Cyrus strikes the door mightily sending deep cracks through it that spider outward. The cracks cause the door to lose integrity and collapse into a pile of shards.
Beyond you find a small room with several crates, urns, decanters and storage boxes. A mirrored vanity and chair sit next to the east window. An ice statue of a tall, imperious woman stands in the center of the room.
Cyrus blinks at the ease with which the vault door was broken. "That was... way too easy..." he thinks aloud, eyeing the room beyond suspiciously.
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Once Natasha has access she will scan the room for magic and take a look at the statue to see if she recognizes it.
Cyrus blinks at the ease with which the vault door was broken. "That was... way too easy..." he thinks aloud, eyeing the room beyond suspiciously.
"Hm. I am glad for it." Stepping within, he looks upon the statue. "The statue. If it is like the others it will soon attack us." He tightens his grip upon his axe, ready to move and strike at the first sign of movement from the statue.
As Droguk passes the threshold a voice resonates from the statue, "The uninvited shall wither and die like the frost-covered bloom. You should never have ventured here, and you'd do well to leave before my return."
Droguk takes a step back, he looks to the others as he is now unsure of how to proceed. "Witch Queen, do you know that voice?"
Cyrus readies his falchion as soon as the voice rings out, eyes darting from the statue to Droguk. "Droguk! How you feel? I think you triggered something when you crossed the door. You doing ok?"
Kobad recalls the warning about mirrors, taking notice of the mirror in the room at the vanity.
the witches can see through the mirrors. he says pointing to the mirrored vanity.
he prepares to blast thye mirror with a bolt of fire.
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Cyrus readies his falchion as soon as the voice rings out, eyes darting from the statue to Droguk. "Droguk! How you feel? I think you triggered something when you crossed the door. You doing ok?"
Droguk nods as he keeps his eyes upon the room. He then responds on Kobad's info on the mirrors. "The mirrors. We must destroy all the mirrors. I have always hated the mirrors."
Natasha chuckles at Droguks reference to her but shakes her head "No, but I assume it is the owner of the tower, Nazhena."
The hairs on Natasza's neck stand up, while she tries to think of the spells involved in this.
Those skilled in magic quickly recognize the use of a Magic Mouth spell and a magical ward releasing a Curse spell on Droguk.
"Droguk, you okay?" is all Natasza says while she is trying to figure out the second spray.
"You any idea what that second thing was?" she silently asks Natasha Saelena.
Cyrus breathes a sigh of relief when he realizes Droguk was not injured. "You dodged something big there, Droguk. When you stepped forward you triggered a ward that tried to lay a curse on you...but fortunately, you were able to throw it off. I'm glad it isn't just your skin that's tough!"
Natasha nods to Cyrus's words "Yes, a powerful curse was the triggered effect. Though I am not sure if it re triggers on entry or not. Though since you weren't affected." she motions to Droguk "You can likely search the place without further ill effect."
"Sounds to me like you've been volunteered, buddy." Cyrus adds with a grin.
"Droguk, you okay?" is all Natasza says while she is trying to figure out the second spray.
"I do not feel as if anything is different."
Natasha nods to Cyrus's words "Yes, a powerful curse was the triggered effect. Though I am not sure if it re triggers on entry or not. Though since you weren't affected." she motions to Droguk "You can likely search the place without further ill effect."
Droguk's eyes narrow at the Irrisen, curious if there is any truth to her knowledge.
"Sounds to me like you've been volunteered, buddy." Cyrus adds with a grin.
Looking to the ranger, Droguk grumbles his displeasure but prepares to continue forward anyway. With his axe in hand he moves back within the room and stops a moment, looking from his left to his right and awaiting for what may happen next.
Droguk searches through the crates and boxes. Each one seems to add more treasure pile. When he's finally done he carries it all out for the party to look through.
