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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3062146" data-attributes="member: 143">Ah, I looked up Mr. Warlock's stats and it looks like I left his feat selection incomplete (he only has 1, and should have 3). I thought I read somewhere that you had to use actually use a weapon to chose PBS, but on rereading the SRD it looks like rays are treated "as if using a ranged weapon." Unless someone can point out a rule that counters that, I'll make a few revisions to Navev's sheet and take your suggestions into account. * * * * * Chapter 7THE POINT OF NO RETURN“Why the delay?” Dar asked as Tiros joined the others at the base of the shaft. “I thought I heard something,” the marshal said, as Varo handed him his torch.  “Could just be the acoustics of the place playing tricks.”“This place is... foul,” Navev said, rubbing his arms.  “It’s just another dungeon,” Dar said, thrusting his torch at the warlock.  “Here, hold this.”“I do not need light to see.  And I need my hands free to work my magic,” Navev said. “Well, I need my hands free to use my blade, and you’ll damned well appreciate it when a snarling monster is trying to claw its way to you, wizard.”“I’m not a—“ Navev began, but he trailed off at the look from the warrior.  “Here, I will take the torch,” Varo said.  “I am no warrior, in any case.”With that issue resolved, the group moved out, with Ukas in the lead.  The passageway at the base of the shaft ran off in only one direction, roughly east of the mausoleum.  The tunnel was hewn from solid rock, and as they progressed, they could make out dark smears along the walls, which grew more prolific as they continued. “Bloodstains,” Varo pronounced, after a brief examination.  “Wonderful,” Dar said.  They continued for almost a hundred feet, in single file, before Tiros’s light revealed an end to the passage ahead.  There was an uncovered pit there, a dark opening about five feet square.  An old, tattered rope was attached to the wall above the pit, offering a route of descent.   “Another shaft?” the marshal inquired. “Only one way to find out,” Dar said.  They moved cautiously forward.  But before they reached the edge of the pit, a massive noise filled the passage, and the walls of the tunnel began to tremble.“What is it?” Navev shouted, his eyes glowing with held power as he stared about wildly. “Sounds like an earthquake!” Tiros said, steadying himself.  A few feet away, the mad elf clutched his head, and rolled back and forth, moaning. “It is coming from back there!” Varo exclaimed, pointing his torch back toward the entrance.  And then, they heard other sounds, these instantly recognizable. Screams.  “Damn it,” Dar muttered, pushing past them as he ran back toward the entrance shaft.  The others followed, bringing the torches with them.  The light reached Dar just as he reached the shaft.  The fighter had drawn back suddenly, and as the others joined him, they saw why. Blood, a bright pool of splattered scarlet, covered the ground in front of the warrior.  It continued to drip down from above. “Give me that torch,” Dar said, yanking the light from Varo.  The fighter sheathed his sword and lifted himself up into the shaft, holding the burning brand up before him. They could see the source of the red shower at once.  A set of thick metal bars had emerged to block the top of the shaft.  Beyond the bars, slabs of stone had been ground together by some massive mechanism—the source of the noises they had heard before.  Crushed against the bars by the force of the trap was the mangled remains of a man.  One arm, barely squeezed through the narrow gap between the bars, dangled down into the shaft, trailing a dying trickle of crimson.  A few droplets splattered onto Dar’s helm, as the fighter stared, grim. “I would guess that the entire mausoleum was a massive death-trap,” Varo said.  “The slabs rose up from the floor; it is possible that the entire interior was crushed.  That would explain the pulverized stone and smashed bones we found in the crypt.”“But why didn’t we trip it?” Navev asked. Dar clambered back down.  “We had the key.  Clearly Sobol sent some goons after us, to follow us in.  That must have been what you heard, marshal.”  Tiros nodded.  Dar continued, “They probably touched something they weren’t supposed to, or did something else to trigger the trap.”“Poor bastards,” Tiros said. “Jerks didn’t help us when we were fighting for our lives against those damned gargoyles.  As far as I’m concerned, they got what they had coming.” “Still, they likely had as much choice in the matter as we did,” Varo mused.“Well, there’s only one way forward, now,” Dar said brusquely.  Returning the torch to the cleric, he pushed through them again, leading them once more down the corridor.</blockquote>

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