Tomb of Horrors Group A (IC)

[UglyPanda]

This portion of the fresco illustrates an iron door that evidently confines some sort of a horrid creature (its clawed and scaled hands grasp the bars of its small window) that can be loosed to torment prisoners.

You feel that the painting isn't really secure. The door is most likely behind the painting.

Cory senses strong transmutative magic coming from the statue and strong necromacy from most of the back end of the corridor. The archway is emitting strong conjurative magic, however.

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Seeing the part of the wall Aduro is interested in says, "A secret door behind the painting of a door with a trapped beast?" She is silent for a moment and then adds, "Is that supposed to be a warning that there is a beast or some sort of psychological trick to try and keep us from opening the door?"

Erika leans against the far wall and holds up her torch to provide some minimal amount of illumination.

[UglyPanda]

Erika sees pretty much the same thing as she did before. If the thought occurs to her, Erika does not see, hear, or smell anything new.

[Quxelopqr]

Cory

Taking his attention off the wall for a moment, Cory asks "What do you guys think? Should we open it?"

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Twisting her bald head around in a manner that would normally flick her hair in a 'did you really just say that' sort of way, Erika answers, "Well. Of course. If it has a horrible beast inside we do have this nice pit to catch it in."

After a moment she adds, "... and if not, it obviously will have priceless artifacts or be a safe passage around some deadly trap, or something."

She then asks, "Aduro? Can you see how to open it?"

[fendrin]

Aduro

"The door seems to be under the painting... hand me a dagger or something so I can scrape the painting away."

While he waits for a blade, he enflames his hands to see if he can burn the painting away.

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Erika glares at Aduro critically for a moment and then says flippantly, "My only dagger is silver. It isn't really suited for that."

She removes her helmet again and rubs her bald head and then says, "I do have a crowbar... which might work. Why don't you just knock use one of those spikes to use?"

If he whines too much about the spikes, she'll hand him(or toss down if he is out of reach) her crowbar for him to use.

[UglyPanda]

You learn that the plaster the painting is composed of is nonflammable, you might be able to chip or slash it off, however.

[Orran]

"Hmm, now I remember, a dagger!" Torlo says when Aduro asks for one, "Never did get one of them, always forgot, suppose they'd come in handy sometimes."

[fendrin]

Aduro

Aduro rolls his eyes.
"Knock off a spike? Hello? Small, wiry gnome? Not gonna happen. Just give me the crowbar and let me get to work. Unless you would like to be precariously balanced over poison spikes? I'm sure you'd do just fine and not become a pincushion... again."

He glances at Torlo, but just shrugs.
If I had thought to bring a dagger, I wouldn't be asking so I can't really fault him for not remembering one either...

[lawful_evil]

Erika

With a sigh, she tosses down the crowbar and says, "I want that back. Intact."

[fendrin]

Aduro

Catching the crowbar, Aduro says "Aduro is not responsible for any damage that may occur to your property. No guarantees, but I won't intentionally damage it."

He gets to work scraping at the painting.

OOC: 'Spike'? Was that supposed to be 'crowbar'? I'm a wee bit confused.

[UglyPanda]

OOC: Crowbar.

Now that you have tools, removing the painting is possible, but difficult. You scrape off the plaster in the shape that allows you to peel the remainder off. A door is soon revealed.

[fendrin]

Aduro

"Vuh-wah-lah!" Aduro exclaims as he pulls the painted surface off of the real door. One small bit at a time.
"Whew! That got the blood pumping."
He tucks the crowbar into his belt and starts examining the door itself, looking for a way to open it.

[UglyPanda]

The door easily opens inward.

[lawful_evil]

Erika

When the door starts to move, Erika ducks to the right(toward the entrance) and covers herself with her shield. When nothing tragic happens she hoots and says, "Nice." She shifts her weight a bit leaning left and right to try and see around Aduro eventually giving up and calling out, "Anything in there?"

[Quxelopqr]

Cory

Cory hangs back behind the door as the others investigate it. No sense getting in their way.

[fendrin]

Aduro

"So, who's going to leap across the spikey pit to come take a look with me?"

