"How many more rooms do you think there are?" Selena asks, resisting the urge to smash the latest mirror shard.
I saw many doors in the hallway, Selena. But this is the top floor. Hopefully we will be done soon.
Mird says nothing, keeping himself as alert and close to Father Armand as possible.
...
As you enter the next room, you recognize it as a duplicate of the last; another guest room.
Bed, chest, table and chairs are identical to the last...you would guess all of the furniture for the last two rooms were purchased from the same place at the same time (or crafted at the same time perhaps).
Regardless, there are very few differences between this and the last room, even the sheets on the beds look like they were either purchased or at least made at the same time.
As with the last room, the mirror shard is propped up against the wall on the table, facing the door.
To Recap: We are in room 5.3 on the map at [url]http://www.wowraidmanager.net/ROAR/players_map_tower.jpg[/url]. As you'll remember you are currently wanted by the duchy for the "murder" of BOTH commanders of Kirin's keep...one of which (Armand) is still very much alive. Your current goal is to make your way to Speclarium, obtain an audience with Duke Stephan, and clear your names. Your other goal for seeking the Duke's help is, after the mysterious disappearance of the vast majority of the keep's standing army while hunting orcs, you need to get the Duke to commit forces to ridding Kirin's Keep of the current occupying force: A grouping of mercenary soldiers of obvious Ill repute and intent.
Part of the reason for the loss of Kirin's keep and your flight from the authorities is the fact that the other previous commander of the keep turned out to be a member of the dark brotherhood, an organization of assassins that, among other things, overthrew the kingdom of Kethlenica, where you're all from, and ousted Prince Armand. It's possible that the mercenary leader is also from the same group, meaning the southern part of the Duchy is in the grasp of the brotherhood.
At this point, you are on the fifth and final floor of an "abandoned" tower (though it doesn't look like it's been abandoned for long), that you found while trying to escape persuit from the Duchy authorities and shelter from a massive spring snowstorm. You are currently scouring the tower looking for anything harmful to a good night's rest while you wait out the snowstorm that's preventing you from continuing your travels. While exploring the tower, you encountered a wierd demon like baboon that was able to move within the tower with alarming ease, avoiding most detection, but managed to kill it. The rest of the tower, other than some random monsterous denizens, has been mostly quiet. Strange pieces of mirrored glass have been placed all over the keep (every room you've been in so far), way too much of it to have come from within the keep itself. All of the glass so far has registered as slightly magical and of unknown origin or magical type...the mirror glass being of a strange origin. The glass isn't just mirrored on one or two sides, the ENTIRE piece of glass is mirrored (corners, edges, surfaces, all of it) indicating that the glass / shards are reflective all the way through the material...an oddity none of you have ever seen before.
You've also found evidence of the keep's former owners (a Mage lady by the name of Halia and her Warrior Husband Retameron) who were former adventurers and, most recently, seem to have stumbled upon the trail of a local criminal by the name of Skarda (also known in the local area as Malek), one who has supposedly been able to raid entire villages of people for supplies and disappear without a trace...often making the entire village of people disappear with him. Halia seems to have determined that a large mirror of life trapping was involved in this after the mirror mysteriously showed up on the doorstep of this tower not long ago. It seems, from your investigation, that things went from bad to worse at that point as the entire tower's residents seem to have been slaughtered or fled.
You are making your way through the final floor. It is going on late evening (about 6 - 7pm) and getting very dark in the tower, the snowstorm outside has all but abated by this point, blowing past the region you're in, leaving everything blanketed with several feet of snow.
Finding nothing within the second guest bedroom you've searched, you all finish what you were doing, putting things mostly back in place, as Dirk proceeds out the doorway followed by the rest of you.
A flash of movement to the left of the door catches your attention as a huge black furred creature pounces on Dirk, it's jaws gaping wide!
