D6: Open air stone bowl


 Ah, for a touch of sunlight! (actually, I'm expecting the weather at this site to either be dark and stormy, or cold and snowy/icy. TBD, I suppose, but getting outside may not actually be pleasant).

In any case, continuing east from the Serpent Mural and passing through a heavy, steel door (unsecured; actually, let's say the door is secured with a metal bar on the west side, so the party sees that's a way doors are secured, but aren't held up by it).

This large space lacks a roof. It's dominated by a 5' radius bowl made of sandstone which appears to be free-standing on the flagstones. Nature DC 18 check or appropriate lore to recognize that this sandstone isn't a local stone; the bowl must have been moved. The bowl rocks easily when touched.

When a stone (from the rubble pile in the NE corner in particular) is placed in the bowl and everyone is clear, the bowl is launched upwards with explosive force, catapulting the stone. The bowl and be propped up at an angle with other stones to control the direction it's launched. I suspect there will be some use to the party in using this to target something or other, but haven't I figured out what yet.

The weight of the pile of stones and time appears to have cracked the roof of the vault below, opening a pit; the party can descend on ropes (or jump down, if they really want to). The space below is filled with water (knee deep, if they think to test it), or snow if I decide it's a colder environment. The room is on level 3, so we'll describe it down there (and I'll try to come back to link to it here some day). But there will be more clues about the stone-thrower's purpose and mechanisms if examined from below.

Probably we can start giving clues about the violent end of the fortress here; the flag stones and the bowl itself are fire-damaged, and the pile of rocks is misshapen, as if the rocks partly melted and solidified in a new shape.

Three additional doors lead out of here; the door to the NW is locked with a key (not Key 1a though). Since the other side is also open-air, they could climb across (Athletics DC 22), but they would have to climb back again, since the key isn't on that side either. Similarly, the lock can be picked (Thievery DC 24). The other two doors are heavy steel doors, but are not secured (in fact, the one to the north lies partly open, and the one to the SE falls off its broken hinges when touched).

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