Epilogue :

I finally escaped, thanks Almighty Durin ! The portal leads me to woods outside the dungeon.

Some adventurers are here too :
Beldarion already leaves us for an other adventure.
Kip seems better and look around, a smile on his face after facing the visions of horror from the Fear ray.
Triock Ulagolor and SmartyFartBlart try to awake Aslain Melemir by joigning their hands for a silent pray.
Zayd ibn Yasin is focus on Thras and... Taz, now running off into the woods with his own full body, screaming and laughting like a child : "Freeeeeeeeeee !"
Thras is schocked : " What I have done ?", he says to himself.

I hope the latecomers will be enough wise to leave the dungeon while they still have the possibility !

About me, I realize that I didn't have the time to smoke during my journey so I take my pipe from my jacket under my studded leather armour. I start to light on it when a dire wolf comes to me. Behind me, Cicatrix appears outside the entrance of a cave near the portal.
- "So, you are one of us now !", the wolf says.
- "What ? You can speak ?"
- "No", he says, "but you can understand me".
- "How ?"
- " I know that Dwarves are stupid compared to the noble race of Drow, but there is a limit...", the wolf rolls eyes towards Cicatrix. she seems exhausted, but she has an ironic smile.
- "I never wanted to be... that", I answer him. "It's a curse for my entire life".
- "Or a bless, if you know how to control your new condition. There is a lot of werewolves, pure or... transformed, like you, in this world. They have power and high status in the world of men, but they are very secretive, I guess you can easily understand that !". I take a look around me. The others look suspicious to see me talking alone with a wolf. " Yes, I understand".
- "I can lead you to them, if you wish. They will teach you everything you have to learn, including how to master your transformation. You "almost" survived to this dungeon, so you may have some talents very useful for our clan. Follow me, a new journey and a new life await you !"
- "Why not ? Go ahead !"
The wolf bowns down in front of Cicatrix. "Namárië", she answers. Then, the wolf and me run off the woods, leaving my fellows.

-"I guess it's risky, isn't it ? Maybe your clan won't accept me ?".
- "You are already dead once, what do you fear ?"
I don't answer. It's useless. While we are running, I'm howling.

I think I will enjoy my new adventure !

Awesome, we've managed to find some secrets! My spells except for Protection Against Evil are expired, so unless we meet an...evil trap or more evil creatures, it won't help much. (I doubt there are evil traps, that's a joke)

Do the eyeballs detect the presence of treasure and/or secrets? If yes, that means there's probably something near the Beholder's corpse, right?

Last time (metagaming now) glowing red bricks were warded, so I think if someone touches them, they might explode (they were dispelled by Dispel Ward). Dunward, do you have Dispel Ward by any chance you could try casting on the door and the bricks?
They also might reveal something behind them, so maybe we should try throwing something at them first and then try to move them if Dunward can't cast Dispel Ward, to see if there is a hidden alcove behind them - or they activate the door (in case it's not usable yet, I PMed Doc to ask whether we can open it right away or not).

By the way, the bricks are above each other, which brick are you trying to press? Or at least I assumed they are on top of each other, although they might be next to each other as well.

Alternatively, we can try first shooting electricity at the bricks to try activate any traps from a safe distance. What do you think? If you agree, I can ask Svartalf if he can shoot from where he is while we get some cover.

I have my shield, but I'm not sure how much good would it do against an explosion compared to your Shield spell.

They detect "traps or magic items". I do quite fear that there's a trap behind the brick I'm pushing because of that, but I find it slightly more likely that the eyeball is helpful on its own, without the detect secrets spell, and if there is a trap, I'll just hope to survive it and for it not to remove the possibility of treasure.

Almost certainly a spike trap. (Also notice the eyeball at the left of the hall, where Cicatrix narrowly avoided a trap; or maybe "the middle" there meant the middle of the hall again, with yet another spike trap.) Doc's description of my grumbling is the clearest hint that the first two eyeballs aren't worth following up on.

Dunward's last spell slot was used for detect secrets.

The door is sadly only an outline right now, not a usable door (I overlooked that at first, but Doc set me straight there, hence me "intuiting" that the bricks should be pressed). :P

The description wasn't completely clear; all three are "above" the door, and the "top left" one has the eyeball in front of it. So that's the one I'm pressing. I'll alter my description of the brick pressing to change "right" to "right/bottom" for the final one.

I don't think we have time for things like that. Also, meta-gaming, the northern side tunnel had treasure hidden behind secret bricks on the penultimate turn as well, and those weren't warded nor trapped. Hrm, I realize the brick in the western tunnel where Tanea found the halfling statuette was warded, though (or at least, it disappeared with a dispel ward). I thought "red" just meant "secret", but now I'm doubting a little bit. Still I'm probably willing to risk this. (Feel free to step aside or behind me, and of course I'd appreciate being carried to safety if I end up needing it.) :)

(My one other plan is to use my last eyeball; if it hovers before another brick, then I could press the remaining one? But if red means danger, then all three would be equally dangerous to press and there's no way to open the door. and if red just means secret, then I'd rather believe that the hag's magic will just steer me right.)

No problem. And yeah, I thought the brick description was vague, ultimately it doesn't matter, since the left one becomes the top one like you wrote. :) If you don't want to try using the wand (also in case it might break the bricks), that's alright. Do you have a long pole or something you could tap them with first?

