Ronan seemed to be following along with what was being said until the mentioning of the stairs being destroyed. Which he quickly looked to double check himself, having not paid much attention to them in the first place. The monk and the damage caused to them had really brought up most of his worries, and they were beginning to flare up again.

“A way back? A way back, yes. Simply then does anybody have something to hold down rope? An anchor of some sort would likely help, maybe a group of large stones of nothing else is to be found. Something heavy to simply hold it in place, and I am pretty sure everyone has rope or at least most of us should have brought it for preparing for this trip right?” Ronan said looking to the group and seemingly drifting away from the issue of the book.

It was seeming some worry was getting the best of him. The thought of the whole place flooding and the rest of the group trapped to drown in this place was rather flashing its way through his mind every now and again.

Tamra pushed against the pedestal that held the book. "This seems to be anchored to the floor. Think it would work?"

"And I've got rope too if we need more," Takao offered, moving after Ronan to investigate the broken stairs. "Think we should try to jump across or just lower ourselves down where they're broken?" He tried to peer down, but his torch light did not go far enough to illuminate the bottom...

"Perhaps we should just go ahead instead?" Takao hissed, crunching on the peanuts that he brought along. "I don't think that a book itself would teleport us to somewhere convinient or something~"

"Nom... Now having resolved our path of return, I'm curious, how did this book even know my last name, nobody calls me Parshall, I do remember my gramps calling me that when I was walking on fours... " Takao pondered.

"Also, are we studying history or are we looking for treasures~" Takao muttered in his sarcasm, jumping across the stairs as he speak. He doesn't really care on the ways, all it matters is the results. By the time they made a decision, the tide would have sunk us all.....

"Wraghh---" Takao let out a gasp at the totally unexpected "trap" that sent him falling downwards. "How many times did I fall already?! Stupid tower!" Takao ranted, slamming against the wall in frustration. Now that he've stumbled down into an unfamiliar place again, he squinted his eyes around the place.

"The path splits into 3..." Takao pondered. And he's sure that at least one of the routes have a trap of some sort, now that he found his teammates' advices making sense. First, lets talk about common sense, the safest path is the one with human trails, the path where most dungeoneers have gone into before. And, looking at the puddle of blood, he let out a satisfying smile. "Haa, child's play, doesn't take a genius like those up here to know that this is the safe path!"

"Hey guys, we're taking that route with the pearl, there are alot of previous trails on that one, so it will be safe!" Takao shouted upwards to his teammates who are apparently still on top, they, for some reason are fortunate not to fall here & there down the tower. "And continue flirting up the stairs and I will ditch you guys!" He hissed impatiently, now waiting for them to descend downwards, while closing towards the Pearl path.

Beneath the arches are flat slabs of blank obsidian, blocking passage.

Hearing some crashing from the stairwell, Tamra hurried toward the rotten stairs, the book and its codes momentarily forgotten. "Are you okay?" she yelled down, but already he was yelling something about a route with a pearl, so she assumed he couldn't be injured too badly.

"Ronan, looks like your thought to use some rope was wise. Do we have enough if we secure it to this pedestal?"

"F**K!!" Takao's head slammed right onto the obsidian slab, due to his blurry field of vision he had gained from the fall. Not another of the stupid traps of the tower, "Seriously, I shouldn't have taken this job..." Takao hissed, instead of fighting monster, fighting in the name of a kingdom, all he had in this job is to topple down here and there, and now this. That scrub swordsman just then wasn't counted, that one is a scrub that was worn out from some sort of previous battle. "Legendary tower my @ss, what the hell is the evil queen thinking of anyways? Does she like to see people rolling downwards...?" He had made up his mind, this tower will be his last job as a mercenary, he's not taking jobs like this, never again in a million years

"After we get out of here... I'M RESIGNING!" Takao raged, pulling out his sword and slamming it at the pearl, now on a rampage to tear down anything that makes him fall, I mean stood his way. Now running amongst the 3 arches, he slashed, poked at the area of the gemstone eyes, the dragons seemed as if they're laughing at him, but doesn't matter much, that makes him more wanting to destroy those dragons, and anything that resembles a face in the tower. Now, come out, whatever monster, dragon, gorilla, just give me a beast to fight with!...

