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Frankie's eyes light up as he spots the parchment in the fireplace, too bad Yorad beats him to the punch. "Oh man! When did you get so quick Yorad!" Frankie drops an annoyed look at Denny.
As he passes by the potion vials though he takes a quick glance "Oh, those look like the floating potions.. levitation or something?"
He elbows his way in to get a read on what that burnt missive actually says. "Don't breath on it too hard or it'll blow away!"
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Lazarus nods, "Excellent work, Francis, identifying those potions."
He takes a look at the note. "Gauril Karela said that Dorianna Ouidda use the moniker 'The Spider' in her role as criminal mastermind. I suspect the note is a not-so-subtle reference to our quary and perhaps to her fondness for traps. Another important task for you, Francis."
"These two other names, though. Let me think... "
Yorad is able to fish the half-burned missive out of the fireplaces without the entire thing crumbling to dust, a miracle in itself. A quick perusal of it reveals the missive to be from Trade Prince Aaqir al’Hakam, one of the two leaders of the Exchange, and seems to imply connections between the Spider and al’Hakam’s family. It seems as though the Spider's webs extend far indeed and though there isn't anything overtly incriminating in the missive itself, it might not hurt to bring it with you when you eventually return to Grandmaster Torch.
Meanwhile, Lazarus attempts to recall if he's heard anything of the names 'Shandon' and 'Dorvik' but isn't able to recall anything useful about either individual. They're likely more enemies of the Spider but their affiliations will have to remain a mystery for now.
Having given the reception hall a thorough examination you're now left with the two doors leading to the northeast and southeast. Both of these are locked and it doesn't appear that the keys you found on the clockwork will fit either door.
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Jan looks pretty happy in regards to the discovered missive.
"Well it looks like we need to get through one of those doors... can one of you thieves... I mean MASTER-TINKERS get them opened?" Jan cracks a smile at the rogues, adding a little levity now that the action has died down.
"If that fails, I am sure Serge and I can smash it in...(before she can protest) and you too Denair."
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"An astute point, Lazarus," Serge nods, impressed that the samsaran easily recalled Karela's briefing.
"Frankie, if those doors give you trouble, just say the word," he leans his big bulky shoulder towards the door and places his leg out, preparing to throw his body against it. "Given the cryptic note, perhaps you should also have a look for any sort of traps, as well."
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"Who's a thief?" He looks at Yorad with eyes wide open. "Are YOU a thief Yorad?" He waggles his finger at him like his Mom would do to him whenever he managed to sneak away with one of her snacks.
Frankie winces a bit as Lazarus continually calls him Francis Gah that name is so... ick!
With a cracking of his knuckles and a wiggle of his posterior, Frankie gets to work on the door. He slides up next to it and hunches over to block the others from seeing his tricks... "A little space please!"
Frankie the Flash 1, lock 0!
He quietly cracks the door to peek inside.
Having noticed no traps on either door Frankie is able to easily pick the lock open on the southeastern door and cracks it open to take a peek. He can see that it opens into another corridor that runs only a short distance before turning a corner to the north.
A quick, stealthy peek around said corner reveals that the corridor opens into another room. The east wall of this wide room is interrupted by a projection containing a carving of a spider about two feet in diameter. Directly across from the spider, a section of the wall sits slightly askew, as though a door-sized piece of the wall were not quite flush with the rest.
It doesn't look like there's anyone around.
"That's a biiig spider." Denair pipes up. "Maybe I should look around first?"
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Frankie sneaks around the corner a bit to get a look, hopefully without being seen himself. Hopefully there aren't any more of those clock bots in here! Maybe I should float with one of those potions... ya...
Before he heads around the corner he drinks one of the levitation potions and floats up, up, and up! Until he's creeping along the ceiling looking down around the room.
"Oh. Well, I can just fly. Um... where do I fly to?"
With there being no signs of any other guardians around you all grow naturally suspicious that there's shenanigans of another flavor afoot. Serge is quick to remind everyone of what the note found with the two potions had to say and so Frankie gulps one down before melding into the shadows and proceeding further into the room. Denair does the same - minus the potion since she can fly on her own - and Lazarus edges up just far enough to scan the room for magical auras.
And yet, nothing stands out. Lazarus is certain that there are no magical auras in the vicinity and neither Frankie nor Denair can find anything that seems out of place or suspicious.
Except...
At first you're certain that there are no magical auras in the room. But the more you examine the area where the slightly-ajar door is, the more that something seems off.
Suddenly, something seems to click in your mind and you realize that there are magical auras on the door, cleverly hidden by a Magic Aura spell. Further examination of the door now that you can see past the illusion in place reveals two distinct conjuration auras.
______________
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"Wait! Do not enter!" Lazarus warns his companions. "At first, I was certain there were no magical auras in the room. But the more I examined the area where the door is slightly ajar, the more that something seemed off."
"I suddenly realized there are magical auras on the door itself, cleverly hidden by a magic aura spell."
"Past the illusion, I've discovered two distinct conjuration auras. The first - and weaker - conjuration aura is a web spell. The second - and stronger - conjuration aura is a creeping doom spell."
The wizard priest considers the problem. "I cannot dispel it, nor can I disarm the 'trap'. I suggest we trigger it somehow, and close the door, long enough for the effects to wear off. The swarms generated by the creeping doom should be gone within a minute, maybe two, depending on just how powerful the caster was or is. The web spell would last considerably longer. Rather than wait, hours perhaps, we could cut our way through the webs or burn them off."
"What do you think? Any ideas?"
Now that Lazarus has informed you that there's actually something there to look for both Frankie and Denair can, with some time, discover the location of the trap. It seems that the door is rigged to only open a few inches and then trigger the magical trap that Lazarus detected. However, they also manage to find the hidden latch that will open the door fully and allow you to proceed.
