Leo follows along but then freezes a bit as the hawk approaches.

ooc: how big is it?

Tahldar holds firm.  "It could be Shae." he says tentatively to Leogold.  "Wait to see if it attacks before taking action."

Tahldar is correct, and the hawk reforms into Shae. She falls at their feet, wounded but alive.

Shae gasps for breath. "It's all an illusion. If you have dispel magic, cast it now. Kahan is down there hurt. We have to rethink this."

She casts cure serious wounds on herself while waiting for Tahldar's response. She looks out over the illusion seeing it for what it is now and taking it in to analyze the situation.

"Sure.  I can do that." Tahldar replies.  The mage moves up close to the area where his companions disappeared and casts dispel magic.

OOC:  Not sure if it applies here, but Tahldar's int is high enough that he is immune to 1st level illusions.  So the 1st level spell phantasmal force won't work on him (it's a visual only spell).  But I assume this illusion gives off heat, meaning it must be a higher level spell.

Leo follows to lend a hand...

Kahan continues trying to grapple hook his way out of the hole.

Tahldar casts dispel magic, revealing the truth behind what you saw. Instantly, the heat dissipates, the mists clear, and fiery lava is gone.  What you see is the bridge, but it is made out of bones, and it has a large gap in the center.

The floor of the cavern is covered with pointy stalagmites with a 30 foot drop. Kahan is at the bottom between the gap in the bridge, and he is surrounded by the skeletons and their final belongings of all those who failed to cross before. The dispel magic also dispels the zone of silence spell that had prevented Kahan or Shae from calling out or casting spells from the bottom of the pit.

After the gap in the bridge, you see that the bridge goes to a door that is not gold as you originally saw. Instead, it is made out of bones--mostly arm and thigh bones crossing horizontally.



Kahan is attempting to grapple his way out of the hole. So far, his attempt has failed.

NOTE: Are you grappling the side going back to the entrance or to the far door?

Shae receives 17 hp back from the healing spell.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:11, Thu 27 Feb 2020.

Shae says, "I can transform three times per day. I can transform into another flying creature to get to the door over there, and that will leave me with one more. That also puts me all alone by that door. Any other ideas about getting over there? I think we need to get to that door."

She also addresses Kahan before he gets out of the pit. "You might want to poke around those bodies near you and see if there is anything valuable they left behind."

OOC: The way forward towards the bone door. Casting Cure Light Wounds on myself.

"Ah, thank you, Tahldar!" the priest calls out, before casting a healing spell on himself. Once he felt a bit healthier, he continued trying to get a good latch onto the bridge above with his grappling hook, which should be easier now that he can actually see what he's doing. Assuming he gets it hooked, he will follow Shae's advice and pick through the bones for anything that may seem useful.

Tahldar looks at Kahan with concern, but the priest seems okay which he finds a relief.

"Save your power Shae.  I will cast Fly on Borimer and he can ferry us all across."

OOC:  I will cast a Fly spell on Borimer who I'm sure is more than strong enough to carry us all over the gap, one at a time.  The spell will last for 12 turns in total.  (9 turns from my level, plus 1d6)

09:12, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 3 using 1d6 ((3)).

Kahan casts cure light wounds on himself and is healed for 8 hp.

Tahldar casts Fly on Borimer, and the group makes preparations to fly across.

Kahan successfully grapples the bridge but stops to search the bodies before proceeding. He finds the following among the tattered clothes and ruined equipment:

• An old leather sack with a scroll, 50 Allevian gold pieces, and a set of 4 bone carved six sided dice.
• Another old leather sack with several stoppered vials. The vials are:
  -1 quicksilver vial with the words "Slippery" on it
  -1 deep blue vial with the words "Do Not Open" on it
  -2 light green vials with the words "Veggie Lovers" on them
  -3 light blue vials with the words "Feeling Better" on them
  -2 empty vials with the words "Not Air" on them
• A rotted backpack with the following:
  -A priest scroll
  -A dagger blade attachment (that would fit on Leo's dagger)
  -6 darts for a blowdart gun wrapped in resin and apparently poisoned
  -2 bracers of an intricate design that clearly must be magic
  -260 Allevian gold pieces

The rest of the items are rotted or useless. None of the bodies appears to be fresh. It has been at least a few years since anyone fell victim to this trap.

Borimer transports the group across through flying, and Kahan climbs up with his spoils. All of this takes about 10 minutes.

However, as Borimer comes back again, you are horrified to see that the door you entered suddenly slams shut, leaving you in complete darkness. Geebo and Fingas are trapped on the far side of the door, along with the white hare being held by Geebo.

You are thrown off balance for a moment as the entire circular room rotates slightly, about 45 degrees. The "door" is no longer where it would have been.

Now separated from the Geebo and Fingas, the rest of you are safely by the bone door across the room.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:53, Fri 28 Feb 2020.

Tahldar looks the haul over.  "Leogold, would you want to try the bracers?  I already have a pair and likely won't need them."  he says as he lets the party decide what to do with the rest.

As the room shifts the mage drops to one knee to steady himself.  "Dammit." he mutters seeing that they have lost contact with Fingas, Geebo and the rabbit.

"I can teleport back to them if need be, but it won't do much good as I can only cast it once per day.  But by the look of it this room turns at a constant rate.  As long as we are back in here before it moves again, in three more moves we'll be back with Fingas and Geebo."

As for the door in front of them he leaves it to the others to open.

OOC:  In term of a clock let's say we were at 12.  We are now at 1:30 and Fingas/Geebo are at 6.  If we leave I would suspect we need to ensure we are back in here before it moves again.  If the door is locked and pick locks doesn't work I can use a knock spell.

