A mirror of life trapping is a powerful item in and of itself, and though I hate to admit it, well beyond my capabilities. A more powerful version, well it might not be an artifact, but it would be very close to one in power. As for who is placing the shards, a summoned creature might do it if directed, but the called ones do not linger for very long. Certainly not for days on end. Someone obviously placed these, and, interestingly enough, knew someone would be along to see the placement. Have we stumbled into something, or was this for our benefit? I wonder.
Thantos closes his mouth abruptly. My apologies. I tend to carry on somewhat. So, shall we continue, or tuck tail and run?
"So far, I have yet to see anything we can't handle. Lets continue and see what we can see. The storm outside is not yet abated enough for us to consider leaving the tower and continuing our treck north to Speclarium. The more time we give our trail to cool, the less easy it will be for those searching for us to find us anyway. We seem to have an abundance of time on our hands for once...lets make good use of it."
Crossing the small hallway again to the southern door on the north western wall you carefully examine it for traps, though unexpected, and (as expected) find none. Pushing through the door you are immediately assaulted by a rancid smell.
This is evidently the "upstairs kitchen" where meals for the residents of the top floor were cooked. You see a large fireplace on the east wall and tables all around, plus two doors on the west wall, one north, one south.
The tables are full of rotting food, where the rancid smell is obviously coming from, indications of small rodents are all over the place...droppings on the floor and table, small bite marks out of the various foods on the table, even the sounds of small scrabbling feet and squeaks are coming from all over the room...from the dark places under tables, in corners, and behind other furniture.
On one of the tables, facing the door, is the room's shard of glass.
"Now this... is somewhat interesting." Selena says as she covers her nose with her feathered cloak and continues into the room. She examines the table with the shard of glass.
Theras flutters about the room, briefly hovering over the rotting food before flying towards the mirror shard.
The food rotting is consistent with the blood stains you've seen around the tower: Days, maybe upwards of a week...not weeks or months.
The mirror's placement time is harder to determine. There is a fine layer of dust (thin, it's not been long) on the table and food while you THINK the layer of dust is thinner/lesser on the top of the mirror, but it's very difficult to tell given the time-frames in question.
Were both items in question perishable, were there some signs of decay on the mirror glass that could be matched to something else, you might be able to make a clear determination. As it is, your best guess is that the mirror MIGHT be slightly newer in the room than the food...but you are FAR from certain whether this is the case or not.
An extended search of the room provides no additional information so you proceed on to the next portion of the tower by exiting the room at the northwestern most door (in basically the westernmost corner of the room).
You proceed out into the now standard hallway around the interior of the floor, surrounding the walled off stairwell. The stone floor of this level is covered by a few threadbare strips of carpeting and a few tapestries line the walls. In a few places small pieces of furniture sit unobtrusively out of the way holding nick nack decorations (an empty vase meant to hold flowers here, a small framed painting there, etc.). The hall is otherwise empty of contents and no mirror shard can be found...as is expected from the other floor's surrounding hallways.
The room you enter is obviously a personal room of some sort of someone slightly more important than the normal servant staff.
The first thing you notice is the overstuffed bed, looking very comfortable (not quite luxurious, but certainly better than the almost pallets you saw from the bedrooms on the lower floors of the soldiers and tower staff) and warm. The bed is unmade and the sheets and blankets are thrown back as if hastily removed.
A small luxury item: an intact mirror standing about 2 feet tall by a foot and a half wide, is hung in what looks to be a picture frame on the wall near a small table and stool.
Other than the small table/stool/mirror and bed there is little else in the room other than two sizeable chests tucked away partially under the bed. The chests are not locked and contain clothing and personal effects, likely for the head cook of the tower given the nick knacks and, aprons and chefs hats in one of the two chests.
Laying flat on the bed is the chamber's shard of mirror glass.
A quick search of the room turns up no additional items or information of note.
"Now that is interesting... Again, the shard seems as though it could have been placed here after everyone hurriedly left. Both here and in the dining area."
She tries to think for a moment as she looks through the clothing in the chests. "I don't know what to think. Like I said before, it feels like the shards are intentionally placed where they are. There are signs of a very fast mass exodus from the tower, but it seems almost like the shards were placed here after they left... Or perhaps as a result of them leaving? Or perhaps as a cause?" Selena pauses her search for a moment. "That does not truly make sense, though. If the shards were placed here after everyone left, they wouldn't be the cause for them leaving."