Once the trap has been taken care of, anyway. It looks to be quite tricky...
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"Magic tricks and traps? Frankie the Flash is ON IT!" He starts scanning high and low around the door, floating around as he clings to the wall. After about a minute he finds what Laz was talking about. "Woo look at all that funny stuff... What's a creeping doom anyways?"
"Yay Lazarus!" Denair cheers. "I'll fly alongside Frankie and keep him safe, okay?"
Meredith hands Denair a lit torch, just in case.
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After Lazarus explains exactly what creeping doom does, Frankie bites his lip and nods. "Ok, me and Denny will crack this trap no problem! But just in case you all better get outta sight so those creepy crawlies don't find you! We'll stay up high and they can't reach us right?"
Once everyone is ready Frank and his sidekick get to work.
With everyone else standing well back out of the room, Frankie and Denair decide to brave trying to disarm the trap. Though the pair make a good team, this trap is unlike anything else they've encountered in their adventures thus far. Just when Frankie thinks he might finally be making some headway...
*click*
*FWOOSH*
...the room is suddenly full of sticky webs! And spiders. Lots and lots and LOTS of spiders. Luckily the webs don't reach all the way to the ceiling so neither child nor eidolon find themselves caught. But it might be wise to vacate the area, what with the hordes of spiders and all.
______________
"It's okay, Frankie. Can you fly through the webs? If not, I'll try to burn the webbing."
Frankie is quick to freeze and meld into the shadows as soon as the spiders appear, managing to do sort of a crawl across the ceiling to get out of the way. Denair is able to stall for him by burning some of the webbing and then Meredith is able to dismiss her and resummon before the spiders have a chance to completely engulf her.
Lazarus then closes one of the doors leading into the hallway while Yorad closes the other, managing to stem the flow of spiders enough that what few squeeze through the cracks around the doors are easily avoided or squished.
You have to wait about a minute before the sounds of millions of tiny spiders vanish and it becomes safe to try opening the doors once again. The floor in the room is now covered with ashes from the burnt webs and bits of ash and soot also streak the walls, but at least the way to proceed through the 'secret door' and down is now clear...
Once everyone feels prepared to press on both Frankie and Denair meld into the shadows once more, working in tandem to watch for anything hinky as they open up the secret door and move down the stone steps that are revealed on the other side. Though he doesn't follow behind just yet, Lazarus waits at the top of the stairs and scans the area for magical auras.
They carefully descend the stairs to a large room that is sumptuously carpeted with large rugs, several of which bear runic writing woven into their patterns with dull metallic thread. While the steep staircase that they stand on ascends to the east, a pair of imposing double doors looms to the west. Eight narrow passages extend from this room in several directions, each of them quickly turning out of sight to the left or right.
As you reach the very bottom step of the staircase you both sense it at the same time - another magical trap one one of the rugs! You're not sure what it does, but it can't be good.
In addition to the first trap you also sense a second one, melded into the woven fibers of the rug's metallic pattern. You think it would be about as difficult to disarm as the first trap.
Though you don't get as good of a view into the room below from the top of the stairs you get the same weird sensation of something being off as you scan the stairs and what you can see of the rugs at the bottom. And then you realize that there's another Magic Aura illusion covering one of the rugs down below, which falls away to reveal two distinct auras of illusion and enchantment.
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"It's hard to see into the room down there from up here at the top of the stairs, but I'm certain there's another magic aura illusion covering one of the rugs down below. I can discern two distinct auras of illusion and enchantment."
The wizard priest concentrates on the auras for a few moments. "I think the spells are __________ and ____________."
Denair pauses, taps Frankie's shoulder and points at the trap underneath the rug.
Then she points at the second trap within the metallic fibers.
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Frankie watches Jan drink his antitoxin and his eyes widen as he understands the man's motives and nods. He sure is smart! He draws and drinks his own.
Frankie has his eyes on the trap under the rug as Denny pokes and points to another trap IN THE RUG! He turns as he hears Laz mentioning two different spells. Maybe we can go around... Ponders the wee little kid as he pulls out a piece of taffy to snack on.
Still a bit rattled by the traps encountered upstairs, most of the group is quick to chug down antitoxin or rub vermin repellent all over themselves while Lazarus, Frankie, and Denair ponder this second set of traps down below.
In order to help Frankie make the best judgement on whether to try and disarm the traps, trigger them from afar, or bypass them, Lazarus studies the auras he's picked up and is able to inform the group that they're dealing with an empowered Touch of Idiocy and an Illusory Script.
Armed with this information, the little trap-finder mulls over what to do next...
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"Huh." Is about all Frankie can say as Lazarus drones on about what exactly they are facing in the tricks and traps on the rug. "So... let's just go around? It'd be terrible if they sucked away all my important smarts!" He skirts the rug to the south and checks out the little hallway immediately before him.
Being small has its advantages!
Not wanting to be bothered with the traps right this very moment Frankie simply shrugs and skirts around the trapped rug, melding into the shadows as he investigates the corridor immediately to the southeast. It only travels a few feet before turning east, where it runs for several feet before turning due north and terminating in a dead-end.
But curiously, the dead-end features a large mirror hung on the wall, similar to the mirrors Frankie saw upstairs in the storeroom earlier. A small placard is fixed to the wall just under the mirror with three words that seem to be written in some sort of code and etched into the frame of the mirror itself is a single word in Common: 'Botosani'.
You recall that Botosani is a city in Rahadoum, rumored to house a cult of Iomedae.
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Huh, that's a weird word! Must be some funny language, maybe the others know what it means. Frankie heads back and repeats the word to the others.
"Do you know what that means? And if you have some paper I can check out the other paths, they may have similar stuff and I can take notes." Frankie repeats this trip down the other 7 paths.