Fluffy isn't happy to be left here and not come along with Tyrandro. But at least that spiky, huggy person leaves too.
Tyrandro looks at Laori's sad face and her pointy spikes searching for a not pointy area or an excuse. "You know, holding on to each other only works good if we don't need to fight. How about we connect each other with twine. So I'd have both hands free for my bow and in case the need arises it can easily be cut."
You could always pinch Laori's cheeks. Like grandparents do when they meet their grandchildren.
You follow Sabina's advice to enter through the construction storage in the attic.
Construction Storage: This room contains several kegs full of tar, wooden planks, metal roof plates, ceramic tiles, and other spare construction material.
Since the room is unoccupied you proceed to the next room.
Wool Storage: This long room is stacked full of wool bales. There are also a pair of floor looms; several castle spinning wheels with ivory finials; and racks of carders, extra bobbins and shuttles, warping boards, and other spinning and weaving equipment.
This room is also empty. From here, there are there are two exits: To the Grain Storage or to the Main Attic.
I heard something, it was 'Save me.' Hm.... Could be a lure by any hidden guardians.
"Either way we'd want to meet the caller immediately, don't we?" Tyrandro replies.
Once he got an idea where the noise is coming from he moves in that direction. "This way."
There is no distinct direction that the voice is coming from. The voice seems to have come from all around you. After the one time it spoke, the room is dead silent.
"Or not. Curses."
"Then this door. It's a s good as the next one."
Ready
Main Attic: This airy, pillared area under the keep’s roof is almost empty. The excellent construction of the roof plating and of the dormer windows keeps the room dry.
Like the other rooms you've explored so far, this room is otherwise empty.
Let us check the southern doors.
There are two southern doors, one on the western wall and one on the eastern wall.
Empty Attic: This attic contains only a sorghum broomstick, a couple of upturned empty kegs, and a pile of old mattresses infested with lice.
Pidgeonry: Half of this room is filled with pigeon cages, empty except for a thick layer of pigeon corpses lining the bottoms.
"In this castle the dead at least stay dead." Tyrandro comments on the pidgeons.
"Northern door then."
Pigeon swarms of zombie pigeons...
Iolana shudders at all the dead pigeons. "Necromancy was never my thing."
"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings Laori. I just like my blood on the inside."
She continues to follow the others through the upper rooms.
Seb trails along behind looking for monsters to jump out at him at any time.
Junk Storage: This room is packed with old and dusty odds and ends from a century of the keep’s history. The clutter in the room includes old clothes, toys, tools, pieces of furniture, lamps, extra lumber, and broken tools.
The clutter in this room is heaped high against the northeastern door, hiding it completely from view. A search of the room reveals the door’s presence; clearing the junk away from the door takes an hour of work. After finally clearing a path to the door, you make your way through.
Low Ceiling: The ceiling here is just five feet tall, and the room is full of cobwebs and dusty, blackened beams that jut here and there from the walls.
You duck low and push away the cobwebs to make your way through to the other side.
Venster's Apartment: This room is dusty and has been abandoned for a while, but it shows an unexpected level of comfort. A large bed sits in a corner, and there are a nice table with two chairs, a desk with a stuffed armchair, a lamp, and a stove. On the northwest wall is a glass showcase full of rare decks of cards. Within the showcase are at least fifty different decks, all displayed with care and competence, usually with several pieces laid face up and with a matching leather, ivory, or wooden case. What looks like a partially melted stone trap door sits in the floor in the northern corner, and a chamber pot sits behind a partially folded screen to the south.
Only a few moments after you arrive here, a furtive scratching sound comes from the eastern wall. At first you are unable to determine where the scratching is coming from. But then a secret door in the wall opens just a crack on its own, luring you into the next area.
Onwards towards doom.
"What she said." Tyrandro agrees and readies his bow.
Venster's Boxroom: This dusty room contains a bed, a large armchair, a one-legged table, and a silver lantern. On the table, near the lantern, sits a dusty harrow deck in an elegant redwood case.
As you enter this cleverly hidden room, the temperature drops by several degrees. A few moments later, a strange, roiling mist rises from the cards in the case, causing them to flutter and dance on the table as if in a small breeze. The mist takes on a vaguely humanoid form—that of an older man with horns on his brow. He reaches out to you and whispers in a gravelly voice, “Bring me my bones… they rot so far below... bring me my bones... I can help you if you bring me my bones...”
The strain of speaking and of opening the secret door to this room swiftly causes the ghost to fade away. Venster’s close ties to the harrow and the mysterious forces surrounding it allow Zellara a bit more insight into the situation. She uses empathy to urge the the character who carries her harrow deck (Iolana, I believe) to seek out Venster’s bones. She can sense where those bones lie, can lead you to them if you follow her empathic urgings. Currently she urges you to go downstairs.
Ayako pauses as the ghost appears, her hand raised for a spell but then hesitates as it speaks. A friendly ghost? Well this is a change
"So much for the dead staying dead here." Tyrandro sighs.
Let us try the Epochal tower.
Iolana pats her pouch with the Harrow Deck. "We should help him, and find his bones. She's telling me they are downstairs. Zellara thinks it's important, and she's never steered us wrong. The Epochal tower sounds as good as any of the towers."
You head to the Epochal Tower. The stairs wind both up and down. Following Zellara's urgings, you choose to head down. At the fourth floor landing, the stairway opens to a 10 ft. wide hallway leading to the Grand Salon. There is also a small northern door to a buttress balcony and the stairs continue further down.
