Chapter 3: Third time's the charm

[Zorroroaster]

Torgyr pulls out his hand axe and swiftly lops off the heads of the zombies, kicking each into separate corners. He stands up and looks at the others a little sheepishly.

"Better safe than sorry, right?"

If any of the bodies are still near the altar, he drags them away and pulls out his crowbar. He sits down and takes a deep breath.

"Right. Let's take a breather and then see about shifting this altar around. It's gonna take some muscle."

[drpete]

So... the plan is to rest, then use the crowbars to force the altar away from the wall?

[Zorroroaster]

Pretty much, yep. If anyone can think of anything were missing...Torgyr will also check the altar over for traps?

[Dogma]

While resting Ranulf sizes up Emm and Audi and hands his arbalest to whichever one looks less strong. "Keep an eye out down that hallway while we're working on that alter. Solaine, you mind taking guard too? Don't want nothing sneaking up on us. Maybe Galen and Randolpho can check out those things too."he gestures towards the undead creatures. "Try to figure out what they are. Where they cam from."

[drpete]

Ok, just to clarify... it takes 10 minutes to search (for traps, or secret doors, or whatever) in a 10x10 area, and it has a chance of success, but is not guaranteed. If there's something you think is here, it *might* make sense to have people looking for it. There are 3 people who can search for traps, and everyone can search for secret doors or for other things hidden around the room, if they want to.

If Torgyr has an idea that there's something here, it may be a good idea to throw some people's effort into it... if most folks are just sitting around, watching the door or whatever, whatever it is may either not be found, or may take a very very long time, in the way that you couldn't find the door the dwarf told you about.

[barkman]

Randolpho joins in the search for traps, followed by the search for anything interesting or of note.

[kalstone]

Solaine pulls out her bow and keeps watch down the hallway. "Once we've reclaimed this entire place, I will restore this chapel to its former glory," she mutters.

[bobloblah]

There are 3 people who can search for traps, and everyone can search for secret doors or for other things hidden around the room, if they want to.

Actually, everyone can search for non-magical traps (Throw 18+, ACKS Core, pg. 93).

Galen moves to the altar end of the room and begins searching for anything unusual.

[Dogma]

Ranulf watches as everyone scatters and to do their own thing rather than follow his plan. With a shrug he walks over and stands by the alter. "Let me kow when your done so we can to work moving this beast," he says impatiently as Galen pokes around looking for traps.

[bobloblah]

Ranulf watches as everyone scatters and to do their own thing rather than follow his plan. With a shrug he walks over and stands by the alter. "Let me kow when your done so we can to work moving this beast," he says impatiently as Galen pokes around looking for traps.

Ooops! Sorry, got caught up in the idea of searching, and forgot about the bodies.

"Just thought it would be worth a look around to see if we have the luck to turn up something of value. I shall see what I can make of those corpses in a few moments."

[Dogma]

"Probaly just as well. Doesn't look like those three are going anywhere soon anyways seeing how they're missing heads and all."

[drpete]

Date: Skullmont 13, 12:50 am
Season: Early Fall
Light Sources: Brother Galen (Lantern, 20 minutes remaining), Climent (Lantern, 20 minutes remaining)
Time since rest: 50 minutes (-1 to hit and damage rolls until 10 minute rest)
Moon phase: Waxing Gibbous
Location: Chapel

After dispatching the walking dead, the group sets about searching the room. Though Ranulf tries to direct people, each of you prioritizes differently.

One contingent guards the door, and the hallway. Ranulf gives his arbalest to Audi, who nods and readies herself. (Emm is big farmer stock, Audi is closer to a dancer) All is quiet, though somewhere, far away, they can hear the sound of metal hammering starting up again.

Another group investigates the altar for traps. It's difficult to see much at first, but taking the scratched floor as a guide, Torgyr realizes that there is some kind of metal protuberance under the altar. Further investigation reveals that the altar is actually mounted on something, a platform which might move (for good or bad) if the trigger could be found. You don't find whatever might release it here.

You're absolutely right, Bob. Curiously, thieves don't even get a bonus on that at 1st level.

For this situation, the mechanism can be triggered or secured with a disarm trap roll, or by finding the trigger, itself.

[Zorroroaster]

Dwarven delvers can find but not disarm or remove traps. Machinists can, as can thieves. Think that means rolls from Steel and Randolpho.

