Jumping out into the void, time slows down for the few moments that it takes for the magic of the ring to take effect…and then, as Teldon slows, the rope suddenly goes taut and he swings out onto the external face of the piling…a gentle wind ruffling his hair, the crashing of the waves below serving as a constant reminder of how far up he is and, some twenty feet above him, the Tower Girls looking down at him…expressions of surprise writ large across their faces…
The farthest away of the girls shouts something to her companion, Teldon can’t catch quite what it is that she says…and they both continue to clamber eastwards…both of them get about fifteen feet further away from him before, at the tricky corners, they both lose their footing and fall backwards…their harnesses, attached to the rope, stop them from falling more than five feet…whilst, acting as a counterweight on the end of the rope, Teldon is pulled upwards by ten feet or so…
With his attempt to wrench the girls from the tower having failed and deciding that chasing is not an option, Teldon aims his crossbow and fires - his aim is slightly off, possibly affected by the constant swinging of the rope, and his bolt smacks harmlessly against the weathered stone of the piling. In return, the Tower Girl nearest to him also misses with her attempt...her bolt almost falling from her hand crossbow as it mis-fires. The farthest away girl though, seizing her opportunity to escape, slips around the corner and out of Teldon's sight...
With no other option ahead of him and facing the dice throw of chance whilst they fire bolts at each other...he takes the only logical option and slices the rope...the piling accelerates away from him before he hears the scream as the Tower Girl's rope runs loose and she falls...
...she plummets past the Cheliaxian, crashing off the wall of the piling with a sickening thud, before smacking into the rolling waves below...he knows, deep down, there is no way she could have survived the fall...
Teldon also manages to glimpse, during his fall the dismayed look of the girl who had escaped...stood on a balcony securing ropes headed downwards, she was clearly preparing to abseil to safety. Teldon fruitlessly fires crossbow bolts at her while he floats downwards...the wind catching his shots before they get anywhere near the balcony.
...and then the dark water of the Varisian Sea swallows Teldon up...the force of the landing is no worse than jumping from a table but the frigid temperature knocks the breath from him...resurfacing and spitting the salt water from his mouth, he swims back in towards the piling...
- there were no obvious windows or gaps below the balcony that the Tower Girl was headed for but, having seen you fall and then swim to safety, she appears to abandoned her descent...indeed you can no longer see her up on the balcony...
- there are several lengths of rope in this room, you could easily secure a rope for Teldon to climb back up if you wish...
....and then, you are standing again... as if it never happened... the shard quiet and innocent around your neck...
Her consciousness snaps back to reality so suddenly that she gasps. Whoa. "Briana!" she shouts. "Zee! I think we're going in the wrong direction! The next shard is down, not up!"
"I don't see any doors or windows below her," Teldon shouts up to the girls, "I think she's just hiding out here in an alcove... Apparently that seemed better to her than surrendering... her friend might disagree..."
Briana secures the rope against a disused plinth in the southern end of the room and, dragging it over to the window with Ziomarra's assistance, slings it down to Teldon. His climb back is arduous, his drenched clothes feeling very much like the weight of a second person, but, in time, he crawls back through the window...
...the escaped Tower Girl has either found another way from the balcony or is no longer interested in fighting - and, as such, Teldon doesn't see her at all during his climb.
As Nalathi relates her impressions of needing to head downwards and Briana wonders how...you recall that there is one final corridor on this level that you didn't explore - the corridor turning to the east after the Tower Girl's 'Mess Hall'... With no sound or sign of any movement (anyone who may have been on this level must surely now have fled after hearing the commotion) you proceed along the corridor, passing a ransacked room, to find a set of stairs leading downwards...back into darkness...
While Teldon ascends the tower, Zee decides to let Jo and Briana take lead on watching him. She casts detect magic and walks through this level of the complex scanning for magical auras.
Looking down the dark starircase, Zee whispers, "It would appear that down is the way to proceed!"
- beyond the auras originating from the illusory walls disguising the windows into the Crow, you don't detect any sign of magic on this level...
Moving down the stairs, the donkey ray pattering after you, you descend for around fifty feet before arriving at a corridor that heads off to the west...the pitch darkness of the hallway is diffused by Ziomarra's permanently flitting lights - showing you the door at the end of the corridor, the only exit from this corridor and clearly the way forwards...
Listening at the door, Nalathi hears nothing and so, ever so cautiously, she pushes the door open...revealing a very large, oddly shaped room - a room dominated by a large pair of metal doors in the western wall...doors that are embellished with runes and sigils...
