Anthony, desperate, follows Seline as well wordlessly, hoping to find some kind of way out of this mess...

In reply to Seline (msg # 100):

There is a kobold thing actively trying to harvest your organs.  Are you sure you want to ignore it and try out another door?
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:09, Wed 03 May 2017.

Cole tries to push Snarg back, hoping Dreya's added strength will be enough.

In reply to Castle Keeper (msg # 103):

Whilst Seline appreciates her organs she also likes her life and is willing to chance it to rush to the south door

Snarg slashes at Cole with his claws, hitting for 2 points of damage.

Dreya stands up and, with Cole's help, pushes Snarg deeper into the tunnel to the north.  (Save your luck points.  Dreya and Cole are strong enough when combined to force Snarg back.)

The Kobold Thing slashes at Seline with its claws for 4 points of damage.  Seline ignores it and rushes to the south door, taking another swipe to her back from the Kobold Thing for an additional 2 points of damage.

The door to the south opens with a simple turn of the knob.  Seline rushes through into the antechamber you saw from the opposite side when you opened the exterior door of the tomb.  It is about 5 feet across.  Opposite the door you enter are the double doors of the tomb entrance.  The door on the left is open and you can see the cemetery outside.  Jack, Anthony, and Cole all rush in behind Seline.  The last stated action from Elwood was he was following Jack, Seline, and Anthony, so I am assuming Elwood is also exiting through the door to the south.

The party has now been split.  Dreya and Cole are in a tunnel to the north of the crypt with Snarg.  The rest of the party is in the entryway to the tomb with a Kobold Thing behind them.  The ticking is much louder in the entryway.  Unlike the crypt, the ticking sound is not echoing from the walls.  The ticking appears to have a point of origin to the right of the double doors.  There is some sort of device mounted to the wall that could be the source.  Everything is moving quite quickly at this point and none of the southern group has had a chance to inspect the device yet.

Ticketyticketytickety...

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
07:34, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Kobold Thing, rolled 2 using 1d3.  Damage to Seline.
07:34, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Kobold Thing, rolled 22,12 using d20+2,d20+2.  Attack Seline.
07:33, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Kobold Thing, rolled 4 using d3+d3.  Damage to Seline.
07:32, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Kobold thing, rolled 18,16 using d20+2,d20+2.  Attack Seline. (The Kobold Thing should not have received a +2 on this set of attack rolls.  However, the natural rolls without the erroneous bonuses were still high enough to hit.)
07:31, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Snarg, rolled 2 using 1d4+1.  Damage to Cole.
07:31, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Snarg, rolled 6 using 1d20.  Attack Cole.
07:31, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Snarg, rolled 13 using 1d20.  Attack Cole.
07:29, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Monsters, rolled 6 using 1d6.  Initiative.
07:29, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Party, rolled 5 using 1d6.  Initiative.
07:28, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Monsters, rolled 2 using 1d6.  Initiative.
07:27, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Party, rolled 2 using 1d6.  Initiative.
07:27, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Monsters, rolled 6 using 1d6.  Initiative.
07:27, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Party, rolled 6 using 1d6.  Initiative.

---

Dreya will stab Snarg in the face! Or...attempt to anyway.

Anthony shouts, "I could shoot the device with a magic missile! Seline, what do you think?" His eyes are wide as he tries to get his brain wrapped around this profound mess...

In the interests of celebrating the heroic, I'll give some more detail about the device.  It is a knob with an arrow on it.  Various runes and symbols are carved into the wall in a circle around the knob.  The arrow currently points at a rune commonly used to mean "meat".  A quick, frantic look at the other symbols shows most are unrecognizable, although you can see a symbol Anthony and Seline recognize as being a symbol used in mathematical notation (no English translation for this fantasy mathematical symbol exists, but we can call it a faleph if you like) and runes for dog and gold.  There are also numerals for the numbers "1", "2", "3", "5", "7", "11", "13", "17", and "19".  There appear to be approximately 20-30 symbols and runes.

"Quick! Everyone get out of here." Jack yells, motioning toward the exit. "I'll try to disarm this thing...with my Axe!"

Jack prepares to disable the ticking toy the best way he knows how, with a solid blow from his axe.

"'Bow in Awe, Dogs'... Jack, point the arrow to the symbol for dog!"

If he can, Elwood will slam the door, keeping the kobald thing inside the tomb, while Jack, Seline, Anthony, and Elwood are in the antechamber. He'll throw his body into the door to make sure the little maybe dead dragon wannabe can't re-open the door.

