Adventure 2004 July 31

Taniday, 19 of Taner, 150AV, late evening

"Taniday, 19 of Taner, 150AV, late evening"

"You're currently holed up in what appears to be a tack room in the ratmen's ruined keep. The door is spiked closed, leaving you alone with the bridles, bits and other more exotic equipment which you assume is used to harness and stable horse-rats."

"After your recent foray into the warrens below, you've set up camp to dress your wounds and restore your spells. You defeated a large force of fortified ratmen and their terrible minions, but the powerful shaman escaped."

"You get the feeling that there's much more still to discover, including their rumored exhumation of Chern's remains. Tanil willing, you'll regain your strength quickly and follow up your last raid."

"The alternative is too horrific to imagine..."

Paks lays hands on Darmaon and Goldpetal to heal them slightly, but we're too battered to do much. We decide to try to sleep for the evening. After an hour of resting, Stone and Darmaon are watching the door when something grabs their ankles. It's a bunch of dead eaters, coming up from below. One attacks each of Paks, Chuck, Goldpetal, and Darmaon. The last one, near the door, lunges at Stone and grapples him. The one attacking Paks, who is still sleeping, goes after her with both claws and a bite, hitting with all. This wakes her up. Another goes after Goldpetal in the same way, but fumbles one of the claws. Goldpetal breaks out in corpse blisters, and breaks out in a loud roar. The next attacks Chuck, biting him but missing with the claws. The last attacks Darmaon, hitting with one claw.

Goldpetal leaps up and bites at the dead eater that attacked him, hitting it. Telryn casts a magic missile at the same one, and kills it. Stone and the dead eater keep grappling. One dead eater attacks Paks, biting her. Another attacks Chuck, biting him but missing with its claws. Darmaon is attacked again, but it misses him. Chuck stands up and draws his short sword, swings at the dead eater, and hits it. Stone attacks his dead eater with a flurry of blows. Paks, from the ground, tries to grapple the dead eater on her. She grabs it; it tries to pull free but fails. She wounds it. Darmon hits the one on him with his dagger. Miriel stands up, pulls out her silver dagger, and stabs at the dead eater attacking Chuck, scratching it.

Goldpetal claws and bites at the dead eater attacking Chuck, but misses. Telryn pulls out his wand and shoots the dead eater Paks is grappling, killing it. Paks draws her sword and thanks Telryn. The dead eater grappling Stone tries to bite his face off, but fails. Dead eaters attack Chuck and Darmaon, they miss Chuck but hit Darmaon badly. Chuck swings with his short sword and hits, killing it. Stone suddenly twists his arms, breaking the neck of the dead eater and killing it. Paks swings and kills the last one. Miriel heals Paks, lies down, and goes back to sleep.

Paks wants to try on the mere worm armor, but it is grossly encrusted with filth. Chuck casts a clean spell for her, and it looks much better, so she tries it on. It doesn't fit very well, since it was made for a rat man. Still, she feels more secure sleeping in it. She asks Chuck to cast an Alarm spell this time, so he does.

Miriel wakes up after two hours and heals Chuck and Darmaon, then goes back to sleep. After a few more hours, the alarm spell goes off. Chuck immediately looks at the floor, but doesn't see anything but the holes from the dead eaters. He looks at the door and hears some chunking noises, as if someone was trying to break through with axes. Paks leaps up and tries to get her armor on. Chuck faces the door with both swords drawn ("Hoarfrost!"). Darmaon joins Chuck and Stone at the door, and Miriel and Goldpetal stand behind them. Goldpetal changes back into elf form, pulls out his rope, tells everyone to get back, casts Snare on it in front of the door, and changes back into a panther.

As the door breaks down, we see what looks like a small horde of skeletons pounding on the door with their arms, which look like bone axes. Goldpetal waits for one to come through the door and get ensnared. Darmaon swings his sword and dagger at the closest one, hitting with the dagger, which just bounces off of the bone. It puts up its left arm, which is shaped like a buckler, and blocks his blow. Paks gets her breastplate on, with Telyrn's help, draws her sword, and waits for one of the skeletons to come for her. Miriel draws her symbol of Madriel and attempts to turn them. The symbol glows with a blinding light, but has no effect on the skeletons. Telryn shoots a magic missile. Chuck swings with both swords, hitting with Hoarfrost and injuring it slightly, but it seems immune to the cold. Stone waits for a skeleton to come to him and makes a humorous remark. The skeletons move forward. The first one gets ensnared in Goldpetal's trap, but proceeds to try hit Goldpetal with his axe hand anyway. Goldpetal claws and bites at him, hitting with one claw and the bite (OW! as his teeth grate on the bones). He injures it slightly. Paks steps up and swings at the same skeleton, hitting it twice and shattering it. (Next!) Another skeleton moves in through the door and attacks Goldpetal, hitting him. Another moves in to attack Chuck, but misses.

