Seeing no sign of a way to open the door again, and hearing the conversation back near the pit, Ella sighs and turns back to the others. She stays slightly back from the pit, wary of the possibility of accidentally jostling someone near the edge. "So... is the plan to check the giant hole in the floor first, then? Are we sure we have a reliable way to get back up again?"

"No. That wouldn't be my plan for exactly that reason. I'll advocate for looking everywhere else before going down there," Herodian replies.

Harkmur examines the handholds closely, seeing that the material they are attached to is the same color as the metal walls, but of a different composition. Dense and hard, but with some flexibility. Whatever its makeup, it appears to be sagging forward, as though whatever is providing it support is buckling. Even as the warrior looks, from somewhere from within the pit, he can hear the protesting screech of metal folding.

From below, there is a hiss, not unlike the rush of air that accompanied the closing of the entrance to the steel cave. Gazing into the dark, Harkmur can no longer see the blue hints of illumination below.

As the other adventurers discuss their situation, from somewhere to the east, there is the noise of something heavy and metallic falling, the sound breaking the pervading quiet for a moment, before silence overtakes the metal cavern once more.

"This apparatus seems to be slowly breaking down. We should keep moving, we may have limited time here."

Wandreck eagerly steps back onto solid ground and thanks his benefactor.  “Where shall we go?”
This message was last edited by the player at 07:46, Wed 04 Sept 2019.

Herodian points at each of the three hallways leading from the room, one after the other, while he chants something under his breath. When he finishes chanting he is pointing at the passage that leaves the chamber to the right.

"That way," he says with conviction.

While Wandreck and Herodian were doing their thing with the strange pit, Sir Cal tried to figure out this steel door that closed on them. He'd caught it sliding sideways out of the corner of his eye. It had closed left to right, so he examines the rightmost edge of the door to see if there is any way to get fingers or a lever between the door and the wall to possibly force the thing open along the same path it used to close. The rest of the construction looked much too solid to force any other way.

[OOC: I'm assuming that can happen simultaneous with the pit exploration. I'm also assuming it's going to be fruitless...]

As the others get ready to leave the area, he speaks. "Let's make a plan before we rush deeper into this strange structure. We've already set off two traps, and the next one might prove more lethal. We need to find a new way out. We know there's another door somewhere below this one - that large door we saw outside. We don't know of any other exits. We also know that pit goes down, although it does not seem to be entirely safe. If we can't find another way down, we'll have to use it. If finding another exit takes more than a few hours, and I suspect it will, then we need to find a defensible area to set up as a base from which we can mount exploratory forays. Do we all agree?" He looks around the group, making eye contact with everyone.

Ella smiles to Cal as he lays out his thoughts. It was always good to have someone along thinking clearly and methodically through the problems, and she knew she wasn't the best suited to that sometimes. "Sounds good to me."

While the others talk, Wandreck begins searching the general area for traps and secret doors.  Ceiling, floor, walls... everything.

"Of course, Uncle," Herodian replies. "I suggest we stick to the marching order we established on our way here, at least until someone sees a reason to adjust it, and find out where these other corridors lead. I'm not advocating rash behavior, but our present location is less than ideal from a tactical standpoint."

"The scouts went along the north passage. We should seek that out first, should we not? To see if we can find them and help them return to safety?" Ranzarth speaks softly as the others try to determine the best direction. His attention is drawn to the sounds and then back to Herodain "What was it that you cast?" as he had miss the casting so could not rely on any of his own knowledge to determine what was cast.

With a puzzled expression on his face Herodian replies, "I drew upon the power stored in my staff to lift Wandrek from the pit. Why do you ask?"

"Good point about the scouts." Cal concedes to Ranzarth. He turns to Herodian, "I think he meant whatever you cast to augur our course, nephew. I was wondering that myself."

Wandreck walks the chamber, examining the steel walls, floor, and ceiling with care. His practiced gaze finds no portals that are concealed, nor any traps waiting to catch the unwary.

However, the thief notices that both the eastern and western corridors are lined with evenly spaced doors, most of which resemble the steel doorway the adventurers had entered the strange cavern from. Each of the doors appears to have an odd apparatus of some kind just to the right of it. Wandreck cannot be certain of the function of these strange panels, but he presumes that they are involved in opening the doors. All of those he can see are closed.



09:54, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Wandreck, rolled 5 using 1d100.

The dwarf does note two things of interest regarding the intersecting passageways. To the west, the dwarf is positive that the ceiling is slightly lower than in the eastern hall, but he can see no structural reason for why this is so. Roughly halfway down the eastern corridor, Wandreck can see something large, roughly the height of an average human, leaning against the right hand wall. At this distance, he cannot make out any details about the shadowed mass, but it is not moving.

Wandreck also notes that the odd panels are not present on the doors that line the northern passage. Those doorways are also much less frequent, and more widely spaced out.

"Oh, that! A simple, but effective augury. It doesn't provide any detail, but I've found it effective in situations when I've been forced to make a choice with little or no information to guide the decision."

Lumwick keeps his attention figured on the perimeter, lest something come upon the others while they do their deliberations.

Ranzarth nods to Wandreck as he moves up next to him to help scout the area "Shall we proceed north than? To see if we can secure the scouts?"

Wandreck informs him that someone or something may be hiding in the east corridor.  He recommends investigating this.

Eyeing the pit, he ponders for a moment making an attempt but decides against it.  Stepping back from the hole several paces, he listens as the others discuss; his gaze falling upon each noted direction.

"That series of doors there...perhaps old bed chambers or something to that affect?"

Ella looks over to Wandreck, then down the corridor he's indicating. "I agree. If we're being watched, we want to know who, or what, it is."

"Yes, let's check the immediate threat first, then proceed North." Cal agrees. "Who is watching our back?" he adds, not wanting the group to expose itself to a sneak attack.

Lumwik hefts his axe, and starts down east corridor.  "I'll check it out."

Ranzarth pulls his shortsword and steps in line behind Lumwick, his steps soft as he moves forward trying to keep his eyes peeled for any potential traps or issues ahead.

Sword in hand, Trisvyre falls in behind Lumwik and Ranzarth. The three adventurers creep down the eastern corridor toward the shadow, which remains still and unmoving, even as they draw closer. Ranzarth’s sharp eyes discern no traps anywhere.

As the dark figure comes into full view, the company members are struck by its strange appearance. The figure is made of metal, and as best as any of the three can guess, must have once been some manner of construct, such as a golem.



Its upper body has been smashed repeatedly, the metal that makes up its body severely crushed and dented. It does not move at all, even as the explorers draw within a few paces of it, the injuries it has suffered apparently having destroyed whatever force once animated it.

Looking carefully about, none of the trio see anything else in the vicinity of the golem. The corridor remains still.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:19, Tue 10 Sept 2019.

Wandreck joins his companions and examines their discovery, searching it for traps.

“It doesn’t look very dangerous, and that’s why it scares me.”