Isabel peeks through the door. "Do the octopus look alive or dead? I think this room might flood or get wet somehow. Why would the floor be lower than the rest of the area otherwise?"
Tilver stares at the octopi in the glass containers. "That's very odd..." He spots the grates and the wheel valve. He nods at Isabel. "Something tells me that it's made to drain out the water. Perhaps from those tubes."
He enters the room, looking for signs that someone else has passed through here.
Silas sniffs around the entrance as he waits for Tilver to give the all clear signal.
Dain looks through the doorway and into the blue room.
No, he doesn't.
Isabel peeks through the door. "Do the octopus look alive or dead? I think this room might flood or get wet somehow. Why would the floor be lower than the rest of the area otherwise?"
Oh, that thing is definitely watching you with hungry eyes, Isabel!
Tilver stares at the octopi in the glass containers. "That's very odd..." He spots the grates and the wheel valve. He nods at Isabel. "Something tells me that it's made to drain out the water. Perhaps from those tubes."
He enters the room, looking for signs that someone else has passed through here.
Silas sniffs around the entrance as he waits for Tilver to give the all clear signal.
"...Somethings weird here...Everyone be on your toes." He takes a long look around the room, finally coming back to the weird octopi in the tubes. He tries to consider what they are.
Isabel slips into the room, and tries to hide in the shadows, and watch the creatures. "What do you think the thing in the middle of the room does?"
"I smell Nicolan...He is close!" Silas says as he begins scanning around for where the smell might be coming from.
Tilver whirls around, looking for Nicalon when Silas says that he smells him. "Where? He moves around the tubes with his sword at the ready, looking for anyone hidden.
Dain calls to the spirits in their strange language, asking the spirits of glass to help him see. Then he looks around, looking for whatever Silas is smelling.
See InvisibilityStreets of Ptolus mystery.
Tung shifts his drawn dagger into a rapier and he hops down into the room.
He moves close to the wheel in the center of the room to inspect it further.
The room is empty of enemies, even to Dain's magically enhanced sight. But Silas is certain that he smells Nicalon. He... or she... has been here very recently. Within minutes.
"Silas, can you tell where he...she...went?" Tilver moves to the check the walls in the alcove area for any clues.
Silas moves in and begins actively seeking Nicolan. And then begins sneezing violently for some inexplicable reason.
Dun-dun-DUNNNNNN!
"Silas, can you tell where he...she...went?" Tilver moves to the check the walls in the alcove area for any clues.
After searching around a bit, Tilver finds a secret door! Like the main door to this room, it sits just above the tile line, about 3' above the floor. It is untrapped and leads to a corridor with another door at the far end.
Silas can tell that "Nicalon" recently went that way.
"Jackpot!" Tilver exclaims as he opens the secret door. "Come on, he can't be too far ahead of us!" He steps into the corridor and moves to the far end, waiting for the others to catch up.
Tung rushes to Tilver's side. Inspecting the door upon arrival at the far end of the hall.
Looks like an ordinary ol' door, at least for the Banewarrens.
Tung waits for his companions to follow closely and then opens it when everyone is ready.
Silas tags along.
Dain stays back, holding the door open, and suggests to Magill that she should go ahead with Isabel. When the two of them reach the secret passage, he hurries to join everyone, keeping as far from the tentacled monsters as possible.
Tung cracks open the door to see an odd sight. To the left there is a passageway, but it is completely blocked by a scintillating wall of force. The room is otherwise bare.
"Nicolan was just here. She may be using magic to hide herself like the creature we ran into before." Silas says as he sniffs the air.
"I think we'll need magic to get around this one."
Tung says as he inspects around the wall of force for runes that power it.
Wall of Force. This is my area of expertise." She moves to the front of the group, and studies the wall for a few minutes. Her hands wave and she speaks loudly casting Dispel Magic.
Tilver drags his elven blade across the face of the wall, testing it the whole length. He takes a frustrated swing, but knows it will do little. He nods at Isabel and waits for her magic to take it down.
Isabel, save your spell. You know beyond a shadow of a doubt that wall of force is immune to any spell you could use.
