The Depths of Korimir V2 [IC]

[darklink_shadow]

The stone door budges with a groan. Through the hole, a spurt of dust assaults the goliath, but a solid cough later, and she heaves it the rest of the way clear.

Spoiler

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Let's pause this briefly. Move onto this thread temporarily: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...4#post17493984

Just real quick.

[Taffimai]

Through the doorway, they see two humanoid figures, one of which is holding a staff and seems to be in the middle of some sort of enchantment.

Gudrun

The memory of the hooded caster who animated her friend's body weighs heavily on Gudrun's mind. She knows very well that had she not wavered, he would not have been able to complete his chanting and Tombak's body would not have been defiled. She would not make the same mistake again.

Before anyone else can act, she has an arrow ready on her bow, aimed directly at the one with the staff.

"Friend or foe? Answer me, or I will silence you!"

Valeris

"It might be a tad difficult to answer with an arrow through our throats," the other figure replies. He takes a step forward towards his companion as if to shield him. Mel's torch lights up the blond locks that frame his face, and he flashes a warm smile.

"My name is Valeris. My companion's name is Edward Van der Houten. We are victims of the cave-in just like you, I suspect."

He takes another step forward, now blocking Gudrun's arrow should she still want to shoot at Edward. His approach is reminiscent of the way you would gently move towards a hissing cat, speaking softly more to reassure it with the tone of your voice than with what you're actually saying.

"Would you care to tell us your names, ladies? And whether you know more about how the inn just disappeared into the ground?"

He now looks at the Goliath, clearly hoping for a less hostile reaction.

Spoiler: OOC

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The mispronunciation of Edward's last name is on purpose. Valeris hasn't known him all that long, after all.

[WaffleLord]

Melhved

Waving the dust out of her face, she gives a final cough and is surprised at the magical appearance of a blonde angel in front of her! She is unsettled for a moment until Gudrun's voice rings out, quickly bringing her focus back. Her sword is out but she keeps her eyes nearly locked to the gently speaking, enchanting fellow. His musically lilting voice drifts to her bringing a halting response.

"Uhh .... Mel. Melhved. The inn... uh... crashed... came crashing down... we crashed... we came down... also...with it. Gudrun. This is Gudrun."


Edward

As the door begins to slide, the energy drains away from the runes, capturing Edward's interest. He follows the runes off to the side.

Wait, what? The residual should have been dispersed along the ventral axis to maintain the matrices! Careless construction or brilliant innovation? Intriguing. Hmm? Houten?

His attention returns when he hears his name mispronounced. He peeks back through the door to see two warriors standing on the other side. One giving Valeris an evil stare, and the other pointing and arrow at his heart. Edward's eyes widen as a shielding spell reflexively jumps to mind. Not wishing to test his prowess against point blank missiles, he holds very still while his charismatic friend weaves his words.

[Taffimai]

Valeris

"Melhved: friend of the Earth! And Gudrun: blessed with wisdom! Such lovely names! And it is just as I suspected, we were all surprised in our sleep. Perhaps the town was built over a sinkhole... What do you think, professor, is that a likely explanation?"

He turns slightly towards Edward to hear his opinion on the sinkhole theory, all the while keeping his eyes on the women. Since they seem more fixated on "the one with the staff" rather than himself, a broad-chested man in chainmail with a large sword, he hopes that calling him a "professor" will distract them from the obvious fact that he's a magic user. After all, there are some crazy wild elf tribes out there with an irrational hatred of all that is arcane.

Gudrun

"You are mistaken, we were not asleep. There was a magical explosion and the town was overrun by hordes of undead that broke through the floor. We fought them off, and the next thing we knew we were down here."

She lowers her bow and looks at Mel.

"I think we can safely say that this one is not an animated corpse. He talks too much."

[WaffleLord]

Edward

"What? Sinkhole? No, no, ridiculous! Did you not see that patch of brown lichen over there? he gaseous build up from a sinkhole would not allow such growth." he says, losing focus on the two warriors standing across from him. Turning to face the bard, "Sinkholes are minor caverns, no more than forty, fifty feet deep at the most. We fell far more than that. And did you not see that door? This is ancient dwarven construction. Their structural reinforcements would not permit the types of sedimentary seepage..."