Leant against the doors and discarded to the floor around them, are all manner of picks, hammers and chisels...
The room itself is mostly empty with, other than the large metal doors, a wooden door to the north and, back towards the east, a further two ornately decorated doors...the northernmost of these doors is slightly ajar and, through it, you can hear the sound of the waves outside...
Teldon sloshes soggily along with the party, grateful that nobody seemed interested in questioning him about his climbing exploits. Given his typical social awkwardness it's difficult to tell if he's sulking or just tired from swimming and the long climb, but in either case he trudges along in silence.
When they come out into the large chamber and the double doors come into view, his expression and mood are both immediately lifted. His attention is instantly consumed by the sigils and runes. Even in his exuberance, though, he remembers to check for magical traps before trying to interpret the symbols...
Moving into the room and approaching the double doors, the heat radiating from the metal becomes quite unbearable…it isn’t clear quite how hot the doors are although the slightly melted iron and charred wood of the discarded tools suggest that the temperature in contact with the metal is quite significant. Cautiously, you examine the doors and, without touching them convince yourself that there aren’t any immediate traps or hazards…
The dominant feature of the door is a seven-sided star…a Sihedron similar to drawings shown to you by Sheila Heidmarch when discussing what the reunited shards would form. At the tip of each of the seven blades that make up the Sihedron, is a single rune…
Below the Sihedron, a long sequence of runes…indistinct beneath the charred embers…run across the two doors. Certain of the runes seem to glow with brighter intensity than others…
You have little time to consider this before, as Teldon steps backwards to examine the door, there is a sudden screeching from beyond the door to the east…and the sudden scurrying of paws…
"Hey!" she says, one hand instinctively going to the shard around her neck. "I think this is the star the shards came from!"
- the Shard is generally featureless other than the indentation which Lady Heidmarch put the Ioun Stone into when she lifted the 'curse' from it...
Holding a Harrow card from her spell deck before left eye, Zee casts detect magic, examining the door.
She visibly jumps at the sound of the screeching, and spins back toward the other door. She puts away her spell deck and draws the battered Harrow deck.
"You are, of course, correct, Nalathi," Teldon replies looking away from the door just long enough to see the source of the clamor (or determine its out of sight), "the shard you wear represents pride, the one that is most likely behind these doors is wrath."
he returns his attention to the doors and trying to make out the runes on the lower part of the door, taking special note of the ones glowing extra bright.
Teldon has a few moments to examine the runes below the sihedron...the charcoal and ash spread across the length of the sequence makes it somewhat challenging to translate the phrases written across the doors. A few words stand out...Mob, Degenerates, Scholar and Bakrakhan...but Teldon has little time to deduce their meaning nor to work out how to clean off the ash that obscures the runes before the screeching and scurrying becomes a more pressing concern...
Spilling through the partially open door to the east, a boiling mass of rats darkens the floor as, with a multitude of open mouths tasting the air, the swarm races towards you...
Nalathi lets go of the shard and draws her trident, turning in the direction of the noise. "What is that?"
Teldon pulls out a flask of alchemist fire and tosses it at the swarm...
,
,
Teldon’s aim is unerring - the flask of unstable chemicals arcing perfectly towards the seething mass spilling out of the doorway and, on impact, exploding in a gout of flame…the screeching of dying rats is near unbearable yet the swarm still continues to amass and boil towards you…a trail of smouldering corpses left in it’s wake.
Nalathi jumps as the spiders swarm out from behind the door. "Aaah!" While the others start hurling magical flames at the spiders, only one thought occurs to her-- close the door. She throws out her hands in front of her, hoping her magic will do the rest.
Thinking on her feet, Nalathi dashes forward and, some thirty feet from the door, slams it shut. The majority of the swarming rats must have been behind the door when it closed, as the ones that are left on your side cease to act as a swarm and, dispersing, scatter towards the walls and darkened corners of the room...
...even with the door firmly closed, you can still hear incessant scratching behind it...
"Sadly, that's only going to slow them down..." Teldon remarks as the rats scatter, "they'll slip under the door and through the cracks a few at a time until the swarm forms again." As he speaks, he draws another flask of alchemists fire and prepares to throw it if the swarm moves, or forms, near him.
Perhaps I could use those ruined tools to clear off the runes well enough to read them.
Teldon has a few moments to consider the doors a second time...the detritus that is covering the runes looks to be easy to remove...but before anyone can move towards cleaning the rubbish away, the door that had been holding the rats at bay swings open...
...the mass of rats surges forward again...
