Bastarger stood his ground despite his growing pain and disgust, scooped up the torch and tried to kill as many of the damn things as he could.
Lilley hefts her weapon helplessly, clearly itching to strike out at the tiny vermin but afraid they would only run up the handle of her glaive and engulf her as well. "Wat moet ons doen?" she asks wildly. "Ek kan nie die foute aanval sonder om te sny van die fee-slaaf. Hulle sal hom tot op die been verteer!"
Roll in the fire Gnome. It will burn bugs and squash them. Arrk. You can take it.
Stirgen stammers, clearly at as much a loss as Lilley "Ek weet nie ...die voël dink die verkrimpte kind roll bo hulle kan help."
Lilley looks back at Stirgen, disgust clearly evident on her face. "Om te rol in die ongedierte? Dit klink soos 'n metode van marteling om 'n vyand te kry om te praat." Turning her glare to Chatterbeak, she asks, "Waarom die voël nie eet nie die foute? Is dit nie hulle natuurlike roofdier?"
Bastarger stabs the torch towards the swarm, catching a small number of them on fire.
The swarm, disperses almost as quickly as it emerged, pouring around the group and down the hallway out of sight.
Well, that could have been a lot worse Bastarger said brightly as he moved into the room. Superb flask throw Rhen, you have my gratitude. He ignored the daggers and slowly paced the room, marvelling at the exquisite fine edge of the large sword and the intricate fittings and straps of the banded mail. He looked at his own mail sadly- if only he'd accommodated such details in his designs.
Well, its all too big for a Gnome like me to use, but I knew that anyway. Does anyone want any of this? he asked, his torch waving lazily as his gesture encompassed the armour, sword and daggers. He decided to closely inspect the skeleton and armour.
Stirgen opens his mouth to respond to Lilley before catching himself, realizing that the guttural tongue is likely to be favored no longer. He instead speaks in Common "One would think so milady... but it seems the beast prefers talking to eating."
While Bastarger moved within to inspect the armor and weapons, Stirgen lingered near the door - still warily eyeing the floor for the potential for more cockroaches.
As the bugs crawl away, "Well now, that was most fortunate. It appears as if they had no desire to deal with the fire. Well done, good gnome. And you as well, Rhen. Now, once it's settled what to do with such items, where to next?"
Smiling and throwing his right hand back out to the side again Stirgen enthusiastically suggests "Left" pausing for a moment before realising and then throwing up his actual left hand.
Yes. Yes. Left is right. Go left. Go left. Arrk!
As soon as you finish divvying up the daggers and sword...
You make your way down the hallway. After a few feet in the narrow hallway, you come to another fork in the hallway.
You walk down two sets of steps and come to a set of double doors. They open easily, and you find yourself back in the chamber - but on the floor where Bastarger lowered himself.
"Well now that's clever. So, would you all now be willing to examine the other doors? No better time than presently, you know." He says with a smile.
Strange. I did not detect a downward slope.
Kenji takes a look around the room for himself.
After Bastarger examines the fallen suit of armor and quickly backs away, finding it still teeming with cockroaches, he offers the large sword to Lilley. She begins to demur, but something about the sheer size of the blade stills her tongue. Leaning her glaive against the wall, she takes the bastard sword in both hands and tests its balance, experimentally shifting the angle of the weapon in mid-air and evaluating the weight of the long blade. "More maneuverable than the glaive in these tight corridors, yet it feels as deadly," she murmurs to herself with approval.
Sheathing the weapon and rearming herself with her glaive, she is content to follow the party as they skirt the left wall of the corridor. Finding herself back in the room of statues, looking up at the bridge they had crossed earlier, she nods to herself. She still has no skills to contribute to the puzzle of the concealed doors, but at least she doesn't have to climb down a dangling rope to get to them. Remaining close to the doors they just entered, she stays out of the way of those applying themselves to riddling out the conundrum.
I want to examine the out of place statue, closely, if there are no strong objections? Bastarger asked hopefully.
"By all means" gesturing Bastarger to get as close as he wished.
Walking around to gaze at the statues from ground level this time, he marvelled at their workmanship - but did not approach any closer than he had seen Bastarger do previously.
Bastarger prodded the statue that didn't seem to be in the same style as the others- he used his hands to try and find an opening mechanism on the statue itself and used his eyes to spy if there was a secret door behind it.
