Into the Keep on the Shadowfell IC

[sandmote]

Vuthan whirls against the creature nearest to him, bringing down his sword hard against its body.

If the creature survives, Vuthan presses up against it, taking its attention from Sarathai to himself. He then shifts northward, the better to guard if it should attempt to flank the gnoll.

Spoiler: OOC

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Standard Action: (1d20+9)[19] for (1d8+4)[5], and teh target is slowed on a hit.
Move Action: Shift 1 north.

[Starbuck_II]

Zishu decides he needs to take down at least one of them.
He rushed between them and blast his sword all around him at enemies.

Spoiler

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Swordburst
(1d20+8)[26] vs reflex to both enemies if hit
ForceDam - (1d6+4)[5]

[Dimers]

Gagan fires a blast between his allies, hoping to finish the last of the odd creatures before it can do more harm.

Spoiler: mechanics

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Shooting an elemental bolt at Y3, of course, and shifting east. (d20+9)[28] against Reflex 14; any hit does enough damage to kill.

He heaves a sigh. "Done. What were those things? I haven't seen their like before."

[Starbuck_II]

"Could be some kind of dogs or cats they bred for defense and mutated with dark magik?" Zishu said confused. "Think there will be more in the next room?"

[sandmote]

"Whatever they are, I don't think they're natural," Vuthan replies. "Although I would wonder they anyone would use these as guard animals if they had those scaled things the goblins were with. These didn't seem as tough."

[TurboGhast]

Spoiler: Game Action - End of Combat

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All of the enemies have been defeated, so you've won the combat. All of you gain 172 experience points.

Nothing interrupts the post-battle short rest.

With free rein of the room, a few new things become noticeable. First, at the bottom of the open pit, you can see a long-since crumpled and broken reptile of the type you just engaged. Second, the entrance to this room is also the only exit.

Third, there's a bunch of coins piled up at the right corner of the dead end. Counting it out, there's 47 gp (7 per, 5 remainer) and 216 sp (36 per, no remainder). 5 amethyst gems are strewn haphazardly about within the pile.

[Rakaydos]

"Load it up. Looks like a dead end. Do we try the door with the warnings, or look for another way to go?"

[Starbuck_II]

"Could there be a secret entrance? These things had to have come from somewhere, no?"

[Rakaydos]

"Probably a tunnel somewhere in that shattered rock, but none of us are small enough to make use of it. Let's turn around."

[Phantom Genius]

"Hey! Gems!" Drang's enthusiasm is palpable. "Should we search the room first? Maybe the bottom of the pit?"

[TurboGhast]

No evidence of tunnels not already marked on the battle map is visible at a glance, but skill checks might let you find more details.

To get in and out of the open pit safely you'd have to climb a bit. Fortunately, it wouldn't be that difficult (you can assume success when attempting it).

[Archemist]

Elmo Theren decides he's kept to the background for long enough, and so he picks up his torch from the ground and drops down into the pit to explore, at Drang's suggestion.

Spoiler: OOC - Nature and Perception

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(1d20+13)[17] Nature and (1d20+13)[17] Perception

The elf examines the long-dead creature in the pit and sees if he can learn anything about its life or demise. He also searches the pit for footprints or other evidence of people who might have been down there previously.

[Dimers]

Gagan simply rests and reabsorbs arcane energy while his companions look around, keeping his senses trained on the direction they came from. "I have no skill in finding hidden passages. Best I stick to what I do well." He mimes blasting fire at an imaginary goblin coming down the stairs.

[TurboGhast]

Getting a closer look lets Elmo recognize the creature as a kruthik, a reptilian hunter that relies on superior numbers to overwhelm prey. Hives have been known to strip everywhere in their reach of all potential prey, including humanoids, so they're generally agreed to be pests. Fortunately for adventures tasking with exterminating them, kruthik tend to bring any treasure they find into their hive.

Beneath the kruthik's corpse is a similarly long-dead goblin's corpse, whose spiky wounds make it clear they were in a fight with a kruthik. Within their belt pouch is 12 gp (2 per) and two potions of healing they never got to use.

Spoiler: Potion of Healing

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As a minor action, drink this potion and spend a healing surge to regain 10 hit points (instead of the amount you'd normally regain).

[Archemist]

The elf jumps back up out of the pit holding the loot. He looks his companions up and down and hands the two potions to the two worst-hurt members of the party. For the coins, he carefully passes 2 coins to each, saying, "Well that's two for you, two for you, two for you..." etc. until holding up the final two and saying, "And here is my 2 cents."

As far as where to go next, he says simply, "Whatever is behind that door will be fine staying there at least until we finish eradicating the cultists from this place. Once the door is open... it may be hard to close again."

