Omm smiles broadly in response to Arnie's action. "Right, let's see what lies beyond..."

With all keys inserted, Omm attempts to pull the door open.

Lost in his working of the leather, now, specifically, the largest and thickest, and it must be said, the driest, of his many belts, the captain reacts to the grinding of stone against stone as internal mechanisms disbar the capstone with nary a nod.

With an even more satisfying rumble, the capstone slides into a recess, exposing stairs descending into the manor's undercarriage.

The stone stairs wind down to the base of a domed vault. Fractured skulls and bits of dried bone litter the worn steps, and gossamer cobwebs drag at your boots and sandals.

Peering into the darkness below, you can see the vault ringed by six archways. Bright mirrors hang on chains from the ceiling, each suspended at different heights, spinning slowly in the flickering torchlight.

As soon as you set foot on the floor of the vault, the stone sconces along the walls spring to life. The magical light is caught and reflected in the mirrors, brightly illuminating the vault.

In the amplified light, the dome beguiles. Elaborate mosaics stretch from floor to ceiling, depicting complex geometric patterns. Polished gems are set within the mosaics, flaring in the light. Astrologers, sky-seers and sages are quick to recognize the ceiling and the jewels as constellations. The constellation of the Dragon stands most prominent, bright in the southern “sky.”
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:50, Mon 31 Mar 2014.

Omm stares up at the play of light in the hanging mirrors and comments, "Alright, smart guys, what do you make of all this?"

Having voiced all that came to mind, the warrior then proceeds to scour the chamber for any exits which might be found, or more importantly, the Scribe. Calling now louder, "Al-Hazred, we seek audience with you, show yourself!"

Arnie stays near the others, presumably in the middle of the room.  He's never thought much about star patterns, so while the jeweled ceiling is certainly impressive, the arrangement doesn't mean anything particularly special to him.

Felix has other things on his mind.  Six archways means six opportunities for something to pop out while they're distracted.  He picks the one farthest on his left, gets as close to the opening as he can without making himself obvious, and peers through to see what's there.  If he has time and doesn't spot anything interesting, he will gradually make his way around the room with the same sneak-and-peek routine.

Zar and Sidd are lost in their contemplation of the strange apparatus of mirrors, lights and gems, examining its workings and guessing about its functions and applications and occassionally muttering in awe. If the owner is around, he will show himself soon enough.
Or not. It might be a matter of the right time and constellation - even the Yellow Wizard asked for them only at dusk.

You busy yourselves in the manor's planetarium.

Omm circumnavigates the base of the dome, calling out for their summoner, who for the moment proves unsummonable. Amidst the dust of ages, he spots a large scale, with the appearance of rough stone flecked with mica. With his gauntleted hand, he scoops it out from the filigree of ancestral bones and threads of shrouds.

In between one of Omm's throaty expostulations, Felix hears the sound of slithering from one of the archways. Like all disturbing, and most certainly threatening sounds, he can't place it with any accuracy. It could be very well emanating from the furthest portal or the source could be just inches from his nose.

For lack of anything better to do, Arnie experimentally snuffs the air, one of his longstanding habits. It smells cool and damp. Its tertiary signature piques his interest: cracked eggshells discovered beneath a boulder in a parched vale.

Unable to locate the source of the sound, Felix walks back to the others and nervously informs them of the coming threat, vague as it may be.  He then draws his crowbar to be ready for its arrival.

''Er... egg shells and slithering? Did some kind of serpent or basilisk hatch in here?''
Zar and Sidd slowly retreat into direction of the stairs, prepared for a hasty flight, but not quite willing to do so yet.

Omm pockets the scale while drawing his sword in his right hand. Glancing now slowly about the room, sweeping his vision here and there, the warrior calls out again, "Show yourself fell serpent, and may you harbor no ill will toward our lot, for if so, by the Gods, I will lop your head off!"

Omm paces slowly through the mirrored hall, poised to strike anything that makes a sudden move.

It occurs to Arnie that some divine assistance might be good if any sudden moves are indeed directed toward Omm.  He walks over to the warrior and begins chanting softly, but in his nervousness he flubs the rhythm of the chant, and the spell fizzles.

The serpent, like so many other entities of this demi-plane of the damned, does not seem to respond to verbal entreaties -- if there even is a serpent to respond or not.

Omm shrugs his shoulders while turning to regard his companions, "So much for that. We don't see to be doing too good here..."

The warrior continues his search of the room, looking for any other exits or portals. If he finds none, he suggests the group go somewhere else and will solicit input as to where that might be.

''Er... no snake? But we heard something, did we not?'' Zar sighs.
''Perhaps it is small yet, and does not dare approach us. Or is that too much to hope for? Either way, we are here, so let's take a closer look, and see what it shall bring forth.''

Zar and Sidd start a systematic search of the hall, checking every nook, sending light into every hole and exit.

Arnie and Felix stay close, neither one complaining about the wizards taking lead on this search.

When you try to illuminate the passages, you observe that the light doesn't travel as far as it should, just a few feet in front of you instead of ten's of feet.

You really can't tell if one passage is any more promsing than another. Nothing is physically preventing you from trying one of them or leaving the star chamber.

Omm glances around the room once more, pulls the brim of his helm a bit lower and the strides toward and through the nearest archway. "Let's see what lies this way..."

He walks through the first archway and will continue to walk through subsequent archways, testing what happens with each.

