Selena conjures a ball of warm heavenly fire to her palm, ready to use it at a moment's notice.
Upon opening the door the room is noticeably colder than the hallway or the rooms on the first two floors.
Upon entering the chamber the six of you recognize it for an office or planning room of some sort. Two desks dominate the south and west walls of the room and the first window you've seen in the tower stands closed and shuttered against the cold outside. Waves of cold radiate from the window denoting the chill outside seeping through the uninsulated glass.
Turning your attention to the room, several chairs lay scattered about, almost haphazardly, and the contents of each of the desks are in a slight disarray. Not a disorganized disarray, but denoting work in progress. The room has a very "lived in" feel to it. The two large leather bound chairs are a bit rickety but still sturdy and comfortable looking, the desks are obviously well used and each desk reflects the habits of a different person...from the way the papers on it are scattered about to where and how the quills and ink are set. Gouge marks on the stone floor are worn in denoting where the wood of the legs has scraped, over and over again, against the stone floor.
One of the two desk chairs stands turned around and propped up on it, facing the door to the hall, is the room's shard of mirror glass.
A door on the east wall leads into another room, presumably the one the door in front of you when you entered the hall would go to.
Taking her staff of healing, Selena knocks the mirror shard to the floor with enough force to break it, hopefully.
Thantos walks over to the window and looks out before he closes it. The storm's fury is is abating. Mird, do you think our pursuers will be able to track us here? Not that there's likely to be anywhere else nearby where we could have sheltered.
Mird shakes his head, "That is unlikely by normal means of tracking. Although, magically, you would have more expertise than I on the possibilities of finding one's prey."
The mirror crashes to the ground, the crash and tinkle of glass reverberates around the room a second and periodically continues as Selena uses the butt of her staff to break up the larger pieces.
Selena glances around the room a last time, then turns to the next door.
"Lash, this one's not trapped is it?" She points delicately.
"I'll check," Lash replies, hesitating for a moment as she looks at the floor.
"Those marks in the ground, look as if the daskhas been moved back and forth a few times. Could be something behind or under it."
Perception
Raising an eyebrow at Lash's observation, Dirk cautiously moves to get a better view of the desk's back and underside.
Looking around the room, you find little of value but several items of interest. The room doesn't seem to have any indications of anything out of the ordinary (secret doors or compartments, hidden chests or walls, etc.) and just has a well used feel to it.
Searching the desk tops you find several letters of correspondence between the tower owners and many people of import you recognize from the local region, including Duke Stephan himself. Obviously the owners of this tower were of some importance or renown in the area.
The letters speak of the owners of the tower as an adventuring couple: a Mage of some skill (at least by reputation according to the personal correspondence), by name of Halia, and her husband, a warrior who obviously served in a regional militia before becoming an adventurer, by name of Retamerion ([ooc]The spelling of that name is wrong, I don't have my notes front of me right now, It'll get corrected in the next post).
Many of the letters are personal in nature and spell out a previous adventuring career by the adventuring couple before settling down with their spoils to a life less hectic. Other letters are simple inventory/correspondence with various suppliers of goods...obviously part of the rigours of owning your own place in the wilderness. Yet others indicate correspondence with some of the upper echelon nobility of both the surrounding regions and Speclarium, the capital city of the Duchy...including (as mentioned) Duke Stephan himself.
Beyond standard personal greetings and requests for better patrolling of the vicinities (most of which were politely rebuffed by the Duke or other military commanders), little is gleaned from the contents of the writing.
Nothing obvious bespeaks of problems that could indicate what might have wiped out the citizens of the tower however.
The only thing of note, however, is one drawer in Halia's desk is locked, and there is no key to be found. The drawer does not look as if it's been forced open either.
"If someone wants to check for magic protaction, I'll see if I cab get past the lock."
Absolutely Miss Silverflame.
Thantos casts detect magic on the desk.
Selena moves her ward back to Lash, in case there's a trap. Theras flutters around Lash's head for a moment, then returns to Selena's shoulder.
Lash takes a deep breath focising her entire attention on the lock. As she works, a small smile crosses her lips as she feels the welcome sensation of Lena's protection and hears her gently admonishing Theras.
Disable device
The snick of the lock clicking open is soft and sweet in Lash's ears, reminding her of easier days long gone.
Grinning Lash stands up and slowly opens the desk drawer.
Among the drawer are some papers that look confidential in nature. Most of them are personnel related (salaries of the staff, soldiers and help, documentation on various items of the keep that the owners likely wanted to ensure weren't either public knowledge or at least were less "visible" to the rest...things like a private wine stash and decorations of a more expensive nature.
Two documents stand out in your mind through your search of the private papers.
The first is a short document, obviously released from duchy officials in what surely looks like a military briefing. The document has the official seal of the Duchy and is signed by someone Armand recognizes as a military official for the Duke himself. A transcript of the Document can be found Here ()
The second document, attached to the first is a short "journal" entry in what looks to be a female hand, probably Halia's.
