoke is coming from?" He'll stay low and make his way back to the edge of the trap and see if he can't help pull anyone out. After dropping the rope on George, Fish maneuvers himself near the trap apparatus. Once George is tied in, and friends above begin tugging, he begins manipulating the hourglass again in hopes of stopping the smoke. He has gathered that he needs to allow time for the two of them to climb from the pit before the stairs lock shut. Ruby reached up and took Lawrence's hand, letting him pull her up. "Thanks for the hand up! No, you saw right. There were skeletons moving down there! There aren't any left alive, er, dead, er, undead, I don't think anyway. I think we all blasted them to bits." As Lawrence pulled on her arm she grimaced. "Ouch, I think my arm is still broken." She quickly pulled the rope off her and threw it down the pit. She yells "George grab the rope and these strapping men will pull you right up. Just hold on one more minute..." She started coughing, just then realizing she was breathing in smoke. She fanned in front of her face. "Abby's right, we should get out of here." Nanuet seeing Ruby wincing in pain lays his hand on her and chants in Apache, as blue light washes over her arm and the swelling that had started begins to subside. "How's that?" The healing spell manages to fix Ruby's arm, as it was sprained but not actually broken. George is pulled up in short order. Fish makes his way back up top and they are all able to make their way safely back down the staircase to the first room that the scrolls had been kept in. "Thank you Nanuet, you always make me feel better. How is everyone else? Anyone hurt?" She turned to George, "Sorry that I tripped the trap and made you fall. You could have died! I don't know what happened, I thought I had it. Next time I will," she said confidently. "You're welcome Miss Ruby. Where do we go from here?” George smiled at Ruby "No Constance, I did not fall, put your mind at ease in that regard. I know you did your best, and that is all any of us can ask of any other member here. We are dealing with ancient traps that have kept these places safe for thousands of years, they are well made. We need to re-group and proceed with more caution is all." says George as he take Ruby by the hand and gives it a squeeze. And tie a rope around Miss West's waist when she tries again, so she can be quickly and easily rescued," Abby added. Not long after they return the 'hourglass cylinder' flips again and the stairs return back up to their original position, the massive stones crushing in the process the spikes and obstacles that had been placed to keep them from closing. The smoke at the upper end of the staircase begins to slowly dissipate. Nanuet asks, “Onward and upward or back to regroup?" "Hrmm, prudence would say re-group, but if you have healed Constance's arm enough, perhaps we need to press our advantage and knowledge. We are on a tight time line" offers George. Mina says, "I guess the next key question is how are we going to get around the trap we've already discovered, it runs for the thirty feet up the staircase. We could go back to the Florida house and get construction materials to make a semi-permanent way over it, or we might already have what we need to get by it in the short-term." Abby says, "That's true, but we used up some valuable resources getting out of that mess. Nanuet there used some of his healing, I used up most of my spell power for the whole day... I hate to put off leavin', but it might be for the best." Nanuet says, "I guess another attempt at disabling the trap is out of the question Ruby exclaims, "I can try the trap again. Perhaps Fish and I can work together." Ruby nears the steps and studies them again, being especially carefully to look where she set the trap off before. "Ropes to climb over the stairs without touching them... or Ben, did you see the underneath to see better how to disable it?" Ruby, with Ben's help (if he gives it), will attempt a second time to disable the trap. "Two sets of eyes are better than one, Miss West," replies Fish. While neither see any way to disable it from above, it is now clear to both exactly where the pressure points are to trigger it, that being not only the steps that collapsed but the one immediately before it. ?" Fish explains what he has seen to the others. "Fish, can you monkey climb along the wall with some ropes so we can rig up a way to move past without stepping on the floor? I didn't bring any of that kind of gear..." Hardin trails off uncertainly... "Yes sir, I can clamber along the wall and avoid the steps themselves," replies Fish confidently, "and I can rig some sort of harness to help the rest of you do the same..." Ruby says, "Or now that we know where this step is that sets off the trap, let's check the rest of the stairs for anymore that look like it... just the two of us... then we can just have everyone step over those steps. Might be easier." "Fair enough," says Fish cautiously, "but let's the both of us tie ourselves in before we try." He prepares the ropes. Ruby raises an eyebrow at Ben as he ties the ropes around her waist. "Don't get too frisky now Ben, we have a serious job to do," she chuckles. Tied together they proceed cautiously, avoiding the steps they think to be trap triggers. When Ruby reaches the spot that