Pink of Doom (IC)

[Pink]

Gunnar's strategy of walking on the walls seems to be perfect for avoiding the troublesome pile of gold altogether and they are then tossed over the pile for the next party member to try.

Looking down the stairs, they seem at first similar to the set that took them down to this room. They are 50 feet long, 10 feet wide and 15 feet tall. Each of the stairs is plated in metal, and the edges of each stair seem incredibly sharp. Gunnar gets a foreboding feeling, however he does not spot anything that would like like a trap mechanism or trigger. The stairs end directly at a stucco covered wall.

[harmonictempest]

Oloren

Hovering over the sacks, and not yet having entered the stairway, Oloren immediately frowns. That can not be a good sign, Gunnar. It must be either a dead end or a trap, and if the latter, you may wish to be not on the stairs until we discover a trigger mechanism.

[Kesnit]

Theresa

Theresa looks at the stucco and holds up her glowing hands. Do you want me to find out if this is a dead end?

[Maurkov]

Gunnar

"Yes, please. Dances, is there room for you to stand back from the top step? Lets make sure everyone keeps their feet above that top step."

He moves forward a little, climbing the left wall so as to keep out of Theresa's way and to stay above the highest step.

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Is there any kind of landing, or is the first step past the gold dust a step down? If there's no room, Gunnar will send Dances back into the last room with another relay of boots.

In case Theresa's bolt triggers a trap, we'd like to not be in front of the stair blades in case the stab forward, nor on them in case they tip and form a ramp.

[Pink]

There is no landing at either the top or bottom of the staircase, merely the stairs. At a blast from Theresa's powers shoots down it, it reveals yes, yet another door. This is only a single door, though it still shows three fingerholes to unlock or open it.

[harmonictempest]

Oloren

Well, this is proving uninteresting so far, and that alone makes me suspect another device at work here. Gunnar, if you'll step out of that hallway, I'll send an elemental in to check that door, it being more expendable. As he sends another water elemental toward this next door, he ponders the combinations that have worked so far, setting them in array against the facing direction, size, and surroundings of each door, hoping that an overarching and predictable pattern will emerge from the coalescent data.

He starts flying toward he hallway, then stops. I seem to be getting hasty and forgetful (he looks annoyed). Gunnar, if you would not mind searching the staircase somewhat first? The range on this spell is short enough that I need to be within it for the elemental to reach the door, and I would rather not be squashed if the hallway is trapped.

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Ho-hum, another door. :-) He'll need to be near the opening to get the range to send the elemental down the staircase.
He's pondering the combinations, trying to find a pattern. Dunno if that wants an Int check. I feel like it's a little silly to roll it, because while he's literally about ten times as smart as anyone else in the room, he only has about a 75% chance of rolling higher than them at all, let alone significantly, know what I'm sayin'? I'll roll it in case it's relevant and let our wise DM decide.
[roll=Int check]1d20+8[/roll] <-- Oops, see OOC.

[Maurkov]

Gunnar

"Perhaps we should rest soon. Oloren, I believe you are mistaking the spell range for the limit of its extent. Summoned creatures are free to move beyond the range at which they can be summoned."

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SRD, The creature or object must appear within the spell’s range, but it does not have to remain within the range.

"I'd be happy to search, but I'd be more comfortable disarming these stairs as I go. Do you mind waiting?"

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If Oloren still wants Gunnar to search and doesn't mind waiting, Gunnar will use his axe to chop and pry the blade-like surface off each step as he descends, search, and repeat.

Disable Device - (1d20+16)[29]
Autosearch - (1d20+26)[27]
Search1 - (1d20+26)[30]
Search2 - (1d20+26)[29]

[Pink]

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He's not using a spell, he's using a reserve feat, which indeed (I looked it up after harmonic mentioned it) does have a range on how far the summon can move and not be dispelled.

Also, those are some pretty shoddy rolls, but i can't argue with the method and the obvious.

Question, You have boots(slippers) of spiderclimb no? that's 10 minutes a day and you'd have already used up quite a bit. Are you standing on the steps to remove the bladed parts?

As Gunnar descends the staircase, very slowly and painstakingly removing the edged metal, which seems like they'd each make excellent if a bit clumsy sword blades, His sharp eyes are able to notice something about the stonework. The stairs are not attached or worked into the walls beside them. As this discovery leads him to further searching, he's also able to spot that the ceiling also seems to not be exactly attached in anyway to the walls, which brings up the question, of what is holding it up.

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This is assuming say, three steps down. And may I say it looks very long and very labour intensive indeed. Normally I'd have you roll str checks for this but I'll just assume you'll take twenty because you'd need fairly high as well.

[HellFencer]

Dances with Sand

The desert dwarf crossed his arms and watched the group from behind the giant pile of gold dust. "Everything alright over there?" he asked, getting a it antsy. His eyes wandered around the room and the ceiling, having paid little mind to it in the previous rooms.

[harmonictempest]

Oloren

Eyebrows raised, Oloren responds. An impressive knowledge of the arcane, mac Rory. I am somewhat beyond normal summoning spells, however. The method I use here is to prepare a single powerful summoning conjuration, then siphon the latent power of that preparation in small increments into these individual summons you see. The obvious benefit is that I can summon these small elementals as often as I wish throughout the day, though the technique will only allow one at a time. The drawback is that the summoned creature, drawing on the power of my prepared conjuration to remain here, cannot venture as far from me without vanishing to whence it came.

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Congratulations - you've impressed him enough that he won't be snide to you. :P Also, what pink said above - if they go more than 30 feet from me, they vanish at the end of their turn.

