The mage was pleased his falling stones were in style... (almost went with trying to freeze it!)

Cogwitz looked over to Leisha, she was quite astute to such things, he didn't know that.  He would have to talk with her about the biology of other creatures at some point when they weren't in battle and trying to survive.  I would have to conquer with Leisha.  If you don't want to lose a weapon though I wouldn't hit it with your own.

Having no such expendable weapon with which to smite the ooze, Tesseryn heads for the curtained wall at the far side of the room, giving the ooze a wide berth as he clanks past it on the north side.

"Hit it with the statue..."

As Leisha, Cogwitz and Aurion offer helpful advice, Brindle takes advantage of the cleaner air to regain some dignity.  But being a sturdy soul, he refuses to rest and recover, instead staggering back down the passageway, entering the chamber and blasting the ooze with his magic wand.

Several mystical spheres slam into the creature causing it to twitch and jump alarmingly, rearing back from the meal it was making of the long dead corpse.

Once more Wrukaog turns to his javelins, taking but a short run up to launch one at the ooze.  The throw is alarmingly wild, yet the creature makes no effort to avoid the shaft ... indeed the javelin pierces it through, tearing through its jelly-like form, even as the weapon itself sizzles and burns.  The ooze goes morbidly rigid for a moment ... and then collapses back, shrinking in on itself, life force spent.

Victory is yours !

Indeed, so confident was Tesseryn in the outcome that already he is pressing on, investigating the tapestry at the far end of the chamber.  Close inspection suggests that its ragged edge is due to close contact with the ooze, a contest in which the drapes came off decidedly second best.

None of which matters to the Paladin who casts the rotten black material aside to reveal an oddly shaped chamber beyond, twenty feet wide by thirty feet long with alcoves to the north, west and south, each blessed with a curved back wall and a much desecrated stone statue of Mitra.

OOC: Map of the proceedings and character status thread updated ...

"Whew, I'm glad that worked!" Brindle exclaims when the ooze is defeated.

Looking decidedly happier now he hastens forward to start searching the bodies scattered around the room.

"I wonder who these guys were and why they were here?" he wonders as he starts looking for answers on their corpses.

Tesseryn moves into the newly revealed room and looks around.  He crosses to the western alcove and searches around the statue.

Between Brindle's magic and the javelin, Cogwitz was glad the ooze was gone.  Who knows what kind of damage the thing could have done.

So, what did you find over there Tesseryn?

The feeling of being slightly bummed out is pretty apparent on the orc's face as he stands for a brief while, looking at the sizzling javelin.

After the moment has passed, he retrieves the other stuck in the dead... thing carcass, and makes his way back out into the hallway to retrieve what might be the wisest member of the party, then falls back in line at the rear of the group.


He'll continue to stay near the rear as we progress, and if the halflings split up, he'll continue the plan of staying with the one with fewer escorts.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:46, Fri 09 Dec 2016.

Leisha gives Brindle a startled look.  "That's..."  She shakes her head.  "You've yet to cease to amaze me," she says.  "I hadn't even begun to wonder that, and I wasn't--"  She considers that reminding someone about their recent bout of vomiting while they're still surrounded by what caused it might not be a `friendly act', and smoothly says instead, "--busy finishing off the ooze.  It's a very good question."

Having decided that Brindle's line of investigation is, indeed, more interesting than `why did followers of Set desecrate a bunch of Mitra statues' - which even the old man upstairs could probably answer in only three or four tries - she joins him in it, looking over the bodies carefully for clues.

Seemingly recovered in full, Brindle is indeed much chirpier, much to Leisha's astonishment, and happily pokes about in the unpleasant mess on the floor, which inspires her (or perhaps makes her feel guilty enough) to join in.  There's not enough left of the corpses to glean any clues from the bodies as to how they met their ends, though from what little remains of their garments it seems more likely they were travellers than villagers.

Strangely, underneath all the debris and bits and pieces there's rather a lot of copper pieces scattered over the whole area - certainly more than a thousand coins, most of them quite old.

Unhappy at the loss of one of his weapons, Wrukaog consoles himself by fetching back the silver statue of Mitra before resuming guard over the group.

Cogwitz is happier that the threat the ooze posed is ended, even at the cost of a javelin, and is less interested in trawling through the muck than in what Tesseryn might find ...

The Paladin enters the western room without incident, quickly looking around the three alcoves before settling on the western one.

The statues are similar to the one your Orc carries, save each is depicted with an ornate ring, amulet and belt.  The ring bears an astonishing resemblance to the one that Sir Holomir bestowed upon Tesseryn.  There is a metal box at the feet of the statue to the south, and as the Paladin examines the statue to the west with more care, he notes that it is depicted holding a mace with a stylised lion's head.

Aurion watches from the eastern corridor, on the threshold of the chamber.  Puzzling over the shape of the now revealed room with three alcoves, he pulls the map he found from his pocket, studying it.

"Travellers," Brindle muses. "I wonder how long it would have been before we ended up down here, if we had stayed the night at the inn?"

With nothing else to be learned out here, Brindle moved into the next room to join Tesseryn inspecting the statues.

