September 16, 2006

Hook

Characters receive invitations to a dinner/meeting at the new tavern "The Obvious Trap" at 4th bell.

Plot Synopsis

People arrive, Bart shows up and offers to hire the group to explore a up-to-now hidden well that they found while removing rubble from the fire, and if possible, to retrieve an item. He's just too busy with other things. He asks each to name their price.

The Obvious Trap is a tavern on the southwest side of the marketplace. The decor is focused on the theme of traps: Nooses from the ceiling, guillotine blades above the doors, etc. The waitstaff are all dressed in either ninja costumes, or in the studded leather torturer get-up complete with a whip on their belts.
Tha bar is along the back wall, and there is a bookcase between it and the corner farthest from the front door. The bookcase is on hinges, and provides access to the back alley.
The kitchen is in the basement, with access to the dining room afforded by one fake booth that slides aside to reveal the stairs.
There is an apartment on the floor above, but there is no access to it from the tavern itself.
The barkeep, Garson', has collected drink recipes from all over. The drink menu has two sides: On the left are the popular and well-known drinks, and on the right are the New and Different beverages, named for some kind of well-known poison or venom.
The food is varied, and quality depends on who is running the kitchen that day.

The well was white brick, about eight feet across. The bricks in the top row were all inscribed in magical symbols, which were deciphered by the group to be some kind of warding spell. They dropped a rope and proceded down.
They found room with three passages. suspended from the ceiling was a jar filled with water. Disturbing the water triggered the magical message held within warning that the gains of the speaker were guarded. They proceeded onward.
The center room had four levers, and the first person in switched all of them. There was a cave in that took a couple of hours dig through.
Upon reaching the main room again, they heard water. Investigation revealed the right-hand passage filling with water. Two group members swam to the main room there, and discovered a tomb. They swam back before they ran out of breath.
The third passage revealed one lever, and a pot with some sort of white residue in and around it. They investigated both, until people started dropping unconsious. Everybody made it back to the main room again, except the guy in full-plate-with-an-air-recycler-and-super-damage-protection, who stayed behind to play with the lever.
More investigations into the tomb revealed four statues. They opened the sarcophagus, and found a magical pendent that the body was wearing. They started to take the pendant, which released the stored spell to desenchant the Darklock spells on the four guards. Everybody made it to the main room again, and fought a bit until the four guards were subdued.
Meanwhile, they found their passage back to the surface blocked by a strange stone material. Spells bounced off of it, it resisted digging or prying. Eventually, a priest of Anubis tunnelled around it with Grave spells, allowing all to escape.
One more trip to teh tomb, with a no-breather spell, allowed them to find the secret safe, with the item they were looking for.

They returned the item to Bart, and all received something in payment.

Noteworthy Postgame Events