Tomb of Horrors Group A (IC)

[Orran]

"Well lets have a look whats in there" Torlo takes an arrow and casts light on it, he then nocks it "Stand back everyone we don't know what might happen" Once everyone is away from the entrance Torlo stands 20ft from the entrance and fires the arrow of light through the hole, lightning licks the arrow as it flies shining into the hole.

[UglyPanda]

As the arrows flies through, it illuminates the hallway until it gets out of your range of sight. The light spell wasn't very bright. With more light you can see that the walls are covered in paintings.

[Orran]

"Hmm, I probably shouldn't of fired that so far, wonder if I'll get that back?" Torlo puts his bow back on his back and smiles to the others. "Well at least we know they're aren't any nasty fiendish monsters just out of sight range."

[fendrin]

Aduro

"Time for an up-close look."
He looks around at the others... waiting for someone to volunteer...
"Alright, alright, Aduro will go.
I hope there aren't any invisible monsters."
The last sentence is mumbled under his breath as he crawls into the hole. He stops before he crosses the threshold onto the stone floor. He pauses, then manifests his fire lash, flicking it out into the air of the entrance.
Assuming nothing reacts to the lash, he dismisses it and begins examining the entrance. He starts with the first part of the red path, then works his way left along the floor, then up the wall and around until he comes back to where he started.

Spoiler

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Shift 2 essentia from boots to belt.
Take 20 to search (total 43).
edit: having an issue logging into my character sheet, so i am currently unable to edit my essentia allocations there. here is what the current allocations should be:

Meldshaping: 4 melds, 2 binds , 8 essentia [max 3 per meld]

• Hands: Theft Gloves, bound
  • Trapfinding
  • +2 insight bonus to disable device, open lock, & sleight of hand (additional +2 per essentia invested)
• Brow: Truthseeker Goggles [3 essentia]
  • +2 insight bonus to gather info, search, & sense motive (additional +2 per essentia invested)
• Feet: Impulse Boots, bound [1 essentia]
  • Evasion
  • Uncanny Dodge
  • +1 enhancement bonus to reflex saves per essentia invested
• Heart: Strongheart Vest [2 essentia]
  • Reduce ability damage by 1 (additional +1 per essentia invested)
• Armor: (lesser) SoulBound allows up to 2 essentia to be invested [2 essentia]
  • increase enhancement bonus by 1 per essentia invested

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Seeing our dwarven friend take the lead she rushes up and says a prayer for him. She then offers more concrete help, a 10' pole for poking and prodding things that he doesn't want to touch.

"Aduro! Here, take this.. it might help you discover traps without getting your fingers disintegrated."

[UglyPanda]

By the way, there is no lighting inside. You're going to be stumbling around in the dark without a torch or lantern.

Fendrin: You hear no reaction to your fire. Also, what is your path? I don't understand what you're saying. First part? Up the wall? Do you mean with your feet on the wall? Also, it takes 2 minutes to take 20 on a search check for traps in a 5 by 5 square. It's going to take a while.

Since you're inside, I'm going to provide you with a map of this entrance so far.

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[UglyPanda]

After carefully searching, you find no traps.

[fendrin]

Aduro

Aduro takes the pole, and almost falls down from the weight of it.
"Too heavy! That's thing's almost three times as long as me!."
He pushes the pole back out of the hole.
"If Aduro finds something to poke and prod he'll ask for it then."

He thinks for a moment.
"The entrance is clear, and Aduro would like more light. Somebody come down and hold a torch or something"

With that he begins searching the next section of the tunnel.

OOC: I'm going to repeat the search ad nauseum down the hall until I find something. Aduro won't go past the range of his low-light vision, though. With all these paintings, he wants to be able to distinguish color.

Also, I still can't log in to edit my sheet. I'm going to move it off that site ASAP.

[Orran]

"Well if you go forwards far enough you might see a shining arrow, depends how far it went. But my bow glows so I'll come in with you." Torlo clambers through the hole and into the entrance, standing behind Aduro with his bow out and nocked, ready to shoot anything if necessary, the bow glows as the arrow did providing enough light to see by even without low-light vision.
"Come on guys, come in with us, whats the worst that could happen?"

[fendrin]

Aduro

"Everyone dies instead of just us?"
Aduro sarcastically asks in response to Torlo's question.

[UglyPanda]

Half an hour later, Aduro finds a trap on the red path (second square across, fourth square down). It appears to be a trap door of some kind. What does Aduro do next?

[fendrin]

Aduro

"Hey Rurik! Bring me that pole and at least ten feet of rope!"

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Looking at the dirty hole they want her to crawl through, she turns up her nose and says, "Perhaps your badger friend can make the opening a bit bigger. With this bulky armor, I'll probably get stuck."