He looks at his companions, noting that likely few if any of them would be able to make the jump without much risk.

"Ok, nevermind. Let's try this instead."
He steps into the doorway, then pulls the ladder up behind him and slides it kitty-corner across the pit.

"There, a bridge. Just crawl across it as if you were climbing up it. Hmm, so far we've seen pits and some sort of demon-statue-mouth-dark-destruction-field-thing. I wonder what we'll find in here..."

He extends his lash of fire and then sends another even more vigorous pulse of fire along it, making what was little more than a slender thread into a thick rope of flame.

"Let's find out."

The fire reflects in his eyes, making him look all the less sane. As the others cross, he steps through the doorway, eyes open for any traps, doors, creatures, or other interesting features.

Spoiler

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activated fire lash, then used weapon aflame on it.

[Orran]

At the mention of jumping across the spikey pit, Torlo's eyes momentarily light up and he goes to step forward, but then looks rather disappointed when Aduro suggests the ladder, nonetheless he steps onto the ladder after Aduro kneels down and crawls into the door.

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Erika raises her eyebrow at the little runt and sighs. Walking or crawling across that ladder wasn't likely to be something she could do. She knew she could make the jump, if she had a running start, which she didn't. As Madam Gilette used to say, 'Stick with what you know.'

Erika takes a 10' running start from across the hallway and leaps across the pit into the open doorway.

Rolls :

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"Jump" - (1d20+8)[22] against... DC 20(assuming its 10')
"Reflex Save" - (1d20+9)[15] against... DC 15(assuming I fail the previous and need to grab the ledge)
"Tumble" - (1d20+9)[28] against... DC 15(to take less damage from the fall assuming I fail both the previous)

[UglyPanda]

Entering the hidden door leads to a 20 ft long and 10 ft wide corridor with an ordinary door at the end.

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Erika smiles an evil grin and turns around to the others waving her arm in a come on sort of gesture. To make it perfectly clear she also calls out, "Come on." She turns back around and looks over the hallway calling back again, "Another door. Aduro? Can you check it out?"

Erika stays within 3 feet of the secret door entrance prepared to help anyone needing help to get in. When not needed, she'll check out the walls in the hallway to see if they also have paintings.

[fendrin]

Aduro

"Work, work, work..."
He says with a grin then traipses down the hall and examines the door.

[Quxelopqr]

Cory

Jumping isn't my strong suit...maybe I can crawl on it Cory will attempt to crawl across the ladder.

Spoiler

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balance check to stay on ladder: (d20+2)[10]

((I'll be out of town for the next few days so please npc me as you see fit))

[UglyPanda]

Erika, Aduro, Torlo, and Cory manage to get into the little corridor unharmed. Aduro sees that the door is perfectly mundane. He finds no traps. The corridor is entirely undecorated and there is nothing here other than that door.

[lawful_evil]

Erika

Erika shrugs to herself and says, "Must be like a maintenance hallway in the palace. Something the slaves use to get around." After a moment of silence, she inquires, "You hear anything behind the door? You want me to open it?"


Erika pauses and quietly listens for any sounds in the dungeon and behind the door.

"Listen" - (1d20+16)[36]

[UglyPanda]

Erika hears nothing.

[fendrin]

Aduro

With a fiery twinkle in his eye, Aduro nods an affirmative to Erika.

[lawful_evil]

Erika

The cleric readies herself, pulling her shield up high to protect her torso and face. Pressing herself as much as possible against the lefthand wall, she reaches out and tries to pull open the door. Assuming its latched, she'll work the handle(clockwise) and pull again. If that fails, she try pushing.

[UglyPanda]

Erika pushes open the door and finds the following:

A grotesque, winged humanoid statue with a horned head and stony hide lunges, its four arms each tipped with wicked rocky claws. Around the creature’s neck is a collar studded with huge, gleaming gems.

She looks at it for a second and sees it's alive. It sees that you've opened the door.

ROLL FOR INITIATIVE

Spoiler

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OOC: Now, while I don't want to kill the suspense, I want to know if you still want to go on with this battle with three players missing.