[Maurkov]

Gunnar

Gunnar calls back to Dances, "No. This stairway is a mess. It's like they're trying to kill us."

To Oloren, "My boots are loosing their sticky, and chopping out these stairs is going to take too long. Time for some applied violence. Would you hold this for me? Over here."

Gunnar removes his shield, handing it to Oloren and asking him to hover above the gold pile. He moves to the wall beside Oloren and studies the schema nailed to the inner surface of the shield. He sets his feet, checks the angles, and takes the axe in both hands. He recites the schema and flings the axe down the stairwell.

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From outside the stairwell, cast Whirling Blade

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Whirling Blade(CArc p129)
<Trans, VSF(melee slashing weapon), 1StdAct,
Instantaneous, no save, no SR>
– The caster throws the focus melee slashing
weapon and attacks creatures in a 60’ Line.
The caster makes a single melee attack at
each target, though the caster may use his/her
Primary Casting Attribute in place of his/her
Strength modifier as the bonus on the attack
roll and the damage roll. Any feats, etc.,
apply normally.
Once all creatures in the line has been attacked,
the focus weapon returns immediately to the
caster’s hand.

. Throw the axe so as to chop each stair-blade plus maybe an inch of stone. It should continue to the door if within 60'. Full Power Attack.

UMD - (1d20+19)[24] vs. DC 23 (includes +2 spellcraft and +2 reactivate)
Net Attack bonus: +6 (vs. AC6? (small immobile objects))
Damage: 1d10+22 (adamatine)

If it causes a collapse, I'm really hoping that "the focus weapon returns immediately to the caster’s hand," combined with the instantaneous duration, means that the axe won't be left pinned under rubble.

[Pink]

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Just to make sure I'm getting this correct, You're using whirling blade to cut out a line that goes an inch deep into the stone of the stairs, in the centre of the stairs, hoping that this sets off a trap right?

As the axe returns to the dwarves hand, a line cut cleanly throughout all of the stairs, The staircase seems to slowly move, forward. Watching it for a moment, it seems that there is some loop of the metal covered stairs that has begun to rotate, disappearing when they come to the door and reappearing at the top of the staircase. It appears to be quite dangerous if one were near to the bottom where the sharp metal slices before disappearing under the door.

Gunnar also thinks that as the stairs continue to move, still relatively slowly but speeding up each time, the ceiling is slowly beginning to lower.

[Maurkov]

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Actually, he was hoping to chop through the blade topping each stair in one grand swoop.

So the stairs are moving like a descending escalator? Which implies that even if he broke all the exposed blades, there are an equal number that were concealed at the time.

Gunnar

"Just as I suspected. There is a trap."

Gunnar watches the action for a moment, then climbs down from the wall near the gold pile.

"Lets give that a few minutes to reset."

He looks again at the gold pile, thinking. "What do you think of using Burning Hands to fuse the top layer of gold? That should keep the pile from sliding around too much while Dances climbs over."

[Pink]

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Ah, I see, whirling horizontally instead of vertically. And yes, it is escalator-like and does have an equal number of blades that are appearing.

As the stairs continue to gain speed the ceiling on the stairway continues to lower and lower, the effect now visible to the less architecture minded party members.

[harmonictempest]

Oloren

Speaks rapidly but with calm unhurriedness. mac Rory, if you have plans to disable that ceiling before it makes the ceiling impassable, now would be a good time to get started. In any case, do not feel pressured, as there remain multiple solutions to passing the hallway even in the event that the ceiling falls entirely.

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How long would it take to determine if your Disable Device works or not?

[Maurkov]

Gunnar

"You don't think this one resets, eh?"

*Sigh*

"Boots, don't fail me now."

Gunnar climbs back into the breech. Using his axe, he tries to hack a step free of the escalator. As it descends, he plans to use the stone as a brace for the ceiling. If there's time, he'll take a second step and spread the load.

"Assuming they're not crushed, that'll give us normal-height folk plenty of head room."

Next Gunnar will examine the stairs. If possible, he'll chop between steps to sever the drive belt in an effort to halt them.

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As the step pivots up into place, Gunnar ought to have a shot at the moorings.

disable device - (1d20+16)[26]
if there's time for a second attempt
disable device2 - (1d20+16)[32]

stair disable - (1d20+16)[22]

[Pink]

The stairs are now descending too rapidly for Gunnar to have enough time to properly cut away a step, and as he tries, some of the stairs still covered with metal occasionally glance against his axe with a threatening sound that reminds the dwarf that, while strong, adamantine is not indestructible.

the ceiling has now descended a total of 2.5 feet, 7.5 feet remain.

Gunnar thinks that the stairs themselves are fairly strongly put together and is unable to find any mechanism in this part of the hallway that would disable the trap.

[harmonictempest]

Oloren casually flies 20 feet into the staircase, keeping a careful eye on the slowly lowering ceiling. As quickly as possible, he summons a water elemental to try the door. If it is killed by the staircase, he summons another for the next attempt.

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As far as I can tell from the text in Complete Mage, it should only take a standard action to summon an elemental, which should easily give me enough tries to open the lock before the ceiling gets too low. If the first one gets killed before even trying the door, he'll only try once more. If each one gets at least one shot before dying, he'll try at least three. If it doesn't work, Oloren will fly out. He also has a contingency (just a plan, not the spell) that will come into play right around the time the ceiling gets to 4.5-5 feet high, so pretty please don't progress the action past that for now :-)

[Maurkov]

Gunnar

Knowing it would take too long to hew beams from the dungeon wall, Gunnar resigns himself to watching Oloren. "If anyone's got a Stoneshape, molding an arch might stop it."