Melhved

"I think they are both safely alive," she quietly tells Gudrun. "Gentlemen," she says in a louder voice, "we don't know if you have other plans, but we are interested in leaving this place. Is there an exit back your way or should we try the middle ground.?"

[Taffimai]

Valeris

How could I not have noticed that lichen? I'm an idiot!

"Of course, professor! I have dreadfully miscalculated how far below the surface we are. Do you think the dwarves might still..."

"Gentlemen," the goliath interrupts, "we don't know if you have other plans, but we are interested in leaving this place. Is there an exit back your way or should we try the middle ground.?"

"Ah, no, I didn't notice any exits other than the door we just came through,... but of course that doesn't mean there aren't any. I could only carry out a superficial search of the room, and I was mostly looking for other survivors - or bodies. Like the dragonborn over there - was he with you?"

Gudrun

Gudrun nods. "His name was Belshaazar. We don't know what exactly happened to him, Mel and I were exploring the tunnels to the North when they fell. By the time we got here, some necromancer was turning them into undead. We killed him, but not fast enough to save Tombak from being defiled."

She gestures towards the rotting pile of bones that was once Tombak's body.

"There is another body further back, Lotharos. He did not survive the fall."

Valeris

"In that case, perhaps we might want to lay their bodies to rest before pushing on? It is always a good practice for adventurers to honour the fallen, it benefits morale and it can protect the dead from necromancy. I think you have secured the area well enough that we need not fear an ambush."

While saying this, Valeris looks around at the other three to gauge their preference.

[WaffleLord]

Melhved

"As you wish," she intones. "Their spirits have left these shells. Best not let anything else defile them." She moves forward to build a cairn over body of Tombak.


Edward

Shaken from his lectures by the booming goliath, the wizard stumbles, "No, er, yes, of course. I'll monitor the area," he says, drifting over for another look at the runes.

[Taffimai]

Valeris

The three bodies are ligned up next to one another and as much of the surrounding rocks as can be moved piled on top, making a small cairn. It's not much, but better than leaving them exposed. All four heroes then stand around, each on one of the cardinal points, and Valeris blows his horn three times.

"Tombak! Lotharos! Belshaazar! You have left the material plane behind and entered one of the realms of the gods. May they welcome you with open arms!"

Valeris blows his horn three more times.

"We call to you, the Raven Queen, to guide Tombak, Lotharos and Belshaazar through their new stage of life. They fell whilst defending against the wretched magics of necromancy, which go against all that you teach. We four vow to carry on the fight in Your Name, and beseech you to ward our fallen against any further defilement."

Once again, he blows his horn three times.

"Melora, please accept the mortal remains of our fallen friends. Living creatures are forever coming and going , consuming each otherto create more of their own kind. So long as every death brings a new life, Your laws are obeyed. We will bring down the ones who seek to break them and humbly ask you to guide and bless us in the hunt."

Three final, drawn-out calls from his horn resound throughout the caves, then he hooks it back to his belt, ready to confront whatever lies ahead.

[WaffleLord]

Melhved

"Hmmm. Nice words, bard. Hope that horn didn't wake something better left sleeping." Mel does a quick gear check, confident sh'e reasy, then checks the new area to the north, her sunrod still glowing strong.



Edward
Seeing other light move on, he gives the runes one last longing glance and moves into the new area eye wide at what new challenges they may face.

Spoiler: OOC

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Mel Perception - (1d20+6)[22] - D6-G6 area
Edward Perception - (1d20+5)[22] - looking for more runes

[Taffimai]

Gudrun

"That was well said." And may Melora bless us indeed.

"Let's get going. There's no telling how much further we have to go to find a way out, and I don't think it would be safe to camp out here."

Unfortunately for Gudrun, it isn't long before they run into another obstacle. The cave here has a large pillar in the middle, and a short corridor coming from behind.