"That's interesting," he says after a little while. "I wonder whether we should be looking to complete the set of ring, amulet and belt, like these statues all have. Tessy Junior hasn't got them, so maybe we need to kit him out with that set? Might be worth a try, anyhow."

He moves over to look at the box in the southern alcove.

"I wonder what secrets you might hold too?" he wonders aloud.

Tesseryn looks back towards Cogwitz.  "A wondrous boon for the followers of Mitra.  The statues have the power to heal woulds." He holds up his left arm to show that the ghoul bite he suffered earlier is now completely healed; the ring, Mitra's Favour, is worn on that hand.  "Why would people turn their backs on such bounty to go instead preying on travellers?"

He listens with interest to Brindle's speculation but is most distracted by Aurion's unfolding of the map.  "Is this room depicted therein, Aurion?"

Cogwitz entered the area after Tesseryn said what was there.  He cast a minor and easy spell before he did though.

"I believe so," Aurion says in response to Tesseryn's question. "There is a room here with three alcoves, I suspect it is this one." He shows the map to the Paladin.

Tesseryn studies Aurion's map for a moment.  "Ah!  The map would indicate that the Heart of Law may be accessed from the last room.  I walked past there yet saw no such passage.  We shall have to find another way."  He returns to the carrion room to gather up the remains of the travellers, using his shield as a tray for the less intact members, and gently lay them at the feet of the statues in the alcove room.  "Mitra, watch over them until they may be laid to rest."
OOC: Aurion's map is Group A

Musing over the meaning of the ring, amulet and belt motif, Brindle waves everyone away as he carefully examines the metal box that lies at the feet of the statue in the southern alcove.

Meantime, as Tesseryn and Aurion pour over the Elf's map, Cogwitz enters the end chamber, muttering a quick prayer as he looks around. 

Shaking his head at the perfidy of the evil villagers, Tesseryn sets about carefully and kindly gathering up the bones and moldering remains of the dead, laying them at the base of the statues.

Meanwhile, Cogwitz after his spell began could see that the two statues on the north and south were giving off a feint aura of magic.  Tesseryn, as you may already know the north and south statues are magical in nature.  I can feel the tingling just standing in here.

When he had turned to talk to him, Cogwitz also noticed a strong emanation coming from the room they were just in.  Heading back out there Cogwitz noticed that the north wall was radiating magic as well.  Guys, I think this wall may be an illusion.  The thing is radiating magic.  If I can concentrate longer I will be able to discern what type of magic as well.

Aurion attempts to disbelieve the statues...

"That is indeed another discovery of import,Cogwitz.  We shall soon unravel the mysteries of this labyrinth."

Brindle brings the scroll he found over to Aurion and unrolls it to show a similar map to Aurions one. But this version has words written on it too. Lightning and paralysis and fire. And a scrawled word over the top of it all.

"I wonder if that is some sort of passwords? " he speculates.

Ooc: DM can you please add the details for me?

The orc busies himself by dislodging a piece of splintered bird bone with one of his daggers that's been stubbornly stuck between two of his teeth for over a week.

When he's done, he spits the tiny bone and a bit of blood onto the floor next to him.

Tesseryn by now has managed to clear most of the remains of the humanoid corpses from the cesspit that is the larger chamber, and it's getting rather crowded and smelly around the feet of the statues (certainly something causes Aurion to look that way in studied concern), but undoubtedly their ghosts will rest easier.

Setting the noise (particularly the sucking and squelching sounds) from his mind and nostrils, Cogwitz endeavors to subject the north wall of said chamber to ever more rigorous magical perusal. 

The rest of the group congregate around Aurion and Brindle and their map, though Wrukaog might be said to be profoundly disinterested in the scratching upon the parchment only marginally less so than the silver statue of Mitra which he carries.

Those who study the two pieces of parchment, however, may note that the large circular room with two passages leading off that is on the Elf's map is very much the same as the map the Halfling holds that has various marks and words of, assumedly, warning - the single marking in the centre of each corridor is labelled "lightning", the outer circle "paralysis", the inner circle "blindness" and the two in the centre "fire".

Overlaying the markings in a less careful script is one word - "OMPHALOS".

OOC: Map of the proceedings (Group 0) updated ... plus see Map A for Aurion's Map and Map B for Brindle's.

"Bellybutton?" Leisha asks, curiously, looking over Brindle and Aurion's shoulders.  Well, Aurion's shoulders and Brindle's... everything.

"No, probably not.  They could mean the stone.  Possibly it's a key?  If that's the way they mean it, it should be a stone about this big," she holds her hands half a foot apart.  "Just kind of a lump, frankly, that looks like it would fit in a bellybutton, if said bellybutton were," she holds her hands out again, "About this deep.  Hard pressed to call it a `statue', but still, deliberately shaped and maybe decorated."

"Or maybe it is, as you say, just a password.  Passwords are nice and simple, we could try that first and see if Tesseryn gets paralyzed."

Tesseryn washes the grime from his gauntlets using a little water from his water skin then rejoins the others musing over the map.  He nods agreement with Leisha.  "Or the boss at the centre of a round shield."

OOC:  GM, looks like Tesseryn has the large room tidied away nicely, thanks, but I can't access map B.