Looking at the mirror Dirk says, "The pattern continues...". Then on a hunch he grabs some ashes from the fireplace and tosses them at the reflective surface of the mirror.
"Still looks mostly like foor, but everything in here is cold. The way a keep kitchen retains heat, I'd say its somewhere around a week since this place had people walking around in it."
Selena looks over the glass shard after Dirk has finished looking at it. She picks up the piece and travels back downstairs to retrieve the other pieces, hoping to find a way that they would fit together.
"There was a toymaker in our village who would make little games like this. Pieces of wood that fit together just right."
Armand Nods at Lash "I think that's about as good an estimate as any. The blood in the room back there was still somewhat fresh though quickly drying. I would put the estimate around 5 to 7 days myself. Something happened here, something very deadly. And it happened quickly, other than the some of the destruction, this place looks fairly well upkept and it looks like people were going about their daily lives."
Looking around the Kitchen, Armand Adds "I would say whatever happened, happened after lights out. Note the lack of food in any of the pots or pans, the emptied casks without water in them, etc. The cooks and staff obviously had time to clean up after dinner, putting the attack likely after dark sometime. The fact that one of the tower staff seemed to have been in bed at the time of the attack also lends to that thought."
As Armand is talking, Selena walks over and picks up the mirror glass from the floor. Then, before anyone really even notices what she's doing she exits the room, headed for the prior room and downstairs, you can hear her footfalls as the souls of her boots tromp down the hard stone staircase to the lower floor.
As Armand finishes looking around the room he notices Selena has left. Putting his hand to his mace he glances over at Dirk with a questioning look.
A shrug and nod later, both Dirk and Armand start moving toward the door, only to almost run over Selena coming back into the room carrying three pieces of mirror glass with her which you recognize to be the ones from the last room, this room and the one you noticed down stairs in the foyer.
She carefully places the pieces of glass on one of the central tables in the room and begins examining each piece to see if they fit together.
Dirk shrugs as the ashes bounce harmlessly off the surface of the mirror. Magic is not his strong suit.
He considers smashing the mirror just as Selena picks it up and begins inspecting it. So he decides he's probably better suited to protecting the group while they figure out the mirror mystery.
As Selena returns with the other mirror shards and the group huddles around the table, Dirk will stand guard.
Recap:
------------
You've escaped capture in Kiren's Keep after you were set up for the murder of the Commanders of Kiren's Keep, one of which is Armand, a king in hiding and still very much alive, and the second was a member of the Brotherhood who tried to kill both Armand and the rest of you. You are currently on the run from the law, and are trying to make your way to Speclarium to meet with Duke Stefan to try to clear your names.
After stopping at a small town for supplies and some magical equipment, you were accosted by the order of the white hand, another organization of assassins like the Brotherhood, this one infamous among the founding families of Norwold whose deeds have been kept hidden from the average member of the population for centuries.
Hunted by two assassination organizations and the law enforcement operations of the Duchy of Kermikeos, you continued down the road toward Speclarium when your presence was discovered and a chase began.
Finding a side road you proceeded down it only to find an "abandoned" fort/tower whose previous owners seem to have fled or met some kind of grizzly end based upon the evidence you've found recently.
Now you are standing in the kitchen on the second floor () of the tower where you are about to be introduced to the same "problem" as the previous owners experienced.
The five of you (Thantos, Armand, Selena, Lash, Mird) gather around the Mirror pieces arguing about the methods by which they might fit together for several minutes. During one particularly heated exchange between Selena (standing at the center of the mirrors) and Thantos about the relative nature of the mirrors you are all watching the exchange of words between Selena and Thantos.
Shortly enough your attention is drawn back to the mirrors but the sight shocks the 5 of you to the core.
Standing right behind Selena is what can only be described as an extremely large, malformed Baboon!
The unnaturally wide head is overly large with a mouth that splits from one side to the other of it's extended snout, partially open you see a glimpse of jagged and sharp teeth, the extent of which gives the baboon's face a resemblance of a steel animal/bear trap.
The Baboon's body is covered head to toe with a thick, dense night-black fur. It's long arms end in claw/fingers but they look more suited to climbing than attacking.
Looking up in shock, the night black figure is standing behind Selena where there was no creature only moments before.
As Selena tries to turn to face her attacker, the black haired baboon like creature opens it's jaws wide and bites down on Selena's shoulder, causing her to scream in pain as several teeth puncture her skin.
()
Moments later the ape-like creature disengages it's bite from Selena, taking a step back.
Lash(29)
Selena(16)
Mird(15)
Armand(15)
Creature/Enemy(13)
Dirk(11)
Thantos(7)
Selena wields the healing staff defensively and takes a 5 foot step away from the beast. Theras immediately launches from Selena's shoulder and buffets the beast to prevent it from attacking Selena.
