Skull Mountain Redux

[greyarea]

After descending the long flight of steps, you pass north about 20' into a natural chamber some 70' wide and 50' deep. You have ignored a narrow passageway to your left (west) in order to enter this area, for your light has glinted off something on the far wall of the place. Now you see that there are weird faces carved in bas-relief around the walls of this cavern. There are, in fact, six such visages hewn from the rock itself. Each face is by the side of one of six tunnels leading off in one direction or another from the cavern to unknown. Although each face is slightly different from its fellows, all are strange and doleful looking: one has doglike ears, another protuding tusks, a third drooping wattles, etc. There seems to be no relationship between the size of the passageway and the stony visage beside it. Nothing else in the chamber seems remarkable. There are a few stalactites on the ceiling above, a few fallen to the floor amid a handful of stalagmites.

Actions?

Hit points and marching order
Grimes 46/46
--Dandy 33/33 < CLW x6, Speak With Animals, Hold Person, Find Traps, Augury, Silence 15', Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, CSW, create food and water >
Castinus 34/34
--Furuk 59/59
Dieter 31/31 < magic missile x2, sleep, continual light, stinking cloud, slow, Evard's black tentacles, arcane eye >
--Acquaire

[badams30]

Grimes - Fighter

Grimes hands Dieter the teeth and claws. "Here you go, nice job. You killed that thing all by yourself!" He taps Dieter on the side and says quietly with a chuckle "But next time, let me get a few moments of a ride on that thing before you juice him, eh?"

Grimes adjusts his gear, smiles at Acquire, and with a shrug says "Lotsa choices. Anyone have a good feeling about any one direction? If not, maybe we just start at a one end and or another." He smiles and says "What do ya think?"

OOC: Grimes votes on a random passage, assuming you could number them from 1-6, he'd prefer either 1 or 6... that's easiest for his little brain.

[tumblingdice]

Castinus, having dismounted, relished in the relative warmth of the caverns. He begins examining the faces for any signs of traps.

[Spanningtree]

Dieter - Mage

I am fairly sure the drak was damaged before, the elemental also helped. Dieter will take a couple of teeth. Many thanks.

Dieter will look closer at one of the faces: Hello?

OCC: 2x white dragon teeth added to inventory.

[merias]

You have ignored a narrow passageway to your left (west) in order to enter this area

Dandy takes a peek down that passageway.

[greyarea]

When Castinus and Dieter approach the faces, a mouth moves and it says with a bass, mournfully dire tone: "TURN BACK ... THIS IS NOT THE WAY!" This happens when approaching any of the faces, you notice. Castinus also notices something glittering within each mouth of the bas-relief faces -- they look like gems. Each mouth seems to have a gem in it and each a different color. The colors are, from left to right, amber, purple, pale blue, deep red, olive green, and dark pink. The glint must have come from one of the gems from the Permanent Light shaft that Acquaire holds above her head.



Dandy is having none of this and returns to the passageway you passed. It goes for a while before turning. Listening intently, he hears nothing. Dandy doesn't follow, yet, but he does tell the others.


Actions?

Hit points and marching order
Grimes 46/46
--Dandy 33/33 < CLW x6, Speak With Animals, Hold Person, Find Traps, Augury, Silence 15', Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, CSW, create food and water >
Castinus 34/34
--Furuk 59/59
Dieter 31/31 < magic missile x2, sleep, continual light, stinking cloud, slow, Evard's black tentacles, arcane eye >
--Acquaire

OOC:

You have ignored a narrow passageway to your left (west) in order to enter this area

Dandy takes a peek down that passageway.

Yeah, the module isn't getting off to a good start with these kind of boxed text. I was hurriedly doing this post between family activities and didn't notice that idiocy. I guess they really wanted you in that area.

[badams30]

Grimes - Fighter
Grimes frowns as each face speaks. He finally says loudly "That's helpful enough. Stupid mouths." He'll approach the mouth to the northwest (I guess that's the direction) and he examines the gem from a distance. He glances back and says "I'm sure grabbing this thing will result in some painful ball of fire or something, that's my luck." He glances at the face, then the gem, then the face again and he uses the end of Wave to try and push the gem out of the mouth.

OOC: Smart? Probably not. But what the hey.

[Spanningtree]

Dieter - Mage

Umm... I'd leave those be Grimes. Retracing his steps he'll see what Dandy's checking out.

[Craigers07]

Furuk - Fighter

Furuk stands with his sword ready and watches Grimes try to dislodge the gem.

[tumblingdice]

Castinus plants his face in his palm. "Grimes," he spits through his teeth. "We don't need gems. We need to stay alive. Remember the tomb of horrors..."

Despite this warning, he'll chance a few steps past the westernmost face, keeping an eye out for traps.