Eustoma points to the potions and items. "I don't feel right about taking these, I think we should remember they are here if we happen to need them later."
Wulfram flew back down. "It looks like the room up there connects back to the tower. I saw what was left of three shattered class cylinders, and a orange slime covering the floor. It would seem that something escaped! We presumably could get there by going up these stairs.
"So what do you think, should we open the double doors and see what's down here first?"
The cylinders were about 8 feet tall. It's possible that Karla's theory might be correct, but without examining the evidence upstairs or Navah herself, there's no way to know for sure.
"Let's check these double doors before we head upstairs." Eustom moves next to them and listens.
Wulfram moved up, ready to open the double doors.
Eustoma doesn't hear anything at the doors. Worktables occupy the north of this room, standing next to a large, still-glowing forge and squat iron anvil. Tables and shelves filled with tools and half-finished projects of metal and leather line the edges of the room. Strange animal hides are stretched along the western wall, and to the south, a humble kitchen is squeezed in among the industrial setting.
Wulfram did a quick search of the room, and scanned around for magic auras.
"Time to get our defensive spells up," he said, and said prayers over Niko, Sia and himself.
When Wulfram enters the room to look around, a bizarre creature bursts out of the forge! This smoldering mass of metal-encrusted goo sports half a dozen pseudopods, each tipped with a burning-hot sword blade. It surges toward the shaman!
Cursing that he didn't cast his defensive spells first, Wulfram said a prayer to thicken his skin.
The ooze forms four molten blades from its body and slashes at Wulfram. His bark skin protects him from what might have been a critical cut, turning the blade aside. His shamanic connection to fire prevents him from being burned.
Wulfram grunted as the creature slashed him in the shoulder. He gripped his spear tightly and stabbed at the molten ooze.
"I's a shard slag! Try ta pour water on it!" Rogar tells his companions, trying to use his control over metal to crush the shard slag itself.
She moves into the room. "I can do that." She casts create water right on top of the creature.
Steam rises from the shard slag's body as Eustoma douses it with water. It starts to slow and harden, but it manages to resist being staggered this time.
Wulfram blasts it with metallic shards, crushing a large portion of its body to pulp. Still, the ooze keeps coming, even as Wulfram stabs it with his longspear.
Somehow, the sluggish ooze manages to slide forward just fast enough to avoid falling into the pit!
Five blades extrude out from its body as it continues to mindlessly attack Wulfram. It hits three times, one of which is a critical strike!
Rogar tries again, attempting to crush it before Wulfram falls to its blades.
Before Karla can cast her spell, Rogar crushes it under a massive torrent of metal. Molten protoplasm splatters across the room as the creature collapse into an inert puddle.
With the creature defeated, you are able to search through the forge. Most of the items here seem mundane, but one of the animal hides on the western wall is magical. The thick hide cloak seems to have been made from a large multi-colored cat.
Rogar shrugs, "Don' look a' me. Ah think i' migh 'ave been an ooze, so do wi' that what ye will. Ah jus' know o' them from tales o' unfortunate smiths."
"I've never heard of such a thing before either," Wulfram said, as he healed his wounds.
He examined the magical cloak.
He also finished casting his protective spells.
Wulfram is unable to identify the cloak.
"Alright, time to go up the stairs!", Wulfram said to his companions. He waited till everyone was ready, before advancing up the steps.
Eustoma studies the cloak. "That's really pretty. Should we take it?" She shrugs, and tucks it away.
She casts Great Magic Fang on both Sia and Niko. "Bite harder gang."
She starts to sneak up the stairs to see what can be seen.
The stairs lead up to a foyer on the upper level. A door to the east opens onto the room Wulfram peeked into earlier, while another door stands to the north. Eustoma quietly peeks through the door.
The eastern half of this room sports a table crowded with alchemical implements, clay jars, glass vials, and arcane implements, while a large still takes up much of the floor. Notebooks and alchemical reference manuals ll a bookshelf to the south. Doors rest in the southern and eastern walls.
A construct stands guard in this room. The clockwork creature has a crystal wand set into its chest, bristling with arcane energy. It doesn't notice Eustoma though.
Eustoma slips back down the stairs to the group, "There's a clockwork creature in the northern room. We might want to leave that room alone. We aren't here to destroy everything, but to help the wizard. I think we can go to the east and avoid the creature."
"Good scouting!", Wulfram replied. He flew back up to the room above the well, and lowered a rope for the others to climb up, anchoring it with a piton.
You clamber up the rope and use it to haul your animal companions up. They have to squeeze to fit through the hole, but with a bit of whining and growling, they are able to make it through. As a group, you move into the room with the slime covering the floor.
Eustoma's Blight scar starts to throb painfully, alerting her to aberrant creatures nearby. At the same time, Rogar looks up to see two sections of the ceiling suddenly unfurl and extend as a pair of horrid aberrations extrude tentacles to attack!
They resist cold, fire, and bludgeoning damage.
Rogar looks up quickly and sees a pair of monstrosities on the ceiling, "Wha' are those things?" he exclaims, but sends a metallic spike conjured from thin air at the closer one before it can do anything.
"The are lurkers, and resist cold, fire, and bludgeoning damage.
She pulls out her bow and sends two arrows into the lurker.
Rogar hurls a metallic spike into the closest lurker, while Eustoma quickly fires an arrow into its rubbery body.
The monsters detach from the ceiling and try to engulf the two of them! Rogar finds himself being crushed and smothered by one of the horrid aberrations, while Eustoma narrowly manages to dodge the attack!
Wulfram shouted a magic command, giving Rogar a chance to escape, and stabbed furiously at the aberration trying to smother the dwarf.
With Wulfram's spell bolstering him, Rogar slips out of the lurker's grasp. He gathers a massive amount of earth energy before blasting the wounded creature, finishing it off!
Eustoma fires two arrows into the remaining lurker while Wulfram stabs it with his spear. Finally, Nik'o pounces upon it, tearing it with her teeth and claws. The weight of the big cat pulls the creature off the roof, and she continues to savage its body to be sure that it's dead!
"Ugh, horrible creatures!", Wulfram declared. There was something disturbing about a creature whose only function was to lie in wait, and then smother unsuspecting people when it had the chance. [b]"Do you think Navah was keeping them in these cylinders?"
Wulfram healed Rogar's wounds, and then walked over to examine the broken glass cylinders.
The slime on the floor and in the cylinders matches that exuded by the aberrations. It seems the lurkers were once contained in the cylinders, but something broke them and released them. There doesn't seem to be anything else of value in this room.
"I wonder what broke the glass?", Wulfram mused. He went to the northern door in the room and listened.
The first floor of the secondary tower includes both a simple bedroom and washroom. While the washroom is clean and in good repair, the bedroom has been destroyed. Books, paintings, and small mementos have been shredded to pieces, and a full-length mirror has been smashed. A single item of note sits comfortably in a long box under the wrecked bed--a fine-looking magical longspear.
Spiral stairs lead up to the study where Rogar last saw Navah.
Wulfram looked around at the destruction in the room. "Something went berserk in here," he said in a low voice. He didn't want to alert Navak to their presence.
His eyes lit up when he found the longspear. Nice! He examined the weapon for a minute.
Eustoma will look around the room and destroyed books and paintings to see if there are any clues to what might have gone wrong. "I wonder if there any clues to why she thinks she's a monster in this room."
Eustoma is unable to discover any clues as to Navah's condition in this room. Everything that might have been helpful has been ripped to shreds or burned to ash.