In the Halls of the Mad Mage (D&D; Undermountain)

[Comrade Tortoise]

Elias turned about, keeping his crossbow out and ready to be loaded, and started for the hallway

[LadyTevar]

"A thought, gentlemen...," Rauri said, looking at the party. "Are we followin' the blood trail down these hidden ways, or back to the main path?"

[Comrade Tortoise]

"back to the main path. If we follow their blood train, we follow them back to their homes, and in our quest to commit gobocide, we will wind up falling victim to their traps, and ambushes from possible reinforcements..." said the gnome, looking back.

"And unlike my taller buy still short, one might say Dwarven compatriot, I do not intentionally blunder into traps in my bloodlust... I keep my bloodlust sane and rational..."

[rhoenix]

Kergan shrugged. "Leave them be for now - we're in their playground, more or less. I'm sure we'll run into them again anyway."

[B4UTRUST]

Etvar nodded his agreement.
"Alright, guess I'm out running trapbait again. We'll move as soon as everyone is ready."

[Rogue 9]

The hallway is empty as before.

[B4UTRUST]

Etvar went into the hallway once more and then started down the corridor the way they had been heading before they uncovered the secret door.

[LadyTevar]

Rauri followed, keeping her axe near to hand. Now that they knew the goblins were in the area, it was best to be ready. "Therin? Kergin? Would ye be watchin' our backs, lest the goblin's take us from behind?"

[rhoenix]

"On it," Kergan said as he nonchalantly waited for the others, while he gave one last once-over to the room. As the others began to file out, he waited with Therin to follow along behind.

[Rogue 9]

A short distance further down the hallway, Etvar came to a set of broad stairs leading downwards. He couldn't see much by the dim light provided by the distant torches of the others, but the short flight of stairs seemed to lead into a large room of some kind, it's nature obscured in the darkness.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Elias followed along in the center of the group, crossbow out, with a bolt held in the hand he used to hold the stock (like holding a 15 inch pencil and a book in the same hand)

"Need some light?" he projected out toward Etvar

[Jason_Firewalker]

"What be the hold up?" Therius was near the middle of the party and was unsure of what to do to get this gang going faster.

[LadyTevar]

"Etvar's found something, and needs some light," Rauri explained to Therin, striking one of her sunrods and giving it a gentle toss down to Etvar so it would hit near enough for him to grab if he wished. Either way, the alchemical flare would give him more light to see by.

[B4UTRUST]

Etvar squinted against the sudden brightness of the sunrod, his eyes having adjusted once more to the darkness of the passageway. At this point he was out in the open no matter what he did so he muttered a curse under his breath, drew up the sunrod and then rolled it down the stairs further into the next chamber so he could see.

[Rogue 9]

The broad steps lead down into an irregularly shaped room filled with a forest of eight thick granite pillars. The vertebrae of some large beast lie scattered about the floor in a haphazard fashion. There are three other sets of broad stairs and exits, one for each compass point. Otherwise, the room appears empty. On the southeastern diagonal wall someone has written "Certain death this way!" with an arrow pointing at the southern exit. On the northwestern diagonal wall someone else has written "Even worse this way!" with an arrow pointing to the northern exit. Unlike in much of the rest of the dungeon, the ceiling in this room appears to be about 12 feet tall.

[B4UTRUST]

(Move Silent)

'Hmmm,' he mused to himself as he snuck further into the room. Keeping to the shadows as much as possible and away from sunrod he slowly made his way around enough to see the writing on the walls. Ominous was the word he was thinking at the moment. So was blatent trap, stupid goblins and opportunity. Several other things came to mind, but were less important then the more prevailant thoughts.

Carefully, he decided to start looking around where he could, looking for signs of the goblin group's passing and possibly more hidden traps or doors.
(search)

[Rogue 9]

As far as Etvar could tell, there was no sign that the goblins had passed through this room. He did notice a small hollow containing the stub of a melted blue candle set into one of the pillars, but other than that, the room was empty except for the pillars and bones.

[B4UTRUST]

Etvar made his way back to the group to report on what he had seen, making sure to mention the candle and the words on the wall.
"So it looks like we've got three choices of directions to take. One that leads to certain death. Another that leads to an even worse certain death and one that looks clear. Which should we take? And any thoughts about the candle?"

[LadyTevar]

Rauri looked to the rest of the party, then back to Etvar. "Well... I'm thinkin' the blue candle tis right odd, but that might be somethin' Elias kin be checkin'. Now, the two warnings... were they in the same hand?"

[Comrade Tortoise]

Elias walked down and headed toward the blue candle

"Probably belonged to the poor unfortunate who was here last, probably died and it burned out.... but lets see"

If it was within his reached, he started looking around it searching for any evidence of levers, or other such interesting things. If it was not within his reach he slumped his shoulders and looked very disgruntled for a few seconds before asking

"Can I get a boost by chance?"

[Rogue 9]

It was not within his reach, being about head height for a human.

The edges of the cavity, like almost every other stone surface in the room were smoothed over, as though they had been subjected to rubbing action for centuries.

[LadyTevar]

Rauri managed not to snicker, but kept a straight face. "Could someone give th' mage a lift ta see...?"

[rhoenix]

This caused Kergan some amusement. "Don't you have a levitation spell or something, Elias?"

With that said, he crouched, and offered his hands to the mage to use as a makeshift stepping stool.

[Comrade Tortoise]

The little wizard climbed up Kergan's hands

"Not yet... I am not yet powerful enough to wrest that spell from the universe"

He peered at the candle

Search:



SHould his search turn nothing mundane, he will cast Detect Magic to check for magical effects. He is in a wizards catacomb afterall

[Rogue 9]

Neither mundane nor magical searching yielded anything apart from the candle. From the placement of the cavity, Elias guessed it had once been a secret compartment set into the pillar, but if that was indeed so, the door had long since been torn away and the edges of the cavity rubbed smooth.