Zed looks at the two doors for a moment, then shrugs and heads towards the closer on, knocking on the door, listening intently
Lyrralt chuckles at Varian and the painting, "I think perhaps they came from a long line of first cousins, and not all of them were human."
Seeing no other real way of leaving this area other than the steps Lyrralt starts in that direction, rapier drawn.
"This will teach that guy to deny a Calil a decent bath." Lyrralt says with a grin, but a definite glint in his eye.
When Zed turns and heads to the doors, he sees Sunny at the end of the hall - coming through a window past the two doors. On the door hangs a 2... directly across the hallway is room 3.
Zed knocks and they both listen. "Now what? ... slamming doors and now interrupting my tea and cake."
"Now calm down, Vern. You know we've had very little trouble with Nigel... I'll get the door" You hear footsteps approach the door, then "Yes? Who is it?" through the closed door of room 2. Lyrralt and Varian arrive at this point.
You hear a voice in the room behind you. (Room 3) It sounds like words, timbre, and cadence of spellcasting.
The freed Holfstedt comes down the steps as quickly as his weakened muscles will carry him. Warden Horne arrives - and after a quick briefing, moves to check on the others found. He sends Thulfi to fetch Brother Sverin.
Holfstedt grabs the Warden by both arms as they pass on the stairs."I am here! I am Holfstedt Moranni! Please! Do not forget again you have found me!" Holfstedt continues to the table of half-eaten meals, and starts stuffing his mouth with food.
Perception
Ignoring whoever is inside room 2, Zed turns and tries to quietly open room 3. If it's locked he takes a step back and knocks on the door "Hello there! I think the clerk may have mixed up what rooms we were staying in, just wanted to get things set strait"
Bluff
Sunny bounces and skips over to the door Zed is calling through.
"Tha' person we's chasin'? They come in here abouts, yes?" She asks, twisting about to look around the place.
"I dun't think they went much farther. I got here pretty quick, like!" She grins, quite proud of her achievement of reaching the current spot almost before Zed and Lyrralt did. (^_^)
A voice mutters behind the door... "Not bloody likely" You then hear the thump from behind the door, of something fairly heavy hitting the floor... like someone falling hard. Almost immediately after that, the voice begins speaking words which sound like spellcasting.
You feel your bluff was convincing enough that it would be unlikely to for it to have failed unless the unseen target of your bluff is more than just suspicious.... and knew someone was on their trail.
"Bugger." Sunny whispers, even as she moves back to the window and peers out.
Failing that she moves back to the door and ready to aid in opening it.
Corum looks concerned at the sound of spellcasting.
He has pauses to identify the specific encantation using his years of experience.
Corum arrives in time to hear the casting, and determines it to be a spell of invisibility.
Yes. The frontmost window on this side (to your right as you look out this window) would be for this room. It is closed.
When Zed hears the arcane words, he stops being cautious and kicks the door
Str check
Corum whispers: "Someone just turned invisible. Time to get out the white flour."
Jori - who had been escorting Corum and Braxton when Corum rushed ahead, makes it up the steps while speaking to Braxton. Having mistaken the meaning of Braxton's question of 'what are you doing here', he arrives in the middle of a literal answer.
"...Soo then we hear this Doyle fellow could help us figure out this cube we've had, but he said he was not well enough for travel. Holfstedt err Mr Moranni wanted to check him out before bringin the thing to him." He stops when he sees Zed kick at the door. Both door and lock remain solid and secure after Zed's first attempt.
Zed swears under his breath and kicks again, this time throwing his weight into it
Str check
Sunny deftly slips back out the window and on to the roof to get to the window of the room that has every one's attention. (^_^)
I'm hoping that Sunn makes it to the window and metagaming hoping that some stupid, invisible sod opens said window to try and make their escape. (^_~)
All the better for Sunny to have a go at snacking them upside the invisible head as they do. (^_^)
The door gives way enough to be pushed aside. You can see into the dimly lit room. Through a small vestibule area - in the center of a fine but spartan room, you see a body lying on its back. It looks like Holfstedt (... or the imposter Holfstedt). There are several stab wounds in his torso and his throat has been slit.
Past the body, the window on the far wall is open.
