Eyeing the fence, Jominda figures it is at least one and a half times her height. Lifting Radek over it would certainly be a feat. After Grenz leaves to do his investigations, Khamul focuses on the task at hand. He digs out his special tools and then approaches the locked gate. No sooner he reaches it, he feels the hairs on his arms stand on end. The gate is giving off a powerful arcane charge and Khamul realizes in time that touching the gate would more than likely give him a heart attack. However, he does see the runes that mar the gate’s locking mechanism. He recognizes that it will take some magic to open it up before he can attempt the lock.
"My offer still stands. I only need a minute to prepare an extract." Jominda comments on the interrupted attempt to take the main entrance.
"Huh!" Khamul exclaims in surprise "That a nasty bit of magic to be leaving on the front gate... I think I'll take you up on that."
As he talks, Khamul takes a look at the fence and the grounds, looking for nasty surprises (ie traps, guard dogs, someone looking out from an upstairs windo and the like):
5 ranks +3 trained+1 Trait+4 Racial to detect danger
Jominda kneels down in a shadowy corner away from that trapped door sets her backpack down and starts working with some flasks and a book. After a minute she is done, packs everything away again puts on her backpack on again. She downs the extract and grows to double her size in each dimension.
She grabs Khamul, and lifts him up. Looking at him she tells "You little people are really cute." She moves him over the fence and lets him down as far as her arms reach. Then she lets him drop to the ground.
"You're next?" she asks, looking down on Radek.
|
Radek eyes the large human with a wary eye, then grunts and shrugs - which Jominda takes as acquiescence. Despite her larger size, lifting the dwarf is no easy task, and Radek grumbles as he does his best to climb up the wall in order to take some of the weight off. "It be this armor ye know, lass. An' the bones o' dwarves be near dense as stone - that's why we don't much like the water, ye know. An' I'd sooner die'n step foot on a damned boat!" Finally, thankfully, the ordeal is over and Radek flops unceremoniously to the ground on the far side of the wall. The dwarf regains his feet and his dignity (perhaps) as he straightens out his armor and takes his back in hand, surveying the area warily and avoiding the eyes of his companions.
Khamul reminds everyone to be careful of touching the fence, as the entire thing is protected by the runes of lightning magic. Once Jominda increases her size to that of a small giant, she is easily able to toss Khamul over to the other side. Radek is a bit tougher, especially when trying to not touch the top of the fence. Now, for Jominda to find a way over.
Khamul quickly scans for signs of anyone noticing the party’s presence while he waits for Jominda. So far there is none, but he does notice that some of these hedgerows contain berries and flowers. It is the middle of Winter. Radek also takes note that the ground here feels softer than it should this time of year.
Khamul gestures at the flowers "Something is going on here; those shouldn't be flowering in winter..."
While looking out for some environmental aids to climb over the fence, Jominda tries to persuade the fence to turn off (under the assumption that during day people are allowed to pass and they don't disable it with a human sacrifice every day). She does random gestures and incantations in hopes to disable or open the gate without touching.
In between she asks Khamul "Do you see something to switch it off from the inside?"
Jominda recalls that the Alabaster district is well known for housing people of more affluent means. Therefore, they tend to have better security than say, the docks. In between neighbors are usually rows of short trees and either a water feature, wide pathways or even large walls, depending on the person. At no point do any trees go over the fences, to keep would be thieves out. In fact, that is a law here. However, the simple fact that there have been no reports of people or critters randomly dying here recently tells you that at some point during the day, the fence must deactivate and therefor can be made to do so again.
Jominda wiggles her hands and does a strange dance and you feel a wave of energy wash over you as the fence makes a small spark and then stops. It appears to be down. For now.
You hope that all her prancing around doesn’t draw attention, but so far it doesn’t. Khamul recognizes that this fix is temporary and he would have to do his own bit of magic to take it down for much longer.
With the fence trap down, Jominda grabs the fence and jumps over. You'd expect the ground to shake when she lands on the inside, but it doesn't. More like a very lareg feather falls to the ground. "I hope we haven't locked ourself in now."
...
With the fence trap down, Jominda grabs the fence and jumps over. You'd expect the ground to shake when she lands on the inside, but it doesn't. More like a very lareg feather falls to the ground. "I hope we haven't locked ourself in now."
"Actually, locking ourselves in, that's kind of my plan. We sneak up on and search this place, hopefully getting a lucky break and catching Ironbriar. If we catch him or don't, either way, we crash here at his expense. All of us could use a rest. We'll greet the guards when they come by in the morning... Then maybe we go look in on Pug."
