Picking up the note, Mirais starts reading it for everyone, incredulity building up in her voice as she gets to the end of the letter "...a Millenia?! That's before the Shining Crusade!". The tiefling lets the words of the note linger in the air for some time, before commenting.
"While anyone signing himself as your friend doesn't seem trustworthy at all, it seems finding this 'Wayfinder' is the way out. I wonder what he meant by going insane...a couple of invisible critters aren't going to scare us to death."
"Dunno. Maybe there's more here that might."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Mirais turns around, scanning the room for a moment to see if there was anything different from before she heard the whisper.
"I already know the answer, but I'll ask anyway: was I the only one to hear that whispering?"
Well, at least whoever spirit is in this place has a sense of humor. Looks like we have some souls to put to rest...
"There was whispering?"
There is no one behind you. There are no sounds.
You swear you hear... nothing.
Everything is silent.
Mirais sighs "Yes, there was, but nothing unintelligible. Probably the spirit of whoever put that feast there, the one from the note, is following us around. I guess that if he,she or it can be in this safe room, I guess that he's harmless.". The qlippoth-spawn stops to think for a second, then addresses the group again.
"Looks like we'll have to explore the place if we want to find this 'Wayfinder'. We'll have to check all of these rooms, but what about if we start from finding out that loud noise from before?". The tiefling turns around to the other two: for a moment, she lingers, staring at their tails. Her own keeps moving back and forth on the ground, drawing invisible spirals on the floor.
Isn't it weird that whoever brought us here picked three tieflings?
"Bebaushie, Frekhi, you were on this floor when we heard that explosion. Did you know from which direction it came from?"
"Nope, we were wondering if you knew anything about it."
Mirais shakes her head "No, nothing. We were still on the lower floor when we heard the explosion."
"If everyone's ready, I say we move on. The sooner we find the wayfinder, the sooner we can get out.". If no one objects, Mirais picks up again her glaive and pushes the door open.
"Yea, let's move."
Mirais peeks into the hallway before moving forward. After making sure that the way is clear, she briefly glances back to her companions, smiling to Rose after she's safely on Regin's shoulder.
"Bebaushie, stay close to me." the qlippoth-spawn says after she glances out of the door one more time before moving into the hallway, just to freeze a couple of seconds later.
Oh damn. That sounded weird.
"I-it's easier for me to hit something that way! I-in case we get attacked..." the tiefling quickly explains to the demon-spawn, her cheeks bright red. Flustered, she stares at her feet for a moment, before gripping her glaive and moving to the first door on the right.
Wait, are you touching the handle?
I'll be more specific next time!
The halway is completely empty of any furnature. A few doors mark through the room along the walls. There is a moth-eaten red velvet runner rug that encompasses the entirety of the floor. The room smells of decay and moist wood but it is eerily silent. The only noises you hear are the creaking of the floor-boards.
THe door you are looking at is not at all trapped. Its bronze, ornate handle flashes brightly as the lightning outside worsens. The door is made of rich mahogany.
When Mirais hesitates, Quentin reaches over and opens the door himself.
Frekhi watches patiently as Quentin opens the door.
As you open the door, you see a very large room with black and white tiles on the floor. Small oil lamps give off a soft light that licks at the shadows on the walls. The next thing you notice are the two large statues, one made of ivory the other of ebony, with designs of dragons and other large, powerful creatures engraved on their armor. They face the doorway, looking at each other, their long, sharp blades at the ready.
As soon as he gets a glimpse of what's inside the room, Quentin shuts the door. "Black-and-white tiled room with armed humanoid statues flanking the doorway. Rose, what do we need to know about that room?"
If Rose doesn't know anything about the room, and after everyone's ready, Mirais offers to open the room herself. "If something attacks, just stay behind me and Bebaushie before charging in." the qlippoth-spawn smiles to the others.
Taking a deep breath, she opens the door once again, scanning carefully the room before setting foot inside. In particular, she checks if there's something peculiar about the tiles.
Rose ponders for a moment. "I think its the dining room? Other than that I dont know... Sorry."
There is a glow throughout the entire room.
You see, on the opposite side of the room, a large table with a grand painting depicting a herd of antelope chasing down a lone wolf. The room smells faintly of terpentine and rich mahogany.
As the others enter the room, you see Mirais look over her shoulder, her eyes glazed over, an absent smile on her face.
Youre not quite sure of her intentions, but they cant be innocent...
