Vapourware [Play-by-post] Lamentations in Averoigne

[Madeline]

Madeline gives Vincent a courteous nod and follows him back down the hall, though she does give the long hallway a parting look before she turns to Sancho and, in a confusing change of heart or an emotional turn, instead of dragging him forcefully, she grasps his hand with hers, and leads him down to the junction hand-in-hand to encourage him.

At the junction, she promptly lets go of Sancho's hand, and wipes her palm into her pants.

 

[nikolokolus]

Ganelon: The crusader turned acolyte casts nervous glances northward, westward and eastward along the corridors as people move about singly or in pairs; it makes the former soldier especially nervous as he was drilled incessantly about the need to fight in close order against the Mamluks. His imagination is fertile with the possibilities of who knows what other horrors might lurk down here besides rats and how much worse they might be than Turk or a Saracen?

Vincent & Madeline: Vincent uses several minutes to listen at the door at the end of the north passage. After about 5 minutes there is some kind of knocking and pinging noise that seems to reverberate through the door as his ear is pressed to it, however he is uncertain if it is coming from beyond the door or it's just a vibration from some other locale. He moves past Maddie and walks 6 or 7 paces further along the passage on to the door a bit farther down the hall. Before placing his hear against the second northern door, he looks across to the south through the closed portcullis and sees a room littered with little piles of dirt and a few scattered bones, but little else. There is also another door 20 feet down the hall on the northern wall, and the passage seems to terminate just at the edge of his lantern's light in a vaulted archway that looks like it might have once been a doorway, but is now sealed with mortared limestone bricks that don't match the dark gray basalt blocks native to the hallways and vaults of the rest of the complex. His attempt at listening reveals nothing and realizing that they have gotten somewhat ahead of their companions, they turn around and head back to the junction where Guillmenin and Vandal appear to be trying to wrench a door open . . .

Guillemin & Vandal: Vandal scans the rough opening in the wall and hefts his miner's pick, with a bit of time (maybe an 10 to 20 minutes) he thinks he could probably clear the hole to "normal" door-size. Meanwhile, the lean middle-aged stagehand, motions for the hulking mountain-man to attend to the door that Guillemin has been so carefully examining for the past ten minutes. Both take turns trying to force the badly stuck door without any success, even the mighty hulk Vandal must use the prybar that Guillemin hands to him. With a great groaning *creak* and *pop*, the wood splinters and finally bursts open inward into a room beyond. Guillemin instinctively sucks air through his teeth at the godawful screeching and breaking noises that echo down the halls and seem magnified tenfold in the sepulchral silence that permeates this place. Daring a peek beyond the broken door he looks beyond into a small 20 feet wide by 20 feet wide room with a vaulted and domed ceiling about 15 feet tall. The room is littered with piles of rotted cloth, thick cobwebs blanket most of the ceiling, and there is what looks the ashes of a long-dead fire in the center of the room. On the southern wall directly opposite from the door you are standing in is another closed door, however it appears to be made of stone.

 

[Madeline]

Turning around on her heels, Madeline remains at the rear guard and tries her best to monitor all possible approaches while Sancho shines a light at wherever she's looking. She is trying to make sure that nothing that might have been attracted by the terrible noise of the dungeon-burglary could surprise them, as, assumedly, the party proceeds to enter the newly accessible room.

 

[AdamReith]

Vincent shuffles within his cuirass cunningly crafted from cutlery, eager to proceed further into the seemingly empty room.

The trauma of his first encounter with a falling block trap however, stays with him.

Spoiler

Would it make sense to get all of these doors down so we can visually inspect which room would be best to take on first?

 

[Snorkack]

Her lantern casts long, nervous shadows onto the dungeon walls as Daphnes hands still tremble from triggering that pressure plate. She squints looking at the roof, trying to discern whether another unpleasant surprise might hide behind the cobwebs on the roof. Of course while meticulously paying attention not to move as much as a goosebump past the door's threshold.

Spoiler

Would it make sense to get all of these doors down so we can visually inspect which room would be best to take on first?

Spoiler

yes, please!

 

[nikolokolus]

While regrouping outside of the newly opened door, and moving around outside to scan the chamber, there is a loud *slam* and then grinding noise of stone on stone from behind them (coming from the room with the lever and the pressure plate). Craning your necks around the corner you look up the short passage in time to see the stone slab barring the doorway rise slowly back up into the archway. The wooden door to the room beyond is shut.

 

[AdamReith]

Spoiler

Is there anything on the other side?

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

Is there anything on the other side?

