Chapter 8: A Puzzle

[jstater]

Yeah - sorry - forgot to check in.

[Solomoriah]

If everyone agrees, we will go back down to the caverns first to the portal room to see if there are any clues on the walls to the puzzle.

The adventurers had no difficulty in reaching the room with the ring of Elvish on the floor. As before, the party's torches flickered as the door was opened, and all felt a gentle, cool, humid breeze blowing over them. Within, nothing had changed; the floor still held a huge rune, encircled by the text. Timorel recalled the words: "Here is the way to great treasure. Step inside and enter the deepest hoard."

Shybolt's plan consists of a lot of steps, not all of which are written down. Rather than have someone think they are being railroaded, I'll just handle your orders as you give them. Please don't post a series of orders that would reasonably take more than a turn to execute.

[Hywaywolf]

We all now go to the "throne" room to make sure its safe, then spread back to the "elvish" room - Shybolt staying in the throne room near the secret door,

Step 1 - We will all now go to the throne room to make sure the way is safe checking up each passage along the way, up to the first turn to see if an army is waiting around the bend.

Step 2 - If we find nothing in any of the passages and the throne room then we will spread out back toward the elvish room. Shybolt will stay in the throne room and listen at the "secret" door. Arvin will stay at the east end east/west passage, Grumm will stay at west end of the east/west passage, and Timorrel will go into the Elvish room to toss our rigged noise making contraption. If the GM hasn't told us of anything in the tavern when we searched it then Shybolt will have used some old pots, pans, pottery, etc tied to gether in such away that they will not stand upright on their own, so hopefully when they land where ever the portal sends them they will fall over and make noise. We will have made at least two of these contraptions.

Step 3 - Timmorrel gives Grumm the thumbs up sign, Grumm passes it to Arven and Arven passes it to Shybolt who prepares his ears to listen at the secret door. Timorrel drops the first contraption into the portal.

Unless something happens during those steps, we will wait to see what Shybolt hears, if anything.

[Solomoriah]

The adventurers carried out their elaborate plan without difficulty. Timorel gave the sign, waited a moment for it to be passed along, then gently tossed a small sack full of broken pottery into the center of the symbol on the floor. The instant the bag touched the floor, it disappeared silently.

Shybolt, straining to hear, thought he did detect an echoing, distant sound of clattering pottery. None of the other adventurers heard a thing.

[Hywaywolf]

Shybolt smiled at the sound, but still wasn't sure. He moved to the opening of the throne room and signaled to the cleric to try it one more time. Then raced back to the "secret door" and placed his ear against the wall.

(As two tries was part of the original plan, I don't think we need to wait for everyone to chime in again with agreement to this unless something else changed around us. Just my opinion, you are the GM.)

[Nekron99]

Sounds good.
(question: can the sack o'pottery be pulled back up or does it need to be replaced? Is there anything wrong and or identifiable on the sack when it is pulled back? I would hate for the sack to be used to lure something up through the portal to us.)

[Hywaywolf]

To the ebst of my recollection, it just dissappeared. I suppose you could tie a rope to the next one, but if you really want to test it I'll take a rope with me, because If I hear the sound again, Shybolt is going to risk going through the portal.

[Solomoriah]

So is Brother Arven going to ask Timorel to stop and tie a rope to the bag, or are you going ahead as originally planned?

[Nekron99]

No, no, carry on my wayward son....I was merely thinking out loud...tis nothing, truely it is only dust in the wind. Please continue, I am but a red shirt here.

[Solomoriah]

The adventurers repeated their experiment, and this time, Shybolt was sure he heard the sound.

Sorry this took so long. I've been laid up with a nasty flu from Tuesday 'til today. This is the first time I've even looked at the forum since then.