Khamul calls on his psychic abilities, looking at the house and grounds for magical hazards.
"All right, let's get out of sight of the street."
He takes a deep breath to center himself and skulks off towards the guard house, wanting a closer look before heading to the mansion itself.
3 ranks +3 trained + 4 Dex+4 Small+1 Trait -1 acp
Jominda currently has a hard time being stealthy. Above and beyond her usual issues with that.
"Hehe, I can look into the 2nd floor windows!"
Jominda currently has a hard time being stealthy. Above and beyond her usual issues with that.
"Hehe, I can look into the 2nd floor windows!"
Khamul uses a Message spell to whisper back "If Ironbriar gets to pull another runner on us because you're dicking around..."
After Khamul reprimands Jominda, he takes a look around with his psychically enhanced vision. Sure enough, he notes that the fence, the fence gate, the shrubbery and even the ground itself seems to be giving off a vibe of protective energy, most of it divination magic, rather than the expected abjuring. Other than the fence that is, with its elemental evocation magic. Moving up towards the guard house entry, he spies a pair of winged statues that look like something out of the mad mind of an elven sculptor and goblin inventor. They definitely radiate strong magic and they appear to be protecting the door. The door itself is made of elven wood and has no apparent mechanism for opening. There are a couple of windows, but it is only a single level building, unlike the house. The windows radiate magic as well, but not as much as the door.
Khamul whispers to the others [b][smaller]"Lots of magic about - in particular those two statues. There's also some sort of warding on the door and windows of the guardhouse... Anybody got any idea what those statues could be?"[b][smaller]
He peers suspiciously at the statues, looking to see if they are articulated...
5 ranks +3 trained+1 Trait+4 Racial to detect danger +1 trait
He steels himself and slips silently towards the windows of the guardhouse.
3 ranks +3 trained + 4 Dex+4 Small+1 Trait -1 acp
Whereupon he first peers into the windows of the guardhouse,
5 ranks +3 trained+1 Trait+4 Racial to detect danger
and then contemplates how to get inside...
5 ranks +3 trained+1 Trait+4 Racial to detect danger +1 guidance
"Can we ignore the guard house?" Jominda inquires.
"Can we ignore the guard house?" Jominda inquires.
[dice=Know(Arcana)]3d6+11
Khamul whispers back "We may end up doing that, but I have a philosophical objection to trouble sneaking up behind me when I'm the one who's supposed to be doing the sneaking... So I'm going to take a peek to prevent that."
Jominda recognizes the constructs as animated statues. They work on an activation basis, probably tied to the doors. She also knows that there are usually command words to deactivate them as well, but learning them will require either finding them written down or asking the creator, both unlikely at this point. Getting into a fight with them would be like trying to cut down a marble column with a tree felling axe.
Looking into the windows, Khamul counts 4 rooms, one of them the barracks with ten beds, 4 of them occupied. The main room has a desk and two chairs, as well as a rack of arms. There are two people in the chairs, and they appear to be deep in conversation or meditation, one of the two, as they don’t seem to notice the face in the window. Another room appears to be an empty brig and the last room contains supplies, such as ropes, buckets and others sundries. The bars holding the windows closed are iron and they have runes on them.
Radek, while he waits for the others, starts to notice the soft ground near him begin to shift. It slowly coalesces into the shape of a face. Not just any face, but it begins to look very similar to his own…
Khamul ducks back below the edge of the window and whispers back to the others: "And here's the trouble. 10 beds, 6 guards in there, four asleep, the other 2 chatting. That's 4 on duty somewhere. Also, we ain't bypassing the door with iron bars on the windows... He flashes an urchin's grin and continues " but you know, if we can jam that door, with those bars on the window, this place would make a jim dandy prison... "
"But you can't get to the door without these statues jumping you. And if Radek didn't bring a really good mining pick, fighting those things will be no fun."
Jominda ponders the situation. "This is a bad idea. I expected an abandoned house. Worst case some maid or butler left. What are we going to do if we meet some guards? If they are no evil cultists, we can't simply murder them. And they won't let us go because we ask nicely."
"You may be right about this being a bad idea, I wasn't expecting this sort of a guard presence... Not to mention deadly wards and constructs. But we're in here now, and I'd like to collect Ironbriar's ass, not to mention this security level makes me figure there's something important in here. As far as what to do if we meet some guards, I can whup on someone without killing them", he pulls out a soft-stone and tosses it in the air, before catching it and putting it back in his pouch.