Silas gasps and coughs and doubles over in agony when Lucanor's magic revives him. With his brain not really in gear, he talks gibberish that weirdly makes hes friends feel better, "Ugh I feel like, like... I've been hit by a buffalo! Damn! Is that a buffalo? It sure is ugly what ever it is... Well we've had closer calls eh Heckor? I mean there was that one time in Almas with that wench with the false teeth. Talk about a close escape!"
Trying to fend off her blows that would wreck him, Silas diggs deeper than ever before. Somewhere in the guttering remains of his will, he dregs up enough concentration to cast a simple but very useful spell, disguised by his attempt at comedy. If all goes to plan, there will suddenly be a lot more Silas's in town!
Round 5
Ludrillia lashes out at Hecktor with foot, knee, fist and wing!
Hecktor is not stunned. Hecktor is smacked around and his weapon flies from his grasp 37
Silas [prone, disarmed] casts Mirror Image
Hecktor [disarmed] draws his sickle and slashes the harpy for 16..the harpy looks mortally wounded.
Harpies flies away, seeing its master so heavily wounded.
Jaxom
Lucanor
Gilmork
Round 6
His hand still raised to the heavens, star light tumbles down into the tower burning the frightfully durable Harpy.
Jaxom blasts the Monk to pieces...
Combat Over
Hecktor pulls up his battle-mask and spits on the fallen enemy, before extending his hand to grab Silas back up.
"Come on, up you go Silas.
You're not dying on us just yet."
Taking a few breaths now that they have a brief moment, he looks at the other three.
"That was quite a workout, last time i took such punishment was back at that dreadful carnival. So erm.....could Silas and i have some healing?" He says with a smile.
Jaxom worries the magic ring from the harpy's finger.
But hands it to Silas when he doesn't understand its enchantments.
Turning to the rest of the room he takes stock of the remaining threat and anything the harpies might have left behind.
Detect Magic
"Well, that was not fun, how you doin', Silas?"
The room these harpies had coopted was once Savram Vade's quarters. They managed to make a mess of the place, except one spot which is meticulously clean. The room has no Magical Auras, perhaps the harpies found all the magic traps?
Letting the others heal, Jaxom cautiously moves up the steps to explore the next floor. He didn't want an ambush.
Decect Magic
Between gasps Silas says, "Been better. Feel like I've been trampled by a herd of elephants. Thanks for the healing."
Silas examines the ring. He stammers,"No clue, ugh I have such a headache. Sec. Gotta do something..."
Silas pulls out his wand and spends a good couple of minutes curing the many wounds accumulated by himself and Hecktor.
Feeling better, Silas then says, "Best get going before my spell fades. Gilmork can you do the honors again?"
Assuming Gilmork ventures upstairs, Silas waits for his sign before heading up.
Gilmork creeps up the stairs and finds an open sky aerie, no harpies are present currently. The top floor is a roof, it has several hastily built perches and a nest of some sort...
"Suppose we should check out the nest... magic items might be up there in a harpy hoard."
Jaxom continues to detect magic and search.
Nothing in the top floor registers as magical.
"Maybe they've flown off?" Silas looks around to see. If he doesn't spot anything he'll suggest, we'd better search the master's bedroom thoroughly along with what must be apprentice quarters.
"If they did, all the better.
Still, it'd be more convenient if those three were the only ones."
Who is opening the door to Vade's room?
Outside Vade's bedroom, "Oh we haven't cleared this room have we..." Silas casts detect magic.
"Just be sure you're not the one rushing in first."
Hecktor shows a friendly smirk, before sliding his mask over his face.
Vade's door is locked, and has three magic auras on it....
Moderate Abjuration KnArcanaDC 21
Moderate Necromancy DC 20
Moderate Evocation DC 20
Jaxom slashes his hand down in front of the door to sunder its enchantments.
Jaxom dispels the abjuration spell that lay on the door. Two more protective auras remain...
Silas hums his magic finding tune again and tells Jaxom, "Well that got one of them, still a Necromancy and an Evocation on the door. Both are worrying. Can you do that again? If not - well might be best to summon something that can better the door down."