Theras flutters at Selena's shoulder, settling down carefully on the feathered cloak.
"If the shards were the reason for them leaving, it would explain why it was so sudden in many cases. But that still brings us no closer to what put them here, or if they're still a threat." Lash mutters in frustration.
Thantos begins his customary scan of the room for magical auras as he wanders inside. He flips the sheets over the mirror shard, covering it quickly as he passes by before looking behind the mirror in the picture frame and around the table and stool for anything hidden.
Oh, I'm sure there are still threats in this tower. Let's just stay wary, and meet them with blade, and spell, and stout hearts.
Armand thinks for a second before he says "I absolutely believe that these shards are intentionally placed where they are, and by something intelligent. Given the locations of some of these pieces of glass I think it's a safe guess to say they were placed here after the tower was deserted. Take the shard of glass in this room for example. It would be in the way of anyone using the bed. We've seen glass balanced on chairs on tops of tables, on edges of grain bins, etc...these aren't "natural" places to put things, and many of these shards are placed so precariously that I would assume any group of people moving around a busy tower would end up knocking them over or at least moving them to more out of the way locations."
"I absolutely believe that the order of operations here was something attacked the tower, the occupants fled or died, and then the mirror pieces were brought in and placed...by the look of it, in every room in the tower. The mirrors provide something someone...I just don't know what yet."
Moving back into the hallway you move down to the next door on your right which opens into another somewhat larger bedroom. More evidence of a cook's quarters, but this time it looks to house more than one. Three cots, three chests, and a small amount of other furniture in the room suggest three cooks live here...likely the chief cook's assistants.
On one of the cots, propped up against the wall facing the door, is this room's ubiquitous shard of mirror glass.
A search of the room turns up nothing more interesting than a few cooking implements, lesser chef's hats and aprons, and a letter in a drawer...addressed to Lady Halia and Master Retamerion. Curiosity getting the better of you, you open the letter to find it is a letter of resignation of service.
The letter looks to have been written and addressed to the tower masters, but never delivered. Why the letter was never delivered is a mystery you may never solve.
Other than citing some rather amusing and disgusting antics of the chief cook as reason for the departure, the letter is very apologetic to the tower masters and it's obvious that this assistant cook cared for the Master and Mistress of this tower and the other staff they worked with and for.
A magical analysis of the room turns up nothing more interesting than the usual glow from the shard of glass.
Selena shudders as a new thought comes over here.
"Do you think the mirror shards were placed here to keep something in the tower? Perhaps I should not have broken the ones below. But they seemed so ominous."
Armand ponders Selena's question for a moment.
"If that is the case, I don't believe we broke enough of them to have released whatever it is that shouldn't have been released. I've not heard anything attempting to escape the tower and we have so far passed through the entirety of 3 full floors. Not that something couldn't have slipped past us, mind you, but I certainly haven't heard anything big or loud making it's way out of the tower."
Thinking for a bit more he continues.
"The worst thing we've encountered here so far, by far, is that demon baboon thing down on second floor. We started breaking mirrors down there, yet it didn't seem to try to escape, it was more interested in hunting us down and attacking. Evidence seems to suggest that since the worst thing we've found wasn't interested in escaping, that either we've not done enough damage to allow whatever it is to escape, or the mirrors aren't there to hold something IN."
"Perhaps something or someone has set this puzzle to confound, and then to kill, whoever is unhappy enough to enter. Either that or the people who built this place had enemies who are trying to keep them from returning to here."
Moving to the next room (4.9), the six of you begin to open the door when you notice that it has an exceptionally tight seal on it. Opening it, you can see why.
Large dead hunks of raw meat hang from hooks threaded in through the wooden beams above. By the looks, everything from chickens to cows to pigs to more wild animal (like deer) have been skinned, cleaned and are now hanging in this room which is cooler than all of the others you've been in in the tower...obviously helped by the sealed door.
The slightly sweet smell of rancid meat reaches your nose as you proceed through the room, inspecting what you can. Only some of the meat has obviously gone bad, most of it is still in edible condition (though by the look of it probably not for a hugely long time).
On the floor, propped up and facing the door, is the room's shard of mirror glass.
