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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 496865" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chinese Take-outChapter 51, “Will somebody please give Mark a hand?”  September 27, 1018, 7:00 A.M.:                 Nothing else noteworthy is found in the room, until a rug is moved, to reveal a trap door in the floor.   Lannon does not detect any traps, and removes the floorboards.  A small square hollowed out section of floor is immediately below, in which sits a small chest, about a foot long by eight inches wide and six inches high.  The top of the chest is about a foot down.  Mark reaches his hands in to remove the chest.  A blade from below the floor slices across the top of the opening, just above the chest, which slices off Mark’s hands just below the wrists.   Hiroshi immediately applies direct pressure onto Marks arm wounds, to stop him from bleeding to death.  Lannon uses his axe to again activate the blade trap, using the axe to then jam the blade in place.   With the blade stooped Mojo reaches down and retrieves the two severed hands.  Both Cassie and Timothy charge forward to assist.  Cassie is the party’s surgical expert, and she and Hiroshi then precisely place the hands where they belong on the arm stumps as Timothy casts a Cure Serious Wounds spell to seal the wounds.  Cassie comments how she suspects that the hands were probably reattached before permanent damage would have set in.  She recommends that a Ring of Regeneration be worn by Mark to fix whatever damage did occur.  They put the ring onto the hand that appears to be most functional.  After a turn of wearing the ring he is able to wiggle the fingers on that hand.  The ring is then transferred to the other hand.   The party decides that he should probably keep the ring on for the rest of the day in order to guarantee a complete recovery.    Lannon complains “This is just great!  Lono has one ring and Mark has the other.  If somebody else looses a limb what will we do?”  Meanwhile, Mojo pulls out the chest.  It contains two keys, one gold and the other silver.   The party decides to retain the box and keys, concluding that they may need them later on to exit the tomb.  The party finds no further exits, so Aradyn, Cassie, Fiona and Mark decide to go down a narrow hallway with a partially collapsed roof.   They find that this leads to a large chamber, so get the others to follow.   Getting through this is a tight squeeze, especially for Cheveyo. The chamber has multiple exits and also a pair of stone statues of dwarves.  The party examines the statues, concluding that they are carved statues rather than petrified dwarves.  Hiroshi recommends that the group head down the exit directly opposite, concluding that it heads the direction they need to go to exit the temple.    They soon approach a section of corridor with very wide doors.   An oriental man appears before them.   He is wearing flowing oriental robes and carrying a black staff.   Hiroshi notes that the man appears to be in his mid-fifties, too young to be Li-Tak.  Hiroshi approaches him and speaks to the man in the languages of the Heian Empire, the local tongue as well as common, with no response from the silent door guard.   Hiroshi concludes that person is not really there, but that it is some type of apparition. The party cautiously walked past staying in a single file line.   Hiroshi fears that taking the two keys past this man might be perceived as stealing.  He makes a presentation of the chest and keys to the man, leaving them in front of the apparition.  The group moves on.  Hiroshi looks back, and sees that the is still standing there but the box had vanished.The group presses on, picking up a slight breeze ahead, and following that direction. They eventually reach a staircase up.  The group cautiously proceeds, passing through a series of circular rooms.   The final room has a spiral staircase going down, as well as a statue on a pedestal.    Lannon does not detect any traps, but upon reaching the sixth step down, the rocks shift, making a solid ramp.  Because of his magical Boot Lannon does not slide down the ramp.  He is able to string a safety rope for the others to follow.   They reach the bottom, into a room with a large gate attached to a wall.  In the center of the room is a statue of a bare-chested dwarf with a Mohawk haircut standing on a platform and pointing to the gate.  “I think we’re looking at the Mr. T. of Dwarves” is Mojo’s comment.   This leads to a side discussion of the current television commercials for Stir Fry vegetable dishes, the current one featuring Mr. T. and other 1970”s and 1980’s has-been celebrities.   “What did you find” yells out Serita from the back of the line.  “A statue of a bare-chested short guy,” answers Aradyn, adding “You’d better put a blindfold on Timothy.”   Lannon reads the inscription on the base of the statue, adding that it is old dwarvish and mentions a Chaos-faction of dwarves, with references to destruction and warfare. The adjacent room has a statue of a majestic elf.  This leads to a room with marble walls and a silver gate.   The gate has intricate silver guiding on it, giving the appearance of vines.  The corridor continues in the direction where the elf statue was pointing, Lannon moves one of the metal leaves, which triggers the gate in the first room to open.   The wall behind the gate can now be slid to the side, revealing another long corridor.   The temperature in the room becomes cooler as a breeze flows out from the corridor.  The group moves on and another gate is found, which is also opened by the turning of the silver leaves.   From there, they precede down a series of corridors which have plush red carpeting on the floor.   They pass through alcoves with more statures, each with a symbol in front of it on the floor.  The statues on the left are of dwarves, and the statues on the right are elves.   The dwarves respectively have the words  Chaos, Death, Loyalty and Friendship before them while the elves have Law, Life, Love and Truth before them.   The party comments about the association of law with elves and chaos with dwarves to be backwards from what they are used to.  “Well, we are on the opposite side of the world,” comments Mojo.  The party discuss how the first two pairs of words, chaos & law and life & death, are opposites but how the next two pairs love & loyalty and truth & friendship are not.   Mojo comments “I don’t know, I’d say that they are based on some of my past relationships.”  The statues end with a passageway and narrow staircase, with the wording before saying “Test Thy Self”  This leads to a long debate of who should test this first, and if class or alignment would make a difference.  Timothy tries to use his alignment-detection ability to check out the area, getting a headache as a result.  The players decide that, for the first time this night, they won’t use characters of the absent players as the guinea pigs.  They decide that Lannon would be the best to try, as he is a walking mix of conflict regarding chaos and law, and while he is currently living, he has died before, so has that pair of words covered too.  Lannon steps forward, during which the eyes of the statues light up and the symbols on the floor before them begin to glow.   Lannon walks forward on the stairs and then vanishes into a wall, yelling back “I’m through”.  “Are you dead?” asks Mark.  “I’m fine,” he answers.  The group  eventually decide to all undergo this test, and step forward, disappearing on the other side.   On the opposite side of the wall is another corridor, from which an even stronger breeze is blowing.  The group moves on, arriving at a large room filled with mist and condensation.  The air is swirling around in this room, but there is no apparent place where the breeze is coming from.  This room contains a statue of a dragon.  There is a doorway with a large stone door with a keyhole on the opposite wall.  The key that they had been given by the Hengeyokai is used on the door, which causes the stone to turn to liquid and melt, opening into a final room, containing another door.  As they approach the door it slides open, revealing the outside of the temple.</blockquote>

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