"Yes, I think this is the dining room, Rose." Mirais says as she steps into the room, looking back to the others first to make sure they are ready. Pausing for a moment to take in the smell of wood of the room, she stares at the bizarre painting, glaive at the ready.
"A...herd of antelopes chasing a wolf? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"
Frekhi follows Mirais. "Yea, normally. But in this twisted place, sounds like it makes sense."
There is nothing odd about it save for what it is depicting.
Regin holds back from the group. The entire room looked suspicious. This entire house was suspicious. And what was with all these people and the itch in his gut? Something was not right here...
Quentin stays back with Regin but does extend a cautious hand to touch one of the doorway statues.
"Thank you." Mirais smiles as Quentin gives her the potion. Kneeling down after the wound starts to close, the qlippoth-spawn starts tying together some of the loose cloth on her thigh to make sure that it wasn't possible to see the skin underneath. Shortly after she's finished, before she's able to get back up, the tiefling hears Bebaushie shout and loudly slap herself.
Wow, she's crazier than I thought-I mean, she must have gone trough some horrible things to end up like this.
Raising herself back up, Mirais walks to the other tiefling and holds with her owns the hand Bebaushie used to hit herself, gently bringing it back down.
"There's no need to harm yourself like that. Just remembering that eating people is bad is enough, okay?" the qlippoth-spawn says to the demon-spawn.[dice=Cure Light Wounds]1d8+3
Staring at the Cloth Covered Women, a mix of emotions play across her face in terrible succession.
Wrath, Fear, Uncertainty, Longing, Hope...
I..don't have...to punish myself...for making a mistake?!? Then who will do it? Mother's dead I think, maybe, if I don't do it she'll find out...and she'll be angry again....last time she was angry ...no, she might not make me whole again...she might...I can't ...Stupid child, flawed misbegotten half human whelp of a songbird, least of her daughters, lowest of her spawn...dead, she's going to kill me, grandmother, please help me, please help your least of family...
Hands shaking she breathes raggedly, making entries to Noticula for help in a black language.
Near the end she, closes her eyes and recites a nursery rhyme in Celestial.
It seems to calm her more than anything else.
Thank you, father...
"Yes, I think this is the dining room, Rose." Mirais says as she steps into the room, looking back to the others first to make sure they are ready. Pausing for a moment to take in the smell of wood of the room, she stares at the bizarre painting, glaive at the ready.
"A...herd of antelopes chasing a wolf? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"[dice=Perception on the painting]1d20+9
What are antelopes? Why are they chasing the puppies?
"No idea. But it's a weird painting."
Nothing happens.
All of you now see that, to the north of the room, there is a door. The painting has nothing of interest on it. The mahogany table is bare save for two silver candle holders, long uncleaned and dressed in dust.
After making sure that there was nothing wrong with the painting or the table, Mirais moves to the north of the room, closer to the door. After she does her now usual routine of detecting magic and examining the door without touching it, the qlippoth-spawn turns to the others.
"Ready?" she asks, before opening the door, glaive in hand.
Mirais trips 5 feet in front of the door. There seems to be an unseen hole 5 feet behind you.
"Ready."
"Wha-" Mirais says as she falls face flat on the ground. "What in the Nine Hells is this..." raising herself back up, the tiefling uses the shaft of her glaive to pinpoint where the hole exactly is, and what it's purpose could be.
"You okay? What happened?"
Regin looks at the floor like it's about to betray him...
Mirais looks at Frekhi, and nods tentatively after staying silent for a second. "Y-yeah, I'm okay. There's..." the qlippoth-spawn pauses for a moment. "...there's something like an invisible hole in here, and I tripped over it. I wonder what it's for..." the tiefling comments, focusing to detect magic where the hole supposedly is.
Mirais points to a tile on the floor "An aura of magic is coming from that tile over there.". The tiefling crouches, using her tail to balance herself, and tries to touch the tile. If her hand goes trough it, she first insert the handle of her glaive in it, just to make sure that nothing was going to bite her hand off.
"Well, here goes nothing..." the qlippoth-spawn says if no kind of nightmarish creature tries to eat her weapon, and she puts her hand in the hole to see if there was something in there.
Nothing feels out of the ordinary. There feels like there are four cold, metal things on each side of the whole. When you get the the bottom, the ground beneath is a bit damp.
"There are four metal...things at the sides. I'm going to try to pull one of them." as she says that, the tiefling pulls on one of the metal objects to see if there's any reaction.
You feel the bottom of the object slice right into your hand. In fact, when you move your hand upwards, you can also feel the others slice into your skin as though it was butter.