"Earl Caromarc, before we take the obvious path would you tell your familiar to investigate the openings in the walls up there?"
Caromarc looks at Elspeth
There is a short pause, then Elspeth starts flitting around the room.
Caromarc steps closer to Ianez and speaks quietly
"Ianez, I recognise the you were probably attempting to be careful not to break some chain of command, but Elspeth feels that if you want her to do something you should talk to her directly."
His discomfort at the conversation is writ large on Caromarc's face as he talks. His lecture delivered he proceeds up the stairs.
Ianez nods. "Certainly; since I have not heard her speak, though, it was not clear to me how well she would understand."
Assured of Phoebe's safety, I place her down and move to inspect the posed undead.
Cover me, Copper... in case they move. Think they've been picked clean?
Motioning for Phoebe to wait with the others, I attempt to make it up the stairs... stalking up the stairs, alert but confident. As if returning home... returning to madness.
I motion for the others...
"Completely understandable Ianez. She actually has an excellent knowledge of linguistics but is unable to speak without magical assistance."
As Elspeth wobbles at him from above
"Elspeth says there is a large sword and some javelins above."
La Siréene turns to Quinn. "I'll see what I can find out, darling."
Taking the items from Quinn, she follows Sandru up the stairs, analyzing them as she goes.
Void Dust
Word Bottle
Dragonbone divination sticks
Bottled Yeti fur
War Paint of the Terrible Visage
This fragile glass flask encloses a single scrap of worn parchment held in place by a taut metal wire threaded through its cork stopper. Use or purpose unknown.
These eight rune-engraved dragon bones may be used as a divine focus for augury. They add 5% to the chance to successfully cast augury and divination. The bearer of the set gains a +3 luck bonus on one type of saving throw (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will), determined randomly each day.
This small opaque flask releases a thick stream of coarse white fur when opened. This fur creeps up the user's arm and across her entire body until she is completely covered in a tangled pelt. While coated with this fur she gains cold resistance 5, a +2 natural armor bonus to AC, and a +4 competence bonus on Stealth checks in areas of ice and snow. This fur sheds from her body after 24 hours, or can be removed early by soaking it in alcohol. The flask is expended after one use.
This thimble-sized clay container of thick, moist face paint has enough material to paint streaks and whorls of any color on one creature's face. Once applied, the wearer can, as a swift action, make the paint rearrange itself into a ghastly mélange of colors, making her appearance momentarily disturbing and hideous. The wearer chooses one creature who can see her painted face within 30 feet to be affected by cause fear (DC 11). Once the paint is used in this fashion, it loses all magic and becomes normal face paint. Once applied, the wearer has 24 hours to use the paint's magic; otherwise it fades away.
"Elspeth, are the openings up there dead ends, or do they seem to go anywhere?"
Quinn goes to the body and begins to retrieve his durable arrows then the monk follows Sandru, some distance behind him, to offer any cover fire.
Caromarc looks at Elspeth, then back at Ianez
"Dead ends"
Phoebe shudders at this choice of words.
You reach the door at the top of the staircase. Close up, you can see it's a black panel of...gently rolling smoke? At times, the smoke seems to form a pattern of small question marks. These break up, disperse, and then come together to form one large question mark. Which breaks up...
Always changing.
There is no knob or handle or anything to the door. It looks like you could walk right through.
Caromarc orders the archons through "Form a perimeter" - then with a quick glance at Quinn's gauntlet he steps through himself.
"I do not expect this to be of any use, but one never knows...." Ianez incants a quick cantrip that most of the party recognizes as detect magic and scrutinizes the door.
Blackacre hesitates for a moment, examining the door as best he can.
You step through the door into black night, except your features are illuminated from below by a well of light in the center of the room. Your feet no longer touch ground, but you levitate suspended in the dark. You slowly spin around the light well, always facing it, in a clockwise direction.
You hear your archons chiming to each other in tones of celestial, but they are gone from view. They are wondering where you disappeared to.
You don't detect anything otherwise unusual about it.
Ianez looks around. "It appears to be a spell of a type I can't cast, one that gives passage through an otherwise-barred space. I see no traps." With that, he follows Caromarc through the door.
You step through the door into black night, except your features are illuminated from below by a well of light in the center of the room. Your feet no longer touch ground, but you levitate suspended in the dark. You slowly spin around the light well, always facing it, in a clockwise direction. Earl Caromarc also levitates, spinning in the circle with you.
You hear Caromarc's archons chiming to each other in tones of celestial, but they are gone from view.
Quinn, going on Ianez diagnosis and a little faith, enters through the doorway.
Taking Phoebe's hand,O step through.
Does he have any idea what the darkness is or how to get down?
You step through the door into black night, except your features are illuminated from below by a well of light in the center of the room. Your feet no longer touch ground, but you levitate suspended in the dark. You slowly spin around the light well, always facing it, in a clockwise direction. Caromarc, Ianez, and Sandru also levitate, spinning in the circle with you.
Surprisingly, you're all dressed wizardly, in dark robes with bright capes flapping out behind you.
You hear Caromarc's archons chiming to each other in tones of celestial, but they are gone from view.
