Adam finishes off the last Kruthik with a reaping strike.

"Nice work everyone," he commends, "Here's hoping things don't get any worse further inside...  But I suppose we already know that won't be the case."

On the bright side they're just bugs, Lucky considers, Haven't had to kill people or fight undead yet.

Mittens hums a soothing tune while she investigates the bloodstained leather bag Adam noticed earlier.  In it she finds a damaged journal and an ancient key to the eastern doors.  The pages of this book are stained and cut.  The few that are scribed bear Common script.

"The writer was a member of the Kech Volaar-the Wordbearers of Darguun," Mittens says after few minutes minutes studying the journal, "I recognize that crest.  The goblins came here seeking "Ashurta's Tomb" and "the Blade."  The journal also mentions something about a key to the tomb's entry doors.  There's a piece of leather in the journal..."

She shows it to the others.  It has symbols on it that appear to be an open right hand over a down-turned triangle.

"So.  The goblins weren't down here as pest control.  They had something else in mind."

(( Adam spends a healing surge to regain full HP ))
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:23, Wed 16 Feb 2011.

  Matt eyes the symbol, then says "Well then... I have no idea what all that is supposed to mean.  Beyond the obvious Keys go in locks thing or 'Goblins want to loot something'."

  Matt doesn't trust in Mitten's to be able to elaborate because of Exposition powers.  He has such expectations because she's a Bard and good at that kind of thing even in the normal sense.  Matt hasn't read her character sheet and realized Mitten's bard has training in exactly zero knowledge skills outside of freebie Arcana.  He just expects all those bardic stories to involve backup in trivia knowhow.

  He turns to Carla and asks "So, do things always explode when you talk?  If so I can see why you would prefer not to in casual conversation."

OOC Style:  Short rest to regain Encs, but not healing up yet. (Just 4 HP? Not worth it).

Matt HP: 42/46 S 10/10 V 11

In response to Matt, Carla waves her hand a little as if to say "sort of". The little cherub wanders over to group now that the fight is over.

Maverick is annoyed with himself that he isn't managing to keep all these foreign names of groups and gods straight. Thankfully, Mittens decided to translate for herself. "Whatever they were here for was likely evil. So let's make sure we don't awaken any evil while we're down here."

Angel goes to check on the injured. This means Matt. Adam healed up. "You sure you're gonna be OK, Matt?" she asks nice and quiet so as not to draw attention.

  Matt nods to Angel, "I've had worse whacking myself in the forge.  As it is now treating this like I have past scrapes would be wasteful."  He smiles, glad to be seeing the 'concerned but doesn't want anyone to know' Angel again instead of the 'Slavery and dismemberment for fun and profit' one.

  "Thanks for checking though.  I've got a bizarre feeling that I'm not getting hurt enough for keeping the rest of you safe.  But I can only be in one place at once... And Adam is often waaaaay on the other end of where that can be.  He seems to be handling that much better though."  Seriously, completely surrounded by minions and more, Adam comes out pretty good.  Compare 'Adam Vs. Two Enemies. BLARG' in past encounters.

Mittens uses the key on the iron doors to the east, and it works!  The doors unlock and open, revealing a dark hall beyond.

"Boy those bugs sure do stink of salad dressing when they die," she says, "Don't be in too much a hurry to get chomped, slammer.  I'm sure there'll be plenty opportunity for that soon enough."

She doesn't bother with a torch and simply walks down the hallway.

"Your sentiment is appreciated, though, Matt," Adam thanks, following Mittens a short way but moving a little quicker to get ahead of her and take the lead, "A willingness to suffer in place of others is a sign of a high heroism.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm feeling ill at ease about the nature of this mission.  Olaakki made no mention of the goblin group seeking a blade.  Maverick voiced what I was thinking."

Lucky follows along at his regular pace.  Probably some evil relic that takes over your mind and makes you slaughter people and collect their skulls as a hobby, he surmises, Whatever you do, do not loot anything!

Adam nods.

"Lucky's thinking evil magic item.  Please no touching of treasure we might find.  Especially blades."

Angel really does want to kiss Matt at this point. As Adam pointed out, the guy is made of hero. Her blush is showing as she smiles at him endearingly. But she decides not to kiss. She doesn't want Adam to feel left out anyways and she is much to methodical and planning to allow herself something that sudden. She'll find a better way to figure which guy she wants and how she will get said guy. "And this, Matt, is why I like you." she says. "Had a feeling you were like this deep down, even if all you had to deal with before this mess were town jerks who wanted more than their share."

Carla does not have the same reservations as Angel. She knows her size and appearance will keep any guy from ever giving her any chance at romance. So she beckons to Matt and Adam. Should either come down to her level as indicated, Carla will kiss them on the cheek. They rushed into danger and sustained injuries.