If he can't shut the door in time, he'll stand off to one side (opposite side as Jack, so Jack can maneuver) and attack the kobald-thingy with his mace.

"Dreya, leave Snarg for now."  Cole shouts as he grabs at her lunging form from behind.  With any luck he aims to have them both back out standing beside their comrades. Whatever that ticking would finally bring forth, better to face it with the others than to be separated, he concludes.


(Cole will only proceed out toward the others if his check to grab Dreya is successful.  If it fails he will stay by her side.)

Elwood notices Cole and Dreya making towards the exit with the rest of the team and stops his attempt to slam the door shut.  He still will attack the kobaldish thing chasing them.

let's not break it just yet as that might just set the counter to zero" Seline says as she approaches the device and begins to try to turn the knob first to the rune of dog and let it rest there a moment. If the ticking continues in the same manner she would move it from the dog to the highest number possible

In reply to Seline (msg # 114):

The mechanism makes a click when you turn the arrow to the "dog" symbol, but the ticking continues...

In reply to Seline (msg # 114):

Turning the dial so it points to "19" does not have a noticeable effect.  The mechanism does not make a clicking sound like it did when you pointed the dial to the "dog" symbol.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
14:28, Today: Castle Keeper, on behalf of Seline, rolled 19 using 1d30.  DIaling a solution.

---

Snarg and the Kobold Thing slash as Dreya and Elwood, respectively, but their attacks are futile.

Dreya returns the favor by poking her dagger near, but not into, Snarg's snarling face.

Anthony wraps his brain profoundly.

Jack prepares to axe the dial mechanism.

Cole grabs the diminutive druid, tosses her over his shoulder, and runs back into the crypt in order to rejoin the rest of the party.  Snarg howls with rage and despair as his claws scrape harmlessly against Cole's armored back.

Elwood hesitates and hesitates, torn between too many options, but finally settles on swinging his mace down on the Kobold Thing's head.  Sadly, the blow lacks conviction and does not harm the Kobold Thing (head or otherwise).

Seline turns the dial to the "dog" symbol and hears a click from the dial mechanism, but the frenetic ticking continues to speed up.  She tries turning the dial to "19".  No click!  The ticking reaches singularity.  Seline is pretty sure she could have "picked" the dial mechanism if she had had more time to work, but alas!  The ticking becomes a steady tone for a second or so and then darts fly out from the tiny secret doors the party detected in the walls of the crypt.

3 of the darts strike Cole for 3 points of damage.  Dreya does her best to squirm out of the way, but the ranger's grip is like iron.  5 darts thunk into her flesh for 5 points of damage.  The remaining darts clack into the walls of the crypt.  The sound of the darts hitting the floor arrives at the same time the remaining 5 secret doors in the crypt fly open and 5 more Kobold Things lunge into the room.

Cole ran down the west side of the crypt and is now surrounded by 3 of the Kobold Things.  Their claws flash in the light of the glowing orbs.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
17:11, Today: Castle Keeper, on behalf of Cole Hiller, rolled 1 using 1d2.  1 = left, 2 = right.
17:08, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Dart trap, rolled 5 using 1d4+1.  How many hit Dreya?
17:08, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Dart trap, rolled 3 using 1d4.  How many hit Cole?
17:07, Today: Castle Keeper, on behalf of Dreya, rolled 14 using 1d20.  Dex check to dodge darts.
17:06, Today: Castle Keeper, on behalf of Cole Hiller, rolled 13 using 1d20+4.  Dex save to dodge darts.
17:02, Today: Castle Keeper, on behalf of Elwood, rolled 6 using 1d20+2.  Attack Kobold Thing.
17:00, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Snarg, rolled 4,13 using d20+2,d20+2.  Slash at Cole's fleeing back.
16:58, Today: Castle Keeper, on behalf of Dreya, rolled 10 using 1d20.  Attack Dreya.
16:57, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Kobold Thing, rolled 13,11 using d20,d20.  Attack Elwood.
16:56, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Snarg, rolled 7,1 using d20,d20.  Claw Dreya.
16:55, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Monsters, rolled 5 using 1d6.  Initiative.
16:55, Today: Castle Keeper, for the NPC Party, rolled 4 using 1d6.  Initiative.

---

Anthony, beginning to panic, raises his hand and shouts a word of power. His patented bolt of magical energy leaps from his hand to strike one of the kobold-things surrounding Cole.

Cast Magic Missile.

Elwood raises his holy symbol and attempts to turn the kobald things.