Directly to your right as you walk in, is a long table which seems to serve as a catch-all. There are a few knick-knacks, a small bowl of copper and silver coins, and random pocket clutter. Above the table is another oil painting which appears to be the same artist. It is of a bird in the tree with an idyllic sunset behind... the beak is crooked, and the body looks twisted. Small black "m"s cover the sky in the painting - presumably representing birds in flight, but they just look like "m"s.
To your left is a closed sliding closet door.
Past this vestibule area, the room opens up. The large bed, nightstands, curio cabinet, footlocker, and small sideroom door are to the right.
To the left is a ten foot in diameter round table with highback chairs, a bookcase by the window, a desk with chair, and another closed sliding door.
The floors are dark wood, with three area rugs for vestibule, and one each for the north and south portions of the open area. The off-white walls are covered with a repeated design... columns of some type of gold-colored paisley pattern which vaguely resembles drawings of pineapple stacks in ivy. Two red glass globed candle sconces are lit - framing where the room opens up. Past that, the only light is the bluish indirect light from the two wide windows with waist-high sills.
Zed puts a finger to his lips to keep the others quiet, then whispers "Revil" and his eyes glow a faint blue. He scans the room for magic
There is a lingering glow around and past the body... not yet distinct enough to determine the number of auras. There is also a glow coming from the footlocker... on the edge of the current view of your arcane sight.
There is a slight creak in the floorboards as Zed steps into the room. You can hear the muffled voices of the neighbors across the hall... "No you are not going out there.! You are sixty-four years old and couldn't handle a raw carrot!"
"Cover the door and the window, nothing gets out" Zed starts left and moves right, focusing on all the areas he's suspicious of
Varian watches over Zed's shoulder, peering into the room... he moves directly to the window and stands guard there.
"You know, by now whoever or whatever was in this room is probably long gone already."
"Possibly" he narrows his eyes "But moving invisible isn't quite as easy as it sounds"
Suny will quietly move across to 'P-7' and carefully look in. Since this window is shut, she'll continue along to the corner of the building, 'P-2' and peer around the edge if she can. (I think she runs out of roof though....)
"Now where'd tha' todger go...?" Suny utters to herself, now slightly more than slightly cross...she is missing out on getting clean And missing out on snaffling shrooms. :(
Corum holds the door barely wide enough for one person to squeeze in.
"Go in quietly."
Shortly after Varian reaches the open window, you hear footsteps and a strange sound like tearing leather. A ugothol in the process of changing into its true form appears charging into Varian... trying to knock him out of the window. The creature pulls its belt free before it fully changes.
There is a drainpipe on the corner of the building within reach - which would enable you to see the front of the building, but there is no easy way to the window.
What do Sunny see as she hangs off the building and peers in through the window?
Varian somehow and deftly avoids being pushed out the window and turns, swinging his weapon at the ugothol.
The creature - who had already turned its attention away from him, lets out a surprised "Blaaargh!" as Varian cuts into his guts.
Through the open window, you hear the beginning of a scrum inside. You see nothing other than Thulfi returning to the Belching Badger with Brother Sverin.
You think you could grab the edge of the eave to either pull yourself onto the bed and breakfast roof, or hand over hand on the edge to the window. It would not save you much time however... compared to going back in the same window from which you just came.
Zed turns and swings his morningstar at its head
Att
Damage
The ugothol tries to swat at Zed as he charges, but misses. Zed's morningstar connects solidly with its featureless lump of a head.
Then simply 'hang' or lean over the edge to watch and lend a hand if they close enough to the window. (^_^)
There doesn't seem a lot Suny can actually do. Other than use harsh language or maybe throw roof shingles. :P
Once this fight is over, she'll probably scamper back to finishing the bath and thence down to dinner.
Lyrralt charges forward as well. The creature is able to get in a whipping strike before Lyrralt stabs into its torso. Corum calmly retrieves a wand from his robes.
Lyrralt waits for the right time to strike... The ugothol says a brief unintelligible phrase, then drops his belt to the floor and points to Varian. The belt immediately morphs into a sizable snake. The mottled brown/green snake's bitey end springs at Varian. He feels a nip, but the fangs fail to penetrate.
After dropping the belt, the ugothol thrusts one long arm into the bookcase and retrieves a black bladed sword which was hidden behind a row of books.
