Shaeda turned to the group, pointing towards the two recently acquired items with an air of authority. Her green eyes gleamed as she gestured to the ornate breastplate and the curved steel shield. "Right, listen up. These aren’t just pretty trinkets—they’re powerful tools, and knowing their strengths might just keep us alive."
She held up the breastplate first. "This here is no ordinary suit of armor. It’s a Breastplate of Command, and it’s made for those who lead from the front, where everyone can see them. It’s said that just wearing it makes folk more willing to listen, more ready to follow your lead. And for those fighting at your side, it fills their hearts with courage, steeling them against fear."
Turning the breastplate slightly, Shaeda added, "But there’s a catch—this magic works best if you’re bold and visible. If you’re skulking about or trying to stay out of sight, the magic stays quiet too. This is a piece for someone who’s not afraid to stand tall and be seen."
Setting the breastplate aside, Shaeda hefted the curved steel shield, running her hand along its smooth edge. "And then we’ve got this beauty—the Dragonslayer’s Shield. It’s shaped just so, like it’s been made to catch the worst of what’s coming at you. The stories say it can turn aside flames, lightning, and worse. Not entirely, mind, but enough to give you a chance to get through the fight."
Her gaze hardened slightly as she added, "It’s also said this shield steels your nerves, especially against creatures that make most folk quake in their boots—dragons and the like. With this strapped to your arm, you’ll find it harder to lose your resolve, no matter how fearsome the enemy might be."
She placed the shield beside the breastplate and looked at the group with a sly smile. "Both are fine pieces for someone with the guts to use them properly. So, who’s stepping up? Let’s not let them gather dust when there’s work to be done."
Ziranu appreciates the discovery of the armory with grim satisfaction, assessing and selecting a total of 31 standard and 24 blunt-tipped mundane arrows to replenish the stocks the Ranger had depleted within his efficient quiver and handy haversack since first infiltrating the depths of the castle. He considers Shaeda's own assessment of the magic armor displayed...
"Bozh are indeed fine works of magicks. To my mind, by zheir powers, bozh would also seem most effective if worn by Searok, at zhis point."
Searok, never one to ask for anything will accept them if offered by the party. Well, I can tell ye that I ain't about skulking, that's fer sure!
The ceiling of this hall is open, revealing the polished balustrade of a balcony thirty feet above and the interior of a lantern dome an additional thirty feet above the balcony. A colonnade along the room’s perimeter supports the balcony and casts a deep shadow on the walls of this hall. Along the southwest side of the room is a theatrical stage built atop a wooden platform.
Some sort of room for hosting small musical and theatrical performances. Please make a Perception check.
Ziranu approaches the entrance to the chamber cautiously, extending the sharpened awareness of his preternatural senses into the shadowed space beyond...
, +2 more if dealing with undead or dragons; +4 more if dealing with evil outsiders; +6 more if dealing with humans; and +8 more if trapfinding is applicable.
With nothing really visible here, Shaeda will also cast detect magic and have a look about.
Ziranu spies that the room to the south, behind the stage, has a peephole that looks out into the room. In particular he spies it because he sees that an eye is watching from the other side. It quickly withdraws as soon as it realizes it has been spotted.
Hard to tell with just a quick glimpse, but the eye did not look human.
Ziranu immediately alerts his companions with abrupt, silent hand signals as he gestures to his eyes and the location of the peephole, then swiftly strides to the door in the southeastern corner to search it...
, +2 more if dealing with undead or dragons; +4 more if dealing with evil outsiders; +6 more if dealing with humans; and +8 more if trapfinding is applicable.
"Zhere is a room behind zhe stage, wizh some inhuman creature zhat has now seen us from zhe ozher side of a peephole right zhere. One of zhe doors on eizher side of zhe stage must lead to it, but we've no way of knowing which. Searok?"
"I gather that speed is of the essence then?"
Shaeda will move with Searok towards the door to the Southeast, so they can open as soon as Ziranu clears it.
The walls of this bedroom are paneled with darkwood planks and decorated with elaborate tapestries and hanging silks. A canopied bed looms to the northeast, while to the southwest stand a desk and a stuffed armchair. Stained-glass windows along the southwest wall depict complex patterns of swirling reds, fiery oranges, and bright yellows.
Clearly a royal bedroom. A peephole in the north wall is how the spy watched you, normally covered by a painting, but the individual was unable to replace it quickly enough. There's no sign of them, but some nasty handiwork is present.