Darmaon does a sneak attack on the one that attacked Goldpetal, but misses. Miriel steps away, then casts a lesser restoration on Telryn. Telryn magic missiles a skeleton, damaging it. Chuck swings with Hoarfrost and his short sword, missing with Hoarfrost, but hitting with his short sword. Stone does nothing. Goldpetal swings both claws at the skeleton near him, hitting with both. Paks swings twice, hitting once and smashing another skeleton. She steps forward to cleave the next, hitting it hard. Three skeletons attack Paks, and two hit her, one of them critcally, with a hand that looks like a mace.

Darmaon attacks a skeleton through the door, but misses with his sword. He tries to hit with the pommel of his dagger, but misses. Miriel steps back and waits to help someone. Telryn casts a magic missile. Chuck swings at one through the door, but misses. Stone watches with interest. Goldpetal roars angrily at the skeletons. Paks glances back at him - it seems Stone accidentally kicked him in the haunches. Paks swings at an injured skeleton twice and shatters it. She cleaves on through, stepping further into the fray, and hitting the next one. The skeletons swing at Paks, but miss.

Darmaon tumbles through the skeletons rather clumsily, allowing two of them to hit him. He swings at one and hits with a sneak attack. Telryn steps up to get a better view. Chuck tumbles gracefully through the skeletons, grinning at Darmaon as he goes. He swings at at a skeleton and hits. Goldpetal leaps over Paks to attack the skeletons, striking at two with a claw each and hitting one. Paks swings at another and smashes it, then cleaves on through, but misses. She swings again and hits the last skeleton, but doesn't damage it much. Miriel tries to swing with her spear as a staff, but misses.

Chuck swings and hits. Goldpetal hits with both claws. Paks swings and hits, smashing the last one. Chuck takes the bone mace hand as a mace; it's rather clumsy, but he is pleased to have a mace. We all go back to sleep.

We rest for another hour, then three more skeletons show up. Paks and Chuck charge to the front. Paks misses. Chuck attacks with the bone mace and hits, but it seems to not do any damage. Telryn steps out into the hall behind them, but has fallen behind. Two of the skeletons hit Paks and Chuck with sword hands. Miriel just sits and rests. Darmaon steps up behind Paks. Goldpetal moves forward.

Paks tells everyone to back up, then swings twice, hitting both times. Telryn magic missiles the same one, exploding it. Chuck swings and misses. A skeleton attacks him, but misses. The other one attacks Paks and hits her hard. She calls for help. Darmaon tumbles through to flank the skeletons, but misses. Goldpetal jumps over and claws at the skeletons, but misses.

Paks swings twice and hits. Telryn shoots a magic missile. Chuck swings and misses, but kicks at it. The skeleton attacks Chuck, but misses. Miriel runs out and heals Paks. Darmaon swings and hits. Goldpetal claws and bites, but misses.

Paks hits twice. Telryn shoots a magic missile. Chuck swings and hits, killing it. Goldpetal goes back into the room we've been sleeping in, picks up the rope, and carries it to Chuck, who takes it, looking a little puzzled. Paks cures Goldpetal's corpse blisters.

We consider resting further away, perhaps on the roof of the building. We decide to try one of the catwalks. As it is just dawn, Miriel does rites to Madriel, praying for her presence in our coming battle against the minions of Chern. Paks joins her, and prays for unbroken rest. We rest quietly for three hours. Miriel heals Paks and Chuck. Darmaon drinks one of his potions of Cure Light Wounds. Miriel helps Paks put on her armor, even though Telryn volunteers enthusiastically.

We head back down into the dungeon. We get back to the staircase and Paks starts down the stairs. A net drops again, snaring her. It suddenly goes dark, right in front of Miriel.

