IC II Toes In The Water

[achinca]

Miriam looks at Natalia and says "I never mentioned it but you did a really good job out there at the entrance of the cave. You set up the trap real well and save me from using a spell. You definitively earned the Trapmaster nickname. Nuts is dead. Long live Trapmaster!"

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia blushes and scuffs the ground with a boot. "It was...Heh, simple...Haven't earned name, not yet."

[Athedia]

Mithril let her fingers brush the wall, catching some of the web in her fingers. Puzzled she took a little more, rubbing it between her palms to examine the texture."This does not feel like normal spider threads. It feels off somehow."

As Natalia denied the compliment, Mithril put a hand on her shoulder. "If I, with my few tricks, can share the title of wizard with the greats of history, you can share the name of Trapmaster. Eventually we will live up to the names, until then we have something to live up too."

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Knowledge Nature (1d20+8)[13]

[CoffeeIncluded]

"Old," Natalia says. She should know, she was the one so thoroughly stuck in them. "Old and withered, everything here old. Find good in the old?"

Natalia squeaks, then smiles. "...Right, yes. Earn the names. Maybe...Magic traps. Teach us both." Some day she'd be equal with Torin and Karik. Mithril was so smart.

[Athedia]

"A little, it feels safer with the rest of you here."
Mithril looked at the webs again. "There is probably not much food in here, unless animals stumble into the caves by mistake. The owners of these webs might have left for better hunting grounds."

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia nods. "No creatures, but traps..Constructs?" She'd heard the word a few times. The air was certainly dank, and she shivers a bit. "Still...Keep guard up. Could live deeper down."

"Glad you're...Safer. Safe with us, promise."

[CoffeeIncluded]

Now that Natalia knows that the webs are old, she feels safer going in front of Kurt and searching for traps, though she's still keeping her guard up. She's fairly confident that the traps will outlast spiders and so pose more of a threat. If the others ask, she says, "Traps...age better."

[Zman]

The fearless party, led by Natalia, moves down the dark tunnel, their torches held aloft. They move slowly, Natalia scouring the ground and walls for any concealed traps. As Natalia is walking, suddenly her foot doesn't meet the ground she sees... Natalia is able to deftly twist as she falls and catches the ledge avoiding a 30' plummet to a spiky bottom. If she looks closely she can see bones surrounding the stone spikes at the bottom of the pit.

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Natalia Reflex Save(d20+6)[11] Exactly Hit!

DC 20 Spot will show the desiccated carcass of a giant spider.

As you walk behind the crafty rogue, trusting her to guide the way, you see her suddenly disappear into the floor, only her hands showing above the edge of a pit. The pit is a shaft, 5'x5' covered by a simple illusion.

[achinca]

Miriam screams "Kurt! Grab Natalia now and save her!"

If able and needed, she will help pull the young rogue back to the surface.

Once Natalia is on safe ground, Miriam says "Well done, Trapmaster. Now we know what happened to the maker of these webs ..."

[Zman]

As she fell her Torch left her hand and tumbled down the shaft illuminating the bottom...

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Spot
Miriam(d2+5)[7]
Kurt(d20)[9]
Shiny(d20-2)[14]
Natalia(d20+7)[26]
Mithril(d20+3)[17]
Valen(d20)[15]

DC15 To see the Spider carcas at the bottom

[Athedia]

Mithril jumped forward grabbing for Natalia's hands as she fell. As she tried to help the young woman she looked into the pit. "I see you found the spider."

[Zman]

Valen, too far away to catch the girl, can do little as she tumbles into the pit, catching herself. "Careful little one." Valen says once she is safely out of the pit.

Once they begin moving again, Valen easily jumps over the pit and continues down the tunnel.

[Cavelcade]

Kurt helps her up, with help from Mithril. "Hm. I suppose illusions makes sense here..."

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Hm, I suppose Kurt should have a general search check ready for whenever he comes near unusual stonework. I'll roll 3, so if we come near another trap like that use the first one first, then the second for the next one, etc...just in case Natalia fails but he might succeed, even thought that does seem unlikely.

From srd:

Stonecunning: This ability grants a dwarf a +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn’t stone but that is disguised as stone also counts as unusual stonework. A dwarf who merely comes within 10 feet of unusual stonework can make a Search check as if he were actively searching, and a dwarf can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A dwarf can also intuit depth, sensing his approximate depth underground as naturally as a human can sense which way is up.

(1d20+2)[19]
(1d20+2)[5]
(1d20+2)[18]

[Zman]

Kurt's innate understanding of Stonework gives him a bit of insight into the trap. He notices that every line is perfect, there isn't a single tool mark to be seen, and the entire shaft is perfectly smooth as if the stone melted away. Also, the spikes at the bottom if the Pit are made of stone as if they dripped like an icicle upwards.

The only comparable stonework Kurt can remember is that done by the great tunesmiths and stone shapers of his clas. Of course, their work makes this look amateurish, but effective.

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Figured you'd study this trap for a couple of minutes before crossing it.

[Cavelcade]

After peering into the hole below to get a deeper understanding of what was done here, Kurt stands back up, nodding slowly and stroking his beard. "If a human did this, they were practically a master of the craft! The stone is smooth and the stone spikes sharp. A dwarf who dedicated their life to such skills would maybe be ashamed if they made it but if it was a human...hm. Well!

