Despite her best efforts Vi'lea is unable to see anything of particular interest inside the vault. Well, at least there are no obvious traps... Of course, traps are rarely obvious in the first place... She pauses to consider their options. If we had more people in the group we could leave a few outside along with the key, just in case the rest of us get trapped inside and need help... but with just three people that's not really an option. Guess we should go in and see what we find... While the elf was thinking Nicholas started to slowly and carefully go inside, apparently trying to detect any potential traps before he triggered them. Good luck. She silently wished him, then focused on where he was stepping, preparing to follow in his footsteps if he managed to get inside without triggering any traps.
@Nicholas, you feel a strange tingling feeling as your foot passes the threshold. It's not painful and once your toes pass through, the tingling sensation leaves your toes and migrates upwards. It seems to coincide with whatever part of your body is within the threshold. @Thritch & Vi'lea, Nicholas is likely too close to see it, but the both of you see a rippling around the doorway eminating from where his foot penetrated the threshold. It looks almost like ripples of heat. Since Nicholas isn't screaming in pain and nothing else seems to be occurring, you both can likely deduce that this is the ward that your mysterious stranger alluded to.
Say what you will, Nicholas had one advantage on his side. The fact he was air headed. Seeing no particular damage, he was still aware that he would have to press through it and it wasn't likely he could just dispel something something like this either. Thinking about nothing, he had to press on, relaxing, but still keeping semi-aware just for whatever might be present that he was just not seeing. "...soooo....you guys don't like like the normal people back in that city. Do you live around here?" He was perfectly content to try and hold casual contact while still sort of expecting a spike to go through his knee at any second. (If I recall correctly, the ward triggers by people who know too much about the vault, so his general attitude of being....well....him...is kind of an advantage here. Just the way I see it.)
That must be the ward our employer mentioned. The dark elf concludes as she watches the strange rippling that appears once Nicholas begins to slowly enter the vault. “I arrived in town only yesterday.” Vi'lea admits, seeing no harm in being honest. Then she decides some idle chatter won't hurt. “Didn't even have time to look around town before I got the letter from our mysterious employer. What about you guys? Where are you from? And how long have you been in Athelney? Seen anything interesting in town?” As she asks her questions she keeps watching Nicholas' progress though the ward.
@Auraicide Nicholas passes through the barrier with no problems. Once the tingling drifts through your body and you leave the threshold, then your body feels just as it did before. (I was hoping to have a little bit of conversation between you all, but I suspect you're waiting to see if Nicholas blew anything up. Also to expedite things a little, you all shouldn't have a problem passing through the barrier.)
(OOC: Guess our characters are not a very chatty bunch...) Well, so far so good... After seeing that Nicholas has passed unharmed through the mysterious ward the dark elf considers her options. I could wait here until he searches the inside of the vault – it would certainly be safer... but it would be faster if all of us are there, searching – three sets of eyes will see more than one, and might spot things one person will miss. Besides, I've come this far, might as well go the rest of the way. With her mind made up Vi'lea takes one last look around and approaches the ward. Taking a deep breath she slowly passes through the magical barrier. Once inside the dark elf starts looking around the dark room, trying to find the object of their little trip, as well as anything else of potential interest. (OOC: Decides to speed things up a bit and have Vi'lea get inside as well instead of waiting to see if Nicholas will find anything on his own.)
Thritch&Vi'lea enter the vault. In contrast to the rest of the ruins, it's in nearly perfect condition. There's only a little bit of dust in the entranceway that drifted in through the passage of time(and your feat) and that quickly gives way to masonry flooring. The room is quite large. Probably half as large as the rest of the basement combined. The walls to the sides curve out before meeting a flat wall ahead. Inside the curved walls are alcoves that also double as storage. In the center of the room is a small, round dias. It's raised up layer-by-layer until it's about the height of an average table. The entirety of the vault seems remarkably empty. Perhaps someone cleared out the vault before it was abandoned or somebody found another way of entrance...Either way, the vault appears to be quite empty. (Might be a good time to wait for @GenericEditor168 to respond before continuing. Also yeah, if things go badly in this PbP, then it'll probably because of the slow pacing. I'm not very good at judging what's important and what is not sometimes. ...There's also the fact that this entire "Quest", while relevant for things to come, is more of just a gimmick to get the group together rather than a real plot.)
(OOC Whoops. I already thought I made a reply) Nicholas remained mostly naive ad curious while walking. He had heard the questions the woman had asked and the first reaction was an "Uhhh" as a response before thinking of answers. "Oh, I don't live here or anything. I'm just travelling on my way to Midcort....or wait. That might have been Skeaa. Umm..." Some would question how it was possible the bunny boy could survive as long as he had but his eyes lit up. "And hmm...things I saw? I saw a woman bathing." He casually mentioned it as he began to walk with the group, while keeping his eyes peeled.
“A woman bathing? Was she pretty?” Vi'lea asks absentmindedly as she takes a look at the inside of the vault. Then she sees what's there – or rather, what's not there – and frowns. “Is it me, or is this place rather... empty? Definitely not what I expected...” I would have been less surprised to discover that the piece of wood had magically grown into a tree and we had to deal with a Dryad, Ent or some other tree creature. Oh, well, I guess it won't hurt to search the place, just in case... The dark elf begins searching the seemingly-empty vault. First she checks the floor for anything unusual, such as something written on it or anything that seems out of place, then checks the ceiling, just in case (wouldn't want to have a giant spider or some other creature drop on her from above), then starts checking the alcoves one at a time, looking for anything that is still there or any hints what might have been there, and finally – if she discovers nothing before that – she moves over to the dais in the center, examining it without getting on it just yet. “What about you, friend?” Vi'lea turns her attention to Thritch during a pause in her searching “How are you doing? Had any luck recently?” She asks the last person in their little group and continues to examine the empty vault while waiting for an answer.
"I know. I would have expected... well, for something to be in here, probably up on the dais. Maybe someone cleared it out before we got here?" Thritch starts to search around for any hidden entrances into the chamber, checking the alcoves, the floor, and the ceiling. "Have I gotten lucky lately? No, sadly. Since I've arrived, I've been in a bar fight, and come here. That's all."
Examining the vault, you all find not much of anything. You do manage to find between the three of you 12 anicent coins that look like they're from a very long time ago. @Vi'lea Examining the dais, you find an indentation on the top of it that closely resembles the one that activated the door to enter.
Ancient coins, different from any I have seen before... might be worth something to a collector, I suppose... Something to investigate later. The dark elf puts the few coins she found in her money pouch, then goes to examine the dais. Well, this is interesting... “Look at this, guys!” Vi'lea calls out when she sees the indentation at the top. “Seems to be another mechanism similar to the one that opened the door. Do you think we should try the key again?” She asks her companions, mostly Nicholas, as he is the one carrying the key. (OOC: I assume we each get 4, unless someone wants more or less than that.)
(Now that New Years and Christmas is over....Anyone still interested in this other than Moonblack? Or should I maybe consider starting a new RPG with a different setting(and maybe more sex)
