Shieldmeet - Flamerule 32nd

No problem. It only takes Umberto five to ten minutes to get the girl back to those who escorted you to the cemetary fence. Cato is eager for an update and they all seemed quite troubled that graverobbers appear to have ransacked portions of the tomb.

"You must proceed through the tomb and get to the bottom of this. Wageton will not be safe until they are eradicated" says the distraught councilman.

Umberto catches up to the rest of the group where he left them, staring at the door leading to the next room.

Let us proceed!

Aye!

This passage has the statue of a human woman set in a niche on the northern wall. She is dressed in robes, and her arms and face are held upward as if to the sky. On either side of her, fountains gurgle with what appears to be fresh water. The passage smells like rain.

Directly across the hall from the statue is a closed stone door, and farther down the passage is an archway on the northern wall that descends to another door. Beyond the archway, grave vaults like those you've seen before occupy all sides of the passage. Many have been opend and apparently looted.



Mini-Map

Althalus will keep a watchful eye on the door at H3/4

Noted! That was the door you all just came through, I should have drawn this a little better with part of the last room still on this current map.

What's next?

"Does anyone recognize that statue? Is it a goddess?" After anyone responds Umberto points to the gurgling fountains, "I am guessing this water is putrid, why would there be fountains in a vault, maybe we should take a sample of the water?" The monk then moves cautiously to H10 and peers around the corner, checking the stairs.

Everyone takes a good look at the statue but no one recognizes it as being a deity, or even significant. "Probably just a generic statue" guesses Vadania.

Tatyl takes a look at the water as she casts detect magic. “I see a faint aura of magic on the fountains…some sort of conjuration magic.” She carefully dips her finger in the water and puts it to her lips, “Fresh water, and clean.”

Umberto ducks his head around the corner seeing nothing but a set of stairs descending to a door.

Kelser points out the door on the south wall, calling them strange symbols.

Tatyl smirks, “Looks like writing on the door. Two names, Verduun and Gola Mikolos, anyone recognize these names?”

Everyone shakes their heads no.

Well, lets start with the door near Alth, everyone ready?

The door near Althalus is the one you just came in. Hmm, seems like just a few posts ago I wrote something to that effect...

Quote :

That was the door you all just came through, I should have drawn this a little better with part of the last room still on this current map.

Kregnok will check the statue and fountains.
(knowledge: religion?)

No I am an idiot, I meant I8, oops!

There seems to be no religious significance to the statue and fountains.

Everyone moves into position and Umberto opens the southern door. Three steps lead down into what must be a private vault. To the east stands the statue of a man in robes, his eyes downcast. His marble hands hold an open stone book. Two plain sarcophagi are also here, their lids sealed. A thin layer of dust covers everything.

"We must be careful of deadly mold that often settles in tombs, Vadania, please hand the torch." Umberto places the torch near the thin dust covering the stone book. If the there is no perceptible reaction, the monk will carefully try to read the book.

I see that someone has passed Dungeoneering 101, nice job Lou!

You move over to the book that the statue holds, but are disappointed to see that it is just a part of the statue and is completely blank. You get the idea that the people buried here were probably wizards.

I fear I am also an idiot, having missed virtually every post on this page prior to my last post about the statue.

*ahem*

Kregnok will attend to the stone work with a dwarf's eye as we move through the tomb, in the hopes of observing faulty masonry that may prove dangerous.

Sounds good Kregnok. So, what we doing now?

Give a search of the room, not disturbing the sealed sarcofagus. THen moving on if nothing proves interesting.

You find nothing of interest in this room. What's next?

To the stairs!

You line up and head down the stairs to the door at the end. The color of the stone here is a darker grey, and the shape of the blocks making up the walls changes. Two small staircases descend to a stone door that has a strange image engraved on it.

Kregnok takes a closer look at the darker grey stone and runs his hand over it, “Ah, now this is dwarven. Carved with much more care than the rest of the tomb. And much older than the rest."

Umberto takes a look at the door, “Hmm, what a weird thing to have on a door, a meaningless decorative image.”

The rest of you give the monk a strange look.

“What?” asks Umberto, “am I not seeing something?”

“Obviously not, you daft monk!” Kregnok goes on to explain what the symbol looks like to everyone else.

Kregnok will address the group:

Hrm. This is troublesome indeed. This image represents a beholder; a fat ugly floating sack of eyeballs that tend to prowl the underdark, and occasionally wander into dwarven halls. The trouble with beholders, is they're truely magical beings. Each of their eyes can produce some nasty effect, like slowing someone down, or turnin' them to stone. Now, I don't necessarily think there's a beholder in the next room, but I definitely think this is a riddle, and probably one with some nasty consequences to it. I have a feeling that each of the circles is a switch or button, and pressing the wrong one will earn ya the effect as described below.

Now, the trouble is... I'm not very good with riddles...

Well it would seem that the little pictures might correspond to the vaults. That much I am assuming.

Aye that seems a good guess. Tatyl? what can ye make of this?

Tatyl smiles slightly, happy to be included. She leans in to take a good look at the door.

"Perhaps it is a clue for what lies on the other side of the door."