Slice of Glaive

We descend the passage. At the bottom, we turn to look up at the rungs leading to the door and debate the possibility of booby-trapping or otherwise locking the door. We decide to throw the “secret” lever and both Perrol and I lay a strand of hair to tell later if anyone passes this way. We head down the stairs, around a corner, down the stairs, around a corner, then Ghoral whispers that he hears giggling, leaves rustling, and birds chirping. He then whispers back that in the upcoming room, he sees copper faces in the wall. He is about to head into the room when Perrol from behind whispers that Ghoral, with his dark light vision should come back and look at the corner. I go over there to examine the tilted wall sconce that Perrol/Ghoral saw. In the dark, I can only tell that there appears to be a trigger whether I turn the sconce to the left or the right. I need more light to be able to really test out this mechanism, so we decide to light a hooded lantern to be able to see. Upon further examination in the light, I determine that counter-clockwise rotation causes the floor to tilt backwards as if to drop us into a pit and that clockwise likely opens the secret door. I’m correct. Perrol, with the lantern, goes through the door and starts to examine the 10′x20′ room. When he reaches the end, the floor opens up and he plunges into a pit.

Segment 12
I move forward slightly to toss a rope into the pit. The others then proceed to pull Perrol out of the pit. There is a black slime that follows him out of the pit.

Segment 3
I make a half-move retreat and hold the rest of my actions until I need to use it. Ghoral does a similar thing from what I can tell.

Segment4
Perrol get up from being prone and also retreats into the hall. Kross leaps in front of me so that he can try and turn it. Nothing happens. Perrol tells me that Kross didn’t turn it enough. I reach over and complete the rotation of the sconce into the correct position. Just before the door closes, the slime reared up. We hear it sucking against the door for a while.

End Combat

We continue on into the next room. There are copper masks on the wall. The giggling stops and the one on the far end starts to talk in what sounds like it might be Ghoralzad. Perrol translates it as, “Welcome to Jidazrune. Behold the wonder! But beware, ye who seek to plunder. Traps abound and guardians peer,
Beyond every corner, behind every gear.” All of the doors that we see appear to be in the shape of gears. The roll to the side instead of opening outward. They do not have a wheel to turn but a hole that might be for a key in the center. One of the two doors, which Ghoral has mentioned are labeled with the letters A and J, is wedged ajar with a rock. Peering through the door, there are ruins, gnome-sized cots and chests, a gold tipped rod, etc. We are debating what to do about these doors. We hold off for the moment. As we continue on and explore more, we learn that each door has a letter with it. We assume they spell Jidazrune. There also appears to be magic at the doors; however, Perrol remembers that gnomes are very good at making magical items look mundane and visa versa. We continue on. We have to jump a trap. It is decided that I’m going to try and pick the lock of the Z door that we’re going to try and open. Ghoral could force it open, but that might put him in danger. My great knowledge of security systems allows me to glean that if I fail to pick this lock, I risk a deadly magical attack. I go ahead and succeed. The door unlocks and I go to open it, only to realize that the trap is still active. It is triggered by mechanisms farther in the lock. I cannot let go of the door because then it will likely relock. I cannot continue to open the door because that will trigger the trap. Ghoral switches out for me so that I can try the other door. The E door is more difficult for me to unlock. When I do manage it, I realize that this door is also trapped. This trap has a sulfurous burnt smell. I have to either hold it door open or let it close and relock. Suddenly it occurs to me that certain traps cannot be disarmed by mundane means. They require either a dispel magic or a key inserted in to temporarily suspend the magic. I think that perhaps we need the gold-tipped rod we saw in the half-open room. We let the doors snick shut and return to that area. Once we head on back, Ghoral enters the half-open room and picks up the rod. When hell doesn’t break loose, we join him in the room and start to look around. Perrol cries out startled that two of the piles of rubble are now gone. They could have been the same creatures as the one on the trap spikes. Also, from where they were placed, it appears as though they had planned an ambush if we’d tried to get the rod the first time we were here. Unfortunately, this rod is too big to fit into the keyholes and be used to disarm traps. Perrol hears a very faint snoring from inside the tunnels that branch off at the end of the room. We decide to try using the tunnels as passage rather than brave the doors. We reach the large room on the end of the tunnel. We all move in. Perrol notices that there is a pillar that is darkened and lumpy up to the approximate height of a small humanoid creature. He is going to poke it with his rapier.

End of the night.

We head back to the inn and go to bed. I’m woken up by Ghoral screaming bloody murder.

Segment 12
As I look around I see the same spectral creature with a scythe leaning over a very woozy Ghoral.

Segment 3
I pop upright thanks to my new ring of feather falling and draw my weapon. I use a half move to get next to Ghoral to attack the Spectre with my stiletto.
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 8 for 3 damage
It makes a sort of growling noise and looks back at me.

Segment 4
Perrol gets up and sort of stares at the Spectre. It ignores him. Jarlyn then holds up his holy symbol and says, “Begone Foul Spirit!” The expanding glow of white light coming from Jarlyn is met and slowed slightly by a sphere of red light coming from the Spectre. It does impact, but the spectral creature only flinches a bit. Kross gets himself ready.

Segment 6
Darkness falls. I hear a commotion but am unsure what happened. I take time to perceive him, only to realize that he hasn’t moved and I can attack.
Attack=Orunatiya with DCV 8 for 4 damage
Ghoral, who has finally recovered enough, bludgeons it with the back of his Cat Lady’s Claw and it fades away to nothing. The scythe remains on the ground.

End Combat

We pack up in preparation for our trip down into the gnome city. Additionally, we pay up our bill and agree to terms for stabling our horses. As we head out and down the road we see someone on the roof of a building up ahead. Perrol signals to us that he sees the outline of a crossbow with the person. Kross signals that he’s going around and up the back. After a couple of minutes of putzing around, we continue down the road. In just a little bit, Kross tosses down the crossbow and comes around the corner with the would be assassin over his shoulder. After a thorough search, we find that he is a member of the Red Dagger. We head over to the local constabulary to drop him off. At the guard post we are met by a rather astounding fellow. After bonking our heads against his seemingly impossible demeanor, we realize that he carries no weapon and is a few cards short of a full deck. He goes to get his superior who understands that this was a failed assassination attempt and that he should take custody of the man.

We arrive at the temple of Hospin and speak with Helen Gaius. She is kind enough to give us some anti-curse potions that had been slated for the Regent Mother but that could not be used on her due to their magic nature. We give her our thanks and Jarlyn makes sure to tithe appropriately. We stop by ‘Bob’ and ‘Chad’s property and do not find them. So, then it is time to get to the entrance to the Undercity.

When we arrive at the entrance of the Undercity and see it surrounded by palace guard. The assortment of magi, priests and guards say that they are just about ready for us. We enter the building and see five weeks worth of rations, a stack of books (a primer on Under Common, one of Dark Dwarfish dialects) and a red flag to raise when we come back up. When we reemerge, we are to be quarantined for 20 days. They have also provided us with replacement quarrels, arrows, throwing daggers, lock-picking tools, directional lanterns, and paramedic kits.

We head in and they raise the barrier after us.