Upon deeper inspection into the unlighted room, you find that several of the larger hunks of meat have very large chunks bitten out of them by huge sets of jaws. No particular order or type is affected more than the others, just seemingly randomly large hunks of the hanging carcases have been bitten out or off of the rest.
A magical inspection of the room turns up no unusual magical activity.
The most obviously thing
Dirk moves to inspect the bite marks on a piece of hanging meat. Reaching up, he turns the meat for a better look at the bite.
"It appears we have, at least, one more occupant unaccounted for. "
Dirk drops his gaze to the floor and looks for any evidence of tracks left by the creature.
Thantos stays wary, trying to shed light on the shadowy corners of the room. Did the demon - baboon leave those bite marks? he whispers.
Selena shrugs, but she contemplates the bite marks as well, with Theras fluttering on her shoulder.
Given the size of the marks and the size of the jaws, you definitely couldn't rule out a monster of some kind...and there is no question that a creature like you fought below may very well be what took the bite out of the hanging meat.
This would indicate to you () that the creature below had the run of the tower. Given the age of this meat, it had the run of the tower for at least several days to a week, again, consistent with the dried blood and other wreckage you've found around the tower.
It occurrs to you that the other creatures in the tower you've encountered...the jelly in the kitchen below and the baboon on the first floor...were untouched by the demon you encountered. Perhaps the jelly you faced on the second floor would have been able to hold it's own or otherwise win a fight, but the baboon on the first floor definitely would not have survived an encounter with the demon baboon creature you fought on the second floor.
Further thought brings you to the concept that while it's possible a mobile creature like the baboon could or would have avoided the demon, it's unlikely that a creature wandering the tower for the last week, perhaps hungry or looking for food, would NOT have stumbled into the kitchen...and thus encountered the ooze. And while, again, the baboon and demon creature may have been friendly toward each other, the ooze is mindless and would have attacked regardless.
And that leaves you one thought: There doesn't seem to be any other answer to the question of why the Ooze and the Demon didn't encounter each other than that the demon avoided the ooze...which meant that, somehow, the demon creature knew the ooze was there.
It's becoming clearer to all of you that about a week ago something happened in this tower...at which point there was some kind of attack and the tower was abandoned. Given the lack of bodies, either everyone escaped (unlikely given the amount of blood you've seen), the tower was cleaned up in some way by someone, or something more unsavory happened to the dead.
Since that point, several creatures seem to have had the run of the tower, the worst of which seems to be the demon creature you fought below. The other creatures you still can't explain the presence of, but every indication is that the demon was a new "resident" of the tower...roaming about, perhaps looking for something to eat. How it got here remains a mystery also.
Given the documents you found from the tower owners (Lady Halia and Lord Retameron), they were pursuing an investigation of a wizard known as Skarda (locally known under the identity of Mallek) who they found had links to the disappearance of entire villages full of people.
Around this same time-frame of a week ago, the last information available states that a magical mirror of some sort (Halia identifies it potentially as a mirror of life trapping) shows up at the tower which Halia intends to study, believing it to be linked with Skarda/Mallek.
Then there are the mirror shard pieces, each laid around the various rooms of the tower. Enough mirrored glass to make up dozens if not scores of normal sized mirrors, you've still found no link between the mirrored glass and the other events or creatures you've encountered. Where they came from, why they're placed so, and what function they have remains a mystery.
Shaking your collective heads, you move on.
The bite marks are definitely consistent with the creature you killed below you. The size of the bites out of the meat are definitely consistent with the size of the extended jaws of the demon baboon below. You've also not encountered anything else in this tower that could come close to taking a bite like that out of a raw piece of meet such as this.
Looking at the floor you can definitely detect bits of meat and dried blood from when the animal corpse was bitten into and partially eaten, it's obvious that something large and messy was standing right here and yet there are no tracks.
And even more frustrating, that's been the theme of the tower. A creature weighing at least as much as you do if not several hundred pounds more stomps around killing and spattering blood everywhere, possibly eating the corpses of the dead (where else would they have gone?), tromping about the tower, and yet not a track has been left. No footprints, no blood droplets coming out of doorways, no bits of people or other creatures being left around messily, nothing to indicate that an obviously mobile creature was ever wandering this tower. There's definitely evidence in the rooms of the creature's presence, and in some cases enough blood spattered about to indicate quite a mess, but never in the hallways or between rooms.