"Theras, don't. That thing's dangerous."
Theras buffets the creature with its wings and attempts to distract it away from Selena, who is wounded.
Dirk is startled momentarily as the gruesome baboon makes its sudden, and mysterious, appearance. The helpless feeling of watching the viscous attack on Selena turns to rage as his corded muscles flood with adrenaline in an effort to provide more power to his charge.
Hoping to distract the beast from Selena, Dirk shouts forth his familiar battle cry, "BLADES OF HELL!!!"
With a yell of mingled alarm and rage, Lash launches herself throught the air, tumbling bast the horrific beast to land behind it, her blade striking out before her feet have touched the flood, striking deep into the creatures body seeking the depths of a vital organ.
Lash(29)
Selena(16)
Mird(15)
Armand(15)
Creature/Enemy(13)
Yelling a warning, Lash springs almost backward in, what you later remember, as one of the most impressive feats of acrobatics you've ever encountered. Twisting in the air, she lands lightly on her feet, sword drawn on the creature's back left side, blade lancing out to strike the creature between the ribs, drawing a line of blood and obviously skewering something internal within the baboon like creature, which shrieks a high pitched screech that, you're sure, could break glass...certainly piercing eardrums and causing each of you to momentarily close your eyes against the wall of sound.
Selena, bleeding from the wound on her shoulder, draws and raises her longsword in a crossways hold across her body, a defensive stance that puts the blade in position to block any incoming strikes, stepping back and continuing to slowly retreat from the foul creature in front of her.
Mird steps forward and rips the two handed earthbreaker mace from the carrying strap on his back bringing it up over his shoulder in a two handed strike without slowing to bring it into position first. The overpowered strike looks true except for a quick twist of the jet black creature that causes the mace to barely miss and crack into the hard stone of the floor...chipping it and sending a hard vibration up through Mird's hands.
At the same time as Mird's strike, Armand swings his mace across at the ape like creature's head but again, its twist and backstep manages to dodge the blow from the mace as well.
With another ear-piercing screech, the baboon takes an impossibly long step to it's back right (away from Lash and her blade, but toward Dirk) and starts to turn away from the battle. ()
Seeing the creature turn from the attack, and knowing instinctively what that means, Dirk raises his sword and starts to charge the baboon, angling to keep himself between the door to the room and the creature to ensure it cannot escape.
With a sudden burst of speed, however, the baboon hurls itself right at the fireplace and jumps literally through the cold ashes and up into the chimney.
Realizing it's trapped, Dirk sprints toward the cooking pit and, blade leading, stuffs his sword, and then head up the chimney looking to skewer the creature from behind.
But there's nothing there. The chimney continues upward another 20 - 30 feet into darkness, and a dimly lit portion of the chimney about 15 - 20' above Dirk identifies an opening into the next floor up, but it should have been physically impossible for the creature to have scaled the sheer walls of this chimney for a minimum of 10' and more like 20' in the half second between it's disappearance and Dirk's entry into the chimney himself.
"What the $#^&%%& was that?" Lash yells in disbelief. "Nothing natural should move like that!"
Dirk steps out of the chimney, his eyes still burning with battle lust. "The damned thing vanished!" His eyes dart around the room half expecting another sudden attack.
His focus finally lands on Selena, concern obvious in his voice, "Armand... can you do something for her?"
Looking at Lash, "You scored a good hit, but it may yet return."
Then to Thantos, "Any idea what that creature was?"
As he speaks, Dirk moves over near Selena to act as a barrier in the event of another sudden attack.
Armand moves over to Selena, moving behind her, partially to examine the wounds on her shoulder, partially to cover her back in case of another attack.
"The gouges aren't deep, but will take a while to cure without this."
Armand snaps off a short chant like prayer, clapping his hands together and placing them directly over the oozing wound. Flinching at the pain as the healing light flows through her, Selena immediately feels a warm light penetrate her shoulder.
As if they were never there in the first place, the wounds close over completely, not even the slightest cut remains. The only reminder of the attack being the shredded clothing exposing Selena's right shoulder.
Smiling to Selena in a fatherly way, Armand turns back toward the rest of the group, though you all notice, his mace remains in his hand.
Considering for a moment, Mird puts away his hammer and unstrings his bow from his back, knocking an arrow. He moves back toward the far wall, between two tables, places his back against it, and raises the bow/arrow, obviously keeping watch and awaiting another attack, eyes continually scanning the room.
In the middle section of the room, almost as if coming out of a trance, shaking his head in the negative at his obvious thoughts. Thantos looks up at Dirk at the question. "I've been trying to place that monster in my memories and knowledge. I know I've never seen anything like it, but one or two monsters I've heard about over the years have some similar properties. As it is, I simply don't have enough to go on to give you a better idea of what we're facing."
