The Sarcophagus Legion III

[HorizonsDream]

"And why did you want to come in here?" Imani asks as she looks over the neglected equipment. "Some of this stuff looks so old that it probably couldn't be used again."

[Breila]

Babushka looks the mess over, her gnomish heart bleeding to see good tools and technology so disregarded. She sighs and turns away. "Thank you for showing me, Locky. Obviously, nobody has been mining here in a long time. Now, if you could show me the mechanism that operated the inner doors?"

[JadedDM]

The room Babushka speaks of is just across the hall from the storeroom. She notices that the now open doors appear to have taken damage from axes on the exterior sides. Inside is a pair of large winch mechanisms, a shattered table, a dozen simple cots, and everywhere fragments of broken clay pots and wood barrels. A pair of stout, headless skeletons hang upside down from the ceiling, their bodies tied to the end of thick ropes. Beneath them, the stone is stained crimson with old blood.

[Breila]

"Poor ones" Babushka mutters as she sees the skeletons. "Murdered guards, I assume." She looks at the winches. Can she tell if they are gnomish or dwarven in design? They must be good craftsmanship if they operate well after such long neglect.

She turns to her companions. "Should we close the doors again, not quite as much as they were, so we can get out through them if we have to, but so as not to give away at first glance someone passed through them?"

[JadedDM]

Babushka can tell it's dwarven work, not gnomish. It would be odd to see her people's machines so far away from Sancrist, but the main clue is that the winches appear simple and efficient. Had gnomes designed them, they would be overly-complicated with unnecessary and possibly dangerous bells and whistles tacked on.

Thuskar shrugs. "Should be easy enough." He takes hold of the winch and turns it. The inner doors begin to creak close. Ulster stands out in the hall to watch, and calls to Thuskar when they are back to their original position.

[Breila]

"A little wider, please" says Babushka. "So Dekker and I can pass through"

[JadedDM]

Thuskar turns the winch back slightly in the opposite direction, allowing the doors to open a bit further than they had been originally.

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(OOC: Small sized creatures can pass through easily now. Man-sized creatures will need a straight DEX check to squeeze through.)

[Jerrard]

"Which way now i wonder?" Jerrard asks, holding the Torch aloft.

[Jenara]

Locky looks to the left with a Grin, "Uncle Tas always used to say go left, and keep turning left if you are lost."

[JadedDM]

Babushka and Locky, the latter still invisible, walk down the hallway about twenty feet, beyond the fifteen foot range of Jerrard's torch. Here, they find themselves in darkness. After a few seconds for their eyes to adjust, they can see just fine.

To the left and right are hallways, narrower than the main hall, although still wide enough for them to walk two-by-two. The hallway on the left extends forty feet before dropping to the south. The hallway on the right does the same thing after sixty feet. North of them are additional hallways. So it is just a matter of choosing which one to take, or to ignore them and continue north.

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(OOC: Ugh, lost power again. This time only for 3 1/2 hours, though.)

[Breila]

"Why don't we just explore this hallway first" Babushka proposes, pointing to the one to their right (east). "We don't know anything about this place yet, so it doesn't matter really what we do first."

[Jerrard]

"Agreed Babuskha, one was is as good as the other. Come let us go right." He looks at the others. "Unless anyone has any better ideas."

[Jenara]

"Right is as good as left I suppose." Locky smiles, heading off in that direction.

[JadedDM]

There is no argument, so they head east. They travel sixty feet to the east, which takes about a minute. Thick dust covers everything. They reach the southern bend and head south about fifty feet before arriving at a chamber.

The chamber extends 20 feet below and narrows to a point 40 feet above. Most of the shaft below is shrouded by thick webs in which hang bats and other vermin wrapped up in thick fibers. Spiral stairs on either side of the entrance climb to two levels of catwalks above, each one ringed by iron-barred doors. As soon as Babushka and Locky arrive, they hear from the dark recesses of one of the cells a cry of misery. "Help," it cracks, in a feeble voice laced with desperation. "Please help me." It seems to be softly emitting from one of the southern cells on the upper catwalk.

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(OOC: This dungeon is putting my map-making skills to the test!)

[HorizonsDream]

"Did everyone else hear that?" Imani asks.