THE HEROES OF DYVERS CHAPTER 7: CLARE'S ERRAND

[Aust Thale]

Respen And Vale (Combo Post)

Sylvar walks over to Respen and punches him in the face... "IF YOU EVER RUN OFF AND GET YOURSELF KILLED AGAIN, I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF!!!
I AM NOT A GENERAL, BUT EVEN I KNOW A COORDINATED ATTACK IS BETTER THAN RUNNING IN ONE AT A TIME." Sylvar gives Respen a hard stare, then a smile...then offers him his hand. "At any rate I'm glad your alive" he looks around at everyone, locking eyes with them one at a time. "I'm glad you're all alive...we live for another day...but only because we got lucky."

Sylvar, turns his attention to Tam... " And you...let's be more careful about what we bolt off investigating."

He thinks to himself, --this is going to be one hell of an addition to my epic...no one is going to believe me--

~ Wha...the...OOF! ~

Respen tries to duck Sylvar's "love tap" unsuccessfully. He feels the hollow sting behind the top of his mouth, his left cheek, and his nose. He sits down flat-assed on the ground as Sylvar stares at him and picks him. "I didn't run in alone! I followed Dewydd and used the big rock to my advantage! You're bloody well right we got lucky. Tam, don't do that again. You are the 'Giant-Slayer' because of stealth and sting. Unless you can make your mount invisible...wait, that's a splendid idea...don't wander. Sneak. " He slaps Tam on the back and chuckles, " You may well outlive us all if you stick to that."

"What have we here? Vale, any thoughts?" Respen examines the floor and the walls, taking note of what the others share about their observations. Vale, shaking off the illusion of their deaths, immediately notices their surroundings.

Vale: "Aye, I see. Much better off in this box than our entrails out about the desert. All tarted up and pushing up daisies."

OOC: Search (Respen): 32 and Search (Vale):14 and Knowledge (Architecture/Engineering): 23

Respen: "I have a remaining scroll from Laramon for moving earth. It's tedious, and we can't tunnel, but we might be able to move enough to dig out of here."
Vale: "Yes Kleborn, I can glean superficial facets of this place, given it appears to be a simple box. I can't tell how much rock is around and over us, but I would hazard that we aren't entombed. I too can call on Moradin to assist us, granting me celestial knowledge of the Earth for an extended time. However, to do so I must give up other spells and abilities more suited against the undead. I hope that they aren't needed. It will take some time to call up the abilities. I suggest you eat something and have refreshment while I pray and prepare."

Vale kneels in a corner and begins praying to Moradin to grant him the Earth Domain with its spells in manipulating the earth while Respen looks carefully over every nook and cranny of the box that they are in to find the best place to exit this place.

 

[Waynan]

Tam heads for the North Wall and says to Vale: "You may want to save that spell, Master Vale. Maybe a thief can find a trigger to open a passage through this wall before we have to resort to a major excavation."

And with that, Tam checks the wall, and the east and west walls near the north one, for any triggers to open it, suspecting a secret or concealed door on this "different/unique" wall.

Search: 21
Spot: 25
Disable Device: 20 (if needed)
Open Lock: 19
Climb: 28 (if I need to do a little to find the trigger to open the door)

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

Step One: Find The Real Door.

Tam's assessment proves to be correct, as his keen eye spots a small, rock-shaped knob at the top of the north wall, in the uppermost left corner. He does indeed need to climb up about 5 feet to reach it, which he accomplishes with ease. Studying the knob for a moment, he easily figures out which way to turn it, after surmising that it doesn't appear to be trapped. A turn of the knob, and a mere moment later, the false wall begins to sink into the earth, revealing a smooth, paved wall underneath. Flush with the wall is a sealed door, which bears a message in the Uli tongue, and magical runes beneath. The door has no obvious means of opening it, being devoid of handles, knobs, keyholes, and the like.

Looking around, Vale notices something.

Vale says, "That ain't the north wall, it's east. We were disoriented. But now that I can see better, and I can make out details in the construction of the new wall and door, it's quite obvious. Not that it makes a bloomin' bit o' difference."

GM: +500 xp to Tam for doing what he does best!

GM: +250 xp to Vale for noticing the disorientation.

EVERYONE: What do you do?

