Azarra finds the door locked, but the key was on the Marissa's body.
The key makes a satisfying click when turned in the lock and opens onto a strange looking store room which has several deep shelves. "Oh so this is what it looks like!" cried Natalia, "I was never allowed in here, I guess those stairs lead to Marissa's bedroom." The shelves are piled high with boxes, opening some of them reveals bolts of silk and clothing and dried food. While the room looks normal, the polished and lacquered wooden stairs appear to have liquid darkness flowing down them! There must be a mask up there somewhere...
Zane listened to Natalya speak, thinking this must have been where the guild stored many of its stolen treasures. It would make sense, if one of the main lieutenants had their chambers here. Seeing the flowing darkness coming from further up the stairs, the priest steeled his mind for the illusions they would surely plunge through on their way up.
This silk is worth 3-5 hundred gold, if someone finds a buyer. Might be another thing to add to the town's share.
Azarra has Zane boost her up so she can climb the shelves, looking for the mask.
"We should get up there and shatter the mask. This darkness is... disgusting."
Ishta concentrates for a bit to try loate any magic auras in the area.
Azarra doesn't really like the idea, but she heads up the stairs into the darkness.
Ser Armithia leads, allowing Azarra--only--a step behind.
Ishta will wait for now in case Azarra and Ser can find the mask without their help.
Azarra starts climbing up the stairs but she gets the fright of her life when she hear a *click* followed by a THONK! THOONK! She looks down and a pair of small arrows covered in something vile are sticking out of her thigh. Already terrible numbness is starting to set in...
<--- HIT
<--- HIT
<--- FAIL
<--- PASS
Laying a gauntlet hand on Azarra's injured leg, the paladin whispers,
Helm guard.
The knight then smiles through his Helmet at her.
Allow me to proceed first. I will take those for us!
Thanks, Ser.
Feeling weak despite Ser A's kind healing, Azarra continues up the staircase, this time allowing the Paladin to take the lead.
Despite Ser Armithia's healing, Azarra finds herself coughing up blood, and feeling pretty wretched. Even getting up the stairs is an effort, but gritting her teeth she makes it. Perhaps the reality of the pain caused by the poison that was wracking her system shielded her from the illusions, whatever it was she made it into the utter darkness above.
By touch Azarra finds a pretty ordinary bedroom, with a bed, chairs, dressing table, wardrobe and what feels like a large trunk. There must be a mask up there somewhere, although a search will be complicated by the darkness.
Poor Ser Armithia on the other hand wasn't quite so lucky, as the darkness enveloped him, he became quite disorientated and ended up falling down the stairs. Fortunately it wasn't a long way to fall so the only damage was to his ego.
<--- FAIL
<--- FAIL
<--- FAIL
<--- PASS
Coughing up blood and worried that she is dying, Azarra is concerned when Ser falls down the stairs past her, but keeps moving, knowing that if she stops now, she might as well give up. She is grateful when she finds that things up here are padded, so that she doesn't harm herself further as she explores the room. After a little while, the vomiting stops. She still feels weak, but now has hope that she might recover.
Azarra feels on top of the wardrobe to see if the mask is there, but if it isn't, she lies down on the bed (grateful for the opportunity to rest and, strangely, appreciating the idea of a bedroom with no light). She casts Detect Magic while looking up, hoping that scanning the upper part of the room will allow her to see the mask's aura and thereby pinpoint its location.
Not deterred, the gold elf knighted paladin attempts to rejoin his party member!
Zane gasped as he heard the darts plunge into Azarra, rushing forward to pluck them out as Ser Armithia laid his hands upon the half-elf and filled her with Helm's healing grace. His brow furrowed as she coughed, a little blood coming up, but she seemed game to continue, so he just whispered, "I shall pray to the Morninglord for spells that can hopefully heal that. Until then, I'll be right behind you."
Of course, that meant he was right behind Ser Armithia, only narrowly dodging out of the way as the knight of Helm plummeted past him down the stairs. Not hearing the others coming up, he called out to Azarra, "I'm here...I'll start feeling around, let me know if you find anything.
Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, Ser Armithia manages to bull his way past the illusions and enters the darkness above.
He was literally poking around in the dark but after some time, Zane found something. He found it on the only high shelf in the room. It was egg shaped, hard, yet warm to the touch. By experimentation he realized the zone of darkness moved with it!
"Ok, I think I found it! Let me just go take it to another room, unless someone has a means to dispel it?" If the answer was no, Zane took the egg of darkness to another room they had already explored and then cautiously made his way back out into the lit areas so that his companions could explore Marissa's room productively.
The eggs shaped stone was surprisingly heavy for it's size but Zane had no trouble removing it. Of course there was a certain amount of consternation below when Zane inched down the steps for everything suddenly went dark!
<--- PASS
Up above Azarra finds a plain looking room, thick with shadows with extensive cobwebs in the corners. Clearly it hasn't been cleaned properly in years for dust is thick on every drab surface.
Once the darkness is gone, Azarra realizes that she is laying on a layer of dust. Gross. She gets up, still feeling weak, and looks around carefully for the mask and any loot that Marissa might have left behind.
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"What the Hell is this, Zane? A stone with Darkness cast upon it?" Ishta doesn't believe they can dispel it, so she looks for a way to cover it or whatever. Carrying around a source of darkness doesn't seem funny, even with darkvision.
The paladin stares hard at the stone...
Calling out from the darkness, Zane answered in a quavery voice. "It's what it seems to be...I'm not too sure." As Ishta started offering suggestions, the priest rolled his eyes at his own ignorance and stowed the stone in his pack to see if the effect was dulled.
When the stone is either safely stowed or in a separate room, the cleric went back upstairs to search the area alongside Azarra.
Zane wrinkled his nose at the layers of dust covering everything, the pairs' search pitching up a cloud of it that threatened to cause a sneezing fit. "Perhaps we should just take our time and search it thoroughly? Surely there is a mask here somewhere."
Ishta's experiments proved the stone to be very odd, partially covering it didn't make much difference, but putting it into a box did. Via trial and error she determined that the darkness was very strong, neither torches nor mage light could penetrate it. When held in the hand the warmth pulsed slightly as if it was alive.
Finding the mask was only half the trouble, for the illusory magics seemed particularly strong up here and it would seem to shift whenever Zane or Azarra reached for it. This happened several times before they noticed a pattern, it would warp to one of three places. Working as a team the pair both faked going for it before darting to the other location and in the end Zane guessed right and grabbed hold of it.
Together they smashed it to pieces and suddenly the world seemed to dissolve! By increments a strange room with rich dark carpets and pillows and padded felt edges appeared along with the familiar headache. While this room was not as flashy as others, everything was soft, cosy, rounded and probably expensive.
Zane rubbed at his temples for a moment as the illusion was finally dispelled, revealing the richly decorated room.
As he and the half-elf dug through the trunk of clothes, Zane found what appeared to be a rather extravagantly made dress. He held it up for Azarra with a smile on his face, hoping that she would have a better understanding than he of the value of such a thing.
After the pair had finished inspecting the room and joined the others, the priest said, "Perhaps the Council will accept the furnishings and such of this place as their half of the loot. It would be a shame to tear the place apart to resell."
The cleric thought for a moment, then spoke again, "Perhaps we should hurriedly look through the first floor after checking on our prisoners?" Whether any joined him or not, he went to go check on the few guild members the group had captured before he joined in ransacking the first floor of the Kovel place.
The passed felt on the walls can be removed and sold for around 400 gold. Should probably add that to the list.
Azarra pulls a sheer silk dress from the chest.
This is nice. It would probably sell for around 50 gold.
And by all means, check on the prisoners before we proceed.
"It took you longer this time. What was wrong?"
After receiving whatever answer, Ishta goes to check the prisoners before going on checking everything.
Azarra comes down the stairs carefully after evaluating the room and responds to Ishta's question.
We couldn't find the mask, and then when we did find it, it had some weird illusion on it so it kept seeming to jump around. She stops to take a breath. And whatever it was that hit me on the stairs; I can't seem to get over it. I feel really ... frail, I guess would be the word.