Dirk spins and throws himself up against the right side of the doorjam just in time to dodge the huge jaws clamping down on his head. A grating screech sounds as one of the creature's huge teeth scrapes along one of the metal plates of Dirk's armor while you also hear the wood of the doorjam crack and splinter in response to Dirk's 200+ lb form slamming with full force up against it.
Note: The doorway is pretty much blocked up with Dirk. One other (I would assume Lash at this point since she's normally second in line) would have a clear to melee ability on the creature, but the rest of you will need to move for line of site, then it's ranged attacks only (with the standard penalties and possibilities to hit other party members).
You cannot move past the door and out into the hall without suffering an attack of opportunity without using the disengage action.
Init
As the beast pounces on Dirk, Lash' swod flases up to strike the creature before she has even determined what it is.
Thantos attempts to identify the creature attacking Dirk, unsure how best to proceed against the large, black beast.
Selena conjures a heavenly flame to her hand again, releasing it as magic missiles at the demon.
"Dirk!!!" shouts Mird, taken off guard by the sudden attack. He squints an eye and looses an arrow at the thing. He glances back to Father Armand, and decides he would be safer if they killed the beast quicker rather than later.
FAMILIAR!
A piece of the legend starts to come back to you. Perhaps it's the shock of the attack or the fact that this creature looks close but not identical to the last one you encountered, but the sudden appearance of this creature triggers a memory in your mind.
The debunked theory of a world between mirrors had another legend that you had wholly discounted up to this point: those of creatures that were able to travel and transport themselves into and out of this world-between-the-mirrors. You remember very little about the legend since your teachers at the academy had long since decided that mirrors were just that, mirrors. However, one class period comes back to you as you remember an impromptu lecture by one of your more sarcastic teachers.
You remember, clearly now, a student asking the master about this theory of a world between the mirrors. You clearly remember, as if it was yesterday, the sneering look the master gave as he sarcastically explained that the theory had been debunked and only morons would believe of a world, disconnected from either the ethereal or astral planes, that was accessible from mirrors. The theory, he stated, made no sense of a nether or demi-plane directly connected to the Prime Material plane and not to either the ethereal or astral planes...that simply couldn't happen. And furthermore, he ensured the class at the expense of your colleague, even if there was a dimension such as this, it would be impossible for a creature, such as those mentioned in the legends, to travel between these areas of existence. Magical theory simply had not proven the existence of any of this, and if it had not been found by now, he firmly stated, it was not possible.
You remember the student being adamant, before being thrown out of the classroom (a not uncommon occurrence for this instructor), that there were such things as creatures that could transport themselves into, out of, and among mirrors through a pocket dimension.
Until now, it seemed pretty farcical to you. Now, however, it would help explain how a creature so large could manage to follow and track your movements through this tower so easily as to setup an ambush like this.
Unfortunately, you never gave much credence to the theory so you know very little more about what this might be than the short argument that sprung up in class so many years ago.
I'll give Thantos an ability to act here and post back with round 1 on Monday.
Thantos chants a quick incantation and sends bolts of force flying into the black beast.
It's definitely traveling through the mirrors! It shouldn't be possible, but it is!
Lifting the healing staff up, more as a small celebratory gesture than anything else, Selena nods in acceptance. "That makes me feel less bad about destroying the ones I did."
Almost instantaneously, an arrow goes whizzing by Lash and Dirk's head to thunk solidly into the shoulder of the beast creature knocking it farther back from the door through the shear force of the strike.
Following quickly on the shot's heels, Dirk chops at the creature with his sword, the transferred kinetic energy of the shot working in Dirk's favor as the monster is pushed into Dirk's slice, which cuts into the creatures tough hide on it's right side.
Lash also is able to capitalize on the off balance creature with a retaliatory strike of her own, stabbing the creature through the left side with her blade.
The beast screeches in anger and steps back from your reach, turning and sprinting down the hallway and through an open door into the last room you came from.
Thantos moves out into the hallway. If he can spot the creature, he fires his magic missiles at it. If not, he retreats back into the room.
