Zamanda nods, donning her hat of disguise so that Sabina can check her rendition as well.
She goes to get her spare key and hands it to Sabina.
You can stay here if you like. Do you need anything from the castle while we're there?
|
As they discuss options, Ilsa has to concede the dragon's lair may not be the best entry point.
"We will have to check it later--let's go for the chair room to start," she suggests.
"I think we should go now, then try to rest before we start sowing destruction. We may not have a chance to rest again."
If we are just going to rest, why risk that inside the castle? Shouldn't we rest here and then go?
"Better we don't rest in the castle. I think we'd be best served by quick attacks and then teleporting out as soon as we need a breather. Staying anywhere in there long is asking for trouble."
"There is nothing left in the castle that I want" you can sense Sabina's words came out with certain degree of bitterness "Thanks. Please return some sense to this city before it is too late"
Seeing you can still handle some more today, you decide to capitalize on the surprise factor before Sabina's defection is discovered. You make it into the street to a place where you can have a good sighting of the teleportation target but still be covered by the buildings.
Ilsa and Zamanda discuss about the proceedings on how to bring the party exactly on point.
While Ilsa makes an intuitive assessment, Zamanda takes a few minutes to calculate angles and distance using a technique that involves measuring her thumb and eye to hand distance.
After some minutes of calculus you decide to go with Zamanda.
Some of you disguise yourselves as Gray Maidens while others cast spells in preparation.
Zamanda casts dimension door and all five of you suddenly lose sight of Korvosa streets to land in a dusty stone room full of chairs.
This storeroom seems primarily used to store chairs—at least two dozen of them, from plain stools to comfortable armchairs—some piled one atop the other and others draped with linen.
It is clear most of the chairs were before in different areas of the castle, following distinctive styles and materials. The removal of chairs testify to the humiliating discipline Ileosa likes to foist on her subjects—the Crimson Throne is the only chair in use on this floor of the castle.
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"Well if the region is ever hit by a chair shortage, I know where I'm going to make a fortune." Kalem said, as he looked around the room and waited for a more stealthy member of the group to take point.
Zamanda takes point towards Togomor's chambers, moving out to scout and then signalling the group when it is safe to come forward.
Zamanda looks to the southern exit and sees the way clear. She makes a sign and follow her descending the stairs to the room immediately below.
This room contains two well-equipped writing desks with comfortable armchairs and matching lecterns. A large map of Korvosa hangs on one wall over a wooden box full of rolled parchments, and in the south corner, stairs ascend.
This room is used by the royal scribes to write documents on the seneschal’s behalf. The map in the showcase is marked with red ink in several areas to record the queen’s ambitious building plans, including the creation of her four statues throughout the city. The plans contain no indication of her projects’ purpose, however.
The rolled parchments are all highly detailed maps of Korvosa and Varisia (worth a total value of 400 gp).
Over one of the desks stands out a map of a marshes area. It seems the creator left it here drying out, the ink is still fresh.
The Mushfens are a vast swamp on the southern coast of Varisia, and the largest marsh in all of Avistan. Despite being located in close proximity to both the cities of Magnimar and Korvosa, the Mushfens remain a trackless wilderness filled with many unpleasant creatures.
In recent times, adventurers and researchers have identified some ruins within as Thassilonian.
The Greenrust Reef marked on the map is a commonly known coastal landmark. It is an odd, rocky formation on a sand bank a few hundred yards from the swampy coast of the Mushfens.
You know the landmark and can use this map to easily orientate yourself in that area.
While you look at the maps, Zamanda peeks around the corner.
The area is calm. After some seconds of observation, you hear some flapping wings. A creature with fiendish wings and a whipping scorpion-like tail emerges from the stairs and flies towards the western corridor. It is transporting a tray full of fruits, a whole roasted chicken and a bottle of wine.
The flying creature stops and looks to the north. It shrugs its shoulders and continues its way. Unless you do something, it disappears in the western corridor without noticing you.
(fail)
(fail)
(pass)
(pass)
Zamanda doesn't do anything to attract the attention of the imp, but after it passes, she moves forward to making sure there isn't anyone else in the western hallway.
If not, she ducks back and quietly tells the group
I saw the imp carrying food, likely to our target. Let's go now... we can get them both, and hopefully keep the uproar confined.