April 13th, 628PH
---------------------
The Mirror! It MUST be the mirror! Why, though, would they deliver it as a gift to MY hands? Surely whoever in Mallek's camp who decided to steal the mirror and bring it here MUST have intended for me to learn it's secrets. But if this Mallek is as powerful as they say, if he is indeed the famed "Skarda", why would he allow this to be brought here to be studied and it's secrets revealed?
Retameron has hired 3 more guards for the tower and has some of our old friends on call in case of attack...and I'm sure SOMETHING is going to happen. If this is Skarda, there's no way he can allow the key to his success to be destroyed...he'll try something.
For the moment, we have the mirror covered in our bedroom upstairs. I simply need to find the secrets to this Mirror of Life Trapping and I should be able to reverse the years of destruction Mallek has gotten away with.
Just a few more days and I should have it...
-----------------------
The entry ends here. The bloodstains and other debris in the tower you've come across are consistent with something happening around that timeframe. ()
"A mirror of life trapping?"
Selena closes her eyes for a moment, attempting to remember her dreams or any other special communications about a mirror.
Know (arcane)
Know (planes)
Hmmm, a mirror of life trapping? Curiouser and curiouser, and mages with significant bounties on their heads. Mallek and Skarda sound... potent. Let's see here.
Thantos tries to remember any salient information regarding mirrors of life trapping.
Being one of the most well known and fabled devices of a magical nature, you've each heard at least the basics of what a mirror of life trapping is and does.
(Feel free to read the description of the item, while the details of numbers and such aren't going to be there, the general description and information contained in the description of the item are known to both of you.)
"That might explain why there are so many strange creatures running around. When the mirror is broken, the creatures escape from its prison."
"I hope there weren't any other...more dangerous creatures than those baboons."
How many have we killed now? There could be more than a dozen of them running around this place. And still, the question remains of who put all these shards into the rooms? Could it have been Mallek? Let's press onwards. I think that the answers to our questions are at the top of this tower.
Dirk nods in agreement with the conversation, "Well, if there are more creatures about, let's not keep them waiting."
The room you've entered is obviously some kind of meeting or planning room for military use.
A long table stands in the middle of the room, surrounded by chairs. Maps of the surrounding vicinity, the Duchy as a whole, and Norwold as a whole are hung around the room and laid out on the table. Some rolls of paper are standing in a corner, probably other maps. One map, a somewhat detailed map of the Duchy with the various towns and cities, remains pinned into place in the center of the table. Several red painted wood markers have been placed in various locations on the map...what they are there for, you're not sure. It does, however, look like the tower inhabitants were looking for someone or something...and it's likely the markers in the various towns and locations identify sightings or events of interest.
One of the chairs has been moved from it's place on the floor to sitting on the table and the ubiquitous shard of mirror glass has been propped up on the chair facing the doorway to the hall.
A doorway in the west wall leads into another room...more than likely the office room you just left.
Thantos examines the wooden markers with detect magic but also with an eye for the mundane. I wonder if any of these locations are linked to Mallek or Skarda...
Selena again knocks the shard to the floor with her staff, careful to ensure that no one is hurt by the glass.
"I'm beginning to hate these things." Selena confides to the golden butterfly.
The cities and towns marked on the map are indeed familiar to you as you've traveled through several of them on your way to the Kiren's Keep all those weeks ago. They are the cities and towns of the surrounding area (mostly almost everything in the Duchy).
As to the markers on the map, however, they remain a mystery. Nothing in your knowledge suggests a commonality between ALL of the markers. Certainly SOME of the markers share commonality geographically or historically, but there's really nothing that places all of the markers on the map in the same grouping.
None of the markers are at all magical nor do they radiate anything even close to magical...actually nothing in this room radiates anything magically inclined...except, as usual, the broken mirror glass fragments on the floor.
As Thantos muses over the locations being linked to Mallek/Skarda Armand steps forward to look at the map with a critical eye.
"Interestingly enough" he says, pointing at two of the markers, "these markers on this map identify communities that do not exist anymore. It's interesting because since whatever happened to the communities happened, they've been ghost towns with little to no interest in them. Reports I received as Kiren's Keep's commander were that these two hamlets (and they really were little more than that) both ended up abandoned...overnight...with nary a cat, dog or bird left...not to mention the people having completely disappeared. This was years ago, however. Now that you mention it Thantos, and being reminded by Halia's report we just found, I do remember some talk among the military and various town watches years ago that the hamlets were attacked by some kind of raiding force that made off with everything...but we had discounted those stories as rumors...and didn't really worry due to the fact we were much larger than either of these hamlets."
Studying the maps further, Armand continues "We know that this Retameron and Halia were interested in Skarda...there is a possibility that these markers do note something about the mage...perhaps recent sightings, or maybe just all of the known sightings or attacks that this raiding group has made." Armand shrugs.
"Did these reports of people being carried off by a raiding force happen to mention blood everywhere? Be cause this place being abandoned the way it is looks like it fits the pattern."
None of the reports you read seemed to indicate any kind of attack like this. What you're seeing of this tower indicates more of an animal attack (and the creature you killed downstairs certainly looked more than capable of causing the havoc you've seen here) or monster attack than what you've ready and heard about described in some of these disappearances.