While the more nimble fingered members of the party try and release the mechanism, Torgyr will search the room again for anything that might activate the altar mechanism. He will pay attention to wall sconces, odd stonework, anything hammered or nailed into the wall, and have another look at the alcoves the skeletons were in.

[drpete]

Mmmmm... ok, sounds good.

Just a note: For a general "search" it takes a turn for each 10x10 area you want to search carefully, so this could be a long undertaking. Is there anywhere you'd like to start? Are you going to press on without resting?

Just to bring the descriptions from your last visit forward...

The door opens in the center of the north wall of a 30x30 room, which seems to be a chapel. On the east and west sides of the room are rows of large, decorative marble columns going north to south, each of which has niches on it where a person could stand. There are 3 columns on each side-- they are 5 feet from the walls, and separated from their neighbors by 10 feet. A clear aisle, 20 feet wide, runs down the middle of the room to a marble altar in the center of the south wall. The altar is clearly chipped and damaged.

The niches are actually in the pillars... there are two little alcoves in each pillar, big enough for someone to stand in. One alcove faces into the center of the room, and the other faces the outside wall, making 12 niches total. If you look back at the picture of the black skeletons (page 14), you can see one of the little alcoves in the background. Each one is just big enough for a soldier to stand in, but they don't seem to have anything in them now.

The niches that Torgyr and Ranulf examine seem pretty bare. Each one does have a letter and a number in the back wall, though. The ones in the north, facing into the hallway have the numbers B1 and C1 chiseled into the back of the alcove.

Solaine notes that the altar shows signs that someone has actually pried most of its ornamentation off. Generally, there are images of Mavors fighting different things carved into the altar. Usually, these are ornamented with precious jewels, rubies and opals and such. These seem to have all been pried out of the altar, and the marble has lots of chips and gouges in it from chisels and such. Solaine also notes that the ground in front of the altar is gouged in a few places, as if something heavy scraped the floor there.

The pillars don't seem to be on a central axis, at least not obviously. Going down the central aisle, you find similar numbers/letter combinations. The middle two are B2 and C2, and the southern two are B3 and C3. The only noticeable difference is that the B3 and C3 have little boxes around the letter & number.

The other niches have similar combinations. The ones facing the west say A1, A2 and A3, and the ones facing east say D1, D2 and D3. There seems to form a grid, A-D going west to east, and 1-3 going north to south.

Torgyr notes that the altar is made of marble. It's heavy, and pretty big. It would require a fair amount of effort to move it... it's not on wheels or anything. The gouges in the floor suggest that, at some point, someone has moved it away from the wall and moved it back against the wall, though.

[Zorroroaster]

Torgyr drops his pack and sits down heavily.

"Might as well take a load off for a few. Once we get back into action I'm going to focus on those two alcoves B3 and C3 and see if I can figure out if the boxes mean anything."

[drpete]

Sounds good. A few others were interested in exploring things... Randolpho wanted to look for something interesting. Anywhere/anything in particular, or do you want him to try to engage the mechanism Torgyr found?

Galen was going to look at the bodies now? Climent will join him, if he doesn't object.

The guards have noticed, at this point, that the doors are very sturdy, and can be barred, much like the "orc room". The frescoes show Turms/Mavors (Mavors, but with Turms' head grafted on) doing various heroic things... fighting a hydra, facing off against an army singlehanded, stabbing a giant in the stomach. In all of them, he has a creepy smirk on his face.

[Lamech]

If Steel gets lent the tools he'll take a gander at shifting the alter after resting. Anyone have some trapper tools? I might be able to get the alter to move. But first we should rest...

[Dogma]

Ranulf slumps down beside Torgyr and takes a pull from his water skin. "I'll give you a hand with those pillars. Maybe those boxed numbers need to be pressed at the same time? Course, that's assuming that they are actually switches of some sort."

[Zorroroaster]

Torgyr nods in assent.

"It's a good start. If we can't find the mechanism that unlocks the altar, hopefully Steel and Randolpho will have some luck dismantling it manually. If you thought I was curious about it before, I'm real curious about it now!"

[Dogma]

"If we can't get it to budge any other way, we could get some block and tackle up here. These columns look strong enough to anchor some ropes. Might be able to tip it over. Or we could just get some heavy hammers and chisels and bust it to rubble."