...and then, with an abrupt whistling sound, an arrow fizzes towards Joanna...
Disappearing behind the doorframe, you catch a glimpse of an over-sized rats tail...
Zee throws her flask of alchemist's fire at the rats.
Used to throwing enchanted Harrow cards, she completely misjudges the amount of force needed, and the throw is wild.
Spotting the large rat tail (and arrow), Teldon moves over to Jo. Along the way he draws the mithril shortsword (with his off-hand) and offers it to her...
"Jo, you're the only one who can really go toe to toe with the were-rats. Take this and go get her, we'll worry about this swarm." Teldon says, once again preparing himself to throw his last flask of alchemists fire if the swarm draws near.
With no area-of-effect magic or items, she waits until they clear the door.
Whilst Ziomarra’s attack upon the rat swarm falls well short, the flask slipping from her hand as she throws it, Briana’s flames are more accurate – leaving a pile of burnt rats…but the swarm is somehow still intact, boiling and rolling towards Teldon…
Joanna, taking the sword that Teldon offers her, stamps her way through the rat swarm and moves next to the door that she was fired upon from…heavy armour slowing her and preventing her from charging into the room beyond…
The figure attached to the rat’s tail doesn’t reappear…although, from the shadow that you can see within the room, it is still there.
,
Teldon's throw sails wide but the splash disperses the smouldering swarm...
As the remaining rats scurry away from the burning corpses of the former swarm, Zee moves across the room. As she moves, she draws a card from her battered Harrow deck, and holds it to her temple. It glows faintly. She positions herself near the door, ready to throw the card if the rat-tailed enemy shows itself.
Teldon's alchemist fire scatter the remaining rats in a flurry of squeals. Thank the gods. Nalathi darts toward the once-again-open door.
The rat swarm disperses as the burnt corpses start to outnumber the remaining living rodents... And so, with that threat dispatched, you turn you attention to whatever is hiding beyond the door...
Nalathi moves in to attack but, before she can land a blow with her charged trident, she is whipped at by a flurry of ethnically patterned fabric - hooked blades on the end of a scarf raking her skin as the waiting Wererat attacks...
...Nalathi's stab is accurate and powerful, her trident plunging deep into the waist of the Wererat - yet, as she pulls the trident free, the wound closes as if it had never been there...
"This one seems like a natural-born wererat" Teldon calls out, "she must be their leader Ayala!" Then he charges forward with his longspear and attempts to grant his allies a tactical advantage by tripping the unusually sized rodent...
"Nalathi, make sure Jo has room to get through."
Now that the wererat has shown herself, Zee holds up a Harrow card from her spell deck and fixes the monster with a baleful glare.
Briana, throws another orb of flame but, with Nalathi stood in the way, she is over-cautious and throws it too short,
Teldon, sweeping his spear past Nalathi, manages to catch the wererat off-balance - and it falls clumsily to the floor. Things continue to get worse for the lycanthrope as Ziomarra's curses start to fall upon her,
Stamping past the fallen wererat, Joanna attempts to slay her prone target - but her attack is wild.
Spitting blood and, in a high pitched voice, cursing Teldon, the wererat stands - Joanna, once more, slashing wildly as it gets to it's feet.
Perhaps sensing that the weapon wielded by Joanna is potentially lethal, the wererat switches her attention to the Iomodaean...but, perhaps unbalanced, her attack is wildly inaccurate.
Teldon moves up behind Jo and attempts to trip Ayala again...
Moving around, Teldon attempts to gain a tactical advantage on the rat creature...but this time, it is smart to Teldon's moves, and jumps over the sweeping spear...
I stabbed it right in the side, and it didn't even flinch... but it seems to fear Joanna's little sword. Why? Well, maybe I can distract it. Nalathi steps through the door to close the gap between them. "Hey fur-brain! What are you so scared of that thing for, huh?" Unbeknownst to her, Nalathi's magic weaves itself into her words, empowering her allies.
Shuffling the card she'd held up into her spell deck, Zee moves into the next room, and she draws another. She shows that one to the wererat, and she continues giving it the evil eye.
Zee then puts her spell deck away and edges closer, drawing her Thassilonian silver dagger with her right hand.
Ziomarra's curses continue to pile up upon the rapidly surrounded wererast...snarling and spitting, it tries to ignore the harrow cards.
It is then that the creature notices the shard bouncing around Nalathi's neck, "What? How? Did Natalya send you? That's mine... I'll kill you all and reclaim that...". Joanna takes the opportunity of the wererat's distraction to thrust forwards...missing once more.
"I'll start with you..."