Chuck crouches down and feels for the net holding Paks, trying to cut her free. Six crossbow bolts fire at Paks. One hits, one goes wild, and we hear a squeal of pain from the direction the bolts came from. Miriel pulls out her magical spear and invokes the Daylight spell. The darkness is dispelled and the rat men make cursing noises. We see six rat men down the stairs. Darmaon pulls out his bow and tries a sneak attack on one of the rat men, but misses. Telryn waits. Goldpetal runs over and bites at a rat man, but misses. Paks tries to cut herself free of the net. She slices it and brushes the pieces of rope off.

Chuck stands up, moves over, and attacks a rat man, hitting it. The rat men bolt. Chuck attacks one as it runs past and hits, but doesn't kill it. Goldpetal bites at one and chomps it hard. Miriel waits to see what happens. Darmaon tumbles past the rat man and flanks it, but fails to hit. Goldpetal bites and claws at it, hitting with all weapons. Paks swings at the injured rat man and kills it.

We go into the room we were in before; there are dead rats on the floor and the room is covered with splattered food, knocked over tables, dishes, and vomit. We go through the propped-open secret door and head down the stairs. Darmaon goes first to search for traps. The stairs go down for 20 feet, and it's really dark at the bottom. There is clearly another Darkness spell at the bottom. As soon as Miriel walks through the secret door with her spear glowing with Daylight, the darkness is countered, and we see the pit at the bottom of the stairs again.

Goldpetal leaps across the pit. As he lands, four crossbow bolts fly at him. Two arrows hit him.

Chuck tries to jump across the pit, but falls. He is pretty badly hurt. Telryn casts Fly on Paks and she flies over the pit, giving out a scary yell as she zooms toward the ratmen. Darmaon climbs down into the pit. Miriel waits for Chuck to set up a rope across the pit. The rat men start to flee.

We set up pitons and ropes to climb across the pit. Chuck looks down the hall in both directions. In one direction, We hear sounds as if of a forge, clanging of metal on metal. We decide to ignore this. Paks goes down the hall and opens the door, then calls to Miriel to pull out her holy symbol - she has found a crypt. Paks also draws her holy symbol. It's an old crypt, the floor covered in debris. There are alcoves on the sides, starting at about four feet high. There's a raised platform in the back across from the door. There used to be a coat of arms on the wall, but it's been pushed aside, and wedged with a rock, to reveal a secret door. The coat of arms is a pair of crossed swords with a duck.

Paks steps up and looks in an alcove, but it's totally empty. She checks more, and they're all empty. She asks for searchers to check the rest of the alcoves, and Darmaon, Chuck, and Telryn help. Darmaon accidentally kicks a pile of rocks on the floor and notices a gleam - it's a yellow gem. Paks finds a red gem in some debris as well. On the raised platform we find a lot of a white chalky substance. Miriel looks at it, but can't tell what it is. Telryn thinks its ground bone.

Paks flies up over the platform and pushes aside the coat of arms. Chuck listens, but doesn't hear anything. The door handle is a duck shape, with a bar attached to the beak. Chuck tries to open the door and fails, but Paks pushes it open easily. As she pushes it open, Darmaon can see a skeleton, past her, through the door.

Darmaon tries to tumble past the skeletons again and one swings at him, but misses. Darmon attacks with the flat of his blade and hits, but doesn't seem to do much damage. Chuck swings at one and hits. He takes a closer look at the skeleton, and it seems to be a mishmash of random bones, not a single skeleton. Miriel swings the butt of her spear at a skeleton and its. A skeleton swings at Darmaon, but misses. Goldpetal swings a claw and hits, but doesn't seem to do any damage. The other skeletons do not move.

Darmaon swings and misses. Telryn waits. Chuck swings and hits, destroying the skeleton. Miriel waits. Goldpetal swings at a skeleton, which animates.

Chuck tries to see where the trail of blood and bone goes. Paks attacks the skeleton in front of Goldpetal and hits it. Miriel waits. The skeletons attack Goldpetal and hit. Goldpetal hits with all weapons, but does no damage again.

Darmaon looks around, but can't see any more. Chuck waits for Goldpetal to get out of the way. Paks hits the skeleton hard. Miriel waits for some space to attack. The two skeletons attack Goldpetal; one hits. Goldpetal moves out of the way. Chuck steps up and hits a skeleton.

Paks swings and smashes the skeleton, then cleaves on through to the next one. Miriel waits. The skeleton attacks Paks. One of the ones behind it steps up and attacks Paks. Goldpetal heals himself. The rest of us just wait for Paks and Chuck to hammer them apart.

Chuck and Paks swing and hit. Two skeletons attack Paks, but miss. Chuck shatters one.

