Shackled City - Chapter I

[Verbatim]

Following the others down, Zeric kept his grip tight on the morningstar. While the others could think him foolish all they wished, Zeric was not going to allow their weaknesses to allow the children to come to harm.

As they entered the room filled with masks, Zeric allowed his guard to lower slightly as he approached the masks to study their workmanship. Zeric had learned much in the long months of having a dwarvish advisor, and even to his novice eye, he knew that creating these masks had to be a long process.

Turning back to face the others, Zeric once more set his face to be a stoney and listened to them arguing over entering the open door. While Zeric had no doubt that it could be a trap, it could just as easily be the door the kidnappers used when they brought the children down here. Deciding that once more, his actions would serve them better than his words, Zeric approached the open door to look inside it.

 

[kirinke]

Alinis sighs, figuring that any traps that might be found would have already been disarmed, especially since the door was already open. "Scratch that Raven, my apologies." She grinned sheepishly as she joined Zeric in peering inside the open door, carefully pulling it further open.

 

[hippocrachus]

Orpheus looks at Elyas and nods.
"I can read the markings on the doors," he replies. "The right door says 'A' and the left 'J.'"
Orpheus seems quite at home in the boisterous antechamber and shows it through his calm countenance. He even gives a nod of respect to Zeric's appreciation of the gnome-handiwork.

 

[Majin]

As Zeric approaches one of the masks to examine it, it's mouth starts moving and speaks in common:

Welcome to Jzadirune--Behold the wonder!
But beware, ye who seek to plunder.
Traps abound and guardians peer
Beyond every portal, behind every gear.

After this welcome/warning, Zeric moves to the half-open door, which upon closer inspection he finds is held upon by a fist sized rock stuck in the gears near the bottom of the frame.

Peering into the room from outside the door he can barely make out whats inside. A dozen small cots and chests line the walls of the dusty room. Cobwebs blanket many of the cots and chests, and tiny spiders scurry about. Two rough-hewn tunnels, each five feet in diameter and tubular, breach the eastern and southern walls. Stony rubble covers the floor near each tunnel.

A 1-foot-long iron rod lies in the middle of the floor, its golden tip shedding enough light to cast lurid shadows on he walls.

 

[hippocrachus]

Orpheus shudders at the thought of what the voice means by "traps abound and guardians peer," remembering all the gadgets and gizmos of gnome engineering he's seen in the past.
He follows Zeric into the room, eyeing the door with growing misgivings.
They only mean to guard against thieves...
He notices the rod and casts detect magic.

 

[Dhes]

Elyas looks on with dread as he sees Orpheus and Zeric enter the room after Raven.
“I’ll just uuhh, stay out here than, tell me if you find any thing of interest.”

 

[kirinke]

Alinis grins at Elyas as she gives him a playful shove into the room. "If you stay behind, you won't learn anything." she chuckles softly as she enters behind him, keeping a careful watch around them.

"Don't worry. Being scared is perfectly alright. Letting that fear rule you is not," she added softly.

 

[Verbatim]

Pondering the subtle threat that the mask gave them, Zeric saw the side tunnels in the faint light and pointed them out to the others.

"Something tells me that the gnomes were not the ones who created those tunnels. Look at the loose debris on the floor, does it look as aged as the room itself?"

Wanting to get a better look at them, Zeric approached the openings, leaving the room for the others to examine.

 

[Manzanita]

Raven

"Someone's been here recently, I think. Presumably the skulks." Raven examines the open door for any traps. If she sees none, she'll enter and cross the room to look down the tunnels.

 

[Majin]

Raven does not detect any traps on the open door. Open only wide enough to allow one in at a time, after Zeric and Orpheus enter the bard can easily tell the object on the floor is a simple sunrod. As the others are coming in, they notice shadows moving quickly on the walls, illuminated by the sunrod.

Caught completely by surprise a dark cloaked figure with a rapier leaps from the shadows and slashes at Zeric, missing as he is able to deflect the blow with his morningstar. Once the light of the sunrod hits his foe's face, he realizes it can only be another damned skulk. Orpheus feels a sharp stabbing pain in his side, as he looks down and realizes a crossbow bolt protruding from it. (3 damage) Looking in the direction it came from he notices another skulk, crouched near one of the tunnels holding a crossbow. It turns and scrambles through the tunnel in flight.

Initiative:

Elyas - 15
Raven - 14
Zeric - 14
Orpheus - 13
Alinis - 9
Skulk - 3