"I don't like this. This looks like the ideal place for an ambush."

[darklink_shadow]

All four party members find themselves converging to the same location rather quickly: the massive door. Gudrun realizes the door is actually multiple doors, and Melhved feels confident there is no way she can move one of them this time. Edward on the other hand realizes these doors are opened the same way he opened the earlier doors. Either this place was locked so only those gifted with magic could enter, or this society had other mechanisms to allow everyone to get in and out at their leisure. However, all doors are "locked" by magic. Just throwing magical energy at these doors wouldn't be enough. There had to be a pattern, but the patterns were not clear. He could tell immediately one of the doors was not going to open for him, as opening it would be far beyond his skill. Of the other three, two looked possible and one looked simple. Coincidentally, their difficulties ranged from hard to easy going left to right.

[Taffimai]

Gudrun

"I don't think I can be of any use trying to get these doors open. I'm going to stand watch over there to make sure nobody jumps us from behind while we're all staring at them."

She nocks an arrow and takes position with her back against the pillar, in such a way that she can keep an eye both on the path they took to get here and on the deep recess that's worrying her.

Valeris

"What makes you say there is more than one door? Never mind, let's just try to find out how they open... perhaps there is a key hidden somewhere. What do you think, professor?"

[WaffleLord]

Edward

"Ooooo. More runes," he says stepping towards the northern door. Mumbling to himself, he scans the entire wall. "Similar...simple...hmmm...could be...no...deeper... ewww...that's a puzzler...can't be... that contradicts......but how.........perhaps............" By the time he reaches the western side of the doors, he has fallen silent.


Melhved

Following the others into the room, she keeps her sword drawn, watching the corners of the room for shadowy trouble. After quickly determining that these doors are beyond her abilities, she falls into defensive routines. Staying out of Gudrun's line of death, she makes one more circuit of the area. When she returns to the wizard's side, her patience is wearing thin. "Can you open them or not?"

Edward

"Ah. Oh. Yes. Sort of. It is actually a series of doors of advancing difficulty. I can open two of these very easily. The rest...perhaps." He turns towards the eastern most section of the door. "Shall we start with the easy one? Just say the word, Valeris."

[Taffimai]

Valeris

Valeris draws his sword and moves closer to Edward.

"Go ahead, professor, whatever lies behind that door, I've got your back."

[WaffleLord]

Edward

Approaching the new set of runes on what he perceives as the easiest entry, he focuses his talent, sending swirling waves of arcane energy into them in a pattern he believes will open the door.

Spoiler: OOC

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[roll]=Arcana]1d20+12[/roll]
Reroll in OOC = 26

[darklink_shadow]

The runes hummed for a moment, and the door slid open slowly to reveal a small chamber, perhaps five by ten feet. The chamber pot in the middle of the room clearly indicates the room's purpose, but small arcane runes adorn even that object. No smell betrays the room for what it is, and everything within seems perfectly preserved.

Spoiler: DC 12 Perception (Assumed passive perception is taken)

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The door to the bathroom is opened via arcana, proving to you that this ancient system relied heavily on the use of magic to accomplish even the most trivial of tasks.

[Taffimai]

Valeris

"Well now! A magical chamber pot! Undoubtedly enchanted to odourlessly evaporate its contents! We should find out how heavy it is, it might come in very handy if we could carry it with us."

Valeris gives the chamber pot a light tap with the tip of his sword before kneeling next to it to study its runes.

"Professor, do you think that if we find enough of these mundane items with runes on them, we might decipher the entire alphabet?"

Gudrun

"Might I suggest that you handle that thing carefully? A chamber pot seems like an ideal candidate for a booby trap if you ask me."

Gudrun cannot share Valeris' enthousiasm about burdening themselves with a chamber pot, no matter how enchanting, and keeps her focus on what lies behind.

"It occurs to me that we should have tried to close the doors behind us. Mel, what do you say we leave the boys to study their new toy and go do that?"

