"Let me sleep through first watch and I can be awake the rest of the night." Regina noted, shrugging slightly as she followed the others. She glanced at the set of armor a moment later. "Uh. Let's not get too close to that..." she said, moving to stand between Valda and the armor. Hey, maybe it was paranoia, but they'd already been attacked repeatedly here...
"I have an extra pair of eyes, if needed. Reason?"
The raven caws somewhat half-heartedly as Aurora cocks her head to look at the armor. "You reckon it's trapped? The weapons look nice, though."
"I usually wake up early anyway, so I'll take last watch." Solomon volunteered. As the others began migrating back toward the second floor, he followed.
"Oh, now this should be interesting. Who wants to try it on first?"
"That is the fantasy..." Nurai said to Valda with a warm chuckle as the summoner put away her wand, running her hand over her shadow in consideration...
...the shadow happily stretched out over the bed as the last on the wounds mended before Nurai followed the others into the feminine room complete with lovely womanly weapons and armour.
"We're happy to guard in the middle of the night if that helps people rest...after checking these interesting things... " Nurai offered as she pulled out her phone to check the time to help plan this out better, casting Detect Magic with her other hand.
There are no placards or labels. You get the feeling this was a personal armoury, not a collection, although it does create questions as to who this would belong to. Several of the artifacts are magical, however - the armour, the gauntlets and the buckler all have an aura. The gun has something magical within it, but the gun itself seems to simply be a well-crafted flintlock.
Jennifer tries the gauntlets on and repeatedly brings her fingers to her thumbs to make an annoying clacking sound with the gauntlet's claws.
For her part, Regina just watched. She didn't really wear armor - or, for that matter, particularly need it - so she was happy to stand guard and remain ready to blast things if they started going wild.
(She did renew her defense against cold, though, just to be sure.)
"Aurora, I think this would probably fit you the best. If you're interested."
There are no signs of traps, thankfully, given Jennifer had grabbed the gauntlets.
The gauntlets fit well, leather padding protecting the hands from the cold metal. A large gem sat on the back of each hand. Wierdly, the gauntlets slowly flowed and reformed, changing to Jennifer's own tastes. Despite that, however, the gloves feel heavy.
"Perhaps... A bit antique, maybe."
Aurora knocked at the ceramic tactical vest covering her torso, before unfastening it to try on the massive armor.
After she finished casting, and watching how the gauntlets reacted to Jennifer, Nurai looked over to Valda with a smile, "With the auras coming off of them, the armour and buckler may respond similarly to the gauntlets. Interesting...that pistol with what I'd guess is special ammo might suit you."
Nurai approached the vanity. While the weapons had been the first thing to catcher her attention, now the summoner was far more interested in learning about the person who had such a collection both because they seemed to be an interesting woman and someone with such things may also have left something that could help with the situation...
...though such vanities were not something Nurai knew much about to know where would be the best place to start looking.
Regina just watched, continuing to stand at the ready - somebody needed to do that, after all, especially to keep any avenues of escape open. That was just the basic way of doing these things, after all.
Once Auoura clambered into the armour a mystic script popped up in front of her. What it said, she wasn't sure - it wasn't in a tongue she spoke. Of course, reading it otherwise was challenging, since it was back to front for everyone else - and definitely not anyone's first language.
"I'm sure it says It looks like you're trying to get into this armor. Do you need assistance?"
"Could you lend me those glasses for a second, Jennifer?"
"Could you lend me those glasses for a second, Jennifer?"
"No."
Jennifer puts on her glasses and tries to read the script over Aurora's shoulder. If she can read the script, she'll translate.
Looking, awkwardly, over Auoura's shoulder Jennifer was able to read the script, revealing it as Draconic.
Do you who would don this armour,
Forged in fire and flame
Accept the responsibility that comes with it?
Speak 'I accept' in your native tongue
And know a bond is forged.
"Don't ever accept magical contracts without knowing the fine print." Regina advised as Jennifer translated things for them. "Seriously, short-term gain isn't worth the long-term risk."
"Yeah, that didn't sound ominous at all. What's the responsibility?" Aurora said at the piece of parchment.
Nurai kept looking around the vanity as she listened to the others talk, glancing down to her shadow and then to the others at the mention of a bond, nodding in agreement to Regina and Aurora's comments.
"Ominous, lacking details, odd wording, possibly an overuse of magic... fits right in with the rest of the house. Would be nice to find some sort of details on the previous owner or something about any of these things...and surely forged armour usually involves fire - unless it's trying to say it was copied by fire? Nurai remarks as she starts to move from the vanity towards one of the wardrobes.
Valda looked at the writing. "Well, I suppose you could try asking in Draconic, if that's what it's been set to? I don't speak it, though. Anyone know 'terms and conditions' in Draconic?"