As the points start gathering together for her, and Selena begins to understand a little better what is going on, she is only more baffled by the mystery of the mirrors.
"It would seem that the bite marks on the meat could have been put there by the demon baboon we faced below. So he's been here for some time then. At least long enough to help himself to the tower's food stocks."
Mird swiftly nods at Selena's assertion. "Agreed. And more concerning is that fact that I can't find any blood spattered tracks, for as messy as the creature that did this was."
Let's press on then.
Dirk nods his agreement and moves to the door.
The door into this chamber is slightly ajar causing you hesitation before entering. Each of you stops dead, barely breathing, as you listen for any sounds within the room. Hearing nothing, Dirk rushes the room with the rest of you following close behind only to find nothing threatening.
The chamber holds kegs with water for emergencies, dried meats and vegetables, and bottled goods (vegetables, jellies, etc.). On the floor, just inside the door to the room, is the room's chunk of Mirror Glass, almost stepped on in your rush into the room.
Several glass jars have either fallen off or were knocked off shelves, and are smashed on the floor through obvious mishandling (whether intentional or not is unknown). The contents are mostly untouched, however one jar of jelly has several pairs of obviously small rodent foot prints stalking away from it...not everything in this tower is dead obviously.
There's a small crack in the stone of the floor where either three stones came together with roundedish corners or a chunk of one of the stones got worn down/broken off with time. The crack/hole goes down to the wooden sub-floor* below and likely leads down a path where the rodents can run, perhaps even be able to find a way to the floor below.
NOTE: * The ceiling of each floor is wood while the tower floors of each level are stone. General building practices in this day and age accomplish this by building a wooden "roof" on each floor, then laying the stone of the next floor on stubby rafters to trap some air in between the floor of the level and the ceiling of the last level...providing some minor insulation between floors. While you have NO idea how deep the distance is between the stone of the floor and the top of the ceiling (the air gap) it's generally no more than a few inches. In many cases this is also done to provide "hiding spaces" or "storage spaces" between floors. Many a tower owner has kept illicit or important items hidden beneath a trap door or a no-so-secure stone in the floor of a room.
Selena whispers something to the butterfly fluttering beside her, but otherwise remains alert as she follows the others.
Mird walks towards Selena and beckons for her to look at the mouse tracks to the crack in the floor.
"Selena, do you think your butterfly, Theras, could look in there? Or would it be too dangerous if there's still mice?"
Selena also looks at the mouse tracks, but otherwise is very protective of her butterfly friend.
"Why? Do you think something significant fell down there?"
As you open the final door on the floor you see more of the same. Another storage area, more kegs of water, dried meats and vegetables and more bottled goods. In this case, however, the entire contents of the room look to be untouched. Whether the wandering creatures in the tower have simply avoided the room or whether they were just more careful is unknown.
Just like in the last room, the shard of mirror glass is on the floor facing up just inside the door to the room.
A search of the room turns up almost the same thing as last time, except you can't find any animal tracks, small or large...you suspect this is due to the fact that none of the food is actually obtainable...unlike the last room with stuff on the floor.
"I think that does it for this floor. We've searched every room. Let's move up to the final floor to make sure it's secure before we take our rest."
I agree. Once we've made sure there are no more unwelcome denizens, it might be a good place to rest and regroup.
"Fine by me."
"What's one more floor?" Mird shrugs and takes up his post as they move towards the top of the tower.
Selena nods silently in agreement, but mostly seems to be listening to her butterfly.
The six of you exit back out into the hall and make your way back through the office and back to the stairwell.
Outside, the wind has calmed down significantly, late evening and the slight darkening of the interior of the place tell you that the sun is setting and evening is quickly turning into nighttime. The search through the tower has taken you most of the day, but the good news is that the storm outside seems to all but be abated and by tomorrow, hopefully, the pursuit of the patrols out looking for you may very well be behind you. Your treck to Speclarium and the Duke, to clear your names, may be back on track. At least, you think, this tower has been good for something.
Exiting the stairwell, you enter a small hallway () leading into the rest of the fifth floor.
