The Desert of Desolation IC

[farothel]

"I'm curious about what's behind them," Saelihn said, "however, we were send here to find bandits, not check every ruin we come across and the faster we can do that, the faster we can get out of this desert. But I'll go with whatever the team decides."

[A.A.King]

"I guess it really do pay to be extra thorough" Azrael says to as he receives the incense that Talgrun found.

"If you fear what might come out of these doors than you can stand way at the back Morekal, that way you'll be safe if something does come out. However I think this is too good of an opportunity to miss, we are unlikely to discover any other ruins like this. I'm just too curious to the secrets that it holds, the relics of this past civilisation. And lets not forget, the bandits we are chasing are not just any bandits, they are some kind of religious fanatics. They are followers of an older false faith and it was they who were drawn to this place. At the very least it should tell us something about them don't you think? By finding what they wanted to find we could learn about them and maybe even use that information to guess where they might go next. A lot of opportunity for little risks, for I remain convinced that the true god is stronger than something mistakenly labelled as a 'curse' back in ancient times. Azrael then turns back to Talgrun:

"You said you had discovered the way to open these gates, so it's all up to you."

[TheBarbecueChip]

Spoiler: Llwellyn

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The archway opens into another fairly small circular room. Its condition is much the same as the room to the south, crumbling plaster, cracks in the ceiling. The remains of a dozen reed mattresses and wooden bunks litter the floor.

[Janwin]

Llwellyn heads back to the rest of the group after checking out the north room. "In the other passage is another room like the other we found. Nothing truly of note there, however. Just some reed mattresses and wooden bunks. Seems this place was used to house someone at some point."

As the group seems to be making ready to open the large doors, he takes a few steps back and nocks an arrow to his bow...just in case.

[Alabenson]

Seeing Llwellyn draw his bow, Talgrun tallies the apparent votes in his head. Looks like we're mostly on the same page. Alright, let's see what's behind the big fancy doors. Sakhr al Jinni.

[TheBarbecueChip]

For a moment nothing happens, just long enough for the party to exchange glances, and then, without so much as a whisper of disturbed air or a groan of protest the great golden doors slide backwards into the wall, leaving a perfectly smooth, gold-lined portal where they stood. Arael's light rushes into the dark room beyond and illuminates three pairs of tall statues, easily as large as the one encountered above ground. At the far end of the hall, just where Azrael's radiance begins to fade, stands a podium atop which rests something that gleams with a ruddy reflected light.

Suddenly, before anyone can even take a step beyond the golden portal, a translucent curtain of blue light crawls across the space between the first pair of statues, forming like ice crystals from the outstretched hands of the carved figures.

[Janwin]

Llwellyn observes as everything happens and just comments, "Huh. That's interesting."

[farothel]

"You can say that," Saelihn remarked, "the main question remains though. Is all that - whatever it is - to keep people out or to keep something in."
She kept her weapons ready, just in case, while glancing at the magical people of the group. This was clearly their area of expertise.

[Alabenson]

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that's probably the vanquished one Talgrun says as he pulls out his bow and nocks an arrow. The question is whether its going to be grateful for being released.

Spoiler: OOC

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Talgrun readies an action to make a cosmic strike attack with his bow on the blue light if it takes an aggressive action against any of the party.

[Master_Rahl22]

Morekal shakes his head and says, "Alright, well if we're going to investigate let's get to it. I reserve the right to tell you all that I told you so if something horrible comes after us." He then draws his scimitars and advances into the room stealthily.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move Silently - (1d20+11)[26]
Hide - (1d20+8)[18]

[TheBarbecueChip]

It would appear that somehow the golden doors sealed off the climate of this room from the world outside the air is cold and dank. Stepping through the portal is like stepping into a seaside cave in the frozen north. The room is bare, but unmarred by the destruction wrought in the halls outside. Azrael's light shines forth from the doorway casting the near, eastern corners of the hall in dark shadows. There is no way around the statues or the curtain that ripples gently, floor to ceiling between them. Mist, drawn from the damp air of the hall, sheets off the translucent curtain in rolling waves, further obscuring the far wall and the podium there.

Morekal's footfalls make no noise in the high ceilinged room, with its flat stone walls that look like they would lead weight to any words spoken here with booming echoes.

[farothel]

"Wait, there might be…," Saelihn started, but Morekal had already left.
Well, he'll find out about any traps the hard way then, she thought as she moved behind him, shivering a bit against the cold.
"Anybody knows what the blue light is supposed to be," she asked, looking at it from closer, but without touching it.

[Janwin]

Llwellyn also moves as quietly and carefully as he can, letting Morekal take the lead...and giving him plenty of space. He remains alert for anything that seems amiss as he moves.

Spoiler: Rolls

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Hide: (1d20+14)[19]
Move Silently: (1d20+14)[25]

Spot: (1d20+14)[27]
Listen: (1d20+12)[22]

[TheBarbecueChip]

Morekal and Llwellyn are both silent as church mice in the clammy hall, however the smooth perfectly fitted stones of the walls and floor offer neither cover nor concealment. Their surfaces are planar smooth and the seams between the stones are marked only by a slight change in color. Not a sound stirs the hall apart from the lingering echoes of Saelihn's voice.

Upon closer inspection the ripples of the curtain are revealed to be its gently rolling crystalline structure forming and dissolving each process keeping pace with the other.