 

[redraider629]

Thallok moves closer to the now exposed door, with no apparent way to open it. He looks at what is written and realizes it is in another language. He asks the group "Do any of you speak Uli? Or perhaps have a way to decipher what the message means? I wonder if it tells us how to get through the door."

 

[Aust Thale]

Let's Get Out Of This Hole...

~ Hmmm. Let's see now. ~

Respen moves close to the door and moves his fingers along the seams. He inspects the message and the magical runes, a cursory inspection at first, then more carefully. Running his fingers along the edges of the runes, he reaches back into his memory of time spent in Auror's grand reading room, Laramon's tower, Abigail's library, and even Dame Clare's laboratory, reading among the magical tomes and non-magical scripts populating his collective magical studies. He attempts to decipher the writings despite not knowing the non-magical native tongue. His eyes magically enabled to permanently read magic, he requires no special spell casting to divine any magical rune. He simply must govern the suddenness of the runes so that he doesn't activate any trap.

OOC: Decipher Script: #1d20+25 = 38

 

[Damionte]

:: Duncan & Company ::

"I imagine he'll figure this out soon, fall in troops." Duncan makes his way to the opposite side of the room from where Respen is working. Assuming this will be the rear of the marching order once the path is opened. He places the rest of the company in order. Despite his sour mood, he gives a small smirk at the joy on the faces of the twins as they hoist their tridents and re-secure their shields. During the down time the boys had been very excited to acquire their new signature weapons. The four of them had spent much time together in the martial temples drilling together to work on their coordination and team work.

As the twins took up their spots behind him in line Duncan starts a light clicking sound with his tongue. An even steady beat establishing a pattern. He glances down at Ebony beside him, and his face softens a bit. She pauses unsure for a moment before joining his click with a exasperation of air between her teeth making a ssst sound. A light faster paced sound helping their rhythm to build momentum. The twins lightly tap their tridents on their shields. A soft tap acting as a counter rhythm to what the Moores were doing.

They were starting a marching beat, but with the door not yet open keeping it light and adding to the mood of anticipation for the move forward. The rhythm would pick up stronger once they got on the march. Until now they waited.

(( OOC Before any traps get set off. Affects the entire party.))
The Company Has activated The Following Auras:
+1 Attack
+1 AC
+4 Fort Saves
+3 Reflex Saves
+2 Will Saves / +4 Saves vs Fear

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

A Puzzle To Solve!

GM: Normally, the DM rolls for Decipher Script, because you're not supposed to know whether or not you read and interpreted it correctly. But Respen's minimum result (26) is so high, that only exotic or truly ancient writing has the chance to elude him.

GM: To speed things along, assume that Respen conveys the following to the party:

The Uli inscription reads:

"...Poisoned pride once broke our pact. We bound the deathless and buried deep, to wait for shadow's bane. Two legs now walk where four legs failed, and Khubsheth's word will break the seal. The Cursed One waits, within. The would-be heroes are bound by fate to pass the test, complete our task, and break Ankharet's Crown."

The magical runes below this prophecy are not a spell, per se; they are a series of symbols. Respen, you can tell that the runes move, when touched. The object here is to put them in the correct order. When they are in the correct order, a spell effect will be activated, but there is no way to tell what that effect will be. The runes form normal, alphabetic characters, but they are composed of thousands of tiny symbols. The alphabetic characters (using the Common tongue) are:

T A Z L O E ​

EVERYONE: What do you do?

 

[Diarmadhim]

Coming up beside Respen, I activate my cloak. It turns into a sparkling mantle of tiny, cascading stars that sheds light as a torch. "Fascinating," I whisper quietly. Taking out a quill, ink, and paper, I copy the text as I see it and then as Respen translates it. I finish it with some sand to dry the ink.

 

[redraider629]

Thallok ponders for a moment, "I think this door is holding in whatever is in there, rather than keeping us out. I do believe the greater threat is what lies beyond the door, not the door itself." Thallok looks at the letters, then tells Respen, "I think that should be 'Zealot'. Do you want to arrange the letters, or do you want me to."

Kleborn chimes in, "Whoever does it, let's get it over with. I can't take being in this small room anymore. I have a bad history with enclosed spaces." Kleborn readies himself for whatever lies ahead.

 

[Waynan]

Tam sees everyone's anxiousness and decides, being the thief, it should probably fall on him to do it.

"It seems we all realize the word is ZEALOT, so..."

Tam rearranges the letters to spell out the word: ZEALOT.