Is it a trap?
Room-with-door two was also a crypt, only this one was… not quite filled up, yet. There was a pile of scraps and dust on the floor in the rough shape of a body, and — dammit, dammit, dammit — the unmistakable glint of gold mixed in with the junk. Oh, and a half-opened sarcophagus. Just in case it wasn’t entirely obvious something seriously weird had happened here.
Gregor assessed his options. Still no smell of evil or moral decay, which was good — but there was definitely a lingering aura of eldritch, which might be bad. There was no reasonable or unreasonable way that pile of detritus could form into a shambler, which was really good. Then again, specters didn’t need to be corporeal to hurt you. And specters just loved to haunt foci like (he peered down) amulets. They’d also get upset if you ignored them, so he’d have to do something. Assuming that one of them was haunting this place, obviously.
What decided him in the end was the way the detritus was positioned; if you squinted only a little, you could see an outstretched hand reaching towards the open sarcophagus. “Were you trying to get in there?” he asked the hopefully-empty crypt, just in case it wasn’t actually empty. “Well. I’m going to assume you were, all right? So, I’ll get you back in there, don’t worry. I’m being respectful! I’ll get as much of you as I can!”
“This is me, making a *good faith effort*. I want to be *very clear* about that.”
I’m actually kind of charmed with the moment that he said “Okay. I have identified something that I could plausibly conclude was a way to be directly and respectfully helpful. *Great*.” Being correct isn’t the point. It’s being seen to be trying to help (respectfully!) that’s the point.
…and then a while later my brain recontextualized it as politics, and suddenly “The important thing isn’t actually helping. The important thing is that you be seen to be *trying* to help.” gets a whole lot less charming.
In fairness, he is providing whatever is present the opportunity to say, “No, that isn’t what I want. *This* is what I want!”. Being open to correction about what actually helps also seems to be part of the point. 🙂
This, what SanityFaerie said, and Gregor in general is not impressed with the gods you get these days.