Frozen in Time - As a 0-level funnel

[Judge Perky]

...the tentacles wrap around his hand, and force the metal disc snug into his palm...

The disc glows with a dim silver luminescence, but produces no other noticeable effect.

If he tries to shake it off, does that change anything?

Does it interfere with him using his spear, or seem likely to interfere with other manual tasks?

Is it warm/cold/bitey/fit-like-a-glove?

He is able to take it off without any trouble. It might be a little unwieldy to leave it in his palm doing other things. When it was on, it fit comfortably, the metal disk firmly in his palm.

[Fenris Ulfhamr]

Blackfeet and Myrna revere Tarr with wide-eyed wonder, staring at his "marked" hand. Kurr and Bjorn roll up the yeti pelt and prepare to move.

ooc: what is the tribe's perception of the Demon Ice? Reverence? Fear? Both?

[Judge Perky]

ooc: what is the tribe's perception of the Demon Ice? Reverence? Fear? Both?

BACKGROUND

You are members of a barbarian tribe of nomads, living in the vast frozen expanse known by those of the soft-civilized folk in the south who know of it at all as the Forlorn North.

Your tribe, The Ghost Ice Clan, is one of a number of others making its home here. You endure by hunting and gathering, using your bone and flint-tipped weapons and your generations of wilderness lore to survive. Yours are a formidable and resilient folk, hardened by constant struggle and the cutting winds racing constantly down The Howling Plains from the The Glacier of Blades which forms the northern boundary of your land.

During most of the year, your clan follows herds of woolly mammoth, caribou and elk over the vast expanse of permafrost and sub-arctic grasslands that comprise The Howling Plains. But now it is winter, when the temperatures can plunge as low as -20 degrees F, so your clan has retreated to the relative shelter and warmth of a wide valley in the hills to the north of The Windbreak Forest, to camp among the hot springs one mile south of the base of your clan's namesake, The Ghost Ice.

The Ghost Ice itself is a wonder of nature, a glacier measuring three miles in width, situated between two rocky cliffs and completely filling the northern end of the valley. It's blue-white majesty towers around 300' above the valley floor. Clan legend has kept the entire ice sheet itself taboo for generations; the glacier is believed by your people to be the home of "ice demons" that carry away any hunter entering their domain.

[Dr. Meat]

Dibbon harvests the yeti's canine teeth. They should work well for a new club or necklace.

Willoughby, Krex, and Bitterbrew investigate the pillar for openings, interesting protrusions, blinking or shiny bits and wonder why it's warmer there...

[Judge Perky]

Willoughby, Krex, and Bitterbrew investigate the pillar for openings, interesting protrusions, blinking or shiny bits and wonder why it's warmer there...

The pillar isn't warmer. It's just less covered than the area below the crevasse in the ceiling. Still, its got so much ice and snow around that it would take about 10 minutes' work to clear away enough for you reach the door set in its side. Even now, however, you can see that there is a small circular indentation in the center of the door, inlaid with a silvery substance.

[Dr. Meat]

Dibbon joins his comrades in their effort to clear the snow and ice away from the door.

Bitterbrew (Int 15) calls over to Tarr, "Hey there! Maybe your round hand grabber fits into the circle dent in the door?"

[GnomeBoy]

"...My Demon mark! I think that is what you mean..."

Tarr steps over to the circle door dent thing and aligns his palm with the circle.

[Judge Perky]

Indeed, once the ice and snow are cleared, and the silver disk aligns with the indentation on the door, the door slides open with a whisper, revealing a tube heading downward. Unlike the first tube you encountered however, the lights inside do not activate when the door is opened.

[GnomeBoy]

"It is a waste pit."

Tarr will not enter.

[Fenris Ulfhamr]

Blackfeet finds a small piece of rubbish from the pile he was going to climb and tosses it down the tube. He then counts as he stares down into the blackness, waiting for the "thump".
ooc Can he see the bottom with infravision?

[Judge Perky]

Blackfeet finds a small piece of rubbish from the pile he was going to climb and tosses it down the tube. He then counts as he stares down into the blackness, waiting for the "thump".
ooc Can he see the bottom with infravision?

It falls for about 10 seconds into darkness before the thump comes.

He can not see the bottom.

[Fenris Ulfhamr]

Blackfeet turns to the group: "The demon-winds seem to have abandoned this tube... which way, Tarr?"

[GnomeBoy]

Tarr holds up his hand, aiming the Demon-mark like a beacon. He circles around as if divining which way the Mark wants him to go, his deep concentration obvious on his drawn face.

"This way! — with haste!"

OOC: I should have been sketching a map of the thing as we've gone along (but it seemed easy to remember at first!). I have only a very vague idea of where we are and how things are positioned relative to each other (esp. since I got it very wrong at one point already). But it hardly matters... Tarr thinks he is being guided and he will end up going in some new direction, perhaps based on a mere itch in his palm... Judge, please choose (randomly or otherwise) a direction we noticed but haven't yet explored, even if it is some distance back along our path.

