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Salubri cannot decide on what to do and so just tries to defend himself.
Rowanna attempts to curse the Northern Xill with misfortune.
She succeeds! The xill feels very unlucky for the moment.
Prig still feels a little queasy, but tries to cover it up with bluster. The Xills laugh at his attempt.
"Oooo....look at the scary froggy! HA HA HA HA HA!!!"
Wayreth quickly interrupts the Northern Xill with two kicks to the gut.
Jani is still bleary.
But manages to maintain enough concentration to attempt an evil eye hex on the Southern xill.
The xills howl in frustration and return the attack in full force.
The Northern one sees Salubri defending himself and so goes for the much more painful Wayreth.
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16
13
21
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15
Wayreth is spared several attacks thanks to the Xill's misfortune, although one one the shortsword attacks potentially slips through.
Prig is alot less fortunate (or it is more accurate his attacker is NOT unfortunate), and suffers two very painful stabs and a claw to the face.
Initiative order:
Jani (sickened 1 round)
Xills (-48 + fatigued + evil eye 7rds,- evil eye saves 1rd)
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Salubri (-9)
Rowanna
Prig (-25, sickened 2 rounds)
Wayreth (-2 and -5?)
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Jani finds that if one spirit within their self focuses on the odd angles and distortions, the other can ignore them.
They call down more ill luck on the xills, hexing the southern one and cackling to extend the hex.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Wayreth dodges the xill's stab and retaliates with a kick that knocks the xill out cold.
Jani curses the southern xill with a burst of ill luck, and Rowanna follows up with a slumber hex.
The second xill falls to the floor, snoring softly, completely at your mercy.
Initiative order:
Jani (sickened 1 round)
Xills (-68 + fatigued + evil eye 7rds,- evil eye saves 1rd + asleep)
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Salubri (-9)
Rowanna
Prig (-25, sickened 2 rounds)
Wayreth (-2 and -5?)
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"Worry not, Salubri," Jani says if their co-religionist objects to slaying the xill, "These creatures are infused with evil, like devils or demons, and redeeming them is so remote a possibility as to not be worth considering. "
-Posted with Wayfinder
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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.”
When you arrive at Arliss Hall, Kreighton Shaine is just finishing giving instructions to one team before sending them into Arliss Hall. He turns to greet you.
“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.”
As Pathfinders, you know some basic information about Arliss Hall. Its passageways are known to shift in strange ways, and it often seems larger inside that it should from the outside. The majority of the rooms inside are modest but tasteful apartments that venture-captains (and maybe even the Decemvirate) use as personal apartments.
When you arrive, Kreighton Shaine opens the door for the you and follows you inside; however, when you turn around, the elf has disappeared.
“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!”
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There is a guest registry near the entrance, identifying which rooms are available. Currently the registry lists nine rooms, from 1 to 8A. 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.”
Room 8 is currently registered to the Pathfinder agent Osprey, while Room 8A is marked “Reserved— do not use.”
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Wayreth checks the doors one by one to see if they are numbered.
"It looks like the hall comprises of 8 rooms, a backyard garden and the living room we are in. My guess is that we will find doors labelled 1-7, and the last door is labelled either 8 or 8A, and that will be the door we will need to fiddle with."
"If there's magic involved, a scan of the area with a detect magic spell might also give us more clues," Wayreth muses as he checks the doors.
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"It looks like the hall comprises of 8 rooms, a backyard garden and the living room we are in. My guess is that we will find doors labelled 1-7, and the last door is labelled either 8 or 8A, and that will be the door we will need to fiddle with."
"If there's magic involved, a scan of the area with a detect magic spell might also give us more clues," Wayreth muses as he checks the doors.
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I'll take a look at the registry, making a few quick note in my journal and seeing what the others rooms say, if anything.
I'll try to enter our names in the registry (I'm imagining a log book), and for the moment take it with us. "Lets check outside after this room. Out in the open." as I take out m Wayfinder and call on it's light.
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"Let's visit room 8 and see if we can't find something suggestive of a hidden portal." Rowanna suggests, moving to the room if the others follow and checking if the door is locked or trapped.
[dice=Perception]1d20+6
Rowanna enters room 8, and does not see a stool in front of her. She barely avoids tripping over it.
Anyone else entering with her notices that there is a key in the lock on the interior-side of the room door. There is also a large queen-sized bed, a bedside stand and a large full-body standing mirror in the room.
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Wayreth grins.
"Well, let's see. We have a man with a glowing face, another man whose half-composed of air, a woman with a split-personality disorder and a walking-talking frog with an attitude. By what metric are we defining out-of-the-ordinary?"
Wayreth takes a closer look at the key on the door, then considers the words that Kreighton Shaine had said as well as the words in the registry book. An idea slowly forms in his head.
"Rowanna, check the mirror. See if there's any particular magic aura on it. If there isn't, keep concentrating on your detect magic spell as I lock the room door. Shaine said 'look for the mirror' and 'it is in a private room that is reserved'. The book said 'Arliss Hall values your privacy. Simply lock your door and we will see to it that you are not disturbed'."
"So if my hunch is correct, something should happen to the mirror once I lock the door."
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"Well, let's see. We have a man with a glowing face, another man whose half-composed of air, a woman with a split-personality disorder and a walking-talking frog with an attitude. By what metric are we defining out-of-the-ordinary?"
"Nah, it's only this last year or so. The Society used to actually have diversity, and we agents enjoyed it. But, the peanut gallery came to tears, wanted it to be humans or nothing, and a lot of our brethren, the heaven touch, the fiend blooded, the well, everyone really that's not those werewolf wannabes was made an outlaw. I don't think upper ranks knew how to fight off the harpy's scream. You know, been a while since they where in the field, and probably forgot about earplugs, so they gave into the skweekiest wheel, and well, we might be the last of the good old days."
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Rowanna and Wayreth enter the room, and Wayreth whispers something to her before locking the door behind them.
You keep a watch on the mirror as Wayreth locks the door. Rowanna detects a surge of conjuration magic affecting the entire room the instant Wayreth locks the door, but following that, nothing else seems to have changed and nothing happens to the mirror itself. You look out the window and see that it still opens to the same view as before - as far as you can tell, you are still in room 8 of Arliss Hall.
The rest of you think that this is really not the time for such indiscretions, but decide not to invade their privacy for awhile... until eventually you decide that they simply can't be allowed to get carried away at this time. You open the door...and find that neither Wayreth nor Rowanna are in the room!
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"Well it looks like Jani's found the portal...but how are Rowanna and I going to get there?"
Wayreth notices the view outside the window is still normal, and tries to throw a random small object from inside the room out of the room. If nothing obstructs the object from flying out the window onto the ground outside, he tries to put his hand through the window.
And if nothing bad happens... he takes a deep breath and jumps out the window if the window is not more than 39ft off the ground.
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Rowanna and Wayreth re-enter the building and see that the door stands open with all the rest of their party inside. All that remains is to enter the portal.
You step through the mirror and find yourself in a new room. The southeast corner of this room has broken off along with part of the floor. Rubble, loose bricks, and masonry litter the edges. Beyond the opening, blue sky and the Absalom’s city skyline are plainly visible. A solitary door is closed to the south and a full length mirror (which you stepped through) is bolted to northwest wall.
If there was any doubt about where you now are, the recent tilting of the floating tower gives you an additional clue that you are in the right place.
The doors on this level are unlocked, and a quick search of the rooms on this floor of the tower yields nothing of much interest apart from a small armory stocked with several mundane weapons.
In addition, you find the door leading to the staircase to the top floor of the tower.