Zamanda sees the imp opening Togomor's door and disappearing. No one else seems to be nearby at the moment. Thus, she makes it back to the party in the Scriptorium and delivers what she has seen.
-----
When Zamanda returns with news that the way forward is clear, Bashiel nods. He lets Zamanda and Ilsa take the lead, but follows fairly close behind while being as stealthy as he can manage.
With Phiatep riding at the forefront of his mind and directing his footsteps, his movements are shocking quiet and unobtrusive given his heavy armor.
Zamanda, Ilsa and Bashiel take the lead while Kalem and Laori, less stealthy, keep a distance from the head of the group. The female elf casts greater magic weapon on her chained spikes "We are being heroes Kalem!"
Slowly, you reach Togomor's door and Ilsa disappears invisible. With lots of care, one of you opens the Seneschal's door.
This room contains a canopied bed, a desk, a trunk, and a large cupboard. Colorful woolen tapestries hang from the walls, while exotic carpets decorate the floor. To the northeast, three narrow barred windows have been covered with additional tapestries. A standing lamp in a corner looks like a strange swamp plant with wrought-iron leaves and a single, oversized fruit of amber-colored glass. The stink of discarded food—bread crusts, chunks of moldy cheese, and bones with tattered remnants of meat—competes with the stale smell of body odor and sweat that fills this room.
A continual flame spell cast within the lamp’s globe illuminates the room with a soft orange glow.
A huge, bloated man sits on the sagging bed amid a collection of chicken carcases, loaves of bread, wheels of cheese, and a few large bottles of wine. Togomor’s gluttony keeps the man quite busy eating with fruition from the tray the imp is holding.
Busy with the food, neither Togomor nor his imp familiar, notice the group being opened.
The mage absentmindedly pulls the roasted chicken wing from the tray and gives a bite, all the oily juices smearing the area around his mouth.
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Ilsa quietly enters the room and moves toward the flank.
She fixes her hypnotic stare on the man, though everything about him makes her want to avert her gaze.
He's repulsive!
Ilsa can't resist going for the coup de grace at the start of the fight.
Reaching out with all her mental energy, she tries to turn the mage into an imbecile with a full-on mental assault.
"Well, let's be heroes then." Kalem said with a smile. His eyes began to glow, wings formed on his back, and with scythe in his hand he strode forward. His eyes set on the mage, he ran forward and slashed low, setting himself up to launch a full attack once he could plan his feet.
Surprise round:
Zamanda moves into the room to give her friends room to get inside. Ideally they should close the door to keep the noise confined as well.
Round 1:
Zamanda casts silence She knows it will limit some of the things that they can do, and she should have warned everyone, but she'd been thinking of noise, and in the moment it seems like the best way to keep this quiet (literally and figuratively). Plus... mage, right? Then, in the silence, she draws her bow, ready to attack Togomor if there is anything left after her friends lay him waste.
Ilsa moves into the room and makes the man object of her stare.
Mage and Imp looks to the door as Kalem comes flying, but too late for them, he enters the room while they are still surprised.
Zamanda also goes in.
Laori moves much slower "Yup. I am almost there!"
Bashiel is also heroic.
Kalem completes his flight over the wizard with a powerful slash. A large wound is opened through Togomor's belly, his blood is the more liquefied you have ever seen.
Zamanda follows creating silence in the room centered around the southern pillar.
Togomor looks the aasimar with hate as he cannot dimension door as he would have liked to do.
He snaps his fingers, triggering his contingency spell. His skin turns to stone.
He then runs trying to overrun past Bashiel.
Which triggers the paladin opportunity to attack and another for Kalem as he run past him too.
You find Togomor's movements limited, as if he was under some kind of mental control or possession.
The imp sees things going bad and after stepping away of Kalem's reach, turns invisible.
Ilsa then tries to cast feeblemind.
And Togomor starts to drool like a baby.
Zamanda shoots at Togomor the Droolmage.
(acid, cold, point blank)
As the bloated wizard tries to barrel past him, Bashiel attempts to plunge Serithial into his side.
Then, with the spellcaster exposed and vulnerable, Bashiel follows with a precise series of stabs, each placed specifically to disorient and disable.
Bashiel hits the mage badly as he tries to pass over him.
Zamanda's two arrows stab in Togomor's back who retorts in silent pain.
Bashiel swings Serithial knocking the mage down, unconscious.
