Pink of Doom (IC)

[harmonictempest]

Oloren

The elf is taken aback, and nearly begins casting a spell before decidng on the foolishness of wasting the energy on such a trivial task. Looking more uncomfortable than you have seen the normally aloof mage yet look, he hoists the halfling up while he searches, then puts him down again and steps away.

"Well, if you have found nothing, then I see no obvious way out aside from opening that coffin. I would apologize for putting you in danger, but we have all been in danger from the moment we entered this place. The only other possibility I see is for there to be another hidden door somewhere, and the most likely place to hide one would be behind this stucco, which seems to already be cracking in some places. However, I'm not sure where to begin, and it would certainly take some time. Dances, as the strongest, perhaps you could begin and see how fast it will go? Then, if it appears it will take some time, we could think again on the coffin."

He waits for their responses, ready to aid either of them.

[Pink]

Wellby's search of the roundel only reveals another grisly image of death, the halfling swinging by a chain into some inconveniently placed spikes, and no threat of it falling or any secret entrances further into the tomb, if there is a further.

[BurntOfferings]

Wellby

I wonder if those images ever repeat.

Back on the ground, he sighs. "I found nothing, and I was extremely thorough. We could try dispelling the illusion, just to see what happens, but for now I'll see to the coffin. I suggest you stand back."

Taking out his tools once again, Wellby sets to work disarming the trap, disconnecting a spring here, snipping a wire there, jamming an mechanism somewhere else. His eyes dart to the hidden blade for a moment, and a bead of sweat rolls slowly down his forehead.

Spoiler

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Disable Device with masterwork thieves tools: (1d20+20)[30]

[Pink]

After his tinkering and carefully jamming the blade so that it shouldn't move, Wellby thinks that it should be safe to open the coffin. At least, that it shouldn't trigger the swinging blade.

[BurntOfferings]

Wellby

Wellby collects his tools. "There, that should do it." He then places his small hands on the lid and pushes*.

(( * Or pulls, lifts, twists, pries, etc. Whatever's necessary. ))

[Pink]

Wellby's strength seems insufficient to open the heavy stone lid of the coffin.

OOC: Please tell me where you're standing if you're helping to open, the front (where the trap could theoretically still swing out if it's not fully disabled) or the sides. I know there is a lack of people right now so for now if you need the extra strength and manpower you can assume Stupnick and Reptilius character's will help if you give an IC direction to them. I should pm them.

[harmonictempest]

Oloren

Half a moment there - let's try it a slightly less dangerous way.

Oloren summons another earth elemental, and directs it to take the lid off the coffin, if it can, while he and Wellby stand back.

Spoiler

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Small Earth Elemental = Str 17. If that is insufficient, he will lend elementals to aiding whomever does remove it. Then, he'll turn to summoning elementals one after the other to remove stucco from the walls in whatever way seems most efficient. He's generally compliant, and most actions that don't require much of him or put him in great overt danger (he will *not* help move the lid, for instance), you can assume he does if you ask him, if that helps speed IC along while I'm gone.

Last post for at least 50 hours.

[BurntOfferings]

Wellby

"Here, use this to pry up the lid." Wellby reaches into his backpack and pulls out a crowbar, which he offers to the elemental. He then steps back out of the way, knowing that his small frame won't be much help where raw strength is needed.

[Pink]

The Earth elemental, along with the help of the lizardman and Thomas Weaver, are able to exert enough muscle power to open the lid of the coffin. However when they first start lifting it a groaning noise comes from inside the coffin as it fights to spring the trap that Wellby has disabled. Eventually it stops and they're able to lift the coffin completely open, revealing inside two large springs, the blade that was meant to swing out and some gears and other mechanical workings.

[BurntOfferings]

Wellby

The halfling steps forward to examine the contents of the coffin. "Well, it appears that that was a waste of time and effort. I suppose that we can try removing the stucco, as Oleren suggested." And Wellby begins to do just that, after retrieving and storing his crowbar.

