In reply to Seline (msg # 69):

An excellent plan!  Seeing the traps in the process of assembly gives Seline a very strong feel for how they operate.  She is confident she can avoid or disarm the needle traps in the future.

As if he had been there the whole time and not frolicking in some far away city called New of York, Cole strides up and follows his comrades into the tomb of wonders.

Jack puts on a good face and pretends like nothing is out of the ordinary. 'Just another day of bribing orcs with magical berries so we can sneak into an underground crypt that they are installing traps in. Yep. Nothing to see here.' His mind wanders to frivolities and sarcasm as he smiles and nods.

"Good work Dreya. Color me impressed."

With that, he follows along as the group ventures further toward the temple of Pain.

Elwood looks around for any signs of undead kobalds or Snargs.  "Are they going to replace the undead creatures too?"  He then goes along with the rest of the group to the entrance towards the temple of elemental pain.

Anthony looks horrified at this. "Don't say that! That would be terrible." He shudders.

He looks ahead. "I suppose we should press on. We have to find our enemy and take him out, cut off the head of the proverbial snake." Anthony looks none too thrilled at this prospect, but he speaks with some conviction.

The party reopens the secret door and heads down the passage beyond.  Eventually, you can hear the growing sound of running water as you approach the underground stream.  As you carefully approach the chamber with the stream and the statues, you see the statues have been removed completely.  The alcoves where they once stood are empty.  Seline checks for traps, but does not find any.  However, as she starts to move past the first alcove, the dagger she received from Flyspamon's priests begins to vibrate in its sheath.  Taking a closer look in the alcove, Seline notices a rune carved into the back of the alcove that is partially hidden by dirt.  It looks to be a magical trap.  Walking past the rune will presumably trigger some sort of magical effect.

Seline stopping dead in her tracks begins to investigate the rune calling Anthony over to take a look as well "Anthony if you would be so kind to join me up here and take a peak at this, seems like we are expected and they have left us some welcome to the party favors, this one seems to be a magical rune and I'd much rather see if we can dispell or trigger it before we walk past it and get hurt."

Dreya lingers near the back, but constantly looking over her shoulder. She would rather not be taken by a frog guy again. So to busy herself, she brings her bow around to the front and readies an arrow. Just in case.

Anthony perks up and walks over to get a good view of the rune. His face immediately lights up. "Fascinating! Fascinating! Everyone stand back, must get a look at this from a reasonably safe distance...."

He begins to examine it from a few feet away, looking rather like a five-year-old examining a puppy or exotic bug...

Anthony recognizes the rune easily.  It is a fairly common magical trap.  Moving past the rune will definitely trigger some sort of harmful magical effect, most likely a directed explosion or blast of energy.  It can easily be "fooled" by pushing or throwing something expendable in front of the rune.  Throwing is probably safer since you don't know for sure how big the blast effect will be.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
17:14, Today: Castle Keeper, on behalf of Anthony, rolled 24 using 1d20+5.  Inspect the rune.

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Anthony relays this to the party. "I would estimate at least thirty feet of distance. Who among us feels confident that they can throw something past the rune safely from that range?"

Once she determins everyone is safely back, Dreya lifts her bow and fires an arrow past the rune, curious if that will work.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:04, Sat 16 Sept 2017.

Hearing talk of explosions and traps, and seeing the druid ready to trigger them with a bow, Jack quickly ducks for cover (at a safe distance), bringing his arms over his head and face, preparing for the worst.

As Dreya gets out her bow, Elwood steps a safe distance back and sticks his fingers in his ears.

Dreya fires an arrow past the rune while everyone else takes cover.  The moment the arrow begins to pass in front of the rune, boiling blood explodes out of the alcove at vast speed.  The arrow is slammed by the rushing blood into the wall over the stream directly opposite the rune.  The explosion was so fast, the arrow did not manage any forward progress past the rune.  The wall opposite the rune is covered in a thick coat of blood that is quickly rolling down the wall into the stream where the water sizzles loudly.  A two foot deep cloud of steam forms over the stream, although it is diminishing steadily as fresh water flows into the chamber.  The arrow itself is stuck to the wall by the blood.  Its shaft is coated in burnt blood and its head is somewhat melted.  The smell coming from the chamber is... unpleasant.

Inspecting the alcoves shows there are no further runes to worry about.

"Eeewwww!" Dreya shrieks, scrambling back to the others so quickly she stumbles, sprawling on her back ungracefully in the dirt while trying to cover her nose against the smell. Blinking up at everyone, she says with a voice muffled oddly by her hand, "Huh, it worked."

Anthony retches a bit but then nods. "Yes...it worked. Well, I think I will avoid using that spell, myself. Oh my." He shudders, then nods. "We should search the room further and then proceed."

"Just for safe measure," Cole suddenly spouts as he whips out his bow and shoots another arrow in the same direction Dreya had just shot.

Cole's arrow safely passes the alcoves and vanishes into the darkness of the hallway leading off the north side of the chamber.  There is a cracking sound as it strikes a stone wall deep in the murky distance.

Elwood prepares to embark towards the secret entrance to the temple of pain

Seline takes her spot in the lead slowly moving forward checking for any other new traps between the alcove and the hidden door after offering her thanks to aanthony, Cole and Dreya for helping deal the trap. If there are no other traps along the way Seline will inspect the door and listen at it

The party does not find any other traps and heads out of the stream room down the long tunnel leading to the secret door into the Temple.

Things are a little different this time.  As the dead end with the secret door comes into view, you see the door is wide open.  You can't hear anything from beyond the door.

Anthony frowns. "That looks ominous," he says, hanging back. "Perhaps they've placed a new trap for us?"

"Or they left. Ooh! Maybe we should have gone to the cabin! We can go there when we are done here," Dreya rambles on from the back, straining up on her toes to try and see around all the tall humans and semi humans. Why did they have to be so tall?

"I guess this is their way of saying that they're expecting us.  Maybe Seline can get a quick peek inside and let us know what's inside."