Age of Ruin IC: When all your friends are dead

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
the Mokai woman rolls her eyes and follows suit, treading lightly and carefully.

[Ozzy_G]

The bronze giant speaks again.

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Indeed, I was created to defend the tomb. I do not think I know any historical information of value to you.

Meanwhile, Kizima walks down the spiral stairs. She finds herself in a wide room, about fifteen foot square. There is a doorway in each wall. The room's walls are painted with what appear to be scenes of a Dwarven rulers life.
There's the Dwarf on a throne.
There's the Dwarf leading a group of other Dwarves in throwing fireballs at a ragged group of angry Davethran humans with spears.
There's the Dwarf counting money.
There's the Dwarf in what appears to be a temple, gutting an Ox on an altar.

More interesting to Kizima's eye however are the golden ornamental swords hung on brackets on the walls, 2 on each, and the masks made of gold and diamonds that hang beneath each sword.

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

<Thank you good servant. I shall attempt to follow your fine example of service.> Lucci follows the others downstairs, without any particular caution.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina gives a low whistle as she paces around the first antechamber.
"Could be rich pickings here..."
In a businesslike fashion, she performs a quick search of the chamber for hidden doors or traps.
Search - (1d20+8)[14]

[Brickwall]

Kizima

Must...resist...temptation to...steal immediately...

Kizima also searches the chamber thoroughly, noting the riches before her, giving her best estimate.

Appraise - (1d20+2)[21]
Search - (1d20+14)[16]

[Ozzy_G]

You all troop down to the chamber, and look around.
Kizima and Lucci carefully estimate how much the loot is probably worth. In base value, the ornamental swords are probably worth about 1000 gold each. The Mask jewels are, once you look up at them closely, full of really expensive gems, perfectly cut and without flaws. They are probably worth about 4000 gold each.
Of course, to a collector of Dwarven artefacts, they may be worth even more.
These Dwarves must have been fabulously wealthy indeed in order to spend so much on grave goods that no one would ever be intended to see.

The four doorways lead to corridors that lead down. The corridors are only about 5 foot high, which will make them a bit uncomfortable for some of you. You can see that there is a wooden door at the bottom of each one, about 20 foot from the room you are in, engraved, but with only Kizima's lantern for light, you cannot see what is engraved on them.

[Lycar]

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Yay me, found a place with i-net access, 'only' 2 € per quarter-hour... At that rate, i'll only check in every other day or so...

Orin needs to hunch over a bit not to bump his head, something which doesn't exactly help with his already less-then-optimal mood.

He does note, however, that the little thief posesses enough self-preservation instincts to keep her hands off the loot. For now.

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
"Hey Rego? Can I borrow a piece of paper and some charcoal? I want to make a map."

[Brickwall]

Kizima

Kizima takes quick stock of her surroundings.

"I don't think the guardian has any connection to the treasure. One could easily pick up some and go down one of the passages too small for it. That is, unless there are further guardians below, which would not at all surprise me. The issue is probably traps. Three of those four passages have to be decoys, and for this price, probably dangerous ones. The fourth would lead to the actual burial room, and if I had to guess, there would be more artifacts there. I'm going to get to work inspecting the doors. The rest of you, just don't open any of them, and we should be fine."

And she does just that, heading down one of the passages slowly. She traces every crack and every surface, making sure nothing gets by her. She also makes sure to listen for any signs of nasty surprises behind the door.

[Ozzy_G]

Nodding, Rego gets out a parchment and a stick of black chalk, and hands them over to Livina.

[Ozzy_G]

Kizima walks up the north passage first, and inspects the door. The picture of it is of a great daemon, all horns and claws and big bat wings. It appears to have no key hole, but looking closely she sees that its eye could be depressed. The way to open the door? Or a trap?
Listening carefully, she hears quite clearly the sound of something burning.

[Brickwall]

Kizima (not Livina)

Noting the strange door, Kizima moves on to the other doors, attempting to single out the safest bet by process of elimination.