Spoiler

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Search check, inside the coffin: (1d20+18)[32]

[Pink]

Wellby's look into the coffin finds that the trap was more devious than a simple swinging blade. Rather, upon opening the coffin, it would swing to the other side, then, some seconds later it would swing again, and reset to go off all over again when the coffin was opened again. However, he also spots some gears and springs on the inside of the back of the coffin that seem to have no connection to the trap's mechanism.

[BurntOfferings]

Wellby

"Hold on, there may be something of interest here after all...."

Wellby takes a closer look at the gears at the back of the coffin.

Spoiler

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Searching again where the gears are: (1d20+18)[38]

[Pink]

Examining the back of the coffin, Wellby finds a small irregularity within the vast geometrical patterns closer inspection reveals that it should be possible to push this irregularity and cause some sort of activation of the mechanism inside the coffin that isn't related to the swinging blade trap.

[BurntOfferings]

Wellby

Holding his breath in fear and anticipation, Wellby pushes the irregularity.

[HellFencer]

Dances with Sand

The desert dwarf stepped further into the room and looked all around. "If there are no visible exits, how about invisible ones? Or perhaps ones we wouldn't normally be walking past, like the ceiling or something..."

Spoiler

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Ok, is this room cobblestones? Its friday and I can't remember... :(

[Pink]

OOC: Cobblestone more or less.

IC: As Wellby presses the hidden button, he hears the sound of the gears in the coffin turning and then a sharp cracking from behind him. Turning around he sees the stucco is cracking in a ten foot by ten foot area of the wall directly behind the coffin. For a moment he just stares at this, and then the stucco flies off as two sections of the wall, each five feet wide and ten feet tall, swing open to reveal what appears to be a set of double doors, each ten feet tall and ten feet wide, the right door having three holes at the waist height of a normal human that seem to be the only way of opening the door.

By this time, Oloren's summoning of earth elementals has also cause the stucco to be taken off to reveal stone walls and, in the middle of the left and right walls, worked stone. After the stucco has been pulled off these areas it reveals that each side has a set of double doors identical to those that were revealed by the swinging secret door discovered by Wellby.

Spoiler

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Note: The doors you've found only have three holes on the right side.

[HellFencer]

Dances with Sand

The dwarf stood there, staring blankly at the three sets of doors revealed, all without his help. "Well, there goes my idea..." he said flatly. He walked up within five feet of the set of doors behind the coffin, giving Shelby plenty of room to look around. Were he tall enough, he would look through the holes in the door. "Looks like we need the handle. Probably be something with three prongs on the end. Might be in one of those other rooms?"

[Pink]

All three doors have the same three holes, and they are certainly are at a height that anyone could look through them, though whether from standing on tip toes or bending in half depends on who is looking.

[harmonictempest]

Oloren

"I wouldn't stare in quite so rashly. In fact, in this dungeon, I'd say that the first part of anyone's body to do anything shouldn't be one you terribly mind losing. Does anyone have a small stick of some sort we could poke into the holes to see if there's a button or a trap there? We could start with the back door, as it seems to have been the hardest to find."

Spoiler

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Thanks to all for being patient with my absence.

Detect Magic doesn't turn anything up when he looks carefulyl all around the room, does it?

[Pink]

Looking through the hole with his darkvision, Merric can see that each hole ends in a flat end about two inches in or so. They seem the perfect size to put most humanoids fingers inside.

Oloren's permanent magic vision reveals nothing inside this room besides the foggy presence of the background magic and that strage aura of undetection. He does notice that this aura extends to seem to cover the back door of the room, if there is anything magical about it the aura probably covers it.

[BurntOfferings]

Wellby

"Oh dear. It's never simple, is it?" Wellby carefully examines each door in turn, paying particular attention to the hinges and the strange holes in the front.