That said, the fact that there's a bunch of blood and no bodies at all DOES in fact seem to ring true with other reports...no trace of any of the two villages of people were ever found and no evidence of who did the attacks were ever found either.
That said, despite the demon-animal downstairs, from what you've read and discovered so far, there does seem to be a direct line correlation between Skarda, the attacks on the towns and the disappearance of everyone and everything living in them, and the evidence of what's happened here in the tower. To top it off, it sounds like a mirror like that MIGHT very well have come to the tower itself...at least Halia seemed to think so in her notes.
Selena remains quiet, persing her lips in confusion.
"You must forgive me. I know little of geography, or the history of this province, or anything truly useful. If I might do something to assist you, you must please let me know."
We had probably best press onward. And we must be wary. I believe the corner room will contain a chimney like the ones below it. These creatures seem to enjoy hiding in them, so we had best be on our guard.
Selena waits near the door as Lash performs her roguish routine. Listening to the others, she conjures heavenly fire to her hand, prepared to use it in any number of ways.
Opening the door () you cautiously enter.
The room is a bit of a dishevelled mess, but not like those rooms you've encountered where attacks have occurred. This just looks like normal "lived in" messiness...a messiness not seen in the military sections of the castle.
This chamber holds four cots and four chests and is obviously a bedchamber for the tower's servants. The fireplace on the north east wall looks unused in several days, though cinders and charred pieces of wood rest on an iron grate over a hole in the floor...it's obvious that the fireplace connects to the one in the room below and continues up into the floors above.
The room is sparse with a single table and set of chairs other than the beds. Cloths and blankets lay somewhat strewn around in an "ordered chaos" kind of perspective. A glass half full of water sits on the table.
In the center of the floor, propped up by a rough rock to face the door, is the room's shard of mirror glass.
Selena waits for those more militarily prepared to enter the room before her. But if it seems clear she'll enter and break the mirror glass shard.
Thantos continues his magical scanning but does not expect to find anything but the mirror.
A quick check of the chests reveals the room to be a servants quarters. Common utilitarian servants clothing and some miscellaneous personal effects (not many of very high quality) bespeak the possessions of the common working class person in this part of Norwold.
None of the chests contains any items or information of note.
As expected, the magical scan of the room also provides no additional information other than the shards of mirror glass on the floor.
As the group prepares to check the next room, Thantos makes a suggestion. I think we would be better served to leave the mirror shards as they are. They break quite loudly, and as the creatures are not using them to travel, they present no danger to us except for sharp edges. Better to leave them be, and avoid announcing our presence.
"How do we know the creatures aren't using them to travel? They are set up in very specific ways, to face certain directions. I can't believe that it is random or unintentional. And if it is intentional, I fear that the intent behind it is harmful."
The accounts kept in the journal were quite clear. These are the shattered pieces of a mirror of life trapping. While I agree that their placement is odd, the monkeys are already out of the mirror, as it were. I have examined these creatures with arcane sight, both while they live and in repose. They are not traveling through these shards. I'd stake my life on it. I am sure that harm was intended to the former owners of this tower, and perhaps to anyone who comes after, but if there were something more to these shards than the lingering magic of what they once were, we would have discovered it by now. All that we are accomplishing by breaking these shards is announcing our whereabouts.
Selena perses her lips. Something seems odd and frightening to her about the mirror shards.
"I'd put it to a vote. I feel significantly more secure by breaking the shards than by not. I do not like the way they have been set up. As though to trap light or something in certain ways."
I do not like to leave a place for an enemy to attack Father Armand from behind. I agree we should not leave them where they are, but I also agree it is not necessary to destroy them needlessly.
I have no objection to moving the placements of the shards. So, shall we move them but not destroy them? It sounds a fair and equitable compromise to my ears.
The next room () is almost identical to the last. 4 Beds, 4 Chests, and a Table with chairs surrounding it are the basis for what's in the room.
Another check of the chests and search of the room reveals the same as the last...no additional information, some personal knick nacks of little value, and another servants quarters.
The mirror glass in the room (for this room has one also) is sitting identically to the one in the last room. Propped up in the center of the floor facing the door.
As with all the rest, the mirror shard is dully glowing with magic and the rest of the room is empty of magical or important mundane contents.
Armand stays silent a moment on the shards, pondering.
"I agree with Thantos that the noise from breaking the mirror shards is definitely giving away our movement through the halls of this tower...not that we've seen anything other than that demon baboon thing that would care...and it obviously didn't need us breaking mirrors to know where we were."
"On the other hand, I agree with Selena that these shards are being "placed" with intelligence for a reason we do not yet understand. I'm not sure I agree that these mirrored shards of glass we keep running across don't have some connection with the creatures in this tower, or at least with the demon baboon creature we ran into a floor below us."
"Something should be done with the glass...what that 'Something' is I leave up to the rest of you, I do not know which is worse...smashing our way through the tower setting ourselves up for ambush by announcing our presence, or leaving a potential problem we do not yet understand at our backs."
