Its "A" Dungeon, Too: The Second Chance (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

Bud looks at Ruul, "No magic here now. Let's go and make sure he doesn't get himself killed." He then walks out of the room to see what Imrael has found.

Ruul snorts disdainfully and shakes his shaggy head. "I agree. I think we've wasted enough time with that mirror."

I didn't catch any descriptions of exits from this room besides the way we came in. Is there a map somewhere?

Imrael opens the door.

Imreal throws open the doors after he is finished demolishing the chained handles that bared his way.

He sees before him a scene that is gruesome. What was once a well-furnished sitting room, with a thick oval rug in the center of four overstuffed chairs, and walls draped with tapestries showing scenes of idle country fields in different seasons is now a place of death and carnage.

A body, partially dismembered, of a slightly built humanoid, lies face down in the center of the room in a wide pool of blood that has soaked into the rug. The face of the victim is turned away. A helmet, a small steel cap with a fur lining, lies off to one side, and you can see that this victim has pointed ears. The victim is dressed in good quality leather armor. There is a long, slim, sword lying off near one of the chairs.

There is a fireplace against the far wall. It is smaller than the one across the hall, in the other room, but on the mantle of this fireplace there is another piece of mirrored glass, a long, narrow, and jagged edged piece of what must have been a larger mirror. There is no fire in the fireplace here, but an oil lamp sits on a small table in the southeast corner of the room and it burns brightly, throwing shadows across the floor from the chairs between you and the lamp, and in the flickering light Imreal sees his reflection in the glass across the room.

"I see these chairs were vicious. Look what they did to the elf."

Bud then casts detect magic and scans the room to see what he can find out.

Imrael lights his own oil lamp and sets in on the ground, just inside the door, to enhance the light in the room. He turns to Bud and nods. "There. Now, if you see some threat, there is more chance of it being real."

The Angel of Confrontation strides into the room and bends and flips over the body, inspecting it for further clues.

Ruul is not phased by the presence of the body but joins the angel in investigating. He crouches and studies it for signs of cause of death.

Heal: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

Bud sweeps the room slowly, at first trying not to let his concentration fall too quickly on the broken mirror on the small fireplace mantle, but for some unexplained reason, like a man approaching a door opened only partially, or a man waking up on a grey morning in the wilderness, his senses are aroused to danger, and he cannot help but find his senses drawn to the reflection across the room

Imreal places a lamp on the floor, increasing the amount of light in the room and chasing away the long shadows cast by the high backed, overstuffed chairs. He and Ruul approach the body on the floor slowly.

First Imreal kneels and rolls the body toward him, revealing the face of the victim. Ruul kneels, places a hand on the jaw of the victim and turns the head from side to side. It moves easily, and he comes to a few conclusions

Bud starts to approach the mirror and says, "This mirror is glowing blue in my sight. I'm going to examine it, be on your toes."

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 20
Kn: Arcana: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14
Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

Imrael nods and starts turning in place, looking out for enemies that might be hiding and waiting to jump out, since unusual things tend to happen when Bud looks at mirrors.

Ruul is studying the corpse, but Imreal stands and turns slowly, looking in every corner of the room when suddenly...

"Something big and strong broke this fool's neck", Ruul muses as he studies the body. "A bear maybe but it'd be hard for something that big to get up here. Maybe some kinda demon. Keep an eye out."

Continuing to watch the mirror, Bud yells out "Behind you again Imrael!"

"A bear would not snap a neck," Imrael replies, calmly circling in his watch. "It would rend and rip and slay. Then eat some of the corpse afterwards. I would prefer a demon. At least that is a thing I can--" Imrael stops speaking as Bud calls out another warning!

"Ha! Now the fiend has shown itself! I am glad you choose me as your target and we may enter glorious combat!"
Turning and twisting, he drives his spear-tip like a mighty piston. His corded muscles lash out, driving the weapon forward, hunting the target's heart!

Attack!: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29
Damage!: 2d4 + 10 ⇒ (3, 4) + 10 = 17

Imreal's attack pierces the back of a padded chair, but there is no monster

"Ah ha! I know what's going on here and it does too. These mirrors aren't magical but have magic on them when the create can be seen in them. This is some sort of creature from another plane and can be seen in the mirrors. It seems that reacting to it's presence causes it to leave."

The Angel of Confrontation spins on the undead arcanist, his face glowing red with heat and murder in his eyes. "By Propoket's codpiece are you a child that you gain amusement by baiting my so even while there is murder in this very room!? Is there no seriousness in you in so weighty a place as this where we are our only allies that you stoop to so base a joke not once but many times!"

Imrael stalks near Bud, his hands working and twisting his spear Righteousness, as if heavily weighing whether to use it or not.

"I go to investigate the heart of this place in earnest. YOU shall stay here to ponder the GROSS error of your ways! WHEN you have decided that your existence is sweet to you and the call of True Death is not so hearkening that you chase it as a man would a young lover then PERHAPS I shall allow in my presence again WITHOUT digging so deep as to investigate how ripe your heart still is.