[WaffleLord]

Melhved

"I don't know, Gudrun. Left to their own devices, they may fall in," she says derisively. Turning to walk with the ranger, she lowers her voice and asks, "Are the gentlemen going to be a bonus or a burden? True, they can open doors but I am as of yet unimpressed." Surveying the doors behind them, she wonders whether brute strength will get the job done. "They were hard enough to open. Closing may be harder still. As we faced nothing but dead ends before this door, the only things that may follow behind us could be more victims of the sinkhole. We might assume the same for their side if this is the only direction they seem concerned about. Then again," she says, glancing at the men by the chamber pot, "do we trust these...fellows yet?"


Edward

Fascinated even by the object as mundane as the piss pot, he kneels on the floor to observe it more closely without touching, mumbling to himself. "Hmmm?" he says in response to the bard's question. "Of course not. Well, maybe. Runic language can also be iconographic rather the phonetic, contextually symbolic rather than sequentially structured. We could collect thousands of symbols yet not scratch the surface of their vocabulary or syntax. However, there may be a short cut. Hmmm," he hums as he takes a closer look at the odorless urn.

Spoiler: OOC

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Does Edward know whether his Comprehend Languages ritual would work on magical languages? I don't.

[darklink_shadow]

Just as a one minute marker passed, the magically opened door closed. The door opened by brute force seemed to have broken, however, and sat there idly.

In the other room, the chamber pot sat, getting more attention today than all of it's previous days combined. The pot doesn't budge from a tap from a sword, as it is significantly heavier than those used in other places. This chamber pot is made from heavily worked stone, with some sort of metal inlay around the bottom. The runes are carved into the stone, and the metal appears to be ornamental.

Spoiler: OOC

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I don't see why the ritual wouldn't work on magical languages. So, sure it does.

Valeris thinks the chamber pot can be activated to do something to the contents. He isn't sure if it is destroy or teleport; the word that comes to mind is remove. It removes the contents. He doesn't think it's trapped, but he does worry it might go off automatically if something is stuck in it.

[Taffimai]

Gudrun

"Trust them?" Gudrun glances back. "I am confident that they aren't part of the undead invasion force. Whether they are going to be any help to our efforts to escape remains to be seen."

Gudrun checks all directions for signs of enemy action, then stashes her bow and places her hands on the back of the open door.

"Are you ready? On three..."

Valeris

Valeris holds up the chamber pot up in the light from Edward's spell and slowly turns it so they can both study the runes from all sides.

"Ah, this is rather heavier than I had hoped. Too bad, I would have loved to take it back up with us for proper study. I'd really like to find out exactly how it works. It must be some kind of disintegration effect, I think. I wonder whether it would work on anything, or only on organic matter."

He moves his fingers a little further away from the edge of the metal to make sure the pot doesn't accidentally mistake his fingers for waste.

[WaffleLord]

Melhved

"As you wish." She gets as good a grip as she can as puts her back into closing the manually opened door.

Spoiler: OOC

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Close door, Strength - (1d20+5)[22]

Edward

Hearing a closing door, his heads turns. "Ah! One place the stored magic may go is into a capacitor of some type to use the captured energy to close the door again. See? Our previous door has closed of its own accord. One might assume this ... ah... privacy door may do the same shortly. Stand clear." He takes another long look at the runes. "Hmmmmmm. Before trying the next portal to questionable success and destination, may I take a moment to try and scry meaning form the samples we've seen so far?" he asks the bard.

[Taffimai]

Valeris

"A moment? Professor, please, take as long as is needed! I would very gladly function as your assistant in deciphering these runes, they are absolutely fascinating! Perhaps, if we place the chamber pot over here, I can take notes while you dictate?"

Before long, Valeris has completely lost track of time while raptly following Edward's approach to this problem.

[WaffleLord]

Edward

Chanting and swaying, the wizard commands, begs, pleads, coerces, and entreats the arcane forces to reveal their secrets hidden within the runes. The mystic forces seems to rise and swell but diminish before the end of the ritual. "Hmmmm. That was highly unsuccessful. Perhaps the energy-draining qualities of the runes interrupted the ritual. Or maybe...hmmmm." He loses himself in thought.