Looking up at the rest of you Thantos says "I'm sorry all, I simply don't know what it is we're facing yet."
Selena tends to the wound herself, after Armand has seen to it, wrapping a gauze bandage loosely around the gashes.
"I do not think I have seen anything like it at all, in dreams or elsewhere."
Theras alights on her shoulder once again.
As usual, Selena seems a little 'out of it'.
Dirk considers the party's options as Armand tends to Selena's wounds.
"The way I see it, we have two options; head back out into the snow storm to look for other shelter; or continue on here and purge this place of its dangers."
"I'll respect the opinion of the group, but I'd rather stay. Whatever is in here will continue to wreak havoc on innocent people unless we put a stop to it."
Looking over at Selena, still pale from her loss of blood, Dirk's jaw muscles tighten, "Besides... we have a score to settle."
Making eye contact with Lash, Dirk nods, "Lead on."
Leaving the large mirror shards from the three rooms you've been through on the table of the Kitchen (), and realizing you're not the only things in this tower, the six of you keep your weapons at the ready, tighten up your formation, and proceed out the door of the kitchen and down the hall to the north west to the next door on the floor, the Dining Area you could see through the pass through window of the Kitchen.
Pausing at the door while Lash goes through her normal checks, the six of you keep a wary eye on the surroundings around you, on heightened alert for the presence of whatever that black-furred baboon-like creature was. The blood on the floor of the bedroom, bed, walls and ceiling you entered earlier now makes sense, the thought slightly turning your stomach as to what must have happened to the poor individual who was in bed at the time he was attacked to have made that much mess.
Lash pops open the door slowly, rapier leading the way, as she slowly enters the room, the rest of you following.
This room is obviously a mess hall of sorts, several long tables standing in rows identify this as a mess for a large number of people. Between the benches and chairs in the room you guestimate about 15 people could be fed in this room comfortably, with around 25 being a maximum capacity if you crammed them in hip to hip along the benches and chairs. Given the sparsity of furniture, the number and arrangement of tables and chairs, and other decoration, it's likely this is more likely a servant's or soldier's mess hall than a more private dining room for the tower owners.
The most visible oddity in the room is the fact that a single chair has been placed on one of the tables facing the door, and, propped up on the chair, is yet another of the, what is quickly becoming, ubiquitous pieces of mirror glass. Squarish in shape and about 2 feet by 2 feet, it's very obvious that this mirror glass was placed where it's at instead of having fallen or been discarded there.
Your visual scan of the room also notes that several of the tables and benches are damaged. Each of the damaged tables looks like it's been scorched in places by either fire or acid, and on a couple of them the seating benches are entirely missing, though the metal brackets and other hardware to hold them up are still in evidence.
Mird looks back down the hallway again before going into the room . His breathing quickens slightly and a long slow breath following, nocking an arrow to his bow, he checks the room for any other signs of the...creature's...attacks.
Selena continues to gather the mirror shards, hoping to find a way to put them back together. She is somewhat amused by it, for some reason.
Thantos casts detect magic and examines the room for residual magic.
Dirk moves into the room and immediately begins the process of scanning for possible threats. Remembering that the last attack came suddenly - and at a weaker party member - Dirk protectively stays near Selena and Thantos with his Falchion drawn and ready.
Glancing uncomfortably at the new mirror shard, Dirk resists another urge to smash it with the pommel of his weapon.
You think back through your history as a hunter and your limited training in the Kethlenican school of knowledge (which all hunters society spend a short time at to learn some of the basics of magic...better to be prepared against).
Unfortunately while you have heard of of several creatures similar to something like this (anything from displacer beasts to primates with magical abilities) there is nothing in your past or history that would put a finger on the enemy you've seen only briefly and faced.
Your knowledge of the Arcane simply isn't broad enough to have covered this creature specifically, and there's nothing "generic" enough to match the description.
There's one thing you can say for sure, there is NOTHING natural about this beast. While you're familiar with the habits of baboons (though only through study of nature, not any direct contact*) the general shape/appearance is about the only thing of similarity.
This creature is obviously larger, miss-colored, smarter, and a WHOLE lot meaner than any primate you've ever run across or studied in your knowledge of nature.
You're unsure what this thing is, but you know for certain it is NOT a baboon.
* Note: while I maintain your character has general knowledge of most animal life, including most mammalian life, keep in mind the entirety of Norwold is Temperate Forest (from the far north where the climate is almost arctic in nature) to the far south (which is basically midwest in nature). Consider the area to run the gambit from mid-Northern US to northern Canada in weather and Climate.
