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After the yeti falls, Kuaizi crouches over, grasping his ribcage in pain. He takes a couple of small vials out of his pouch, and carefully drinks them down. Soon after, he is able to stand tall once more.
Well, at four and a half feet, perhaps not so tall... but certainly he stands upright once more.
Kuaizi moves in to assist Saphera's inspection of the Master of Scrolls. He wonders aloud, "Hmmm. Perhaps Master of Scrolls Aram Zey-san is under a spell to merely mimic death, Saphera Moonglade-chan?"
His gaze shifts to the sorcerer. "Hassari Ehnieh-san, what can you make of the dark magic upon him?"
"Hmmm." Kuaizi retrieves a tome from his satchel, and wanders through its pages for a few moments. The book is entitled Historical Legends, bears the Society's insignia on the front cover, and appears to be written in Common.
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Hassari looks with pity the body of the Master of Spells.
- Let me see, Kuaizi. I dont know much about necromancy, but I think they try to avoid any kind of resurrection. Or perhaps animate him as an evil undead. But I believe that in the last situation they protect his body until he could rise.
After that, he looks at the tapestry.
- This ... this is a big problem. A tear in an artifact is not a good thing. A tear that causes a permanent connection to the demi-plane, is a Very BAD Thing. I have no idea how to stop this, but this means that the tapestry is most likely very unstable. And the expert about the Tapestry is Aram Zey...
The necromancy auro does not look powerfull enough to be an ongoing spell or effect. It looks like its the residue of a spell, a powerfull one.
The voice of the Master of Scrolls Kreighton Shaine travels down the halls, carried by a magical breeze.
“Pathfinders, we have determined that objectives in Skyreach are now secure and most Aspis Consortium forces within have been neutralized.
There have been further developments of which you may or may not already be aware. Aspis agents have made off with the Sky Key and seem to be holding out in the tower floating above our lodge. Our early experiments with teleporting in or flying to it have met with no success, so I am gathering our forces to enter through Arliss Hall, which has a permanent gateway to one of the tower’s rooms.
The gateway is finicky, though. Our Master of Spells Aram Zey would be better able to explain it than I, but he is currently—”
The elf trails off as though searching for the right word before
continuing, “—indisposed due to the Consortium’s attack. Finish your business and gather outside Arliss Hall for the final assault.
I shall guide you from there.”
Kreighton Shaine finishes giving instructions to one team before sending them into Arliss Hall and turning to greet the new arrivals. “Ah, you received my message?” he asks eagerly while pulling out a small notepad and making a single tally mark.
“Excellent, I was uncertain whether recent events might block communication as well. We have a theory that the northwest tower’s new floating status may be the result of the Sky Key and Hao Jin Tapestry coming too close to one another, much like two extradimensional spaces placed inside one another.
Thus far, all of our more conventional attempts to reach the tower have been repelled, and admittedly the whole thing could just rocket into the Irorium any minute.”
He squints to the north before adding, “That would be unfortunate, as there’s a rather big match over there today. Best we take control of the tower before it misbehaves further.
“The good news is that we have a permanent portal to that section of the tower. Since the link is between two objects—a pair of full-length mirrors—it should be stable and safe to use.
The only catch is that one of the mirrors is inside Arliss Hall. The hall has several extradimensional properties, and with so many visitors, it’s been changing its internal layout constantly.
Rather than waste time sending you to figure out a puzzle, I’ll lead you to the portal myself. We venture-captains are fairly used to it. Now, any quick questions? We should hurry.”
Kreighton Shaine scratches his head before shrugging. "Well, this is arliss hall. Its passageways are known to shift in strange ways, and it often seems larger inside that it should from the outside. That's why I am taking you to the portal. The majority of the rooms inside are modest but tasteful apartments that venture-captains (and maybe even the Decemvirate) use as personal apartments.
The Aspis tried to mess with the hall, but it just locked them into a separate copy of itself, where they are currently stuck.
As far as what we will encounter, I have no idea. The mirror is tucked away in a nondescript room, so we should have a reasonable quiet entry."
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"A most terrible loss." Kuaizi bows his head for a moment of somber prayer to the Enlightened One, Iro-Shu. Not knowing what else to do for the late master or about the tapestry, the monk then follows along back to the Master of Scrolls.
"Thank you for your information, Master of Scrolls Kreighton Shaine-san. We will not fail." Raising up an open-palmed, taloned hand, he calls out, "Caw!" as the group heads to the hall.
Krighton Shaine gives Saphera an apologetic look. "Sorry, we really need to get moving. The team I send in before you should be in position right now and we should follow. Chop chop, off we go!"
He urges you inside, entering last, and closing the door. But when you look behind you to ask him where to go, he is nowhere in sight!
“Of all the luck,” the Master of Scrolls voice echoes from thin air.
“We must have exceeded some capacity limit for this version of the hall and it moved me over to another… iteration of itself.
I’ll try to find my way over to you, but look for the mirror! It is in a private room that is reserved. We call it the Lost Room.
The chamber will be hidden in plain sight but there’s always some sort of trick to find it. Hurry and I’ll try to join you soon!
One last thing—rarely can anyone find the Lost Room alone, so work together!”
Studying the room you've ended up in, it looks like a large and cozy living room. A fireplace and comfortable couches stand in the room. A big staircase takes up a corner of the room, exiting on what looks to be a landing.
Quickly checking the ground floor doors, you find a kitchen, a bathroom and a supply closet. Altough the supply closet is bigger then your own room on campus.
