Bypassing the Ooze, thankfully, the party is lead carefully onwards by Ari-the Goliath in particular needs special care to avoid falling through the floor's numerous weak spots, or accidentally leaning on a pillar and squishing them all under rubble.
Only once they are momentarily safe in the room with the sprung trap mechanism, does Ari and his skeleton-trap finder begin searching forwards.
...
The next room across-down from the hall and the only door not clearly blocked or leading off into unhealthy looking drop offs-is about what Ari might expected.
It's a workshop, or perhaps a bedroom-though it was once a sumptuous office, now the mahogan desk is cracked in half and the few windows are smudged with smoke-papers and books found their way into a tiny firepit dug in the center of the room-in the pit are tiny blackened bones, which he identifies as rats and cat and the like. Small tools lie about, but only cast offs-worn down so much as to be useless. Carvings of rudimentary trap mechanisms are collected in one corner, each one slightly more refined than the last. A small patch of dark matter under a low overhang near the west of the room has the look of blood, suggesting trap prototypes were tested on vermin...
The entire place is slightly off putting, as it doesn't suggest a chaotic or diseased mind. There is a specific place or pile for every thing, and the room itself is comparatively clean of the rubbish and trash. Even the shattered furniture has been arranged in a manner that suggests a tidy order. Though the place still smells like a bog-damp and stagnant.
1d20+8=15
Ari finds little he'd consider 'loot-whoever lived here has moved on, leaving with anything they had.
With this in mind, he continues on-the adjoining window leads to another one of those plank-board bridges and to yet another building, but at least this one isn't trapped.
...
Moving through the buildings isn't nearly as hard Ari thought it would be. This path was carved long ago-rubble carefully moved aside, bridges spanning gaps, traps to guard against intruders, and even small support beams added for structural durability. But it's also annoying, and slow going. The small person (or people?) that made them seems to have enjoyed making the passage low and tight-at times, he has to suck in his stomach and wiggle through, and he's always looking out for traps. It's like it was made for rats than people...
He realizes traveling here is quite safer than it would be on the streets, though much slower. He also realizes it'd be easy to get lost if he went exploring. For now, he sticks to the higher levels, and tries to keep an eye on sunlight wherever he goes.
Behind him, the rest of the group passes through, with more or less degrees of difficulty. Grace usually resorts to ripping through the barricades rather than squeezing through.
...
Ari pushed the skeleton with a touch of impatience as they come to a small drop off-the long and twisting path has lead him to a short balcony over looking a wide, plain looking room-only the walls are decorated with tattered red curtains. His first idea is that the area was a dance hall of some sort...in a moment, perhaps, he'll realize he's been here before-with his family, long ago. Or maybe not. Such is the vagaries of memory...
In any case, he's judging his own leap when he feels a sudden chill-and something that looks like an small piano comes flying out of the darkness at the skeleton.
1d20+4=16
Hit!
Damage 3d6=12
The skeletons luck has run out-it's smashed into component bones with a heavy sound of springs and twinkly keys.
Ari takes a step back, and hears a cold, quiet in the room voice-a womans voice. Though he cannot discern from where or who it's coming from.
"I didn't like that one. All bones, no heart. He couldn't even appreciate fine art...Hmph, am I reduced to puns? Lorhe help me...
You. I see you, sir! Have you come to hear me play? I've been waiting for a long time...for an audience. It'd not do to make we wait so long. It's improper...terribly rude, I dare say."The voice seems to whisper deeper than you thought anyone could-is it possible for words to have emotions? For Ari certainly hears...anger...patience...and a hint of badly concealed despair...
((The rest of the group is a room behind Ari-they heard the crashing of the piano though, so they can arrive momentarily.))
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Topic: D&D 3.5 PbP: Oasis/Adventures in Hightown (Play Thread) (Read 9991 times)