Roak, being a halfling, is not excessively bothered by smells, so he starts going through the rags, scrabbling for valuables.

Plathstream listens to this dispassionately. "I would hope that he was transformed into a faerie creature, myself, but I share your concern. We should wash that out," he says, pointing to the wound.

"Never trust a carrion crawler; no siree."  Vsaati grins, pleased at her newfound wisdom.

While distasteful, Roak persists as he sorts through the rags.  While finding nothing in the rags themselves, repeated thumps against the bottom of the coffin yields a hollow sound, despite the fact that the coffin itself seems to be resting directly on the stone floor.

Roak waves over some of the others. "The bottom's hollow. Someone want to open it up?"

Plathstream leans in and, planting his greatsword as a lever, tries to open the wooden bottom of the coffin.

"Drink more water and eat more fiber lad, fixes that problem, and will get things going again." Albricht said sagely to Roak before turning around to realize he was talking about the coffin. The dwarf slip-slapped on his sandaled feet over to where the halfling was rooting around in rat refuse. Wrinkling his nose, Albricht gripped his warhammer... just in case.

Plathstream manages to get the boards in the bottom of the coffin to release and come loose.  Laying in the bottom he finds a set of two platinum circlets with matching linked-gold collars, gold bracelets, and various rings of precious metals.  The two sets seem largely similar, but differ in minor details, and the other items reflect these minor differences.

Plathstream shows these to the others before placing them in his backpack for safe keeping, promising to divide the proceeds from these items among the others. He also proposed that the party examine these items for magical qualities later.

<What do you want to do now, guys?>

I'd quite like to go whereever it was that the Amazons told us to go and sort out those problems.

sounds good to me

Where do we have yet to go on this level? I feel as if we have been everywhere except the trap door in the floor.

"Down, water is down..."

<Plathstream:  The only parts of this level you have not visited are the rooms in the very center, which your map shows are accessed by a secret door on the western edge of level.  The trap door down to the next level is just south of there.>

Plathstream nods. "This way," he says. He leads the party away from this room and toward the spot on the map where the trap door is.

When they arrive there, he points at an apparent blank wall to the north. "Our map says that there is a secret door there, containing halls and rooms we have not checked. I recommend that we investigate there to ensure our backs are covered when we head down."

He listens at the secret door as well.

Silverglade agrees. If the level is almost cleared out then let's finish the job before moving on.

Sherborne nods his approval for the plan.

Vsaati concurs.

Roak agrees and smacks Albricht on the arm. "Guess you'll have to wait to go down, fella."

Plathstream nods, listens at the door and if he hears nothing alarming, opens the secret door.

Plathstream listens carefully at the door, but hears nothing from beyond it.  Opening the door he sees that the floor of this long, narrow room has a red and white checkerboard pattern of 2' x 2' squares on it.  Court scenes are painted on the north and south walls.  In the east wall there is a 2' high opening at floor level near the southeast corner.

Plathstream frowns. He uses his greatsword to put weight on the two closest squares to him before stepping onto them.

Neither of the two squares seem to move or shift in any way, the take Plathstreams' weight without apparent negative effects.  At 20' x 70', there are about 350 of these squares in this room.

<Apparently there is a 1000 post limit in each thread.  I've been warned.  We'll move the action here: Chapter 003 - Pyramid Tier 4 - Part II>