"Hey!"  Dreya shouts as she suddenly finds her waist caught in a near painful grip.  A second later, and the rough, dirt walls of the tunnel spin alarmingly.  With an oomph, she lands down over the ranger's shoulder like a sack of grain.  Pushing up, her wide-eyed, bewildered gaze meets the crazed one of the orc she once knew as Snarg for one poignant second, and for a moment she could have sworn she caught a flash of shared bewilderment in those hazy, black eyes.  A split second later, and Snarg was snarling once again like all the enraged beasts of the underworld, swiping out with one hand.

And then she could do nothing but try to hang on as she found herself bouncing on the ranger's broad shoulder as the human started running back out into the tomb with alarming speed.  "Why are we going into the ticking!  We want to stay IN," Dreya rants, gesturing wildly with her one dagger still gripped in one hand in emphasis toward the tunnel entrance growing further away from them, "the tunnel!"

Suddenly, pain flairs through her hip, and the wee druid gives another hearty howl. "Ow!  Did you bite me?"  She smacks her free hand against the ranger's back in retaliation, not seeing the hail of bolts from her dangled position over the ranger's shoulder.  "You bit me!  Let me down, you beast!"

A snarl from her right snags her focus, and she tries to look around toward the source of the sound, blowing strands of her odd, fur-like hair out of her face with upward poofs of air.  Dreya gasps and recoils, or tries to anyway.  "Ack!  A dog thing!  There's a dog thing!"  Dreya shouts in warning for all to hear.  Her gaze flicks from the odd dog thing to the small dagger gripped in her fist and back, the blade seeming pint-sized compared to her comrades swords.

Not having a clue what she should do, frantically she throws her free hand up toward the dog thing growling at her, summoning the will of the natural to cast light up in the dog things face.

Jack lets out a disappointed howl at not being able to disarm the trap. Blood boiling, he quickly scans the room for a more suitable target for his frustrations. Seeing the kobold things released from their doors, the decision is easy. Changing his cry from one of frustration into a more hardened battle cry, he clutches his axe with both hands and moves toward the nearest kobold and starts swinging.

"BOW BEFORE THIS, DOGS!"

Upon reaching the outer sanctum where their comrades are, Cole curses as darts fly at them and pierce his flesh.  Hearing Dreya's cry of pain causes his blood to boil.  Curses!  His hopes of ensuring they weren't separated from their comrades by that mysterious ticking had backfired and now he caused the druid to be injured.  But at the moment he would have to push those thoughts far to the back of his mind as it seems his comrades were being flanked by creatures no better than rabid dogs.  Cole sets the druid down lightly. "Apologies later, Dreya.  Hurry, we need to help the others." Cole whips out Vera and lunges to attack the nearest foe.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:19, Tue 09 May 2017.

In reply to Cole Hiller (msg # 122):

Cole has not reached the "outer sanctum" where the rest of the party is located.  He and Dreya are still inside the crypt when the remaining Kobold Things burst out from the secret doors.  Cole will have to get past the Kobold Things to reach the entryway.

In reply to Castle Keeper (msg # 123):

So how did we get hit with darts if we are not by the others? The darts were only in the tunnel Dreya and Cole were leaving from? If so, wouldnt Snarg be hit with the darts too? Either way, he will still attack the Kobold if he can.

In reply to Cole Hiller (msg # 124):

There are three sections to the tomb.  There is an entryway that is five feet deep that you saw from outside the building when you pushed open one of the double doors.  It had a wooden door opposite the double doors that was shut when you initially opened the tomb.  Dreya d-doored the party to the other side that wooden door.  The party was then in the second section of the tomb: the crypt.  That's where the sarcophagus and all of the secret doors were located.  Cole and Dreya left the crypt and entered a third section: a tunnel to the north.  Dreya opened that secret door and encountered Snarg.  Cole and Dreya forced Snarg back into the tunnel and entered the tunnel themselves.  The rest of the party then opened the wooden door separating the entryway from the crypt and all went into the entryway.  Cole carried Dreya out of the tunnel and back into the crypt.  That's when the trap finally sprung.  Darts flew out of the crypt walls, in some cases hitting either Cole or Dreya.  You don't know whether Snarg was hit since you are facing away from the tunnel.  However, Snarg was still inside the tunnel the last you saw him.  The rest of the party was safe in the entryway because the darts only fired through the crypt.  5 more secret doors opened in the crypt immediately after the darts fired revealing 5 more Kobold Things.  3 of the Kobold Things surround Cole and Dreya.  The other two new Kobold Things are on the other side of the sarcophagus.  The first Kobold Thing that was released a few rounds ago has followed the party into the entryway and is attacking Elwood.

Seline would step to the door way and try to cast colorspray before Jack or any other Party member entered the crypt