[Ozzy_G]

Kizima walks to the next door, to the east. This door is engraved with a picture of a fat crowned dwarf on a throne, wearing lots of jewels. The throne rests atop a pile of coins.
There is no obvious way of opening the door, but looking carefully Kizima discovers that three of the jewels worn by the Dwarf, one on his crown, one on his left middle finger, and one on his right index finger, are actually buttons. Again, whether these will open the door or activate a trap, she cannot tell.
She listens carefully, but cannot hear anything.
Proceeding to the next door, to the south, Kizima finds a door simply inscribed with a large book. It has a simple doorknob. She listens carefully, but hears nothing.
However, she also checks the last door, to the west. This is inscribed with a picture similar to the one on the opposite eastern door. That one had a dwarf sitting on a throne on top of a pile of coins. But this one has a picture of a skeleton sitting on the same throne, wearing the same jewels, but no clothes. The throne sits atop a pile of skulls. Again, the same three pictures of jewels are in fact buttons. She listens carefully, but hears nothing.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Taking a moment to light a torch of her own, Livina crouches down and begins marking the paper with a rough map of the tomb so far, noting things as Kizima reports them (if she does).

[Brickwall]

Kizima

Kizima steps back to the center of the room, and looks at all four doors. She heaves a sigh.

"Well, I can spend forever inspecting each and every inch of those doors, or someone else can forge ahead, risking life and safety from pain. Obviously, I am more invested in the former option. Whoever designed this place designed it to be nearly thief-proof."

With that, Kizima sets about the task of checking each and every door arduously, marking areas she's inspected with tiny, tiny dots of chalk. It takes her almost 30 minutes to a door before she's even close to satisfied.

[Ozzy_G]

Kizima spends a long, careful time studying each door, but discovers nothing more from looking at them.
However, while studying the door with the picture of the skeleton, she hears something, it sounds like shuffling feet.

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

Lucci rests while Kizima is at work and continues to sleep lightly as she finishes up.

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Exactly how long did she take, please? Is she far off from getting her spells back or do we have to wait till the next day? Domo.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
With a final stab of the chalk, Livina finishes her sketch of the tomb so far.
"I don't like the idea of people moving around in the crypt who aren't us...Let's try the quiet rooms first. You know, maybe there are 'important documents' in there."

Moving a little nervously, she approaches the quiet door with the simple handle, and looks from side to side."This one first?"

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

"Not me. Who would fit the job best in this group? Maybe the Knight?"

Realizing the others weren't going to quit until someone was at least mildly hurt Lucci gets up and casts shield on herself, not bothering to protestate the pace anymore.

[Brickwall]

Kizima

"DON'T open anything. A one in two chance is a risk we shouldn't have to be taking for a life and death decision. I can't imagine anyone would put a riddle in their tomb. Riddles are meant to be solved, and the entire purpose is...to..."

She trails off, looking less annoyed. Not much less perturbed, but more excited, anyway.

"It's a shell game. They're ALL trap doors! The real one is obviously concealed somehow. I remember a wizard who knew how to find stuff like this, but I'm pretty sure none of the casters we have with us have both the talent and disposition. Our best bet is a coordinated search."

Kizima turns to everyone else, and yells loudly.

"Okay, listen up! We're searching this place for any doors we might have missed. If you're not going to help, stay out of the way."

With that, Kizima sets about a search pattern of the room, making sure to dedicate as much time as can help.

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Krashnix who had been standing in the centre of the room with folded arms moves around to help Kizima with her search.

[Ozzy_G]

Kizima carefully inches around the room, checking every little bit of the room, knocking lightly on the floor and walls looking for hollow parts, and trying to work out where a secret room might best be hidden.
Krashnix tries to help... but really has no idea what to do.
Livina is more helpful, helping Kizima to look for hollow noises.
The process is horribly slow, but covers everything. It takes half an hour... and Kizima discovers nothing at all.

[Lycar]

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He, found a place that only charges 50 cent per 10 minutes of net access. It's a bit out of the way though.

Orin watches all the sudden activity around him with mild interest and amusement.

"Hrm. A game you say. And what exactly are you searching for ?"

