D&D 5E The Kalarian Precipice - Chapter Four

[Otiroth]

Otiroth would take a moment to prestidigitation white ash off of his shoes and pants legs. Honestly, keeping clean in a dungeon was such a chore!

They'd move on to the next barrier. Two ways to go, neither of them seemingly going in the direction they had hoped. And the hand imprint on the wall, which seemed... quite the obvious bait for the unwary. At least they had a way to try and activate it from a distance...

"Be prepared- if we need to exit the room in a hurry, let's try the left route first," Otiroth said, voice with some urgency. He wanted to be ready to run!

After all, this trial had been deliberately built as a test...

<Can I do an arcana check to see if there's any mystical trappings or sundry that might stick out to a sorcerer? 17>

 

[Carthum One-Tusk]

They had at least tried to regain their formation on the way up towards the strange room. The two tunnels on either side seemed the obvious, easy path. The locked door before them? Punishment for the curious.

Metea did not pause for a moment!

Carthum would not try to stop her, for it seemed she had a decent plan, but he would subtly maneuver himself so that he could move his shield to protect her should there be a trap.

 

[97mg]

Four Sides

Annit too, joined in the investigation of this mystery. Without touching, she closely inspects the marked stone and the area around them. Eventually she just shrugs, “nothing.”

Dain and Jeovanna come up empty as well. Aside from the hand imprint, everything else appears to not only be real, but also devoid of traps, secret doors or other mischievous abnormalities. Maybe it is just some kind of underground art?

Metea and Otiroth might disagree with such an assessment.

The sorcerer recalls a spell rumoured to be used by Bard’s and Wizards, members of The Burning Rose with skill sets that even outweigh his own. The creation of a glyph of some kind, which once touched unleashes unimaginable pain upon a victim. Sounds like a sure way to lock away some secrets safely. But is this one of those? Otiroth might think it could be something similar… but the glyph spell is designed to be very hard to find. This marking on the wall, well it's just so obvious. Whatever it is, magic isn’t out of the equation!

For Metea, there is a strange serenity in this space. For all the danger and worry that the Path of Flames might cause your colleagues, you might feel guiltily confident here. Does it smell like home? Not the familiar smell of your quarters at the Church of Suru, but something older… darker. You have no doubt that the hand print is important, but the why, what and how of it remains to be seen, or ignored.

Annit thought Otiroth’s plan sounded like a good one. Assemble near one of the exits, ready to dash, if Metea was seriously going to touch this thing with her handy sidekick.

<Annit Investigation = 4>

 

[Metea]

Metea's mage hand climbs up the wall to prod at the hand print. But she would consent for them at least to get near ab exit!

Passing a bit closer doesn't offer too many hints. And mage hand, well, it was a rather low-risk identification tool. The main risk being a trap wouldn't recognize it as a hand! She wasn't sticking an actual body part in there!

<Investigation: 14>

 

[Carthum One-Tusk]

Well, Metea had apparently hesitated. Which showed a surprising amount of restraint, for her!

Perhaps there was another way to determine what laid beyond not only here, but the hallways beyond? It was an enchantment Carthum had had little use for before, especially knowing that he lived in a world that disdained magic, divine or arcane. But it was also one of the three spells he actually knew to prepare, aside from healing and Suru's light.

<Spellcasting: detect magic, level 1 slot>

 

[Otiroth]

Otiroth: Four sides

"Metea. It may be a ward," Otiroth took that moment of a pause to speak up. "Not likely to get set off by anything but an actual person touching it, but it could also smote the whole room, just in case."

Otiroth imagined spell casters strong enough to cast a glyph or ward would have encountered mage hand, so while the actual spell itself could not transmit pain back to its caster, a room-wide fireball was far more likely!

No, it was a risk. One that it was not Otiroth's place to tell Metea not to take, but they could at least move on into the next hall, get a corner of solid stone between them and the glyph. If mage hand triggered nothing, they would not then place an actual hand into it!

 

[Jeovanna]

Fine, then! Hustle around a corner. The path onwards was something they needed to figure out; what could be behind the handprint anyway?

They were here to find answers, not to find loot. Jeovanna would've much preferred hacking down the wall, but her great sword couldn't carve stone and remain functional afterwards!

A hard glance down the hallway they had chosen; they would not leave the room of one trap, just to bumble into another!

<Investigation: 15>

 

[daindarkspring]

Dain - Four Sides

Dain backpedaled his way away from the glyph, wary of what might happen when the mystical hand did its work.

Is it wise to poke a bee's nest? A bear might say so, if there be honey inside...but this? Well if I perish, at least I will perish with a blade in my hand. Would that please you, Essithea?

He had to remember the reason for their exploration. They had a goal. They needed to achieve it.

Remembering? You are not skilled in this...

A small grin passed over his face, as he watched and waited.

 

[97mg]

Four Sides

Annit waits with Carthum who seems to be in the process of using a divine gift. All the rogue can do is stand and watch, as Jeovanna and Dain head off to check the escape route, and Otiroth stands ready to help either wing of the group.

Suspense builds as Metea’s summoned hand comes into contact with the art of the rockface, poke, prod, touchy-feely, but nothing immediately happens. Whatever it is, it disappointingly hasn’t activated. The glyph is far from a lost cause though, as the priest calls upon Suru to reveal nearby magical auras.

Carthum’s own gemstone, a few items on Metea’s person such as the spyglass and moonstones, Otiroth’s red crystal… they all give off faint light, but that is not all. To the priest’s eyes alone, a glow appears around one of Annit’s boots, the shape of a dagger! And the wall? All is normal, except the hand shaped carving which without doubt is magic indeed. Conjuration is it's school, Carthum realizes as he concentrates on it further.

Jeovanna and Dain are taken to the right along a bend in their tunnel, before laying eyes on an extremely unusual space. A cavern, dimly lit by yard-wide holes in the ground, all red and slowly smouldering. Here and there between them, pillars of stone reach up to touch a dark stoney ceiling. Then the ranger notices something, hanging off the top of a nearby pillar is a small mass of grey ribbons… no… threads… a web? Any normal web wouldn’t survive the heat you think, as this area is uncomfortably hot.

<Carthum: The schools of magic for some of the detected items are: Moonstones (Abjuration), Red crystal (Unknown), Dagger (Transmutation). I think the potions are with Dain and out of range.

I've made some assumptions about people's positions. Let me know if not as you envisioned.>

 

[Metea]

Metea contemplated it for a good long while. Seconds tick past.

Longer seconds.

Her magehand hasn't activated it, which either meant... it wasn't meant to be opened by magic, or it wasn't meant to be opened at all. It really wanted her to stick her hand in there, didn't it? She grimaced. "Okay, friends. Step back. I'm going to do it!"

Hey, this was the path of *flames*, right? And she was a tiefling. She could take a little heat, no matter what the others said.

Well, anyway, it didn't matter what they said, because she'd already done it.