You step through the door into black night, except your features are illuminated from below by a well of light in the center of the room. Your feet no longer touch ground, but you levitate suspended in the dark. You slowly spin around the light well, always facing it, in a clockwise direction. Caromarc, Ianez, and Quinn also levitate, spinning in the circle with you.
Surprisingly, you're all dressed wizardly, in dark robes with bright capes flapping out behind you.
You hear Caromarc's archons chiming to each other in tones of celestial, but they are gone from view.
Surprisingly, you're all dressed wizardly, in dark robes with bright capes flapping out behind you.
Surprisingly, you're all dressed wizardly, in dark robes with bright capes flapping out behind you.
This room is operating on some sort of reality-warping principle, although the exact nature of this remains, as of yet, unclear.
"Archons! Assemble!"
This is followed by "जहां एक है जो हमें बुलाया है?" (Celestial: Where is the one who summoned us?)
"I don't know," Phoebe says. "They've all disappeared!"
Here is the MAP. (Also posted to the 'Campaign Info' page.)
La Siréene and Blackacre enter the mysterious door into the next room.
You step through the door into black night, except your features are illuminated from below by a well of light in the center of the room. Your feet no longer touch ground, but you levitate suspended in the dark. You slowly spin around the light well, always facing it, in a clockwise direction. Caromarc, Ianez, Quinn, Sandru, and Blackacre also levitate, spinning in the circle with you (see map - "overhead view" for placement of each person in the circle).
Surprisingly, you're all dressed wizardly, in dark robes with bright capes flapping out behind you.
You hear Caromarc's archons chiming to each other in tones of celestial, but they are gone from view. You hear Phoebe calling for Sandru, but she isn't visible. The Mechanical Manservant and Elspeth are gone too.
You step through the door into black night, except your features are illuminated from below by a well of light in the center of the room. Your feet no longer touch ground, but you levitate suspended in the dark. You slowly spin around the light well, always facing it, in a clockwise direction. Caromarc, Ianez, Quinn, Sandru, and La Siréene also levitate, spinning in the circle with you (see map - "overhead view" for placement of each person in the circle).
Surprisingly, you're all dressed wizardly, in dark robes with bright capes flapping out behind you.
You hear Caromarc's archons chiming to each other in tones of celestial, but they are gone from view. You hear Phoebe calling for Sandru, but she isn't visible. The Mechanical Manservant and Elspeth are gone too.
In addition to the archons and Phoebe, the Mechanical Manservant and Elspeth are gone too.
The lightwell spits out a fountain of six jewels: an onyx, a sapphire, a ruby, a topaz, a tigerseye, and an emerald. The gems orbit around each of you as follows:
1) Caromarc - Onyx (black)
2) Ianez - Sapphire (blue)
3) Quinn - Ruby (red)
4) Sandru - Topaz (yellow)
5) Blackacre - Tigerseye (orange)
6) La Siréene - Emerald (green)
The lightwell also spits out flasks, some filled with red liquid, some with yellow liquid, some with blue. There are also magic wands carved from precious gnarled wood.
You all hear a voice. It sounds soft and gentle, like a kindly old man. "Tee-hee! Welcome to my puzzle room, brave adventurers! Today, we play dress-up...a council of wizards! Drink from the flasks, then grab a magic wand and point it at one of your companions to cast a spell and see what happens!"
You all start spinning faster around the lightwell.
Caromarc is appalled at the idea of playing with arcane energies as a "dress up".
Still, not everyone with power is insane - it has to be worth attempting to reason with him
"Sir" appeals Caromarc "I apologise for not being able to convenience you, but the fate of the the world and ourselves hangs in the balance. We must proceed to the top of the tower with all possible haste!"
"Tee-hee!" the voice says. "Solve this conundrum to escape this doldrum."
"Solve this puzzle room...quickly!"
("Tee-hee!")
Blackacre looks confused. He eyes the potions in the hope of discerning something about their nature.
He asks hastily, What is the difference between the potions? What solution are we trying to find?
The only way to determine the right solution is through trial and error. Hopefully, not too much error!
"This is a basic logic puzzle, then. We have six gems, which don't appear to be able to move from one of us to another. We also have three types of potion. Presuming that one is barred from drinking and pointing at one's self, that gives--" Ianez stares off into space, muttering to himself. "--ninety possible permutations; one of the six of us, with five options for each to choose from, and three possible potions to drink. While not a particularly large combinatorial space, our time constraints make it--I am sorry, I'll hurry. We can't just pick at random; I believe the colors are significant. Which means.... Voice! Can more than one person cast a spell at once?"
"Yes!" exclaims your unseen host.
(Manic giggle)
"I believe that what we have to do is invoke the color that matches the target to release that target. To test that, I propose that La Siréene take up a red potion while Blackacre takes up a blue; both of you drink and direct the magic released at Caromarc. Red and green combine to black, you see, and since green is made from yellow and blue, and orange is made from yellow and red, orange and blue should likewise give black."
Quinn grabs at the nearest wand floating before him. He also takes the blue liquid flask. He does not do anything until otherwise told to do so.