Not that he really expects an answer.

"Too bad that i'm so totally useless, isn't it ? So useless, in fact, that i don't know anything about dwarven burial rites at all. Like how they usually bestowed the honour of being 'fake corpse' on their most loyal slave."

Pausing just a moment to catch the other's attention, he continues "Isn't that right Rego ? I recall an old story whre.... ah but of course i don't. I'm useless, remember ? I don't know the first thing about the first level of the tomb being designed to be death-traps for would-be grave robbers. Nope."

"But if you were to take a hint from someone who actually happens to know stuuf, not me of course, for i'm totally seless as you know so well, then maybe you might want to look for way to a lower level....? Not that i would know anything about this, being useless and all..."

Orin seems to enjoy himself quite a bit that moment, especially since Kzima's search failed to come up with anything.

Maybe he's enjoying himself a bit more then is entirely healthy.

Lycar

[Ozzy_G]

Rego wracks his brains. You know, you're right, I do remember that they used to design fake first levels, but Kizima's been searching for the real entrance for half an hour, and she hasn't found it. Where is it? Maybe in one of the other rooms, but aren't they full of traps then, if they're designed to lure in tomb-robbers?

[Brickwall]

Kizima

"Oh, wow! You told me things I already figured out from my years of experience dealing with arrogant fools who underestimate thieves! And here I thought you were useless! Here's an idea, why don't you help with the search for the door to the lower level, and check out one of those doors I found. Except you're probably too weak and stupid to even get one open."

Kizima doesn't even pretend that Orin is going to do anything other than not listen or complain or make some poorly-informed attempt at insulting her. She just ignored him and sighs, leaning against the wall.

"There's no way we can find an entrance at this point. With the size of the tower, it might as well be on the other side...of...well, that's interesting. This entire part of the tomb could be totally false. There might be a real entrance somewhere else on the tower, or not even based in the tower at all. It'd take much longer to search for anything like that than it has to search this entire room, though. We'd probably need a whole team of people who knew how to look for this stuff. Field historians and tomb robbers, and we've only got one of each, Rego and myself. We may be out here longer than we thought...too long. That spell only allows a week between death and casting, someone said? If so...I think we're screwed."

[Ozzy_G]

No, no, we can't give up when we're so close! says Rego. We don't know for sure this place is fake. His face is desperate and pleading.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina LIghtfoot
Livina looks disappointed, and turns to look at the doors.
"Hard to believe there isn't anything worthwhile back there. But I guess if you're going for crafty, you might as well go full-puzzlecube."
She scratches her head, however.
"But wait; if it's all just fake, then would they really put the tomb guardian up there? Those things are wickedly expensive to make; usually only archmages can afford those now. I mean, unless he put something even nastier in the REAL tomb. Can't we open just one or two doors? The quiet ones, maybe."

[Brickwall]

Kizima

"No, we don't know for sure, but we've done all we can with it. Fake or real, it's a dead end for us. Those doors just lead to pain and death, no treasure."

She slides down the wall to a sitting position and stares at the ceiling.

Hern, Kaleff...I'm sorry. She closes her eyes and almost looks pained. But she doesn't move, or start crying. She just sits still.

[Moechi_Vill]

"I already gave you a vast fortune. Why not ressurect your friends with it? And if that should fail you all seem quite wealthy."

"Either way, I don't see how you can want to go to this death-trap and not even open one of the doors. See here now, I'll risk my life for you."

Allowing the others a turn to prepare themselves and making sure she's got every defensive spell on Lucci spends another turn walking over to the closest door (she had positioned herself quite far away). She brooks nothing short of a physical intervention.

"Ready or not!"
Then she slowly opens the door in one turn, using her limited strength to force it open, pushing it properly or using any latch or handle. "Raise me with your 5k if I die Akim."

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she's not using Orin

[Brickwall]

Kizima

Kizima instantly opens her eyes as she realizes that Lucci is going to open a door. She darts upward, pulling on Livina's arm but letting go, then heads up the passage, putting her crossbow in hand.