The moment Bastarger touches the statue, the outline of a hidden door appears instantly. At the same time, Bastarger feels a rush of magic rush through his body - though it feels as if it benefited him, rather than harmed him.
The door is blocked by the statue, but the statue may be moved out of the way.
Bastarger having removed the attached chain from the suit of armor and inspected it to make sure it is structurally sound, Lilley accepts it a bit leerily. After the accumulation of years' worth of dead beetles and roach droppings are cleared out, she refuses all help with removing her scale mail and donning the lacquered armor, insisting that the men step back down the corridor so no one can see her changing, despite the fact that she is clothed beneath her armor. After five minutes of clanking, she emerges self-consciously in the more elaborate armor, carrying her scale mail in a heavy bundle.
Arrk. Nice. That is much shinier tooth lady. Very pretty.
Chatterbeaks master nods his approval as well.
Stirgen bares tusks for a moment at the talkative bird before shaking his head to relax. He smiles his scrunched face into a rictus of appreciation as he nodded approval to Lilley's upgraded arsenal.
At Bastarger's discovery, Stirgen moves over to his side of the chamber peering beyond the statue into the dark...
Perception:
W... Wow! Bastarger managed, almost bouncing in glee.That felt great! This statue gave me some kind of blessing, with its magic. Hey Stirgen, put your hand on it, see if it likes you too! We'll need to move the statue aside to get at this door anyway.
Stirgen hesitantly puts a hand on the statue, half expecting to be shocked or worse... and if he survives the touch he seeks to assit Bastarger in moving the statue aside.
The statue slides aside easily and the door behind opens with a push. You see before you a small crypt, with three small alcoves and bodies in the holes in the wall that have been cut for them. Most of them have long-since decayed.
Bastarger -
Stirgen -
Before you even walk into the room, you spot a door hidden in the back of the alcove . And once you step into the crypt, you quickly spot a bone wand lying in one of the alcoves.
Seeing activity from his two companions, Kenji comes over to join the discovery.
Lilley somewhat reluctantly follows the others over to the hidden door behind the statue. Looking down the narrow passageway, she scowls and softly growls deep in her throat. Tight quarters and no room for maneuvering: the worst possible conditions for a fight.
Rajah moves over to see what it is Bastarger has discovered.
Rhen moves over and joins the others, peering inside, though he will not go in and loot.
Stirgen moves into the hidden alcove and retrieves the bone wand he spotted - holding it up appraisingly. "Strange" calling upon the grace of Shelyn to colour his sight to the auras of the majestic.
Chatterbeak hops excitedly on Kenji's shoulder. Look master. Pretty Wand. I know's it?
Ark! Nope!
Kenji also marks the wand. He searches his memory
Spellcraft is used whenever your knowledge and skill of the technical art of casting a spell or crafting a magic item comes into question. This skill is also used to identify the properties of magic items in your possession through the use of spells such as detect magic and identify.
The rest of you should touch the statue too. I think it cast some kind of good spell on me! Bastarger exclaimed happily, although he saw little behind the door of interest.
The wand emits a faint magical energy.
While the group is searching, you spot 7 silver holy symbols with the same Pharasma icon as is inlaid on the floor in the grand chamber.
The rest of you should touch the statue too. I think it cast some kind of good spell on me! Bastarger exclaimed happily, although he saw little behind the door of interest.
"In my experience, magic one doesn't understand ought not to be relied on. Even if it promises to be beneficial, it is rarely ... innocuous," Lilley advises the gnome, eyeing his reversed physiognomy significantly. She looks at the holy symbols uneasily. "Is this a burial chamber for priests?" she wonders aloud, feeling even more deeply that they ought not be intruding on these dead.
Moving to inspect the holy symbols, "These are fantastic! We should take these and return them to the church. I do believe these would fall under Pharasmin relics as she mentioned. Far too magnificent to be left here to collect dust." He says without ever taking his eyes off of the holy symbols.
The instructions were clear. Gather them.
Kenji looks the statue over but does not touch it. Too risky.
Stirgen puts the wand in his bag for later study and points out another feature "Look there, in the alcove - is it a hidden door?"
There is, indeed, a hidden door at the end of the alcove.
Despite her darkvision, Lilley doesn't see what Stirgen does, but she moves out of the tight corridor so that the dwarf can move forward to inspect the door, if he so wishes.