Just to clarify - the doors are around the trapdoor, not inside it. So right now you're going inside the trapdoor and then leaving it and returning to the tunnel, and then picking the door with the corridor. The first door on the left with the corridor is the way you came through, unless I'm mistaken, so yo're just returning where you came from. Then there's a a second door on the left, past the trapdoor, that's unexplored. Andthere are two doors on the right, the first one is looted and the second one is the one with the alter that most of us are in and talking about right now.

I see. I will go to the unexplored door on the left then. Thank you. I wish there was something like a map so that we don't get confused :D

Actually my bad, Cervello is aready there and had cast a detect secrets spell, but Doc didn't say what's inside yet. By the way, I think you can still enter teh trapdoor if you're interested. Yeah, same here! It'd be nice if we could get a summary of wwat's where, to make sure there are no issues with positionig like last time. Maybe we could use an online hex map to draw and hsare where we are.

And fire it, and slowly move backward with the group, right? :)

I don't think we have a single shield amongst us, do we? *eyes Beldarion, but suspect he's using his bastard sword two-handedly*

"Better stay safely out of range of these ghouls, though. Even when crawling on the floor, undead are never a safe proposition. Why, I once heard a tale about a bone knight in a similar position punching someone's skull in!"

Agreed.

Sorry but this is madness ! I'm a Thief, not a warrior !

Considering that everybody want to embrace Death, I decide to leave the warded room and waiting safely in the main southern tunnel, armed and ready to assist my comrades in case of fight.

I strongly advise you all to light only one candle and summon creatures in front of the sarcophagus, so they may be attacked first !

No shield, unless you consider my character as some sort of human shield :P

Well, I do, but it seems rude to just openly state that! ;P

You are looking at it purely from a mechanical perspective. Don't forget that magic exists in this world. The souls of what is inside the sarcophagi could easily be connected to a respective candle's flame. And by lighting them, they could spring to life too. The paladins sensed an "unnatural presence" inside the sarcophagi. I just don't consider lighting random candles on a random altar as a wise course of action. The candles could as well be an elaborate trap where the candle wicks are actually fuses which connect to the sarcophagi which could be full of explosive gas, causing an explosion once the candles are lit, killing everyone who gathered around them ready for anything they thought might rise from them.

Seeing how everyone is eager to put themselves in danger...

I will follow Max's example (I'd rather trust a thief's gut feeling than people randomly tinkering with objects) and pull back to the door we came through, not actually leaving the room, but standing close to the door inside the room, observing the situation carefully and ready to react to anything that might happen. I also don't have any interest in drinking a strange, glowing, unknown fluid even though it smells nice. Could be beneficial or evaporate a greedy adventurer on the spot. Not going to risk that.

"No need of so much stepping back and maneuvering for two injured ghouls. They're almost finished"
Beldarion sticks to the original plan and holds his position until one of the ghouls is within reach. At that moment, he stands up and attacks the enemies.

After defeating the undead, he will check the corpses to see if they wear any rags that could be used as a muzzle. *just in case...* As a reminder of the encounter with the ogres, he's got a little headache, and Og'rialt's constant chattering isn't exactly soothing it.

Og'rialt lets out a long suffering sigh, and is glad he had foreseen even this contingency, though he still mutters under his breath how this Beldarion character reminds him of a certain young hotheaded dwarf he once knew, who...

;P

Green Hilltop has a point. Correction:

Thras, dwarven mage, lights the candles one at a time. Waiting a bit before lighting the second. THEN we try to move the candles. And then, if nothing happens, I try to take the goblet.

Yes, exactly... :)

Join up with me a little further down, that way we'll be out of the surge of adventurers if something in the warded room goes wrong.

Roark, Elven Druid.

I don't want to light the candles though, I just want to either drink or remove the liquid from the goblet before testing what moving one candle does, since I don't think lighting it will do much - Doc clearly said that "Moving these items will also moves the hooks and whatever mechanism they are part of."

So yes, moving those items will most likely open the coffins, as they are sealed shut, implying you can't open them normally, and this seems too much of a coincidence. Lighting candles is a good idea, but since MaxFulvus has already found a mechanism, I doubt it will do much - and since the sarcophagi are sealed shut, any corporeal undead won't get out until you open it (move the candles/goblet), and I doubt if it's wights/ghosts they'd wake up due to candles, since the paladins nor cleric didn't get any feeling about them, so they aren't magical.

Also since they're attached to the altar by hooks, I doubt there's an additional level of having an exploding gas trap inside the sarcophagi etc. - as it'd also explode the Undead inside. Poison gas is a valid point, but I don't think it's probably going to be inside them. I think it's most likely going to be corporeal undead, and they're going to wake up once you open the sarcophagi. There might even be some interesting treasure inside!

However moving the goblet might release a trap, as I think each candle opens one sarcophagus and the goblet will most likely be protected if it's beneficial.

Knowing the DM, he will probably do all the actionsyou've listed at once in one post (as that's the way how it sounds from how you described it), so you're gonna have the effects of everything - and so far, Babark is trying to destroy the altar by casting Melt Stone, which will either (depending on how the mechanism works)

a) activate the mechanism

b) not activate the mechanism and disable it from working ever again

So I recommend if you want to try to drink the liquid, do it first, so he doesn't end up melting the altar before you get to it (after all the waiting with the candles), or saying you rush forward to catch the goblet before it spills when you notice him casting the spell, if it's possible (due to being attached to the altar) or just chugging it as the stone melts. And avoiding any traps that destroying the altar might spring.

If we had time (Babark not destroying the altar), I think the best course of action is to make a makeshift straw, and drink liquid out of it, thus not triggering the mechanism and having time enough to run to Roark for the cure poison potions, if he's willing to share it, in case the drink is poisoned. (it might be both poisoned and giving beneficial results).

And then experiment with the candles.