Challenge: Second Sight makes easier Dodge
The passage beyond the door leads to a room suffused with radiance. White-hot arcs of pure energy shoot across the room at seemingly random intervals. The companions watch from the doorway, but can't detect any pattern. Ksandajja looks at it with her second sight, and sees the magic surge before the energy discharge. There's still no discernable pattern, but she surmises that there should be enough time between blasts to sprint to the passageway on the left-hand wall.
"Trust me?"
"You see more than we, I presume," says Ilog.
"Indeed. Now, when I say run, run........ RUN!"
They dash across the space into the passageway. Their momentum sees them fairly smack into the wall, and each other. The loud crackle behind them announces how close they came to feeling the fury of the uncanny energy blasts.
[Ksandajja made her Second Sight roll, giving all of them +2 on their Dodge rolls.]
Challenge: Trap Knowledge (-2)
Having recovered their composure, they proceed into the next chamber, which is empty save for an immense octagonal podium of polished white marble. At first it seems empty, but the flickering torchlight reveals a metallic gleam in the centre. Looking closer, there is a tiny silver ring.
Grebdal Themp tries to lean over the podium without touching it in order to examine the ring at the centre.
[Q: What's the trap guarding? Oddly / Small
G's Trap Knowledge: 7+2-2=7; 2d6=7, success]
"This is too small to fit any of our fingers," he says, "but it must be important. Wait! There's a thread attached to it, nearly invisible, running all... the way... up..."
Ksandajja and Ilog follow his pointing finger to see a small cauldron suspended from the ceiling.
"I'm sure I can get it without setting off whatever trap that is. But just in case, maybe you two had ought to wait in the passageway."
[He will Test his LUCK to cut the thread without setting off the trap: 2d6=11, just!]
He very gingerly holds the thread in his fingers and cuts slowly between them with the very point of his dagger. Then abruptly he leaps back, though the cauldron above does not empty its contents over him. He brings the ring triumphantly over to his colleagues for a better look. It is far too tiny to wear; Ksandajja could not even get it past the first joint of her little finger. It has a series of unevenly-spaced raised bumps round the outside, and appears to be made of the same mysterious alloy as the trap door that led into the temple.
Grebdal Themp stows it carefully in coin purse, and they head back to the previous chamber. They are pleased to note that the energy balls have dissipated. They return to the room [10] where they'd fought the skeleton, and take the passage from there to the next chamber.
Room 9
Challenge: Ancient Lore separate from Awareness (-2) makes easier Evaluate
Low reliefs are carved directly into the black stone walls, painted with over with now-faded pigments. The sorceress makes a circuit of all four walls, and finds them to be be strangely secular depictions of events in the city after its founding, with the possible exception of the the building of the temple at its heart [her Ancient Lore succeeded].
Grebdal Themp feigns polite interest in Ksandajja's mumbled history lesson until his eyes are diverted by an unusual discolouration in the incised seal of the city [Awareness -2 succeeds]. The seal is bordered by black bands -- not from paint or stone, but tarnished silver inlays [Evaluate +2 succeeds]. He is on the verge of prising them out with his dagger when Ilog reminds him gently that they are not here to loot the temple. "Maybe on the way back..." mutters Grebdal Themp.
Challenge: Awareness interlinked with Sleight of Hand (-1)
The carvings continue down one of passages out from the room. Ksandajja notes aloud that the tenor of the depictions has taken a decidedly more religious turn. The only break in the carvings is a metal slab, about the size and shape of the temple's doorways.
"There's no way I could shift this," says Ilog. "It looks like it's set into the floor."
"Bring the torch over this way," says Ksandajja. "There's a hole in the carvings."
Grebdal Themp holds his torch back so they can peer into the gap. It's about as big around as Ilog's forearm, and maybe as deep. At the back is a tiny round impression, the size and shape of the little ring they'd found. But dozens of minute, paper-thin blades line the entire length of the hole.
"I... I suppose my hands are the smallest..." says Ksandajja.
"No, let me," says Grebdal Themp. "This requires a certain sort of... finesse."
[He will Test his LUCK (currently 10) rather than relying on his capped SKILL (7-1=6); 2d6=5, success (current Luck decreases to 9).]
He balances the tiny ring on the tip of his middle finger, and slowly, ever so slowly, puts hand and arm into the razor-lined channel. Ksandajja jumps at a sudden loud snick, and is relieved to find it is merely the metal slab retracting into the floor. But there is still an age of silent trepidation as Grebdal Themp removes his arm from the deadly gap.
Room 5
Challenge: Trap Knowledge obstructs Evaluate
The room at the other end of the passage appears to be empty at first glance. As the mistrustful companions study it from the safety of the passage, they first note a set of stone steps leading downward. Then Grebdal Themp [Awareness roll natural 2!] points out the nearly invisible tripwires criss-crossing the whole chamber. Looking up, he sees the array of pendulum blades on the ceiling, poised to fall on the unsuspecting or incautious.