If not, let's first move a little bit back, throw a rock at the bricks, to trigger any potential traps, and then start playing with them. It's worth it in case the explosion is big and you might need the Shield for another trap inside.

In either case, I can heal you up if you get hurt with my remaining heal. I still have 2x Cure Disease left, but I doubt those will come into play.

I suggest we move back, throw a rock at the bricks (I think I dropped the bone?), then I'll wait while you activate the bricks, ready to heal you should something happen, and then we go through and loot whatever is there and come back to the portal.Since my shield reflects arrows/missiles back, I can go through the door first if you want.

I just saw your edit, I'm not sure if red means trap or not, so far evertying that I remember being outlined in red turned out to be dangerous - a warded door, hidden enemies, another warded set of brick, a warded wall...however it's possible there was something in the Northern tunnel I'm not recalling now. Maybe we could ask the Doc?

I think it's 50/50 that it's either a trap or the one you're supposed to press, according to the eyeball.

We could first try pressing a different brick and hope the eyeball is pointing out a trap - logically I'd say it's more likely it's going to be a trap, unless the other two are booby-trapped and this one isn't. I feel like it's the one we should press first, on the other hand, if you have three bricks and more time, you could try all combinations, so it would make more sense that it would point out a trap unless pressing the wrong brick "blocks" the door from being accessed - which sounds like a rare thing to do, esp. if someone would randomly bump against it.

Awesome! :) Well, it would be a pity if your vaualbe axe got exploded though, but it's better than your hands for sure! Would you like me to try throwing something at it first before you try touching it with anything first?

Also I noticed your edit, so I added mine, it's the last few paragraphs, starting with "I noticed your edit." It's mostly speculation about the bricks.

Well, the bricks are close to each other and you threw it from far away, so I'd say it should be a clue, since if you're near the right corner of the room, but the GM didn't specify where, you might've been in front of the door, in which case it would zoom up and left. Otherwise the GM might've written something like "the eyeball zooms and ends up in front of the three bricks", rather than specifying the left one.

Thought: I could cheese this by "really wanting" to press a brick that'll safely open the door, and seeing what my finger bone points to.

Thing is, that'd increase the odds of the ceiling spontaneously falling down on me to roughly 100%, and I'd deserve it.

I have very little trust in throwing stuff at the bricks being helpful in any way, so I'd rather not spend time on it, but if you're faster than me in throwing something, feel free to do so anyway. :)

(We're probably way overthinking this, and just need to press the bricks, grab the treasure, and get out.)

Are you sure that's how the finger bone works? I thought it just points out interesting things. ;)

In any case, yes! "Move back!" I shout, and wait for O'grialt to stand a safe distance away from the door, as I have done. Then I take out a rock I've taken in the very first turn and throw it and the left top brick with my right hand, the left having the shield ready. If something happens and someone gets injured, I give a health potion to the one who needs it or cast a Heal, whichever is faster and takes less time, so we can hurry to get out before the turn ends.

If nothing happens and the door isn't activated, then I throw another one at the middle one, and then at the right one, if nothing happens again. If the door is already opened after the first brick, I ask Og'rialt if he wants to go first due to his Shield, or if I should go, and then we go in. I take any items of interest (if they're in a chest which I can pick up, I suggest I carry it through the portal where hopefully Max and Aslain are still waiting and can safely open it), sharing them fairly and equally with Og'rialt. And then we head back to the portal, where I pick up Rudy and step through. Once safely there, I get my spells back and resurrect both Rudy and Roosevelt, if we've made it there in time.

(haha, it's possible, however given the previous traps in this dungeon (and the warded door we've experienced) it's better to be prepared and spend a minute disarming it rather than not, especially as we're only guessing what's in teh other room)

"I want to find out the mystery behind this door and the room, take Rudy with you, we'll try to be quick and run back if it seems like it's about to close! Hopefully we can make it, if there's another portal there and we have to use that one, I'll contact a mage with Scry and Sending to locate you so we can meet up!"

Moved Action Summary to post 1052

I only meant to go to the portal to assess, but apparently I just wandered on through. ;)

In my life outside the portal, I'm thinking I'll open a hammer shop. So far I have a limited inventory, but quality over quantity, right?


p.s. Thanks to doc for putting this game together and herding cats all the way through. A truly heroic feat!

word from Doc: the red glow just means "a secret has been detected".

Doc clarified that it doesn't mean there isn't a trap though, so given that he said the rock trapcheck doesn't take up much time, let's do it! :)

I'll first throw the rocks, and if the door doesn't open, then you try touching it with your axe and then your hands. Then, if your Magic Shield is still up, I recommend you go in through first and I follow after you (otherwise I'd do it the other way around), we quickly assess the room for any potential threats and traps, and you start looting, while I guard you in case something should happen and then we switch (I should have around 4 health potions plus Heal), to make sure one is always ready to heal the other so we don't both get incapacitated by some trap at the same time. We might lose out on some loot, but it's better than losing our lives or staying here. If Dunward decides to join us, then he could do this instead and both of us could loot at the same time.
If you'd like to go explore with us, you could always ask him if he can put you back in, since you didn't want to go through yet. :)

Added a sentence to the last part of my action. Update please.

As I see Doc just updated the northern tunnel, and presumably wants to wrap up this one as well: I stand aside for the rock throwing as Eranear proposes. I enter first as I'm the one with better protections. I however don't wait around with guarding each other while looting, but just grab what I can as previously specified and hightail it for the portal.