Melhved
After standing guard while the wizard went about his business, the warden finally interjects, "Can we please move on? We need to get out of here."

[Taffimai]

Gudrun

Back at her previous spot near the pillar and keeping a lookout at the suspicious part of the cavern, Gudrun quietly agrees with Melhved, but doesn't say anything. After all, she does not possess the magical prowess to open these doors, so who knows whether letting the men study these runes might not aid their escape?

Valeris

"Well, professor, what do they say?"

Valeris' tone is slightly apprehensive. The wizard's expression seems dejected somehow, but that is strange: he has seen several variations of this ritual performed before, and he can't think of anything that would have made it fail. Just then, Melhved reminds them that there are more pressing matters than ancient lampoons.

"Well, you are right, we shouldn't dally; we might still have a long journey ahead of us." He stares a bit forlorn at his chamber pot and sighs. "Too bad this thing is too cumbersome to carry."

Sensing that his mentor is deeply entrenched in mulling over his results, Valeris moves on to the second door.

"I have always been a quick study, so let's give the professor some more time to make sense of things and see if I can muster enough arcane power to operate this mechanism."

[WaffleLord]

Melhved

"As long as it keeps us moving. Stationary targets gather more arrows, Mater would say." She draws her sword and, casting a wary eye at the babbling wizard, steps in front of the second door.

Edward
The wizards stands before the runes, easily able to read only part of what is written. Mumbling to himself, he tries to suss out the unexpected results. "Partial translations are caused by threefold errors in concentration, execution, and subject material, none of which are an issue here. I was focused, the ritual was performed flawlessly, and I have seen numerous examples of the referencial text. The energy drain could NOT prevent or impede the ritual as it is an alteration of lorical strata, not of the runes themselves. You could easier stop a harpy's flight with a stepladder. I must be... can't be...perhaps..." He stares at the runes, readable and unreadable, again and again trying to find some clue.

Spoiler: OOC

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Obsessing for color, no rolls needed.

[darklink_shadow]

As Valeris focuses, the door shifts and then grinds upwards to open. Beyond is a small room tucked away. Inside is a sort of office, it would appear. There is a stone desk, and a stone chair. You can see the stone on the very bottom of the chair is some type of black rock, whereas you are used to seeing a dark grey stone, with a few lighter grey stones. The desk has a number of crystals on it, arranged in a pleasing manor, but they seem to hum. There is a smaller, flat crystal with arcane runes written onto them. There are two sets of letters: ones Edward could read as "Activate Image" and other words nobody can understand.

There is a few stone bound books, with leather pages sitting on the desk. The words are written in a language beyond your understanding at this time, and they appear to be scorched onto the surface of the leather pages. The books are heavy, but a strong person could carry maybe 4 or 5 of them at once. There are 4 of them, but one is cracked badly, and broken in many places, including along the spine, making the pages free to fall out.

Spoiler: Perception 15

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Along the undamaged spines, all the symbols are identical except a set at the very beginning.

Spoiler: Perception 25

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These marks ate the beginning are definitely some sort of number system.

In many places molds have grown around the place, and on one place on the desk, it appears there was a sort of fungus being grown in a stone pot, and in some places in the room, this same fungus seems to be growing.

Spoiler: Nature 15

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This fungus is a type of food. It's actually very nutrient rich, and healthy.

Spoiler: Nature 20

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The mold is highly, highly toxic. This room is dangerous to be in for very long. If the mold detect the people within, they will emit spores to try to poison and kill anyone nearby and use their bodies as food.

Spoiler: Nature 25 or Arcana 15

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These molds are magically altered to be dangerous.

Spoiler: Arcana 25

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These molds are highly susceptible to Fire. Even a little fire nearby will kill all the mold.