Maverick agrees with Adam/Lucky and follows Mittens. Of course, Angel and Carla will stay with the group as well.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:42, Fri 18 Feb 2011.

  Matt shrugs, "Well to be fair, almost anything is more dangerous than someone threatening to cut you... For not giving them a knife with which to cut you with before they pay for it."  Also up there, 'Give me crossbow bolts or I'll shoot' said with empty crossbow.

  Matt doesn't comment on Adam's assurances, because he's still rather certain 'hey, stab Meeeeee!' is more a sign of idiocy than heroism... Even if he keeps doing that sort of thing regardless of this opinion.

  When Carla beckons him over, he thusly heads over and is further thusly check kissed.  Light blushing ensues.

OOC Style: Thusly.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:54, Fri 18 Feb 2011.

Adam too falls for the cheek-kiss trap and gives a heroic chuckle in reply.  To Matt's commentary, he facepalms, embarrassed to be a member of humanity.

The tunnel becomes slightly warmer as you reach another set of
iron double doors. A hole that cuts partway into the upper northern
corner of the door frame reveals flickering red light coming
from within the chamber ahead.

Perception Check
DC 5: The hole is part of a kruthik tunnel.
DC 8: From somewhere in the distance, a grinding sound of
stone on stone can be heard.

When the PCs can see into the area, read:
Contained in shallow floor indentations, three braziers dance
with red fire in this room. One stands in each of the northern
corners, at the ends of a row of alcoves along that wall. A stylized
fiendish figure with gleaming eyes holds a brazier in the
southern wall, and similar alcoves flank it. The central part of
this chamber is lower than the area around it, with squat stairs
descending to it in all directions. Broad plates scribed with runic
words are set into the center of the depression, forming a square
containing four rows of four plates. Statues of fierce goblin warriors
flank the short staircases on the east and west. Closed iron
doors stand in the far wall.
Perception Check
DC 8: A kruthik tunnel comes up throuBh the floor in the
southwest corner of this room.

THE PUZZLE
Runes in Common spell out words on each plate. The map
shows the first letter of each word. Reading from west to
east and north to south, the words are as follows:

East North South Open
Door Fire Right Hell
Rage Hand Release Unlock
Up Left Down Today

A PC who stands on a plate can use a minor action to push
that plate down.

Devil Statue: This 10-foot-tall statue (Athletics DC 12
to climb) depicts a fiendish creature bound to service. Its
northernmost 2 squares are a flaming brazier.
Two large, polished red garnet gems (150 gp each)
cause the statue's eyes to gleam in the light. A successful
DC 15 Arcana check reveals that removing tJle eyes is
dangerous.

Adam and Lucky move cautiously into the room.  "Remember what I said about dangerous evil magic items?" he says, "That applies to dangerous evil magic trap tiles and gem eyes."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:31, Sat 19 Feb 2011.

If allowed, Mittens would counter Carla's cheek kissing with a cheek kiss to the little one!  When she arrives in fiendish passage, she stares for a few seconds at the statue, bow at the ready.

"I don't think anyone in our group is a kleptomaniac," she says, "Which is good because you guessed right.  Tampering with the gems is dangerous."

Like Carla would forbid a kiss. Heck, she would allow anyone in this group to kiss her on the lips without much fuss. So when Mitts kisses her, Carla smiles, pushing her cheek up into Mittens.

In the new room with the devilish statue, Carla looks around, looks lightly bothered by the statue, then nods to what Adam and Mittens say. She listens and hears the scratching. Then goes to examine the floor buttons. Carla sits on the steps and looks at the others, curious to see what they will do or say.

Angel ponders as they enter. When Mittens points out about the gems, Angel chuckles. "Nothing says "doom" like stealing gemstone eyes from a devil statue. The gems are probably infused with evil as it is..." she glances at Carla. "Are they?"

Carla just nods.

Angel nods back. "Figured. Right, so... a puzzle. Any insights on the puzzle before we screw it up, Mittens?" May as well ask the resident prophet-bard just in case.

Maverick is examining the gem-eyes even as Adam speaks up and Mittens confirms. He looks over at them. "...." yep. Mav doesn't say anything. Gasp. Say it ain't so. Though he is thinking about how Adam already said "no looting".

Maverick then goes to look at the puzzle, doing like Carla and sticking to the steps so as not to push any buttons yet.

  Matt says "Like Mittens said, I don't think any of us are cliche greed over sense rogues fortunately."  We would have a scene cut to Joe Darkthorne where he says 'No, I'm not that stupid either', but he's a Ranger.