The more militarily minded of you immediately recognizes this small corridor as a chokepoint for tower defense. Indeed this is likely a last ditch defensive corridor built for tower defenders in the cases where attackers enter the building. Both doors (into and out of the hall) are very heavy and bear three sets of locking bars each. The giveaway is that the bars on BOTH DOORS are on the south east side of the doors. (In other words, the bars are on the inside of the door leading out to the stairwell, but on the other door, into the rest of the tower, the bars are on the opposite side of you.)
Surprisingly, there is no shard of mirror glass in this room.
Two long tapestries, hung from a couple hooks near the ceiling of the tower on either side, span almost the entire length of both the north and south walls. Curious as to why tapestries are being hung in an obvious defensive corridor, you happen to glance behind one to note the tapestries hide a secret.
Behind the tapestries, there are VERY small slits, about an inch wide and 3 - 5 inches long at random locations all along both the north and south walls, 10 - 15 on each wall. The meaning of the slits is clear: men on the opposite side of these walls can use the slits as murder holes, either for thin spears or arrows, to shoot or stab into the room. The tapestries have obviously been hung both for privacy sakes and to at least somewhat obscure the true purpose of the room.
A further search of the room turns up nothing.
Thantos lowers his voice to a whisper. I would rather not tarry in this shooting gallery. Lash, would you be so kind as to traverse to the other doorway and make sure we can exit before we continue?
Dirk casts a concerned glance at Lash, "I'll go. If this is a trap I can take the brunt of the damage."
Dirk edges up to the entrance of the 10' hallway and takes a closer look before heading in.
Dirk moves forward, looking all around the room to see if he can identify any hidden problems.
Luckily for the party (or perhaps because nothing was there) Dirk makes it to the other end of the room and tries the door...which opens with merely a squeak of it's hinges. As expected, the back side of the doorway does have a locking bar on it, allowing it to be barred from the hallway side against attackers coming up the stairs.
The hallway beyond is almost dark given the time of day and lack of light filtering into the hallway. Continuing into the gloom to both the left and right of your entrance point into it, multiple doors lead into other rooms of the upper floor...two of which are just to your left and right respectively.
The hallway is like most others in the castle, with very little furniture, a few paintings and tapestries hanging on the wall, and a threadbare runner carpet covering the stone of the floor.
Selena examines the paintings and tapestries, trying to get a sense of the wealth of the people that might have lived here.
Mird sidles up to the door on the left and listens as closely as he can to see if he can hear anything on the other side.
The tapestry is certainly well made and think, woven with good quality threads and an attention to details. While not nearly as nice as perhaps some of the higher quality and more expensive pieces you've had the opportunity to study and view in your lifetime, it's certainly not a "lesser quality" piece.
You would estimate the Tapestry to be in the Mid/Upper range for quality, certainly not the same quality as the nobility would contract for, but certainly not the common man's decoration either.
Given the size of the tower, the surrounding land, and the furniture and decorations you've seen (along with the size of the staff they must employ), the owners of this tower are neither chintzy with their money, nor lack in wealth.
You lean into the door, cupping your hand and listening for the sounds of movement beyond. A high pitched whistle, as of wind through a crack, sounds from within the room very faintly, but other than that, the room is quiet.
Thantos whispers, Do you hear anything, Mird?
Mird jumps slightly as Thantos whispers to him.
He shakes his head ruefully, "I can't be sure. It sounds like wind whistling through cracks in the stonework...but I can't be so sure with the kinds of things we've seen here."
Selena looks around the room, silently, as a sense of foreboding comes over her in the deathly quiet room, with only the distant sound of winter winds to keep them company.
"We can move forward I think. At least clear the floor so we can see if this place is still dangerous. It obviously was at one point... and we've seen remnants of that danger below. But will there be more demons?"
Yes, let's proceed. And if demons bar our path, we will meet them with steel and spell and courageous hearts!
You open the door into a fancily decorated bedroom. The chamber contains a large bed with semi-expensive looking sheets and pillowcases, a chest for possessions and a small table with a few chairs. While posh, you doubt with the size of the room that this is anything more than a guest chambers...albeit a guest chamber for important guests, but guests none-the-less. The generic decorations and lack of personalization of the room confirms your opinions that the chamber is normally uninhabited by any of the staff or normal tower occupants.
On the table, leaning up against the wall but pointing at the doorway, is the room's shard of glass.
"There's nothing here. Move on to the next room?" The bed looks tempting to Selena, who is anxious to get some actual rest.