sprung the trap before she carefully avoids that step, reaching the one beyond it. As before, the thirty foot section collapses out from under them and the black smoke begins to pour out from below. Unlike last time, they only fall as far as the ropes holding them allow, with the other members of the party holding the ropes securely from further back. The Indian exclaims, "Well that didn't work out so well." Nanuet tries to haul them back out of the trap. Ruby coughs and fans the air in front of her face. "Alright, I guess we have to go over all the remaining steps. Ben, let's make some sort of contraption to get that done. I have a feeling you'll be able to help me with that," she smiles. They first have to retreat a short while to wait for the trap to reset itself and the smoke to clear. They set about using ropes and any other equipment they can find to make a pulley system so they can get up the stairs without touching the stairs. Fish and Nanuet go first followed by his wolf. He then "untangles" Maska from the rigged harness and sends it back waiting on the far side of the trapped stairs for everyone to cross. "Fish, maybe you should go ahead and see what other delights lie in store for us?" It takes close to an hour, but they are able to work out a rope and pulley system to get everybody up and across the section of steps. Fish and Ruby carefully make their way up the remainder of the staircase to a stone doorway that opens out onto the top of the staircase. Looking carefully, they discover a swinging-blade trap by the door. The trap and blade is on this side of the doorway, clearly intended to spring on somebody opening the doorway from the other side. They have no difficulty at all in blocking the trap. "Are we good to go, my friends?" asks Fish, smoothing his hand across the face of the stone doorway whilst crouched low alongside it. He nods at Miss West. The door opens easily from this side. It opens onto what is either an empty room or wide corridor, ten feet to the opposite stone wall and running forty feet to the right, ending in a solid wall. There are no other doors. Lawrence stoops to check the floor in front of the group. "Hold on. Let me check for other traps." No traps are found, but Lawrence does manage to locate a hidden doorway on the far wall, half the width of the wall itself. It appears that the door will open once significant pressure is pushed against it. Lawrence states, "Well, look at that. Let's go here." Hardin steps up to lend a shoulder on the door..."What's the worst that could happen?" He says and grins his crooked grin. Lawrence raises a finger, "Well. Instant death would be one thing. But other than that..." Lawrence and John both push, assisted by Nanuet, and the stone door pivots on the ride side, pushing outward. The face a cobweb-filled corridor continuing onward, the webs so think that visibility is limited to ten feet out. Lawrence blows webs from his mouth. He brushes his sleeves to rid himself of the sticky threads. "I'd hate to see the amount of spiders that created this." "Ladies, it's a good thing you put your 'do in a bun..." says Fish, shuddering a little at the thought of bugs in his hair. "They'll be long gone," Abby said, twisting her hair up and off her neck. "Burning them would be easiest, but not a good idea. We'll just have to sweep them out, we need to see the walls." George takes an unlit torch and extends an arm into the corridor. He raises the torch up and catches the webs and begins to twirl the webs about the torch. The sticky webs cling to each other as he winds them about the stick making a large wad on the end of the torch as the webs pull away from the ancient walls. 'We'll need a few more to clear the whole tunnel but they'll burn well afterwards" says George reaching deeper into the corridor. "Someone get some light onto this floor before we step on it" Hardin's skin crawls as he slides past the webbing..."I don't like bugs..." he mutters under his breath. Using George's unlit torch method, they begin to make their way down the corridor. They soon come to a closed doorway on the right-hand wall. The stone door has a bronze doorknob and no apparent lock. The cobweb-filled corridor continues onward. Lawrence says to the others, "What do you think? There may be untold treasures behind this door. Let's go in." "There could also be some fiendishly clever traps, sir," Abby said. "Let's get a look before we just go blunderin' in again." Arch and Engineering to see if there's anything Abby can tell that's odd about the door. The door is completely solid, flush to the floor, with no hint of air of light coming through. There are also no hinges or indications of any sort of how the door itself opens from the outside. Fish checks for traps. Lawrence and Ruby also do not detect any traps around the door. "Let me just check it for magic before we call the all clear," Abby said and cast a simple detect magic. Abby detects no magic at or around the door. She does see a residual aura of magic around the doorway they entered from that heads down the trapped staircase. "No magic. If it explodes and kills us it won't be because we leapt before we looked." [/QUOTE]
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AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
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