La Siréene's guess is incorrect. She is lifted by the invisible force five feet higher toward the spikes!
NEGATIVE.
Counterclockwise, against Time's flow...the past, my past? The frost drake? The umbral dragon, with its glass reservoir? The reservoir I began to break with magic?
"Dragon."
Two incorrect guesses. Each guesser rising a little bit higher.
Spooky messages materialize, wavering in the mirrors, as if written by a ghostly hand.
.sdrawkcab swolf taht gniht ylno eht ton si emiT
!ti sseug lliw uoY
.meg laer a si elzzup siht ot noitulos ehT
Quinn just starts blurting out words.
"Water?"
"Gem?"
"Sapphire."
"Erihppas."
A gate.
Quinn makes two incorrect guesses, and rises 10 feet.
Sandru's guess is incorrect.
When Ianez says "Sapphire", he rises another five feet. However, when he says it backwards, the force field dragging him upward stays at its altitude, wobbles, and turns blue. Snowflakes whirl across the surface, coating it with icicles and rime.
Your unseen host goes into hysterics. "You've almost solved the riddle! My puzzle room undone! Remember..."
"...give it your energy and you'll figure it out!"
Caromarc nods to Ianez "White" he says, then waits a moment and speaks again "Etihw".
Caromarc guesses twice, but incorrectly. He levitates 10 feet higher toward the spikes!
Hint #2: ...the thumping of insomnia, followed by a demon's guttural roar!
"Cold."
"Dloc."
Ianez's first guess is wrong. He rises dangerously close the spikes. The metal points glint, efficient and cruel.
But when he says his second one, the force field surrounding him pops like a bubble! He stops spinning counter-clockwise, and feather falls down, down, down...
As he drifts downwards, Ianez calls up to the others, "Did you hear what I did?"
Caromarc, onyx backwards...onyx was your gem.
"I heard Ianez. Brilliant! I salute you..." realising how much he's rising Caromarc suddenly stops talking, closes his eyes, then starts yelling words."[/b]
"Chi-nos! Ki-nos! Cinos!"
Caromarc's guess is helpful, but for someone else...not for him. He rises speedily 15 feet toward the spikes!
Seizing hold of his stick, Caromarc continues
"Wodahs"
When Caromarc says the secret, magic word of undoing, the force field surrounding him disintegrates! He stops spinning and falls gently downward.
Quinn begins to see a pattern. Everything is a mirror image.
He thinks of the word 'Fire' then says "Erif"
Quinn's guess is helpful, but for someone else...not for him. He rises another five feet. He is now dangerously close to the spikes!
Sandru, Blackacre, and La Siréene also rise closer to their doom!
Quinn starts to go through the hints that he received.
1. Mirror, Counter-Clockwise...... The response is reversed
2. BZZZAP. ...... The sound of being shocked
3. Red.....
Hold on one second. The sound of being shocked, the ruby is red, and the ruby shocked him when he got the first puzzle wrong, and shock is electrical in nature. Electricity
Quinn says "Yticirtcele"
The monk is almost to the spikes... Just when it looks like he'll meet a grisly end of being impaled, he reasons out the correct answer. The force field dragging him up melts away! He begins his slow descent.
"Well done. Dica."
Now we'll see what else the playful puppetmaster has in mind ...
CINOS.
Glip! Bloop! Brrlllllip! The force fields surrounding La Siréene and Sandru dissolve into a bunch of oily prismatic bubbles. They descend together slowly, as if treading on air.
La Siréene closes her eyes, extends her limbs and spins gently in balletic movements as she descends beside Sandru, her thin, short, lithe build next to his massive physique.
Blackacre shakes his head as though waking from a daze and shouts confidently, ERIF!
There's a screech, like someone pulling a brake. The force field surrounding Blackacre deactivates with a Paf! like a firework, and sends down a shower of bright sparks.
The inquisitor joins the rest of the party. You all descend to the floor. Once on the ground, you discover the circumference of the room is tiny and cramped, basically just the vertical tunnel. The floor beneath you is firm, cool, made of stone. The arcane lightwell flicks off, and then turns back on, but this time the light is pale and dim, as from a normal lamp.
You all discover there's a full-length mirror in a gold frame standing against one wall of the room. It isn't bolted to the floor. The mirror reflects the six of you.
Another figure enters the reflection - a small man with a broad face, and a bald pate with a fringe of white hair. He is dressed in a red robe.
"Tee-hee!" you hear, but the strange man in the mirror does not move his lips to speak. "The final part of my puzzle room!"
"Ahem, still here, by the way," Volst's mouth (on Blackacre's forehead) interrupts. "And now, it's time for another one of these..."
SECOND WAVE OF SKELETON MINIONS DEFEATED. BATTERY NEEDS NEW CHARGE.