Ronan cursed out in Abyssal at the foolishness or the perceived foolishness of the repeated situation. He would have rushed over to check if the swordsman was okay but it seemed someone was already checking upon the swordsman and in all honesty, Ronan was grow a bit more furious than caring. Deciding to dismiss the swordsman injuries for the time being as it would only slow Ronan down with more frustration and worry he immediately got to work on securing rope to the pedestal as best he could and mostly focusing on that task. Figuring since that since there was over 60 feet of it, it would be more than enough for the task and Ronan would doubly make sure of such through the process.
At the end of said process he would offer the rope that was free and not tied around the pedestal to Charlie, or the monk to somewhat prove Ronan’s own earlier point. He was rather too irritated fpr dealing with much else at the moment and if anyone was able to catch a glimpse of Ronan’s face during the process it would read very clear.
@DreadPirate

Ronan cursed out in Abyssal at the foolishness or the perceived foolishness of the repeated situation. He would have rushed over to check if the swordsman was okay but it seemed someone was already checking upon the swordsman and in all honesty, Ronan was grow a bit more furious than caring. Deciding to dismiss the swordsman injuries for the time being as it would only slow Ronan down with more frustration and worry he immediately got to work on securing rope to the pedestal as best he could and mostly focusing on that task. Figuring since that since there was over 60 feet of it, it would be more than enough for the task and Ronan would doubly make sure of such through the process.
At the end of said process he would offer the rope that was free and not tied around the pedestal to Charlie, or the monk to somewhat prove Ronan’s own earlier point. He was rather too irritated for dealing with much else at the moment and if anyone was able to catch a glimpse of Ronan’s face during the process it would read very clear.
@DreadPirate

Charlie accepted the rope and carefully began to repel down to his unlucky companion. He had a bundle wrapped around his forearm so he could easily control the slack, and he precariously stepped down the vertical slope of the wall. Charlie couldn't quite see the details of the room yet but he did notice the blood.

"That's not your blood I hope." He called down to Takao

"I'll keep watch here, at least until you're all safely down," Arnold volunteered, concerned not only about the unconscious and bound men on the roof above, but also of other groups that might still arrive with their own hopes of claiming the Black Pearl.

Tamra nodded her thanks, then proceeded cautiously down the rotted steps until she reached the broken section. She glanced at Ronan as Charlie finished his descent, catching his look of irritation. "I don't think we're in danger yet of running out of time," she ventured, only guessing that the source of his annoyance was the time they had "wasted" looking at the book and the candles.

Once Charlie had made it safely down, Tamra took the rope and started to lower herself rather awkwardly down into the chamber below. "Ooooh!" she cried suddenly as her hand slipped and she started sliding rapidly down the rope.

"Yes yes yes, the pond of blood is mine, I'm a Zombie now," Takao hissed in sarcasm, now sheathing his sword seeing that his rampage doesn't do anything. "So, what now? Tried breaking this place but doesn't seem to work I think" He scratched his head in frustration, while looking at the rest of his teammates descending from the rope..

As Charlie reviewed his surroundings he ran his hands along the walls and the arches.

"Perhaps a puzzle? Or a trap? Does the book help us at all? Otherwise we may just resort to attempting to breaking one of these barriers." Charlie said to the group as he continued to wander around the room looking for a clue. He then knocked on each of the obsidian walls, checking for solidarity.

...Takao raged, pulling out his sword and slamming it at the pearl, now on a rampage to tear down anything that makes him fall, I mean stood his way. Now running amongst the 3 arches, he slashed, poked at the area of the gemstone eyes, the dragons seemed as if they're laughing at him...

Both the pearls and the emeralds remain lodged in the eyesockets of the dragons. Although a determined effort may be able to work them loose with enough time and effort.

As Charlie reviewed his surroundings he ran his hands along the walls and the arches.

"Perhaps a puzzle? Or a trap? Does the book help us at all? Otherwise we may just resort to attempting to breaking one of these barriers." Charlie said to the group as he continued to wander around the room looking for a clue. He then knocked on each of the obsidian walls, checking for solidarity.

The obsidian walls seem solid when Charlie knocks on each, as if there is nothing beyond them. The small, but fresh puddle of blood would indicate that someone else has been here very recently. It lies directly in front of the dragon with the pearl eyes and almost centered with this section of the sigil upon the floor.

Tamra hit the floor in a barely controlled fall. She sucked in a sharp breath, but managed to avoid crying out in pain. Her rump hurt from impacting the stone floor and her hands were sore from sliding down the rope, but her pride was injured just as much. Slowly, she got back to her feet. "All yours," she said up to Ronan, still trying to mask the pain in her voice.

Putting her mind on something else, she looked around at the dragons and then began inspecting the sigil on the floor. The magical energy it contained caught her attention immediately. "Magical portals, perhaps?" she ventured a guess. "The friends of the men up there," she pointed vaguely toward the ceiling, indicating the men they had encountered upon arriving, "must have opened it somehow."

