Old-School Essentials: Stonehell

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Egare picks up some of the things that might fit into his pack like the wire, crowbar, and snippers.

Seeing the possible trap making tools he'll prod the floor as he goes about picking up the various tools.
"Never know when it might be useful." He says if anyone asks.
 
OOC Sorry about the lack of reply, it doesn't mean lack of interest. My PC is on the fritz and work has flared up. I will get around to fixing the PC on Sunday.
 
Brock Savage said:
OOC Sorry about the lack of reply, it doesn't mean lack of interest. My PC is on the fritz and work has flared up. I will get around to fixing the PC on Sunday.
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No worries; there are four other players here who can take up any slack in the meantime.
 
Hildegard takes in the details of the room. Particularly she has a look at one of the faces, scanning it for anything odd. She'll suggest heading straight after the others have finished picking up loot.
 
Séadna said:
Particularly she has a look at one of the faces, scanning it for anything odd.
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The oddest thing about the graven face is that the mouth opens to a cavity about the size of a child's fist. However, there is nothing inside it.
 
Copperhand will also take some time looking at the room, keeping a particular lookout for any hidden panels or doors. "Shame to cover up the stonework with this grotequery," he mutters. If he doesn't find anything, he'll go to the opposite door and see if he can discern any details about the way ahead.
 
In the dim light, Copperhand can see that the next room is of similar dimensions, and its walls are also decorated by some kind of elaborate carvings.
 
Hildegard heads back into formation after looking at the faces. "Let's head on..." she turns to Ingri "...keep you eyes peeled friend, I don't trust those Kobolds at all"
 
The party tromps into the next room, carefully watching their backs. The dimensions of this room are identical to the previous one, including the placement of exits. This room doesn't have any tools or other debris lying around, though, and the wall carvings are different. Instead of faces with mouths agape, there are just as many faces with closed mouths and wide oversized staring eyes.

Obvious exits:
  • Back to the room with the open mouth carvings.
  • Forward through the hallway on the other side. It appears to turn left only 10' ahead.
 
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Copperhand submits these carvings to the same examination he gave the previous ones.
Edgewise said:
The dimensions of this room are identical to the previous one, including the placement of exits.
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OOC: Er, where exactly were the exits placed in relation to the room? Apart from being straight across I don't think that was specified.
 
Egare will poke along with his 10' pole trying to work his way over to one of the faces to examine it closer.
 
Simon Hogwood said:
Er, where exactly were the exits placed in relation to the room? Apart from being straight across I don't think that was specified.
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The party entered through a hallway that is in the center of a wall, and this corridor basically continues on the other side of the room. There are no other exits that you can see.
Bunch said:
Egare will poke along with his 10' pole trying to work his way over to one of the faces to examine it closer.
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All the walls are covered with the carvings, so Egare doesn't have to walk far to examine one. However, he also carefully prods the surrounding floor with his wooden pole for the sake of due diligence. The thief detects nothing out of the ordinary.

As for the carvings themselves, each face is roughly human-sized although the eyes are at least twice as wide, while the mouths are tiny creases in the stone. The work is neither crude nor particularly refined.
 
Simon Hogwood said:
Copperhand submits these carvings to the same examination he gave the previous ones.
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OOC: Missed this before.

In addition to Egare's observations, Copperhand is able to determine that the carvings were made by men of the Ultimate Empire.
 
"Last room had faces with open mouths and closed eyes, now it's the other way around. Does that mean anything? Best to keep moving anyway. On and to the left?"
 
Séadna said:
"Last room had faces with open mouths and closed eyes, now it's the other way around. Does that mean anything? Best to keep moving anyway. On and to the left?"
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"Agreed. If these faces mean anything, I doubt it's anything we want to find out."
 
"Yeah, let's keep moving," Tessa says. She was starting to get a little antsy - other than the kobolds, they hadn't really encountered any trouble yet... and that made her nervous. She kept waiting for the other boot, if not the entire boot shop, to drop.
 
The party continues through the door and around the bend. The corridor stretches beyond the range of your flickering torches.

About 30' around the corner, as the party continues down the hallway, the floor suddenly collapses beneath the feet of the van of the group. Copperhand is the one who sprung the trap, so he is unable to stop from tumbling downwards to the hard stone floor below.

OOC: Copperhand takes 5 damage from the 10' fall, landing quite awkwardly.

Those adjacent to Copperhand reel and pitch near the yawning gap.

OOC: Tessa and Bron save vs. paralysis or join Copperhand. Bron gets +2 due to being in the next rank.

With a choked curse, Bellitus stumbles forward and pitches into the pit with Copperhand. She groans in pain from the impact, still alive.

As the dust settles, you realize that the pit spans the entire width of the corridor, and is likewise 10' across to the other side and 10' deep. From the darkness on the other side, hear a brief snickering in distinctly kobold voices. Footsteps then scamper quickly away.

Obvious exits:
  • Back to the room with the graven faces and their staring eyes.
  • Across the pit and continue straight down the hallway; however, you'll have to figure out a way to reach the other edge of the pit.
 
Saving throw vs Paralysis, avoid pit = 14

"Fuck!" exclaims Tessa, a little too loudly, as she teetered on the edge of the pit, before pulling herself back.

Hearing the laughter of the kobolds as she looked down at the injured Copperhand, her anger began to rise. Be a real shame if I had to kill some of those ugly shits before we leave, she thought to herself.
 
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"Real funny guys." Egare projects to the kobolds. "I'm not buying beer for them next time." He says to Tessa while unrolling some of his rope. "We all going in or around on our way forward or going back?" He asks.
 