"I say just chuck it in storage and ask Miyu sometime after we're done here." Regina answered. Then, after a brief pause, "Of course, it's probably going to end up being horribly necessary to use fire to counter the ice stuff here. Blah. Well, we might be able to find a cursebreaker afterwards..."
Jennifer tries to figure out more things about her new gauntlets.
Then she'll see if she can glean anything about Aurora's armor.
There is likely a way to alter the Gauntlets further, although the how currently escapes Jennifer.
The armour is different and possibly unique. Potentially, some kind of artefact rather than a normal magic item. For a given value of normal, anyway. Identifying it's properties - and the nature of the bond it forges - are likely to be somewhat awkward.
"Ah, whatever, no good story ever started with caution. I accept. Ég samþykki. Taka."
Solomon raised his eyebrows at Aurora's boldness, but could barely contain his excitement to see what would happen.
Regina raised an eyebrow, but didn't go as far as saying "I told you so". After all, it was always possible there were no drawbacks. She just liked having a healthy paranoia about these things after the Space Needle Incident.
"NICE!" Jennifer whispers with a grin when Aurora accepts the armor's terms.
The armour pulsed once, magical force rippling through the armour as it shudders. Deep within Auoura, she feels something 'click' into position, like a switch being flicked or the slotting of a final piece. Something she never knew had been missing.
The words before the armour rearranged themselves into English, Define your needs.
"Well?"
"This... is amazing!" As Aurora pirouettes, the armor fluidifies into a thin, silvery chain shirt that looks straight out of Lord of the Rings before returning to the heavy form, this time adorned with dark furs and a pattern of silver ravens. "So let's see, right now we need... to track a teleportation circle, and to seal or vanquish an ancient evil. Anything that may help us with that? Ah, and I also need to know what the responsibilities tied to the armor are."
"I think it's time we confront the basement and discover whatever they sealed down there." Solomon states with a grim determination. "You certainly look prepared for it, Aurora."
"Let's finish exploring this floor and then take a nap, first," Jennifer says eyeing the bed. "I can drag the mattress from the other bedroom into here. We're exhausted."
Jennifer confirms that the other door in this room leads to a bathroom.
The door that should lead to the bathroom does exactly that, revealing a nicely appointed bathroom with an old style toilet, sink and a massive claw-footed bathtub gleaming white and bronze. Valda glanced at it. "Well, if we can magic up hot water..." She glanced at Regina. "Water, anyway. Regina can likely handle the hot."
"Heh." It was true - she could definitely heat things up when she wanted to, and she didn't hesitate to summon little fireballs above each palm as a demonstration. "No promises about quickly boiling, but I do have the heat."
Two more rooms were in the final corridor. A quick look into each revealed another bathroom, larger than the others, and a final bedroom. This one was more spartan than the others, with no obvious signs of ownership - perhaps a guest room. Of course, that didn't mean there was nothing interesting in it. Just that there was nothing obviously interesting in it.
Nurai watched, thoughts of fun and amusement of youth of jumping into bonds and such recklessly. Hopefully it would work out as well or better for Aurora as it had for Nurai. Sure, there were many horror stories warning otherwise, but then any stories with fancy powers and equipment where it goes well tend to gloss over the getting and figuring it all out parts...
Having not found anything of interest in the weapon filled bedroom, Nurai followed the others the last rooms in the corridor. After a glance in the bathroom to check for any signs of weird mold, Nurai moved towards the spartan bedroom which at first glance was far more Nurai's nature.
Inside Aurora, the part of her soul that is Reginleif is rejoicing at the feeling of a proper armor, and flashes of ancient battlefields run in front of her eyes.
"I feel ready for anything! This thing is amazing, feels like a second skin. Ah, let me patch you up some more before we catch some Zs."
Her Valknut tattoo glows as she joins her hands, reciting the Norse litany from before.
There was nothing obviously of interest in either room. Nurai did find a safe, but it was both open and empty.
"I wonder if there's a hidden safe - the ol' hide it by making something else more obvious strategy?" Regina mused, poking about the room to test her theory.
Solomon is intrigued by the idea of a hidden safe and takes a moment to close his eyes and focus on the world around him.
After a few moments of searching, it does turn out there is a secret panel in the safe itself. It takes a few more minutes to discover the locking mechanism - the combination lock for the safe itself will also open this one, if the door is open and the correct combination input. Where the code is, however...
Cracking it or destroying it are also possible, with some effort.
Solomon chuckles to himself proudly and kneels to put his ear against the door. He then begins to work the lock, testing each number carefully.
"Hah." Regina may not have been the most perceptive person, but she was pleased with the result regardless. The Doctor seemed like he knew what he was doing, though, so she waited patiently for him to finish up and let them see what was inside.