Darmaon tumbles through to flank the skeletons. The one in back animates as he moves through. He hits it. One skeleton attacks Paks, one attacks Darmaon. Chuck steps forward and swings with two swords and hits once.

Darmaon swings and misses. Paks swings twice and hits. Miriel steps up, swings and hits, swings again and misses. One skeleton attacks Darmaon, one attacks Paks, both miss. Chuck swings with two swords and misses. He swings again and hits.

Darmaon swings and hits. Telryn magic missiles them both and smashes them. Paks glares at him and yells "Poacher!".

Paks steps up to the door and tries to open it, but fails. Chuck tries to track the rat man that ran through bleeding, but it's hard to tell in all the combat and bone dust. Paks tries to open the door again, with Chuck helping, and it opens to a staircase going down.

Darmaon looks for traps on the stairs, but doesn't see any. He tries the stairs and nothing happens. We go down the stairs, and listen at the door at the bottom. We don't hear anything. Paks tries to break the door open, but fails. They both keep trying to open the door, but keep failing. Goldpetal finally pushes past them and pushes it open. Someone mutters "I loosened it."

We go into a room. The first thing we see is a statue which used to be on a pedestal, but has been knocked over into a pile of rubble. There is a pile of rubble near a door, with some rat man writing on the wall above it. Goldpetal takes a closer look at the statue, but can't tell what it was. Chuck moves towards the rubble and searches for tracks of the rat men. Darmaon tries to decipher the writing on the wall. The rubble is clearly blocking the door, intentionally. Telryn comes in and reads the writing on the wall. It says "Danger, do not enter!" Miriel looks around and tries to see if there is any evidence of Titan worship. The frescoes, strangely, seem to be dedicated to Belsameth. Women with bat wings, some sort of mythological story. One of the frescoes shows this keep in a lake, with some ducks.

Goldpetal turns back into an elf and asks Paks to sense evil, but she doesn't sense any, so she suggests opening the door. We labor to move the rubble. Telryn says "I'll watch your backs, that looks like labor." Miriel sits in the corner and meditates to Madriel. Chuck and Paks burst open the door.

Darmaon and Paks go through together, Paks flying and detecting evil. As they walk, suddenly Darmaon grabs Paks and stops her from moving. He's spotted a pit trap. He bends down and tries to disable it, with Chuck's help. Darmaon asks Miriel for her spear, but she is reluctant, so Telryn passes up his quarterstaff. Darmaon pokes the floot with the staff, a 10x20 pit opens up, and flames shoot up out of it, scorching Darmaon and Paks' eyebrows. Once Darmaon sees how it works, he wedges it shut with some climbing pitons. Darmaon searches again and doesn't find any traps, so Paks moves forward to open the door. Before she does, she casts Cure Light Wounds on herself.

Goldpetal and Miriel listen at the door and hear nothing. Paks tries to open the door again and it opens easily. We find a room with lots of tapestries, and one door visible out of the room. Paks tries to detect evil again. Miriel and Goldpetal come in to examine the tapestries. She pokes at the walls behind the tapestry, but it's solid. The floor is very very dusty; it seems no one has been here in many years.

One small tapestry has a beautiful floral design. Another is woven with the coat of arms in silver and gold thread. The one on the far wall, 3' x 8' is woven with very high quality thread, but is obscene, with an image of a naked dark woman with bat wings. Miriel and Paks are almost embarrassed by it. Telryn doesn't recognize it, but Miriel says it's not Belsameth, but perhaps one of her princesses of the nether realms.

Telryn scans the room with a detect magic, while Paks scans for evil, and finds a faint sense of it behind the door in front of her. Paks tries to open the door, with the help of Goldpetal and Chuck, but it's stuck. Chuck tries, with some help, but fails. Chuck tries again and fails. Paks tries a few times, but fails. Chuck tries and fails. Miriel tries with Telryn and Goldpetal's help and almost succeeds, but fails. Paks and Chuck finally manage.

We open the door, to find a long abandoned room. The air is stuffy and stale, with a lingering stink of old meat and dry bones. Three desiccated humanoid bodies lie slumped at the base of an incredibly lifelike statue of pink marble. The statue depicts a lounging woman of great beauty but with a sardonic smile upon her lips. Tiny horns on her head, a sinuous tail coiled about one leg, and large batlike winds reveal the demonic nature of the figure. A fourth desiccated body lies draped over the statue's lap.

