As soon as Borin quieted down, Laerwen moved up to the crack between the door and the doorframe and carefully listened.

Khidrath spoke up as Borin asked about traps, "I can check, but after slipping the one on the door, I doubt there'll be anything just inside."

The dwarven warrior didn't hear anything as he stood at the doorway, but Laerwen heard an occasional 'tick' sound as though a small stone was falling on a stone surface.

Since it seemed innocuous enough, the door was pushed open a bit more, and in the light that spilled in from your room, you saw a room about 40 square.  Stone coffins lined both the left and right walls, and the floors were scribed with runes and other arcane markings, though you couldn't get much sense from them at this distance and angle.

Whatever was making the 'tick' sounds seemed to be somewhere out of sight and off to the left.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:56, Fri 25 Jan 2008.

Rothilio 'slips' through the doorway with a Clank and Thud when his armor bounces off the door frame.  He sweeps the door all the way open, and turns to the left, looking for the source of the sound.

Borin not letting Rothilio enter alone, follows in and covers his flank with shield poised in one hand and waraxe in the other.

With the door open fully, you could see, to the left, a stone font, much like some faiths used for baptising their faithful.  The top to the font lay on the floor, propped against the font's base.  The curling inscriptions that wove across much of the floor continued in a narrow arm that wrapped around the base of the font.

The 'tick' sound that you heard came from small, round stones that fell into the font from a spout above it from time to time, just a couple of seconds apart.  A small mound of them stood in the basin of the font, but the font wasn't close to overflowing, so apparently they were going somewhere else as well.

Rothilio walks around the fountain, admiring it's design.  Some kind of time keeper, maybe?

"Could be, could be..." Borin says as he moves over guarding Rothilio's back. "I wonder where they are going too? If they all remained in this room, it would be full by now."

Laerwen slowly walked around, studying the room, but had little to say and nothing useful to contribute.

*tick*
   *tick*
      *tick*

One by one, the small stones fell.  Nothing seemed to be happening, and the basin didn't appear to be getting any fuller... or any emptier for that matter.

Borin looks to see if he can read the script. "'Er, Wut iz dis?" Then he glances around the rest of the room. Looking for any movement first. And then any openings or other doors.

Noting with curiousity that the basin appeared to not grow more full nor more empty, Laerwen moved forward to examine it, wondering if it perhaps had any religious significance.

Rothilio stares at the device for a few more minutes, then follows Laewen's lead to examine it closer.  I wonder what happens if we start taking the stones out? he asks with a bit of a mischievous grin.

Khidrath started examining the odd "time keeper" device, almost certain it had to do something "Perhaps it is counting down to something? Perhaps we should try grab one of the stones or stop them?" his head was full of questions and there where few answer, he continued as he walked over to the runes and started examining them closely "I bet the runes says what the stones are doing or something" he mused out loud.

Laerwen didn't find anything that held meaning for her.

Borin looked around, but didn't see any signs of movement or other visible doors.

Khidrath had a little better luck with his own searches though.  He found that the first two coffins inside the doorway (one on the left, and one on the right) didn't seem to have movable lids like the others.  Instead, they seemed to have panels on the ends that looked like they'd push away from the rest of the coffins.

Also, at the back wall, he found a rectangle of lines that framed some sort of secret door.  Last, standing near the door he smelled a faint scent that he thought might be blood.

Llumath looks up from the fountain when Khidrath exams the door.  Find something a little more exciting? he asks.

"Der iz nuffin else in here living but us and no obvious doors." Borin grunts. He looks up and then in the direction that Rothilio is looking and ask, "Wut iz it? Yer ok?"

Laerwen continued to stare curiously at the strange basin.  It was relaxing to watch, but her mind was awhirl as she tried to determine the significance of such a thing.  It was very interesting, to say the least.

OOC: Khidrath NPC'd by DM Jim
Khidrath glanced back at the dwarves, "Some sort of secret door here, but I can't find any way to release it... I'm not sure we should open it anyway... smells like fresh blood.

"A door ye say," Borin says moving toward it. He examines it looking at the rock and starting with what he knows. He shall look for a way to open it, yet will not do so until he teels the others. "Blood no longer smells after time. I mean der could be so much gore it would take a while for the stench to go away.... but I be sure that is not the case. Maybe just a trap that someone got crushed in."

Rothilio follows Borin to the door.  Or righteous explorer, injured and in need of aid.  He runs his fingers over the door seam, but shrugs.  My fingers weren't made for this kind of thing.  Does anyone know how to open it?

At the mention of fresh blood, a concerned Laerwen moved over to the men and knelt down to examine the blood, trying to determine just how fresh it was and how much of it was on the floor.

I have no idea if this even had a slight chance of working or not, but I figured it was worth a shot.  Unfortunately, I rolled my fourth one of the entire day (out of only six rolls).  So, well, I guess nevermind.  :p
22:06, Today: Laerwen rolled 8 using 1d20+7. Heal check.

Elodeir could only shrug when asked if anyone knew how to open the secret door.  Unless it would open when burned, which he seriously doubted, there was little he could do about it, he realized.  Wondering what kind of madman had built a place like this, he waited for the others to figure out what to do, leaning his back against a wall.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:35, Mon 18 Feb 2008.

"We could bash our way through. Be easier then making the original archway. But it would be a sound dat be heard far." Borin says as he takes his shield and pushes hard on both sides of the stone wall/door to see if it will swing open from pressure form his sheild as he speaks.

No blood was visible on the floor, but as Laerwen (or anyone else) stood near the area where Khidrath had said the door was, you could clearly smell the iron 'tang' of blood in the air, and it smelled fresh and wet.

There didn't seem to be any mechanism visible for opening the door, but as Laerwen crouched to look for blood on the floor, she noticed that some of the pattern of lines on the floor that had started near the basin made their way to just in front of Khidrath's 'door'.  One or two runes even seemed to be cut off by the wall itself, as though they continued under the 'door', even though there was no visible crack at the bottom of the 'door'.

Laerwen shivered and rose unsteadily to her feet.  "I...have no idea just how fresh the blood is, but all of this appears so very...odd.  The pattern of these lines, to me it almost looks as if the lines lead to this panel or whatever.  Would a blood sacrifice, perhaps, be required to open it?"