2x Scrolls of Cure Moderate Wounds
1x Scroll of Delay Poison
1x Scroll of Dispel Magic
1x Scroll of Mirror Sight
1x Scroll of Remove Disease
2x Scroll of Remove Sickness
1x Scroll of Threefold Aspect
1x Scroll of Youthful Appearance
2x Potion of Cure Light Wound
2x Potion of Enlarge Person
3x Oils of Mask Dweomer
2x Potions of Reduce Person
50 trade bars of pure silver each weighing 10 lbs and worth 50 gp a piece
One of the chests is locked.
Natasha takes a look at each of the decanters of liquid and relates back to the others the powers each hold. "This may all be useful in the future. What about that one chest in there?" she points to the locked chest.
As they wait she adds "With the portal closed and the threat of the tower dealt with what is our next move? We still have things to attend to. Not sure if you all found any leads before my arrival or if we need to search this place further."
"Useful potions to have indeed. Are you sure about that second one. I can't quite smell it, but it would be nice to make someone stronger and bigger, should the need arise."
She looks at the others, while stroking Tough around his tusks.
"I am with you, you know that. You guys have done more good than anyone in this region has for many years. Tough and I will stay with you, for as long as this streak of luck lasts."
She then looks at Natasha, and adds: "...but I agree with her. What's our next move, exactly?"
"Useful, indeed. Even the Reduce Person might prove useful at some point in the future...though I doubt Droguk will ever be the one to volunteer to drink it. If it ever comes up, I'll do that myself." he says, giving Droguk a slight grin.
"As far as where we go from here...well, we came here looking for Nazhena and we didn't find her. The Black Rider also told us that Queen Elvanna is up to something and is probably responsible for Baba Yaga's tardiness. Since she had one of the portals right in the middle of her tower, it's probably safe to assume Nazhena knows at least some of what Elvanna is plotting. It's admittedly not too much of a lead, but it's something, at least; probably the best one that we have at this point. Question now is: Since Nazhena isn't here, where is she?"
Droguk looks on as the others speak. Finally coming to a conclusion, "It is settled then: We will continue to search the tower until we are certain she is not here... and certain we have uncovered all we must." Droguk then moves over to the locked chest, trying one of the "plain" keys he possesses. If that doesn't work, he takes his axe and tries busting the lock.
Kobad gathers the scrolls, and as the others search and what not, Kobad reads through the scrolls (with read magic)
many of these scrolls are not much use to me, except this one, it seems to be a spell to dispel the magic of others.
Kobad then will relay the info of the remainder of the scrolls to the group.or at least the spellcasters.
While Droguk is busy trying to break the lock on the chest, Cyrus looks back to Nadya. "So...what about you, Nadya? Where do you go from here?"
Sheering off the lock you open the chest and find,
Nadya is silent for a time. "Nazhena was not here. Where ever she is, when she returns she will take out her rage on Waldsby. I can't let that happen. I need to find her and finish this."
"Well...I don't think there's any doubt about that bag'o'money being magical, I don't have any clue as to the nature of it. Only thing I can help with is the robe and the ring...the robe is a Robe of Useful Items, which is a pretty handy thing for us to find." he comments, sliding the robe on since he knows the patches can only be seen by the wearer. "Already some nice things on it, too..." he remarks, informing the others of the different patches that can be torn off the robe to bring the things depicted on them into existence.
"The ring is one of regeneration, which...wow. Holy cow. That's...that's a pretty darn up-there bit of magic." he says, eyeing the white-gold jewelry.
"I dunno...it seems too convenient to have found this ring in there. Why would they keep something like this locked up in a chest when it'd be a hundred times more useful on their finger? I'm hesitant to lay claim to it without getting somebody to see if it's cursed or something. Call me paranoid."
Cyrus gives a thoughtful nod to Nadya's statement. "Well...it seems like, at least for a little while longer, our goals are going to be aligned with each other. I...think it would be a good idea for us to continue traveling together..if that seems alright with you." he replies.
