School of Sorcery

Chandagnac said:

'Wait… this isn't your home?' you ask, astounded. 'Where did you come from and how did you get here?'

'Our home… up in the mountainsss and hillsss, with many other kobolds. They brought usss here. They call themselves ark… archi… arkay…' He gives up, shaking his bulbous head. 'Thievesss. Little thievesss.'

'The Explorers and Archaeologists Club did this? They took you from your home and brought you here to be part of their obstacle course?'

'Yesss.'

'How did they do that?' you ask.

Hesitantly, with great misgivings, the lead kobold indicates the three shiny pebbles you saw before. 'Our heartsss. Can't be without them.'

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Although the kobolds only want to go home and be reunited with their kin, they only have the faintest idea of where home is. "Up in the mountainsss and hillsss" is as much of a description as you are able to get from them. If you want to help them, you'll need more information than that. Perhaps you can wheedle a member of the Explorers and Archaeologists Club into telling you where they found the kobolds. Alternatively, Simony might tell you, for a price.

While you're considering what to do about that, you return to the iron door and use the key to unlock it. With a screech that sets your teeth on edge, the door swings wide open. Beyond, you see a long hallway which you assume must be the entrance to the tomb. There are smooth flagstones in the floor, set snugly together so that you can barely see the cracks between them. The walls are dressed with plaster, painted with intricate pictures which seem to tell stories from ancient history. Some of these designs are in danger of being swallowed by a layer of green mould which seems to be growing unchecked.

'Do these pictures tell the story of the ancient Wranni kingdom which ruled this land before Tyrepheum was founded?' Venta wonders, scrutinizing the wall paintings with avid intensity. She indicates one of them which seems to depict a grey-skinned giant as the ruler of the land. 'Was this their god?'

'I doubt it,' you say, showing her another set of paintings which show the king of the Wranni – he's wearing a crown, so he must be their king, right? – tricking the giant into drinking a barrel of mead and then falling unconscious. Then, while the giant is unable to defend himself, the Wranni king cuts off his head.

Venta's eyes go wide. You hear a sharp intake of breath. 'Oh… well, that's not a nice story.'

'Seems simple enough to me,' says Philander with an unpleasant laugh. 'The Wranni became the rulers of this land by murdering the giant who owned it before they did. Then, a thousand years later – or thereabouts – the Sambian Empire came along, kicked them out of their homeland, and established the city of Tyrepheum. What goes around comes around.'

'I don't know,' says Isolia, putting on a dubious frown. 'It seems like you're making a lot of assumptions.'

Just then, you see the tripwire, stretched across the hallway from one side to the other, a silvery line shining in the light of your glowstone. Looking up at the ceiling, you see a bundle of filthy, slimy rags. Evidently, this is a trap set up by Simony and his friends, designed to be humiliating rather than dangerous, by dumping a pile of unpleasantness on top of whoever triggers it. Of course, now that you've spotted it, it's easy to set it off early so that nobody is affected by it. You just have to make sure to skirt around the pile of rubbish which gets dumped in the middle of the corridor.

After that, you're on the lookout for more traps. Forewarned, you notice an arcane circle daubed on one of the walls, which seems designed to slowly consume itself in order to spray multi-coloured paints at passers-by. This trap is even easier to disarm than the first. A single scratch is all it takes to break the circle, ending the spell.

The next trap would have gone completely unnoticed – you, Philander, and Isolia walk right past it – but then Venta nearly falls into it. Evidently, one of the flagstones was removed, along with a couple of centimetres of mortar and whatever was underneath it, and replaced with an illusion. Venta didn't realise that anything was awry until she took a step forward onto a flagstone that wasn't there, nearly falling into the hole. She managed to recover her balance and stepped back quickly, but this experience put her in a foul mood.

'That was a mean trick to play,' she fumes. 'It wasn't very deep, but I could easily have sprained my ankle, hit my head, or broken something. I don't think I want to be part of this club anymore.'

'I didn't think you wanted to join the club in the first place,' says Phil. 'I thought we were here to support Dory. Team solidarity and all that.'

'Yes, well…' Venta glances at you. She takes a deep breath. 'Are you sure you want to join this club, Dorian? They don't seem like nice people.'

'Just because they're not very nice doesn't mean they won't be useful to know. For example…' You glance wildly around. 'Look at this place! Isn't it fascinating? And I never would have found out about it if they hadn't told me!'

'Be careful with them,' says Isolia. 'Don't let them use you.'

'It's the other way around,' you assure her. 'I'm using them. I'll get what I want from them – information, the benefit of their experience, maybe a few promising leads – and then I'll cut myself loose.'

She makes a noncommittal noise, seemingly unconvinced.

In the next room, it appears that most of the original decorations have been removed or destroyed. Instead, there is a deep pool of stagnant water which stretches from one side of the room to the other, wide enough that it would be difficult to jump across to the other side. A wooden plank, barely long enough to span the expanse, serves as a precarious bridge. And, just in case you thought that swimming across might be an option, you catch sight of a couple of mutated monstrosities lurking at the bottom of the pool: creatures with tentacles, bulbous eyes, and too many teeth.

'Ah yes, I've heard about those: the wondrous creations of our school's Department of Life Magic,' Philander says sardonically, peering into the depths of the pool. 'Because who wouldn't want a ghastly abomination whose mere existence is an offence to all the gods? It's the latest craze! All the fashionable ladies are buying them!' He grins. 'You're sure you don't want one, Venta?'

Her green skin turns sickly pale. 'I hope you're joking,' she says.

'How are we going to cross?' asks Isolia, examining the wooden plank. 'This doesn't look safe.'

What will you do? (Choose one)
[] Use your Quickness spell to cross the makeshift bridge at speed.
[] Use your Quickness spell to run across the surface of the stagnant pool without falling in.
[] Have your teammates hold onto the end of the plank while you cross, securing it as best they can. Do the same for them when you reach the other side.
[] Attempt to swim across the stagnant pool.
[] Go back and ask the kobolds for help.
[] Go back to Simony Bidwell and complain about these traps.
[] Go back to the side tunnel where you saw the dark abyss. Hope that it's an alternative entrance to the tomb. Jump in.
[] The Explorers and Archaeologists Club set up this pool by destroying part of the ancient tomb, right? Use your Mend cantrip to repair some of the damage around the edge of the pool.
[] Ask Venta to send her Illusory Double into the pool to see how the tentacle monsters react.
[] Do something else (write in).