Eyes Of The Lich Queen

[Velmont]

"This is not a tomb, this is a safe for an artifact." replies Jango.

 

[drothgery]

This, I don't think it is a trap or not simply a trap, but a kind of bridge. Yes, a powerfull wizard could fly over, but as you see, none of us could. I wouldn,t be surprise to see a switch on the other side that disable this device.

"I rather think a spell of flight would be within your power now, if you chose to learn it. And father knows a prayer for walking on air that is, I suspect, only just barely beyond my own abilities. A skilled engineer would have no need of magic, given sufficient supplies. There are many creatures that could walk on the walls or even through lava without harm, some of them easily summonable by those that practice those arts. Someone with siege equipment could simply bring down the walls outside. And that is simply the obvious." She said.

 

[Velmont]

"My magic is not learned like you. It is innate. By study of my power, I might be able to somehow direct what new power I will handle, but it is a lot more harder and it is a very slow process. And spell that handle fire come to me easily. It might have been because of the mark I had, or maybe the marked had been influenced by my powers. Hard to tell."

 

[Mista Collins]

The monster hunter shrugs dismissively. "You ever see a tomb that didn't have ostentatious decoration?" He waits on the other platform for the other's inspection to finish.

"That I have not." Rogan pipes in as he listens to the others discuss this area. "But then again, most my experience has been within a cityscape. Before joining the Daggerspell Guardians in protecting the last tomb, I had no prior experience in the matter. My study of architecture and engineering was mainly on buildings above ground, but fortunate for us it seems a lot of that knowledge has carried over."

"But that is neither here nor there. If it pleases, I can search these statues or platforms for any pressure plates or trip wires." And with that Rogan looks them over for any signs of danger or trap mechanisms.

 

[Autumn]

Jina just shrugs. "No use arguing about how effective this place's deathtraps are," she says with a grin. "If we're lucky, the anwer is "not effective enough", right? But hey, we're in an ancient vault looking for centuries-old magical artifacts. Of course there are traps and weird moving platforms and stuff. That's the way it goes."

She gives a laugh. "Any two-bit tavern bard could tell you that."

 

[jkason]

Brother Donovan, warpriestly human cleric

Jina just shrugs. "No use arguing about how effective this place's deathtraps are," she says with a grin. "If we're lucky, the anwer is "not effective enough", right? But hey, we're in an ancient vault looking for centuries-old magical artifacts. Of course there are traps and weird moving platforms and stuff. That's the way it goes."

She gives a laugh. "Any two-bit tavern bard could tell you that."

Brother Donovan chuckles. "True 'nough," he agrees. "If this thing--" he gestures to the softly glowing crystal "--is a dragonshard, chances are it's horse to the platforms' cart. Seems innocent enough, then.

"But that glow still niggles me. Let's get across while we still can."

 

[DEFCON 1]

Rogan's quick inspection goes off, but he finds no switches, tripwires, pressure plates or anything by the two statues or the platform they are on. (Search check: [13] + 12 = 25)

"But that glow still niggles me. Let's get across while we still can."

With that, Ari steps off the moving platform onto the center island, followed immediately by Rogan...

***CRAKK-CRAKK-BOOOOM!!!***

...and as soon as their feet hit the island, a bolt of electricity fires immediately from the ceiling! It comes crashing down straight into Ari and the group watches as the hexblade's body shakes uncontrollably with the electricity arcing through his body. He takes the full brunt of the electrical damage, and then his body drops like a lead weight to the platform, unconscious. (Reflex save DC 19: [6] + 4 + 3arcaneresist = 13 *failure* / 49 damage / dying) The chained bolt of lightning then arcs across to Rogan, but the rogue is somehow able to spring backwards into the group on the platform... narrowly avoiding getting hit by the bolt. (Reflex check DC 19: [14] + 8 + 2trapsense = 24 *success* / Evasion for no damage)

As soon as the bolt fires, Jina's eyes immediately flash up to the shard and see that it is that which the lightning fired from. Also, the blueish glow disappear from the shard and it goes dark... but within half a second, the blue light begins to grow in intensity again within it.

 

[jkason]

Brother Donovan, warpriestly human cleric

As soon as the bolt hits, Donovan rushes forward to the spot on the moving platform once occupied by Ari. He comes up short, halting his instinct to step onto the platform to help. He frowns in thought, but as Jina imparts her observation, the templar's eyes light up and he reaches into his backpack.

He presses a vial into Rogan's hand, saying, "I think the glow's a charge, and we already saw the charge disappates when this platform's not attached. I'm going to pull the rope, and if we're lucky, we won't have moved too far before the crystal goes black, so you'll be able to jump the distance. Then you can force this down Ari's gullet.

"I can give you the Flame's blessing, which--on top of those acrobatics I just saw--will Flame willing be enough for you to dodge another bolt if you have to. I'd do this myself, but I'm a clunky mess, and I'd probably just wind up in that lava."

Here the rough-hewn man looks back to the group. "If someone has a less harrowing plan, I'm all for it, but Ari hasn't got much time."

[sblock=OOC]The vial is Donovan's CMW potion.

I'm assuming we're moving in rounds now, given Ari's position. Donovan can use his protective ward ability to give Rogan a +5 on his next save. That's a net of +15 for a +19 save, which ain't too bad. He can also use Guidance to give Rogan a +1 boost to a Jump check, though doing both of those means waiting two more rounds, since they're each a standard action.[/sblock]

 

[DEFCON 1]

Donovan rushes up to the fore of the swinging platform and hands off the potion to Rogan. He then pulls on the rope, which releases it from the center island and it begins it's leisurely path back to the cavern's edge. Khalia and Jina keep their eyes on the crystal shard above, and as soon as the platform releases, they see the blue glow disappear from the shard and they shout at Rogan to go!

The rogue immediately leaps to the island (Jump check DC 12: [16] + 7 = 23 *success*) and quickly moves over to the unconscious form of Ari Osten lying on the ground. He then proceeds to force-feed the potion of healing power down the monster hunter's throat, and after a few seconds Ari's eyes open and he sputters and coughs. (Cure Moderate Wounds: 12 hit points healed / Ari 11/48)

The other five watch this occur as their platform swings back up and reconnects to the cavern edge to the south. The two groups are now seperated, but the crystal at least remains dark.

 

[Velmont]

"If we send them this platform again, we will activate the crystal and kill them. They could probably use the other platform and finish to cross, but I fear there could eb another trap." Jango cast a detect magic spell and starts to scan every element in reach, the crystal, the platform, the statue and try to figure out what kind of aura they project.