Yes, but removing both will exhaust my higher magic. I will need to rest after."
He makes two more sundering gestures to remove the last of the wards.
"I'm not sure how much time to rest we have," Lucanor says
Both protective wards fall, but the door remains locked...
Hecktor kicks the door to no avail.
"Hmm....sturdy to be sure."
"Here, let me try, back up in case there's a trap," Lucanor moves forward
While Lucanor does his thing, Silas hums a tune about a famous bandit, who stole from the greedy rich and gave alms to the poor. This seems strangely uplifting and helps Lucanor get into the zone and concentrate as he attempts to disable any traps and open the door.
There aren't any mundane traps, but the door's lock is intricately complex and Lucanor cannot unlock it. Perhaps if he had more time
"Sorry for the wait lads, but better slow and steady than nothing," He just hopes the delay doesn't cost a life.
Lucanor spends 20 minutes fiddling with Sharvaros Vade's lock, eventually he manages to unlock the door and it swings open.
The room is much as you would imagine a wizards quarters to be, it looks as unkempt as Vade looked. Stacks of books and parchment lay strewn about, a workdesk has various scribbling and arcane formulae written on it. A big sack stuffed in a corner holds a large quantity of damaged, scorched and dirty clothing. The stench of chemical reagents hangs over the bag. A skull stands atop a high shelf. Flickering light emerges from its eye sockets and it emanates light equivalent to a pair of candles.
A large chest sits at the foot of the bed, and it has several magical auras in it and on it.
On the chest
Moderate Evocation
Moderate Necromancy
In the chest
Strong Abjuration
Strong Necromancy
Strong Abjuration
The sealstone subconsciously whispers secrets into Silas's head as the bard examines the things in the room.
Silas explains whathe found out before remarking, "Can't say I'm too keen on taking any of this stuff, but ah look here a journal. It's locked. Lucanor can you do the honors?"
Later he suddenly freezes, "You know we only fought one Harpy. She had 'sisters'... Uh that could be bad news, they could be flying around and we'd probably not spot them at night, but they'd likely see us. I'm thinking we should finish up here soon and get out of town."
"Agreed, we took a firm beating. Wrapping up and skipping town for now is the most sensible thing to do."
"I think we should take the chest. If Vade yet lives, then we can return it to him. If he does not, we need every weapon that we can put our hands upon."
Jaxom pulls out a wand. "This will let us step sideways through doors unseen. It will be how we escape the town."
Silas identifies one of the spells warding the chest as that of a powerful Blindness spell.
The Journal is a rambling account of Vade's life, at least the time covered in the journal which only dates back nearly two years. It seems Vade is obsessed with reversing the effects of Ghoul fever. His wife contracted the plague and was turned into a ghoul...his research has been focused on undoing that and returning her to mortal life. Apparently she contracted the plague while pregnant with Savram, and she gave birth to him while dying of the fever. Vade strongly believes that Savram's tie to his mothers undeath will be instrumental in reversing her state. In the last few weeks he talks about a breakthrough using ancient Azlanti magic. His last entry dated 8 days ago gives a cryptic clue that he will "return Rachel with the blood of her kin"
Hecktor does skim through the journal.
"..hmm, grump's had a tough spot there, lost his wife to ghoul fever.
He's looking for a cure and, let's see......thinks his boy's connected to a breakthrough because, hear this; his wife, while dying of the fever, gave birth to his son."
Looking further to the more recent entry;
"Hmm, this spells trouble. ...'return Rachel with the blood of her kin.'
That line, to me, suggest he might go to where she's at with his son."
"It sounds like this wizard is turning to magics that are against the natural world. Valiant Hecktor, could you use a bit of clothe to pick up that chest?"
"Yeah, no problem."
*Does so*
"Noble Silas, grab onto valiant Hecktor's arm. Friend Gilmork and Luc, I will return for you soon."
Using the wand, Jaxom twists the world visualizing a safe clearing beyond the sight of the walls. He steps sideways and then they are gone.
A few moments later he returns and leads Luc and Gilmork through the twisted paths opened by the wand.