Vincent walks down the hall and stands just outside the threshold of the room with the trigger plate. The corpse that was there is still laying face down on the floor with its sword arm outstretched, its left hand still clutching a burnt out torch, and its head pointing right toward Vincent a mere pace in front of the trigger plate which is only an arms span beyond the open doorway. Aside from small blocks of the vaulted roof that have fallen and little piles of dirt here and there, the room seems otherwise empty.

 

[AdamReith]

Spoiler

Assuming there is no new threat then, I propose we try the door to the immediate north-east. Adjacent to the hole in the wall.

We've got some idea of its extremities via scouting so it'd be nice to see if it looks less spidery.

 

[L'ennui]

Guillemin scans the hallway, looking for a dislodged piece of stonework that could be heavy enough to trigger the trap. He is hoping that by keeping the triggering mechanism pressed, the trap might not reset itself as it seemingly just had. He whispers to the others: "Should we try to keep this shut for now?"

 

[Grimgravy]

"A rock or two from the collapsed stairway should do the trick." Ganelon whispers in reply.

 

[nikolokolus]

Guillemin walks back into the gallery with its collapsed western wall and picks out a suitably large couple of blocks that seem heavy enough to trigger the mechanism under the plate and keep it from rebounding. He carefully kneels down with the heavy stone in his hands and gently lays it on the flagstone until it sinks almost imperceptibly into the floor. There is a faint *click* but nothing else happens. The middle-aged stagehand lets out a ragged breath he didn't even know he was holding and mops a bit of sweat from his brow with his shirt cuff.

The badly decomposed body lays only a couple of steps away just beyond the wide, trapped flagstone.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The badly decomposed body lays only a couple of steps away just beyond the wide, trapped flagstone

Spoiler

You really want us to poke the corpse, don't you, you heartless man.

 

[AdamReith]

Spoiler

Presumably this means the pressure plate must be depressed for the trap to trigger.

If that is the case it is now effectively disabled.

Vincent whispers to his party members, "are you not concerned what should befall us now should that creature return. Also, hark, that skeleton was holding a broken sword not moments ago, yet now it holds a burned torch. This place is truly cursed."

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Also, hark, that skeleton was holding a broken sword not moments ago, yet now it holds a burned torch.

Spoiler

Ol' Jean D'eau was holding both before too.

Vandal merely motions Ganelon towards the corpse, wondering if it were the source of the noise before.
"Benediction?"

 

[AdamReith]

Spoiler

Is it still holding the sword too?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

Is it still holding the sword too?

Spoiler

Aye, sword in one hand, torch in the other

 

[AdamReith]

Spoiler

Is it still holding the sword too?

Spoiler

Aye, sword in one hand, torch in the other

Spoiler

I don't see that specified anywhere.

Still, probably not important. Carry on.

 

[nikolokolus]

Now what?

AdamReith Yeah I mentioned that the corpse was holding a sword in one hand and a burnt out stub of a torch in the other in an earlier post, but I figured it was worth reiterating the condition of the body - a long way of saying it hadn't moved. So is anybody doing anything else in the trapped room? The door on the north side of the wall (which is made of stone) in this room is still closed. Also someone mentioned opening the first door on the northern side of the eastern passage. and you have an unexplored room to the south. and numerous other doors that people had initially discussed opening all of them before proceeding.

With SoupNazi away on vacation I think it might be a good idea for somebody to volunteer to be the group's caller/leader (it will also be worth +10% XP on this particular expedition) that way if things start to seem like they aren't going in a definitive direction I can use one person's directives to keep things moving.

 

[AdamReith]

Spoiler

For whoever the leader ends up being, I vote on getting some more doors down and getting an idea of what more of these rooms look like.

 

[SoupNazi]

Spoiler

wish it was a vacation, it's a business trip

Madeline wants to prod and poke at the corpse a little bit with her rapier, standing at an arm's and rapier's length away from it. She gently stabs at it, and once she feels confident it's not booby (heh) trapped, she asks Sancho to search it for anything of note, making it clear that both valuables and clues to this place are important, but not enough for her to touch a desscated corpse.

Unless something significant is found, she whispers to the group. "Shall we try and choose this path to examine fully until we run into a setback, or check each door leading away from here to see which is the friendliest?

I'm sure you'd all agree with the second option being the path of least resistance, ouias?"

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[L'ennui]

"Yeah, we need to at least check out the doors in this hallway... but we shouldn't stray too far before doing a more thorough search. I don't want to be stuck in this place without knowing what's what."

 

[SoupNazi]

"Ouias, that is what I mean. Let's properly examine the cobweb room, then follow the southern hallway and check each door and what's behind it."

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[AdamReith]

Spoiler

Ladies first into the spider room of doom.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

This is only our first day in. I suggest we take the time to scout out the place per Madeline 's option deuxieme. Then we can work out a more precise expedition later. SoupNazi wrong alt bro.