PERHAPS if I can be given FIVE MINUTES without your juvenile pranks, I can find aught of value in this accursed place!"

Imrael then pauses and listens patiently to Bud's explanation of the phantom creature.

"That is the greatest load of drivel I have ever heard. Even ephemeral ghosts, natives of the astral plane, can be detected, even if harming them is difficult. And if the thing were invisible, I would still have connected with it, so true is my striking power! Nay, you think me a simpleton to be overawed with any explanation, so that you might bait me a third time! Well I do not wish to be made a fool again!"

Imrael stalks out of the room and turns right (heading to room 4) saying as he goes, "I still hold you, Ruul, in highest esteem, and you may do as you will, though I would council that you also remove yourself from this cretin's presence lest he choose you as his next sophomoric target."

Bud follows Imrael out of the room, "OK, but don't say i didn't warn you when it tears you to pieces."

Ignorant angel wanna be! Hope he gets run trough.

Confused but not entirely skeptical Ruul follows the bickering duo out into the hall. "Something killed those men. We'd best be on our guard."

Imrael throws up his hands as he sees Bud following him, despite his strongest verbage to the contrary. "Oh confound! Are you a demon sent by some infernal lord to torment me so? Or the embodiment of some hag's curse of retribution for some perceived slight?

IF you strike true and such a monster is proved to exist, then all the better. But if are hallucinating such things as your dottardness exerts itself, than spend thy force in some direction that is NOT my continued torment!"

We got a description for room 4?

As Imreal moves past the entry foyer he comes to the central hall of the tower.

Ahead of him is a central, square shaped opening in the stonework of the castle filled with a wooden stair. Facing the stair on the right are steps going up to a small landing and then what appears to be another flight of steps on the landing going back to the south and up to the second floor, while to the left a set of stone steps head off in a straight downward descent into the darkness of the castle basement.

From here the central hall goes to the left and right and around the stairs leading to closed doors in the hall on the left, and an open archway in the hall on the right.

All is quiet.

Imrael gives his rear a side-long look. Resigning himself that he'll be followed forevermore, he says, [b]"We'd best not advanced unto a new floor until we have this one secured--or at least explored to heart's content. Let us begin opposite the gerontogeous and henceforth move dextrorotary. (dextrorotary is SO a word! F**# U spellchecker!)

Thusly explained, Imrael moves left. To room 10.

Bump?

Imreal proceeds to the left, around the stairs and comes quickly upon a set of doors placed near each other in a long wall made of wood paneling. Both of these doors are simple, unadorned and have no locks.

The first door is partially opened, allowing for a peek into the room beyond, and it appears to be a room that might be used for writing letters or conducting business. There is a large desk, and a single chair, behind the desk in the very center of the room. A high narrow window in the exterior wall of this room lets in some light, and he can see that the room is empty.

The next door is shut, but opens easily revealing a modestly appointed sleeping room. A small wood framed bed, which has been overturned, lies askew in the corner of the room, a trunk across from the overturned bed has been tipped on its side and the contents, all simple garments, shirts, pants, robes, and a few pairs of sandals lie scatter around. While two of the walls of this room are made of wood, the exterior wall, and the wall to the right are made of stone, but the stone wall on the right has a peculiar section of wood in the middle. This wooden wall has a single, beautiful brown tapestry hanging on it, with a scene of a gentle countryside embroidered onto it in the center. The tapestry is about eight feet in length, and reaches to just a few inches from the floor.

Imrael brazenly opens both doors and carelessly tromps about the rooms, searching clues, or, possibly, inviting ambush by a creature that he doesn't know if it would be better if it was real or false.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

"I shall see if there is ought of value or information here, then shall we move on?"

Ruul didn't think he'd ever actually like the angelkin but he did appreciate it when he gave the room a good minotaur-style tromping. He quickly joins in, tearing open the desk and the bedroom's trunk.

"If nothing else that looks pretty expensive", Ruul rumbles with a gesture at the elaborate tapestry.

Bud follows the others into the room and looks around for any mirrors.

Becoming agitated by the slow discovery of anything that might point to, well, anything, Ruul rolls up the expensive looking tapestry, and leaves.

The cloths scattered about the room from the overturned trunk are well made, some expensive, and all sized for a slim female of about five feet tall. There is nothing of any importance in the room, other than the fact that a door was concealed behind the tapestry that Ruul removed

However, after looking at each of the pieces of paper on the desk in the other room, Imreal finds a curious message

In these two rooms Bud can find no mirrors, or pieces of broken mirrors.

Imrael stares daggers at Ruul, but he has no patience for those that do not toe the line, and makes no move to stop the beast.

After further investigation, Imrael calls Bud over. "Look at this note. It states 'The mirror might be more problematic than I had originally imagined. We have taken it to the...'

Ruul, in his barbarism, seems to have uncovered a door. Since 'twas hidden, no doubt it is likely to have something of import behind it. Let us see what secrets it wished to keep!"

That done, Imrael opens the door, by force if necessary. In his hubris, he doesn't bother checking for traps.