It is clear the room you seek is not here downstairs.
The upstairs has two long hallways. Looking trough the windows on the landing you see a garden between the two wings of the building.
Kuaizi looks around, and finds a ledger hanging on the wall on the landing.
At the top of the page are words written in delicate penmanship and red ink.
“Arliss Hall values your privacy. Simply lock your door and we will see to it that you are not disturbed.”
It also lists nine rooms. Room 1 to 8 which have the name of the occupant listed, and 8A having a note with “Reserved—do not use.”
Searching the rooms, there is no 8A to be found. Just room 8.
Saphera enters room 8 and locks the door. Searching the room toroughly, you cant find a mirror. It is however clear that the room is in use.
There are clothes in the trunk in the corner. The bed has clearly been slept in. Papers are on the night stand. They are adressed to a pathfinder agent named Osprey.
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Able isn't known for his patience. It's why the Moon Clan never got him to learn how to shoot a bow. He does know however how to count, and he counts eight doors, not nine. He would not have been surprised if the door Saphera went trhough would have disappeared, ensuring the not disturbed assurance from the ledger. But the door doesn't disappear. Neither does Saphera re-appear.
Able decides to knock.
You knock on the door, but recieve no answer.
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Saphera begins casting and then scans the room.
After thoroughly scanning the area for magic, the inquisitor begins looking for signs of traffic.
(I wonder if the room shifts when you lock the door.)
After considering other options, Saphera attempts to open the previously locked door, unlocking it if necessary.
All of Arliss Hall radiates moderate magic when studied with
detect magic, but when you examine it closely only the door radiates strong conjuration magic.
There is no apperant wear and tear in the room, other then what it got from normal occupation.
The persone occupying this room appears to be a medium humanoid, making the clothes too large for a small sized humanoid.
Entering the room after Saphera unlocks and opens the door, you inspect the mirror. Its a small hanging mirror. It radiates the same magic as the rest of Arliss Hall. It feels solid if you touch it. It looks and feels like a normal mirror.
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Saphera, didn't you hear me knock, you were gone for a while? It was like you..weren't in the room anymore"
Able ponders
"Maybe the door we seek is hidden from when you look straight at it. When you hunt, the strips of the tiger hide in the reeds, but not when you're high in a tree. Maybe you can trick it in a reflection maybe? Since the room number was 8A, maybe there's a trick you have to do in room 8 itself?
All the while Able is punching the walls in frustration
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"I believe it has something to do with locking the door. Everyone should come into the room, so no one is left out, and i'll lock the door. After that we can begin our investigation. While I was in the room, I heard no knock, or any noise for that matter."
Saphera waits for everyone to enter the room and then locks the door. After securing the door, she then tries to open it without unlocking it.
You lock the door with everyone inside the room. The room doesnt change. When you try the door, its locked.
Zanu hits the mirror with his warhammer, shattering it with a crash. There are shards of glass everywhere.
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"I sure hope we didn't need that mirror for anything. I would suggest, in the future, we hesitate on actions that can't be undone. At least until we know what we are dealing with."
Saphera tries locking the door in an opposite direction. Then takes note of any changes at may have occurred.
"We could test the theory that the room shifts, by placing a small string under the door with one person on each side holding the string, and then locking the door."
You hear the door lock, but after that, nothing.
Cautiously, you try the door handle. It turns.
Opening the door, you see the same room. But Able Stone isnt there.
Checking more carefully from the doorway, you see that the bed is neatly made. There are no papers on the nightstand, and the mirror is intact.
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Saphera closes the door, unlocks it, and reopens the door.
(Hopefully this resets the door.)
"Well I think we have found the way to open the do not disturb room, but i'm not sure there is anything in the room other than what was originally in the first room. We will need to search the second room as thoroughly as the first."
After the group is back together, Saphera works the lock until the undisturbed room becomes available.
"OK, everyone into this room now."
Once everyone has entered the undisturbed room, she closes the door and works the look back to its original position.
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"Ah! Very smart, Saphera-chan," the monk says, scratching his head in wonderment at Zanu and his broken mirror idea. "Let us proceed."
Kuaizi follows as the key trick is done once more, and enters the "other" room this time. He assists Saphera in the search.
He also keeps an eye open for Zanu and his hammer, grappling him beofre he even thinks of smashing this other mirror.
As he searches the room, "Hmmm. Honorable companions. Master of Scrolls Krighton Shaine-san did tell us to look for the mirror. Might the portal we seek be in the mirror itself, somehow?"
No matter how you work the lock from the outside, nothing seems to happen.
When Able opens the door from the inside and everyone goes into the room, its again the occupied room. The mirror in this room is still broken.
Somehow the rooms magic only seems to work when the occupant wants privacy. Having seen that the Osprey room has large windows, Able locks himself into the room again, so that room 8A appears.
He then climbs out of the window to the ground floor.
Walking around the building, he enters again trough the front door, joining the party.
Room 8A seems to be an exact copy of the other rooms, only un-occupied. It also radiates strong conjuration magic. In itself not strange for an appearing and disappearing room.
8A has an intact mirror. Inspecting it, you find that if you touch its surface, your hand goes trough unobstructed. Even tough the mirror is hanging against a wall.
As a way to scout someone pokes a head trough the mirror. On the other side is defenitely the floating tower, as the room you can see is missing a wall and trough it you can see the sky and floating bricks.
As far as you can see, you emerge from another mirror, the same type as in the room.
The room in the floating tower is empty.