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"Little bastards! Come on let's you out of there" Hildegard says to Copperhand "Anybody got rope and something to secure it? We can get down, assess Copperhand and then you..." she turns to Egare "...you've been trained in that wall walking or whatever it is thieves of the guilds do. I've seen your sort climb up a mage's tower without a sure grip in sight. You take the rope up the other side and then we can climb out and continue. If Copperhand is well enough"
 
Tessa gets the rope out of her backpack, and hands it to Egare.
 
"Oof," says Copperhand as he picks himself up. "I'll be fine. Lets go get the little bastards, eh?"
 
OOC: Assuming Egare is providing a rope for Copperhand, I need to know what is securing it.
 
Egare looks oddly at Copperhand. "It's not magic." He says showing his rope and 10' pole. He lowers his pack down with the rope before sliding down. He crosses the pit before tying the other end of the rope to his waist. He attempts to polevault up to the ledge on the other side
 
OOC: At a mere 10' depth and no time crunch, Egare is able to safely climb to the other side of the pit without any rolls.

Egare pounds the iron spike into a hairline crack between two of the large stone blocks that comprise the floor. The dull sound of the hammering rings out through the darkened halls. The party is painfully aware of the noise, but fortunately, nothing comes bounding out of the shadows behind Egare.

With the spike securely fastened, the party is able to safely cross to the other side of the pit.

OOC: I assume you are taking the rope with you but leaving the spike behind - let me know if that's not the case.

After walking another 50', another door bound with rusted iron appears on the left wall. The hallway continues straight, extending past the range of your torches.

Obvious exits:
  • Back down the corridor to the pit (and presumably beyond).
  • Left through the door.
  • Forward as the hallway continues.
 
The corridor emerges finally into another room. This one is about 25' square, and the hallway's right-hand wall extends as one of the walls of the room. There are two other open corridors that lead here; one opposite to you and one to the left, both centered on their walls.

The walls and ceiling of this room are riddled with cracks, and some kind of whitish mineral deposit blemishes many surfaces. In the opposite corner of the room is an old wooden bookcase, completely empty with two broken shelves and a cracked top. A couple flecks of color suggest that it was once painted light blue.

Ruul scuffs his boot on the chalky deposits. "This place doesn't seem so bad if we watch out for the pits. The kobolds are just a nuisance."

Obvious exits:
  • Straight through the hallway on the opposite side of the room. It appears to open into another room after about 20'.
  • Left through an open doorway into a corridor that extends about 10' before reaching a four-way intersection.
  • Back down the hall you entered through.
 
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"Well, there have been others here before us - we could hardly expect to stumble over fabulous wealth in the first room we come to."

Assuming he doesn't see anything in this room that merits further investigation, Copperhand will go to the hall on the opposite side of the room to see what he can discern about it and the next room without actually going in.
 
Simon Hogwood said:
Copperhand will go to the hall on the opposite side of the room to see what he can discern about it and the next room without actually going in.
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From here, the dwarf can see that the next room is a little smaller than this one and its left wall is flush with that from the entry corridor. The only distinguishing detail he can make out is that there appear to be square chunks of stone the size of a man's head strewn on the floor.
 
Edgewise said:
Ruul scuffs his boot on the chalky deposits. "This place doesn't seem so bad if we watch out for the pits. The kobolds are just a nuisance."
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Tessa glances at the injured Copperhand, then glares at Ruul. "So you want to take the lead, then? Is that what you're saying?"
 
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"The way I see it, heading on leads in deeper, but if we head to the left we should loop back around to sections we've been to before. Though we might run into the Kobolds and we've little reason to expect them to be friendly since they probably won't expect us to be after that pit trick"
 
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Copperhand nods in agreement. "Indeed, if that fall didn't rattle my underground senses completely, that passage -" he points at the four-way intersection - "should lead straight back to the stairwell we came down, if it goes all the way through."

"I vote we press on this way-" he points towards the short passage he was just looking at- "although I suggest extra caution - something about it makes me think there's another trap."
 
Bron agrees with his companions amd wonders aloud if multiple tribes exist here. "We desperately need someone who can speak Kobold"
 
The party proceeds forward, passing through 10' of hallway to reach another room. The left wall transitions into the left-most wall of the room, and another hallway opens immediately opposite the one by which you enter. The intervening chamber is about 20' across and 30' wide.

At the left-most end of the room is a queer statue; cut from a reddish-brown rock is a crude inhuman figure. Standing on two elephantine legs is a man-sized reptile with four arms and a horned snout. It raises a large stone bowl to the heavens in its two upper arms, its lip just above human eye level.

Obvious exits:
  • Back to the room with the cracks and decrepit bookshelf.
  • Forward through to the hallway on the other side of the room. It makes a right-hand turn only 10' down.
 
Bron peers at the statue from the 2nd rank, trying to make head or tail of it. "Can someone carefully search the statue? I am guessing the locals leave offerings in the bowl."

OOC: If the party pauses to search, Bron will position himself just before the forward hallway along with a torch-bearing merc. They will watch for wandering monsters..
 
Egare says "Curiosity had the better of me." He checks the ceiling before he prods forward checking the floors for pressure plates with his pole moving along the left wall until he's inline with the statue. He then continues to check the floors until he reaches the statue.
 
Brock Savage said:
Bron peers at the statue from the 2nd rank, trying to make head or tail of it.
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From where he stands, Bron can't quite see the inside of the bowl.
Bunch said:
He checks the ceiling before he prods forward checking the floors for pressure plates with his pole moving along the left wall until he's inline with the statue. He then continues to check the floors until he reaches the statue.
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Egare doesn't find any pressure plates. The ceiling feels rough and uneven like a drystone wall. To get to the statue, Egare is forced to pick his way through the rubble of broken stone.
 
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