"If this is so much beyond us I doubt Nicolan is behind it. Are there any other secret doors or ways out of this room that we might be missing?" Silas begins moving around the room looking for a trap door or secret compartment that might lead further from here.
Silas, the smell of Nicalon... clearly a woman and just as clearly not -quite- human, is still strong. There is a particular mixture of sweat, sulfur and perfume that makes you think of horns and pitchforks.
Also, you spot that the south wall consists of a single enormous free-standing block of stone. It's not mortared into the surrounding walls, but it is huge and immovable, like a plug set in place by a giant.
Silas tries pushing on one side of the stone to see if it might rotate and says, "There is the stink of sulfur and some perfume here. Perhaps Nicolan summoned something that could get her past this wall." Silas looks towards the wall of force and says, "I think there was a stairway that we have not taken that seems to lead towards the same area as this. Perhaps we will need to back track."
Dain carefully approaches the magical barrier. With his enhanced sight he examines the edges of the wall of force to see if there are any gaps one could squeeze through. Then he peers through the wall to examine the passageway on the other side.
Tilver continues to test the wall of force with his sword. "Isabel, is this wall recent or part of the old magic? I don't see why you would build a room of stone and then partition it with a magic wall to last hundreds of years. Why not just build another stone wall?"
"This whole place is not built by the sanest of minds. I think that we should be looking at this stone wall. It might move in some fashion." Silas says.
Dain, you see a woman, well dressed and well armed. She has skin so blue it is nearly black and small devil's horns on her forehead. She grins wolfishly when you spot her. You recognize her as Navanna Vladaam, daughter of Iristul, the head of that ancient house.
"Tut, tut," she says. "You haven't even grasped what it is at stake here. Now here's the way this is going to go. I'm going to demand to leave. You're going to be stupid while you think you're being heroic and refuse to get out of my way. Forty-two seconds later, every single one of you will be bleeding out on the floor."
"Now, let us begin. Get out of my way..."
Tilver whirls and brings up his elven blade to try and face the voice. "Navanna, I presume, or should I call you Nicalon? You've gone too far this time. This place is not something to fool around with. Who knows what ancient evils are here? They could destroy you and everyone up in the city too, including all your family. If you actually want to leave this place, we'll be happy to escort you out. But if you're just heading deeper in, we're going to remove you by force. We've already dealt with the others in your group."
He spins around, looking to any sign of where she might be. "She's here somewhere, look for any signs!"
Tung pulls a scroll from his belt and attempts to leverage his training with the Knight of the Pale to cast the spell within the scroll.
A veil of magic cascades across Tung's vision, and he sees before him the devilish woman. He wills his dagger into the shape of a rapier and holds it at the ready towards her.
"By my oath, you shall not leave until your wickedness is eliminated."
+2 Initiative
Navanna dashes out of the room before anyone can react, leaping unseen by anyone but Dain between him and Tung. She gives him a triumphant smile as she sprints up the secret passageway and into the tiled room they'd just come from.
STATUS
Navanna - Invisible
Tilver
Dain - See Invisible
Tung
Isabel
Silas
Tung, you work your scroll but by that time Navanna has dashed past you.
Dain grasps at the blue woman as she dashes by, but only finds air. He spins and dashes after her. Emerging back in the blue room, he looks for his quarry.
Seeing Dain rush past him, Tung turns and gives chase as well.
Tilver is forced to rush after the others, only assuming they can see Navanna. "Stop her!" he yells to no one in particular.
Those with the ability to see invisible things can see the matron of House Vladaam fleeing through the tile room.
Isabel shrugs and follows the group out of the room. "Keep her in sight. I'll do what I can to make her visible when she stops running."
Dane races around one of the octopus tanks to cut off Navanna. "Stop!", he shouts, raising his spear.
Silas follows hoping to get close enough to detect her presence.
Tung takes a moment to concentrate his divine powers into his blade and turns it into a whip, then continues the pursuit.
Tilver runs after the others, assuming that they are chasing her, but really having no idea.
Navanna keeps running, stopping at last on the stairs up towards Geristonomos's room. Raising the withered hand of Eslathagos Malkith, she orders the Warrenbuilders. "Stop them!"
The constructs lumber forward to block your path.