The party struggles with the remaining fey attackers.
Eloriand aand Kat return their fire. The ranger hits one of them in the chest, actually sticking into the things torso. The gremlin hisses and removes the arrow and Eloriand can see he did some damage this time.
Havelock dips into his magical reserve to fire another arcane energy blast at the gremlin. The missiles strike the mischievous mite, searing its flesh.
The gremlins line up for another volley. They both take careful aim, trying to fell the resilient magus. Another tiny arrow nicks Havelock's ear, drawing a bead of blood.
Tarek rushes to the aid of Havelock, pouring positive energy into the magus to heal hsi wounds.
Isador rummages in the supply sack looking for something to aid in the fight.
Caoilte tries to fire a sling at the gremlins but his shot clangs off one of the gears, sending a loud bang echoing throughout the tower.
VXG9
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Isador calls out to the rest of the company I wonder if any of these flasks hold the key to defending ourselves from these fey. It looks like there is some alchemist’s fire and acid flasks which might be useful.
He examines the weapons before asking Caoilte. Do you know cold iron when you see it? What about these swords, could they be cold iron?
The Archosn press the fight!
Eloriand lines up another shot and again draws some damage on the gremlin. The gremlin falls from its perch, but grabs on to one of the gears.
Kat's arrow strikes but bounces off the hanging fey.
Havelock reaches deep into his arcane reserves and launches another magical volley at the wounded gremlin. The missiles slam into the fey, blasting the bugger. It lets go of the gear and falls down into well of the tower, fading from view.
The last gremlin lets out a loud grinding chirp as his fellow plummets down the tower. The creature, being significantly outnumbered, flees. it darts out the eastern window of the tower.
Isador examines the swords in the sack and is able to determine they are not made from cold iron.
Tarek plans his next move.
Caoilte fires on the remaining gremmie, but he misses the mark.
The party has a moment to plan their next move.
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Tarek addresses Havelockk's question I have 2 more spells that I can call upon. Other than my ability to heal, I am feeling rather useless. Eloriand, it looks as if your arrows found their mark on a few occasions. Are you using anything special?
Tarek then looks to the archons for answers I feel rather foolish and ill prepared for this mission. We should think about our next encounter with the Fey. If Eloriand and Havelockk have the only means to damage them, perhaps the rest of us can aid them through distraction to enhance their chance to strike our foes? Are there any liquids in the sack that will help? We also need to limit any damage being done to the gears. I sure hope they gave not interfered with the workings of the clock. Remind me to invest some money in a weapon blanch for our next adventure. Let me apply some healing to Havelockk before we continue to the next level Tarek once again calls upon his healing energies
Tarek examines the gears to determine if any significant damage has been done
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Nodding in appreciation with Tarek's healing, I feel a bit more revived. Nodding, I a potion bottle out, popping the cork out with my thumb and taking a long drink, I consume it.
Feeling a bit more better, I take my remaining potion bottle out, and I consume in similar fashion.
Wiping the sweat of my brow as a few beads of sweat run off my finger tips on to the floor , I look back to Tarek and my friends.
At this point, while I get the fact we want to figure things out about this damn clock, I also want to make sure we all live to see the sun rise tomorrow.
Standing back up. Ok, I am not the most sure footed...at least not like sister Kat, but if we get pressed, I think we need to do what we do best and close in on these little buggers and destroy them.
Pulling my wand of shield out, I discharge a charge of shield on myself and each of my companions. After that, I pullout a scroll, and cast it on myself, grinning with a chuckle as I go "poof".
ahh that is a bit better for al of us. lets head upstairs and see what comes next
Havelock quaffs a serious of potions while Tarek adds his own magics to heal the battered magus. Havelock contemplates using his shield wand on himself and the party.
Tarek examines the gears that were worked over by the gremlins. He sees extensive damage to the gears, but believes Caoilte saved serious damage by chasing off the gremlin a moment before.