Spoiler

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No where to hide. Nothing to see or hear besides the curtain. The stealthy characters can move silently but the effect is sort of spoiled by other characters talking and the tiny sun that is Azrael standing behind them causing everybody to cast huge shadows.

[Master_Rahl22]

Morekal begins to inspect one of the statues closest to the door.

Spoiler: OOC

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Search - (1d20+6)[19]

[A.A.King]

"This certainly is interesting" Azrael says as he too walks into the room. "Who would have suspected such a cold place would exist right underneath the blazing dessert?" and he tries to walk in just far enough that the podium at the far end becomes visible in his armors light but nothing closer than that. This place may require the light, but it also requires caution. Curtains are not supposed to crawl!

[TheBarbecueChip]

The statue is made of the same stone as the wall, expertly carved and inset so that it seems to be standing half in and half out of the flawless stone. It stretches some forty feet to the ceiling and appears to be dressed in robes common to the priests of desert kingdoms. A simple knee length habit that hangs from the shoulders with a deep vee almost to the navel and belted with what appears to be a woven cord. The statue's great stone feet are clad in intricately strapped sandals.

Morekal can only reach up to the figure's knee and finds nothing of note, however while the stone of the wall is cool to the touch the statue is positively icy and where the wall is dry the statue is beading with moisture calling to mind images of cold sweat. With his entrance into the chamber Azrael casts his light against the far wall and the podium there. The mists and the curtain make it hard to see details but it would appear that the object sitting on the pedestal, reflecting a reddish version of the priest's light is a small oil lamp.

[farothel]

Saelihn didn't try to be stealthy although she could. She moved towards the curtain and gave it a close inspection, trying to figure out how to get it to turn off so they could go past. Using her elven vision, she tried to have a better look at the oil lamp thing on the pedestal.

Spoiler: OOC rolls

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I'll do a disable device roll to see if I can get rid of that curtain thing, and a knowledge (architecture/engineering) in case I need that too for this purpose
disable device: (1d20+11)[19]
knowledge (architecture/engineering): (1d20+3)[16]

to look at the oil lamp, search: (1d20+7)[25]

[Alabenson]

Seeing the rest of the party enter without triggering an attack, Talgrun relaxes his bow somewhat and enters the room, though he keeps an arrow nocked just in case. Ech, I am not dressed for the cold.

Spoiler: OOC

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As Talgrun enters the room he activates magic insight to see if he can pick out any specific auras.

[TheBarbecueChip]

Spoiler: Saelihn

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The lamp is too far distant to gain more details.

Examining the curtain you draw the conclusion that it is absorbing heat from the surrounding air. While it certainly wouldn't be the method the creators of this room utilized you think it might be possible to channel enough heat into it to overwhelm the magic sustaining the curtain. Or of course any of the usual means for dispelling magic might work as well.

Spoiler: Talgrun

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Your invocation reaches the lamp on the far wall. In between there are three magical auras of moderate strength all three are located between a pair of statues.

Spoiler: Spellcraft Check

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All three auras are of the Evocation school of magic.

[Master_Rahl22]

Morekal sticks one of his swords into the blue shimmering curtain to see what happens.

Morekal says, "Any ideas on how to get through this or turn it off?"

[farothel]

"From what I can see you can either push a lot of heat into it," Saelihn started, "I guess a couple of fireballs should work. Another option is a dispell magic. I think that might work as well."

[Alabenson]

Well, whatever they are I think they're the result of some kind of evocation magic. I'm pretty sure that means its probably some sort of offensive magic, but to be honest I never paid all that much attention when my master tried teaching me that business. The odd part is that I don't think that lamp over there is magic, it could just be a decoy of some kind.

[TheBarbecueChip]

As Morekal's blade passes through the curtain it develops a thin layer of frost on both sides of the weapon where the metal touches the insubstantial fabric of the curtain. The frost quickly grows in thickness and density until what might have been mistaken for a light dusting of snow on the blade is a large, solid chunk of ice.

[farothel]

"That's one way to make an ice blade," Saelihn quipped, "I guess if you move through it you become an icicle. Maybe we first should put some of our spare clothes or something in it before we get rid of it. That way we have some extra protection against the heat when we're back on top. Or our waterskins."

[A.A.King]

"If all it needs is a little heat than I was right, this cursed place really is no match for the power of the Sun!" and Azrael stretches out his left arm "shall I aim at the curtain directly or just in front of him?"

[farothel]

"I have no idea," Saelihn said, "aim where you would if you were to use a dispell and if that doesn't work, we can still see."

[Alabenson]

Well, given that the those curtain things don't seem to be actual physical barriers, does anyone have any spells available that could ward against the cold?

[A.A.King]

"I do have something like that, but I can only do that once whereas this I can do all day long. Stand Back!" Azrael says and, when he is certain that nobody will get hit by the blast he aims a firey burst right at the center of the cold curtain "let the warmth of the Sun flow through you!"

Spoiler: OOC

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Firey Burst Damage: (3d6)[1][3][2](6). Reflex Save DC16 (does a curtain get a reflex save?)

[TheBarbecueChip]

An arc of flame leaps from Azrael's hand and roars through the damp air before impacting upon the shimmering curtain. There is a sudden explosion of downy white snow as a fist sized hole is punched through the translucent blue sheet. The damage doesn't last for long as the sustaining energy of the curtain slowly ooze back into the hole, restoring the curtain to its previous state. However, it seems a degree more translucent, its light a touch dimmer, and the ambient temperature rises a few degrees over the next moments.