OOC: Omm starts with archway #1 and move his way to #6, assuming nothing happens before then. What archway is #1? Doesn't really matter which one is chosen. Closest to the entrance we initially walked through, starting with the one on the left.

''That's the spirit!'' Sidd encourages Omm, and he and Zar fall in line behind the warrior, joining him in the exploration of the dark hallways.

Omm turns back, nods his head to acknowledge Sidd's encouragement, and boldly (perhaps foolishly) steps into the darkness ahead...

Arnie boldly takes up the rear position.  Felix squeezes into the middle more easily.

Taking one of the six egresses, Omm leads the party further into the manor tomb, what must be some manner of sprawling cavern. Your lanterns, which would normally supply 30 feet of lush illumination (or 80' if hooded), halt at half that, and whoever's holding a torch has his 40' halved to 20'. There's no reason the cave should be so Stygian, let alone oppressive:

The inky darkness seems to press in on all sides. You can hear the sounds of dripping water and smell moisture on the air, mixed with a faint, acrid odor.

Before long, you find the cavern's true inhabitant:

The stone drake that lives here is over 15’ tall when standing upright, with the head of a featherless rooster, the scaled body of a theropod, and long, drooping claws atop vestigial arms. The lizard-thing’s thin scales are the color of stone, flecked with mica.

It blinks a few times, probably trying to remember what a theropod is.

OOC If your init's > 7, you may act before the stone drake.

Init Table
Stone Drake: 7

Without any thoughts of self-preservation, Omm races further into the cavern, his long sword held at the ready. The warrior closes the distance in hopes of quickly neutralizing the stone drake by lopping its head off.

While he might deserve some credit for the attempt, the execution is sorely lacking, due largely to the fact the beast's head sits so high off the ground. Once the drake stands fully erect, Omm can only look up in trepidation at the sheer size of this monster.

"Whoa...this thing is big," he says, stating the obvious.

Then a thought occurs to him. "The dragon! This is it!" again stating the obvious.

17:07, Today: Omm rolled 9,1 using d20,d3. Mighty Deed of Arms: Lop off its Head!

Zar and Sidd instantly launch into arcane tongues, trying to outdo each other with incomprehensible gibberish. Maybe they should have concentrated more on the dragon than on each others performance, because both attempts at magic come out rather garbled. The effort is clearly taxing Zar and he looks downright famished, but still the best the old man can do is to summon some weakly flickering flames and to blacken his fingertips. ''Ouch!''
''Fool!''
''No, you are!''
''Dotard!''
''Imposter!''

Zar: Casts Flaming Hands, fail and spell lost
Sidd: Casts Sleep, fail and spell lost

18:41, Today: Sidd and Zar rolled 9 using 1d20+1. Sidd: Sleep.
18:41, Today: Sidd and Zar rolled 4 using 1d20+2. Zar: Flaming Hands.
18:37, Today: Sidd and Zar rolled 17 using 1d20+2. Initiative.

Arnie, seeing what is about to happen, quickly moves forward to place his blessing on Omm.  It's hard for him to put enough confidence into the spell for proper casting, but having a halfling nearby subconsciously helps him feel better.  Omm soon has the power of Gorhan guiding his sword (although maybe still not enough to help this round - +1 to all attack rolls for 1 turn).

Felix then whispers to Arnie Hey, give me your trowel.
Arnie whispers back No, I cannot travel safely without it.
No, that's towels you idiot.  I sad "trowel."
Oh, alright.  Reluctantly, the cleric takes the filthy trowel that remains from his old life and hands it to Felix.  Felix, taking advantage of the darkness, sneaks up close to the drake and starts looking for a good spot where he can strike without getting in Omm's way.  Armed with two weapons and shielded by shadows, he is feeling awfully brave at the moment.

Josh rolled 20 using 1d20+1. initiative.

Josh rolled 13 using 1d20+1. casting Bless. - Felix burns 1 luck to raise it to 14

Josh rolled 20 using 1d20+3. sneaking.

The question for Felix is, does the stone dragon have any clear anatomical vulnerabilities? Does a stone heart thump within its chest? Failing that, does a stone lower intestine convey fecal matter to its egress? Felix does not know; he will have to have faith.

While the rest of you sensibly avoid making eye contact, Ohm, by virtue of his attempted heroic feat of arms*, has to raise his eyes (DC 10 Reflex save, pls). He can probably be forgiven in his excitement. Here he is with a dragon - for reals.

Before Zar can sling another insult, the dragon proves itself draconic by immediately clawing him (3 dmg to Zar).

OOC All players may act. Beware of inadvertently subjecting yourself to its gaze attack. Precautions might be warranted.

Felix is hidden and may attempt a backstab.

*Think in terms of a trip or a knock down for this ability.
*A halfling doubles the bonus of a Luck check. For every 1 point of Luck expended, a Halfling gains a +2 to his roll.

"The eyes! Don't look it in the eyes!" Omm cries out in alarm.

Having already looked into the dragon's deathly orbs, Omm redirects his efforts to its feet and legs, and those terrible talons...

Omm attempts to lance off one of the dragon's foot, all the while avoiding looking the creature in the eyes. It's harder than it might sound, and his attack is little more effective than last time.

19:40, Today: Omm rolled 10,2 using d20,d3. mighty deed of arms: knockdown.
18:50, Today: Omm rolled 20 using 1d20+1. reflex save.