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia yelps as she barely manages to hold onto the ledge and pull herself back up, grasping to Mithril and Miriam's hands for dear life. Looking back into the pit, she shudders and barely manages to suppress her hyperventilation. "Yep, found spider...And unlucky ones." She cracks a smile at Mithril's sarcastic quip.

Natalia follows Kurt's gaze as she inspects the trap from the safety of solid ground, but she's more at home with metal and gears and connecting parts than worked stone. Still, she can tell how smooth it is and says, "Melted by magic?"

[CoffeeIncluded]

At some point, Natalia carefully makes her way to the other side of the corridor, offering a hand to anyone who needs it.

[Zman]

Valen ponders the use of spellcraft in the trapmaking.... but Valen cannot recall any particular spell that could do this.

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Spellcraft(d20+5)[10]

Darn, can't come up with Stone Shape, for the spell that shapes stone...

[CoffeeIncluded]

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Let's figure out that a spell did this with good old inductive reasoning! Zman, am I overstepping my bounds here?

Natalia frowns in thought for a moment, then says, much more slowly than she thinks it, "If master for human, but average for dwarf...Alabastor's cave...Shares blood with Max...Max, human...Alabastor, human mage...Master for human, but master of magic, not stone...Unless magic stone." She nods. "Hewn with magic, not chisel, unless master of...Many. So stone shaper spell."

[Cavelcade]

Kurt nods at Natalia's statement. "Yes, magic is how it's done...I don't know much more than that, though. Very impressive."

[Zman]

"Impressive as it may be, we are standing around looking at a hole in the earth. Lead on Little One." Valen gestures down the tunnel.

[Athedia]

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Spellcraft (1d20+8)[9]

"I have no idea what this is. Magic or not, maybe the answers lie beyond?" Mithril felt slightly annoyed, it wasn't normal that she hadn't seen a spell before or at least read about it.

[CoffeeIncluded]

"Know spell, not name," Natalia says as she picks her way around the trap. "Placeholder?"

[Admiral]

"I know the spell," says Shiny as he climbs over the trapdoor, with the help of his companions. "It's called Rock Carve."

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let's keep moving!

[Zman]

The magical pit trap passed, the party begins moving again down the tunnel. It takes them deeper into to the mountain.

Kurt doesn't believe that they are delving too deep, though they are following a gradual downward slope.

After another 20 minutes of careful searching and wandering Kurt notices something odd about the stone around them. The gradient has leveled out completely, and the tunnel is becoming symmetrical. The same magics were employed here as in the pit. After another twenty paces or so the tunnel becomes almost a hallway, with perfect lines and a smooth rounded ceiling.

After a few more steps an archway can faintly be seen at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel widens and a simple, but elegant archway is seen. The archway is much taller and wider than the tunnel you've been passing through. The entire appraoch to the archway widens the tunnel almost imperceptibly, except to Kurt of course.

Mithril and Natalia can see that above the archway there is an inscription, but you cannot make out the writing in the dim torchlight.

Kurt and Shiny cannot see past the archway with their darkvision.

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Spot Checks
Miriam(d20+5)[6]
Kurt(d20)[11]
Shiny(d20-2)[5]
Natalia(d20+7)[16]
Mithril(d20+3)[21]
Valen (d20)[12]

Listen Checks
Miriam(d20+3)[11]
Kurt(d20)[15]
Shiny(d20-2)[17]
Natalia(d20+7)[24]
Mithril(d20+3)[15]
Valen (d20+3)[20]

[CoffeeIncluded]

"Hm?" Natalia asks Kurt when she gazes back for a moment; he seems to be staring at the walls intently.

When they get to the archway, Natalia stops and says, "By the belly," Squinting at the lettering alongside Mithril, she mutters to herself, "Wish...Had elf's eyes."

[CoffeeIncluded]

Still looking for traps, Natalia cautiously makes her way over to the archway until she can read what's written above.

[Zman]

Natalia moves up slowly and catiously, a torch in hand. As she moves up the inscription becomes clear...and appears to be written in every language that she can speak.

If you are a friend, have no fear and enter the abode of Alabaster, Mage of the Sixth Circle of Magic. If you be an enemy, turn back at once.

As you complete reading the inscription a mystical snake springs into being and snaps at you from the center of the inscription.... Natalia is unable to dodge the spells effect and is struck. A shimmering amber field surrounds her immobilizing her. Her eyes are still open, held in a look of shock and the realization that she would not be able to dodge the effect...

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Reflex Save(d20+6)[11]

Mithril, Miriam, and Valen can take a spellcraft check to identify the spell.

[Zman]

Watching the Rogue read the inscription and seeing the conjuration take effect, Valen can only let out a "Little One!". It takes a force of will for him to look away from the inscription, tempted to follow suit and read it...

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Spellcraft vs DC18(d20+5)[14]

Success reveals Sepia Snake Sigil

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia is barely able to finish reading the inscription before she's held immobile by a powerful magical force. Panic seizes her as well. Oh ****!

Frantically, before everything around her closes off, she thinks as loud as she can, Friend and aid to Max, your kin!

And then everything around her shuts off.