Tarr dashes in that direction, assuming everyone will follow him.

[Judge Perky]

As you slush into the 30' square room, you now see that four hallways exit the room, one at each compass point. You are entering through the eastern door. The ice is more prevalent near the north corridor, while the slushy puddles are more concentrated toward the southern hallway.

The southwest corner of this room is slightly rounded, and contains a door set into the wall. There is a small circular indentation in the center of the door.

Thus far, after reaching this crossroad from the plant room, you have explored only the icy room at the end of the north corridor.

[GnomeBoy]

I take it you don't want to send us randomly somewhere...

So we go to the south from this roof-cracked room. Tarr will use his Demon-mark to open the door, if there is a receptacle barring the way southward.

"The Demon Ice has a portent for us, through here...!"

[Judge Perky]

As you make your way from the northern room to the southern hallway, the ice on the floor turns to slushy puddles that seem to be concentrated near the door 10' south of the foyer. There is a small circular indentation on the door, much like the one in the other room. Tarr places his palm with the 'demon-mark' into that indention, and the door slides open with a whoosh.

The floor of the large octogonal chamber in front of you is covered with sopping wet carpeting. Shards of broken glass and the bodies of dead unknown fish litter the ground near the east wall. Near the opposite wall is another large pillar bearing a rectangular depression in its side. Three large statues stand at aesthetically-pleasing locations throughout the room and several paintings hang at regular intervals along the walls.

All these wonders pale in comparison to the monstrous reptilian beast that stands atop a glowing platform in the middle of the room. Although the monster’s titanic jaws are open as if in the midst of a fearsome roar, the creature is motionless, as still as the statues surrounding it.

[Fenris Ulfhamr]

They follow Tarr down the southern passage, Blackfeet and Myrna immediately, Kurr and Bjorn less so. All stare at the great reptile in wonder...
"Is this the ice demon, or its captive?"
"Is it...(ulp!)...alive?"
"What manner of place is this?"

ooc Does the reptile resemble anything from their hunts or tribal legends?

[Judge Perky]

ooc Does the reptile resemble anything from their hunts or tribal legends?

They have seen the occasional large creature such as a Mammoth or Frost Giant, but cold blooded beings from warmer climes such as reptiles are beyond their ken.

[GnomeBoy]

[I'm assuming the statues and paintings feature people.]

"The Demons have placed likenesses around the walls... But here, in the center of the room they have depicted — THEMSELVES!" >lightning crash<

Telva will examine the fish and, more generally, the floor.

Voorak and Sarkla will survey the sculptures and paintings.

[Dr. Meat]

Dibbon very much likes the look of the paintings and thinks they'd look very nice hanging in his tent. He nudges his mates and they attempt to see if the paintings can be cut from their frames and rolled up for transport (assuming that they're painted on canvas or the like).

[Judge Perky]

Telva notes that the fish, some with three eyes and odd, alien appendages, are dead for some days and rotting. The water from the aquarium has saturated the carpet and leaked into the hallway.

The paintings, 12 in all, are of various styles and far exceed the skill of the tribal painters you are familiar with. One, for example, is a portrait of a young woman in odd clothes with an enigmatic smile upon her face. Another, quite different, is of a red and white metallic cylinder with alien markings (letters?) upon it. A third is of a heroic man in a white wig, crossing a river in a boat filled with other men. A fourth is made up of tiny splotches of paint that appear to be a group of people having a meal alongside a river, wearing bright and garish costumes... They don't look like something there would be much demand for here, but you can take them.

The three statues are very large and made of stone. One is a nude human male sitting atop a rock, his chin resting on his fist as if in contemplation. The second is a half-naked woman, her arms obviously destroyed by vandals. And the third is a nude human male, standing with a sling draped over one shoulder.

[GnomeBoy]

Telva will pitch fish into the saurian maw of the central statue.

Tarr looks VERY closely at the people on the bank, eating lunch, trying to divine some message from all the tiny dots...

[Fenris Ulfhamr]

ooc- brain explodes...what a twist! lol

Are there other exits apparent in the room? If not, Kurr and Myrna examine the pillar

[Judge Perky]

Telva will pitch fish into the saurian maw of the central statue.

Tarr looks VERY closely at the people on the bank, eating lunch, trying to divine some message from all the tiny dots...

Roll to hit an AC 10 to see if you hit the mouth.

Give me an INT check on the painting dots.

You see no other exits in the room. The pillar has a door with a circular depression in the door... but unlike the others you've seen, this one is gold colored rather than silver.

[GnomeBoy]

Roll to hit an AC 10 to see if you hit the mouth.

Give me an INT check on the painting dots.

To Hit: 5

INT check (to hit a DC): 15
INT check (to roll under): missed it by 8