Sunny deftly flips herself over, grabs the eaves/edge of the roof and swings down into/through the window feet first.
With the aim of planting herself right between its shoulder blades and hence into a position from which her allies can finish the job.
Corum casts and magical armor appears.
He advances with his wand and staff.
"Surrender, there is no escape for you."
AoO
Damage
Zed continues the onslaught "Why do you fight? You're outnumbered and outmatched!"
Attack
Crit confirm
Damage
Crit Damage
Dark fluid starts to seep through his glossy skin from many wounds. He replies through multiple slits in his head.... there is a sound - like constant smacking of lips, as he speaks in a rumbling wet tone,
"If you are here... the part I have to play is finished. I will not grieve the loss of this shell. I am nothing but a collection of memories."
He brings the sword up to his chest and whispers as Zed's strike causes a clearly fatal rupture. The snake withers back into a normal looking belt, and the black bladed sword clatters to the ground.
Sunny appears outside the window. She tries to swing in from the roof, but stops short almost running into Varian's backswing. Sunny just barely grasps the windowsill... long enough to turn her fall into a drop to the street below.
You feel a twinge of pain as you land and roll, but you think you should be able to walk it off.
"Dang!" Sunny says for the brief moment she appears at the window, before dropping out of sight below.
Yah...looks like it will take far too much time for Sunny to make it back into the building and up the stairs. Best if she legs it back to her friend, the bath and the coming food.
Braxton moves into the room, "What the bloody hell do you think he was distracting us from? I'll go check downstairs, since I still need a damn drink." Braxton grumbles not wanting to think too hard on this situation.
Corum looks at the belt carefully as he hands it to Zed, quickly using minor magic to detect its magic properties.
"I think you may or Varian may want to consider using this powerful magic. A serpent ally can be handy."
Jori enters the room, and goes to the body resembling his colleague (and imposter/recent dining companion) on the floor. He then looks at the mess on the floor which was the abomination. "I... I'm confused. If... this is the fake Holfstedt? What was that? This is his belt."
"Aye that was my belt." Holfstedt appears at the door - now dressed, and currently pulling his greasy hair back into a ponytail. "More than welcome to it... No sentimental value, and I owe you all far more than that."
The likeness between the corpse and the freed Holfstedt looks pretty spot-on at first glance.
"The belt is nice... if Zed wants it, sounds like a good thing to have. If he doesn't want it... " Varian shrugs and casts detect magic, then begins looking about the body and the room for anything else of value, magical or not.
The warden checks in to be apprised of the situation, and he speaks with the neighbors across the hall... who turn out to be Clio and Vern. They are now retired, and their son - the skittish clerk, runs the operation. The conversation is easily overhead due to Vern's poor hearing...
Those still investigating do pick up the fact that Clio and Vern raised both Thulfi and the Warden, how poorly their son Rodley has been running the B and B, about how Vern is a self-ascribed pillar of the community, how rude and secretive Nigel - the current tenant of Room 3 has been...
It takes Holfstedt offering up Jori as a drinking buddy downstairs to get Vern to stop loudly voicing his complaints to Warden Horne - "the boy who owes everything to him".
The corpse has a faint lingering aura, which fades soon after you see it. Zed had seen another lingering aura beside it, which could have been the casting of the invisibility spell.
There is a glow coming from within the footlocker at the end of the bed.(possibly multiple... not yet opened)
The black-bladed sword the ugothol retrieved and dropped has a moderate glow.
There is a glow emanating from underneath the sliding closet door as well. (the west facing sliding door)
Varian moves to open the siding door to the closet to find the source of the magical aura there. As he does so, he mentions the other auras he sees...
"The abomination's sword is magical. There is an aura inside this closet and something or things inside that footlocker also emanates magic, but the locker may be trapped. Can anyone find and removes such things?"
What type of sword was the black blade?
Lyrralt walk over to the footlocker and looks at it to see if he can find a mechanical trap.
Lyrralt does seem to find something worthy of close inspection when checking the footlocker for traps.
You find an extremely fine wire attached to the latch of the footlocker. It is hidden behind the padlock, and disappears under the lid. It probably does something nasty if you lift the lid without snipping it.
"Good call, Varian, the trap is indeed trapped. I fear I am not qualified to get rid of this, however. Other than springing traps, I have never been real good at disarming them."