You glance into the grand salon and immediately stop.
Grand Salon: The wooden floor, walls, and ceiling of this large hall present a rich and harmonic scheme of decorations. The twenty-five-foot-high ceiling is supported by pillars inlaid with ivory and partially hidden by a hanging forest of silk draperies in the colors of autumn. Near the walls, these draperies reach down to the floor in cascades of deep red and yellowish-orange silk. Circular crimson couches sit around the base of the pillars, with matching stuffed stools and low ebony tea tables with stained-glass tops. In the middle of the hall are an empty space that serves as a dance floor and a balustrade opening to the stage hall below.
Everyone, except Iolana, spots three Red Mantis Assassins standing against the walls, hidden, and observant in the room. You won't be able to pass the entranceway to the grand saloon, to continue down the stairs or use the northern door, without being spotted unless you use stealth. Zellara directs you to continue further down to a lower floor.
Seb waves everyone back from the door, and back up the stairs.
"We should buff and then take them out. Sabrina did say they needed cleaned out from the fourth floor. What do you all think?"
Might as well, it keeps them from sneaking up behind us.
"I don't like their kind. They are best left dead." Tyrandro agrees.
If she gest the chance, Iolana will caste Haste on the Party, and casts Invisibility on Seb and Tyrando.
Ayako holds back for the moment, reconsidering casting a spell. Surely the Red Mantis are of little concern now and they should save their strength.
Tyrandro sneaks into the room with Sebastian to a strategic positon to take down the first one. After a surprise hit and a lucky shot at the one at the door, Tyrandro turns around and shoots the other one too.
Tyrandro invisibly sneaks into the room. His first shot nearly pins the nearest assassin to the wall. With his invisibility fading, the room erupts into an uproar of motion.
With the one assassin turning to face his attacker, Tyrandro, Sebastian sneaks up behind. He becomes visible as he drives his rapier through the assassin's back, killing him. The assassin slides off the rapier and collapses to the floor.
Tyrandro then proceeds to kill the other two visible assassins before they can act as well.
Two more assassins drop from hidden positions in the ceiling drapes and throw knives at Tyrandro. One catches him for a minor flesh wound.
Ayako moves near Sebastion and holds for the moment
Iolana moves in and drops Acid Fog on the other side of the room to try to slow any reinforcements down.
Seb holds his action until he sees an enemy on the ground.
Iolana casts acid fog. Everyone else holds.
Tyrandro's first arrow fells the nearest assassin, then he turns the last assassin into a human pincushion with his remaining arrows.
Then five giant mantises scramble through portals from Hell to appear surrounding Iolana and Tyrandro. Then the invisible caster increases their speed as they attack.
One of the mantises catches Iolana with a claw and pulls her into a grapple. The three surrounding Tyrandro do their best but he is too skilled for them to succeed.
Ayako tries out this whole melee combat thing and stabs the giant mantis she is flanking with Iolana
"Oh, fiendish giant mantises!" Laori rejoices. With arms wide open she walks towards the closest one offering herself as a bite.
"Can someone please reveal where the summoner of those beasts is?" Tyrandro asks annoyed. With how bad those mantis are at clawing him he doesn't bother to take precautions and shoots the ones next to him starting with those Sebastian can't reach.
Ayako stabs a mantis in the butt a few times. It squeals and spins around.
Tyrandro lays low a swatch of mantises who vanish back to Hell in acrid smoke. When he's done only a single mantis remains.
Sebastian moves up to the last summoned mantis and finishes it off.
The hidden Red Mantis Assassin remains hidden and summons more foes for you to face. This time, swarms of tiny poisonous mantises appear in a large flying cloud. The cloud divides into four smaller clouds that engulf the party. You swat at the bugs with your hands but are unable to prevent their incessant bites.
"That's disgusting." Tyrandro tells after stepping out of the swarm.
Activating his adaption ability he tries to notice where that caster is hiding.
Laori also steps out of the swarm and then calls down a flame strike on the annoying insects. "I only play with your large cousins."
Ayako gags and staggers out of the swarm.
"I can't figure out where they are. Ayako can you summon something with tremor sense? I can Glitterdust the area if I can get some idea of where they are." She drops an Acid Fog spell in the other open area of the room missing Tyrando. "Hopefully that narrows it down some."
Seb moves out of the swarm, and looks and listens for clues to the assassin's location.
Ayako just vomits up more black goo that slithers off to apply to public office. Why vote for the lesser evil?
Sebastian can't hear anything. But Tyrandro thinks he hears casting coming from the southwest of his location.
Everyone escapes the insects unpoisonen (for now) but Ayako emerges from the swarm vomiting tiny mantises and black goo all over the floor.
Laori calls down a flame strike on two of the swarms. The clouds are diminished but not gone.
Tyrandro senses a slight movement to his side as the fog cloud displaces for an invisible figure. Before he can pinpoint her location though, he feels the bite of her blade as she drives it into his body. Her greater invisibility keeps her hidden, but Tyrandro knows she is still next to him.
Meanwhile the swarms remain a threat. They follow your movements to engulf you again.
Tyrandro gets to choose between a rock and a hard place. But the chance to shoot that miserable creature is worth it. "I got that douchebag. In front of me! Shoot what you have!"
Laori starts feeling the effects of the poison. Nonetheless she moves south to see where Tyrandro is pointing. She casts a blade barrier, including the position to the invisible attacker Tyrandro points out and two of the swarms.