Crawling into a hole in the ground is not proper behaviour for a priest either.

[Durendal]

Rurik

"A little dirt never hurt anyone Erika, but I'll leave Cedric out here to finish excavating.

Rurik then climbs down the hole, and hands Aduro 50 feet of silk rope and his collapsible pole.

"Here's a bit o'Dwarven ingenuity for you. Just screw the ends into each other and it'll extend out to 12 feet or so."

[fendrin]

Aduro

Aduro shifts his essentia out of his goggles and into his other soulmelds, then takes one end of the rope, ties it around his waist, and scampers around the dwarf. He then ties the rope off with about 10' slack between them.

"Ok, you stand there." he says to Rurik, pointing at a spot 5' from the edge of the trap door, in the direction of the entrance.

He takes the odd pole, and begins prodding at the corners of the pit, then around the edges, then he pushes on the center of it. Failing any reaction, he whacks the center of the trap door a few times, rather hard. Well, as hard as a 8 str whisper gnome can... if the trap door still doesn't open, he giggles, and, adjusting the pole so that he is carrying it in the middle like a tight-rope walker, cautiously steps out onto the trap door. He slowly edges his way to the center, and, if it still doesn't open, jumps up and down a few times.

Spoiler

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Not sure if you would want me to roll the use rope checks or for yo to do them in secret. Feel free to use or ignore these rolls as you see fit.
use_rope - (1d20+5)[25] - tying the rope around his own waist
use_rope - (1d20+5)[17] - tying the rope around Rurik's waist

Meldshaping: 4 melds, 2 binds , 8 essentia [max 3 per meld]
{table=head] Chakra | Meld | Bound | Essentia | Effect
Hands | Theft Gloves | bound | 0 | Trapfinding, +2 insight bonus to disable device, open lock, & sleight of hand (additional +2 per essentia invested)
Brow | Truthseeker Goggles || 0 | +2 insight bonus to gather info, search, & sense motive (additional +2 per essentia invested)
Feet | Impulse Boots | bound | 3 | Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, +1 enhancement bonus to reflex saves per essentia invested
Heart | Strongheart Vest || 3 | Reduce ability damage by 1 (additional +1 per essentia invested)
Armor | (lesser) SoulBound allows up to 2 essentia to be invested || 2 | increase enhancement bonus by 1 per essentia invested[/table]

[UglyPanda]

As you repeatedly try to trigger the trap, the trap refuses to move.

Rurik: Staring into the inside of the room, you see that the floor mosaic hides a message in Common in barely noticeable runes. It says the following:

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ACERERAK CONGRATULATES YOU ON YOUR
POWERS OF OBSERVATION. SO MAKE OF THIS
WHATEVER YOU WISH, FOR YOU WILL BE MINE IN
THE END NO MATTER WHAT!
Go back to the tormentor or through the arch,
and the second great hall you’ll discover.
Shun green if you can, but night’s good color
is for those of great valor.
If shades of red stand for blood the wise
will not need sacrifice aught but a loop of
magical metal—you’re well along your march.
Two pits along the way will be found to lead
to a fortuitous fall, so check the wall.
These keys and those are most important of all,
and beware of trembling hands and what will maul.
If you find the false you find the true
and into the columned hall you’ll come,
and there the throne that’s key and keyed.
The iron men of visage grim do more than
meets the viewer’s eye.
You’ve left and left and found my Tomb
and now your soul will die.

[Quxelopqr]

Cory

Cory walks in last, keeping his eyes on the paintings. Noticing the gnome jumping on the trapdoor, he gasps slightly but doesn't say anything seeing as Aduro is alright.

[fendrin]

Aduro

"This is either the worst built trap in the history of tomb-building or it is, in fact a secret door and not a trap. If it is a secret door there should be a 'door knob' of some sort around here somewhere..."

Setting the pole down beside the trap door, Aduro begins searching every nearby surface for anything that might be a triggering mechanism, or give a clue to the location of one.

Spoiler

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Still leaving all essentia on the total defensive, so taking 20 only produces a +37 search check

EDIT: I seem to currently be unable to access my sheet at all, but luckily, I put most of the information in a spoiler block in my first post in the OOC thread... I'll try to complete that ASAP, and then just use that as my character sheet. I'm sick of the 3eProfiler based sites screwing me up.

[UglyPanda]

Just to be clear, you're on top of a 10 ft by 10 ft trap door in that map square.

Six minutes of searching later, you find another 10 ft by 10 ft trap door (second square across, fifth square down).

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Once the badger has cleared a more respectable opening, Erika climbs down into the tomb and starts soak up the holiness of the place. Ah... my first real tomb.