After gathering themselves, the Archons head further into the tower. The party heads up the stairway and up into the fourth floor. The stairway to the belfry has collapsed. In its place, a wall of bright blues and reds ripples in a wave, ebbing and flowing to some unseen force. The wall extends onto the ceiling, blocking the view of the floor above.
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Isador's grin becomes wide enough to expose his front teeth upon hearing Caoilte's faux confidence.
Before we do anything drastic, let's put these items from the limp sack to use... The alchemist's fire might give the little gremlins some heartburn; an extra bite to Caoilte's axe. The acid might be of use too along with the tanglefoot bag.
Any takers on this stuff?
As the Archons stare at the mysterious magical barrier, they attempt to make sense of what it means and how to possibly bypass it. Tarek knows there is at least one other floor to the tower based upon his knowledge in engineering. As they try to parse out a way around the barrier, Kat removes the drawing that Creotious handed them earlier. As she studies the piece of paper, a purple glow shimmers across the parchment. On the back, next to the sylvan phrases, another note has suddenly appeared!
The new note reads as follows:
"Hey geniuses. One portal of each color on each floor changes floors, except on the first and fourth floors. The writing on the back says “Alternate” and “Progress in an orderly fashion” in Sylvan."
Kat stares at the new scribblings. She cannot be certain, but she suspects that the writing looks very similar to her own.
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I know we have few options to attack these pests but I would use caution around the gears. I worry that the fire and acid could damage the clock if they miss their mark. Tarek listens as Kat shares what is on the note. Perhaps it a note from your future self? Tarek gives Kat a wink If it is then be sure to remind yourself to send a better explanation of the workings of this crazy tower. Well, I guess we shall try to proceed in an orderly fashion? Who's first?
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Well, I got this neat scroll of invisibility, I could use it on myselfor anynoe for that matter that can hurt these critters, they go in first followed by our lovely sister scout and if they give her a problem, we give them a nice up close enounter of how we handle problems. Bt the way, I intend to buy one of those healing wand things when we get back for all of us to use, but if anyone has a bit of magicla healing left, I could use it. I cannot be as heavily armored at Caolite here and hope to launch spells. I don't mind gong in first, but it owuld be nice to go in fresh. I Have no desire to prematurely see what really happend to Aroden.
The Archons try to make sense of the strange note and formulate a plan to solve this puzzle. ELoriand notes that but for the noises generated by the strange magical storm, the tower is rather quiet and devoid of the shearing metal noises generated by the gremlins. Though he cannot be certain, he believes that party has been successful in driving them o away from the tower.
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I had no idea you were such a flamer Caoilte! Surely our enemies will give you a wide berth now for sure with such am impressive weapon in your hands. [b]
I laugh at the comments till my not so fully healed wounds hurt.
[b] I just need to cast two spells before we jump in...shocking grasp and invisibility. Caolite, all joking aside, I can cast the invisibility on you and that should aide you in being the first man in the door, so to say.
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Isador examines the flasks again before responding to Caoilte.
After further investigation, I am pretty confident that applying this to your axe would not be the best use for it. I'm sure that it would not damage your axe but it would burn off rather quickly and it might even burn you during the application.
I think it might be best for Kat, Elorand and me to use them from the back before you engage any foes. If our aim holds true, the flame and acid could cause serious damage to any exposed flesh and it should be safe enough to use even near the gears.
Now, with respect to the note that we found, perhaps we should follow the instructions literally? Should we go to the first floor or the fourth floor to find the "special" portals?
Which floor are we on now? In all the confusion and portal hopping, I lost count.
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Tarek thinks for a moment and tries to wrap his mind around the current situation and scans the room.
I think we need to take a blue portal back to the level below us. The strange writing on the note stated that each portal accesses a different level. We assumed blue takes us down and red takes us up. I don't see any red portals here. We know Caoilte used one portal and he stayed on the same level. The one Havelockk used took us here. My guess would be that one of the remaining red portals would take us to the top of the tower. We can try to pass through the magical barrier here but my guess would be stick to the portals for transportation.
