Adventure Logs - Keep on the Shadowfell 15 - Deadly Traps Part 1

Back at the Keep, we descend back into the second level. Just to be safe, we take another look around the area the Hobgoblins were using as barracks, but nothing seems to have changed since our previous visit. There was only one path to follow now: a long corridor heading south from the room where we had fought the Hobgoblin horde. We go down the corridor until we reach a large domed room with two closed doors, a stone double-door to the south and a wooden door to the west. At a corner of the room there was a humanoid corpse, covered by a cloak. Finding this somewhat odd, we investigate it, but it had nothing interesting about it. It was probably just a victim of the Hobgoblins, left there until they could dispose of it. 

We decide to check the door to the west first and find that it leads into a corridor turning south further ahead. At the end of this corridor there was a wooden double door nailed shut with wooden planks. Scraped on the wood was the word "Closed". Seeing this as an obvious invitation, we force the doors down and proceed inwards. Inside we find ourselves in a corridor with two alcoves to the east and a corner to the west. We head into the west corner first and go into a small room with a door to the east. Inside this room there were two zombies, who immediately attack our party. We engage the zombies, expecting an easy fight like our previous encounters with the undead, but these proved much sturdier.

As we were busy fighting the undead, we are suddenly surprised by the appearance of a third foe right behind us. Sneaking up on us, a translucid creature we recognized as a Gelatinous Gube engulfs Ceteribus, who was the one further to the back. Ceteribus manages to escape the creature's hold and we try to quickly dispatch the undead and focus on beating this much harder foe. Sora is the first the engage the cube in melee and pays for it by becoming the cube's primary target. The cube keeps focusing his attacks on Sora, who is unable to escape his grasp, and is severely wounded. It took a while, but we manage to kill the cube without having to expend too much of our resources.

Free to explore the room, Kralho checks and opens the door to the east. Behind the door there was a small bedroom with two small beds and a chest with the symbol of Bahamut. The chest was unlocked and inside it we find some old children's clothing and toys, a gold necklace with the inscription "Drystan Keegan", a bracelet inscribed with "Ceinwein Keegan" and a magical Safewing Amulet. These things probably belonged to Sir Keegan's children. We take the necklace and bracelet intending to show them to Sir Keegan, and take the magical amulet for ourselves. After this, we go back and check the alcoves, but find nothing there. The only path left to go was the stone double doors at the large domed room. 

Kralho checks the doors and thinks that they are safe to open, so we do so. Behind the doors, was a huge room, so big that we couldn't light all of it with our lantern. As we enter we notice that the room is full of statues. In the middle of the room there was a huge statue of a sword wielding titan. To the east there were two statues of dragons, one in the north corner and the other at the south corner. All along the west wall, there were several statues of human mages. Behind the titan, we could glimpse four cherub statues, two on each side of a passage ending in a set of double doors. Finding this place highly suspicious, Kralho, Chuck and Ceteribus, the ones in the party who were better at searching for traps, start investigating the room while myself and Sora stay at the door. While passing between the titan and one of the dragon statues, Ceteribus triggers a pressure plate, activating a nasty trap. 

When the trap triggers, both the dragon statues and the titan become animated, though they do not seem able to leave their places. Also, the doors behind us immediately close themselves.  The dragon statue closest to Ceteribus, immediately blasts him with a breath of energy, pushing him backwards towards the titan. Then the titan swings his massive sword, hitting everyone within 15ft of himself. Only myself and Sora aren't hit by it's swing. The statues keep attacking us whenever we get close, but we soon realize that there are some blind spots in the room where none of them can reach us. Looking around, Kralho notices what seemed like a hidden switch atop the titan statue, while myself and Ceteribus notice arcane patterns on the dragon statues that we could use in finding a way to disarm them. Putting himself in harm's way, Kralho climbs unto the titan statue to examine the switch, while we attempt to decypher the arcane patterns on one of the dragons. After a few moments, Kralho manages to disable the titan while we  fail on disarming the dragon. Kralho climbs down and braves entering into the dragon's blast area to attempt to disarm them as well. Meanwhile, being no use in disarming traps, Sora is looking at the humans statues aligned at the west wall and notices that one of them isn't standing against the wall, like the others. She decides to see what happens if she tries to push the statue towards the wall and when she does so, a secret passage opens up beside her, much to general surprise. We finally manage to disarm another dragon statue, but fail in disarming the other. Well, as long as we kept far away from it's range, it would pose no problem. 

We decide to check the secret door and find that it is just a small corridor leading nowhere. However, written on the wall were the words "Time is life, time is death" and Ceteribus's stone begins to shine. Under the light of the stone, he finds a small carving with the same symbol as the one on the golden ring that came with the stone. He presses the ring against the carving and immediately a new passage opens up at the end of the corridor, leading into a closed room. See what we found there, in the next article of Adventure Logs.