[Taffimai]

Valeris and Gudrun

Valeris holds his breath as the door slowly rises before him. He did it! He had willed the door to open, to reveal the mysteries beyond, and it had obeyed! Inordinately pleased with himself, he places both hands on his sides and beams at the room, savouring the moment.

"Well? Have you found a way out?"

Growing impatient, and finally convinced that the suspicious rock formations are really just natural parts of this cave after all, Gudrun walks over to see what the half-elf is so excited about. The small room comes as quite a disappointment.

"That's it? A fancy chair and some moldy old tomes?" A sinking feeling creeps up on her. "Don't tell me you're going to want to read all of those, we'll be here for hours! And this is not a good place to get caught."

She looks pleadingly at Mel for some backup, but Valeris interrupts before her friend can respond.

"Those moldy old tomes could very well provide us with invaluable information about what lies ahead, so of course we should have a look at them. Let's hope our professor will be able to read at least some of what's inside." A quick sideway glance however tells him that Edward is still preoccupied with trying to work out what went wrong with his ritual. "Anyway, before we can hope to examine the books, we must..."

"Whatever, just get on with it." Impatient as she was, Gudrun knew when to accept defeat. Dejected, she turns to stand watch again, when she notices the overgrown myxogastrid in the corner.

"Actually, we might be in luck. I know that fungus! It is highly nutritious - for real this time," her cheeks redden as she looks at Mel again, still ashamed about her earlier blunder with the lichen, "while you bury yourself in those books, I shall harvest their fruit bodies. At least we won't have to worry about food for a while now!"

She starts moving towards the flower pot when Valeris grabs her firmly by the shoulders and pulls her back.

"I am very sorry." He inclines his head a little towards her shocked face.

"The mold on those tomes is not at all innocent. Do you see how the light slightly distorts around it when I move my torch? Someone grew that mold on purpose and then cast a spell on it to make it highly toxic. The first person to enter this room would have been sprayed with poisonous spores, killed and slowly consumed. The good news is that, being carnivorous, the mold probably hasn't caused any serious damage to the books. The better news is that it is very easy to get rid of! For that, however, we will need a real torch, with a proper non-magical flame."

Handing his Everburn^TM to the still flabbergasted Gudrun, Valeris puts his backpack on the ground and starts rooting through it for flint and steel and something to burn.

"Here, let me help you with that..."

[WaffleLord]

Melhved and Edward

The goliath's shoulder's slump when she finds another doorway leading to nothing of her interest.

"We seem to going nowhere very quickly. Perhaps a focusing of attentions would help?" she says elbowing the wizards.

"Ow! What? Oooooooo!! Books!" Edward lunges towards the tomes only to be grabbed by the warden.

"How can you have gained so much knowledge not paying attention? The mold is a poisonous trap! Let Valeris take care of things and we pack you some interesting reading material for our trip home." Her emphasis on 'home' is a clear message to get on with things.

"Very well, very well. Be cautious with that fire. Don't damage any potentially rare texts. Stay away from any with a shiny but cloudy binding sealant as those will singe easily. If there are any from the from the earlier regimes, please set those aside. If you have need, forget not that I am skilled in the elemental arts. Is that a second edition Glambring that I see?" The wizard continues to talk and make suggestions as to proper reading material and burning procedures.

[Taffimai]

Gudrun

"This isn't working. We either need proper kindling, or another option."

She hesitantly looks at Edward.

"When you say you are skilled with the elements, does that include fire?"

[WaffleLord]

Edward

His eyes brighten as his full attention falls upon the elf. "Why, yes! Yes I am!" He holds his hands out as fire dances along the finger tips of one hand while sparks sizzle between the fingers of his other hand. "I wield the elements as other breathe. They sing to my soul and my mind weaves a chorus of angels from them." The sparks and fire bounce from one hand to next as a light snow falls between his two hands. "Shall I purge the moldy curse from these books with the fires born of the dragons?" he asks eagerly.

Spoiler: OOC

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Prestidigitation for effects.

His desire to show-off is temporarily overriding his interest in the books

@Darklink: Can I target the nasty spores with Fire Shroud?