Lying on the bed is a body. A skinless body. Whatever horrible torment it suffered was also quite thorough, as there's not a drop of blood to stain the mattress beneath it. There isn't even a smell, the room carries a scent of flowers and perfume. Any identifying marks are long gone, but the shape is vaguely female. It lies flat on its back, staring up at the ceiling, looking almost peaceful in its horrifically flayed state.
Shockingly, it speaks. "Yes please, two lumps of sugar". No movement besides the jaw, it doesn't even glance in your direction.
Searok is clearly taken aback when the corpse starts to speak! He hefts his warhammer over his head ready to strike a blow. I'll give ye two lumps!
"Well, well, well," Shaeda thinks, as she casts detect fiendish presence and looks about, both at the body on the bed, and elsewhere in the room.
Shaeda does detect a fiendish presence, though it is fading. Something went out one of the windows to the south just before you got here, though the windows do not appear to open, so it may have turned incorporeal or ethereal as it went. Either way, it wasn't itching for a fight with you.
With Searok's attention and Tronar's scholarly inquiry focused on the macabre flayed body, in the event it proves a threat, Ziranu initiates a thorough search of the chambers, for now assiduously avoiding the horrid talking corpse...
, +2 more if dealing with undead or dragons; +4 more if dealing with evil outsiders; +6 more if dealing with humans; and +8 more if trapfinding is applicable.
"Something fiendish just left this room, out the windows to the south. It is no longer here."
Then I can pulverize whatever this thing is?
Ziranu finds some chalk markings on the floor, some burnt incense, and some powdered herbs.
Tronar identifies what's going on, somewhat. This is a Simulacrum spell, currently incomplete. It's a simulation of a person going through some sort of basic routine. This was never a living body, it is a phony that is in the process of being grown.
"And how are the children? You must bring them, they must have gotten so big!"
Ziranu returns to look with some blend of pity and revulsion upon the flayed body, after pointing out what little else he found in the chamber.
"Tronar, what should we do wizh zhis unnatural zhing? I tend to agree wizh Searok, ozherwise; we should 'put it down' before it realizes zhe horrid state of its existence..."
Hearing no further insight from Tronar, and trusting that Searok will in fact pulverize the unnatural thing on the bed, Ziranu approaches the door on the opposite side of the chamber, searching it and its immediate environs for locks, traps, or other threats...
, +2 more if dealing with undead or dragons; +4 more if dealing with evil outsiders; +6 more if dealing with humans; and +8 more if trapfinding is applicable.
Ziranu hears signs of life on the other side of the door, pages turning, and a rhythmic pounding like someone using a mortar and pestle.
When Searok is given the OK, he will start to pulverize the thing...
"This is a Simulacrum spell in the middle of casting. It will create a clone of an individual from shadow energy."
Shaeda nods approvingly at the information, and indicates to Searok that he is free to destroy the abomination.
"Zhere are one or more ozhers very much alive beyond zhis door, and zhey sound in zhe midst of some form of spell or ritual preparations. Let us pulverize quietly, and zhen take zhem by surprise..."
Ziranu steps back and prepares himself for the door's opening, and the ensuing assault into the chambers beyond...
Searok will pulverize as quietly as one can pulverize!
Shaeda moves to the door, and waits for Searok to throw it open.
Searok smashes the body on the bed easily enough. Even the bones appear half-formed, and collapse into mush under the force of his hammer.
Searok, a smile of satisfaction on his face, will move to the door and open it.
A pungent smell fills this room, of chemicals and herbs. It is some sort of laboratory for magical experimentation.
A woman stands in front of an array of glass dishes and vials, mixing various substances, heedless of the unpleasant fumes. She mutters as she works.
"A second decoy...who needs two? How many places do you need to be at once?"
Searok, seeing this will step aside and let the talkie-talkies do their thing.
Shaeda strides forward, boots clicking against the stone as she steps into the pungent chamber. Her voice cuts through the fumes and the muttering like a whip crack.
“You there, cease yer work and name yerself! Who are ye, what foul deeds are ye mixin’ in those vials, and do ye stand as friend or foe?”
Her sharp eyes scan the woman, taking in the delicate but deliberate movements of her hands, the muttered words—too much the tone of a practiced alchemist to be simple absentmindedness. The stench of reagents is thick, almost cloying, but Shaeda doesn’t flinch.
+2 when questioning prisoners
The woman is briefly cowed by the sudden interruption and Shaeda's commanding presence, and answers without thinking.
"I'm building a second Simulacrum of the Queen, the first one has developed some behavioral faults. I need to replace it before she returns from the Su-" she catches herself.
"You aren't a Gray Maiden! What are you doing here?"