"Nubis will accompany you, if you require his aid, he is tougher than any human I know, he is even more so than his own kind, and he can understand our master's language, if you do wish to give him orders?" he offers, pointing to his 3-headed companion
Taeral teleports to room 2-20A, and since he seemingly went alone, it is probably lucky for him that your opponents weren't there.
I'm unsure what everyone else actually did, as there was discussion, with no actions, which is fine.
Objects that your opponents dropped are, although it would take time to grab them up. Perhaps you're ok with that, perhaps not?
MW longsword (detect magic anyone?)
Heavy steel shield
MW Morningstar (detect magic anyone?)
MW heavy wooden shield (detect magic anyone?)
MW short sword (detect magic anyone?)
MW halberd x2 (detect magic anyone?)
There were no holy symbols (so there very well could be some healing going on). Yes, I suppose we can argue about how a guy holding a weapon and a shield can cast spells at all, what with components and such, but let's not.
Malleck stays where they appeared first. If anyone appears other than his companions. He will stab them while they are still 'sitting'? on the chair
"Well, I suppose anyone of us would hate to be jumped upon, while still on their nightgowns. Bapho, you go through the teleporter to scout. If you don't come back, we can assume you were ambushed and killed and that's where our enemies are."
"Rrrrright..." the voice of the invisible imp sighs from somewhere above the throne.
"The Dark Lord must have a really strange plan to send me up with these jerks... Nen!" The muttering of the imp disappears along the spoken command word.
Not seeing or hearing his enemy, Taeral remains where he is sitting.
"Nen."
"Hmm....i hear no sign of our foes.
We will be recruiting new staff, it seems.", Xeram looks at the handiwork the intruders had done on the late guards.
Gertart moved to the throne, but also picked up gear so couldn't activate it. He will do so now to follow Taeral. "Rah,"
Jumping from chair to chair, none of you spot the intruders.
Taeral uses the teleportation devices to return to the Throne of the High Priest room with the others.
"They seem to have just disappeared. but they obviously used the telelportation devices. I have a theory, and this may have just been an oversight when we first found these devices. If my understanding of the spell identify, a casting of the spell should reveal any additional command words there might be," he explains, "Faustus should be able to cast that spell."
"Also if my theory is correct, they may only know the command word for this location and not the others. if that is correct, we will need to station more guards here and ever set a trap for them."
"OK if we can't find them that way, lets follow the bodies backward. First we should make sure these are all bodies. Mordecai, maybe you could give this stack here a quick blessing of Asmodeaus healing. Gertart pushes all the bodies into thirty feet of each other while checking for any signs of life.
"Goods idea Taeral,"
So what's the plan here villains?
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So let's do it, roll that wizard on in here! Does he have the spell memorized today, or will he need to do it tomorrow?
Mordecai raises his eyebrows at Gertart's suggestion. "Heal? The lackeys? Isn't dying for the greater evil the very purpose of their existence? Very well then... I hope we have our standards in recruitment..."
The priest raises his arms in praise for dark glory of Asmodeus. And thus, the evil power radiates from the tiefling, healing everyone whose soul is dark as his.
Faustus comes to the hall, his finger tips stained with various colored inks and numerous partially completed scrolls tucked amongst the folds of this robes.
"You summoned me, Taeral."
After a brief explanation of what is expected of him, he continues, "Yes, your theory has merit to it, and yes, you should have done the proper divination, instead of just trusting in your 'exemplary' knowledge of the arcane arts. But that is why I am a devoted follower of yours, here to provide additional expertise for any of a multitude of short comings of you or your fellows may have."
"Please give me a moment to cast the proper spells. Stack those other items near the chair also and I will check them for magic at the same time." He then take a seat in the chair.
MW longsword
MW Morningstar
MW heavy wooden shield
MW short sword
MW halberd #1
MW halberd #2
If the spellcraft would be missed at the heavy wooden shield and halbard #2, Xeram tries it too.
A couple of the guards are roused by Mordecai's power. A couple of others were dead already, and some who still live are unaffected.
Faustus determines that there is, indeed, a fourth link in this little teleportation node. He doesn't know where it is, but his divinations tell him that the command word to activate it is "Vah."
Additionally, the longsword that had been used by the one priest is, in fact, a +1 flaming longsword which should come as no surprise, since you saw it flaming while it was being wielded. He also, however, determines that the blade has some renown amongst Mitrans, and is called Wytchbrand.
None of the other items are magical.