He then raises Serithial to strike two more times, but does he follow up killing the mage or spare the two remaining strikes?
As the mage bleeds in the ground, you see he does so at a faster pace than usual.
Laori hops over the mage, double moving into the room. She moves her lips as if asking something but no sound does come in.
Kalem's attention turned from the bloatmage to the imp. Trusting that his companions could handle the corpulent spellcaster, he launched an all out attack on the invisible outsider.
With his eyes well prepared to pierce the imp's invisibility, Kalem comes raging over him, the scythe bursting on flames and cutting down the creature to small pieces as he is trying to escape through the window slit.
With that done, the room comes back into calmness with Zamanda's silence ensuring no one has heard about the resolute strike over the Seneschal.
scroll of break enchantment
scroll of greater dispel magic
scroll of greater teleport
scrolls of stoneskin (2)
scroll of wall of force (CL 10th)
handy haversack
headband of vast intelligence +4 (grants ranks in Acrobatics and Use Magic Device)
necklace of adaptation
ring of keys (opens all locks in the castle unless the lock’s description says otherwise)
spell component pouch
21 gp
Leaning against the western wall you also find out a magical appearing staff.
You find a secret panel in the wall above Togomor's bed. Inside are a pouch containing 70 pp, a scroll of greater teleport, and all of Togomor’s spellbooks.
The books contain multiple notes about research topics and recent events. Do you read them?
Passing quickly the pages, you notice Togomor’s books contain scores of unfinished drawings of wormlike monsters with three faces at one end and a fanged mouth at the other.
Once Togomor and the imp are dead, Zamanda searches the bodies, closes the door to the chamber (with everyone inside), then dismisses the silence spell.
She starts to clean up the blood with uses of prestidigitation, searching the room while she is paying attention to bloodstains anyway.
She sees a staff
Looks like a Staff of Evocation
and spots a secret panel in the wall she just cleaned blood off of, above the bed. She opens it and points it out to the group before continuing her cleaning.
After she gets the walls clean from the blood spatter, she steps back with her hands on her hips and says
I think we should stage this so it looks like the imp killed him... what do you think? Does murder-suicide work here, or do they need to have killed each other?
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With the combat ended quickly, Ilsa holds up a hand to restrain anyone from killing the bloated mage.
"That was strange," she says. "Perhaps much too easy. While we could stage things to look like the imp killed him, I wonder if we might put him to use. Though his mind is mush now, I could dominate him and then heal his mind. He might then help us finish this job. Thoughts?" she asks, removing a potion from her bandolier and thinking to administer it to the dying man.
I say please don't save him. You want to save someone, great... good idea, but it cannot be this guy. He is the seneschal. We have to remove him completely to clear the way for the old seneschal to step in. That is the reason we are here.
Kalem shrugged. "There'll be alot more bodies by the time we're done here. Best to save your magic to heal someone who really deserves it. After what he did to himself..." Kalem looked the man over. "...even with his mind healed, I wouldn't want him around."
"Better we don't. Everything I've heard about bloatmages has made it clear that they're quite horrifying. We'd be allowing an evil to continue and earning ourselves quite the risk in the process if he ever broke free." Bashiel grimaces at the bloated body, offers a murmured prayer for the man's soul, and then cleanly finishes the mage off.
After a moment to strip him of his magical accoutrements, and to gather the spellbooks and notes from his hidden stash, Bashiel returns to the front door to stand guard while Zamanda doctors the scene to her liking.
"One down" He whispers "That was quick. Do we want to go after the Red Mantis or the Maidens next? Or clear this floor of any surprises first?"
Togomor dies under Serithial's edge.
You strip him from his magical equipment and recover his books from the secret panel.
Meanwhile, Zamanda sets the room in order to resemble the imp fed up of his master and finally came to kill him during his sleep, but the wizard survived time enough to cut his familiar to pieces and scorch it in flames.
Meanwhile, you heard some armored people passing by the closed door, but no one bothered to look inside.
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With Togomor dead and Zamanda making things look--at least confusing--Ilsa ponders what they might do next.
"While we could go rest, I think we should strike while the iron is hot."
With Bashiel mentioning the Red Mantis or the Maidens, she says "Well, the thing I like about taking out the Red Mantis first is that we never know when they're going to appear. The maidens are a lot easier to hear coming."
