Act 2 Scene 5: "Cavern of the Crown of Souls" (Game Thread)

[Nocturno]

"What?!"

He is still stretching his leg out. With the blood seemingly flowing again.

ILOVEKEYS, soplease,onemoment!"

Pyros will pull every key on his person out for the group to see.

[Chris1234]

Jerry counts them.

[TristenC]

Pyros pulls out a pile of keys, one of which Mira recognizes as the one recovered from the skull on the statue at the entrance to the cavern.
The other 4 include a tiny brass key (much too small for this lock), a key of iron that is almost the right size, a wooden key that is too big for much but decoration, and a key of tin with teeth snd crazy details coming off in 5 different directions!

[Jenara]

"Interesting collection you have there, ahhh thats the one! Skeletons in the room, skeleton Key. I mean its worth trying it surely, stay by the entrance just in case something goes wrong." Taking the key she checks the others, "The Iron one might work too."

Using the skeleton key she will place it in the key hole and hopes for the best.

[Chris1234]

Jerry turns round to check there's nothing creeping up behind them and says quietly to Merrick, "I'd love to show you everything; everything I know about hunting undead. Honestly, after my devotion to Mystra, there's only one otheer thing I'd rather do."

[TristenC]

Turning the skeleton head key in the keyhole results in an audible Click! The wall slides away and an opening leads to another wide room. Carved upon the far wall of this dark and evil room is an inscription. When the party first looks upon it, the language is unknown, but the letters soon begin to melt and shift until their meaning becomes clear.

The engraving reads: "Place your life in my hands, and I will show you the way."
Below this arcane message is a bas-relief of a skeletal warrior. His two gauntlet covered hands protrude
from the wall with curved palms facing upwards. A dead body lies upon the stone floor at it's feet. It is apparent the body has been here for some time.

[Jenara]

"Ok, thoughts? How do you place your life it that things hands? Life..?" Mira turns looking at the Clerics in turn, thinking if she have ever heard of any thing about life..

A little bit of everything [1d100]=50 (25%)

[Chris1234]

Does the scene before her strike any Undead Hunter resonances or recollections within Jerry?

[TristenC]

Mira and jerry glance over the scene but it doesn't seem to trigger any memory of research or legend.

[Jerrard]

"Place your life in my hands?" Karl repeats, his Honour was his life, taking that literally how could he place his honour in this things hands? His sword? No, his sword protected him. "My honour is my life, I am my honour.." He felt he had something but couldnt quite.. pausing to check his wounds he discards the makeshift bandage and applies another, cursing the blood as he does so.

[Nocturno]

"Maybe I should jump up there?"

[Jerrard]

"If my Honour is my life, and I am my honour, would my blood make my life?" He takes a step towards the statue, dropping a few drops of blood into each hand before he steps back.

[Nocturno]

Pyros watches in wonder.

[TristenC]

As soon as the knight drips blood in the palms he notices a pair of small holes in the hands. His blood pools and drips into these holes.

A macabre black aura seems to form around the carved image of the skeleton. Slowly, the stone melts and shifts like clay in the hands of a potter. Suddenly, the warrior steps out of the wall and stands before the party. With slow and deliberate motions, he removes his gauntlets. With a purpose you cannot guess at, he begins to weave his fingers as if he were casting a spell; bony fingers curling upwards. Ivory forearms and hands shake with a rattling noise as a deep growling chant issues from his helmet. Slowly, the almost white mist that pervades this catacomb changes color to assume the rich red of fresh blood. A smell of raw iron fills the air and the floor begins to bubble like boiling water. Slowly, this boiling stone begins to rise up. It reaches up to form a solid stone slab some 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide.

By now, the skeleton's incantation has become a deafening cacophony of thunderous growls. Just when it seems you can bear the noise no more, the room is plunged into silence. The skeleton slaps his arms down to his sides and blinding flash of red light bursts from the stone slab. In the next instant, you see that the skeleton has returned to his place in the wall. In addition, the stone slab has now become a stone archway composed of three separate stone slabs with dark runes covering their surfaces. The only sound in the chamber is the rattling of your own breath.

[Nocturno]

Taking care not to go through the archway, Pyros will check out both sides and see if he can find anything he understands on it.