The Ruins of Ramat - 0-level funnel

[doddwaco]

Squire Jon stands there, mouth agape.
After a second, he swaggers over to the dead spider, puts his foot atop it, raises his pitchfork high and yells, "I am a golden god!"

From underneath the dead spider La La shouts, "Get this blasted thing off of me, you idiot!"

[Max_The_Judge]

Seeing the over-sized monstrosity and understanding the implicit horror that is derived merely as a fact of its existence, Honest John, Ned Starch, Ken Katcherman, and Fat Andre contemplate the the universe and their place in it.

Red Robert's hunter's instincts make him wonder why the creature didn't use webs to trap its prey, as a proper spider should.

[Judge Perky]

Ok, what does everybody do now?

You see that the room has three exits, one on each of the facing walls (you entered from the West).

[doddwaco]

La La, Ragged Rob, Lyanna and Squire Jon all spread out and search the floor of the room, sifting through the bones and detritus on the floor.

[Judge Perky]

La La, Ragged Rob, Lyanna and Squire Jon all spread out and search the floor of the room, sifting through the bones and detritus on the floor.

They find nothing of value amongst the dirt, refuse, bones and other debris.

[doddwaco]

Gritting her teeth, Lyanna heads into the left passage with a grumbling Squire Jon at her side.
La La and Ragged Rob follow after.

[Max_The_Judge]

OOC: My group follows Lyanna's group. Never split the party!

[fireinthedust]

OOC: never split the par-taaaayyy!

The Copromancer checks out the spider, and has the Tax Collector use his sword to cut out (carefully) the spider's fangs: venom sample!

[Judge Perky]

Copromancer checks out the spider, finding nothing unusual (under the circumstances).

The Tax Collector attempts to safely cut out the fangs. Give me a DC10 safety check please... with a d16...

Assuming (for the moment) that nothing... unpleasant happens, here's the marching order as I see it:

Lyanna, Squire Jon
LaLa, Ragged Rob
John, Ned,
Ken, Andre,
Robert, Jenkins,
Xim, Joseph
Copromancer, Marvin

Meanwhile, as the rest of you make your way down the corridor, you notice that the detritus and refuse on the floor abate somewhat, although the entire area remains dusty and dirty. After 20', you see that the way ahead continues beyond the edge of your light source, but you also have come to a passageway to your right that appears to lead into some sort of small chamber.

[doddwaco]

Lyanna and company will head down the right tunnel. Feeling suspicious, Lyanna takes La La's chicken and tosses it down the the small room in front of them.

[fireinthedust]

The band carries on, moving forward to the room, cautiously. Marvin's sword is out, and he is more than ready to slash at whatever comes at him (after all, as the tax collector, he feels he should be the scariest thing the locals can think of, not some dark-dwelling crabs and whatever else lurks about here...)

[Judge Perky]

Not so fast, Marvin...

The Tax Collector attempts to safely cut out the fangs. Give me a DC10 safety check please... with a d16...

[fireinthedust]

OOC: Rolled an 11, plus... I'll look up the bonus(?) to reflex in a second, but I'm fairly sure it's this or +1.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4848689/

[fireinthedust]

Yes! Dunno if this applies, but a +1 bonus to reflex saves from birthsign (struck by lightning).

[Judge Perky]

Huzzah! Marvin manages to harvest the fangs and venom sac without incident.

OOC: Shall I customarily assume everyone follows the leader down the hall / into a room unless I hear otherwise? Or do you want me to wait for everyone to reply with specific actions?

[Max_The_Judge]

OOC: Your assumption is safe Perky, in regards to my characters at least.

[fireinthedust]

ooc: that's my intention, then clarify things when needed (like the spider fang). Should keep us from getting confused if we miss a few days (ie: default is we're together, unless something happens). One of the earlier games my group was separated from the others, and I lost track of everything.

[Judge Perky]

Ok then.

The group, lead by a very displeased chicken, makes its way into this room, which measures about 40' long and 20' wide.

A ponderous, rune-covered floor-to-ceiling column dominates in the room's center.

As you look over the column, can I have some intelligence checks?

[doddwaco]

La La scoops up her (or Karl's) chicken, glaring at Lyanna. The group crowds around the column, trying to make sense of it.

[Int Checks: Ragged Rob 7+0=7, La La 5+0=5, Squire Jon 10-1=9, Lyanna 16+2=18 (nice!)]

[Max_The_Judge]

OOC: INT checks worked out as such: Honest John (2), Ned Starch (11), Ken Katcherman (15), Fat Andre (15), Red Robert (5)

[Judge Perky]

The column bears an assortment of esoteric sigils and runes in low relief (pictured).

Several of you notice that one of the blocks bearing these symbols near the top is in high relief (it sticks out a few inches further from the surface of the column). And as you look at it (and you think your eyes are playing tricks on you at first) you notice with a start that that raised block has begun to very slowly sink down into the column.

Suddenly, at the same moment and without any further warning, the door behind you slams shut, and thin columns of purple gas begin to rise up from a great multitude of heretofore unnoticed tiny holes in the floor!

What do you do?

[doddwaco]

Lyanna and Squire Jon reach up and try to press the protruding square with their pitchforks. Ragged Rob begins slinging stones at the square.

[Ragged Rob sling to hit: 6 (ugh)]

[Max_The_Judge]

Fat Andre shouts "The top stone! This started when it began sinking into the pillar! We have to pull it back out!"

[doddwaco]

Lyanna, Squire Jon and Ragged Rob all look at each other sheepishly. Then they run around to the other side of the column and try to push in the block opposite the block that sunk into the column.

[Judge Perky]

Lyanna, Squire Jon and Ragged Rob all look at each other sheepishly. Then they run around to the other side of the column and try to push in the block opposite the block that sunk into the column.

One action per round, please.

fireinthedust, what do your characters do?