Well, I know I dislike the Red Mantis a lot more than I dislike the Maidens, so I'm in on Ilsa's plan unless someone has a better one. Where is that on the map? Have to calculate distances.
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Bashiel nods at the suggestion about the Red Mantis. He whispers "Directly above us and to the west is the dragon's roost. If we start from there, we can move downward to reach the Red Mantis. They probably wouldn't expect an attack from the floor above, even if our strike here gets discovered."
"Once we can't hear anyone outside, Zamanda, do you want to dash out to grab those maps? After that, we can teleport up."
Profiting a calm moment, you get out of the Seneschal room and make it back to snatch the freshly drawn map.
From there you make the stairs up calmly to the chair storage in the third floor. And once there, it is easy for Ilsa to step forward and dimension door the party over the ceiling of this floor.
You appear at the fourth floor. Some of you do so below a large table while others land over it.
This polygonal room is illuminated by three windows set in deep, tall niches. To either side of each niche are two white marble statues on high pedestals. Each of the six three-foottall statues depicts a woman in the same pose, hands high above her head and clutching an object. The statue on the left of the northwest niche grasps a large key, while the one to the right holds an open book. Proceeding clockwise through the room, the statues near to the northeast niche hold a shield and a star, and the ones near the southeast niche hold a hammer and a crown. In the middle of the room is a round table with six chairs.
A small wooden case sits on the table.
You recognize the statues symbolize the suits of a harrow deck like Zellara's one.
You notice a change on texture in an area of the ceiling in this room, like if at some point there was a trapdoor there but it has been closed with stone.
You recognize the hole has been closed using stone shape.
A nicely decorated door with book motives leads to the south. The wall to the west opens into a large balcony.
This large balcony overlooks the stairs to the gate and the northeast side of the Grand Mastaba. Several large gargoyles crouch on the battlements, looking down the walls like watchful sentinels. A catapult sits near the battlement edge to the northeast.
The catapult, as with those placed elsewhere on the castle’s balconies, is fully functional and has a dozen rounds of ammunition stacked nearby.
Zamanda, crawling out from under the table, says
That's the problem with traveling like this... you never know if something is going to be in the way. Looks like we're okay though.
She looks around.
Wow, look up there. You can tell there used to be a trap door...
Someone used a Stone Shape spell to close it up. Wonder why.
Zamanda picks up the small wooden case and looks inside.
___
When they get around to checking out the catapult, Zamanda tries to tell where it is aimed.
Inside the small case on the table Zamanda finds a simple and well-worn harrow deck.
A sudden wind blows through the room, causing the cards to fly into a vortex near the ceiling in the north corner of the room for a moment before they flutter to the floor. All of the cards land face down except for the Midwife card, which lands up on the ceiling in strange violation of gravity, just in the point where Zamanda found a stone shape spell has been used.
You do recall that the Midwife card represents the arrival of new life or new information.
As about the catapult, Zamanda determines it is not pointed anywhere in particular, at least what you can tell from the Game Room.
Zamanda gathers up the cards and uses her boots of levitation to retrieve the last card from the ceiling (if possible), although the strange event is not lost on her.
Uh, did Zellara pass on, or could we maybe ask her about this? Another possessed Harrow deck? Maybe we need to come back here with a Stone Shape scroll... or does someone already have that spell?
Zamanda levitates and easily takes the Midwife card from the ceiling.
Meanwhile, Ilsa invokes Zellara, who was released from Scarwall walls after you defeated the Chained Spirit.
The spirit comes out of the deck in the form of an illusory image with added sound. She looks up, then saddened says "A soul is suffering there up. I can sense his sorrowing call"
She looks then at the table "That soul used to play cards in this table, with his brother. Happy times." her illusory hand passes over the table "With that deck"
She then looks at the card in Zamanda's hands "The Midwife. The representation of a new life or new information"
The signs of the Harrow showing up here in the middle of the Queen's seat of power strikes Bashiel as strange. He presses his lips together behind his mask and eyes the flurry of cards with a little bit of trepidation. As the Midwife presses against the ceiling, he comments "An odd omen. I don't remember which meaning that card has, but its definitely strange to find phenomena like this here in the Castle."