[Evaluate fails -- he doesn't see the pendulum blades are intricately worked and gilded.]
Challenge: Herb Lore reveals Sleight of Hand separate from Religion Lore (-2)
The chamber at the bottom of the stair is of the exact same black stone and exact same dimensions as all the previous ones, leaving our heroes to marvel at the singularity of purpose displayed by the ancient architects. The walls are ringed with reliefs, each in 2' square sections bounded by dried, intertwined thorn branches.
[Herb Lore roll fails, so the section bounded by a different sort of vine isn't noticed. Religion Lore also fails, so no clues.]
Ksandajja studies the carvings until her friends grow impatient. Announcing her ignorance of any symbolism germane to their task, she leads them through the sole passage into the next chamber.
Room 14
Challenge: ENCOUNTER
A colossal, black stone statue of a nude man, fully half again as tall as mighty Ilog, stands in the centre of the room. The STONE GOLEM booms out a challenge in the city's forgotten tongue, then strides forth to do battle with the puny mortals before it. "Keep it off me for a few moments," says Ksandajja as she produces a gold backed mirror from the pouch at her belt.
STONE GOLEM SKILL 8 STAMINA 11
[Round 1]
As the sorceress is murmuring words of occult import over the mirror, Ilog and Grebdal Themp rush forward to attack. The golem moves with greater alacrity than its lumbering form would suggest. It pushes their weapons aside with ease. Ilog takes a solid blow from a stone fist on the rim of his shield, knocking it back painfully into his shoulder and wrenching his wrist. Grebdal Themp receives a clumsy blow to the sternum, softened somewhat by his leather hauberk.
[The golem has 2 attacks, so they got n outnumbering bonus. Ilog took 4-1=3 damage (to 9 Stamina). Grebdal Themp took 3-1=2 (to 8). Ksandajja is casting her spell slowly, for a +2 to cast on round 2. KIN costs her 1 stamina to cast; the Golem fails its resistance. The spell lasts 7 rounds -- just enough.]
Her incantation complete, Ksandajja flashes the mirror at the golem. An exact duplicate seems to spring from the out-thrust mirror, and stomps up to attack its twin. Ilog and Grebdal Themp give way as the two mighty colossi trade earth-jarring blows. Chips of stone fly as the giants pummel one another into powder. At length the original crumbles into a pile of jagged stones, and the copy fades into nothingness.
Room 18
Challenge: Locks (1d6: 1-2 south, 3-4 east, 5-6 both)
The golem's room is otherwise bare, as is the adjoining room, save for two heavy iron-banded doors. A quick examinations shews them both to be locked. Ksandajja is about to use her magic when Grebdal Themp intervenes. "At least let me try. Besides, you should save your strength for when it's truly needed." Ksandajja bows out of the way, as Grebdal Themp sets to work on one of the locks. Moments later (which seemed longer to him under his companions' watchful eyes) he sits back in triumph as the door swings gratingly inward. [2d6=6; he finally made a successful Locks roll!]
Room 19
Challenge: Languages if failed, then... Climb (-2) if failed, then... Religion Lore (-2)
The walls and floor of the room at the other end of the passage are awash with scintillating patterns which dance and play in the lantern light before the companions have reached the threshold. Only a small semi-circle of bare black stone at the entrance is free from the swirls of palm-sized coloured stones that make up the garish, undulating mosaic. Golden letters are inset along the curve of the black stone.
"Can you read the inscription?" asks Ilog.
Ksandajja studies the words, half thinking aloud. "It's ancient Allansian -- really ancient, not the classical language that usually gets taught. The letter forms are a bit idiosyncratic, too. [6+1+2(learned)=9; 2d6=9, success] Let me see... 'solis... in tesserulis... atris calcato'. We should only step on the black tiles. The dull black ones, that is -- not the shinier ones."
"What happens if we do?"
"Let's not find out."
[Each PC must Test their SKILL at +3 to get through. Ksandajja and Grebdal Themp make their rolls (needing 9-, 10-) easily. Ilog's current Skill has been reduced to 5, so he will Test his LUCK (10-) instead: 2d6=5, ok; Luck is now 9.
Had anyone stepped on the wrong kind of tile, it would have activated a mechanism which rapidly dropped the floor 50' down, causing no real damage, but making it hard to climb out.]
Ksandajja and Grebdal Themp bound gracefully from tile to tile, practically racing across the chamber to the other side. Ilog finds he cannot readily determine which of the black tiles are shiny and which dull. He trusts his fate to Sindla, and the goddess does smile upon the stalwart hero, for he too passes through the chamber without misstep.
next post: deeper still into the temple
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