Hajar continues to close and swings Tempest at the nearest Gnoll
*chitter chitter* the ant tries to bite the head off the Gnoll next the Hajar with it's mandibles.
Melee bite for plus grab, sting for plus poison
Paige herself takes no actions other than to taunt the silly gnolish kniggets a second time...
Normally I would now say 'surrender and take us to your leader', but my Pet Ant seems to think it's too late for that...
Bartan's Harrow card hit the southernmost gnoll guard , causing it to yip and then double over in pain.
Hajar bounds up the northern stairs, and the first gnoll guard is cut in half before it can even make a shout. The giant ant next to it rakes a cut into its' side anyway.
Paige's summoned ant turns, steps up to, and attacks the still-living gnoll , ripping its' mandibles into a furry neck and bloodily decapitating the beast-man.
Breathing hard from the exertion, the adventurers realize they managed to kill the two guards quickly enough to avoid any warnings. The western platform to the Great Dome is now theirs.
This way! Quickly! Hajar says moving into the dome and to the next set of doors.
He waits for Yazi to check them before he pushes them open.
Bartan follows Hajar, hoping to make more use of his spell.
Searching the gnolls gives:
2 common leather armors, 2 battleaxes, 2 longbows with 20 arrows in each quiver, 2 antitoxins, 1 waterskins, 2 belt pouches, 6 gp, 1 sp.
The area up to the doors has an alcove to each side. Heaps of yellowed skulls lie piled about in the alcoves to the north and south of the central walk that approaches a large pair of doors to the east.
The double doors are locked.
|
Yazi loots a longbow and arrows from the gnolls as well as their coins before becoming annoyed at the obstinance of the locked doors. Thinking they might employ a similar tactic to the key-under-rug that some people do she will begin searching the pile of skulls for anything useful, hopefully a key.
Bartan will grab the antitoxins, giving Yazi a queer look for not grabbing them.
Several of the skulls...seem to be buzzing. Looking closer, you see that linen gauze covers two or three of the skulls, and the buzzing is coming from these modified corpse parts. The buzzing is like several wasps inside a skull trying to get out, making their irritation known.
The door is locked from the inside, but you can tell there's no barricade being used. And no traps that you can detect.
Just leave them. Can anyone get this door open? She gives the door a swift little kick, though not much behind it
"Let me handle it," Bartan says, pulling out a harrow card.
=> The Peacock (True Neutral, Dexterity)
He winks at Yazi, then meticulously rips the card into several thin strips, then folds those strips over each other in a sophisticated way until it becomes clear that he is creating a set of thieves' tools. When finished, the tools seem to magically take on the colors and shape of a peacock, even as he uses them to unlock the door.
Bartan easily opens the locked doors. Inside is darkness. A narrow hallway circles the inside of the dome, its walls crawling with beetles. Loose chunks of plaster and bits of rubble clutter the floor, and old smears of blood stain it brown.
Directly opposite the double doors Bartan unlocked is...another set of double doors. Several coils of thick rope and a few bloodstained
grappling hooks lie in a heap to the left (north) of the new double doors.
Hajar casts Light upon Tempest.
Bartan, that was AMAZING! Paige is super impressed...
Ack! No body has cleaned up in this place in weeks she says wrinkling her nose at the blood smell. But that is a particularly cute species of Kakooyapesh Sand Beetle! she smiles and reaches to pick one up and examine it. She appreciates all creatures great and small. Accept Gnolls. And most Ooozes.
"It is a trick i taught myself relatively recently. Let's hope it comes in handy more often."
With that, Bartan follows Hajar into the building.
Khayal gives a look of impressed bemusement. It seems his friend is full of useful tricks. What will he pull out next?
What Hajar's magically-lit sword shows is a corridor to the north curving away into the darkness, and a corridor curving away to the south in the darkness.
Hajar leads his allies north, lighting the way with Tempest.
Going north, you eventually come to...another set of double doors leading inwards. The corridor continues curving along to the east.
The floor level is sloping down as you go north, and is lowest at the door.
The scent of gnoll and hyena is getting stronger past the northern double doors, to the east.
Keeping a tight grip on his kukris, Sounds like a plan to me.
Let's split up, meet on the other side of the circle. That way if we run into anything we will have them surrounded! What do you think?
*Shrug*
Hajar moves to the doors and prepares to open them as soon as Yazi does her check..
The doors are heavily scarred, with the cut marks curving around the interior edges of the middle of the doors. As if something with very large blades was hitting at the doors as they closed.
No traps around the solid wood-and-iron construction.
The doors are also locked.
Hmm. Then perhaps we go the other direction for now... Hajar says
"I am fine with that, though if you'd like me to attempt to unlock them, I could do so."
Mabe it's an innocent unicorn, being kept here against it's will? Paige attempts to be optimistic. I hope we don't have to be in this building too long. No sky overhead is going to give me cramps...
Paige wrinkles her nose in disgust. You worship and serve magical beasts like the sphinx but you would imprison a poor innocent unicorn? Oh Yazi. What's the word I'm searching for that describes you...Oh yes! Capricious!
Oops. Nice goin' Paige. This is going to make you friends... she thinks to herself sarcastically.