Tarek looks at the archons I think one of the portals msy take us to the bottom of the tower and the other to the level below. Do we stay in a group or break off into two groups and try both?
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Caoilte considers the idea of invisibility. I'd say you might want to invisibilize someone else. Tapping his armored chest with the top rim of his shield he says I have a lot of metal between me and those arrows. And really, if I'm doing my job right, I'm sort of in their space making them worry about me and not anyone else.
Caoilte then responds to Kat. Flamimg? Looking in turn at the two half-elves, the dainty rogue and the bleach blonde aasimar. Really? After me you're the next most manly of this group.
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The red just gives a chuckle and a wicked grin at the axe-man's comment then addresses the issue.
From what I am reading, and I could be wrong, the portals change color with each person passing through it. Red goes up, blue goes down. So long as we pay attention to the color of the portal we should be okay to all just go up so long as we wait for the portals to shift colors. We should probably alternate between armored and ranged for our order through.
Best way to find out is to just hop through. I doubt they all turn one color, but we may want to designate two who go down just in case it does.
The Archons work to unravel the strange portals littered throughout the tower. They try a few portals and discover that most of the portals transport the person entering them to the same floor, but always to the other color. A blue portal corresponds to red and vice versa. With some experimentation, they agents also discover that one red portal on floors 1, 2 and 3 transport the traveler to a blue portal on the floor above. They further discover that a blue portal on floors 2, 3 and 4 send the user to a red portal on the floor below.
After mapping the portals, Kat takes another look at the strange parchment.
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Alright, it looks like we got the idea down on how these floors work...that all being said, I think its to get up to the next level...If Caolite does not want the invisibility, then we need to look at whom else...i am not sure if I can cast invisibility from the scroll after ahcoking grasp...best if I use the scroll on sombody and perhaps I can drink the potion?
As the Archons try to unlock the magical barrier, another strange purplish glow begins to emit from the area of Kat's pack. Investigating the pack, Kat retrieves the note and examines it. On the margin is another note, written in Kat's handwriting, off in the margin that was not there a few moments ago.
"Alternating must mean we need to switch off between red and blue portals."
The Archons take a step toward solving the riddle.
Isador jumps through the red portal on the 4th floor of the tower. He emerges from the blue portal along the eastern wall, emerging near Kat. Isador, though a bit disorientated, is no worse for the trip.
As Isador emerges, he bumps Kat a bit and notices another shimmering of purple lights coming from the note. Looking at the note once again, Isador sees another annotation that certainly was not there before.
"Progress probably means we have to go through the floor switching portals in some order, but I’m not sure which order. The symbols by the arrows and inside each floor on the diagram show which portals go to which floors."
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Tarek listens to Havelockk's explanation. It does seem the hashmarks have something to do with traveling up and down this tower but they do not seem to make sense to me. I thought there was a clear progression but the numbers do not add up Tarek examines the parchment once more I am convinced the maker of this tower ate their fair share of mind altering shrooms when they created this place. The only thing that would make sense is if we only look at the vertical hashmarks and not the horizontal. Our current level would be 6 and the level below us would be 4. If we go to the level below pass through a red portal to get to this level and then pass through one of the other red portals here it may send us to the level above.
Tarek scans the strange parchment in a desperate attempt to unlock the secret trying to be conveyed by their mysterious benefactor. As Tarek examines the parchment, the purple shimmer returns, drizziling strange lights across the page. In the wake of the energy, more words suddenly appear as if a ghostly hand writes them out before Tarek's eyes.
"The portals alone are not enough. We’re going to have to use the stairs too."
Just as the note is magically scribbled in the margin, another one starts anew, this one in a different handwriting that bears remarkable similarity to Tarek's.
"I’m beginning to think we need to ascend in order based on the number of vertical lines, starting by taking the blue portal on the second floor. But there’s no time; the portals are fading."
The paper then stiffens and, though Tarek may believe himself to be imagining it, becomes somehow a bit more substantial as if more rooted in the present.