Episode 2

Status Check

Room 9 Notional Map:Of course this positioning is just my best guess of positioning when I subjectively mix y'all's default two line wide room stance plus my interpretation of actions and movements as described. If it is not right? No problem. Can easily change; just tell me where to move.
Reminders: decor on map should be ignored, while actual decor is not pictured. Example: there is no table in the middle of the room, and there are statues instead.

Awaiting:
CON Save DC 13 for Thorn and Maeriks, related to Poison Gas effects. Until those guys save, we will operate as if they have succumbed to the effects of the smoke and are taking no Action.

Open for any other Action, including Kray's Perception of door mechanism, other attempts at statue base breaking (for Ivor or other Athletes), etc.

We are not in a time of sharp record-keeping on exact rounds, but I'm trying to keep a realistic eye on the passage of time.

There has been some passage of time just taken up by coughing and struggling and reacting to the smoke, stumbling around trying to take action (move to door, inspect bodies, attempt break on statue, etc.). Maybe somewhere around a minute.

What do you do?

Kray shifts and extends his entire arm outside of gate door. He is able to inspect, by sense of feeling, that there are two mechanisms that are keeping the larger gate door sealed: an internal cylinder lock with a one-side entrance plus a bar throw bolt that is held into place for external manipulation.

The lower small door is a hanger lock, of a newer design.

Kray feels certain that Bryn could defeat these locks with the right tools if he was on the other side of the door. It would surely be a more difficult challenge to attempt a pick blindly from the opposite side of the door, with limitations on reach and access. Still, if Kray knew anyone who could give it a shot, it would be Bryn.

As for the structure of the door, and the consideration of a physical assault on it? It would be possible, but quite a task. This structure was very well engineered. Not cosmetically appealing, but structurally sound. Iron cross bars sunk deep into the stone to serve as a strong bracing frame.

It would take a heavy battering ram. Obvious candidate: one of the statues. Perhaps a strategy could be to focus hits on the smaller interior cage door, that might allow at least the smaller group members to crawl free, if not everyone.

It would just take time and there would be a LOT of noise.

And time may be hard to endure, sitting and breathing poisonous gas.

At the very extreme end of his reach while shifting to the left-most edge of the gate door, Kray feels a chain that is hanging along the stone wall of the short hallway that leads directly away from the door.

Kray, using the very tips of his fingers, manages to grab the chain and pulls to see if it might release some part of the door mechanism. Kray feels some weight in the chain that shifts slightly, but at this extremely disadvantaged position there is absolutely no way to generate enough force to make a real pull.

It is difficult to even maintain hold on the chain from this angle, so Kray has to let it slip from his hand.

But now with some feeling that there is perhaps more mechanism to the door, and perhaps something high in the wall or ceiling, Kray backs up and fully scans everything he can see at the top of the door. He holds the torch as high as he can, looking up in the wall above towards the very high vaulted ceilings.

Though obscured by smoke and darkness, there is a rectangular indention high in the ceiling. It is barely recognizable if it is anything at all. But it does look like a slightly lighter panel of different wood embedded into the dark black beams of the rest of the ceiling.

Kray points the spot out to Thorn who is just arriving through the fumes. Both of the men look up again and then at each other.

Could it be some sort of hatch or door? Kray wonders, could the chain somehow route to unlock or open such a panel?

Kray tries again for the chain, but it is barely possible to even get the chain in hand, and effectively impossible to pull it. He is convinced there is no play there.

The ceiling itself is 20 feet high or more. The walls of the room are a sheer smooth stone bricks with not even the slightest finger holds in mortar lines. Nothing. Climbing them would seem out of the question. Hammer and pitons? Extremely difficult, since the blocks are so masterfully stacked and interlocked with only hairline seams between them. Even if it could be done, it would take time and equipment.

Still...Kray was becoming increasingly convinced that the rectangular irregularity high on the ceiling was a potential exit.

Bryn makes his way over. Kray points out and describes the reach angle to be able to feel the locks on the other side of the gate. Kray downloads what he knows about the three locking mechanisms that he detected by sense of touch. He also tells him about the far chain.

Bryn listens and tries to get his bearings on what he is dealing with by giving a trial reach through the gate to gauge distance and access. Right off the bat he knows that this would be extremely difficult to pull off, but he could give it a shot. With enough time, he could probably make something happen, but making it quick would be a real feat.

While Bryn is considering the gate, Kray and Thorn go back to scanning upward at the high ceiling panel and looking all around the area for what might be possible to make a way up to it. Nothing is presenting itself as a good option for climbing or jumping.

Bryn asks and sees what they are talking about and they point the strange ceiling panel out to him.

The coughing continues. Head pain is pounding. Muscles spasms increasingly difficult to override for control.

This trap of a room will have everyone on the floor paralyzed eventually if they cannot get away from this toxin.

That's what I expected. It was a hail Mary to see if you were getting soft J.

"What bodies?" Sizhen says as he points to the puddles where the bodies were.