  "So the yet more bug tunnels are obvious, but I'm not sure what the deal with the stone grinding sounds are yet."  He joins in the popular look but don't touch antics with the plates.  "This is probably going to suck...  Is the west plate saying 'hint, this one opens stuff' or saying 'you need to do everything else before this will open stuff'. Or what.  Considering the West one mentions Hell, starting with the west plate isn't something I'll do without warning you first."

  OOC Style: So, plate orientation in order of listing would be,
West (open)
East (Hell)
North (unlock)
South (today)
  Right?
This message was last edited by the player at 10:48, Sat 19 Feb 2011.

"Well one clue is that this is the first thing we've found written in actual Common," she points out, "So I'm guessing this is more a test for visitors than unavoidable doom.  Hell does seem like an obvious choice to avoid, yes.  "Open" and "Door" could be good or bad depending on what's behind the door.  The demon could be a warning, or something the goblins respected.  Presumably they respect clever people who can figure out vague puzzles.  Most of the four word phrases made by reading across, down, or diagonal make no sense.  Except maybe 'Open Right Hand Up.'"

She opens her right hand and holds it up.  Nothing happens.  She inspects the statues.

"No apparent means of opening the hands of any of the statues."

(( OOC Map updated.  Was hoping to avoid effort.
http://img.photobucket.com/alb.../fiendishpassage.png
Apparently common looks nothing like English.  Go fig. ))

"An open hand," Adam echos, "Let me see that leather thing again."

Mits hands it over.

"Hmm."

Lucky stays attentive, expecting kruthik ambush or suddenly animated statues.

(( I'm not especially fond of solving riddles and puzzles.  As is always the case, it seems easy if you know the answer.  Well I can tell you I'd have never guessed this one with the given clues.

http://img.photobucket.com/alb...l/crypticleather.png ))

Carla considers Up, Down, Left, Right, Open, Hand + Release. Then Adam asks for the leather thingy. Open Right Hand Up! Right! She watches Adam and then thinks about other possible clues.

East North South Open
Door Fire Right Hell
Rage Hand Release Unlock
Up Left Down Today

Carla looks at her own right hand, closing and opening it with a thoughtful expression. She thinks the East Fire Release Today makes some sense. She goes over to the eastern brazier and checks it for any hand design. Even if it's hidden in the back of it instead of immediately obvious.

Carla finds no such clue.  No matter how many times she rolls a crit on a perc check.

"Thanks, Mittens." Angel says in response to the clue-spouting bard. "Adam seems to be on to something by asking for the leather open-hand symbol." she smiles. She likes the fact the musclebound prince is smarter than the stereotyped body builder. "My only worry is that the kruthiks will come in here and ruin the puzzle before we can even solve it. They already kinda messed things up by killing the goblins... not that the goblins would have helped us willingly, but we might have been able to have Maverick spy on them or something."

She sits on the steps also, leaning her right elbow on her right knee so as to lean her head on her fist.

Maverick considers the options. Do not steal gems. Do not set yourself on fire. Do not step on tiles prematurely. Open hand. Leather thingy with hand design. Dead goblins. He's relatively sure the puzzle is it and that there are no hidden clues. But he's having a hard time figuring out the puzzle, so he figures he'll search the room for anything else. Who knows... might find clues on what is going on rather than the puzzle.

Passive perc is 18

Eastern Double Doors: This exit is closed but unlocked
A PC who actively searches the doors while
they're open can make a DC 8 Perception check to see that
the hinges on each door are connected to rods embedded
in the wall and that the rods can be pulled out of the wall,
slamming the doors and keeping them shut.

Admiral Akbar need not say that devices for slamming doors shut is probably part of a trap.  Also, Maverick notices that the grinding stone sound is coming from the room to the east of these doors.

  Matt looks over to Mittens and says "Mitten's The demony statue's hand already is open.  Though it's the left hand, which a right hand would match up on...  It's got a fire going, and it's to the east... Which is also the same side the grindy noise is coming from."  After a quiet moment, Matt says "I'm going to try pressing the leather symbol, then my own hand against the statues.  Unless someone else want's to try instead."


OOC Style: Man, I was WAY off for the tiles arrangement.  I might have thought about the leather symbol more readily if it wasn't brought up a few days ago <.<

  Also just double checked text compared to picture.  No mention of the demony statures hand position.  Important detail omitted? Or my just reading too much into things. We'll find out.

None of Matts allies object to his attempt, so the attempt is made.  Nada.  Nothing happens.  Adam is at a complete loss for offering any useful advice.

"Maybe if we had an expert trap builder in the group, we could ask them to just disassemble the thing..." Adam suggests, "Unless it's super rigged against tampering.  Like the gems apparently are."

Maybe if you'd paid more attention in school rather than run off to go work out you might have a clue on this puzzle, Lucky thinks chastisingly.

"They didn't cover solving ancient goblin puzzles in school, Lucky," Adam answers with a sigh.