"Wytchbrand huh?" muses the half-orc. "I shall investigate this further."
Clearly heading there will be a trap, but I am willing to go if everyone else wants to. How many of us can ride this throne at once? If we move the throne, does it still function?
"We need to train our folks better. Malleck I propose you lead exercises in the martial crafts."
"I shall prepare some poetry of mass destruction."
It will have taken a while to get Faustus to do his castings. And I'd guess if you are going after them, that Malleck and others would armor up, right?
"If that is needed, I will train them, I think our friend Grumblejack should join us in this endeavour."
Your friend Grumplejack? There's a blast from the past. He's not at the Horn, you guys didn't bring him. He hasn't been with you in quite some time I believe.
Once everyone is equiped and ready to go, Gertart will sit on the throne and say the new command word without taking a breath he shall repeat the word for this throne. "If you don't see me in 10 seconds follow me."
Gertrart finds himself seated in a crumbling old stone chair, similar to the ones he is familiar with. This one is surrounded by the ruins of a small outpost, which has been overcome by the forest. Walls broken down, no real defensive value here. There are signs that the group you ran off left here in a hurry.
I'd say it has been at least a half hour since the encounter, unless you guys wanted to take more time.
After returning to the horn and relaying the information, Gertart gets fully dressed and leads the way after the interlopers disguised as the Mitran priest.
"So they ran off? What were they trying to accomplish?"
Of course, the news about previously unknown command word for the teleporter was worrying. What else were they missing..?
In any case, since the immident hurry has passed, Mordecai returns to his bedroom to get fully geared up.
"So are we going to pursue them, or just prepare our defences better for future invasions?"
"Let us wait for them at the chair they used, outside the tower, we lay in ambush for them"
Alrighty then, so what did you decide? Pursue, lay in wait?
If you're laying an ambush at this portal, how long are you waiting?
After an hour of futile tracking attempts, Gertart settles in for an ambush. While waiting he makes a note of the landmarks, stars, moon, plants, fauna, and weather. Gathering what information he can he adds this location to the map of the world he does know.
After a three days of unsuccessful ambush, "I'm ready to return, you can come back tomorrow. but we should find some way to signal the other thrones if we do."
Hopefully ambush or tracking will prove fruitful.
Ok, so three days and back, now what? Wait and press on until the next week?
What traps will you leave outside at the throne?
Poetry of BOOM :)
We could have our minotaur friend patrol alongside any remaining guards?
Gertart reflects on his studies of the new site. Am I able to determine its location?
"Is there any way to disable this portal, to prevent them getting in from here? If we wait here, we leave the other entrances unguarded."
"If not that, we could set up a wall of spikes, aimed at vital points of the body.
The moment they step through, they would get impaled."
With a little bit of reconnaissance, you are able to determine that the newly discovered portal is just a couple miles south of the Horn, in an overgrown grove of trees. Nature has reclaimed the small keep that was once here.
The porter is definitely able to be disabled, simply by destroying the chair, which is made of stone. No rolls required, just tell me that's the plan.
Gertart balks at destroying such a resource. Can we change the chair's location?
Hmm, lava, or at the bottom of the ocean?
"I was thinking the Cardinal' basement," Gertart grins.
I'm not opposed to permitting the stone to be moved. I'll say it's a large stone chair, carved out of the same stone as its pedestal. With a cubic meter of stone being roughly 2 tons, or 4,000 pounds, let's go with 6,000 pounds on the whole edifice.
However, your erstwhile craft-bot doesn't think the teleporting function will work much further than it is now, so you could move it elsewhere within roughly the same radius if desired. Either to a new location outside the Horn, or to move it inside.
If you move it, just let me know how it's being done. Magic helps a lot, but 3 tons is still a substantial weight.
Odds are that would not be complete until your 222 day vigil is complete.
"I suggest if we are going to move the throne, we move it to the large cell on the second level. We can station additional guards there with crossbows and pikes."
I think moving the throne is not a top priority. Let's just make sure we can keep a better eye on this one. Guards with pikes sounds perfect. I also wonder if we can cast a few alarms around. Gertart experiments with the throne during more of the downtime.
He asks Faustus to cast a magic mouth with the trigger 'when someone tries to sit on the throne' and the command word to be spoken.
Later he sets a block of stone on the throne and says the command word. If that fails he puts his hand on the throne and tries again.
Then he sits on the throne and has someone else activate the throne.
One other test Gertart decides to attempt. He sits on the throne in the main area while someone else activates the upper level to land where he is.