You would have no direct experience with tropical creatures or jungle like habitation. That said, it's not that humans don't HAVE knowledge of that kind of area, it's just you've never had the opportunity to experience it in your every day life.
The room seems empty of threat, no signs of footprints that would match the creature you're looking for's bulk and size, no bloody mess from some slaughter. If the creature has passed through this room recently, it's done a very good job cleaning up after itself.
Your attention keeps getting pulled back to the damaged tables. Something about that seems weird...
Magical Radiance you definitely detect.
Coming from all of the mirror shards (the one on the chair on the table, and the 3 pieces in Selena's hands) each is radiating a VERY dim magical radiance. The tricky thing is that as you focus stronger on each piece you cannot determine the nature of that radiance. The mirror glass pieces are glowing as if each is magical, but the aura of each is not lending itself to determining how each piece is magical.
The more you concentrate, the more you're convinced, while it's likely each of the pieces of mirror glass are magical, they have no magical "properties" to them...
More like you're looking at an area of magic instead of an item of magic...or perhaps a mundane object made of magic than an object imbued with magical power.
We'll stop here while you each get your information before I identify the findings of the room search. If there's anything you'd like to do with the information from your ability usage please let me know.
"That wasn't any natural animal I've ever seen, and isn't like any primate I've ever heard about. I know there exists some forms of magical beasts that could well be what this is, I can't tell for sure." Mird says quietly to the group, all the while eyes constantly roving the area to notice anything happening.
"Armand, do you mind sticking close to me? I would prefer if you didn't unnecessarily put yourself in harm's way."
Lowering his bow, but keeping an arrow nocked, he says, "Does anyone else find the tables and benches...odd? Something seems to have scorched them, or even burned through them in some cases."
Having finished his assessment, Mird holds the bow and the arrow in one hand, and draws his mask out of his pack. He dons it as quickly as possible, the nondescript image replacing his natural appearance. The bow hums slightly as the arrow is once again nocked in position.
Dirk nods approvingly at Mird's concern for Armand.
"I find this whole place odd and I suspect these broken mirror shards are some how related to this destruction."
Looking at the mirror shard that is propped on the chair (that is atop the table), Dirk allows his gaze to continue up to the ceiling.
The ceiling is a standard wooden subfloor and rafters with stonework laid over the top of it (you can see the stonework through some gaps/cracks in the wooden subfloor).
The only way through that ceiling (so far as you can tell) would be to punch through a half inch thick piece of hardwood followed by probably half a foot, at least, of solid stone.
Looking around the room your practiced eye notes a lack of windows, doors or chimneys in this room...as far as you can tell, the only way into or out of this room is either through the doorway you came in, or through the cutout in the east wall that leads back into the kitchen (the pass-through from the kitchen to the dining room, where the cooks could pass the food though to those in the dining area).
Armand nods at Mird's suggestion and breaks off from beginning his search of the room to move to the east wall with Mird, putting his back against the wall (away from the pass-through) and holding his mace at the ready.
While Mird and Armand hang back at the eastern edge of the room, Mird drawing a bead on the areas ahead of where the party is moving and Armand scanning the area close to them to protect Mird's position, the others of you (Dirk, Selena, Thantos and Lash) start moving through the room in a search to see what clues you may be able to come up with.
As Lash starts moving past one of the central tables (just beyond where the mirror shard is) a sickening slurp as of some viscous liquid being sucked through a straw is faintly audible, followed by a very wet "plop" and slurping sound.
A Yellow-Orange amoeboid creature, with no definitive body or shape, comes slithering out from under the table only a few feet from Lash, pseudopods grasping ahead of it's approach.
Gah! That's disgusting! Thantos quickly moves away from the creature, careful not to block line of fire, then fishes a ball of tallow, brimstone and powdered iron out of his spell component pouch. He squeezes it in his hand as he chants words of eldritch power and a flaming sphere appears on the creature, burning its gelid body.
Dirk's warrior instincts scream at him as he watches the creature grope for Lash, "Ware its touch!"
Not wanting to get near the disgusting thing (unless necessary!), Dirk sheaths this falchion and draws his heavy crossbow (fitted with an incendiary bolt).
Mesmerized by the large shard and being careful not to let the others cut her hands, she is slow to react to the blob-y thing. The butterfly flashes in front of her, alerting her to the danger.
"What's that, Thern--- eeeeeeeeek!"
Before she can drop the shards she is laboriously carrying, Selena steps back from the creature inadvertently. (5' away)
"What is that thing?"
Mird, after blinking in surprise for a moment, looses an arrow directly at the creature.
"Lash! Watch out for that thing!
Mird gives a sideways glance to the Father while nocking another arrow, "Armand, I don't know what this is, but be careful. It may be responsible for these burned areas."