Selena follows and does the same.
Mird takes a step to follow Thantos and Selena, then remembers what the mage said about traveling through the glass. He steps back and takes the shard in the rooms and smashes it on the ground, then takes up post next to Father Armand. He shoulders his bow and draws out his cold iron longsword.
*MUTTER* F'ing system just lost my post on top of the rest of it.
*sigh*
No attacks of opportunity: The creature used a full round disengage during it's initiative to disengage properly from combat and move back to it's full allotment of move...which takes it back into room 5.2.
For those who have actions left in the round (Selena and Thantos) if you wish to chase down the creature keep the following in mind:
* Both of you are 35 feet away from entering the room. The 30' mark places you just outside the doorway to room 5.2.
* Entering the room will require a double move action for the round (thus a full round move action). I haven't looked at the other combat options to see if you could move more than your standard move action and still attack (such as charge) but I don't believe you'd be able to spell cast in any of these cases.
* One of you can choose to move to the square just outside of the room, this will provide you visibility of the back 3 squares of the room, plus the square just inside the doorway. The squares to the left and right of the door, however, would not be within your line of sight.
* Only one of you could choose to move to this position, the other either would need to stay out in the hallway, or move into the room.
Please let me know if either of you wants to pursue the creature into 5.2.
Thantos curses under his breath and waits for the others, his fingers twitching with magical frustration.
Selena also waits with the rest of the group.
That does wrap up the round, no one is chasing the monster so that's it.
ADMINSTRATIVE
-----------------------------
I wanted to write and apologize to everyone for the lengths of time it's taking me to post back to these posts. I was hoping this was just a phase and that I was going to be getting back into a more normal posting rhythm. Unfortunately, at this point, this seems to be the new normal around here.
Maybe in the future I'll get back to a more normal posting schedule, but for now, this is as good as it gets.
To the two newer players I brought into the campaign a few months ago, you have my sincere apologies, I had no idea I was going to get this bogged down with life.
To my three older players who've been with me for the last couple years in the campaign, I feel like I do very little but apologize to you guys for time off.
I've said for the last couple years that so long as my players continue to wish to play, I will continue to run the campaign...I maintain that opinion, however I can't imagine the frustration level you all must be experiencing waiting for days/weeks for me to return posts.
If any of you want out, I don't blame you nor will I hold it against you, you've all been great players, and I appreciate your time and your patience with me.
If you'd like to stay in, I will stop apologizing for the late replies and simply reply as best I can.
Again, thanks everyone for the time and effort you've put in, I will do my best to continue.
--Illydth
Realizing you are facing another of those monsters you found on Floor 2, you cautiously exit the guest chamber you are in and carry on down the hallway counter clockwise to the next room.
The doorway is closed but not locked (as with most of the doors in the tower) and every indication is that you are getting ready to enter another guest room (the doors on the previous 2 rooms are identical and unmarked).
Lash performs her normal checks and clears the door to open while Dirk, sword at the ready enters the room and Mird (at the back) watches down the hallway toward the room the creature disappeared into.
The room is empty and identical to the last two you entered. It doesn't look like anyone has stayed in this guest room for quite some time and nothing about it looks out of place.
The hallway back toward where you entered the floor is clear, and there is no movement in the gloom. As the last of your companions enters the next room to search it, you turn to join them and immediately get a prickling sensation up your back as you feel another presence behind you. A creek from behind warns you and you execute as quick a dodge as you can.
You turn as a huge jaw and set of teeth snap in your direction.
Initiative and Actions in Please.
Selena conjures heavenly fire once again, releasing it in a shower of golden sparks that bless all of her allies in range.
Thantos quickly casts a spell and conjures a slick film of grease in the hallway under the creature's feet.
Lash launches herself into a tumbling pass taking her past the others to land next to Mird, blade lashing out to strike the creature.
Init
Acrobatics to land next to Mird without giving up AoO