Kobad looks over everything, This wand, seems to be illusion magic,. I believe it is a color spray .
Natasha takes a look at the items as well "The bag is indeed magic it can hold items beyond what the normal capacity of a bag that size can hold. The ring actively, but slowly heals any wounds that you take while wearing it. As Kobad says the wand casts illusion magic, dazing and stunning those it effects. The other items, I will take Cyrus's word on."
"I appreciate the vote of confidence, Natasha. Gotta be honest, though, I'm still not trusting this ring. Like I said, I can't imagine stuffing this thing in a chest instead of putting it on your finger. I'm not putting it on and I don't know if it's a good idea for anybody else to test it out, either. I say we either leave it here or put it somewhere separate for now."
Natasha shrugs "It is more than likely it was some trinket that was forgotten about. If it is that big of a concern I can take some extra time to examine it tomorrow to ensure it's use."
Cyrus gives a derisive snort at the thought. "Lady, if this is a 'forgotten trinket', then I'd terrified to see what kind of power it'd take to impress you...if you wanna try the thing on for size, be my guest, but don't blame me when it bites you in the rear."
Natasza tries to keep quiet, trying to see what happens when the whitehaired witch tries on the ring.
Natasha shakes her head and sighs "I have no need for such things. I'll give it a closer look in the morning just to confirm. One of you front liners would have more use for it."
She waves her hand dismissively "In any case, it looks like we have everything of worth here. Let's grab that cauldren and search the rest of the place for any clues on a next step."
Natasza looks at the ring, and then starts to humm.
"Can I see it?" she slowly asks, in between her humming.
Her eyes turn white as snow as she stretches out her hand towards it, the sound never stopping from her throat.
"If you wish." he answers simply, dropping the ring into her open palm.
While the others continue to worry about the ring Natasha looks to the portal "Perhaps we should try this with each of the keys we have found, just to ensure it doesn't lead anywhere further. Otherwise, I believe we have searched this level and should move down the tower, searching in depth before we depart."
With one last glance at the ring in Natasza's hand, Cyrus turns toward the teleporter. "Sounds like a plan. The sooner we can leave this place behind us, the better."
With everyone busy with all the things, Natasza puts on the ring. She looks at it, wincing slightly, and hoping her finger doesn't blow off.
The ring slides easily onto the gnomes finger, resizing to fit her smaller form.
The party takes some time to work their way back down through the tower. You find that you're unable to activate the teleporter in the bedroom but the others continue to work for you. Along the way you pickup the chest of coins you first found on the way up and scavenge swords, crossbows and armor from the fallen guards. Though this would usually lead to far to much to carry the magical bag you found makes the task almost trivial.
As you work your way through the levels you find that you've seen the vast majority of the tower already. You do locate a few rooms you'd not inspected before. One is odd in that it contains dresses of distinctly Taldoran make. The only other area of note is the hut that the troll burst out of. Inside you find the remains of many dogs (which you would assume were once sled dogs), and a sack with 500 gold pieces in it.
In the courtyard you find Nadyas dog sled as well as two other sleds which Natasha can confirm the returning guards had used. Taking all three you make the ride back to Waldsby. The trip is a long one taking almost six hours as Nadya takes extra care to obscure your tracks and takes a very round about route.
Finally, with the sun set and the gloom of evening upon you, you reach the outskirts of town. It's hard to fathom that only this morning you set out to seek the Pale Tower and now it stands broken behind you. Heldren is safe, if only for a time, but you also know that the source of the threat still looms, her shadow cast over the world.
Shocked you attempt to remove the ring, sure that it must be the cause, and find that it refuses to release it's grip on your finger.
Cyrus stops short just outside the town, drawing in and releasing slow breath. "Nadya, would it be safe for us to return to the village? We who came through the portal, I mean. You and Natasza are from here, after all...and I don't want to put the people here in an even worse position by giving full disclosure on everything that has happened."