Group 10I’m only posting this once per group thread, but it’s true unless I specifically post otherwise:
All status information from all groups is flowing on the Link; everyone knows what is happening everywhere and can share, and act on, everyone else’s information.
And Star’s combat map is giving current locations and status, but she cautions they are a little approximate unless she can actually see you.
The whole group Earthglides toward the ceiling into the location marked with a 10 on the map.
Suddenly Star says on the Link, just in Time,
{Star} Forbiddance! That’s what blocked our Gates at 3, 4, and 5! Groups 7-8-9-10, we’re flying into it!There is a lot of pain on the Link, which hits just after Star’s warning comes on the Link about two seconds before the dismay on the Link from groups 3, 4, and 5, followed by group 7, and then the grim determination that groups 8 and 9 put on the Link to tough it out and execute their reconnaissance and demolitions missions though they had Time to save their parrots in their Bags just before going in.
The Plan
TM has been for the groups 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 to enter in very quick succession, since their primary mission is to provide a distraction from group 10 whose mission is to get to the slave pens and rescue the slaves, if they are there... and they had already lost ‘surprise’ time compared to groups 1, 2, and 6 because they came via Earthglide instead of via Gate. Since groups 1, 2, and 6 didn’t run into anything worse than Alarm, groups 3, 4, and 5 bolted into their locations as soon as they could, and spilled out of the ceiling right through Glyphs and into a Forbiddance. Now the earlier three Earthgliding groups are putting a flow of information on the Link which matches well what Magic the later three groups, 7, 8, and 9, are reporting, not at all like groups 1, 2, and 6.
Group 10 comes to a stop in the ceiling just above the location marked with a 10 on the map, forming into battle ready positions so that they can exit the rock into the air, flying as planned.
RorO, Sable and Star pause inside the rock ceiling; Star calls their attention to the Magic inscribed on the surface of the rock. The three of them have the vision to see reasonably clearly through the rock for a short distance.
{Star} There are the Glyphs the other groups found. Don’t try to Read them; the Glyph of Warding… that one… is loaded with Explosive Runes. The Rors say they didn’t sense a password, with Find The Path, so there is little reason to Read them. With the ScryBubblegum giving us all Nondetection, likely no one will trigger any Glyph.
It’s a well designed trap. The lack of a password, the consistent Alignment key, the Explosive Runes, and the extent of the Glyphs… they must run through much of the compound… someone put a lot of care into this.
But I don’t see the Forbiddance; in fact I don’t see much of anything except thick fog, beyond the Magic on the face of the rock… at least I suppose the rock ends there. Likely it is Magical fog; I can see through mundane fog.Sable also sees only fog beyond where the rocky outer face of the ceiling ends, inscribed with the Glyphs. Standing next to Star, within her Circle radius, he even finds he has a Spellcraft understanding of the mechanics of the Magic.
Ror10 sees nothing but the fog beyond the ceiling rock, as do Sable and Star, but RorO does not see fog at all. Regardless, with the information flowing on the Link, PtolemaeusO&10, Halt O&10, and RorO&10 recognize the fog of Guards and Wards, via Spellcraft.
With his view clear and unfogged, RorO can confirm on the Link that indeed the ceiling does end and the open space of the target corridor begins, and he also sees Alarm waiting to trigger, as well as Forbiddance waiting to bite into them as soon as they emerge. In fact, RorO sees Forbiddance active throughout all areas within the 60ft that his Detect Magic provides, and the two different Glyphs are painted onto every surface: floor, walls, ceiling.
RorO sees that Star has kept them on course, and the location looks about as expected from the map. It is a short corridor. The floor is blocks of polished stone. The walls have carved designs. The ceiling is carved as well, about thirty feet high.
To the south, RorO can see that the corridor comes to an irregular intersection and continues, curving west out of sight; the rock becomes too dense and hazy to see through more of it. To the north, .the corridor opens out into the open bar slave pens. The few he can see are empty and stand open. There, the ceiling is carved as well, very ornately, about fifty feet high.
Ror10’s demolitions target is a few feet along the corridor to the south according to the combat map; he is almost exactly above the point to place the explosive charge to bring down the ceiling and close off the corridor.
VirO&10 have decisions to make about the parrots, whether to risk any or all, or keep them safe in Bags which will not open in the Forbiddance... though they can return into the rock with Earthglide and release the parrots later if they have the opportunity.
All the rest of the groups are in, and Time is passing. Though groups 1, 2, and 6 had a bit of a lead, and group 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 went in moments before, all now report in and are in sync, on the Link. Group 10 has gotten a view of its own situation, some information viewed directly, some on the Link, as well as the situations of all of the other groups, and must decide how all should proceed, and quickly!!