The Eternity Bracer flares blue and begin sparking. A bolt of electricity, like an anaconda, coils around the half-elf policeman!
Ianez looks at where the man in the mirror would be, if he were in the room with the party.
In the mirror, the small man exits off to the side of the reflection. He returns, dragging with effort a wooden chest. He reaches into Quinn's pocket and steals the Word Bottle that you found in the room with the winged apes. With a hearty laugh, he drops it into the chest.
It is no longer in your possession.
Caromarc is visibly relieved to be on solid ground again.
"Damn it Volst! We're going as fast as we can!"
As he speaks Caromarc gently raps the mirror with his cane.
Quinn does not fight the urge to repel the dark magic.
He closes his eyes and accepts the pain.
The game is afoot, then ...
La Siréene observes carefully as Word Bottle is taken, attempting to grasp how it disappeared.
"This time is as good as any to say that I did not figure out what the Word Bottle or the void dust is for. There were two minor items, some protective yeti fur and face paint to cause fear, not too important. There were some divination sticks, however, which when carried give some significant insight to danger, although the content of this insight is random."
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.
"Sandru, Quinn, Gaston--help me pick up the mirror and point it upwards, so that none of us are reflected in it."
Quinn focuses on the energy that is trying to sap his strength and gladly allows it to have some.
Quinn glady helps Ianez with his request.
Unfortunately, Quinn's hardiness works against his noble intentions. The bracer triggers a survival response in his physical body, on a deep, involuntary level, that resists the life drain. It won't happen again; the effect grows stronger each time and will soon overwhelm him. Even so, Quinn tries to marshal his inner discipline to overcome the element of chance and force the life drain to himself. But the cursed magic item is too strong! The violet-black current is repelled away from him.
The chaotic redirect targets Blackacre!
Blackacre takes damage.
"HA, HA, HA!" cackles Volst's mouth. "A delightful outcome! I am renewed."
When several of you point the mirror upwards, you're no longer reflected in it. Now, it reflects the spikes on the ceiling. However, you're all struck by a sudden case of vertigo...as if the floor suddenly gave way and you're falling. Into the mirror?
Only in the mirror's reflection, The War Paint of the Terrible Visage tumbles 'down' to the spiked ceiling reflected in the mirror. It's no longer in your possession. The small man in the red robe reaches out from the side of the glass and catches it. "Collected another treasure for me!"
"Try putting it on the floor, face down. And do any of you have a mirror of your own?"
Quinn again help Ianez with his suggestion.
"If nothing else work, I suggest we try breaking the mirrors."
You lift the mirror and begin to turn it over. The small man spills out of the mirror onto the ground, along with your stolen items! You hardly have time to notice as you're lowering the mirror back to the floor. "Oof!" he exclaims. "Don't crush me under the mirror! I promise to give your treasure back!" His upper half is sticking out from under the glass, trying to squirm out from under it.
Ianez lifts the mirror so it isn't resting directly on the thief. "The treasure is not as important as the way on from here. Tell us, if you would."
The diminutive figure drags himself out from under the mirror, and stands up.
"Fear not...ranger, barbarian, magician, thief, cavalier, and acrobat! I am Dungeon..." He trails off, struck by a sudden realization. "Um...you're not the adventurers I was expecting." He pulls out a schedule and checks his pocket-watch. A baby unicorn follows him out from under the mirror. BAAAAAAHHH! it bleats, alarmed. It is very annoying.
"Oh, dear. I agree with you Uni. There's been a mixup." He wrings his hands, looking this way and that.
He brings his attention back to the matter at hand. "But never mind my bumbling error. Sorry to have waylaid you, travelers. You asked about the way forward. I presume you want to travel to the third level of this accursed tower. Of course, I can oblige."
He reaches over to a lever you hadn't noticed before (because it wasn't there before), and pulls it. Two large holes open up in opposite walls, painted as two dragons with big rolling eyes and gaping mouths. Around the edges of the holes are flashing lights. You hear the piping sound of carnival music. Some type of sled emerges from the tunnel, and comes to a stop in the middle of the room. It has six seats, in two rows of three.
"All aboard!" says Dungeon Whatever-His-Name-Is. "And don't worry about your missing friends...the girl, the construct, and the octopus. They'll regroup with you when you arrive."
He taps his chin worriedly. "But I do worry about my missing friends. I wish I knew what has happened to Eric and the others..."
Ianez shakes his head and looks around at the rest of his party. "Have you ever had the feeling that you had just walked through someone else's story?"
La Siréene raises a bemused eyebrow. "Nope. My life is always my own story. The variable is perspective. "
I watch the carnival freak. So, not a puppet master, but a dungeon master?