Having detected them while moving the bodies, Tanith retrieves the late Gattel's last few extracts.
"And do you know what all that stuff is?" he asks Eben while the bard sorts through the fake him's gear.
"Only the stuff he stole from me. I don't think I ever even met this guy... he didn't come to visit the hold while he was imitating me, for obvious reasons... maybe he was one of the ones who kidnapped me, but... no way to tell." He sets aside the sword, assorted vials of liquids, and (reluctantly) the glowing sapphire. Looking at Elaxan's gear, he shakes his head as well. The rapier says 'Twisted Life Earns a Straight Death'. Which sounds like something an actual priest of Olidammara would say, so maybe Elaxan is using the actual godfather's gear just like Ixiaxian was using mine. Not sure about the wands... that's another thing that we always relied on Astraden for. I could play with them, but I don't want to blow anything up. The dragon one might be some kinda fire thing, for all I know. This, though..." He picks up the rod, and, curiously, de-activates the pressed button.
"Let's try to find that secret door. Eben mentioned hearing one in here..."
The button does not come back up. Either it's single-use, or it uses some sort of once-per-day mechanism.
It looks fairly similar in basic form to the extend rod claimed from Theldrick.
Eben contemplates pressing the second button, but sets the rod back down before he does something potentially regrettable.
He stands up, straightens his clothing as best he can, and begins checking the walls of the room for potential secret doors.
"Let's try to find that secret door. Eben mentioned hearing one in here..."
[dice=Perception Aid]1d20+2
With Tanith's surprisingly insightful help, Farrukh is able to find a hidden catch in the southern wall. It leads to a small hallway, also lit with blue torches.
Eben looks over from the completely wrong wall where he'd been poking arounbd at the newly-discovered egress to the south, and says "Damn, that hood they had over my head messed up my sense of direction something awful..." Before the party enters the new hallway, he says 'One sec, guys. Just want you all to know..." he getsures to encompass the whole group, humans, undine, dinosaurs, living and dead both, "...that I believe in all of us." A moment later he casts another spell, on himself, this time using the now-familiar cat hair.
Having retrieved his poleaxe, Tanith lines up behind Farrukh to explore the hallway.
Carina feels Eben's spell of good hope easing the numbness she feels inside. She cracks a smile.
It's devoid of warmth as she checks to make sure her crossbow and pistol are loaded.
"Let's do this." She falls in line behind Tanith. "Stay alert."
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The hallway proves safe to pass through, and Carina is fairly certain the far door is safe, too. On the "non-threatening curiosities" front (a constantly shrinking list, it seems), the walls are carved with an intricate flowing scrollwork that never seems to repeat itself.
"Before we go through there..." Eben says, nodding at the door. He leans forward and touches Farrukh's shoulder. "Walk unseen."
Carina looks up at the ceiling, pointing her crossbow threateningly at it in case it tries anything funny.
Part of her feels a bit silly for doing so, but the memory of nearly being eaten by the FLOOR is still fresh in her mind.
Eben glances curiously over at the extreme paranoia of the others. "I know it's been rough going, but why are you acting like the entire room is out to get you?" the absentee party member asks obliviously.
"Well, I nearly got eaten by the floor. That might have had something to do with it." Carina quips, her eyes not leaving the ceiling. "Otherwise, no reason."
Although he's not quite as anxious as Carina, Tanith's holds his weapon at the ready while Farrukh performs his usual careful examinations.
Farrukh finds no traps on the door either.
Tanith knew he was in a situation where he couldn't be picky about who he shared the Brawler's blessings with. The big man touches Farrukh's shoulder and mutters a prayer. "Kord grant us the strength to see our friends avenged."
Carina stays behind Tanith, her crossbow readied. At least the ceiling wasn't trying anything, and the floor seems to be fine...
She nervously fingers the extract of see invisibility she retrieved from Cuetzpalli's corpse.
She then uncorks it and drinks it down. It tastes... odd. Like mushrooms and leaves.
"Eugh."
"What message?" Cuetzpalli asks. He then turns to Astraden. "Yeah, sure hon. That sounds great. If it's so cool here, I don't think I'll want to go back to Oearth. It's too painful there."
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Beyond the door is a dizzying array of light and reflections. Polished metal mirrors stretch from floor to ceiling, forming a maze of endless corridors and reflected images.
"...Yeah no." Farrukh says.
He takes out his bow and fires arrows at two mirrors.
And manages to miss one.
"Damn bowstring must be faulty. Probably all that water."
"Oh, I was just thinking that what this place needed was a maze..." Eben says drily.
The mirror Farrukh hits shatters, sending glimmering broken shards everywhere. The loud sound of breaking glass rings out through the seemingly empty maze.
The mirror Farrukh doesn't hit remains still and smug.
"Uh, Farrukh, you DO understand that's seven years of bad luck, right?" Carina says as she takes in the mirror maze.
"Anyway, nobody wander off. Stick together."
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"Guess we're going to get a few centuries in, because I see no reason to play this game. Smash them all and walk through the remaining path without having to worry about the inevitable ambush taking advantage of our inability to effectively determine the enemy's position."
"This is not a dungeon delve any more, it's a search and destroy. The destroying can start here."
Eben takes a different route to eliminate the effectiveness of the mirrors: he mutters and passes a hand over each one he moves by, leaving a fine film of dark grime over the surface of the glass.
Carina turns to Spiny and pats his muzzle.
"Okay, Spiny? Be a good boy and guard Farrukh. If anything jumps out at him, eat it." She says in a soft voice.
It feels... oh, Fharlanghn's beard, it feels wrong that I'm doing this. It should be Cuetzpalli, not me...
"I love a good smashing but this is going to make a lot of noise. Can you keep doing that Eben?"
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"Yup, all day, if needed..." Eben says, continuing his vandalism.
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Eben is able to successfully dirty up the mirrors, rendering them unable to reflect much more than bright lights.
Tanith inches forward as Farrukh scans and Eben magics.
Carina keeps her crossbow pointed everywhere. She lets Farrukh scout ahead while she watches the back.
Farrukh cautiously leads the group down the foggy-mirrored corridor to the south. Everyone is on their guard.
As Farrukh steps through the archway and starts to turn, he feels the floor vibrating beneath him. Spiny gives a confused growl.
Suddenly, the floor behind him seems to split, as another five feet of mirrored wall shoot out of the ground to separate him from the rest of the group!
And she sees someone.
Straight ahead, another Farrukh stands watching the group. He holds a scimitar and has a shortbow strapped to his back. He doesn't seem to be trying to hide—or he seems to think he doesn't need to.
He locks eyes with her and freezes, realizing he's been spotted.
Behind the new wall, unseen to the others, Farrukh sees an arrow come flying straight at him. A figure with an uncanny resemblance to Farrukh himself is there, shortbow in hand.
Despite his surprise, the arrow pings off of Farrukh's shield.
It's a DC 25 saving throw, so that's unfortunately not enough.