The short passageway opens onto a cramped chamber populated by an assortment of bizarre elements. Against the north wall, a simple stone altar bears a small velvet sack. On either side of the altar stand great glass boxes, swirling with a mysterious grey vapor. On the west side of the room, a broad black scorch-mark surrounds a massive hole in the floor.

The dwarf decided he'd be best not wandering down that pathway alone, so he joined the pack to discover the new room.

"Oh look. Huge scorched floor. I'm sure this'll be wicked safe."

He then saw the sack, and pulled a small, empty bag from his pocket and filled it with small pebbles as he stared at the sack from across the room. He allowed a few pebbles to drift from his hand, gauging the weight. Adjusting Murray, he then stealthily crossed the room and reached out slowly to...

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Inspect the thing for traps, without ever touching it, because he isn't stupid.

I quickly follow into the new spooky room. While the corpse fetishist checks the altar, I inspect the hole.

Motsognir stays the fuck out of the dangerous trap room. He waits patiently at the door for everything to resolve itself.

Argumentus observes the puzzle solving while performing some treasure hunting of his own.

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If ever I saw an altar to the dark Gods, this was one. I was somewhat dismayed though that with my own extensive knowledge of world religions and with two actual religious personages in the party nobody seemed to know anything more about this.

As the principal font of knowledge and insight in the group, I moved into the room and examined the swirly mist in the glass boxes, peering into one for a while before giving it a gentle tap to see if the contents responded.

Gabriel walks across the floor next to the giant hole, and there is a resounding thump as the pressure triggers in the floor activate. The east wall of the room surges forward, bashing Gabriel and sending him flying toward the hole. Miraculously, he manages to grab the lip of the hole before plummeting downward.

Getting hit by a wall still hurts, though. 12 damage.

Brigid peers down the hole, though the view is somewhat blocked by a struggling dwarf. It leads down about 30 feet, and water is visible at the bottom. Great splashing sounds arise from below, and something huge and black occasionally blocks the view of the water.

Bob racks his brains, but nothing in the chamber seems related to any gods he knows of.

Startled by the sudden incursion of the wall into the room I rushed forward to help the dwarf up out of the hole. Once he was clear, I examined the mechanism behind the wall to see if it could be disabled or if there was a way to climb over to get to the altar without being crushed.

"Need hep short man?"

Argumentus pulls Gabriel up from out of the hole.

Bob & Argumentus heave the paladin out of his predicament.

Bob searches for a way to disable it, and finds a concealed control panel in the wall just north of the entrance. Pulling a lever back up causes the protruding wall to recede, and jamming a chunk of masonry in the workings guarantees the lever will stay up.

Having neutralized the room's dangers, Bob proceeds to examine the glass cases as planned. Though the mists within the glass seem to swirl about at random, they coalesce at times into shapes almost vaguely humanoid. Bob taps on the glass, and the amorphous thing inside the case presses a horrid face to the wall of its prison and emits a soundless scream. The cases are full of g-g-g-ghosts!

Oh, and 300 XP for the trap, why not

"This is a dark and unclean place. Let us cleanse it with fire."

The dwarf took a deep breath and grumbled under his breath. "Dwarf - 1. Wall - 0."

Healing Surge

Noting he felt better, and that not one of his fellows was doing a GODDAMN THING, he marched right up to the pedestal, glared into the boxes to show them ghosts that he wore dead things like a hat and used them like a back scratcher, then replaced the pretty bag with his ugly one filled with stones.

Gabriel 33/11

The spirits seem largely indifferent to the fate of the parcel, and removing it from the altar results in no unusual consequences.

Inside the pouch is a roughly-carved onyx figurine of a mastiff.

Well. Since that was so easy, I wonder if these ghost-boxes ain't bolted down or too heavy to move or somethin'. Or burn it.

Glass boxes filled with an incorporate undead horror shouldn't be too hard to move around.

Fragile, though.

"Sweet. A dog."

The dwarf set the figurine, still in the sack, on his belt.

He'd always wanted a dog.

Motsognir was very happy not to have to be around the trap room anymore. He set off towards the southleading stairwell, because really, what else was going to happen?

Argumentus lifts the ghost-filled cases in each of his arms and throws them down the hole.

He makes a wish...

Does Argumentus yell mightily whilst he heaves them down the hole?

"Down you go!" < _ >

Argumentus hurls the Ghost Containment Units into the pit, and they sparkle prettily as they tumble end over end because before smashing into bits just as the dark shape passes under the opening below. There is a massive roar of pain, and an unbearably loud voice thunders up the hole; it seems to shake the very walls.

"OW! WHAT IN THE TEN UNSPEAKABLE NAMES OF — OH, LOOK AT THIS. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EXPENSIVE THESE ARE? WHOEVER YOU ARE, I AM SO EATING YOU.

I JUST CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS, I GUESS!"

The ghosts flit back and forth past the opening, giggling in glee. They seem quite pleased with their new freedom.

"OH, HELLS. THESE THINGS ARE LIKE GNATS. I AM EATING YOU TWICE."

You would think a healer would object to the blasphemy of hundreds of dead souls, but I reckon I recognized some'a dem faces, and believe you me, they earned it. All the same, I don't wanna find out the hard way that that feller down there can jump, so I leave the altar room.

I tossed the vial of alchemist's fire I was carrying down the hole. It was only weighing me down anyway.

"WHAT THE — OH, IS THIS A TREND NOW? THROW SHIT DOWN THE HOLE? ARE YOU THAT BORED? I CAN EAT BOTH OF YOU, YOU KNOW. IT'S NOT A PROBLEM. I'M HUGE. THAT MEANS I HAVE HUGE GUTS."

Motsognir taps his foot impatiently, waiting at the stairwell.

"Ahem."