Shae nods in agreement. She looks the door over to see if it can be easily opened or appears trapped. "Leo, you may want to check this for traps too. One per day is plenty for me."

She assumes Kahan will take the priest scroll, though she can probably use it if he can't.

She suggests pocketing the vials until they can be examined under less pressing circumstances.

She checks the scroll in the sack to see what it is and rolls the dice on the ground once just to see if anything happens.

"Maybe a detect magic spell is in order here?" she suggests to Tahldar.

Kahan looks over the scroll as the others check the rest of the loot. "Yes, we should try to make sure nothing is cursed before we try them on," he agreed.

"A detect magic won't let me know if an item is cursed.  Only that it is magic.  Instead you need the identify spell and many hours available to complete the rigors to use it." Tahldar replies to Kahan.

"I saw we hold off trying anything until we have time to analyze them.  And I think it best I keep as many spells at the ready as I think I'm going to need every one I have and then some by the end of this."

OOC:  I won't cast detect magic and suggest we store the loot for now.

Leo looks over the bracers.  "Perhaps these will be of use but I agree we should wait to make sure they are safe to use" 

Leo looks over the door to see if there is anything to be concerned about.

<ooc: for some reason the dice roller is giving me errors atm.  I can try again later.  Unfortunately the previous player didn't put a whole lot of points into trap finding it would seem.>

NOTE FYI: It's been a long time, so you probably don't remember, but the house rule is that an Identify Magic spell immediately gives you all the details of the item but only applies to one item each time the spell is cast.  So no need to wait if you want to cast on any specific item. Typically, you would cast detect magic first (which works as Tahldar suggested) so that you don't try to identify a non-magical object.

(If it cursed, there is a chance of misidentification (100% minus 5x spellcaster's level minus 2x spellcaster's wisdom. Example: A level 10 wizard with 10 wisdom would have a 30% chance of misidentification of a cursed object as a non-cursed object (100%-50%-20%=30%). Always at least a 5% chance of failure.)

OOC:  Taldar will cast detect magic on the lot, then will cast analyze magic on whichever item the party wants.  I get one freebie casting of each per day...

"I can also cast Auguries on items to make sure they aren't cursed, but perhaps you are right, we should wait. We need to find the way out of here before the room shifts again, assuming it is going to," Kahan commented, looking over the door with Leo. "What do you think? Is it safe?" he asks, looking for a handle of some sort.

After looking a bit, Leo declares, "I am not able to find anything dangerous on the door."

07:44, Today: Leogold Silvershaper rolled 54 using 1d100.  Find Traps roll.

Shae says, "Let's go in. We can figure out this magic stuff later. Maybe just cast the detect magic for now and we'll do the identify later."

Assuming no traps found, Shae opens the bone door and moves the party forward if it's safe.

Tahldar casts detect magic while Leo inspects the door. The following items glow magic:

-1 quicksilver vial with the words "Slippery" on it
-1 deep blue vial with the words "Do Not Open" on it
-2 light green vials with the words "Veggie Lovers" on them
-3 light blue vials with the words "Feeling Better" on them
-2 empty vials with the words "Not Air" on them
-A dagger blade attachment (that would fit on Leo's dagger)
-6 darts for a blowdart gun wrapped in resin and apparently poisoned
-2 bracers of an intricate design that clearly must be magic

Leo finds no traps or anything on the door. The bones cover a heavy stone door of ancient design. Pushing on it takes some strength, but it eventually swings open.

The room beyond has an 8 foot wide circular pathway. The room is large and circular like the one you are exiting. The room itself is covered in mist and you cannot even see halfway across. The center appears to lead down to a deep pit covered in the mist.

The walls here are similarly covered in bones. You cannot tell how tall the ceiling is because of the mist but it must be at least 20 feet above you.

At each 45 degree mark of the room is a giant 10 feet diameter bas relief carving of a circular intricate object with tentacles reaching out in spiral fashion, 8 in each carving, like an octopoid reaching out or spinning.

From the center pit area below you, a green spherical glow begins to rise, bobbing around in the center of the room.

"I think we need to get to those carvings, and quickly!  Not sure why yet, but I think it would be wise!"  Tahldar says as he begins to move to the nearest one.

OOC:  Talhdar is relatively slow at a 120' move so he'll run as fast as he can to the nearest carving.  I would assume Borimor is the fastest as he's flying and should go to the farthest.

The carvings to your left and right are equidistant. There are presumably 8 total with one being above the door you just entered and one at each "face" of an 8-sided die, if you think of it that way.

As the last of you enters the room to look around, the heavy stone door behind you closes, and you see another of those octopoid carvings above the door behind you. As the door slams shut, you see piles of bones (apparently dislodged by the slamming door) fall down into the pit from somewhere above. Based on how long passes until you hear them crash, you presume the floor of the pit is about 50 feet below you.

With the heavy mist, what you see is this:

8 foot wide stone block path circling around the room (about 230 feet to circle the whole thing). Each stone block has a faint carving on it of the following:



About 35 feet to your left and right (i.e., at every 1/8 interval of the circular room) are octopoid carvings in bas relief in stone. Each is about 8 foot in diameter with 8 lengthy arms spiraling around it. Another similar carving is above the door behind you. They look like this:



The mist obscures the rest of the room, but you presume there are 8 octopoid carvings at each 45 degree angle of the room.

The ceiling is above you beyond your view in the mist.

The pit is presumably about 75 feet across and sinks into darkness below and above. All spaces between the octopoid carvings are covered with bones of all types, similar to the catacombs you were just in.

The green glowing orb is bobbing around in the central area of the pit. It moves slightly to the left and right. The movements are erratic enough that you think it may be something sentient or controlled by something sentient.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:43, Tue 03 Mar 2020.