Sithen let the others rush forward into combat, having very little to contribute.  He came to the door and watched for a round, ready to shut it if they needed a hasty retreat.

Taking his holy symbol in hand, Brian invokes the power of his goddess to repel the creatures before you.  The two remaining monkey skeletons screech and turn to flee, but the humanoid skeleton remains unaffected.  The rest of your party then sets to attacking.  Sil's longsword strikes true, taking chunks out of both a monkey skeleton and the humanoid.  Lenny then follows up, bringing down the humanoid.  Ati, unfortunately, narrowly misses, though his weapon likely would not have done much anyway.

The monkey skeletons, compelled by Brian's holy power, turn to flee, and your party uses that opportunity to strike at them.  Sil's sword hits only air, but Lenny manages to bring down the undamaged creature, while Ati destroys the one that his elven companion wounded earlier.  The skeletons are dispatched, and the room is, as far as you can tell, secure.

15:42, Today: DM Maleketh rolled 10 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,4.  Initiative (Party, Monsters).
15:45, Today: DM Maleketh, on behalf of Brian Hamonet, rolled 12 using 1d20 with rolls of 12.  Turning Undead.
15:45, Today: DM Maleketh, on behalf of Brian Hamonet, rolled 10 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,4.  HD Turned.
15:54, Today: DM Maleketh, on behalf of Sil'qian Nightwind, rolled 13,5,17,10 using 1d20+8,1d8+3,1d20+8,1d8+3 with rolls of 5,2,9,7.  Attacks vs. Fleeing Monkeys.
15:56, Today: DM Maleketh, on behalf of Lenny, rolled 24,7,11,8 using 1d20+7,1d6+4,1d20+7,1d6+4 with rolls of 17,3,4,4.  Attacks vs. Fleeing Monkeys.
15:57, Today: DM Maleketh, on behalf of Ati, rolled 21,6 using 1d20+7,1d6+3 with rolls of 14,3.  Attack vs. Fleeing Monkey.

If Lenny were a dwarf prone to pondering, he'd ponder the nature of good and evil in this hidden necromancer's chamber. If he were to take as a truism, that the undead, and skeletons by definition being members of that class, were evil, then he and the others had just cleansed the chamber. But, he might wonder, surely monkey skeletons were their own class? The worst thing live monkeys ever did was to throw their feces around a bit. Dead ones surely had no feces to toss. Ergo, they couldn't be even remotely evil. The robed skeleton was a monkey master. Who ever heard of an evil master of monkeys?

He ponders none of these things but amiably picks among the bones to see what he might find. That done, he'll search the rest of the room for goodies.

The skeletons have nothing to offer save for a frayed and torn robe.  The rest of the room is similarly disapponting, containing only rotting wood and mouldering books whose pages fall apart at a touch.

You said humanoid skeleton. Can Lenny tell what race?

It looks like a human.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:17, Tue 02 Mar 2021.

Qadar tapped his staff against the floor as he walked across the room, seeing if he could detect a trap door.  The fight had gone well, no thanks to him.  He would have waded into combat behind the others, once the skeletons had picked their targets.

"This is a good place to rest while we search this place.  What monkey puzzle do you speak of, and why did you think it would help us here?"

Sil'qian tosses a mouldy book aside, "Apparently it was not a spellcaster in its previous life."

The elf sinks to the ground to rest for a moment, and he ponders the room in which they sit, and then compares it to his map.

"Yet there are vats in the next room, and that puzzle near the well...I wonder..."

The elf gets up and starts searching the south wall of the room for hidden doors.

---

All these damned spaces on the map! Some of them must be secret rooms! Might have to go back to the vat room and the dead halfling room, as I don't recall if we checked there or not.

Neither Qadar nor Sil find any secret doors.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:26, Tue 02 Mar 2021.

"Anything good?  I'm ashamed to admit it, but I love a good romance," Ati says, then examines the decrepit books while being careful not to touch them.

Any writing the books might once have borne is long gone.  It is impossible to tell what they might have been.

With a shrug, Lenny quits the bone-strewn chamber and encourages the others to follow him to the stairs and down deeper into the dungeon.

"Before we venture further down, I would like to check the walls in the two adjoining rooms."

Sil'qian will check the south walls in the vat room and in the room with the halfling corpse.

If he finds no hidden doors, he is ready to head down the stairs.

Walker could see that Silk was intent on searching for a hidden chamber. Given the oddity of things they'd found and experienced thus far, he decided to lend whatever aid he could by looking for cracks or seams that did not look natural and by tapping his new - and apparently rather unwieldy in battle - flail, listening for hollow sounds.

"Lenny, do you suppose these walls are hewn from the bedrock, or were they constructed in place? What might it take to bash one down?" Walker assumed that all dwarves knew a thing or two about mining and such.

Neither Sil nor Walker is able to locate any hidden doors.

"We're chasing shadows that do not exist friend Silk, I'm beginning to think that if we solve the mystery of the monkey room, we might discover the secret to these skeletons... but without any ideas on how to do that, I'm in agreement with Lenny, let us head downward. If we're ready, I'll lead the way..."

The Wiskin ranger motioned to Nob, and headed toward the stairs.

Qadar looks around at the books and sighs.  Maybe someday somsone would invent a spell to recover the text of these books and translate their contents.  The books were far older than the skeletons in here, especially since they could read the journal.  This room has remained undisturbed for so long.

Qadar took his own soellbook out of his backpack and placed it on the bookshelf.
The journal had mentioned how a fire trap had destroyed their mages spellbook.  This room was a safe place to retreat to and was unlikely to be disturbed until Qadar could make a copy.

"Lenny... would you lock the door behind us?  I was also wondering what you might want to trade for the key."

He also called out to Sil'quin.  "The hollows might be chimneys for other rooms downstairs."

Ati advances closer to the front of the party, ready to lend spearhead and encouragement to Tybalt should the need arise.

Agreeably, Lenny begins delving into his pack for the bronze key. After fishing about for a bit, he retrieves a likely candidate, small, thin, and not especially greasy. He proffers it to Mr. Q before realizing he has produced a chicken bone from last night's meal. Undeterred, he roots around again for the key.

Three attempts later, Mr. Q has his key, albeit with a few tasty additions.

"I think you are right, Walker. Let's see what the stairs will reveal."

---

Suggested marching order:
   Tybalt   Ati   Sil'qian   Qadar   Nob   Brian   Lenny

You descend the stairs for what feels like hours, though that's likely just the monotony.  It is quite a long descent, however, and your legs are very tired when you finally reach the bottom - a nondescript square room with no exits.


This message was last edited by the GM at 20:19, Fri 05 Mar 2021.

"These walls may have secrets," Ati says cryptically.

"Bet I can slide one of these walls out of the way," announces Lenny, after he has reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped into the room without apparent egress. Following his intuition, he first tests the most likely of the four walls.

"Uh... Thank you Lenny." Said Qadar, reaching into his pack and pulling out a sling.  He used it to clean it off, then locked the room and put the key into his pouch.  He took out twelve small stones and presented it to Lenny in trade.  "I wanted to learn how to use this but I can't.  I hope you might be able to."

He followed the others down the stairs until they reached the bottom and into the disappointingly small area.  He stayed on the stairs a couple of steps so that he could see over everyone's head.

"There must be more than this."

OOC: Are the walls still constructed?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:52, Fri 05 Mar 2021.

Lenny's intuition tells him to try the south wall first, but he finds nothing.  Moving to the right, however, he pokes at the west wall, at which point his had passes right through!  It appears that the wall is an illusion!