Barrow of the Forgotten King

[achinca]

The group collects their money and accepts the new job. They go back to the graveyard and reenter the preparation room. Taking extreme precaution, Ryxikor listens to the door on the eastern wall and still hears nothing. He looks and finds no trap and the door is not locked. If it was, he had the set of keys they found on the door of the upper mausoleum.

The door opens to a passage of about 40 feet long. It 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 toward 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. Beyond that archway, grave vaults like those you've seen before occupy all sides of the passage. Many have been opened and apparently looted.

At the end of the hallway is a very old looking door with a special picture on it. Ryxikor inspects the door and finds it not trapped but locked. The lock is of magical nature.

Map:



Picture on the door:

[Caledonian Achilles]

Odlin looks at the graphic depiction of the eye tyrant and shudders slightly as he remembers the lore surrounding such abominations.
"Let not this be a portent of hideous and unbecoming sufferage for before us is a terrible corruption of nature."

He asks his friends to see [without pressing] if the runes are perhaps buttons that will activate the trap/door.

The wizard repeats the puzzle like a mantra, trying to instill sense from it
"Magic dies... fast men slow... the passage you seek is not below. anti-magic and slow magical effects? so i assume we don't press the runes connected to those effects"
the dwarf ponders for a moment
"eye of death... eye of stone... well we don't want the runes for disintegrate and petrification.
fear and mind... mind control? okay not those effects either."
peering closer the wizard continues with the rest of the clues
"friends are shy, sleep in rest... the sleep effect i suppose is another red herring" and then the wizard points to the last piece
"enemy friend... painful wound... that also would be a bad idea"

Straightening up Odlin asks, "so where does that leave us, ummm?"

[achinca]

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OOC: This is my last post until 9/2 come bac kand check then
OOC2: The lock is a magic lock (need a dispell magic or a skillled skill monkey)
OOc3: The inscription and the picture do not open the door. They are hints for after

[Caledonian Achilles]

Odlin admits defeat. The magic of the door is too strong for him to dispell. Instead he looks across at his skill monkey Ryx and enquires with a raised eyebrow

[nodaisho]

The up-til-now quiet ranger asks "Does anyone have a piece of paper, to write down the image and the riddle with?"

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If Ryx can't open the door, maybe we should explore through the door opposite the statue.

[Caledonian Achilles]

The wizard takes a rubbing of the puzzle for later reference. He then turns his attention to the sturue of the lady

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i'm getting mixed up. where is the statue, the archway and the closed stone door. can u provide grid references?

[Ilya]

Stadvas can't be of much use in opening the door, or in solving the riddle, so he just stands by not being of much use in either. Since everyone's attention turns towards the statue, the fighter decides to take a look at it as well.

[Caledonian Achilles]

Odlin looks at his wooden cudgel. A rather simple and blunt instrument when the dwarf has the power to convolute the essence of reality with his arcane mastery.

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GenCon UK 2008: never before have i seen so many morbidly obese bearded geeks in one place. had a great time though and i must admit that i played with both the slim attractive female convention delegates.

[puffthemagicdragon]

Ryxikor stands behind the others, as they contemplate the door before them, running his fingers over the brown wood of the bow he now holds. He wonders who could have owned it before it came into the bone hands of the skeleton they just killed..uh re-killed....whatever, he thinks to himself. As the tunnel becomes quiet, the elf realizes the others have quit talking and are now looking squarely at him. Without hesitation he knows what they want, one of the few things he does well, pick a lock. He looks at the picture on the door wothout a word, remembering back, he knew what this was, he heard stories of the beast when he was young. Ryx had never seen a beholder and never wanted to either, he knew. The elf looks at the dwarf, trying to hide the doubt in his mind as he remembers some of the conversation that was taking place while he was looking at his newly acquired bow, a magickly locked door. The elven rogue places the bow in the corner by the door, and reaches into his belt pouch, withdrawing a soft leather bag. After selecting a couple small items from the bag, Ryx kneels down by the door, feeling as though he is about to start sweating, and starts to try and unlock the obstacle.

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pick lock: 1d20(17)+8=25

[achinca]

Odlin senses that magick is closing this door but must admit defeat as the magick is too powerful for him.
Augustine suggests drawing a picture of the picture and the riddle clues.
Stadvas stands there on guard, knowing that his skills are not that useful in the current situation.
Ryxikor realizes that it is up to him to open that door and uses his tools on it. It is complex magic but spending his time on the door, he understands how the runes are working to keep the door close. Based on his knowledge of magick locks, he figures that although he cannot eliminate the magick, he can disturb it long enough to open the door. He does not know if there will be negative effects on disrupting the magic but he tries anyway. He puts his skillful tools in the proper way to disturb the magic and the stone door opens.

Magical white light suddenly illuminates a wide room that's divided into four distinct areas. Each area is roughly octagonal and roughly the same size. The ceiling in each of these areas is vaulted and about 20 feet high at the apex. A stylized symbol of an eye adorns the center of the tiled floor in the central section of the room. Other areas are tiles with drawing on them but you cannot tell what from your current location. The room reeks of magick.

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OOC: If you want to do some skills rolls, the appropriate are arcana, dungeoneering, architecture or search
OOC2: I will need to know your exact interaction with the various tiles.

[Caledonian Achilles]

Odlin's senses perk up as the tingle of magic tantalises his skin. he feels the energy ahead like an approaching lightning storm and his mind yearns for its mastery.
He steps through the door almost without thinking then realises they had hurry before Ryx's manipulations of the door are reset and dire doom befalls them.

Once inside, the dwarf refrains from going deeper. He scrutinses the floors, walls and celiling and even the air itself to determine the magic within the room

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Odlin will try to use his detect magic cantrip, then his knowledge arcana on the results. he is happy to spend several minutes examining the room. He keeps concentrating on the detect magic until they leave the room or something else makes him stop.

Move to H1, squeezing if necessary

SKILLS:
+8 Concentration (5)
+3 Decipher Script (1)
+7 Know 'arcana' (5)
+5 Know 'the planes' (3)
+4 Know 'religion' (2)
+8 Spellcraft (4, +2synergy)

[Ilya]

Stadvas carefully comes into the room with his flail ready, and he only lowers it when he is certain nothing nasty is waiting for them inside, or at least nothing that is nasty and must be killed. He walks around the eye rune, staying on a safe distance of 5 feet from it, and looks at the runes in the rooms to their right and left, trying to see what is written on them.

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Move over squares G1-E2-E3, then back the same way to H1 to go to the other ones over I1-J2-J3.

[nodaisho]

Augustine sticks close to the entrance, nervous of the potential for traps. His eyes flick about the room, taking in as much as he can.

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spot check (1d20+8=16)

[puffthemagicdragon]

Ryxikor, surprised and delighted he was able to circumvent the magical trap, carefully eases into the room. After a while he moves towards the northern room, standing a safe distance from the tiles with images, the elf scans the netire room, searching for traps or concealed door, anywhere in the walls.

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move to middle of northern room.
search: +7=8, lol that sucked

[puffthemagicdragon]

but hel'll stay in that room and continue to search, i just dont have time for more rolls