When Zellara appears and explains, he nods "Good enough reason to try to settle that spirit. Lets take the deck. Reuiniting this symbol of their brother with them may help calm them and allow them to pass on." He pauses "As for the new life or new information, maybe that spirit has some secrets to share. Thanks Zellara."
Zellara, what do you mean by new life or new information? Does the card represent the ghost... oh, wait. New information? "His brother?" In the castle... uh, did the king have a brother, or the seneschal? Or, was ... no, no. I'm still not getting it. Who stone shaped the trapdoor? Did someone die up there, and that is who is haunting the deck? Did the brothers have a falling out, or did someone else mess with them enough that one of them is haunting this place? Or... well, it could be "new life" instead. Was somebody pregnant, like, that shouldn't be or something? Honestly, I have no idea. Anyone here up on Castle gossip?
"I cannot reach the soul from here" states Zellara looking up the ceiling "As to whom might be or all those other bits of information, I am sorry, I am of no help"
Zellara's illusion disappears short after.
You have heard rumors that King Eodred had a deformed brother who died at birth. The deformed baby is kept in the castle attic, preserved in a jar of alcohol!
Unknown to most people in Korvosa, you know that King Eodred has a half-brother older than him called Venster Arabasti. He was kept away of the ruling line due to his bastard blood but also because... he is a tiefling. Older than Eodred, he has passed his days concealed in Castle Korvosa until most people in the city has forgotten about him. Nothing has been known about him since Eodred's death.
There is some odd smear in the back of the Midwife card. Like some dried up substance that has given it a different color to the other cards in the deck.
Zamanda looks at the way forward towards the Red Mantis improvised barracks. There are two possibilities, through the southern door, or through the balcony.
(pass)
I uh, remember rumors that King Eodred had a deformed brother who died at birth ... but honestly, nevermind. That can't possibly be related, because Zellara just told us that the spirit enjoyed playing cards.
(fail)
(pass)
There is a smear of something on this card...
Can anyone tell what it is?
When they finish looking at the card and are ready to proceed, Zamanda scouts from the southern door, not wanting to risk being seen on the balcony, if there are outdoor defenses.
Zamanda cannot tell what kind of product is on the card, but she can open the door quite stealthily.
The walls of this dusty room are lined with empty oak bookcases emblazoned with the crest of the Sable Company.
No one or nothing is here.
Zamanda motions that it is safe, and examines the bookshelves. Just making sure there is really nothing. Seems strange.
When everyone is ready, she checks the next southern door, and if the hallway is clear, she flips her cape around and stealths ahead to check the double doors .
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Bashiel shrugs "That may be the story about his brother Zamanda, but it might also be that the brother survived. After all, a brother could be a potential successor for the throne. Eodred might not have wanted that known, and kept his brother somewhere out of the public eye. A tower, perhaps." He glances up. "I seem to remember something along those lines, at least."
"Either way, we'd be remiss if we didn't settle his spirit."
Bashiel follows Zamanda into the library after she gives a sign that it's all clear. Expecting through soon, he casts a new ironskin and hedging weapons using his pearls of power, and extends both of them with his metamagic rod.
Ilsa focuses in the harrowdeck and determines this object has a significant psychic imprint and could be read using psychometry.
Meanwhile Zamanda moves forward while Bashiel renews a few spells.
The walls here are covered by dozens of trophies ranging from deer and elk to aurochs and wyvern heads.
You find no one in this corridor which gives access to the place Sabina told you the Red Mantis sleep, and also the dragon's lair.
Zamanda lets Ilsa examine the deck, but tells her to be careful of the midwife card, since it has something on it, and she doesn't want it to get rubbed off carelessly... like if someone shuffled all the cards together or something.
Zamanda examines the trophy hall while Ilsa is examining the deck, idly looking around to see if anything looks unusual or especially valuable.
(When Ilsa is done looking, Zamanda puts the desk back in its case and sets it in her portable hole in a place where it won't be jostled by her movement.)
When she sees the hallway is clear she gathers the party in front of where the Red Mantis are supposed to be, checks the door for traps,
and then casts Gravity Bow before the group enters, because she expects that battle will be almost immediate.
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Bashiel peeks out in the hallway as Zamanda moves ahead, but he stays far back until she gives the go ahead. While she searches for valuables, he inspects the hallway for traps.
Kalem rolled his neck and stretched his arms. Either they would find the assassins sleeping or they would walk into an ambush. Either way there would be blood.