Chuck looks around and sees that the corpses are VERY old. Miriel recognizes the statue as the same figure from the tapestry. Paks tries to see if the corpses are male, but she can't tell. Chuck steps in to the room. He starts walking towards the platform as if he's in a trance.

Telryn casts a dispell, but it seems to have no effect. Darmaon tries to tackle Chuck. As soon as Darmaon enters the room, Chuck animates and seems enraged. Chuck pulls out Hoarfrost ("Hoarfrost!"). Darmaon trips and falls. Paks casts Divine Favor on herself. Goldpetal walks up next to Chuck, kneels down, touches the stone Chuck is standing on, and casts a spell to create a large hole in the stone under Chuck. Chuck tries to save himself, but falls in. He's in the floor up to his shoulders, and it's quite narrow so he's pretty well stuck. Miriel walks over to the other door and listens at it, but all she can hear is Chuck cursing.

Chuck tries to climb out again. Goldpetal attacks him, trying to subdue him, and hits him in the head. Telryn casts Grease on the sides of the hole. Chuck slips back into the hole. Paks steps over and tries to subdue Chuck.

Goldpetal casts Shape Stone again and creates a column of stone with an air hole over Chuck. Paks looks in awe at Goldpetal. Goldpetal suddenly feels a compulsion pushing at him, but he shakes it off. Miriel looks around, and the statue suddenly looks really interesting to her.

Chuck calls out "Guys, come on, I promise I won't attack you again, let me out! It's scary in here!" Darmaon takes a look at the stone column, but it's attached to the floor. Telryn looks for a tapestry that's large enough to cover the statue. He pulls down the 3x8 tapestry. Paks sees this and goes to help him. Goldpetal goes back into the room with the tapestries. Miriel sees Darmaon in the room and is enraged that he is in the room. She attempts to attack Darmaon. She manages not to slip in the grease. She swings and hits him with her spear.

Chuck calls out "What's happening up there? I'm sorry I stabbed you, Darmaon!" Darmaon retreats and takes a potion of Cure Light Wounds. Telryn and Paks start dragging the tapestry in. Goldpetal stays in the room with the tapestry. Miriel is now enraged at Paks and Telryn, and she tries to attack Paks, but she slips and falls in the grease.

Chuck calls out again to be let out. Darmaon starts chipping at the stone pillar with a dagger, trying to get Chuck out, but doesn't make much progress. Telryn and Paks try to drape the tapestry over the figure without touching it, and luckily they succeed. Miriel, suddenly freed from her compulsion, feels ashamed of herself and apologies profusely to Darmaon.

We try to figure out how to get Chuck out and how to keep the statue from reactivating. Telryn detects magic on the pedestal. The statue radiates a lot of magic, but the pedestal is not magic. Goldpetal needs to rest for three hours to shape the stone. Paks stays with Chuck while we rest, as does Goldpetal, but Telryn and Miriel want to rest in the tapestry room. While resting, Paks feels a sudden compulsion to take the tapestry off the statue, but she prays to Madriel and resists.

After three hours, Goldpetal first shapes a dome of stone over the statue, then releases Chuck. Chuck grabs a waterskin and has a long drink.

Paks tries to detect evil on the next door, but only detects the evil of the statue behind her. Darmaon looks for traps, but doesn't find any. Miriel heals Chuck and does a Lesser Restoration on Goldpetal. Paks heals Goldpetal and herself.

Paks tries to open the door with Darmaon's help and fails. Chuck and Paks try and succeed. We come into a room with a stairway up. There is a small chest, a gold duck, and a huge two-handed sword. On the wall is the crest. Paks calls for Telryn and tells Chuck to wait. Paks does not detect evil and calls for Darmaon to look for traps. Paks suggests that Miriel wrap the duck in cloth, Darmaon check out the chest. Goldpetal suggests that we don't need the duck. Telryn says the sword and duck are definitely magical, and the chest may contain magic as well. He senses a magical aura on the top level and tells Darmaon that there may be a magic trap. Darmaon checks the first level and does not find any traps. He pulls out his bow and tries to shoot the crest, but trips and misses. The arrow hits the wall and falls down.

Darmaon steps up and looks for traps, but doesn't find any. He steps up again and doesn't find any. He tries the top level and determines that there is a magical trap at the top. He decides to try to disable it, but says it will be fairly difficult. We discuss perhaps dispelling it instead. We finally decide to rest for a while. We rest quietly for three hours.

