Durego's insistence on checking the tunnels inspires action. With no organized plan of attack, the group falls into familiar patterns, with the usual suspects in the usual places. The hirelings stay outside with the mules. Rawon, Grit and Raúguey take point, Ingvild trailing with eyes peeled for anything odd. As you round the first sharp corner, Rawon calls back "You won't need light. The walls, they're glowing!"
"Best light a lantern anyhow," says Ingvild, "just in case they go out."
The corridor takes a sharp right, then follows a steady curve to the left. Even Raúguey's untrained eye can see the passage is descending at a slow but steady pace. At 100 paces Grit says, "It's following the ridge above, like a giant circle."
And so it does, but half-way around the circle, there's a change, a sharp turn to the right. Rawon looks around the corner, expecting to see daylight, but no such luck. There's twenty or so feet of corridor, ending in a wall. A black square with rounded corners, eight feet across, is centered in the terminal wall. A round panel of silver metal is centered in this black... door?
"Looks like the same metal as the lock at the yellow spire," says Ingvild. "No covers or panels here though, just a flat surface with..." He pauses, and lays his head against the door, eying the silver panel from the side. "Yes, they are. Five indentations, like finger tips pressed in clay." He eyes the panel again, holds his hand above it. "Except whoever left those prints had big hands. Maybe Raúguey could touch them all, but — What the heck!"
As he waves his hand across the panel, the five spots begin to glow with faint yellow light. All of those at the front can see the arrangement of spots, which do, in fact, match up pretty well to the finger tips of a large right hand.
Raúguey steps forward, holds his hand over the panel and stretches out his fingers. "I think I could touch them all. Should I do it?" he asks.
After Ingvild checks the door for traps [none], and Dagmarten and Durego check the door for evil [none, not that they can actually detect evil without a spell], and everyone shuffles positions, Raúguey prepares to touch the strange silver panel. Grit is half-way down the hall, and the others are clustered at the corner. "One well-placed fire trap would kill them all," thinks Nissa, who is still well back on rear-guard. The big guy stretches out his hand, fits fingers to glowing marks, and touches the chill surface. With a quiet sssshhhhhhhhssshhss, the door vanishes, leaving the silver metal plate hanging in mid-air! A matching plate hangs a foot or so further in, no doubt it once rested on the inner side of the door. Beyond that, a wide and tall corridor, still glowing with hazy golden light, leads north and south. To the north there is a sharp corner to the west. "It looks clear," calls Raúguey, stepping past the floating plates and into the corridor beyond.
The others filter forward. Grit, in his typical hasty fashion, moves north, toward the corner there. "Watch behind, I'll check this out.
"Slow down Grit, let the others catch up," says Locky. As usual, Grit pays the halfling little mind, and heads around the corner. As he does, those back by the door notice that the golden glow is not so much transparent as translucent, providing illumination, but limiting vision to 30 or so feet.
Durego hears Locky's call and moves a bit north. "Grit, wait. Let's be a little organized about this!"
"I'm just going to check around the corner. Looks like it opens up a... Ahgh!"
Grit's shout is followed by a loud and heavy thud. Locky peers around the corner and down the corridor. There is something there, just in front of Grit, a hulking red shape that towers over the dwarf. The halfling sees a sudden, swift movement, weapons or great claws, up, down, left, right. He hears a roar of pain from Grit, [2 blows 16 damage], and then a strange gurgling, like someone drowning a laughing giant. "Help!" shouts Locky, as he drops a stone into his sling...
OOC: Grit does not appear to be moving.
If Grit survives, perhaps he'll pay more heed to Locky next time.
ReplyDeleteBoth those events seem... unlikely. :D
ReplyDelete