Ronan barely paid attention as Charlie had went down after the warrior below. Mainly focusing on bringing himself to a calmer and less easily irritated state by some controlled and calm breathing practices. The time that had been passing along had not been a worry for Ronan at the time. In fact time had barely even slipped into his mind among the few rising worries that had aggravated him. In truth, the irritation had mostly been directed at the companions in a manner of speaking and it would be odd that that wasn’t at least a bit obvious.

It seemed the more heavily armored and prepared warrior would be on guard duty. Which was relieving to a degree. Getting up and down the rope with a full suit of armor may have been difficult for the said person. Not likely that the rope would break seeing as it was of good quality, just would seem to require more effort (at least to Ronan’s imagination).Either way it was Ronan’s turn to descend as Tamra had called upward. He grasped onto the rope tightly and began his quick yet careful descent downward among the others.

“So we have to get thinking with portals then?” Ronan would say on the last bouts of his descent.
“Didn’t the book have some directions or something like that earlier?” Ronan stated looking at the three different archways. “Maybe someone was able to go into the portal but was the wrong one..or something else, unappealing was on the other side waiting..”

Tamra knelt and touched the sigil on the floor, closing her eyes to better concentrate on the magical energies, then opened them a few moments later, looking startled. "What kind of maniacal being was this Sezrekan?" she wondered aloud, then looked to the others. "Spill blood of a living being to open the way." Shaking her head, she continued as her eyes were drawn to the small puddle of blood on the floor near the pearl-eyed dragon. "I'm not sure how much is needed, but if that's any indication..." she trailed off, not anxious to volunteer.

There certainly wasn't enough on the floor to indicate that anyone had died, but it was an unpleasant prospect nevertheless.

Charlie's eyes flared at the notion of living blood being the only way to open the gate. Judging by how much there was on the floor it would be a substantial amount for any person to spill.

"We could all pool ours together? Minimize loss..." Charlie said and then he motioned toward the rope leading up the wall

"Or perhaps one of us could go fetch one of the men we combatted earlier?"

Tamra hesitated at the monk's suggestion to use one of the bound and unconscious men. But who knew what they might face on the other side of that portal? And having even one of them weakened from blood loss could be problematic. She nodded at Charlie. "We could patch them up, make sure they don't bleed to death on us," she rationalized, feeling rather guilty as the words left her mouth, but she did not take them back.

Instead, she walked over to the rope and gave a holler up through where they had come. "Arnold? Would you fetch one of our friends from the roof? We've got a job for him..." She purposefully didn't mentioned why they wanted him, worried that the cleric might not be willing to go along with the idea.

She looked at the others in the room, "If we get that open, what's the plan? We could be facing the friends of the fellows guarding the roof..." She trailed off, realizing they could really be facing almost anything on the other side of that portal.

@Ramzam @DreadPirate @AwesomeZero5 @Noodles

Ronan raised a bit of a brow at the mentioning of spilling the blood of a living creature in order to open the portal or whatever it was to proceed further. It seemed that one of those challengers from earlier would need to be use as a sacrifice for the better. It didn’t come into his mind to use one of his companions or his own blood for the task. When Charlie offered for all of them to pull blood together Ronan’s worry and irritancy flared up once more. He’d try and lightly slap the back of the monk’s head.
“Of course we’re not going to spill our own. The drunkards probably won’t feel much of it anyways…” Ronan added. Not seeming as hesitant with such at the moment. He didn’t plan to kill the drunkards and didn’t suspect for that to happen, especially if a cleric would heal the drunkard if the damage got too serious. “When we get it open, I prefer we take a more cautious approach. Not picking up random cursed items if something else can be used, and not plummeting downward to our deaths.” Ronan emphasized those two points. “being careful, and quick to subdue them..or perhaps capture them even if there are enemy more people to encounter and being on the lookout for any other dangers which likely are ahead.”

It wasn't long before Arnold returned, carrying the smaller of the two drunkards and it was with some effort that they all managed to lower his unconscious form down into the chamber with the dragon portals.

"Wait!" Tamra said as they set down their prisoner. "Before we do this, let me grant some small measure of protection since we don't know what we'll encounter once we step through there." She had taken Ronan's caution to heart and knew there could very well be companions to this man on the other side.

Pulling a piece of cured leather from her pouch, she touched each of the three men on the shoulder and whispered a short incantation to grant each of them Mage Armor.

"Ok," she said and stepped back, letting one of them do the 'honors' of bloodletting their unsuspecting prisoner.

@DreadPirate@AwesomeZero5@Noodles