Checking out the hallway casually and watching Aduro, prompts her to speak, "Aduro... I think the idea is that we don't set off the traps. You have no idea what the trap door does. Maybe it sprays acid all over you or makes your nose grow or something equally horrible."

Erika checks out the trap door and the floor and simply says, "Maybe if you just mark the trap door with a nice chalk outline, we can all avoid setting off whatever sort of deviousness it conceals."

Seeing the text on the floor and having no confidence that her companions can read, Erika reads it outloud, "ACERERAK CONGRATULATES YOU ON YOUR POWERS OF OBSERVATION. SO MAKE OF THIS WHATEVER YOU WISH, FOR YOU WILL BE MINE IN THE END NO MATTER WHAT! Go back to the tormentor or through the arch, and the second great hall you’ll discover. Shun green if you can, but night’s good color is for those of great valor. If shades of red stand for blood the wise will not need sacrifice aught but a loop of magical metal—you’re well along your march. Two pits along the way will be found to lead to a fortuitous fall, so check the wall. These keys and those are most important of all, and beware of trembling hands and what will maul. If you find the false you find the true and into the columned hall you’ll come, and there the throne that’s key and keyed. The iron men of visage grim do more than meets the viewer’s eye. You’ve left and left and found my Tomb and now your soul will die."

Erika stands there and reads it again to herself and the says, "Well, sure. Obviously." Seeing Aduro give up on the trap and discover another, she says, "Ah, yes, check. Two pits. Perhaps you simply need more weight to open them little guy. Maybe Essht will jump up and down with you..."

Attempting to follow directions, Erika examines the walls near the traps for markings, colors, diagrams, pictures, levers, buttons, etc.

[UglyPanda]

From which spot are you looking at the walls?

The images depict fields with cattle grazing, a copse with several wolves in the background, slaves—human, orc, elven, and strange human-animal mixtures of pig-human, ape-human, and dog-human—going about various tasks. Certain frescoes are more focused and show rooms of some building—a library filled with many books and scrolls, a torture chamber, and a wizard’s work room. Chairs, windows, boxes, bales, doors, chests, birds, bats, spiders, and all manner of things appear on the walls.

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Erika stands opposite the two pits while examining the walls on first the left hand side and stepping up along side the pits to examine the wall adjacent to the pits on the right hand side.

{{ Pits are at 2nd across and 4th down and 2nd across and 5th down. I'll stand 3rd across and 4th down to examine 4a,4d and 4a,5d}}

{{ Then move to 2a,3d and lean over to examine the wall adjacent to the pit(2,4). Then move around the pits to 2a,6d to examine the wall adjacent to pit(2,5) }}

[Durendal]

Rurik

As soon as Aduro stops jumping on the frst trap, Rurik pulls out some paper and charcoal and writes down the hidden message.

"Well I guess this is our first clue. Not quite sure what we're supposed to do now."

[Robert Frost]

OOC: Ugh, my week has sucked, sorry about lack of posts.

Essht

Essht too waited for the opening to become respectable, staring off at the guide and then watching the Badget itself dig its way into bliss. Or at least deeper into the Tomb of Horror. Hard to say which. After he entered into the Tomb he surveyed the area, taking care to avoid moving much into the Tomb.

"Bah, boring."

He said with a grunt, wanting very much to fight something... Even though he probably wouldn't for awhile.

[Orran]

Torlo

Torlo looks at the pictures, attempting to remember any knowledge he has learned from his bardic companions about the tomb of horrors that may prove useful at this junction. He then moves towards the note and does the same for Acererak

Spoiler

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Bardic Knowledge - Tomb of Horrors (1d20+12)[21]
Bardic Knowledge - Acererak (1d20+12)[18]

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Erika pulls out an everburning torch to help her light the drawings/paintings/etc and then looks further down the hallway for that light enhanced arrow.

[UglyPanda]

Erika, Torlo, which paintings are you looking at?

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Not looking at any particular one in detail, but just looking briefly at all of them to get the general feel for what we have.

[fendrin]

Aduro

"Yeah, maybe the paintings will give us a clue. You guys look at 'em, I'll keep sussing out traps. Anyone got chalk or something? Aduro expected that halfling chap to come prepared for this sort of thing, but he;s so unprepared he forgot to bring himself!

He picks up to pole.

Uh, Rurik, Aduro still needs you. Can you stand over there?"

He points to a spot 5' to the side of the second trap door. When Rurik is in place, Aduro repeats the procedure he used to try and open the first trap door (i.e. prod the corners and edges, then the middle, then whack the middle, then walk out to the middle, then jump on it).

[UglyPanda]

You hear a grinding noise as the tile splits in two, revealing a 10-foot-deep pit filled with spikes.