[Phantom Genius]

The elf jumps back up out of the pit holding the loot. He looks his companions up and down and hands the two potions to the two worst-hurt members of the party.

"Hey! Save those for a rainy day (a bloody day? maybe that!) I got all yer healing right here."

As far as where to go next, he says simply, "Whatever is behind that door will be fine staying there at least until we finish eradicating the cultists from this place. Once the door is open... it may be hard to close again."

"I agree. Let's fry this trash." (Mostly looking at Gagan)

[Starbuck_II]

"I hope you are right, this better not be a castle that explodes if all cultist are killed. Thanks for climbing down to get that treasure, Elmo" replies jokingly Zishu.

[Rakaydos]

"In case it hasnt been mentioned, I age like 3 times faster than even the humans. Y'all are taking FOREVER in here. Can we move on?"

[Dimers]

Gagan's eyes glitter but he doesn't crack a smile as he says to Sarathi, "Learn the patience of ancient Arkhosia. And never mind that the empire fell long ago. Let's head out." He grabs his pack, lantern and staff from where they're resting by a wall.

[sandmote]

"If this is a dead end, maybe we can try following the goblin that ran off?" Vuthan scratches his head. "Except if they're anything like my people, they've specially trained to escape on a path we can't follow."

[TurboGhast]

You're able to return to the excavation site without incident. At first glance, the only change is that the drake seems to have left, so it's time to take a closer look.

(OOC: Begin describing the manner in which you search the area and making perception checks.)

[sandmote]

Vuthan heads to where he thinks he recalls the goblin disappeared. Feeling along the sides of the wall, he looks for any preprepared edges that the goblins could use to mark or open the passage, like the markings and handholds the goliath craft to make their regular paths easier for the children. "They had to know where to spot the wall somehow, and I'm hoping it wasn't pure memory."

Spoiler: OOC

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Forgot to roll. Can be found here on the rolling thread. (result of 21)

[Phantom Genius]

Vuthan heads to where he thinks he recalls the goblin disappeared. Feeling along the sides of the wall, he looks for any preprepared edges.

Drang tries to emulate Vuthan.

Spoiler: Perception

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(1d20+4)[18]

[TurboGhast]

The closest thing Vuthan and Drang find to such a marking is a line of slightly more worn out stone on the hallway's northern wall around the height of Drang's shoulder, going from the top of the staircase to 5 feet past the bottom of that staircase (the purple line on the battle map marks its location). While it unfortunately seems the goblins simply remembered the position of the secret door, that might tell you something about it, and even crumbs of information can be boons when searching for something well hidden.

[Dimers]

"Hmmmm ..." Gagan taps his chin. "Perhaps something magically activated? I'll search that way while you folk continue." He goes to stand in the middle of the room and closes his eyes for a minute or so.

Spoiler: Arcana check to detect magic

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(d20+7)[16] If that comes out to 14 or less, I'll try a reroll, taking the second result: (d20+7)[14]

[TurboGhast]

Gagan doesn't sense any magic besides the expected pulse of the party's magical equipment (that pulse doesn't make detecting other things harder). As best you can tell, the secret door is a mundane one.

[Rakaydos]

Sararhi moves along the wall, looking for changes in airflow and goblin scent.

(d20+10)[24] perception.

[TurboGhast]

Minute changes in airflow let Sarathi pinpoint the exact location of the door - just after the stairs end. However, she's not able to locate the opening mechanism. You're so close that coming up with one clever idea will let you in.

The scent of goblin is especially strong on the slightly more worn out stone. Since that line ends at the door's center, they're probably related.

(OOC: Door location has been marked on the battle map.

Probably should have explicitly noted that successfully reasoning about the secret door is a path to opening it. A perception check that beats the DC will let you find and open the door no questions asked, but good ones that don't quite get to the high DC still give relevant information. Given the good rolls, drawing one piece of new information out of what you already know will be enough to find the intended means of opening it.)

[Archemist]

The elf is pretty good at perceiving things but not like his ancestors' knack for finding secret doors. He gives it a try anyway, here.

Spoiler: OOC - Perception

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(1d20+13)[28]

[TurboGhast]

All of the information gathered up to this point makes the mere try an outright success. When Elmo pushes a specific brick diagonally inward and eastward, an entire section of the wall slides open without a sound to reveal a small, staircased hallway leading to a handle connected to the inner workings of a secret door, clearly meant for opening it from the inside. However, some indistinguishable chatter reveals that there has to be someone on the other side.

(OOC: Awaiting the manner in which you advance, including if stealth, temporary party splitting, or other forms of strategic movement will be used.)