Ser Armithia will guard the others as they move about. The knight does accompany Zane in checking the prisoners.
The prisoners are still there but grumbling. You wouldn't be surprised if they stated to get ideas if you leave them alone for long.
Zane looked worriedly at Azarra, but though she did seem to not be feeling well she was moving around ok. He felt it was something that could await Lathander's blessing in the morning. The priest eyed the prisoners in the cell darkly, though he made no verbal move to threaten them. They likely would be marching through the streets to their death by a hangman's noose, so what would be the point?
Looking at the others, he suggested, "Let's have a quick looksy around the first level, then go home. We still going with plan A? Who do we want to accompany Natalia and her sister?" As they discuss it, the priest moves with the others to Door E, setting up as they had before, waiting for Azarra to open it with her spellcasting.
Ser Armithia checked the prisoners bindings before nodding to them.
Helm watches!
The gold elf then joins the group, ready to further cleanse this place!
Azarra casts Open on door E.
Ishta is still a bit worried about the prisoners. Whispering to Azarra and the rest, she offers to stay here and watch. "I don't seem of much use with you right now, anyway. What do you say?"
To Ishta:
Okay, if that is what you want, I'm good with it. But yell if you need us.
To your surprise, the double doors open inwardly before Azarra gets to cast her spell. Natalia explains, "The dining room is in there, which doubles as a ball room. The doors bear a minor enchantment which causes them to open when anyone reaches towards them. Some mage's idea of a practical joke no doubt."
The dining room come ballroom has clearly seen better days. The wooden floor is shabby, heavily rutted and marred with various suspicious stains. Dust lays piled up in the corners. The long benches seem ancient and spartan, having endured hard use. The vaulted ceiling is a mixture of peeling paint and cobwebs. To the west a battered door has the work "Kitchen" scrawled on it.
Azarra chuckles. Kind of creepy, but I can see the humor.
Zane looked over the once-fine dining room skeptically, knowing that it likely suffered from the same illusory magic cloaking the remainder of the building. However, he wasn't able to find it. Frustrated, he looked at the others to see if they had any better luck.
Natalia, I know there is a mask in here, can you look for it?
"Can't say I see a Mask, but perhaps it's in the kitchen where they're cooking up this particular illusion?" The man's tone indicates that he wasn't trying to be punny.
Natalia wasn't at all sure she'd spot it after everyone else had failed , replying "I uh... I'm not sure, but I'll have a loo - OH it's over there!" She pointed excitedly towards a big cobweb in the corner.
Getting it down proved to be quite the to do because the ceiling was twelve foot high. In the end one of the rickety trestle tables was dragged over and then it was a simple matter of standing on it and knocking it down with a sword.
The mask was quickly stomped to pieces while everyone braced for the thunderclap headache they knew was coming. The world seemed to go black and white and sound was strangely distorted. Then the sudden pain struck like a bolt of lightning hammering itself between your eyes. As it slowly started to recede the illusion magics started to glitch and little by little by little the splendor of this room was revealed as color came flooding back.
The floor was polished marble inlaid with metals in geometric patterns. The walls where covered in patterned silk the color of jade, and the vaulted ceiling was covered in a gigantic fresco showing an avatar of Mask stealing trinkets from a coterie of other gods who are distracted by an arch devil fighting a balor. The tables are revealed to be well made of sturdy oak with a midnight green leather inlay. Soft light from no obvious source illuminates the area.
Thank you Natalia. I really appreciate it.
Azarra casts Open on door S (from 30 feet away).
The swordmage mutters a sincere wow as the inlaid marble is revealed to them. "This is beautiful and look, up there," he says as his finger points at the Balor. "Legends say that the Narfell summoners of old could bring such beings to this world. What we learned from that is that if the beast doesn't fit between your legs, you aren't supposed to be riding it. Ever since, my people have been unable to do more than ride over the ruins and remains of those days on horseback. At least we're still free and breathing, right? Right."
He then knocks on one of the wooden tables with a clumpy hand, signaling the end of the impromptu storytime.
Ser Armithia stands guard at the kitchen door.