Telryn tries to dispell the trap, but he detects magic and it is still there. He is discouraged - he says he did his best. Telryn casts Fly on Chuck so he can fly over and get the chest, because Telryn thinks there is something good in it. Chuck picks up the chest; there is something in it. He then flies back and picks up the sword, with a sack wrapped around his hand. He drops the sword and goes back for the duck. Now it suddenly occurs to him that he's been maneuvered into risking a curse again, and that he has borne the brunt of all the curses of this group. Paks calls to Chuck to see if he is okay. Chuck says "I don't want to touch the duck!" She tells him to leave it, and he turns around, but then he turns again and grabs the duck. He almost fumbles, but manages to get a grip on it.

Chuck, then has the idea of going back to the crest. He flies over to the crest and grabs hold of it, trying to see if there is a secret door behind it. As he touches it, there is a whoosh and a huge creature magically appears in the room along with the scent of brimstone. The 9ft tall creature looks bony and wretched, almost a husk of a humanoid form, topped with a fearsome skull whose skickly dried skin is stretched tight. It has a tail like a scorpion's and exudes a foul order of decay.

Telryn casts Grease again. Darmaon looks at the chest and tries to pick the lock, but he's rushing due to the combat and fails. Goldpetal hears the screaming and moves in and draws his bow. He shoots, but misses. Miriel casts a Searing Light at the devil and hits. Chuck flies up, braces his feet on the pedestal and draws his bow. The devil tries to sting Chuck with its scorpion tail. Chuck hits the devil point blank in the chest. The devil looks at the arrow in his chest, glares at Chuck, and pulls the arrow out. Paks yells "I don't think it can leave the top step, get out of there!" She moves to the bottom step and casts Divine Favor on herself. The devil casts a spell and creates a wall of ice across the second step, trapping Chuck in with him. He steps towards Chuck and Chuck feels panic from a Fear effect, but shakes it off.

Telryn tries to Dispell the ice wall, but fails. Darmaon tries to toss a lit torch over the ice wall into the grease, lighting the grease on fire. Goldpetal casts a flaming sphere next to the wall. Miriel blesses everyone. Chuck flies over the ice wall; the devil tries to attack him as he goes, but it misses him. Paks moves to get line of sight to the devil. The devil flies up to the top of the wall right above Darmaon. Chuck calls out to Darmaon to look out. Paks taunts the devil. It hisses at her, and we hear its voice in our heads "I will send you to the depths of hell! Who dares to disturb the tomb of Dalta?"

Telryn casts a magic missile, but misses. Darmaon throws his daggers, but they bounce off. Goldpetal backs out of the room. Miriel pulls out her holy symbol and says "Begone, devil, in the name of Madriel." The symbol flares, but the devil just sneers and transmits "Put your silly toys away, mortal!" Chuck moves towards the door and picks up the sword. Paks moves in carefully, but the devil leaps down to attack her anyway. Paks swings and hits it. It tries to hit her with its claws and hits. Then it tries to bite her and hits. Then it tries to sting her, but misses.

Telryn casts a magic missile, hitting the devil this time. The wall keeps melting. Darmaon throws two daggers at the devil, hitting with one, which just sticks in the side of the devil, who seems unaffected. Goldpetal moves the flaming sphere on top of the devil, which doesn't even flinch. Miriel waits for someone to need healing. Chuck moves in to attack the devil, which tries to sting him. He hits it with Hoarfrost. Paks swings and smites it and it falls to the ground dead. Chuck starts searching the body. Darmaon recovers his daggers. Telryn grabs his knife and cuts the stinger from the tail.

Miriel, Telryn, and Goldpetal go to rest. Darmaon checks the chest for traps and finds a spring mechanism. He tries to disable it and succeeds. He checks it again for traps. It takes him about an hour to unlock it. He sees that the trap was a pressure plate; a vial of acid would have fallen over onto these big purple flower petals. He also finds a potion, a pouch of aquamarines, a scroll, and bracers.

He wakes Goldpetal who tries to identify the petals. They're very large, dark purple, with red veins. He identifies them as swamp lotus leaves, which, when acid is poured on them, they are extremely deadly. An apothecary can turn them into poisons. They are extremely rare, and if the acid was poured on the leaves, we'd all be dead.

Telryn looks at the scroll - it has Earth To Mud, Water Breathing, and Stinking Cloud. Darmaon takes the bracers.