Carina hands off a pair of vials filled with lavender fluid to Tanith & Cuetzpalli. "These here are extracts that'll allow you to perceive invisible things. You'll put 'em to better use than me anyway."
She waits for Farrukh to give the all-clear.
Gattel doesn't wait for Farrukh to give the all-clear. He pulls out his short sword and checks out the wardrobe.
Eben, not having anything else to do aside from standing around holding his sword, begins fishing a few other things out of his backpack, curiously remarking on a few of them he's forgotten he had. "Oh, yeah, that stupid thief..." he mutters as he pulls a long feather out, then tucks it at his belt for ease of access.
The wardrobe contains more clothes, as well as another noble outfit and royal outfit.
All-in-all, the ordinary clothes in these wardrobes probably total to about 250 gp.
"Alright, you three wait out there. I need to change."
Gattel closes the door and swaps out his filthy, sodden prison rags for some nice clean business attire.
"Hm. Yeah, not a bad idea..." Eben mutters, pulling at his doppelgoo stained shirt. "Think I saw at least one outfit that looked like it would more or less fit me in that other room. Holler if you need me..." He makes his way down the hall to the second bedroom, and leaves the door open a crack behind him in event of emergency.
As tempted as she is to try on her new dress, Carina opts to stay where she is, in the clothes she's currently wearing.
For all she knew, some of the clothes were actually monsters in disguise.
Why the hell not? Shapeshifters, killer air monsters, evil floors... it'd fit.
She kept that bit to herself. There's no way in hell she dared voice it, lest the universe get ideas.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"I could use a change, but nothing here really fits me."
Farrukh heads for the next door and repeats the same process.
Farrukh opens the last door. Inside is another room, largely identical. The biggest difference is that the wardrobe contains only a few outfits (though plenty of unused hangers). Of particular interest is an old silk robe. Although this robe is very patched up, the patches are made out of high-quality cloth and seem almost decorative. A few of the patches are colored a highly distinctive metallic gold.
Farrukh gives the room his usual searching routine.
"This is interesting. Shiny." he says, rubbing the silk between his fingers.
Eben comes out of the second bedroom wearing a simple s~!*e cotton shirt, corded trousers, and a leather vest that is maybe a little large on him. Coming down the hall, he peers around the last room. "Huh. Yeah. That... might look familiar, actually..." he says, staring at the patches.
Farrukh finds evidence of a good deal of "traffic" in this room, though there are only two beds.
Eben comes out of the second bedroom wearing a simple s~@&e cotton shirt, corded trousers, and a leather vest that is maybe a little large on him. Coming down the hall, he peers around the last room. "Huh. Yeah. That... might look familiar, actually..." he says, staring at the patches.
"I'm not sure... I can't detect magic like Astraden can... could... but this might be the robe with the magic patches that we found on the river."
Gattel slicks his hair back and emerges - face still smudged and grimy, but altogether much more presentable. "What've you got there?"
The moment he thinks that, the wall vanishes, blinking away like it was just a trick of the light.
The small hidden chamber beyond is dark, for though Farrukh can see through now, the light from the torch still doesn't penetrate it. The only light comes from a simple iron door that lets in a pale blue radiance from the room beyond.
"Woah. Anybody else see that? The wall just disappeared."
Farrukh examines the hidden chamber, and the door.
Wonder what that light is?
Eben turns his head to regard the wall. "Huh?" he says, raising an eyebrow.
The door is untrapped and unlocked.
The godfather comes over, his excitement palpable. "Nicely done, Farrukh!"
He turns to Cuetzpalli. "Oh, sorry. Hold still a moment."
The priest of Olidammara reaches over, placing a hand over Cuetzpalli's injury and tracing slow spirals. At first, it hurts even more. Then the pain fades slightly, the wound seeming to close. He does this twice. "Olidammara, heal this faithful servant of Kord. Help him to avenge your most valiant follower." He pauses. "Not that that's saying a ton."
"Alright, let's go."
Eben examines the 'wall', first with both eyes, then with one eye squeezed shut, then with both eyes closed. "Weird. So that's what it's like to be on the other side of one of my illusions... good craftsmanship on this, it's permanent. Unless there's someone standing right here and concentrating on it..."
Farrukh takes a peek under the door.
Farrukh sees dark black glass reflecting bright blue light. He also sees what looks like a wooden furniture leg, though he can't see what it's part of.
"Hm. My cat spell is almost up. If we're moving on.... one sec." Eben takes a chunk of cat fur from his spell pouch and rubs it on his arms and legs while chanting.
Gattel looks at the fur warily. "How did you get that?"
He carefully extends his arm through the wall.
"It's real!"
Gattel looks at the fur warily. "How did you get that?"
Eben looks down at the spot of fur, then tucks it back in his pouch nonchalantly. "Hard to say. There's more than one way."
Tanith stands at the ready, waiting for whatever furniture or housewares attacks the party next.
Farrukh readies his sword and shield and opens the door.
Eben adopts a look of intense focus as the group prepares to enter the unknown, hidden section of the dungeon. He hefts his sword protectively across his chest as he gets in line to head through.
Gattel follows Eben, bow at the ready. He flinches as he enters the "wall."
Carina follows, digging out her pistol and powder horn from her haversack.
The walls of this tall octagonal chamber are mirrored with a dark black glass reflecting ghostly blue flames from a trio of torches suspended above. On the eastern end of the room are six chairs. In each of the chairs sits a familiar face, manacled and gagged.
Each of them perfectly resembles one of the heroes.
There's Tanith, eyes angry but uncharacteristically full of fear as he looks first at Carina, then at the "other" Tanith beside her. He shakes his head at her frantically.
There's Cuetzpalli, looking somewhat confused but very angry, jerking his head at Spiny to try to get the dinosaur to come towards him.
There's Eben, locking eyes with each member of the party and shaking his head.
There's Carina, eyes blazing, angrier than anyone has ever seen her as she stares down her double.
There's Farrukh, looking extremely annoyed and a little embarrassed by his situation.
And the sixth is someone a bit surprising: Zalamandra. The rakshasa-blooded sorceress looks like she's just waking up. She looks around, frowning, then locks eyes with Carina.
They all start struggling madly in their bonds, moaning words rendered incomprehensible by their gags.
Carina slips out of her bonds. Immediately, she rips off her gag and stands up. "Tanith, our first time was in the Crooked House." She's blushing a deep blue, but her voice is strong. "It was the day we took that bath at the Kordite shrine. Get away from ."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Gattel looks between the groups. "Come on guys, clearly I'm the real Gattel. You can trust me!" He aims an arrow for new-Cuetzpalli's forehead. "Sorry to do this, bucko, but I can't have you getting the dinosaur riled," he says, releasing the string.
The arrow strikes "new-Cuetzpalli" in the shoulder. He gives a surprised shout through his gag, eying Gattel with confusion, anger, and dawning realization.
The words of Carina's double get her to start seeing red.
"...really? You're trying to impersonate me, and that's the first thing that pops into your head?" She growls before turning to Tanith. "Tanith, I literally haven't left your side since then. There's no way I'd be replaced by a fake on your watch, and I KNOW that you're the real you."
"And YOU..." She turns back to her double, twirling a bomb vial. "...if you really remember that little episode, you'd remember how little the cold water bothered me."
She shakes her bomb vial. The interior of the vial suddenly mists over and turns white. "Here's a little something new I made. You should be able to walk it off, no problem."
She throws the vial at her double, a trail of white vapour following it as it flies through the air!
"Well, I know I'm me. Don't know about the rest of you."
Farruk stows his sword and draws his bow, studying his double intently.