Spoiler

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Searching the doors behind the coffin: (1d20+18)[23]
Searching the doors to the left of the coffin: (1d20+18)[28]
Searching the doors to the right of the coffin: (1d20+18)[21]

[Pink]

All the doors seem held closed by some sort've lock mechanism.

On each door, Wellby is able to find that the holes seem to end in stone caps two or so inches in that appear to be pushed in. However in each hole there is also, from the top, a slit from which he can see a small metal glint. It's possible that the button at the end of each hole either opens the door, or causes something else to happen.

[harmonictempest]

Oloren

Standing back a little, Oloren summons a water elemental, directing it toward the left door. He tells it to form fingers and push them into the holes visible on the door.

With three holes, there should be seven possible combinations for the door. Here's hoping we find the right one before we trigger the trap.

[HellFencer]

Dances with Sand

The desert dwarf stood back away from the door, watching the water elemental tinker at it. He began to look around the edges of the doorway for signs of damage or inconsistencies, indicating a sort of trap. Or so he hoped.

[Pink]

((Is there any one button you press, or do you press them all? Or what combination you want to try first?))

Finger holes as follows for explaining order being pressed.

(1) (2) (3)

[harmonictempest]

Spoiler

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Attempted order:
1
2
3
12
23
13
123

[Pink]

As the water elemental pushes it's 'finger' into the first hole, there is a brief clicking noise. However this is barely heard as with incredible noise the doors spring forward, utterly smashing the summoned water elemental into a puddle of water (26 damage). The reason for the force behind the doors becomes apparent as, after opening, six spring shoot out the door and begin to bounce around the room. However it is quickly noticed that the springs themselves are sharp as they slash past the rooms occupants before finally coming to a stop.

Oloren: 5 damage
Dances with Sand: 5 damage
Wellby: 18 damage

As the spring settle and the delvers regain the wits and feel their wounds, it is revealed that behind the opened doors is a short hallway leading to a staircase going up.

[BurntOfferings]

Wellby

(( Ouch! But Wellby has trap sense! And uncanny dodge! Not to mention evasion! ))

Clutching the wound in his shoulder, Wellby limps forward to examine the newly-revealed stairway.

"Do you suppose the other doors also have stairways behind them? We have no guarantee that this one leads anywhere we want to go." He checks the passageway and stairway carefully, then limps back into the main room. Armed with the knowledge of how door #1 behaved, he reexamines the other doors, looking for clues to their combination.

Spoiler

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I don't know how short "short" is, so I'll do two checks for the hallway, and one for the stair. If they overlap, so be it.

Search for traps in the hallway: (1d20+18)[31]
Search for traps in the hallway: (1d20+18)[24]
Search for traps on the stairway: (1d20+18)[23]

Searching door #2 for clues: (1d20+18)[32]
Searching door #3 for clues: (1d20+18)[31]

Wellby has 5 ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering) if that helps any.

I can't help but notice that if you don't have either spellcasting ability or trapfinding and Search/Disable Device, there's not much to do here. No wonder the others have been quiet/dropped out. Well, we can't say we weren't warned. We may yet find a trap that's best defeated by beating on it.

[harmonictempest]

Oloren

The mage reacts little when the spring strikes him, aside from wincing. Tearing a small strip of cloth from the hem of his robe, he quietly ties it around his bleeding forearm while Wellby searches the hallway and other two doors. When the halfling is finished, he calls to him and Dances: I'm going to use the same method to set off the other two doors. You two are both welcome to go back into the hallway, or even climb up the rope a little if you feel the need to be farther out of the way.

After they move, he summons another water elemental, giving it the same instructions. As it begins to move toward the door, he floats away from it down the hallway.

Spoiler

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It seems evident that we would have seen how far the springs bounced and would know about how far to retreat.

[HellFencer]

Dances with Sand

"GAH!" called out the dwarf. Nursing his new wound, Dances with Sand fled to the safety of the hallway before Oloren attempted his trick once more. "Alright, I'm ready. Go ahead!"